Many have taken a simple DNA test, as a fun activity or perhaps to find out more about ourselves or family lineage. But there’s more revealed that gifts privacy, power and profit and you can get caught up in DNA data’s dark side without ever having made a donation.
The latest season of the Secrets We Keep podcast, Should I Spit?, presented by award-winning investigative journalist, Claire Aird (pictured above), looks at how DNA exploitation has become a key player in crime, corporations and even the world’s wealthiest church.
Claire spent four years chasing this story, from Salt Lake City in the US – both the centre of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the heart of the global DNA and family history industry, to the Australian Federal Police (AFP), who are also embracing Forensic Investigative Genetic Genealogy. Along the way she discovers the Mormon Church’s unexpected links to DNA data collection, a multibillion-dollar direct-to-consumer genetic testing industry profiting from people’s profiles, a mass DNA screening operation in rural New South Wales, a wrongfully implicated man in a murder investigation, and so much more.
This LiSTNR podcast might make anyone contemplating spitting into a tube, think twice.
Claire said:
“Our DNA is the code that makes us who we are. It holds information about what we look like, where we come from, family relatedness, our propensity for disease and even mental illness. Police in Australia, as in many other countries globally, are pushing ahead with new DNA technologies, taking DNA from a basic tool of identification into a form of intelligence. This has the potential to radically change policing. What concerns me is this gradual integration of advanced DNA capabilities and search methods into our criminal justice system is occurring without a public conversation.”
LiSTNR Head of Factual, Clair Weaver, said:
“Should I Spit? is an exceptional podcast that combines quality investigative journalism with a riveting true crime story. Listeners will discover the truth about the global DNA industry, why many Australians’ personal information is stored in a secretive mountain vault in Utah owned by the Mormon church, and how an innocent person could be dragged into a murder investigation because a distant relative wanted to explore their family tree. Both here in Australia and around the world, we’ve reached a point where you can’t afford to ignore the value and potential consequences of giving up your DNA.
This season of Secrets We Keep demonstrates LiSTNR’s ongoing commitment to publishing powerful and important journalism that engages audiences and drives change.”
The nine part Secrets We Keep: Should I Spit? podcast series, are all available on LiSTNR now, and on other podcast platforms from Thursday March 6. Download the LiSTNR app and sign-up to listen for free.