Hi, I'm Levar Burton, and this is Levar Burton reads.

In every episode I hand-pick a different piece of short fiction and read it to you.

The only thing these stories have in common is that I love them and I hope you will

too.

Welcome back y', for season 13 of LaVar Burton reads.

I am absolutely thrilled and honored to be back in your company.

We are all shaped for better or worse by the people who made us,

our parents.

And I think that's true whether they were present, our parents.

And I think that's true whether they were present in our lives growing up or not.

It may be purely about genetics, what medical conditions you may be predisposed to have.

We may be shaped by the things that our parents wanted for us, or modeled for us.

I know I've talked many times here on the podcast about my mother, Erma Jean, and her influences on me.

Today's story is about a scientist in a futuristic ancient Rome.

She is raising a daughter and wants to make her daughter the best version of herself.

I mean literally she creates a child with only her own cells and seeks to make that child superhuman.

The scientist slash mother is driven by the desire to make incredible scientific discoveries, both in order to share them with the world and to reap the

benefits and power that come with those discoveries.

It's by the writer Tara Isabella Burton, no relation that I'm aware of, and it was first published

by tour.com. Now Tara is a theologian, journalist and novelist who authored the novel's social creature and the world cannot give,

as well as the brand new fairy tale novel here in Avalon. She's also written the non-fiction books, Strange Rights, New Religions for a Godless

world, and self-made, curating our image from Da Vinci to the Cardassians.

...