Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine - Sawbones: DNA Testing

Episode Date: May 31, 2018

This week on Sawbones, Dr. Sydnee and Justin hunt for the the soccer gene as they talk about the modern trend of DNA testing and read their own results for the first time on the show! Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers

Saabones is a show about medical history, and nothing the hosts say should be taken as medical advice or opinion. It's for fun. Can't you just have fun for an hour and not try to diagnose your mystery boil? We think you've earned it. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy a moment of distraction from that weird growth. You're worth it. that weird growth. You're worth it. Alright, time is about to books!

One, two, one, two, three, four! We came across a pharmacy with a toy and that's lost it out. We were shot through the broken glass and had ourselves a look around. Some medicines, some medicines that escalate my cop for the mouth. Hello everybody and welcome to Sobbing. It's a marital tour of Miscite Medicine. I'm your co-host Justin McElroy. I'm Sydney McElroy. I'm excited today because this time, we're not dealing with the medical past.

No, that's true. We're dealing kind of with the future. The medical future. Come with us. Get on our hoverboard and travel with us to the distant future of now. I think though, I was trying to, as you proposed this topic for the show. Yes. And I was a little concerned that it doesn't fit into what we do. And then I started thinking, people ask us a lot,

what kind of things do you think will look back on in like a hundred years and say, oh my gosh, what are we thinking? And I think that this particular branch of medical science is so new that some of the things, as we'll talk about, some of the things, the applications that are being sold to the general public are maybe a little bit of snake oil,

a little bit of modern day snake oil. So I actually think this is like a sobbing episode of the future we're gonna go ahead and do now. We've done that idea before this idea that like, we might, the things that we might look back on in your thing and sort of, you're thinking this might be one of them? Oh, I don't think, I mean, let's just get into it

and I'll explain what I mean. There are aspects of it, yes. Yes. Perfect. All right, I'm ready. So we're gonna talk about genetic testing, like DNA testing, specifically of the commercial variety. And I think this was mainly your idea, honey,

because you wanted to do it, right? It's not that I wanted to do it. I mean, I feel pretty confident just gonna be some different kinds of white people. It's just gonna be a blend of different. That's what I assume. It's just gonna be a various shades of white people. It's just gonna be a blend of different That's what I assume. It's gonna be a various shades of white people. That's why I've never I had never been particularly interested in Doing one of these home DNA things because I figured that's what it was and I know that for some people tracing their family tree and their ancestry is very interesting, it just has never been a particular interest of,

I mean, I'm here now and I'm good with that. And that's, I don't know, that's me. But you wanted to do it and so I was willing to go along for the ride. So we will get to our results, which we have not looked at. So we will get to our results, which we have not looked at. Yeah, yeah. And I, like I said, I do not expect any surprises.

I think if you look at some of the places where there are traditionally a lot of white people, it's probably going to be probably where we come from. A blend of those, just different kinds of them and different percentages for sure, but I'm not expecting any big surprises. Should we make predictions? Sure. My last name is McElroy,

so I'm thinking probably some scotch and Irish in there. It's what I would assume. I would assume that too. I'm assuming that just from where we live in Appalachia, there's a lot of scotch and Irish migration to this area, like not now, but in the past. So I'm assuming I've got some of that, probably some of the UK in general.

And then, but then the other part, I don't know my maiden name, Smirl. I have no idea where that comes from. Yeah. No clue. You can Google it and not find a lot of information about the Smirl surname industry. No, so I really don't, again, I'm not expecting anything particularly shocking, but I don't know that part of my hair to just all, and my dad doesn't either, so.

Well, there you go. That's no help. Now, you can use a lot of different kits if you want to do this. And after this episode, you may actually not want to. After some of the things I'm going to tell you. Okay. We'll be your sacrificial lamb. Sounds answer. But you wouldn't be alone.

It's over something like over 12 million people have used these kinds of products. Things like, the one we used was ancestry.com. Is that what it's called? Yeah, I think ancestry DNA might be the name of the... Ancestry DNA name of the product. It's related to the website where you can trace your family tree. Like you can put it all together somehow. There's also ones like 23 and me. A lot of people, that's very popular. Helix is actually one in conjunction with National Geographic that you can use. And then there

are a lot of other smaller ones that we'll get into that are kind of niche products. Okay, okay. Now, how do these work? That's the first question. If you wanted to do a home DNA test, what are they doing? Well, practically on your end, it's not very complicated.

These are a little gross though. It is very gross. They send you a kit and it either works one of two ways. They'll either give you a swab in like a test tube and have you swab the inside of your cheek, put it back in and send it back to the company. Or in our case, disgustingly, you have to spit into a little test tube and fill it with a certain amount of spit. Yeah, yeah, it was gritty.

It was very disgusting. And they also, they specifically note it has to be spit up to this line and you do not count the bubbles. Don't count the bubbles, man. It's just that pure, good spit. That's the thing for you, isn't it? That's the only thing. That is the only thing for me,

the only thing that grosses me out of spit, and I had to fill this tube of spit and then hand it to you, gosh, it was so gross. Anyway, so as far as what was the whole thing? It was a long time to do it, because you have to wait, I speaking for myself, and this is very sad, it took us a long time to do it

because you have to wait 30 minutes after eating or drinking. And I upsettingly found that I was very rarely in that window. It's a 30 minutes of eating or drinking. You just drink a lot of water. What? You drink a lot of water. That's true. Very well-hydrated people. I said I had you. So that's all you do on your end. You order the kit, you spit in a tube or swallow your cheek, you put it in the box and you mail it back. And then you wait and you get results in your email, at least in our case, that tell you whatever you were seeking to find out.

Now, what are they doing on their end? Well, each of these companies, and this is generally speaking because their exact methods are proprietary. So you're not going to find like a complete description of every little, you know, kind of lab thing that they're doing. I can talk in general terms about how you sequence DNA. I don't know that everybody wants to know that. But suffice to say that they have databases. They already own databases of genetic code each of these different companies and each company owns a different database.

Because they had to buy it, right? And they're forming it because they're using yours. You're helping them build their database. And that's important for them because as all discuss, the more people who are using their product, the better their product becomes. Yeah, that makes sense. So capitalism and its best. Yeah, sort of. It makes the results more robust than from a scientific perspective. I'm not just getting information. I'm helping. I'm a helper.

Well, you're helping them make, I mean, if you're helping them help other people, that's right. Well, maybe. So the way that these companies have the ability, certainly to sequence DNA, which would mean actually, you know, we've been sequencing, we've already sequenced the entire human genome. You know that right. The human genome project. Do you know that it finished in 2000? You know that they published the entire human genome pretty much like 90% back in 2000.

I thought it was really interesting. I was trying to figure out like, why were we interested in doing that? Do you know why we decided to sequence the human genome? Do you know why this started? This was all the way back in 1986. Well, it was actually the 1980s people started talking

about how to do it. It was 1986, people got really excited about it to try to figure out how we could protect the genome from the effects of radiation. Hmm. So let's sequence it. And then like the Department of Energy got involved and Congress ended up funding it.

Sequence it. If you were to tell me in a sentence what that thing you're talking about means, how can you do that? Sequencing DNA. I know of course, but for the list. So you know that DNA, it's the, do you know what DNA is made up of? Yes, adenine, guanine, sizing, tharmin.

That was very good. I don't know, I stepped some of the bases with the letters. That was good. Yeah. I'm going to give it to you. That was good. The bases, the four bases sequencing Sequencing DNA means actually giving you a big long string of those letters.

In the right order. It's what our chromosomes, the DNA, all listed out. What are chromosomes are made up of? Okay. Does that make sense? And there are obviously differences for every single person that makes us different.

Right. Those are our genes. So there's tons of DNA. Some of the DNA is just junk. So obviously differences for every single person that makes us different. Those are our genes. So there's tons of DNA, some of the DNA is just junk, it's just in there, and some of the DNA codes for specific genes, and those genes make us who we are, and how we are, and what we are, and defines a lot of stuff, not everything, but a lot of stuff about us.

Okay, so they could all sequence your genome, but that's not what they're going to do, because that's very expensive. First of all, to sequence your entire genome, and you don't really need that information. The Justin Genome Project, they could call it. They could, and they could do that, and you can pay to have that done. You can pay to have your whole genome sequenced, but for the most part, you don't really need that.

What you're interested in most of the time is in our case, we were looking at where did we probably come from in terms of our ancestors, or maybe you're looking for health information, like disease risk. Don't care. So in these cases, what they're really doing is more like genotyping.

So what that means is that they're looking for alleles. And these are pairs of genes at certain places on chromosomes. They're looking for which type you have. This is called a single nucleotide polymorphism or an SNP. What they look at are for the certain SNPs and the ones you have, they link to certain regions of the world that have corresponding SNPs. Does that kind of make sense? Yes.

I mean, more or less. Yeah. That's it. Sure. I mean, they're looking for DNA that's similar. Okay. They're just looking for similar. Like figure print.

You have the same differences in your DNA that this population of people tend to have in their DNA. Okay, got it. Okay. Which is why the more people who use it makes the data more robust, because if you only have one person from the specific region of a country whose DNA you've sequenced, you're guessing. You're guessing.

Once you have several thousand people, that's better. But what this also means is your results and how accurate they are really depend on who else has taken the test and what they look like and what their DNA is like. So that will change and we'll talk about that. That could change how accurate your results are. So that's generally speaking, that's how it works. They're looking for these alleles. They're not looking for all of your DNA.

This is like between which company you use. It's like 100 to 300 different positions on your genetic code that they're comparing genes. So is it real them? Is it like actually marking like, I mean, is it reliable? It is sense. So it's not hard to look at, I mean, we know how to sequence the entire human genome. So putting something into, if we've got a test tube of your DNA, putting a matching marker, that's what you kind of do.

You put these little markers that are complementary down into the test tube and see if it binds. And then you know you have that one. If it doesn't bind anything, you don't have that. If it binds to something, that's the allele you've got. It's pretty easy to do now. We have the technology to do that. So for them to say, yes, you have these alleles.

Yes, these are your genes. Well, yeah, that's probably accurate. Yes, the test can be wrong. But generally speaking, they're right. But what does that really tell you about yourself? That's a much more complex question. So first of all, in terms of the ancestry, like I've already said several times,

the more users, the more accurate. So there's a lot of variability. For instance, white people of European heritage have the highest numbers of samples of DNA in these databases that they're pulling from. So you are probably, if you are a white person of European heritage, more likely to get more accuracy in your results. Everybody else has a lot less accuracy because the pool of people from those areas of the world is smaller. So you're not going to get as precise data.

So that's one downfall, is that if you are not white European descent, it may not be quite as accurate for you. That makes perfect sense. The other problem with that is that the data is all recent. It's all from humans now. So if this population sort of shifted in the past, we would have less. Exactly. Really what we're talking about, right?

I mean, we're talking about multiple generations ago, which is why I found one example as I was reading different articles about this that if you are of African heritage, you may actually find that you would have really high percentages matching you with European DNA because the variability between European and some African DNA is actually less than the variability between different areas of Africa. Oh wow. Yeah, different genetic markers from those areas. And because they have less data there, you might find all these higher percentages in

European when it's just, there's not enough data from Africa to tell you where you're from. So that one example that they use, and it's not just specific for people of African heritage, they said a lot of people from Central America or South America are not going to get as robust results either. So again, and all the data is very recent. In terms of health, so we didn't do that part. R's does not define any kind of health risks or disease risks or anything.

I don't need that, honestly, I don't. I don't want that either, and it's, that is a whole other reason that you might not want to do this, which again, I'm going to get into all the risks, but they will, they're only able to tell you based on certain genes you have that may put you at higher risk for some conditions. That's all they can tell you. They don't tell you that you have them. They actually can't diagnose. They don't want to diagnose. They don't want their responsibility. Yeah, that's why we did that game. No, that that would put them at such liability. They don't want that. So they actually specifically, there are some things like, for instance, Huntington's disease, it's a genetic test that we can test people for. They could do

that. They they're not going to. They're going to tell you your risk based on certain genes that they look for for things like Parkinson's or Alzheimer's, there are also some other genetic cancers that they look for. But again, they're not always right and they're just telling you risk. So just because you have those genes doesn't necessarily mean you will get those things.

And if you don't have those genes, it doesn't necessarily mean you won't. You could, oh wow, so it doesn't really, I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it, it, yeah. I mean, it, it, I mean, maybe it might, maybe it might, maybe it might, it might, maybe it might, maybe it might, maybe it might, maybe it might, maybe it might , maybe it might, maybe it might, maybe it might, maybe it might, maybe it might, maybe it might, maybe it might, maybe it might, maybe it might, maybe it might, maybe it might , maybe it might, maybe it might, maybe it might, maybe it might, maybe it might, maybe it might

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in this arena. You're not going to be able to take the next steps on your own, generally speaking. When we get into the claims to, and we'll talk about this, preferences, there's some genetic tests that claim that they can tell you your preferences for certain products based on your DNA. Like what kind of whipped cream you would prefer? That's not the example, but I'm withholding it. Shed's great.

The name of it is so good. But yes, that's the, like, food products. Okay. They're like, you're telling me, I could swap my cheek, they could tell me if I was like a folder's man or a thanka man. That is, that it's not coffee, but that's what they're claiming.

I'm gonna get, I don't wanna ruin it yet. It's so good. Okay, they can also claim, there are also people who claim that they can predict your abilities, like sports abilities based on your DNA. I would love to know that actually. I have a light that I've hidden under a bush all these years.

I've unearthed potential, non-unearth potential. And there are also companies that will try to give you lifestyle advice. Based on your DNA, you should eat like this. Based on your DNA, you should exercise like this or whatever. And I think this would fall into the range of what we used to call in But this would fall into the range of what we used to call in any of my science classes. We call them swags. What's that? Scientific Wild. I can't say the word because this is a family show, guess.

It's an A word, honey. That doesn't make scientific say a word. Scientific Wild, but guess. Oh, okay, I get what that means is it's sort of based in science, but then we're just kind of Throwing it out there, and I think a lot of these things would probably fall into that realm What is the utility of this? Why would you do it? I mean a lot of people's just curiosity Sure, you just want to know stuff um people like to know things about themselves and

A lot of people like to know where they came from. A lot of people like to know what their ancestry is, what their history is, it makes them feel more connected to their family, their heritage, their past. I don't, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that idea. Well, with ancestry, like, you know, I think the idea that you could have a cousin living down the street,

that kind of thing is very, the drama of that is very appealing. That's exactly a lot of people are hoping to find family members. Obviously, this is similar to what we use for paternity testing, right? So there's some really practical applications, although these tests could unintentionally do paternity testing for you that you weren't prepared for. So that's something to keep in mind. The health information, what is the utility of it?

I would say it's equal parts harmful and helpful. Yes, there is benefit sometimes to knowing your risks for certain genetic diseases. But if I'm telling you that you're at higher risk for Alzheimer's, right now, I have no advice to give you after that. So how helpful that information. So that's why it's-

Donate a lot to Alzheimer's research now, I guess. Yeah, sure. What are the risks that we've already started to talk about it, but some of the risks. So first of all, who has your data? And this is Justin and I are the Canaries in the coal mine. We've already- We knew it was dumb, but for the show, for y'all,

and for the show, we did it anyway. And also, I like the idea that it's there somewhere. I'm not saying that they're gonna clone me now. I'm saying that one of these days, they may need me in the, I'm the long way down the road. I don't know why I'm talking like Chuck Tingle, but in one of these days, they might need me. And it's, I give me some piece of line that's somewhere on a computer.

They have the ability to bring me back for one or a minute, a hundred and three hundred of your S&Ps. That's good. They have your DNA. They have all your DNA. That's enough for a clone, right? They could squeeze a clone out of that. No, they need your all your DNA, but I mean, they have it. They have all the DNA and there's no, they have it all. Do they have enough clomier or not? Honey, they can save the spit if they want to. They have no obligation to destroy it.

They've got me. So they, I mean, yes. I mean, that's, and that's what makes people nervous. So this company now has our DNA. Sobbing's the starring Justin McRoy Jr. all bones to starring Justin McRoy Jr. The lab that they use to sequence it, they have our DNA. Anonymous third parties are often also receiving your DNA. If you read into these and the disclaimers, the privacy policies, everything you sign

off on, it's like everything else. It's huge. It's difficult to understand and most people don't read it. I would advise you, I'm going to say this several times, I would advise you to read all of it before you decide to do this. We definitely did. I've looked through it now and I have some regrets maybe. They can sell your data to things like pharmaceutical companies. That's I'm glad to help. Now you can't do to help it. Well, and when they do that, the idea to things like pharmaceutical companies. That's I'm glad to help. Now, you can't do to help, but you can. Well, and when they do that, the idea is that the pharmaceutical companies can look for

certain, like how common is it to have this certain genetic difference that might make people not respond to a certain drug or have a bad reaction to certain drugs. Solid drugs and analytics and user data on your computer where it's like anonymized. And so it's also supposed to be anonymous. Now that being said, it is your genetic code. It's impossible to make it entirely anonymous. Right, because it's you. There have been people have done papers where they have used DNA from these databases to

find people and they can do it. It can be done. So yes, it's anonymous, but they can find you. And this is not hip-up protected. So all your personal health information is hip-up protected. Your DNA sequence, once you sell it to 23 and me or whatever is not. So it's out of your hands.

Now, they will all say that if you ask them to destroy the sample, they will. If you ask them to destroy the DNA, will if you ask them to destroy the DNA they will But But what if they need a clone of me? Well, what if it's already gone and also their privacy policies change constantly and they can That's actually in the privacy policy it can constantly change and they don't have to notify you of a change So it may change that they don't have to ensure your DNA and they're not going to tell you that.

Can this affect your health insurance? So far, no, they can't like hand this data over to a health insurance company, can't access this data to discriminate against you when offering you health insurance. However, if you are applying for health insurance and they say, have you taken a 23 and me genetic profile? You lie. You can't lie. I can lie. Well, they can sue you if you lie.

Oh, okay. Well, that's okay. So you are, you, there is mandatory disclosure of this information once you have it. So once you know you have these increased genetic risks, if a health insurance company asks you, you have to tell them the truth or suffer the legal consequences. Okay. Same with life insurance. And what rights do they have after they have your DNA? Well, if you sue them and they win, you have to pay all the legal costs. And also they could have a clone of you appearing court to fight you with back less. There's a mandatory mandatory arbitration clause that's very scary and would probably deter most people from ever suing them. And then the last thing just to mention is do you want to know what

what are you going to do with the information? Do you want to know about diseases that you cannot do anything about to prevent now Now, is that going to change your life? Is that going to terrify you? You know, a lot of people know that honey tins runs in their family. It's a good example of genetic disease that you can test for. And they don't want to know if they're going to get it or when some people do. So are you prepared for this information? Are you prepared for unexpected paternity results?

Perhaps. No. Are what counseling are you going to get afterwards? Once you know this, who's going to help you deal with this information? You're going to get on your computer, maybe by yourself. Who are you going to talk to about it? Do you have access to a doctor or somebody who can help you deal with whatever it shows you? What are we going to do when we find out we're related?

We don't have an exit strategy for that. It cannot tell you with that much specificity. Okay. But still, there are a lot of risks to this and a lot of reason why It probably shouldn't be just something you walk into as lightly as I think we did. No, we thought about it. It was well considered. So I'm going to get to our results next. But before we do that, why don't we head to the billing department? Let's go.

So, Sid, it's time. Let's get into our results. Again, let's do it. Let's do it. I'm clicking here on Discover My DNA Story, but my allergies, why I'm waiting for this to load. Got my DNA story already to go. I hope it tells me why my allergies are so bad. It's not going to tell you anything like that. No, no. Okay, so my number one hotspot, the place where a lot of people were there thinking I a lot of my my ethnicity came from we got 30% from West Europe, Europe West, they label it here, that's Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Lichtenstein. Not what you expected. Not what I expected.

That's 30% from those countries. I'm guessing maybe that's my mom's side of the family. I feel like. Where does that make sense? Yeah, I'm feeling, maybe that was from them. I got 28% from Great Britain, England, Scotland, and Wales. 26% from Ireland, Scotland and Wales. So maybe if they're breaking those up, you know, if they're including Scotland and Wales

in there, there's kind of an overlap in those two areas. So, you know, probably more of that survive. Sure, sure. And then we got a little row six percent in Scandinavia And then they you've got a little bit a little bit of a 3% Finland Northwest Russia Little bit of that so go figure I don't know what are you at my it also let's hear migrations The they they think I probably came in a group of central Appalachian settlers that came from those top three areas. And they're also some in Eastern Kentucky and Southwest.

So they Europe. So that's kind of my vibe. And not like I said, not hugely surprising. The proponents of West Europe is kind of interesting, but what do you got? So I have the same regions you do, which again is not surprising, but just different percentages. So my top is actually 30% Scandinavia. Really interesting. Maybe that's where my smurl comes from. I don't know. I have no idea.

I need to get my parents to do this. Maybe not. My I've got 24% from Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, 22% from Great Britain, and then 17% from Western Europe. Did you see the low confidence regions? Yeah, that was my Finland. Finland was a low confidence region for me. They give me 5% in the Iberian peninsula, but that's low confidence. So, there you go. Again, none of this is particularly shocking, and I'm also part of the migration patterns. I think also have a lot to do with where you live now, because mine shows the central Appalachia settlers too, which makes sense.

I mean, obviously our families ended up here because well, here, here we are. So, and it kind of maps, in case you're curious how this is set up, it gives you those percentages, and it kind of maps like your family's history through time, like you can start with the 1700s, and where people, like, I can see where people crossed over, the Atlantic to the US, and the 1750s, to the 1800s where they settled and then I don't know life on the frontier not quite clear what that is referencing. The Industrial Revolution comes to Appalachia not sure how that's relevant to me personally but but anyway there you go and it's got all these dots

clustered around me where I am in West Virginia so. So you're gonna click on over to how else that look at those family connections what's the got for you? I'm clustered around me where I am in West Virginia. So you're gonna click on over to, look at this family connections. What's the got for you? I'm gonna tell you mine. It says Clint Macaroy is your father. So dad's up on the ancestry DNA mix because it says the Clint Macaroy is my dad.

It is confirmed. Folks, you heard it here first. Clint Macaroy is my dad. Wow. It's official. You're surprised? Yeah. It's radio legend. Clint McAroy is my dad. My cousins on here. Confidence is extremely high. I would say it is as high as it goes because this is in fact my cousin who is listed here. There you go. Yeah. I mean, I know I'm personally so. So definitely. And it's legit. And yeah, no, and then actually it goes on past year to second and third and fourth cousins that

I don't know any of these names. Well, you gotta start reaching out to all of them. You know, that's huge. So I don't know this is your butt Do you see any other smiles in their own curiosity? No, but like everybody's got there are only some actual some actual names on here. They're a ton of like You know user names that aren't real human names. They're just like numbers and letters. We'd boy for 20 that kind of thing. Yeah I don't see that specifically, but wouldn't it be weird if I just started emailing all these people? Hey, it's me Hi, are you are you possibly my fourth through sixth cousin theoretically now you could log in to ancestry and see if maybe Sydney is really Sydney or I related to you because there's a lot of strangers on here some of them might be listening to the solbona

and see you knew And that is wild all I can say is honey. I don't see you listed on here Well, that was what what the fear was folks and that listen tragedy averted bullet dodged no concerns on that front. What a relief. You know did you see it breaks it down into your traits too? No I didn't see my traits where I find that and in my DNA story or in my DNA matches. Yeah, now they have like a preview for your traits. Where it breaks it down to.

Wait, where? I'm saying what? Oh, it just says dark eyes are part of your DNA. Well, yeah, I know. Oh, yeah, I mean, yeah, I insist. I mean, I can look in the mirror. Anyway, so there's what we've learned so far. And you know, it updates constantly.

I've seen that it does that because it'll tell you like your percentages could change if I want or two as more information. Yeah, as more people join. You never know. So they can give you more information. So anyway, that's how ancestry works. But if you want health information, obviously,

there are places that do that. Sure. We were not interested in that. No, thank you. I personally don't want to know. No. Anything that one of these tests could tell me. If I was concerned about something in particular, I'd go talk to my doctor.

I am relieved that my dad is my dad, though. That's the treat. That's good to know. That's scary. Now I got to get my dad on here and make sure we met double check through the dad double check with ancestry.com. I'm not worried about that. So, so what what has all this wrought all of this DNA testing that people are doing? I feel marginally more educated about my identity. I guess.

Yeah. And I mean, I guess if you want to build a family tree and find like, you know, Brothers and not brothers and sisters probably maybe I don't know cousins whatever. I guess that's a that's a neat thing to be able to do But there are websites that claim they can do a lot more for instance as I alluded to already There is vine-oam Can you guess what vine-o will do for you? Uh, it'll find other people that you're related to you and show you all their vines. They're funniest vines. How do you find his gone? I know, I know. It's just hard to let go. It'll tell you what wine is best for you based on your genes.

It will genetically... AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH You're scientific summer, yay. That can tell you based on all the old. The possible thing you could have been. And then it will sell you that wine because they also sell wine. This is my wine though. Certainly, you can give this to me at this cat. I'm genetically predisposed to love this wine. Oh my god. Thank you. I mean, Vynome, now that I've done this, I can guarantee it's like, well, here's another

European white person. Here's your wine. Oh god, that's terrible. Yes. So there's Vynome that will say you wine that is genetically perfect for you. There's something called Vyda gene, which will give you diet and exercise and lifestyle advice based on your genetics Helix has actually taken your entire genetic sequence and they will they there's they're selling a series of apps So like you you send in all your DNA. They sequence the entire thing and then they'll break it into different things You might want to know about yourself that are all different apps you can buy. And then what they wanted for you to talk about like having a lifetime relationship with your DNA that you can you'll be constantly buying new apps to learn more things about yourself because there's so much DNA. Perfect.

Or read a book. This might be my favorite though, soccer genomics. Yeah, now listening. What do they do? Well, they will help you one, find out if you're good at soccer. And two. I don't need a test for that. Thank you. They'll help you strengthen your game

through various exercise and diet regimens, things to focus on like speed or agility or flexibility or whatever that are specifically designed for you and your genes. Every time I was trying to click through different pages, there was something that kept popping up called a hydration calculator that would be specifically for me if I just gave them my email address. I did not do that.

If you're not kidding me, what a steal. But, I put in a burner, said you put it in a burner and then you get the hydration calculator. That's Web 101. This is aimed at parents who want their kid to be the best at soccer. That's what this is for. That's disgusting.

And you can genetically make them the best at soccer. And that led me into this discovery of the whole world of genetic code for sports ability. Like to use your genes to decide if you're going to be good at sports or not. There are some teams that have had their players sequence all their DNA so that they can develop personalized training programs for each of them, like more professional teams, not not not your kids like club soccer team or whatever. Yeah. There is a company that will test your kid as long as they are under the age of eight.

No, Cooper, you don't get tested. They will test you under the age of eight for a sports gene. There's a specific gene that a 2003 study, I think it was out of Australia, had linked to athletic ability. And what they were trying to show is that if you had these certain kind of muscle fibers, you had more speed and these other kinds, you have more endurance and all of this was linked to this one gene and they kind of sports gene. Anyway, this has been totally blown out of proportion to believe that you have to have this gene to be good at sports and that if you don't have a certain kind, like you shouldn't

go in a track and field, but if you have this other kind, you should go in anyway. So they will test your kid, they will tell you what they're good at, like give you a certificate telling you what sports you'd be good at, and then they will also refer them to their agency to train them and then try to get them. And they'll get-

Yeah, I'll make sure your kids have the best wine. For them, that's the best fit. So I'm going to make sure your kids have the best wine. For them, that's the best fit. And so all of the DNA that all these companies are collecting are ending up in these large databases. And I mean, and this is an oversimplification. Obviously, there's a lot more to you than your DNA. It can tell us a ton about you,

but then there are great athletes. They make note for all these athletic genes. There are great athletes who don't have these genes. What? No, it's impossible. I've known about this sports gene for a long time, Cindy. And as far as I know, it's the number one determining factor. No, there's a first of all, the genetic code is way more complex than one gene being responsible

for your entire athletic ability. And two, you kind of got to practice and train and work really hard, and that plays a huge factor. So there is no test that will tell you if your kid can be star quarter back. Please don't believe a company that tells you they can. I have a test. Is there last day in McElroy? Then they can be the star quarter back.

I thought they were good at basketball. McElroy's, they're good at everything. We have one golfer. They need spells with an eye. So they're not good at spelling. Not good to chuck, and I guess Chuck McElroy played on the reds, I think, to the baseball player. Anyway, well folks, that's going to do it for us.

I don't know if I, maybe it wasn't the smartest idea of a hey, that Justin cloned us out there somewhere for just waiting to be activated. Thank you so much for listening to our show. Thanks to the taxpayers for letting us use their song medicines as the intro and outro program, new max fun show alert. It's called bubble. It's a sci fi comedy action sort of series written by Jordan Morris and a bunch of other talented people. And it's about a life in a hipster dystopia under a bubble. Me and my brothers are in a couple episodes and it's going to be really neat. I think it's starting in the middle of June. They're doing eight episodes one a week. So check it out wherever find podcasts are distributed. It's

called bubble. And that's for maximum fun. A lot more great shows on there. Just some Hodgman. Stop podcasting yourself. Switchblade Sisters. Tells the great shows. Go check them all out. And that is going to do it for us folks. So until next week, my name is Justin McElroy. I'm Sydney McElroy. And as always, don't drill hole in your head. Music Maximumfund.org Comedy and culture, artist owned

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