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Table of contents
Introduction 0 Why Write for the Public? 1 What to Expect, from Pitch to Publication 2 How to Write a Pitch 3 How To Tell a Great Story, Part 1: Structure 4 How To Tell a Great Story, Part 2: Style 5 Navigating Ethics and Reducing Harms 6 Habits of Thriving Public Anthropologists 7 Cultivating the Craft of Writing 8
Table of contents
Introduction 0 Why Write for the Public? 1 What to Expect, from Pitch to Publication 2 How to Write a Pitch 3 How To Tell a Great Story, Part 1: Structure 4 How To Tell a Great Story, Part 2: Style 5 Navigating Ethics and Reducing Harms 6 Habits of Thriving Public Anthropologists 7 Cultivating the Craft of Writing 8
essay / Borderlands

The Birth Whisperers of Timor-Leste

Karen Coates
In a country with one of Southeast Asia’s worst infant mortality rates, one clinic is striving to bring improved birthing assistance to local women.
Katarin Ladu, a South Sudanese refugee living in a settlement called Pagirinya in northern Uganda, stands on the small plot of land where she is trying to grow pea leaves. Like hundreds of thousands of others, she primarily subsists on World Food Program rations of maize, beans, sorghum, and other staples.
column / The Human Palate

South Sudanese Refugees and the Taste of Displacement

Karen Coates
Food rations sustain refugees, but what’s missing is fulfillment and a sense of home.
column / The Human Palate

Will GMOs Put an End to Hunger? Ask the Hungry

Karen Coates
We battle over the pros and cons of genetically modified organisms. In the midst of this heated debate, important voices have been lost.
column / The Human Palate

Hmong Gardeners in America’s Dairyland

Karen Coates
For Hmong farmers in Wisconsin, a garden isn’t just a patch of dirt where we plant vegetables, herbs, and flowers.
column / The Human Palate

Lao Camp Food (Part 2)

Karen Coates
A bomb clearance team in Laos eagerly buys bush meat from local hunters. Then they realize they're eating threatened and endangered species.
column / The Human Palate

Lao Camp Food (Part 1)

Karen Coates
Workers in southern Laos search out the bombs that never exploded. Here is the food they eat. 
A handsome man kneels deep in the forest.
essay / Dwelling

The Myth of the Virgin Rainforest

Karen Coates
Research exploring Borneo’s past and present illuminates the tangled relationship that has existed between humans and the rainforest for millennia.
As with food, how coffee is prepared varies greatly from culture to culture. Across many parts of Southeast Asia, for example, the local coffee is served over sweetened condensed milk.
column / The Human Palate

Coffee To Go

Karen Coates
Coffee is a cultural drink, prepared different ways in different places—which can be a hassle for travelers seeking their regular cuppa Joe. Here’s one solution.
A Maya woman roasts cacao beans grown on her family’s farm in southern Belize. The family traditionally drinks cacao unsweetened but flavored with allspice.
column / The Human Palate

The Great Chocolate Migration

Karen Coates
If ever a single ingredient epitomized human nature, it must be chocolate. Can you think of another flavor that has seduced so many cultures?
King Ama Nune Benu of Boti sits on his porch, making a bag from fibers grown around him in the forests of West Timor, Indonesia.
column / The Human Palate

Airplane Food

Karen Coates
How a meeting with the 96-year-old ruler of a small Indonesian kingdom gave a blogger a new lens to perceive processed food's effect on culture.
For many centuries, bison was served as a primary meat source for Native populations, including the Blackfeet tribe in present-day Montana.
column / The Human Palate

Meat Culture

Karen Coates
Meat is a divisive issue. But as humans, our diets are cultural, as is nutrition. Healthy advice for one society might not work in another.
column / The Human Palate

Health in a Rwandan Hospital Garden

Karen Coates
When I traveled to Rwanda last year, I found a hospital treating malnutrition with compost and garden hoes.
column / The Human Palate

Food Is Health

Karen Coates
How does anthropology help us understand the relationship between food and health around the world, and help us lead healthier lives?