The Forensic Lens Podcast
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© Richard Jonathan O. Taduran, Ph.D. (Adel), Ph.D. (UPD)
Description
The Forensic Lens Podcast is the narrated edition of biological and forensic anthropologist Dr. Richard Jonathan O. Taduran’s weekly column on Agham Road.
Each episode delivers his essays in audio form, exploring the intersections of science, justice, and anthropology.
📖 Read the columns on Agham Road: https://aghamroad.org/rjotaduran/
🌐 Learn more about the author: https://rjotaduran.com/
Each episode delivers his essays in audio form, exploring the intersections of science, justice, and anthropology.
📖 Read the columns on Agham Road: https://aghamroad.org/rjotaduran/
🌐 Learn more about the author: https://rjotaduran.com/
24 Episodes
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Why do our brains differ—and what does culture have to do with it? In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast, I explore new research showing how the human brain rewires at four key stages of life—around ages 9, 32, 66, and 83—and how gender, stress, and culture shape those changes. From hormones to classrooms, parenting to aging, our neural wiring is a biography written by both biology and society. The brain is not fixed—it is biocultural, adapting as our lives unfold.📖 Read the full article on Agham Road. 🌐 Learn more about my work here. #TheForensicLens #BiologicalAnthropology #HumanBiology #Neuroscience #BioculturalAnthropology
Humans evolved under open skies and natural rhythms—but now spend 93% of life indoors, breathing filtered air and surrounded by synthetic materials. In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast, I explore new research suggesting that our modern, industrial environment is outpacing our ability to adapt. From falling fertility rates to weakened immunity and cognitive strain, we may be witnessing an evolutionary mismatch between our biology and the world we’ve built. The question is no longer how fast we can advance—but whether our bodies can keep up.📖 Read the full article on Agham Road.🌐 Learn more about my work here.#TheForensicLens #BiologicalAnthropology #HumanEvolution #EnvironmentalHealth #HumanBiology
At Uganda’s Ngamba Island Sanctuary, chimpanzees were given clues to find hidden fruit—and when stronger evidence appeared, they changed their minds. In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast, I explore what this tells us about belief, bias, and the biology of reasoning. If chimps can update their conclusions when the facts change, why can’t we? From evolution to culture, this episode examines why rationality is not just human—and why evidence, not ego, should guide how we think.📖 Read the full article on Agham Road.🌐 Learn more about my work here. #TheForensicLens #BiologicalAnthropology #CognitiveScience #BeliefRevision #HumanBehavior
In the wake of Super Typhoon Uwan, thousands of Filipino children once again found themselves caring for siblings, lining up for rations, and helping their families rebuild. In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast, I examine what happens to the developing body and brain when children are forced to grow up too soon. From stress hormones to shortened telomeres, we explore how disasters and deprivation reshape biology itself—and why protecting childhood is not sentiment, but survival.📖 Read the full article on Agham Road. 🌐 Learn more about my work here.#TheForensicLens #BiologicalAnthropology #HumanBiology #ChildDevelopment #StressBiology #TyphoonUwan
Alien: Earth imagines a future where corporations outrun nations and treat life as inventory. At its center are “hybrids” like Wendy—children’s minds transferred into synthetic adult bodies. In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast, I examine what Wendy and her cohort reveal about human development as a biocultural process: how bodies and selves grow together over time, why childhood and adolescence can’t be engineered or skipped, and how treating memory, identity, and attachment as uploadable “assets” turns progress into arrested becoming.📖 Read the full article on Agham Road.🌐 Learn more about my work here. #TheForensicLens #BiologicalAnthropology #HumanBiology #AlienEarth #BioculturalAnthropology
When thieves stole France’s crown jewels from the Louvre in a seven-minute daylight heist, investigators faced a paradox: a crime scene that was also a cultural treasure. In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast, I explore how forensic science operates in the world’s most fragile environments—where every fingerprint, fiber, and speck of dust must be examined without damaging centuries of history. In the Louvre, science doesn’t just solve a crime—it safeguards civilization’s memory.📖 Read the full article on Agham Road.🌐 Learn more about my work here.#TheForensicLens #ForensicScience #CulturalHeritage #MuseumForensics #LouvreHeist
The Expanded Philippine Science High School (PSHS) System Act marks a new chapter in the country’s scientific story—doubling Pisay campuses, and with them, the potential for a culture of reason, merit, and service. In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast, I reflect on the “Pisay way”—service to the nation, excellence, and integrity—and why the expansion is not only about education, but about cultural reform. If we can think scientifically and act ethically, we can build not just more schools, but a better nation.📖 Read the full article on Agham Road.🌐 Learn more about my work here. #TheForensicLens #ScienceEducation #Pisay #STEM #NationBuilding #ForensicScience
Dame Jane Goodall’s death in October 2025 marked the end of an era in primatology—but her work continues to shape how we understand what it means to be human. In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast, I explore how Goodall’s six decades of chimpanzee research bridged biology, empathy, and ethics—revealing that humanity’s roots are not apart from nature, but within it.📖 Read the full article on Agham Road.🌐 Learn more about my work here.#TheForensicLens #BiologicalAnthropology #JaneGoodall #PrimateBehavior #HumanEvolution
In the Philippines, we often hear “peace and order” instead of “law and order.” But what happens when our instinct to avoid conflict — walang gulo — allows corruption and impunity to thrive? In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast, I explore how cultural values, biological anthropology, and political scandals intersect to reveal why silence too often replaces justice. Real peace, I argue, is not the absence of conflict but the presence of accountability.📖 Read the full article on Agham Road.🌐 Learn more about my work here.#TheForensicLens #ForensicScience #PeaceAndOrder #Justice
When interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS was spotted in July 2025, social media rushed to call it an alien probe. But as any forensic scientist knows, evidence comes first, speculation later.In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast, I unpack why a comet discovery is a perfect case study in disciplined reasoning. From classification to hypothesis testing, I explore how science systematically rules out natural explanations before entertaining extraordinary ones — and why this mindset matters not just for astronomy, but for justice, media, and civic life.📖 Read the full article on Agham Road.🌐 Learn more about my work here.#ForensicScience #TheForensicLens #Astronomy #CriticalThinking #3IATLAS
Are Filipinos simply “bad voters”—or are our brains and choices shaped by poverty, stress, and survival? In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast, I explore how neuroanthropology helps explain why clientelism and vote-buying persist, linking scarcity, cognitive load, malnutrition, and education deficits to short-term decision-making.The problem isn’t just political—it’s biological and cultural. To break the cycle, we must invest in nutrition, early childhood programs, and cognitive capital so that voters can engage critically and rationally with democracy.📖 Read the full article on Agham Road.🌐 Learn more about my work here.
Ghost projects, padded contracts, and billions lost — the Philippine flood-control scandal has become a case study in systemic corruption. But beyond the headlines lies a deeper question: why do certain personalities keep rising to the top, and why does the system seem to reward them?In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast, I explore corruption through the lens of forensic behavioral science and evolutionary psychology. From the dark triad of psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism to the cultural values that both resist and enable graft, I examine how governance becomes an “ecology” that selects for opportunists — and what we can do to change it.📖 Read the full article on Agham Road.🌐 Learn more about my work here.
Luxury bags, ski trips, private jets — viral posts tied to the flood-control scandal ignited outrage across Philippine social media. But beyond memes and “nepo baby” backlash lies a forensic question: when do social posts stop being gossip and start becoming evidence?In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast, I explore how digital traces — screenshots, metadata, chat logs, even TikToks — can become probative in corruption cases if properly preserved and authenticated. As traditional biological evidence gives way to digital trails, the challenge is not just capturing scandal but converting it into justice.📖 Read the full article on Agham Road. 🌐 Learn more about my work here.
When an IED explodes, most see wreckage. A forensic eye sees fragments that can reveal bomb-makers, supply chains, and networks. This is the essence of forensic intelligence — turning traces into strategy.In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast, I explore how forensic intelligence shifts the focus from courtroom evidence to operational foresight. Drawing from cases in the Philippines — from the Jolo Cathedral bombing to Marawi’s digital front — and international lessons from Iraq, Salisbury, and MH17, I show how science connects micro-traces to macro-networks. The message is clear: the officer of tomorrow must not only fight, but also think forensically.📖 Read the full article on Agham Road.🌐 Learn more about my work here.
How much of who we are is written on the face? From family resemblances and DNA phenotyping to doppelgängers, expressions, and cultural interpretations, the face lies at the crossroads of biology and society.In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast, I explore what genes can and cannot reveal about appearance, how Filipino expressions carry unique meanings, and why snap judgments about “criminal-looking” faces echo the pseudoscience of physiognomy. The face is more than features — it is a layered text of inheritance, culture, and perception.📖 Read the full article on Agham Road. 🌐 Learn more about my work here.
What happens when the demands of forensic science collide with Filipino cultural beliefs — from fears of disturbing the dead to values like pakikisama, hiya, and utang-na-loob? In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast, I examine the tensions between tradition and scientific rigor, and why the Philippines must build a forensic science that is both methodologically strong and culturally responsive.I call this vision Agham Pangkatarungan — a science of justice grounded in Filipino realities. From weak science education to colonial legacies of rote learning, I explore why our forensic system struggles, and how rooting science in culture — without compromising its standards — can close both the science gap and the justice gap.📖 Read the full article on Agham Road. 🌐 Learn more about my work here.
Behind every forensic technique lies a deeper truth: someone is missing, and someone else is waiting. From Australia’s National Missing Persons Week to the UN’s International Day of the Disappeared, the world remembers those taken by disaster, violence, or dictatorship.In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast, I reflect on the global struggle to recover the missing — from Latin America to the Middle East, and here in the Philippines. Forensic anthropology is not just a technical science. It is an act of love: restoring names, dignity, and memory where silence once prevailed.📖 Read the full article on Agham Road.🌐 Learn more about my work here.
When torrential rains left dozens dead and displaced hundreds of thousands, President Marcos vowed to expose corruption in flood-control projects — projects meant to prevent catastrophe, not cause it. But how do we uncover the truth behind collapsed dikes, unfinished pump stations, and vanished funds?In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast, I argue that forensic thinking extends beyond crime scenes. From forensic engineering and accounting to satellite-based environmental forensics, the evidence of failure is written into broken levees and diverted budgets. More than resilience, what the Philippines needs is accountability — and the clarity to follow failure all the way back to its source.📖 Read the full article on Agham Road. 🌐 Learn more about my work here.
Television shows like Bones introduced millions to the idea of the forensic anthropologist as a “bone expert.” But the real work goes far deeper. Forensic anthropology is about human evolution, variation, and the stories that bones still carry when everything else is gone.In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast, I unpack what forensic anthropology truly is — from distinguishing human from nonhuman remains to building biological profiles in cases of the missing and the unidentified. I also examine the gaps in Philippine forensic standards, the absence of skeletal collections and body farms, and why building these resources is essential for both science and justice.📖 Read the full article on Agham Road. 🌐 Learn more about my work here.
When reports emerged that some of the missing sabungeros were murdered and dumped into Taal Lake, forensic science faced a haunting question: what happens to the human body in deep volcanic waters?In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast, I explore the role of taphonomy — the study of postmortem change — in unraveling the silence of water. From staining, sediment, and disarticulation to the overlooked need for forensic anthropology in the Philippines, this case exposes both the science and the gaps in our investigative system.📖 Read the full article on Agham Road. 🌐 Learn more about my work here.
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