Episode 32 - [Poop Joke Here]: Coprolites and the Value of Fossilized Feces

We all do it. We've done it for millions of years. It's the Poopisode, a Very Special Sponsor pick! Anna and Amber discuss coprolites (archaeological poo), and some of the surprising things we've learned from it. Anna's pun game has rarely been stronger, and Amber...well, Amber survived this episode.

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This is Anthropology Miniseries (with American Anthropological Association)

At the 117th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Anna and Amber sat down with six anthropologists and learned about the history of anthropology, the future of anthropology, and what the discipline looks like both in the classroom and out in the world.

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Dirt After Dark 6 - Ancient Aliens Are Neither Ancient Nor Alien: Discuss

Were the pyramids the work of extraterrestrials? No, of course they weren't, but why do some people and internet memes seem to think otherwise? Turns out there's a simple answer and a more complex answer, and Anna and Amber get into all of it in this special bonus excerpt from Dirt After Dark.

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Episode 30 - The Human Family Tree (Shrub? Crabgrass? Tumbleweed?), Part 2: Branches and Bipedalism

Part 2 of 3. Anna heads further up the family tree (as Amber lags behind, gasping), and introduces us to our Australopith and Paranthropus relatives. You can always rely on us for our australo-pithiness: Anna gives us the scoop on Lucy's new neighbor Selam and tells us about why babies have such grabby little hands, while Amber grapples with the prospect of a world before people and realizes she might have met an extinct hominin at a party once.

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Episode 29 - The Human Family Tree (Shrub? Crabgrass? Tumbleweed?), Part 1: Roots

Part 1 of 3. Anna and Amber work their way up the trunk of our shared evolutionary tree, tackling the thorny issues of identifying our earliest mammal, primate, and hominin ancestors. We learn about the early development of bipedal walking, and really struggle (as usual) with the question of deep time, but this week it escalates to wondering how anybody knows anything. All we know is, we didn’t come from no monkey.

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Episode 28 - A Wine and Cheese Pairing

Anna and Amber have prepared a decadent a wine and cheese platter for your ears. Learn about the world's oldest wine gunk and the many (many!) sizes of wine bottles, and then we'll discuss the difference between wine and "wine," and nibble on some stories about very, very aged cheese.

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Episode 27 - Merry Mithras!

Grab a cup of cocoa (or something stronger) and join Anna and Amber as they don their coziest jammies and tell the story of Mithras, the lesser-known Reason For The Season from the ancient world. Learn how religions shift through time and place, and why you might want to feast on bull meat in a cave with some Romans this holiday season.

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Episode 26 - It's Made of People!

Never heard of anthropodermic bibliopegy? That's about to change, friends! This week, Anna and Amber look at some unexpected objects made out of people, and discuss some effects of such objects on the living.

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Episode 25 - (Flu) Season's Greetings: Medicines

Anna and Amber can’t help you with your real medical complaints, but they’re here with a whole batch of knowledge about what people used to do for their sniffles (and worse), as well as ways in which diseases have been diagnosed and treated over the millennia.

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Episode 24 - Happy Chrono-kah!

This week, Anna and Amber are in the holiday spirit and ready to celebrate Chrono-kah! A holiday that we just made up where we try to fathom the immensity of time! What's the difference between the Stone Age and the Paleolithic? When is North America finally going to enter the Bronze Age? Why do we call this year 2018? Were the early Middle Ages faked? Some of these questions are easier to answer than others.

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Episode 22 - Thanksviking!

This week, Anna and Amber have a Thing*: it’s an episode all about the Viking Age. Sail with us through an exploration of life during the Viking Age. We talk about the ships they sailed, the food they ate, and the helmets they DIDN'T wear.

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Episode 20 - Oh, Curses!

Halloween may be over, but Anna and Amber are keeping it spooky as they discuss curses and their consequences this week, with some tactics for recovering stolen tunics at Aquae Sulis (Bath, England), what perils awaited medieval Javanese wrongdoers, and a ritual executioner from Australia.

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Bonus Episode - Dirt After Dark 3: Yes We Cannibal!

Over on Dirt After Dark this month, we sunk our teeth into the sufficiently spooky topic of cannibalism, and we're sharing some of it with the main feed! What makes a person eat a person? How can archaeologists tell whether a person was cannibalized? Where has evidence of cannibalism been found? Why does Amber sound suspiciously enthusiastic about this topic? All this and more! 

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