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.

On the latest episode of AnthroPuzzled, we sit down with Leila Rodriguez, an anthropologist and demographer and associate professor at the University of Puerto Rico who works as a cultural expert witness in legal cases.

Leila's expertise is frequently called upon in criminal, immigration, and asylum, where she provides courts with cultural context to help judges better understand behavior, identity, and social dynamics across different societies. Rather than determining guilt or innocence, her role is to explain how cultural and social factors shape lived experiences, particularly in cases involving migrants and marginalized communities.

Her work bridges anthropology and the law, translating nuanced cultural knowledge into forms that can be used within legal systems that often demand clear, categorical answers. Leila also reflects on the ethical challenges of this work, including essentialization, questions of representation, and the tension between anthropological complexity and legal standards of evidence.

Listen now to learn how anthropology functions inside the courtroom and why cultural expertise matters in legal decision-making.

On the latest episode of AnthroPuzzled we sit down with Alex King who has built a career in real estate, showing how anthropological thinking shapes the way people buy, sell, and understand homes. After leaving academia, he began working as a real estate agent and later became the owner of a home transition and estate services business, often supporting seniors and families navigating major life changes.

Through his work, he applies anthropology in everyday practice, listening closely to clients, understanding their values, and asking deeper questions about why they want a home and how they plan to use it. He explains how cultural background, migration histories, and local community dynamics influence housing choices, from refugee settlement patterns to preferences for urban or rural living.

He also reflects on how ideas about homeownership, stability, and success are culturally shaped, especially in today's shifting housing market. Anthropology, he argues, helps real estate professionals read people, not just prices.

Listen now to learn how anthropology comes to life in the housing market.

On the latest episode of AnthroPuzzled we sit down with Dina Rivera, a communications director for the Register of Professional Archeologists.

Through her job Dina promotes the standards and ethics of archeological practice. The organization she works at makes resources with these guidelines available for archeologists in the field. She personally handles all the internal and external communications within the Register of Professional Archeologists and she interacts with a variety of individuals in this job, including conspiracy theorists.

Dina has also spent time working on the Archeological Ethical Database. She began this work as an intern and argued for the importance of archaeological presence in the media. This resource can guide students and archeologists as they consider the ethics of their projects. Dina has also spent time out in the field participating in numerous archeological digs.

Listen now to learn more about archeology and communications.

On this episode of AnthroPuzzled, I speak with Diane Russell, an ecological and environmental anthropologist working in international conservation, climate change, and natural resource management.

Diane focuses on the social factors that shape how communities understand and interact with biodiversity. Her work shows how anthropology can illuminate the drivers of environmental challenges and help design conservation strategies that are both effective and culturally grounded.

She shares insights from her global fieldwork, including in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Philippines, Fiji, Jamaica, and Cameroon, where she collaborates with communities navigating complex environmental and economic realities. Her approach emphasizes balancing local needs with broader conservation goals.

Listen in to explore biodiversity and climate issues through an anthropological lens.

On the latest episode of AnthroPuzzled, we speak with Patti Sunderland, founding principal of Cultural Research and Analysis Inc.

Patti discovered anthropology in college, a perspective she says continues to shape her work in consumer research. After early projects in luxury markets and time at a nonprofit research institute, she eventually built her own firm. Anthropology, she notes, helps her look beyond individual behaviors to the broader cultural patterns driving them.

Today, Patti conducts consumer and cultural analysis to support branding and product development, using interviews, observation, and focus groups. Her process includes crafting proposals, designing research, conducting fieldwork, often across countries, and delivering final insights to clients.

She also reflects on ethics in consulting, acknowledging the challenge of not always knowing how findings will be used, while emphasizing the importance of turning down work that doesn't align with one's values.

Tune in to learn how anthropology shapes consumer research.