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Dan and Michael Heard it through the Grapevine | Urban Legends, Rumors, and Why Politicians Talk Like Marketers
Ever wondered why people still warn you to check your kids’ Halloween candy for razor blades — even though it’s never actually happened?
Or why politicians say, “a lot of people are saying…” when they clearly made it up?
In this week’s episode, Dan and Michael Heard It Through the Grapevine, our resident anthropologists dig into how rumors, myths, and moral panics shape our everyday lives.
They unpack the folklore behind Halloween candy scares, explore how gossip and political speech both rely on indirect attribution, and dive into what it means when your suburban neighborhood suddenly becomes deer country.
From Levi-Strauss and Santa Claus to Donald Trump and talk radio, this one’s equal parts anthropology, humor, and exasperation at the human condition.
🎧 In this episode:
The anthropology of Halloween and the myth of poisoned candy
How politicians use marketing psychology to sell ideas
Why gossip is dying (and what we lose with it)
The strange suburban ecology of deer and hunters
What ancient festivals and modern politics have in common
Works Cited
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.pdf
Rabelais 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 science? Dangers and disruptions between DIYbio and the FBI” by Michael Scroggins https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0308275X231157559
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.
You can also sign up for our newsletter, drop us a voice memo, or become a Friend of People Stuff — which is our fancy way of saying you get to support the show and we get to keep talking about dust, dads, and late capitalism.
So go to people-stuff.com
View all episodes
By Michael Scroggins, Dan SoulelesEver wondered why people still warn you to check your kids’ Halloween candy for razor blades — even though it’s never actually happened?
Or why politicians say, “a lot of people are saying…” when they clearly made it up?
In this week’s episode, Dan and Michael Heard It Through the Grapevine, our resident anthropologists dig into how rumors, myths, and moral panics shape our everyday lives.
They unpack the folklore behind Halloween candy scares, explore how gossip and political speech both rely on indirect attribution, and dive into what it means when your suburban neighborhood suddenly becomes deer country.
From Levi-Strauss and Santa Claus to Donald Trump and talk radio, this one’s equal parts anthropology, humor, and exasperation at the human condition.
🎧 In this episode:
The anthropology of Halloween and the myth of poisoned candy
How politicians use marketing psychology to sell ideas
Why gossip is dying (and what we lose with it)
The strange suburban ecology of deer and hunters
What ancient festivals and modern politics have in common
Works Cited
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.pdf
Rabelais 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 science? Dangers and disruptions between DIYbio and the FBI” by Michael Scroggins https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0308275X231157559
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.
You can also sign up for our newsletter, drop us a voice memo, or become a Friend of People Stuff — which is our fancy way of saying you get to support the show and we get to keep talking about dust, dads, and late capitalism.
So go to people-stuff.com