Dan and Michael Take a Punch (with Scott Freeman): Violence, Horses, Billionaires, and Swords

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 technologyThe Enclosure Movement, Marx, and why Madonna legally can’t stop you rambling through her estateCorporal punishment, pacifism paradoxes, and why People Stuff is firmly against child-beating but open to beating adults who think child-beating is fineBillionaire term limits (ten years and then the hoard goes back to the people—no rollover minutes)HEMA: When history nerds and jocks converge into a Darwinian crab-shaped sword fighterUtah Mom linguistic innovation, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, and Dan’s ongoing war with VoxWhether horses enjoy trampling (spoiler: yes, they’re smug)As always, we know stuff about people. Sometimes too much.Submit your questions or leave us a voice memo at 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 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