Dan and Michael Read a Book: Why We Treat Books as Sacred (and When They’re Just Trash)

This week on People Stuff, Dan and Michael tackle the strange cultural life of books—why we treat them like holy objects, why libraries throw them away, and how to decide what’s actually worth reading.

Hackerspaces, communes, constitutional bugs, and the fantasy of getting people to do their chores.

From UFOs to ghosts to QAnon — an anthropological guide to why humans connect dots that may or may not exist. This week on People Stuff, Dan and Michael explore conspiracies, ghosts, elite scandals, and the deeply human urge to find meaning in chaos.

Dan and Michael welcome Jeopardy Tournament of Champions contestant Mike Dawson to explore trivia, fandom, history class suffering, tarot cards, fascist coups, and whether useless knowledge might secretly run society.

Season 3 of People Stuff is arriving soon — theoretically. Dan and Michael read off-season listener mail, confront accusations of academic indolence, hear from a trucker philosopher, and discover what happens when teenagers start demanding anarcho-syndicalist households. Anthropology advice returns…

Stress is biological, cultural, symbolic—and everywhere. Dan, Michael, and guest scientist Michelle Rensel tackle hunting anxiety, high-school panic patterns, the cult of self-discipline, and why everyone feels one layoff away from catastrophe. Smart, funny, and a little too real.