A Life In Ruins
Carlton Gover, Connor Johnen and David Howe are three friends that went to graduate school together and decided to start a podcast. Join them once a month for witty conversation, amazing guests, and a bit of profanity - all in the name of science. Join them in their lives in ruins.
Episodes
May 3, 2021 • 61 min
In this episode, Dr. Spencer Pelton returns to the show to chat with the hosts about becoming the Wyoming State Archaeologist. Dr. Pelton first appeared on the show as the featured guest for Episode 1, almost two years ago! We dive into the responsibilities of being the Wyoming State Archaeologist and how it differs from most other State Archaeology Offices. Following up on that conversation, we discuss Spencer's current resear...
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May 2, 2021 • 73 min
In this special edition of the A Life in Ruins Podcast, Carlton co-hosts an episode with Emily Van Alst, Ash Boydston-Schmidt, and Kay Mattena. The four discuss the recent SAA controversy surrounding the "Curation, Repatriation, and Accessibility: Vital Ethical Conversations" session. Specifically, the “Has Creationism Crept Back into Archaeology?” presentation.
The four Indigenous scholars discuss their thoughts, feelings,...
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April 26, 2021 • 61 min
The hosts discuss four hypotheses for the arrival of humans into the New World: Beringian Land Bridge, Coastal Highway, Solutrean, and Oceanic. They discuss the early Paleoindian site complexes such as Folsom and Clovis in which David (allegedly) reveals the existence of the Clovis Organized Crime Syndicate.
A large part of the episode centers around "pre-Clovis" sites and whether they would belong to the Coastal Highway or...
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April 19, 2021 • 65 min
In this episode, we are excited to chat with Maynard Okereke, who goes by the Science Communicator persona: Hip Hop M.D. Maynard is a Science Communicator, Entrepreneur, Engineer, and Digital Media Producer who tells us about his undergraduate journey at the University of Washington, his post-college career, and what inspired him to create Hip Hop Science.
Maynard is passionate about Science Communication and uses his knowledge of ...
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April 12, 2021 • 59 min
In this episode, we chat with Chris Rowe, a returning guest who originally appeared in Episode 12. We begin by catching up with him on his life and his work situation through Covid. After that, we talk about the potential of an archaeology trade school while also discussing the CRM and academic divide. Chris and the cohosts delve deeply into the curation crisis, what it is, what are some contributors to this crisis and ultimately s...
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April 5, 2021 • 56 min
In this episode, we are chatting with Dr. Jesse Tune, Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Fort Lewis College. Now, this isn’t the first time Dr. Tune has been a guest on the Podcast, he first joined us on Episode 37 with Dr. Shane Miller where we talked about some recent updates on the Cerutti Mastodon Site. For this episode, Jesse tells us about his introduction to archaeology, his graduate school experiences ...
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March 29, 2021 • 58 min
In this episode, David, Connor, and Carlton each take a segment to talk about a topic in the past that interests them. David takes the first segment to discuss Alexander The Great and explains his greatness. Connor talks about some of Genghis Khan's policies and his brilliance (although he was still a very bad person). Carlton nerds out about WWII-era aircraft, the "Blitz", and their relationship to sampling bias.
Conta...
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March 22, 2021 • 56 min
In this episode, we are chatting with Dr. Gino Caspari, a Postdoc in Archaeology at the University of Sydney and the University College London. Dr. Caspari also runs a very popular archaeology Instagram account @ginocaspari that currently has over 123K followers and we discuss the importance of science communication and his experiences on Instagram. We cover his wild and interesting academic career, with many changes in majors ...
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March 15, 2021 • 59 min
In this edition of Our Ruined Lives, we are pleased to have Erina Baci return to the Podcast. Erina first appeared on Episode 7, way back in October 2019. We begin the show by catching up with her on what she has been up to since she first appeared on the podcast. We then delve into a discussion on the importance of geography and resources to people in the past, modern geopolitics, and how modern issues affect our current understan...
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March 8, 2021 • 56 min
In this episode, we are pleased to introduce Maria Diget Sletterød, a Danish archaeologist studying the Pre-pottery Neolithic in the Near East at the University of Copenhagen. We start off with a brief introduction as to how the hosts found Maria which was through an Archaeologists in Quarantine episode with Carlton hosted by Tash. Then we delve into her diverse archaeological research and excavation projects and how she has worked...
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March 1, 2021 • 59 min
We are now uploading video versions of the podcast to our YouTube channel thanks to Zencastr's new video podcast component. You can find the video version of this episode by going to our YouTube Channel "A Life in Ruins"
A Life In Ruins Youtube
In this episode, the guys gather around their mics and webcams to talk about a recent email they received at the beginning of the new year and the impact it had on them. In the s...
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February 22, 2021 • 61 min
In this episode, we are pleased to have Raven Todd da Silva and Natasha Billson return to the Podcast. Raven is another OG from the early episodes, appearing on episode 9 and runs a very popular Instagram and Youtube Channel called “Dig it with Raven” and Natasha aka Tash was recently on episode 29, and runs a youtube channel called Behind the Trowel. If you follow us on Social Media, then you know that both of these archaeologists...
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February 15, 2021 • 56 min
On this episode of A Life in Ruins podcast, we have a bonfire chat with YouTuber and Neolithic advocate, Stefan Milo. If you’re not familiar with Stefan, we introduced him in Episode 20. Or you may know him from his popular YouTube channel, “Stefan Milo.” We talk about the recent growth of Stefan’s channel and how he has now become the first full-time anthropology YouTuber!
We then quickly get into the Great Paleolithic-Neolithic W...
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February 8, 2021 • 58 min
For this edition of Our Ruined Lives we chat with Ash Boydston-Schmidt. Ash is a descendant of the Crow Nation and shares with us her families history, growing up in Oklahoma, her experiences with the Tiger King, and her academic journey at the University of Oklahoma double-majoring in Anthropology and Indigenous Studies. She is currently pursuing her Masters in Museums Studies at the University of New Mexico, where she started thi...
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February 1, 2021 • 64 min
In this episode, we are pleased to have both Lana Ruck and Ella Beaudoin back on our show. Ella was on Episode 2 and Lana was on Episode 16. Since Episode 37 Settlers of Cerutti with Dr. Shane Miller and Dr. Jesse Tune was such a hit, we wanted to have Ella and Lana return to the show to talk about some controversial topics within paleoanthropology. Lana and Ella discuss the site Lomekwi, which is an archaeological site in Kenya wh...
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January 25, 2021 • 61 min
On this episode of A Life in Ruins Podcast, we interview Dr. Maddy McAllister, a maritime archaeologist with the Museum of Tropical Queensland. Dr. McAllister is known for her educational Instagram account, @shipwreckmermaid. As Dr. McAllister is an Aussie, we naturally first have a conversation about the differences between our endemic wildlife and the hazards of working in the wild. This is followed by a discussion of how Dr....
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January 18, 2021 • 66 min
In this episode, Emily Van Alst, Ph.D. candidate at the Indiana University Bloomington, has returned to deliver some exciting news and to fill us in on the current state of Indigenous Archaeologies in the field. Emily was one of our first guests on the podcast, appearing in Episode 3: Rock Artin’ and Rollin’ with Emily Van Alst. Carlton originally wanted to title that episode: Painting with all the colors of the Rock Art. Emily fil...
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For this episode, we have the utmost pleasure in interviewing Kevin Gover. Kevin is currently the director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, a position he has held since 2007. He is also the Acting Under Secretary for Museums and Culture. Mr. Gover is a Tribal Citizen of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma and Descendant of the Comanche Nation. If you are guessing that Kevin and Carlton are related due to the s...
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January 4, 2021 • 76 min
UPDATE!
ALiRP is now releasing 4 episodes a month!
To kick off the new year, the boys invite Dr. Shane Miller (Mississippi State University; Ep. #21) and his friend Dr. Jesse Tune (Fort Lewis College) to investigate the controversy surrounding the Cerutti Mastodon Site.
The conversation is a holistic discussion from different perspectives about evidence, ethics, Indigenous Sovereignty, and good science.
Guest Contacts
Dr. Shane Mil...
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December 28, 2020 • 63 min
Happy almost New Year listeners! We kick off the ending 2020 and beginning of 2021 with an interview of our overlord’s, Chris Webster and Rachel Roden. Chris is the co-founder of the Archaeology Podcast Network which started back in December of 2014, and Rachel is the lead editor of our Podcast. So please join us in welcoming the Cat Herders to the clowder we know as A Life in Ruins Podcast: Chris Webster and Rachel Roden!
Contact ...
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