Hypothesis

Hello Scholars!

This week on Hypothesis, I'm joined by Dr Natasha Mikles, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Texas State University and author of Shattered Grief: How the Pandemic Transformed the Spirituality of Death in America. Just in time for Halloween, we're exploring how experiences of mass death shape our relationships with grief, spirituality, and the supernatural. We discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic transformed mourning practices, why people seek connections with the dead, and what our beliefs about the afterlife reveal about the living.

For the articles discussed in this episode, check out our Substack! iramcintosh.substack.com

You can learn more about Dr Natasha Mikles and her research at natashamikles.com.

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If you'd like to submit a question to our guests, feel free to DM us on Instagram, email us at [email protected], or leave us a voice message at SpeakPipe.com/HypothesisPodcast!

Funky (sting) by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Theme Music is: Sweaty Linen by Surf Ninja 3

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Hello Scholars!

This week on Hypothesis, I’m joined by Dr Maria Maclennan, an award-winning interdisciplinary designer, researcher, and forensic jeweller at the University of Edinburgh. We talk about the history of jewellery, how adornment communicates identity, and why jewellery is so deeply intertwined with memory, mourning, death, and the people we leave behind.

For the articles discussed in this episode, check out our Substack! iramcintosh.substack.com

You can follow Dr Maria Maclennan on Instagram at @forensicjewellery and find her on LinkedIn.

You can follow us on:

TikTok: @thegayethnographer

Don't forget to subscribe, rate, review, and share with your friends!

If you'd like to submit a question to our guests, feel free to DM us on Instagram, email us at [email protected], or leave us a voice message at SpeakPipe.com/HypothesisPodcast!

Funky (sting) by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Theme Music is: Sweaty Linen by Surf Ninja 3

Thank you for listening!

Hello Scholars!

What can one very weird bird teach us about climate change, sex, evolution, and even ourselves?

This week, I’m joined by behavioral ecologist Eric Tymstra, a PhD candidate at UC Davis studying the greater sage-grouse—an extraordinary bird whose elaborate mating displays are connected to everything from the toxic plants it eats to the rapidly changing ecosystem it calls home.

We talk about how climate change can alter the chemistry of plants, why invasive grasses can completely transform wildfire regimes, how conservation of one species can protect an entire ecosystem, and why sage-grouse mating grounds can be studied almost like marketplaces.

We also get into sexual selection, why “sperm is cheap” in evolutionary terms, what animal behavior can, and absolutely cannot, tell us about humans, and why research that looks obscure from the outside can end up advancing science far beyond the species being studied.

For the articles discussed in this episode, check out our Substack!

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#HypothesisPodcast #BehavioralEcology #ClimateChange #Evolution #ScienceCommunication

Hello Scholars!

How do you actually change a system?

In this week’s From My Desk, we remember Dolly Parton and Gloria Steinem—two women who moved through the world in dramatically different ways, but left it changed behind them.

Drawing on research into social movements, we’re asking what separates a victory from lasting success. Is change about winning the law, the protest, or the argument—or about shifting the relationships, institutions, narratives, and expectations that make up the system itself?

From Gloria’s explicitly feminist organizing to Dolly’s radical commitment to dignity, forgiveness, and building things that could outlive her, this episode is about movements, cultural change, and why the most important parts of a legacy might be the things that keep working after you’re gone.

Because maybe legacy isn’t what people remember about you.

Maybe legacy is the infrastructure you leave behind.

For the articles discussed in this episode, check out our Substack!

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#HypothesisPodcast #SocialChange #GloriaSteinem #DollyParton #Sociology

Hello Scholars! In the office today we have Darren McDonald to talk about parasites, nematodes, and the growing problem of drug resistance in cattle. We dive into why parasites are becoming resistant to the drugs we use to control them, what that means for farmers and food production, and how scientific research can help shape more effective agricultural policy. We also talk about natural selection, why eradicating an entire species might not be the solution we think it is, and what happens when human progress moves faster than our ability to understand its consequences.

For the articles discussed in this episode, check out our Substack! iramcintosh.substack.com

You can follow Darren on:

Instagram: @biodarren

TikTok: @biodarren

LinkedIn: Darren McDonald

You can follow us on:

TikTok: @hypothesispod and @thegayethnographer

Instagram: @hypothesispod and @iraamcintosh

YouTube: @thegayethnographer

Substack: iramcintosh.substack.com

Don't forget to subscribe, rate, review, and share with your friends! If you'd like to submit a question to our guests, feel free to DM us on Instagram, email us at [email protected], or leave us a voice message at SpeakPipe.com/HypothesisPodcast!

Funky (sting) by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Theme Music is: Sweaty Linen by Surf Ninja 3

Thank you for listening!

Research with Purpose

It’s a question academics hear constantly. Why spend years studying one kind of pottery, one television show, one tiny feature of a language, or one incredibly specific historical community? What are you actually going to do with that knowledge?

But there’s a problem with that question: how can we know what knowledge will be useful before we’ve discovered it?

In this episode of From My Desk, Ira makes the case for curiosity-driven research. We explore how funding and expectations of “impact” can shape the questions researchers are allowed to ask, why unexpected results can sometimes be more valuable than the results we were looking for, and how a prepared, curious mind can turn accidents into discoveries.

Sometimes knowing something we didn’t know yesterday should be the outcome.

And for this week’s Office Hours: if money, job prospects, admissions committees, and practicality didn’t matter, what absurdly specific thing would you study?

Welcome back to the office.

Follow Hypothesis on Instagram and TikTok: @HypothesisPod

Questions for Office Hours? Email [email protected] or send us a voice note at SpeakPipe.com/HypothesisPodcast.

And, as always: let’s stop the spread of misinformation together.

Hello Scholars! In the office today we have Veronica Velasquez to talk about archaeology, utopian communities, material culture, and how the spaces and objects around us can shape the way we understand and organize society. We also dive into feminist approaches to domestic labor, how architecture can influence human behavior, pottery and colonial power in Mexico, and why archaeology can challenge the stories preserved in traditional written histories.

For the articles discussed in this episode, check out our Substack! iramcintosh.substack.com

You can follow Dr. Velasquez on:

Academia.edu: Veronica Velasquez

Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo: Dr. Verónica Velasquez Sánchez-Hidalgo

You can follow us on:

Don't forget to subscribe, rate, review, and share with your friends! If you'd like to submit a question to our guests, feel free to DM us on Instagram, email us at [email protected], or leave us a voice message at SpeakPipe.com/HypothesisPodcast!

Funky (sting) by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Thank you for listening!

Who's an Expert?

A PhD? Professional experience? Lived experience? Years spent studying one incredibly specific subject? And in a world where anyone can confidently explain almost anything into a camera, how do we tell the difference between expertise and simply sounding authoritative?

In this episode of From My Desk, Ira digs into the complicated question of who gets to be considered an expert. We explore academic credentials, methodology, professional and lived experience, public trust in researchers, and why genuine specialists are often the people most willing to say, “It depends,” “We don’t know yet,” or “That’s outside my area.”

We also revisit conversations from the Hypothesis archive and ask whether people without PhDs can still produce meaningful knowledge.

Here’s the hypothesis: expertise doesn’t mean knowing everything. It means understanding what you know, how you know it, and where that knowledge stops.

So maybe instead of asking, “Is this person an expert?” we should ask a better question:

What are they an expert in?

Welcome back to the office.

Follow Hypothesis on Instagram and TikTok: @HypothesisPod

Questions for Office Hours? Email [email protected] or send us a voice note at SpeakPipe.com/HypothesisPodcast.

And, as always: let’s stop the spread of misinformation together.

Hello Scholars! In the office today we have Anthony David Vernon to talk about disability studies, accessibility, and how rethinking the way we teach and communicate complex ideas could benefit everyone. We also dive into the problems with traditional academia, the importance of meeting students where they are, and what anime, cartoons, Disney adults, and Barbenheimer can teach us about philosophy and the way we understand the world.

For the articles discussed in this episode, check out our Substack! iramcintosh.substack.com

You can find Anthony David Vernon and his work online by searching his full name on Google or YouTube!

You can follow us on:

TikTok: @hypothesispod and @thegayethnographer

Instagram: @hypothesispod and @iraamcintosh

YouTube: @thegayethnographer

Substack: iramcintosh.substack.com

Don't forget to subscribe, rate, review, and share with your friends! If you'd like to submit a question to our guests, feel free to DM us on Instagram, email us at [email protected], or leave us a voice message at SpeakPipe.com/HypothesisPodcast!

Funky (sting) by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Theme Music is: Sweaty Linen by Surf Ninja 3

Thank you for listening!

From My Desk #1 | Is Academic Writing Too Hard to Read?