In this episode of pplpod, we dive into the century-spanning life and mind-bending theories of Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908–2009), the French ethnologist who fundamentally changed how we understand human thought. A centenarian who lived through the tumult of the 20th century, Lévi-Strauss challenged the distinction between the "primitive" and the "civilized," arguing that the human mind shares the same fundamental structures everywhere.

Join us as we explore:

• From Philosophy to the Rainforest: How a young philosophy student bored by law turned to ethnography in Brazil, conducting fieldwork with the Nambikwara and Tupi-Kawahib peoples. We discuss his escape from Vichy France to New York City during WWII, where chance encounters with linguist Roman Jakobson and anthropologist Franz Boas helped b ...