#AcademicRunPlaylist - 2/17/25

Author

Ben Waber
February 17, 2025

A selfie of me in front of the Kyoto skyline with the sun setting over the mountains in the distance. I'm in front of an ornately painted red Japanese Buddhist temple gate, with a highly detailed and stylized white elephant head carved near the top. I'm a bald, middle-aged, white man with a red beard flecked with white. I'm wearing glasses with a metal top rim and a suit with a light purple dress shirt.

Yesterday not only did I have the incredible honor of speaking at Kiyomizu Temple, but I also got a behind the scenes tour of the UNESCO world heritage site by the first in line priest Seigen Mori! Today I swung down to Okayama University to catch up with Boago Okgetheng, and now I'm up in Tokyo for the duration. On all the train rides I was also able to listen to talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was a great talk by Chris Knight and Jerome Lewis on the development of laughter and its importance in human communication at UCL Anthropology https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_p6RUyQuwU

Next was an intriguing talk by Kevin Aretz on how uncertainty creates zombie firms at Mohamed Elsalkh's Business, Accounting, and Economics Seminar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBURtqaio-Y

Next was a compelling talk by Camilla Power on the emergence of language, art, and symbolism in Neanderthals and in Eurasia and Homo Sapiens in Africa at UCL's Radical Anthropology group https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSg_RnH0hFo

Last was an excellent talk by Ana Valvidia on the supply chain capitalism of AI at UCL's Radical Anthropology group https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkKDJbeHJJY