People Stuff

This week on People Stuff, Dan and Michael are joined by technology manager, nonprofit veteran, and repeat Jeopardy contestant Mike Dawson to confront one of humanity’s oldest questions:

Why do we care so much about things that don’t matter?

Topics include:

Is People Stuff a weekly podcast? Philosophically, yes.

In this Season 3 preview, Dan and Michael emerge from their off-season hibernation to read listener messages ranging from supportive to Victorian-newspaper furious. Along the way:

This episode serves as a warm-up before a 20-episode season featuring jeopardy contestants, horse whisperers, boats (yes, an entire episode about boats), and more cultural analysis disguised as...

Stress isn’t just biology—it’s culture, symbols, expectations, and the stories we tell ourselves. This week Dan and Michael are joined by UCLA’s Dr. Michelle Rensel to unpack why Americans are so stressed, why hunters get buck fever, why high-schoolers are spiraling, and why self-discipline has become a competitive sport.

We dig into social prescribing, predator-prey symbolism, the high-wire act of modern work, and whether our bodies are betraying us or sending a message we should finally listen to.

Chapters
00:00 — Intro
02:30 — What Stress Actually Is
06:10 — Fresh Hell: Doctors Prescribing Parties
1...

This week, Dan and Michael welcome writer and sports scholar John Florio to dig into America’s real religion: sports. We cover the rise of prop bets, whether athletes can ethically nudge a stat or two, why AI-powered officiating is killing the pathos of the bad call, and how youth sports became an arms race disguised as “character building.”

Along the way, we detour through Birkin bag lawsuits, Tommy John surgery, the death of knuckleballing, and the eternal question: Can you force your kid to play sports without turning into a meritocratic ghoul?

As always: we’re...

We’re joined by Steve Black, linguistic and medical anthropologist at Georgia State University, whose work spans ethics, care, Zulu gospel choirs, Indigenous youth in Costa Rica, and global health discourse.

In this episode:

🚗 Why millennials think a new car should cost exactly $30k

🧮 Inflation as a vibe, not a natural law

👑 Letters of recommendation: the medieval patronage system we somehow still use

🏛️ First-generation students & the unwritten rules of academia

🤖 Why academic publishing is drowning in AI slop (and rat genitals)

🧑‍💼 How to quit your job without burning your wh...

This week on People Stuff, Dan and Michael explore humanity’s oldest problem: people hitting other people and calling it “order.” Joined by anthropologist Scott Freeman, we talk violence, enclosure, billionaires, medieval sword fights, and the enduring smugness of horses.

Featuring:

Horse violence as a disciplinary technology

The Enclosure Movement, Marx, and why Madonna legally can’t stop you rambling through her estate

Corporal punishment, pacifism paradoxes, and why People Stuff is firmly against child-beating but open to beating adults who think child-beating is fine

Billionaire term limits (ten years an...

Are you a “blue brain,” a “Phoebe,” or just a person trying to do your job?
This week on People Stuff, Dan and Michael dig into the strange afterlife of psychological typing — from Jungian archetypes to workplace “whole brain” seminars and gifted testing for seven-year-olds. Why do employers, schools, and BuzzFeed quizzes all want to turn us into caricatures of ourselves?

They’ll also diagnose Peter Thiel’s end-times theology, dismantle the eugenic logic of IQ tests, and fix the entire school admissions system (again). Plus, a listener wonders: if your friend only speaks in Sex and the City quote...

Are we what we eat? Should kale be a personality? Why are men suddenly shoveling raw beef into their mouths like feral crossfit raccoons? This week anthropologists Dan and Michael interview genetic counselor + legitimate adult Saanchi Shah, who tries to offer actual wisdom while the hosts spiral into food-based existentialism.

Topics include:

Paleo diets and why “we stopped evolving after the Ice Age” is terrible science

When gardening becomes prepping and prepping becomes a personality

The gym bro committed to 100% raw meat, 0% critical thought

The stolen 18-karat gold toilet name...

They tackle listener questions about what it means to feel out of place:

Why do perfect towns feel fake and claustrophobic?

Why do we always sit in the same seat?

And should you really avoid walking on a grave?

Along the way, they explore how humans build belonging through repetition, ritual, and spatial order — and how those same habits can make us feel trapped, haunted, or just plain weird.

Plus: Dan fixes superheroes (they’re fascists), Michael defends ghosts, and everyone learns something about the anthropology of being uncomfortable.

Dan and Michael tackle questions about:

🧹 A Zen priest frustrated by a fellow monk’s bad cleaning habits

💰 Whether kids should get paid for chores

🏚️ How to love a hoarder parent without losing your mind

Plus, in Fixing Shit, Michael fixes Congress by bringing back pork barrel spending (seriously). Along the way, they dust off some anthropological wisdom from Mary Douglas, talk about pollution, capitalism, and the importance of returning your grocery cart.

It’s messy, philosophical, and deeply funny—just the way we like it.

Takeaways 

When (if ever) should you intervene with someone else’s child?

Why American parenting anxiety looks bizarre cross-culturally

Aka childhood autonomy, Japanese errand culture, and European stroller norms

TikTok detectives and the collapse of “mind your own business”

Gender identity, performativity, and why pink tea parties won’t destroy society

Judith Butler, trans theory, and early childhood gender development

Why you don’t actually control your kids’ socialization

Immigration panic, economic amnesia, and xenophobia with spreadsheets

Imaginary friends, ancestors, tricksters, and why your kid might no...

Topics

🔹 Why men are turning to ChatGPT for emotional advice
🔹 The death of partying — and what it says about American loneliness
🔹 Can you separate baseball from capitalism?
🔹 What shamans and therapists actually have in common

Sound bites

"Alcohol is a social lubricant."

"Fandom is about shared suffering."

"Psychology can't critique society."

Takeaways

Psychology often prioritizes individual adjustment over societal critique.

The decline of social gatherings among young Americans is alarming.

Alcohol serves as a social lubricant, facilitating interactions.

Chatbot t...

In this episode of People Stuff, Dan and Michael discuss and/or are informed by:

“Unsinkable” by Daniel Mendelsohn https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/04/16/unsinkable-titanic-iceberg

“Removing Knowledge” by Peter Galison https://dash.harvard.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/7312037c-4c4a-6bd4-e053-0100007fdf3b/content

“On the Phenomenology of Giant Puppets Broken windows, imaginary jars of urine, and the cosmological role of the police in American culture” by David Graeber https://davidgraeber.org/articles/on-the-phenomenology-of-giant-puppets-broken-windows-imaginary-jars-of-urine-and-the-cosmological-role-of-the-police-in-american-culture/

“The Bridge [Broen på dansk]” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bridge_(2011_TV_series)

That’s i...

Dan and Michael discuss:

Living Right: Far Right Youth Activists in Contemporary Europe by Agniezska Pasieka

The Nazi Seizure of Power: The Experience of a Single German Town 1922-1945 by William Allen Sheridan:

 https://archive.org/details/naziseizureofpow0000alle_m2p7

The Jersey Devil: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_Devil

The Sopranos e3 ep11, "Pine Barrens:" 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0705272/

What We Do in the Shadows: 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7908628/

That’s it for th...

Why do we feel like unique snowflakes when anthropology keeps insisting we’re mostly social slush? In this GSU-inspired bonus episode, we take on three very big questions from Professor Steve Black’s Intro to Anthro class in Atlanta:

1. Are humans individuals or societies?
A tour through Lévi-Strauss, Marx, language as a shared hallucination, and the soul-destroying statistical powers of Pierre Bourdieu. Also: Dan plays a medieval knight facing a bridge troll; Michael slanders anthropology’s early “culture and personality” era.

2. Why do human children stick around so long?
Brains take forever to cook. Bu...

Swedish Design by Keith Murphy can be found here: Swedish Design by Keith M. Murphy | Paperback | Cornell University Press

Rabelais and His World by Mikhail Bakhtin can be found here: Rabelais and His World by Mikhail Bakhtin | MIT Press

Find all things People Stuff at: https://www.people-stuff.com/

That’s it for this week’s People Stuff — the show where two anthropologists try (and sometimes fail) to make sense of people.

If you’ve got a question, a dilemma, or just something de...

Why will people wait an hour in the rain for a lobster roll when the exact same food is available across the street with no line? This week on People Stuff, Dan and Michael take on Red’s Eats, Magnolia Bakery, Courage Bagels, and the modern compulsion to be seen eating the “right” food in the “right” place.

Drawing on Thorstein Veblen’s theory of conspicuous consumption—updated for the Instagram era—they argue that what’s being consumed isn’t lobster, cupcakes, or bagels, but attention itself. Taste turns out to be beside the point. The real question is whe...

Season 1 is dead; season 2 is not yet born; now is the time of monsters! Our first 10 episode season ended on Tuesday September 9th. Our second 10 episode season will launch on Tuesday October 7th. In the mean time, we'll be dropping some bonus material every Tuesday to ensure everyone gets their fill of People Stuff.

Dan gives an update on the end of Season 1 and previews what to expect in Season 2 of People Stuff. A big thanks to those of you who submitted questions! Expected to hear your questions and our answers in the upcoming season. As always, you can leave a question at: https://www.people-stuff.com/ That’s it for this week’s People Stuff — the show where two anthropologists try (and sometimes fail) to make sense of people. If you’ve got a question, a dilemma, or just something deeply weird about humanity you’d like us to unpack, send it our way at peo...

This week, Dan and Michael investigate suburban car psychosis and the anthropology of asphalt.

Why do normal people turn feral over parking spaces?
What makes ride-sharing feel both convenient and morally icky?
And how exactly did Elon Musk turn the Hyperloop into the most expensive metaphor for magical thinking?

Plus, Michael explains why gifts are actually acts of aggression, Dan redesigns public drinking laws, and both agree that walking remains America’s most banned activity.

📍Topics include:
– The anthropology of parking rage
– Ride-sharing and privatized public goods
– Elon Musk a...

Ever wondered why people still warn you to check your kids’ Halloween candy for razor blades — even though it’s never actually happened?
Or why politicians say, “a lot of people are saying…” when they clearly made it up?
In this week’s episode, Dan and Michael Heard It Through the Grapevine, our resident anthropologists dig into how rumors, myths, and moral panics shape our everyday lives.

They unpack the folklore behind Halloween candy scares, explore how gossip and political speech both rely on indirect attribution, and dive into what it means when your suburban neighborhood s...

Key Themes and Topics:

The decline of democracy and rise of tech authoritarianism

Curtis Yarvin and the myth of the “CEO monarch”

Liberal democracy vs. fascist aesthetics

Student politics and the mirror of national elections

Organizational governance and consensus decision-making

Airline inequality and the anthropology of travel

Humor, politics, and why anthropology still matters

Keywords

Why democracy feels broken in 2025

What is Curtis Yarvin’s neo-monarchism?

Funny political podcast about democracy

Anthropology meets politic...

This week on People Stuff:

What Fresh Hell: “Unsinkable” — Dan on Titanic déjà vu and the myth of technology.

Question 1: UFOs, drone swarms, and why mystery still matters.

Question 2: Body doubles, tacit knowledge, and classroom conspiracies.

Fixing Shit: Dan fixes “ostracism.” Could democracy use a reboot?

Question 3: True crime, Pacific Northwest serial killers, and paranoia.

💬 Got a question for Dan and Michael? Leave a voice memo or message at https://www.people-stuff.com/

In this episode of People Stuff, Dan and Michael discuss and/or a...

This week on People Stuff, Dan and Michael wrestle with the fine art of naming—bars, gun clubs, and even your long-lost festival alter ego. What’s in a name, really? Turns out, quite a lot of cultural baggage, generational anxiety, and maybe a touch of nostalgia-induced regression.

From a bar named Stacy’s Mom (a terrible idea, we all agree) to a gun club trying to rebrand itself into a “Second Amendment Tactical Brigade,” this episode digs into why naming things feels so loaded—and how those labels shape who we are. Along the way, Dan and Michael...

This week on People Stuff, Dan and Michael get their hands dirty—literally and intellectually.

💥 They tackle the big questions:

Should you go to college or learn a trade?

What’s it really like working in a modern factory?

Why are oil field jobs impossible to fill (and even harder to keep)?

Along the way, they talk about:

The myth of “college as transformation”

How AI is reshaping universities (and cheating’s golden age)

The decline of unions and the lost art of solidarity

This week on People Stuff, anthropologists Dan and Michael get their hands dirty with the real weirdness of modern life — from politicians oversharing on social media to waiters wanting crypto paychecks to a man who just keeps adding doors to his house.

We’re asking the big questions:

Should politicians be more boring online?

Is crypto a union-busting fever dream?

How many doors are too many doors to the spirit realm?

And can you really fix vaccine hesitancy with darts and cash?

Along the way, Dan and Mich...

Timestamps:

00:00 – Intro: What is People Stuff?

02:00 – What Fresh Hell: Baseball cards, blind packs, and CT scanners

08:00 – Question 1: Politics, podcasts, and the red-pill relationship

20:00 – Question 2: Anti-vaxx cousins and the anthropology of purity and danger

34:00 – Fixing Shit: How to fix college admissions (spoiler: lotteries)

44:00 – Question 3: Food, family, and why your boyfriend refuses tamales

56:00 – Outro: Fake sponsors & final thoughts

In this episode, Dan and Michael discuss:

Imagined Communities by Benedict Anderson

Understanding Media by Marshall McLuhan

Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postma...

Highlights

The cultural power of brutal honesty in hiring (and why job posts should repel as much as they attract).

Vampires as symbols of modern alienation and eternal cool.

Fascism as a false cure for loneliness and economic despair.

Monsters as mirrors of humanity’s deepest fears and longings.

A defense of national parks and public lands.

Segment Breakdown

00:00 – Intro: Brutal honesty and vampire week preview

06:00 – What Fresh Hell: The war on empathy

12:00 – Question 1: “Can I be a vampire?”

27:00 – Question 2: “W...

In season 1 of People Stuff, Dan and Michael take on CAT scans for baseball cards, stupidity, college admissions, pompous assholes, unionization, the Bakersfield restaurant scene, and much, much, much more. Season 1 of People Stuff will be available in early July.

That’s it for this week’s People Stuff — the show where two anthropologists try (and sometimes fail) to make sense of people.

If you’ve got a question, a dilemma, or just something deeply weird about humanity you’d like us to unpack, send it our way at people-stuff.com

Credits<...

Segments

What Fresh Hell:
Michael wonders: what exactly is a tariff, and why do they matter? Dan breaks down the economics, politics, and psychological weirdness behind trade policy — and why tariffs might say more about national insecurity than global economics.

The IKEA Question:
A listener writes in after an IKEA trip threatens to end their relationship. Dan and Michael unpack what IKEA really is — a “heterotopia” where ideal homes and impossible standards collide — and how the store functions as a modern carnival of domestic fantasy. Can any couple survive the maze of Swedish design and...