Where Biology Ends and Bias Begins

Lessons on Belonging from Our DNA

By: Shoumita Dasgupta

Narrated by: Sharmila Devar

A geneticist and internationally recognized anti-racism educator provides a powerful, science-based rebuttal to common fallacies about human difference.

Well-meaning physicians, parents, and even scientists today often spread misinformation about what biology can and can't tell us about our bodies, minds, and identities. In this accessible, myth-busting book, geneticist Shoumita Dasgupta draws on the latest science to correct common misconceptions about how much of our social identities are actually based in genetics.

Dasgupta weaves together history, current affairs, and cutting-edge science to break down how genetic concepts are misused and how we can approach scientific evidence in a socially responsible way. With a unifying and intersectional approach disentangling biology from bigotry, the book moves beyond race and gender to incorporate categories like sexual orientation, disability, and class. Where Biology Ends and Bias Begins is an invaluable, empowering resource for biologists, geneticists, science educators, and anyone working against bias in their community.

©2025 Shoumita Dasgupta (P)2025 Tantor Media

A very important story badly told

This could have been a useful, instructive discussion of the emerging ideas of the effect of genes on human traits, forms, diseases and behavior, but instead we get a screed promoting her own virtue signaling.
How much more enlightening to talk about Genome Wide Assays (GWAs), twin studies and trait ratios in different groups who have been genetically separated?. Explore why West African descendants are disproportionately among the fastest runners, why do white people have melanoma 30x more than blacks, why Asias have sensitivities to some drugs more often than others? Of course, these trends tell you nothing about the person standing in front of you, but seeing everyone as just the same is just wrong.