00:00.00 Doug Start? yeah. 00:01.57 archpodnet Ah, but we're recording now. Um, but it's in Trello you can read the whole email. So it's in the description of the Trello card. Yeah, so she wants to stay in archeology without having a career in archeology and I thought it was an interesting question. So. 00:05.60 Doug No okay, okay. 00:13.68 Doug Oh okay I thought this was a completely separate segment from the topic never Mindd sorry. 00:14.76 Andrew Ah. 00:22.32 archpodnet Ah, no, no, that's it okay here we go oh shit. Where's my thing if I don't read it I'll get it wrong all right welcome to the show. Everyone joining me today is Andrew in Snowy Southern California 00:37.65 Andrew What's up. It's a winter wonderland. Not so much. 00:38.84 archpodnet Not not using the surfboard today. But and yeah and then Doug over in I don't know if it's snowy Scotland or not but I imagine it's cold. 00:48.60 Doug Yeah, we're like right on the ocean we rarely get snow but it's kind of miserable and it's like we don't get like funs like winter we get like gray overcast and then like the sun's down at like three thirty 00:54.72 archpodnet Ah, Mr. 01:04.30 Doug And doesn't pop up till nine sort of like miserable winter. So. 01:07.52 archpodnet I've seen star wars Luke Skywalker lives in Scotland so you know I know I know exactly what you're talking about all right? Ah so we are going to spend the first part of the show talking about. A listener email that we got and I do encourage you guys to send us emails. You can use the contact form at apodnett.com. It's all over the place but like right there on the main page you can email me directly Chris at archaeologypodnetworkwork.com or if you want to contact one of the other hosts. We've got some Twitter information and some other stuff. Whatever they've given us at. Arkpodnet.com forward slasherm archeology. So you can go right to the show page or look down at your device right now. Their contact info is in the show notes. But this email and the listener did give me permission to use her name and where she's from so I will do that I'm just gonna read the most of the email I'm not going to read the first part where she loves the. Ah. Podcast network but here I'm going to say that say the rest of it. Um, and yeah I know she says thank you. We love the podcast and I really appreciate that. Trust me, you guys have no idea like we don't receive. Yeah, we don't receive a lot of negative email which is which is great but we also don't receive a lot of positive email and. 01:59.57 Andrew Just you should read. You should read the first part that sounds great. 02:09.10 Andrew Yes, no sir. 02:18.93 archpodnet It's you know it's it. It is really nice to when people reach out sometimes because it does seem like you're you're just talking into an empty void sometimes I know people are listening and they don't have time to respond because I listen to podcasts and I've literally never responded So you know I'm just as guilty. But. 02:25.64 Andrew Yeah, yeah. 02:36.71 Andrew Ah. 02:36.76 archpodnet You know we do appreciate it when when people come in because I I assume that's like less than 1% of the listeners that would send something in which tells me statistically there's more that appreciate what we do, they're just not writing in so all right? So the main part of her question here. Yeah. 02:45.27 Andrew Yeah, yeah. 02:47.49 Doug So first I Love the the the please love us plea there at the beginning of that we should. We do that for all episodes from now on guys. Please please. 02:57.18 archpodnet Yeah, send me emails I'm them desperate all right here we go ah all right? So she says here's the situation I love archeology but not as much as I would love to stay home and raise my children that sounds familiar even to lots of archeologists. I don't know what the raise children part but definitely stay home. Um I have known this for a long time and for that reason I do not have my bachelor's degree I knew I would never use it so I didn't see the point in spending so much money sounds smart so far. My spouse has a successful career. He and I are extremely fortunate to be financially stable and own a home so staying home is an option for me but traveling all the time is not my question is this can you think of any ways for me to stay active in my local archaeological community without a career or even a real degree in archeology. Um, running out of classes at my local community college and she says thanks so much for your time Kate in California now. Ah, first off I love that she's taking classes at her local community college just because she can Andrew Andrew I'm curious do you have. 03:46.36 Andrew Ah. 03:59.45 archpodnet People in your classes that are like I have no interest in a career in this I'm just interested to be here are those the kind of classes. Do you teach those kinds of classes that people could do that for or you know how does that work. Nice. Ah. 04:08.15 Andrew Yes, yes, all the time even when you got Kate in California I thought you were going to ask Andrew do you have a kate in class is there Kate and the answer is the answer is quite possibly. So um, this question is yeah somewhere. 04:17.74 archpodnet Yeah. 04:21.41 archpodnet Ah, yeah, aware California she is. 04:25.70 Andrew Um, but ah, the answer to that is is totally and I think I think it's It's actually a huge untapped or very awkwardly tapped like group of people that archeologists should should really listen to because um. Not only are they filling your classes. That's Awesome. You know right? away they're taking the classes they're sitting there. They're paying their fees which is great. Um, they're they're also they also tend to be people who are really really interested in the archeology world and just like this person I Love this question actually because. 04:46.36 archpodnet Muha. 05:01.98 Andrew I get it all the time and and they want to contribute so what I tell my students is. There's a couple different ways first beyond taking the classes to become a part of your local ah archeology organization right? You know for us locally. We have the Ventura County archeological society but most places do you know and that's a great way. 05:18.33 archpodnet Um. 05:21.50 Andrew To Sort of be a part of it but still keep your day job kind of thing you know, ah and it kind of keeps you in the mix. Those little groups you get these really great connections to the local archeology world that they'll be like little day trips and stuff that come up all the time that you can be a part of. Um, you can go see these lectures that are really um, cutting edge research you know that you could actually be making choices that most grad students don't you know where where you can be. You can be a more active member in these local societies. 05:49.37 archpodnet Nice. 05:55.76 Andrew There's people who volunteer on weekends a lot of these societies need people to help them with their collections right? They'll have some sort of lab set up see if you come like every second Saturday and you know work on the on the lab and there there are these people who get again. They get a really vast. 06:01.66 archpodnet I. 06:12.16 Andrew Amount of knowledge as they do this over the years and the last thing I tell them the last thing I tell them is ah that depending on time and this person maybe has young children and maybe can't do this but as they get older ah that they can go on a trip maybe to Belize or something like that as a volunteer there are certain. 06:15.34 archpodnet Um. 06:29.17 archpodnet Um, right. 06:31.44 Andrew Projects that are very open to volunteers who have that idea of man I've always wanted to do this. You know? and so ah, that that is like a fertile ground that so many archeology projects don't take advantage of and it's great because those people are like committed. 06:47.16 archpodnet Oh yeah, yeah for sure and I may I got some stuff to say on that and and I've written down some other things too. We're going to try to have a list in the show notes here just I don't know if we'll have links but maybe just a list of ideas that we'll put in the show notes that I'm collecting but Doug may have to leave us early today. So Doug I want to know. 06:54.10 Andrew Um. 07:01.91 Andrew Um, brave. Oh yeah. 07:04.67 archpodnet Over in Scotland or in your experience even in like New Mexico what are some ideas that you can think of or be able to stay engaged in archeology and heritage. 07:14.96 Doug Yeah, um, and unfortunately in the u k well mainly England Wales um other places they've basically obliterated what they call lifelong learning here which is you know continuing education um in the states. 07:27.42 archpodnet Oh. 07:31.64 Doug Um, yeah, it used to be actually massive like there there used to be um Nama misquote it because I probably now that like I'm on the spot. But I won actually say there was more people doing lifelong learning at one point than there were actually people doing archeology degrees. Um. 07:42.24 archpodnet Um. 07:49.38 archpodnet Um. 07:50.32 Doug Um, pretty I mean it was it was in the several thousands. Um and it peaked about two thousand seven six and then they cut all the funding and charged people fortune. And yeah, you know, normal healthy government. Um. 08:02.17 archpodnet Right? right. 08:08.55 Doug Destroying your your entire? Ah ah um, long-term future of your country but ah, that aside, um, there still are really strong. So again, local societies and when we say local there could be state but also so. 08:26.80 Doug Albuquerque had its own in New Mexico had its own the albuquerque archeology society or something along those word those was lines I mean I been like the society I think it was albuquerque archaeology society. But um, you know if your town is big enough. There's likely to be 1 or even a county one. So I know like when you start to get to like the East Coast um like Pennsylvania has a bunch of county or local regional um, archaeological societies as well. So it's not just um. 08:42.32 archpodnet In it. 08:59.34 archpodnet Yeah. 09:00.40 Doug You know your state one. You can have all sorts of local ones museums and heritage sites. Um love volunteers. Um, my 1 recommendation is possibly to so it might be tougher if you go to like the more famous sort of museums. So. 09:17.62 archpodnet Sure. 09:19.98 Doug Like Smithsonian I don't think takes volunteers or like the british museum really does just because they get like 5000 people like a week or something coming in and asking if they can volunteer at these at these very popular museums. 09:36.12 archpodnet I'm sure. 09:37.93 Doug But man your local museum. Um, or you know just the next town over the county museum or you know a state especially like state monuments and stuff they would always love to have volunteers and they're usually not thought of so like so she's based in California you guys will have to fill this in Andrew and. 09:56.16 Andrew Yeah, yeah. 09:56.96 Doug Um, well Chris you you seem to like go through California every couple of months um but like I don't know if there's like a very famous ah like the I know the tarpit museum or something like that they they probably aren't going to look volunteers. 10:03.86 archpodnet That's a big fit. 10:10.90 Andrew Yeah, they actually do so some of my students have worked at Lebra tarpits like like they will take them all of them. 10:10.41 archpodnet Um, yeah. 10:14.65 Doug But I okay yeah, that excellent. Yeah yeah, I'm I'm sorry I'm trying to think of like a California big museum like I just I'm blanking on it but like smaller museums and then also sometimes like a lot of universities will have a. 10:16.31 archpodnet Eyes. 10:33.42 Doug Anthropology museum or a small museum there and so don't even doesn't have to be local. You could just go to your local universities I think because she's based in California there's going to be like ah so like 50 some in the state or something like that Andrew like between the different California states. 10:50.36 Andrew There's There's a there's a bunch. Yeah between the cal states and all that there's there's there's one for every taste in pocketbook. You know what? I mean. 10:52.93 Doug Yeah, so yeah, so there's there's a lot of places you can go for that. Um, and then also possibly I think this is general for everyone is you could also think about online as well. 10:54.80 archpodnet Um, yeah. 10:56.55 archpodnet Nice, nice. 11:10.65 Doug Um I would I wouldn't recommend like Facebook groups and Twitter or anything like that because a lot of those didn't always start well and have gone downhill a lot recently? Um, but there are. A lot of projects that you can get involved with that. You can do and sort of have a sense of community and talk to people and learn a lot. They are digital base volunteering. So um, what I'm thinking of is micropass which is like a platform. Um, and they do sort of crowdsourcing for archaeological projects. Um, and things will be like transcribing notes or like looking at hung of really cool photographs and just um, categorizing them and saying like yeah, that's an arrowhead that's ah yeah, whatever and they'll train you up and stuff like that. So. I think there are different digital ways to go to in case, you're you maybe I know for any of the listeners who are are not Kate in California I actually don't know where in California she is she might be in pretty remote area. But if you don't have yeah if you don't have that option of um. 12:13.22 archpodnet Um, yeah, who knows. 12:23.41 Doug Local sort of Museums Heritage sites or societies. There are projects that do cater to people who can do it digitally and they're pretty awesome and. 12:29.33 archpodnet Yeah, okay, all right? Well let's take a quick break and then come back on the other side and keep talking about this. We'll be back in just a minute.