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.

These Unheralded Workers Are Helping Prevent the Next Wildfire

In Southern California, an anthropologist’s research aims to illuminate his late father’s work of weed abatement. He’s learning how crews of migrant Latinx workers bring deep environmental knowledge to stop destructive fires at the wildland-urban interface.

Confronting Anti-Blackness in “Colorblind” Cuba

In the 1960s, Fidel Castro’s revolutionary Communist government claimed to have eradicated racism in Cuba. An anthropologist explores how racial hierarchies persist despite these official narratives, shaping family dynamics and significantly limiting opportunities for Afro-Cubans.

The Resistance and Ingenuity of the Cooks Who Lived in Slavery

Archaeologists are investigating foodways and re-creating meals prepared by enslaved people who lived in North America and the Caribbean to better understand their everyday lives and fill gaps in the historical record.

Brotherhood and Anti-Blackness in College Football

As another college football season begins, an anthropologist explores how Black athletes navigate racism by caring for one another on and off the gridiron.

Haunted by My Teaching Skeleton

Many skeletons that students use to learn about the human body are the remains of people with lives and stories. We need to remember and respect that.

Archaeologists Should Be Activists Too

More and more archaeologists are working to uncover the voices of groups that were marginalized in the past.

Culture—Not Genetics—Was More Salient for Anglo-Saxons

Skeletal evidence shows Britain’s ancient Anglo-Saxon society as more genetically diverse than once thought. Language and culture served as a social glue, archaeologists argue, not ancestry.

And You Watch as We Make Woodwater Again

SAPIENS poet-in-residence Justin D. Wright speaks to the elemental craft of Black survival, photosynthesis, and sweet tea making in an anti-Black racist society.

When “Voluntary” Return Is Not a Real Option for Asylum-Seekers

An anthropologist explains why successful integration into Austrian society—long argued to be a condition for acceptance—is not enough to guarantee asylum-seekers and migrants a safe home in the country.

What Will It Take to Stop Swimming in the Waters of Racism?

The Southern African concept of ubuntu offers a crucial lesson for the U.S.: By recognizing our interconnections and actively undoing systemic racism, we can all become more fully human.