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Reporting

G: Unfit

July 17, 2019 | Lulu Miller | WNYC Studios

( Deborah Lee )

When a law student named Mark Bold came across a Supreme Court decision from the 1920s that allowed for the forced sterilization of people deemed “unfit,” he was shocked to discover that it had never been overturned. His law professors told him the case, Buck v Bell, was nothing to worry about, that the ruling was in a kind of legal limbo and could never be used against people. But he didn’t buy it. In this episode we follow Mark on a journey to one of the darkest consequences of humanity’s attempts to measure the human mind and put people in boxes, following him through history, science fiction and a version of eugenics that’s still very much alive today, and watch as he crusades to restore a dash of moral order to the universe.

This episode was produced by Matt Kielty, Lulu Miller and Pat Walters. 

You can pre-order Lulu Miller’s new book Why Fish Don’t Exist here.

Special thanks to Sara Luterman, Lynn Rainville, Alex Minna Stern, Steve Silberman and Lydia X.Z. Brown.

Radiolab’s “G” is supported in part by Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation initiative dedicated to engaging everyone with the process of science.

About the Author

Lulu Miller

Lulu Miller is a contributing editor and co-founder of the NPR program Invisibilia. Miller covers stories that challenge our assumptions about how the human organism works—from the story of The… Read More.

Original Publication
WNYC Studios
Related Topics
Social Justice

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