Sausage of Science

Dr. Michael Muehlenbein is a prominent figure in anthropology and biology, currently serving as a professor at Baylor University. His academic journey has been marked by a deep commitment to understanding human evolution, behavior, and health through an interdisciplinary lens. Michael earned an MsPH in both Tropical Medicine and Biostatistics from Tulane University, and an MPhil and PhD in Biologi...

Dr Anna Marie Prentiss joins Host Chris Lynn to discuss the origins of institutionalised inequality. Anna is an archaeologist specializing in the ancient history of the Great Plains, Pacific Northwest, and Arctic regions of North America. She has a methodological specialty in lithic technology and theoretical interests in the archaeology of villages and towns, social inequality, hunter-gatherer mo...

Cristina and Anahi chat with Dr. Gonzalo Figueiro about his groundbreaking research in ancient DNA, kinship, and population genetics. Dr. Figueiro is a Professor of Biological Anthropology at the University of the Republic, Uruguay, and holds a PhD in Biological Sciences from the Basic Sciences Development Programme (PEDECIBA), Uruguay. His main research interests are the genetics of ancient and m...

Cristina guest hosts her first episode with special guest Dr. Marina Watowich: an Evolutionary Biologist and current NIH F32 Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Biological Sciences at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Watowich earned her Ph. D. in Biology in 2022 from the University of Washington, where she specialized in Data Science. Her research focuses on how environmental perturbations...

Maria Florencia Cesani es Licenciada en Antropología y Dra. en Ciencias Naturales por la Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Es investigadora independiente de CONICET y se desempeña como directora del Laboratorio de Investigaciones en Ontogenia y Adaptación (LINOA) de la Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo, de la Universidad Nacional de la Plata, donde también es Profesora de Antropología Biológi...

Chris Lynn and Courtney Manthey discuss about the role of monkey bars in human development with Dr. Nathaniel J Dominy, an evolutionary biologist and Professor of Anthropology at Dartmouth. He study the behavior, ecology, and functional morphology of humans and nonhuman primates. His research philosophy is to integrate tropical fieldwork with mechanical, molecular, and isotopic analyses in order t...

Meredith Aulds is a practicing birth doula, community health worker, and medical anthropologist at Purdue University. As a public health worker and anthropologist, she have had the pleasure to work with both governmental and nonprofit organizations that provide free community resources to pregnant people and their families in Indiana. She is also a senior researcher in the Laboratory for Behavior,...

Chris and Courtney sit down with Dr. Thomas Wynn, the Hand Axe Man, AKA: CU Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Colorado. Colorado Springs, where he taught from 1977 until his retirement. Dr. Wynn specializes in the archaeology of the Lower Palaeolithic, led pioneering research in Tanzania, and introduced psychological theory—specifically Piagetian concepts—into P...

Listeners, please welcome Courtney Manthey to the show ...as a guest! In this episode, Courtney takes a break from running the HBA social media accounts and being on the elected student committee to talk about her research regarding Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. Also, the human biology word of the day is: hirsutism. Find the publication discussed in today’s episode via this citation: Manthey, C., C...

Chris and Cristina share a bookclub favorite: "The Human Disease How We Create Pandemics, from Our Bodies to Our Beliefs" with author Dr. Sabrina Sholts. Dr. Sholts is a Curator of Biological Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), received her PhD in Anthropology at UC Santa Barbara, and was a postdoctoral researcher at UC Ber...

Co-host Chris Lynn joins Tom Brutsaert to dive deep into spleen variability and how it relates to intense exercise in high altitude populations. Dr. Tom Brutsaert is a professor at the Syracuse University. He has broad interests in how gene and environment interact to produce variation in human athletic ability and health and disease. He conducts field research on high altitude natives in the Ande...

Co-Hosts Chris Lynn and Anahí Ruderman talk abot how religion impacts fertility and maternal and child health with Dr. John Shaver, a biocultural and evolutionary anthropologist in the Department of Anthropology at Baylor University. Most of his work to date has focused on understanding cultural variation in solutions to collective action and collective resource problems, and how these solutions m...

Chris and Cristina talk pandemics and welcome back Dr. Taylor Van Doren, a biocultural pandemic researcher investigating social inequalities, demography, and population health during and after pandemic events. As an NSF OPP Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Alaska Anchorage in the Institute of Circumpolar Health Studies, her focus is the demographic, epidemiological, and social consequences...

Dr Mansi Srivastava of Harvard University joins Chris and Courtney to talk about her research on regeneration throughout evolution. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Dr. Srivastava's research focuses on understanding the evolution of animal development and regeneration. Her group utilizes the three-banded panther worm, Hofstenia miamia, which Dr. Srivastava has deve...

Our new Co-producer, Anahí Ruderman, is joined by Christopher to co-host this episode with Dr. Luciano Valenzuela. He is a researcher at the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research of Argentina (CONICET). He specializes in the use of stable isotopes in Anthropology, Ecology, and Forensic Science in his research at the School of Social Sciences of the National University of the Cente...

Chris checks in with Dr. Adam Johnson to discuss javelinas and their impact on humans. Dr. Johnson is an environmental anthropologist whose current work engages human-animal relations. His current project explores human-javelina relations in Texas, including affective relationships between javelinas and property owners, tourist-javelina encounters at Big Bend National Park, and the intimacy and ca...

The SoS Team puts one of their own in the hot seat as Courtney and Cristina interview Dr. Christopher Lynn about his book Transcendental Medication: The Evolution of Mind, Culture, and Healing. His book offers a unique perspective on why human brains evolved to have consciousness, yet we spend much of our time trying to reduce our awareness. It outlines how limiting consciousness—rather than expan...

From the New York Times Best Selling Authors of “The Genius of Dogs,” Vannessa Woods and Brian Hare, comes “Puppy Kindergarten: The New Science of Raising a Great Dog.” Chris and his trusty co-host Eric unpack “dognition” with Vanessa, a research scientist who runs a “Puppy Kindergarten” at Duke University. She also happens to be an award-winning journalist and author of Bonobo Handshake. Brian is...

Special guest hosts Cristina and Miguel Ochoa unpack the nutritional ecology with Dr. Hugo Azcorra-Pérez, a human biologist at Centro de Investigaciones Silvio Zavala, Universidad Modelo, Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico. He is interested in the biology of populations during the early stages of growth and development and how environmental factors and intergenerational influences shape biological conditions...

Chris and Courtney host Claire Gold, a Ph. D. candidate in the Department of Anthropology at The University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where she studies the life histories and diet of the women and children from a Medieval Italian population. Claire received her MA in Biological Anthropology from the State University of New York, Binghamton, where she focused on the reproductive correlates of repr...

Chris and Cristina interview Taiye Winful, a PhD Candidate at Vanderbilt University, who studies stress and embodiment in African and other Black populations. Taiye completed her bachelor's degree in Molecular Biology from Loyola University Chicago and MA degree in Anthropology from The University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Taiye’s Master’s thesis was titled “Reconstructing Africa’s Evolution...

How can marmosets inform human birth experiences? Are there really four types of human pelvises? What happens when primates birth litters? Prof. Julienne Rutherford joins Chris and Eric to answer these questions and more! Find the articles discussed on this episode via the following citations: Rutherford, J.N., Ross, C.N., Ziegler, T., Burke, L.A., Steffen, A.D., Sills, A., Layne Colon, D., Demart...

Prof. Lesley Gregoricka joins Chris and Eric to explain her work in the field of bioarchaeology. Topics include everything from strontium isotope analysis to the ethics of legacy collections of human remains. Stick around for a diversion to King Cakes and Mardis Gras. The article discussed on this episode can be found via this citation: Gregoricka, L. A. (2023). The ethics of excavating: bioarchae...

Chris and Eric catch up with Dr. Melanie Martin, an Associate Professor in the University of Washington Department of Anthropology, whose research examines biocultural influences on health, growth, and development across the life course. In addition to being the Co-PI of the Biodemography Lab at the University of Washington Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology, she conducts field research...

Listeners, please welcome Prof. Ben Trumble to the show! Prof. Trumble joins us to talk about his fascinating research on how oral health can affect cardiovascular disease risk and cognitive health later in life. Find the publication discussed in today’s episode via this citation: Benjamin C Trumble, Matthew Schwartz, Andrew T Ozga, Gary T Schwartz, Christopher M Stojanowski, Carrie L Jenkins, Tho...