People Stuff

Why can your closest friends insult you without consequence while a stranger's middle finger can ruin your entire day? This week on People Stuff, anthropologists Dan and Michael explore honor, reputation, shame, dignity, friendship, and status—from honor cultures and rural gossip networks to modern hiring rituals, HOAs, and the strange social rules that govern respect. Along the way they discuss: Why insults from friends strengthen relationships Honor cultures and reputation Why job hunting increasingly feels humiliating AI hiring, networking, and losing face The decline of the internet and "Dead Internet Theory" Homeowners Associations as miniature governments Golf balls, broken windows, and neighborhood politics Why gossip can function as justice Why capitalism thrives on labor insecurity Marine insurance companies hiding behind Latin The anthropology of dignity and humiliation If you've ever wondered why public embarrassment hurts so much—or why your HOA feels like a tiny authoritarian state—this episode is for you. 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

Why do people collect ridiculous kitchen gadgets? When do dietary restrictions become impossible to cook around? Why does feeding people create friendship, obligation, and family? This week on People Stuff, anthropologists Dan and Michael are joined by cook, marketer, and longtime friend Bryan Haut for an episode about the anthropology of home cooking. Together they explore why kitchens fill with avocado slicers and egg gadgets, what dinner parties reveal about modern etiquette, why hospitality is never just about food, and whether blessed beans can actually solve your grocery budget. Along the way they discuss: Home cooking and hospitality Kitchen gadgets and clutter Minimalist kitchens vs. cooking gear Food allergies and dinner party etiquette Gift giving and cooking Anthropology of meals and commensality Martha Stewart and middle-class entertaining Why feeding people builds communities Light pollution and seeing the stars Whether priests should bless your freezer If you've ever argued over kitchen clutter, hosted an impossible dinner party, or wondered why people take food so seriously, this episode is for you. 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

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: “Why are people still obsessed with Nazis?” 48:00 – Fixing Shit: Saving public lands 57:00 – Question 3: “Why do we keep making monsters?” 1:08:00 – Outro: Fairy Circles™ and the existential loneliness of humanity Dan and Michael discuss the following works: 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 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

Why do we care so much about people we've never met? This week on People Stuff, Dan and Michael are joined by trivia expert and television veteran Arianna Haut—whose résumé includes Jeopardy!, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, The Chase, and five seasons on Master Minds—to ask what television actually does to us. Why do celebrities feel like old friends? Is it ever acceptable to talk to a TV star at the gym? Does watching violent shows like The Wire make kids more violent? And what happens when television personalities start occupying more space in our emotional lives than the people sitting in the same room? Along the way, the crew debates whether streaming has become worse than cable, mourns the possible loss of New York City's legendary Jimmy's Corner bar, accidentally accuses Ted Cruz of being the Zodiac Killer, and wonders whether aging parents increasingly rely on TV personalities for companionship. It's an episode about celebrity, nostalgia, media panic, parasocial relationships, and the strange human tendency to build genuine feelings for people who have absolutely no idea we exist. Because television isn't just entertainment. It's one of the main ways modern humans learn how to be people. Also: please don't bother Aziz Ansari while he's eating pastrami.Arianna Haut 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

What exactly is Los Angeles? A city? A county? A collection of freeways? A lifestyle brand with excellent tacos and terrible traffic? This week on People Stuff, Dan and Michael are joined by genetic counselor and longtime Angeleno-adjacent observer Saanchi Shah to tackle one of America's most confusing cities. Along the way they explore: Why Los Angeles seems designed entirely around cars Whether tourists fundamentally misunderstand LA Why the San Fernando Valley creates existential crises for Angelenos How neighborhoods become identities Why LA's food scene might be the city's true cultural superpower Whether Hollywood is being quietly replaced by AI And whether repeated fires, earthquakes, floods, and disasters mean God is trying to tell Los Angeles something Plus: Scientology speed-runners, influencer culture, Danish tranquility, Mumbai comparisons, Westside snobbery, and a spirited defense of Valley citizenship. Los Angeles may be America's most fragmented city—a place where beaches, mountains, movie studios, strip malls, taco trucks, billionaires, aspiring actors, and 18-lane freeways somehow coexist. We try to figure out how it all works. Or at least why it keeps existing. Topics: Los Angeles, LA culture, California, traffic, Hollywood, AI, cities, urbanism, anthropology, San Fernando Valley, public transit, food culture, identity, disasters, California history 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

What is camping actually for? This week on People Stuff, Dan and Michael head into the wilderness to investigate one of modern life's strangest contradictions: millions of people spend thousands of dollars on gear, drive hours into the woods, and then eat store-bought snacks while pretending they're escaping civilization. Along the way, they tackle some surprisingly deep questions: Why do some people dress like they're summiting Everest to drop their kids off at school? What's the real difference between hiking and hunting? Why do outdoor activities carry such different political identities? Why do campers bring grocery store food instead of living off the land? And what exactly are we practicing when we go camping? Plus: Minnesota bans prediction markets, Dan proposes a new "right to wander" across public lands, Michael declares war on the privatization of the American West, and the hosts debate whether outdoor recreation is genuine self-reliance or just "light adversity tourism." If you've ever owned a Patagonia fleece, driven a Subaru, dreamed of disappearing into the woods, or wondered why your camping trip feels suspiciously dependent on modern supply chains, this episode is for you. Topics: camping, hiking, hunting, public lands, outdoor culture, Patagonia, REI, national parks, backpacking, anthropology, self-reliance, wilderness, conservation, American West 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

Why do humans need privacy? This week on People Stuff, Michael and Dan are joined by anthropologist and design researcher Gretchen Pfeil to explore one of the most basic—and surprisingly complicated—human needs: shelter. What makes a space feel private? Why do open offices drive people insane? Why does living and working in the same place feel so strange? And what happens when the social rules that organize public space suddenly break down? Along the way, we discuss: • Why Europeans and Britons keep crashing into each other at Heathrow Airport • The anthropology of privacy, personal space, and public life • How to find alone time while living in a summer camp cabin with seven other people • Whether remote companies actually need offices at all • Why hot desking and open-plan offices became so popular despite nearly everyone hating them • How architecture shapes behavior without us noticing • Whether it's creepy to watch people across the street who don't realize they're being observed • A fieldwork story involving a peacock, a courtyard, and a major anthropological mistake Drawing on anthropology, design research, urban life, and workplace culture, Gretchen explains how buildings do much more than keep the rain out. They create boundaries, define relationships, organize behavior, and help us negotiate the tension between being alone and being together. Also: Dan fixes the police by forcing them to hand out candy, Michael proposes a very selective approach to law enforcement, and everyone learns that privacy may be less about walls than about shared social agreements. People Stuff: anthropology for people trying to find five minutes alone. 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

Home Depot may be the most American place on Earth. This week on People Stuff, Michael and Dan dive into the anthropology of DIY culture, suburban home repair, hardware stores, masculinity, construction work, and the strange emotional power of wandering the lumber aisle at 8:30 in the morning. Along the way: Why every home repair project somehow requires four separate trips to Home Depot The hidden anthropology of planning, improvisation, and “situated action” A carpenter loses part of his finger in a table saw accident — and can’t make himself use the saw again Michael delivers an aggressively judgmental lecture on power tool safety Dan proposes administrator jail for university bureaucrats Medieval German universities once had literal student prisons A construction worker has a transcendental breakdown while staring at stacks of lumber and suddenly realizing: “these were all trees” The episode explores a bigger question underneath all of this: why do modern people believe competence means perfect planning, when most real life is improvisation, contingency, and panicked return trips to giant retail warehouses? Also discussed: ICE raids in Home Depot parking lots, contractor chaos, the death of local hardware stores, commodity fetishism, dangerous table saws, monocrop forests, and why Home Depot smells weirdly hopeful. If you’ve ever started a “simple” weekend project that destroyed your emotional stability, this episode is for you. 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

Competition used to be for sports and maybe college admissions. Now it’s for internships, student clubs, networking coffee chats, LinkedIn visibility, and apparently sleep scores monitored by the national security state. This week on People Stuff, Michael and Dan are joined by Brown University senior and Product Management Club leader Justin Dang to talk about what happens when every institution starts operating like a tournament bracket. Along the way: A party argument escalates into a threat of violence. Dan explains why modern hiring systems have become ritualized suffering. Justin walks through the reality of tech and finance recruiting, where students apply to hundreds of jobs and spend months networking strategically. Michael argues that universities are now “clubs all the way down.” Oura Rings drift toward military-surveillance infrastructure. The Fourth Amendment gets aggressively workshopped. The episode explores a central question: if nobody actually knows how to identify the “best” people, why are modern institutions so obsessed with ranking everyone constantly? Also discussed: meritocracy theater, grade inflation, referral hiring, junior golf, exhausted student leaders, networking psychosis, and why finance clubs increasingly resemble tiny consulting firms run by sleep-deprived 20-year-olds. If modern life feels like one endless competition, this episode is for you. 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, Dan and Michael tackle one of the great contradictions of modern life: why Americans treat houses simultaneously as sacred homes, speculative assets, retirement plans, emotional support animals, and deeply cursed money pits. Along the way: FIRE enthusiasts buy a house without an inspection and immediately discover foundation problems; a listener wants to know the most important room in a home; another listener discovers that buying a charming old house may also require becoming the kind of person who owns tools. The conversation spirals into robber barons, billionaire tax avoidance, HGTV ideology, HOA fascism, structural anthropology, Pierre Bourdieu’s analysis of the Berber house, and why private equity firms should probably not own entire neighborhoods. Also discussed: Why “homeownership” increasingly means “becoming an unwilling asset manager” The anthropology of haunted houses Why economists accidentally destroy everything they touch Whether swinging a hammer makes you a man Why every old house is secretly a graduate seminar in suffering The cultural logic of Home Depot Why billionaires should pay taxes instead of buying yachts large enough to avoid shame As always, Dan and Michael remain anthropologists who know stuff about people. People Stuff. 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

Horse girls. German cowboys. Private equity bowling alleys. This week on People Stuff, we take on horses—not just as animals, but as cultural objects, status symbols, and surprisingly effective therapists. Joined by medical anthropologist Jennifer Van Tiem, we explore how an eight-year-old’s horse obsession spirals into real estate searches, why the Western refuses to die (it just changes costumes), and what exactly is happening when a prey animal becomes your emotional support system. Along the way: Barrel racing as unexpectedly egalitarian sport design The anthropology of hobbyist subcultures (including German Plains reenactors) Why horses don’t lie—and why that’s a problem for you Bowling alleys, private equity, and the collapse of third places Domestication, co-regulation, and who’s actually in control Chapters 00:00 Intro 02:10 Fresh Hell: Political shoe rituals 08:45 Horse girls and equine obsession 22:30 Westerns, Germany, and Karl May 38:10 Fixing Bowling (and third places) 47:50 Why horses bond with humans 58:00 Outro If you’ve ever wondered why horses inspire lifelong devotion—or how a genre about the frontier became a global fantasy—this episode has answers. Some more satisfying than others. Remember: 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, Dan and Michael are joined by Princeton anthropologist Agustín Fuentes—author of Sex Is a Spectrum and Race, Monogamy, and Other Lies They Told You—to ask what human nature actually means, and why people keep using it to justify behavior they don’t want to examine too closely. We cover: Why Lord of the Flies is bad anthropology Scout camp pranks, masculinity, and whether boys are “naturally” violent Looksmaxxing, incel language, and why young men are hitting themselves in the jaw with hammers Why Gen Z men are getting weird about gender roles Parenting anxiety and whether your 3-year-old really needs $400/month gymnastics Why gossip is stronger than capitalism Why “human nature” is often just culture wearing a fake mustache Plus: Michael tries to fix Gen Z, Dan defends gossip as civilization, and we discover that humanity may just be pre-crab evolution. We’re anthropologists. 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, Dan and Michael talk about books. Along the way: A library purge shocks a 10-year-old (and maybe you) A listener in prison asks the ultimate question: what should I read? The anthropology of book bans, book burning, and moral panic Why most books are disposable commodities (yes, really) How to build a reading list without losing your mind Plus: Why Moby-Dick is still worth it The case for genre fiction and “low” literature Books as status objects, conversation markers, and physical artifacts A fake Karl Marx signature that somehow becomes… meaningful And in “Fixing Shit”: We finally solve the most annoying sound in modern life: the backup beep beep beep. If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by what to read—or quietly judged someone by their bookshelf—this episode is for you. We’re anthropologists. 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, Dan and Michael are joined by applied anthropologist Jeff Greger to ask a deceptively simple question: Why do utopias always fall apart? From Silicon Valley hackerspaces to Danish communes to the U.S. Constitution itself, the episode explores humanity’s enduring obsession with building perfect systems—and our equally durable tendency to break them. Inspired by everything from communal farming dilemmas to sci-fi dreams of Starfleet, the conversation moves across scales: from chore wheels to constitutional design, from co-living conflict to cosmic hope. Topics include: Why utopian communities struggle with shared labor The anthropology of communes and why chores are destiny Hackerspaces and the illusion of politics-free governance Constitutional “bugs” and the slow drift toward executive power Gatekeeping vs algorithms: who should decide what matters? Why fandom, sci-fi, and Star Trek still shape moral imagination Hopepunk, dystopia, and whether the future can still be better Along the way, listeners ask about commune freeloaders, collapsing faith in American institutions, and whether it’s naïve to still believe in a better world. As always, the anthropologists attempt to fix society—this week by bringing back gatekeeping. Remember: 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, Dan and Michael follow the red yarn across humanity’s favorite pastime: connecting dots. Inspired by Susan Lepselter’s The Resonance of Unseen Things, the hosts explore apophenia — the human tendency to impose meaning on scattered events — and why conspiracy thinking may be less irrational than we like to believe. Topics include: UFO stories and narrative inheritance Why jokes sometimes become political movements Costco diplomacy and the petty geopolitics of the UN QAnon, Epstein, and the genealogy of conspiracy theories How elites maintain legitimacy (until they don’t) Ghost sightings, grief, and cross-cultural personhood Why conspiracies provide meaning even when factually wrong Along the way, listeners ask about spirit-protecting neighbors, uncomfortable family revelations, and whether sharing ghost encounters is ever a good idea. As always, the anthropologists attempt to fix society — this week by solving childcare entirely. Remember: 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, 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: Why AP European History feels like intellectual hazing Trivia as cultural capital (and mild social violence) The anthropology of sports fandom and gatekeeping America’s extremely weird history of almost-fascist coups Microplastics, scientific uncertainty, and modern risk anxiety Tarot cards, prediction markets, and contemporary divination Why humans keep inventing systems to predict the future Along the way, the hosts debate whether knowledge should be endured, abandoned, or absorbed slowly like baseball statistics. If you’ve ever felt intimidated by trivia, excluded by fandom, or haunted by the sense that culture is secretly a giant game show — this episode is for you. Remember: 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

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: Programmers at Palantir identify as Hobbits protecting the Shire A parent blames anthropology for radicalizing their children A long-haul trucker offers perhaps the most sincere defense of creative labor ever received by the show 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 advice. New episodes begin March 31. Until then: remember — 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

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.Chapters00:00 — Intro02:30 — What Stress Actually Is06:10 — Fresh Hell: Doctors Prescribing Parties11:45 — Question 1: Buck Fever in the Deer Stand19:30 — Predator vs Prey Symbol Systems25:00 — Question 2: High-School Stress Spiral34:10 — Fixing Shit: The Cult of Self-Discipline47:00 — Question 3: Catastrophe Thinking for Adults58:00 — Outro + Fake Sponsorship 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, 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 anthropologists, and we know stuff about people. People Stuff.Chapters:0:00 — Intro & Why Americans Worship Sports4:32 — Birkin Bags and the Anthropology of Luxury11:20 — Prop Bets and the Ethics of Self-Rigging21:55 — MLB, Corruption & the Luis Ortiz Case28:40 — AI Officiating & the Death of the Bad Call37:15 — Children’s Sports & Class Panic50:22 — Fixing Shit: Baseball Pitchers Edition58:10 — How to Raise Non-Doughy Kids1:08:45 — People Ball: Our Fake Sponsor1:10:00 — Outro & Credits Send us your dilemmas: www.people-stuff.com Subscribe for more anthropological takes on the weirdness of modern life. 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

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 whole life down🏃‍♀️ Why tech workers accidentally work two jobs at onceAnthropology: because the economy is mostly feelings. 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, 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

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 quotes, are they still your friend… or just a Carrie with Wi-Fi?🔹 Why workplace personality tests are corporate astrology🔹 The dark history of IQ testing🔹 How BuzzFeed quizzes became proto-surveillance capitalism🔹 Why “fixing” education means letting everyone inAs always, it’s academic insight meets anthropological mischief — because we’re anthropologists, and we know stuff about people.🎧 Listen now at people-stuff.com or on Apple Podcasts: People Stuff  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

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 scienceWhen gardening becomes prepping and prepping becomes a personalityThe gym bro committed to 100% raw meat, 0% critical thoughtThe stolen 18-karat gold toilet named AmericaWhy cities need public bathrooms more than they need tech incubatorsAre you pizza if you eat pizza? (anthropology says… maybe yes??)Also: squat toilets, Jain philosophy, steroid economics, and the eternal war between Neapolitan pizza and the casserole known as “Chicago-style.”  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

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

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 mindPlus, 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 Cleanliness is culturally specific and varies widely. The concept of the Rapture has been a recurring theme in religious discussions. Zen practices can lead to conflicts in communal living situations. Allowance for chores raises questions about parenting and financial education. Hoarding reflects deeper cultural issues related to consumerism and identity. Memory and emotional connections to objects can complicate decluttering efforts. Cognitive dissonance plays a role in how people respond to failed prophecies. Cultural narratives shape our understanding of cleanliness and order. The relationship between consumerism and identity is complex and multifaceted. Community obligations can conflict with personal expectations in shared living spaces. Sound bites "You can't fire your kid!" "This is a mutiny!" "You have too much stuff!"  Segments:00:00 Introduction to the Podcast and Themes 01:43 The TikTok Rapture and Religious Prophecies 09:04 Zen Monasteries and Cleaning Duties 17:19 Exploring Perspectives on Violence and Community 19:05 Navigating Family Dynamics and Chores 30:02 Reforming Congress: A Call for Institutional Integrity 37:08 The Hoarding Dilemma 38:01 Cultural Reflections on Consumption 39:53 The Psychology of Stuff 42:16 Generational Perspectives on Hoarding 44:36 Memory and Identity in Material Possessions47:21 Navigating Emotional Attachments to Objects 49:31 Concluding Thoughts on Clutter and Memory 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

When (if ever) should you intervene with someone else’s child?Why American parenting anxiety looks bizarre cross-culturallyAka childhood autonomy, Japanese errand culture, and European stroller normsTikTok detectives and the collapse of “mind your own business”Gender identity, performativity, and why pink tea parties won’t destroy societyJudith Butler, trans theory, and early childhood gender developmentWhy you don’t actually control your kids’ socializationImmigration panic, economic amnesia, and xenophobia with spreadsheetsImaginary friends, ancestors, tricksters, and why your kid might not be “imagining” anything at allAnthropology’s most comforting message: this is all extremely normal 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

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 commonSound bites"Alcohol is a social lubricant.""Fandom is about shared suffering.""Psychology can't critique society."TakeawaysPsychology 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 therapy raises questions about the nature of self-reflection.Fandom is deeply tied to shared suffering and community.Therapy has historical roots in shamanistic practices.The politics of sports fandom can be complex and contradictory.Suffering is a common thread in both fandom and therapy.Psychology struggles with replicability and cultural specificity.Therapists can be seen as modern-day shamans.References In this episode, we mention and/or are influenced by the following:An article on the decline of partying: https://www.derekthompson.org/p/the-death-of-partying-in-the-usaand?Beastie Boys -- You Gotta Fight For Your Right To Party https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBShN8qT4lkKaren V. Hansen -- "A Very Social Time: Crafting Community in Antebellum New England." University of California Press, 1994.Claude Levi-Strauss "The Effectiveness of Symbols"  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

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 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

Dan and Michael discuss:Living Right: Far Right Youth Activists in Contemporary Europe by Agniezska PasiekaThe Nazi Seizure of Power: The Experience of a Single German Town 1922-1945 by William Allen Sheridan: https://archive.org/details/naziseizureofpow0000alle_m2p7The Jersey Devil: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_DevilThe 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 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

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. But also: orcas have fashion, elephants have funerals, and “alpha male” discourse should probably be flung into the ocean. Grandmothers—human and whale—turn out to be the real apex predators.3. What will future anthropologists think of us?Trash, plastics, climate collapse, and the high age of petroleum. Also: what survives? Definitely not your pen. Maybe your microplastics. Maybe your LLC.Featuring:• Hope as the first lesson of humanity• Ass-wiping as the second• Why naming a baby might matter more than conception• Why anthropology ruins songs• And why future archaeologists will think we were out of our mindsPeople Stuff—for everyone who suspects the human condition is 10% personal, 90% inherited nonsense. 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

Swedish Design by Keith Murphy can be found here: Swedish Design by Keith M. Murphy | Paperback | Cornell University PressRabelais and His World by Mikhail Bakhtin can be found here: Rabelais and His World by Mikhail Bakhtin | MIT PressFind 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 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

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 whether the meal happened publicly enough to matter.Anthropology says: it’s not about flavor. It’s about status, visibility, and being legible as a person worth noticing. 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

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 people-stuff.com   Credits Produced by Gabe Bullard Music by The Endless Bummer Art by Siobhan Henegan Marketing by Bryan Haut Legal 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, 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 as modern taboo– Gift-giving as social warfare– Beer gardens and failed freedom🎙️ People Stuff — where anthropologists answer your dumb, beautiful, deeply human questions. In this episode of People Stuff, Dan and Michael discuss and/or are informed by:“The Speed of Human Thought Lags Far Behind Your Internet Connection, Study Finds” in the NYTimes by Carl Zimmer https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/26/science/speed-of-thought.htmlThe Gift by Marcel MaussTaboo by Franz Steiner 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

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 suddenly becomes deer country.From Levi-Strauss and Santa Claus to Donald Trump and talk radio, this one’s equal parts anthropology, humor, and exasperation at the human condition.🎧 In this episode:The anthropology of Halloween and the myth of poisoned candyHow politicians use marketing psychology to sell ideasWhy gossip is dying (and what we lose with it)The strange suburban ecology of deer and huntersWhat ancient festivals and modern politics have in common Works CitedThe “Lloyd’s List Shipping Podcast” https://www.lloydslist.com/the-lloyds-list-shipping-podcast“Father Christmas Executed” by Claude Lévi-Strauss https://aphelis.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/LEVI-STRAUSS_1995_Father_Christmas_Executed.pdfRabelais and His World by Mikhail Bakhtin https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262520249/rabelais-and-his-world/“The Dead Baby Joke” by Alan Dundes https://www.jstor.org/stable/1499238“A feral science? Dangers and disruptions between DIYbio and the FBI” by Michael Scroggins https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0308275X231157559  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

Key Themes and Topics:The decline of democracy and rise of tech authoritarianismCurtis Yarvin and the myth of the “CEO monarch”Liberal democracy vs. fascist aestheticsStudent politics and the mirror of national electionsOrganizational governance and consensus decision-makingAirline inequality and the anthropology of travelHumor, politics, and why anthropology still matters KeywordsWhy democracy feels broken in 2025What is Curtis Yarvin’s neo-monarchism?Funny political podcast about democracyAnthropology meets politics podcastWhat’s wrong with student elections?Consensus decision making in activismAirline class inequality explainedComedy podcast about society and governance Works CitedIn this episode of People Stuff, Dan and Michael discuss and/or are informed by:An article in the Times about that rigged Texas lottery: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/20/us/rigged-texas-lottery.htmlA profile of Curtis Yarvin in the New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/06/09/curtis-yarvin-profile“Does the “New Economy” Measure Up to the Great Inventions of the Past” by Robert Gordon https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.14.4.49“Election” (the movie) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0126886/“The Tyranny of Structurelessness” by Jo Freeman https://www.jofreeman.com/joreen/tyranny.htm 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: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 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 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, 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 contemplate QR codes, nostalgia, and ritual theory, all while trying to fix “names” as a social institution.Come for the anthropological analysis, stay for the fake sponsorships.Chapters:00:00 — Intro: The problem with labels03:15 — What Fresh Hell: QR Codes and the Death of Memory09:40 — Question 1: “Stacy’s Mom” is not a bar name19:55 — Question 2: When your gun club becomes a militia35:20 — Fixing Shit: Names, and why Michael is now a constitutional originalist46:00 — Question 3: Losing (and finding) yourself at camp57:10 — Nostalgia Suppositories and designer nicknames59:00 — OutroWorks Cited: Stacy’s Mom.Ritual and Mantras: Rules Without Meaning by Frits StaalThe Rites of Passage by Arnold van GennepThe Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Strucutre by Victor Turner 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, 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 solidarityFixing professional sports through relegation (sorry, NFL fans)And yes—what happens when your HR department gets too anthropological.👷‍♂️ From Texas high schools to South Carolina factories, to Bakersfield oil fields, this episode explores how work shapes identity, class, and meaning.Chapters:00:00 – Intro03:00 – Forbes 30 Under 30 and the Theil Fellows fiasco08:00 – College vs. Trade School22:00 – Life on the Factory Floor38:00 – Fixing Sh*t: Professional Sports Edition46:00 – Oil, Labor, and Truth in Job Ads59:00 – Outro + Fake Sponsor (Robot Plumber)Works Cited:“30 under 30-year sentences: why so many of Forbes’ young heroes face jail” by Arwa Mahdawi https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/apr/06/forbes-30-under-30-tech-finance-prison“Breaching Experiments” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaching_experimentStudies in Ethnomethodology, by Harold Garfinkel (you may want to bookmark this one; Michael brings it up a lot) 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 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 Michael explore why algorithms flatten culture, how anthropology explains “weird” behavior, and what liminality has to do with your living room. It’s people being people — and us trying to make sense of it.Timestamps:00:00 — Intro: Touching grass, anthropologist-style02:10 — What Fresh Hell: AI reading med school applications08:35 — Question 1: Politicians and the bread-posting problem18:45 — Question 2: Unionized waiters and the crypto crusade30:20 — Fixing Shit: How to end vaccine hesitancy (dart guns included)42:00 — Question 3: A contractor, a house, and too many doors53:10 — Fake sponsor: Hyperreality™ — where billionaires graze56:00 — Outro and creditsIn this episode, Dan and Michael discuss (and/or are informed by):The Paranoid Style in American Politics, by Richard Hofstader (https://harpers.org/archive/1964/11/the-paranoid-style-in-american-politics/)Boba Fett, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boba_FettDog the Bounty Hunter, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_the_Bounty_HunterThe Rites of Passage, by Arnold Van GennepThe Ritual Process, by Victor Turner 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

Timestamps:00:00 – Intro: What is People Stuff?02:00 – What Fresh Hell: Baseball cards, blind packs, and CT scanners08:00 – Question 1: Politics, podcasts, and the red-pill relationship20:00 – Question 2: Anti-vaxx cousins and the anthropology of purity and danger34:00 – Fixing Shit: How to fix college admissions (spoiler: lotteries)44:00 – Question 3: Food, family, and why your boyfriend refuses tamales56:00 – Outro: Fake sponsors & final thoughtsIn this episode, Dan and Michael discuss:Imagined Communities by Benedict AndersonUnderstanding Media by Marshall McLuhanAmusing Ourselves to Death by Neil PostmanPurity and Danger by Mary Douglas“Techniques of the Body” by Marcel MaussOutline of a Theory of Practice by Pierre BourdieuHuman Nature and Conduct by John DeweyAnd, the “Parkerization” of Wine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Parker_(wine_critic)#Impact_on_the_supply:_the_%22Parkerization%22_of_wine 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

HighlightsThe 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 Breakdown00:00 – Intro: Brutal honesty and vampire week preview06:00 – What Fresh Hell: The war on empathy12:00 – Question 1: “Can I be a vampire?”27:00 – Question 2: “Why are people still obsessed with Nazis?”48:00 – Fixing Shit: Saving public lands57:00 – Question 3: “Why do we keep making monsters?”1:08:00 – Outro: Fairy Circles™ and the existential loneliness of humanityDan and Michael discuss the following works:Living Right: Far Right Youth Activists in Contemporary Europe by Agniezska PasiekaThe Nazi Seizure of Power: The Experience of a Single German Town 1922-1945 by William Allen Sheridan:https://archive.org/details/naziseizureofpow0000alle\_m2p7The Jersey Devil: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey\_DevilThe 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 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

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 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

SegmentsWhat 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 relationship self-reflection?The Bed Question:Should you make your bed? The hosts dissect productivity culture, moral cleanliness, and the illusion of “self-improvement.” Is making your bed really about respect — or just capitalist virtue signaling?Fixing Shit:Michael “fixes” the Olympics — by suggesting they should be nude and chemically enhanced. It’s radical egalitarianism through chaos.The Ashes Question:A listener wonders if they can bring their mother’s ashes to their partner’s minimalist family home. Dan and Michael dive into global death rituals — from the Yanomami’s ash soup to Inca mummies — and explore why Western culture avoids talking about death at all. Spoiler: it’s not weird to keep the dead around; it’s deeply human.Outro:Sponsored (sort of) by IKEA’s fictitious funerary line, dödsberedskap, and the People Stuff Griefbot™. Because why not keep chatting forever? Themes & TopicsAnthropology of everyday lifeDomestic spaces & consumptionCapitalism, death, and designProductivity culture and self-help mythsRitual, grief, and the social life of objectsHumor & absurdism in academia Works CitedSwedish Design by Keith Murphy can be found here: Swedish Design by Keith M. Murphy | Paperback | Cornell University PressRabelais and His World by Mikhail Bakhtin can be found here: Rabelais and His World by Mikhail Bakhtin | MIT PressFind all things People Stuff at: linktr.ee/PeopleStuffPod 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