Episodes

Oct. 12, 2016

Beer Revisited

Glad you’re here! Check out some of our favorite episodes in any order and get to know the anthropological life. And, if you’re long-time listeners we hope you’ll enjoy revisiting these gems with us. If you like us, be sure …

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Oct. 10, 2016

FreeThink #1: TaL Back in the Studio! What’s Next??

Adam, Aneil, and Ryan are all back in the TaL studio for the first time in 18 months! And it feels good. Today we talk shop about where we’ve been and where we’re going with TaL. Check out the conversation …

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July 19, 2016

Is Corporate Anthropology Selling Out? A Conversation on Consulting w…

We’re stoked to bring you TAL’s first ever three-city episode! Join Adam (in Peru!) and Ryan (in Boston!) and special guest Vyjayanthi Vadrevu (somewhere between NYC and Austin!) for an in-depth look into the world of Anthrop...

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June 12, 2016

Making Sense of Finance: Boundaries, Institutions, and Power with Cai…

Join TaL’s Aneil Tripathy and Caitlin Zaloom, NYU Associate Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis, as they discuss Zaloom’s research on futures markets and most recently student debt. Hear about what initially drew Zaloom...

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May 25, 2016

Guest Podcast: Food Futures: Playing our Way to Conservation? Experim…

Special guest podcast from our friends at the Food Futures Podcast Corinna Howland interviews Adam Gamwell about experimental games, or field experiments, which NGOs and economists use to measure when, why, and how people mak...

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May 24, 2016

Stewardship and Heritage: Bringing Archaeology to the Public with Emi…

Join TAL’s Ryan Collins and Aneil Tripathy as they interview Emily Jane Murry about her work as a publicly engaged archaeologist in Northern Florida with the Florida Public Archaeology Network. Most of us don’t even consider ...

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March 28, 2016

Faded Paint and Yellowed Photos: On, Image, Inspiration, and Memory w…

How does a camera and a deep sense of curiosity lead to a lifetime of archaeological research on ancient peoples, their symbols, art, and writing? Ryan and Aneil are joined by Brandeis University Professor Javier Urcid who sh...

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March 23, 2016

A Business for the Future? Redefining Value, Quinoa and the Quest of …

We’re back in Peru! Join Adam and special guest Alexander Wankel of Pachakuti Foods for a conversation about the future of food production, agrobiodiversity, sustainability, and keeping traditional culture alive. All from the...

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March 18, 2016

Exploring Boundaries: From Access to Female Sexworkers to the Questio…

When designing a research project, a researcher’s initial plans are often interrupted by what data we actually can access. Whether negotiating political structures, cultural taboos, necessary permissions, or the logistics of ...

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March 7, 2016

Mate: The Drink Beyond a Drink w/ Guilherme Heiden

Mate (pronounced mah-tay), or more commonly known as yerba mate for English speakers, is an herbal tea drink native to parts of South America – Southern Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay – where local people drank it for thousands of …

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Feb. 8, 2016

Anthropology without Borders? Bringing the Study of People to the Peo…

Join TAL as they explore the meaning and movements behind the buzz words that shape anthropology when it reaches beyond the classroom. Applied, Public, Design, and Open Anthropology. What are they, how do they work, and what ...

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Jan. 11, 2016

History, Power, and a Mapuche Bible: A Shaman’s Story with Ana Mariel…

Join TAL’s Aneil Tripathy and Ryan Collins as they interview Ana Mariella Bacigalupo of SUNY Buffalo. Ana’s discussion of her research on Mapuche shamans takes us on an exciting journey, full of emotion, struggle, hope, and p...

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Nov. 12, 2015

The Thrill of Discovery

Whether exploring a ruined tomb by torchlight, submerging to great depths in search of lost ships, or sending lone robot emissaries to search the stars, human experience is shaped by discovery. More than being a thrill, disco...

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Oct. 6, 2015

Return of the Ethnographers: Life After Fieldwork

Start your week off by tuning in to the TAL crew, the entire TAL crew, back from fieldwork (albeit briefly) as we talk about our experiences in ethnography, archaeology, and excessive note taking! In this exciting episode Amy...

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Sept. 29, 2015

Back from the Field: Syncing into Holly Walter’s Research Part 2

Holly Walter’s joins TAL in the studio to share her experiences and insights into Shaligram stones! Her fieldwork took her from Kathmandu to Mustang on a pilgrimage, following in the footsteps of trekkers, tourists, and pilg...

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Sept. 18, 2015

Applying, Designing, and Bringing Anthropology to the Public

Welcome back listeners new and old to the new and exciting season of This Anthropological Life! This season we at TAL have a lot of new content and exciting interviews ahead. To bring everyone up to speed, tune in to …

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April 24, 2015

Syncretism in the Land of Sacred Stones w/ Holly Walters

Sometimes ethnographic investigations are pretty straight forward. Sometimes, its like getting submerged in a ball pit with the task of sorting all of the colors, figuring out which ones are older than the others, and grappli...

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April 9, 2015

Unearthing the Past: Interview w/ Ryan Collins

Ever wanted to know what its like to be an archaeologist? Can you really dig a whole and interpret the past with the materials you find? Is anything about Indiana Jones accurate? Tune and listen to host Ryan Collins talk …

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March 27, 2015

Human Endurance w/ Ben Gebo

Join us for our 50th episode! Return guest host Ben Gebo joins Adam, Aneil, and Ryan as we uncover the human quest to endure, and to push ourselves to the limit. From marathons to surviving evolution, we tackle time and …

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March 3, 2015

Buried in Snow! Thinking about landscapes as they change

It’s winter time here in the northern hemisphere, and in New England that means snow… a lot it. What can we learn from it? Join Aneil and Ryan as they dive (or attempt to unbury) the human connections between snow, …

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Jan. 24, 2015

The World According to Quinoa w/ Adam Gamwell

Today we dive into the world of food! Come hungry as we introduce the world of food studies and explore the changing roles and meaning food has had over the millennia, and how we can explore ways to fight local …

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Jan. 24, 2015

How Humans Cope

How do humans cope in the face of uncertainty, challenges, and trauma. Join your friendly neighborhood co-hosts Adam and Ryan as we explore coping across time, scales and space! From the individual to the cosmos, we find conn...

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Jan. 24, 2015

Genderless Gingerbread Figures and the Custom of Costumes

Ryan and Adam explore genderless gingerbread cookies in Australia – do these cookies reveal something about shifting gender paradigms? Also, we explore a bit about how and why we wear costumes. It may not be Halloween here in...

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Dec. 1, 2014

Ebola: The Passion and the Politics (Virology pt 2)

Join us for part two in our series on Ebola. This episode we discuss recent moves and displays by journalists and media outlets to cover various parts of the Ebola epidemic, the use of Ebola as a trope in political …

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