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PODCAST

People Stuff

Michael Scroggins, Dan Souleles

People Stuff is a write-in, anthropology advice podcast wherein we answer all sorts of questions with the weird and wonderful wisdom that anthropology offers. From whether you should make your bed to what you owe to the dead, no dilemma is too tiny, no conundrum too vast for a little bit of anthropology. After all, as a species, we"ve been human-ing for like 300,000 years already. Surely we"ve figured some stuff out.

society & culture relationships

All Episodes

00:53:17

Dan and Michael Are Definitely Out of Place: Why Some...

People Stuff ·

2025/10/28

They tackle listener questions about what it means to feel out of place:Why do perfect towns feel fake and claustrophobic?Why do we always sit in the same seat?And should you really avoid walking on a grave?Along the way, they explore how humans build belonging through repetition, ritual, and spatial order — and how those same habits can make us feel trapped, haunted, or just plain weird.Plus: Dan fixes superheroes (they’re fascists), Michael defends ghosts, and everyone learns something about the

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00:51:59

Dan and Michael Sweep it Under the Rug: The...

People Stuff ·

2025/10/21

Dan and Michael tackle questions about:🧹 A Zen priest frustrated by a fellow monk’s bad cleaning habits💰 Whether kids should get paid for chores🏚️ How to love a hoarder parent without losing your mindPlus, in Fixing Shit, Michael fixes Congress by bringing back pork barrel spending (seriously). Along the way, they dust off some anthropological wisdom from Mary Douglas, talk about pollution, capitalism, and the importance of returning your grocery cart.It’s messy, philosophical, and deeply

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00:57:16

Dan and Michael Raise Someone Else’s Kid

People Stuff ·

2025/10/14

Takeaways- Cultural practices in child-rearing vary significantly across societies.- The concept of communal parenting has evolved over time.- TikTok detectives represent a new form of social surveillance.- Privacy is increasingly difficult to maintain in the digital age.- Disciplining other people's children is a nuanced issue.- Childhood as a concept is relatively recent in human history.- Gender roles are deeply ingrained but also highly variable.- The influence of societal norms on children's

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00:50:12

Dan and Michael go to Therapy

People Stuff ·

2025/10/07

Sound bites"Alcohol is a social lubricant.""Fandom is about shared suffering.""Psychology can't critique society."TakeawaysPsychology often prioritizes individual adjustment over societal critique.The decline of social gatherings among young Americans is alarming.Alcohol serves as a social lubricant, facilitating interactions.Chatbot therapy raises questions about the nature of self-reflection.Fandom is deeply tied to shared suffering and community.Therapy has historical roots in shamanistic

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00:57:38

[ENCORE] Dan and Michael Get Abducted

People Stuff ·

2025/10/02

In this episode of People Stuff, Dan and Michael discuss and/or are informed by:“Unsinkable” by Daniel Mendelsohn https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/04/16/unsinkable-titanic-iceberg“Removing Knowledge” by Peter Galison https://dash.harvard.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/7312037c-4c4a-6bd4-e053-0100007fdf3b/content“On the Phenomenology of Giant Puppets Broken windows, imaginary jars of urine, and the cosmological role of the police in American culture” by David Graeber

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01:02:35

[ENCORE] Dan and Michael Get Spooked

People Stuff ·

2025/09/30

Dan and Michael discuss:Living Right: Far Right Youth Activists in Contemporary Europe by Agniezska PasiekaThe Nazi Seizure of Power: The Experience of a Single German Town 1922-1945 by William Allen Sheridan: https://archive.org/details/naziseizureofpow0000alle_m2p7The Jersey Devil: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_DevilThe Sopranos e3 ep11, "Pine Barrens:" https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0705272/What We Do in the Shadows: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7908628/

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00:21:50

Dan and Michael Ponder The Human Condition

People Stuff ·

2025/09/25

Takeaways:Hope is an important part of the human condition.Lying to yourself is a part of the human experience.Humans are a product of both individuality and social environment.Cultural diversity shapes how identities are formed and expressed.Childhood is a relatively recent social construct.Human brains require a long time to develop compared to other species.The role of family is crucial in human development.Plastics will be a significant archaeological find in the future.Future anthropologists

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00:46:27

[ENCORE] Dan and Michael Go To Ikea

People Stuff ·

2025/09/23

Swedish Design by Keith Murphy can be found here: Swedish Design by Keith M. Murphy | Paperback | Cornell University PressRabelais and His World by Mikhail Bakhtin can be found here: Rabelais and His World by Mikhail Bakhtin | MIT PressFind all things People Stuff at: https://www.people-stuff.com/

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00:05:03

Dan and Michael Are Not Into Instagramming Their Food

People Stuff ·

2025/09/16

In this episode, Dan and Michael discuss, or are informed by:Veblen, T. (1899). The Theory of the Leisure Class .

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00:01:11

Dan Has a Programming Note

People Stuff ·

2025/09/15

Dan gives an update on the end of Season 1 and previews what to expect in Season 2 of People Stuff. A big thanks to those of you who submitted questions! Expected to hear your questions and our answers in the upcoming season. As always, you can leave a question at: https://www.people-stuff.com/

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00:45:04

Dan and Michael Park a Car

People Stuff ·

2025/09/09

In this episode of People Stuff, Dan and Michael discuss and/or are informed by:“The Speed of Human Thought Lags Far Behind Your Internet Connection, Study Finds” in the NYTimes by Carl Zimmer https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/26/science/speed-of-thought.htmlThe Gift by Marcel MaussTaboo by Franz Steiner

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00:57:53

Dan and Michael Heard it through the Grapevine

People Stuff ·

2025/09/02

In this episode of People Stuff, Dan and Michael discuss and/or are informed by:The “Lloyd’s List Shipping Podcast” https://www.lloydslist.com/the-lloyds-list-shipping-podcast“Father Christmas Executed” by Claude Lévi-Strauss https://aphelis.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/LEVI-STRAUSS_1995_Father_Christmas_Executed.pdfRabelais and His World by Mikhail Bakhtin https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262520249/rabelais-and-his-world/“The Dead Baby Joke” by Alan Dundes https://www.jstor.org/stable/1499238“A feral

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00:57:18

Dan and Michael Destroy Democracy

People Stuff ·

2025/08/26

In this episode of People Stuff, Dan and Michael discuss and/or are informed by:An article in the Times about that rigged Texas lottery: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/20/us/rigged-texas-lottery.htmlA profile of Curtis Yarvin in the New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/06/09/curtis-yarvin-profile“Does the “New Economy” Measure Up to the Great Inventions of the Past” by Robert Gordon https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.14.4.49“Election” (the movie)

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00:57:38

Dan and Michael Get Abducted

People Stuff ·

2025/08/19

In this episode of People Stuff, Dan and Michael discuss and/or are informed by:“Unsinkable” by Daniel Mendelsohn https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/04/16/unsinkable-titanic-iceberg“Removing Knowledge” by Peter Galison https://dash.harvard.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/7312037c-4c4a-6bd4-e053-0100007fdf3b/content“On the Phenomenology of Giant Puppets Broken windows, imaginary jars of urine, and the cosmological role of the police in American culture” by David Graeber

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00:50:38

Dan and Michael are not That Into Labels

People Stuff ·

2025/08/12

In this episode of People Stuff, Dan and Michael discuss and/or are informed by:Stacy’s Mom.Ritual and Mantras: Rules Without Meaning by Frits StaalThe Rites of Passage by Arnold van GennepThe Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Strucutre by Victor Turner

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01:00:30

Dan and Michael Learn a Trade

People Stuff ·

2025/08/05

In this episode of People Stuff, Dan and Michael discuss and/or are informed by:“30 under 30-year sentences: why so many of Forbes’ young heroes face jail” by Arwa Mahdawi https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/apr/06/forbes-30-under-30-tech-finance-prison“Breaching Experiments” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaching_experimentStudies in Ethnomethodology, by Harold Garfinkel (you may want to bookmark this one; Michael brings it up a lot)

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00:54:05

Dan and Michael Touch Grass

People Stuff ·

2025/07/29

In this episode, Dan and Michael discuss (and/or are informed by):The Paranoid Style in American Politics, by Richard Hofstader (https://harpers.org/archive/1964/11/the-paranoid-style-in-american-politics/)Boba Fett, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boba_FettDog the Bounty Hunter, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_the_Bounty_HunterThe Rites of Passage, by Arnold Van GennepThe Ritual Process, by Victor Turner

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01:10:42

Dan and Michael Refuse

People Stuff ·

2025/07/22

In this episode, Dan and Michael discuss:Imagined Communities by Benedict AndersonUnderstanding Media by Marshall McLuhanAmusing Ourselves to Death by Neil PostmanPurity and Danger by Mary Douglas“Techniques of the Body” by Marcel MaussOutline of a Theory of Practice by Pierre BourdieuHuman Nature and Conduct by John DeweyAnd, the “Parkerization” of Wine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Parker_(wine_critic)#Impact_on_the_supply:_the_%22Parkerization%22_of_wine

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01:02:35

Dan and Michael Get Spooked

People Stuff ·

2025/07/15

Dan and Michael discuss:The Nazi Seizure of Power: The Experience of a Single German Town 1922-1945 by William Allen Sheridan: https://archive.org/details/naziseizureofpow0000alle_m2p7The Jersey Devil: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_DevilThe Sopranos e3 ep11, "Pine Barrens:" https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0705272/What We Do in the Shadows: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7908628/

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00:01:14

Season 1 Trailer

People Stuff ·

2025/07/02

In season 1 of People Stuff, Dan and Michael take on CAT scans for baseball cards, stupidity, college admissions, pompous assholes, unionization, the Bakersfield restaurant scene, and much, much, much more. Season 1 of People Stuff will be available in early July.

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21 results

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