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?

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.

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.

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.

Grass Trilogy

Three poems by Mongolian author Ochirbatyn Dashbalbar, translated by a poet-anthropologist, offer timeless celebrations of life on Earth.

Introduction to Grass Trilogy

SAPIENS celebrates Earth Day 2020 with a poet-anthropologist’s translations of three rapturous poems by Mongolian author Ochirbatyn Dashbalbar.

How to Make Climate Change Feel Real

On Earth Day’s 50th anniversary, anthropological research reveals how complex, global problems can be made tangible through experience, empathy—and play.

i. will. cross.

In a SAPIENS contest-winning poem by a Kashmiri anthropologist, the threats posed by crossing the Line of Control, a highly militarized de facto border, are faced down by a lover of freedom.

Coronavirus and Coping With Death

Anthropologists often study people who have died. Can the field provide context and comfort during a pandemic?

Yoik

Like smoky spirals, two cultures weave together in a SAPIENS contest-winning poem by an anthropologist who worked with Sámi reindeer herders in the Arctic Circle.