Ayushi Nayak (Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History) is a prehistoric bioarchaeologist who studies the beginnings of farming in South Asia.

Using carbon, nitrogen and oxygen stable isotope data, Ayushi is able to reconstruct aspects of past people, such as diet, population movements and inter-cultural interactions. We also discuss a newer subdiscipline of the field known as ‘proteomics’. Ayushi describes how traces of ancient protein evidence may give hints about how the first dairying occurred on the Indian sub-continent.

Towards the end of the episode, we discuss the experiences of going to elite universities as minority and international students, and facing culture shock, homesickness, and sometimes even social prejudices and institutional racism. Hear the whole discussion on the player below, by subscribing to our RSS feed, or finding us on Spotify, Stitcher, iTunes or anywhere else you typically find podcasts!

Show notes

You can check out Ayushi’s Twitter profile for more content about archaeology and anthropology, and find Michael Rivera on Twitter and Instagram as well.

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