Sausage Of Science

Chris and Cristina chat with Dr. Ian Wallace, an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico, where he is the director of the Human Physical Activity Lab. As an Evolutionary Anthropologist, Ian's work focuses on how humans evolved to use their bodies and explores the costs and benefits of modern physical activity patterns for our health. He is particularly interested in populations transitioning from non-industrial to industrial and post-industrial contexts. Ian earned his Ph.D. in Anthropology in 2013 from Stony Brook University, where his dissertation examined how physical activity and genetics determine limb bone structure. Following graduate school and an initial postdoctoral position at Stony Brook, he completed his postdoctoral training in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard and started his own lab at UNM. There, he focuses on measures of locomotor biomechanics and their ties to the health and function of the musculoskeletal system. Recently, his fieldwork ha

Dr. Amato is a biological anthropologist studying the influence of gut microbes on host ecology and evolution. Her research examines how changes in the gut microbiota impact host nutrition, energetics, and health. She uses non-human primates as models for studying host-gut microbe interactions in selective environments and for providing comparative insight into the evolution of the human gut microbiota. Her main foci are understanding how the gut microbiome may buffer hosts during periods of nutritional stress and how the gut microbiome programs normal inter-specific differences in host metabolism. In this realm, she is also interested in global variation in the human gut microbiome and its implications for local human adaptation. Dr. Amato obtained her A.B. in Biology from Dartmouth College and her Ph.D. in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She completed a postdoc at the University of Colorado Boulder. She joined the Department of Anthropology in

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 Biological Anthropology from Yale University. His research interests are diverse, encompassing topics such as the evolutionary basis of disease susceptibility, reproductive strategies, and the interplay between environmental factors and human physiology. At Baylor, he has contributed significantly to both teaching and research, mentoring students while also publishing extensively in peer reviewed journals. His work often integrates insights from evolutionary theory with practical applications in public health and medicine, making him a key contributor to discussions on how our evolutionary past shapes contemporary health ch

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 mobility and technological organization, and the cultural evolutionary process. She is associate editor of the scholarly journal, Current Anthropology. Dr. Prentiss is actively engaged in a long term study of the evolution of complex hunter-gatherer-fisher societies on the interior of British Columbia. The current focus of this research is a multi-year excavation at the Bridge River archaeological site, located near the town of Lillooet, British Columbia. With funding from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Prentiss, along with her students and colleagues conducted major excavations during 2008 and 2009 to examine s

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 modern human populations and the bioarchaeology of prehistoric populations in Uruguay. He also reflects and writes on the ethics of working with DNA samples and human remains from the past. ------------------------------ Find the paper discussed in this episode: Figueiro, G. (2024). Simulating the effects of kinship and postmarital residence patterns on mitochondrial DNA diversity in mortuary contexts. American Journal of Biological Anthropology, e24910. ------------------------------ Contact Gonzalo via email: gonzalo.figueiro@fhce.edu.uy ------------------------------ Contact the Sausage of Science Podcast and Huma

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 impact long-term health-related phenotypes and why some individuals are more resilient/susceptible to adverse conditions. To do this, she uses a combination of genomic approaches, computational techniques, and long-term observational data to understand how the environment 'gets under the skin' to result in phenotypic variation. Marina was recently awarded an F32 grant from the National Institutes of Aging to explore the consequences of differential immune investment on molecular aging phenotypes in subsistence-level populations. ------------------------------ Find the papers discussed in this episode: Watowich, Mari

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 Biológica. Sus temas de investigación giran en torno al estudio del crecimiento y estado nutricional infantil y adolescente y su relación con factores sociales, económicos y ambientales que los condicionan. Actualmente trabaja en barrios vulnerables localizados en la periferia urbana de La Plata (provincia de Buenos Aires). Maria Florencia Cesani holds a degree in Anthropology and a Ph.D. in Natural Sciences from the National University of La Plata. She is an independent researcher at CONICET and Director of the Laboratory of Research on Ontogeny and Adaptation (LINOA) of the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Museum of the

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 to better understand how and why adaptive shifts occurred during primate evolution. ------------------------------ Find the paper discussed in this episode: Luke D Fannin, Zaneta M Thayer, Nathaniel J Dominy. (2024) Commemorating the monkey bars, catalyst of debate at the intersection of human evolutionary biology and public health, Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health, 12(1), 143–155, https://doi.org/10.1093/emph/eoae017 ------------------------------ Contact Dr. Nathaniel J Dominy: Nathaniel.J.Dominy@dartmouth.edu ----------------------------- Contact the Sausage of Science Podcast and Human Biology Association

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, Ontogeny, and Reproduction (LABOR) at Purdue, where she have supervised undergraduate research projects in maternal-child health. She have experience in program management, grant writing, community-based programs, and qualitative/quantitative research methods. She is also a devoted dog mom, gardener, and quilting novice. In the future, she would love to become a certified yoga instructor with a focus in prenatal yoga. Find the paper discussed in this episode: Aulds, M. (2024). Prevalence of sacroiliac joint fusion in females and males depending on parity status. American journal of biological anthropology, 184(4),

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 Palaeolithic studies, laying the groundwork for evolutionary cognitive archaeology. Dr. Wynn has published over 100 papers and authored key books such as The Rise of Homo Sapiens (2009) and How to Think Like a Neandertal (2012), which he co-authored with Dr. Frederick Coolidge. In 2011, Wynn co-founded the UCCS Center for Cognitive Archaeology, offering online courses on human cognition's evolutionary development. His recent work includes curating First Sculpture, an exhibition on Acheulean handaxes and early aesthetics, which opened at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas in 2018. ------------------------------ Find

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., Cepon-Robins, T., & Warrener, A. (2024). Hyperandrogenism associated with polycystic ovary syndrome may have a protective effect against fracture risk in female athletes: A pilot study. American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council, 36(8), e24070. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.24070 ------------------------------------------------------------ Courtney Manthey is a PhD student at the University of Montana, where she studies ancient DNA under the guidance of Dr. Meradeth Snow. She is also a Research Affiliate at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, a Research Collaborat

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 Berkeley in the Department of Integrative Biology and the Human Evolution Research Center (HERC) and at Stockholm University in the Department of Biophysics and Biochemistry. Dr. Sholts is also the Director of the Smithsonian Institution Bio-Imaging Research (SIBIR) Center, Lead Curator of the Outbreak: Epidemics in a Connected World exhibition, and a World Economic Forum Young Scientist. Her research uses museum collections to explore intersections of human, animal, and environmental health. ------------------------------ Find the book discussed in this episode: Sholts, Sabrina. The Human Disease: How We Create Pandem

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 Andes, with some focus on gas exchange and the control of breathing. He and his collaborators have been using genome-wide approaches to elucidate the genetic basis of variation in specific altitude adaptive traits in several Andean populations, including the Quechua, in Peru, and the Aymara, in Bolivia. Brutsaert also has a laboratory-based program that focuses on how early life (intrauterine) developmental effects influence later-life adult exercise capacity, physical activity, body composition, the response to training, and the future risk for chronic disease. ------------------------------ Find the paper discussed in

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 may impact health and well-being. This research has involved fieldwork in Fiji, The Gambia, Mauritius, New Zealand, and the United States. His work is interdisciplinary and has been published in anthropology, biology, neuroscience, religion, psychology and general science journals. He is a co-editor of Religion, Brain & Behavior, a journal dedicated to the biological study of religion. ------------------------------ Find the paper discussed in this episode: Shaver, J. H., Chvaja, R., Spake, L., Hassan, A., Badjie, J., Prentice, A. M., Cerami, C., Sear, R., Shenk, M. K., & Sosis, R. (2024). Religious Involvement Is A

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 of the 1918 influenza pandemic in Alaska with the help of historical vital records, death records, and archival data. Previously, she studied COVID-19 impacts and resilience in rural Southeast Alaska communities, work which she is expanding to include quantitative and qualitative analyses of delayed care and its determinants to understand the indirect population health impacts of COVID-19. ------------------------------ Find the papers discussed in this episode: Van Doren, T. P. (2024). Sex‐based tuberculosis mortality in Newfoundland, 1900–1949: Implications for populations in transition. American Journal of Human

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 developed as a new acoel model system. Acoels represent the sister-group to all animals with bilateral symmetry, which allows the study of genetic mechanisms that span 550 million years of animal evolution. Current projects in her lab range from identifying gene regulatory networks for regeneration to determining the embryonic origins of pluripotent stem cells to understanding the origins of bilaterian nervous systems. Her lab website can be found here: www.srivastavalab.org/ The following are citations for the articles mentioned on today’s show: Srivastava M. (2021). Beyond Casual Resemblance: Rigorous Frameworks fo

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 Center of Buenos Aires. He holds a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Utah. His interests are very diverse; not only does he research isotopes and their application in forensic cases, but he also has an extensive curriculum in fascinating subjects such as the feeding behavior of whales! Trigger Warning: this episode contains information regarding the identification of human remains. ------------------------------ Find the paper discussed in this episode: Valenzuela, L. O., Otero, F., Loupias, L. L., Béguelin, M., & Mancuso, R. G. (2023). BITACORA: An isotopic database of modern human tissues (keratin, teeth) for Arge

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 care that pairs with violence in hunting. Previous research includes social boundary policing in a Drag Queen community in rural North Carolina, time budgeting and allocation in captive chimpanzees (at the North Carolina Zoo), female social relationships in rhesus macaques (Ocala National Forest, Florida), and science, racism, and inequality. ------------------------------ Contact Dr. Johnson: Website: anthropology365.com, E-mail: adam.johnson@my.utsa.edu ------------------------------ Contact the Sausage of Science Podcast and Human Biology Association: Facebook: facebook.com/groups/humanbiologyassociation/, Website:

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 expanding it—is more functional and satisfying for most people, most of the time. He suggests that our brains evolved mechanisms to deal with the stress of awareness in concert with awareness itself—otherwise, it is too costly to handle. Defining dissociation as “partitioning of awareness,” Dr. Lynn touches on disparate cultural and psychological practices such as religion, drug use, 12-step programs, and dancing. The chapters draw on biological and cultural studies of Pentecostal speaking in tongues and stress, the results of our 800,000+ years watching hearth and campfires, and unconscious uses of self-deception as a m

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 a professor of Evolutionary Anthropology at the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at Duke, where he founded the Duke Canine Cognition Center. ------------------------------ Find the books discussed in this episode: Hare, B., & Woods, V. (2024). Puppy Kindergarten: the new science of raising a great dog. Random House Trade Paperbacks. Hare, B., & Woods, V. (2021). Survival of the friendliest: Understanding our origins and rediscovering our common humanity. Random House Trade Paperbacks. Learn more about Puppy Kindergarten here. ------------------------------ Contact Vanessa: v.woods@duke.edu ---------------------