SoS 253: Josh Brahinsky and The Neuroscience of the Divine

Dr. Sofía Pacheco-Fores is a bioarchaeologist whose research focuses on migration in ancient Mexico. Using a range of methods including archaeological biogeochemistry and phenotypic variation in human skeletal and dental morphology, she reconstructs migration patterns to understand the experiences of past migrants and their recipient communities. She examines the role migration played in social and cultural change, including in ancient state formation, the spread of novel material culture complexes, the expression of social inequality, and eruptions of mass violence. She has on-going collaborative research projects in central Mexico, Oaxaca, and northwestern Mexico. In addition to her research, Dr. Pacheco-Fores is involved in science education and outreach activities with the goal of fostering increased inclusion and diversity within anthropology. She is a Senior Editor at Anthro Illustrated, a collaborative project creating illustrations of anthropologists of diverse backgrounds at work. She also encourages increased representation and participation in anthropology through the Skype A Scientist program, speaking with bilingual K-12 students about anthropology and bioarchaeology. ------------------------------ Find the paper discussed in this episode: SI Pacheco-Fores, CT Morehart. 2024. Beyond “non-local”: biogeochemical and morphological approaches to examining diverse migrant experiences in Epiclassic central Mexico. Bioarchaeology International 8:104-122. https://doi.org/10.5744/bi.2022.0038 SI Pacheco-Fores, CT Morehart, JE Buikstra, GW Gordon, KJ Knudson. 2021. Migration, violence, and the “other”: a biogeochemical approach to identity-based violence in the Epiclassic Basin of Mexico. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 61: 101263. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2020.101263 ------------------------------ Contact Dr. Azcorra-Pérez: [email protected] ------------------------------ Contact the Sausage of Science Podcast and Human Biology Association: Facebook: facebook.com/groups/humanbiologyassociation/, Website: humbio.org, Twitter: @HumBioAssoc Chris Lynn, Co-Host Website: cdlynn.people.ua.edu/, E-mail: [email protected], Twitter:@Chris_Ly Courtney Manthey, Guest-Co-Host, Website: holylaetoli.com/ E-mail: [email protected], Twitter: @HolyLaetoli Anahi Ruderman, SoS Co-Producer, HBA Junior Fellow/ E-mail: [email protected]

This week on The Sausage of Science, Chris and Cara talk with Dr. Josh Brahinsky, a researcher in the Transcultural Psychiatry Department at McGill University and the Department of Religious Studies at Stanford University, whose work sits at the intersection of anthropology, psychology, and neuroscience. Josh explores how contemplative practices like prayer and meditation shape sensory experience, perception, and emotion, focusing especially on the embodied and affective dimensions of charismatic evangelical worship. With a background that bridges the humanities and sciences, a PhD in the History of Consciousness from UCSC, and a postdoctoral fellowship in Anthropology at Stanford, Josh brings a truly interdisciplinary lens to understanding what happens when people reach for the divine, and how those moments transform the body and mind alike. ------------------------------ Find the book discussed in this episode: Tongues of Fire: How Charismatic Prayer Changes Evangelical Brains and Mobilizes Spirit-Filled Activism www.bloomsbury.com/us/tongues-of-f…-9798881804992/ Find the Article: Brahinsky, J., Mago, J., Miller, M., Catherine, S., & Lifshitz, M. (2024). The Spiral of Attention, Arousal, and Release: A Comparative Phenomenology of Jhāna Meditation and Speaking in Tongues. American Journal of Human Biology, 36(12), e24189. doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.24189 ------------------------------ Contact Dr. Brahinsky: [email protected] ------------------------------ Contact the Sausage of Science Podcast and Human Biology Association: Facebook: facebook.com/groups/humanbiologyassociation/, Website: humbio.org, Twitter: @HumBioAssoc Chris Lynn, Host Website: cdlynn.people.ua.edu/, E-mail: [email protected], Twitter:@Chris_Ly Cara Ocobock, Host Website: sites.nd.edu/cara-ocobock/, Email:[email protected], Twitter:@CaraOcobock Cristina Gildee, SoS Co-Producer, HBA Fellow Website: cristinagildee.org, E-mail: [email protected],

This week on The Sausage of Science, Chris and Cara talk with Dr. Josh Brahinsky, a researcher in the Transcultural Psychiatry Department at McGill University and the Department of Religious Studies at Stanford University, whose work sits at the intersection of anthropology, psychology, and neuroscience. Josh explores how contemplative practices like prayer and meditation shape sensory experience, perception, and emotion, focusing especially on the embodied and affective dimensions of charismatic evangelical worship. With a background that bridges the humanities and sciences, a PhD in the History of Consciousness from UCSC, and a postdoctoral fellowship in Anthropology at Stanford, Josh brings a truly interdisciplinary lens to understanding what happens when people reach for the divine, and how those moments transform the body and mind alike. ------------------------------ Find the book discussed in this episode: Tongues of Fire: How Charismatic Prayer Changes Evangelical Brains and Mobilizes Spirit-Filled Activism https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/tongues-of-fire-9798881804992/ Find the Article: Brahinsky, J., Mago, J., Miller, M., Catherine, S., & Lifshitz, M. (2024). The Spiral of Attention, Arousal, and Release: A Comparative Phenomenology of Jhāna Meditation and Speaking in Tongues. American Journal of Human Biology, 36(12), e24189. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.24189 ------------------------------ Contact Dr. Brahinsky: [email protected] ------------------------------ Contact the Sausage of Science Podcast and Human Biology Association: Facebook: facebook.com/groups/humanbiologyassociation/, Website: humbio.org, Twitter: @HumBioAssoc Chris Lynn, Host Website: cdlynn.people.ua.edu/, E-mail: [email protected], Twitter:@Chris_Ly Cara Ocobock, Host Website: sites.nd.edu/cara-ocobock/, Email:[email protected], Twitter:@CaraOcobock Cristina Gildee, SoS Co-Producer, HBA Fellow Website: cristinagildee.org, E-mail: [email protected],

Alex got her degree from the University of Notre Dame in 2022 after finishing her dissertation on the variation in brown adipose tissue thermogenesis and its effects on metabolic health markers in adults from Samoa. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Pennington Biomedical Research Center working on the Military Health and Nutrition Examinations Study (MHANES) (PI: Dr. Claire Berryman). In collaboration with the US Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, her work with MHANES examines how the interactions between environmental (i.e. temperature, altitude), behavioral (i.e. physical activity, nutrition, sleep), and physiological (i.e. body composition, energy expenditure, metabolic health markers) factors affect health and performance in active-duty service members. She frequently collaborate with colleagues on anthropological research projects focusing on the effects of physiological adaptations/adjustments to the extremes and is passionate about bringing anthropological perspectives to clinical and military-focused research. ------------------------------ Find the paper discussed in this episode: Sarma, M. S., Niclou, A. M., & Hurd, K. J. (2025). Methodologic Opportunities for Space Health Research: Integrating Biological Anthropology Methods in Human Research for Precision Space Health and Medical Data. Wilderness & Environmental Medicine, 36(1_suppl), 104S-112S. https://doi.org/10.1177/10806032251349436 ------------------------------ Contact Dr. Niclou: [email protected] ------------------------------ Contact the Sausage of Science Podcast and Human Biology Association: Facebook: facebook.com/groups/humanbiologyassociation/, Website: humbio.org, Twitter: @HumBioAssoc Cara Ocobock, Co-Host, Website: sites.nd.edu/cara-ocobock/, Email:[email protected], Twitter:@CaraOcobock Anahi Ruderman, SoS Co-Producer, HBA Junior Fellow E-mail: [email protected], Twitter: @ani_ruderman

This week on the Sausage of Science, Cara sits down with two trailblazing scholars shaping the future of paleoanthropology from the African continent outward. Dr. Palesa Madupe, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Copenhagen’s Globe Institute, shares her pioneering work on enamel proteomics—reconstructing protein sequences from Paranthropus robustus and other South African hominins to unravel questions of taxonomy, sex determination, and sexual dimorphism. Joining her is Professor Becky Ackermann of the University of Cape Town, co-director of the Human Evolution Research Institute (HERI), whose influential research on evolutionary processes, phenotypic variation, and human diversity is reframing our understanding of our evolutionary story. Together, they highlight how African-led research is reshaping the global narrative of human origins, one fossil and one protein at a time. ------------------------------ Find the paper discussed in this episode: Madupe, P. P., Koenig, C., Patramanis, I., Rüther, P. L., Hlazo, N., Mackie, M., ... & Cappellini, E. (2025). Enamel proteins reveal biological sex and genetic variability in southern African Paranthropus. Science, 388(6750), 969-973. DOI: 10.1126/science.adt9539 ------------------------------ Contact Dr. Madupe: [email protected] Contact Dr. Ackermann: [email protected] Human Evolution Research Institute (HERI) website: https://www.heriuct.co.za/ ------------------------------ Contact the Sausage of Science Podcast and Human Biology Association: Facebook: facebook.com/groups/humanbiologyassociation/, Website: humbio.org, Twitter: @HumBioAssoc Cara Ocobock, Host, Website: sites.nd.edu/cara-ocobock/, Email:[email protected], Twitter:@CaraOcobock Cristina Gildee, SoS Co-Producer, HBA Junior Fellow Website: cristinagildee.org, E-mail: [email protected],

Jake Aronoff is a human biologist studying immune function and aging from an evolutionary and ecological perspective. During his PhD, he studied how stress and social inequality impacts inflammation and immunosenescence in the Philippines and US. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher at ASU studying inflammation and aging with Ben Trumble and the Tsimane Health and Life History Project. These studies focus on the development of chronic inflammation in later life (inflammaging), the links between metabolic and immune function (immunometabolism and meta-inflammation), and the relationship between infections, inflammation, and brain aging. His research also utilizes life history theory and energetic trade-offs to understand complex changes in biological functioning in later life, like the simultaneous occurrence of inflammaging and immunosenescence. ------------------------------ Find the paper discussed in this episode: Aronoff, J. E., Trumble, B. C. (2025). An evolutionary medicine and life history perspective on aging and disease: Trade-offs, hyperfunction, and mismatch, Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health, 13(1), 111–124. https://doi.org/10.1093/emph/eoaf010 Aronoff, J. E., Koning, S. M., Adair, L. S., Lee, N. R., Carba, D. B., Kuzawa, C. W., & McDade, T. W. (2024). Intimate partner violence, depression, and chronic low-grade inflammation among middle-aged women in Cebu, Philippines. American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council, 36(6), e24053. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.24053 ------------------------------ Contact the Sausage of Science Podcast and the Human Biology Association: Facebook: facebook.com/groups/humanbiologyassociation/, Website: humbio.org, Twitter: @HumBioAssoc Chris Lynn, Co-Host Website: cdlynn.people.ua.edu/, E-mail: [email protected], Twitter:@Chris_Ly Anahi Ruderman, SoS Co-Producer, HBA Junior Fellow. E-mail: [email protected].

Dr. Luisa María Rivera is a critical biocultural anthropologist whose work examines how social inequality, trauma, and structural violence shape reproductive and maternal–infant health. She integrates ethnographic research with epigenomic and other molecular approaches to trace how stress during development can reverberate across generations and to understand the implications of these findings for health policy. Luisa earned her B.A. from Harvard (2008), an M.P.H. from the University of Minnesota (2015), and a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Emory University (2022). She is currently a Neukom Postdoctoral Fellow at Dartmouth College, mentored by Dr. Zaneta Thayer (Anthropology) and Dr. Brock Christensen (Geisel School of Medicine). Her research includes long-term work in post-war communities in Guatemala and with historically marginalized communities in the United States. Luisa previously joined the Sausage of Science “Hackademics” series in Episode 114, Dissertation Research in the Time of COVID-19. ------------------------------ Find the paper discussed in this episode: Vlasac, I. M., Stolrow, H. G., Thayer, Z. M., Christensen, B. C., & Rivera, L. (2025). DNA-based cell typing in menstrual effluent identifies cell type variation by sample collection method: toward noninvasive biomarker development for women’s health. Epigenetics, 20(1), 2453275. https://doi.org/10.1080/15592294.2025.2453275 ------------------------------ Contact Luisa: E-mail: [email protected] website: https://luisamariarivera.com/ Google Scholar ------------------------------ Contact the Sausage of Science Podcast and Human Biology Association: Facebook: facebook.com/groups/humanbiologyassociation/, Website: humbio.org, Twitter: @HumBioAssoc Chris Lynn, Host Website: cdlynn.people.ua.edu/, E-mail: [email protected], Twitter:@Chris_Ly Cristina Gildee, Co-host, SoS Co-Producer, HBA Junior Fellow Website: cristinagildee.org, E-mail: [email protected],

Leela McKinnon is a PhD Candidate in Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Toronto and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from Penn State University. Her PhD research examines sleep health in Indigenous Wixárika communities in Jalisco, Mexico, with a particular focus on the effects of rural-to-urban migration on sleep and circadian rhythms. Leela explores the environmental and social factors influencing the sleep health of urban Wixárika migrants. Beyond her dissertation research in Mexico, Leela has also studied sleep in a Guatemalan Maya community, investigating how urbanization and market economy integration shape sleep patterns in rural settings. She is trained in the quantitative analysis of sleep data using accelerometry and is proficient in mixed methodologies, including survey data collection and qualitative interviewing. ------------------------------ Find the paper discussed in this episode: McKinnon, L., Shattuck, E. C., Samson, D. R. (2022). Sound reasons for unsound sleep: Comparative support for the sentinel hypothesis in industrial and nonindustrial groups. Evol Med Public Health, 11(1):53-66. doi: 10.1093/emph/eoac039. ------------------------------ Contact Leela McKinnon: [email protected] X account: @leela_mckinnon The Sleep and Human Evolution Lab's website is https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/shel/ ------------------------------ Contact the Sausage of Science Podcast and the Human Biology Association: Facebook: facebook.com/groups/humanbiologyassociation/, Website: humbio.org, Twitter: @HumBioAssoc Chris Lynn, Co-Host Website: cdlynn.people.ua.edu/, E-mail: [email protected], Twitter:@Chris_Ly Anahi Ruderman, SoS Co-Producer, HBA Junior Fellow E-mail: [email protected],

Chris and Courtney sit down with Dr. Haley Ragsdale to discuss intergenerational signals of matrilineal experience. Haley completed her dissertation in Anthropology at Northwestern University in 2023 under the guidance of Dr. Chris Kuzawa. She is now a postdoctoral researcher in the Anthropology Department at the University of Illinois Chicago, collaborating with Dr. Katie Starkweather on fascinating projects related to maternal and child health among the Shodagor of Bangladesh. Haley’s work is deeply rooted in evolutionary theory and the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) framework, with a focus on human reproductive biology. She explores how energetic experiences shape lifetime metabolic strategies and how reproductive investments are influenced by varying environmental contexts. Currently, she’s diving into the mechanisms behind intergenerational signals of matrilineal experience and predictive adaptive responses in humans. ------------------------------ Find the paper discussed in this episode: Ragsdale, H. B., Lee, N. R., & Kuzawa, C. W. (2024). Evidence that highly canalized fetal traits are sensitive to intergenerational effects of maternal developmental nutrition. American Journal of Biological Anthropology, 183(4), e24883. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.24883 ------------------------------ Contact Haley: E-mail: [email protected] website: https://haleyragsdale.squarespace.com/; Google Scholar ------------------------------ Contact the Sausage of Science Podcast and Human Biology Association: Facebook: facebook.com/groups/humanbiologyassociation/, Website: humbio.org, Twitter: @HumBioAssoc Chris Lynn, Host Website: cdlynn.people.ua.edu/, E-mail: [email protected], Twitter:@Chris_Ly Courtney Manthey, Guest-Co-Host, Website: holylaetoli.com/ E-mail: [email protected], Twitter: @HolyLaetoli Cristina Gildee, SoS Co-Producer, HBA Junior Fellow Website: cristinagildee.org, E-mail: [email protected],

La doctora Isaura Cruz es bio-antropóloga y sus intereses de investigación se centran en la amplia contribución del medio ambiente a la salud y el bienestar humanos. Ha examinado el desarrollo de las condiciones cardiovasculares y metabólicas entre los indígenas mexicanos P'urépecha en sus comunidades de origen en Michoacán, México y las comunidades de acogida en Carolina del Norte, EE.UU. Isaura utiliza un enfoque de métodos mixtos que incluye elementos de la nutrición, la salud pública, la genómica, aplicando siempre una lente biocultural. La investigación de que la conversaremos hoy es parte de su trabajo de tesis doctoral, titulada “Migración Internacional y Salud: P’urépecha en EEUU y México”. En particular hablaremos de un estudio binacional que realizaron entre los años 2018 y 2019, sobre la salud cardiometabólica en la comunidad P’urépecha, un pueblo originario del estado de Michoacán, México. El estudio consiste en una comparación de los factores de riesgo de salud cardiometabólica (CHM) entre quienes viven en sus comunidades de origen en Michoacán, México, y quienes viven en Carolina del Norte, EE. UU. Este trabajo integra perspectivas y métodos de la antropología, la salud pública, la demografía y la sociología, entre otros, para comprender mejor la salud en el contexto de la migración internacional. /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Dr. Isaura Cruz is a bioanthropologist whose research focuses on the environmental factors that contribute to human health and well-being. She has studied the development of cardiovascular and metabolic conditions among P'urhépecha indigenous Mexicans in their home communities in Michoacán, Mexico and in host communities in North Carolina, USA. Dr. Cruz uses a mixed-methods approach that incorporates nutrition, public health, and genomics while applying a biocultural lens. The research we will discuss today is part of her doctoral dissertation, entitled International Migration and Health: P'urhépecha in the US and Mexico." Specifically, we will discuss a binational study conducted between 2018 and 2019 examining cardiometabolic health in the P'urhépecha community, an indigenous group in the state of Michoacán, Mexico. This study compares cardiometabolic health risk factors between individuals residing in their home communities in Michoacán and those residing in North Carolina. This work integrates perspectives and methods from anthropology, public health, demography, sociology, and other fields to better understand health in the context of international migration. ------------------------------ Contact Dr. Cruz: [email protected] ------------------------------ Contact the Sausage of Science Podcast and Human Biology Association: Facebook: facebook.com/groups/humanbiologyassociation/, Website: humbio.org, Twitter: @HumBioAssoc Anahi Ruderman, SoS Co-Producer, HBA Junior Fellow E-mail: [email protected] Chris Lynn, Co-Host Website: cdlynn.people.ua.edu/, E-mail: [email protected], Twitter:@Chris_Ly