Today we travel to a future where archaeology accidentally runs out of usable ancient DNA. 

Guests:

• Dr. Keolu Fox — assistant professor at UC San Diego, Indigenous Futures Lab
• Dr. Benjamin Vernot — postdoctoral scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
• Dr. Naomi Martisius — postdoctoral scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

Voice Actors

• Dr. Pastrana — Ashley Kellem: Instagram, Website
• Graudate Student —  — Henry Alexander Kelly: Website, podcast La Lisa: A Latinx Podcast

Further Reading:

• A Draft Sequence of the Neandertal Genome
• Neither femur nor tooth: Petrous bone for identifying archaeological bone samples via forensic approach
• DNA has a 521-year half-life
• A minimally-invasive method for sampling human petrous bones from the cranial base for ancient DNA analysis
• Optimal Ancient DNA Yields from the Inner Ear Part of the Human Petrous Bone
• Use ancient remains more wisely
• Why Scientists Should Celebrate Failed Experiments
• Scientific progress is built on failure
• Highlight negative results to improve science
• Archaeological looting
• Native South Americans were early inhabitants of Polynesia
• Diverse Plant and Animal Genetic Records from Holocene and Pleistocene Sediments
• No bones? No problem: DNA left in cave soils can reveal ancient human occupants
• Neanderthals ‘knew what they were doing’: Archæologist Dr Naomi Martisius discusses her findings about Neanderthals’ behaviour with Wikinews
• Getting under the skin of a Medieval mystery
• Ancient dental plaque: a ‘whey’ into our milk drinking past?
• ZooMS: Species identification of parchment using peptide mass finger printing
• If Neandertals had a bone to pick, which would they choose?
• Identifying Archaeological Bone via Non-Destructive ZooMS and the Materiality of Symbolic Expression: Examples from Iroquoian Bone Points
• Non-destructive ZooMS identification reveals strategic bone tool raw material selection by Neandertals

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Flash Forward is hosted by me, Rose Eveleth and produced by Julia Llinas Goodman. The intro music is by Asura and the outtro music is by Hussalonia. The episode art is by Matt Lubchansky.
If you want to suggest a future we should take on, send us a note on Twitter, Facebook or by email at info@flashforwardpod.com. We love hearing your ideas! And if you think you’ve spotted one of the little references I’ve hidden in the episode, email us there too. If you’re right, I’ll send you something cool.

And if you want to support the show, there are a few ways you can do that too! Head to www.flashforwardpod.com/support for more about how to give. But if that’s not in the cards for you, you can head to iTunes and leave us a nice review or just tell your friends about us. Those things really do help.

That’s all for this future, come back next time and we’ll travel to a new one.

Flash Forward is a critically acclaimed podcast about the future.

In each episode, host Rose Eveleth takes on a possible (or not so possible) future scenario — everything from the existence of artificial wombs, to what would happen if space pirates dragged a second moon to Earth. What would the warranty on a sex robot look like? How would diplomacy work if we couldn’t lie? Could there ever be a black market for fecal transplants? (Complicated, it wouldn’t, and yes, respectively, in case you’re curious.) By combining audio drama and deep reporting, Flash Forward gives listeners an original and unique window into the future, how likely different scenarios might be, and how to prepare for what might come.