This Anthro Life

Artificial Intelligence. Natural Language Processing. Machine Learning. Big Data. If you've studied Anthropology at all, you'll likely notice these terms don't often get use, unless you happen to be studying one of these areas, like doing an ethnography on artificial intelligence. Yet if these tools are used everyday across millions of applications and software lines of code to make our world run, how might they help us understand ourselves better? Big data often gets used to understand patterns people's behavior and thinking at a high level, and it is common to see people split into segments from this data.So in the world of market and consumer research you may know that people are commonly categorized into segments or generations - you've likely seen people written about as Millennial or Baby Boomers (OK, Boomer). But what limitations to understanding people are present when putting them into segments and generations and only seeing them from a high level? That's often where ethnography comes in, and where

It's no surprise that many of us find ourselves increasingly on mobile devices or the internet. We shop online with ease, connect with friends and family on social media, check the news, and play games. And especially during the era of COVID millions, more people are figuring out if they can work remotely. In this episode, Adam sits down with Dr. Julie Ancis, one of the world's leading cyberpsychologists to talk about how digital technology in life online is impacting the ways we think and interact with one another. As an interdisciplinary scholar, practitioner, and pioneer in the field, Dr. Julie Ancis is starting as Director and Professor of an exciting new Cyberpsychology program at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and currently writes for the new Cyberpsychology blog for Psychology Today where she's been offering advice on how to practice mental wellbeing as so many of us move online, especially during the time of COVID.Digital technology can be a blessing and a curse, right? Connecting us in new

Ever wonder why certain new ideas stick while others don’t? We often hear a lot about innovation when it comes to new ideas, but really that’s only part of the equation. Psychology, marketing, neuroscience - and yes - anthropology can help us make sense of why some new ideas stick while others fall flat.On this episode Adam Gamwell talks with neuroscientist Dr. Matt Johnson and Professor of marketing Prince Ghuman about the fascinating role neuroscience plays in our evolving consumer lives. Matt and Prince have a new book out called Blindsight: the (Mostly) Hidden Ways Marketing Reshapes our Brains that explores the emerging field of neuromarketing.This is a fascinating conversation that gets into the neuroscience, marketing, and psychology of why we consume, why certain kinds of advertisements work for different groups of people, and -something long time listeners of This Anthro Life know - the need to clearly communicate our work as human, Neuro, and social scientists to other disciplines and people in gene

What is it about coffee and tea - two simple drinks - that both transcends culture and is intimately bound up by it? In this episode, Adam talks with Independent documentary filmmaker and coffee anthropologist Brooke Bierhaus about her film "The Connected Cup" which explores the heart of coffee and tea as global human connectors across cultures and backgrounds. For the film Brooke traveled to over 9 countries to film and capture intimate moments, stories, and portraits of human life around the connected cup. We dig into:Brooke's process for filming across 9 countrieshow coffee and tea provide a window into what makes the good life and happinesscultures of coffee and tea around the globenarrative and ethnographic voice as part of filmmakinghttps://www.theconnectedcup.com/https://www.instagram.com/itsbrookebierhaus/https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10149658/Brooke's Bio from IMDB: Brooke Bierhaus is an American award-winning documentary filmmaker and visual storyteller. Brooke is known for her feature film, "The Conn

Today we talk with Voltage Control president Douglas Ferguson and we're taking you beyond the prototype. If you ever run a design sprint, or even if you simply sat down at your desk to think through a really cool idea for a product or a new podcast or how do we improve something in your neighborhood. You started the design process. The question is, how do you go from a good idea to putting something out into the world? Douglas helps us find out. "You gotta slow down to go fast" - Douglas FergusonVoltage Control president, design thinking facilitator and innovation coach Douglas Ferguson recently published a book called Beyond the Prototype that aims to help teams and organizations (and individuals!) go from generating awesome ideas to implementing them. Over the course of our conversation we cover:the power of systems thinkingseeing variables in the design ecosystemfacilitation as model through systems thinkingThe connections between organizations and society.HR departments using design thinking to point the

The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) is a next-generation observatory currently under development that has created a watershed moment for the scientific community and Hawaiian society. This is because of its planned location on Mauna Kea… the most sacred mountain in the Hawaiian religion. But the case of TMT and Mauna Kea is not an outlier because mountain summits often have profound meanings to both indigenous cultural practitioners and technology developers. For example, Kanamota is another sacred mountain that is the site of technological development. It's also known as Mount Saint Helena. Ian Garrett is the co-founder and director of the Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts (CSPA) and an Associate Professor of Ecological Design for Performance at York University. He's collaborating with indigenous communities to understand and express how contested spaces are experienced through virtual reality. In this second installment of Starstruck, we talk with him about his ongoing collaborations with indigenous

Produced in collaboration with Experience by Design.  We are witnessing a moment in our lifetimes that we will hopefully never see again. The world is gripped in a pandemic of a scale unseen for a  century. Beyond the human toll, we are seeing how healthcare systems  people once had trust in crumble before their eyes. In this episode,  Adam and Gary talk with Shelley White and Meenakshi Verma-Agrawal of the  Simmons University Masters of Public Health program on what we learn  from this moment, and how we can design a more inclusive healthcare  system.Shelley White is an Assistant Professor of Public Health and Sociology, and Program Director of the Master of Public Health.Meenakshi Verma-Agrawal is the Assistant Program Director and Associate Professor of Practice at MPH@Simmons.What  a difference a week makes. Or does it? With the expanding pandemic of COVID-19 disrupting more lives, many here in the United States might  feel caught off guard, or that things have changed to rapidly. Now  health care is a co

Gigaom CEO, publisher and author of "The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers, and the Future of Humanity" stops by virtually to chat with Adam and guest host Astrid Countee to help us make sense of just what Artificial Intelligence is, what are its promises and limits, and what this means for the possibilities of conscious computing and smart robots. Byron breaks down the philosophies behind our ways of thinking about AI in way that gives us new social tools to approach the deep technological revolution we are undergoing in a more human and even optimistic manner. Website: https://byronreese.com/Twitter: @byronreeseFacebook: @byronreeseLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/byronreese--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thisanthrolife/messageThis show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5168968/advertisement

The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) is a next-generation observatory currently under development that has created a watershed moment for the scientific community and Hawaiian society. This is because of its planned location on Mauna Kea… the most sacred mountain in the Hawaiian religion. Dr. Mindshare been studying this issue from their perspective as a cultural anthropologist for over a decade. This prelude offers a brief history of the controversy.TMT reveals the value of systems thinking — or thinking like a social scientist — for understanding the human experience more fully. Over the course of 2020 Mindshare will be collaborating with anthropologist Adam Gamwell, of This Anthro Life, alongside thought leaders from various disciplines to provide another level of insight as this story unfolds. Everything Dr. Mindshare posts can be used freely under a Creative Commons-ShareAlike license, including the audio version of this paper below. Feel free to register/log in to Mindshare if you would like to follow this

Bill Fleming stops by to chat with Adam about branding, marketing and design. Bill is a Boston-based Independent Brand & Marketing Strategist, and Business Consultant for Designers.On this episode we talk about what brands are, how the cultural work of branding has changed in recent decades with the advent of new and easier to use technologies, and how we can think about brands as conversations - not just between businesses and customers but also between businesses.Transcript of this episodeBillfleming.comBill on TwitterIdeas and Articles we referencehttps://www.commarts.com/columns/the-sensitive-anthropology-of-brandinghttps://raleighgreeninc.com/blog/2011/07/31/an-anthropologists-approach-to-branding/https://lippincott.com/insight/b2b-brands-in-the-human-era/This episode is brought to you in part by Experience By Design, a new sister podcast Adam makes with sociologist of work Dr. Gary David. ExD explores all things at the intersections of experience and work, from employee experience at Amazon to escap

A happy New Years! Enjoy this mini-episode with Adam and Dr. Ryan Collins exploring happiness and the good life according the Aztecs. New Years is a great time to reflect on where we've been, where we're going, and what's it all for. We find some answers and surprising wisdom with the Aztecs. Purcell - The Aztecs on HappinessCarrasco - Daily Life of the Aztecs--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thisanthrolife/messageThis show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5168968/advertisement

Special guest podcast! - Adam Gamwell guests on Trending in Education with Mike Palmer.  For this week’s extra, Mike is joined by Design  Anthropologist and Podcaster, Dr Adam Gamwell, to explore how robots,  science fiction, and anthropology are interrelated. In a free flowing  and imaginative conversation, we explore how the narratives and secular  myths of pop culture and our collective consciousness provide insights  into how we understand what it means to be human, how we engage with the  Other, and how we grapple to understand how new technologies are  driving profound changes to the world around us.Listen in for an illuminating conversation. We hope you enjoy!Catch more great episodes of Trending in Education over on Stitcher--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thisanthrolife/messageThis show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5168968/advertisement

Why More Security Never Feels like EnoughStoryslamming Anthropology Series, Story 3. Written and Performed by Astrid CounteeIn recent years, the terms Public and Anthropology have been paired with more frequency. Yet, what this seemingly suspect partnership is, how it could function, and what goals it could have are still in relative formation. Today, public anthropology might mean several different things ranging from jargony lectures that are “open to the public”, digital media (like blogs, videos, or podcasts) that are generally accessible online, or presentations given to an informant public on work produced by a researcher. Large voids remain. We ask, then, why not turn to already publicly oriented writing for inspiration? What if “Guns, Germs and Steel” (Diamond 1999), “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind”, (Harai 2015) or “Freakonomics” (Levitt and Dubner 2009) were written by anthropologists?What if we told you that once upon a time, they were? When Margaret Mead wrote “Coming of Age in Samoa” in 19

in this episode, Adam and guest host Leslie Walker talk with visual anthropologist and film producer Chris Chan, producer of the 100 Years of Beauty series on YouTube. If you haven't seen this series (or some of the spinoffs from companies like Vogue and Allure, definitely take a few minutes to enjoy). As an ethnographer, he also makes a wonderful behind-the-scenes series that documents the research he and his team does for each country called Chanthropology. We cover  the development of the 100 YOB series,  vernacular media - the kind of content that people become inspired by, and then in turn, make their own versions of.  we dig into Chanthropology, Chris' behind the scenes ethnographic videos on why the producers and makeup artists make the aesthetic choices that they do.  how to think about beauty and aesthetics as political, not merely as passive consumerism. and yes, at some point in the episode, Chris mentions the Human Centipede. But for the reasons you'd think. It's amazing. (his comment, not the

At long last we are back! In this episode host Adam Gamwell talks with Design Researcher and Strategist Amy Santee. This is one of these conversations that's a few years in the making. Adam has been following Amy's work for a while now both on her blog anthropologizing.com where she writes about anthropology in industry, design and business, on LinkedIn and other social media sites as well as at conferences sharing the good work of doing anthropology in industry. Adam and Amy discuss what Design Research is and how it works, how it aligns and differs from traditional anthropology and ethnography, and how tactics and methods can be applied both in industry or academia. Amy Santee is a design research and strategy consultant who helps teams build products, services and brands through an understanding of people, context and experience. Trained as an anthropologist, Amy uses a human-centered lens to make sense of complex problem spaces and create value for others. She has worked primarily in digital product desig

In this special interview, TAL's Ryan Collins talks with scholar, activist and artist Jason de Leon about the ongoing humanitarian crisis at the US-Mexico border. In addition to these roles, de Leon is a MacArthur Fellow and National Geographic Explorer. He uses his platforms to create public dialogue, exhibitions, and media about undocumented migration, the human costs of the US immigration policy known as 'deterrence through force.' This very human conversation reveals the emotional toll, and sometimes trauma, that comes with precarious work on the border with undocumented migrants, smugglers, shady legality and deadly terrain as well as deep questions and reflections about privilege, position, and power. Full Transcript of the episode hereCheckout some of Jason's projectshttp://www.hostileterrain94.com/http://undocumentedmigrationproject.com/MacArthur Fellow VideoEpisode 127--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thisanthrolife/messageThis show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are inter

In this episode Adam Gamwell talks with Alex Limpaecher and LaiYee Ho, co-Founders of Delve. While Delve is a qualitative research suite, to help code transcripts, find insight, and pull actionable insights from data, the conversation takes focus on the subject of research. Specifically, the driving question is: how can qualitative and quantitative data work together? Here, academic and industry methodologies with anthropology are put into conversation leading to insights and actionable steps from social data. Transcript for the episode: https://www.thisanthrolife.com/delve/From the Delve Site:Delve is an online tool that helps you code and analyze transcripts from in-depth interviews or focus groups. Make your research process structured and transparent by creating a coding structure that evolves into your final insights.Delve is more streamlined than coding with spreadsheets and documents, and more intuitive than traditional CAQDAS software.Delve tool: https://delvetool.com/Episode 126--- Send in a voice me

For this episode, we're doing something a little different. I'll be your guest. I got interviewed by the wonderful Sarah Dunigan on her podcast Anthro Dish, a weekly podcast about food identity and culture about design anthropology and some of the research I did on quinoa production and conservation in Peru for my PhD. I'll let Sarah intro the episode and run it unedited on my end. Just wanted to drop in and let you know we're here and in the spirit of helping our fellow anthro podcasters cross promote and get their good work out there. Sign up for our NEW Weekly Newsletter here, Check out Sarah's podcast Anthro Dish and the episode page from our conversation on Quinoa Production and Design Anthropology--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thisanthrolife/messageThis show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5168968/advertisement

In this episode, Adam and Aneil reflect on Aneil’s fieldwork in climate finance. Climate finance is an area of finance focused on mobilizing investment for climate change solutions, namely infrastructure that is sustainable. Aneil’s research is centered on the growth of the green bond market within climate finance. Green bonds are debt instruments that finance infrastructure deemed sustainable by the climate finance community, such as public transit, green building, renewable energy, and water infrastructure (Tripathy 2017).We analyze some snippets of interviews with climate finance practitioners and reflect on why notions of sacrifice appear so prominent in how they approach finance. It is unexpected, provocative, and humanizing. Max Weber Spirit of Capitalism and the Protestant EthicDefinition of Finance from Mirriam Webster DictionaryFor more on Sacrifice: Marcel Mauss and Hubert Spencer On SacrificeThis Anthro Life: Making Sense of Finance: Boundaries, Institutions, and power and Caitlin Zaloom--- Send in

Storyslamming Anthropology Series, Story 2. Written and Performed by Taylor GenoveseIn recent years, the terms Public and Anthropology have been paired with more frequency. Yet, what this seemingly suspect partnership is, how it could function, and what goals it could have are still in relative formation. Today, public anthropology might mean several different things ranging from jargony lectures that are “open to the public”, digital media (like blogs, videos, or podcasts) that are generally accessible online, or presentations given to an informant public on work produced by a researcher. Large voids remain. We ask, then, why not turn to already publicly oriented writing for inspiration? What if “Guns, Germs and Steel” (Diamond 1999), “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind”, (Harai 2015) or “Freakonomics” (Levitt and Dubner 2009) were written by anthropologists? What if we told you that once upon a time, they were? When Margaret Mead wrote “Coming of Age in Samoa” in 1928, anthropologists and non-anthropolog