Episodes
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 Read a Book: Why We Treat Books as Sacred (and When T…
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, Commu…
Hackerspaces, communes, constitutional bugs, and the fantasy of getting people to do their chores.
Dan and Michael Are Connecting the Dots | Conspiracies, Ghosts, QAnon…
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 Are Trivial (feat. Mike Dawson) | Trivia, Fandom, Fas…
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 Is Coming (Probably): Listener Mail, Hobbits at Palantir, an…
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…