Sausage of Science

In this episode, hosts Cara and Anna talk with Dr. Virginia Vitzthum about novel findings in female reproductive functioning across populations, tell exciting fieldwork stories, and reflect on the changing nature of the field of Anthropology.

Dr. Virginia Vitzthum is a professor emeritus in the Department of Anthropology at Indiana University. Currently, she is an Honorary Professor in the School of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver; Member of the Scientific Advisory Council at CeMCOR (Centre for Menstrual Cycle and Ovulation Research, UBC); and scientific advisor for Clue, a Germany-based menstrual tracking app. Her research focuses on women’s reproductive functioning and how it differs between individuals and across populations around the world. This work has direct implications for improving women’s health including reducing breast cancer, depression, autoimmune diseases, and other hormone related disorders; treating infertility and preventing early pregnancy loss; and developing more effective contraceptives with fewer side effects.

Contact Virginia at [email protected]

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Find the book chapter discussed in this episode:

Chapter: How It Works: The Biological Mechanisms that Generate Demographic Diversity

In Book: Burger, O., Lee, R., & Sear, R. (Eds.). (2024). Human evolutionary demography. Open Book Publishers.

https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/items/3777a36c-41cf-4a57-a8ec-4c0cdf21f69b

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Contact the Sausage of Science Podcast and the Human Biology Association:

Facebook: facebook.com/groups/humanbiologyassociation/, Website: humbio.org

Cara Ocobock, Co-Host, Website: sites.nd.edu/cara-ocobock/

Email: [email protected], Twitter: @CaraOcobock

Anna Samsonov, Co-Host, Email: [email protected]

Bluesky: @annasamsonov.bsky.social

Join us for a conversation with Dr. Amy Boddy, Professor of Anthropology at UC Santa Barbara and head of the Boddy Lab, a human evolutionary biologist whose work asks why cancer varies across the animal kingdom, how pregnancy reshapes the body, and what it means that nearly all of us carry living cells that originated in someone else. In this episode, Amy explains microchimerism, the phenomenon in which foreign cells can invade and persist in our bodies for decades, turning up in the blood, bone marrow, and pancreas; sometimes with a benefit. Amy makes the case that microchimeric cells deserve a central place in how we think about health and inheritance, and in what it means to be an individual when the boundaries of the body prove so porous.

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Find the papers mentioned in this episode:

Chua, K. J., Quilang, R. C., Sallinger, K., Aktipis, C. A., Arck, P., Bianchi, D. W., Chang, D., Eikmans, M., S Fjeldstad, H. E., Haig, D., Harrington, W. E., Horsnell, W., Jacobsen, D. P., Kanaan, S. B., Khosrotehrani, K., Lambert, N. C., Nelson, J. L., Olsen, M. B., Pan, T. D., . . . Boddy, A. M. (2025). Identifying Key Questions and Challenges in Microchimerism Biology. Advanced Science, 12(48), e14969. https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202514969

Boddy, A. M., Fortunato, A., Sayres, M. W., & Aktipis, A. (2015). Fetal microchimerism and maternal health: A review and evolutionary analysis of cooperation and conflict beyond the womb. Bioessays, 37(10), 1106. https://doi.org/10.1002/bies.201500059

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Contact Dr. Boddy: [email protected]

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Contact the Sausage of Science Podcast and Human Biology Association:

Facebook: facebook.com/groups/humanbiologyassociation/, Website: humbio.org

Chris Lynn, Host

Website: cdlynn.people.ua.edu, E-mail: [email protected], Twitter:@Chris_Ly

Cristina Gildee, Co-Host & Co-Producer

Website: cristinagildee.com, E-mail: [email protected]

In this episode, Chris and Mecca discuss the non-academic job search and career experience with Dr. Anneliese Long, as well as her work assessing the connections among inflammation and ovarian reserve biomarkers.

Anneliese Long is an applied anthropologist with a background in studying the biological and sociocultural aspects of reproductive health and fertility. She completed her B.A. in anthropology at the University of South Florida, followed by her PhD in Biological Anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2025. She now works in the market research industry as a quantitative data analyst at OptiBrand Rx, where she helps bridge the gaps in knowledge between biotechnology and pharmaceutical organizations and healthcare practitioners. She also continues to teach and mentor students part-time in her home department at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Contact Anneliese at [email protected], https://www.linkedin.com/in/annelieselong/

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Find the paper discussed in this episode:

Inflammation and Ovarian Function in Reproductive-Aged Women

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajhb.24196

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Contact the Sausage of Science Podcast and the Human Biology Association:

Facebook: facebook.com/groups/humanbiologyassociation/, Website: humbio.org

Chris Lynn, Co-Host, Website: cdlynn.people.ua.edu/, E-mail: [email protected]

Mecca E. Howe, Co-Host, E-mail: [email protected], LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mecca-howe/

In this episode, host Chris speaks with Dr. Christine Webb about primate behavior, cognition and consciousness, and dismantling the myth of human exceptionalism.

Dr. Christine Webb is an assistant professor in the department of Environmental Studies at NYU, where she is part of the animal studies program. Her work seeks to elucidate the complex dynamics of animal social life and to apply this knowledge to foundational questions in animal ethics and conservation. Specifically, she investigates how animals manage and mitigate social disruptions, and the emotional, motivational , and cultural influences shaping these processes, with a focus on non-human primates. Dr. Webb is interested in how prevailing social norms, values, and institutions shape contemporary knowledge of other animals and the environment more generally. In her new book, The Arrogant Ape, Dr. Webb engages critically with human exceptionalism, and how this pervasive ideology biases scientific exploration of the more-than-human world.

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Find the book discussed in this episode:

Webb, C. E. (2025). The arrogant ape: the myth of human exceptionalism and why it matters. New York, NY: Avery.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/717436/the-arrogant-ape-by-christine-webb/#

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Contact Dr. Christine Webb: [email protected]

Bluesky: @christinewebb.bsky.social/

Website: https://www.cewebb.com/

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Contact the Sausage of Science Podcast and the Human Biology Association:

Facebook: facebook.com/groups/humanbiologyassociation/, Website: humbio.org

Chris Lynn, Host Website: cdlynn.people.ua.edu/, E-mail: [email protected], Twitter:@Chris_Ly

In this episode, hosts Chris and Mecca speak with Dr. Danny Longman and Dr. Colin Shaw about the mismatch between humans and modern built environments, exploring both the negative biological impacts of living in industrialized cities and the positive effects of spending time in nature.

Dr Danny Longman graduated from the University of Cambridge with a BA (Hons) in Natural Sciences (2005–08), followed by an MPhil (2008–09) and PhD (2011–14) in Human Evolution. He remained at Cambridge as a Postdoctoral Researcher (2015–19) before joining Loughborough University as a Lecturer. He has since been promoted to Senior Lecturer. Outside of work, Danny is a keen sportsman with a passion for ultra-endurance sport, nature, and travel.

Dr. Colin Shaw graduated from the University of Western Ontario (Canada) with a BA (Hons) in Anthropology and Kinesiology (2000) and an MSc in Exercise Physiology (2000-02), then moved to the University of Cambridge, where he obtained an MPhil (2003-04) and a PhD (2004–08) in Biological Anthropology. He was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2008-2009), Penn State (2010-2011), and the University of Cambridge (2011-2015). He is now a Senior Lecturer at the University of Zurich.

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Find the paper discussed in this episode:

Longman, D.P. and Shaw, C.N. (2026), Homo sapiens, industrialisation and the environmental mismatch hypothesis. Biol Rev, 101: 580-601. https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.70094

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Contact the Sausage of Science Podcast and the Human Biology Association:

Facebook: facebook.com/groups/humanbiologyassociation/, Website: humbio.org

Chris Lynn, Co-Host, Website: cdlynn.people.ua.edu/, E-mail: [email protected]

Mecca E. Howe, Co-Host, E-mail: [email protected], LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mecca-howe/

Chris and Cristina sit down with Dr. Christine Harper, a biological anthropologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Washington, whose research focuses on the functional morphology and biomechanics of the human and nonhuman primate postcranial skeleton, with the goal of understanding how musculoskeletal form relates to locomotor behavior. She uses these patterns to place early hominins in context and reconstruct how they may have moved. Her work takes a quantitative, data-driven approach, using tools such as 3D geometric morphometrics, high-density semilandmarks, spherical harmonic analyses (SPHARM), whole-bone trabecular analyses, musculoskeletal modeling, and advanced statistical methods for high-dimensional data. She also develops and tests novel methods to address challenges in analyzing complex, multi-dimensional data.

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Find the paper discussed in this episode:

Harper, C. M., & Patel, B. A. Functional morphology of trabecular bone in the calcaneus of African apes. Journal of Anatomy. https://doi.org/10.1111/joa.70141

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Contact Dr. Harper: [email protected]

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Contact the Sausage of Science Podcast and Human Biology Association:

Facebook: facebook.com/groups/humanbiologyassociation/, Website: humbio.org, Twitter: @HumBioAssoc

Chris Lynn, Host

Website: cdlynn.people.ua.edu, E-mail: [email protected], Twitter:@Chris_Ly

Cristina Gildee, Co-Host & Co-Producer

Website: cristinagildee.com, E-mail: [email protected]

In this episode, hosts Cara and Chris speak with Dr. Fatimah Jackson and Dr. Ben Auerbach about the American Association of Biological Anthropologists Task Force on the ethical study of human remains and their recommendations for the management and oversight of community partnership and ethical stewardship of human remains.

Dr. Fatimah Jackson is a professor Emeritus of the Biology Department at Howard University. She has conducted research on (and is particularly interested in): 1.) Human-plant coevolution, particularly the influence of phytochemicals on human metabolic effects and evolutionary processes and 2.) Population substructure in peoples of African descent, developing Ethnogenetic Layering as a computational tool to identify human microethnic groups and differential expressions of health disparities. You can learn more about her work here: https://profiles.howard.edu/fatimah-jackson

Dr. Auerbach is a Professor in the Departments of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and Anthropology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His research examines variation and evolution through the skeletons of primates and other mammals, applying quantitative genetics and functional anatomy to understand how traits evolve, especially in primates and Australian marsupials. He also studies variation in global human samples from archaeological and medical contexts, as well as the history and ethics of the biological and social sciences. You can find more about his work here: https://web.utk.edu/~auerbach/index.htm

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Find the paper discussed in this episode:

Who Speaks for the Dead? Of Communities and Stewardship in Legacy Collections of Human Remains: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajpa.70216

AABA Task Force on the Ethical Study of Human Remains Recommendations: Proposal for the Management and Oversight of Community Partnership and Ethical Stewardship of Human Remains: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajpa.70213

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Contact the Sausage of Science Podcast and the Human Biology Association:

Facebook: facebook.com/groups/humanbiologyassociation/, Website: humbio.org

Cara Ocobock, Co-Host, Website: sites.nd.edu/cara-ocobock/, Email:[email protected], Twitter:@CaraOcobock

Chris Lynn, Co-Host, Website: cdlynn.people.ua.edu/, E-mail: [email protected], Twitter:@Chris_Ly

In this episode, Mecca chats with Erin Maxwell (Hosein) about her research on food allergen consumption patterns in the U.S. using NHANES data, gaps in current research, and the value of anthropological approaches for contributing to a more holistic understanding and informing policy/guidelines. They also discuss the evolutionary dual-allergen exposure hypothesis and new, exciting methods for testing the theory.

Erin Maxwell (Hosein) is a registered dietitian and human-biology PhD student in Anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill whose work centers on the rising prevalence of food allergies in the United States. Drawing on training in nutrition, food studies, and evolutionary perspectives on health, she studies how early-life feeding practices may shape the development of allergic disease. Her research focuses on maternal and infant nutrition and the early-life origins of allergic conditions using biosocial and nutritional epidemiology approaches. More broadly, she examines how food policy and shifting public health recommendations influence not only nutritional status but also everyday food practices, customs, and beliefs.

Contact Erin at [email protected], https://www.linkedin.com/in/erinhoseinnutrition/

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Find the papers discussed in this episode:

Hosein, E. A., Virkud, Y. V., Kim, E. H., Hoke, M. K., Thompson, A. L., & Keet, C. A. (2025). Temporal, Age, and Racial and Ethnic Trends in Allergen Consumption from 2-Day 24-Hour Recalls, NHANES 2003-2023. The journal of allergy and clinical immunology. In practice, 13(10), 2795–2805. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaip.2025.07.028

Comment on Stanislaw J. Gabryszewski, Jesse Dudley, Jennifer A. Faerber, Robert W. Grundmeier, Alexander G. Fiks, Jonathan M. Spergel, David A. Hill; Guidelines for Early Food Introduction and Patterns of Food Allergy. Pediatrics November 2025; 156 (5): e2024070516. 10.1542/peds.2024-070516

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Contact the Sausage of Science Podcast and the Human Biology Association:

Facebook: facebook.com/groups/humanbiologyassociation/, Website: humbio.org

Mecca E. Howe, Host, E-mail: [email protected], LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mecca-howe/

In this episode, Dr. Catalina Fernández explains a new theoretical model of human growth and its opportunities for cross-sectional and diverse samples. Dr. Catalina Fernández is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Florida Atlantic University (United States). Her research focuses on the role of food and diet in human adaptation and evolution among contemporary populations. Drawing on evolutionary and biocultural frameworks and employing mixed methods, her work investigates how subsistence strategies, nutritional histories, and the environment shape genetic, physiological, and cultural adaptations. She is particularly interested in questions related to the consequences of global market integration for human health and well-being among rural and small-scale societies. She has experience working with rural and Indigenous communities in Latin America, addressing issues related to environmental and dietary adaptations, nutrition transition, chronic disease risk, and population genetics. Her most recent research project investigates the causes of variation in child growth trajectories among non-Western populations, aiming to better inform public health interventions using culturally and environmentally appropriate strategies. Building on this work, she is developing a research program that examines the life-course health outcomes related to water and food security resulting from the climate change–driven expansion of the mining industry among indigenous communities in Chile.

Contact Dr. Fernández at [email protected]

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Find the paper discussed in this episode:

John A. Bunce, Catalina I. Fernández, Caissa Revilla-Minaya; A causal model of human growth and its estimation using temporally sparse data. R Soc Open Sci. 1 August 2025; 12 (8): 250084. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.250084

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Contact the Sausage of Science Podcast and the Human Biology Association:

Facebook: facebook.com/groups/humanbiologyassociation/, Website: humbio.org

Chris Lynn, Co-Host, Website: cdlynn.people.ua.edu/, E-mail: [email protected], X:@Chris_Ly

Mecca E. Howe, Co-Host, E-mail: [email protected], LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mecca-howe/

In part two of our conversation with Dr. Kristen Hawkes, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Utah, we pick up where we left off and turn to the broader evolutionary story that grandmothering helps tell. Building on her original grandmother hypothesis, this episode focuses on her paper "Life History Evolution Explains Features of Humanity," in which she argues that post-menopausal longevity set off a cascade of life history shifts that distinguish us from our closest primate relatives.

Dr. Hawkes walks us through how grandmothering can explain features that often get treated as separate evolutionary puzzles: our unusually long childhoods, late maturity, short interbirth intervals, and extended lifespans. From there, the conversation moves into the social and cognitive consequences of this life history pattern, including pair bonding, cooperative behavior, and the distinctive intensity of human social life. She also revisits how comparisons with chimpanzees and ethnographic data from the Hadza continue to inform and constrain the hypothesis.

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Find the work discussed in this episode:

Hawkes, K., & Jones, N. B. (2018). Hunter-gatherer studies and human evolution: A very selective review. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 165(4), 777-800. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.23403

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Contact Dr. Hawkes: [email protected]

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Contact the Sausage of Science Podcast and Human Biology Association:

Facebook: facebook.com/groups/humanbiologyassociation/, Website: humbio.org, Twitter: @HumBioAssoc

Chris Lynn, Host

Website: cdlynn.people.ua.edu, E-mail: [email protected], Twitter:@Chris_Ly

Cristina Gildee, Co-Host & Co-Producer

Website: cristinagildee.com, E-mail: [email protected]