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Cross Post with Josh Gurrero's 15 Questions with an Archaeologist feat. Alyssa Loyless - Ep 21
31 Plays3 years ago
In this episode, we venture outside of interviewing and have, in turn, been interviewed for the podcast 15 Questions with an Archaeologist with Joshua Gurrero. This episode features Josh interviewing Alyssa which aired on his channel 1 January 2021! Be sure to check out his channel!
Links
- 15 Questions with an Archaeologist
- Josh and Alyssa's episode
- Josh and Alyssa's YouTube episode
- Josh's YouTube Channel
Contact
- Show
- Twitter: @idigitpodcast
- Email: [email protected]
- Alyssa
- Instagram: aal.archaeology
- Twitter: Lyssakemi
- Michaela
- Instagram: mm_digitalized
- Twitter: m_mauriello
Affiliates
Recommended
Transcript
Podcast Introduction and Host Background
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.
00:00:22
Speaker
Hey there, welcome to today's episode. If you can't tell, this episode is going to be a little bit different. Maybe you can tell from the title. I don't know. Mayhaps. But Alyssa and I were just interviewed by Joshua Guerrero for the 15 Questions with an Archaeologist podcast.
00:00:40
Speaker
and also on his YouTube channel as well. It was a little hint of best of both worlds over there. And we thought it would be fun to post his interviews over onto our podcast. So it's a little get to know the hosts in a way that is different than us talking amongst ourselves, which is always fun. I love doing that, but this is actually really cool. And I thought that it would be a great experience for people to get to know us and not just
Interview with Joshua Guerrero
00:01:09
Speaker
our own thoughts and questioning for ourselves, but for somebody else to be questioning us. It was really weird being on the other side. That's all I have to say. So here in this episode is going to be Josh interviewing Alyssa with 15 questions. I highly recommend going to his channel and listening to it and going to the YouTube video.
00:01:27
Speaker
It's really fun watching ourselves over the video. Well, I haven't seen mine yet, but for Alyssa. And we're going to be having him on our podcast, and so that's going to be a fun little swoopy swoppy. Get to know another archaeologist and get to know
00:01:43
Speaker
everything about him and what he does. Because I know during my episode, I would have wanted to ask him questions about himself more, but it was not like that because it's the opposite. And I'm just used to interviewing and not being interviewed. But Josh is a great guy. It was really fun to talk to him and get everything out. And yeah, so without further ado, here is his episode on our episode. Enjoy.
00:02:10
Speaker
Hello, everyone, and welcome to 15 questions with an archaeologist brought to you by the National Park Service Southeast Archaeological Center. I'm Josh Guerrero and I'm your host. And this is the show we're trying to collect as many interviews as we can where we ask 15 questions with an archaeologist. Each podcast episode will feature one archaeologist answering the same 15 questions.
00:02:30
Speaker
I think it's going to be fun and we just might learn something.
Alyssa's Academic and Podcast Journey
00:02:33
Speaker
And joining me today, I have Alyssa Loyless who is currently a student at Stanford and she's also a co-host for the I Dig It podcast. So Alyssa, thank you so much for taking the time for joining me today and welcome to the show.
00:02:45
Speaker
Thanks for having me so late in the day too. It's quite all right. And I did pronounce your last name correctly. Yeah. Cause I didn't even think I pronounced it correctly. Yeah. I probably should have asked before we hit record before we got going. Very good.
00:03:06
Speaker
All right. Well, I've been looking forward to chatting with you and learning a little bit more about you. You and I, we've been connected for a good while. We run in the same archeological and podcasting circles as it seems. So as we get going here, why don't you tell us a little bit about what you're currently studying as a student over at Stanford and a little bit about what it's like to be the host of the iDigit podcast.
00:03:31
Speaker
Yeah, awesome. Okay, so I'm currently a PhD student at Stanford. I just finished my first term. And I'm still alive. So that's cool. Survive the first term in 2020, which is I think that's a good accomplishment. Oh, yeah.
Research Focus: Cambodia and Archaeology Methods
00:03:50
Speaker
I'm in the anthropology department on the archaeology track so for the first two years it's mostly just taking coursework in like archaeological theory and whatnot and then the third year is exams and then fourth and fourth through sixth are more research and so my research focus as it currently stands which will probably change as it usually does
00:04:12
Speaker
Um, it's centered generally on Cambodia, specifically the Khmer Empire. And yeah, and looking at, um, human environment relationships within the landscape using GIS and remote sensing and that sort of stuff.
00:04:27
Speaker
That's what I applied to Stanford to do. We'll see if she ends up being that later. I'm also working on the co-care archaeological project in Cambodia, which is the project I applied to Stanford with. I've been working in Cambodia for the last year and a half or so. I was actually living in Cambodia prior to COVID.
00:04:53
Speaker
on a Fulbright research grant. So I was there from last September, supposed to be to this last August, but we got evacuated in March. So it was supposed to be 10 months, but it ended up being five to six.
00:05:08
Speaker
But yeah, so in Cambodia, we were doing a lot of remote sensing stuff, doing 3D models of some of the temples and the co-care archaeological complex, doing a lot of ground penetrating radar. We weren't doing any digging at all. It was mostly just like surface survey, that sort of stuff and digital stuff.
00:05:29
Speaker
That's what I was doing for
Podcast Co-hosting Experience
00:05:31
Speaker
the last year. And then I also co-host the I Dig It podcast, as you mentioned, with my colleague and best friend who I met in my master's program, which I just watched your last video and you went to York. You studied at York. Yep. That's correct.
00:05:47
Speaker
I also did. Big York party here. But yeah, we just started that this year, right after I got back from Cambodia in March. So it's been a few months now. I think we're on episode 19 or something like that. So yeah, that's been a lot of fun doing that.
00:06:06
Speaker
Marvelous. Now, what year were you at York? Because I was there, I started in the fall of 2015 and I finished up in the summer of 2016. So why did we actually been on the ground at the same time? We were not. I started September 2018 and then finished
00:06:26
Speaker
2019. So I was there for the master's program in archaeological information systems in the archaeology department. All right. Great. And then I don't know about you, but I'm actually really missing the place. Like I loved living in New York and I'm hoping to go back to England hopefully before too long. So we'll see.
00:06:50
Speaker
It was so awesome living there and just being close to Europe in general. And we got to do like a five day road trip to Scotland. Like it was like close to finals period. So probably wasn't the best timing, but it was really fun anyway. Yeah. But it's so cool. Like how much access you have to such cool history and locations. Yeah. It was just literally all around you. It was so amazing. But, um,
00:07:13
Speaker
Well, we should probably move on because I could really dive down this memory lane of York quite a bit. But you certainly had intrigued me talking about this human environmental relations that you're studying in Cambodia. So I feel like I might already know the answer to this next question, but I'll go ahead and ask it anyway. And that is if money were no object whatsoever, what type of archaeology
00:07:36
Speaker
would you do? Do you think you would continue on with this human environmental studies in Cambodia or might you pursue something different?
00:07:44
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, definitely I think I really enjoy what I'm doing right now and I can't really imagine doing anything else at the moment. But if you asked me like what I wanted to do like two years ago, it would have been like in a completely different area of the world, completely different topic. So I think I just really enjoy following wherever
00:08:09
Speaker
it ends up taking me, I've mostly been focusing on like digital, like GIS and that sort of stuff and just like letting that lead. So I was kind of open to wherever that would take me and it ended up taking me to Cambodia, which I'll talk about later. Yeah, I definitely think I'm doing what I would want to be doing if I had all the money in the world too.
00:08:34
Speaker
All right. Very cool. All right. So we've touched a little bit on education so far.
Educational Path and Career Shift
00:08:40
Speaker
So, but just to kind of dial things in a little bit here. So where have you received your education thus far? Cause you know, you're a PhD student now, so you've come a long way. And why'd you kind of choose to study at the locations that you studied at?
00:08:54
Speaker
So I'm on my third degree now. I did my undergrad at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and I didn't really choose to go there. They chose me because I was recruited for softball. So I was recruited to go to Dartmouth like my sophomore year of high school before I was even really thinking about college at all.
00:09:18
Speaker
And I didn't even know where or what Dartmouth was at that point. And they were like, oh, it's an Ivy League. And I was like, oh, that's cool. So I ended up going to Dartmouth. I actually started my undergrad degree wanting to do astronomy.
00:09:35
Speaker
and astrophysics and then found out very quickly that I didn't really like math so I started shopping around a bit and then landed in anthropology eventually in my sophomore year and then that took off from there.
00:09:53
Speaker
And then while I was at Dartmouth, I got really into archaeology, obviously. And then I also took some classes in the geography department, which introduced me to GIS and like remote sensing and that sort of stuff. And so I started working on a project with
00:10:14
Speaker
Professor Jesse Cassana, who does a lot of remote sensing work in Syria, Iraq, that area of the world. And so we did mapping of looting and destruction to archaeological sites in the region of that world. And I thought that was so cool that we were making this big impact of tracking all of this data. And so after I graduated, I took a year working in CRM a little bit.
00:10:44
Speaker
Googled digital archaeology masters and University of York was like the first one that popped up. So I ended up going to University of York for my masters and then that was super fun and after or while I was there I applied to Fulbright and then Fulbright took me to Cambodia and then while I was in Cambodia I applied to Stanford and
00:11:07
Speaker
and I ended up getting into Stanford also. I actually only applied to Stanford and decided that if I didn't get in, I would just go try to find a job somewhere, but I ended up getting in, so now I'm in a PhD. But yeah, so that was exciting.
00:11:23
Speaker
But I chose to go to Stanford because of the advisor I applied to who's currently doing human-environment relationships using GIS in India. And so it's kind of adjacent and room for a lot of collaboration. And I thought we could do a lot of cool stuff there. So that's why I chose Stanford. And because it's close to home and I didn't really want to be far away anymore after being in England and Cambodia and New Hampshire.
00:11:49
Speaker
Yeah, I was actually starting to wonder where you were from. So it's like, okay, you were on the East coast for undergrad, and then you went to the UK for masters, and then you're going all the way to the West coast for VHT. So where exactly are you from? My family is currently in Sacramento. I spent most of my life in Southern California, and then they moved to Sacramento while I was in undergrad. So they've been up here for a while.
00:12:15
Speaker
I've never really lived in Sacramento cause I've been everywhere else. Um, but yeah, they're, they're nearby it. They're about two hours away now. So that's been nice. All right. Very cool. And, and by the way, uh, who was your supervisor over at York? Uh, was that, uh, do you have a colleague Morgan by chance?
00:12:31
Speaker
It was James Taylor, but I talked to Colleen Morgan a lot. She did more like virtual reality stuff, which wasn't really my alley, but I took a lot of classes with her and we hung out a lot. But yeah, James Taylor was my advisor.
00:12:47
Speaker
Okay. All right. Very cool. All right. So once again, you know, as we've alluded to, you know, you spend some time in Cambodia, you spend some time in England, and of course you're in California now. So I'm sure you probably have a few interesting sites that you've gotten to work on so far. What are some sites that kind of stand out in your mind?
00:13:05
Speaker
Yeah, so one of the first sites I ever worked on actually isn't in any of those places.
First Archaeological Experience: Teotihuacan
00:13:11
Speaker
It's in Mexico. So when I was in my sophomore year of undergrad, that first anthropology class that I took, it was
00:13:22
Speaker
With Professor Deborah Nichols titled the rise and fall of prehistoric civilizations and that was like the first and throw class I had ever taken. And like the second week of that class. I just thought it was super awesome and I went up to her and I was like, hey, is there any like research you need help with. I'm super interested in
00:13:39
Speaker
like what you're doing and all that and she took me into her lab and I started doing like data entry for her as like a side job in undergrad and then after working with her for a couple years she asked me if I wanted to go to Mexico with her the following summer to do research and so she helped me apply for a couple grants and we got it fully funded and I spent a month living in Teotihuacan
00:14:02
Speaker
Mexico working on a 3,000 year old site in the city of Teotihuacan. That was my first introduction to archaeology and I got to climb the pyramid of the sun and hot air balloon over the ancient city.
00:14:20
Speaker
deal with like 3000 year old figurines. And I was like, wow, this is a career. Like I want to do this. Yeah, that's quite the way to start off. Exactly. So I don't know how anyone could not want to do archaeology after that, but that's what kind of got me hooked on the field.
00:14:38
Speaker
All right. Awesome. All right. Well, dialing things in a little bit now. So that's a really amazing site that you got to work on. But what about artifacts? I mean, I think when a lot of times that's what people would think of and they say, okay, what's the coolest artifact you ever found? So I'll ask on behalf of those people who are interested. So what's some of the coolest artifacts that you've ever recovered?
00:14:58
Speaker
Yeah. So the coolest artifact I've worked with, I haven't uncovered any, but I've worked with a lot of cool things. Um, but it was a 3000 ish year old whistle at Teotihuacan. We thought it was just like a crude figurine of like a dog or something. But then we discovered that there was a little hole in the back and we like dug out the dirt. And then we were the first ones to make a sound out of this whistle since it was deposited thousands of years ago.
00:15:27
Speaker
And that was just like the coolest experience ever. It's like being the first person to make sound out of a whistle. That's probably the coolest artifact I've interacted with.
00:15:40
Speaker
Yeah, it sure sounds like it. And actually I'd have to say that's a first to come up on the podcast. I don't think a whistle has not come up before. I mean, this is usually a question that gets very many mixed answers and some pretty fascinating artifacts, but that's definitely a first for sure. I'm glad.
00:16:00
Speaker
All right. Awesome. All right. So you've mentioned a couple of people that you've gotten to meet and work with along the way. And that kind of coincides with my next question about mentorship, you know, because, you know, mentorship is pretty critical for our development, you know, as up and coming archeologists. So who have been some of your mentors that you've had along the way and how they influenced you so far?
Mentorship and Career Guidance
00:16:21
Speaker
Yes. So before I got to the University of York, while I was an undergrad, my professor would always talk about a previous student she had. Her name was Sarah Klassen, who I graduated like 10 years before me, or six years before me. She's not that old. Six years before me. She's going to get mad at me. But she graduated six years before me, and my professor was always like, oh, you should email her. She's doing some more things.
00:16:49
Speaker
you're doing and I was like, yeah, I'll do it like when I'm in a PhD or something when it's like more relevant. But before I got to York.
00:16:57
Speaker
Sarah Claussen randomly started following me on Instagram and I was like oh my god this is the girl that my professor was talking about. So I sent her a DM on Instagram and asked if we could have a phone call and said like hey we both had the same advisor at Dartmouth and she was doing some really cool archaeological research named Cambodia with all of the GIS and everything and LIDAR and
00:17:22
Speaker
all that and we had like this two hour long phone call and at the end of that phone call she invited me to do fieldwork in Cambodia which is how I got introduced to Cambodia and so I ended up doing or focusing my master's research on that and like went to Cambodia for the first time
00:17:40
Speaker
like halfway through my master's degree. And ever since then, she's really just like brought me under her wing and introduced me to all the archaeologists in the area and has like put me on a bunch of projects and helped me with publishing and like kind of guided me in my whole career since that first interaction over Instagram. So she is my mentor and I owe her the last three years of my life in archaeology and all of those successes. So yeah, Sarah Klassen.
00:18:11
Speaker
It's interesting, the type of people that we get to connect with over social media. Well, of course, that's how you and I got connected and making this thing happen. So I definitely say there's pros and cons of social media, but I guess it really depends on how you use it. But it sounds like I think you and I, we've been using it for the better so far. Yes. It's crazy who you can meet over social media and how much your life can change from those interactions too.
00:18:37
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. All right. So shifting gears a little bit yet again, what I have for you next in, you know, once again, you've gotten to experience archeology and a little bit of cultural research management in other parts of the world, but what country out there do you think kind of think handles archeology and cultural research management the best? Like who just seems to get it? Or maybe like, even though you've been to some of these places, maybe has it not been
00:19:04
Speaker
quite long enough to get the full picture of what it's like in some of these places. But what are your thoughts on that?
00:19:10
Speaker
So I definitely don't think I can speak to Cambodian cultural research management yet, but I saw a little bit of the UK while I was out there and then I worked a little bit of CRM here in California. I personally don't really like CRM in California and that might just be my experience, but it felt like very
00:19:35
Speaker
kind of robotic like you're mostly just like monitoring construction sites just in case something happens to pop up and there's not like a whole lot of research behind working CRM especially as like a field tech like you're not really doing much at all. But I feel like with the CRM people that I talked with in the UK they like really loved their job and the research they got to do and everything they were involved with and
00:20:01
Speaker
the UK. So I feel like the UK is more hands-on and they just have like a lot more to do, I guess. Yeah, I've noticed that as well. Yeah, I feel like my experience, it was very boring and I wouldn't want to do it. Yeah, that's my take on it. But it's probably just where I was working and what was around
00:20:24
Speaker
Okay. All right. Right on. All right. So shifting gears that yet again, uh, I also want to ask you a little bit about volunteers. Um, have you had much chance to work alongside volunteers and any of the field work that you've done, or maybe you've done some volunteer, uh, work, uh, yourself, you know, what's kind of been your experience with, uh, that so far?
00:20:45
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, technically I was a volunteer going into Cambodia and that research because I already had a whole team and she was just bringing me along for the ride. So I would say, yes, we do work with volunteers, especially if you're someone who's super interested in Cambodian heritage. I think that
00:21:05
Speaker
we could work something out. We also work with a lot of local Cambodians on projects also to get the community involved too. And so that's pretty much the only volunteer experience I've had is working in Cambodia. I also did a field school in Washington state like right after graduating from undergrad just to get that field school experience before CRM work.
00:21:35
Speaker
And we had tons of like older volunteers from the surrounding community work on that project too, which is really cool. So yeah. All right. Cool. All right. Well, the next couple of questions that I have for you, these, this is getting to what I say is the core of what it means to be an archeologist. And the first of those questions is what is just the best part about being an archeologist?
00:22:00
Speaker
I think the best part, in my opinion, is the people that you meet in the field and all of the time traveling that you get to do around the world. I think there's something really magical about interacting with the past so intimately and just trying to put pieces of history back together as you're working on a site.
00:22:27
Speaker
that in like archaeology is such a small world also so you're always running into people that you've interacted with in your past also whether that's like past professors or classmates and stuff so I think it's really cool how small the community is and what you're doing also.
00:22:46
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I would, I would certainly agree with that. We get the chance to just, you know, come across so many brilliant minds, you know, in this profession, you know, we get to kind of take a little bit from each person that we come across too, don't we?
Connection with the Past and Archaeology Community
00:22:59
Speaker
You know, I mean, some people might be brilliant with metals, brilliant with pottery, and we just kind of take a little bit here and there to kind of add to what I say, our toolbox.
00:23:07
Speaker
You know, so it's yeah, it's very rewarding for sure but on the flip side though What would you say is the worst part about being an archaeologist?
00:23:17
Speaker
I've had a lot of people disagree with me on this, but I really don't like field work. I think I'm much more of like an indoor archaeologist, especially like yes, like field work is amazing and I love being able to see like all of the archaeology insights up close and personal, but also there's so many things that you have to like look out for in the field, especially in Cambodia.
00:23:41
Speaker
For example, that just like make it so stressful. But like working in Cambodia, there were places where we would be like hacking through the forest with like a machete and all the while like red ants are crawling up your legs and falling from the trees and you're getting bit and then you have to watch out for like monkeys and bats and like all these other things that can like
00:24:01
Speaker
bite you and kill you. Snakes. Snakes, yeah. And then in like the guest house where you're sleeping, if you have the light on at night, it like rain bugs from the ceiling. And like, there's just a lot of things I don't enjoy about field work. But then there's a whole lot of things that I do enjoy about it too. So yeah, other than that, it's fantastic. But yeah, all of the bugs I don't enjoy and the things that could kill you I don't enjoy. Other than that, it's great.
00:24:31
Speaker
Yeah. And I was having a conversation with a colleague of mine in the UK and it seems like no matter where you go to do field work, you know, the environment's out to get you in one way or another. Like if you're in England, it's going to be cloudy and rainy most of the time. And then, and then here in the Southeast, you know, we got ticks, we got rattlesnakes, we got giant banana spiders. I've walked into their webs a few times.
00:24:55
Speaker
Oh my God. As, as, as well. And, um, I was in big Cyprus and you know, they got pythons and alligators out there too. And, um, Florida Panthers, but fortunately I didn't see any of those, but, uh, yeah, it's a, it seems like no matter where you go, the environment's out to get you. Yeah, definitely. And then in Southeast Asia, there's mosquitoes too. So you have to watch out for malaria and dengue and all that. So fun, fun stuff.
00:25:24
Speaker
And then so you had to get issued a like prophylaxis like mefloquine or malarone or something like that. I didn't take any of those just because of the side effects. I heard that you have like really bad nightmares and that sort of thing. And it wasn't a super big deal where I was living in Siem Reap. It's more
00:25:48
Speaker
dengue was big in scenery, but not so much malaria. That was more like rural areas. And you can't really do anything to prevent dengue. You kind of just have to spray yourself and let it happen. I didn't take any of the preventative things from malaria while I was out there.
00:26:08
Speaker
Yeah. Cause well, you know, that that's, that's accurate, the side effects. Cause I had to take, well, I didn't have to, but I took mefloquine for a while. And yeah, I had some pretty vivid dreams. This is when I was living in West Africa for Peace Corps. And so I eventually had to get off it and switch to something else because yeah, the side effects were pretty overwhelming to be honest. Yeah. I've heard it's not worth it unless you know, like you're going to be exposed a lot to malaria.
00:26:39
Speaker
All righty, well, moving on because I'm sure once again, we can dive really deep down that flashback there. The next question I have for you, and this is a tribute to the right stuff, which is a wonderful novel written by Tom Wolf. I would like to ask you, who is the greatest archeologist that you have ever seen?
00:26:59
Speaker
So the greatest in my biased opinion is my colleague and mentor Sarah Klassen. I'm just going to say that because she's been so great in helping me with my own career just generally and just the sheer amount of research that she does on her own also. The most famous one I've interacted with is Ian Hodder, who I just had my first class with at Stanford. And I was so nervous at the beginning of the term not knowing what to expect because I've
00:27:27
Speaker
literally been reading him like throughout my entire career as an archaeologist and so but it ended up being he ended up being really lovely and the class is great too um so he is like the biggest name i've interacted with so far in my career
00:27:43
Speaker
Okay. All right. Cool. All right. Now the next couple of questions that I have for you, these are questions that I'm sure all archeologists have been asked at one point in time. So I'll ask these to you as well in this podcast. And the first of those is, have you ever found a dinosaur?
00:28:00
Speaker
No, unless you count like chicken wings. No dinosaurs. At least not yet. I mean, give it time, you know? We'll see. I don't think we're digging deep enough for that. Yeah. I was about to say, yeah. But if you do find it that, I don't know, you must have messed up in the field because you dug way too deep.
00:28:24
Speaker
I don't think, yeah, we were quite following what we were supposed to be doing. Okay. All right. Now the next question that goes along these same lines and that is, how do you feel about Indiana Jones?
00:28:36
Speaker
I am grateful that he exists as a way to get people interested in archaeology and aware of it, but I don't think he's the best role model for proper archaeological research. But I do feel like I've been able to get as much excitement as Indiana Jones may have gotten out of field work just by way of like
00:28:59
Speaker
riding on the backs of motorcycles, hacking through the forest with machetes. I think I'm as close to Indiana Jones as you can get. And also to prom in Cambodia, Tomb Raider was filmed, which is another bad archaeologist.
00:29:15
Speaker
So I'm as close as you can get. Yeah. Well, I, yeah, I remember I was actually, um, over Thanksgiving. I was watching, um, uh, the last crusade. And I just remember like, uh, I'm like, man, everything's getting blown up and crumbled down and fallen apart. It's like, this guy's a terrible archaeologist. I'm not supposed to do that.
00:29:37
Speaker
So, but yes, I've kind of have like, yeah, the same, I guess, feelings as well of, uh, Indiana Jones. So, I mean, great action adventure franchises, but not really quite, um, you know, I think it was a lot of people's first exposure to archeology. So for, for that, it's cool that are ancient aliens, which is where I got a lot of mind from.
00:30:02
Speaker
Okay. Very good. All right. Well, I got a couple more questions for you. Listen, we're going to kind of start wrapping up on a little bit more of a serious note now. And what I want to ask you is, you know, what advice would you give young people or maybe just even anyone for that matter who may be seeking to make a career in archeology?
00:30:21
Speaker
I think we kind of touched on this a little bit already, but I think success in the field really comes from the people you meet and the connections that you form over time. And like the more you ask for help, the better, whether that's an undergrad asking your professor if they need any help with research and that'll take you to Mexico or something like that.
00:30:40
Speaker
or like sending an Instagram DM, which will lead you to a whole new career path. So I think just reaching out to as many people as you can, especially if they're doing something that you're super interested in and just seeing if either they can help you directly or point you in the right direction. I think that's the best thing you can do as an archaeologist because it really is about who you know and where they can take you more than like doing it on your own. I don't think this is a field you can do by yourself at all.
00:31:10
Speaker
Yeah, I absolutely agree. And it may be a bit nerve-wracking to ask for help, but I think probably what any of our listeners can keep in mind if that's something that they're facing right now is if you don't ask, you don't get. So if you don't ask, you're not going on that field trip or you're not going to go to that class or to that conference or whatever. And once you do it and it works out, you'll see how awesome it is and it'll get easier over time to reach out and
00:31:39
Speaker
Yeah, so definitely ask away. Okay, all right, right on. And I got one last question for you, Alyssa, and this is a pretty big one too, this final question, and that is, what can the general public do to help protect archaeological sites?
Public Awareness and Podcast Focus
00:31:57
Speaker
I think it's really important to spread awareness of sites on both local and international skills. The more people know about a site and their significance, the better chance that
00:32:13
Speaker
there is that they'll be protected down the line. And we are nothing without our history. And so it's important that we maintain and protect all of it and know as much as we can about each other's history as well. So that it's not used against us. So yeah, we're nothing without our history. So protect it.
00:32:32
Speaker
Okay. All right. Happens right on. All right. Well, listen, that's it. That's all 15 questions all wrapped up. But before we close out here, I just want to give you a couple of minutes, you know, to kind of, you know, we touched on your podcast a little bit, the IDigit podcast. And, um, you know, I know you're kind of doing some other things as well, and you're out there in the social media space, like we've mentioned. So where can our listeners go to find you out there on the internet and where can they tune into the IDigit podcast?
00:33:00
Speaker
So the iDigit podcast is currently being hosted on the archaeology podcast network. So you can find us and a bunch of other really awesome podcasts there. We also have an Instagram, which is iDigit podcast. I have my own personal archaeology Instagram, which is a-a-l
00:33:19
Speaker
That archaeology, I think, and in that bio. We have a link to our discord of archaeologists, which has been really fun time. We have like over 60 archaeologists, I think in the discord now and everyone gets assigned.
00:33:37
Speaker
a different role based on their interest in archaeology and we host lectures in there sometimes. I'll post like my Stanford lectures in there like if anyone else has conferences that they want people to check out they'll post in there too and there's spaces for like
00:33:53
Speaker
jobs or asking about like grad school applications and that sort of thing. We also have high schoolers in there also, and also people who are professors. So we have a really big range of people in there. And then about the I Did It podcast, it's kind of about like the student perspective of archaeology. And so we wanted to do something more than just
00:34:17
Speaker
archeology storytelling or hearing from professionals in the field. We wanted more about like the student experience of applying to school, going through school, getting internships, all of that sort of thing. So that podcast targets people from like high school to postdoc and just their experiences going through academia and trying to make it as transparent as possible and as real as possible. So that's what that podcast is focused on doing. And yeah, so you can follow us pretty much everywhere.
00:34:46
Speaker
All right. Well, I'll be sure to get all of those linked up in the show notes for this episode. So listen and go and find them there, find them there, make it nice and convenient and easy for them. All right. Well, Alyssa, I want to thank you very much for taking the time for joining me today. And I'm glad we've been able to connect via social media like we have. And I appreciate you and the work that you're doing and keep up the good work. And I hope the PhD progress keeps moving steadily, but I'm pretty sure you got to tell
00:35:16
Speaker
I'll throw it ahead of you. But thanks so much for being here and sharing all this with myself and the listeners. It's been great. Thank you so much. It's fun. All right. All right, everyone. That's our show for today. Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at NPSCAC. That is at NPSSEAC.
00:35:35
Speaker
And man, they'll look out for more episodes of 15 questions with an archeologist dropping at the first of every single month. And please remember that since we work for the government, we spell archeology without the A and the E. So it's just a little bit different when you read it in the title. Thanks so much for tuning in today. I'm Josh Guerrero and I'll see you in the next episode.
00:35:53
Speaker
Thank you for listening to this episode. I hope that you found it really fun and enjoyable. I know I did when I was listening to it on his podcast and watching the YouTube video and then listening to it while I was editing this podcast together, or I guess stitching this podcast together. But be sure to look at all of his videos and podcasts. Highly recommend the 15 questions with an archeologist. I'm going to be posting all of the links in the description.
00:36:21
Speaker
And yeah, Josh Guerrero. Check him out. He's awesome. Well, we will see you next time. Bye!
00:36:35
Speaker
This show is produced by the Archaeology Podcast Network, Chris Webster and Tristan Boyle, in Reno, Nevada at the Reno Collective.