Heyerdahl and the Scientific Community

Nordic on Tap - the podcast

The celebrated hero who sailed the Kon-Tiki across the Pacific, wrote several best-selling books, who inspired a whole generation of archeologists is one of Norway's most public figures. But Heyerdahl's ideas about Polynesian migration (among others) were not embraced by the scientific community and we set off to understand why. Was Heyerdahl a "fringe scientist"? Join us as we interview Polynesian archeologist Dr. Matthew Spriggs and examine what Jo Ann Van Tilburg wrote about Heyerdahl. It's a lesson on how we gain knowledge through scientific evidence.

Visit our episode website at nordicontap.com to read biographies of Thor Heyerdahl, watch the Kon-Tiki Expedition video, find links to pages about the research of archeologists Dr. Matthew Spriggs and Dr. Jo Ann Van Tilburg, and learn how you can join the ranks of citizen scientists (even without a college degree) to help researchers collect valuable scientific data.