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.

The Tomb That Told of a Women’s Kingdom

An archaeologist unspools the story of a female leader buried over 1,000 years ago on the Tibetan Plateau. A TOMB…

The Politics of Mourning After Itaewon

After the deadly 2022 Itaewon crowd crush, South Korea faced a failure of prevention—and mourning. A group of anthropologists explores…

When Women Say “Ta-Ta” to Ta-Tas

An anthropologist fighting cancer navigates the social pressure to get breast reconstruction after a mastectomy. ✽ “I’ve decided to go…

The Power of Mistrust

A group of anthropologists working in Indonesia explores how mistrust among on-demand drivers—toward companies and one another—can be a form…

When People—and Files—Talk Back to Bureaucracy

Two ethnographic filmmakers enter the government maze in India, documenting how citizens make claims on the state while imagining alternate…

What’s Behind a Michelin Star?

As judges scout new restaurants to evaluate in U.S. cities, an anthropologist investigates the elite, Eurocentric history of the Michelin…

Snapshots of Losing Jenna

An anthropologist offers a lens on how losses from war dramatically alter a family—and a society. ✽ BEFORE I FORMALLY…

Shading U.S. Empire in Puerto Rico’s Ballroom Scene

A linguistic anthropologist explores the queer Ballroom scene in San Juan—and how performers are incorporating critiques of colonialism into the…

Reclaiming Collective Life in a Fractured U.S.

After Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential election win, an anthropologist set out across the U.S. to understand the nation’s deepening divides.…

South Africa’s Road Out of Colonialism

A lawyer and anthropologist examines the history of the longest road in South Africa and why a proposed extension may…