Have you ever spat into a tube in the hopes of finding out your family’s lineage and unknown history? Has someone in your family taken a seemingly simple DNA test as a fun activity, thinking not much will come of it? It turns out, there’s actually far more privacy, power and profit on the line than most people realise, and you can get caught up in DNA data’s dark side without ever having made your own donation.
The latest season of the award-winning Secrets We Keep podcast, Should I Spit?, dives into the blueprint for life – DNA – and how its exploitation has become a key player in crime, corporations and the world’s wealthiest church. Should I Spit? is available exclusively on LiSTNR from 4 February and across all platforms from 6 March.
Secrets We Keep: Should I Spit? is presented by award-winning investigative journalist, Claire Aird, who has spent four years chasing the story about the complex and chaotic world of DNA data. The series takes Claire everywhere from Salt Lake City in the US – both the centre of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the heart of the global DNA and family history industry – to the Australian Federal Police, who are also embracing Forensic Investigative Genetic Genealogy.
Along the way she discovers the Mormon Church’s unexpected links to DNA data collection, a multibillion-dollar direct-to-consumer genetic testing industry profiting from people’s profiles, a mass DNA screening operation in rural New South Wales, a wrongfully implicated man in a murder investigation, and so much more.
This LiSTNR podcast will be a must-listen for anyone interested in security, privacy, technology, corporate greed, true crime, the safety of their family, and anyone who has ever thought about spitting into a tube.
Secrets We Keep: Should I Spit? host, Claire Aird, added: “Our DNA is the code that makes us who we are. It holds information about what we look like, where we come from, family relatedness, our propensity for disease and even mental illness. Police in Australia, as in many other countries globally, are pushing ahead with new DNA technologies, taking DNA from a basic tool of identification into a form of intelligence. This has the potential to radically change policing. What concerns me is this gradual integration of advanced DNA capabilities and search methods into our criminal justice system is occurring without a public conversation.”
LiSTNR Head of Factual, Clair Weaver, said: “Should I Spit? is an exceptional podcast that combines quality investigative journalism with a riveting true crime story. Listeners will discover the truth about the global DNA industry, why many Australians’ personal information is stored in a secretive mountain vault in Utah owned by the Mormon church, and how an innocent person could be dragged into a murder investigation because a distant relative wanted to explore their family tree. Both here in Australia and around the world, we’ve reached a point where you can’t afford to ignore the value and potential consequences of giving up your DNA.
This season of Secrets We Keep demonstrates LiSTNR’s ongoing commitment to publishing powerful and important journalism that engages audiences and drives change.”
Secrets We Keep: Should I Spit? is a nine-part podcast series, available on LiSTNR from 4 February, and all other podcast platforms from 6 March. Download the LiSTNR app and sign-up to listen for free.
About LiSTNR:
LiSTNR is a curated and personalised, free app offering radio, podcasts, music, and news, creating a new audio destination for all Australians. Featuring a fun and intuitive onboarding process, LiSTNR delivers an audio destination that is built for individual listeners’ routines and preferences. Highly personalised, it provides listeners a new world of audio entertainment, with their own daily feed of audio and easy discovery of new content through curated recommendations. Available across a large array of devices including both iOS and Android, CarPlay and Android Auto, Google Assistant and Alexa and Android TV, LiSTNR enables a fantastic listening experience, anytime and anywhere. Open your ears to a new world of audio – download the free app today. LiSTNR.com