Society & Culture Episodes
Home Is Where the Asset Is: FIRE Roommates, Haunted Houses, and Billi…
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) | Hor…
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…
“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 Are a Little Stressed (With Michelle Rensel): Stress,…
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.
Dan and Michael Eat Too Much (feat. Saanchi Shah) — Paleo Panic, Raw …
Dan and Michael welcome genetic counselor and professional vegetarian Saanchi Shah to explore why humans attach so much identity to food — from paleo diet mythologies to prepper gardening obsessions to the gym bro who thinks raw meat makes you a better person. Also: a stolen 18-karat gold toilet, f…
Dan and Michael Are Definitely Out of Place: Why Some Places Feel Wro…
This week on People Stuff, anthropologists Dan and Michael get very, very lost — in Carmel-by-the-Sea, at the dinner table, and even among the dead.
Dan and Michael Raise Someone Else’s Kid: Communal Parenting, Gender …
When is it okay to discipline someone else’s kid? Are gender roles actually “natural,” or are we just swimming in Disney IP? And what do you do when your child’s imaginary friend starts sounding less… imaginary? This week on People Stuff, anthropologists Dan Souleles and Michael Powell take on comm…
Dan and Michael Ponder The Human Condition: Are We Individuals or Jus…
Hope, self-deception, elephant grandmothers, and the archaeology of our trash age.
Dan and Michael Destroy Democracy: Tech Kings, High School Elections,…
This week on People Stuff, anthropologists Michael and Dan take a wrecking ball to democracy itself — from Curtis Yarvin’s neo-monarchist fantasies to student-body elections gone full Nixon. In this episode: What Fresh Hell: The Texas Lottery “rigging” that proves math isn’t the problem — lazy offi…