As a layperson, my understanding of it - despite all my research, it’s still a little limited - is a change in the expression of genes. Certain aspects of RNA can be turned on and off.

MAUD NEWTON: Epigenetics is not a change to the DNA itself, but it’s a change in the expression of the DNA. Can you briefly describe what epigenetics is and your own experience of this discipline as a researcher, writer, and person within your own family? SARAH NEILSON: You write in the book about the intersection of genetics and lived experience. Shondaland spoke with Newton about epigenetics, ethics, the possibilities and limits of genealogical and ancestral healing, and more. She dives into topics like the ethics and realities around the multibillion-dollar genetic-testing industry (such as 23andMe and ), the power of genealogical knowledge, and how this tool can help in the process of healing social ruptures like the racism that plagues the United States today. Newton’s discoveries and reckonings with her family history serve as a doorway into a vast and beautifully reported story of the power of our own genetic makeup. And her mother, who suffered from mental illness, became a religious fanatic, eventually acquiring 30 rescue cats and hosting church ceremonies in their living room. In an effort to proclaim his “purity,” Newton’s openly racist and eugenics-obsessed father traced his own lineage to the Revolutionary War. Newton’s maternal grandfather, raised during the plight of the Great Depression in Texas, was believed to have 13 wives, one of whom he shot to death. Prompted by her own fascinating and troubling family, Newton was inspired to explore her genetic history. … The stories we tell ourselves about our ancestors have the power to shape us, in some ways nearly as much as our genetics do.” Newton confronts the question head-on that many people struggle with daily: Will the predetermined genetic history of my family follow me into adulthood and beyond? Early in her debut nonfiction book, Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation, Maud Newton writes, “The alchemy between our genes and our individuality is a mystery we keep trying to solve.

Review ancestor trouble