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In Context with School for Advanced Research: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Paul Ryer
How do the present and past shape each other? Why does understanding this matter?In Context with SAR tackles the fascinating world of scholarly research through questions like why people left Chaco Canyon or how climate change affects migration and explores them through the perspectives of three experts across anthropology, archaeology, and the humanities more broadly.Hosted by Paul Ryer and produced by the School for Advanced Research (SAR), each episode brings together voices from the field who share real-world stories, behind-the-scenes research, and their takes on today’s challenges.Founded in 1907, SAR is a hub for groundbreaking social science and humanities research, supporting scholars and artists through residencies, seminars, and collaborations. Based in Santa Fe, New Mexico SAR is also home to the Indian Arts Research Center, a leader in Native arts and museum practices.
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- 2 weeks ago1h 30m
The Breath Between Worlds: A Maya Shaman and the Language of Spirits
In 1980, a young linguistic anthropologist searching for his place in the world met a Maya shaman named Sebastian Castillo Mo (known as Don Chabo) in the Yucatán Peninsula. What began as a chance encounter became a remarkable 16-year relationship that would transform his understanding of language, spirituality, and what it means to be alive.More than four decades later, William (Bill) Hanks reflects on Don Chabo’s extraordinary teachings, the power of breath and prayer, and a worldview in which words don't simply describe the spirit world—they bring it into presence.Listen in on a journey that moves between a life of scholarship and a dedication to spirituality, through language and lived experience, and across visible and invisible worlds. Along the way, Hanks invites us to consider questions that reach far beyond linguistics: What makes something real? How do we come to know what we cannot see? And what might another way of seeing the world teach us about our own perspectives?In this episode:Deictic expressions and linguistic universalsMaya language, space, perspective, and perceptionColonial archives, translation, and the emergence of hybrid worldsReducción and the reorganization of Maya societyShamanic prayer, breath, and spiritual presenceKey Takeaways: Small, context-dependent words can convey precise meaning by relying on shared relationships and circumstances.Maya deictic systems encode distinctions about space, perspective, and perception in ways that differ from English.Reading historical documents aloud and examining their linguistic form can reveal meanings that translation alone may obscure.Colonial translation reshaped Maya language and society, while Maya communities also adapted and appropriated those transformations.Studying breath as both a physiological process and a lived experience can open new ways to explore the relationship between language, signs, and being.“For the breather, it's not a sign. It is life. You breathe, you live.” - William (Bill) HanksAbout William (Bill) Hanks: Professor William (Bill) Hanks is the Berkeley Distinguished Chair Professor in Linguistic Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. He earned his Ph.D. in Linguistics and Anthropology from the University of Chicago in 1983 and has conducted extensive fieldwork and archival research in Yucatán, Mexico, focusing on Yucatec Maya language and culture. His research explores how language shapes social relationships and communication, how ritual and shamanic practices connect religion and health care, and how Spanish colonization transformed Maya society through translation, religious conversion, and colonial discourse. His interdisciplinary work bridges linguistic anthropology, history, ethnography, and the study of religion. His books include Referential Practice: Language and Lived Space Among the Maya (1990) and Converting Words: Maya in the Age of the Cross (2010).Connect with William (Bill) Hanks: Profile: https://anthropology.berkeley.edu/william-f-hanks Connect with Paul Ryer & School for Advanced Research:<span
- 3 weeks ago1h 21m
Wild New World: How Humans Remade a Continent and What We Lost
Passenger pigeons, wolves, and bison reveal how humans transformed America’s wildlife, and why a wilder future may still be possible. Originally recorded as SAR’s 2023 President’s Lecture, an annual presentation in Santa Fe featuring today’s leading thinkers, this talk with Dan Flores explores the ideas and forces behind those changes and what we can learn from them.In this episode:North America’s deep natural and human historyIndigenous ecological relationships and animal kinshipEuropean colonization and human exceptionalismMarket forces, wildlife exploitation, and extinctionConservation, zoos, wild horses, and restoring wild spacesKey Takeaways: Our ideas about animals shape how we treat them, and the ecosystems they inhabit.Indigenous communities sustained relationships with wildlife through kinship beliefs, cultural practices, and ecological limits.The commercial exploitation of wildlife helped drive widespread species declines; the bison story was not a secret government plot.Zoos have helped prevent some extinctions, but preserving animals in the wild remains an important conservation goal.Remembering what has been lost matters, but so does experiencing and protecting the natural world that remains.“Mindless human destruction and loss aren't inevitable; that we can, in fact, choose to change and to save the world.” - Dan Flores“We are one species among many, and yet the way we have interacted with other species has been challenging.” - Sara DantAbout Dan Flores: Dan Flores is a Mexico-based writer and Professor Emeritus of the History of the American West at the University of Montana. Based in Santa Fe, he is the author of acclaimed books including American Serengeti, Coyote America, and Wild New World, exploring the history, wildlife, and landscapes of the American West. His work has appeared in publications including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Texas Monthly, and he has received multiple honors for his nature and science writing.About Sara Dant: Sara Dant is an award-winning writer, historian, and distinguished professor emeritus specializing in the history of the American West and U.S. environmental history and politics. She is the author of Losing Eden: An Environmental History of the American West, which explores the relationship between people and nature across 25,000 years in the West. She was formerly the Brady Presidential Distinguished Professor and Professor and Chair of History at Weber State University and served as a historical advisor and interviewee for Ken Burns’ The American Buffalo documentary.Connect with:Dan Flores’s Book: Wild New World: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1324065915?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback Sara Dant: https://www.sarad
- Sep 23, 20261h 10m
White Sands: The Footprints Rewriting Human History
What if ancient footprints in New Mexico proved humans lived in North America during the Ice Age? In this conversation from a presentation at SAR in 2022, discover how the White Sands tracks are reshaping archaeology’s biggest debate.In this episode:Discovery and scope of the White Sands footprint sitesInteractions between humans and Ice Age megafaunaDating methods and debates around pre-Clovis chronologyErosion, climate change, and the race to document the tracksCollaboration with tribal and Pueblo communities in interpreting the siteKey Takeaways: White Sands preserves tens of thousands of human and megafauna footprints across ~80,000 acres, forming one of the largest known Ice Age track archives.Footprints offer unusually intimate evidence, revealing presence, movement, age profiles, and behavior in ways that stone tools and bones rarely can.Radiocarbon-dated seed layers bracketing footprint horizons indicate repeated human visits roughly 21,000–23,000 years ago, well before the classic Clovis horizon.The prints are rapidly threatened by drought, erosion, and wind-driven sediment loss, making documentation and digital preservation an urgent race against time.Collaboration with tribes and Pueblos is reshaping interpretations, informing ideas about movement, equipment, camping patterns, and oral histories tied to extinct megafauna.“We've all made footprints. We can all connect to footprints in a way that perhaps you can't connect as well, dare I say it, given that there are archaeologists present, to a stone tool, because very few of us have actually made stone tools, but we've all made footprints.” - Matthew Bennett“It's literally thousands and thousands of prints, tens of thousands across 80,000 acres, but with that you get to see so many incredible stories of different animals and people interacting with each other, and people and people interacting and other incredible stories.” - David BustosAbout Matthew Bennett: Matthew’s passion for geography has taken him from Snowdonia to research projects across the Arctic, Africa, Mexico, and the United States. A leading researcher in human footprints, glaciology, and geomorphology, his work includes the Ileret footprints and groundbreaking research at White Sands National Park. He also developed DigTrace, a forensic footprint analysis tool, and has authored several textbooks on his fields of expertise.About David Bustos: David Bustos is the resource program manager at White Sands National Park and a wildlife biologist by training. A graduate of New Mexico State University, he has spent more than a decade investigating ancient human and megafauna footprints throughout the park, leading efforts to locate, document, and preserve tens of thousands of tracks across the former basin of Paleo Lake Otero.About Vance Holliday: Vance Holliday is an archaeologist and geologist specializing in geoarchaeology and Paleoindian landscapes across North America. A University of Arizona professor since 2002, his research examines how past societies adapted to changing environments. His work has received several prestigious awards, including the Rip Rapp, Kirk Bryan, and Fryxell Awards.Connect with:Matth
- Aug 12, 202643 min
Who Do You Trust With Your Water?
From informal settlements in Bolivia and Arizona to recycled water in Singapore, this conversation reveals why solving water insecurity takes more than technology—and how our ideas about what’s safe, fair, and worthy of trust shape the systems we build.In this episode:Modular, adapted, decentralized (MAD) water systems and piped water skepticismSingapore’s “Four Taps” and New Water recycled systemsWater insecurity, emotional distress, and mental healthCultural meanings of water: trust in science vs. trust in natureAnthropology, optimism, and reimagining water futures in the AnthropoceneKey Takeaways: Water solutions that work must align with people’s actual political, economic, and cultural realities, not just technical ideals.Emotional distress around water often stems less from physical scarcity than from unequal systems of access, exchange, and the social meanings attached to them.Different societies place their faith in different things: some in the purity of “nature,” others in the reliability of science, and these trust patterns shape how new water technologies are received.Anthropological perspectives help “denaturalize” our assumptions about what counts as normal or inevitable in water systems, opening up space for more ethical and locally grounded alternatives.Even amid climate change and inequality, small-scale experiments in water sharing, infrastructure, and community reciprocity point toward futures that can still be meaningful, dignified, and hopeful.“Anthropology asks us to pay the same amount of attention to understanding our own assumptions. Right? What do we take for granted as natural about a water situation, and how can we, with the benefit of listening to others in the world, denaturalize it a little bit?” - Martha Kaplan“I'm interested in is how humans build meaning and social systems and exchanges under situations of extreme duress.” - Amber WutichAbout Martha Kaplan: Martha Kaplan has been a professor of Anthropology at Vassar College since 1990. A cultural and political anthropologist, she earned her PhD from the University of Chicago and has conducted research in Fiji, India, the United States, and Singapore. Her work explores colonial and postcolonial societies, globalization, and the cultural politics of water, and she has authored several influential books and articles on these topics. Supported by organizations including Fulbright and the National Science Foundation, Kaplan teaches courses in anthropology, postcolonial studies, globalization, and environmental culture.About Amber Wutich: Amber Wutich is a Regents Professor, President's Professor, and Director of the Center for Global Health at Arizona State University. A MacArthur Fellow and member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, she is a leading expert on water insecurity whose research examines how communities adapt to water scarcity. Wutich has authored more than 200 publications and nine books, leads major collaborative water equity initiatives, and has secured over $80 million in research funding.Connect with Martha Kaplan: Profile: https://www.vassar.edu/faculty/makaplan&n
- Jul 7, 202650 min
The Grid: The Invisible System Running Your Life. You never think about it—until it fails
You never think about it…until it fails. Universal electrification, microgrids, storage, and the politics of batteries- this episode dives into how the power system we barely notice shapes our daily lives, our sense of fairness, and our climate future.In this episode:The hidden history behind the power grid you rely on every dayWhy electricity is as much about people and politics as it is about engineeringThe surprising reason utility companies were designed as monopoliesCould neighborhoods generate and share their own power?What AI and data centers mean for the future of electricityKey Takeaways: The electricity system is not just an engineering problem; it embeds social values, ethics, and inequalities that accumulate over time and remain visible in its infrastructure.Monopolies and utility structures were historically engineered into electricity provision, and any realistic reform has to grapple with the grid’s roots in profit-making as much as in public service.Smaller, interoperable, islandable systems, where neighborhoods, buildings, and communities share and coordinate power, offer a powerful alternative vision to purely centralized models.Massive new loads from data centers, AI, and electrification are straining timelines and capacities, pushing the system to experiment with self-supply, new generation, and using flexible demand as a balancing tool.Storage is more than just big batteries; gravity, heat, and clever use of time (like making ice or heating water off-peak) show that aligning when we use electricity with when it’s produced can be as transformative as new hardware.“The electricity system is a cultural, which is to say that it reflects who we are and the values that we have socially. The cool thing about it, in my mind, is that because it's so slow to change, like a lot of infrastructure, it holds all of the values that we've had through time in its form.” - Gretchen BakkeEpisode Resources:The Likeness: Semblance and Self in Slovene Society - https://www.ucpress.edu/books/the-likeness/paper The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between America and Our Energy Future - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26073005-the-grid About Gretchen Bakke: Gretchen Bakke is an anthropologist and writer specializing in the cultural, political, and ethical dimensions of electricity infrastructure and energy systems. She is the author of The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future, a widely recognized work that examines how electric power systems shape, and are shaped by, social values, historical decisions, and institutional structures. Her work bridges academic anthropology and public scholarship, translating complex energy systems into accessible narratives about infrastructure, inequality, and climate transitions. Bakke has held academic affiliations in European ethnology and cultural anthropology and contributes to interdisciplinary research and public discussions on energy ethics, electrification, and the future of grid systems, including collaborations and engagements with i
- May 14, 202647 min
What If the Border Story Starts With Water?
What if the real story of the border isn’t about walls at all? In this episode, we explore how rivers, irrigation projects, and trade routes have bound together and divided the U.S., Mexico, and Canada over nearly two centuries.In this episode, Paul and C. J. discuss: Personal roots in the U.S.–Mexico borderlands and origins of the projectTransformation of the border through massive construction and engineeringParadox of closed-border policing vs. open-border trade and transportationWater infrastructure, irrigation, and the creation of migrant labor demandSystemic flaws, compensatory infrastructure, and the disfiguring of the Rio GrandeKey Takeaways: The U.S.–Mexico border is not a single, uniform place but a 2,000-mile span of diverse ecosystems, cultures, and landscapes that defies simple political narratives.Over the last 175+ years, the border has been physically made visible and “legible” through mega-projects, dams, canals, roads, and fences, layered one atop another.Water engineering and irrigation projects have not only transformed rivers but also generated powerful economic magnets for migrant labor, tightly linking hydrology to human movement.Many contemporary crises at the border stem from earlier grand projects and policies; new “solutions” often serve as compensatory layers that attempt to fix problems those very systems created.The most profound environmental damage along the border has been done to the river itself, especially the Rio Grande, whose flow, shape, and ecology have been radically altered, challenging us to rethink our relationship with the more-than-human world.“The border has always been open, and the border has always been closed. The only question is, to whom and to what and when?” - C. J. AlvarezEpisode Resources:Book: <em style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(34, 36, 47); --darkreader-inline-bgcolor: transparent; --darkreader-inline-color: var(--darkreader-text-22242f, #cecac4);" data-darkreader-inline-bgcolor="" da
- Mar 11, 202640 min
Believing In Bits
In this episode, Paul and Gabriella discuss: What Gabriella Coleman means by “sturdy knowledge” and why the concept matters in today’s epistemic crisisHow misinformation debates often rely on a “naive liberal epistemology” that oversimplifies how knowledge is producedWhy is scientific consensus difficult to achieve, even without political polarizationWhy AI boosterism reflects the same epistemic blind spots as science absolutismKey Takeaways: Establishing reliable knowledge is never simple or automatic, even in the absence of political polarization. Scientific facts emerge through contested processes shaped by uncertainty, debate, and institutional structures.Treating facts as obvious or self-evident often deepens mistrust rather than resolving disagreement. Absolutist claims leave little room for nuance, making public corrections feel like evidence of deception instead of scientific evolution.Knowledge is always produced within social and political contexts, and pretending otherwise undermines credibility. Transparency about positionality and process strengthens trust more than claims of pure neutrality.AI boosterism repeats the same epistemic mistakes as science absolutism by framing technology as a neutral source of truth. Without humility and accountability, AI risks amplifying, not solving, the current epistemic crisis.“And you know this notion of sturdy knowledge, as we've explored. And you put so well, is anti-arrogance, it's like pro-humility.” - Gabriella ColemanEpisode Resources:Donna Haraway, “Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective”Bruno Latour, Reassembling the SocialBruno Latour, The Pasteurization of FranceSusan Sontag, Illness as MetaphorNaomi Klein, DoppelgängerAbout Gabriella Coleman: Gabriella (Biella) Coleman is a full professor of Anthropology at Harvard University and a faculty associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. Her work focuses on the politics, cultures, and ethics of hacking, and she is widely regarded as one of the leading scholars examining hacker communities and digital power. She is the author of Coding Freedom: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Hacking and Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: The Many Faces of Anonymous, the latter named a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2014 and recipient of the 2015 Diana Forsythe Prize from the American Anthropological Association.Coleman’s current research examines the relationship between hackers and the state, including a Ford Foundation–, NSF-, SSHRC-, and FRQ-funded project on the professionalization of hacking from
- Feb 19, 202641 min
Social Movements and Ethics in Philosophy
In this episode, Paul, Carl, and Heidi discuss:What it feels like to live in Minneapolis amid intensified ICE and Border Patrol operations.The role of legal observers and rapid response networks in documenting enforcement activity.The power and limits of social media in organizing, surveillance, and public accountability.How churches, small businesses, musicians, and neighborhood groups are reshaping civil society in real time.Key Takeaways: Minneapolis residents describe the current ICE presence as feeling like a “military occupation,” yet alongside fear and exhaustion, there is a profound sense of solidarity and shared purpose.Legal observers play a critical role in documenting law enforcement actions, providing evidence for court cases, and countering official misinformation.Social media has become both a democratizing force for transparency and a potential tool for surveillance and misinformation, highlighting the need for in-person organizing alongside digital tools.Universities and institutional leadership may lag behind grassroots movements, even when faculty, students, and community members are deeply engaged.“Everybody just wants to figure out some way to help, and all you have to do is give them some opportunity to do that, and they will leap in happily, willingly.” - Carl Elliott“There is so much power in people standing up for their rights and supporting their neighbors.” - Heidi Reynolds-StensonEpisode Resources:Cultures of Resistance: Collective Action and Rationality in the Anti-Terror Age by Heidi Reynolds-StensonThe Occasional Human Sacrifice: Medical Experimentation and the Price of Saying No by Carl ElliottAbout Carl Elliott: Carl Elliott is a professor of philosophy at the University of Minnesota, where he joined the Center for Bioethics in 1997. Originally from Clover, South Carolina, he trained in both medicine and philosophy at Davidson College, the Medical University of South Carolina, and the University of Glasgow. A Guggenheim Fellow and recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar Award, Elliott has also held fellowships at the Library of Congress, the Rockefeller Center in Bellagio, and the School for Advanced Research. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, Mother Jones, and The American Scholar. He lives in Minneapolis with his wife, Ina, and their three children.About Heidi Reynolds-Stenson: Heidi Reynolds-Stenson earned her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Arizona in 2018 and soon after joined the faculty at Colorado State University Pueblo. Her research focuses on social movements, protest, and policing, and she is the author of a book and several scholarly articles on these topics. Her current projects examine the impact of Black Lives Matter protests on police reform, historical shifts in protest policing, and legal consciousness surrounding family responsibilities discrimination.Connect with Carl Elliott: Website: <a href="https://www.carl-elliott.
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About In Context with School for Advanced Research
How do the present and past shape each other? Why does understanding this matter?In Context with SAR tackles the fascinating world of scholarly research through questions like why people left Chaco Canyon or how climate change affects migration and explores them through the perspectives of three experts across anthropology, archaeology, and the humanities more broadly.Hosted by Paul Ryer and produced by the School for Advanced Research (SAR), each episode brings together voices from the field who share real-world stories, behind-the-scenes research, and their takes on today’s challenges.Founded in 1907, SAR is a hub for groundbreaking social science and humanities research, supporting scholars and artists through residencies, seminars, and collaborations. Based in Santa Fe, New Mexico SAR is also home to the Indian Arts Research Center, a leader in Native arts and museum practices.
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