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Dan and Michael Never Could Have Been Contenders (feat. Justin Dang) | Competition, Hiring Hell, and Finance Club Hunger Games

Competition has escaped the marketplace and colonized everyday life. Michael, Dan, and guest Justin Dang discuss hiring hell, finance clubs, networking culture, violence, wearable surveillance tech, and the strange systems institutions use to decide who “wins.”

Recent Episodes

Dan and Michael Never Could Have Been Contenders (feat. Justin Dang) | Competition, Hiring Hell, and Finance Club Hunger Games
May 18, 2026

Dan and Michael Never Could Have Been Contenders (feat. Justin Dang) | Competition, Hiring Hell, and Finance Club Hunger Games

Competition has escaped the marketplace and colonized everyday life. Michael, Dan, and guest Justin Dang discuss hiring hell, finance clubs, networking culture, violence, wearable surveillance tech, and the strange systems institutions use to decide who “wins.”
Home Is Where the Asset Is: FIRE Roommates, Haunted Houses, and Billionaires Who Don’t Pay Taxes
May 11, 2026

Home Is Where the Asset Is: FIRE Roommates, Haunted Houses, and Billionaires Who Don’t Pay Taxes

This week on People Stuff, Dan and Michael ask a deceptively simple question: what is a home? Unfortunately, modern America has several conflicting answers. A home is a sanctuary. A speculative asset. A retirement plan. A personality test. A tax shelter. A haunted structure slowly collapsing under …
Dan and Michael Get Back in the Saddle (with Jennifer Van Tiem) | Horses and the Anthropology of Riding
May 4, 2026

Dan and Michael Get Back in the Saddle (with Jennifer Van Tiem) | Horses and the Anthropology of Riding

Equine obsession, Western mythologies, and why horses are better at reading you than you are.
Is It Really Human Nature? Gender, Boys, Parenting & Bad Anthropology | People Stuff feat. Agustín Fuentes
April 27, 2026

Is It Really Human Nature? Gender, Boys, Parenting & Bad Anthropology | People Stuff feat. Agustín Fuentes

“Human nature” is one of those phrases people use when they want to stop arguing. Boys are just like that. Men are naturally competitive. Women are better at caregiving. Kids need expensive enrichment classes. Gen Z is becoming weirdly conservative about gender. It’s just human nature. …except anth…
Dan and Michael Read a Book: Why We Treat Books as Sacred (and When They’re Just Trash)
April 20, 2026

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.
Dan and Michael Glimpse Paradise (feat. Jeff Greger) | Utopias, Communes, Gatekeeping & Why Perfect Systems Fail
April 13, 2026

Dan and Michael Glimpse Paradise (feat. Jeff Greger) | Utopias, Communes, Gatekeeping & Why Perfect Systems Fail

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