People Stuff

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 o...

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, To...

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 s...

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 r...

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 Pe...

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...

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. Plu...

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,...

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...

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...

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 urin...

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/t...

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 Bo...

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 someti...

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...

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...

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 publi...

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 u...

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 de...

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...

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 A...

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 (a...

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 door...

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 r...

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 vamp...