I cannot stress this enough: we as scientists do not need to separately communicate our work by dumbing it down. Rather, our work, even ‘technical’ should be readable or, in the case of vodcasts/podcasts, able to watched or listened to with ease. This need not mean ‘dumbing down’ the content to appeal to ‘everyday’ people (what an arrogant view), but rather to make content that appeals equally to the interested layperson and the interested intellectual whose area is being treated.

All of this is easier said than done, but that is our ‘burden’ as researchers (I also find it a joy). In that vein, I started a vodcast/podcast about an aspect of my work dealing with South America, then quickly decided to make it as broad and all-encompassing as would be feasible for me.

Originally conceived to complete an Honours project at Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen (Radboud University), in conjunction with the Universiteit Leiden (University of Leiden), I conducted a series of interviews with the SAPPHIRE team (Leiden). The project concerns South American population history from an interdisciplinary perspective, largely featuring linguistics, anthropology, genetics and biogeography.

Below are the episodes I have recorded thus far. I hope to acquire better recording technology in order to continue this work. The first episodes, being borne out of said project, discuss details pertinent to SAPPHIRE, as well as general issues in South American studies. However, later episodes are interviews with researchers regardless of affiliation.

I also plan on recording episodes where I myself discuss a certain topic.

Episode 1: SAPPHIRE and the American Paradox – Rik van Gijn (Leiden University)

Episode 2: Coffee, Quechua and Communication, Andean past – Nick Emlen (formerly Leiden, now Groningen – campus Fryslân)

Episode 3: Biogeography and the riddles of South Americas – Sietze Norder (formerly Leiden, now Universiteit Utrecht)

Episode 4: Genetic fieldwork of the past and present – Leonardo Arias Alvis (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Universiteit Leiden)

Episode 5: Quechuan languages in Perú and the United States – Mackenzie Marcinko (University of Delaware)

Episode 6: The sounds and emotions of the forest in Kichwa Communication – Janis Nuckolls (Brigham Young University)