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Born and Raised

ESSGN 15 Afleveringen okt. 14, 2026

This podcast explores the intersection of genetics and the social sciences. Hosts Rafael Ahlskog and Aysu Okbay speak with leading researchers in social science genetics about their lives and work. Born and Raised is produced by the European Social Science Genetics Network.

Afleveringen

Do Parents Amplify Genetic Inequality? Marina Aguilar-Palma okt. 14, 2026 2433 Do our genes become more important as we grow up? And do parents help their children overcome genetic disadvantages, or unintentionally make them worse? Economist Marina Aguiar-Palma joins us to explore how genes and parental investments shape childhood development. We discuss why genetic influences seem to grow stronger with age, how parents respond to their children's genetic predispositions, an

Is Everything Gene-Environment Interaction? Pietro Biroli okt. 1, 2026 3478 Genes matter. Environments matter. But what if neither really makes sense without the other? What if everything is ultimately gene-environment interaction? Economist Pietro Biroli joins us to unpack how genes and environments work together to shape our lives. We discuss why gene-environment interactions are surprisingly difficult to detect, what polygenic indices can and can't tell us about them,

Does Curiosity Beat Intelligence? Margherita Malanchini sep. 16, 2026 3205 What makes someone good at learning? Intelligence certainly helps. But as we grow up, curiosity, motivation, confidence, and interest seem to matter more and more. So does curiosity eventually beat intelligence? Developmental psychologist Margherita Malanchini joins us to talk about the so-called “non-cognitive” side of learning. We discuss how genes and environments shape curiosity and self-effic

You've probably misunderstood heritability - Michel Nivard sep. 2, 2026 3079 If someone tells you a trait is 40% heritable, what have you actually learned? And why do twin studies, SNP-based estimates, and family designs keep returning different numbers? Michel Nivard joins us for a crash course in all things heritability: broad-sense heritability, narrow-sense heritability, SNP heritability - even phantoms make an appearance. What do different measures capture, and what i

Born, Raised and Recapped: wrapping up season one mei 27, 2026 389 In this wrap up of season 1, Aysu and Rafael sit down to look back on the conversations so far: what were the highlights, what did we learn about talking science with other scientists, and what's the plan going forward?

How Society Shapes the Genome - Abdel Abdellaoui returns mei 13, 2026 1768 Can society shape the human genome? What happens when people move to opportunity? Why do genes associated with educational attainment cluster geographically? And what happens to the gene pool when educated people increasingly partner with other educated people? In this episode of Born and Raised, behavior geneticist Abdel Abdellaoui returns to the podcast to walk us through his paper Socioeconomic

Born to Rock? Genes, Music and the Mind with Laura Wesseldijk apr. 29, 2026 2451 What is musicality? Why do some people seem to have more of it? Did Beethoven have the genes for it? And which musical genre is most associated with depression? These questions and many more are covered in this episode of Born and Raised, where our hosts Aysu and Rafael talk to behavior geneticist Laura Wesseldijk about all things genetics and musicality!

Are You Mostly Noise? Eivind Ystrøm on the Genetics of Personality apr. 15, 2026 2780 Personality psychologists were doing behavior genetics way before it was cool. In this episode, Rafael and Aysu sit down with Eivind Ystrøm, personality psychologist at the University of Oslo, to talk about what personality actually is, how heritable it turns out to be, and why the field was so far ahead of the rest of the social sciences in taking genetics seriously. They also dig into one of the

Cognitive, Non-Cognitive, and the Genetics In Between: Perline Demange on Skills, Schooling, and Psychopathology apr. 1, 2026 2220 What do we mean when we talk about "non-cognitive skills," and what does genetics tell us about them? In this episode, our hosts visited Perline Demange to talk about the genetic architecture of cognitive and non-cognitive skills — how they relate to educational attainment, where they overlap with personality and psychopathology, and what that could tell us about the genetics of doing well in scho

Are your genes picking your partner? Hans Fredrik Sunde on all things assortative mating mrt. 18, 2026 2385 Why did you pick your partner? Just right place at the right time, or deliberate process? Whatever the case, it turns out that your partner is likely to be more genetically similar to you than we would expect by random chance. Also turns out that this has a bunch of weird consequences for genetic research! In this episode, our hosts went to Oslo and had a chat with Hans Fredrik Sunde about all thi

Is there politics in your DNA? Sven Oskarsson on genetics and political science mrt. 6, 2026 2779 Why on earth would a political scientist do research in genetics? In this episode, our hosts met up with Sven Oskarsson in the supremely cozy Alinska Library at Uppsala university to let him spill the beans! Are political orientations, participation and behavior heritable, and why? How do genetic effects on political outcomes vary? And what are the practical implications of these types of results?

How poverty gets under your skin: Laurel Raffington on all things epigenetics feb. 20, 2026 2457 Curious about epigenetics? Dive right in! In this episode, Laurel Raffington gets a visit from the Born and Raised crew in her beautiful office at the Max Planck institute in Berlin. We learn about all things epigenetics - clocks, scores, inheritance - and about their connections to things like socioeconomic deprivation. The ethics and history of doing sociogenomic research in a context like Germa

Why economists are turning to genetics: Sjoerd van Alten on economics and genetic methods feb. 6, 2026 2451 In this episode, our hosts visit economist Sjoerd van Alten in his office at the Vrije Universiteit. Why would an economist be interested in genetics? How does one use molecular genetic data to study genetic effects on complex social and economic traits? What are genome-wide association studies, polygenic indexes, and how do we get from correlation to causation? These and many more questions are a

What are your genes doing in social science? Abdel Abdellaoui on an emerging science jan. 23, 2026 1877 In this very first episode of Born and Raised, hosts Rafael and Aysu visit behavior geneticist Abdel Abdellaoui in his office at the Amsterdam University Medical Center. They talk about the nature of social science genetics as a field, about responsible research communication, and we also get to learn some shocking facts about Abdel's past! Brought to you by the European Social Science Genetics Ne

Teaser - Born and Raised jan. 15, 2026 71 What is happening at the intersection between genetics and the social sciences? In this upcoming podcast series, hosts Rafael and Aysu talk to leading researchers in the exciting new field of social science genetics about their life and work. Born and Raised is produced by the European Social Science Genetics Network.