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.

Finding Mental Health Issues Hidden in the Past

An archaeologist speculates about how to uncover evidence of depression, anxiety, and neurodiversities in ancient humans. ✽ Hi, my name…

Wisdom From the Winding Path

An anthropologist dreams of his work with Songhay sorcerers in Niger and of French poet Edmond Jabès, fictionalizing conversations and…

What the Vai Script Reveals About the Evolution of Writing

In the 19th century, a man living in present-day Liberia dreamed of the first script for his native Vai language. Today linguistic anthropologists are digging into the script’s evolution—and what the changes over the past two centuries reveal about human cognition and society.

Athletics, IQ, Health: Three Myths of Race

An evolutionary biologist and biological anthropologist break down why differences in human athleticism, IQ, and health can’t be explained by the concept of race.

Predominantly White Institutions’ Overtures to Black Students OR This Is What They Tell You Without Telling You

A Black queer anthro-poet unveils the exploitative strategies of many predominantly White institutions that use BIPOC as a broom to sweep their racialized issues under the rug of “diversity.”

What Is Anthropology?

The broad field of anthropology studies “all things human” in ways that stand apart from sociology, psychology, history, and other areas of the humanities and sciences.

Meet the Ancient Technologists Who Changed Everything

A series of Stone Age geniuses invented a range of technologies that shaped human evolution and laid the foundation for our world.

The Age of Digital Divination

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

How Human Are We?

An evolutionary theorist considers how traits we think of as human may have been shared by other hominins.

Why Couldn’t Iron Age People Throw Some Stuff Away?

People often find it difficult to dispose of everyday objects after a loved one’s death. Similar feelings may explain items buried in the walls of Iron Age homes.