SoS 235: Michael Muehlenbein on his discoveries in COVID-19 and the importance of student training

Chris and Cristina interview Dr. Pablo Nepomnaschy, a professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University and a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar. Originally from Argentina, Dr. Nepomnaschy began his academic journey with a degree in Biology from the University of Patagonia. He went on to earn his Ph.D. in Biological Anthropology and Ecology from the University of Michigan, where he also trained in reproductive sciences and social research. He completed his postdoctoral work at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and is an alum of the renowned LIFE Program at the Max Planck Institute in Berlin. Dr. Nepomnaschy’s research explores how social, ecological, and biological factors interact to shape human reproductive biology and health across the life course. ------------------------------ Find the Papers discussed in this episode: Rowlands, A., Juergensen, E. C., Prescivalli, A. P., Salvante, K. G., & Nepomnaschy, P. A. (2021). Social and Biological Transgenerational Underpinnings of Adolescent Pregnancy. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(22), 12152. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182212152 Dinsdale, N., Nepomnaschy, P., & Crespi, B. (2021). The evolutionary biology of endometriosis. Evolution, medicine, and public health, 9(1), 174-191. ------------------------------ Contact Dr. Nepomnaschy: E-mail: [email protected] Listen to a previous episode with Pablo: SoS #72 ------------------------------ 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]

Christopher Bae is taking us on a journey to meet the hominids of Asia's past. Dr. Bae is a distinguished paleoanthropologist from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa whose research focuses on human evolution in East Asia. Born in Korea and adopted by an American family, his unique personal journey sparked an early interest in race, human variation, and the deep history of our species. What began as a search for his own roots led him to a career dedicated to reconstructing the past—much like paleoanthropologists do when piecing together humanity’s evolutionary story. Dr. Bae has conducted extensive field and laboratory research across Korea, Japan, and China, collaborating on projects that span hominin fossils, vertebrate taphonomy, and lithic analysis. His work bridges disciplines in the social and natural sciences, providing a comprehensive perspective on Pleistocene hominin morphological and behavioral variation, particularly in Homo erectus and both archaic and modern Homo sapiens. With approximately 150 publications and over $1.5 million in extramural funding, Dr. Bae is a leading voice in understanding human evolution in East Asia. ------------------------------ Find the papers discussed in this episode: Bae, C. J., Liu, W., Wu, X., Zhang, Y., Ni, X. (2023). "Dragon man" prompts rethinking of Middle Pleistocene hominin systematics in Asia. Innovation (Camb), 4(6):100527. doi: 10.1016/j.xinn.2023.100527. Bae, C.J., Wu, X. Making sense of eastern Asian Late Quaternary hominin variability. Nat Commun 15, 9479 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-53918-7 Contact Dr. Bae: [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, Guest Co-Host , SoS Co-Producer, HBA Junior Fellow, E-mail: [email protected], Twitter: @ani_ruderman

Bio Chris and Cristina interview Agustín Fuentes about his new book, Sex Is a Spectrum: The Biological Limits of the Binary (now available). Prof. Fuentes is an anthropologist whose research focuses on the biosocial, delving into the entanglement of biological systems with the social and cultural lives of humans, our ancestors, and a few of the other animals with whom humanity shares close relations. From chasing monkeys in jungles and cities, to exploring the lives of our evolutionary ancestors, to examining human health, behavior, and diversity across the globe, Professor Fuentes is interested in both the big questions and the small details of what makes humans and our close relations tick. Earning his BA/BS in Anthropology and Zoology and his MA and PhD in Anthropology from UC Berkeley, he has conducted research across four continents, multiple species, and two million years of human history. His current projects include exploring cooperation, creativity, and belief in human evolution, multispecies anthropologies, evolutionary theory and processes, and engaging race and racism. Fuentes is an active public scientist, a well-known blogger, lecturer, tweeter, and an explorer for National Geographic. Fuentes was recently awarded the Inaugural Communication & Outreach Award from the American Association of Biological Anthropologists, the President’s Award from the American Anthropological Association, and elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Fuentes previously appeared in episodes 48 & 85 in which he shared his origin story & read an excerpt from a previous book. ------------------------------ Find the Books discussed in this episode: Fuentes, A. (2025) Sex is a Spectrum: The Biological Limits of the Binary Princeton University Press Fuentes, A. (2022) Race, Monogamy, and other lies they told you: busting myths about human nature 2nd edition. University of California Press Fuentes, A, (2019) Why We Believe: Evolution and the Human Way of Being Yale University Press/Templeton Press Fuentes, A. (2017) The Creative Spark: how imagination made humans exceptional Dutton/Penguin 2017 Romanian Translation (Publica), 2017 Chinese Translation (CITIC Publishing House), 2018 Spanish Translation (Ariel/Planeta), 2018 Korean Translation (Chungrim Publishing Co.) ------------------------------ Contact Dr. Fuentes: Website: https://afuentes.com; E-mail: [email protected]; Blue Sky ‪@anthrofuentes.bsky.social‬; Twitter/X: @Anthrofuentes ------------------------------ 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]

Es este episodio especial conversamos con Rolando González-José sobre la institucionalidad de la Antropología Biológica (y de la ciencia) en distintos contextos, en especial en la América Latina del presente. Rolando González José es Investigador Principal del CONICET (Argentina) y Coordinador del Programa de Referencia y Biobanco Genómico de la Población Argentina. Se graduó de Biólogo en la Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia, y realizó su Doctorado en Biología Humana en la Universidad de Barcelona, España. Fue dos veces Vicedirector del Centro Nacional Patagónico, el mayor centro de investigación multidisciplinaria del CONICET en la Patagonia. También fue Director del Instituto Patagónico de Ciencias Sociales y Humanas. Fue presidente de la Asociación Argentina de Antropología Biológica entre 2009 y 2011, y Vicepresidente de la Asociación Latinoamericana de Antropología Biológica (entre 2013 y 2015). Presenta más de 120 publicaciones en distintas revistas científicas incluyendo Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), Nature Communications, Journal of Human Evolution, American Journal of Human Biology, PLoS Genetics, entre otras. En el año 2004 fundó el Grupo de Investigación en Biología Humana, integrado por 15 profesionales entre los que se cuentan antropólogos, genetistas, nutricionistas, biólogos, médicos e informáticos. Sus intereses de investigación giran en torno a la genética de poblaciones, la evolución de la variación craneofacial eh homínidos, el poblamiento Americano, las poblaciones cosmopolitas de Latinoamérica y el desarrollo de dispositivos basados en tecnología de imagen para aplicaciones biomédicas. Contact Dr. González-José: [email protected] Twitter: @RoloGonzalezOK Facebook: facebook.com/rolando.gonzalezjose ------------------------------ Contact the Sausage of Science Podcast and Human Biology Association: Facebook: facebook.com/groups/humanbiologyassociation/, Website: humbio.org, Twitter: @HumBioAssoc Cristina Gildee, Co-Host, SoS Producer, HBA Junior Fellow Website: cristinagildee.org, E-mail: [email protected], Twitter:@CristinaGildee Anahi Ruderman, Co-Host, SoS Co-Producer, HBA Junior Fellow E-mail: [email protected], Twitter: @ani_ruderman Miguel Ochoa, Guest Co-Host E-mail: [email protected],

Host Courtney Manthey unpack the obstetric dilemma with Dr. Anna G. Warrener. Dr. Anna G. Warrener earned her PhD from Washington University in St. Louis in 2012. She is now an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Colorado Denver. She specializes in human evolutionary biology, biomechanics, and the evolution of locomotion. Her research explores how skeletal morphology influences movement, with a particular focus on the biomechanics of the pelvis, gait, and bipedal efficiency. Through experimental and comparative approaches, Dr. Warrener investigates how evolutionary pressures have shaped human locomotion and what these adaptations reveal about our ancestors. She is also passionate about mentoring students and fostering interdisciplinary research that bridges anthropology, biology, and biomechanics. ------------------------------ Find the paper discussed in this episode: Warrener, A. (2023). The multifactor pelvis: An alternative to the adaptationist approach of the obstetrical dilemma. Evolutionary Anthropology, 32(5), 260-274. https://doi.org/10.1002/evan.21997 Warrener, A. (2024). Human lower limb muscle cross sectional area scales with positive allometry reflecting bipedal evolutionary history. Frontiers in Earth Science. https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2023.1301411 ------------------------------ Contact the Sausage of Science Podcast and Human Biology Association: Facebook: facebook.com/groups/humanbiologyassociation/, Website: humbio.org, Twitter: @HumBioAssoc Courtney Manthey, Host, Website: holylaetoli.com/ E-mail: [email protected], Twitter: @HolyLaetoli Anahi Ruderman, SoS Co-Producer, HBA Junior Fellow E-mail: [email protected], Twitter: @ani_ruderman

Chris and Cristina chat with Dr. Ian Wallace, an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico, where he is the director of the Human Physical Activity Lab. As an Evolutionary Anthropologist, Ian's work focuses on how humans evolved to use their bodies and explores the costs and benefits of modern physical activity patterns for our health. He is particularly interested in populations transitioning from non-industrial to industrial and post-industrial contexts. Ian earned his Ph.D. in Anthropology in 2013 from Stony Brook University, where his dissertation examined how physical activity and genetics determine limb bone structure. Following graduate school and an initial postdoctoral position at Stony Brook, he completed his postdoctoral training in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard and started his own lab at UNM. There, he focuses on measures of locomotor biomechanics and their ties to the health and function of the musculoskeletal system. Recently, his fieldwork has focused on the Indigenous peoples of Peninsular Malaysia. In particular, he is interested in how their lifestyles are changing with the rapid expansion of industries, the market economy, and urban areas across Malaysia, as well as how these changes affect their health and risk of disease. ------------------------------ Find the papers discussed in this episode: Wallace, I. J., Worthington, S., Felson, D. T., Jurmain, R. D., Wren, K. T., Maijanen, H., Woods, R. J., & Lieberman, D. E. (2017). Knee osteoarthritis has doubled in prevalence since the mid-20th century. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 114(35), 9332–9336. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1703856114 Wallace, I. J., Lea, A. J., Lim, Y. A. L., Chow, S. K. W., Sayed, I. B. M., Ngui, R., Shaffee, M. T. H., Ng, K. S., Nicholas, C., Venkataraman, V. V., & Kraft, T. S. (2022). Orang Asli Health and Lifeways Project (OA HeLP): a cross-sectional cohort study protocol. BMJ open, 12(9), e058660. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-058660 ------------------------------ Contact Dr. Wallace: Website: https://www.ianjwallace.com/; E-mail: [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 Cristina Gildee, Co-host, SoS Co-Producer, HBA Junior Fellow Website: cristinagildee.org, E-mail: [email protected]

Dr. Amato is a biological anthropologist studying the influence of gut microbes on host ecology and evolution. Her research examines how changes in the gut microbiota impact host nutrition, energetics, and health. She uses non-human primates as models for studying host-gut microbe interactions in selective environments and for providing comparative insight into the evolution of the human gut microbiota. Her main foci are understanding how the gut microbiome may buffer hosts during periods of nutritional stress and how the gut microbiome programs normal inter-specific differences in host metabolism. In this realm, she is also interested in global variation in the human gut microbiome and its implications for local human adaptation. Dr. Amato obtained her A.B. in Biology from Dartmouth College and her Ph.D. in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She completed a postdoc at the University of Colorado Boulder. She joined the Department of Anthropology in 2015. She is also affiliated with the Interdisciplinary Biological Sciences Graduate Program and sits on the Executive Committee of the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems. Dr. Amato is the President of the Midwest Primate Interest Group, an Associate Editor at Microbiome, an Editorial Board member at Folia Primatologica, and a Fellow for the Canadian Institute of Advanced Research’s ‘Humans and the Microbiome’ Program. ------------------------------ Find the paper discussed in this episode: Mallott, E., Kuthyar, S., Lee, W., … & Amato, K. R. (2024). The primate gut microbiota contributes to interspecific differences in host metabolism. Microbial genomics, https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.001322 ------------------------------ 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 Cristina Gildee, Guest Co-Host, HBA Junior Fellow, SoS producer. Website: cristinagildee.org, E-mail: [email protected], Twitter:@CristinaGildee Anahi Ruderman, SoS Co-Producer, HBA Junior Fellow. E-mail: [email protected], Twitter: @ani_ruderman

Dr. Michael Muehlenbein is a prominent figure in anthropology and biology, currently serving as a professor at Baylor University. His academic journey has been marked by a deep commitment to understanding human evolution, behavior, and health through an interdisciplinary lens. Michael earned an MsPH in both Tropical Medicine and Biostatistics from Tulane University, and an MPhil and PhD in Biological Anthropology from Yale University. His research interests are diverse, encompassing topics such as the evolutionary basis of disease susceptibility, reproductive strategies, and the interplay between environmental factors and human physiology. At Baylor, he has contributed significantly to both teaching and research, mentoring students while also publishing extensively in peer reviewed journals. His work often integrates insights from evolutionary theory with practical applications in public health and medicine, making him a key contributor to discussions on how our evolutionary past shapes contemporary health challenges. Michael is also the Co PI on the NSF-funded project, “Shared markers of identity on inflammation and stress.” ------------------------------ Find the papers discussed in this episode: Muehlenbein MP, Gassen J, Nowak TJ, Henderson AD, Weaver SP, Baker EJ. (2023). Waco COVID Survey: A Community-Based SARS-CoV-2 Serological Surveillance Study in Central Texas. J Community Health, 48(1):104-112. doi: 10.1007/s10900-022-01143-y. Muehlenbein M, Gassen J, Nowak T, Henderson A, Morris B, Weaver S, Baker E. (2023). Age-Dependent Relationships Between Disease Risk and Testosterone Levels: Relevance to COVID-19 Disease. Am J Mens Health. doi: 10.1177/15579883221130195. ------------------------------ Contact Dr. Michael Muehlenbein: [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, HBA Junior Fellow , Website: holylaetoli.com/ E-mail: [email protected], Twitter: @HolyLaetoli Anahi Ruderman, SoS Co-Producer, HBA Junior Fellow, E-mail: [email protected], Twitter: @ani_ruderman

Dr Anna Marie Prentiss joins Host Chris Lynn to discuss the origins of institutionalised inequality. Anna is an archaeologist specializing in the ancient history of the Great Plains, Pacific Northwest, and Arctic regions of North America. She has a methodological specialty in lithic technology and theoretical interests in the archaeology of villages and towns, social inequality, hunter-gatherer mobility and technological organization, and the cultural evolutionary process. She is associate editor of the scholarly journal, Current Anthropology. Dr. Prentiss is actively engaged in a long term study of the evolution of complex hunter-gatherer-fisher societies on the interior of British Columbia. The current focus of this research is a multi-year excavation at the Bridge River archaeological site, located near the town of Lillooet, British Columbia. With funding from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Prentiss, along with her students and colleagues conducted major excavations during 2008 and 2009 to examine socio-economic and political changes that occurred during the occupation span of the village. Recent research (2012-2023) at Bridge River has been funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Science Foundation. ------------------------------ Find the paper discussed in this episode: Prentiss, A. M., Foor, T. A., Hampton, A., Walsh, M. J., Denis, M. & Edwards. A. (2023). Emergence of persistent institutionalized inequality at the Bridge River site, British Columbia: the roles of managerial mutualism and coercion. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci, 14;378(1883). doi: 10.1098/rstb.2022.0304 ------------------------------ Contact Dr. Prentiss: [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 Anahi Ruderman, SoS Co-Producer, HBA Junior Fellow E-mail: [email protected], Twitter: @@ani_ruderman

Cristina and Anahi chat with Dr. Gonzalo Figueiro about his groundbreaking research in ancient DNA, kinship, and population genetics. Dr. Figueiro is a Professor of Biological Anthropology at the University of the Republic, Uruguay, and holds a PhD in Biological Sciences from the Basic Sciences Development Programme (PEDECIBA), Uruguay. His main research interests are the genetics of ancient and modern human populations and the bioarchaeology of prehistoric populations in Uruguay. He also reflects and writes on the ethics of working with DNA samples and human remains from the past. ------------------------------ Find the paper discussed in this episode: Figueiro, G. (2024). Simulating the effects of kinship and postmarital residence patterns on mitochondrial DNA diversity in mortuary contexts. American Journal of Biological Anthropology, e24910. ------------------------------ Contact Gonzalo via email: [email protected] ------------------------------ Contact the Sausage of Science Podcast and Human Biology Association: Facebook: facebook.com/groups/humanbiologyassociation/, Website: humbio.org, Twitter: @HumBioAssoc Cristina Gildee, Co-host, SoS Co-Producer, HBA Junior Fellow Website: cristinagildee.org, E-mail: [email protected] Anahi Ruderman, Co-host, SoS Co-Producer, HBA Junior Fellow E-mail: [email protected] Twitter:@ani_ruderman