SAPIENS: A Podcast for Everything Human

What makes you … you? And who tells what stories and why? In the fifth season of 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 Season 5’s host, Eshe Lewis, on our latest journey to explore what it means to be human. SAPIENS: A Podcast for Everything Human, is produced by House of Pod and supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation. SAPIENS is part of the American Anthropological Association Podcast Library. For more information, visit sapiens.org

Introducing: The Bioneers – Revolution from the Heart of Nature 05/30/2023

Introducing: Outside/In 05/23/2023

Introducing: Blind Plea 05/17/2023

Finding Mrs. Jackson 05/09/2023

Aneho’s Disappearing Coast 05/02/2023

The Conversion of Julio Tiwiram 04/25/2023

The Conversion of Julio Tiwiram Julio Tiwiram is a famous shaman in southeast Amazonian Ecuador. He is also a leading political figure among the Shuar people of Bomboiza. Growing up at the crossroads of social change and colonial conflict, his path to shamanism was anything but straightforward. As reported by Sebastián Vacas-Oleas, a social anthropologist working with the Shuar people of Bomboiza, we learn how a mysterious shamanic gathering helped Shuar people mobilize their traditional knowledge to fight for their land against settler occupation. SAPIENS: A Podcast for Everything Human is produced by House of Pod. Cat Jaffee was the editor for this piece, with help from producer Ann Marie Awad. Seth Samuel was the audio editor and sound designer. The executive producers were Cat Jaffee and Chip Colwell. is a postdoctoral affiliate at the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography at the University of Oxford. He is also a lecturer and a visiting researcher at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences in Ecuador. He is currently working as an editor on a Shuar-authored book of collected life histories, which includes the story of Julio Tiwiram and the events heard in this episode. Sebastián also helps coordinate a project with the Bomboiza Shuar Research Group, funded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation, to study Shuar ancestral locations, migratory movements, women’s gardening practices, and change in Indigenous relations with their land. SAPIENS is an editorially independent podcast funded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation. SAPIENS is part of the American Anthropological Association Podcast Library. Check out this related resource: · You can visit Julio Tiwiram in Kupiamais, his home community, in the Bomboiza land reserve, where he sees patients in his home. You can read more about Bomboiza, its shamans, our forthcoming book, and other shared ongoing projects on . Episode sponsor: · This episode is included in season 5 of the SAPIENS podcast, which is part of the SAPIENS Public Scholars Training Fellowship funded with the support of a three-year grant from the . /episode/index/show/sapienspodcast/id/26251587

People of the Peppers 04/18/2023

The Power of Criminal Prosecutors 04/11/2023

I Do This for You, Mom 04/04/2023

I Do This for You, Mom Jeri Hutton Green is a mother, daughter, and advocate for survivors of domestic violence and homicide in Baltimore, Maryland. Her journey as an advocate began when her mother went missing in April 2020. A text message launched a 2-year battle for justice for her mother and other missing Black women. Reported by Brendane A. Tynes, a doctoral candidate in anthropology and an interpersonal violence survivor advocate, this episode explores what it means to survive domestic violence and police violence as a Black woman. SAPIENS: A Podcast for Everything Human is produced by House of Pod. Cat Jaffee was the editor for this piece, with help from producer Ann Marie Awad. Seth Samuel was the audio editor and sound designer. The executive producers were Cat Jaffee and Chip Colwell. is a Black queer feminist scholar and storyteller from Columbia, South Carolina. As a doctoral candidate in anthropology at Columbia University, she studies the affective responses of Black women and girls to multiple forms of violence within grassroots Black political movements. Her scholarship has received generous support from the CAETR, Ford Foundation, and Wenner-Gren Foundation. She works with the Say Her Name Coalition and In Our Names Network to address sexual violence against Black women, femmes, girls, and gender-expansive people. Brendane also co-hosts the , a Black feminist anthropological intervention on popular culture and issues that concern Black women and queer and trans people. Follow her on Twitter . SAPIENS is an editorially independent podcast funded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation. SAPIENS is part of the American Anthropological Association Podcast Library. Check out these related resources: · “” in Anthropology News · “” · · from the University of Illinois Episode sponsor: · This episode is included in season 5 of the SAPIENS podcast, which is part of the SAPIENS Public Scholars Training Fellowship funded with the support of a three-year grant from the . /episode/index/show/sapienspodcast/id/26251464

A Story of Icelandic Skulls 03/28/2023

A Story of Icelandic Skulls “Prime harvest”—that’s how one early 20th-century explorer described his collection of Icelandic human skulls. But why did he “harvest” those skulls in the first place? And what should happen to them now more than a century after they were collected? This case of the Icelandic skulls reveals an interconnected story of eugenics, international law, and the limits of current repatriation efforts. As reported by Adam Netzer Zimmer, an Iceland-based anthropologist, we hear how a community once targeted by anthropologists is now expanding our ideas of how to ethically handle human remains. SAPIENS: A Podcast for Everything Human is produced by House of Pod. Cat Jaffee was the editor for this piece, with help from producer Ann Marie Awad. Seth Samuel was the audio editor and sound designer. The executive producers were Cat Jaffee and Chip Colwell. is a doctoral candidate in anthropology at the University of Massachusetts (UMass), Amherst, specializing in biocultural anthropology. His research focuses on the rise of race-based anatomical science in 19th- and early 20th-century Iceland and the U.S. He is also interested in queer and feminist perspectives in bioarchaeology and forensic anthropology, particularly in the history of science. Adam’s work has been supported by a Fulbright/National Science Foundation Arctic Research Grant, an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, and a Leifur Eiríksson Foundation Fellowship. Previously, he was the laboratory manager for the UMass Taphonomic Research Facility and is currently a co–primary director of the Rivulus Dominarum Transylvanian Bioarchaeology project in Baia Mare, Romania. SAPIENS is an editorially independent podcast funded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation. SAPIENS is part of the American Anthropological Association Podcast Library. Check out these related resources: · “” in Harvard Magazine · · · Traveling Passions: The Hidden Life of Vilhjálmur Stefánsson by Gísli Pálsson Episode sponsor: · This episode is included in season 5 of the SAPIENS podcast, which is part of the SAPIENS Public Scholars Training Fellowship funded with the support of a three-year grant from the . /episode/index/show/sapienspodcast/id/26251368

SAPIENS Podcast Season 5 Trailer 03/21/2023

Introducing: Whetstone Radio Collective 05/10/2022

Repatriation Is Our Future 04/13/2022

Repatriation Is Our Future The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990, or NAGPRA, is supposed to curb the illegal possession of ancestral Native American remains and cultural items. But a year after it was passed by the U.S. federal government, a significant African burial ground in New York City was uncovered. And there was zero legislation in place for its protection. Dr. Rachel Watkins shares the story of the New York African Burial Ground—and what repatriation looks like for African American communities. (00:00:44) Enter the Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology and its NAGPRA controversy. (00:03:19) A discovery in Manhattan is not covered by NAGPRA. (00:05:19) Intro. (00:05:44) Dr. Rachel Watkins, the New York African Burial Ground Project and Michael Blakey. (00:11:40) Dr. Rachel Watikins meets the Cobb Collection. (00:23:44) Exploring Repatriation for the New York African Burial Ground Project. (00:28:26) The issue of repatriation for the Cobb Collection. (00:34:02) Revisiting season 4. (00:40:49) Credits. SAPIENS: A Podcast for Everything Human, is produced by House of Pod and supported by the . SAPIENS is also part of the American Anthropological Association Podcast Library. This season was created in collaboration with the and , with art by Carla Keaton, and music from , , and . For more information and transcriptions, visit . Thank you this time also to The Harvard Review and their podcast, for permitting us to use a clip from , hosted by Raquel Coronell Uribe and Sixiao Yu and produced by Lara Dada, Zing Gee, and Thomas Maisonneuve. Additional Sponsors: This episode, and entire series, was made possible by the , the , , the , , , , and the . Additional Resources: Guest: is a biocultural anthropologist with an emphasis on African American biohistory and social history, bioanthropological research practices, and histories of U.S. biological anthropology. /episode/index/show/sapienspodcast/id/22236785

Slavery, Sustenance, and Resistance 03/30/2022

More than a Mountain 03/16/2022

Curating as Caretaking 03/02/2022

At the Heart of It All 02/16/2022

Redrawing Boundaries 02/02/2022

Redrawing Boundaries For many, archaeology means digging up historical artifacts from beneath the ground. But to some, that framework is also violent and colonial. What would it mean to leave ancestors and belongings where they’re found? In this episode, Gabrielle Miller, a PhD student studying African Diaspora Archaeology at the University of Tulsa shares a story about excavations in St. Croix. And Dr. Ayana Flewellen and Dr. Justin Dunnavant discuss how black archaeologists began uncovering sunken slave ships. (00:02:26) What parts of Archaeology as we know it should be preserved? And what needs to be destroyed? (00:02:51) Introduction. (00:03:24) Gabrielle Miller explains their research on the Free Black Community in St. Croix. (00:07:07) Meet, a ship called the Guerrero. (00:08:43) How Diving with a Purpose originated. (00:09:39) Justin Dunnavant and Ayana Flewellen create The Society of Black Archaeologists. 00:12:25) A guide to underwater, or maritime archaeology. 00:16:09) What Black Feminist archaeology is adding to the field. (00:21:29) How learning from artists can help stretch the academic container. (00:25:17) Credits. SAPIENS: A Podcast for Everything Human, is produced by House of Pod and supported by the . SAPIENS is also part of the American Anthropological Association Podcast Library. This season was created in collaboration with the and , with art by Carla Keaton, and music from , , and . For more information and transcriptions, visit . This episode was also sponsored by the and For more information and transcripts, visit . Additional Resources: Guests: is a PhD student at the University of Tulsa studying African Diaspora Archaeology. Her current research engages the expressions and legacies of freedom and resistance in an eighteenth-and-nineteenth-century free Black community in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands in collaboration with the heritage practitioners, artisans, historians, and descendants of that community. Another extension of her work is with the organization Diving with a Purpose as an Instructor Candidate and in Youth Diving with a Purpose (YDWP)/National Park Service as an underwater archaeology intern, educator and mentor. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at UCLA. His current research in the US Virgin Islands investigates the relationship between ecology and enslavement in the former Danish West Indies. In addition to his archaeological research, Justin is co-founder of the Society of Black Archaeologists and an AAUS Scientific SCUBA Diver. In 2021, he was named a National Geographic Emerging Explorer and inducted into The Explorers Club as one of “Fifty People Changing the World that You Need to Know About,” and has been featured on Netflix's "Explained," Hulu's "Your Attention Please" and in print in American Archaeology and Science Magazine. (they/she) is a Black Feminist, an archaeologist, a storyteller, and an artist. Flewellen is the co-founder and current President of the Society of Black Archaeologists and sits on the Board of Diving With A Purpose. They are an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Riverside. Her research and teaching interests address Black Feminist Theory, historical archaeology, maritime heritage conservation, public and community-engaged archaeology, processes of identity formations, and representations of slavery. Flewellen has been featured in National Geographic, Science Magazine, PBS, and CNN; and regularly presents her work at institutions including The National Museum for Women in the Arts. /episode/index/show/sapienspodcast/id/21979985