Culture Episodes

May 16, 2023

How Disability Teaches Us to Change the World with Brooke Ellison

People with disabilities often face accessibility issues in physical environments, such as a lack of ramps, narrow doorways, and inaccessible transportation. Every barrier is a reminder that designs are choices, ones made without people with disabilities at the decision-making table.

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May 2, 2023

The Complex Roots of Patriarchy with Angela Saini

In this episode, Angela Saini, award-winning science journalist and author of “The Patriarchs: How Men Came to Rule,” traces the material and social roots of patriarchy with host Adam Gamwell. The duo explores how anthropology can help us better understand …

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April 5, 2023

On Finding Awe and Being a Human in the Cosmos with Sasha Sagan

Daughter of “Cosmos” co-writer Ann Druyan and astronomer Carl Sagan, Sasha talks with host Adam Gamwell about the power of ritual for making meaning across life, death, nature, and more. She also shares how she learned to ask questions, the …

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Jan. 13, 2023

Why the World Needs Tricksters with Shepherd Siegel

Indigenous cultures around the world have a trickster god or figure in their mythos. For example, the Pacific Northwest Native Americans have the Raven, a selfish, hungry, and mischievous figure who transforms the world. Stories tell how the Raven...

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Oct. 26, 2022

How Humans Learned to See the Future with Byron Reese

What makes the human mind unique? How do we know there’s a future, and how do we recall the past? In this episode of This Anthro Life, Byron Reese, serial entrepreneur, technologist, and author of “Stories, Dice, and Rocks That …

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July 26, 2022

Growing Roots as a National Cultural Anthropologist with Ashley Mered…

Ashley Meredith serves as the National Cultural Anthropologist and Deputy National Historic Preservation Officer for the Federated States of Micronesia. Micronesia is a sovereign island country in Oceania situated northeast of Australia and Papua New Guinea and consists of 600 …

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May 11, 2022

The Fight to Save Cultural Memory with Charles Henry

Charles Henry is the president of the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), a nonprofit that works with libraries, cultural institutions, and higher learning communities to improve research, teaching, and learning environments. Charles shares how creating new digital technologies …

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March 23, 2022

On Being Heard and Learning to Listen with Nethra Samarawickrema

When we think about social science and social scientists working out in the world, we tend to jump to the science part, you know jobs that focus on research - consumer research, user experience research, or qualitative studies for non-profits. …

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Dec. 15, 2021

Build Better Worlds: Anthropology for Game Design, Film and Writing

Today we're diving into world building, the process of creating realized worlds for (mostly) fictional stories and how anthropology could literally change the game. Michael Kilman and Kyra Wellstrom stop by to discuss to their new book on anthropology for …

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Dec. 2, 2021

Being a Human: Adventures in 40,000 Years of Consciousness with Charl…

Charles Foster set out to answer one of the most perplexing questions of all - what sort of creatures are we humans? - in one of the most unique ways possible: immersing himself in experiences that evoke three central epochs …

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July 16, 2021

Transforming Market Research with Qualitative Consciousness in post-l…

Dr. Meena Kaushik takes us through her story from the revolutionary idea in the late 1970s of applying semiotics to brand and market research to founding Quantum, which today is a global enterprise research organization in se...

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May 14, 2021

Dead People Tell Tales: Segregated Cemeteries in Richmond Virginia w …

TAL Correspondent Sara Schmieder brings us an all new interview about the power of cemetery restoration, race in the American South, and bringing legacy to light. Dr. Ryan Smith is a professor of religious history, material c...

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May 5, 2021

The surprising truths wild horses teach us about the power of ritual,…

In today’s episode Adam and Astrid Countee are joined by multispecies anthropologist John Hartigan jr. John is an anthropology professor at the University of Texas at Austin. In his latest work, Shaving the Beasts: Wild Horse...

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Feb. 4, 2021

They're not Binging TV, they're Feasting: Rethinking Media, Honor and…

Take a walk with anthropologist and consultant Grant McCracken and host Adam Gamwell, as they discuss Grant's new book The New Honor Code: A Simple Plan for Raising Our Standards and Restoring Our Good Names and dig into Gran...

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Jan. 19, 2021

How to Manage Social Conflict, Communicate Effectively and Find Commo…

In January 2021 armed rioters stormed the US Capitol in a harrowing and politically fomented insurrection. It was an apex of years of divisive and condemnable rhetoric and fear-mongering used to stoke insecurities and despera...

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