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.

New Discovery Expands the Hobbit Family Tree

Fossil finds are challenging our understanding of the diminutive hominins discovered in Indonesia in 2003.

The Birth of the “Neanderthals”

Library archives reveal the Gibraltar skull’s role in the discovery of our sister species.

Stone Points to a Connected World

Signs of 19th-century globalization surface in a museum storage room.

Stone Age Site Saved

A company began diamond mining at an extraordinary site in South Africa with 2.3 million years of human history. Quick action by archaeologists has led to a court decision protecting the site.

The Domesticated Hominin

Are humans still “wild”? If not, when were human ancestors no longer “wildlife”? The answer is not as clear-cut as it might seem.

Diamond Mine Threatens Stone Age Artifacts

A South African heritage site preserving 2.3 million years of human history has been gravely damaged by new mining activity.

The World’s Most Sustainable Technology

The Acheulean hand ax is one of the most beautifully-designed tools ever produced. And it’s by far the most sustainable technology in human history.

Homo Erectus: The Winnie-the-Pooh of Fossil Hominins?

Thanks to raising a Homo sapiens, I’ve gained an entirely new perspective on what life might have been like for Homo erectus.

Survival of the Socially Fittest

In the great saga of evolution, humans survived and Neanderthals didn’t. New research suggests why.

Past Imperfect

Genetics can offer scientific answers to questions about biological relationships, but archaeology provides deep insight into people’s cultural lives.