In Episode 1 of The Unlocked Podcast, we start with the foundation: what DNA is, what genes do, and why gene expression is the key to understanding human performance.

Most people grow up thinking DNA is a fixed script. In reality, DNA is an instruction manual, and gene expression determines which instructions are used at any given time.

In this episode, we explain DNA in plain language, break down how genes build proteins, and connect those proteins to outcomes people care about: training results, recovery, stress tolerance, mood, and cognition. We also introduce epigenetics, the science of how your environment can influence gene activity without changing your DNA sequence.

To give you context for why this matters now, we walk through major milestones in genetics, from the discovery of the double helix to the Human Genome Project, and what that progress revealed about regulation, environment, and long term health.

This episode also sets up the direction of the series and the topics we will build into next, including performance genes like ACTN3, BDNF, and COMT, nervous system regulation, recovery loops, and eventually the intersection of biology and technology.

If you have ever felt like you are doing the right things but your results do not match your effort, this episode will give you a clearer framework for how to think about your body and what it responds to.

Your biology listens. Live like it.

Timestamps

0:00 Welcome and what The Unlocked Podcast is about

0:50 DNA in plain language

1:40 Genes, proteins, and why they matter

2:25 What gene expression means

3:10 What epigenetics means

4:05 A short timeline of modern genetics

5:05 Why we start with ACTN3, BDNF, and COMT

Key Terms

DNA: Deoxyribonucleic acid, the molecule that stores genetic instructions.

Gene: A sequence of DNA that helps make a functional product, often a protein.

Protein: A molecule that builds, repairs, and regulates structures and processes in the body.

RNA: Ribonucleic acid, a temporary message copied from DNA.

Gene expression: How a gene’s instructions are used to make RNA and proteins.

Epigenetics: Regulation of gene activity influenced by the environment without changing the DNA sequence.