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The Dark History Behind Modern Eugenics | "This Stuff Is NUTS!"

May 26, 2026 · 1 h 10 min

Show notes

Eugenics is often treated as a dead ideology buried with Nazi Germany but historians and scientists argue the idea never truly disappeared - it simply evolved.

Bianca Nobilo speaks to geneticists Adam Rutherford and Professor Debby Sneed, exploring how eugenics became tied to empire, racial hierarchy, forced sterilisation and genocide. Later examining the flawed science that sustained it and tracing how ancient Sparta and classical Greece were later mythologised by modern extremists.

Was eugenics defeated after World War II? Or did the bad science that fuelled some of history’s worst atrocities simply adapt to a new age?

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