Nice Genes!
Episodes
Genomic Repeat: Slipping Through the Spectrum - Rethinking the Divide in Autism Diagnoses
07 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
This episode was originally released on November 5, 2024Dr. Hannah Belcher was already studying autism she found out she herself was Autistic. Getting...
The 200-Year Old Whale
10 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Bowhead whales can live for nearly 2 centuries, weigh as much as 22 elephants, and– surprisingly– rarely get cancer. So what’s their sea-cr...
Genomic Repeat: Germ Spotting - Tracking diseases using genomics
10 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
This episode was originally released on December 13, 2022Stop the presses! New research shows that viruses locked in the Arctic permafrost for thousan...
The Music That Moves Us
03 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Listening to and creating music is one of the most universal human experiences. It gets stuck in our heads, makes us cry in the car, and has the power...
TB Trails and Tails
16 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Why Tuberculosis is still the most deadly infectious disease.Attention, DNA detectives! We’ve got a rat on the loose – but don’t worry, not the ...
Leave Us a Review
09 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Got a sec?Kaylee’s popping into your feed with a teensy, weensy favour to ask: if you’re a fan of the podcast, would you do us the honour of leavi...
Menopause Mysteries
02 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Turning up the heat on a life stage science is still catching up to.Ok, most of us may have gotten “the period talk.” But the “menopause talk?”...
Gut Check
18 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What genomics can tell us about food safety, the microbiome, and the mind.You’ve heard the saying, “you are what you eat”... Well, our gut micro...
Bite Club
04 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How vector-borne diseases spread– and the critters that carry themMalaria, Lyme disease, dengue, Zika… what do they all have in common? They’re ...
Why Athletes Collapse
21 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The genetic clues behind sudden cardiac arrest in young individualsEvery so often, we see headlines about an elite athlete collapsing mid-game. The cr...
Genetics and the Silver Screen
07 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How medical dramas shape the way we think about genomicsMedical dramas have been a staple of television for decades, from iconic primetime hits like&n...
Babies and Breakthroughs
23 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How new genomic approaches are helping diagnose and treat our tiniest patientsWelcoming a new baby brings boundless love, joy, and the usual sleepless...
Poo Dunnit
09 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How wastewater surveillance is tracking diseases outbreaksWhen you flush your toilet, where does the waste go? Down the pipes, through the sewers, and...
Welcome to ‘Nice Genes!’ Season 5
26 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Every mystery leaves a trail of clues. Fingerprints, call logs, maybe some tire tracks… or, of course, DNA. And when it comes to mysteries about our...
Spaced Out!
19 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Houston, we have… a microbe? A mysterious bacterial species has shown up aboard China’s Tiangong Space Station, and Dr. Kaylee Byers and Sarah Lan...
Roach Encroach: How we made cockroaches the ultimate pest
05 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
German cockroaches are notorious for making themselves at home in our kitchens and bathrooms, but how did they become such persistent pests? Dr. Kayle...
Genomic Repeat: The Devil’s In the Details - The Importance of Biodiversity
08 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Importance of BiodiversityDescription:This episode was originally released on October 31, 2022Conservation is often about protecting the species t...
Mutton, the Woolly Dog: How one dog's DNA is stitching together history
03 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Mutton was one of the last of the Salish Woolly Dogs– a breed raised by Indigenous Coast Salish communities before colonization led to its disappear...
Genomic Repeat: Bananageddon - Challenging assumptions around food security
06 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This episode was originally released on September 19, 2023Is the world running out of bananas? Well, no. Not…yet — but nature is flashing a big, y...
The Vitamin Verdict: How multivitamins affect your health
01 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The food supplement industry rakes in billions of dollars every year. So with so much money being spent on things like vitamins, they must be worth it...
Genomic Repeat: The Circadian Rhythm - Challenging our assumptions about sleep
04 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This episode was originally released on November 14, 2023Sleep is essential to our lives, but our perception of how it functions in our non-waking lif...
More cheese, please! Cheese cravings explained
04 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We’ve all been there— tempted by the irresistible smell of hot, melty cheese. So what is it about this perfect blend of milk and microbes that kee...
Genomic Repeat: Cold Case - Solving murder mysteries with genomics
07 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This episode was originally released on August 16, 2022In order to seek genomic justice, you have to get out of the lab and into the field.Dr. Kaylee ...
Life in the Fast Lane
17 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Rapid Evolution in the Modern AgeEvolution is like the ultimate slowburn, unfolding over millennia. And in our modern society, where things move so fa...
The Wasting Game
03 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Managing an Invisible DiseaseIs there a Zombie moose on the loose?! Not quite... But there is something lurking in the woods that has our “...
Lost but Found
19 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Forensic Methods in Disaster RecoveryContent warning: this episode discusses forensic science and the identification of human remains that may not be ...
Slipping Through the Spectrum
05 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Rethinking the Divide in Autism DiagnosesDr. Hannah Belcher was already studying autism she found out she herself was Autistic. Getting her diagnosis ...
Fatal Attraction: Insect Edition
22 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Deceptive Seduction of Femme Fatale FirefliesIn the buzzin’ firefly nightlife scene, neon lights glow bright and sparks fly. But, there’s murd...
Testing, Testing HPV
08 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How genomics is shaping the future of cervical cancer screening[Content Warning: This episode mentions sexual assault and medical trauma.]Nearly ...
The Antibiotic Debacle
24 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The hidden battle between medicine and microbes Since the discovery of penicillin in 1928, antibiotics have been our frontline defence against ba...
Cosmetic Clarity
10 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Separating Skincare Science Fact from FictionCould your skincare be hiding more than just a few blemishes? Or, is the word “toxic” getting a li’...
Welcome to ‘Nice Genes!’ Season 4
27 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
…98, 99, 100! Ready or not, here we come with a brand new season of 'Nice Genes!' Science is like a game of hide and seek, and genomics is one of it...
Three Blind Mice
09 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How Mice and CRISPR are Reversing BlindnessOne small step for science, one furry leap for mousekind. Scientists have found a way to reverse a common m...
Are You Smarter Than a Chimp?
05 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How Deleted DNA Reveals the Origins of HumanityIn 2007, researchers pitted humans against chimpanzees in a memory test competition. Who was the victor...
Jackalopes, Mythical Critters and the Cure for Cancer
06 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How an Oddball Bunny Saved Millions of LivesCan a make-believe tale have real-life consequences? Perhaps a 1930s legend from a snowy town in Wyoming i...
All the Colours of the Rainbow
09 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Meet the Magic of Mushrooms on Colour BlindnessRoughly 300 million people have a colour vision deficiency. But with a few mushrooms and some magic, th...
Reconciling the Truth
12 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Indigenous Environmental StewardshipDescription:The Indigenous peoples of what’s now known as Western Canada had a relationship of reciprocity with ...
Probing Pain
28 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Challenging our assumptions about painWhen Jackie Gonzalez was just young, doctors assumed that she was pining for attention when she restlessly tried...
The Circadian Rhythm
14 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Challenging our assumptions about sleepSleep is essential to our lives, but our perception of how it functions in our non-waking life is not always we...
The Dose Makes the Poison
31 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Challenging our assumptions on toxinsWhat’s more terrifying than the true life tales of bloodcurdling and breathstopping toxins? This Hallows' Eve w...
Not All Bad
17 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Challenging our assumptions around fatnessShantaQuilette Carter was in her late 30’s when she had her first stroke. It felt like death was lurking o...
Nature is Queer
03 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Questioning persistent myths about same-sex behaviour in natureCan we predict who we love from our genetics alone? For LGBT History Month in October, ...
Bananageddon
19 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Challenging assumptions around food securityIs the world running out of bananas? Well, no. Not…yet — but nature is flashing a big, yellow, squishy...
Genes Jump
05 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Cross-examining the origins of our base pairsOne of our most foundational assumptions is that ‘Our DNA is our own.’ But what if our DNA is stolen?...
Welcome to 'Nice Genes!' Season 3
22 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What did your grade four teacher say? "Never Assume. It makes an..." well, you know the rest. We all fall into the trap of our own assumptions from ti...
Gene Shorts! E02: Mother Coquita
08 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How a Reptilian 'Virgin Birth' Baffled ScientistsDr. Kaylee Byers and Producer Phoebe Melvin share one lonely crocodile's story that surprised scienti...
Gene Shorts! E01: Heart of a Grizzly
25 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to our first Gene Shorts Episode! It's the trademark storytelling you love in Nice Genes! but bite sized.In this episode Dr. Kaylee Byers spea...
Un-Digging the Hole
27 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Repairing the Environment: Climate Special Part 2 With disappearing species, plastic-filled oceans, and environmental commitments lagging behind globa...
Germ Spotting
13 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Tracking diseases using genomics Stop the presses! New research shows that viruses locked in the Arctic permafrost for thousands of years have the p...
Cracking the Coral Code
29 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Preparing the Environment: Climate Special Part 1 In part 1 of our climate special, we revisit our oceans to look at the rocky atolls and reefs that...
Calls from the Deep
15 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A genomic whale of a story Things aren’t always what they seem on the surface, especially when it comes to our oceans. So many mysteries hum below i...
The Devil’s in the Details
31 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Importance of Biodiversity Conservation is often about protecting the species that still wander around our Earth. But what about those that once...
Pizzly Bears, anyone?
18 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Protecting Local Wildlife Icons What do you get when you cross a polar bear and a grizzly… and why should you care?In this episode of Nice Genes!, h...
Welcome to 'Nice Genes!' Season 2
27 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Species loss, warming temperatures, and pollution are just the tip of the iceberg concerning the challenges of climate change. Oh, and you can forget ...
Cold Case
16 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Solving murder mysteries with genomics[TW: murder, mention of suicide, violent imagery]In order to seek genomic justice, you have to get out of the la...
Nodding our Tusks to Heroic Mutations
02 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Just like any good superhero comic, we start this episode with the science going incredibly wrong. Think: vats of toxic waste producing evil mutants t...
Decoding Ancestry
19 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Race is not genetic.TW: racism, systemic racismWhat exactly is the relationship between race and genetics? And where do concepts of ancestry and iden...
The Invisible Footprint
05 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How the hunt for wild species leads to eDNAMost of us have a hard-enough time looking for our cell phone chargers in the dark. So imagine trying to fi...
The Right Meds
21 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Can genomics find the perfect antidepressant for your body?[TW:MH,MI]This episode discusses mental health and mental illness. If you, or someone you k...
Genetics vs. Genomics
07 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
“Genomics? Isn’t that just Genetics? Are we making up words now?” Look, we get it.'Nice Genes!' host Dr. Kaylee Byers talks with neuroscienti...
Welcome to 'Nice Genes!'
06 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
From healthcare and biotechnology to forests and fisheries, the evolving study of genomics is leading to some of the most exciting and world-changing ...