Episodes

Sept. 27, 2017

Fall for This Anthro Life: Back in Action, New Content, and our Patre…

Hey Listeners! Adam and Ryan are back from their brief summer hiatus (a time filled with fieldwork, dissertation writing, and travels abound) with new content, a fresh Patreon campaign, lined up interviews, an upcoming limite...

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July 24, 2017

The Happiness Fetish Revisited

In response to several surveys that attempt to quantify happiness, Ryan, Adam, and Aneil spend this episode of This Anthro Life exploring happiness through the lens of fetishism. They discuss Daniel Gilbert’s Stumbling on Hap...

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July 14, 2017

Conversations and Podcasting as Social Technology

This episode is a little different from our normal content. In it we feature a presentation Adam gave for Pivotal Labs in which he explores This Anthro Life’s (and his own) developing philosophy about conversations and podcas...

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June 28, 2017

The Stories Bones Tell w/ Kristina Killgrove

This Anthro Life has teamed up with Savage Minds to bring you a special 5-part podcast and blog crossover series. While thinking together as two anthropological productions that exist for multiple kinds of audiences and publi...

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June 21, 2017

Anthropology + Science Journalism = A New Genre? w/ Daniel Salas of S…

This Anthro Life has teamed up with Savage Minds to bring you a special 5-part podcast and blog crossover series. While thinking together as two anthropological productions that exist for multiple kinds of audiences and publi...

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June 14, 2017

Anthropology has Always been Out There w/ Ed Liebow and Leslie Walker…

In the second conversation of the TAL + SM crossover series, Ryan and Adam were joined by AAA Executive Director Ed Liebow and Program Manager for Educational Outreach Leslie Walker . They explored the work of the AAA, the ch...

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June 7, 2017

Writing “in my Culture” w/ Zoe Wool and Alex Golub of Savage Minds

This Anthro Life has teamed up with Savage Minds to bring you a special 5-part podcast and blog crossover series. While thinking together as two anthropological productions that exist for multiple kinds of audiences and publi...

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June 2, 2017

Visual Anthropology Revisited, pt 2

We like to bring you some of our favorite conversations from our catalogue as we think about new ways to explore the topic. This week we’re bringing you our Visual Anthropology conversation split into two, digestible parts, s...

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May 31, 2017

Visual Anthropology Revisited, pt 1

We like to bring you some of our favorite conversations from our catalogue as we think about new ways to explore the topic. This week we’re bringing you our Visual Anthropology conversation split into two, digestible parts. P...

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May 17, 2017

On the Craft of Writing w/ Dr. Anita Hannig

How do academics write for a variety of audiences? Is routine a necessary part of creating? How many times will Ryan mention Stephen King? In this episode of This Anthro Life, Adam and Ryan talk with Anita Hannig of Brandeis …

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May 12, 2017

Free Think 6 – Who Are the 13,000?

FreeThink 6 – Who Are the 13,000? In this week’s Free Think, Adam and Ryan introduce a new member of our team, Matt Artz , who will be leading a new project to study and research you! We hit 13,000 …

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April 26, 2017

Dating your Ancestors is Complicated: The Strange Case of Homo Naledi

On this episode, Adam and Ryan dive into the complexities of our ever evolving human family. How we understand our ancient ancestors, cousins, and ape family has the potential to impact our understanding of what it means t...

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April 19, 2017

Culinary Catalysts and Scientific Shifts: Peruvian Quinoa in the Age …

This episode of This Anthropological Life presents a little differently from our normal episodes. The Society for Applied Anthropology generously allowed us to release the audio from Adam’s presentation at the SFAA 2017 Annua...

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April 12, 2017

FreeThink 5: Finding Balance in the Midst of Burnout

Freethink #5: Finding Balance in the midst of Burnout In this week’s free think Ryan and Adam talk burning out and finding balance. They reflect on their travels to conferences for the Society for Applied Anthropology and the...

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March 22, 2017

The Power of Vulnerability Revisited

This episode focuses on a conversation between Adam and Amy about a TEDtalk titled The Power of Vulnerability presented by Brené Brown . In this video, Brown breaks down the “wholehearted individual” one who has courage, soci...

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March 15, 2017

FreeThink #4: On Art, Creativity, and Bringing Awe back to Anthropolo…

As you may have noticed, TAL has been on a bit of a break from releasing new episodes. But, the good news is that we have not been idle. The other night when Ryan and Adam were out and about …

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Feb. 15, 2017

Investigating the Untethered Journey between Psychedelic Science, Med…

Psychedelia is the culture and experiences of psychedelic substances. Where did all the research on psychedelic drugs go? Could psychedelics be used in psychotherapy? How are hallucinogenic drugs used cross-culturally? In thi...

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Feb. 8, 2017

Waiting w/ Serra Hakyemez

with Aneil and Ryan Special Guest: Serra Hakyemez Is waiting political? Can you cut in line at Starbucks during your hectic morning commute? In this episode of TAL we team up with Serra Hakyemez , a Junior Research Fellow fr...

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Feb. 6, 2017

D+A #2: What Makes a Protest Successful and How do I get involved?

Today’s D+A minisode follows last week’s powerful conversation with Jara Connell on protests and people-powered forms of resistance. In this minisode Jara offers us a nugget of wisdom to be cautious about thinking all protest...

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Feb. 1, 2017

Protesting the Powers that Be and Being the Power that Protests w/ Ja…

What does mass-protesting accomplish? Does no arrests equate success? Why is protesting disruptive? And more! In this action packed episode of This Anthropological Life, Aneil, Adam, and Ryan talk to Jara Connell about mass p...

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Jan. 30, 2017

D+A Minisode 1: How to Deal with Change w/ Dr. Andi Simon

Minisodes are finally here! If this is your first TAL Podcast experience, welcome! We recommend you start off with our regular Conversation series – 25ish minute dialogues about everything and anything human – one topic at a ...

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Jan. 24, 2017

When your Business Stalls, it’s time to Evolve: Unpacking Corporate A…

How can we make change easier? Do women lead differently from men? What is corporate anthropology? Ryan, Adam, and Aneil are back to answer these questions and more with Dr. Andi Simon . Change is hard, but with Dr. Simon’s …

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Dec. 5, 2016

FreeThink 3: PRX Podcast Garage Meetups, Building Bridges, and Expand…

Do you need Podcast advice? How is social media transforming the nature of protesting? Can we hatch a good episode out of chickens? Join us in our latest Free Think where we talk upcoming episodes, public anthropology, podcas...

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Nov. 23, 2016

Don’t Panic! The Neuroscience behind falling into Balance w/ Vivek Pa…

Are balance and movement something that can be culturally shaped? Why aren’t female rats being used in drug studies? In this episode of This Anthropological Life we team up with Vivekanand Pandey Vimal to talk about his resea...

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