--- title: "Audio Surfaces of Dr. Oz Saying Some Incest Is Okay, and Also His Daughters Don’t Like How He Smells" description: "In a resurfaced audio clip, television personality and Pennsylvania senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz says that thinks that some incest is fine, actually." date: "2022-09-07" modified: "2022-09-07" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/dr-oz-some-incest-okay" categories: - "Developments" - "Health & Medicine" tags: - "dr. oz" - "misinformation" - "politics" --- # Audio Surfaces of Dr. Oz Saying Some Incest Is Okay, and Also His Daughters Don’t Like How He Smells ![In a resurfaced audio clip, television personality and Pennsylvania senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz says that thinks that some incest is fine, actually.]() *\Image: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images\* In a resurfaced audio clip, television personality and Pennsylvania senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz says that some incest is fine, actually — oh, and also, his daughters hate his pheromones. Yes, our heads are reeling too. As [*Jezebel* reports](), the cursed soundbite is from a [2014 interview on the radio show *The Breakfast Club*](). One of the hosts, Angela Yee, crowd-sourced questions to ask the [Oprah-annointed]() TV doctor live, and boy, was one of them a doozy. "I'm going to ask you this and you tell me if this is safe for this person, okay?" Yee cued Oz. "Well, he said, 'Yee, I can't stop smashing my cousin.'" "'We hooked up at a young age and now in our 20s, she still wants it. No matter how much I want to stop, I always give it to her. Help me,'" Yee continued. "What advice would you give that person?" Importantly, it doesn't really feel like this person is asking for strictly biological advice. They're asking for emotional support. Really, this specific question is an ethical one, not a medical one. It didn't feel as though they were asking if what they were doing was okay on reproductive or genetic grounds so much as social and familial ones. But Oz, [tactful as ever](), responded with advice that seemed to miss all that nuance. "If you're more than a first cousin away," Oz responded, "it's not a big problem." "Every family has genetic strengths and weaknesses," he explained further. "And so the reason we naturally crave people who are not so like us is because you just mix the gene pool up a little bit so that if I had one gene for, let's say, hemophilia, which is a classic example where you bleed a lot if you cut yourself, I don't want to marry a cousin who has the same hemophilia gene, because the chance of our child having both those genes is much higher." Now, Oz isn't technically *wrong.* While immediate-family incest is taboo in most cultures, many still widely accept second-cousin marriages. First-cousin marriage is actually still legal in a lot of places, too, though the biological risk to any future children is [appreciable](). But [Oprah's Biggest Mistake]() completely failed to address the psychological and sociological core of the question — which is interesting, as he's certainly weighed in with [emotional]() and [mental health advice]() in the past. Instead, he gave his "it's whatever" response, and then, for some reason, decided to riff with some even more dubious thoughts about incest. "You know, that's why children, girls don't like their fathers' smell. Their pheromones will actually repel their daughters because they're not supposed to be together," he pontificated. "My daughters hate my smell." "Women will crave men, usually," he added, "who smell differently from their families." Great. Cool. Good to know. We wish this all wasn't relevant, but it is. Incest, unfortunately, has come up a lot lately — not in the context of whether it's verboten to "smash" one's cousin, but as a factor regarding exceptions for abortion bans. ([Oz recently flip-flopped]() on his past support of *Roe v. Wade*, calling abortion at any stage of pregnancy "[murder]()," but claims to support abortion exceptions in cases of rape, incest, and the health of the mother.) Oz's remarks also call to mind his [fraught history]() of promoting false, misleading, or otherwise empty or damaging medical advice to his untold millions of devotees — one 2014 study, [published in *The British Medical Journal*]() the same year that the *Breakfast Club* interview aired, even showed that about *half* of all advice given on Oz's show was either not supported or completely contradicted by medical research. More recently, he's taken to spreading COVID misinformation; he's recommended that citizens take [hydroxychloroquine]() to combat the illness, and even called soon-to-be-former CDC director Anthony Fauci a "[petty tyrant]()" on his campaign trail. Once again: please, please don't listen to Dr. Oz's advice. A lot of real doctors have [signed letters pleading for the public]() to dump him, even long [before he was running]() for office. Even Oprah says she messed up. And his daughters, apparently, say he smells bad. But that could just be the pheromones. **READ MORE:** [*Dr. Oz on Incest: More Than First Cousin? 'Not a Big Problem.'*]() \[*Jezebel*\] **More on Dr. Oz:** [*Dr. Oz's Campaign Criticized for Making Fun of Opponent's Stroke*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()