# Unnatural Selection (2019)

> A four-part Netflix documentary that follows the scientists and biohackers pushing gene editing from cures to designer children.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/79961

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 4
- Episode runtime: 68 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: documentary
- Created by: Leeor Kaufman, Joe Egender
- Network: Netflix
- Cast: Kevin Esvelt, Aaron Traywick, David Ishee, Jeffrey Kahn, Tristan Roberts, Josiah Zayner, Jennifer Doudna
- TMDB rating: 7.8/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11063952/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: none
- Tone: sober, probing, unsettling, inquisitive

## Synopsis

Unnatural Selection (2019) is a American documentary limited series created by Leeor Kaufman and Joe Egender for Netflix. Across four feature-length episodes of roughly 68 minutes each, it follows the real people at the frontier of gene editing, speaking as themselves: CRISPR pioneer Jennifer Doudna, self-experimenting biohacker Josiah Zayner, bio-researcher Kevin Esvelt, and biohacker Aaron Traywick appear alongside David Ishee, Jeffrey Kahn and Tristan Roberts. The engine of the series is a question that drives every episode: how far should humans go in rewriting their own biology? The documentary moves between laboratory benches, amateur home experiments and the commercial pressures of the pharmaceutical industry, asking what it means to eradicate disease on one hand and to select a child's traits on the other. Its tone is sober and probing rather than alarmist, with an undercurrent of unease about who gets to decide. Fans of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey and The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley will find resonance in its blend of scientific wonder, ethical scrutiny and portraits of ambitious figures.

## Shows like Unnatural Selection

- [The Mind, Explained (2019)](https://ember.film/tv/79099)
- [Bad Surgeon: Love Under the Knife (2023)](https://ember.film/tv/155693)
- [Limitless with Chris Hemsworth (2022)](https://ember.film/tv/96608)
- [Alien Worlds (2020)](https://ember.film/tv/94326)
- [Raël: The Alien Prophet (2024)](https://ember.film/tv/158400)
- [(Un)Well (2020)](https://ember.film/tv/89004)
- [Pandemic: How to Prevent an Outbreak (2020)](https://ember.film/tv/81476)
- [Limitless: Live Better Now (2025)](https://ember.film/tv/201204)
- [Surviving Death (2021)](https://ember.film/tv/96126)
- [Making a Murderer (2015)](https://ember.film/tv/57018)

---

Site overview: https://ember.film/llms.txt