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 stressed, why hunters get buck fever, why high-schoolers are spiraling, and why self-discipline has become a competitive sport.

We dig into social prescribing, predator-prey symbolism, the high-wire act of modern work, and whether our bodies are betraying us or sending a message we should finally listen to.

Chapters
00:00 — Intro
02:30 — What Stress Actually Is
06:10 — Fresh Hell: Doctors Prescribing Parties
11:45 — Question 1: Buck Fever in the Deer Stand
19:30 — Predator vs Prey Symbol Systems
25:00 — Question 2: High-School Stress Spiral
34:10 — Fixing Shit: The Cult of Self-Discipline
47:00 — Question 3: Catastrophe Thinking for Adults
58:00 — Outro + Fake Sponsorship

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

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 two, why AI-powered officiating is killing the pathos of the bad call, and how youth sports became an arms race disguised as “character building.”

Along the way, we detour through Birkin bag lawsuits, Tommy John surgery, the death of knuckleballing, and the eternal question: Can you force your kid to play sports without turning into a meritocratic ghoul?

As always: we’re anthropologists, and we know stuff about people. People Stuff.

Chapters:
0:00 — Intro & Why Americans Worship Sports
4:32 — Birkin Bags and the Anthropology of Luxury
11:20 — Prop Bets and the Ethics of Self-Rigging
21:55 — MLB, Corruption & the Luis Ortiz Case
28:40 — AI Officiating & the Death of the Bad Call
37:15 — Children’s Sports & Class Panic
50:22 — Fixing Shit: Baseball Pitchers Edition
58:10 — How to Raise Non-Doughy Kids
1:08:45 — People Ball: Our Fake Sponsor
1:10:00 — Outro & Credits

Send us your dilemmas: www.people-stuff.com

Subscribe for more anthropological takes on the weirdness of modern life.

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

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 discourse.

In this episode:

🚗 Why millennials think a new car should cost exactly $30k

🧮 Inflation as a vibe, not a natural law

👑 Letters of recommendation: the medieval patronage system we somehow still use

🏛️ First-generation students & the unwritten rules of academia

🤖 Why academic publishing is drowning in AI slop (and rat genitals)

🧑‍💼 How to quit your job without burning your whole life down

🏃‍♀️ Why tech workers accidentally work two jobs at once

Anthropology: because the economy is mostly feelings.

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

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, billionaires, medieval sword fights, and the enduring smugness of horses.

Featuring:

Horse violence as a disciplinary technology

The Enclosure Movement, Marx, and why Madonna legally can’t stop you rambling through her estate

Corporal punishment, pacifism paradoxes, and why People Stuff is firmly against child-beating but open to beating adults who think child-beating is fine

Billionaire term limits (ten years and then the hoard goes back to the people—no rollover minutes)

HEMA: When history nerds and jocks converge into a Darwinian crab-shaped sword fighter

Utah Mom linguistic innovation, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, and Dan’s ongoing war with Vox

Whether horses enjoy trampling (spoiler: yes, they’re smug)

As always, we know stuff about people. Sometimes too much.

Submit your questions or leave us a voice memo at 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

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 to workplace “whole brain” seminars and gifted testing for seven-year-olds. Why do employers, schools, and BuzzFeed quizzes all want to turn us into caricatures of ourselves?

They’ll also diagnose Peter Thiel’s end-times theology, dismantle the eugenic logic of IQ tests, and fix the entire school admissions system (again). Plus, a listener wonders: if your friend only speaks in Sex and the City quotes, are they still your friend… or just a Carrie with Wi-Fi?

🔹 Why workplace personality tests are corporate astrology
🔹 The dark history of IQ testing
🔹 How BuzzFeed quizzes became proto-surveillance capitalism
🔹 Why “fixing” education means letting everyone in

As always, it’s academic insight meets anthropological mischief — because we’re anthropologists, and we know stuff about people.

🎧 Listen now at people-stuff.com or on Apple Podcasts: People Stuff

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

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 counselor + legitimate adult Saanchi Shah, who tries to offer actual wisdom while the hosts spiral into food-based existentialism.

Topics include:

Paleo diets and why “we stopped evolving after the Ice Age” is terrible science

When gardening becomes prepping and prepping becomes a personality

The gym bro committed to 100% raw meat, 0% critical thought

The stolen 18-karat gold toilet named America

Why cities need public bathrooms more than they need tech incubators

Are you pizza if you eat pizza? (anthropology says… maybe yes??)

Also: squat toilets, Jain philosophy, steroid economics, and the eternal war between Neapolitan pizza and the casserole known as “Chicago-style.”

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

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