Sausage of Science

Cara and guest co-host Cristina sit down with Dr. Chris Kuzawa, the John D. MacArthur Professor & Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University. He uses principles from anthropology and evolutionary biology to gain insights into the biological and health impacts of human developmental plasticity. His primary field research is conducted in Cebu, the Philippines, whe...

Listeners, please welcome Dr. Eric Griffith to the show ...as a guest! In this episode, Eric takes a break from producing to talk about his research regarding human variation in dementia. Find the publication discussed in today’s episode via this citation: Griffith EE. (2023). “Recruiting Participants for Dementia Research Without Saying ‘Dementia’: A Site Study in Central Mexico.” In: Anthropolog...

Listeners, please welcome Dr. Sheina Lew-Levy to the show! In this episode Prof. Lew-Levy discusses the importance of social learning among children to the study of evolution. Stick around for some gardening tips! Find the publication discussed in today’s episode via these citations: Pretelli, Ilaria, Alyssa N. Crittenden, Edmond Dounias, Sagan Friant, Jeremy Koster, Karen L. Kramer, Shani M. Mang...

Special Edition HBA Fellow take-over! HBA Junior Fellows Eric Griffith and Courtney Manthey-Pierce co-host this season's final episode with Dr. Meradeth Snow. Dr. Snow is an Associate Professor and Co-Chair of Anthropology at the University of Montana. There, she and her research team analyze ancient and degraded DNA for anthropological and forensic purposes. Her lab focuses primarily on the north...

Cara is solo hosting this episode! She is joined by Dr. Charles Roseman to discuss the finer points of why/how "adaptionist" thinking can lead us all down scientific dead ends. Bonus fun: We also learn a little bit about squirrels and nicotine withdrawal. You know Chris was sorry to miss this episode! ******************************* The Scientific American article "To Understand Sex, We Need to As...

Chris and special guest co-host Courtney Manthey-Peirce interview Dimitris Xygalatas, author of Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living. Associate Professor in Anthropology and Psychological Sciences at the University of Connecticut and head of the Experimental Anthropology Lab, Dimitris is an anthropologist and cognitive scientist who studies some things that make us human – b...

Listeners, please welcome Ed Hagen to the show! In this episode Prof. Hagen discusses his research on self medication and parasites. Prof. Hagen joins our regular host, Prof. Chris Lynn, as well as returning guest host Cristina Gildee. Find the publication discussed in today’s episode via this citation: Hagen, E. H., Blackwell, A. D., Lightner, A. D., & Sullivan, R. J. (2023). Homo medicus: The tr...

Listeners, please welcome Achsah Dorsey to the show! In this episode Prof. Dorsey discusses her research on childhood anemia in Peru and casually tosses in an excellent airplane turbulence metaphor to describe human physiology. Stick around for the ABBA shout-out. Prof. Dorsey joins our regular host, Prof. Chris Lynn, as well as returning guest host Prof. Theresa Gildner. Find the publication disc...

This week, Chris and guest co-host Cristina catch up with Georgia Scott, a master's student studying bioarchaeology at the University of Nevada, Reno. Her research interests focus on mortuary practices and treatment of the deceased, both past and present. Georgia received her Bachelor of Science in Anthropology from Montana State University and has a background in vertebrate paleontology, zooarcha...

Chris and Cristina sit down with Dr. Molly Fox, Associate Professor of Anthropology and of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA. She studies the evolutionary context of chronic disease and the biosocial relationships between grandmothers, mothers, and children. Her current research projects investigate (1) the biological embedding of immigration and acculturation experiences in Mexican-Am...

Dee Jolly, PhD student in anthropology at the University of Oregon, joins Cara and Courtney to discuss how stigma affects the health of trans and gender diverse people. Dee is currently a 2nd year PhD student, working with Prof. Zachary DuBois. They finished their undergraduate studies at the University of Florida in 2016 and then earned a Master's degree in Medical Anthropology and Cross-Cultural...

Cara and Chris chat with Dr. Rob Tennyson, a Postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Biobehavioral Health at Penn State University and a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Sociology Department at the University of Utah, who received his PhD in Biological Anthropology from the University of Washington in 2022. His research focuses on psychosocial stress, aging, and student-athlete mental health and well-...

Welcome to Bizarro World, Sausage of Science listeners! Cara is on the show today ...as a guest! She is joined by Sarah Lacy to discuss their recent American Anthropologist articles "Woman the hunter: The physiological evidence" and "Woman the hunter: The archaeological evidence." Also, please welcome guest host, and HBA webmaster, Courtney Manthey-Pierce. Find the publications discussed in today’...

Twice the Caras! Cara and Cristina interview Dr. Cara Wall-Scheffler, professor and co-chair of Biology at Seattle Pacific University and an affiliate professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Washington. Her research focuses on the evolution of human sexual dimorphism, particularly in the context of balancing the pressures of thermoregulation and long-distance locomotion. S...

Prof. Liz Mallott of Washington University in St. Louis joins Chris and Cristina to talk about her research on the human microbiome. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Dr. Liz Mallott is an assistant professor of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis. Professor Mallott’s research examines how social and environmental determinants of health shape variation in...

Season 6 premiere. Cara’s back! Chris and Cara chat with Dr. Saige Kelmelis, a biological anthropologist specializing in bioarchaeology, paleodemography, paleoepidemiology, and forensic anthropology. Her research involves the study of human skeletal and dental remains to reconstruct aspects of life, health, disease, identity, and demography. She integrates methods and theory in osteology, paleodem...

The show is currently on summer hiatus as most of our staff work on their research. New episodes will be back in the fall. In the meantime, we have a special bonus episode of the podcast. Prof. Joseph L. Graves Jr. of North Carolina A&T University reads an excerpt from his book A Voice in the Wilderness: A Pioneering Biologist Explains How Evolution Can Help Us Solve Our Biggest Problems. --------...

Anwesha Pan joins Chris and Mallika to talk about her work on famine and fecundability in Bangladesh as well as the connection between neighborhood-level family poverty and ovarian reserve. This is the season finale -- please check back in the fall for new content! Thank you to Mallika for filling in as co-host this season! ----------------------------------------------------------------- Anwesha...

Chris welcomes guest co-host, Cristina Gildee, to chat with Sofiya Shreyer, a Ph. D. student in the Anthropology Department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Sofiya is passionate about increasing research and education on menopause and other understudied women's health issues, such as PCOS, endometriosis, and sexual wellness. Under the guidance of Dr. Lynnette Sievert, she studies grandm...

Chris and Mallika sit down with Sean Prall, an Assistant Professor and evolutionary anthropologist at the University of Missouri. His interests center on human health and reproduction, reproductive decision-making, and evolutionary ecology. He examines costs and trade-offs associated with investments in reproduction. He utilizes a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, including anth...

Drs. Karen Rosenberg and Wenda Trevathan join the show to discuss their work examining the evolution of human childbirth and infant helplessness. They also preview some of the content that will appear in their forthcoming (untitled) book. Title suggestions are welcome! Information about their previous publication Costly and Cute can be found here: https://sarweb.org/costly-cute/ ------------------...

Chris and Mallika chat with Florence Lee, a PhD candidate at the University of Albany (SUNY), to discuss her collaboration with the Akwasane Task Force on the Environment. Their work investigates pollutant exposure and autoimmunity in Akwesasne Mohawk women. In this episode, Florence discusses the biological consequences of a century of DDT and PCB contamination along the St. Lawrence River for th...

Elizabeth Holdsworth, PhD, joins the Sausage of Science to chat about her new paper titled “Maternal–infant interaction quality is associated with child NR3C1 CpG site methylation at 7 years of age.” The paper can be found at the AJHB website here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajhb.23876 ------------------------------------- Dr. Elizabeth Holdsworth is a Postdoctoral Research Associ...

Chris and Mallika bring back repeat offender Dr. Stephanie Levy an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at Hunter College, a faculty member at the CUNY Graduate Center Department of Anthropology, and a core faculty member of the New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology (NYCEP). Dr. Levy returns to catch us up on her recent work in human energetics, biological adaptation, ci...

Alicia DeLouize, PhD candidate at the University of Oregon, joins Sausage of Science to chat about minimally invasive biomarkers, cancer, and why "Aging is an Earth thing" (maybe). ------------------------------------- Alicia M. DeLouize is a PhD candidate in Biological Anthropology with previous experience in psychology, oncology, and translational research. She specializes in global health, huma...