You’re Not Ready for What DNA Editing Will Do Next

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Human DNA editing is finally here.
Check out the new WHOOP here!

There is a microscopic technology that now gives us the power to edit our own genes while we’re alive. To cure certain diseases, possibly prevent others, or boost what our bodies can do… or maybe, one day give our kids abilities no one has ever had before… effectively putting evolution into our hands.

This is not some sci-fi future! We’re already using this technology in real medical treatments in plants to grow new crops and in animals to create new species!

Just yesterday, news broke that a baby’s life was saved using personalized gene editing that fixed one tiny error in its DNA. This is truly “huge if true.”

Deciding how we use this new superpower may be the biggest challenge we have ever faced - and the biggest opportunity to reduce human suffering.

This tool is called CRISPR. Dr. Jennifer Doudna won the Nobel Prize for discovering it.

So, in this third episode of Huge Conversations, Dr. Doudna and I use specific examples to help you see how gene editing directly affects your life right now - and help you decide for yourself: How should we use it? When is it wrong - and when is it wrong NOT to?

If you want to know what the most important people building the future are imagining it will look like, Huge Conversations is the show for you.

This interview was recorded on March 20th, 2025.

Watch our trailer to understand more about the mission of Huge Conversations:

Chapters:
0:00 Human DNA editing is here
1:20 What’s the goal here?
2:56 What is CRISPR?
4:34 How does gene editing work?
6:18 How should humans edit our genes?
7:22 You v. your kids
9:37 The first CRISPR gene therapy
12:37 What can CRISPR cure?
13:48 Challenges with delivery
16:34 Curing Huntington’s
18:34 The first CRISPR-edited babies
22:27 When should we use CRISPR?
26:03 Can I edit my DNA to prevent disease?
29:18 Can I enhance myself?
31:11 When shouldn’t we use CRISPR?
34:14 When don’t you need DNA edits?
36:32 Superpowers??
38:17 How should we edit plants and animals?
42:57 The funniest CRISPR gene edit is really useful
45:37 Editing our own microbiome
48:28 The bigger picture
50:16 What Dr. Doudna is excited about now

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Additional reading and watching:
- Dr. Doudna's book, A Crack In Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution:
- Baby Is Healed With World’s First Personalized Gene-Editing Treatment, New York Times:
- CRISPR Explained, Mayo Clinic
- Biologist Explains CRISPR, WIRED
- How CRISPR lets us edit our DNA, Jennifer Doudna, TED:
- CRISPR's Next Advance Is Bigger Than You Think, Jennifer Doudna, TED:

Bio:
Cleo Abram is a video journalist who produces Huge If True, an optimistic show about science and technology. Huge If True is an antidote to the doom and gloom, helping a wide audience see better futures they can help build. In each episode, Cleo dives deep into one innovation that could shape the future. She has explored humanoid robots at Boston Dynamics, supersonic planes at NASA, quantum computers at IBM, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, and more. Every episode mixes high quality animations and detailed scripts with relatable vlog-style journeys, taking the audience along for an adventure to answer the question: If this works, what could go right? Previously, Cleo was a video producer at Vox and directed for Explained on Netflix. She was the host of Vox’s first ever daily show, Answered, as well as co-host of Vox’s YouTube Originals show, Glad You Asked.

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Welcome to the joke down low:
"Your DNA is backwards"
"And?"


Find a way to use “AND” (all caps) in a comment to let me know you’re a real one who made it to the end of the description :)