I think, primarily it must be said: unfortunately, in the official historiography there are many pro-Chinese and Persian falsifications about the origin of Genghis Khan, his native nation and his Power.

Therefore, the first thing we should know the truth about meaning of the names "Mongol" and "Tatar" (“Tartar") in the medieval Eurasia:
the name "Mongol" until the 17th-18th centuries in fact meant belonging to a political community, and was not the ethnic name.
While “the name "Tatar" was the name of the native nation of Genghis Khan … he and his people did not speak the language, which we call now the "Mongolian”…" (Russian academic-orientalist V. Vasiliev, 19th century). This is confirmed by many little-known facts from ancient and medieval sources.

Also it must be said: now very few people know that the Tatars of Genghis Khan - medieval Tatars - were one of the Turkic nations, which stopped the Chinese and Persians expansion to the West of Eurasia in Medieval centuries. Descendants of the medieval Tatars now live in many of the fraternal Turkic peoples of Eurasia - among the Kazakhs, Bashkirs, Tatars, Uighurs, and many others.

A well-grounded rebuttal of the chinese-persian myths about "incredible cruelty of nomadic mongol-tatar conquerors", and about "a war between the Tatars and Genghis Khan”, as well as a lot of from the real Tatar (Turkic) History, what the official historians hidden from the public, you can learn in the book "Forgotten Heritage of Tatars" (by an independent Tatar historian Galy Yenikeyev). On the site of Smashwords is an electronic version of this book in English – it’s easy to find on the Internet: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/175211

An outstanding Tatar historian-scientist D. Iskhakov wrote in 2000: “the real history of Tatars, of the people in every respect historical, is not written yet”.
However, this year was published an above mentioned book by Galy Yenikeyev, about the unwritten (hidden) real history of Tatars. In this book a lot of previously little-known historical facts, as well as 16 maps and illustrations in this book.

Galy Yenikeyev presents in his works a new, or rather "well-forgotten old" information about the true history of the Tatars and other Turkic peoples. This historian wrote 5 books on History of Tatars of Eurasia, which published in Russian language in Russia (2007-2012). "Forgotten Heritage of Tatars" is the fifth book of Galy Yenikeyev, translated into English in the abridged version.

And here (on the cover of the third book of Galy Yenikeyev) you can see the true appearance of Genghis Khan. There placed his lifetime portrait: http://tartareurasia.ucoz.com/publ/knigi_enikeeva_gr/kniga_quotpo_sledam_chjornoj_legendyquot/prodolzhenie/6-1-0-36

The story was interesting, but the presentation vulgar and tasteless. - These events occurred 800 years ago, but would you make a similar "funny" story when talking about rapes in former Yugoslavia? Would Tatiana Zerjal make an equally "amusing" account when tracing the rapes of Russian women during World War II? - And it's also unnecessary to spice up the story with silly and in the long run annoying sound effects. That's what school boys do when they explore a toolkit. Hence the presentation gets more and more amateurish with giggling presentators. - Come on, I am sure you could do better than that.

Isn't it just a little bit demented of people to be bitching and whining that the show seems to trivialize the raping of thousands of women? This occurred centuries ago when men were men and they responded unapologetically for acting upon their natural, primal instincts. The human male has evolved as the aggressive, dominant gender and the female is predisposed to respond to aggressive, dominant male behavior. It's only by a very slight extension of this trait that rape is found to be so prevalent throughout human history. Rape today is a social, political, personal violation, but back then it was a genetic imperative. Reality is so much more bizarre, terrifying, wondrous that most people care to accept.

i too and impressed with your stories, which makes me all the more stunned that you so glibby glossed over hundreds if not thousands of what could only have been brutal, violent, de-humanizing, terrifying rapes?!

Hey hey, what is that nice acoustic guitar part at the start of this segment?! I need ittttttttttttt

this is interesting: http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/02/28/valley-of-the-khans-experts-meet-in-dc/

I agree with Megan and eakramer. I was shocked and upset that this story was introduced as a "wonderful story." Yeah, it's a wonderful story about thousands of women being raped. Not only did the soldiers "save the pretty ones for the boss" (BARF) so he could rape them, but the soldiers must have raped the unpretty ones too. BTW, rape is still used in wars and conflicts all over the world today as a method of terrorizing the female population.

@Megan, you've given me a lot to think about.

As for the patient 0 of this Y mutation, is it likely that it was Genghis' father and Genghis and his brothers, who road in different directions I think, who spread it so thickly.

"slept with a whole lotta ladies" and "had many sexual partners" ?

The most successful biological father in human history was also the most successful rapist in human history.

Why avoid this fact?

Hello! I love love love Radiolab and this episode was definitely worth the rebroadcast. My only comment and concern is in your treatment of Genghis Khan's conquest of the women in the groups he conquered. I would say that, if he does in fact have 16 million living descendents, his conquest is a fairly clearly an example of successful genocide of numerous groups. He and his army killed the men, and he then subsequently fathered children with the women of those villages. To avoid acknowledging that many, if not most, of these sexual partnerships were through means of force or coercion is a dis-service to the mothers of his children, the people that were conquered and the legacy of that region through the present. I am definitely not asking for you to use this story as a platform about war crimes. However, the phenomenon you describe is not merely a scientific mystery, but very literally an example of how genocide and conquest play out even 1000 years later.
Thank you for your work and this excellent program!
Best,
Megan

Hi Jad and Robert and all the Radio Lab staff!
Just wanted to let you know that I've been using your podcasts all over the place in my 9th grade history class. We used the morality podcast in our ethics unit, your story on domesticated foxes when we talked about the switch from the paleolithic to the neolithic age, and now this one while we talk about the Mongols. Thanks for making school exciting for my students!!
Sincerely,
Blair

Can anyone tell me the name of the song/artist that plays when it's revealed that Genghis is the source of the genetic defect? It's some lo-fi drum thing. Any help is greatly appreciated!