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PODCAST

SAPIENS: A Podcast for Everything Human

What makes you … you? And who tells what stories and why? In the SAPIENS podcast, listeners will hear a range of human stories: from the origins of the chili pepper to how prosecutors decide someone is a criminal to stolen skulls from Iceland. Join SAPIENS on our latest journey to explore what it means to be human.

science social sciences

All Episodes

32:26

Being Afghan in America: In the Field with Morwari Zafar

SAPIENS: A Podcast for Everything Human ·

2018/12/18

How does an immigrant become an American? How does anyone join any group? SAPIENS host Esteban Gomez shares the story of Dr. Morwari Zafar, a researcher who has studied the changes in her own community of Afghan-Americans in Fremont, California, in the wake of 9-11. From the first major wave of immigration in the late 1980s and early 1990s, to 9-11 and the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, the Afghan-American community has been in flux, exemplifying the mysteries of group identity, dynamics,

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31:27

What’s the Cost of Quinoa?

SAPIENS: A Podcast for Everything Human ·

2018/12/04

SAPIENS host Jen Shannon goes on a mission to find out how quinoa travels from farmers’ fields in Huanoquite, Peru, to markets in Lima and the U.S. She discovers quinoa’s complicated past and present: a bloody civil war that shook the nation, the chefs who tried to use food as a racial reconciliation project, and the current economic and social pressures small producers face when they take on huge risks to bring their product from field to market. Linda Seligmann is a professor emeritus of

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30:30

How to Care for the Dead

SAPIENS: A Podcast for Everything Human ·

2018/11/20

Scientists have thought about burial—the act of interring a dead body—as a distinctly human behavior. So what happened when a group of paleoanthropologists discovered a primitive hominid that may have entombed its dead? And how do people respond when they are unable to find and care for the remains of their loved ones? SAPIENS host Jen Shannon talks to Mercedes Doretti, co-founder of the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, about the 38,000 people who have disappeared in Mexico since

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01:18:15

BONUS: A Conversation with Carl Zimmer about DNA,...

SAPIENS: A Podcast for Everything Human ·

2018/11/13

Surprise! As a special holiday treat, the SAPIENS team is presenting this unedited conversation between SAPIENS host Chip Colwell and acclaimed science journalist Carl Zimmer about DNA, identity, and heredity. This conversation was previously excerpted in our episode “Is Your DNA You?” It took place in front of a live audience at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science on June 20, 2018. Carl Zimmer’s new book is She Has Her Mother's Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of

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32:49

Is Space a Human Place?

SAPIENS: A Podcast for Everything Human ·

2018/11/06

From space junk and the International Space Station to Elon Musk and SpaceX, space is becoming a more human place. What will it mean for us to live among the stars? SAPIENS host Jen Shannon probes the nascent field of space archaeology and looks to the mystery of exoplanets for answers. Alice Gorman is a senior lecturer in the college of humanities at Flinders University, and Justin Walsh is associate professor and chair of the Art Department at Chapman University. Together, they lead

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27:14

Power Players: US Football and French Rugby

SAPIENS: A Podcast for Everything Human ·

2018/10/23

Some athletes seem larger than life. They are revered and imitated—and they seemingly hold a lot of power. But whether they feel empowered in their lives and choices off the field depends on a variety of complex factors. We explore the experiences of black college football players in the U.S. and Fijian rugby players who migrate to play on teams in France to learn more. Tracie Canada is a graduate student in the anthropology department at the University of Virginia. In 2017, her research

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29:00

Close to Home: In the Field With Amy Starecheski

SAPIENS: A Podcast for Everything Human ·

2018/10/09

What is home? Is it a physical space, a set of relationships, or a state of mind? SAPIENS host Esteban Gómez follows Amy Starecheski, a researcher who has studied how squatters went legit and secured homeownership in New York City, as she seeks to answer these questions and more. With Starecheski, Gómez moves through two of New York’s most fascinating neighborhoods—the Lower East Side in Manhattan and Mott Haven in the Bronx. They discuss how people have navigated massive restructuring and

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30:17

The Mastodon in the Room

SAPIENS: A Podcast for Everything Human ·

2018/09/25

Humans may have been in North America much earlier than previously thought. Here’s the evidence: chipped rocks, crushed mastodon bones, and reliable dates showing the remains are 130,000 years old. Is that enough to rewrite the history? SAPIENS co-hosts Chip Colwell and Jen Shannon talk to Steven and Kathleen Holen, archaeologists and co-authors of a controversial discovery. And they further evaluate the claims with the help of anthropologist Todd Braje. Steven Holen and Kathleen

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35:06

Prepping for TEOTWAWKI

SAPIENS: A Podcast for Everything Human ·

2018/09/12

It’s the end of the world as we know it. How do you feel? SAPIENS co-host Jen Shannon follows the trail of some contemporary preppers with the help of anthropologist Chad Huddleston. Then she dives into history with Tim Kohler, an archaeologist and expert on Ancestral Puebloan peoples of the U.S. Southwest. Chad Huddleston is an adjunct assistant professor of anthropology at Saint Louis University in Missouri and an instructor at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville. In March, he

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31:12

Is Robot Empathy a Trap?

SAPIENS: A Podcast for Everything Human ·

2018/08/28

Can robots care? And why should we care if they do? SAPIENS host Jen Shannon meets Pepper the robot, and host Chip Colwell goes on a quest to find out how the robotics industry is (re)shaping intimacy in Japan. He speaks with anthropologists Jennifer Robertson, Daniel White, and Hirofumi Katsuno, all researchers in the field of robotics, to learn more about what artificial emotion can teach us about what it means to be human. Jennifer Robertson is a professor of anthropology and of the

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39:31

Is Your DNA You?

SAPIENS: A Podcast for Everything Human ·

2018/08/14

What does your DNA have to do with who you are? On a journey for answers, SAPIENS hosts Chip Colwell, Jen Shannon, and Esteban Gómez take consumer DNA tests and confront murky, interconnected issues of identity and heredity. Their guides include science journalist Carl Zimmer and anthropologists Deborah Bolnick and Kim TallBear. Carl Zimmer has authored 13 books about science, including his latest work She Has Her Mother’s Laugh, which traces the history of heredity: Deborah Bolnick is an

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02:57

A Trailer for Everything Human

SAPIENS: A Podcast for Everything Human ·

2018/08/04

What makes you … you? Is it your DNA, culture, environment? SAPIENS hosts Jen Shannon, Esteban Gómez, and SAPIENS.org Editor-in-Chief Chip Colwell speak with anthropologists from around the globe to help us uncover what makes us human. Subscribe now to learn more. The SAPIENS podcast is supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation and produced by House of Pod.

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92 results

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