Sausage of Science

Human Biology Association
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Apr 6, 2024 • 38min

SoS 213: Prof. Gregoricka Discusses the Ethics of Legacy Collections and Other Bioarch. Topics

Prof. Lesley Gregoricka joins Chris and Eric to explain her work in the field of bioarchaeology. Topics include everything from strontium isotope analysis to the ethics of legacy collections of human remains. Stick around for a diversion to King Cakes and Mardis Gras. The article discussed on this episode can be found via this citation: Gregoricka, L. A. (2023). The ethics of excavating: bioarchaeology and the case for rehabilitating legacy human skeletal collections in the Near East. Levant, 55(3), 294-303. ------------------------------------------------------------- Bioarchaeologist Dr. Lesley Gregoricka is a Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work at the University of South Alabama. Her research focuses on prehistoric mortuary practices and the chemistry of ancient human teeth and bones to examine changing patterns of mobility and the evolution of social complexity in Arabia and the broader Middle East. ------------------------------------------------------------- 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/, E-mail: cdlynn at ua.edu, Twitter:@Chris_Ly Eric Griffith, HBA Junior Fellow, SoS producer E-mail: eric.griffith at duke.edu
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Mar 29, 2024 • 38min

SoS 212: Melanie Martin talks mother-infant COVID-19 transmission and social jetlag

Chris and Eric catch up with Dr. Melanie Martin, an Associate Professor in the University of Washington Department of Anthropology, whose research examines biocultural influences on health, growth, and development across the life course. In addition to being the Co-PI of the Biodemography Lab at the University of Washington Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology, she conducts field research with two international projects on Indigenous community health and well-being: the Chaco Area Reproductive Ecology Program (Co-Director) and the Tsimane Health and Life History Project (Affiliate). In this episode, Dr. Martin breaks down two of her papers, one looking at COVID-19 transmission in mothers and infants and another examining sleep health in undergraduates before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. ------------------------------ Find the papers discussed in this episode: Martin MA, Keith M, Pace RM, Williams JE, Ley SH, Barbosa-Leiker C, Caffé B, Smith CB, Kunkle A, Lackey KA, Navarrete AD, Pace CDW, Gogel AC, Eisenberg DTA, Fehrenkamp BD, McGuire MA, McGuire MK, Meehan CL and Brindle E (2022) SARS-CoV-2 specific antibody trajectories in mothers and infants over two months following maternal infection. Front. Immunol. 13:1015002. https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2022.1015002 Alicia Rice, Olivia Sather, Kenneth P Wright, Céline Vetter, Melanie A Martin, Horacio O de la Iglesia, COVID-19 stay-at-home restrictions increase the alignment in sleep and light exposure between school days and weekends in university students, Sleep, Volume 46, Issue 7, July 2023, zsad059, https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsad059 ------------------------------ Contact Melanie: martinm7@uw.edu Website: https://www.melaniemartin-anthropologist.com/ ------------------------------ Contact the Sausage of Science Podcast and Human Biology Association: Facebook: facebook.com/groups/humanbiologyassociation/, Website: humbio.org, Twitter: @HumBioAssoc Chris Lynn, Co-Host, Website: cdlynn.people.ua.edu/, E-mail: cdlynn@ua.edu, Twitter:@Chris_Ly Eric Griffith, Guest Co-Host, HBA Junior Fellow E-mail: eric.griffith@duke.edu Cristina Gildee, HBA Junior Fellow, SoS producer Website: cristinagildee.org, E-mail: cgildee@uw.edu, Twitter:@CristinaGildee
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Mar 19, 2024 • 43min

SOS 211: Prof. Ben Trumble Explains the Connection Between Oral Health and Cognitive Aging

Listeners, please welcome Prof. Ben Trumble to the show! Prof. Trumble joins us to talk about his fascinating research on how oral health can affect cardiovascular disease risk and cognitive health later in life. Find the publication discussed in today’s episode via this citation: Benjamin C Trumble, Matthew Schwartz, Andrew T Ozga, Gary T Schwartz, Christopher M Stojanowski, Carrie L Jenkins, Thomas S Kraft, Angela R Garcia, Daniel K Cummings, Paul L Hooper, Daniel Eid Rodriguez, Kenneth Buetow, Bret Beheim, Andrei Irimia, Gregory S Thomas, Randall C Thompson, HORUS Team, Margaret Gatz, Jonathan Stieglitz, Caleb E Finch, Michael Gurven, Hillard Kaplan. Poor oral health is associated with inflammation, aortic valve calcification, and brain volume among forager-farmers, The Journals of Gerontology: Series A, 2024;, glae013, https://doi-org.proxy.lib.duke.edu/10.1093/gerona/glae013 ------------------------------------------------------------ Benjamin Trumble is an associate professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change and the Center for Evolution and Medicine and the Institute of Human Origins. His work focuses on chronic diseases of aging, working to understand how environmental conditions like parasites, pathogens, food availability, and social interactions impact human health. Taking an evolutionary life history perspective, he uses field and laboratory studies to understand variation in human endocrine systems, and how this influences chronic health conditions like benign prostatic hyperplasia, cardiovascular disease, and Alzheimer’s dementia. Prof. Trumble's website can be found here: https://trumblelab.org/ ----------------------------------------------------------- Contact the Sausage of Science Podcast and Human Biology Association: Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/humanbiologyassociation Website: humbio.org/, Twitter: @HumBioAssoc Courtney Manthey-Pierce, Co-Host, Website: courtneymanthey-pierce.godaddysites.com/ E-mail: cpierce4@uccs.edu, Twitter: @HolyLaetoli Alex Niclou, special returning Co-Host Eric Griffith, HBA Junior Fellow, SoS producer E-mail: eric.griffith at duke.edu
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Mar 11, 2024 • 48min

SoS 210: Dr. Chris Kuzawa on the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD)

Cara and guest co-host Cristina sit down with Dr. Chris Kuzawa, the John D. MacArthur Professor & Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University. He uses principles from anthropology and evolutionary biology to gain insights into the biological and health impacts of human developmental plasticity. His primary field research is conducted in Cebu, the Philippines, where he and his colleagues work with a large birth cohort study that enrolled more than 3,000 pregnant women in 1983 and has since followed their offspring into adulthood (now 30 years old). They use the nearly 3 decades of data available for each study participant, and recruitment of generation 3 (the grand offspring of the original mothers), to gain a better understanding of the long-term and intergenerational impacts of early life environments on adult biology, life history, reproduction, and health. A theme of much of his work is the application of principles of developmental plasticity and evolutionary biology to issues of health. ------------------------------ Contact Chris: kuzawa@northwestern.edu Website: https://sites.northwestern.edu/kuzawa/; Twitter:@ChrisKuzawa ------------------------------ Contact the Sausage of Science Podcast and Human Biology Association: Facebook: facebook.com/groups/humanbiologyassociation/, Website: humbio.org, Twitter: @HumBioAssoc Cara Ocobock, HBA Public Relations Committee Chair, Cara Ocobock, Co-Host, Website: sites.nd.edu/cara-ocobock/, Email:cocobock@nd.edu, Twitter: @CaraOcobock Cristina Gildee, HBA Junior Fellow, SoS producer Website: cristinagildee.org, E-mail: cgildee@uw.edu, Twitter: @CristinaGildee
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Mar 6, 2024 • 35min

SoS 209: Anthropological perspectives on dementia with Dr. Eric Griffith

Listeners, please welcome Dr. Eric Griffith to the show ...as a guest! In this episode, Eric takes a break from producing to talk about his research regarding human variation in dementia. Find the publication discussed in today’s episode via this citation: Griffith EE. (2023). “Recruiting Participants for Dementia Research Without Saying ‘Dementia’: A Site Study in Central Mexico.” In: Anthropological Perspectives on Aging, BM Howell & RP Harrod eds., University of Press of Florida. ------------------------------------------------------------ Dr. Eric Griffith received his Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, as well as an MA in psychology from Boston University. He completed his dissertation fieldwork in central Mexico, focusing on the experiences of familial caregivers for people living with Alzheimer’s disease. Eric’s research interests include biocultural anthropology, dementia, cognitive aging, health disparities, and mixed methods research. Eric is currently a T32 postdoc at the Duke University Center for the Study of Aging and Human development. He also worked as a postdoctoral fellow with the Samuel DuBois Cook Center at Duke University on the project “The influence of religion/spirituality on Alzheimer’s Disease and its related dementias (ADRD) for African Americans." ----------------------------------------------------------- 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/, E-mail: cdlynn at ua.edu, Twitter:@Chris_Ly Eric Griffith, HBA Junior Fellow, SoS producer E-mail: eric.griffith at duke.edu
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Feb 27, 2024 • 41min

SoS 208: Prof. Lew-Levy explains the evolutionary relevance of peer learning in children

Listeners, please welcome Dr. Sheina Lew-Levy to the show! In this episode Prof. Lew-Levy discusses the importance of social learning among children to the study of evolution. Stick around for some gardening tips! Find the publication discussed in today’s episode via these citations: Pretelli, Ilaria, Alyssa N. Crittenden, Edmond Dounias, Sagan Friant, Jeremy Koster, Karen L. Kramer, Shani M. Mangola, Almudena Mari Saez, and Sheina Lew‐Levy. "Child and adolescent foraging: New directions in evolutionary research." Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews (2023): e22020. Lew‐Levy, Sheina, Wouter van den Bos, Kathleen Corriveau, Natália Dutra, Emma Flynn, Eoin O'Sullivan, Sarah Pope‐Caldwell et al. "Peer learning and cultural evolution." Child Development Perspectives (2023). ------------------------------------------------------------ Using methods from anthropology and psychology, Prof. Lew-Levy conducts research in hunter-gatherer societies to understand the cultural diversity in, and evolution of, social learning in childhood. Specifically, Prof. Lew-Levy uses quantitative and qualitative methods to study how and from whom children learn through meaningful participation in every day activities. With Forager Child Studies, her interdisciplinary research team conducts cross-cultural reviews and secondary data analysis on the pasts, presents, and futures of forager children's learning. Since 2016, Prof. Lew-Levy has worked with egalitarian BaYaka foragers and their farmer neighbours in the Congo Basin. Her primary research uses behavioural observations to understand social learning. She can be contacted via e-mail: sheina.lew-levy at durham.ac.uk ----------------------------------------------------------- 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/, E-mail: cdlynn at ua.edu, Twitter:@Chris_Ly Eric Griffith, HBA Junior Fellow, SoS producer E-mail: eric.griffith at duke.edu
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Dec 20, 2023 • 34min

SoS 207: Dr. Meradeth Snow: aDNA in Paquimé (Casas Grandes)

Special Edition HBA Fellow take-over! HBA Junior Fellows Eric Griffith and Courtney Manthey-Pierce co-host this season's final episode with Dr. Meradeth Snow. Dr. Snow is an Associate Professor and Co-Chair of Anthropology at the University of Montana. There, she and her research team analyze ancient and degraded DNA for anthropological and forensic purposes. Her lab focuses primarily on the northern region of prehistoric Mexico. She is here to talk to us today about her most recent paper (currently in review) titled “A Reanalysis of Population Dynamics in the Casas Grandes Region of Northern Mexico Using Mitochondrial DNA.” ------------------------------ Contact Meradeth: meradeth.snow@umontana.edu Website: meradethhouston.com; Twitter: @MeradethHouston ------------------------------ Contact the Sausage of Science Podcast and Human Biology Association: Facebook: facebook.com/groups/humanbiologyassociation/, Website: humbio.org, Twitter: @HumBioAssoc Courtney Manthey-Pierce, Guest-Co-Host, Website: courtneymanthey-pierce.godaddysites.com/ E-mail: cpierce4@uccs.edu, Twitter: @HolyLaetoli Eric Griffith, Guest Co-Host, HBA Junior Fellow E-mail: eric.griffith@duke.edu Cristina Gildee, HBA Junior Fellow, SoS producer Website: cristinagildee.org, E-mail: cgildee@uw.edu, Twitter:@CristinaGildee
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Dec 16, 2023 • 46min

SoS 206: Dr. Charles Roseman wants to know -- are you adapt-erific?!

Cara is solo hosting this episode! She is joined by Dr. Charles Roseman to discuss the finer points of why/how "adaptionist" thinking can lead us all down scientific dead ends. Bonus fun: We also learn a little bit about squirrels and nicotine withdrawal. You know Chris was sorry to miss this episode! ******************************* The Scientific American article "To Understand Sex, We Need to Ask the Right Questions," co-authored by Profs. Roseman and Ocobock can be found here: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/to-understand-sex-we-need-to-ask-the-right-questions/ Dr. Roseman's video demonstration will be uploaded to the HBA youtube page soon: https://www.youtube.com/@HumanBiologyAssociation ******************************* Dr. Roseman is an Associate Professor in Evolution, Ecology and Behavior and Anthropology in the School of Integrative Biology at the University of Illinois. His work broadly focuses on genotype phenotype map structure, and the evolution of complex traits. You can view his website here: sib.illinois.edu/profile/croseman and follow him on Twitter @EvoRoseman. ******************************* Contact the Sausage of Science Podcast and Human Biology Association: Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/humanbiologyassociation Website: humbio.org/, Twitter: @HumBioAssoc Cara Ocobock, Co-Host, Website: sites.nd.edu/cara-ocobock/, Email:cocobock@nd.edu, Twitter:@CaraOcobock Eric Griffith, HBA Junior Fellow, SoS producer E-mail: eric.griffith@duke.edu
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Dec 4, 2023 • 45min

SoS 205: Dimitris Xygalatas on Fire walking and other things that make us human

Chris and special guest co-host Courtney Manthey-Peirce interview Dimitris Xygalatas, author of Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living. Associate Professor in Anthropology and Psychological Sciences at the University of Connecticut and head of the Experimental Anthropology Lab, Dimitris is an anthropologist and cognitive scientist who studies some things that make us human – but not the obvious ones. He is interested in some of the more peculiar aspects of human nature: ritual, music, sports fanship, and other things that help people connect, cope, and live meaningful lives. Dimitris’ research combines experimental methods with ethnographic fieldwork to study human culture holistically over the last several years in Southern Europe and Mauritius. ------------------------------ Contact Dimitris: xygalatas@uconn.edu Website: xygalatas.com; Twitter: @xygalatas ------------------------------ Contact the Sausage of Science Podcast and Human Biology Association: Facebook: facebook.com/groups/humanbiologyassociation/, Website: humbio.org, Twitter: @HumBioAssoc Chris Lynn, HBA Public Relations Committee Chair, Website: cdlynn.people.ua.edu/, E-mail: cdlynn@ua.edu, Twitter:@Chris_Ly Courtney Manthey-Peirce, Guest-Co-Host, Website: courtneymanthey-pierce.godaddysites.com/ E-mail: cpierce4@uccs.edu, Twitter: @HolyLaetoli Cristina Gildee, SoS producer Website: cristinagildee.org, E-mail: cgildee@uw.edu, Twitter:@CristinaGildee
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Nov 27, 2023 • 44min

SoS 204: Everything you need to know about parasites and self medication with Ed Hagen

Listeners, please welcome Ed Hagen to the show! In this episode Prof. Hagen discusses his research on self medication and parasites. Prof. Hagen joins our regular host, Prof. Chris Lynn, as well as returning guest host Cristina Gildee. Find the publication discussed in today’s episode via this citation: Hagen, E. H., Blackwell, A. D., Lightner, A. D., & Sullivan, R. J. (2023). Homo medicus: The transition to meat eating increased pathogen pressure and the use of pharmacological plants in Homo. American Journal of Biological Anthropology, 180(4), 589-617. ------------------------------------------------------------ Prof. Hagen investigates tobacco use in the larger context of human use of plant secondary compounds. He investigates depression, suicide, and deliberate self-harm as potential signaling strategies. Child growth and development is a research theme that grew out of his work on postpartum depression. Prof. Hagen also recently begun testing evolutionary models of leadership and knowledge specialization as part of my more general interest in the evolution of human social organization. Finally, he has published a number of theoretical papers on evolutionary approaches to ontogeny, cognition, and behavior. Blog: https://grasshoppermouse.github.io Twitter: @ed_hagen Email: edhagen@wsu.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/, E-mail: cdlynn@ua.edu, Twitter:@Chris_Ly Cristina Gildee, SoS producer, SoS Guest Host: Website: cristinagildee.org, E-mail: cgildee@uw.edu, Twitter:@CristinaGildee Eric Griffith, HBA Junior Fellow, SoS producer E-mail: eric.griffith@duke.edu

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