AnthroBiology Podcast

Dr. Christiane Baigent of Colorado Mesa University runs the Forensic Investigation Resource Station (FIRS), which is the highest body farm in the world. We talk about how bodies decompose at high altitude and how it can differ from decomp at lower altitude. Dr. Baigent also shares some of the behind-the-scenes of running a body farm.

Recommendations

Dr. Baigent's faculty profile at Colorado Mesa University
Forensic Investigation Resource Station (FIRS) website
American Academy of Forensic Sciences website
Baigent, C. (2024). The effect of altitude on decomposition: Toward an understanding of the postmortem interval in the Rocky Mountain region of Colorado [Doctoral dissertation, Southern Illinois University - Carbondale]. OpenSIUC. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/dissertations/2198/
Hansen, E.S., Baigent, C., Reck, S.I. and Connor, M. (2018). Bioelectrical Impedance as a Technique for Estimating Postmortem Interval. J Forensic Sci, 63: 1186-1190. https://doi.org/10.1111/1556-4029.13695
Bailey, C. A., Lennartz, A. N., Klemm, M. M., Matheson, C. A., Unger, C. A., & George, R. L. (2025). Assessing Patterns of Moisture Content in Decomposing, Desiccated, and Mummified Tissue in Western North Carolina. Forensic Sciences, 5(4), 73. https://doi.org/10.3390/forensicsci5040073
Connor, M., Baigent, C. and Hansen, E.S. (2019), Measuring Desiccation Using Qualitative Changes: A Step Toward Determining Regional Decomposition Sequences. J Forensic Sci, 64: 1004-1011. https://doi.org/10.1111/1556-4029.14003
Baigent C, Agan C, Connor M, Hansen ES. Autopsy as a form of evisceration: Implications for decomposition rate, pattern, and estimation of postmortem interval. Forensic Sci Int. 2020 Jan;306:110068. doi: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2019.110068. Epub 2019 Nov 19. PMID: 31816485.
Garcia, S., Smith, A., Baigent, C. and Connor, M. (2020). The Scavenging Patterns of Feral Cats on Human Remains in an Outdoor Setting. J Forensic Sci, 65: 948-952. https://doi.org/10.1111/1556-4029.14238
Eds. Haglund, W. and Sorg, M. (1996). Forensic taphonomy: The postmortem fate of human remains. CRC Press.
Eds. Haglund, W. and Sorg, M. (2001). Advances in forensic taphonomy: Method, theory, and archaeological perspectives. CRC Press.
Eds. Ellingham, S., Adserias-Garcia, J., and Zapico, S. (2023). Burnt human remains: Recovery, analysis, and interpretation. Wiley.
Alexander, M. (2020). The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. The New Press.
Stevenson, B. (2015). Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption. One World.
Derby, S. (2021). Sisters in Hate: American Women and White Extremism. Little, Brown.

Dr. Raquel Fleskes of Dartmouth joins the show to talk about her work using ancient DNA to uncover the past in the Tidewater and South Carolina. Most people think about ancient DNA being used for, well, ancient skeletons, but ancient DNA can also be used in more recent contexts to illuminate the near past. We also chatted about ways to make ancient DNA work more accessible to descendent communities.

Recommendations

Dr. Fleske's lab page
Dr. Fleske's staff profile at Dartmouth
Dr. Fleske's Google Scholar page
Jamestown Rediscovery website
Fleskes, R. E., H. M. Palacios, H. Budner, et al. (2025). "Archaeogenomic Analysis of Nineteenth-Century Burials at Saint Mary's Basilica: An Intersectional Analysis of Religion, Race, and Migration." Am J Biol Anthropol, 187, no. 4: e70110. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.70110.
Masur, L., Fleskes, R., Schurr, T., Brown, D., Harpole, T., Pollard, P., Alukonis, L., Horsley, T., et al. (2025). "Let Perpetual Light Shine upon Them": Forgetting and Remembering Segregated Catholic Cemeteries." American Antiquity. 91. 1-24. 10.1017/aaq.2025.10103.
Fleskes, R.E., Gilmore, J.K., Oubré, L.S., Ofunniyin, A.A., Cabana, G.S. and Schurr, T.G. (2025). "Immersive Videography of Ancient DNA Extraction for Community Engagement and Educational Initiatives by the Anson Street African Burial Ground Project." Am J Biol Anthropol, 186: e25055. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.25055
Fleskes, R.E., Johnson, S.J., Honap, T.P. et al. (2024). "Oral microbial diversity in 18th century African individuals from South Carolina." Commun Biol 7, 1213. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-024-06893-0
R.E. Fleskes, G.S. Cabana, J.K. Gilmore, C. Juarez, E. Karcher, L. Oubré, G. Mishoe, A.A. Ofunniyin, & T.G. Schurr. (2023). "Community-engaged ancient DNA project reveals diverse origins of 18th-century African descendants in Charleston, South Carolina." Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 120 (3) e2201620120, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2201620120.
Fleskes, R.E., Johnson, S.J., Honap, T.P. et al. (2024). "Oral microbial diversity in 18th century African individuals from South Carolina." Commun Biol 7, 1213. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-024-06893-0.
Raquel E. Fleskes, Alyssa C. Bader, Krystal S. Tsosie, Jennifer K. Wagner, Katrina G. Claw, Nanibaa' A. Garrison. (2022). "Ethical Guidance in Human Paleogenomics: New and Ongoing Perspectives." Annual Review Genomics and Human Genetics. 23:627-652. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-genom-120621-090239
Fleskes RE, Ofunniyin AA, Gilmore JK, et al. (2021). "Ancestry, health, and lived experiences of enslaved Africans in 18th century Charleston: An osteobiographical analysis." Am J Phys Anthropol.175:3–24. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.24149
Källén, A. (2025). The Trouble with Ancient DNA: Telling Stories of the Past with Genomic Science. University of Chicago Press.
The X-Files
Scooby-Doo

Dr. Andrew Best of the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts joined the show to talk about sweat -- what it is, when we do it, how we vary, and why it makes humans different from most other animals.

Recommendations

Dr. Best's faculty profile at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts
Dr. Best Google scholar profile
My Sport Science from Asker Jeukendrup (website)
Asker Jeukendrup (instagram)
Gatorade Sports Science Institute
Everts, S. (2021). The Joy of Sweat: The Strange Science of Perspiration. W.W. Norton & Company.
Galloway, S. (2025). Notes on Being a Man. Simon & Schuster.

Ron Romano of Spirits Alive (a non-profit dedicated to preserving Eastern Cemetery and its history) joins the show to talk about gravestone symbolism, mortuary practices, cemetery organization and social status, and the evolution of gravestone creation in Eastern Cemetery of Portland, ME.

Cemeteries reveal a lot about the people who made them -- how they think about death, life, and religion; social and economic hierarchies; changing technologies; what's important to them; what causes anxiety. Cemeteries are human-made spaces filled with our bodies and artifacts that we've created. They can't help but be reflections of who we are and what we care about in any particular moment. Historians like Ron help us unpack these layered contexts by using the cemetery as a lens for interpretation of the past.

Recommendations

Spirits Alive
Spirits Alive - Monographs about Portland's Eastern Cemetery by Ron Romano
Association for Gravestone Studies
Romano, R. (2017). Portland's Historic Eastern Cemetery: A Field of Ancient Graves. Historic Press.
Romano, R. (2016). Early Gravestones in Southern Maine: The Genius of Bartlett Adams. Historic Press.
Giguere, JM. (2024). Pleasure Grounds of Death: The Rural Cemetery in Nineteenth-Century America. University of Michigan Press.
Burnett, A. (2015). Gone to the Grave: Burial Customs of the Arkansas Ozarks, 1850-1950. University Press of Mississippi.
Blachowicz, J. (2015). From Slate to Marble: Gravestone Carving Traditions in Eastern Massachusetts, 1770-1870 (Vols. 1-2). Graver Press.
Bondeson, J. (2002). Buried Alive: The Terrifying History of Our Most Primal Fear. W.W. Norton & Company.
Hartnell, J. (2019). Medieval Bodies: Life and Death in the Middle Ages. W.W. Norton & Company.
Hartnell, J. (2019). Medieval Bodies: Life, Death and Art in the Middle Ages. Wellcome Collection.
Faust, DG. (2009). This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War. Knopf Publishing Group.
Houlbrooke, R. (1998). Death, Religion, and the Family in England, 1480-1750. Oxford University Press.
Houlbrooke, R. (Ed). (2021). Death, Ritual, and Bereavement. Routledge.
Doughty, C. (2015). Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory. W.W. Norton & Company.
Deetz, J. (1996). In Small Things Forgotten: An Archaeology of Early American Life. Anchor Books.
Shultz, SR. (2005). Body Snatching: The Robbing of Graves for the Education of Physicians in Early Nineteenth Century America. McFarland & Company.

Dr. Wakefield (Northeast College) and Dr. Neidich (University of Missouri) joined the show to discuss their research on death in early New York mental health institutions and how it differed from the populations around them. Along the way, we talk about the history of mental health institutions in the United States and how differences in the amount and causes of death can illuminate what we care about as a society.
Dr. Walker also worked on this project, but unfortunately was unable to join. Her collaborators wanted to make sure that her contributions were noted :)

Recommendations

Dr. Wakefield's faculty profile
Dr. Niedich's faculty profile
Dr. Walker's faculty profile
Stuhler, L.S. (2011). The Inmates of Willard 1870 to 1900: A Genealogy Resource. Createspace Independent Publishing.
Penney, D. (2009). The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic. Bellevue Literary Press.
Willard Suitcases photo gallery
Moreno-Garcia, S. (2020). Mexican Gothic. Del Rey Books.
Wynn-Williams, S. (2025). Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism. Flatiron Books.
Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club series
Brindlewood Bay role-playing game