Razib Khan - Genomics, Intelligence, and The Church of Science

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

April 21, 2022

Duration

1h 4m

Channel

Dwarkesh Podcast

Watch on YouTube

▶ Open ↗

📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Razib Khan is a writer, geneticist, and blogger with an interest in history, genetics, culture, and evolutionary psychology. Podcast website + Transcript: https://www.dwarkeshpatel.com/p/razib-khan Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3Rbp8Cw Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3pW2dyS Follow me on Twitter to be notified of future content: https://twitter.com/dwarkesh_sp Follow Razib on Twitter: https://twitter.com/razibkhan Timestamps: 0:00:00 Intro 0:00:46 Razib's Background 0:02:15 Dysgenics of Intelligence 0:05:04 Endogamy and Genetic traits in India 0:09:39 Similar Examples of Endogamy 0:15:09 Why So Many Brahmin CEO's 0:20:36 Razib the Globe Trotter, Geography Expert 0:25:45 Male/Female Genetic Variance 0:30:45 Agricultural Man and Our Tiny Brains 0:35:21 The Church of Science 0:43:14 Professorship, a family business 0:45:04 Long History 0:53:23 Future of Human, Computer Interfacing 0:57:11 Near Future of Gene Editing 1:00:00 Meta Questions and Closing 1:03:55 Outro

🎤 SPEAKERS

• Razib Khan

  guest

• Dwarkesh Patel

  host

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Dwarkesh Podcast, featuring Razib Khan and Dwarkesh Patel, Razib Khan - Genomics, Intelligence, and The Church of Science explores razib Khan on genes, intelligence, caste, and science’s fading faith Razib Khan and Dwarkesh Patel discuss how modern genomics illuminates intelligence, fertility patterns, caste endogamy, and group differences, and what this implies for the future. They explore extreme Indian jati endogamy, Ashkenazi Jewish achievement, Chinese assimilation, and why certain Indian subgroups dominate elite tech roles. Khan also reflects on male-female variance in intelligence, brain size decline, self-domestication, and realistic trajectories for gene editing and embryo selection. The conversation ends with his concerns about academic science prioritizing comfort over truth, the fragility of modern technological civilization, and practical advice on combining technical depth with historical knowledge and public writing.

🔗 RELATED EPISODES

David Reich – Bronze Age shock, the Neanderthal puzzle, & the sudden spread of farming

Jensen Huang – TPU competition, why we should sell chips to China, & Nvidia’s supply chain moat

Dario Amodei — “We are near the end of the exponential”

Andrej Karpathy — “We’re summoning ghosts, not building animals”

Why Leonardo was a saboteur, Gutenberg went broke, and Florence was weird – Ada Palmer

Richard Sutton – Father of RL thinks LLMs are a dead end