After Skool Why Inbreeding is Terrible AND Amazing - Bret Weinstein | After Skool
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Feb 11, 2026 
Bret Weinstein, an evolutionary biologist and public intellectual, unpacks why inbreeding harms offspring yet can sometimes aid population founding. He explains diploidy, dominance, and how recessive mutations hide. He explores bottlenecks, purging of deleterious alleles, and examples of species recovering after severe inbreeding.
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Hidden Recessives Cause Inbreeding Harm
- Humans are diploid and carry many recessive deleterious alleles that stay hidden when heterozygous.
- Inbreeding exposes these recessives by making them homozygous, causing inbreeding depression.
Darwin's Family Example
- Darwin married his first cousin and had a child who was enfeebled, likely from deleterious recessives.
- This historical example illustrates real-world consequences of close-relative marriage.
Founding A New Population Is A Big Win
- Populations usually sit near carrying capacity so individual reproductive success tends to equal replacement.
- Founding a new population in an empty habitat can massively increase evolutionary payoff for that individual's lineage.