Zonder dat we het merkten, is er online een enorme DNA-database ontstaan. Deze bevat de geheimen van je ware identiteit en belooft onbekende familieverbindingen te onthullen. Maar wat gebeurt er wanneer online voorouders testen meer onthullen dan je had verwacht?
In twee seizoenen ontmoet Jenny Kleeman de mannen en vrouwen wiens leven voor altijd veranderde nadat ze een doos openden die een DNA-test bevatte. Schandalen worden onthuld, identiteiten worden op hun kop gezet, mysteries worden opgelost en levensveranderende nieuwsberichten komen aan het licht. Jenny onderzoekt wat er gebeurt wanneer genealogie, technologie en identiteit met elkaar in botsing komen.
Without us realising, an enormous DNA database has been created online. It holds the secrets of your true identity and promises to reveal untold family connections. But what happens when online ancestry tests reveal more than you had bargained for?
Across two series, Jenny Kleeman meets the men and women whose lives changed forever after they opened a box that contained a DNA test. Exposing scandals, upending identities, solving mysteries and delivering life-changing news – Jenny investigates what happens when genealogy, technology and identity collide.
The donor conceived people turning to at-home DNA tests for answers.
It’s the perfect gift for the person who already has everything. It promises to tell you who you really are, and how you’re connected to the world. A present that will reveal your genetic past – but could also disrupt your future.
In the first series of The Gift, Jenny Kleeman looked at the extraordinary truths that can unravel when people take at-home DNA tests like Ancestry and 23andMe.
For the second series, Jenny is going deeper into the unintended consequences – the aftershocks – set in motion when people link up to the enormous global DNA database.
Reconnecting and rupturing families, uprooting identities, unearthing long-buried secrets – what happens after technology, genealogy and identity collide?
Presenter: Jenny Kleeman
Producer: Conor Garrett
Production Coordinator: Gill Huggett
Editor: Philip Sellars
Commissioning Executive: Tracy Williams
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke
The Gift is a BBC Studios Audio production for BBC Radio 4
