Ep. 672: MeatEater Radio Live! Clearing Trails, Getting Roasted, and Beaver Pillows

Hosts Randall Williams, Brody Henderson, and Maggie Hudlow sniff out fake news in a new game, talk with Rebecca Powell about her work with the Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation, get a tour of MeatEater HQ and a sneak peek into "MeatEater Roasts," catch up with Kaitlin Lospinoso (@oldtrapperkate) about her trapping season, and dive into 1988's The Bear in another installment of MeatEater Movie Club.

Watch the live stream on the MeatEater Podcast Network YouTube channel.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Smell us now, lady, Welcome to Meet Eater Trivia mea podcast.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Welcome to Meet Eater Radio Live. It's eleven am Mountain Time.
That's seven pm Hungry time for those listeners in Hungary
on Thursday, March sixth and we're live from Meet Eater
HQ and Bozeman, Montana. I'm your host, Randall Williams, joined
today by Maggie Hudlow and Brody Henderson. On today's show,
we're kicking off a new segment called fake News. We'll

(00:49):
call in with Rebecca Powell from the Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation.
We're gonna take you backstage for a look at Meat
Eater's new culinary show, Meet Eater ROAs. We'll chat with
Caitlin Lo Spinoso aka Old Trapper Kate, and we'll round
out the show with another long awaited Meat Eater movie Club.
Maggie and Brody, how are you guys doing?

Speaker 3 (01:10):
Doing great? Not so bad?

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Lovely?

Speaker 4 (01:13):
How are you doing, Randall?

Speaker 2 (01:14):
I'm doing well. I'm doing well. It's great to have
you here at Bozeman HQ.

Speaker 4 (01:19):
It's good to be here.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Well. First up, in a new segment we're calling fake News.
I'm going to share a selectively edited hunting or fishing
related headline from the news, and Brody and Maggie need
to fill in the blank with multiple choice options. Only
one of these is true according to this news article.

(01:43):
And here's where we'll add Phil's drop in later. Phil's
just had.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
A really busy week.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
Kind of apologies to the listeners out there, Phil, what
do you have to say.

Speaker 3 (01:50):
I don't need to disappoint anybody. It's been a crazy
week here at Meat Eater HQ. We got a lot
of new projects happening, and so I didn't have time
to make a drop this week. I do have an idea,
but then we thought we'd bring Chili in and then
he whimped out, Chili, if you're watching, good job. So
now we have nothing for you. And frankly, it's all
Chili's fault.

Speaker 5 (02:09):
Yeah, Chilli's working on me roast right now. Phil.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
Well, the thing is is he he had agreed to
do this, but then he said he couldn't figure out
the chords, the chord progression, so he did WI. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:23):
Yeah, So just imagine something. If you guys want to
make some pitches in the live chat, I will read them,
not necessarily take them into consideration, but if you have
a really good one, you might break through the ceiling.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
And I know it sounds like we're just killing time here,
but I really think that with the announcement, with the
announcement of the new segment, folks were keyed up, they
were ready to go. So just imagine in your head
what this would sound.

Speaker 5 (02:49):
The live viewer counting that Phil's drops are the best
part of the whole damn show.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
I know, I know, I already feel like this show's
a flop. On first head line, Phil.

Speaker 3 (03:01):
Sure thing, I'm using the slideshow for the very first time.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
They are a So this is our first headline. Rocky
Mountain National Park has too many A trails, Rocky Mountain
National Park has too many b elk Rocky Mountain National
Park has too many C visitors, or Rocky Mountain National
Park has too many D moose.

Speaker 5 (03:26):
So we're looking for the one that's that's fake, where.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
You're looking for the one that's true, for true, the
actual headline.

Speaker 4 (03:36):
Okay, I'm gonna say b elk.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
Mag says b Elk.

Speaker 5 (03:43):
God, I think I just read an article about something else,
Like I know they've had too many elk at one time,
but I think the headline might be moose.

Speaker 4 (03:53):
That was my other thoughts.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
Moose is your final answer? Brody gets it?

Speaker 6 (03:58):
Phil?

Speaker 2 (03:58):
Do we have like a ding ding ding?

Speaker 3 (04:00):
If I were a professional engineer, I would have one prepared.

Speaker 5 (04:03):
But oh gosh. Well, although I could find you a
headline that says they have too many elk, I could.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
Find you a headline that says they have too many
visitors as well. This one comes from our friends at
Outdoor Life. While moose populations are down across much of
their range in North America, Colorado is a noteworthy exception.
In Rocky Mountain National Park, wildlife managers are concerned that
a moose population growing at five percent year over year

(04:29):
is having a deleterious effect on wetland habitats and willow growth.
A single moose can consume up to forty five pounds
of willows in a day. In some areas of the
park have seen a decline of up to eighty percent
of their willows since nineteen ninety nine.

Speaker 5 (04:44):
The wolves will take care of that problem for too long,
Just give it a little time.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
I almost added wolves in there as an option, but
I thought it might be two on the nose and
perhaps you know, traumatizing or triggering to some of our audience.
Onto our second headline, here, philm can wildlife heal? Blank?
The science behind nature's unexpected remedy? The first answer is

(05:10):
a chronic pain. The second is PTSD post traumatic stress
disorder c IS autoimmune disorder d IS hypertension. What are
we think of here?

Speaker 7 (05:25):
Gang?

Speaker 2 (05:25):
What can nature heal? According to this article?

Speaker 5 (05:29):
Go ahead, Maggie, you pick yours?

Speaker 4 (05:32):
Ha I'm I'm gonna go B again PTSD.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
I'm gonna go see hmmm, well it's one to one Gang.
The correct answer is b PTSD. Thank you, Corey. Is
this show's really taken off? This one comes from sie
Tech Daily. Researchers from the University of Massachusetts studied nineteen
veterans with PTSD and observed notable psychological benefit. It's particularly

(06:01):
reduced levels of anxiety among those who engaged in visits
to wildlife sanctuaries, participated in wildlife care at rehabilitation centers,
and engaged in bird watching, according to doctor Donna Perry.
While many studies involving interactions between humans and other species
aimed at improving psychological or physical health have involved domestic animals.

(06:22):
Few studies have focused on wildlife.

Speaker 5 (06:26):
I think that's great news, but I don't think it's
new news. People have been doing, you know, like when
I was a guide, we used to do h like
wounded warrior things. Yeah, in the outdoors.

Speaker 2 (06:39):
And the news is that we have the study to
back it up. Phil Once you read me the date
on that article.

Speaker 3 (06:45):
It says March sixth, twenty five, Holy crap.

Speaker 2 (06:48):
That's today's news. Brody.

Speaker 5 (06:50):
Yeah, well, like I said, don't think it's new news, boy.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
Rocky, start here onto our third headline. I kind of
like this bit though.

Speaker 3 (07:03):
It's fun, and I would this is kind of a
dry run. If people like it, we'll be back with
bells and whistles and hopefully Brody will be more excited.

Speaker 8 (07:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (07:11):
Well, it's not that I'm not excited. Like, I like
it because I like arguing and you know, and trivia
Spencer just doesn't put up with arguing about his questions.

Speaker 4 (07:19):
So you know, I know the answer to this one.

Speaker 5 (07:25):
Yeah, this one's been all over the.

Speaker 2 (07:26):
Place, but I thought my answers are so clever.

Speaker 3 (07:31):
Well, let's let's read the headline for the audio listeners.

Speaker 2 (07:33):
Here blank for dinner California officials urge residents to eat
invasive blank Your options are skate for dinner. California officials
urge residents to eat invasive sting rays frog legs for dinner.
California officials urge residents to eat invasive bullfrogs, rodent for dinner.

(07:54):
California officials urge residents to eat invasive nutria or d
cactus for dinner. California officials urge residents to eat invasive
African prickly pair.

Speaker 4 (08:05):
It's z nutria.

Speaker 2 (08:08):
Well, we've got a tie game, gang.

Speaker 3 (08:12):
There's a sound. I found one.

Speaker 2 (08:13):
The correct is rodent for dinner. California officials urge residents
to eat invasive nutria. According to an article in the Guardian,
This call to action came during National Invasive Species Awareness
Week in late February. Neutrio were believed to have been
eradicated from the Golden State in the nineteen seventies, but
a growing population was detected in the Sacramento San Joaquin

(08:35):
River Delta in twenty seventeen. The California Department of Fish
and Wildlife has removed some five thy five hundred nutria
from these wetlands so far, and federal officials are trying
to make the consumption of nutrias somewhat enticing by drawing
similarities to the taste of rabbit or dark turkey meat. Resources,
including recipes for nutrient dishes such as stews and chili,

(08:57):
are available on nutria dot com.

Speaker 4 (09:00):
Yeah, the New York Times really didn't do a good
job of selling it. Their headline. Their headline was keep
invasive species in check. Eat a big rat like rodent.

Speaker 5 (09:12):
I think. I think the funny thing about this is
that this is coming out of California, which is like
one of the most anti hunting states in the country,
and they're like, oh, yeah, go kill these things.

Speaker 2 (09:26):
That's a lot of dead things.

Speaker 5 (09:27):
I know. But they need to call uh, they need
to call our old friend Mark Kendrick, who uh see
the chessbeak. Hemanaged Operation Rolling Thunder in the Chesapeake Bay,
which is like the only place they fully eradicated those things.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
Yeah, I gotta say, I wasn't California nutrier. We're not
on my radar.

Speaker 5 (09:50):
Yeah. I mean, they scattered those things all over the
place to create, you know, a fur industry back in
the day, I believe.

Speaker 2 (09:57):
Yeah, I will point out that there is an invasive
African prickly pair cactus called the Devil's cactus.

Speaker 5 (10:03):
Sounds nice.

Speaker 2 (10:04):
Yeah, I did a little bit of research. Uh no,
I don't think so. We don't have a tie breaker yet.
That's a little wrinkle we should add next time we
do this.

Speaker 3 (10:14):
So let's hold on. Let I just want to make
sure we have this all correct. There was no drop, yes,
no sound effects. I'll take credit for that. Yes, no tiebreaker.
How do we feel this segment went?

Speaker 2 (10:26):
You know, I like it. I think I like potential.
I think it's got real potential. Brody observed to me
yesterday when we're sort of going over this that this
would be a segment best played with some of our
less uh less news following crew members. Yes, sure, the
online Yeah, the less online people would probably have more

(10:48):
fun with this one. But I was pleased that you
both didn't get all of them right.

Speaker 5 (10:51):
Yeah. Yeah, So earn something new every day.

Speaker 2 (10:54):
Man, that's a start. Fantastic gang, Thank you. Joining us
on the line first is Rebecca Powell, the program director
for the Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation. Rebecca, welcome to the show.

Speaker 6 (11:09):
Hey, thanks for having me. Happy to be here. Great show.

Speaker 2 (11:14):
Yeah, oh, yeah, it can only go on from here.

Speaker 3 (11:16):
So I love honesty, Rebecca.

Speaker 2 (11:18):
Yeah, yeah, you're glad that said that first segment didn't
kill Huh. It's tough act to follow. First thing, can
you tell us a little bit about the Bob Marshall
Wilderness Foundation and maybe for folks that are not from
this part of the world, what the Bob Marshall Wilderness is.

Speaker 9 (11:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (11:37):
So I am the program director at the bon Marshall
Wilderness Foundation. We're a nonprofit partner of the Forest Service
and we help steward the one point six million acre
Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex.

Speaker 6 (11:48):
So the Bob Marsha Wilderness Complex.

Speaker 7 (11:51):
Is a northwest Montana kind of below Glacier National Park,
above Yellowstone and Missoula area, and it makes three wilderness areas.
So there's the Great Bear to the north, the Bob
Marshall in the middle, and the Scapegoat Wilderness on the
south end, and together that makes up the one point
six Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex that we all just refer

(12:14):
to as the Bob. So that is a little bit
about the Bob Marshall Wilderness and us as a nonprofit organization,
we're pretty small. We have seven full time, year round staff.
We've been around for almost thirty years, and you know,
the Bob Foundation started as a place for volunteers to

(12:35):
get together and help clear those secondary trails and do
some of the trail maintenance that wasn't getting done as
Foreign Service was facing those budget cuts.

Speaker 6 (12:45):
As we've evolved, you know, we've gone.

Speaker 7 (12:47):
From more than just moving dirt and now as an organization,
we do a lot of education about wilderness. We do
have a pretty robust internship program. We have some traditional
skills programs such as packing.

Speaker 6 (13:03):
We have Artists Wilderness.

Speaker 7 (13:05):
Connection program where we partner with the Hockaday Museum of
Art in the Flathead National Forest and place a few
artists in the back country each season to do some art.
And then, of course the Bread and Butter is our
volunteer program, so we have about forty projects usually each
season that we take volunteers out.

Speaker 6 (13:24):
We have anything from you.

Speaker 7 (13:26):
Know, a day like National Trails Day doing a day
of trail work, to ten day trips where you're in
the back country for ten days.

Speaker 6 (13:35):
All of them are led by one of our crew leaders.

Speaker 7 (13:37):
We provide food and pack support, all the tools, and
those opportunities are free for anybody who wants to join,
given that it's within your physical limitations to do it. Yeah,
And a lot of our work with the volunteers is
clearing trails, is brushing, you know that all they're off

(13:58):
the trails, clearing drains and improving tread. We do some
work on some of those admin cabins of the back country,
you know, rebuilding corrals, that kind of stuff.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
And there's some there's some unique challenges to that type
of work in a wilderness area. Can you tell us
a little bit about what a what a day of
trail maintenance looks like for a volunteer crew.

Speaker 6 (14:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (14:24):
So I always tell our crew leaders that they have
the hardest job within the complex because they're training new
volunteers each each week, you know, so depending on their
hitch schedule, volunteer show up at a trailhead. We have
up to eight to ten volunteers each project that meet
a crew leader at the trailhead. We have volunteer packers

(14:46):
that use horses and mules that carry in all the
food and tool and group gear into a backcountry site
and we set up a base camp and work on
that base camp for however many days the trip is
and because it's a designation wilderness, you know, no mechanized
use within the wilderness. So we're using cross cut saws, handsaws,

(15:07):
pulaskis looppers, that kind of stuff. And all the stuff
that we get is transported into the back country with
horses and mules. So it's primitive. Uh, it's uh, just how.

Speaker 6 (15:18):
We like it.

Speaker 2 (15:19):
A lot of sweat.

Speaker 6 (15:21):
It is a lot of sut and you know, volers
are they're they're into it.

Speaker 4 (15:25):
Man.

Speaker 7 (15:25):
People like to work hard and it's impressive to see
the amount of people that come out and want to
do hard work with us.

Speaker 2 (15:32):
That's great. Recently, we've been covering a lot of the uh,
the layoffs affecting our public land management agencies, the Forest
Service included. Can you can you speak to how those
cuts at the Forest Service are affecting your organization sort
of how you interface with the Forest Service.

Speaker 7 (15:54):
Yeah, there's a lot of ways that that's affecting our organization.
We are, like you know, we pride ourselves on the
relationship that we have at the Forest Service, the folks
at the district level within those others five districts that
manage the Bam Martial Wilderness Complex, and we are.

Speaker 6 (16:11):
Are close with all of them.

Speaker 7 (16:12):
So each season around January or so, we meet with
those trails and wilderness folks and ask them like, hey,
where do you guys need help?

Speaker 6 (16:20):
How can we help you get some volunteers in?

Speaker 7 (16:23):
And that's how we build our summer schedule and work
through that, and then.

Speaker 6 (16:28):
Once the field season starts.

Speaker 7 (16:29):
You know, those folks that are on the ground for
the Forest Service, those river rangers, those trail crews, those
backcountry rangers, those are the people that we're communicating with
on our trips. We're checking in on the radio every
day with those folks where they're flagging out the work
we need to do. Maybe they're out there a couple
of days before that we show up and they're flagging

(16:49):
out where to put a drain, you know, or to
clean up a campsite.

Speaker 6 (16:54):
Or that kind of stuff.

Speaker 7 (16:55):
And the complex has experienced significant workforce cuts over the
over the last few weeks.

Speaker 6 (17:02):
Uh.

Speaker 7 (17:03):
You know, Rocky Mountain Ranger District had a back country
crew of eleven and now they're down to three. Spotted
Bear is similar. They had a back country crew of
twenty something and now they're down to four or five people.
So that's going to create significant barriers for the public
and for us to be able to achieve the level

(17:25):
of work that we hope to do.

Speaker 6 (17:28):
You know, as an example, we work with the Forest Service.

Speaker 7 (17:32):
We have our seasonal workforce that we ramp up to
is about twenty six folks. That's crew leaders, that's interns,
that's packer apprentices.

Speaker 6 (17:43):
Usually we hire.

Speaker 7 (17:44):
To two wilderness river rangers to go out with the
with the river ranger out of Spotted Bear, and that
that position no longer is there, and so we can't
have those two.

Speaker 6 (17:58):
Interns go out on their own without it the supervisions.

Speaker 7 (18:01):
So we're we're readjusting, we're getting creative. We're trying to
think of ways that we can still be effective and
help out and be of service to to what's left
out there.

Speaker 2 (18:13):
Gotcha. Do you have sort of concrete plans looking forward
to the summer or are there still a lot of
uncertainties at the moment.

Speaker 7 (18:22):
Yeah, I mean there's never any concrete plans right for
Plan A, Plan B, Plan Plan D. You know, we're
always adapting for weather and whatever, injuries.

Speaker 6 (18:36):
Illness, anything.

Speaker 7 (18:38):
This is definitely a big hitch in our in our
program because of i mean shortages aside, workforce cuts aside.
Our program budget was cut fifty percent because of.

Speaker 6 (18:55):
A lot of fun thing that we get is frozen currently.

Speaker 7 (19:01):
So the funding from you know, the Great American Outdoors
Act that helps fund our interns and our trail crews
and that kind of stuff. Some of the grants that
actually fund paying for the food for our volunteers, those
are all currently frozen.

Speaker 5 (19:15):
And heya, Rebecca, that's money that was already approved to
go to you guys, correct, correct.

Speaker 6 (19:23):
That's money that's approved to us.

Speaker 7 (19:25):
That's like, for instance, the the America the Beautiful Grant
that we get that that funds our invasives crew. So
we have an invasive Species coordinator that works for us,
and he has four interns and a crew leader that
go around the complex and uh spray and map invasive
weeds all summer long. That's funded from the America the

(19:47):
Beautiful Grant, which we're in year three of a five
year grant of that, and that has been has been frozen.
So this is the time of year that we're hiring
all of our interns and placing all those folks, and
we kind of put a temporary pause on that because
we don't want to hire all these folks and then
be like, hey, guess what, we don't have the funding,

(20:10):
so you can't go.

Speaker 6 (20:11):
Out there and do the work.

Speaker 7 (20:12):
So we have decided to just keep moving on as
if we have that funding in place, and then we've
made a deadline that if we don't have you know,
confirmation and that funding at a certain time, we'll call
it off and read re.

Speaker 6 (20:29):
Group our summer schedule.

Speaker 7 (20:31):
I mean, there's like I said, there's seven of us
year round staff, and like five of us are are.

Speaker 6 (20:38):
Ready to roll up our sleeves and get in the
back country.

Speaker 7 (20:41):
You know, it's folks that still spend quite a bit
of time doing work in the back country. So we
can still do some volunteer trips, we can still do
some packing, we can do some other things. It'll just
be quite abbreviated from what we had hopes and planned.

Speaker 2 (20:57):
So, folks, if folks are in just didn't supporting your work,
how do they either go about volunteering and getting getting
out there with you guys this summer, or if they
maybe live remote or can't do trail work themselves house,
can they support your mission?

Speaker 7 (21:16):
Yeah, well, we do a lot of fundraisers right now.
We have We partner with the Telly Ride Mountain Film
Festival and do like a fundraiser and kind of circumnavigate
the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex.

Speaker 6 (21:29):
On Friday tomorrow, we have a show in Big FOURK.

Speaker 7 (21:33):
We have a show in Showdow, Montana, in Helena and
Missoula and Whitefish, So anybody can go and buy tickets
to come see us at those events, and we have.

Speaker 6 (21:45):
Raffles and fun stuff and a lot of great films
on that.

Speaker 7 (21:49):
We also have like business partners, So if you're a
business owner and you want to be part of the
of the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex and supporting that, you
can join our business become a business partner.

Speaker 6 (22:02):
A big fundraiser for us actually is our license plates.
So we have like the Bob license plates.

Speaker 7 (22:08):
It's when you go to the DMV. It's the one
with like a pack string on it. Get those on
your car. That's super supportive of us. We have monthly donations,
all kinds of different donations, you know, Like I said,
really only twenty percent of our funding comes directly from
a forest service. The rest is all donations and fundraisers
and merchandise sales.

Speaker 6 (22:28):
And all that stuff, So good deal in that any
of that support, it was great.

Speaker 2 (22:33):
And as far as the volunteer side of things, if
you know, if I get in the weight room or
get in shape and I'm ready to grab a hold
of crosscutsaw, what's my next step there?

Speaker 7 (22:46):
Yeah, So traditionally we've launched our volunteer projects by March first.
That's on pause for right now, so we get confirmation
that we have the funding to go ahead with that
and hire our crew leaders and you know, buy volunteer
food and all that stuff, and pay for the pack
support that joins us out there. Our trips are all

(23:08):
posted online on our website, on our social.

Speaker 6 (23:11):
Media will promote that once we launch those, some of
our trips fill up really fast, some of them don't.

Speaker 7 (23:19):
We like to have a large variety of trips, so
we'll have, like I said, some like just one day
trips that are like lopping or pulling weeds or something,
and then we have like I think that our most
popular trip is like a five day trip. So you
hike in, you work for two days, you have a
day off, you work for two more days or one

(23:39):
more day, and then you hike out. And those you know,
there's there's different variations of the fitness levels you need
for that, and we.

Speaker 6 (23:49):
Advertise that on our website.

Speaker 7 (23:51):
Some of them, you know, you're hiking fourteen miles into
the back huntry over a mountain pass, and that's more strenuous,
and the work you're doing is like clearing a trail
that's you know, had a significant blowdown and you're on.

Speaker 6 (24:02):
A cross put all day.

Speaker 7 (24:04):
Some of the trips that are even longer, are you
hike six miles into a backcountry site and you work
on campsite restoration and you know, getting rid of fire
rings and barry and poop and all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 6 (24:16):
That that's a little less strenuous. So we have.

Speaker 2 (24:21):
Everyone what you're selling excellent.

Speaker 5 (24:24):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (24:25):
Well, Rebecca, we I can I think I can speak
for everyone in the building that we love the Bob
Marshall Wilderness as we love all of our public lands. Uh,
and so we appreciate the work that you do and
hopefully we can maybe get a couple of us out
on a crew with you this summer the next.

Speaker 6 (24:41):
Yeah, that sounds great.

Speaker 7 (24:42):
We have partner trips too, so if you want to
just grab your friends and come join us. The whole
Meat Eater crew can come out and you can't tell
it because we're in wilderness.

Speaker 2 (24:51):
So I like that idea very much.

Speaker 6 (24:54):
Yeah, you can take some pictures.

Speaker 9 (24:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (24:56):
I appreciate you guys taking the time to hear from
us and.

Speaker 7 (25:00):
Kind of shed some light onto the work that we're
doing and our and our passion for the public land
and the place.

Speaker 6 (25:06):
And thanks for having us.

Speaker 2 (25:08):
Yeah, happy to do it, and good luck. We appreciate you.

Speaker 6 (25:12):
Thanks.

Speaker 5 (25:12):
Thanks.

Speaker 2 (25:16):
Now, here's a transition we didn't rework after a little
edit to our script.

Speaker 3 (25:20):
Hold hold on here, I'll help you out. And I
guess that's why they called it fake news. There's an
Elton John throwing something about like the pe tape or
pizza Gate, and then you know, you got yourself a
drop right there.

Speaker 5 (25:33):
Oh that's good, Phil.

Speaker 3 (25:36):
That's how the magic happens right here in this chair.
And you guys got to witness it live.

Speaker 2 (25:41):
That's great. That's that's a uh. That's an example of
someone adapting and and and you know, making it work
in the show. But I'm going to read a transition
that has not been reworked. Speaking of our new show,
Meat Eater, ros Corey, why don't you walk down the
hallway to the kitchen and see what's cooking. Oh great idea, Randall,

(26:02):
are making me hungry with all that chatter about Meat
Eater Roast walking down the hall.

Speaker 3 (26:08):
And I just want to I don't want to under
under state how how this is like a first time experience.
People are getting to see the behind the scenes Meat
Eater headquarters right now.

Speaker 4 (26:18):
Yeah, who's that Yanni juggling.

Speaker 9 (26:25):
Johnny? What's cooking? Well, I'm just tenderizing these avocados.

Speaker 1 (26:31):
In case they have to use these for a for
a part of their meal today.

Speaker 9 (26:36):
Uh what do you? May just explain what Media Roast
is doing here.

Speaker 1 (26:42):
It's Meat Eater's new competition cooking show where we have
two ordinary wild game cooks, which up to this point
have all been meet your employees, and not just the
ones that you expect to be good wild game cooks.
You've got folks like carin in here, Maggie. How well
maybe you would expect it.

Speaker 2 (27:01):
Yeah, take that cool?

Speaker 4 (27:04):
All right? Annie?

Speaker 9 (27:10):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (27:13):
What do you mean you have the challenge or the
mystery that makes their competition. Well, we have two people,
which makes the competition. But every episode there's a protein
or a chunk of meat that is unknown to the
contestants until the moment that I reveal it, and uh
like right here in this uh cast iron, mini Dutch

(27:34):
of and whatever they call these, just what meat is
for a episode we're gonna film today, So I'm gonna
reveal it to the contestants and then they're gonna have
ninety minutes to cook me and the two.

Speaker 9 (27:47):
Judges that were here, which one of them is gonna
be Maggie Huddler.

Speaker 1 (27:51):
We also have the most famous butcher I know, and
the foreman that you're judging today, and they're gonna have
ninety minutes to cook us up something delicious.

Speaker 9 (28:00):
That means the.

Speaker 1 (28:02):
Best part about this show, this is episode number four
with filming today, is that we've come to see that.

Speaker 9 (28:12):
Wild game cooking is not that hard.

Speaker 1 (28:14):
Everybody that's that's participates as far as we've ped up
some amazing stuff in an elimited amount of time, not
knowing what they had to work with when they started,
So the energy level is high or digging producing it
with us, So I'm hoping that the viewers are going
to like it too. Any questions Corey or from the

(28:36):
next door I can just walk over there too, if
you guys want to talk to me.

Speaker 2 (28:40):
Yeah, Johnest, I wonder if you're a little overconfident there
in your assessment that the show is demonstrating that wild
game cooking is not that hard. I will be joining
you there in about an hour, and I'll be taking
the helm at that stove, so I wouldn't really count
your chickens before they hatch, as the old proverb goes,
I think I might set a new standard for incompetence.

Speaker 1 (29:05):
A difficult chunk of game me for you too. You're
not going to have. I'm not giving you like an
ELF ten you're going to work with, So put your
thinking cap on.

Speaker 9 (29:15):
Randall late, Oh you hear that from Max? No, you're
in an hour, You're late.

Speaker 2 (29:23):
Oh geez, well we better wrap this sucker up then.
Anything you like to add Chili, Yeah, you know, really
rooting for you, Randall and the other contention as well.
But h who should not.

Speaker 5 (29:38):
Be named Chilly, just wants to make sure you keep
the kitchen clean while you're working.

Speaker 7 (29:42):
Yeah, Chili's going a great job remodeling this kitchen.

Speaker 9 (29:48):
Check out some beautiful.

Speaker 2 (29:49):
Artwork that's our new art gallery for those of you watching, Well,
which way this way? Sam, there's the brains behind the
whole and the creative the creative engine behind it all.
Sam might just say hi to folks instead of hiding
behind the.

Speaker 4 (30:10):
Lovely There's some real interesting stuff on that shelf behind
Sam too.

Speaker 3 (30:14):
Yeah, oh yeah, what are some interesting ingredients that these
folks have to work?

Speaker 1 (30:22):
She's attracted to the craziest stuff that is available in
the outdoors, and so she really wanted to use the
python oil. I can't remember who said this to Steve,
but unfortunately or fortunately you look at it, it's rancid.
So if you see this in an upcoming episode, you
will know that that's the person that used it.

Speaker 9 (30:43):
Lost really wanted to use it, but it did.

Speaker 4 (30:48):
Not smell good.

Speaker 9 (30:51):
Yeah, we got grizzly.

Speaker 1 (30:52):
Bear fast, which we did use some grizzly bear grease
the other day, and I wish I knew the story
on how they legally obtained it. Maybe they got it
from Alaska, I guess. But it was actually very delicious.
Oh then the Maggie anchorin the other day used bison
garum was It basically tasted like an extra rich soy sauce,

(31:15):
like like mega umami.

Speaker 4 (31:17):
Yeah, I'm really curious how that was made. I would
love to learn how to make garum It was delicious.

Speaker 1 (31:26):
We also, if you've never seen this exotic pasta from
Italy called Penny Penny.

Speaker 2 (31:33):
I thought the e was silent, just pean.

Speaker 1 (31:37):
Maybe it's randall elbow macaroni, also from Italy.

Speaker 2 (31:45):
Got any wonderbread any ketchup?

Speaker 10 (31:48):
Oh yeah, yeah, buddy, we have we have like a
crush shell.

Speaker 11 (31:52):
We have a crush shell for those that that can't
get it done with, you know, from scratch. You can
use catch up, wonderbread, that sort of stuff, and I'll
be happy.

Speaker 1 (32:03):
To eat it, but it's probably gonna cost you a
little bit of in the creativity.

Speaker 9 (32:08):
Uh point.

Speaker 2 (32:09):
You don't know what I'm gonna do with it yet.

Speaker 1 (32:11):
I don't, I don't, but I feel like that stuff's
a little bit of a crutch.

Speaker 9 (32:15):
It's a little bit of an easy button.

Speaker 2 (32:17):
Well, well, I'm gonna see what I get for my
uh mystery ingredient today and we'll just proceed from there.
How's that sound.

Speaker 9 (32:26):
We'll see it these folks.

Speaker 2 (32:29):
Okay, thank you, thank you, sir.

Speaker 4 (32:32):
Now Randall has teased me with the prospect of a
meat smoothie.

Speaker 2 (32:37):
Yes, yes, I've been told there's a blender and if
all else fails can't nail the texture on the uh
on the hot pan, it's they're going in there take
it through a straw.

Speaker 4 (32:48):
I hope I'm not drinking my meal today.

Speaker 2 (32:51):
You very well might be.

Speaker 4 (32:53):
Phil.

Speaker 2 (32:53):
What do we got for some listener feedback here?

Speaker 3 (32:55):
Yeah, because this reminder now is a good time to
submit some questions for the crew to day Maggie, Brody
and Randall. Yeah, this one was just funny to me.
When you were looking at the tv raandl someone said,
why does Randal always look like he's trying to remember
his AOL password? Which that's just that's just a funny.
That's just a funny joke.

Speaker 2 (33:12):
Yeah, you know, it's funny.

Speaker 3 (33:13):
Ryan.

Speaker 2 (33:14):
I am really bad with passwords, so this is I
usually I don't know what I look like when I'm
trying to think of I think.

Speaker 5 (33:23):
You're just making sure you're saying what you're supposed to say.

Speaker 2 (33:26):
Yeah, that's true, that's true. You know, just trying to
stick to the script.

Speaker 5 (33:30):
Speaking before you think and get you in trouble.

Speaker 2 (33:32):
We like to have a nice clean show here.

Speaker 3 (33:35):
On that note, and I'm trusting you guys right now.
I'm putting a lot of faith in in in you
for not spoiling what's coming up next week. But Wang
Gonzalez asks, if Randall wins the trivia tournament, are we
going to see some suck at Randall stickers to replace
the sucket Brody stickers.

Speaker 5 (33:52):
I we'll have to come up with something better and suck.

Speaker 2 (33:54):
It from the man himself.

Speaker 5 (33:58):
You heard it here that one's copyrighted to me.

Speaker 3 (34:05):
This is something that I'm curious about. Maybe it'll be
a short answer. But Brendan asks. He says, hey, guys,
y'all have any issues with lower turkey numbers due to predation.
My turkey flocks that I've hunted for years got decimated
by coyotes over the winter. I don't know where you are, Brendan,
but if you're still in the chat, you want to
let us know.

Speaker 5 (34:22):
Yeah, that's like very location dependent. I feel like I
would say out here, numbers are are more influenced by
the severity of winters and whether turkey flocks have access
to this Some people might not like hearing this, but

(34:43):
where turkey flocks out here have access to cattle pastures
in the winter, they're going to do a lot better.
They like getting down in that cattle pasture and pecking
through the cow poop and where they can do that,
they do pretty good. But we had a old winter
well along stratch of cold, so it's yet to be

(35:05):
seen what's going on with turkey numbers in Montana. I
can't speak to anywhere.

Speaker 3 (35:11):
Brent Brendan says he's in New Jersey by the way.

Speaker 5 (35:13):
M Yeah, I mean predation is certainly a problem, like
a net nest predation. I think you probably uh, raccoons
are doing as much damage as coyotes.

Speaker 2 (35:25):
This this might be a question to uh Caitlin for
share with our next guest.

Speaker 4 (35:30):
Oh yeah, yeah, she knows a lot about Turkey's coyotes.

Speaker 3 (35:34):
She's smiling in the waiting room. I hope that's a
good sign. Good good in the woods, asks Maggie. What's
the crat craziest article you've written for me here? And
I'll extend to like maybe maybe your favorite or something
you're you're the most proud of that people should check
out to.

Speaker 4 (35:47):
I wrote one about seafood fraud a few years ago.
I think it was titled something like hog bunk of
the sea because people will actually use hog bunk and
slice it up as calamari and sell it as calamari.

(36:08):
And there's like other instances of you know, like Chile
and sea bass. It's I forget what it was actually called.
It's like, uh something toothfish, and it's just like this
renaming rebranding. Selling seafood is something that it maybe isn't

(36:30):
just to market it to the consumer, which is really
interesting because people still consume it and buy it.

Speaker 2 (36:36):
And that name really took hold after it was served
for launch at Jurassic Park headquarters, just fictional island where
Jurassic Park was. Philly got anything else from the check?

Speaker 3 (36:55):
Does Randall like skyline Chili?

Speaker 4 (36:57):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (36:57):
I love it so much. I love so much, Austin,
Do you have any send it to me? I just
made some. I just made some fake skyline a couple
of weeks ago.

Speaker 5 (37:08):
Maybe you'll be making some in half an hour I could, Yeah, yeah,
in a blender.

Speaker 3 (37:13):
We'll see.

Speaker 4 (37:13):
Do you put beans in skyline Chili?

Speaker 7 (37:16):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (37:16):
No, you can add you can add beans.

Speaker 4 (37:19):
Beans and noodles. Seems weird.

Speaker 2 (37:22):
Yeah. So so, typically it's served in a number of ways.
You have a three way, which is chili. It's it's spaghetti,
chili and cheese. And then you can have a four
way where you either add chopped onions or beans chopped
five way where you add both, or you serve them
on a coney hot dog, little mini.

Speaker 4 (37:40):
Hot dog, hot dog with noodles.

Speaker 2 (37:42):
Oh, no, you could, but that's typically not the traditional way.
Bee Dawson. I could go on for hours about Skyline Chili.
I love it. Also a gold Star man, but Skyline
really is probably my number one.

Speaker 3 (37:55):
A question from mogor Uh. He says he finished the
new audiobook this week, the one that you made with Steve.
He really enjoyed it. Congratulations. His question is how much
research was needed for the project. And I guess, like
you could say that in terms of months, or books
or hours.

Speaker 2 (38:14):
I'll just say that that's my full time job. Trivia
and podcasts and radio live are just sort of the
icing on top, but none of that is in my
job description. It's a full time job. I don't really
know where to start with number of books, but yeah,
we probably worked on that for oh, I guess maybe

(38:37):
seven months for the first draft, and then rewrote a
bit and then recorded it probably nine months out from
when we started, So it's like a year long life
cycle basically between getting it started and then the launch
and promotion and everything.

Speaker 5 (38:54):
You're already researching the next one, aren't.

Speaker 2 (38:56):
You, in the spare time that I have. Yes, we've
got another one coming out on the Buffalo Hide Hunters,
which is kind of a subject near and dear to
Steve's heart. So that's that's been a fun one to
get started.

Speaker 3 (39:10):
There was a question regarding your crossword puzzle scores, Rano
that we haven't gotten an update in a while, but
then Spencer, our very own Spencer new Heart, responded that
Randall scores are posted at the top of every crossword puzzle.
If you go look at any of them, you'll see
his score in the first sentence. Do you know what
that means?

Speaker 2 (39:29):
Probably in the little lead in instructions thing. Yeah, So
when Spencer puts together a crossword every week, he and
Logan who plugs it into the website, give me that
link in advance. You take it first, and I take
it first, so then everybody can. And this week, let
me just point out here that this week I scored

(39:50):
a three ninety five with a record time of a
minute and thirty four seconds. Pretty proud of that one,
Thanks Spencer.

Speaker 3 (39:57):
That's great.

Speaker 2 (39:59):
Crosswords are an part of my job that aren't in
my job description.

Speaker 4 (40:02):
Curious that is because you have a superhuman ability to
get them done in that amount of time.

Speaker 2 (40:08):
I just don't have much else.

Speaker 3 (40:10):
Let's do one more on the heels. Let's do one
more on the heels of the Meat Eater behind the
scenes HQ. Yeah, this is kind of a big question
for everyone, but Michael asks, what's your favorite part of
working at Meat Eater? That could be anything from crossword
puzzles to researching mountain men for months.

Speaker 2 (40:30):
Who wants to start?

Speaker 5 (40:32):
My favorite part is turning in a finished manuscript. The
rest of it is isn't necessarily that fun, but man,
when you're like, holy shit, we're done, like that's a
good feeling.

Speaker 4 (40:44):
That's got to be satisfying.

Speaker 2 (40:46):
Yep, Maggie, I would.

Speaker 4 (40:49):
Say, just like the content that we get to work
with day in and day out is really great and fun,
and we like everyone that we work with is a
fantastic person Like, it's just a really great community here.

Speaker 5 (41:08):
I didn't think about that.

Speaker 2 (41:09):
Yeah, sorry, interrupted, I just couldn't help myself.

Speaker 4 (41:14):
No, every and every time I come into the office,
I'm reminded of like all the good folks that work here.
So that's it's nice, you don't You don't always get that,
so I try not to take it for granted.

Speaker 2 (41:26):
Yeah, I would probably echo some variation of that. I
enjoy coming into the office and just having fun all
day long.

Speaker 5 (41:37):
Like today, all you're doing is having fun all day long.

Speaker 2 (41:40):
Yeah, just make a couple of stupid jokes and act
like a buffoon. You know, A lot of jobs require
you to maintain some level of professionalism, and I like
that I can just be a weirdo.

Speaker 3 (41:54):
I'll second that.

Speaker 4 (41:55):
Yeah, let it, let it shine, just let it fly.

Speaker 3 (41:59):
Cool. Well, let's keep sending those questions in. We'll do
one more round of those at the end of the seas.

Speaker 2 (42:04):
Those are some good ones. Thank you. Joining us on
the line is Wild Turkey researcher and fur trapper Caitlin
lo Spinoso, or as some of you may know her
better on social media as old Trapper Kate. Caitlin. Welcome
to the show.

Speaker 10 (42:20):
Hi, how are you.

Speaker 2 (42:22):
We're doing great? How are you?

Speaker 10 (42:24):
I'm good mentally? Oh no, but you know we'll get there.

Speaker 2 (42:30):
Good, good, Well, Caitlin tell us a little bit. Uh,
you are a wildlife researcher and a fur trapper, and
anybody who's following along on social media knows that you've
been rather busy lately with your trapping season. Can you
just give us a quick overview of of your trapping season,

(42:51):
kind of what when that starts, when that ends, and
how hard you go?

Speaker 8 (42:56):
Yes, So it's been a crazy season. Land trapping wrapped
up here. The season closed on Friday, so I've been
taken this week for some R and R, just kind
of relaxing before I start setting for Biaber.

Speaker 10 (43:10):
We have another month of water trapping coming up here.

Speaker 8 (43:13):
So I had a great land trapping season, targeting bobcats
and coyotes. I'm trapping all on public land, so I
can't run a huge line. I probably average about twelve
sets at any given time and just run those as
I can while I'm working. And I did fantastic on bobcats.
There was a record year. I doubled my goal. I

(43:36):
was hoping I would get four. I got a nice,
amazingly spotted, just beautiful cats. Yeah, that was actually my
my last hurrah. Last week on them, I I doubled
up and that spotted one was just a beautiful tom.

Speaker 10 (43:54):
But yeah, I got nine.

Speaker 8 (43:55):
Coyotes as well, and it was it was a grind
this season.

Speaker 10 (43:59):
I really really enjoyed it, had a great time.

Speaker 2 (44:03):
Very cool. How did you get into trapping, if you
don't mind us asking.

Speaker 10 (44:07):
Yeah, very non traditionally.

Speaker 8 (44:10):
I didn't have any history of trapping in my family.
I didn't know any trappers. I just it was totally
not on my radar. But I love the grind. I
taught myself how to hunt in public land. I taught
myself how to bass fish like a pro. I just
always loved having some kind of really complex problem to

(44:30):
solve in the outdoors. And I found myself in that
kind of dead space between deer season and Turkey season,
just really trying to find something I could go hard
on and really get into. And I had the hardest
time figuring out what that could be until I went
into undergrad and I had a wildlife management course where
trapping was discussed as a method for both research and harvest,

(44:53):
and it kind of got my wheels turning. And I
actually remembered the Wyoming beaver trapping episode that that was
in I think season six of Meat Eater where Steve
snared one and it just clicked like instantly.

Speaker 10 (45:06):
I was like, that's the next step, that's it.

Speaker 4 (45:09):
I can do that.

Speaker 8 (45:10):
And I had tons of beaver in the creek bottom
that I was hunting on public, so I went in there.
It took me two days, got my first beaver, and
it just snowballed from there.

Speaker 10 (45:20):
I was. I was hooked, and now now I'm I'm doing.

Speaker 8 (45:25):
Everything that I possibly can coyote, bobcat, raccoon, possum, skunk, beaver,
hopefully otter I'll get back into.

Speaker 10 (45:35):
There's not many here where I'm at here in Kansas now.

Speaker 2 (45:38):
But these pillows here that are on the screen, those
you set those in for the auction house of otities,
if I recall.

Speaker 8 (45:47):
So, not those ones in the picture there's there's a
photo of me holding to those are the ones that
I sent in. But yeah, I started so when I
started trapping and I started out with beaver, I was
getting all these you know, beautiful pelts and looking at
the fur market obviously dried fur. It's been talked about
a lot like the fur market was just in the tank.

(46:08):
Beaver's come up a little bit with the with the.

Speaker 10 (46:11):
Western hat craze.

Speaker 8 (46:13):
But at the time, I was trying to figure out,
how can I use this fur in in kind of
a unique way that I'm going to be able to
turn more of a profit than I would if I
just sold the dried pelts to a fur buyer. And
I started thinking about, like, how can I make it
a novelty? And the first thing I thought it was like, man,
these are these would make like a.

Speaker 10 (46:34):
Really awesome throw pillow.

Speaker 8 (46:36):
So I just took, you know, I took the beaver
that I got that first season, I tandemed myself and
and I just got to making them into into pillows
and selling them on just through Facebook, and they were
selling really well. So then I thought, you know what
about Etsy if I really got a store going and
sold you know, Wallhannger pelts and you know, different fur

(46:58):
items that I could make myself. And yeah, just kind
of went from there. And those the ones that I
donated when I made them. I really loved that pair
was this beautiful, dark kind of chocolate beaver pelts and
they matched perfectly, and and I was just sitting there
like fixing them up, and I was going to the
Meat Eater Live show that night actually when I finished them,

(47:19):
and I was.

Speaker 10 (47:20):
Like, I wonder, I wonder if they would take.

Speaker 8 (47:23):
This for the auction house because I was like, that
would be a really cool thing to see. You know
how much these could get for the for the cause?
And yeah, message Spencer and he was like, yeah, we'll
take them. Heck yeah, And I was. I was super
worried that they weren't gonna do much in the in
the auction but they they actually did really well, so
that was awesome.

Speaker 2 (47:43):
Do you remember what they sold for you got that?

Speaker 8 (47:46):
I think it was eight hundred and five if I remember,
Oh nice, yeah, And I mean they were a beautiful set,
and I like, I I was going to keep them
for myself. I was like, oh, like if this can
go to to raising some money for the cause, and
obviously that's just like a super cool thing.

Speaker 2 (48:01):
To do, so very cool. We appreciate it very much.

Speaker 4 (48:04):
What do you typically sell a beaver throw pillow for?

Speaker 8 (48:10):
So I had been selling them, uh for depending on
the size, probably eighty two one hundred eighty depending because
I would make some like really little tiny ones that
are like like just a cute little thing to have,
and then I had some that were like eighteen twenty
inches that would be and depending on the backing that

(48:31):
I put on them, Like if I just did a
basic kind of corduroy backing, obviously that's much cheaper. Some
of them I did swayed, which is which is a lot. Yeah,
Spencer does confirmed eight hundred five.

Speaker 10 (48:44):
Yeah I did.

Speaker 8 (48:44):
I did swayed on those, so it was really those
were a really nice set. But yeah, I've done I've
done double sided for which is going to be the
most expensive. But yeah, the backing material adds adds a
that's a big variation.

Speaker 10 (48:59):
The value and then the side.

Speaker 4 (49:00):
Sure did you already know how to sew or did
you learn that as well?

Speaker 2 (49:05):
As same question if that's another thing you just figured
out for something to do.

Speaker 8 (49:10):
I learned to make the pillows, you know. I was like,
the idea for a pillow came into my head.

Speaker 10 (49:15):
And I was like, I don't know how.

Speaker 8 (49:17):
To stitch like a pillow cover, and so I, yeah,
I learned that on the fly, and uh, it's it's
so much fun. It's just you know, another another thing
to keep me engaged with it and do something more
with that with that fur. It really it it makes
me very happy to you know, make as much back

(49:38):
on that harvest, like make that harvest as meaningful as
possible and get as much use as it out of
it as I can.

Speaker 10 (49:45):
So yeah, I really enjoy that part.

Speaker 2 (49:48):
Very cool.

Speaker 4 (49:48):
It's impressive.

Speaker 2 (49:50):
So how are the critters in your neck the woods
doing this year? What are your takeaways from the season
as far as hair and hides and the health of
the health of the populations.

Speaker 10 (50:02):
Yeah, so they've been They were really really healthy. Started
the year.

Speaker 8 (50:07):
The coyotes were as about as fatty as I've seen
them and super primed up.

Speaker 10 (50:12):
They stayed prime all the way through the end of
the season.

Speaker 8 (50:15):
On Friday, I think, you know, obviously it was just
talked about we had a really hard winner. The last
couple winners have been kind of mild to where getting
into February they would already have some rubs and and
just losing.

Speaker 10 (50:30):
Those guard hairs.

Speaker 8 (50:31):
But this season they were they were primed like I
have not seen since I've been here. This is my
third season trapping here, so they're they were just fantastic.

Speaker 10 (50:42):
I was. I was over the moon with it, especially like.

Speaker 8 (50:45):
Friday, I picked up my last coyote of the season
and she I was expecting her to have rubs and stuff,
but she was still super prime. So this this is
not a I mean, Kansas, it's not you know, a
top tier first date usually. But the animals that I
pulled this year were very very well, doing very well,

(51:07):
very cool. Yeah, they had some I saw some crazy injuries,
which I sent in a picture of one that that
coyote that I pulled on Friday, she was super big, healthy.
You wouldn't have thought that anything was wrong with her.
And when I got to skinning her got down to
her face and I hit metal and I was like,
oh gosh, right around her eye, I hit metal, So

(51:27):
I like pull the skin back and there's a broadhead
sticking out of her eye socket. Wow.

Speaker 10 (51:32):
She was just gnarly.

Speaker 8 (51:34):
It was just when I got in there and started
digging around, it was just sitting under her eyeball Like.

Speaker 2 (51:40):
Yeah, thank you.

Speaker 8 (51:43):
Yeah, you could not tell that anything was wrong. She
had like a little lump under her eye that was
healed over, scabbed over, And when I got to skinning,
I hit metal and I could not figure out what
it was and had to clean it up before I
could see that it was a broadhead. But yeah, you
wouldn't have known her. Her one eye was like up
a little higher than the other because it was resting

(52:03):
on the broad head. But the eye wasn't punctured like
she was. She was doing great. So yeah, pretty crazy stuff.
They're they're tough and they they made it through very
well this year despite the harch weather.

Speaker 4 (52:17):
So oh yeah, that's incredible.

Speaker 2 (52:21):
Well, thank you for joining us. I know you've got
to rest up before you kick off your your spring
beaver trapping, so appreciate the update and we will check
in with you again here soon.

Speaker 10 (52:33):
Yeah, sounds good. Thank you, Thank you for having me.

Speaker 2 (52:39):
Our next segment is Meat Eater Movie Club. Thank you.
Phil Jean Jacques Anoud's nineteen eighty eight feature The Bear

(53:02):
offers a mesmerizing glimpse into the wilderness through the eyes
of its ersine protagonists. This largely dialogue free film follows
an orphaned cub who forms an unlikely dare I say,
unnatural bond with an adult male grizzly while fleeing human
hunters in the Canadian wilderness. The arc of the film,
though simple, carries surprising emotional weight. We witness terror, playfulness, curiosity,

(53:25):
and tenderness through the bear's experiences. In my own reading
of the film, the human hunters or portrayed not as
unredeemable killers, but as yet another species on the landscape,
prisoners of their own nature, which adds a layer of
moral complexity to the tale. But all else, the Bear
is a noteworthy technical achievement in the underappreciated genre of
animal movies, anod somehow elicits authentic performances from real bears,

(53:51):
only rivaled in my mind by the profound work of
Sam the orangutan in as the title character in the
nineteen ninety six comedy Dunstan checks In. The Bear manages
to create moments of genuine emotion without excessively anthropomorphizing its subjects,
although I think we might have some discussion on that later.
I did add the qualifier excessively. The film stunning cinematography

(54:13):
captures both the brutal reality and sublime grandeur of nature
as it is red in Tooth and Claw. Most remarkable
is the film's successful execution of what can only be
described as the peculiar artistic vision of its French director.
Ant had long been fascinated by nonverbal communication and specifically
sought to make an animal the lead character in a

(54:34):
psychological drama, a revolutionary concept that challenged conventional Hollywood wisdom.
He boldly inverts the traditional literary conflict type of man
versus beast, placing humans as the antagonists rather than the protagonist.
Whereas films like The Gray Parentheses Media to Radio Live
Episode two position large conivores as an existential threat to

(54:57):
human survival, and those like The Edge Fanentheses Media to
Radio Live Episode fifteen employ them to heighten familiar conflicts
rooted in the human experience, The Bear elevates animal consciousness
to the narrative center. This radical perspective shift forces viewers
to confront uncomfortable questions about our fundamental relationship with wildlife
and our place within nature's hierarchy. The Bear is a

(55:20):
unique cinematic experience, particularly after a few glasses of wine.
It's a testament to the power of filmmaking that transcends
language barriers to speak directly to our primal understanding of survival, family,
and the wilderness. Phil I appreciate your screen grab there. Now,
what do the critics say? Roger Ebert gave this film

(55:42):
three out of four stars and had this to say
about the dialogue of the hunters quote. Their words are
not meant to be language, but simply the sounds made
by the animal named man. And I have a couple
of quick facts for you here. It's based on a
nineteen sixteen called The Grizzly King. Brody characterized it as

(56:04):
a book written by a repentant French.

Speaker 5 (56:06):
Guilman guil Frenchman.

Speaker 2 (56:09):
It was filmed over nineteen weeks in the Dolomites in
Italy with three actors, twenty three bears, and lots of
other critters. They had to teach this bear how to
fish because he had been living in captivity in Utah
and didn't have experience with fishing, so they hired a
guy to come on set every day and release a
fish into the pond. But the bear was initially afraid

(56:30):
of the fish. And then this is my final note here.
This one might go on a little bit. One day
during production, Bart the bear injured a nod while the
two posed for photographers. A Nod's wounds, which included claw
marks on his back, had to be drained with a
shunt for two months. Then I happened to find this
quote from an interview. I believe it's translated from the

(56:51):
original French. So I'll do my best. I was a
very good friend of Zibert. One days, the photographer had
to make the use you a picture of the director
and z star this film. I had to show that
my star was huge, so I stood on a little mound.
Of course, all that protected me was a flimsy fence.
So I went into his part his domain. I was standing,

(57:14):
but he was so high I could not see his head.
To make it even more apparent, I decided to squat.
I always carry my viewfinder, you know, I took it
like this. He had never seen my viewfinder. I immediately
understood that I did something wrong. Ooh la la. He
didn't add that I did. He leaned down with his
mouth open. That means you're not my friend. I knew

(57:36):
what to do. I decided to go limp bin.

Speaker 5 (57:40):
A great German accent.

Speaker 2 (57:42):
I really tried not to make this German brand.

Speaker 3 (57:44):
It's really good. You're you're kind of towing the line.
I'd say it's more French than German, though I'm giving
you credit.

Speaker 2 (57:48):
He stroked me on the shoulder and I went six
seven meters down. I heard his mouth go ek ek
ek eck. His trainer says okay, good boy, good boy.
Clearly he too wanted to kill the director. The stench
was incredible. I felt he missed an opportunity and crab.

(58:10):
I felt that this was my mistake. Very Fortunately, I
had read the book called Bear Attacks, and they explains
that the only survivors.

Speaker 3 (58:17):
Of a bear attack now it's very German, were.

Speaker 2 (58:21):
Those who were playing dead. Apparently that was the only
time I was a good actor that's German, when I
was playing dead, so I trusted that I was dead.
The last two months of shooting. I had to go
to the hospital every morning and evening after the shoot,
as I was seriously wounded. Otherwise I should be in
a wheelchair today. The very touching thing is that for

(58:43):
the z rest of the shoot, Bear never met my
eyes again. Each time I was moving on Z set,
he looked away like a dog feeling guilty.

Speaker 4 (58:53):
Well done, Randall.

Speaker 2 (58:55):
So I just thought that was too good not to share.
And we couldn't play the video because it's in French, so.

Speaker 5 (59:01):
Well you could have translated in that voice.

Speaker 2 (59:03):
What do you guys think of the movie?

Speaker 5 (59:06):
Here? Big Picture to have a hard time calling it
a movie. I think it's propaganda at best.

Speaker 4 (59:15):
Answer, finest sleep.

Speaker 5 (59:18):
It's like it's like nature good Man, bad, Hunting worse
and uh. Like we were talking about Roger Ebert's Uh.
Roger Ebert's review, that man, who was a very respected
movie critic when he was still alive, said like part

(59:39):
of his review is like it gives you a glimpse
into how bears live, which tells you, like how much
that guy knows about like how bears live. Like, I
would add more respect for this movie if it was
a Disney channel or a Disney movie where the bears
talked and they had the funny raccoon sidekick that followed
him around, Like it would have been better if it

(01:00:02):
was done that.

Speaker 4 (01:00:03):
Way, right, I would have more respect for this movie
if they didn't use a monkey and a child the
noises that the cub makes, because if you haven't watched
the bear the entire time, the cub is just.

Speaker 2 (01:00:23):
Like making these So that.

Speaker 4 (01:00:28):
I looked it up, it was either a monkey or
a child making those noises.

Speaker 2 (01:00:32):
In my notes here, right between the note that says, oh,
this is too sad and the note that says steep
ass country, I have a note that says this bear
is giving off strong monkey vibes.

Speaker 4 (01:00:42):
So monkey or child, so they.

Speaker 2 (01:00:44):
Couldn't just set the noises were bad.

Speaker 4 (01:00:46):
The noises were bad. I think it like the cinematography
in the movie is beautiful.

Speaker 3 (01:00:51):
And it's it's really striking.

Speaker 4 (01:00:54):
Yeah, like this movie looks looks incredible, like the Dolomites.
It's it's really cool. And I think if they just
had like music, like a good score, I think it
would be a lot more powerful than these horrid whimpering.

Speaker 3 (01:01:10):
It's something else. The bear either that. The fully work
overall is kind of rough. There's the very beginning when
the mom is cleaning off her cub with her tongue
and it sounds like a human being slurping jelly.

Speaker 2 (01:01:21):
Yeah. Now, Phil, For for those of us who aren't
in showbiz, folly is a.

Speaker 3 (01:01:26):
Oh yes, fully. A fully artist is someone who records
sounds after the movie is shot, basically fake sounds. Not
I mean the sounds aren't fake, but.

Speaker 5 (01:01:34):
Something you have a lot of experience with.

Speaker 9 (01:01:36):
I do.

Speaker 3 (01:01:36):
Yeah, I not just at meat Eater, but for for
TV shows I worked. I worked on Mountain Men on
the History Channel and all those footsteps you hear through
the snow are my footsteps walking through snow. That's fully
something after the fact, and then plug it in in
the I.

Speaker 2 (01:01:51):
Think the moments like that are my favorite part of it.

Speaker 5 (01:01:54):
I think this movie should have ended with the folly
of that male grizzly crunching that cub skull. That's like,
that's how it would have ended in real life.

Speaker 4 (01:02:04):
Yet not the cub licking the bullet wound.

Speaker 3 (01:02:07):
Yeah, I mean, that was.

Speaker 2 (01:02:08):
My least favorite part of it. Was just the dynamic
between the cub and the bore. But otherwise there were
a lot of times where if I wasn't paying attention
to what was coming out of the speakers, I was
just like, man, I'm looking at some bears doing bear
stuff in beautiful country.

Speaker 4 (01:02:24):
But the bear acting was really impressive, and apparently Bart
the bear almost got an oscar for not killing the
cub like that specifically.

Speaker 2 (01:02:36):
Yeah, I mean, I there's also a there's a whole
book about how they made this, and there's also a
fifty minute documentary on YouTube of behind the scenes footage
and it's ship I skimmed through it, and you get
to see the trainers trying to stimulate the bears into
making different faces and then sort of leading them around,

(01:02:57):
through their through their steps on the scene, you get
to see the lion.

Speaker 4 (01:03:01):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (01:03:02):
I think Bart the bear was better in Legends of
the Fall when he rips up. Brad Pitt agreed.

Speaker 2 (01:03:07):
Totally, totally. But I think one of the things that
bothered me the most. I mean, my notes are just chaos.

Speaker 10 (01:03:14):
Same.

Speaker 5 (01:03:16):
Were you just watching a movie with a coldie in
your hand writing stuff down? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:03:21):
Yeah, and uh, it was not a movie that I
felt I had to pay particularly close attention to. But
when he's cleaning the gun and there's not it's like
this beautiful gun and he's got the action open and
there's not like a drop of grease.

Speaker 9 (01:03:36):
On it anywhere.

Speaker 2 (01:03:37):
There's no grime or grid anywhere. That was the thing
that just jumped out to me the most.

Speaker 5 (01:03:41):
You appreciated that, or you felt it was it.

Speaker 2 (01:03:44):
Was unrealistic for that guy, the way that guy looked.
I don't think his gun was as clean as it was.

Speaker 4 (01:03:50):
I don't think you would have had that pretty of
a gun either. I think this was like French director
wanting to have this like, yeah, he's a bear hunter,
he has a bear gun. As this pile of dead
bears that the cub lays on, you know, like, but
I did think it was a really cool gun. Yeah,
And I looked it up and apparently it's Tom. Is

(01:04:12):
this man's name Tom? I'm assuming you didn't pick that
up in.

Speaker 2 (01:04:15):
The no French reading the Wikipedia.

Speaker 4 (01:04:19):
Same, So this is Tom and that's a Winchester eighteen
sixty six Yellow Boy rifle, which is a very cool
name for a very cool gun. I believe it was
forty four rim fire.

Speaker 5 (01:04:33):
Not one you'd want to be shooting a grizzly with.

Speaker 2 (01:04:35):
Well, clearly when you know the one. The other note
I have.

Speaker 4 (01:04:40):
When he cuts the tips of the bullets.

Speaker 2 (01:04:42):
When he shoots, No, when he shoots the bear and
he goes, the guy goes, oh, you spooked him, And
I was just saying that you usually don't. If someone
shoots something in the front half and there's a big,
gaping wound, you usually don't call it spooked. Right You
hit it, Yeah, you hit it, and probably greenviously wounded it.
But spooked was the the word choice of the the

(01:05:04):
screenwriter there.

Speaker 4 (01:05:05):
So, and then the bear goes on to kill a mule, yeah,
like seriously, and you're a horse and then leave.

Speaker 2 (01:05:12):
I wrote here.

Speaker 3 (01:05:13):
Also like how the guy said my gun jam after.
I don't know how that affected it.

Speaker 2 (01:05:18):
I wrote, uh, I wrote horse wounds are wild because
they did have a lot of animal blood in this film.

Speaker 4 (01:05:27):
On the dog guts.

Speaker 5 (01:05:29):
Yeah, what about the sex scene?

Speaker 4 (01:05:31):
Oh my gosh, there was there speaking of animal noises.
There did not need to be that level of grunting.
It was unnecessary.

Speaker 5 (01:05:39):
It's like a regular old movie with a sex scene.

Speaker 4 (01:05:42):
Yeah, and the kid just watching with a.

Speaker 5 (01:05:44):
Kid watching, Yeah, that that.

Speaker 2 (01:05:47):
You can't do that if humans are your protagonists.

Speaker 5 (01:05:49):
No, you can't. You can't.

Speaker 2 (01:05:52):
So would you recommend this film?

Speaker 5 (01:05:57):
It's so hard for me. Like when Mike boys were younger,
they would have watched it and probably enjoyed it, but
I wouldn't have been able to watch it with them
because I'd just been like, that's not right, that's not yeah,
that's not right. That would never So, I mean, it's
a it like has its moments, I guess, but no.

Speaker 4 (01:06:17):
Look when I was like ten years old, when I
was a child, I watched Old Yeller on repeat. That
was like my go to movie.

Speaker 5 (01:06:25):
That's some real shit there.

Speaker 4 (01:06:27):
That is some real shit. But I also enjoyed, Like
do you guys ever see Wild America.

Speaker 5 (01:06:33):
Yeah, Marky Stove, Yeah was that his name?

Speaker 4 (01:06:36):
I think, Yeah, with really really awful animatronic bears. But
like I loved that as a kid.

Speaker 5 (01:06:43):
Isn't that the guy had got in trouble for like
for Raisin Bears.

Speaker 4 (01:06:47):
Yeah, yeah, for like staging Wildlife.

Speaker 2 (01:06:50):
Yeah, if this movie is ninety seven minutes long, there's
probably fifty minutes of it that I could clip out
and just play on repeat with a different sound. And
I just glance over at the monitor every now and
then when I'm watching an NBA game and they go
to a TV timeout and I could just watch the
bears kind of moving across the landscape.

Speaker 4 (01:07:08):
I would have been this would have been my jam.

Speaker 3 (01:07:13):
Yeah, Randall, you said that you watched a little behind
the scenes documentary and saw some kind of wild stuff. Yes,
like what, I'm sorry, Well, I just suggest you, like
like there's some scenes where they use puppets or how
they were kind of like they had the bears chained up,

(01:07:34):
so they did use.

Speaker 2 (01:07:35):
Like puppet or animatronic bears for some of the fighting scenes,
but otherwise it's just real bears.

Speaker 4 (01:07:42):
And yeah, they were in the dream scenes.

Speaker 2 (01:07:45):
In the dream scenes, Yeah, when he eats, the Mario mushrooms,
the Super Mario mushrooms and just goes wild. That reminded
me of the time that I went to Chuck E Chee.
When I went to Chuck E Cheese and I was
much too old to go to Chuck E Cheese and
the animatronic animals kind of pop out of the wall
and there's purple lights flashing around.

Speaker 5 (01:08:03):
Age uncomfortable, horrible.

Speaker 2 (01:08:04):
Flashbacks to that, But yeah, they they I mean to
move the animals around. They had chains on them, and
they would kind of like walk them on the rocks,
like across the river, and like you could see them
sort of setting the bear on that piece of wood
that he floats down on. It was pretty weird stuff,
pretty weird stuff, but also interesting. I think that brings

(01:08:27):
us the end of Meat Eater Movie Club. Another flawlessly
executed segment until I dropped Phil's little prompt there at
the end. But I think it turned out all right. Phil,
what's the chat saying?

Speaker 3 (01:08:40):
Well, there was a funny little conversation that happened. Canadian
Hunter asked us, now that you no longer have an internate,
are you looking for a new Internnate? I'm assuming Canadian
hunter's name is Nate. And then our very own internate
Pipe piped in and said, intern isn't a title, it's
a way of life. Wants an internate, always an internate,
and then Spencer said, get back to work, Nate. I

(01:09:02):
just thought that was funny. Jack's fishing asks that his
kids or her kids love Meat Eater trivia? Is there
any more coming up soon? There will be more Meat
Eater Kids episodes this summer. We are currently in pre
production on those sighting, so stay tuned. And honestly, that
was pretty much the only question we got between the.

Speaker 5 (01:09:24):
Last No reactions to the movie.

Speaker 3 (01:09:27):
A lot of a lot of reactions. I don't know.
I don't know if a lot of people watched watch
the movie, so they didn't have a lot to say,
but they had a lot of a lot of comments,
mostly suggesting new movies like Leland suggested the legacy of
a White til Yeah, there's been a lot of hundreds
of beavers suggestions and that's a that's a newer movie,

(01:09:48):
so that might be kind of fun to do.

Speaker 2 (01:09:49):
Yeah, that is one that's on the list. Corey has
been helping us curate our selections.

Speaker 3 (01:09:55):
So jess A cow Guys said that Brody was the
only one old enough to see it by himself. It
isn't true. This movie came out in nineteen eighty eight.
I Randall was alive. I believe, I.

Speaker 2 (01:10:05):
Bet I was two years old.

Speaker 5 (01:10:07):
Yeah, and it's just like ben like it's people are
still wi like it's been around.

Speaker 4 (01:10:12):
It's on Amazon, yeah right.

Speaker 2 (01:10:14):
Yeah, it's very accessible for those of you with an
Internet connection.

Speaker 5 (01:10:18):
Like people think they can hit me with those age
jokes and I'm telling you it doesn't. Just like it
just doesn't matter. Give up, Brody.

Speaker 3 (01:10:28):
Also, Spencer pulled a guy and another good one and
wished you a very happy birthday today, Brody, Happy birthday, Brody?

Speaker 5 (01:10:35):
What's that?

Speaker 3 (01:10:36):
Spencer wished you a happy birthday in the chat? You
have a lot of happy birthday messages from people, so
I just thought i'd extend that to hear.

Speaker 4 (01:10:42):
I didn't fall for it this time, Spencer.

Speaker 5 (01:10:45):
I'm not following Spencer.

Speaker 3 (01:10:47):
Spencer everything about once every once a month, Spencer wishes
happy birthday to someone in the chat, and it's when
it's not their birthday, and he gets a kick out
of it.

Speaker 5 (01:10:55):
And I'm glad he.

Speaker 3 (01:10:57):
Brody doesn't I'm glad.

Speaker 2 (01:11:01):
Well gang. Before we go, Brody's got a special call
to action for you folks out there.

Speaker 5 (01:11:07):
Yes, Surrey, for the twenty twenty six calendar, we are
doing another e fed Up Old calendar this year. It
is going to be efed up old trucks, which you
should interpret as e fed up old hunting rigs. So
we'll be taking submissions kids, if you're listening, close your ears.

(01:11:29):
The email to submit photos of your fucked up old
hunting truck is fucked Up Old Trucks at the meat
eater dot com. We are this year the calendar, we're
going to donate a portion of the sales to back
huntry hunters and anglers so they can keep on fighting
these attacks on public lands. So that that's like, that

(01:11:52):
reason alone is why you should buy the calendar. But
they'll be they'll end up being some really cool photos
of old trucks and and we'll sort through them. We'll
get a bunch of them, hopefully. Then we're gonna have
run a little contest for the fans where they can
hop on the website and choose, will narrow down the
selection to whatever fifty or one hundred that we like,

(01:12:15):
and then then our fans can hop on the web
page and vote, and those the ones that that get
the most votes will end up in the calendar.

Speaker 3 (01:12:25):
And this is an example of a fucked up old truck,
and you can tell that it's actually in pretty good shape,
but it's got a lot of character.

Speaker 5 (01:12:31):
Yes, it's yea an example to chop down suburban I
believe if you would like an insane conversation about the
parameters of this prompt, please listen to Monday's Oh Yeah. Next,
we're telling Steve and I how to make the calendar
that Steve and I are making that great.

Speaker 2 (01:12:46):
I wasn't telling you make the calendar. Well, gang, it's
been fun and we're running a little over time, So
with that, I think we will bid you ado. Thanks
for tuning in, and we'll see you here next week
live for media to HQ. Signing off,