Today, Amanda Wissler (Arizona State University) talks about her PhD research investigating frailty and resilience among human skeletons dated to 1918 and associated with the Spanish Influenza pandemic.

What are the basic definitions of ‘frailty’ and ‘resilience’ in the fields of palaeopathology and bioarchaeology? What signs of non-specific stress can we identify from the teeth and bones belonging to historical victims of Spanish Flu, tuberculosis, pnuemonia and other ailments? What inspired Amanda to become a bioarchaeologist and how did she prepare to do this research in the early stages?

In addition, are there parallels or noticeable differences between the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic and the current COVID-19 situation Amanda has found? How is she adapting or coping with the present circumstances while in Cleveland for a data collection trip that is being affected by the pandemic right now? How important is it to have engaging and educational information about biology and anthropology, either to keep folks informed about history and science, or help students and audiences live through these times?

Hear Amanda’s episode on the player below, or subscribe to our RSS feed. You can also listen on Spotify, Stitcher, iTunes or anywhere else you typically find podcasts!

Show notes

If you want to get in touch with Amanda, you can find her on Twitter and her website, People, Pandemics, and Paleoepidemiology. On the episode, Amanda shared that she aims to blog more about these topics and has recently written a piece about life during the 1918 Influenza compared with life during COVID-19.

You can find Michael on Twitter and Instagram.

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