How COVID-19 Is Changing People’s Relationships With Houseplants
An anthropologist digs into what the current “botanic boom” reveals about people’s interactions with nature and with one another.
Emotions
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What Scars Say About Sex and Stereotypes
People’s perceptions of scars—from ritual scarification to mastectomy marks—reveal biases about gender, character, and more.
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Can a Robot Guess What You’re Thinking?
Scientists are trying to create artificial intelligence that can think about others’ thoughts. What might this reveal about perspective-taking in AI, humans, and animals?
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The Problem With Abstract Threats
In this episode, anthropologists consider what the novel coronavirus reveals about how humans negotiate crises that seem too big to be real.
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A Curator’s Search for Justice
One museum’s saga of returning stolen vigango statues to Kenya reveals how repatriating sacred objects is both the right thing and a very hard thing to do.
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Animal Grief Shows We Aren’t Meant to Die Alone
The coronavirus pandemic is robbing some people of a chance to come together to mourn: a practice deeply embedded in many animal species.