The secrets of our DNA
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What is the main question this episode explores about DNA and identity?
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What can DNA tell us about who we are and where we came from? In today's episode of the History Extra podcast, Professor Chiri King, who you may remember appeared on the podcast back in November 2025 to discuss her research into Adolf Hitler's DNA, returns to talk about her new book on modern genetics and its role in solving some of history's biggest mysteries. Speaking to John Borkham, Turi explores the unlikely origins of DNA fingerprinting and her role in the groundbreaking discovery of King Richard III. Turi, welcome back to the History Extra podcast.
Thank you for having me.
So this time we're here to talk about your new book, The Secrets of Our DNA, which is a really comprehensive guide to bond genetics and its uses. But crucially, it's also one that's really accessible and really enjoyable too. What made you want to write it and why now?
Well, so obviously, over the last few years, and particularly during my PhD, which was basically genetic genealogy. And what happened was I started getting people contacting me with questions about genetics. And I would write these rather long and involved questions. responses to people about how our DNA works and trying to answer their question. And over the years, I just found I was doing this loads and loads. And then I actually got approached by a publisher saying, would you be interested in writing a book? So I started kind of getting thoughts together. I ended up chatting to a friend of mine, Sue Black, who is a very famous forensic anthropologist. And she put me in touch with with her literary agent, we got chatting about, you know, what would this book look like and what would I cover?
So a lot of it is around questions that I have been asked in cases that I've been involved with. But I also have little sections on things where genetics is going and where there's quite controversial issues that I think the public needs to be involved in the conversation with.
And one thing I really like about the book is just how autobiographical it is, like your voice really comes through it. And you talk about your family, you talk about your childhood in Canada, and your own route into the field. Just for the benefit of listeners, how did you first end up going down this path?
So I started off, I thought I was going to be a medic. And I was in Canada doing the kind of prerequisite courses for eventually going to grad school and becoming a medic. And I was doing calculus 100 or whatever it was. And it was awful. And I just scraped through. It was just awful. And it was with one of my oldest friends, Scott. And he had also done it, had also just scraped through. We're like, we're not doing that again. So we thought, what are we going to do for second semester? So we were looking through kind of like the course catalog. And, you know, Indiana Jones was relatively fresh in our memories type things. Yeah, yeah. let's do archaeology 101 type thing. So did that on a bit of a whim and got hooked.
And I ended up doing archaeology and I got to go on excavations in Greece and I came over here and I thought, well, if I do a degree here, it's three years. If I go home and finish the one in Canada, it's two years. I might as well apply to Cambridge. So I did on a bit of a whim and got in and I did archaeology and anthropology at Cambridge. And it was there that I was sitting in a lecture and And it was being given by a lady called Erika Hegelberg. And she had been involved in the Romanov case. And this is this amazing case. So this is Tsar Nicholas and his wife and their five children and four of their household members, like a cook and a valet and a maid and so on. And during the Bolshevik Revolution, Tsar Nicholas abdicates and they are taken and they are kept in a house in Yekaterinburg.
And eventually they are really brutally murdered and their remains are hidden somewhere near Yekaterinburg.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main question this episode explores about DNA and identity?
0:00–5:23
2
Why did Professor Turi King decide to write *The Secrets of Our DNA* now?
5:23–11:05
3
How did Turi’s early life and education lead her into genetics and archaeology?
11:05–21:20
4
What are the surprising origins of DNA fingerprinting and its first uses?
21:20–33:09
5
How was DNA used to identify King Richard III’s remains?
33:09–34:46