Episode Details

"I used to think eugenics had died out after the Second World War. I no longer believe that, unfortunately." — Rebecca Sear

Most of us think of eugenics as a horror confined to the past. It isn't. This episode examines the worrying re-emergence of eugenics and scientific racism, from discredited claims about race and intelligence to the far-right money funding them, and asks how we defend good science against bad-faith actors. Along the way, Rebecca overturns another myth, that the isolated nuclear family is "traditional", and explains why demographers are far calmer about falling birth rates than the headlines suggest.

Our guest is Professor Rebecca Sear, an evolutionary behavioural scientist and demographer at Brunel University London, where she directs the Centre for Culture and Evolution. She is co-founder of the European Human Behaviour and Evolution Association and a Fellow of the British Academy.

In this conversation we cover:

• The re-emergence of eugenics and biological essentialism, and how old ideas are being repackaged for a modern audience
• Richard Lynn's discredited national IQ database, the far-right money behind scientific racism, and how to spot bad-faith science
• Why cooperative childrearing is the human norm, and how "population panic" over falling fertility has been used to justify real human rights abuses

In this conversation we cover:

• Why cooperative childrearing is the human norm, and what the "male breadwinner" nuclear family gets wrong
• Why demographers are not panicking about falling fertility, and how "population panic" has been used to justify real human rights abuses
• The modern resurgence of eugenics and scientific racism, from Richard Lynn's discredited national IQ database to how to spot bad-faith science

LINKS & REFERENCES

Rebecca Sear

• Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/rebeccasear.bsky.social
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-sear-8183551
• Sear, R. (2021) The male breadwinner nuclear family is not the 'traditional' human family. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 376: 20200020. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0020
• Sear, R. (2021) Demography and the rise, apparent fall and resurgence in eugenics. Population Studies 75(Suppl 1): 201-220. https://doi.org/10.1080/00324728.2021.2009013
• Samorodnitsky, Bird, Carlson, Lingford, Phillips, Sear & Townsend (2024) Journals should retract Richard Lynn's racist 'research' articles. STAT. https://www.statnews.com/2024/06/20/richard-lynn-racist-research-articles-journals-retractions/

Mentioned in this episode

• Sarah Hrdy (2009) Mothers and Others: The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding. https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674060326
• Quinn Slobodian (2025) Hayek's Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ, and the Capitalism of the Far Right. https://press.princeton.edu/books/ebook/9781890951931/hayeks-bastards
• The Guardian / Hope not Hate investigation into a US-funded 'race science' network (October 2024). https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/16/revealed-international-race-science-network-secretly-funded-by-us-tech-boss