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What happens when your DNA makes a typo?

In this episode of Wildly Curious, Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole dive into the strange, fascinating world of genetic mutations—the tiny changes in DNA that can shape evolution, alter proteins, create disease, or sometimes do absolutely nothing at all. 

From harmless genetic quirks to serious inherited disorders, this episode breaks down some of the most important mutation types in a way that actually makes sense.

🧬 What mutations really are—and why they happen constantly
 🔠 How DNA “letters” form the instructions for building proteins
 ⚠️ What happens during frameshift, substitution, insertion, deletion, duplication, and inversion mutations
 🩸 Why mutations can influence things like blood type, lactose tolerance, HIV resistance, and sickle cell anemia
 🧠 The genetics behind disorders like Tay-Sachs disease, Fragile X syndrome, Prader-Willi syndrome, Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, and hemophilia A
 ✂️ How scientists are using CRISPR and gene editing technology to potentially correct harmful mutations

Along the way, Katy and Laura explore how mutations drive evolution, why most genetic changes are harmless, and why it’s honestly kind of incredible that our bodies function at all considering DNA is constantly being copied trillions of times.

Whether you’re into genetics, biology, evolution, medicine, or weird science, this episode is a deep dive into the microscopic changes that shape life itself.

🎧 Season 14 continues with one of the biggest science topics we’ve ever tackled.

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