Four Letters Long

Genetics for people who skipped biology class

Ciara Nolan2 episodes1 min of audio75 playsEpisodic

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S1 · E2Apr 17, 20260:4246 plays Preview

Two Brown-Eyed Parents, One Blue-Eyed Child

The Punnett square you learned at school is wrong about eye colour. Ciara explains the dozen or more genes involved, why recessive is not the whole story, and what this means for genetic risk.

S1 · E1Dec 28, 20250:4129 plays Members

What Your Ancestry Test Is Actually Measuring

Ciara explains how consumer DNA tests estimate ancestry, why the percentages change when the company updates its reference panel, and what the results can and cannot tell you about who you are.

About the show

Four Letters Long is a weekly genetics show for listeners who want to understand DNA tests, inherited conditions, gene editing and the evolution of everything, without a biology degree. Ciara Nolan, a geneticist who spent eight years in a Dublin clinical lab reading other people's genomes, builds each 30 to 40 minute episode around one question a real person asked her. Why does a consumer DNA test say I am twelve percent something I have never heard of? Can two brown-eyed parents have a blue-eyed child? What does CRISPR actually cut? The format alternates between solo explainers and two-person conversations with genetic counsellors, breeders, forensic scientists and patients. Ciara is honest about uncertainty, firm about privacy, and allergic to the phrase a gene for. The show is for the newly curious, the recently tested, and anyone who has ever stared at a family tree and wondered how the pieces fit.

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