Episodes

How to Build a More Resilient World The COVID-19 pandemic leveled the playing field between those who have the privilege to avoid or mitigate disasters and those who don’t. But the pandemic is just one of many ongoing challenges and crises that people are and have been facing for years.

In today’s episode of This Anthro Life, anthropologists Elizabeth Briody and Phil Surles join host Adam Gamwell to discuss their latest project: Anthropologists on the Public Stage, a self-paced video course for social scientists who want to increase...

Consumers today find brands through many online sources, including search engines and social media. And with the rise of hyper-personalized ads, consumers are constantly being bombarded with brands that seem to speak to their needs and interests....

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...

Show Notes Building a New Labor Market for Global Design Talent with Fredrik Thomassen More and more businesses are switching to remote work amid the COVID-19 pandemic. But one startup was ahead of the curve, having been 100% remote since its...

The vast majority of published scientific literature and new research is hidden behind paywalls. Worse, what few accessible papers available online are oftentimes written in jargon, i.e., specialist language that can alienate non-expert readers. natural language processing-based startups are working to change the conversation around access to scientific knowledge in impactful ways. One such startup is Consensus, an AI-powered search engine designed to provide users a view into what the research says with the click of a button.

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 Think: How Humans Learned to See the Future--and Shape It,” discusses these questions and more with host Adam Gamwell.

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 islands covering a massive area of around 1 million square miles. There are 18 languages spoken across the islands.

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 around cultural heritage allows us to acknowledge the limitations of our current competitive models and opens up new ways to tell better stories that bring people together rather than fragment. Something sorely needed as our interdependence on this planet and as a species continues to rise in urgency in the face of climate or military and political crises.

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. But if...

If you’re alive in 2022 you’ve probably also heard of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency or the blockchain. Whether you’re an active trader, just dabble, or think you’d never touch the stuff, cryptocurrency raises a fascinating challenge to the question of...

It's a common truism that history is often written by the victors, but it is equally true that the actual story is more complicated. One of the most poignant examples of this is the "discovery" of the new world by Christopher Columbus. So today I...

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 game design, fiction writing and filmmaking.

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 in the development of consciousness - the upper Paleolithic, around 40k years ago, the neolithic, around 10k years ago when humans invented/stumbled upon and couldn’t get out of agriculture, and the Enlightenment, which ushered in the scientific revolution in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. Interested in checking out Charles' new book Being a Human: Adventures in 40,000 years of Consciousness? We've got copies to give away! Music: Epidemic Sounds Intro - Jazz Bars - Dusty Decks Outro - Up & Down - Toby Tranter Editing: Craig Stanton Research: Kiera Myles Production: Adam Gamwell

This Anthro Life turned 8 years old in October 2021. That's a long time for a podcast. When recently invited to share what I've been working on for a newsletter, TAL's 8th birthday got me thinking about what I've learned working between anthropology and podcasting for almost a decade. I've fancied myself a public anthropologist for a while, but it has been podcasting, and working in an unusual medium (for anthropology) that has taught me some of the most important lessons for what public anthropology actually is. Music - Epidemic Sounds Lenzer - A Fork Fight Yomoti - Fansi Pan

It's not everyday I get to talk with other anthropology podcasters, and even more infrequently that I get to talk with undergraduate anthropology podcasters. I'm joined on the show today by Gabriella Campbell, Gabriella is a senior at University of California Santa Barbara where she focuses on forensic anthropology, both contemporary and ancient. She's also the creator and host of That Anthro Podcast, a weekly interview show that explores the world of bioarchaeology, bones, forensics and more. Gabriella and I dig into what it's like to work in forensics while learning the trade. This includes some crucial and fascinating forensic recovery work she’s doing in response to the Monteceto mudslides. We dig into: Applying forensic anthropology to the Montecito mudslides Contemporary forensics vs ancient forensics How to teach anthro earlier in kids' education, early education projects On podcasting, creativity and learning to trust our instincts Advice for undergrads - from an und…

A job search strategy is essential, but what if you don’t even know what to look for or what you want to do? A career plan is something you can do before job searching to define the kind of work you want to do and how to engage with like minded people, so you’ve got opportunities and pathways to work you’ll find fulfilling and meaningful, regardless of industry. While some old-school academics might see creating a career plan as selling out, Career Coach and Strategist Amy Santee and Design + Business Anthropologist Adam Gamwell, say you’re selling yourself short if you don’t. In this seminar we’ll share stories from our experiences and walk you through creating your own plan across defining your values, mapping your journey, finding your people and trying your voice. Whether you’re a student and looking for your first job, a mid career professor or industry insider and curious about what else is out there, a career plan is relevant for anyone. We’ll dig into defining your va…

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 seven countries, through how they have digitally adapted insights research in the face of COVID. Meena Kaushik started her journey as an academic studying the symbolism of death rituals in Hinduism. She conducted extensive fieldwork amongst the Doms of Varanasi, a low caste...

Phil Surles is a cultural anthropologist and consultant who focuses on branding. He works with companies to change their culture for the better and focuses on integrating anthropology into industry. From art school to anthropology to industry Phil discusses how he combined all of his passions into his consulting work. Phil, Astrid, and Adam discuss what it means to be an anthropologist working in industry and ethical issues that may arise. Phil is also working on a new platform called Mindshare ...

If Dr. Hellen Fisher isn’t a household name in your house (yet), her work certainly is. Helen is a biological anthropologist and basically the reason you can date online. She’s an expert on romantic love, gender differences, the evolution of human emotions and attraction. She has also been the Chief Scientific Advisor for Match.com and was instrumental in their offshoot, Chemistry.com. She has explored how love patterns are actually deeply coded in our physiology and neuropsychology. We talk abo...

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 culture, and historic preservation at Virginia Commonwealth University. His latest book Death and Rebirth in a Southern City: Richmond’s Historic Cemeteries (2020) explores the history and reclamation of sacred cemeteries through the lens of race. By working with friends gro...

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 Horses and Ritual in Spain, John studies the social lives of wild horses in Spain and Catalonia and the Spanish ritual dating back to the 1500s of “Rapa das Bestas”- in which villagers heard wild horses together into public ceremonial rings and shave their manes and tails. Why is...

Mary Gray is an anthropologist whose work explores how technology informs work, a sense of identity, and human rights. Gray applies these concepts as the Senior Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research and as the Faculty Associate at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. Additionally she remains in a faculty position at the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering. Gray has also authored books such as In Your Face: Stories from the Lives of Queer Yo...

Oscar Barrera is a Business Anthropologist based out of Veracruz, Mexico who brings a global mindset to helping businesses turn hurdles into opportunities for positive change. He is an expert in innovation, change management, and strategy. In this episode in partnership with Experience By Design podcast cohosts Adam Gamwell and Gary David dig into Oscar's story to learn the steps he took in moving from academia to business. We also dig into follow along case stories of how Oscar used the soc...