99% Invisible - Smart Stuff with Justin and Roman- Founder Effect

Episode Date: December 16, 2019

The long-awaited return of Smart Stuff with Justin and Roman, featuring Justin McElroy and Roman Mars. Make your mark. Go to radiotopia.fm to donate today. Everyone should listen to My Brother, My Brother, and Me on the Max Fun Network.

In August of 2016, Justin McAroy and I created the next Great Leap Forward in podcasting. A synchronous podcasting. Look it up. It's actually on the Roman Mars Wikipedia page. It all started on my brother and my brother in me episode number 316. Roman Mars says that if there's a revolving door and you use the one next to it that isn't revolving, then you're a monster. Because they're so efficient and great. Can I ask you a question, Justin? I've been meaning to ask you this for a while.

Uh huh. Why don't you just go do a podcast of Roman Mars? If you would have me, I would love to get over there. I have a lot of good ideas for like, not like this show, but like this show like smart stuff. You know what I mean? Like real thinkers, not like, I can't just, not like smart stuff, you know what I mean? Like real thinkers, not like, I can't just,

not like this show, but like smart, like, airy-dite podcasting, that's, I feel like my true calling and where I really feel like my lights under a bush was kind of. Justin, do you want to do like a weird backdoor pilot for smart stuff with Justin and Robin right now and just like give us a topic you might discuss on smart stuff?

Yeah, like I's a one. I'll give you an example and this would be like co-hosts by me and Roman, okay? So I'll kind of leave blanks for you. All to his part. No, I can do Roman. No, I'm just gonna leave blanks for his parts, okay? You don't even wanna hear my Roman?

No, you can try later, but I'm just gonna leave blanks for like a reason. Hey guys, it's me, Roman Mars, I'm gonna steal your brother. Got him. That's kind of a nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, guys, it's me, Roman Mars. I'm gonna steal your brother. Got him. Okay. Let's call A.D. You just have a great revive. Nice.

So it'll go something like, remember it's like an aerodite kind of smart podcast that yeah, like a podcast where you know the host knows the word aerodite. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that got things. So here's kind of what it would go like. Okay, please. Okay. Please. Hello everybody, welcome to Smart Stuff.

I am your host Justin McRoy. I'm joined as always, day by Roman Mars. Hey Justin. Roman, what smart thing are we discussing today? Well for episode two of The Smart Stuff Podcast, I'd like to talk about one of my favorite things in population genetics, the founder effect. Mmm! The founder effect is when there's a loss of genetic variation in a new population because it was started by a small number of founders from a larger population.

Now, did it? Think of it like this. According to the 2010 US census, the United States is 72.4% white, 16.3% Hispanic or Latino, 12.6% black, and 4.8% Asian. That's the average across all of America. But imagine that one city in the US wanted to start a colony on Mars. Speak on that. That city may not have those proportions or that degree of genetic variation.

So for example, the widest city in the US is Scottsdale, Arizona. It's about 90% white. If Scottsdaleans broke off to form their own Martian colony the US is Scottsdale, Arizona. It's about 90% white. If Scottsdaleans broke off the form their own Martian colony, even though Scottsdale is a population within the United States, that colony would have much less genetic diversity than the US population as a whole. Usually, founding populations are much smaller than entire cities. Sure. So imagine there was only two individuals that started a new population.

And then the genes those two individuals carried would be the only genetic variation in the entire gene pool. Uh-huh. Subsequent generations may introduce some random mutations, but otherwise that's it. That's all you're working with. Huh. When it comes to plants and animals and bacteria and isolated founding population with low genetic diversity that by chance had different genetic makeup than the population it came from could lead that new population to becoming a whole new species given enough time.

But wait, what in that? Now, if the small number of founders of a population have a genetic mutation and the new population remains somewhat isolated, that mutation will be much more common even as the population grows over time. Oh, I see. So, in the 18th century, about 200 families founded the Amish population of Pennsylvania. And at least one of those families

had a mutation called polydactyl. What? And even today, the Pennsylvania Amish have much higher rates of polydactyl than the US population as a whole. And that's why, even though it's still quite rare, an Amish person is much more likely to have 11 fingers. It doesn't usually look like a fully formed finger, it's often just a little nub.

Well folks, that's all we have time for. This kind of groundbreaking work made by Pioneers in the world, on casting, is only possible because of listener support. Right now, if you go to radiotopia.fm, you'll find a big button that says, pine years in the world of podcasting is only possible because of listener support. Right now if you go to radiotopia.fm you'll find a big button that says, Roman Mars' beautiful nerd brigade. Did you click it? You'll be donating $10. And you'll get an invitation to the online version of my office hours where I will impart onto you in a bunch of other beautiful nerds, all the things I've learned about podcasting

in the last 10 plus years. Clearly, as evidenced by smart stuff, I have a lot of knowledge about podcasting to impart onto you. About 8 of 10,000 listeners to radiotopia donate. That means very likely, you are one of the 9,992 who do not. But you can change that. Go to radiotopia.fm, click the Roman Mars Beautiful Nerv Brigade button and a big group of us will hang out talk about podcasting It's gonna be awesome. We need 35,000 people to be backers to this drive to hit our goal Let's reach that goal together. We made it really really easy. Ten bucks. That's it. You're in the brigade And when you're done send me a note about it on Twitter at Roman Mars, and I will thank you personally. That's radiotopia.fm

Thanks What a fascinating tale Thank you and I will thank you personally. That's radiotopia.fm. Thanks. What a fascinating tale. Thank you. Radio Tepia. From PRX.