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This Anthro Life (old link, new link in description)

This Anthro Life (old link, new link in description)

By Adam Gamwell

This Anthro Life has migrated publishers and this account no longer publishes up to date episodes. On Spotify go to open.spotify.com/show/011fkWGN6yCan3yOTlX3gN

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Don't Sell Yourself Short: How to Create a Career Plan

This Anthro Life (old link, new link in description)Sep 17, 2021

00:00
37:29
Don't Sell Yourself Short: How to Create a Career Plan

Don't Sell Yourself Short: How to Create a Career Plan

A job search strategy is essential, but what if you don’t even know what to look for or what you want to do? A career plan is something you can do before job searching to define the kind of work you want to do and how to engage with like minded people, so you’ve got opportunities and pathways to work you’ll find fulfilling and meaningful, regardless of industry.

While some old-school academics might see creating a career plan as selling out, Career Coach and Strategist Amy Santee and Design + Business Anthropologist Adam Gamwell, say you’re selling yourself short if you don’t. In this seminar we’ll share stories from our experiences and walk you through creating your own plan across defining your values, mapping your journey, finding your people and trying your voice.

Whether you’re a student and looking for your first job, a mid career professor or industry insider and curious about what else is out there, a career plan is relevant for anyone.

We’ll dig into defining your values as a starting point, mapping a vision of your future by looking at your past, how to take action on your plan, and learning to trust your intuition as much as the data you gather.

Today's episode is a slice from a workshop series Adam Gamwell put together with Prof Jonathan Anjaria of Brandeis University. 


Amy Santee Career Coaching

Amy's LinkedIn

Jon Anjaria

Brandeis University Anthropology


Episode production and art: Adam Gamwell

Music Epidemic Sounds:

Sweet Talk - Tyra Chanty

Zanzibar - Jones Meadow


Sep 17, 202137:29
Transforming Market Research with Qualitative Consciousness in post-liberalization India w/ Dr. Meena Kaushik and Madhuri Karak

Transforming Market Research with Qualitative Consciousness in post-liberalization India w/ Dr. Meena Kaushik and Madhuri Karak

Dr. Meena Kaushik takes us through her story from the revolutionary idea in the late 1970s of applying semiotics to brand and market research to founding Quantum, which today is a global enterprise research organization in seven countries, through how they have digitally adapted insights research in the face of COVID.

Meena Kaushik started her journey as an academic studying the symbolism of death rituals in Hinduism. She conducted extensive fieldwork amongst the Doms of Varanasi, a low caste community working in the city’s cremation grounds, for her Ph.D. in Sociology at the Delhi School of Economics.

She ventured into qualitative market research by accident and fell in love. Her training in ethnography deepened how consumer behaviour, consumer culture and consumer psyche were being understood in India in the mid to late 1980s.

A consulting stint with the Indian Market Research Bureau soon became a full fledged position and she helped found the qualitative division at MARG as a Director of Qualitative Research. Kaushik adapted anthropological methods, semiotics, and social psychology to qualitative market research problems in India, giving qualitative approaches a credibility they’d never had in the past.

In 1990 she founded Quantum Consumer Solutions with Srilekha Agarwal and Meera Vasudevan, Asia’s first purely qualitative research firm. Today Quantum has operations in seven countries with 220 employees.

TAL spoke to Dr. Kaushik about the birth of this new “qualitative consciousness” in post-liberalization India, and how to create value for qualitative insights in industries that have been traditionally dominated by numbers.

We dig into:

  • How she brought anthropologist and qualitative insights to market research in India
  • Fairness and Skin Lightening Creams: How interdisciplinary social science can get a company to reframe brands around empowerment
  • Acknowledge privileges, like the cultural preference for lighter skin, without ignoring or pandering to it
  • Why we should be talking about insights research rather than qualitative research, and how her company has adapted to digital ethnography and new forms of research since COVID rocked the world
  • Digital ethnography methods to create a “semiosphere” > a holistic view of how people make meaning in their lives
  • Advice for transitioning into market research, skills agencies look for
  • Adapting from research as an output to design strategy, offering solutions on top of research insights
  • Commodities and the crisis of meaning: Why it’s essential for brands to have higher meaning and purpose in the lives of consumers

TAL Correspondent and this episode's host: Madhuri Karak is Community Engagement Lead at Rare’s Center for Behavior & the Environment, managing a virtual learning platform for practitioners blending behavioral insights with design thinking to solve our biggest environmental challenges. She is currently a Mellon - American Council of Learned Societies Public Fellow and has a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology. You can find more of her work here.

Organization: https://www.quantumcs.com

Interview w/Kaushik: https://wow.outlookbusiness.com/meena-kaushik/


Credits

Production: Madhuri Karak and Adam Gamwell

Music: Zanzibar - Jones Meadow, Epidemic Sounds

Art: Adam Gamwell

Jul 16, 202140:19
From Art School to Industry: Passion, Ethics, and Business Impact with Phil Surles
Jun 16, 202144:16
So tell me about yourself: Storytelling and the Science of Love with Helen Fisher

So tell me about yourself: Storytelling and the Science of Love with Helen Fisher

If Dr. Hellen Fisher isn’t a household name in your house (yet), her work certainly is. Helen is a biological anthropologist and basically the reason you can date online. She’s an expert on romantic love, gender differences, the evolution of human emotions and attraction. She has also been the Chief Scientific Advisor for Match.com and was instrumental in their offshoot, Chemistry.com. She has explored how love patterns are actually deeply coded in our physiology and neuropsychology. We talk about how to understand sex, love, and dating across human behavior, patterns in courtship, and the evolution of bonding.

But beyond this, Helen is a wildly popular author, TED speaker and public intellectual. To this end brings to the table a wealth of insight into how to translate anthropological insights in ways that feel meaningful to people today.

Hellen discusses her career path, how she strayed from the field of academia, became an accredited author and eventually an advisor to Match.com We discuss how to handle media attention, the tactics of public speaking, and how to connect to your audiences.

In this episode we focus on:

  • Fisher’s formula for making anthropology matter in the mainstream
  • The biological anthropology of how we find love and who we are attracted to
  • The ways in which we can apply/sell anthropology in a context outside of academia
  • Effective tactics of public speaking and audience engagement

Guest Bio: Helen Fisher is a biological anthropologist who studies human behavior, love, and attraction. She has been the Chief Scientific Advisor for Match.com for ten years and was instrumental in their offshoot, Chemistry.com. Additionally Fisher is known for her TedTalks and is even a Ted All-Star but not only is she popular on the TedTalk circuit she also has appeared in several YouTube videos and has written books about love and relationships. Some of her books include Anatomy of Love (2016), Why We Love (2004), and Why Him Why Her? (2009).

Where to Find Helen Fisher:

helenfisher.com

Pew Research on online dating

Music: Epidemic Sounds

  • Girl Like You (Instrumental Version) - Flux Vortex
  • Sweet Talk (Instrumental Version) - Tyra Chantey

Episode Art: Sara Schmieder

Episode Production: Elizabeth Smyth, Sara Schmieder, Sarah McDonough, Adam Gamwell

Leave a Review for our Book Give Away! (We've got one copy of Ghost Work with your name on it! - Leave us a review at one of the sites below and email a screen shot to thisanthrolife@gmail.com so we know it's you).

This Anthro Life - Anthropology Podcast | Podchaser

‎This Anthro Life on Apple Podcasts

Jun 04, 202148:58
Dead People Tell Tales: Segregated Cemeteries in Richmond Virginia w Dr. Ryan Smith
May 14, 202149:15
The surprising truths wild horses teach us about the power of ritual, social durability, and surviving the Anthropocene with John Hartigan Jr.

The surprising truths wild horses teach us about the power of ritual, social durability, and surviving the Anthropocene with John Hartigan Jr.

In today’s episode Adam Gamwell and Astrid Countee are joined by multispecies anthropologist John Hartigan jr. John is an anthropology professor at the University of Texas at Austin. In his latest work, Shaving the Beasts: Wild Horses and Ritual in Spain, John studies the social lives of wild horses in Spain and Catalonia and the Spanish ritual dating back to the 1500s of “Rapa das Bestas”- in which villagers heard wild horses together into public ceremonial rings and shave their manes and tails. Why is an anthropologist studying horses you ask? John’s work dives into the complex social lives of these horses, what happens with human ritual causes violence and social breakdown - in this case amongst horses - and asks the question of how we can learn about human culture from other species?

In this episode we focus on:

  • What studying nonhuman species like plants and horses tells us about being human
  • How to do rapid ethnographic fieldwork
  • How the sociality of humans shapes and is shaped by other species
  • Why ecology needs anthropology and vice versa

Where to Find John Hartigan:

John Hartigan Jr. is an anthropology professor at the University of Texas at Austin who focuses on multispecies ethnography, media, and race. He has done fieldwork in Spain, Mexico, Peru, Colombia, and Detroit, Michigan. Hartigan’s latest book is Shaving The Beast: Wild Horses and Ritual in Spain, in which he explores the ritual of rapa das bestas in Galicia, Spain where villagers heard wild horses together to shave their manes and tails. Through multispecies ethnography, Hartigan tells the story of this ritual through the horses’ eyes, experiencing the traumatic event as he tells the story of the horses and their society. Hartigan has also authored Care of the Species: Cultivating Biodiversity in Mexico and Spain (2017), Racial Situations: Class Predicaments of Whiteness in Detroit (1999), Odd Tribes: Toward a Cultural Analysis of White People (2005), What Can You Say? America’s National Conversation on Race (2010), and Aesop’s Anthropology: A Multispecies Approach.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/aesopsanthro


Music: Epidemic Sounds

Tilden Parc - The Weekend (Instrumental Version)

Nebulas [ocean jams]

Episode Art: Sara Schmieder

Leave a Review for our Book Give Away!

This Anthro Life - Anthropology Podcast | Podchaser

‎This Anthro Life on Apple Podcasts

May 05, 202153:55
The Ghost in the Machine is Not Who You Think: Human Labor and the Paradox of Automation with Mary L Gray

The Ghost in the Machine is Not Who You Think: Human Labor and the Paradox of Automation with Mary L Gray

BOOK GIVEAWAY!! Leave a Review of This Anthro Life for a chance to win a copy of Ghost Work! Leave us a written review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser by May 8, 2021, and email us a screenshot (so we know it's you) at thisanthrolife@gmail.com.

We'll randomly pick four winners out of the group from anyone who submits a review by May 8th, 2021.  Now just a heads up: We're only counting serious reviews where you write something thoughtful. We'll take five stars of course if you want to just help out, but please no writing "I'm just doing this to get a free book." Feel free to share what you love about the podcast, why you find it valuable, How long you been listening or what keeps you listening? Remember, reviews help others discover the show and help us shape the content based on what you find valuable, so thanks for participating, we can't wait to hear from you!

Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/this-anthro-life-216403

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id871241283

Mary Gray is an anthropologist whose work explores how technology informs work, a sense of identity, and human rights. Gray applies these concepts as the Senior Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research and as the Faculty Associate at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. Additionally she remains in a faculty position at the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering. Gray has also authored books such as In Your Face: Stories from the Lives of Queer Youth and Out In the Country: Youth, Media, and Queer Visibility in Rural America but her most recent book, coauthored with Siddharth Suri Ghostwork: How to Stop Silicon Valleyfrom Building a New Global Underclass focuses on how task based work is being utilized by bigger businesses and how this represents a change in the way we conceptualize work.

In this episode we focus on:

  • What is Ghost Work?
  • The gap between what a person can do and what a computer can do
  • Algorithmic cruelty
  • The future of work and what that means for contract labor
  • Tech not as devices, but as conduits for social connection
  • How to bring empathy into the workplace

Where to Find Mary Gray:

Website:https://marylgray.org/

Twitter:https://twitter.com/marylgray

Linkedin:https://www.linkedin.com/in/marylgraymsr/

Music: Epidemic Sounds

  • Dylan Sitts - Ice Cold Beverage
  • 91 Nova - Lushwork
  • Blue Steel - Up Here

Episode Art: Adam Gamwell

Photograph in Episode Art: Adrianne Mathiowetz

Episode Production: Elizabeth Smyth, Sarah McDonough, Adam Gamwell

Apr 08, 202159:50
Becoming a Business Anthropologist and Mastering the Tools of the Trade w/ Oscar Barrera

Becoming a Business Anthropologist and Mastering the Tools of the Trade w/ Oscar Barrera

Oscar Barrera is a Business Anthropologist based out of Veracruz, Mexico who brings a global mindset to helping businesses turn hurdles into opportunities for positive change. He is an expert in innovation, change management, and strategy. In this episode in partnership with Experience By Design podcast cohosts Adam Gamwell and Gary David dig into Oscar's story to learn the steps he took in moving from academia to business. We also dig into

  • follow along case stories of how Oscar used the social sciences to help businesses see and solve organizational problems, find new marketing opportunities, and help people craft new narratives that empower them to be the heroes of their own stories
  • why we believe it is not only ethical to bring the social sciences into business, but why it is fundamentally necessary to do so
  • how to get started learning the world of business

This episode is jam packed with great stories and advice!

Connect with Oscar on LinkedIn

Oscar's website (Spanish): Antropología Corporativa

Mar 05, 202152:37
They're not Binging TV, they're Feasting: Rethinking Media, Honor and American Culture with Grant McCracken

They're not Binging TV, they're Feasting: Rethinking Media, Honor and American Culture with Grant McCracken

Take a walk with anthropologist and consultant Grant McCracken and host Adam Gamwell, as they discuss Grant's new book The New Honor Code: A Simple Plan for Raising Our Standards and Restoring Our Good Names and dig into Grant's uncanny ability to excavate and weave together (American) culture, media, and storytelling, and pull out provocative insights like the need to get more anthropologists and cultural experts into the C-Suite, how we might re-invent honor in the contemporary world, and how setting anthropology free from the academy can reshape it and make the field better for it.

In The New Honor Code, Grant draws together ideas from Elizabethan England, insights found while hanging out in people's living rooms interviewing them about their television watching habits for Netflix, the rise of celebrity culture as the closest thing we have to honor today - and why that's a problem - and the seemingly uncrossable gap between American boomers and millennials/GenZ.  In mixing all these ideas together, he asks what is honor, why did it seem to disappear from our culture and what would it look like to create a system of honor in contemporary United States that would dissuade people from acting badly with impunity. 

We dig into all these topics in this episode and Grant has some great advice for any social scientist looking to go into consulting or business or if you're in business, how we can be more savvy and practical about infusing anthropological mindsets and thinking into organizations without hitting people over the head with it, especially if they find the idea of culture confusing. 

Feb 04, 202143:19
How to Manage Social Conflict, Communicate Effectively and Find Common Ground with Jeremy Pollack

How to Manage Social Conflict, Communicate Effectively and Find Common Ground with Jeremy Pollack

In January 2021 armed rioters stormed the US Capitol in a harrowing and politically fomented insurrection. It was an apex of years of divisive and condemnable rhetoric and fear-mongering used to stoke insecurities and desperate action. How do we ensure this never happens again? Or how do we dismantle the social structures that feed hate, fear, and contempt? What this event, and on the flip side, our celebration of Martin Luther King jr. Day (when we recorded this episode 1/18/21), reveal is that understanding what leads to social conflict and how to manage and resolve conflict is more essential than ever. Today Adam Gamwell and Astrid Countee talk with conflict management expert and author Jeremy Pollack about healing a divided nation by learning to talk with our neighbors more. We dig into:

  • Why humans need help managing conflict
  • Cognitive and perceptual biases that prevent us from communicating clearly with one another
  • How to communicate clearly around fears and intentions to find common ground
  • How to understand and disarm Worldview defense
  • That we need to start talking to our neighbors more! 
  • The importance of local leadership in modeling intergroup communication and shared goals

Jeremy Pollack is the Founder of nationwide conflict resolution consulting firm Pollack Peacebuilding Systems and author of the new book Conflict Resolution Playbook: Practical Communication Skills for Preventing, Managing, and Resolving Conflict. Jeremy is a fellow at Stanford University’s Center for International Conflict and Negotiation, and an expert on human conflict with an academic background in social psychology, evolutionary anthropology, negotiation, conflict resolution and peacebuilding.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremypollack1/

https://www.facebook.com/pollackpeacebuilding/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3K6m_0bO31lD7JUc0th_vQ/featured

https://pollackpeacebuilding.com/


Jan 19, 202157:51
The Hidden World of Sh*t (a farewell to 2020)

The Hidden World of Sh*t (a farewell to 2020)

Language warning. We use the word sh*t a lot in this episode, since it is, in fact all about poop. 

To wrap up this crappy, some may even say shitty year, host Adam Gamwell and intern Elizabeth Smyth discuss the origin of the word shit, how the way we defecate is culturally constructed, what our poop reveals about us, and so much more in this New Year’s Eve mini-episode of This Anthro Life. Farewell 2020, it’s been real.

In this episode we dig into:

  • What poop tells us about culture and our biology
  • Whether to sit or squat?
  • Poop’s superpower for healing gut microbiota and potential energy source
  • How poop in space might tell us if we are, in fact, extraterrestrials ourselves

Also check our new blog Voice and Value where we dive deeper into all things human: Voice and Value – Medium

Articles referenced:

Follow this Anthro Life on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram!

Twitter: This Anthro Life Podcast (@thisanthrolife) / Twitter

Instagram: This Anthro Life Podcast (@thisanthrolife) • Instagram photos and videos

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thisanthrolife/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/this-anthro-life-podcast

Website: This Anthro Life

Music: Epidemic Sounds

No Regrets - Guy Trevino

Basmati - Farrell Wooten

Episode Art: Liz Smyth

Jan 01, 202128:50
More than a Game: Sports, Race, and Masculinity in Diaspora w/ Vyjayanthi Vadrevu and Stanley Thangaraj

More than a Game: Sports, Race, and Masculinity in Diaspora w/ Vyjayanthi Vadrevu and Stanley Thangaraj

In this episode we meet Dr. Stan Thangaraj, an anthropology professor at the City College of New York whose research includes immigration in the U.S, being interviewed by Vyjayanthi Vadrevu, a business anthropologist and ethnographer. Together, the two discuss basketball, community, identity, race relations and so much more. Stay tuned with us as you learn about why race relations are so important and the answers to the following questions:

  • What does sports and their global popularity reveal about race relations in the US?
  • What can we learn from the merging transnational identities?
  • How has the “Black Lives Matter” Movement impacted the nonwhite and nonblack communities?
  • What are the politics within the diasporic communities?
  • Why is it so important to continue research and teaching about these communities?

Sponsors for this episode:

Check out the world's first Neuromarketing Bootcamp and sign up today with our Affiliate link!

Neuromarketing Bootcamp by Neuroscientist Matt Johnson and Marketing Director Prince Ghuman

Use offer code ANTHROLIFE for $500 off: Affiliate link: https://www.popneuro.com/neuromarketing-bootcamp

And check out Matt and Prince’s episode on neuromarketing on This Anthro Life https://www.thisanthrolife.org/a-neuroscientist-and-marketer-walk-into-a-bar-neuromarketing-and-the-hidden-ways-marketing-reshapes-our-brains-with-matt-johnson-and-prince-ghuman/

Check out our new Medium Blog "Voice and Value": https://medium.com/missing-link
collaborative provocations and stories that get us closer to human and deepen our perspective on society, culture, and our future. 

Stanley Thangaraj is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the City College of New York (CUNY).  His interests are at the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and citizenship.  He studies immigrant and refugee communities in the U.S. South to understand how they manage the black-white racial logic through gender, how the afterlife of colonialism takes shape in the diaspora, and the kinds of horizontal processes of race-making.His monograph Desi Hoop Dreams: Pickup Basketball and the Making of Asian American Masculinity (NYU Press, 2015) looks at the relationship between race and gender in co-ethnic-only South Asian American sporting cultures.

Vyjayanthi Vadrevu is an ethnographer/ design researcher and strategist with a background in anthropology, business development, and nonprofit administration. She works on social impact design projects as well as corporate technology projects, delivering insights to help clients better serve their end users and beneficiaries. Vyjayanthi is also a trained bharatantyam dancer, with additional experience in Odissi, Kuchipudi, Kathak, and West African dance, and uses movement and choreography to connect to the deepest parts of the human experience.

Music: Epidemic Sound
Show notes: Xin Yao Lin, Elizabeth Smyth
Episode art by: Sara Schmieder 

Nov 26, 202037:05
Life in the Age of Social Media and Smartphones with Daniel Miller and Georgiana Murariu

Life in the Age of Social Media and Smartphones with Daniel Miller and Georgiana Murariu

Do you have a sense of how much time you spend each day on social media and smartphone? Whether you can live with them or you can't live with them, we know for most of us, these are ingrained parts of our everyday lives. In this episode, we will uncover the life in the age of social media and smartphones, featuring Dr. Daniel Miller and Georgiana Murariu from the University College of London. Stay tuned as you learn about the ‘Why We Post’ project, ‘Anthropology of Smartphones and Smart Ageing, and the ‘AnthroCOVID’ project. We dig into:

  • How do people use social media differently around the world?
  • What are some strategies for making research accessible?
  • What is the impact of smartphones on health?
  • What are some creative ways that people have documented lives during the pandemic?
  • How do you get so many anthropologists to work together globally?
  • What is some advice for researchers who want to do collaborative and comparative work?

Daniel Miller is a Professor of Anthropology at University College London and directed the ‘Why We Post’ project, which investigated the uses and consequences of social media in nine different countries around the world. The project resulted in twelve open access books, one about each fieldsite and two comparative ones. He is currently leading a project called ASSA (The Anthropology of Smartphones and Smart Ageing) which aims to analyze the impact of the smartphone on people’s lives based on 11 simultaneous 16-month ethnographies around the world. He is also the founder of the digital anthropology program at University College London (UCL).

Follow Daniel on @DannyAnth

Georgiana Murariu is a public dissemination officer at UCL, working with Daniel Miller and the team of researchers on the ‘Anthropology of Smartphones and Smart Ageing’. She is currently developing and implementing a dissemination strategy for the project which includes helping create a MOOC based on the project’s findings as well as using social media and digital tools to encourage the public to engage with the project’s findings and anthropology as a discipline.

Follow Georgiana on Twitter: @georgiana_mu

Twitter: @UCLWhyWePost

EPISODE SPONSOR: Check out the world's first Neuromarketing Bootcamp and sign up today with our Affiliate link!
| Use offer code ANTHROLIFE for $500 off: Affiliate link:
https://www.popneuro.com/neuromarketing-bootcamp

Nov 11, 202059:00
Getting Down to Business and Making a Career with Anthropology: Guest Podcast w Adam Gamwell on Anthro Perspectives

Getting Down to Business and Making a Career with Anthropology: Guest Podcast w Adam Gamwell on Anthro Perspectives

This Anthro Life is based on lifting up the voices and value of anthropologists and human scientists in all fields through sharing their stories, thought leadership, struggles, and winding paths. Today we've got something special, where we turn the mic around on our host, Adam Gamwell and hear some of his story on how he is building a career as an anthropologist. TAL's Adam Gamwell recently guested on fellow business anthropologist Keith Kellersohn's new YouTube series Anthro Perspectives, where he interviews anthropologists in industry and businesses about their work. This episode has a bit of everything:

  • whether you're an anthropology student in school looking to get your first job, 
  • an academic looking to move into industry, 
  • if you're already working somewhere out there and looking to change careers, 
  • or perhaps if you don't work anthropologists and you want to find out and understand value anthropology can bring to your business. 

We cover all of this and more in our conversation. 

One of the most helpful things in these scenarios I find is hearing other people's stories about how they did it or are doing it, or even how they just stumbled around in the dark and making it up as they went along and still came out with some kind of experience. I think perhaps the latter is closer to my own story. 

So I invite you to join me for a chat about career paths, learning to articulate the value anthropology. Social sciences provide to businesses and a bit about why I do what I do. Thanks to Keith for sharing this episode.

Check out the world's first Neuromarketing Bootcamp and sign up today with our Affiliate link!

Neuromarketing Bootcamp by Neuroscientist Matt Johnson and Marketing Director Prince Ghuman 

| Use offer code ANTHROLIFE for $500 off: Affiliate link: https://www.popneuro.com/neuromarketing-bootcamp

Episode Art: Sara Schmieder
Music: Epidemic Sounds

Oct 23, 202049:18
Death Work: The Life and Culture of Forensics with Lilly White

Death Work: The Life and Culture of Forensics with Lilly White

When most people think of forensics or forensic anthropology the first thing that comes to mind are TV shows like CSI or Bones, or maybe in Six Feet Under.

This may sound overly obvious, but people die every day. And this means that every day someone has to deliver dealth notifications to next of kin, especially when people live apart. Often times coroners are the ones who deliver these notifications. Coroners are elected or appointed public officials whose primary duty is to determine and certify cause of death.

and while they have the scientific knowledge to do so, sometimes with the help of apps and digital tools, the social part of dealing with death, both for next of kin and the coroners themselves, is often ignored.

We all experience death at some point but across 2020 more people have been directly impacted by death than ever before due to COVID-19. Meaning that more people than ever are receiving death notifications, which was a difficult conversation even before the pandemic. These notifications are challenging to give, Imagine knocking on a door or picking up the phone delivering the news that someone has passed away. It’s essential work. And it’s not easy. It’s also deeply social and cultural.

This is why I’m talking to Lilly White a forensic anthropologist who focuses on the cultural side of forensics, especially on the lives of coroners and medical examiners and the best ways to handle death notifications. Lily got her PhD from the University of Montana in 2019 and currently owns and operates Bones and Stone Anthroscience with her husband.

So today we’ll be talking about how cultural anthropology can play a role in forensic anthropology especially with death notifications.

Top Takeaways

  1. We dig into the unseen/secret life of coroners (from a cultural perspective)
  2. Death notice work is essential but emotionally difficult so there’s a struggle keeping coroners in the practice
  3. The challenges of scientific training and having to deliver the worst possible news; the mix of scientific and social knowledge
  4. We’ll open the conversation like I often like to do, with Lily’s story and how she found her way into forensics and forensic anthropology, what life is like training to be a coroner, and her path to running her own forensics business today.

Read about Lilly’s work in NYC with COVID-19 deaths (University of Montana)

Lilly’s Instagram: Bone & Stone Anthrosciences (@deathphd) • Instagram photos and videos

What is a Coroner?


Episode art: Sara Schmieder

Sep 30, 202043:53
How to Study Meaning at Scale: AI and Big Data Ethnography, Microcultures and the Future of Innovation w/ Ujwal Arkalgud

How to Study Meaning at Scale: AI and Big Data Ethnography, Microcultures and the Future of Innovation w/ Ujwal Arkalgud

Artificial 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.

So in the world of market and consumer research you may know that people are commonly categorized into segments or generations - you've likely seen people written about as Millennial or Baby Boomers (OK, Boomer). But what limitations to understanding people are present when putting them into segments and generations and only seeing them from a high level? That's often where ethnography comes in, and where anthropologists like to live with and get to know people on their terms. But there's a huge stretch between massive Big Data sets and individual ethnography, right?

What if there were a way to do ethnography with big data? That is, what if there were a way to be able to understand the nuances of cultural meaning people assign to things from big data sets? What this entails is, in essence quantifying ethnography. And turns out, the key has to do with focusing on meaning. That and some computer science wizardry.

I'm excited today to have on the show one of the pioneers in this field, Ujwal Arkalgud, CEO, cultural anthropologist, and co-founder of Motivbase, a global tech research firm that has cracked the cultural code and developed software and research tools that bring together the analytical power of anthropology and the wide reach of big data.

We’ll dig into

  • the concept of micro cultures, which are are a set of meanings that make up a market space,
  • the need to study of meaning and behavior in business, why don’t companies think about meaning as a primary mover?
  • why traditional market research doesn’t effectively get at meaning,
  • how the internet has changed the way we make culture and meaning and that betting on cultural homogenization is a trap

Checkout Movitbase here

Microcultures: Understanding the consumer forces that will shape the future of your business

Ujwal's Medium page

If you enjoy This Anthro Life, please consider supporting the show with $5 - $20 a month on Patreon. We're self funded so rely on you to help make the show happen!

Aug 18, 202048:23
Cyberpsychology: How Life Online Shapes our Minds and What We Can Do About It w Julie Ancis

Cyberpsychology: How Life Online Shapes our Minds and What We Can Do About It w Julie Ancis

It'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, Dr. Julie Ancis is starting as Director and Professor of an exciting new Cyberpsychology program at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and currently writes for the new Cyberpsychology blog for Psychology Today where she's been offering advice on how to practice mental wellbeing as so many of us move online, especially during the time of COVID.

Digital technology can be a blessing and a curse, right? Connecting us in new ways to old friends, but it can also be addicting, cause people to unfairly compare themselves to one another on social media to feel more lonely even. When it comes to things like the news, it can be more difficult to discern fact from opinion. But don't worry. It's not all zoom and gloom. What we'll find is that it's up to us to become discerning critical thinkers about our own psychology and the psychology of others when it comes to life online. And understanding that we do in fact have the tools each and every one of us to become critical thinkers. And, if you feel like you want to learn and get an even better handle on it, there's a brand new cyber psychology program at NJIT launching just around the corner.

Dr. Julie Ancis

Ancis Consulting

New Jersey Institute of Technology Cyberpsychology Program

Psychology Today Cyberpsychology Blog

Catch Julie on:

Twitter

Facebook

Instagram 

Checkout my This Anthro Life sister project Mindshare

And our upcoming panel “Ethics are for Everyone: Four Anthropologists Talk Shop on ethics across design, business and technology” Eventbrite registration here

Jul 17, 202001:05:56
A Neuroscientist and Marketer walk into a bar: Neuromarketing and the hidden ways marketing reshapes our brains with Matt Johnson and Prince Ghuman

A Neuroscientist and Marketer walk into a bar: Neuromarketing and the hidden ways marketing reshapes our brains with Matt Johnson and Prince Ghuman

Ever 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 Reshapes our Brains that explores the emerging field of neuromarketing.

This is a fascinating conversation that gets into the neuroscience, marketing, and psychology of why we consume, why certain kinds of advertisements work for different groups of people, and -something long time listeners of This Anthro Life know - the need to clearly communicate our work as human, Neuro, and social scientists to other disciplines and people in general. And speaking of that, we dig into one of Adam's favorite subjects of all time - Star Wars - to figure out why nostalgia marketing can be so powerful.

on LinkedIn: Prince Ghuman and Matt Johnson, PhD.

Jun 28, 202044:36
The Connected Cup: Coffee, Tea, Happiness and Visual Storytelling Around the Globe with Documentarian Brooke Bierhaus

The Connected Cup: Coffee, Tea, Happiness and Visual Storytelling Around the Globe with Documentarian Brooke Bierhaus

What 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 countries
  • how coffee and tea provide a window into what makes the good life and happiness
  • cultures of coffee and tea around the globe
  • narrative and ethnographic voice as part of filmmaking

https://www.theconnectedcup.com/

https://www.instagram.com/itsbrookebierhaus/

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10149658/

Brooke's Bio from IMDB: Brooke Bierhaus is an American award-winning documentary filmmaker and visual storyteller. Brooke is known for her feature film, "The Connected Cup", following the heart of coffee and tea around the world as a global language of connection. Brooke has worked and produced stories in 22 countries.

Jun 05, 202045:45
Beyond the Prototype: Navigating that Fuzzy Area between Ideas and Outcomes with Douglas Ferguson

Beyond the Prototype: Navigating that Fuzzy Area between Ideas and Outcomes with Douglas Ferguson

Today 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 Ferguson

Voltage Control president, design thinking facilitator and innovation coach Douglas Ferguson recently published a book called Beyond the Prototype that aims to help teams and organizations (and individuals!) go from generating awesome ideas to implementing them. Over the course of our conversation we cover:

  • the power of systems thinking
  • seeing variables in the design ecosystem
  • facilitation as model through systems thinking
  • The connections between organizations and society.
  • HR departments using design thinking to point the lens inward
  • Caution that when we compress ideas there is opportunity to meaning to be lost
  • Why facilitation is such a crucial role
    • for example, realizing if you’re using one word to mean two things, or two words to mean the same thing - skilled facilitating brings these discrepancies and differences in meaning into focus for teams to help them overcome roadblocks in understanding
  • Why so many start up founders get stuck on the idea of scale rather versus pursuing a smaller, but passion-driven idea
  • How design facilitation sessions are about harnessing the power of the child’s mind - playful energy
  • and debriefing as a crucial stage in any process: can you answer the question of why did we did this?

Links and Resources mentioned in today's episode

voltagecontrol.com

beyondtheprototype.com

startwithin.com

Beyond the Prototype book

Jake Knapp - Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days

Greg Satell - Cascades: How to Create a Movement that Drives Transformational Change

David Epstein - Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World

May 06, 202001:11:22
How Do You Make a 2.4 Billion Dollar Observatory Disappear?
Mar 29, 202049:52
A Virus Without Borders: The Design of Public Health, Inequality, and Hope

A Virus Without Borders: The Design of Public Health, Inequality, and Hope

Produced 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 Professor of Public Health and Sociology, and Program Director of the Master of Public Health.

Meenakshi Verma-Agrawal is the Assistant Program Director and Associate Professor of Practice at MPH@Simmons.

What  a difference a week makes. Or does it? With the expanding pandemic of COVID-19 disrupting more lives, many here in the United States might  feel caught off guard, or that things have changed to rapidly. Now  health care is a constant concern.

What Shelley White and  Meenakshi Verma-Agrawal help us put in perspective is that even though  we can all get sick, public health and care has always been political,  and who has access to care, and even what diagnoses one gets, have been  deeply tied to class, race, ethnicity and other socioeconomic  classifications. Public health, in fact, is designed. Moments of  pandemic, where a virus crosses borders and bodies with no care for the  social structures we’ve erected, brings to light the radically unequal  way our public health systems are designed. For middle class families  who find themselves for the first time concerned about the lack of  available health care or beds at a hospital, must now contend with the  fact that this is a common reality for many poorer communities and  communities of color.

But moments of crisis like this are also  moments of hope. As Dr. White notes in the conversation, we have to  remember that there are more people who seek equity and change than  those who benefit from the status quo. What's radical is to acknowledge  the racial, social, and economic injustices that frame our public health  system and to then set about to change those inequities for a more just  world.

  • covid-19
  • public health
  • healthcare design
  • experience design
  • health inequalities
Mar 21, 202001:17:31
The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers, and the Future of Humanity w/ Byron Reese
Mar 13, 202001:05:01
Will We Find God with this Machine? Introducing Starstruck
Feb 13, 202034:39
Brands and the Business of Relationships with Bill Fleming
Jan 13, 202040:55
Happiness and the Good Life According to the Aztecs w/ Dr. Ryan Collins
Jan 01, 202017:48
Robots, Science Fiction, and the Anthropological Imagination: a Guest Podcast TAL's Adam Gamwell on Trending in Education
Dec 16, 201943:45
Why More Security Never Feels Like Enough, by Astrid Countee: Storyslamming Anthropology Series #3

Why More Security Never Feels Like Enough, by Astrid Countee: Storyslamming Anthropology Series #3

Why More Security Never Feels like Enough

Storyslamming Anthropology Series, Story 3. Written and Performed by Astrid Countee

In 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 already publicly oriented writing for inspiration? What if “Guns, Germs and Steel” (Diamond 1999), “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind”, (Harai 2015) or “Freakonomics” (Levitt and Dubner 2009) were written by anthropologists?

What if we told you that once upon a time, they were? When Margaret Mead wrote “Coming of Age in Samoa” in 1928, anthropologists and non-anthropologists alike flocked to her work because of its accessibility - and felt topical relevance. Could such an achievement be attainable today?

While some scholars might reject an approach based on “popular” writing, we argue that the enormous success of the above books (as well as the podcasts, YouTube videos and Netflix series based on them) demonstrates a general interest in theories of humankind, what it means to be human in the contemporary world, and throughout history. We ask why have anthropologists not followed suit? Despite the massive amount of scholarship published each year by anthropologists, none seem to crack that elusive space between rigorous research and “pop-science.” While there are trade offs between academic complexity and writing for a lay audience, the theme of the 2017 American Anthropological Association conference, "Anthropology Matters!" speaks to our need to talk across (and storytell) different worlds. Our goal with this experimental panel was to invoke the public spirit of Franz Boas, Margaret Mead, Melville Herskovits and others to speak to 21st century concerns from a comparative perspective in clear language. We picked papers that revealed juxtapositions, seemingly counter- or non- intuitive links between subjects, objects, ideas, emotions, practices, or traditions that we felt can intrigue, educate, and delight participants. The goal of this series of to expand our genres of sharing ethnographic and anthropological insight. We hope you enjoy!

Story 1: #MeToo: Stories in the Age of Survivorship by Emma Backe

Story 2: Fear and Loathing in Truth or Consequences by Taylor Genovese

Nov 18, 201915:26
100 Years of Beauty and the Beast of YouTube with Chris Chan

100 Years of Beauty and the Beast of YouTube with Chris Chan

in 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 then in turn, make their own versions of. 
  • we dig into Chanthropology, Chris' behind the scenes ethnographic videos on why the producers and makeup artists make the aesthetic choices that they do. 
  • how to think about beauty and aesthetics as political, not merely as passive consumerism.
  • and yes, at some point in the episode, Chris mentions the Human Centipede. But for the reasons you'd think. It's amazing. (his comment, not the film)


This Anthro Life is produced and (lightly) edited by Adam Gamwell. I'm a small team of 1, so if you get something out of this show please consider supporting TAL on Patreon and helping make it happen. Even $5 a month makes a huge difference and me and our thousands of listeners are so grateful :). 

If you've read this far I'll be looking for production help soon! Transcription correction, content editing, social media and marketing - so if you've got some experience or want to learn the trade and want to help out, drop me a line at thisanthrolife@gmail.com

Chris is Director of Content at Cut.com

100 Years of Beauty and the Beast of YouTube with Chris Chan

Episode 129

Oct 23, 201957:32
Design Research is Anthropology Applied with Amy Santee

Design Research is Anthropology Applied with Amy Santee

At 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 anthropology and ethnography, and how tactics and methods can be applied both in industry or academia. 

Amy Santee is a design research and strategy consultant who helps teams build products, services and brands through an understanding of people, context and experience. Trained as an anthropologist, Amy uses a human-centered lens to make sense of complex problem spaces and create value for others. She has worked primarily in digital product design, innovation and strategy, in areas such as ecommerce, entertainment, retail, home improvement, health care, enterprise software, and consumer tech. Amy is active in the applied anthropology community and blogs about design, business, organizational culture and careers at anthropologizing.com. She also provides career advising services and presentations to groups on these topics. You can learn more about her on LinkedIn or visit her website, amysantee.com.

Transcript of the episode here

As always, your reviews and support mean the world to us and help the show continue. Please help sponsor the show with a monthly or onetime donation on Anchor or Patreon.

Episode 128


Sep 27, 201901:08:46
Backpacks and Toe tags: Life and Death on the US-Mexico Border w/ Jason de León

Backpacks and Toe tags: Life and Death on the US-Mexico Border w/ Jason de León

In 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 questions and reflections about privilege, position, and power. 

Full Transcript of the episode here

Checkout some of Jason's projects

http://www.hostileterrain94.com/
http://undocumentedmigrationproject.com/

MacArthur Fellow Video

Episode 127



Aug 28, 201938:15
Where Qualitative Meets Quantitative Data w/ Delve co-founders LaiYee Ho and Alex Limpaecher
Aug 14, 201933:35
GUEST PODCAST: AnthroDish 49: Exploring Quinoa Production through Design Anthropology with Dr. Adam Gamwell
Jul 22, 201901:01:12
The Surprising Connections between Climate Finance, Sacrifice and the Spirit of Capitalism
Jul 09, 201946:24
Fear and Loathing in Truth or Consequences, performed by Taylor Genovese: Storyslamming Anthropology Series #2

Fear and Loathing in Truth or Consequences, performed by Taylor Genovese: Storyslamming Anthropology Series #2

Storyslamming Anthropology Series, Story 2. Written and Performed by Taylor Genovese

In 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 already publicly oriented writing for inspiration? What if “Guns, Germs and Steel” (Diamond 1999), “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind”, (Harai 2015) or “Freakonomics” (Levitt and Dubner 2009) were written by anthropologists? 

What if we told you that once upon a time, they were? When Margaret Mead wrote “Coming of Age in Samoa” in 1928, anthropologists and non-anthropologists alike flocked to her work because of its accessibility - and felt topical relevance. Could such an achievement be attainable today? 

While some scholars might reject an approach based on “popular” writing, we argue that the enormous success of the above books (as well as the podcasts, YouTube videos and Netflix series based on them) demonstrates a general interest in theories of humankind, what it means to be human in the contemporary world, and throughout history. We ask why have anthropologists not followed suit? Despite the massive amount of scholarship published each year by anthropologists, none seem to crack that elusive space between rigorous research and “pop-science.” While there are trade offs between academic complexity and writing for a lay audience, the theme of the 2017 American Anthropological Association conference, "Anthropology Matters!" speaks to our need to talk across (and storytell) different worlds. Our goal with this experimental panel was to invoke the public spirit of Franz Boas, Margaret Mead, Melville Herskovits and others to speak to 21st century concerns from a comparative perspective in clear language. We picked papers that revealed juxtapositions, seemingly counter- or non- intuitive links between subjects, objects, ideas, emotions, practices, or traditions that we felt can intrigue, educate, and delight participants. The goal of this series of to expand our genres of sharing ethnographic and anthropological insight. We hope you enjoy! 

Story 1: #MeToo: Stories in the Age of Survivorship by Emma Backe


Jun 24, 201916:07
EPIC 2019: Agency in the Digital Age with Julia Haines and Lisa diCarlo

EPIC 2019: Agency in the Digital Age with Julia Haines and Lisa diCarlo

Welcome 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 down with the EPIC conference chairs Julia Haines and Lisa Di Carlo.

Julia conducts research at the intersection of technology, innovation, and human practices. She is a Senior User Experience Researcher at Google where she leads UX research for a team of over 400 designers and engineers, bringing an inclusive, human-centered perspective to the project. She is a co-founder of the Responsible AI License (RAIL) initiative and an inaugural member of the ACM’s Future of Computing Academy. 

Lisa is an anthropologist and lecturer in the Sociology Department at Brown University. She teaches courses on design anthropology, applied qualitative research methods and research ethics. The common threads throughout her research are migration and displacement, .from labor migration, to religious conversion as migration and displacement, to social innovation through the migration of ideas. When not preparing a massive conference, she conducts ethnographic research primarily in the Mediterranean area, most frequently in Turkey and Turkish diaspora communities. 

We have a wide ranging conversation that covers questions such as 

  • what agency looks like in industry and classrooms, 
  • what responsibilities corporations have to the agency of users, 
  • how we can make computing more equitable, 
  • the pace of research in academia and industry, 
  • how students and other professionals looking to move into industry ethnography and research can get a leg up. 


As always, we want to hear from you! Drop us a voice message on Anchor or a message on Twitter @thisanthrolife or email at thisanthrolife@gmail.com. If you get some value out of listening to the show, please consider supporting us at Patreon.com/thisanthrolife or on Anchor.fm with a dollar or a few bucks a month, whatever you can afford. Your support makes this show possible. Thank you!

May 21, 201951:13
How to Think like an Ethnographer with Jay Hasbrouck

How to Think like an Ethnographer with Jay Hasbrouck

Adam 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. 

May 14, 201933:49
Don't Yuck My Yum w/ Julie Lesnik (Edible Insects, pt 3)
May 06, 201948:25
A Bugless Life w/ Julie Lesnik (Edible Insects, pt 2)
Apr 28, 201946:00
Why Don't You Eat Bugs?

Why 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.  Episode 118

Mar 28, 201930:26
The Social Life of Robots, pt 2: Sex and Temperament in Three Cyborg Societies

The Social Life of Robots, pt 2: Sex and Temperament in Three Cyborg Societies

Part 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.

Feb 28, 201932:17
Heritage Survival Across Borders: Identity, Language and Migration

Heritage Survival Across Borders: Identity, Language and Migration

Welcome 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. Say Chaclan (K’iche) representatives of Washington, DC-based Mayan League, an organization working to sustain Maya culture, communities, and lands. Alejandro and Mercedes share their experiences and give insight into the ongoing struggles Maya peoples face today, including issues of language, translation, and communication for indigenous immigrants who are currently in the United States. Helping to elucidate this subject, we are joined by Ph.D. Folklorist Emily Socolov, a frequent collaborator with the Smithsonian Institution’s Division of Folklife and Cultural Heritage and an Executive Director of the Non-Profit Mano a Mano: Mexican Culture Without Borders, serving the Mexican immigrant community in New York. 

Feb 21, 201954:21
The Social Life of Robots, pt 1: Spoiler Alert
Feb 06, 201930:08
The Craft of Curation
Jan 09, 201941:38
Switched on Pop
Dec 20, 201855:44
Weaving Social Fabric: The Craft of African Fashion

Weaving Social Fabric: The Craft of African Fashion

Welcome 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 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 can be much more integrated.

With this episode, we invite you into the conversations we had with participants in the Crafts of African Fashion program at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 2018. We speak with Soumana Saley a Nigerian leather worker and designer, Cynthia Sands and her mentee Tomara Watkins, also known as Tam, two fashion designers who work between the United States and the African continent, and the program’s curator Diana Baird N’Diaye. This episode was broken into three underlying themes of African fashion, and craft production focused on: the local marketplace, transnational and international fashion trends, and the relationships between consumers and producers within a community.

The Crafts of African Fashion is an initiative promoting the continuity of heritage arts in Africa, exploring the vital role of cultural enterprises in sustaining communities and connecting generations on the continent and throughout the diaspora. The activities for this portion of the Festival took place in the Folklife Festival Marketplace.

About our Speakers:

Diana N’Diaye is a Cultural Specialist and Curator at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. She holds a PhD in anthropology and visual studies from The Union Institute.

Soumana Saley is a leather craft artisan from the West African country of Niger. He currently lives in Millersburg, Pennsylvania running his own business. You can learn more about Soumana and see his products on his online store accessible at
www.facebook.com/pg/soumanasaleyonline/ and you can learn more about Soumana’s school at www.ngodima.org/.

Cynthia Sands is an African American textile artist and businesswoman in Washington, DC. Sands’ art career includes experimenting and blending contemporary and original African artistic methods, materials, and dying techniques. She also works closely with African artisans to sustain the use of indigenous art and craft making tradition for social development, income generation, skills-transfer, and art education. You can learn more about Cynthia and her work at the website: www.entuma.com.

Tomara (Tam) Watkins, is a mentee of Cynthia Sands and is the founder of Loza Tam, a hair accessory line created in collaboration Ghanaian women artisans and entrepreneurs. Visit Tam’s online store at www.Lozatam.com.

Adam Gamwell is the co-host and executive producer of the This Anthro Life (TAL). He is the founder and director of Missing Link Studios www.missinglink.studio a new media collective dedicated to producing creative media for social impact. Adam holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Brandeis University.

Ryan Collins is the co-host and editor of This Anthro Life (TAL). Ryan holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Brandeis University.

Leslie Walker is the project manager of the Public Education Initiative at the AAA. He served as a special guest host, collecting stories during the Folklife Festival the forthcoming podcast series with This Anthro Life.

Contact Us

Contact Adam and Ryan at thisanthrolife -at - gmail.com or individually at adam -at- thisanthrolife.com or ryan -at- thisanthrolife.com
Find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram @thisanthrolife.

All of our content can be found on thisanthrolife.com. Be sure to leave us a review, let us know if you like the show. We love to hear from you.
Dec 10, 201843:54
Sharing Sonic Space: Music as Home, Soul and Connector

Sharing 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 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.

The above quote comes from Betto Arcos, music journalist and host of NPR’s The Cosmic Bario. Music, whether you create it or are an avid listener, pulls you in a deep sensory allure. The connection humans make with music is so deep that it can impact us physically and serve as a key point of return for our memories. As our guests from the Smithsonian Folklife Festival can attest, as much as it conjures deep feelings and memories, we learn something through the experience of music. Joining the distinct artists together in their views on music is a central theme, that music can help us overcome social difference. For Betto, this recognition is central to his desire to create music. Betto Arcos, in his own words:

“I think that’s ultimately why I do it [create music]. I feel like there is a responsibility. There is a sense of a higher reason, why I do this. But deep down it’s also because I love music. Because I’m passionate about it and I feel like we can only do better as a human race, as people, if we know about each other a little more.”

About our Speakers

Betto Arcos is a music journalist based in Los Angeles, host of The Cosmic Barrio, a reporter for NPR, and regular reporter for PRI. You can learn more about Betto at:
bettoarcos.com/

Or follow him on Twitter @ArcosBetto

Amy Horowitz is an activist, promoter, feminist scholar, Roadwork team putting women artists and musicians on the road, the first multiracial, multicultural coalition. You can learn more about Amy Horowitz at: amyhorowitz.org/

And read about RoadWork www.roadworkcenter.org/

Arpan Thakur Chakraborty, Rabi Das Baul, Girish Khyapa and Mamoni Chitrakar are the Baul performers, mystic minstrels from the Indian state of Bengal. The Bauls are known for devotional songs that honor the divine within. Additionally, Mamoni Chitrakar is a traditional Indian patachitra singer and painter from West Bengal. You can learn more about their causes at: www.banglanatak.com

The purpose of this series is to create narratives linking the diverse peoples, perspectives, and activities across the Festival from a series of micro ethnographies like those above. The open format interview style allowed participants to define in their own words the relationships between their artisanship, musical ability, or experiences and how migration and movement shape their lives. Conversations with curators and other researchers supplemented the interviews with Festival participants and helped us to identify the research involved in selecting participants and the presentation of cultural heritage for the Festival. This approach allows us to foreground a central or thematic conversation and narrate events and activities at the Festival that listeners can paint in their minds as if they had been there to experience it.

About Our Hosts

Adam Gamwell is the co-host and executive producer of the This Anthro Life (TAL). Adam holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Brandeis University. He founded and produces narrative media out of Missing Link Studios.

Ryan Collins is the co-host and editor of This Anthro Life (TAL). Ryan holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Brandeis University.

Leslie Walker is the project manager of the Public Education Initiative at the AAA
Nov 09, 201839:18
Art is a Movement

Art is a Movement

Welcome 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 planet on the move.

"Art is a Movement" How does art help contribute to political protest? Should art never be sold for money? How can dance unify a community? How are traditions like calligraphy and traditional dances passed on between generations?

In this episode, we overview the subject of art as informed by representatives from The Armenian program and the Catalonia program of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. The above ideas on art put forth by Ruben Malayan encompasses the complex feelings, ideas, and understandings that art not only evokes within society but also those of who seek to understand art from a more holistic perspective.

Art is complex. Though what counts as art within a society is often recognizable to insiders, the rationale as to why is often much more difficult to discern. Anthropology, at its best, can help us explore the complexities of art. Through critical dialogue, anthropologists can ask what it means to experience art from the vantage point of different cultures and explore the messages that the artist intended to convey.

The purpose of this series is to create narratives linking the diverse peoples, perspectives, and activities across the Festival from a series of micro ethnographies like those above. The open format interview style allowed participants to define in their own words the relationships between their artisanship, musical ability, or experiences and the ways in which migration and movement shape their lives. Conversations with curators and other researchers supplemented the interviews with Festival participants and helped us to identify the research involved in selecting participants and the presentation of cultural heritage for the Festival. This approach allows us to foreground a central or thematic conversation and to narrate events and activities at the Festival that listeners can paint in their minds as if they had been there to experience it.

Read more and see photos here:
www.thisanthrolife.com/art-is-a-movement/
Oct 09, 201836:05
EPIC Evidence with Dawn Nafus and Tye Rattenbury
Sep 19, 201856:36
The Awe is Shared: Evolution and Public Science with Andrea Eller - This Anthro Life

The Awe is Shared: Evolution and Public Science with Andrea Eller - This Anthro Life

Andrea 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 gender as critical factors that also impact our physiology over time.


Evolution Responds, it does not React


One of the compelling predicaments that Eller discusses with Adam has  to do with current data on primates. For example, data from captive  primates are excluded from wider studies. In part, the problem is that  there is a growing population of captive primates. With more an more  primates being born into captivity, there is a concern that adaptation  is occurring in many primates. As Eller notes, the pressures to adapt in  one environmental setting or another (called selective pressures) will  be different. That means looking at the same species of primates  requires context. Whether coming from different settings, the wild,  scientific laboratories, or zoos, data on primate adaptations will  differ.

Similarly, humans use clothing as a tool for adapting to different  environments. Down or wool coats would seem out of place at Miami beach  just as scuba gear would not be an appropriate choice for reaching base  camp at Mount Everest even though each of these clothing options  reflects different human adaptations.

Mindfulness Training – Outreach and Engagement

One of the most captivating aspects of Eller’s conversation was her  genuine passion for public outreach. For Eller, it is an ongoing  struggle to help get the public to see evolution in a different light.  Too often she sees a perspective of humans being the masters of the  planet, rather than one group of participants within it. However,  combating this perspective (among others) requires outreach and  engagement. For Eller, this begins with engaging kids. “Kids haven’t had  all of the primate educated out of them,” she says. They are more open  to experience awe and be captivated out of curiosity when seeing  examples not only of our evolutionary past but the present as well.


Read more: https://www.thisanthrolife.com/andrea-eller/

Aug 17, 201836:59