Shows
This Anthro LifeDesign for the Future: Ethics, Evolution, and Anthropology with Michael LeubeIn this episode of This Anthro Life, host Adam Gamwell talks with anthropologist and design educator Michael Leube about how design, ethics, and anthropology intersect to shape the future of human behavior and culture. They dive deep into how design influences human decision-making, the role of evolutionary theory in design thinking, and the ethical responsibility of designers to consider sustainability and long-term consequences. Leube shares insights from his book The Future Designer, exploring topics like planned obsolescence, behavioral design, and the power of making sustainability both convenient and desirable.I'm Adam Gamwell, a cultural anthropologist and award-winning media...
2024-10-071h 11
This Anthro LifeBest of Cultural Capitalist seriesToday, we’re excited to bring you something a little different. Recently, we've been sharing a lot of episodes and shorts inspired by the work I’ve been doing alongside my colleague, Phil Searles, for Cultural Capitalist. In this special episode, we’ve compiled a "best of" collection, featuring full episode highlights and impactful quotes that have resonated with our audience and shifted their perspectives.We’ve selected key concepts that stood out to us and brought them together to showcase how these ideas intersect and build on one another. We hope you enjoy this curated episode, highlighting some of...
2024-09-2808 min
This Anthro LifeEntrepreneurship and Ethics in the Age of AI with Ahmed RezaIn a world where technology is advancing at an exponential pace, we can already see that artificial intelligence (AI) will have a profound impact on our lives.But AI is far from perfect. Too often, we end up grappling with a variety of problems when we bring AI into the real world, from increasing mental health issues in young girls and boys to anxiety for workers whose jobs are changing. And while developers don’t set out to design AI technologies to have these unsavory effects, they happen anyway.In this episode of This Anthro Life, we...
2023-06-231h 10
This Anthro LifeOn Finding Awe and Being a Human in the Cosmos with Sasha SaganThe COVID-19 pandemic forced many of us individually and as a global cohort to reassess how and why we live the ways that we do and what really matters to us. Through the pandemic, we may have also felt moments of awe at the natural world and questioned our place in it. In moments like these, we’re afforded glimpses into how we choose to operate in the world and understand our place in relation to everything else. Rituals play a key role in helping us make sense of the world around us, yet we often forget that th...
2023-04-051h 01
This Anthro LifeHow to Keep Brands Human in the 21st Century - with Matt JohnsonConsumers 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.Given such a landscape, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that brands need to move beyond business fundamentals and into the fundamentals that we share as human beings if they wish to stand out. That is to say, brands need to shape not only what consumers buy, but also how they feel about and relate to brands themselves.In today’s ep...
2023-02-0437 min
This Anthro LifeWhy the World Needs Tricksters with Shepherd SiegelIndigenous 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 brought out the sun, moon, and stars to light the world only by cleverly deceiving others.In today’s episode of This Anthro Life, Dr. Shepherd Siegel, activist scholar and author of “Tricking Power into Performing Acts of Love: How Tricksters Through History Have Changed the World,” discusses the Trickster archetype with host Adam Gamwell. Together, Shepherd and Adam explor...
2023-01-131h 02
This Anthro LifeHow to Study Meaning at Scale: AI and Big Data Ethnography, Microcultures and the Future of Innovation w/ Ujwal ArkalgudArtificial Intelligence. Natural Language Processing. Machine Learning. Big Data. If you've studied Anthropology at all, you'll likely notice these terms don't often get use, unless you happen to be studying one of these areas, like doing an ethnography on artificial intelligence. Yet if these tools are used everyday across millions of applications and software lines of code to make our world run, how might they help us understand ourselves better? Big data often gets used to understand patterns people's behavior and thinking at a high level, and it is common to see people split into segments from this data....
2020-08-1848 min
This Anthro LifeCyberpsychology: How Life Online Shapes our Minds and What We Can Do About It w Julie AncisIt's no surprise that many of us find ourselves increasingly on mobile devices or the internet. We shop online with ease, connect with friends and family on social media, check the news, and play games. And especially during the era of COVID millions, more people are figuring out if they can work remotely. In this episode, Adam sits down with Dr. Julie Ancis, one of the world's leading cyberpsychologists to talk about how digital technology in life online is impacting the ways we think and interact with one another. As an interdisciplinary scholar, practitioner, and pioneer in the field...
2020-07-171h 06This Anthro LifeA Neuroscientist and Marketer walk into a bar: Neuromarketing and the hidden ways marketing reshapes our brains with Matt Johnson and PrinceEver wonder why certain new ideas stick while others don’t? We often hear a lot about innovation when it comes to new ideas, but really that’s only part of the equation. Psychology, marketing, neuroscience - and yes - anthropology can help us make sense of why some new ideas stick while others fall flat.On this episode Adam Gamwell talks with neuroscientist Dr. Matt Johnson and Professor of marketing Prince Ghuman about the fascinating role neuroscience plays in our evolving consumer lives. Matt and Prince have a new book out called Blindsight: the (Mostly) Hidden Ways Marketing Resh...
2020-06-2844 minThis Anthro LifeThe Connected Cup: Coffee, Tea, Happiness and Visual Storytelling Around the Globe with Documentarian Brooke BierhausWhat is it about coffee and tea - two simple drinks - that both transcends culture and is intimately bound up by it? In this episode, Adam talks with Independent documentary filmmaker and coffee anthropologist Brooke Bierhaus about her film "The Connected Cup" which explores the heart of coffee and tea as global human connectors across cultures and backgrounds. For the film Brooke traveled to over 9 countries to film and capture intimate moments, stories, and portraits of human life around the connected cup. We dig into:Brooke's process for filming across 9 countrieshow coffee and tea...
2020-06-0545 minThis Anthro LifeBeyond the Prototype: Navigating that Fuzzy Area between Ideas and Outcomes with Douglas FergusonToday we talk with Voltage Control president Douglas Ferguson and we're taking you beyond the prototype. If you ever run a design sprint, or even if you simply sat down at your desk to think through a really cool idea for a product or a new podcast or how do we improve something in your neighborhood. You started the design process. The question is, how do you go from a good idea to putting something out into the world? Douglas helps us find out. "You gotta slow down to go fast" - Douglas FergusonVoltage Control president, design...
2020-05-061h 11
This Anthro LifeHow Do You Make a 2.4 Billion Dollar Observatory Disappear?The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) is a next-generation observatory currently under development that has created a watershed moment for the scientific community and Hawaiian society. This is because of its planned location on Mauna Kea… the most sacred mountain in the Hawaiian religion. But the case of TMT and Mauna Kea is not an outlier because mountain summits often have profound meanings to both indigenous cultural practitioners and technology developers. For example, Kanamota is another sacred mountain that is the site of technological development. It's also known as Mount Saint Helena. Ian Garrett is the co-founder and director of the Ce...
2020-03-2949 minThis Anthro LifeA Virus Without Borders: The Design of Public Health, Inequality, and HopeProduced in collaboration with Experience by Design. We are witnessing a moment in our lifetimes that we will hopefully never see again. The world is gripped in a pandemic of a scale unseen for a century. Beyond the human toll, we are seeing how healthcare systems people once had trust in crumble before their eyes. In this episode, Adam and Gary talk with Shelley White and Meenakshi Verma-Agrawal of the Simmons University Masters of Public Health program on what we learn from this moment, and how we can design a more inclusive healthcare system.Shelley White is an Assistant Profess...
2020-03-211h 17This Anthro LifeThe Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers, and the Future of Humanity w/ Byron ReeseGigaom CEO, publisher and author of "The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers, and the Future of Humanity" stops by virtually to chat with Adam and guest host Astrid Countee to help us make sense of just what Artificial Intelligence is, what are its promises and limits, and what this means for the possibilities of conscious computing and smart robots. Byron breaks down the philosophies behind our ways of thinking about AI in way that gives us new social tools to approach the deep technological revolution we are undergoing in a more human and even optimistic manner. Website: h...
2020-03-131h 05
This Anthro LifeWill We Find God with this Machine? Introducing StarstruckThe Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) is a next-generation observatory currently under development that has created a watershed moment for the scientific community and Hawaiian society. This is because of its planned location on Mauna Kea… the most sacred mountain in the Hawaiian religion. Dr. Mindshare been studying this issue from their perspective as a cultural anthropologist for over a decade. This prelude offers a brief history of the controversy.TMT reveals the value of systems thinking — or thinking like a social scientist — for understanding the human experience more fully. Over the course of 2020 Mindshare will be collaborating with anthropologist Adam G...
2020-02-1334 minThis Anthro LifeBrands and the Business of Relationships with Bill FlemingBill Fleming stops by to chat with Adam about branding, marketing and design. Bill is a Boston-based Independent Brand & Marketing Strategist, and Business Consultant for Designers.On this episode we talk about what brands are, how the cultural work of branding has changed in recent decades with the advent of new and easier to use technologies, and how we can think about brands as conversations - not just between businesses and customers but also between businesses.Transcript of this episodeBillfleming.comBill on TwitterIdeas and Articles we referencehttps://www.commarts.com...
2020-01-1340 min
This Anthro LifeHappiness and the Good Life According to the Aztecs w/ Dr. Ryan CollinsA happy New Years! Enjoy this mini-episode with Adam and Dr. Ryan Collins exploring happiness and the good life according the Aztecs. New Years is a great time to reflect on where we've been, where we're going, and what's it all for. We find some answers and surprising wisdom with the Aztecs. Purcell - The Aztecs on HappinessCarrasco - Daily Life of the Aztecs--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thisanthrolife/message
2020-01-0117 minThis Anthro LifeRobots, Science Fiction, and the Anthropological Imagination: a Guest Podcast TAL's Adam Gamwell on Trending in EducationSpecial guest podcast! - Adam Gamwell guests on Trending in Education with Mike Palmer. For this week’s extra, Mike is joined by Design Anthropologist and Podcaster, Dr Adam Gamwell, to explore how robots, science fiction, and anthropology are interrelated. In a free flowing and imaginative conversation, we explore how the narratives and secular myths of pop culture and our collective consciousness provide insights into how we understand what it means to be human, how we engage with the Other, and how we grapple to understand how new technologies are driving profound changes to the world around us.Listen in...
2019-12-1743 minThis Anthro LifeWhy More Security Never Feels Like Enough, by Astrid Countee: Storyslamming Anthropology Series #3Why More Security Never Feels like EnoughStoryslamming Anthropology Series, Story 3. Written and Performed by Astrid CounteeIn recent years, the terms Public and Anthropology have been paired with more frequency. Yet, what this seemingly suspect partnership is, how it could function, and what goals it could have are still in relative formation. Today, public anthropology might mean several different things ranging from jargony lectures that are “open to the public”, digital media (like blogs, videos, or podcasts) that are generally accessible online, or presentations given to an informant public on work produced by a researcher. Large voids rema...
2019-11-1815 min
This Anthro Life100 Years of Beauty and the Beast of YouTube with Chris Chanin this episode, Adam and guest host Leslie Walker talk with visual anthropologist and film producer Chris Chan, producer of the 100 Years of Beauty series on YouTube. If you haven't seen this series (or some of the spinoffs from companies like Vogue and Allure, definitely take a few minutes to enjoy). As an ethnographer, he also makes a wonderful behind-the-scenes series that documents the research he and his team does for each country called Chanthropology. We cover the development of the 100 YOB series, vernacular media - the kind of content that people become inspired by, and the...
2019-10-2357 min
This Anthro LifeDesign Research is Anthropology Applied with Amy SanteeAt long last we are back! In this episode host Adam Gamwell talks with Design Researcher and Strategist Amy Santee. This is one of these conversations that's a few years in the making. Adam has been following Amy's work for a while now both on her blog anthropologizing.com where she writes about anthropology in industry, design and business, on LinkedIn and other social media sites as well as at conferences sharing the good work of doing anthropology in industry. Adam and Amy discuss what Design Research is and how it works, how it aligns and differs from traditional a...
2019-09-271h 08
This Anthro LifeBackpacks and Toe tags: Life and Death on the US-Mexico Border w/ Jason de LeónIn this special interview, TAL's Ryan Collins talks with scholar, activist and artist Jason de Leon about the ongoing humanitarian crisis at the US-Mexico border. In addition to these roles, de Leon is a MacArthur Fellow and National Geographic Explorer. He uses his platforms to create public dialogue, exhibitions, and media about undocumented migration, the human costs of the US immigration policy known as 'deterrence through force.' This very human conversation reveals the emotional toll, and sometimes trauma, that comes with precarious work on the border with undocumented migrants, smugglers, shady legality and deadly terrain as well as deep...
2019-08-2838 minThis Anthro LifeWhere Qualitative Meets Quantitative Data w/ Delve co-founders LaiYee Ho and Alex LimpaecherIn this episode Adam Gamwell talks with Alex Limpaecher and LaiYee Ho, co-Founders of Delve. While Delve is a qualitative research suite, to help code transcripts, find insight, and pull actionable insights from data, the conversation takes focus on the subject of research. Specifically, the driving question is: how can qualitative and quantitative data work together? Here, academic and industry methodologies with anthropology are put into conversation leading to insights and actionable steps from social data. Transcript for the episode: https://www.thisanthrolife.com/delve/From the Delve Site:Delve is an online tool that helps you c...
2019-08-1433 minThis Anthro LifeGUEST PODCAST: AnthroDish 49: Exploring Quinoa Production through Design Anthropology with Dr. Adam GamwellFor this episode, we're doing something a little different. I'll be your guest. I got interviewed by the wonderful Sarah Dunigan on her podcast Anthro Dish, a weekly podcast about food identity and culture about design anthropology and some of the research I did on quinoa production and conservation in Peru for my PhD. I'll let Sarah intro the episode and run it unedited on my end. Just wanted to drop in and let you know we're here and in the spirit of helping our fellow anthro podcasters cross promote and get their good work out there. Sign up f...
2019-07-221h 01This Anthro LifeThe Surprising Connections between Climate Finance, Sacrifice and the Spirit of CapitalismIn this episode, Adam and Aneil reflect on Aneil’s fieldwork in climate finance. Climate finance is an area of finance focused on mobilizing investment for climate change solutions, namely infrastructure that is sustainable. Aneil’s research is centered on the growth of the green bond market within climate finance. Green bonds are debt instruments that finance infrastructure deemed sustainable by the climate finance community, such as public transit, green building, renewable energy, and water infrastructure (Tripathy 2017).We analyze some snippets of interviews with climate finance practitioners and reflect on why notions of sacrifice appear so prominent in how they...
2019-07-0946 minThis Anthro LifeFear and Loathing in Truth or Consequences, performed by Taylor Genovese: Storyslamming Anthropology Series #2Storyslamming Anthropology Series, Story 2. Written and Performed by Taylor GenoveseIn recent years, the terms Public and Anthropology have been paired with more frequency. Yet, what this seemingly suspect partnership is, how it could function, and what goals it could have are still in relative formation. Today, public anthropology might mean several different things ranging from jargony lectures that are “open to the public”, digital media (like blogs, videos, or podcasts) that are generally accessible online, or presentations given to an informant public on work produced by a researcher. Large voids remain. We ask, then, why not turn to alre...
2019-06-2516 min
This Anthro LifeEPIC 2019: Agency in the Digital Age with Julia Haines and Lisa diCarloWelcome to This Anthro Life x EPIC 2019. This is the first episode in our 2019 collaboration with the Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Community or EPIC. EPIC is a professional organization that brings together ethnographers and social science practitioners across fields like user experience research and design, marketing, computer science, academia, and more. This year’s conference theme is agency, which is fascinating given the rapid rise of artificial intelligence, voice recognition software and platforms like Alexa or Hey Google, and controversies over privacy and sale of people’s personal data. Today host Adam Gamwell and guest host Matt Artz virtually sit d...
2019-05-2151 min
This Anthro LifeHow to Think like an Ethnographer with Jay HasbrouckAdam sits down (in a cafe, so this is live, people) with Jay Hasbrouck, Founder and Principal of Filament Insight and Innovation and author of Ethnographic Thinking: From Method to Mindset, a how-to guide for anyone looking to better understand and apply many of the methods ethnographers learn to their own businesses and practices. We talk through some of the techniques Jay covers in his book as well as talk candidly about the world of consulting and client relationships. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thisanthrolife/message
2019-05-1433 minThis Anthro LifeDon't Yuck My Yum w/ Julie Lesnik (Edible Insects, pt 3)Adam and Andrea continue the conversation with Julie Lesnik, author of Edible Insects and Human Evolution, but this time they’re going prehistoric. Oh, and they’re talking about gorillas and chimpanzees too. Learn how to fish for termites, why we wish we had more baskets, and why any of those things matter to understanding human evolution. Edible Insects, part 3Check out discussion questions here: https://www.thisanthrolife.com/insects/More about Julie:https://www.entomoanthro.org/about-julie.htmlhttps://www.octopusandape.com/--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/this...
2019-05-0648 minThis Anthro LifeA Bugless Life w/ Julie Lesnik (Edible Insects, pt 2)Think you could eat a cricket? What about a spider? In this episode of TAL Adam Gamwell and guest host Andrea Eller are chatting with Julie Lesnik about her new book, Edible Insects and Human Evolution. Listen in as they discuss why Americans tend to be so grossed out by bugs, and if it’s always been that way. Edible Insects, part 2We know many of you are educators, and some are already using TAL in the classroom. Great! To help support the educational impact of TAL, we are including some discussion questions from each episode. Please feel free to...
2019-04-2846 minThis Anthro LifeWhy Don't You Eat Bugs?Edible Insects part 1. Will crickets ever catch on as an alternative source of protein in the United States? How about cockroach “milk”? Why do people in so many parts of the world NOT eat insects? Where does that disgust for or against eating certain things come from? Adam is joined once again by guest host and biological anthropologist Andrea Eller to dig into edible insects, what just might be a new marketing idea for McDonald's, and how insects reveal underlying cultural trends of disgust, environmental resource use, gender and economic trends.
2019-03-2830 min
This Anthro LifeThe Social Life of Robots, pt 2: Sex and Temperament in Three Cyborg SocietiesPart 2 of The Social Life of Robots, with Emma Backe. In this episode hosts Adam Gamwell, Ryan Collins and Emma Backe tackle sex and gender norms underlying digital voice assistants like Siri, Cortana and Alexa, the history and gendering of science and technology studies (STS) and what this means in an era of AI and robots, and third, theories of rights such as the right to work, the right to sex and how robots clarify and confound these issues.--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thisanthrolife/message
2019-02-2832 min
This Anthro LifeHeritage Survival Across Borders: Identity, Language and MigrationWelcome to CultureMade: Heritage Enterprise in a World on the Move, an audio collaboration between the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, the American Anthropological Association, and This Anthro Life Podcast. In this fifth and final episode, Adam Gamwell, Leslie Walker, and Ryan Collins focus on cultural survival, a complex subject framed by migration, misconceptions over language and identity, as well as by resilience of the human spirit across borders. With a subject like cultural survival, the question comes to mind, what factors threaten shared heritage, tradition, and disband communities? Here we are joined by Alejandro Santiago González (Ixil), and Mercedes M...
2019-02-2154 minThis Anthro LifeThe Social Life of Robots, pt 1: Spoiler AlertIn the pop culture imagination, perceptions of robots and AI occupy a space of mystery and intrigue that gravitates between harbingers of impending societal collapse and bringers of mythical salvation. However, where does contemporary science and technology stand? Moreover, how do the social experiences of the past and in the present color our understandings of emerging technological realities? On this episode, hosts Adam Gamwell and Ryan Collins are joined by Emma Backe to discuss these questions and more. In Part I of Making Robots Human our conversation embraces the humor of pop culture AI while making room to address that...
2019-02-0630 min
This Anthro LifeThe Craft of CurationWelcome to CultureMade: Heritage Enterprise in a World on the Move, an audio collaboration from the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, the American Anthropological Association, and This Anthro Life Podcast. In this episode, Adam Gamwell, Leslie Walker, and Ryan Collins dive into the topic of curation. What does it mean to put on a festival or put on a museum exhibit? How can we understand culture on display and introduce outsiders to other social realms? Sharing their narratives and experiences with different forms of curation are Diana Baird N’Diaye, Cultural Specialist and Curator at the Smithsonian Center for Culture and Folklife, Ar...
2019-01-0941 minThis Anthro LifeSwitched on PopOn this episode of This Anthro Life, hosts Adam Gamwell and Matt Artz are joined by assistant professor and musicologist Nate Sloan and music journalist and songwriter Charlie Harding, the hosts of Switched on Pop, a podcast about the making and meaning of popular music. On Switched on Pop, Charlie and Nate break down pop songs to figure out what makes a hit and what is its place in culture. They also help listeners find "a-ha" moments in the music, make you laugh, dance, and dig deeper into the world of pop music. Here Nate and Charlie speak with TAL...
2018-12-2055 min
This Anthro LifeWeaving Social Fabric: The Craft of African FashionWelcome to CultureMade: Heritage Enterprise in a World on the Move , an audio collaboration from the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, the American Anthropological Association and This Anthro Life PodcastIn the US, fashion has been relegated to large impersonal retail spaces and increasingly online stores. Fashion in the US, as many know all too well, is transactional. The sense of community one has through clothing is often expressed through style though it is exceedingly rare for truly deep relationships to develop between the designer and the purchaser, even if an article of clothing is commissioned. But, community and fashion...
2018-12-1043 min
This Anthro LifeSharing Sonic Space: Music as Home, Soul and Connector“I hope that more people will listen to more music outside of their own little comfort zone. I think that we enrich ourselves, we are better human beings when you open up your heart to other cultures, other music, to other worlds to other points of view. Because ultimately, as I said in the very beginning, we’re all the same. We’re all humans, and we all can connect in different ways with the things that we like. But, when we see it through the eyes of a different person. Then we better ourselves. We enrich ourselves.”Welcome...
2018-11-0939 min
This Anthro LifeArt is a MovementWelcome to CultureMade: Heritage Enterprise in a World on the Move, an audio collaboration series from the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, the American Anthropological Association and This Anthro Life Podcast. Join hosts Adam Gamwell, Leslie Walker and Ryan Collins as they explore what it means to craft, form, and make culture in a world defined by movement, migration, and changing borders. Step into behind the scenes conversations and candid interviews from the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Hear from artists, fashion designers, dancers, weavers, and craftsmen who give life to heritage and shape the many worlds of traditional culture in a...
2018-10-1036 minThis Anthro LifeEPIC Evidence with Dawn Nafus and Tye RattenburyThis Anthro Life is opening the conversation with EPIC (the Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Community) on the theme of Evidence. Taking center stage at this year's Annual EPIC Conference. “Evidence” is a subject of increasing social importance in today’s political climate. What constitutes evidence and when it is found to be credible all have far-reaching consequences. Because of this, practicing anthropologists are exploring concerns of and around evidence through experimentation, new methodologies, and research innovations that speak to contemporary ethnographic practice.Joining TAL to open the conversation on evidence is Dawn Nafus and Tye Rattenbury, two of the EP...
2018-09-1956 minThis Anthro LifeThe Awe is Shared: Evolution and Public Science with Andrea Eller - This Anthro LifeAndrea Eller is a biological anthropologist driven by a question of how do our bodies continue to react to things today? In other words, how does evolution continue to impact us and why is this important? To address this, Andrea Eller looks at how bodies respond and adapt to circumstances of chronic stresses. The stresses that Eller looks at, however, are both physiological and social. Not only does Andrea postulate explanations to account for change over time in relation to more visible circumstances like ecology, tool use, and disease. But, Andrea also considers less visible issues like, class, race, and...
2018-08-1736 minThis Anthro LifeIts Only an Evil Cactus if Donkeys Chase You: Ethics and Psychedelics with Hamilton Morris - This Anthro LifeWhen TAL first interviewed Hamilton Morris, it was shortly after he and his production team had finished season 1 of Hamilton’s Pharmacopoeia. Now, Morris has completed two seasons of his critically acclaimed show on VICE. This time on TAL, Morris has a more reflective tone.With Adam Gamwell and Ryan Collins, Morris shares his experiences as a filmmaker in traditional and counter-culture environments. These experiences have given Morris a unique window into psychedelics, underground pharmaceutical research, and the ethics of sharing information. The last point hits home for many anthropologists and social researchers, who also must be wary of th...
2018-07-2338 minThis Anthro LifeTech Ethnography, Data and Social Justice w/ Dr. Tricia WangDr. Tricia Wang sees her work consulting as sitting at the crossroads of data and social justice. As a global tech ethnographer, Dr. Wang is obsessed with how technology and humans shape each other. In her own words, she wants to know, “How do the tools we use enable us to do more of what humans do, like socializing, emoting, and collaborating? And how do human perspectives shape the technology we build and how we use it?” Said differently, Dr. Tricia Wang’s expertise inhabits a gray space between industry and the academy. A space where many social scientists do not...
2018-07-101h 03This Anthro LifeEPIC Innovation w/ Dr. Alexandra Mack - This Anthro LifeWelcome back listeners! Adam and Ryan have taken some time away as of late to finish and defend their dissertations. Now that Ryan is done, and Adam defends in just one week (so close!), TAL is getting back into gear with new content in the development and production stages. Now, another key detail, several episodes recorded earlier this spring are also on their way. Some of these are guest interviews (including a second interview with Hamilton Morris of HBO’s VICE and Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia) as well as the remainder of our Story Slamming Ethnography episodes (we haven’t forgotten about...
2018-06-0146 minThis Anthro LifeConsulting Podcasters: Prototyping a Democratic Tool for Multiple Voices, Storytelling and Solution FindingThanks to the Society for Applied Anthropology (SfAA) for having Adam Gamwell and Matt Artz of This Anthro Life present at the annual meeting in Philadelphia. We presented as part of the New Methods, Interventions And Approaches session.Our paper title was Consulting Podcasters: Prototyping a Democratic Tool for Multiple Voices, Storytelling and Solution Finding. You can read it here. The session was recorded for the SfAA Podcasting project.The simple idea behind the notion of consulting podcasting is that we are using the podcast format to intentionally bring together professionals to co-create meaningful con...
2018-04-3019 minThis Anthro LifeMarching for Science w/Valorie AquinoOn this episode of This Anthro Life, hosts Ryan Collins and Adam Gamwell are joined by TAL correspondent and guest host Astrid Countee and by a very special guest, Valorie Aquino. They joined us to talk about the 2017 March for Science. Valorie is one of the key organizing 30’s something scientists who helped make the 2017 march a reality. As she conveys in this episode, doing so was no easy task. This required countless late nights, missed social occasions, hours of frustration, and unfortunately, the all to occasional naysayers. Yet, Valorie’s story is one complete perseverance, rooted in a deep pass...
2018-04-1144 minThis Anthro LifeBrave Community: Teaching Race in the American Classroom w/ Janine de NovaisWelcome listeners to the second installment of our Diversity and Inclusion crossover series, bringing together This Anthro Life with Brandeis University. For those of you who are new to the show, This Anthro Life (TAL) was launched as a scholar-practitioner program designed to bring anthropological and social science research and thinking to interdisciplinary and public audiences. The original idea behind the podcast is to use our skill sets and toolkits as anthropologists to translate and socialize data, cultural patterns, and research into accessible open format dialogues and conversations that provided solutions for social impact and actionable insight.On t...
2018-02-1455 minThis Anthro Life#MeToo: Stories in the Age of Survivorship by Emma Backe: Story Slamming Anthropology #1Welcome to Story Slamming Anthropology. This series features both innovative narrative and audio performance drawing on the deep toolkit and methods of anthropology. The goal with Story Slamming Anthropology is to invoke the public facing spirit of Franz Boas, Margaret Mead, Melville Herskovits and many others to speak to 21st century concerns from a comparative perspective in clear language. The narratives here are based on juxtapositions, seemingly counter- or non- intuitive linking’s of subjects, objects, ideas, emotions, practices, or traditions that will intrigue, educate, and delight. In doing so, the goal of these stories is to bring anthropological storytelling to wider a...
2018-02-0920 minThis Anthro LifeCarving a Niche between Software and Social Science: Anthropology in Industry w/ Natalie HansonDesign and anthropology have been seen together with increasing frequency over the last few years, but how do design and anthropology fit together in relation to industry? And, how does this pairing create insight? Adam and Matt (a guest host at This Anthro Life) are joined by Dr. Natalie Hanson to explore these questions and more.Dr. Hanson has been working at the intersection of business strategy, technology, social sciences, and design for nearly 20 years. This gives her a relatively unique perspective on the worlds of anthropology and design. Hanson is also the founder of Anthrodesign, which started as a list s...
2018-01-311h 02This Anthro LifeDiversity + Inclusion in Higher Education, part 1Welcome listeners to the first installment of our Diversity and Inclusion crossover series, bringing together This Anthro Life with Brandeis University. For those of you who are new to the show, This Anthro Life (TAL) was launched as a scholar-practitioner program designed to bring anthropological and social science research and thinking to interdisciplinary and public audiences. The original idea behind the podcast was to use our skill sets and toolkits as anthropologists to translate and socialize data, cultural patterns, and research into accessible open format dialogues and conversations that provided solutions for social impact and actionable insight.With the D...
2018-01-1536 minThis Anthro LifeEncounters Unforeseen: A Bicultural Retelling of 1492 with Andrew RowenIn this Conversations episode, This Anthro Life hosts Adam Gamwell and Ryan Collins are joined by author Andrew Rowen to discuss his new novel, Encounters Unforeseen: 1492 Retold. Coming in the months trailing the 525th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s (or Cristobal Colon’s) voyage to the America’s, Rowen’s novel seeks to add some much needed depth to the modern myths on the subject. Encounters Unforeseen doesn’t start at the (in)famous voyage, or even in Europe. Instead, The drama alternates among three Taíno chieftains—Caonabó, Guacanagarí, and Guarionex—and Bakoko, a Taíno youth seized by Columbus, Spain’s Queen Isa...
2017-12-1352 minThis Anthro LifeComing to Our SensesIn this Conversations episode of This Anthro Life, Adam Gamwell and Ryan Collins explore the subject of sensory ethnography – a focus in anthropology that tends to deemphasize the written word to explore visual, acoustic, and other sensory perceptions. Today, researchers explore senses increasing in the media through virtual simulations, visual and auditory stimuli that cause different reactions (fostering disorientation or meditative states), and of course art. But, how we perceive the world around us can also be influenced by culture and our surroundings, from music, to dance, to collective effervescence. After all, viral examples in recent years (like the infamous dress), demon...
2017-11-2730 minThis Anthro LifeAre Emojis and Hieroglyphs Universal Language?Will Emojis be the death of writing? Are emojis modern day hieroglyphs? Is the increased use of emojis in textual conversations a sign of the end of language as we know it? Join us for one of our most popular conversations revisited! Your trusty hosts Ryan and Adam discuss the origin of emojis as well as the importance of actively seeking to understand the hidden biases of language.What is an Emoji? The term emoji originates from the japanese kanjis of “picture word”. Shigetaka Kurita created the emoji in order to develop a way to send pictorial texts ...
2017-10-2634 minThis Anthro LifeThe Yin and Yang of Design Anthropology with Dr. Elizabeth Dori TunstallIn this Conversations episode of This Anthro Life, Adam Gamwell and guest host/TAL correspondent Matt Artz explore the world of Design Anthropology with the help of Dr. Elizabeth “Dori” Tunstall. Design Anthropology is a subject near and dear to our hosts, who have been excited to devote an entire episode to the subject. But, what is Design Anthropology? If you’re scratching your head, no worries. Adam, Matt, and Dr. Tunstall have it covered and describe the five iterations of design anthropology using examples of their use in the field. Over the course of the episode Adam, Matt, and Dr. Tunstall...
2017-10-111h 04This Anthro LifeFall for This Anthro Life: Back in Action, New Content, and our Patreon CampaignHey 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 limited series on diversity in the university setting and much more! Support our new campaign on Patreon! Go ahead a click that nice image to visit our new page, to read about what we want to do, and how you can give securely. Just a dollar a month makes a huge difference for us! Kicking off the new season, Adam and Ryan dive into a...
2017-09-2726 minThis Anthro LifeThe Happiness Fetish RevisitedIn 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 Happiness, the film Happy, and more! They seek to answer the following questions: What kinds of things make us happy? How does happiness inhere in objects and how do we use objects to display our happiness? They end on a positive note by concluding that we have control over our happiness and suggesting a happy community may be a key part of being happy.
2017-07-2420 minThis Anthro LifeConversations and Podcasting as Social TechnologyThis 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 podcasting as social technologies and what the worlds of anthropology and podcasting can do. Some topics Adam touches on include: what anthropology does in the world, conversation as “little social laboratories”, mapping the contemporary podcast ‘cosmos’, podcasters as cultural brokers, and the kinds of stories we well as Charismatic Data. During this pseudo-episode (think of it like a Conversation meets a FreeThink) Adam asks the...
2017-07-1433 minThis Anthro LifeThe Stories Bones Tell w/ Kristina KillgroveThis 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 publics, we became inspired to have a series of conversations about why anthropology matters today. In this series we’re sitting down with some of the folks behind Savage Minds, SAPIENS, the American Anthropological Association and the Society for American Archaeology to bring you conversations on anthropological thinking and its relevance through an innovative blend of audio and text.In our fourth episode of...
2017-06-2832 minThis Anthro LifeAnthropology + Science Journalism = A New Genre? w/ Daniel Salas of SAPIENSThis 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 publics, we became inspired to have a series of conversations about why anthropology matters today. We’re sitting down with some of the folks behind Savage Minds, SAPIENS, the American Anthropological Association and the Society for American Archaeology to bring you conversations on anthropological thinking and its relevance through an innovative blend of audio and text.In our third episode of the TAL + SM...
2017-06-2120 minThis Anthro LifeAnthropology has Always been Out There w/ Ed Liebow and Leslie Walker of the AAAIn 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 changing natures of work and research today, and critically assessed anthropology in terms of scope and impact.Read the article here--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thisanthrolife/message
2017-06-1443 minThis Anthro LifeWriting “in my Culture” w/ Zoe Wool and Alex Golub of Savage MindsThis 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 publics, we became inspired to have a series of conversations about why anthropology matters today. For this series we’re sitting down with some of the folks behind Savage Minds, SAPIENS, the American Anthropological Association and the Society for American Archaeology to bring you conversations on anthropological thinking and its relevance through an innovative blend of audio and text.Read the article here
2017-06-0739 minThis Anthro LifeVisual Anthropology Revisited, pt 2We 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, so here’s part 2. Plus we (still) miss Aneil and wanted to hear his voice again. We hope you enjoy the conversation revisited with us! Join us for an ‘enlightening’ trip as we ‘shed some light’ on the world of sight, seeing, and visual anthropology. In this episode we explore the deep impact of visual culture across the globe and time from ancient Gree...
2017-06-0227 minThis Anthro LifeVisual Anthropology Revisited, pt 1We 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. Plus we miss Aneil and wanted to hear his voice again. We hope you enjoy the conversation revisited with us! Join us for an ‘enlightening’ trip as we ‘shed some light’ on the world of sight, seeing, and visual anthropology. In this episode we explore the deep impact of visual culture across the globe and time from ancient Greece to the invention of photogr...
2017-05-3129 minThis Anthro LifeOn the Craft of Writing w/ Dr. Anita HannigHow 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 University about the writing process behind her new book, Beyond Surgery: Injury, Healing, and Religion at an Ethiopian Hospital. While they are looking at writing as a craft from the perspective of anthropologists, Ryan, Adam, and Anita draw on a variety of perspectives outside of the discipline to suggest some tips for writing routine, reaching a broad audience, and writing e...
2017-05-1712 minThis Anthro LifeFree 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 subscribers in the past week which is a huge milestone for us. In order to keep This Anthro Life growing we would like to better integrate the desires of our listeners with how we market, produce, and choose our content. We want to get to know you! To do this we will be updating the What’s Your Story page with a space...
2017-05-1316 minThis Anthro LifeDating your Ancestors is Complicated: The Strange Case of Homo NalediOn 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 to be human and how we are still changing. The new and exciting data we dive into this episode is all about Homo Naledi, perhaps the most recent addition to our family. As of the day we recorded this episode, April 25th, the first concrete date range for the species was publicized (but stay tuned for further developments). Rather than being very early (that is...
2017-04-2631 minThis Anthro LifeCulinary Catalysts and Scientific Shifts: Peruvian Quinoa in the Age of Genetics and GastronomyThis 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 Annual Meeting in Santa Fe, New Mexico, so this episode is based entirely on this presentation. Adam discusses a quinoa gastronomy project he is working on in conjunction with Dr. Alipio Canahua Murillo and Chef José Maguiña. They are designing an agricultural-gastronomy project in the region of Puno, Peru in order to create new dishes based on endangered varieties of quinoa. --- Send...
2017-04-1935 minThis Anthro LifeFreeThink 5: Finding Balance in the Midst of BurnoutFreethink #5: Finding Balance in the midst of BurnoutIn 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 Society for American Archaeology and why conferences are inspirational and invigorating. Also the AMAZING fact that TAL now has over 11,000 subscribers!! Thank you so much to everyone for helping us build the tribe, let’s keep taking this to the top! Social Consciousness FTW.Links to Learn More:Sapiens and Fuente’s essay on Nature’s Most Creative Copulato
2017-04-1231 minThis Anthro LifeThe Power of Vulnerability RevisitedThis 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, social connection, compassion, and an appreciation for his/her vulnerabilities. They were unashamed to be vulnerable. They are comfortable with saying I love you first, putting an opinion piece out regardless of potential backlash, being authentic without fear. As Brown stresses, the wholehearted have ”the willingness to do something with no guarantees”. It’s allowing for things to fall outside of your control. To accept the controlla...
2017-03-2255 minThis Anthro LifeFreeThink #4: On Art, Creativity, and Bringing Awe back to AnthropologyAs 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 they got to talking about TAL and their perspectives on public anthropology. What does the future hold? What inspires change? Realizing they were on to something good, they pulled out a phone and hit record. This episode is what came out. We hope you’ll enjoy! This episode was recorded live and near a kitchen so please forgive the extra no...
2017-03-1538 minThis Anthro LifeInvestigating the Untethered Journey between Psychedelic Science, Medicine, and Drug Scheduling with Hamilton MorrisPsychedelia 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 this episode of This Anthro Life Adam and Ryan explore the world of psychedelic drugs with Hamilton Morris of Vice’s Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia. We discuss his fieldwork in the Amazon where he hunted for a locally important frog, the potential diagnostic, medicinal, and therapeutic uses of psychedelics, as well as the obstacles in the way of studying human consciousness. Special thanks to Alice Kelikian.---
2017-02-1535 minThis Anthro LifeWaiting w/ Serra Hakyemezwith Aneil and Ryan Special Guest: Serra HakyemezIs 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 from the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University to discuss her paper entitled, “Waiting, Acting Political, Hope, Doubt, and Endurance in the Anti-Terrorism Courts of Northern Kurdistan”, which focuses on the ways political detainees’ families are actively shaping and constructing community identities while waiting in the courthouse (Brandeis Anthropology Research Seminar). --- Send in a...
2017-02-0832 minThis Anthro LifeD+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 protests are the same or that we can even evaluate them with the same criteria.TAL D+A Minisodes are short, actionable steps you can take in your everyday life to become more socially savvy, culturally competent and holistic in your actions. If you have any suggestions for D+A minisodes or longer Conversations, drop us a line! We’re always looking for ne...
2017-02-0604 minThis Anthro LifeProtesting the Powers that Be and Being the Power that Protests w/ Jara ConnellWhat 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 protesting and the strategies behind social movements.Who is Jara Connell?Jara is a PhD candidate at Brandeis University. She focuses on race, space, and policing in Saint Louis. Jara’s Master’s thesis dealt with sex and gender politics in Ferguson. When Jara is not advocating for social change and challenging dominant political agendas she takes her cat, Booger, on walk...
2017-02-0127 minThis Anthro LifeD+A Minisode 1: How to Deal with Change w/ Dr. Andi SimonMinisodes 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 time.Design + Application (DnA, get it??) Minisodes are bite-sized actionable insights and social building blocks to help you become more socially savvy, culturally competent, and holistic in thinking and action. With D+A we move from anthropological thinking to anthropological doing. These are 5-10 minute nuggets from our guests on Conversations or inspiring tidbits we come across that you can use in your daily lives...
2017-01-3005 minThis Anthro LifeWhen your Business Stalls, it’s time to Evolve: Unpacking Corporate Anthropology with Dr. Andi SimonHow 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 toolkit of anthropological knowledge, games, and theater she is able to help businesses change a little easier.We have a copy of Dr. Simon’s great book On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights to give away to one lucky listener. How do you do that? Drop us a review on iTunes with...
2017-01-2539 minThis Anthro LifeFreeThink 3: PRX Podcast Garage Meetups, Building Bridges, and Expanding the PodcastDo 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, podcasting, and the future of This Anthropological Life.Links to Check OutAnthro StoryThe Podcast GarageStride and SaunterStanding R--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thisanthrolife/message
2016-12-0502 minThis Anthro LifeDon’t Panic! The Neuroscience behind falling into Balance w/ Vivek Pandey VimalAre 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 research that explores how people learn to balance when their sensory systems are taken away. We then relate studies on balance and movement to anthropology and discuss the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration. Show notes by Nina Oria-Loureiro.Listen to this week’s podcast to learn more aboutVivek’s experimentsRatsCollaborationBalancing on skyscrapers
2016-11-2328 minThis Anthro LifeOn Kindness and What the World Needs Now w/ Hannah BrencherHave you ever felt disconnected from your relationships and your life because of your reliance on your phone and social media? Do you ever feel nostalgia for the art of handwriting letters? Hannah Brencher understands what you are feeling. In this episode of This Anthropological Life, we discuss the difficulties of being present, the importance of time in maintaining relationships, the pitfalls of random acts of kindness, and the joys of writing a love letter. Copy Prepared by Nina Oria-LoureiroTake Aways* “The only thing that can beat out fear is love. It can’t be just...
2016-11-1722 minThis Anthro LifeMulti-species and non-Human Centered Anthropology: Conversations RevisitedJoin us for another listen of TAL Conversations favorites on Multi-species and Non-Human Centered Anthropology. Originally aired December 2013, with a follow-up conversation coming soon!Do you have a pet? Do you talk to your pet? How about your house plants? Ever thought about where those vegetables you use as food and bought at the grocery store came from? Like, really came from? “Human Nature”, Anna Tsing writes, “is an interspecies relationship”. It’s never been just about humans; life on this planet (and possibly beyond) is an entanglement of many different kinds of living selves, inert objects, and assemblages of ideas...
2016-11-0226 minThis Anthro LifeMyths of American Democracy: Contradictions, Troubling Numbers, and Searching for Sense in the SystemDo you find yourself increasingly frustrated at the lack of real conversations between candidates and politicians? Are you confused about why someone who doesn’t walk to the beat of your life claims to represent the whole of your interests and everyone you know? This episode is not about the candidates, we’ll leave the bashing to them and other pundits. Rather, with this episode we aim to expose some of the mechanisms driving American politics and show different social truths about political systems in general. Join Adam, Aneil, and Ryan as they discuss the debate and informed positions on big q...
2016-10-2026 minThis Anthro LifeFreeThink #2 – Moving Beyond the Mic: On Collaborations and Working Across DisciplinesJoin Aneil, Adam and Ryan for the second FreeThink episode, where they talk unscripted about upcoming projects and potential interdisciplinary collaborations beyond the mic.FreeThink is a new series of episodes that works like a backstage pass, where we talk unscripted about what’s on our minds and hearts, the nuts and bolts of making a podcast today, and the larger projects we are working on surrounding the show. If you’ve never heard This Anthropological Life, we don’t recommend starting with these episodes. check out our more in-depth Conversations series with some of our favorite episodes curated just for...
2016-10-1917 minThis Anthro LifeBeer RevisitedGlad 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 to subscribe and visit our previous episodes on the downloads page.Episode: 10 Beer Though we made this episode two years ago and the quality is not what we do now but in terms of content its one of our all time favorites. We cover some of the historical uses of beer, its changing meaning over time, the...
2016-10-1356 minThis Anthro LifeFreeThink #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 on evolving the show content with new episode lengths and direction (same great content, shorter, more-digestible bites) and new minisodes based on Adam’s growing obsession with design and applied anthropology offering you practical ways to apply anthropological thinking and action to your daily life, and professionalizing our craft with new partnerships with the American Anthropological Association among others!W...
2016-10-1015 minThis Anthro LifeIs Corporate Anthropology Selling Out? A Conversation on Consulting with Vyjayanthi VadrevuWe’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 Anthropological Consulting and Strategy.What is anthropology like in the business world? Vyjayanthi runs an anthropological consulting company (Rasa.nyc) that draws on social science and design to help companies better communicate and connect with their customers.We dive into questions such as who can call themselves an anthropologist (academic, corporate, podcasters?!), what does a consulting anthropological project look like, what...
2016-07-1954 minThis Anthro LifeMaking Sense of Finance: Boundaries, Institutions, and Power with Caitlin ZaloomJoin 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 to study financial markets in Chicago and London.Professor Zaloom and Aneil end the conversation with a discussion on how anthropologists should speak to our moment in history and the importance of studying powerful institutions. Anthropology’s job is to denaturalize social systems, and it is especially important to do so in elite settings with powerful institutions such as those active in finance.
2016-06-1232 minThis Anthro LifeGuest Podcast: Food Futures: Playing our Way to Conservation? Experimental Economics in the Andean CountrysideSpecial guest podcast from our friends at the Food Futures PodcastCorinna Howland interviews Adam Gamwell about experimental games, or field experiments, which NGOs and economists use to measure when, why, and how people make different kinds of choices. This data, in turn, is used to inform public policy and generate development projects. As part of Adam’s work in Peru, he ran a series of experimental games with Andean farmers for the NGO Bioversity International, to understand what kinds of incentives farmers would need to conserve threatened varieties of quinoa.
2016-05-2534 minThis Anthro LifeStewardship and Heritage: Bringing Archaeology to the Public with Emily Jane MurryJoin 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 that the world around us is an archaeological treasure trove, with worlds of diverse cultural experiences overlapping in the layers right beneath our feet. As a champion of this cause, bringing archaeology to the public’s attention, Emily works to foster a sense of stewardship to the past precisely because it is so very connected to the social present. Tune in to hear m...
2016-05-2411 minThis Anthro LifeFaded Paint and Yellowed Photos: On, Image, Inspiration, and Memory with Javier UrcidHow 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 shares stories on the serendipity that characterized the beginning of his lifelong passion in anthropology. From Zapotec script to funerary practices, Javier’s interests are focused on the stories that influenced the daily lives of ancient people and reconstructing the few images that remain today. Javier’s story is one of reflection, but on the mysteries that compel so many to dig ever deep...
2016-03-2907 minThis Anthro LifeA Business for the Future? Redefining Value, Quinoa and the Quest of Pachakuti Foods w/ Alexander WankelWe’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 view point of quinoa.Pachakuti Foods is a brand-new startup focusing on creating a market for sustainable, pro-farmer and agrobiodiverse quinoa. It’s better for small-scale farmers, the environment, and for fighting climate change. Check out the project, and if you like it, support them on Kickstarter here!Pachakuti Foods Website --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/th...
2016-03-2340 minThis Anthro LifeExploring Boundaries: From Access to Female Sexworkers to the Question of ResearchWhen 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 moving massive amounts of earth, borders certainly influence the research anthropologists conduct. Yet, those same borders are often at the heart of creative projects that grant an otherwise hidden perspective into the subaltern realities many diverse peoples face. Join Aneil and Ryan as they discuss these questions of research with Asli Zengin, whose studies on sex workers and trans people in Turkey was fraught with uncrossable borders. Yet, in...
2016-03-1847 minThis Anthro LifeMate: The Drink Beyond a Drink w/ Guilherme HeidenMate (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 years. The incredible history of mate follows Guarani indigenous legend, the rise of Jesuit colonialism, Gaucho (cowboy) culture in Southern Brazil, and continues its rise in global popularity.Many see this drink as beyond a drink – aside from its colorful and unique drinking apparatus made from a dried-out gourd and metal straw. Mate is known to break down barriers between people...
2016-03-0736 min