Tomorrow night we go live at 7pm MDT (Denver) on Ask an Anthropologist About Worldbuilding with Dr. Yasmine Musharbash, an Anthropologist and Expert on Monsters across cultures. So if you have a question about what makes a really effective monster, or you just want to get into that spooky season vibe, join us for the conversation. You can put your question here in the comments, or in the livestream.
Author: michaelkilman
Resistance Reads Podcast E24: Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-hw4z4-1b4df60
This week Matt and Michael dive into Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse, the Nobel Prize-winning author’s short but famously dense 1922 novel following a Brahmin’s son through asceticism, wealth, fatherhood, and, eventually, enlightenment.
We get into why Siddhartha’s arrogance and restless seeking might be his defining trait rather than his wisdom, how the book’s ending draws directly on the Heart Sutra, and why “the seeker as identity” can become its own kind of trap, one that keeps you from ever actually arriving anywhere. We also talk personal history: what draws someone to Buddhism in the first place, what a decade of meditation practice actually feels like, and why asceticism and self-destructive habits might be doing the same psychological job.
Also featuring our new co-host, Solana the puppy (see her on YouTube if you’re listening in audio).
Ask an Anthropologist: The Worldbuilding of Death, Border Zones and Healing
Tomorrow night at 7pm MDT (Denver) I go live with the anthropologist and thanatologist Dr. Jesús Cuauhtémoc Villa. He’s coming on to field your questions about death, forensics, border zones, and even the traditional healing art of Curanderismo. So if you want to listen to a discussion or ask questions about spaces of transformation for your fictional world or characters, then bring your questions to the livestream, or leave them in the comments.
Guest Spot on the Anthropuzzled Podcast
Earlier this year I went on the AnthroPuzzled podcast to talk about my work and my approach to using anthropology in all the things that I do. It was a great conversation and we talked about all kinds of things including:
– Building fictional worlds with anthropology and how to approach worldbuilding as a tool for learning in a classroom
– Storytelling rooted in anthropology and why it’s so important to understand cultural differences if you’re going to write
– Careers in anthropology and how it can be used in just about any field
– What it’s like to live as an anthropologist and what being in the field looks like
You can listen to the full episode in several ways.
A New Episode of Anthropology in 10 or Less is Live!
My brand new episode of Anthropology in 10 or Less on Structural Violence just dropped.
As the late great Anthropologist and Medical Doctor, Paul Farmer once wrote, “The concept of structural violence is intended to inform the study of the social machinery of oppression.”
Check out the video and don’t forget to like and comment if you enjoy it, or feel free to ask questions!
Ask An Anthropologist About Textiles, Clothing, and Ecology Live Tomorrow Night!
Tomorrow night I go live with Anthropologist Sara Temme, also known as the Textile Anthropologist. With many years of experience as a seamstress and a focus on clothing and ecology in culture, Sara wants to answer your worldbuilding questions about creating clothing for all kinds of environments. If you’re a costume designer or just want to think about apparel for your fictional worlds, this episode is for you!
Live tomorrow night at 7pm MDT out of Denver. You can add questions live or put them here in the chat! s
You can watch the replay at the same link.
My Guest Spot on the Fantasy Writers’ Toolshed Podcast
Hey all,
I recently went on the UK based podcast, the Fantasy Writers’ Toolshed to talk about worldbuilding. It was a great converastion where we talked a lot about why anthropology is useful for worldbuilding.
Our conversation included:
- Comparing what’s necessary (what all cultures have to do to make sure their people thrive) vs. what’s possible (what can cultures do to accomplish their needs)
- Why Gods should not be a default for religion
- How different marriage patterns aren’t really about love, but are often an economic and political strategy
- Why revolutions often risk recreating the very structure they were fighting against
It was a fun conversation and I hope it’s useful to all of you out there working on your fictional worlds! You can listen on YouTube or find it on most of your favorite places to listen to podcasts.
Resistance Reads Podcast E23 Their Eyes Were Watching God
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-22f5u-1b33830
Matt and Michael dive into Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, following Janie Crawford through three very different marriages, from an arranged match built on safety over love, to a mayor’s wife silenced into a gilded cage, to a late-in-life partnership that finally gives her something like equality. Along the way they get into Hurston’s own roots in early American anthropology under Franz Boas, gossip as a form of community accountability and social surveillance, the economics behind arranged marriage across cultures and time periods, and why the novel’s real subject is internal liberation rather than external rescue.
Topics covered:
- Zora Neale Hurston’s life and place in both the Harlem Renaissance and the founding generation of American anthropology
- Janie’s three marriages and what each one costs or grants her
- The “mule of the world” speech and generational trauma around safety versus freedom
- Gossip as social surveillance and community accountability, and how it curdles into tabloid voyeurism at scale
- Arranged marriage, economics, and love as a historical privilege
- Toxic masculinity, male isolation, and Bell hooks’ The Will to Change
- Why the book’s real theme is liberation from within
New to the show: check out our Patreon for Resistance Reels (a subscriber-only series on power and resistance in film) and our upcoming nonfiction book club.
Next episode: Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse.
Anthropology Through Science Fiction Has Landed!
After a number of technical delays and the need to reshoot some segments of the show because of a dying camera, my very first episode of Anthropology Through Science Fiction has launched!
This episode is a basic introduction to both Anthropology and Science Fiction and includes a discussion of the 2016 film Arrival and Ursula K LeGuin’s novel, The Dispossessed.
If you watch, don’t forget to like and comment as this absolutely helps my content up in the algorithm and makes it possible for more episodes in the long term. And if you hate it, comment anyway because I do listen to sincere critique.
Now that I’ve worked out some of the kinks, I’m wrapping up the script for episode 2, which will focus on Artificial Intelligence. It will feature a discussion of Asimov’s Three Laws, AI Chatbots, Gramsci, the book Simulacra and Simulation, The Matrix, The Cyborg Manifesto, and the film Ex-Machina.
I’m also wrapping up an episode of Anthropology in 10 or Less on Structural Violence and will post when that goes live soon too.
It’s a busy month here at Loridian’s Laboratory with 3 more episodes of Ask an Anthropologist (one tonight with Astrophysicist Dakotah Tyler), and two more episodes of Resistance Reads. Plus, I was a guest star on two podcasts recently and both episodes launch this month. So there will be lots of updates this month.
I hope you’re all find ways to stay cool in the heat!
Special Episode: Resistance Reels Episode 1 Andor Season 1
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-5a6x3-1b263d0
Welcome to Resistance Reels, the new companion show to Resistance Reads where hosts Michael Kilman and Matt Wellstrom turn their lens on film and television. This free teaser episode kicks off the show with a deep dive into Andor Season 1, focusing on the Narkina 5 prison arc, one of the most politically dense stretches of television Star Wars has ever produced.
Michael and Matt break down how the Empire maintains control through spectacle, psychological manipulation, and manufactured competition, drawing on Michel Foucault’s Discipline and Punish, David Graeber’s Debt: The First 5,000 Years, Erving Goffman’s concept of the total institution, and Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny. They trace the mechanics of authoritarian control from the electrified prison floors of Narkina 5 to Luthen Rael’s devastating “what do I sacrifice” monologue, and close with Nemik’s manifesto on the nature of freedom and resistance.
If you’ve ever wanted a genuinely rigorous political and philosophical read on Andor, one that treats it as seriously as the show treats itself, this is it.
⚠️ Contains heavy spoilers for Andor Season 1.
This episode is free to everyone. Future episodes of Resistance Reels, including our next one on Andor Season 2 and the Ghorman Massacre, along with our subscriber-only nonfiction book club on science, philosophy, and social theory, are available to Patreon members.
Loridian's Laboratory 