All Episodes

#1027 João Teixeira: The Evolution, Dispersals, and Interbreeding of Hominins

Dec 2, 2024

Dr. João Teixeira is Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow at the Evolution of Cultural Diversity Initiative, School of Culture, History and Language at the Australian National University & Scientific Vice-Coordinator at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies of the University of Coimbra. He is a population geneticist focusing on the evolution of humans and closely related species. His main research focus revolves around human evolution during the Pleistocene, in particular the admixture events between so-called modern and archaic humans after the out-of-Africa and before human colonization of Sahul. He is expert on uncovering signatures of natural selection in the genome, in particular balancing selection, and continue to study how advantageous genetic diversity can be maintained for millions of years in natural populations. More»
#1026 Robert Borofsky: An Anthropology of Anthropology

Nov 29, 2024

Dr. Robert Borofsky is the Director of the Center for a Public Anthropology and Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Hawaii Pacific University. He is the author or editor of eight books dealing with constructions of knowledge in the Pacific islands—such as Making History (1987) and Remembrance of Pacific Pasts (2000)—and the current state of cultural anthropology, including Assessing Cultural Anthropology (1994) and Yanomami (2005). He is also the author of An Anthropology of Anthropology: Is It Time to Shift Paradigms? More»
#1025 Katie Rose Hejtmanek - Gender and Power in Strength Sports: Strong As Feminist

Nov 28, 2024

Dr. Katie Rose Hejtmanek is Professor in the Department of Anthropology and the Children and Youth Studies Program at Brooklyn College, CUNY. Her current research examines sports practices and social change. Her teaching includes courses on the anthropology of sport, and gender and sexuality at New York University and Brooklyn College, CUNY, USA. She is a three-time competitor at IPF World Masters Powerlifting Championships and is a Trauma-Informed Weightlifting-certified strength coach. She is co-editor of Gender and Power in Strength Sports: Strong As Feminist. More»
#1024 Matthew McManus: The Political Theory of Liberal Socialism

Nov 25, 2024

Dr. Matthew McManus is a Lecturer in the Department of Political Science at the University of Michigan. He is the author of books like The Emergence of Postmodernity, The Political Right and Equality, and The Political Theory of Liberal Socialism. More»
#1023 Francesca Bellazzi: Biochemical Kinds and Functions, Genes, and Virtue Ethics

Nov 22, 2024

Dr. Francesca Bellazzi is Postdoctoral Researcher in the ERC project Assembling Life at the Centre for Philosophy and the Sciences (CPS) in the Department of Philosophy, Classics, History, Art and Ideas (UiO) at the University of Oslo, Teaching Fellow in Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy, Theology and Religion at the University of Birmingham, Honorary Research Fellow in Philosophy at the Department of Science and Technology at UCL, and Honorary Visiting Fellow in Philosophy at the University of Bristol. She is interested in the complexity of the interactions between different entities. In particular, she is fascinated by the interface between chemistry and biology. She also has several side projects that consider the ethical aspects of science, in particular focusing on virtue ethics and epistemic injustice. More»
#1022 Vivek Venkataraman: Tree Climbing, Running, and Hunting across Human Societies

Nov 21, 2024

Dr. Vivek Venkataraman is Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of Calgary. He is an evolutionary anthropologist who is broadly interested in the evolution of the human diet and food systems, and their relation to life history and behavior. He is assistant director of the Guassa Gelada Research Project, and also the co-founder and co-PI of the Orang Asli Health and Lifeways Project (OAHeLP). More»
#1021 Richard Wolff (@RichardDWolff): Socialism, Marxism, and Trump's Second Term

Nov 18, 2024

Dr. Richard Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University, New York City. He is also the co-founder of Democracy at Work and host of their nationally syndicated show Economic Update. Over the last 25 years, in collaboration with his colleague, Stephen Resnick, he has developed a new approach to political economy. While it retains and systematically elaborates the Marxist notion of class as surplus labor, it rejects the economic determinism typical of most schools of economics and usually associated with Marxism as well. More»
#1020 Cara Ocobock: Can Women Hunt?

Nov 15, 2024

Dr. Cara Ocobock is Associate Professor and Director of the Human Energetics Laboratory at the University of Notre Dame. Her research program integrates human biology and anthropology, with a focus on the interaction between anatomy, physiology, evolution, and the environment. She explores the physiological and behavioral mechanisms necessary to cope with and adapt to extreme climate and physical activity. Dr. Ocobock’s research is at the intersection of metabolic physiology, evolution, culture, and behavior. More»
#1019 Réka Blazsek: Social Norms, Institutions, Ownership, and the Mental Health of PhD Students

Nov 14, 2024

Réka Blazsek is a PhD candidate at the ACES Lab (Adaptive Cognition & Economics in Society) of the Department of Cognitive Science at Central European University. She is interested in the cognitive and evolutionary roots of economic and political institutions. In other words: what are the links between the design of the mind and the design of institutions? She aims to tackle this topic by focusing on the cognitive foundations of ownership. More»
#1018 Brian Leiter & Jaime Edwards: The Life and Ideas of Marx

Nov 11, 2024

Dr. Brian Leiter is Karl N. Llewellyn Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Chicago Law School and founder and Director of Chicago's Center for Law, Philosophy and Human Values. His teaching and research interests are in moral, political, and legal philosophy, in both the Anglophone and Continental European traditions, and the law of evidence. More»