On the latest episode of AnthroPuzzled, we sit down with Dr. Heather Smith, a cultural anthropologist, public scholar, and digital nomad whose work centers on disaster research, mental wellness, and community care. Trained at American University, Heather's ethnographic research examines how emergency managers, first responders, and victim advocates navigate the social and emotional aftermath of natural disasters in the United States.

Drawing on her personal background and fieldwork with practitioners, Heather highlights the often-overlooked mental health impacts of disasters, both on affected communities and on those tasked with responding to crises. Her postdoctoral work extends this focus to mental wellness among marginalized communities, including low-income populations, women, and children.

Committed to public anthropology, Heather works outside traditional academic spaces to make anthropological knowledge accessible through writing, teaching, volunteering, and interdisciplinary collaboration. She also reflects on nontraditional academic paths, working full time while earning a PhD, and the importance of networks like the Bill Anderson Fund in supporting underrepresented scholars in disaster research.

Listen now to learn how anthropology informs disaster response, mental wellness, and community resilience beyond the university.

On the latest episode of AnthroPuzzled, we sit down with Dawn Nafus, a social anthropologist who spent over twenty years working as a research scientist and leader at Intel.

In her job as a research scientist Dawn spent a lot of time in the lab figuring out new product innovation. She had to research which technologies were the most important to produce for consumer demands. Through user research and applied ethnography, she helped guide decisions about product design, market strategy, and innovation across global contexts. As her role evolved, Dawn also became deeply involved in governance work, helping develop ethical guardrails around AI, bias, and technological harm as these systems moved from research labs into the world.

She reflects on what it looks like to do anthropology inside a large corporation, how research priorities change with seniority, and why anthropological ways of thinking are especially well suited to identifying ethical risks, questioning assumptions, and shaping more responsible technologies.

Listen now to learn about anthropology in the tech industry and why it matters.

On the latest episode of AnthroPuzzled, we sit down with Miles Jordan, a photographer and PhD student in anthropology at Louisiana State University whose work bridges visual arts, ethnography, and place-based research.

Miles is currently developing an intergenerational ethnography of the New Orleans music scene in the decades following Hurricane Katrina. Drawing on his lifelong connection to the city, and his background as a nationally exhibited photographer, he examines how musicians across generations have experienced cultural, spatial, and economic change in a post-Katrina landscape.

As both an insider and researcher, Miles reflects on the opportunities and challenges of studying his hometown, navigating familiarity, bias, and access while expanding beyond his own social networks. He also discusses how visual methods like photography and video can function as data, amplify interlocutors' voices, and make anthropological research more accessible beyond traditional academic texts.

Listen now to learn how anthropology, photography, and music come together to document change, memory, and cultural resilience in New Orleans.