Dan and Michael Are Definitely Out of Place: Why Some Places Feel Wrong, Why Seats Matter, and Why the Dead Deserve Space episode artwork

EPISODE · Oct 28, 2025 · 53 MIN

Dan and Michael Are Definitely Out of Place: Why Some Places Feel Wrong, Why Seats Matter, and Why the Dead Deserve Space

from People Stuff · host Dan Souleles, Michael Scroggins

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.🎧 People Stuff — because we’re anthropologists, and we know stuff about people. 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 CreditsProduced by Gabe BullardMusic by The Endless BummerArt by Siobhan HeneganMarketing by Bryan HautLegal support by The Law Office of Matthew Shayefar, the one true business uncle.You can also sign up for our newsletter, drop us a voice memo, or become a Friend of People Stuff — which is our fancy way of saying you get to support the show and we get to keep talking about dust, dads, and late capitalism.So go to people-stuff.com

This week on People Stuff, anthropologists Dan and Michael get very, very lost — in Carmel-by-the-Sea, at the dinner table, and even among the dead.

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Dan and Michael Are Definitely Out of Place: Why Some Places Feel Wrong, Why Seats Matter, and Why the Dead Deserve Space

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This episode was published on October 28, 2025.

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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...

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