anthropology

#1326 Christian Tryon: The Evolution of Homo Sapiens, and the Middle to Later Stone Age Transition

Oct 30, 2026

Dr. Christian Tryon is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Connecticut. He specializes in the archaeology of human evolution, and he is particularly interested in reconstructing those ancient social and natural environmental contexts in which behavioral change occurred. He is a specialist in the analysis of stone tools and volcanic ashes, which in some parts of the world such as the Rift Valley of East Africa, are widespread, bury archaeological sites, and provide a means to date them. More»
#1322 Katie Rose Hejtmanek - The Cult of CrossFit: Christianity and the American Exercise Phenomenon

Oct 22, 2026

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. Her latest book is The Cult of CrossFit: Christianity and the American Exercise Phenomenon. More»
#1304 Michael Wilson: Chimpanzee Behavior, Ecology, Violence, and Human Warfare

Sep 10, 2026

Dr. Michael Wilson is a Professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior at the University of Minnesota. He studies nonhuman primates to provide comparative data for testing hypotheses about the evolution of distinctively human traits. He focuses on the behavior and ecology of chimpanzees at Gombe National Park, Tanzania. More»
#1285 Luke Kemp - Goliath's Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse

Jul 27, 2026

Dr. Luke Kemp is Research Affiliate and former Research Associate at the University of Cambridge. He looks at the past (civilization collapses) and future (climate change and emerging technologies) to guide policy in the present. He is an honorary lecturer in environmental policy at the Australian National University (ANU), holds a PhD in international relations from the ANU and was previously a senior economist at Vivid Economics. He is the author of Goliath's Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse. More»
#1278 Paul Pettitt: Human Mortuary Practices, and Other Animals' Awareness of Death

Jul 10, 2026

Dr. Paul Pettitt is Professor of Palaeolithic Archaeology at Durham University. He specializes in Palaeolithic art and in the long-term development of the treatment of the dead. His survey of the biological and behavioral evolution of Homo sapiens was published by Thames and Hudson in 2022 (Homo Sapiens Rediscovered: The Scientific Revolution Rewriting our Origins). He is currently researching aspects of the visual psychology that underpins the earliest cave art. More»
#1271 Douglas Fry: Advanced Introduction to Conflict Resolution

Jun 25, 2026

Dr. Douglas P. Fry is Professor Emeritus of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Docent of Cross-Cultural Developmental Psychology at Åbo Akademi University in Vasa, Finland, and Adjunct Senior Research Scholar at the Advanced Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict, and Complexity at Columbia University. He has written extensively on aggression, conflict, and conflict resolution in his own books and in journals such as Science and American Anthropologist. His new book is Advanced Introduction to Conflict Resolution. More»
#1240 Roy Richard Grinker - Nobody's Normal: How Culture Created the Stigma of Mental Illness

Apr 13, 2026

Dr. Roy Richard Grinker is Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs at the George Washington University. Dr. Grinker is a cultural anthropologist specializing in ethnicity, nationalism, and psychological anthropology, with topical expertise in autism, Korea, and sub-Saharan Africa. He is also the director of GW's Institute for Ethnographic Research. He is the author of Nobody's Normal: How Culture Created the Stigma of Mental Illness. More»
#1231 Michael Gurven - Seven Decades: How We Evolved to Live Longer

Mar 23, 2026

Dr. Michael Gurven is a Professor at the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, chair of the Integrative Anthropological Sciences Unit, and also head of the Evolutionary Anthropology and Biodemography Research Group. He is an evolutionary anthropologist aiming to explain behavior and physiological systems as adaptive solutions to competing demands of limited resource allocation. He is the author of Seven Decades: How We Evolved to Live Longer. More»
#1218 Edward Hagen: Is Sex Binary?

Feb 20, 2026

Dr. Edward Hagen is Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology at Washington State University. His research takes an evolutionary approach to non-infectious diseases, with a focus on mental health. More»
#1208 Eleanor Scerri: Homo sapiens in Saudi Arabia, Africa, and Malta

Jan 29, 2026

Dr. Eleanor Scerri is Professor at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, where she is the Head of the independent Max Planck Human Palaeosystems Research Group. She is an archaeological scientist interested in exploring the articulation between material culture, genetics, and biogeography to further theoretical, methodological and scientific advances in the field of human evolution. Her group is exploring the pan-African evolution of our species, Homo sapiens through a number of diverse projects. More»