Keepers of the Flame

Distillations | Science History Institute

In the 1970s Barry Mehler started tracking race scientists and he noticed something funny: they all had the same funding source. One wealthy man was using his incredible resources to prop up any scientist he could find who would validate his white supremacist ideology—and make it seem like it was backed by a legitimate scientific consensus.

About Innate: How Science Invented the Myth of Race

“Keepers of the Flame” is Episode 3 of Innate: How Science Invented the Myth of Race, a podcast and magazine project that explores the historical roots and persistent legacies of racism in American science and medicine. Published through Distillations, the Science History Institute’s highly acclaimed digital content platform, the project examines the scientific origins of support for racist theories, practices, and policies. Innate is made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom.

Credits

Hosts: Alexis Pedrick and Elisabeth Berry Drago Senior Producer: Mariel Carr Producer: Rigoberto Hernandez Associate Producer: Padmini Raghunath Audio Engineer: Jonathan Pfeffer

“Innate Theme” composed by Jonathan Pfeffer. Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions.

Resource List

‘The American Breed’: Nazi eugenics and the origins of the Pioneer Fund, by Paul Lombardo

The Funding of Scientific Racism: Wickliffe Draper and the Pioneer Fund, by William Tucker

The New Eugenics: Academic Racism in the U.S. Today, by Barry Mehler

The Phil Donahue Show

Superior: The Return of Race Science, by Angela Saini