(“Common Walls” - Sunfish Grove) 0:00

Lauren Toy 0:09

Hello and welcome to Playing Godcast, the podcast. We are your hosts, Lauren Toy and

Rhea Singh 0:18

Rhea Singh,

Lauren Toy 0:18

And we will be guiding you through an introduction to eugenics by exploring three cases in Canada and the United States before we get into the details. Rhea, would you like to introduce us?

Rhea Singh 0:32

Absolutely. We are third-year undergraduate students at Simon Fraser University who are currently majoring in health sciences, and we created this podcast series as part of a learning project for Health Sciences, 324 - Human Population Genetics and Evolution, taught by Dr Mark Lechner.

Lauren Toy 0:54

Hi, Dr Lechner!

Rhea Singh 0:56

We were introduced to the topic of eugenics through a homework assignment where we were tasked with exploring different cases of eugenics throughout Canadian history. This topic was something we were not well informed about, and after reading about some instances of eugenics, we were both intrigued.

Lauren Toy 1:16

Although we were introduced to eugenics through this course, it was not explicitly covered in the lectures. And so we wanted to use this opportunity to learn and explore eugenics ourselves. And even though eugenics seems like a concept of the past, we currently live in a world with a very fragile political climate where many of these ideas are still present today.

Rhea Singh 1:43

Our goal for the podcast is to inform and hopefully prompt others to engage in these difficult conversations about human history and reflect on how eugenics is alive today. We hope that after listening to our podcast, you gain a new perspective and are curious to explore yourselves.

Lauren Toy 2:02

You can start at our website, playing godcast.ca, where you will find all of our podcast episodes, including the transcripts, some reflection questions, additional information and further resources. We hope you find the series insightful here on Playing Godcast.

(“Common Walls” - Sunfish Grove) 2:23

Rhea Singh 2:37

Okay, let's start with the basics. What exactly is eugenics?

Lauren Toy 2:43

A fun fact is the word eugenics is derived from the Greek word "eugenes", which combines "eu" and "genos" or "gene"; "eu" means "true" or "well", and "genos" or "gene" means "birth". So “eugenes” essentially means "well-born". And according to the National Human Genome Research Institute, eugenics is a discredited belief that selective breeding for certain inherited human traits can improve the fitness of future generations.

Rhea Singh 3:18

Eugenics had two main branches, positive and negative eugenics. The Canadian encyclopedia defines positive eugenics as a form of eugenics that encourages the procreation of individuals and groups who are viewed as possessing desirable characteristics or genes.

Lauren Toy 3:40

On the other hand, negative eugenics is defined as a form of eugenics that discourages and decreases the procreation of individuals and groups who are viewed as having inferior or undesirable characteristics and genes. But where did this idea come from?

Rhea Singh 3:59

The word eugenics originated in 1833 by Francis Galton, who was actually Charles Darwin's cousin. It was first used in his book Inquiries into Human Fertility and Development.

Lauren Toy 4:16

Galton's ideas were influenced by Darwin's theory of natural selection and connected to Social Darwinism. It's essentially the idea of "survival of the fittest" for humans.

Rhea Singh 4:30

Eugenics was based on the assumption that certain traits were hereditary, meaning they were passed down through generations. It also believed that some traits or characteristics were socially undesirable.

Lauren Toy 4:45

Eugenicists believed certain "undesirable" traits, such as intellectual disability, mental illness and criminality, were exclusively hereditary, and therefore it was in society's. Best interest to prevent individuals who possessed these "undesirable" traits from reproducing.

Rhea Singh 5:06

These traits are examples of how negative eugenics was applied to various populations. By the early 1900s, many scientists and leaders supported eugenics. It reinforced existing racist and classist policies and supported new ones, such as forced sterilizations.

Lauren Toy 5:28

Countries such as Canada and the United States adopted eugenic policies. And it wasn't until the 1930s and 1940s, when Nazi Germany used eugenics as the basis for their genocide, did it lose credibility.

Rhea Singh 5:44

Despite the repeal of these eugenic policies after World War Two, we still see eugenic ideas present in politics, science and even society today. Stay tuned for Episode Four, where we will discuss eugenics today.

Lauren Toy 6:00

Thank you for listening to the introductory episode of Playing Godcast. We hope this episode has sparked your curiosity and encouraged you to think deeper about human history and eugenics.

(“Them Highs and Lows” - Birds of Figment) 6:15

Lauren Toy 6:19

In the next episode, we will be discussing the history of Eugenics in Canada and examining a specific case of forced sterilization.

Rhea Singh 6:29

If you're interested and want to learn more, our website, plain godcast.ca, has additional resources that is, p l a y i n g g o d c a s t .ca, with no spaces and all lowercase letters.

Lauren Toy 6:50

We hope you tune in for the next episode of Playing Godcast, and remember, like genes, ideas evolve, but it's up to us to decide which ones survive.

(“Them Highs and Lows” - Birds of Figment) 7:29