Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this interview.

The first complete human genome was sequenced in 2001. Since then, lots of people have sent DNA samples to companies like 23 and Me to learn more about their health and ancestry, but those reports don't come close to giving users the full picture.

Science writer Carl Zimmer wanted that full picture, so he became the first known journalist to get his DNA fully sequenced — all ‎3,234.83 mega-basepairs of it. (For those without a genetics background, that's about 1.2 billion row in an Excel spreadsheet.)

Zimmer writes about his journey in a new series called "Game of Genomes" for the health publication STAT, where he is a national correspondent. Check out a video about the project above, and click on the 'Listen' button to hear our full conversation with Zimmer.