Wanderlust episode 8: Anthropology 101- The Pied Piper of Ball State University

a map with a passport and camera on top with the text Wanderlust a travel podcast

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 AnchorBreakerGoogle PodcastsOvercastPocket CastsRadio 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.
Lonely Planet is Jim’s favorite go -to to better know a place.

Culture Shock! is a series with different authors put out to explain customs and etiquette to travelers. There’s pretty much one for every country.

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.

The Power of Representation Wanderlust

Today we're joined by Nathalie, a Black travel influencer who runs TravelingNat and Fabulous Nat on Instagram and Youtube. Listen to her travel stories, experiences as a solo traveler vs traveling with her family, her advice,  and how she inspired a new wave of native English teachers by putting her experiences and life in Korea on Youtube, as well as her thoughts on the importance of travel within the Black community and Black travel influencers.  You can find Nathalie on Instagram and Youtube.  Wanderlust is on Twitter @Wanderlustpod or available by email at wanderlustpod@gmail.com. The transcript for this episode is available on the blog. This episode is the season 1 finale. New episodes will return in the spring.  — Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wayfaringflaneur/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wayfaringflaneur/support
  1. The Power of Representation
  2. Anthropology 101: The Pied Piper of Ball State University
  3. Ghost Stories
  4. Food of the Gods
  5. Into the Wild

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