This Anthro Life

Produced in collaboration with Experience by Design.  We are witnessing a moment in our lifetimes that we will hopefully never see again. The world is gripped in a pandemic of a scale unseen for a  century. Beyond the human toll, we are seeing how healthcare systems  people once had trust in crumble before their eyes. In this episode,  Adam and Gary talk with Shelley White and Meenakshi Verma-Agrawal of the  Simmons University Masters of Public Health program on what we learn  from this moment, and how we can design a more inclusive healthcare  system.
Shelley White is an Assistant Professor of Public Health and Sociology, and Program Director of the Master of Public Health.
Meenakshi Verma-Agrawal is the Assistant Program Director and Associate Professor of Practice at MPH@Simmons.
What  a difference a week makes. Or does it? With the expanding pandemic of COVID-19 disrupting more lives, many here in the United States might  feel caught off guard, or that things have changed to rapidly. Now  health care is a constant concern.
What Shelley White and  Meenakshi Verma-Agrawal help us put in perspective is that even though  we can all get sick, public health and care has always been political,  and who has access to care, and even what diagnoses one gets, have been  deeply tied to class, race, ethnicity and other socioeconomic  classifications. Public health, in fact, is designed. Moments of  pandemic, where a virus crosses borders and bodies with no care for the  social structures we’ve erected, brings to light the radically unequal  way our public health systems are designed. For middle class families  who find themselves for the first time concerned about the lack of  available health care or beds at a hospital, must now contend with the  fact that this is a common reality for many poorer communities and  communities of color.
But moments of crisis like this are also  moments of hope. As Dr. White notes in the conversation, we have to  remember that there are more people who seek equity and change than  those who benefit from the status quo. What's radical is to acknowledge  the racial, social, and economic injustices that frame our public health  system and to then set about to change those inequities for a more just  world.

covid-19
public health
healthcare design
experience design
health inequalities


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About This Anthro Life:
This Anthro Life is your podcast for thought leadership at the intersection of culture, work, and storytelling. We bring you interviews and insights for business leaders, design thinkers, researchers, and anyone curious about how culture shapes our lives.

Explore more episodes and subscribe to our newsletter at thisanthrolife.org and join our Substack community at thisanthrolife.substack.com.

Gigaom CEO, publisher and author of "The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers, and the Future of Humanity" stops by virtually to chat with Adam and guest host Astrid Countee to help us make sense of just what Artificial Intelligence is, what are its promises and limits, and what this means for the possibilities of conscious computing and smart robots. Byron breaks down the philosophies behind our ways of thinking about AI in way that gives us new social tools to approach the deep technological revolution we are undergoing in a more human and even optimistic manner. 

Website: https://byronreese.com/
Twitter: @byronreese
Facebook: @byronreese
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/byronreese

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Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thisanthrolife/message

About This Anthro Life:
This Anthro Life is your podcast for thought leadership at the intersection of culture, work, and storytelling. We bring you interviews and insights for business leaders, design thinkers, researchers, and anyone curious about how culture shapes our lives.

Explore more episodes and subscribe to our newsletter at thisanthrolife.org and join our Substack community at thisanthrolife.substack.com.

The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) is a next-generation observatory currently under development that has created a watershed moment for the scientific community and Hawaiian society. This is because of its planned location on Mauna Kea… the most sacred mountain in the Hawaiian religion. Dr. Mindshare been studying this issue from their perspective as a cultural anthropologist for over a decade. This prelude offers a brief history of the controversy.
TMT reveals the value of systems thinking — or thinking like a social scientist — for understanding the human experience more fully. Over the course of 2020 Mindshare will be collaborating with anthropologist Adam Gamwell, of This Anthro Life, alongside thought leaders from various disciplines to provide another level of insight as this story unfolds. Everything Dr. Mindshare posts can be used freely under a Creative Commons-ShareAlike license, including the audio version of this paper below. Feel free to register/log in to Mindshare if you would like to follow this project and join this conversation about TMT.
Link: Original Article/Transcript: https://www.mindshare.app/home/provocations-public/starstruck-how-science-sparked-an-uprising
Twitter: www.twitter.com/drmindshare

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Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thisanthrolife/message

About This Anthro Life:
This Anthro Life is your podcast for thought leadership at the intersection of culture, work, and storytelling. We bring you interviews and insights for business leaders, design thinkers, researchers, and anyone curious about how culture shapes our lives.

Explore more episodes and subscribe to our newsletter at thisanthrolife.org and join our Substack community at thisanthrolife.substack.com.

Bill Fleming stops by to chat with Adam about branding, marketing and design. Bill is a Boston-based Independent Brand & Marketing Strategist, and Business Consultant for Designers.
On this episode we talk about what brands are, how the cultural work of branding has changed in recent decades with the advent of new and easier to use technologies, and how we can think about brands as conversations - not just between businesses and customers but also between businesses.
Transcript of this episode
Billfleming.com
Bill on Twitter
Ideas and Articles we reference
https://www.commarts.com/columns/the-sensitive-anthropology-of-branding
https://raleighgreeninc.com/blog/2011/07/31/an-anthropologists-approach-to-branding/
https://lippincott.com/insight/b2b-brands-in-the-human-era/
This episode is brought to you in part by Experience By Design, a new sister podcast Adam makes with sociologist of work Dr. Gary David. ExD explores all things at the intersections of experience and work, from employee experience at Amazon to escapee experience with Escape the Room adventures to making people love Jet Blue despite hating airports. It's a fascinating world, come explore it with us. 

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Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thisanthrolife/message

About This Anthro Life:
This Anthro Life is your podcast for thought leadership at the intersection of culture, work, and storytelling. We bring you interviews and insights for business leaders, design thinkers, researchers, and anyone curious about how culture shapes our lives.

Explore more episodes and subscribe to our newsletter at thisanthrolife.org and join our Substack community at thisanthrolife.substack.com.

A happy New Years! Enjoy this mini-episode with Adam and Dr. Ryan Collins exploring happiness and the good life according the Aztecs. New Years is a great time to reflect on where we've been, where we're going, and what's it all for. We find some answers and surprising wisdom with the Aztecs. 

Purcell - The Aztecs on Happiness
Carrasco - Daily Life of the Aztecs

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Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thisanthrolife/message

About This Anthro Life:
This Anthro Life is your podcast for thought leadership at the intersection of culture, work, and storytelling. We bring you interviews and insights for business leaders, design thinkers, researchers, and anyone curious about how culture shapes our lives.

Explore more episodes and subscribe to our newsletter at thisanthrolife.org and join our Substack community at thisanthrolife.substack.com.

Special guest podcast! - Adam Gamwell guests on Trending in Education with Mike Palmer.  
For this week’s extra, Mike is joined by Design  Anthropologist and Podcaster, Dr Adam Gamwell, to explore how robots,  science fiction, and anthropology are interrelated. In a free flowing  and imaginative conversation, we explore how the narratives and secular  myths of pop culture and our collective consciousness provide insights  into how we understand what it means to be human, how we engage with the  Other, and how we grapple to understand how new technologies are  driving profound changes to the world around us.
Listen in for an illuminating conversation. We hope you enjoy!
Catch more great episodes of Trending in Education over on Stitcher

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Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thisanthrolife/message

About This Anthro Life:
This Anthro Life is your podcast for thought leadership at the intersection of culture, work, and storytelling. We bring you interviews and insights for business leaders, design thinkers, researchers, and anyone curious about how culture shapes our lives.

Explore more episodes and subscribe to our newsletter at thisanthrolife.org and join our Substack community at thisanthrolife.substack.com.

Why More Security Never Feels like Enough
Storyslamming Anthropology Series, Story 3. Written and Performed by Astrid Countee
In recent years, the terms Public and Anthropology have been paired with more frequency. Yet, what this seemingly suspect partnership is, how it could function, and what goals it could have are still in relative formation. Today, public anthropology might mean several different things ranging from jargony lectures that are “open to the public”, digital media (like blogs, videos, or podcasts) that are generally accessible online, or presentations given to an informant public on work produced by a researcher. Large voids remain. We ask, then, why not turn to already publicly oriented writing for inspiration? What if “Guns, Germs and Steel” (Diamond 1999), “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind”, (Harai 2015) or “Freakonomics” (Levitt and Dubner 2009) were written by anthropologists?
What if we told you that once upon a time, they were? When Margaret Mead wrote “Coming of Age in Samoa” in 1928, anthropologists and non-anthropologists alike flocked to her work because of its accessibility - and felt topical relevance. Could such an achievement be attainable today?
While some scholars might reject an approach based on “popular” writing, we argue that the enormous success of the above books (as well as the podcasts, YouTube videos and Netflix series based on them) demonstrates a general interest in theories of humankind, what it means to be human in the contemporary world, and throughout history. We ask why have anthropologists not followed suit? Despite the massive amount of scholarship published each year by anthropologists, none seem to crack that elusive space between rigorous research and “pop-science.” While there are trade offs between academic complexity and writing for a lay audience, the theme of the 2017 American Anthropological Association conference, "Anthropology Matters!" speaks to our need to talk across (and storytell) different worlds. Our goal with this experimental panel was to invoke the public spirit of Franz Boas, Margaret Mead, Melville Herskovits and others to speak to 21st century concerns from a comparative perspective in clear language. We picked papers that revealed juxtapositions, seemingly counter- or non- intuitive links between subjects, objects, ideas, emotions, practices, or traditions that we felt can intrigue, educate, and delight participants. The goal of this series of to expand our genres of sharing ethnographic and anthropological insight. We hope you enjoy!
Story 1: #MeToo: Stories in the Age of Survivorship by Emma Backe
Story 2: Fear and Loathing in Truth or Consequences by Taylor Genovese

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Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thisanthrolife/message

About This Anthro Life:
This Anthro Life is your podcast for thought leadership at the intersection of culture, work, and storytelling. We bring you interviews and insights for business leaders, design thinkers, researchers, and anyone curious about how culture shapes our lives.

Explore more episodes and subscribe to our newsletter at thisanthrolife.org and join our Substack community at thisanthrolife.substack.com.

in this episode, Adam and guest host Leslie Walker talk with visual anthropologist and film producer Chris Chan, producer of the 100 Years of Beauty series on YouTube. If you haven't seen this series (or some of the spinoffs from companies like Vogue and Allure, definitely take a few minutes to enjoy). As an ethnographer, he also makes a wonderful behind-the-scenes series that documents the research he and his team does for each country called Chanthropology. 
We cover 

the development of the 100 YOB series, 
vernacular media - the kind of content that people become inspired by, and then in turn, make their own versions of. 
we dig into Chanthropology, Chris' behind the scenes ethnographic videos on why the producers and makeup artists make the aesthetic choices that they do. 
how to think about beauty and aesthetics as political, not merely as passive consumerism.
and yes, at some point in the episode, Chris mentions the Human Centipede. But for the reasons you'd think. It's amazing. (his comment, not the film)


This Anthro Life is produced and (lightly) edited by Adam Gamwell. I'm a small team of 1, so if you get something out of this show please consider supporting TAL on Patreon and helping make it happen. Even $5 a month makes a huge difference and me and our thousands of listeners are so grateful :). 
If you've read this far I'll be looking for production help soon! Transcription correction, content editing, social media and marketing - so if you've got some experience or want to learn the trade and want to help out, drop me a line at [email protected]. 
Chris is Director of Content at Cut.com
100 Years of Beauty and the Beast of YouTube with Chris Chan
Episode 129


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Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thisanthrolife/message

About This Anthro Life:
This Anthro Life is your podcast for thought leadership at the intersection of culture, work, and storytelling. We bring you interviews and insights for business leaders, design thinkers, researchers, and anyone curious about how culture shapes our lives.

Explore more episodes and subscribe to our newsletter at thisanthrolife.org and join our Substack community at thisanthrolife.substack.com.

At long last we are back! In this episode host Adam Gamwell talks with Design Researcher and Strategist Amy Santee. 
This is one of these conversations that's a few years in the making. Adam has been following Amy's work for a while now both on her blog anthropologizing.com where she writes about anthropology in industry, design and business, on LinkedIn and other social media sites as well as at conferences sharing the good work of doing anthropology in industry. Adam and Amy discuss what Design Research is and how it works, how it aligns and differs from traditional anthropology and ethnography, and how tactics and methods can be applied both in industry or academia. 
Amy Santee is a design research and strategy consultant who helps teams build products, services and brands through an understanding of people, context and experience. Trained as an anthropologist, Amy uses a human-centered lens to make sense of complex problem spaces and create value for others. She has worked primarily in digital product design, innovation and strategy, in areas such as ecommerce, entertainment, retail, home improvement, health care, enterprise software, and consumer tech. Amy is active in the applied anthropology community and blogs about design, business, organizational culture and careers at anthropologizing.com. She also provides career advising services and presentations to groups on these topics. You can learn more about her on LinkedIn or visit her website, amysantee.com.
Transcript of the episode here
As always, your reviews and support mean the world to us and help the show continue. Please help sponsor the show with a monthly or onetime donation on Anchor or Patreon.
Episode 128


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Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thisanthrolife/message

About This Anthro Life:
This Anthro Life is your podcast for thought leadership at the intersection of culture, work, and storytelling. We bring you interviews and insights for business leaders, design thinkers, researchers, and anyone curious about how culture shapes our lives.

Explore more episodes and subscribe to our newsletter at thisanthrolife.org and join our Substack community at thisanthrolife.substack.com.

In this special interview, TAL's Ryan Collins talks with scholar, activist and artist Jason de Leon about the ongoing humanitarian crisis at the US-Mexico border. In addition to these roles, de Leon is a MacArthur Fellow and National Geographic Explorer. He uses his platforms to create public dialogue, exhibitions, and media about undocumented migration, the human costs of the US immigration policy known as 'deterrence through force.' This very human conversation reveals the emotional toll, and sometimes trauma, that comes with precarious work on the border with undocumented migrants, smugglers, shady legality and deadly terrain as well as deep questions and reflections about privilege, position, and power. 
Full Transcript of the episode here
Checkout some of Jason's projects
http://www.hostileterrain94.com/
http://undocumentedmigrationproject.com/
MacArthur Fellow Video
Episode 127



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Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thisanthrolife/message

About This Anthro Life:
This Anthro Life is your podcast for thought leadership at the intersection of culture, work, and storytelling. We bring you interviews and insights for business leaders, design thinkers, researchers, and anyone curious about how culture shapes our lives.

Explore more episodes and subscribe to our newsletter at thisanthrolife.org and join our Substack community at thisanthrolife.substack.com.