Tl;dr — A fascinating and wonderful mash up of science, philosophy, and memoir to create a can’t put down book. Harden uses religious and moral concepts to frame chapters, covering the behavioral genetics of a wide range of fraught issues in today’s discourse spanning blame, responsibility, and virtue.
Five or so years ago, I was still active on (then) Twitter and enthusiastically followed ’s careful and precise work on behavioral genetics, where she also patiently and repeatedly communicated about fraught topics. She remains my go-to expert on issues of behavioral genetics, especially when outrageous claims are made about the field and its findings. It’s also where I heard about her first book, The Genetic Lottery: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality (2021), which remains one of my most highly recommended books, appearing on not one but three lists on this blog over the years.
I was understandably ecstatic when I heard she was publishing a second book this year, Original Sin: On the Genetics of Vice, the Problem of Blame, and the Future of Forgiveness. It may surprise folks, but I rarely look into books much at all before I read them. I listened to some of her conversion with my friend Xavier Bonilla on his Converging Dialogues podcast and religion was a huge focus. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I picked this up this past weekend.
This is one of those books that surprised me in all the best ways. If you’ve read her first book, this is going to be quite the change in style. Part of this is evident by the publishers of the books. The first by : an academic press that is notorious for well-researched, academic, yet accessible books if you have a science background. Contrast that with Original Sin, published by : a much broader, general reader publisher. This book is appropriately much less technical than her first.
But more than the publisher-appropriate style differences, this book was a mash up of sorts between general science, memoir, and philosophy. It had far more flare and style, making for a book ready to be quickly devoured.
As the subtitle suggests, she covers behavioral genetics but rather than simply approaching topics like aggression, pathology, and the like by reciting the science, the book frames each chapter by a religious or moral concept. This is also where the memoir part comes in: her religious upbringing and personal experiences through marriage and motherhood serve as key anchors to the chapter’s science and philosophical content.
Some might say that I should have seen the religion coming given the title citing christian doctrine. But I simply did not. As I joked on Substack earlier this week while in the midst of reading the book:
It literally just went right over my head.
Harden tackles a variety of moral issues throughout including how genetics are perceived to augment blame and responsibility; ethics of designer babies; challenges of motherhood and questions of development; and more. It’s broad, philosophical, intimate, and rigorous, all at once.
I really loved this book. I’ve been on a huge kick of women’s stories and memoirs in recent months (you can see them on my library, though I haven’t been reviewing them since they are my worst performing reviews on here), so Harden really pulled me in with her honesty and vulnerability, bringing in a level of intimacy uncommon in science books.
Original Sin was a delightful surprise and I commend her for taking such a different approach with this book as compared to her first. A great, easy, yet informative read to curl up with at the end of a long day.
Published: March 2026
Publisher: Random House
Format: Kindle
If you think this sounds interesting, bookmark these other great reads:
Sociopath: A Memoir (2024) by Patric Gagne | READ MY REVIEW
Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest (2021) by Suzanne Simard
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