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Dan and Michael Touch Grass: Social media, crypto wages, and a house with 13 doors walk into a podcast
This week on People Stuff, anthropologists Dan and Michael get their hands dirty with the real weirdness of modern life — from politicians oversharing on social media to waiters wanting crypto paychecks to a man who just keeps adding doors to his house.
We’re asking the big questions:
Should politicians be more boring online?
Is crypto a union-busting fever dream?
How many doors are too many doors to the spirit realm?
And can you really fix vaccine hesitancy with darts and cash?
Along the way, Dan and Michael explore why algorithms flatten culture, how anthropology explains “weird” behavior, and what liminality has to do with your living room. It’s people being people — and us trying to make sense of it.
Timestamps:
00:00 — Intro: Touching grass, anthropologist-style
02:10 — What Fresh Hell: AI reading med school applications
08:35 — Question 1: Politicians and the bread-posting problem
18:45 — Question 2: Unionized waiters and the crypto crusade
30:20 — Fixing Shit: How to end vaccine hesitancy (dart guns included)
42:00 — Question 3: A contractor, a house, and too many doors
53:10 — Fake sponsor: Hyperreality™ — where billionaires graze
56:00 — Outro and credits
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_Fett
Dog the Bounty Hunter, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_the_Bounty_Hunter
The Rites of Passage, by Arnold Van Gennep
The Ritual Process, by Victor Turner
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 SoulelesThis week on People Stuff, anthropologists Dan and Michael get their hands dirty with the real weirdness of modern life — from politicians oversharing on social media to waiters wanting crypto paychecks to a man who just keeps adding doors to his house.
We’re asking the big questions:
Should politicians be more boring online?
Is crypto a union-busting fever dream?
How many doors are too many doors to the spirit realm?
And can you really fix vaccine hesitancy with darts and cash?
Along the way, Dan and Michael explore why algorithms flatten culture, how anthropology explains “weird” behavior, and what liminality has to do with your living room. It’s people being people — and us trying to make sense of it.
Timestamps:
00:00 — Intro: Touching grass, anthropologist-style
02:10 — What Fresh Hell: AI reading med school applications
08:35 — Question 1: Politicians and the bread-posting problem
18:45 — Question 2: Unionized waiters and the crypto crusade
30:20 — Fixing Shit: How to end vaccine hesitancy (dart guns included)
42:00 — Question 3: A contractor, a house, and too many doors
53:10 — Fake sponsor: Hyperreality™ — where billionaires graze
56:00 — Outro and credits
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_Fett
Dog the Bounty Hunter, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_the_Bounty_Hunter
The Rites of Passage, by Arnold Van Gennep
The Ritual Process, by Victor Turner
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