Rina Bliss, "What's Real About Race: Untangling Science, Genetics, and Society" (W.W. Norton, 2025)
From New Books in Biology and Evolution by New Books Network
May 13, 2026 · 53 min
About this episode
Rina Bliss discusses her book on the complexities of race as a genetic category and its societal implications.
Professor Rina Bliss teaches in the sociology department at Rutgers University, and has written on the social significance of genetic studies on intelligence, race, and social factors. In What's Real About Race: Untangling Science, Genetics, and Society (W.W. Norton, 2025) Bliss explores the history of race as a genetic category, its haphazardness across research, medical, and social contexts, and its implications for knowledge production. In this work, Bliss sheds light on the real impacts of racism on bodies and lives, and on how these myths structure modern science and industries. This interview is a conversation between Rina Bliss and a group of Princeton graduate students/visiting faculty involved in an interdisciplinary (IHUM) STS Reading group. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
People in this episode
Guest: Rina Bliss
Topics covered
- race
- genetics
- sociology
- racism
- science
- intelligence
- social factors
Keywords
- race
- genetics
- sociology
- racism
- intelligence
- social factors
- knowledge production
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Rutgers University, W.W. Norton, Princeton
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