As a tribal judge, educator, and enrolled citizen in the Eastern Shawnee Tribe, Robert J. Miller’s work is personal. Miller is an expert on Federal Indian Law, the Chief Justice for the Pascua Yaqui Tribe Court of Appeals, and a judge for other tribes. In this episode of Useful Knowledge, Miller recaps centuries of legal exchange between Indigenous communities and the American government through “bombshell” cases, his legal experience, and the founding fathers’ own words. 

Robert J. Miller’s areas of expertise are Federal Indian Law, American Indians and international law, American Indian economic development, Constitutional Law, and Civil Procedure. He is an enrolled citizen of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe, the Chief Justice for the Pascua Yaqui Tribe Court of Appeals, and he sits as a judge for other tribes. Miller is the Jonathan and Wendy Rose Professor of Law at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, and the Faculty Director of the Rosette LLP American Indian Economic Development Program at ASU.

In 2014, Bob was elected to the American Philosophical Society. He has worked as a consultant with the Society since 2006 on tribal language and archival issues and in 2024 was elected to the Governing Council of the Society.

Prior to his career in academia, Miller practiced Indian law with Hobbs, Straus, Dean & Walker, and litigation with the Stoel Rives law firm. Following graduation from law school, he clerked for Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Professor Miller’s scholarly works include numerous articles, books, book chapters, and editorials on a wide array of Federal Indian Law issues and he speaks regularly on these issues across the U.S. and in other countries. 

He’s best remembered as a Founding Father, but did you know that James Madison also helped establish meteorology in the United States? From his observations of weather conditions and crop cycles to notes on the wheat-destroying Hessian fly, Madison’s records speak to the potential and limits of collective scientific work. In this episode of Useful Knowledge, hear from geophysicist and current National Academy of Sciences President Marcia McNutt about “citizen science” and modern scientific networks. 

This bonus episode features Marcia McNutt (APS 2002) in discussion with Useful Knowledge host Patrick Spero at a public lecture held on April 30, 2026, at the American Philosophical Society. This episode is part of “America's Scientific Revolutionaries,” a two-year initiative generously supported by the Richard Lounsbery Foundation.

Indigenous traditions and communities have helped preserve the plants of the Americas since time immemorial. In this special episode of Useful Knowledge, part of the APS’s America’s Scientific Revolutionaries series, hear a conversation about some of the plants and gardens across the Americas , their traditional use, and how we can protect life on our planet through careful cultivation.

This episode features Dr. Alejandro de Ávila (APS 2025), founding director of the Jardín Etnobiológico de Oaxaca, Dr. Jacelle Ramon-Sauberan, Tohono O’odham Studies Program instructor at Tohono O’odham Community College, Dr. Gary Nabhan, Research Social Scientist Emeritus at the University of Arizona, and host Patrick Spero at a public lecture reflecting on the legacies of 18th century naturalists John and William Bartram held in the spring of 2026 at Mission Garden in Tucson, Arizona. 

Are monsters real?

In this episode of Useful Knowledge, host Patrick Spero joins author, historian, and self-proclaimed “monster consultant” Surekha Davies to learn about what she calls “monsterification” in human societies. A central theme in her 2025 book Humans: A Monstrous History, Davies suggests that while monsters like giants, cyclopes, and werewolves are not real, humans have used monster stories since time immemorial to separate categories and establish norms—the ultimate “us versus them” tradition. Learn about monsters, humans, society, and science in this episode. 

Surekha Davies is a historian of science, art, and ideas, and a self-proclaimed “monster consultant.” Davies is the award-winning author of Humans: A Monstrous History (University of California Press, 2026) and Renaissance Ethnography and the Invention of the Human: New Worlds, Maps and Monsters (2016), as well as numerous articles, essays, and book chapters.

Davies earned her Ph.D. in Combined Historical Studies at the University of London, and her work has been supported by numerous fellowships, grants, and appointments, including Franklin Research Grants from the American Philosophical Society in 2013 and 2018.

Generative AI is a tool that seems to be everywhere. When used correctly, it can help us learn about history in new ways. How can we use generative AI to study history responsibly and ethically?

Reflect on how training bias, researcher bias, preservation bias, and sycophancy affect the AI model’s ability to analyze the primary source. What steps can we take to responsibly use AI to research history?

This activity is written with middle through high school students in mind and it aligns with PA State Standards for History and Social Studies, 8th Grade CC.8.5.6-8.B and CC.8.5.6-8.F.  

The Declaration is a founding document of the United States. But, did you know that there are many versions of the Declaration? What are the differences between the versions? Which one do you feel is the most official?

Each version of the Declaration has differences and a history of its own. This activity takes students through the early history of printing and sharing the Declaration. It provides information to help students find the differences between four of these versions.

This activity is written with middle through high school students in mind and it aligns with PA State Standards for History and Social Studies, CC.5.1.6.F, CC.5.1.7.F, CC.5.1.8.F, and CC.8.3.6-9,12 B. 

Initiating a Loan Request

• Initiate all loan requests at least one year prior to the start of the loan.
• Submit all loan requests to the APS Registrar, Michael Miller, at [email protected].
• The loan request email should include a formal letter of request, your current General Facility Report, and a draft loan agreement for incoming items, all in PDF format.
• The formal letter of request must be on letterhead, addressed to the APS Registrar, and must contain the names of the requested item(s), reasoning for the request, exhibit dates, and requested loan period.
• The loan agreement for incoming items will be revised and finalized through the steps described below, with a loan memo appended by the APS. 

Loan Request Review Process

Loan approval requires many steps before the loan agreement is signed. Loan review is not complete until all of the following steps have been completed successfully, and both the curator(s) for the materials and the Head of Conservation have approved the loan.

• The Library Director or other designated administrators review the formal request letter for preliminary approval.
• Conservation staff review the General Facility Report and ask for any needed clarification through the APS Registrar.
• The condition of items requested for loan will be reviewed by the registrar, conservation staff, and APS Library & Museum curators, who will assess their availability during the loan period, physical and chemical stability, vulnerability to light exposure and handling, the duration of the loan, etc. 
• Materials originating from Native American communities may require additional review and approval from the curator of Native American materials and the Indigenous communities from which the materials originated. Permit additional time for this process.
• Materials appraised at $10,000 or more require additional approval from the APS Collections Committee.
• APS collections staff will provide a loan agreement addendum stipulating the APS’s requirements for the loan, which may include any of the costs outlined below.

Requirements for Borrowers

Borrowers must cover all of the following costs associated with the loan:

• Appraisal of the requested items for insurance purposes. (Items that are valued at $10,000 or higher must be approved for loan by the APS Collections Committee.)
• The borrower must provide evidence of wall-to-wall insurance coverage for the requested item(s), in line with their appraised value. A certificate of insurance is required before the items requested for loan may leave the APS.
• Any needed conservation treatment of the requested items, whether performed at the APS or by an outside vendor (typically the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts, or CCAHA). An estimate for this work will be provided prior to treatment. Conservation treatment work done at the APS will be billed at $150/hour.
• Any mounting and framing costs associated with preparing the item(s) for exhibition.
• All transportation and courier costs associated with loan delivery/installation and de-installation/pickup.
• The APS reserves the right to charge a loan fee of up to $250 per item.

“The result is not curing a disease, it’s having an advance in our knowledge.”

In this episode of Useful Knowledge, Martin Chalfie shares the story of how, by building on another scientist’s findings, they both went on to win the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. “Useful knowledge” is at the core of the APS, but Chalfie argues for the utility of “useless knowledge.” Some discoveries push us forward by nature of their innovation, but others are useful in the way they inform and influence future scientists. Chalfie insists that scientists should always be concerned with the future implications of their work, and ought to focus on expanding our collective knowledge. In this way, knowledge that might initially seem “useless” is ultimately quite useful.

Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.   

Martin Chalfie, University Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Columbia University, shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his introduction of Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) as a biological marker.

As a postdoctoral fellow, Martin Chalfie with John Sulston established the first genetic model for mechanosensation using the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. He and his lab subsequently used molecular, genetic, and electrophysiological means to study neuronal specification, differentiation, outgrowth, and degeneration, microtubule structure and function, and mechanosensory transduction and its modulation in C. elegans.

Dr. Chalfie is a past president of the Society for Developmental Biology and of the American Society for Cell Biology. A member of the US National Academies of Sciences and of Medicine and a foreign member of the Royal Society, he chairs the Committee on Human Rights of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.