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 anthropology of being uncomfortable.

🎧 People Stuff — because we’re anthropologists, and 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.

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

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 mind

Plus, 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 funny—just the way we like it.

Takeaways 

Cleanliness is culturally specific and varies widely. The concept of the Rapture has been a recurring theme in religious discussions. Zen practices can lead to conflicts in communal living situations. Allowance for chores raises questions about parenting and financial education. Hoarding reflects deeper cultural issues related to consumerism and identity. Memory and emotional connections to objects can complicate decluttering efforts. Cognitive dissonance plays a role in how people respond to failed prophecies. Cultural narratives shape our understanding of cleanliness and order. The relationship between consumerism and identity is complex and multifaceted. Community obligations can conflict with personal expectations in shared living spaces.

Sound bites "

You can't fire your kid!" 

"This is a mutiny!" "

You have too much stuff!" 

Segments:

00:00 Introduction to the Podcast and Themes 

01:43 The TikTok Rapture and Religious Prophecies 

09:04 Zen Monasteries and Cleaning Duties 

17:19 Exploring Perspectives on Violence and Community 

19:05 Navigating Family Dynamics and Chores 

30:02 Reforming Congress: A Call for Institutional Integrity 

37:08 The Hoarding Dilemma 

38:01 Cultural Reflections on Consumption 

39:53 The Psychology of Stuff 

42:16 Generational Perspectives on Hoarding 

44:36 Memory and Identity in Material Possessions

47:21 Navigating Emotional Attachments to Objects 

49:31 Concluding Thoughts on Clutter and Memory

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

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 behavior is profound.
- Painful experiences can be valuable learning opportunities.
- The understanding of gender identity is complex and evolving. Education occurs everywhere, not just in formal settings.
- Children assimilate gender norms from their environment.
- Identity is shaped by external influences and societal norms.
- The debate on gender identity is nuanced and ongoing.
- Public perception of immigration is often inconsistent and reactive.
- Imaginary friends can reflect deeper cultural beliefs.
- Children's understanding of gender can be influenced by comments from adults.
- The formation of identity is a complex interplay of internal and external factors.
- Cultural myths can shape children's perceptions of the supernatural.
- Parents may impose their own categories on children's experiences.

Sound bites

• "Mind your own damn business."
• "Flood the zone with fake AI biographies."
• "Disciplining someone else's kid is a hard question."
• "We try and minimize the unnecessary suffering."
• "Children that age are psychopaths."
• "Childhood itself is shockingly recent."
• "The power and ubiquity of public education."
• "This is a moment of gendering in the present progressive."
• "Identity is formed from mores, norms, and concepts."
• "The American public is crazy."
• "Your kid is probably talking to a totemic ancestor being."

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to People Stuff Podcast
02:59 Cultural Perspectives on Child Rearing
05:59 The Rise of TikTok Detectives
09:00 Privacy in the Digital Age
12:00 Disciplining Other People's Children
23:58 Gender Roles and Parenting
27:00 The Complexity of Gender Identity
28:56 The Ubiquity of Education and Gender Identity
32:55 The Formation of Gender Identity in Children
36:31 The Debate on Gender Identity: Nature vs. Nurture
40:52 The Complexity of Identity Formation
41:19 Fixing Immigration: Public Perception and Reality
49:46 Imaginary Friends and Cultural Interpretations

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

Topics

🔹 Why men are turning to ChatGPT for emotional advice
🔹 The death of partying — and what it says about American loneliness
🔹 Can you separate baseball from capitalism?
🔹 What shamans and therapists actually have in common

Sound bites

"Alcohol is a social lubricant."

"Fandom is about shared suffering."

"Psychology can't critique society."

Takeaways

Psychology 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 practices.

The politics of sports fandom can be complex and contradictory.

Suffering is a common thread in both fandom and therapy.

Psychology struggles with replicability and cultural specificity.

Therapists can be seen as modern-day shamans.

References 

In this episode, we mention and/or are influenced by the following:

An article on the decline of partying: https://www.derekthompson.org/p/the-death-of-partying-in-the-usaand?

Beastie Boys -- You Gotta Fight For Your Right To Party https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBShN8qT4lk

Karen V. Hansen -- "A Very Social Time: Crafting Community in Antebellum New England." University of California Press, 1994.

Claude Levi-Strauss "The Effectiveness of Symbols" 

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

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 https://davidgraeber.org/articles/on-the-phenomenology-of-giant-puppets-broken-windows-imaginary-jars-of-urine-and-the-cosmological-role-of-the-police-in-american-culture/

“The Bridge [Broen på dansk]” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bridge_(2011_TV_series)

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

Dan and Michael discuss:

Living Right: Far Right Youth Activists in Contemporary Europe by Agniezska Pasieka

The Nazi Seizure of Power: The Experience of a Single German Town 1922-1945 by William Allen Sheridan:

 https://archive.org/details/naziseizureofpow0000alle_m2p7

The Jersey Devil: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_Devil

The Sopranos e3 ep11, "Pine Barrens:" 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0705272/

What We Do in the Shadows: 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7908628/

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

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 will view our society as a tragic age of ignorance.
• The traditions of past generations influence current societal structures.

Quotes: 

• "Hope is an important part of the human condition."
• "Childhood itself is a fairly recent invention."
• "Plastics will survive in 500 years."

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to People Stuff and Special Questions

01:34 The Nature of Individuality vs. Society

09:22 The Role of Family in Human Development

16:22 Future Anthropological Perspectives on Society

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

Swedish Design by Keith Murphy can be found here: Swedish Design by Keith M. Murphy | Paperback | Cornell University Press

Rabelais and His World by Mikhail Bakhtin can be found here: Rabelais and His World by Mikhail Bakhtin | MIT Press

Find all things People Stuff at: https://www.people-stuff.com/

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

In this episode, Dan and Michael discuss, or are informed by:

Veblen, T. (1899). The Theory of the Leisure Class .

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