AnthroBiology Podcast

Dr. Briana Pobiner – What can cut marks tell us about human evolution, migration, and behavior?

Dr. Briana Pobiner of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History's Human Origins Program joins the show to talk about cut marks. She discusses how we can tell wha

Dr. Christiane Baigent – How do bodies decompose at high altitude? Colorado Mesa University's FIRS body farm

Dr. Christiane Baigent of Colorado Mesa University runs the Forensic Investigation Resource Station (FIRS), which is the highest body farm in the world. We talk about how

Dr. Raquel Fleskes – Using Ancient DNA to interpret historical sites

Dr. Raquel Fleskes of Dartmouth joins the show to talk about her work using ancient DNA to uncover the past in the Tidewater and South Carolina. Most people think about a

Dr. Andrew Best – Why do humans sweat?

Dr. Andrew Best of the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts joined the show to talk about sweat -- what it is, when we do it, how we vary, and why it makes humans differ

Ron Romano - Decoding cemeteries: A historian's guide to death symbolism, power structures, and tech in early American burial grounds

Ron Romano of Spirits Alive (a non-profit dedicated to preserving Eastern Cemetery and its history) joins the show to talk about gravestone symbolism, mortuary practices,

Dr. Wakefield & Dr. Neidich – Death in early New York mental health institutions

Dr. Wakefield (Northeast College) and Dr. Neidich (University of Missouri) joined the show to discuss their research on death in early New York mental health institutions

Dr. Brian Villmoare – Using teeth to help fill in the blanks of human evolution

Dr. Brian Villmoare of the University of Nevada - Las Vegas shares how his team found teeth in Ethiopia and what those teeth might mean in terms of who was around when in

Keri Porter – What can head trauma tell us about violence in an emerging Bronze Age city? Plus: How to apply for grad school

Keri Porter, a PhD candidate at Notre Dame University, joins the show to discuss their research on patterns of violence in a Bronze Age urban center in the Southern Levan

Dr. Maria Nieves-Colón and Jaime Zolik, MA – Working with Ancient DNA and descendent communities in Peru

Dr. Maria Nieves-Cólon and Jamie Zolik join the show to discuss their ancient DNA research in San Luis de Cañete and what it can reveal about the historical population of

Dr. Eric Shattuck – How do humans act when we get sick and why?

Dr. Eric Shattuck of Florida State University joins the show to discuss his research on sickness behavior. He wants to know how humans tend to act when they get sick and 

Dr. Erin Blankenship-Sefczek – How does developmental stress affect dental morphology?

Summary Dr. Erin Blankenship-Sefczek of Creighton University joins the show to discuss her research examining the connection between developmental stress and accessory

Dr. Samantha Yaussy - What can frailty in skeletons from medieval London teach us about health?

Dr. Samantha Yaussy of James Madison University joins the show to discuss her research on the how sex, socioeconomic status, and developmental stress and the intersection

Dr. Habiba Chirchir - Why did humans evolve to have less robust skeletons?

Dr. Habiba Chirchir of the Ohio State University joins the show to discuss her research into the skeletal gracilization of modern humans. She's trying to understand when

Dr. David Orton – Rats in Europe and Zooarchaeology

Dr. David Orton of the University of York joins the show to discuss how he uses zooarchaeology (the study of animal remains in archaeological contexts) to understand the

Dr. Henry Erlich - Genetic Reconstruction of the Past

Dr. Henry Erlich, Researcher Emeritus at Benioff UCSF Children's Hospital, joins the show to discuss his book, Genetic Reconstruction of the Past: DNA Analysis in Forensi

Dr. Christopher Schmitt - Vervets and woolly monkeys

Dr. Christopher Schmitt of Boston University joins the show to talk about how he uses life history theory and epigenetics as a lens for his work with vervets and woolly m

Dr. Kate Clancy - Period: The Real Story of Menstruation

Dr. Kate Clancy of Illinois State University Urbana-Champaign joins the show to talk about her book, Period: The Real Story of Menstruation. We touch on what periods are,

Dr. Rebecca Gilmour - Roman bioarchaeology

Dr. Rebecca Gilmour of Mount Royal University talks about bones, their mechanics, and how we can use both to understand humans' lives in the past -- especially around her

Dr. Jesse Goliath - Forensic anthropology

Dr. Jesse Goliath of Mississippi State University joins the show to talk about forensic anthropology, including how he ended up in forensic anthropology and how he develo

Dr. Christine Drea – Mechanisms of female dominance (hyenas, lemurs, meerkats)

Dr. Christine Drea of Duke University joined the show to talk about mechanisms of female dominance, which is when females of a species are more dominant in groups than ma