The past week or so has been a bit of a whirlwind for me personally, and I’m sure anyone who’s in academia and in the full swing of the fall semester can attest to! So what a perfect time to have my guest this week, Dr. Michael B.C. Rivera on the show.

Michael is also an anthropology podcaster and the host of the incredible Arch and Anth podcast, a three-a-week show featuring interviews with experts on human history, biology, and cultures. We’re doing a special guest swap this week – so we did a double header interview. Michael interviewed me over on his show, and I’ve linked that interview if you’d like to learn more about some of my PhD work, and then we took a quick break and switched hats, so I could ask him about his research.

Michael is a biological anthropologist and specializes in studying coastal human archaeology. He has previously worked at the Universities of Kent, Copenhagen, and Cambridge. He completed his PhD research in 2018 exploring life and human health in prehistoric Estonia and Latvia. His other activities involve teaching students, engaging with inclusion and equity issues in academia, and climate justice. Today, you’ll hear from him on how we can interpret the diets of prehistoric coastal peoples – did coastal resources mean different bodies, or different health trajectories? Tune in to find out the answers!

Learn More About Michael