Sausage Of Science

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. She has been working on this problem for over 20 years. Her work demonstrates that different selection pressures have acted on men and women and that women, in particular, have a rare (among mammals) ability to work both efficiently (energy per unit of mass) and economically (total energy) when carrying loads. Women’s abilities are partly due to their relatively small body size, relatively high surface area, relatively broader pelves, and unique methods of thermoregulation. In addition to her research, Dr. Wall-Scheffler teaches courses in human physiology and evolutionary mechanisms on campus and at the Blakely Islan

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 the human microbiome. Current projects examine how exposure to environmental pollutants, which disproportionately impact racial and ethnic minorities in the United States, influences the gut microbiome and cardiovascular disease risk. Her lab website can be found here: https://mallott-lab.github.io/ The following are citations for the articles mentioned on today’s show: Mallott, E. K., Sitarik, A. R., Leve, L. D., Cioffi, C., Camargo Jr, C. A., Hasegawa, K., & Bordenstein, S. R. (2023). Human microbiome variation associated with race and ethnicity emerges as early as 3 months of age. PLoS biology, 21(8), e3002230.

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, paleodemography, epidemiology, and hazard analyses to explore the interplay between human biocultural behavior and infectious disease. She also uses methods from bioarchaeology to reconstruct life histories and health outcomes in modern and past populations through cementochronology. Kelmelis is also a primary investigator on a collaborative project with other professionals, students, and tattoo artists in South Dakota to understand how this ancient practice of body modification affects health outcomes in modern people. Current and ongoing research includes the exploration of mortality risk and disease in monastic, urban, an

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. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Here's a link to the Barnes and Noble page for the book: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-voice-in-the-wilderness-professor-joseph-l-graves-jr-phd/1140835416 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Prof. Graves's faculty page: https://www.ncat.edu/employee-bio.php?directoryID=113858234 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Contact the Sausage of Science Podcast and Human Biology Association: Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/humanbiologyassociation Website: humbio.org/, Twitter: @HumBioAssoc Ch

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 Pan is a PhD candidate at the University of Washington and can be reached by e-mail at: anweshap@uw.edu Contact the Sausage of Science Podcast and Human Biology Association: Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/humanbiologyassociation Website: humbio.org/, Twitter: @HumBioAssoc Chris Lynn, HBA Public Relations Committee Chair, Website: cdlynn.people.ua.edu/, Email: cdlynn@ua.edu, Twitter:@Chris_Ly Mallika Sarma, Sausage of Science Co-Host Website: mallikasarma.com/, Twitter: @skyy_mal Eric Griffith, HBA Junior Fellow, SoS producer E-mail: eric.griffith@duke.edu

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 grandmotherhood, variation in caretaking behaviors, and the impact of child-rearing on both grandmaternal and children’s health and well-being. With the outbreak of war in Ukraine, Sofiya’s work toggled to focus on the study of menopause, where she manages and coordinates an ongoing multi-year study on hot flash experiences and brown adipose tissue in perimenopausal and menopausal women. Find her recent book chapter, “Aging and Childcare: A Biocultural Approach to Grandmothering in Ukraine” published in Anthropological Perspectives on Aging here: https://upf.com/book.asp?id=9780813069593 ------------------------------ Sofi

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 anthropometrics, demography, endocrinology, actigraphy, validated health surveys, and dyadic peer ratings, alongside semi-structured demographic interviews and measures of social norms. Sean’s work is informed by a mix of evolutionary and behavioral ecology, cultural evolutionary theory, and evolutionary psychology, especially related to reproductive concerns. Sean is also a co-director of the Kunene Rural Health and Demography Project, a contributor to the ENDOW project, and a collaborator on the Shodagor Longitudinal Health and Demography Project. Find the publications discussed in today’s episode here: https://sprall

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/ -------------------------------------------------------- Karen Rosenberg is a biological anthropologist with a specialty in paleoanthropology. She received her degrees from the University of Chicago (B.A. 1976) and the University of Michigan (M.A. 1980, Ph.D., 1986) and has taught at the University of Delaware since 1987. She has studied human fossils and modern human skeletal material in museums in Europe, North America, Asia and Africa. Her research interests are in the origin of modern humans and the evolution of modern human childbirth and human infant helplessness. She has published in edited volumes as well as anthropol

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 the indigenous women who continue to live there. ------------------------------ Find the publication discussed in today’s episode here: “Associations between autoimmune dysfunction and pollutants in Akwesasne Mohawk women: Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane and polychlorinated biphenyl exposure” https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.23773 ------------------------------ Florence's email: flee2@albany.edu ------------------------------ Contact the Sausage of Science Podcast and Human Biology Association: Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/humanbiologyassociation Website: humbio.org/, Twitter: @HumBioAssoc Chris Lynn, HBA Public Rela

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 Associate in the Meehan lab at Washington State University. Elizabeth is a researcher of mother-infant relationships, infant growth, and the early life origins of health. She received her PhD in Anthropology from the University at Albany, SUNY, for her biocultural anthropological research into how mothers’ unequal exposure to stress can affect maternal health, as well as contribute to small changes in infant growth through epigenetic mechanisms. Her current research identifies how maternal-infant dynamics and maternal stress may contribute to variation in the milk microbiome. ------------------------------------- Con

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, circumpolar populations, seasonality, social influences on health disparities, cardiometabolic health, and climate change. She graciously shares her experiences and research as a co-PI on the Indigenous Siberian Health and Adaptation Project (ISHAP), a collaborative project that includes researchers based in Russia and the U.S. In this episode, we learn about her research exploring how environmental conditions across the life course influence population variation in metabolism and disease risk. Dr. Levy’s work investigates human evolution, adaptation, and health by integrating energetics and endocrinology tools to fo

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, human evolutionary biology, and applied statistics. Her research focuses on the evolutionary and environmental underpinings of physiological systems, including aging, metabolism, the immune system, cancer, and other chronic diseases. By taking a multidisciplinary approach, she uses anthropology, biology, health sciences, psychology, and epidemiology to understand health and disease at the microbiological, personal, and population levels. Currently, she is study coordinator for the the World Health Organization’s World Health Survey Plus (WHS+) and she has worked closely with their Study on Global Ageing and Adult Healt

Chris and Mallika check in with Dr. Crystal Patil, (Ph.D. Anthropology from Ohio State University) whose research focuses on how the social world becomes embodied and expressed as health, illness, or suffering. The motivation for her research stems from a concern for social justice. Her research draws on ecological and social determinants frameworks to make sense of complex health-related problems. She applies these models as she develops and tests strategies to reduce health disparities and strengthen health systems both in the USA and in sub-Saharan Africa. Her mentoring focuses on fostering the productive careers of students and newer investigators and including them in her active research projects. ------------------------------ Find the publications discussed in today's episode here: CenteringPregnancy-Africa: A pilot of group antenatal care to address Millennium Development Goals: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.midw.2013.05.008 Implementation challenges and outcomes of a randomized controlled pilot study o

In this episode, Mallika and Chris chat with Dr. Jason DeCaro, Professor and Chair of the University of Alabama's Anthropology Department. Dr. DeCaro studies the intersection of cultural models, everyday practices, and human physiology in the production of differential well-being across the life course, especially but not exclusively focusing on children. His Developmental Ecology and Human Biology Lab is a biological anthropology "wet lab" providing a center within the department for biocultural research involving immunological, endocrine, nutritional, and other biological markers. His recent publication on applying minimally invasive biomarkers of chronic stress across complex ecological contexts can be found at the following link: https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.23814 ------------------------------ Dr. DeCaro's email: jason.a.decaro@ua.edu Website: https://dehb.ua.edu/jason-decaro.html -------------------- Contact the Sausage of Science Podcast and Human Biology Association: Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups

What happens when hypercapitalism intersects with human fertility? Professor Diane Tober joins Chris and Mallika to reveal some of the nuances of Assisted Reproductive Technologies, with a focus on egg donation. ------------------------------------- Diane Tober is Associate Professor at the University of Alabama Department of Anthropology and Institute for Social Science Research. She is a medical anthropologist with a focus on biocultural aspects of health, gender and sexuality, the commodification of the body, science and technology studies, bioethics, and social and reproductive justice. She has been conducting research exploring egg donors’ decisions and experiences within the global market for human eggs since 2013. With funding from the National Science Foundation, she is comparing egg donation in the United States and Spain. She has conducted field research in Iran, Spain, and the United States. Prof. Tober can be contacted via her website: https://dianetober.com/ Her book, "Romancing the Sperm,"

Welcome Sausage of Science's newest host Dr. Mallika S. Sarma! Mallika joins Chris as co-host while Cara is out on sabbatical. In this episode, Mallika and Chris chat with Dr. Paula Tallman about several aspects of water insecurity, notably an important overlap with gender-based violence. Dr. Paula Skye Tallman is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Loyola University Chicago. Her research examines the drivers of health inequities among marginalized populations in South America and Southeast Asia, with a focus on connecting this scholarship to environmental and social policy. Dr. Tallman received her B.A. in Behavioral Biology from Johns Hopkins University, her Ph.D. in Biological Anthropology from Northwestern University, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship focused on indigenous well-being and conservation at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. Her recent publications discussed on the show can be found at the following links, titled: Water insecurity, self-reported physical health

Chris and Cara discuss underappreciated athletes before unpacking Big Data with Dr. Elizabeth Miller, an Associate Professor at the University of South Florida. Dr. Miller is a biological anthropologist interested in evolutionary and biocultural approaches to maternal and child health. Her research program spans the study of human milk composition and infant feeding practices, infant immune function in diverse ecologies, maternal iron homeostasis, and early microbiome maturation. In this episode, she breaks down her use of a biocultural approach to early growth using data from NHANES to test the effects of social inequalities on birth weight and later height and how it can be used to contextualize potential pathways of embodiment that link social structure and biology. Her latest publication can be found in AJHB, titled: A critical biocultural approach to early growth in the United States Find it here: https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.23726 ------------------------------ Dr. Miller's e-mail: emm3@usf.edu Twitt

On this show Dr. Asher Rosinger joins Cara and Chris to discuss his new paper in the American Journal of Human Biology (AJHB) titled “Cross-cultural variation in thirst perception in hot-humid and hot-arid environments: Evidence from two small-scale populations.” Dr. Rosinger’s paper is available here:  https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajhb.23715  For more insight on this topic please see the upcoming AJHB special issue on Extreme Climatic Events and Human Biology and Health, which will be released in January and ties into the theme of thirst and extreme thermal environments.  Applications for the NSF REU field school mentioned on this episode can be accessed here:  https://anthropology.columbian.gwu.edu/koobi-fora-field-school  Correction: During the podcast Dr. Rosinger mentions “Sarah Fenestra” but her last name is Hlubik.  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Dr. Rosinger is an assistant professor of Anthropology and Biobehavioral

Chris sits down with Dr. Emily Pollock, a Prevention Effectiveness Fellow at the CDC in the Division of Sexually Transmitted Disease Prevention, where she brings a more robust understanding of human behavior to the challenges of STI modeling for public health. Dr. Pollock earned her PhD in Biological Anthropology from the University of Washington, with a certificate from the Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology at the same institution. Her dissertation, "Epidemics as Complex Systems: Demography, Networks, and Treatment of Chlamydia trachomatis," focused on applying dynamic network analysis to understand how behavioral, biological, and biomedical factors influence chlamydia reinfection. Most recently, she worked as a data analytics and modeling team member for the CDC's response to the monkeypox outbreak. She has helped develop agent-based network models to understand behavioral drivers of monkeypox transmission and the effects of behavior on the epidemic's trajectory. She discusses two papers: First

Prof. Lynnette Leidy Sievert joins Chris and Cara to discuss how hot flashes, and other symptoms of menopause, vary around the world. Stick around for "offboarding" career advice and a conversation about fish! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lynnette Leidy Sievert has studied variation in age at menopause and symptoms at midlife for more than 30 years. In collaboration with local researchers, she carried out studies of menopause in western Massachusetts; Hilo, Hawaii; the Selška Valley, Slovenia; Asunción and Mbaracayu, Paraguay; Puebla and Campeche, Mexico; Sylhet, Bangladesh; and London, UK, as well as pilot studies in Odisha, India, and Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Sievert also studies and writes about the evolution of menopause and post-reproductive life. Of late, she has been disentangling the experience of hot flashes from the heat and humidity of Campeche, Mexico, and planning to study hot flashes in the winter cold of Mongolia. Her current study i