Dan and Michael Think It’s Human Nature (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 anthropology says: probably not.
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
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.
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