Tangle - SPECIAL EDITION: The genetic optimization of life — and the lives it may leave behind.

Episode Date: June 20, 2025

For the last few years, one of my favorite parts of Tangle has been hiring young writers and giving them an opportunity to work with us. Over the years we’ve had a number of “interns” (nobody really does intern work here) who have made major contributions to our newsletter, gone on to work for awesome publications, or left and returned years later to work for us.Last year, our managing editor Ari Weitzman decided to formalize this experience with a six-month fellowship program. We got dozens of applications, and ended up hiring Hunter Casperson — a sharp writer and recent journalism master’s graduate from California. Hunter immediately earned a reputation for thoughtful edits, speaking her mind, and stepping up to do whatever was asked of her. This month, her six months at Tangle are coming to a close. In the past, it’s been simply tradition that we’ve let Tangle interns write a capstone piece — this year, with the process formalized, we baked it into the initial schedule of working with Hunter. The prompt is simple: You can pick any topic you want to cover, and we’ll work on a well researched, long-form piece with you that we’ll publish as a Friday edition. Today, we are sharing Hunter’s capstone piece.It is, in my estimation, perfectly Tangle. It covers a controversial topic. It’s personal. It is deeply researched. It is thoughtfully written. And most importantly, it offers fair treatment of a complicated issue. I hope you enjoy it, and I want to thank Hunter for all her contributions to Tangle — I’m excited to see what she does next! Best,Isaac SaulYou can read today's podcast⁠ ⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠Ad-free podcasts are here!Many listeners have been asking for an ad-free version of this podcast that they could subscribe to — and we finally launched it. You can go to ReadTangle.com to sign up!You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here. Our Executive Editor and Founder is Isaac Saul. Our Executive Producer is Jon Lall.This podcast was written by: Isaac Saul & Hunter Casperson and edited and engineered by Dewey Thomas. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75.Our newsletter is edited by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, Senior Editor Will Kaback, Hunter Casperson, Kendall White, Bailey Saul, and Audrey Moorehead.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Some things just take too long. A meeting that could have been an email, someone explaining crypto, or switching mobile providers. Except with Fizz. Switching to Fizz is quick and easy. Mobile plans start at $17 a month. Certain conditions apply.

Details at fizz.ca. Looking for a better place to call home? Discover Watercolor Westport by Landark Homes. Nestled in eastern Ontario cottage country, live connected to nature, neighbors and the necessities with high-speed connectivity. This walkable, vibrant waterfront village offers shops, dining, scenic trails, a winery and the harborfront. Just steps from your door. Escape the city to a net-zero ready bungalow at Watercolor Westport. You're only

75 minutes from Ottawa and a short drive to Toronto or Montreal. With new homes starting from the 600s, you can live better in Watercolor Westport. To find out more, visit WatercolorWestport.com. Did you know that socks are one of the most requested clothing items by organizations addressing homelessness? It's true. And it's also why we started Bombas. Every time you buy, well, anything from Bombas, an essential item is donated to someone facing homelessness. That's Bombas's one-purchased, one-donated promise. Bombas makes socks, underwear, slippers, slides, and t-shirts all designed to feel good and do good.

Since we're new in Canada, all new customers enjoy 20% off your first purchase. Just visit bombas.ca. That's B-O-M-B-A-S.C-A. And use code MUSIC to start doing good and feeling even better. From executive producer Isaac Saul, this is Tangle. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, and welcome to the Tangle Podcast, the place we get views from across the political spectrum, some independent thinking, and a little bit

of my take. I'm your host, Isaac Saul, and this is going to be a brief message, an unusual one, not something we normally do here on the podcast. I'm just jumping on really quick to ask you guys to go read something. For the last few years, one of my favorite parts of Tangle has been hiring young writers and giving them an opportunity to work with us. Over the years, we've had a number of quote-unquote interns. Nobody really does intern work here. I mean, if you join our small team,

we're going to put you to real work. And many of them have had major contributions to our publication, our newsletter, our website, the podcast, they've gone on to work for awesome publications or they've left and returned years later to work for us. Last year, our managing editor, Ari Weitzman, decided to formalize this experience with a six-month fellowship program.

We got dozens of applications and we ended up hiring a woman named Hunter Caspersen, a Sharp writer, recent journalism, master's graduate from California. Hunter immediately earned a reputation for thoughtful edits, for speaking her mind, and for stepping up to do whatever was asked of her. So this month, her six months at Tangle

are coming to a close. And in the past, it's just been simply tradition that we've let Tangle interns write a kind of capstone piece. This year, with the process formalized, we baked it into the initial schedule of working with Hunter. The prompt was simple. You can pick any topic you want to cover

and at the end of your time with us, we'll work on a well-researched long form piece with you that we'll publish as a Friday edition in our newsletter. So today we publish Hunter's capstone piece. It is in my estimation, perfectly tangle. It covers a controversial topic, it's personal, it's deeply researched, It's thoughtfully written. And most importantly,

it offers fair treatment of a complicated issue. I want to point you to the piece, which is up on our website now at readtangle.com. It is headlined, the genetic optimization of life and those it may leave behind. For all sorts of reasons, we weren't able to publish this piece as a podcast,

which I apologize for, but I did want to drop in today and just nudge you to go to our website again, reedtangle.com and check out the piece titled, The Genetic Optimization of Life and Those It May Leave Behind. It is a very, very interesting and thoughtful exploration of embryonic genetic testing and how quickly it's developing and what it might mean and many of the moral and ethical quandaries that it raises. So that's all I'm here to do today

is to send you to our website and check out Hunter's piece and also to say thank you to Hunter for all of her work and the tremendous contributions she's had in the last six months. All right, I will see you guys Sunday for the Sunday pod with me, Ari and Camille. Peace. Our executive editor and founder is me, Isaac Saul,

and our executive producer is John Lull. Today's episode was edited and engineered by Dewey Thomas. Our editorial staff is led by managing editor, Ari Weitzman, with senior editor, Will Kavak, and associate editors, Hunter Kaspersen, Audrey Moorehead, Bailey Saul, Lindsay Knuth, and Kendall White. Music for the podcast was produced by Dyett75. To learn more about Tangle and to sign up for a membership, please visit our website

at retangle.com. Did you know that socks are one of the most requested clothing items by organizations addressing homelessness? It's true. And it's also why we started Bombas. Every time you buy, well, anything from Bombas, an essential item is donated to someone facing homelessness. That's Bombas's one-purchased, one-donated promise. Bombas makes socks, underwear, slippers, slides, and t-shirts all designed to feel good and do good. Since we're new in Canada, all new customers enjoy 20% off your first purchase. Just visit

bombas.ca. That's B-O-M-B-A-S dot C-A. And use code MUSIC to start doing good and feeling even better. Some things just take too long. A meeting that could have been an email, someone explaining crypto, or switching mobile providers. Except with Fizz. Switching to Fizz is quick and easy. Mobile plans start at $17 a month. Certain conditions apply.

Details at fizz.ca. Looking for a better place to call home? Discover Watercolor Westport by Landark Homes. Nestled in Eastern Ontario cottage country, live connected to nature, neighbors and the necessities with high-speed connectivity. This walkable, vibrant waterfront village offers shops, dining, scenic trails, a winery and the harborfront. Just steps from your door. Escape the city to a net-zero ready bungalow at Watercolor Westport. You're only

75 minutes from Ottawa and a short drive to Toronto or Montreal. With new homes starting from the 600s, you can live better in Watercolor Westport. To find out more, visit WatercolorWestport.com.