Anthropotamus
73 episodes listed below
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Anthropotamus is a place for anthropology professionals and enthusiasts to come together to keep up-to-date with the latest anthropology research.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · June 2026
Anthropotamus brings anthropology's evidence base into guest-led conversations about bodies, labor, belief, politics, care, and community research.
Anthropotamus - Anthropology Podcast fits the Science beat as an anthropology show that keeps evidence close to lived experience. Les and Ashley use interviews and book or article conversations to bring guests into the details of their research, so anthropology feels less like a…
For listeners who want anthropology with field notes, book-club questions, and a working conscience.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A patient discussion of migration, motherhood, and the work of making life livable.
Anthropotamus frames Susan Terrio's Forced Out as a study of migration that stays close to family life, not only borders and policy. It follows how separation from mothers can reshape children, how resettlement keeps pressing long after arrival, and how school systems may become…
A niche language conversation that turns game worldbuilding into a real argument about meaning.
Alicia Serrata joins Anthropotamus for a discussion that starts with a niche article on the constructed language of Jade Empire and opens into something broader: how fictional languages help a world feel lived in.
A book conversation about migration, refugee displacement, and the paperwork of resettlement.
Anthropotamus brings Dr. Sophia Balakian into a conversation about Unsettled Families, using her Armenian American background to frame migration, humanitarianism, kinship, and refugee displacement.
A candid book discussion about religious extremism, family control, and two hosts thinking aloud.
This episode uses The House of My Mother to talk through religious extremism and family control from a close, uneasy angle. Les and Ashley sound alert and unforced, and the best stretches are the ones where they keep circling what the book is doing instead of trying to tidy it…
Gold and labor become a plainspoken account of how mining reshaped South Africa.
Dr. Rosalind Morris's conversation with Anthropotamus moves through Unstable Ground and the role gold played in South Africa, from Johannesburg's fast growth to the layered labor world around the mines.
Skeletal stress, labor, and pain become a grounded lens on systematic racism in the body.
Kendra Isabel's conversation treats skeletal stress as evidence that sits alongside systematic racism, with fractures, misalignment, and hypoplastic enamel defects pointing to labor, pain, and the lack of rest.
A candid discussion of religion, dogma, cult dynamics, and the pull of belonging.
This discussion of Counting the Costs works best when it connects the book to religion, dogma, cult dynamics, and the pull of belonging. The hosts keep their reactions in view, and the episode lands hardest when it circles the same pressure points: how power operates inside…
A book chat about spirit encounters and the complications of fieldwork in a home community.
Dr. Erin Stiles' visit stays focused on the uneasy overlap between anthropology and belief, especially in a book about spirit encounters in Mormon Utah and the awkward work of studying a community she already knows.
Health, work, and agency under pressure.
Science fiction thinking for a platform-shaped world
Anthropotamus speaks with Jackson Mueller, a PhD student at the University of Nevada, Reno, about a continental-scale comparison of social networks and early Holocene technology.
Anthropotamus’ 2024 opener is a discussion of Jeremy Narby’s Intelligence in Nature, with Les and Ashley focusing on his repeated claim that he is “not a scientist.” They also compare the book to Narby’s The Cosmic Serpent, his references to ayahuasca, and his use of Western and European scholars alongside claims about Peru and Japan.
Anthropotamus hosts Les and Ashley speak with PhD candidate Icy Zhang of UCLA about her paper, “embodying similarity and difference,” on listing and contrasting gestures in U.S.
Anthropotamus brings together Dr.
Anthropotamus episode 62 covers two Audible books by “House of Abundance”: Exploring Simulated Worlds and Parallel Realities, a Beginner’s Bundle to the Simulation Hypothesis, Multiverse and Beyond.
Les and Ashley welcome Dr.
Kendra Isabel joins the show to talk about skeletal stress and systematic racism.
Dr.
Anthropotamus discusses Laura Spinney’s book Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global, with Les and Ashley repeatedly saying the audiobook needs a map to follow the migrations.
Les and Ashley discuss Rachel Morgan’s Sins of the Shovel, Looting, Murder, and the Evolution of American Archaeology, and they repeatedly praise its novel-like style and fast pace.
Les and Ashley bring Dr.
Les and Ashley welcome a few of the authors behind Know We Are Here and start with praise for the book and its cover.
Les and Ashley talk through The House of My Mother by Sherry Frank and the life of Ruby Frank.
Les and Ashley return after a break and pick Fluent Forever for their next book discussion.
Les and Ashley welcome Dr.
Les and Ashley discuss *Counting the Costs* by Jill Duggar and Derek.
Les and Ashley talk with Jessica Ott and Mansi Parpiani about the anthropology of work.
Les and Ashley welcome Susan Terrio and start with her academic background.
Les and Ashley speak with Gabriel Torres-Colo about his book *Styles for Flourishing: Histories of Survival in the Racial Range*.
Dr.
Alicia Serrata joins Anthropotamus to talk about their article on the constructed language of Jade Empire.
Shana Lee-Levy, an associate professor at Durham University, talks about her article "Learning to Walk in the Forest" and her work with Bayaka children in the Republic of the Congo.
Anthropotamus episode 70 centers on Dr.
Anthopotamus tackles two Audible books, “Exploring Simulated Worlds” and “Parallel Realities: A Beginner’s Bundle to the Simulation Hypothesis, Multiverse and View,” both credited to House of Abundance Publications.
The hosts of Anthropotamus discuss Chris Spisak's book 'Becoming Baba Yaga,' exploring the Slavic folklore figure's evolution from pre-Christian wise woman to demonized crone.
The hosts of Anthropotamus discuss Laura Norton's book 'Lay Them to Rest', exploring how it blends true crime with forensic anthropology while sharing personal connections to the field.
Anthropology podcast Anthropotamus interviews researcher Marin Belta about her study using isotope analysis on ancient teeth to trace weaning practices and childhood stress from Roman to Medieval times in Bavaria.