“It was a fantastic experience to be able to interview Angela Saini, an award-winning author and science journalist last week, with Cara B and Jazzy C.

She had recently released her book, ‘Superior: The Return of Race Science’ exploring the origin of the ideas of race and thus the consequences on modern science. There was a large audience, despite the unusual arrangements on Zoom, even girls from St Marylebone were able to join. It was a very illuminating evening, Angela began by recounting her journey through her career, being one of the few women on her engineering course, and succeeding to become a powerful journalist. It showed us that even if your career path is not as you had planned it, you may be led somewhere far better, where you can truly thrive, as Angela has done. She explained to us the misconceptions around race, that race had existed since the beginning of time, when really many of our ideas surrounding race have developed recently, and that in truth, we have the least genetic diversity compared to any other species.

When asked about how racial prejudices affect our modern societies, her response was hopeful and inspiring. Angela maintained that our ideas about race have no real basis. One question I asked was about how our modern societies can often be plagued by the ideas of Social Darwinism. Angela’s reply was heartening, the survival of the fittest is not just about who is more fit to compete with one another to survive, but also about building communities and working together to survive as a society. These are just a few of the things which really struck me from our conversation with Angela, but it was most certainly empowering evening for me and my peers as young women growing up, hearing her advice and stories of challenges and success. It was truly inspiring to hear from her, and I’m looking forward to hearing more from her soon.”

Zainab Ahmed, Upper Fifth