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Debate and Presentation Anxiety - Ep 30
66 Plays3 years ago
In this episode, we discuss the completely normal (somewhat irrational fear) of having anxiety during public speaking. Sometimes it's difficult to maintain focus during a debate or when a teacher calls on you in class. Whether it be in an academic setting, work, or presenting at conferences, we want to reassure you that it is completely fine. Tune in!
Links
- Gould, R. J. and P. J. Watson. 1982. A dialogue on the meaning and use of analogy in ethnoarchaeological reasoning. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 1:355-381
- Wylie, A. 1982 An analogy by any other name is just as analogical: A commentary on the Gould-Watson dialogue. Journal of Anthropological Anthropology 1:382-401
Contact
- Show
- Twitter: @idigitpodcast
- Email: [email protected]
- Alyssa
- Instagram: aal.archaeology
- Twitter: Lyssakemi
- Michaela
- Instagram: mm_digitalized
- Twitter: m_mauriello
Affiliates
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Personal Updates
00:00:00
Speaker
You're listening to the Archaeology Podcast Network. You're listening to the iDicket Podcast, a podcast where we talk about the student perspective of navigating the world of archaeology and anthropology. I'm your host, Michaela. And I'm your host, Alyssa.
00:00:23
Speaker
Hey there. I didn't see you there. So another week has passed. Uh-huh. How are we doing? I mean, how is it like already mid-May? Right? Is it mid-May 2021?
00:00:38
Speaker
Oh, Christ, I almost said 2019. This is definitely not 2019. I have just finished week seven of 10 for my age. And so, so in three weeks, I will finish my first year of grad PhDs, not grad school, 18th grade, 18th, 18th year.
Summer Plans and Graduate Studies
00:01:00
Speaker
This is my 18th reason.
00:01:04
Speaker
How does it feel to almost be done? I can't wait to not do anything for a couple months. Yeah. I think that's what I need. Yeah. Complete. Yeah. But yeah. I was gonna say complete darkness. I'm like, no, not complete darkness. Complete.
00:01:24
Speaker
I mean, so they're planning on having everyone in person in the fall. So that'll be technically the start of my grad school career since nothing's happened this year. But yeah, so we'll see how that goes. I'm going to try to make it through. Then by then I'll be like halfway done.
Sci-Fi Brainstorm and Societal Critique
00:01:45
Speaker
Yeah, right. How many years does it take? Like five. Yeah, you'll be closer to being done. I'll be two years in and then that's only one year away from like halfway done. And then that's only halfway away. But it's only it's five years if I do like expedited PhD. Do you want to do expedited? Yeah, I want to get the.
00:02:15
Speaker
We'll see if there's even a world to be in five years from now. We'll see. I suppose. Unless we can't see. Because it's dark. Because the atmosphere is like slowly collapsing so then we can't see any sun so then we're all we all can't see because it's all just eternal darkness at all times. Sounds nice.
00:02:41
Speaker
Sounds like a premise for like a sci-fi film. So then we have to escape to space. We have to go to Mars and we have to go on to Elon Musk's shoulders. But nobody actually wants to go on Elon Musk's shoulders. You know, Elon Musk. And then there's another upcoming scientist who's an actual scientist, not just this entrepreneur type of fella. And she is the head of everything. She. She they.
00:03:08
Speaker
She then. Person of color. Smartest person on the planet. Doesn't believe in capitalism. So we're writing a book so I can quit my PhD then. Basically. Sounds good. But we'll co-author it.
00:03:32
Speaker
That would actually be so fun though. We should make a little book. We honestly could. I believe it. Our minds are very like sci-fi heavy, especially in our dreams, but I think this could work. And then of course we can have like some cute romance in there. I feel like it'd be fun to just like
00:03:53
Speaker
open a doc and then like one person starts writing and then the other person like picks off where it comes up. It's like that game where you like pass around a drawing and you keep adding onto it. You know, it's like you never know where it's going to end up. We got to do it. Let's just start it.
00:04:07
Speaker
I'm down. It's like whenever you just need a break from researching, you just write a couple lines. It's like whenever I'm at work or something, and it's a little slow, I'm just on my phone, just typing it in. And it's like, okay, cool. And like the top, we could have like a list of all the characters and what they look like and who they are. Yeah, like every time you add a new character and you like put the description and
00:04:29
Speaker
Yeah. And then we can like design, like have somebody design the characters, like how they look like and make a little look book. But for now we could like Google people and just put like the closest. Henry Cavill. Oh no. I'm going to have him die. And the media randomly strikes the Earth.
00:04:54
Speaker
You know, that's fair. He turns into Superman in the movie and in real life. Oh my God. He really is Cal L. I'm gonna do it. Let's do it.
00:05:12
Speaker
So stay tuned. Let's say on topic, our attention spans have been suffering.
Attention Spans and PhD Challenges
00:05:21
Speaker
Yeah, we were talking a little bit earlier about how just like this whole year attention span has gotten worse and worse. And it's so hard to stay focused, like even just reading a simple article, like we were planning the topic of my debate that I had to do for class this week.
00:05:40
Speaker
And like even me preparing for the debate, I didn't even read all of the readings because my attention span was so short. And it's like a 1960 something debate, 82, 1982 debate. So it's like 40 years ago, it's like old news, you know, like I'm just not my, I'm tired of learning things that I'm not interested in.
00:06:10
Speaker
Is that the struggle with like
00:06:13
Speaker
getting your PhD in anthropology because you have to go more onto the different subfields of anthropology and not just focused on anthropology. Yeah. I think that's the main difference between US PhDs and elsewhere. Elsewhere you just hop into your research and you read on your research. In the US, you get the whole foundation redone even though you already did an undergrad in anthropology.
00:06:41
Speaker
It's just like, so much, so much, like not really related to what you want to do, but you still have to do it. And then like, obviously you can make connections and make it related and ways and like learn new techniques to approach your questions and whatever, but.
00:07:00
Speaker
Yeah, it's hard to, especially in a COVID world, to focus on things I don't have interest in. And I think we're all feeling that a little bit.
Class Debate and Public Speaking Struggles
00:07:12
Speaker
I remember I felt it during my dissertation. And I don't know if it was just like overworking or what, but I'm like, no, I just had no focus most of the time. And then I would escape in VR, which was one, for my research, and two,
00:07:27
Speaker
escapism. So, you know, it kind of benefited in a way. You didn't feel that bad about doing it since it was still tangentially related to what you had to be doing anyway. Yeah, I remember like,
00:07:42
Speaker
My issue with my dissertation was I had said everything I wanted to say, but I still needed to write like a thousand more words at the minimum word count. So my issue was like trying to force extra words, which is silly because in the real world, when you publish articles, you have to condense it into like five pages, like your whole research. And then for dissertations, they're like, you need to write minimum 20,000 words.
00:08:11
Speaker
I hit over 20,000. Yeah, you got cut back years, right? Yeah. Because it's like I did a lot of like analysis and stuff. So I'm like, okay, I can only every case study that I don't just write about that. And then it's like, this is important. It's like, oh, shit, cut this out.
00:08:30
Speaker
And it was still like 102 pages altogether. I'm like, oh, that's cool though. I almost think like cutting back is harder than like writing more sometimes. Yeah. It's like, but everything's important. I don't want to cut it out. Yeah. It's like, this is all my child. You want me to cut off pieces of my chicken? Cut their limbs. Oh my God. Cause even then it's like when you cut things out, it's like, okay, so now does this flow? How should I rearrange this and everything? But when you're adding, it's just like, oh, this will make this flow better. This can fit into here.
00:09:00
Speaker
Yeah. It's unfair. Whoever discovered grammar in literature, I want a word with you. I have a word. I did see a funny meme the other day. Not really on topic, but off topic, but on topic. PhD student, C2020. Here's what Catherine posted.
00:09:25
Speaker
No, here's a limited argument I made based on years of specialized research. Hope it's okay, frowny face. Philosopher dude, C. 1770. Here are some thoughts I had in the bath. They constitute universal and self-evident laws of nature. Fight me.
00:09:44
Speaker
Speaking of that, it's like, I hope it's okay. That was me in my debate yesterday. So I like can't form thoughts on the go. And the debate was three versus three in the class and it's over zoom. So like you, you wait for someone to stop talking and then you start.
00:10:04
Speaker
But I don't know what it is with me, whether it's like imposter syndrome or a mix of other things, but I can't make myself say words in response to other people's words and arguments. Everyone looks like they're doing so well and just like, oh, but he says this and it's about this and it's not actually about that. And then I see them doing so well. And then I'm just thinking about how they're doing so well. And then while I'm thinking that,
00:10:34
Speaker
time passes and then I didn't hear what happened and now I'm like not answering any of the questions and I'm just sitting there and like not participating. So that's how my debate went. I did all the work for it but didn't say a single word. Public speaking is definitely a skill that either you're like it's innate or you really have to practice it.
00:11:03
Speaker
Definitely. I don't know. I haven't done a lot of it. So I'm like, I don't really know. I don't want to be a public speaker. I end up just like talking a lot faster. And it's also it's not your opinions. It's the opinions of the person you're pretending to be. It's like role play debate.
00:11:19
Speaker
And I don't know, I just, I feel like I can't comprehend articles well enough to pretend I'm the person who wrote them. Yeah. I think it would be interesting to have read the articles and then choose a side, whether or not like you fully like stand for it or anything, and then have like the three on three that way being like, or however many it's like, okay, this many people is for this person. So then you just kind of argue that side. Yeah.
00:11:48
Speaker
Yeah, we were like assigned, okay, you three are going to be for the argument and you three are going to be against it. And that's how it happened. Yeah. I don't know. I'm not a fan of forced public speaking. It makes me nervous. Understandable. I already have anxiety. I like speaking.
00:12:14
Speaker
I can speak fine if I'm allowed a script, like if I'm allowed to formulate my thoughts prior to like, I'll be coherent while I'm talking, but if it's like on the go, I'm just, I'm not good at that because I get too nervous.
00:12:31
Speaker
Yeah, it's like I've lost my, I don't know what I've said. I don't know where I am. Who am I? I blacked out for a minute. I gotta go. And then you leave and go to the hospital in a different country and never have seen again. Oh, you remember Michaela? Was that the girl from that one time? And then you see me in the background with the wig on. You don't see me, John Cena.
00:13:00
Speaker
Yeah, that's our feelings of public speaking. Can't do it. Speaking in front of like a microphone. Easy. Yeah. The way that I decided to combat this was I stayed after class and asked him a question just so that he like heard my voice last. Is it participation grading?
Anxiety and Class Participation
00:13:21
Speaker
Um, yeah, but it's like lumped into a bunch of other things. So it's not like,
00:13:26
Speaker
a certain percent for the debate. It's like the debate plus this, plus this. Okay. That's good. Yeah. So like I'm not worried about not passing. I'm just worried about disappointing people. Oh my gosh. The only person you can disappoint is yourself. The thing is like, I'm really good at typing up to speed as people are talking. So I transcribed the entire debate.
00:13:50
Speaker
and sent it to everyone. So that's my contribution to it, because we also have to write a paper on the debate. That's nice then. So now everyone's just like, oh, thanks Alyssa. Everyone in the class knows that I did that, but the professor doesn't know that I did that. So he's not really seeing the effort that I put into preparing, preparing, preparing, preparing, preparing the debate. What is he going to do? Fire me? I already want to quit.
00:14:22
Speaker
Jokes on you. Yeah. I keep telling myself that. It's like, it's fine. Like, what's the worst that could happen? Just quit. You don't have to do a PhD. If you guys want, you and Takumi can move into my house. That's true. There's going to be an extra room in September.
00:14:38
Speaker
Hmm, don't tempt me. It's not that expensive and live with moi. That sounds nice. My friend just casually went to Hawaii for a week during the sixth week of school. So it was like midterms. But yeah, he went to Hawaii for a week, which sounds like more stressful than relaxing to me. Like midterms week going to Hawaii only for a week.
00:15:07
Speaker
Why during midterms? He's a crazy person. So he was in Hawaii for like five days and then came back. I don't get on him. That's how some people are taking his PhD. No, he's like the hardest worker I've ever met though. He just likes to stress them out more than he needs to be stressed out though. Who doesn't stress out more than they should stress out?
00:15:36
Speaker
Definitely want to try to like go on some sort of trips this summer. Almost as said this weekend. Yeah, let me just go sailing across the United States this weekend. We should try to do the road trip we meant to do last year. Yeah. Well, my dad has a place in Utah that's currently getting built up. So we can go there, stay there, has a few bedrooms, and go over to Zion. Zion's like an hour and a half away. Mesa Birdie is only a five hour drive.
00:16:05
Speaker
So we got to do that. We'll be right back after this break with more information about anxiety. Anxiety. A common topic on this podcast.
00:16:19
Speaker
Um, anxiety in public speaking and yeah, which is something that's important, especially when people are often not only forced, but are recommended to do public speaking in academia, especially during your undergrad, even in high school. I just like, well, you have to do this. Like your grade depends on it. I would say it's unfair, especially with those who are severely anxious and
00:16:45
Speaker
afraid of public speaking and it's like forcing them to do that is very traumatizing. Yes. All right, that's the end of the segment. Indeed. It's like, of course, it might stem from like some deeper issue or something like that, but it's like, why is most of your grade dependent on this one or two? Yeah. Fortunately, my grade isn't most dependent on it.
00:17:11
Speaker
Yeah, and that was, we were gonna have to do three debates throughout the term, but he cut it down to two. And that was the second one, so I'd never have to do it again. Because it's weird how it's like you have to debate and then you have to write a paper about it. Because then it's just like, you should have the option of doing one or the other.
00:17:31
Speaker
Yeah. I also think we should be able to write a collaborative paper together on it. Um, cause that would be a useful skill to have as co-authoring. And then also we all prepared the same thing anyway. So like, why would you want to read three different?
00:17:52
Speaker
but same papers. Is it about the debate or is it? It's no, it's about the content. Oh, okay. So it's like your interpretation. We're all reading the same notes and writing a paper. I mean, I guess you can have different outputs anyway, but yeah, I think it would be cool as like a project to like have to co-author with two other people because that's something you do in the room.
00:18:18
Speaker
Yeah, especially during like a PhD or something that's a little bit more serious than an undergrad because people are a little bit more serious about whatever they're learning in some way, shape, or form. Have you noticed that group work has been easier as a PhD student than in undergrad? I feel like I haven't really had any group work at all. It's all been very
00:18:39
Speaker
one person, except for the debate, but the group work is the debating and I didn't do any part of it. All my contributions were subsurface that the professor can't see, so that's unfortunate. Were your teammates trying to have you talk? No, we all messaged each other during class. I messaged them, I was like, I feel useless, I'm so sorry, I can't form thoughts.
00:19:09
Speaker
Like I can't believe how fast you're typing these notes and blah, blah, blah. Like they were like gassing me up and like, you're doing great and your contribution is worth all that. But I'm like, you can't see that. Yeah, so.
00:19:23
Speaker
Will you know your grade for that anytime soon or is it like end of? I mean, it's really hard to not get an A, like you have to actively try to not get an A, I feel, or just like come from like a completely different background and not know how to write in the style of.
00:19:40
Speaker
anthropology or whatever. But yeah, so I'm I'm not completely concerned. I also think that anything less than an A right now is cruel. So yeah, I think I'll be fine. But I've done all the other work. Because I feel like in a group setting with debate, it's much easier than individual presentation or debate where it's just like one v one, especially like thinking on the fly, unless that might be easier.
00:20:09
Speaker
Not a fan of the V part. I could do the one. I could completely prepare both sides of the debate and give both of them at once. But if someone's asking me questions about stuff, my brain just stops working. Can you repeat that? I blacked out. Yeah. Even in class, if he asked me something, I'm just like, I have no idea what you just said. Mm-hmm. Too much adrenaline is going through my brain right now. I remember in my undergrad, I would always
00:20:40
Speaker
just focus on what the teacher was saying and writing notes. And then every time they would ask a question, I would just be like, somebody else want to take this? Because I'm like, I want to hear somebody else. I'm still processing what's being said. The thing that doesn't make sense about my brain is that I hate being called on, but I also hate awkward silence even more than that. I always feel like I need to be the one to fill the silence. Yeah, same.
00:21:08
Speaker
But then I'm like, I don't have anything to contribute to this awkward silence. Like that's... Oh, is it this? They're like, no, that's incorrect. And then I'm like, okay, I'll just never speak again.
00:21:19
Speaker
I feel like if there's like more than like three beats and nobody's like raising their hands, because if it's just like a rhetorical question or something like that, move on being like, this is what I'm meaning by this. The worst is when they just like sit in silence and wait for someone to answer. It's like obviously no one wants to answer. Like everyone's just taking like things as it comes in and they haven't fully processed what you've been saying because you're like sitting down for an hour and however many minutes. Three hours for mine.
00:21:46
Speaker
Like how is it supposed to go through the full circle of your brain cycle into going into the deep recesses of your memory? I think that's how brains work. I should have asked my housemate who does brain research. But I feel like this is like an overly simplified or very inaccurate representation of the brain.
00:22:10
Speaker
But yeah, it's just like how within like an hour, are you supposed to be able to process this information? Of course, you're supposed to be bringing in resources from your own knowledge about the subject. But what if it's a class that you are knowing nothing about as well?
00:22:26
Speaker
and just taking this to get a prerequisite or just a completely new subject that you just want to focus on the content. And one way that people learn may be after the fact and learning and being able to process it after the lecture or the readings. Or maybe some people, when they do the readings, they need the lecture in order to fully understand it.
00:22:48
Speaker
I don't know, but it's something to think about when thinking about public presentations and participation in classwork.
COVID-19 Impact on Education
00:22:59
Speaker
And also something to think about when you're having to do this for like in high school, you're doing this from seven, eight a.m. to three, four p.m. or however
00:23:09
Speaker
that type of education work. I always remembered like in high school I really wanted the block schedule because I'm like this seems more practical for adolescents for that. I had both. I had block schedule for my freshman year and then I moved high schools and had the regular one. And I really liked block schedule because you would only do like three topics a day.
00:23:30
Speaker
for two hours, so you had more time to like, usually it would be like you get taught for the first hour and then you put it into practice for the second hour or something like that. Yeah, it would, it would suck for classes you didn't want to be in because it was like extra time in those classes. But yeah, for learning, I can see how it helps. I can't believe we used to do six different topics a day.
00:23:53
Speaker
So you're learning so many different things and subjects and you have to do like extensive homework for each class every single day with no leniency at all. Unless like everyone's crying to the teachers being like, please move the due dates. How did we do that?
00:24:09
Speaker
I don't know. High school's hard. Let's ask your sister how she's not doing great. I think online classes are especially hard for high school stuff. I can't imagine, man. It's like even I don't spend that much time on Zoom and I'm in a freaking PhD and you expect a 13-year-old to sit on Zoom for seven hours a day. Yeah. Silly. They hopefully go back soon in person.
00:24:37
Speaker
especially now that everything's opening back up and 15, 16 year olds, at least in California can get the vaccine now. And I feel like having that sort of this year and a half within COVID and online learning, I think that's going to
00:24:53
Speaker
be an interesting look onto focus in the classroom. Cause it's like, if you've been able to tune everything out online, how is it going to be in class? Especially as like incoming freshmen who are now sophomores and. I definitely think we're going to see lasting impacts of this pandemic on young brains. Especially with like the socialization. People like aren't going to
00:25:22
Speaker
I don't remember how to make friends in the real world. Can't imagine how it is for like a freshman now sophomore going into high school where they're supposed to be an upperclassmen now but like don't know anyone. Yeah, it's like I just really want to go into a cafe and just like
00:25:39
Speaker
eat something or working on my computer and then just like make conversation with people around me. And it's like, that doesn't exist right now. Kids, incoming high schoolers, incoming college goers at any caliber.
00:25:55
Speaker
It's going to be so interesting to see everything come back and it's like, does anybody really know how to socialize? But then people have been back and I think that it looks like it's been okay. I don't really know. I haven't seen anything. Me either. I've seen some videos and stuff like on TikTok. I'm like, okay. Yeah. That made me think of...
00:26:16
Speaker
Well, this all has made me think of just how pointless everything seems right now with the whole last year and everything. And I saw this TikTok. It was someone Googled, like, how long before civilizations collapse? And it was like 250 years or something is the average. And then it looked at how old the United States was. And it was like 245 years. And they're like, oh.
00:26:44
Speaker
This is why everything is going to shit because we're reaching our limit. But is that just an analogy? Analogy, going into analogies. So the debate that I had to do yesterday that I kind of did but didn't do.
Debate on Analogies in Archaeology
00:27:01
Speaker
You did. You did work on the debate. I did all the work for it and I didn't say anything. That's okay. So yes, I did it. The prompt was
00:27:10
Speaker
The use of analogy compresses a variation of human existence into flat worldviews derived from the contemporary world and therefore offers little use to the archaeological project. So like you had to debate whether you were for or against that statement, like are analogies useful?
00:27:28
Speaker
Or are they not? And basically Richard A. Gold and Patty Jo Watson wrote a co-authored paper where they just like argued each other within one paper. So it was nice. You didn't have to go somewhere else to read the other side of it. But yeah, they wrote a paper together in 1982 about the use of analogies. And yeah, so that's what the debate was about. What was your site on?
00:27:54
Speaker
We took the gold sign, sign, gold sign. We took the gold sign, which was against analogies, at least in the way that Patti Jo Watson was describing them. Yeah, so basically one of Watson's stances was that we can use analogy for past societies by comparing them to present cultures, which like already is
00:28:22
Speaker
problematic because people change over time and like comparing something a culture today is doing to like their ancestors is like not really fair and doesn't give any credibility to the past.
00:28:35
Speaker
culture or the present culture, just saying that they're like stagnant and never changing and primitive and whatever. And so that in general is like kind of problematic. But she was arguing that since we don't know the past and the real truth of the past anyway, the descendants of a culture are the closest we're going to get and it's better than nothing.
00:29:00
Speaker
and therefore useful. I could get behind that a little bit. I definitely think that ties into like community archaeology too is like involving people on the land and the research you're doing about the land that they're living on and like what stories they have passed down from generations. And so I think in ways, yes, that could be useful, but I don't think they should be taken as truth, but also there is no way we could actually know what the truth is because there's many truths. And so like what is
00:29:28
Speaker
the truth and the past, and can we even attain a truth about the past in general? That's what I have a hard time with. It's like, this is exactly how it was. Like, this is exactly what it means. Like, how do you know? Nobody actually knows. Like, I feel like everything should be like preface. Like, this is the interpretation of what we think that this is based on this, this, this, this, this. Yeah.
00:29:51
Speaker
Exactly. And so Watson was focused a lot on like, ideational factors and like, traditions and that sort of thing and comparing those to like, artifacts and being like, Oh, we have this, it looks similar to something we have in this common or this contemporary culture.
00:30:07
Speaker
probably what it was used for since they're so similar, that sort of thing. But gold was arguing that we should start with stuff we know, such as biological sciences and geology and all that. And so you start your analysis based off of
00:30:25
Speaker
science like testable things like in geology you know exactly what earth processes happen because it's the same and it has been the same throughout time and so you could use that and then use those factors to infer what
00:30:41
Speaker
a people might have done in response to things like climate or like the final records present or flora and that sort of thing. So you're saying start there and then once you find an anomaly like, oh, these people did something different than what we usually see, then you look into ideational factors and bring in everything else.
00:31:03
Speaker
One of the issues with him is that he's assuming that like humans react to nature and it's like that nature culture divide that we don't really like right now. It like takes autonomy away from people.
00:31:19
Speaker
saying that, like, oh, like, if there's no water, then people are gonna move. But, like, that's not always the case because, like, places can have, like, significant meaning to where they don't move or, like, ideologies tied to certain places and things and all that that you can't see, like, in climate studies or whatever. But, yeah. So. So you'd note in the moment of, like, we're not going here because of this, this is there, or this is not there.
00:31:44
Speaker
Yeah, and it also takes away from like all the politics that happen. I remember last term we read this interesting reading about Iceland and just like the history of settlement on Iceland and basically when the first people arrived there
00:32:00
Speaker
They divided land into family plots, and then that family plot was passed down through generations. And then today, the plot you have from your family was passed down a long time. But as a result of this, all of the people who settled on the higher ground
00:32:19
Speaker
After years and years of farming, all of the soil started to erode and fall into the valley. So now the people who live on those outer ridges don't have fertile land anymore and can't grow crops and are typically a lot poorer. And then all of the rich soil slid down into the valley. And so all the people in the middle of the valley have this really good farming land and
00:32:43
Speaker
accumulated like a lot of generational wealth because of it and all of that so it was like the decisions to divide land a certain way hundreds of years ago directly impact how contemporary people in Iceland live and like the reason why they are poor or not because everyone just has their plot of land property isn't sold the same way but yeah so there's like politics that go into the way land is used
00:33:09
Speaker
And you can't always see that in faunal remains. But you can see that the soil eroded. And you can make assumptions based off that, but you have to use analogies. Yes, exactly. So then what is an analogy? How one is it okay and not okay? So then everything's based on interpretation. So it's like,
00:33:30
Speaker
There, I almost said there has to be analogies, but it's like obviously there's, yeah. I can see how it's like a debate cause it's debating.
00:33:40
Speaker
the initial thoughts that you have and those kind of innate thoughts of being like, oh, this is how we're questioning this. It's like, but should we be questioning it this way? What's another way we can question this? It's like, I don't know, man. I don't think the argument is like, should we use analogies? I think it's how do we use them properly?
00:34:03
Speaker
Yeah so like that's the frustrating thing with archaeology and I find this this debate like goes on in my head all the time anyways like what's the point we're never gonna know like what actually happened because like we like have such a small sliver of like any record of the past and then we just have to like make things up based on other small slivers of
00:34:26
Speaker
things we have from the past and then we get a story. But history does repeat itself. So you compare contemporary history to what? Well, kind of like using, I guess that is, but I was thinking more of lines like using the past as a way to help predict the future.
00:34:52
Speaker
And just because it's like history does not necessarily repeat itself, but elements of it do. So by looking into these undiscovered settlements or something somewhere and just learning more about that, you can learn more about the land that it's on and make analogies and assumptions based on contemporary.
00:35:19
Speaker
Or like you said, like being useful in the community and just like having it. It's like, okay, so this is what was happening then. How can this be beneficial? How is this information beneficial now? That's the key. That's the cake, I think.
00:35:37
Speaker
gonna take a sliver of that. Whatever the story ends up being, I think it has to benefit modern contemporary people in some way and do its best not to skew power in a way that hurts people.
00:35:53
Speaker
knowing that land in Iceland was chopped up a certain way back then, and therefore these people are suffering, that can allow the government to make certain adjustments to whatever they need to do, if they so choose to, which they, I don't know, I don't know how government works in Iceland, but knowing that information in general though, like shows that it's not a fair system, and you can work to level that out. So it was back in the day, but now
00:36:22
Speaker
however long it's been. It's like our world now is very fast paced. Everything needs to be instantaneous and
00:36:34
Speaker
to the times, according to Western society. But does it really? No. But does it really? It's definitely an interesting topic to think about. And I mean, I guess it goes in with theory and needing to know more and know more about why we think about things. And then it also goes into philosophy, just like, how is this table a table and how is this table not a chair?
00:36:58
Speaker
What is truth? What is truth? Honestly, everyone has their own different versions. Yeah. The truth. I guess it also goes into like the stories of wars and how only the victors, not only the victors, but really the victors have the winners, right? The history books. Yes. And if there is any other history books written, they're usually burned enough to face like they don't necessarily exist anymore.
00:37:25
Speaker
And that's like, I think that's another thing that archaeology is working really hard to make note of is that you bring your own life biases to your research.
Biases in Archaeological Research
00:37:37
Speaker
Like everything you've experienced influences how you interpret data.
00:37:42
Speaker
And no one can be taken as the one truth, especially when dealing with human past, because there isn't only one truth. Everyone who is involved has a different version of an event. Exactly. Yeah. And so I think people are just now finally starting to write that into their research. It's like, based off of my experience, this is what I interpret. But it could be something else.
00:38:11
Speaker
I think like in the papers that I write, I'm always just like, based on my interpretations granted for me by these readings in this paper, I will be writing this. So it's just like, this is just what I'm thinking based on what I've been given. And of course, there's so many other papers that everyone can know everything that's ever been written, especially of just great literature that may or may not be super easy to find. And especially when there's like the paywall in front of you that you can't access a lot of things. So
00:38:39
Speaker
open access forever. But it's like, I do understand wanting money. Speaking of open access, my new paper was just published on an open access forum, Science Advances. It's not my paper. I was a part of a paper. That's pretty cool. Your name's on it, so there is ownership in there. My name is on it, yes. I made all of the tables and graphs inside the paper.
00:39:03
Speaker
I'm so proud of you. Yes. I still need to read it. Once I get these, I got these like natural supplements to help with focus and anxiety. Once I get those on Sunday, I'll take one and all my issues will be cured. So I, once I had movie theater popcorn on Tuesday, then I had pizza the next day. And then I was like, you know what? If I could just live my life eating pizza and movie theater popcorn, I feel like a lot of things would be a lot better than also bad.
00:39:31
Speaker
I feel like I would not feel good. Probably not. Probably not. Yeah. So I had to eat yesterday was the pizza and I was like, I'm not hungry for the rest of the day. And then it was like one o'clock in the afternoon. I'm like, I'm shaking. I'm like, Oh yeah, I haven't eaten since then. Sarah brought up a depressing fact. It was just like,
00:39:55
Speaker
looking into how many people actually read your paper after you publish something is like very low percent of people and then like if you think about like so in my classes something I'm frustrated with is that we keep reading the same
00:40:11
Speaker
authors like over and over and over again in theory and methods and whatever and it's like the same 10 white guys and I'm just like how these these guys obviously were not the only archaeologists during this time with the only like thoughts about this topic like why are we talking about them over and over and over and over again I want to read something new so yeah just like thinking about that and like how many people don't get read even if it's
00:40:41
Speaker
better than like what's popular. It's like kind of frustrating.
Diversity in Academic Literature
00:40:45
Speaker
Have you thought about like when you're seeing one of these articles by one of these guys and looking up on like JSTOR or a scientific website trying to find like an equivalent to it by somebody else? Yeah, I mean, like you can, but it's also hard to know what you're looking for. And I don't know.
00:41:05
Speaker
That's like more work than I have the capacity to do right now. That'd be something to do when you're writing your end papers. It's something that teachers need to be aware of is diversifying their syllabus and including women and people of color.
00:41:23
Speaker
people of other country origins other than Europe and the Americas. So like these guys are the forerunners because these were the only people, these men were the only ones. Cause we can read English. Yeah. And they're the only ones who could actually publish things and actually get notability. It's like, doesn't necessarily mean it's the best out there, the most accurate or anything. Yup.
00:41:48
Speaker
But that being said, it's like they're being published and it's being circulated for a reason as well. So it's like it might be based on this professor's experience in their readings and stuff like that. Sometimes like people, like there are names at me and I'm just like, I'm really bad at names. Like, especially since I'm not like actively writing and researching. So it's just like, Oh, but this person, you haven't heard of them? I'm like, hmm.
00:42:10
Speaker
I have no idea. Like right now at this time of my life where I'm standing right here in the middle of the field, I can't say I do. It's like, oh, it's like, well, you should know this person because of this. I'm like,
00:42:22
Speaker
I'm not saying that I don't, but I'm not saying that I do. If I might read something, I'll be like, oh yeah, I have that paper still. Yeah. I also am not good at names. And I get like, I think that's like one of the main sources of my imposter syndrome is when my classmates just start pulling in like random names from like other things they've read. And I'm just like, I have no idea what you're talking about.
00:42:46
Speaker
I know one of my brothers when I was finishing up my undergrad, he was like, who's your favorite archeologist?
00:42:53
Speaker
I don't know. I don't have one. I hate those questions. I don't know. Because in my undergrad, I was mainly taking anthropology courses, because archeology, there's only a couple of classes. The Bulgaria trip for my field school, that was my determining factor of being in archeology. So I'm like, all right, this is it. I love this. I'm going for it. And I did full speed. Could you then answer the question? No. I still don't have one, really. I also don't.
00:43:22
Speaker
Have you gone to an engineer and being like, who's your favorite engineer? I feel like it'd be easy for architects because people buildings artists like that's it's art is different. Yeah, art is very different than archaeology. It's like, who's your favorite? Who's your favorite coder? Yeah, tech.
00:43:42
Speaker
Mark Zuckerberg. Speaking of Zuck, I saw another post today. It was like millennials own 4% of wealth in the US and 2% of that is Mark Zuckerberg. Oh my God.
00:44:03
Speaker
But yeah, that was our little quip about analogies and debates. It sounds like it was a really interesting topic to debate and definitely has you thinking more in depth about how you think about things, which I guess that literally is what theory is. Yeah. Yeah. How to think about things. Do you have any more debates?
00:44:27
Speaker
Um, no, we're done for this term. Thank God. Hopefully never again. 10 out of 10. Good job. Yay. Yeah. We're almost done with the term. I think I can make it three weeks. Um, I believe in you. What I have to do is one, one page paper, which won't be that bad. I have to do one 10 page paper, which will be a little,
00:44:52
Speaker
More bad. More effort. One four page paper, which is the debate paper. I think that's it. I believe in you. Thank you. My work's picking up, so I'm going to be working a little bit more. Yay, money. It's like I've been wanting to like save money, but it's like the work being so sporadic, it's just going back into rent. I'm like, I'm really like,
00:45:16
Speaker
not making any money. Yeah. Been finding some other CRM things, maybe have tool jobs, but then like that seems like a lot, especially in the summer with the levy. I know like last summer I was like out there six days a week for like a month. And so that would have been like impossible to have another job at the same time. They're like, Oh, you're, we just hired you on like we need you. And it's like, I literally can't. So like that, I think like that's another fear.
00:45:39
Speaker
No, I think it's more like, are you available yes or no? And you say yes or no. Because the people I worked with would have like two or three different CRM jobs. And then just like when there wasn't work for one, they'd say yes to the other or say no or not. And I feel like they understand because it is all part time. Mm-hmm.
00:46:06
Speaker
Unless you're lucky and have that one full-time job.
Public Speaking Anxiety and Support
00:46:12
Speaker
But yeah, thanks for listening to our rambles about anxiety in presenting because it's a completely normal and natural thing to have.
00:46:21
Speaker
Unfortunately, we do not have the solutions as to how to cure it. I don't know if anybody does, maybe a therapist. We're fine. That's our catchphrase. It's okay. Yeah. Find the solutions that it's like, if you are severely anxious about presenting, like
00:46:42
Speaker
I highly doubt that talking to your professor or your teacher is going to end in misery. I think they're going to try to be understandable. It depends of course. And it's also terrifying. So send an email being like, Hey, I don't like public speaking. What are my solutions? How do I, it's like, what do you expect out of me? Because if I were to try to give a public speech, it's not going to end well. So how, what would be the best that you were seeing for me?
00:47:24
Speaker
This show is produced by the Archaeology Podcast Network, Chris Webster and Tristan Boyle, in Reno, Nevada at the Reno Collective. This has been a presentation of the Archaeology Podcast Network. Visit us on the web for show notes and other podcasts at www.archpodnet.com. Contact us at chrisatarchaeologypodcastnetwork.com.
00:47:34
Speaker
Yeah. Okay, thanks. Okay, we'll see you next time. Bye!