Teaming Up with Storytellers
Stories have the power to captivate, inspire, and provoke thought. PGED is teaming up with talented storytellers to bring genetics into the stories told through TV and film. These stories go beyond entertainment – they make us think about important issues in genetics like ethics and social impacts. By weaving these ideas into popular media, we want people to consider how genetic discoveries affect our world. We hope these stories spark conversations and make people think about genetics in their own lives.
Social Impact Entertainment Society
Through our collaboration with the Social Impact Entertainment (SIE) Society, we have hosted a webinar and created digital resources that serve as guides for storytellers to integrate concepts about genetics, ethics, and society into their work.
Hollywood, Health & Society
Through our work with the fast-paced HH&S team, PGED has consulted on television shows. See below for a selection of shows.
PBS
In 2020, PGED partnered with PBS affiliate, WETA, to raise awareness of genetics and society as an extension of their film: The Gene: An Intimate History. This documentary from Ken Burns and Barak Goodman is based on a book by Siddhartha Mukherjee that carries the same title. It traces the history of genetic science from the earliest theories of inheritance through modern breakthroughs in genome editing and personalized medicine. PGED worked with the creative team at WETA and their national network of affiliated stations to support public engagement programming. In addition, we created companion educational resources that are freely available on PBS LearningMedia.
In 2021, we partnered with WETA again and created educational resources to accompany season 7 of the popular TV series Finding Your Roots. These lessons on genetics and ancestry can be found in our resource hub.
The Science & Entertainment Exchange
Sundance Film Festival
PGED’s Director, Ting Wu, was a juror for the Alfred P. Sloan Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 2016, recognizing the depiction of science in a feature film.
Ting’s co-jurors included Halt and Catch Fire star Kerry Bishé, past Sloan winners Mike Cahill and Shane Carruth, and USC professor Clifford V. Johnson.