Episode 94: Big biotech is watching you
Come for the genetic apartheid, but stay for the surveillance horror in Gattaca.
Why do healthcare and medical devices bring up so many fears about surveillance? We dive into the history of a scientific nightmare, and explore what early 20th century eugenics has to do with stories like Brave New World, Gattaca, and Made for Love. Plus we talk to journalist Maia Szalavitz about a secret algorithm that's preventing patients from getting pain medication when they need it most.
Notes, citations, & etc.!
Maia Szalavitz, and her book Undoing Drugs, as well as the article she wrote for Wired, “The pain was unbearable, so why did doctors turn her away?”
Galton Lab at University College of London grapples with its racist history (article in the Guardian)
Carol Reeves talking about the hair scale
Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
Gattaca, dir. Andrew Nicchol (1997)
Made for Love, series created by Alissa Nutting (author of the novel)
People being sterilized against their will in the 20th century
Epidemiology, pandemic prevention, and healthcare surveillance, via CDC