It’s the end of the world as we know it. How do you feel? SAPIENS co-host Jen Shannon follows the trail of some contemporary preppers with the help of anthropologist Chad Huddleston. Then she dives into history with Tim Kohler, an archaeologist and expert on Ancestral Puebloan peoples of the U.S. Southwest.

Chad Huddleston is an adjunct assistant professor of anthropology at Saint Louis University in Missouri and an instructor at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville. In March, he published an article about his work with preppers at SAPIENS.org: “For Preppers, the Apocalypse Is Just Another Disaster.”

Tim Kohler is a professor of archaeology and evolutionary anthropology at Washington State University. He also serves as coordinator for the Village Ecodynamics Project, a multidisciplinary effort to study the connection between Ancestral Puebloan peoples and their environment in the U.S. Southwest.

This episode of Sapiens was produced by Paul Karolyi, edited by Matthew Simonson, and hosted by Chip Colwell, Esteban Gomez, and Jen Shannon.

Sapiens producer Arielle Milkman, executive producer Cat Jaffee, and House of Pod intern Lucy Soucek provided additional support.

All music is produced and designed by Matthew Simonson with illustration by David Williams, and fact-checking by Christine Weeber.

Sapiens is part of the American Anthropological Association Podcast Library.

This is an editorially independent podcast funded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation and produced by House of Pod.