Media & Praise

Reviews and Interviews

WBUR | April 13, 2020

The Portal | April 12, 2020

Science Fantastic Podcast | April 11, 2020

thinkspot | April 8, 2020

The PEN Pod | April 1, 2020

Spektrum.de (Germany) | March 4, 2020

Focus Online (Germany) | February 12, 2020

Story in the Public Square | January 15, 2020

FAD or FUTURE podcast, hosted by Joey Thurman | December 20, 2019

Normalife! podcast | November 20, 2019

The Jordan Harbinger Show | September 19, 2019

Five-part FOX Houston series | August 26-30, 2019

Vanity Fair | August 30, 2019

The Rubin Report | August 21, 2019

Curious with Josh Peck | July 31, 2019

The James Altucher Show | July 23, 2019

FOMO Sapiens | July 11, 2019

Inspired Money | June 11, 2019

Fareed Zakaria, GPS, CNN | June 5, 2019

Chris Stout: Living a Life in Full | May 29, 2019

Nature | May 14, 2019

Joe Rogan Experience | May 9, 2019

Fox LA | May 8, 2019

NPR | May 2, 2019

BBC | April 29, 2019

Blue Zones | April 26, 2019

Smithsonian | April 25, 2019

Economist | April 25, 2019

Amanpour & Co., PBS | April 24, 2019

Genetic Literacy Project | April 23, 2019

Forbes | April 20, 2019

Bloomberg podcast | April 16, 2019 (interview with Jamie begins at minute 13)

Intelligence Matters, CBS News | April 16, 2019

Future State | April 15, 2019

Express | April 9, 2019

Kansas City Jewish Chronicle | April 5, 2019

Creative Life podcast | April 2, 2019

Publishers Weekly | January 24, 2019

Kirkus | January 21, 2019

NPR Tech Nation | December 12, 2018

Praise for Hacking Darwin

“In Hacking Darwin…world-famous futurist Jamie Metzl appeals to all humans of good will to together face the ethical and social problems raised by human genetic engineering.”

Osservatore Romano (the official Vatican newspaper)

“Jamie Metzl’s book — ranging through genetics, human destiny and the future — is an incredible trove of information for scientists, futurists, technologists, entrepreneurs, and virtually every intrigued, interested reader. A gifted and thoughtful writer, Metzl brings us to the frontiers of biology and technology, and reveals a world full of promise and peril. This is a must-read book.”

Siddhartha Mukherjee MD, New York Times bestselling author of The Emperor of All Maladies and  The Gene: An Intimate History

“In many ways, Jamie Metzl has been preparing Hacking Darwin for the last 20 years and his diligence shines through. Jamie is a gifted writer and his explanation of genetics are crisp, accurate, and wonderfully engaging. If you can only read one book on the future of our species, this is it.”

Sanjay Gupta MD, bestseller author, neurosurgeon, and Emmy-award winning chief medical correspondent (CNN)

“Whether you already run the whitewater of transhumanism or oppose changing one atom of any species, you will see we have a revolution in our midst — one of engineering genes, possibly surpassing the space, atomic, and electronic revolutions in its significance. It is a transformation we ignore at great risk. To help prepare us for what’s coming, Jamie Metzl guides us brilliantly down the twisting and ever-changing river of our genetic future in this important and thought-provoking book. Beyond the issues of efficacy and safety, he thoughtfully explores the ultimately more critical issues of diversity, equality, and respect for each other and our common humanity.”

George Church, Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and author of Regenesis

“Jamie Metzl’s Hacking Darwin is an outstanding guide to the most important conversation of our lives — how we humans will hijack our evolutionary process and transcend the limits of our own biology.”

Ray Kurzweil, inventor and futurist, author of The Singularity is Near and How to Create a Mind

“Jamie Metzl possesses a nearly superhuman ability to take in vast amounts of research and synthesize it into disruptive, beautifully-wrought prose. To borrow a term from the book, Hacking Darwin is an intellectual masterbatortium — at once stimulating and consummately satisfying.”

Dan Buettner, National Geographic Fellow and New York Times bestselling author of Blue Zones Solution and Blue Zones of Happiness

“Genetic technologies contain extraordinary promise – and breathtaking challenges — with the potential to change virtually every aspect of our lives. In the pages of Hacking Darwin, Jamie Metzl takes us on a critical journey through opportunities and obstacles on humanity’s greatest expedition: the exploration and re-imagining of what it means to be human.”

Eric Garcetti, Mayor of Los Angeles

“Jamie Metzl has written a personal, funny, unpretentious and ultimately deeply optimistic book about how the human race will transform itself through genomics. In his enthusiastic embrace of our technological future, Metzl gives voice to the adventure of biological discovery without losing sight of the risks. Hacking Darwin is a witty introduction to a wide variety of themes within genomics, and is at its most profound when imagining not just the science, but the social and geopolitical reactions that will accrue throughout the world. Metzl writes about real science with the flair of a science fiction writer, and in the process challenges us to begin a complex but necessary conversation about how humanity will evolve.”

Robert C. Green, MD, MPH, Professor of Medicine (Genetics), Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Broad Institute and Harvard Medical School

“This wildly exciting and highly accessible book kidnaps us on a ride to the future, demonstrating in thrilling detail how our species’ ability to transform and improve the genetic makeup of our offspring will explode over the course of our lifetimes and beyond. Even as a scientist working in the field of human longevity and genetics, this book blew my mind. It should be required reading for scientists, doctors, and anybody else whose life and those of their children will be touched by genetic technologies — which is just about all of us. Our world is changing rapidly, and we could have no better guide to the profound opportunities, challenges, and ethical complexities of the genetics revolution than Jamie Metzl.”

Nir Barzilai M.D., The Rennert Chair of Aging Research Professor of Medicine and Genetics, Director of The Institute for Aging Research; The Glenn Center for the Biology of Human Aging; NSC of Excellence in the Biology of Aging (NIH), Albert Einstein College of Medicine

“Jamie Metzl’s Hacking Darwin should be required reading for business executive, scientists, worriers, and dreamers — for anyone interested in the future of science and humanity. Bit by bit, with wit and grace, he shows how we are rebuilding the very notion of what it means to be human, and how we will inevitably be changed in that process.”

Debora Spar, author of The Baby Business and Baker Foundation Professor, Harvard Business School

“Humans taking control of human evolution is happening now and it could be the most significant thing we have done since we learned how to make and use fire. When history looks back on this period, it will not focus on the shiny objects that grab the attention of media today, but rather on the tech breakthroughs that Metzl explains in such clear language. Hacking Darwin is essential reading if you want to understand what will be seen as the most important thing happening in this epoch.”

Richard A. Clarke, bestselling author of Warnings and former White House National Security official

“Breathtaking advances in artificial intelligence, genomics, and gene editing are radically transforming our understanding of the human body and changing our practice of medicine. But as Jamie Metzl articulates in Hacking Darwin, the implications of the genetics revolution extend far beyond healthcare and into the realm of our very identity as human beings. Metzl lays out the underlying science and thoroughly examines the radical implications and thorny ethical issues raised by these technologies. A genetically altered future will be arriving far sooner and with far greater implications than most people appreciate. Hacking Darwin comes at a critically important time, with many scientific developments arising in the field. It is an essential guide as society navigates these developments and a clarion call for the inclusive global dialogue on the future of human genetic engineering we so desperately need.”

Victor Dzau M.D., President, United States National Academy of Medicine

“The bio-sciences revolution is coming at us faster than we realize and what better guide to its possibilities than Jamie Metzl. Hacking Darwin is a compelling read ahead of our genetic future, breathtaking on one hand, thought provoking and challenging on the other. A must read and entertaining guide if you care to know what lies ahead and what to do about it.”

James Manyika, Chairman, McKinsey Global Institute

“Evolution has changed since Darwin’s time. We are driving unnatural selection and nonrandom mutation. This gives us the power to alter all species, including ourselves. So the key emerging debate is: Should we redesign humans? Why? How far? How fast? Metzl lays out what we can do now, what we might be able to do, in an engaging, non-technical way. Let the debate begin.”

Juan Enriquez, Co-author Evolving Ourselves: Redesigning the Future of Humanity — One Gene at a Time

Hacking Darwin paints a picture of our future that is both exciting and hopeful as well as dangerous and terrifying. Brilliantly written and deeply thought provoking, it is a must read — for the entire planet. I could not put it down, reading it in a single sitting.”

Michael Morell, former CIA Acting Director

Further Reading

There are many great books, reports, papers, articles and other materials on issue related to human genetic engineering. A few of my favorites include:

Books

Better Than Human by Allen Buchanan

Regenesis by George Church and Ed Regis

A Crack in Creation by Jennifer Doudna and Sam Sternberg

Evolving Ourselves by Juan Enriquez and Steve Gullans

Radical Evolution by Joel Garreau

The End of Sex and the Future of Reproduction by Hank Greely

Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari

How We Do It by Robert Martin

The Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Blueprint by Robert Plomin

Who We Are and How We Got Here by David Reich

She Has Her Mother’s Laugh by Carl Zimmer

Reports

Genome Editing and Human Reproduction, Nuffield Council on Bioethics, July 2018

Human Genome Editing: Science, Ethics, and Governance, US National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Medicine, February 2017

Hacking Darwin touches on some very sensitive and controversial issues where very significant differences of opinion exist. I hope you will explore on your own the diverse views from the extensive literature on these topics. I would also be delighted to hear from you if you believe an important perspective has been missed. You can also post links to any studies I may have missed on the Hacking Darwin forum.