Featured Archived
Seasons Episodes
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
Announcement

After ten years of exploring humanity in all its diversity, SAPIENS has concluded its publishing chapter.

While the magazine has closed, its living archive endures—open to all and preserving the many ideas, voices, and discoveries that deepen our understanding of what it means to be human.

What a Shipwreck’s Tree Rings Reveal

In 1629, the Batavia, a ship of the Dutch East India Company, met disaster off the coast of Australia. A new analysis of the shipwreck’s tree rings uncovers how such vessels were built to advance European colonialism.

The Last Wild Lions of Europe

Mounting archaeological evidence is revealing that modern lions may have roamed free in Southeastern Europe—overturning long-held assumptions about art and mythology in the process.

Best of SAPIENS 2021

The SAPIENS editorial team looks back at the year through an anthropological lens—and closes with a roundup of some of our favorite pieces published in the magazine in 2021.

You Won’t Survive the Apocalypse Alone

In times of societal collapse—including pandemics—past societies persevered not by running away but by banding together.

Head of a Maiden

A poet-anthropologist considers the life of a looted fourth-century B.C. Etruscan maiden.

The Emotional Logic of a Black Poetics: Truth, Metaphor, Beauty, Joy

In this free live event, SAPIENS poet-in-residence for 2020–2021 Justin D. Wright celebrates the end of their residency with a discussion of Black poetics and anthropological poetry.

The Age of Digital Divination

An anthropologist asks what algorithms and astrology have in common in a digital era of predictive technologies.

I Carry My Grief With Me, but I Also Carry My Joy

The domino effect of anguish and loss unmoors, but a Black poet-anthropologist carries their joy as ritual—in the palms of their hands, soft, delicate.

Do Things Have to Be This Way?

In The Dawn of Everything, archaeologist David Wengrow and the late anthropologist David Graeber question the West’s most deeply entrenched—and often damaging—assumptions about human nature and society.

5 Questions About the History of Humanity

In this upcoming free live event, archaeologist and author David Wengrow will discuss his New York Times bestselling book The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity (co-authored with the late anthropologist David Graeber).