AnthroPod

Anthropologists of media and journalism reflect on the current post-truth era in the United States means for research and teaching. This episode features a panel from the the 2017 Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association with Naomi Schiller, Robert Samet, Natalia Roudakova, Alexandra Juhasz, Amahl Bishara, and Faye Ginsburg. Music: “Bit Rio” and “Caravan” by Podington Bear

Guest producers Stine Krøijer and Astrid Oberborbeck Andersen take up a debate that is central to current environmental and political anthropology: namely, how ethnographers can identify and describe the political when earth beings, spirits, or nonhuman others become part of the ethnographic equation? Marisol de la Cadena’s 2015 book _Earth Beings: Ecologies of Practice across Andean Worlds_ is the point of departure for the conversation. The episode is built around a recording of a workshop on “More than Human Politics,” which was held in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Copenhagen in April 2015.

Yarimar Bonilla discusses the concept of sovereignty and its anthropological applications in this episode of AnthroBites, the podcast that makes key concepts in anthropology more digestible.

Hugh Gusterson, Kim Garcia, and a U.S. military drone operator on active duty discuss the representation of drone warfare. Their conversation engages the ways we think about communities of expertise and war, as well as how we represent the experiences of others.

Rachel Watkins, an Associate Professor of Biological and Cultural Anthropology, dives into the tangled web of scientific racism. She explores how early anthropologists falsely linked physical traits to intelligence, shaping harmful perceptions. Watkins highlights the colonial roots of racial constructs and their enduring impact. She also challenges misconceptions about race in sports, critiquing outdated stereotypes. Her discussion underscores the need for more inclusive and culturally aware approaches within biological anthropology to combat the legacies of racism.

Lilly Irani discusses the human labor behind artificial intelligence technology. Irani helped create a platform called Turkopticon to support workers on Amazon Mechanical Turk, a website that outsources micro data processing work. Irani also talks about her current book project on entrepreneurialism and national development in India.

Keith Murphy discusses the anthropology of design through his work on Swedish design as well as bringing design methods into ethnography through ethnocharrettes.

Cassandra Hartblay discusses design and ethnography through her work on disability in Russia.

Theory, method, and politics of studying human-animal relations from anthropological perspectives with Nikhil Anand, Philippe Descola, Radhika Govindrajan, Laura Ogden, and Paige West.

Guest podcaster David Lein examines the impact of Pokémon GO on communities, both digital and physical, in conversation with Michigan-based scholars John Cheney-Lippold, Eric Montgomery, and individuals in Detroit who are using Pokémon GO.