Speaker 1: Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Colin Lowther.
Speaker 2: And I'm Megan Nolette. Spotlight uses a special English method
Speaker 2: of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no
Speaker 2: matter where in the world they live.
Speaker 1: In twenty twenty, a woman named Claire took a DNA test.
Speaker 1: This test was supposed to give Claire information about her family.
Speaker 1: It would tell her who her ancestors were. It could
Speaker 1: even tell her if she was at risk for diseases.
Speaker 1: But when she got the test back, she discovered something strange.
Speaker 1: The test showed that her family was not who she
Speaker 1: thought they were. She was not related to her parents.
Speaker 2: Claire had been switched at birth. Claire was born at
Speaker 2: a hospital. While doctors in the hospital nursery were checking
Speaker 2: her health after her birth, she was accidentally switched with
Speaker 2: another baby born the same day. This other baby was
Speaker 2: also having her health checked in the same nursery. Somehow,
Speaker 2: someone put Claire in the crib with the other baby's name.
Speaker 2: The medical staff accidentally gave Claire to another set of parents.
Speaker 2: They gave another baby, girl, to Claire's parents.
Speaker 1: Claire had been switched at birth. Both Claire and the
Speaker 1: other girl grew up with each other's biological parents. Both
Speaker 1: girls spent years believing they belonged in the other child's family,
Speaker 1: but when each girl found out she had not been
Speaker 1: living with her true biological family, they both said they
Speaker 1: had a strange feeling that they did not exactly belong
Speaker 1: in the family in which they grew up.
Speaker 2: Today's spotlight is on DNA testing and family is our
Speaker 2: family the people who gave birth to us, our biological
Speaker 2: mother and father is our real family, the parents who
Speaker 2: raised us? Or is it something even more complicated?
Speaker 1: The more she thought about it, the more Claire's test
Speaker 1: made sense. Growing up, she did not look like anyone
Speaker 1: else in her family, she told the British Broadcasting Corporation
Speaker 1: or BBC.
Speaker 3: I felt like a cheat. There were no similarities in
Speaker 3: looks or nature. I thought, yes, my parents must have
Speaker 3: got me from a different family.
Speaker 2: For Claire, finding her family was helpful. Suddenly things made
Speaker 2: sense for her. She was able to meet her biological
Speaker 2: mother and brother, but the meeting was difficult too. Claire
Speaker 2: got a new family, but she saw how different her
Speaker 2: life could have been.
Speaker 3: Claire said, my parents separated when I was very young.
Speaker 3: I do not remember them being together. I was raised
Speaker 3: in complete poverty, homelessness, often went hungry, and everything that
Speaker 3: goes with these things. It was a very difficult childhood.
Speaker 1: In many ways, she looked like her new family. She
Speaker 1: had the same DNA. DNA is the genetic code inside
Speaker 1: the cells of every person. DNA holds the instructions for
Speaker 1: how cells grow during reproduction a mother's DNA and binds
Speaker 1: with a father's DNA to create a new person. This
Speaker 1: shared DNA is what makes us look like our parents.
Speaker 1: It is why we have eye color or hair color
Speaker 1: like our parents. It is why we walk or talk
Speaker 1: like our parents. Sometimes we may develop cancer, heart problems,
Speaker 1: or other health issues just like our parents.
Speaker 2: But in many ways, Claire did not feel like she
Speaker 2: belongs to her new family. She was fifty five years old.
Speaker 2: She had grown up separately. Different people raised her. Who
Speaker 2: did she belong to? Who were her parents? Really?
Speaker 1: Claire's answer is that she belongs to both families. Now
Speaker 1: she still keeps in touch with her birth mother and
Speaker 1: with the mother who raised her.
Speaker 2: What then, is a family? For some, the answer is simple,
Speaker 2: It is the people who are biologically related to us.
Speaker 2: When Claire found her birth mother, she found her proper family.
Speaker 2: But others may find different answers to this question.
Speaker 1: Alexis Howslett is a podcaster. She discovered that the man
Speaker 1: who raised her was not her father. She spent long
Speaker 1: hours searching for her biological father. At first, their reunion
Speaker 1: was satisfying. Howslett discovered many similar parts of their personalities.
Speaker 1: But Howslett had been raised in a Mexican American home,
Speaker 1: her father was African American. Their cultures were very different.
Speaker 1: Howslett loved her father, but she had a difficult time
Speaker 1: feeling like she belonged in his family.
Speaker 2: The truth is that families are complex. An ideal family
Speaker 2: would be a group that gives love, support, and stability
Speaker 2: to all the people within it. For some, this means
Speaker 2: their birth parents and their extended family, their grandparents, uncles, aunts, nephews,
Speaker 2: and nieces. All these biological kin are family.
Speaker 1: For others, the answer is more complicated. There are those
Speaker 1: who grow up within families that are not ideal. For example,
Speaker 1: a young woman whose parents neglected her health or hurt her.
Speaker 1: This woman may look to other places for her family.
Speaker 1: Perhaps a circle of very close friends may consider these
Speaker 1: friends her family.
Speaker 2: Are they do we define what our family is, or
Speaker 2: do our families define us.
Speaker 1: DNA testing has opened up another way of looking at families.
Speaker 1: Most popular tests do not just tell you who you
Speaker 1: are related to. They can also tell you where your
Speaker 1: family came from many years ago. A DNA test might
Speaker 1: tell a man from the United States that he had
Speaker 1: ancestors from Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and Poland. Some of these
Speaker 1: histories may be lost to him, so a DNA test
Speaker 1: might show something about these unknown stories to him. DNA
Speaker 1: testing may present a way of connecting ourselves to a
Speaker 1: hidden past that we can be proud of.
Speaker 2: Other DNA tests may even tell you famous people you
Speaker 2: are related to. Say a woman from China takes one
Speaker 2: of these tests, the test may show she is related
Speaker 2: to Jengis Khan. This Mongol leader ruled much of Asia
Speaker 2: in the thirteenth century.
Speaker 1: Tests like this can make us feel special, but even
Speaker 1: DNA is more complex than we think. It is estimated
Speaker 1: that eight percent of the people in China are related
Speaker 1: to the Khan. This family would have more than one
Speaker 1: hundred and ten million people. Gengis Khan had many many children,
Speaker 1: and more people are closely related to each other than
Speaker 1: we think. Shai Khami is a Janetta researcher. He told
Speaker 1: the conversation.
Speaker 4: The first thing to understand is how many ancestors you
Speaker 4: have in each past generation. One generation back, you have
Speaker 4: two ancestors. Two generations back, that doubles to four, then eight,
Speaker 4: and sixteen. By thirty generations ago, around the twelfth century,
Speaker 4: you have over a billion ancestors.
Speaker 2: Experts now believe that we all share a common ancestor.
Speaker 2: This ancestor may have been very recent. This ancestor probably
Speaker 2: lived only a few thousand years ago. This statistic parallels
Speaker 2: the teaching of the Sacred Books of the Jewish, Muslim,
Speaker 2: and Christian people about Adam and Eve and the beginning
Speaker 2: of human history.
Speaker 1: Nathan H. Lentz teaches life sciences at John Jay College.
Speaker 1: He estimates we are all cousins one hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: times removed. This means that we would all be related
Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty generations ago.
Speaker 2: What does this mean for people trying to find their family?
Speaker 2: Not much, really, These ancient ancestors have little similarity to
Speaker 2: who you and I are today. Recent ancestors, such as
Speaker 2: grandparents and great grandparents are much more important to know.
Speaker 2: Their genes still affect who you are, along with their customs,
Speaker 2: traditions and expectations. However, that ancient DNA may show one
Speaker 2: important factor that we are not so different after all.
Speaker 5: Lens explains our particular ancestry should that be called a family?
Speaker 5: It is not an independent structure with its own roots.
Speaker 5: It is just one branch, not all that different from
Speaker 5: the others on the larger tree of the one human family.
Speaker 1: The next time you walk down the street, picnic in
Speaker 1: the park, shop in a market, crowd onto a subway
Speaker 1: or bus, or see a visitor from another country, smile.
Speaker 1: Smile because you are looking at another member of your
Speaker 1: human family. Many generations ago, you shared the same ancestor,
Speaker 1: and now you have the opportunity to meet each other
Speaker 1: and say hello, I am glad to meet you.
Speaker 2: Have you ever taken a DNA test? What did it
Speaker 2: tell you? Do? These DNA tests help you to know
Speaker 2: your family better? How do you define family? You can
Speaker 2: leave a comment on our website at www dot Spotlight
Speaker 2: English dot com. You can also find us on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram,
Speaker 2: and x You can also get our programs delivered directly
Speaker 2: to your Android or Apple device through our free official
Speaker 2: Spotlight English app.
Speaker 1: The writer of this program was Dan Christman. The producer
Speaker 1: was Micho Ozaki. The voices you heard were from the
Speaker 1: United Kingdom and the United States. All quotes were adapted
Speaker 1: for this program and voiced by Spotlight. This program is
Speaker 1: called Finding Your Family.
Speaker 2: We hope you can join us again for the next
Speaker 2: Spotlight program. Goodbye the