A Life In Ruins

On this episode, we are back with new content! We talk with Beth Potter, who is a PhD Candidate at the Department of Anthropology at the University of Kansas. We talk about Beth first's archaeological conference at age 13 and her experience there. Beth then describes her experience going to a small state-school called Harvard University. We delve into her experience in French Canada and what broug...

In this episode of A Life in Ruins, we provide information about undergraduate and graduate school. We start off joking about our favorite episodes (all of them are our favorite) and then dive into things to consider when applying to undergraduate and graduate programs. We talk about our differing experiences in undergrad and the positives and negatives of each of our experiences. Importantly, we...

On this episode of A Life in Ruins Podcast, we interview Dr. Maddy McAllister, a maritime archaelogist with the Museum of Tropical Queensland. Dr. McAllister is known for her educational Instagram account, @shipwreckmermaid. As Dr. McAllister is an Aussie, we naturally first have a conversation about the differences between our endemic wildlife and the hazards of working in the wild. This is follo...

ENCORE: Something's afoot. There is, yet again, another controversial preclovis find. This time, away from the West Coast and in New Mexico. The controversy surrounds human footprints found in White Sands National Park that are dated between 23 and 21 kya. To discuss these possible pre-Clovis footprints, we invited Dr. Jesse Tune and Dr. Shane Miller on the show to contextualize the data. We begin...

On this episode, we are taking our first vacation. We are going to leave you with a classic episode of ours. Enjoy! On Episode 27 of A Life in Ruins Podcast, we interview Dr. Robert L. Kelly. Dr. Kelly was all the cohosts thesis advisor at the University of Wyoming. Dr. Robert L. Kelly wrote the book, T he Lifeways of Hunter-Gatherers: The Foraging Spectrum , on hunter-gatherer archaeology and the...

On this episode of A Life in Ruins Podcast, Carlton is back! Connor and Carlton sit down and discuss his wild and crazy summer in the field. They do a deep dive into where he was, what type of site he worked at, and the atmosphere of Lynch, Nebraska. Carlton then describes the early history of the site, his new gig as a bartender, and what it is like to be a senior graduate teaching assistant at a...

Connor and David discuss the highs and woes of CRM archaeology. They start out discussing #bus and #vanlife and the issues that David is having with his bus. They then take a deep dive into the bad and less fun elements of CRM archaeology. They discuss hotels, shovel tests, depression and existential crises. Connor and David then play good cop and tell success stories about their experiences in CR...

In this episode of A Life In Ruins podcast, Connor and David chat with Vincent Battista, a Postdoctoral Researcher specializing in genetics. Vincent got his PhD at the University of Michigan where he studied under Milford Wolpoff, who is also the teacher of Dr. Jim Ahern, Connor and David‘s biological anthropology teacher. Connor and David chat with Vincent about his Italian ancestry, and how that...

On this episode of A Life in Ruins Podcast, we get the best pirate scholar, Dr. Jamie L. H. Goodall, back on the show. We discuss how she has been since we last talked and discuss what she actually does at her current job. Carlton and Connor then pepper her with questions about her new book, "Pirates and Privateers from Long Island Sound to Delaware Bay" which was released in May 2022. She details...

On this episode we bring back Dr. Devin Pettigrew to discuss a paper that came out in 2021. The name of that paper is "On the efficacy of Clovis fluted points for hunting proboscideans" by Eren et. al. Dr. Pettigrew is an experimental archaeologist and together we discuss the pitfalls/successes of this study. We really dive deep into the article and the data they are using to summarize their argum...

On this episode, we talk with Evan Albright about his book "The Man Who Owned a Wonder of the World". This book (published in 2015), tells the story of Edward H. Thompson, an American who once owned the property on which Chichen Itza sits. We go through the history of this property and talk about guides, hotels, trains and what the future looks like for Chichen Itza. If you have left a review of t...

On this episode of A Life in Ruins podcast, we have back on one of our favorite guests Dr. David S. Anderson. We start out with a huge announcement (listen to this episode, we will not spoil it here). We then hit the when, where, what and why of the Maya. Dr. Anderson explains how we know that the Maya city-states "collapsed" and also talks about issues with the ideas around the word "Collapse". W...

In this episode, Carlton interviews Dr. Anna Goldfield from The Dirt Podcast to talk about Dr. Goldfield's inspiration in becoming a zooarchaeologist, how the The Dirt Podcast started, and the importance of experimental archaeology. This a fun and interested one on one conversation between two seasoned podcast hosts. Definitely check out The Dirt Podcast if you haven't already! If you have left a...

On this episode, we recap our recent adventures in Colorado. We start out by going nowhere and continue doing that for the rest of the episode. Highlights of the episode include Carlton talks about his new true crime podcast, the intersection of family groups and experimental archaeology. Interested in learning about how to use X-Rays and similar technology in archaeology? Check out the linked Pal...

On this episode of A Life In Ruins podcast, David interviews his former advisor Dr. Todd Surovell. Todd served as an advisor to David and was a committee member for David and Connor‘s MA theses. David begins interviewing Todd about what archaeology means to him, and a discussion of his early life. The conversation later turns into how Todd found his way into anthropology, and his work in graduate...

On this episode of A Life In Ruins Podcast, we have our good friend and frequent collaborator Stefan Milo on the podcast. Stefan is in the process of researching for a video on human brain size, and we talk about what he has found. Researchers have noted a decrease in brain size in humans within the last 30,000 years. We take a deep dive into how brain size has changed throughout the evolution of...

In this episode, the three hosts reconvene after a month of not having recorded an episode. Carlton and Connor check in with David on how the bus refurbishing is coming along and the recent trip to Arkansas. Carlton talks about his dissertation data collection, recent environmental distress in Colorado, and his recent trip to Oklahoma City. The guys close out the episode with a conversation on fut...

On this special 4 segment episode of A Life in Ruins Podcast, we are lucky to be joined Trevor Creighton, a project archaeologist at Butser Ancient Farm. Butser Ancient Farm is a not-for-profit Community Interest Company with a focus on education and research, located just north of Portsmouth in the UK. They have a series of buildings at the farm, which are constructed based on evidence from archa...

In this episode, we are joined by Kay Mattena, a Ph. D. student in Archaeology and Indigenous Science at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, a Descendent of the Citizen Band of Potawatomi, and first appeared on Episode 54: SAA 86th Annual Conference, and Indigneous Response. We talk about her earliest encounters with science, nature, and archaeology and delve into her undergraduate career....

On this episode of A Life in Ruins Podcast, David and Connor talk to Dr. Angela Perri about her lengthy CV and her academic/professional career. Dr. Perri is currently the top researcher in the world in terms of understanding the relationship between humans and dogs in the ancient world. So clearly, David's ears perked up. As usual, we first dive into Angela's early life and career in anthropology...

For our first live show and in celebration of our 100th episode, we had originally planned for a dynamic and audience-interactive experience full of bits, challenges, and guest appearances. However, due to the recent invasion of Ukraine by Putin’s Russia, we wanted to use our platform to support the people of Ukraine. We were joined by Simon Radchenko, a Ph. D. candidate in Archaeology at the Univ...

In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Amanda Butler who is an Assistant Professor in the department of anthropology and earth science at Minnesota State University Moorhead. We start off the episode by exploring her educational experiences and background in archaeology. We then delve into Cahokian archaeology and Butler's research regarding the Cahokian religious diaspora. We close out the episode...

Dr. Shane Miller is back on the podcast to talk about a new paper that just came out. The Hopewell airbust event, published about in Nature Scientific Reports, is believed to be a series of near-Earth comets that are hypothesized to have had impacts on cultures living around 1600 years ago (252-383 CE). We dive into this paper and discuss its argument, the pitfalls/questions we have about the pape...

On this episode of A Life in Ruins Podcast, we chat with Tiktok personality and recent graduate Nicholas Carbone. We start off by talking about his earliest experiences with archaeology and his inspiration for pursuing the discipline. We then chat about Titanic and how some of us were not allowed to watch the second VHS (yes we are that old). Nicholas then discusses his field school and other arch...

On this episode of a Life in Ruins Podcast, we continue our series of talking with TikTok Science Communicators and talk with Lindsay Nikole. Lindsay is a zoologist with a passion for all living things in the animal kingdom, and has over 1 million followers on TikTok. We dive straight into her experiences growing up and her experiences getting her undergraduate degree. This devolves into a discuss...