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"The Lost Family: How DNA Testing Is Upending Who We Are"

Aired on Monday, August 10th.

You're probably familiar with this routine -- you swab your cheek or spit into a vial, then you send it away to a lab someplace. A month later, you get a report explaining where your ancestors came from...or whether you carry certain genetic risks. But what implications does this very popular trend have for American life and culture? Our guest is Libbey Copeland, whose well-researched new book is "The Lost Family: How DNA Testing Is Upending Who We Are." As was noted of this work by Wired.com: "Copeland takes readers inside America's first DNA testing lab dedicated to genealogy, to Salt Lake City's Family History Library -- the largest genealogical research facility in the world -- and into the living rooms of dozens of people whose lives have been turned upside down due to the results of a recreational DNA test. [This book] is at once a hard look at the forces behind a historical mass reckoning that is happening all across America, and an intimate portrait of the people living it."

Rich Fisher passed through KWGS about thirty years ago, and just never left. Today, he is the general manager of Public Radio Tulsa, and the host of KWGS’s public affairs program, StudioTulsa, which celebrated its twentieth anniversary in August 2012 . As host of StudioTulsa, Rich has conducted roughly four thousand long-form interviews with local, national, and international figures in the arts, humanities, sciences, and government. Very few interviews have gone smoothly. Despite this, he has been honored for his work by several organizations including the Governor's Arts Award for Media by the State Arts Council, a Harwelden Award from the Arts & Humanities Council of Tulsa, and was named one of the “99 Great Things About Oklahoma” in 2000 by Oklahoma Today magazine.
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