October 29, 2018 8:04 pm

Tuesday, Natalia Reagan Explores What the Dead Can Tell Us

Do you have a palpable sense of morbid curiosity? Well, even if you don’t, it’s spooky season so we’re in the spirit of studying the dead. “I want to study all the skeletons,” says bioarchaeologist Kristina Killgrove, and that’s what we’re doing this week on StarTalk All-Stars. Primatologist Natalia Reagan is back in the hosting chair alongside comic co-host Sarah Rose Siskind as they sit down with bioarchaeologist Kristina Killgrove and forensic anthropologist Chris Rainwater to discuss what the dead can tell us.

In this episode, we travel from ancient history to modern day and we start with the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. Kristina tells us about her human skeletal research at Oplontis, a site just outside of Pompeii, and how she’s trying to uncover who these people were and what they were like before the fateful eruption. You’ll learn about bioarchaeology and how it’s used to help us paint the historical tapestry.

Find out about the bioarchaeological techniques used to examine remains including 3D imaging and more. You’ll hear about the recent discovery that might alter the eruption date of Mt. Vesuvius. Explore Oplontis and its socioeconomic nature during its heyday. You’ll also learn about disease ecology and how it identifies what diseases people were living with during this time period, and Kristina offers her thoughts on the future of bioarchaeology.

After that, we move from ancient history to modern day as Chris Rainwater guides us through the world of forensic anthropology through the lens of the Medical Examiner’s office. You’ll hear how forensic anthropologists are used in the office of the Medical Examiner to address unexplained or unnatural deaths.

You’ll also find out what techniques are used in the field of forensic anthropology. Learn how forensic anthropologists help piece together mass disaster events and how Chris’s office was involved in the investigation after 9/11 at Ground Zero. All that, plus, Chris tells us how often people call in to report bones that aren’t human – it’s more frequent than you may think.

Please join us tomorrow night for Dead Bodies: Bioarchaeology and Forensic Science, with Natalia Reagan at 7pm ET right here on our website, as well as on our All-Stars channels on Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and TuneIn. And if you’re an All-Access subscriber, you can watch or listen to this episode ad-free at 7pm, too.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!
–Ian Mullen