People Stuff
Michael Scroggins, Dan Souleles
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S3E11 Camping Isn’t Survival: Hiking, Hunting, REI Culture, and the Outdoors
What is camping actually for? This week on People Stuff, Dan and Michael head into the wilderness to investigate one of modern life's strangest contradictions: millions of people spend thousands of…
S3E10 Why Humans Need Privacy | Shelter, Office Design, and the Anthropology of Space (feat. Gretchen Pfeil)
Why do humans need privacy? This week on People Stuff, Michael and Dan are joined by anthropologist and design researcher Gretchen Pfeil to explore one of the most basic—and surprisingly…
S3E9 Dan and Michael Go to Home Depot | DIY Culture, Hardware Stores, and Why Every Project Requires 4 Trips
Home Depot may be the most American place on Earth. This week on People Stuff, Michael and Dan dive into the anthropology of DIY culture, suburban home repair, hardware stores, masculinity,…
S3E8 Dan and Michael Never Could Have Been Contenders (feat. Justin Dang) | Competition, Hiring Hell, and Finance Club Hunger Games
Competition used to be for sports and maybe college admissions. Now it’s for internships, student clubs, networking coffee chats, LinkedIn visibility, and apparently sleep scores monitored by the…
S3E7 Home Is Where the Asset Is: FIRE Roommates, Haunted Houses, and Billionaires Who Don’t Pay Taxes
This week on People Stuff, Dan and Michael tackle one of the great contradictions of modern life: why Americans treat houses simultaneously as sacred homes, speculative assets, retirement plans,…
S3E6 Dan and Michael Get Back in the Saddle (with Jennifer Van Tiem) | Horses and the Anthropology of Riding
Horse girls. German cowboys. Private equity bowling alleys. This week on People Stuff, we take on horses—not just as animals, but as cultural objects, status symbols, and surprisingly effective…
S3E5 Is It Really Human Nature? Gender, Boys, Parenting & Bad Anthropology | People Stuff feat. Agustín Fuentes
This week on People Stuff, Dan and Michael are joined by Princeton anthropologist Agustín Fuentes—author of Sex Is a Spectrum and Race, Monogamy, and Other Lies They Told You—to ask what human nature…
S3E4 Dan and Michael Read a Book: Why We Treat Books as Sacred (and When They’re Just Trash)
This week, Dan and Michael talk about books. Along the way: A library purge shocks a 10-year-old (and maybe you) A listener in prison asks the ultimate question: what should I read? The…
S3E3 Dan and Michael Glimpse Paradise (feat. Jeff Greger) | Utopias, Communes, Gatekeeping & Why Perfect Systems Fail
This week on People Stuff, Dan and Michael are joined by applied anthropologist Jeff Greger to ask a deceptively simple question: Why do utopias always fall apart? From Silicon Valley hackerspaces to…
S3E2 Dan and Michael Are Connecting the Dots | Conspiracies, Ghosts, QAnon & Why Humans See Patterns Everywhere
This week on People Stuff, Dan and Michael follow the red yarn across humanity’s favorite pastime: connecting dots. Inspired by Susan Lepselter’s The Resonance of Unseen Things, the hosts explore…
S3E1 Dan and Michael Are Trivial (feat. Mike Dawson) | Trivia, Fandom, Fascism & the Meaning of Useless Knowledge
This week on People Stuff, Dan and Michael are joined by technology manager, nonprofit veteran, and repeat Jeopardy contestant Mike Dawson to confront one of humanity’s oldest questions: Why do we…
S3 Season 3 Is Coming (Probably): Listener Mail, Hobbits at Palantir, and the Return of People Stuff
Is People Stuff a weekly podcast? Philosophically, yes. In this Season 3 preview, Dan and Michael emerge from their off-season hibernation to read listener messages ranging from supportive to…
S2E10 Dan and Michael Are a Little Stressed (With Michelle Rensel): Stress, Snacks, and Mild Emotional Collapse.
Stress isn’t just biology—it’s culture, symbols, expectations, and the stories we tell ourselves. This week Dan and Michael are joined by UCLA’s Dr. Michelle Rensel to unpack why Americans are so…
S2E9 Dan and Michael Talk Sports (with John Florio): Sports, Scandals & the Gods of the Game
This week, Dan and Michael welcome writer and sports scholar John Florio to dig into America’s real religion: sports. We cover the rise of prop bets, whether athletes can ethically nudge a stat or…
S2E8 Dan and Michael Ruin the Economy (feat. Steve Black): Car-price delusion, medieval rec letters, and the AI rat with the huge penis.
We’re joined by Steve Black, linguistic and medical anthropologist at Georgia State University, whose work spans ethics, care, Zulu gospel choirs, Indigenous youth in Costa Rica, and global health…
S2E7 Dan and Michael Take a Punch (with Scott Freeman): Violence, Horses, Billionaires, and Swords
This week on People Stuff, Dan and Michael explore humanity’s oldest problem: people hitting other people and calling it “order.” Joined by anthropologist Scott Freeman, we talk violence, enclosure,…
S2E6 Dan and Michael Are Not Your Type: Corporate astrology, MBTI madness, and the myth of the measurable self
Are you a “blue brain,” a “Phoebe,” or just a person trying to do your job?This week on People Stuff, Dan and Michael dig into the strange afterlife of psychological typing — from Jungian archetypes…
S2E5 Dan and Michael Eat Too Much (feat. Saanchi Shah) — Paleo Panic, Raw Meat Bros & The Golden Toilet Heist
Are we what we eat? Should kale be a personality? Why are men suddenly shoveling raw beef into their mouths like feral crossfit raccoons? This week anthropologists Dan and Michael interview genetic…
S2E4 Dan and Michael Are Definitely Out of Place: Why Some Places Feel Wrong, Why Seats Matter, and Why the Dead Deserve Space
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…
S2E3 Dan and Michael Sweep it Under the Rug: The Anthropology of Dirt and Disorder
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…
Frequently Asked Questions
People Stuff has published 39 episodes since May 2025, covering topics in Comedy, Comedy Interviews.
People Stuff is currently highly active with new episodes weekly. Average episode length is 58m.
Sign up on Grep.FM to access contact details for People Stuff, including email and social media links.
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