For this episode, I’m joined by Dr. Jim Coffin a retired professor of Anthropology from Ball State University. He’s been traveling since his 30’s and has made it to over 92 countries, most of which joined by his wife, children, or students. In this episode, he’s going to talk about his adventures, Anthropology, and about the importance of study abroad. While at Ball State University he became the director for International programs, which essentially means he was in charge of study abroad for incoming students and outgoing students.
You can listen to the episode on Anchor, Breaker, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, Radio Public, or Spotify. The transcript for this episode is available as a pdf here:
Cool places mentioned in this episode
Canada
Morocco
Madagascar
Jamaica
American Southwest
Costa Rica
Dream Trip
Mongolia
Anthropology 101
There are 4 branches of Anthropology.
- linguistics
- archeology
- biology
- socio-cultural
The branch Dr. Coffin falls under is Socio-cultural.
“Sociocultural anthropology is founded on the idea that people adapt to their environments in different ways, which over time, creates and develops culture.”
exploreable.com
Some of the why questions Anthropologists ask:
- Why do you do the way you do?
- How do you do it?
- What do you think about it?
Advice for new travelers
- Learn language basics
- Try to meet someone from the country you’re interested in
- Read, not just the guides below but fiction set in the place or culture to understand atmosphere and to excite you for your trip.
Want to take the quiz Jim took? You can do so here.
Have you studied abroad? Where did you go? If you haven’t, do you want to? Where? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter @wanderlustpod.
