EP 11 | Season 1 Wrap-up!

What happens when two outdoor guys slow down and start asking bigger questions? In this season finale, TJ and Daniel reflect on the journey so far, sharing key lessons from their guests and their own challenges along the way.

From Alan’s reminder that “we are what we eat,” to Angela’s perspective on how nature makes us confront what matters most, to Danny’s advice to “put the fishing pole down” and be present—recurring themes of intentional living, slowing down, and reconnecting to the land emerge.

The hosts open up about their own struggles balancing modern life with a desire to reclaim “forgotten ways”—the skills, rhythms, and simplicity that past generations lived by. Rather than chasing perfection, they encourage small, meaningful shifts toward a healthier, more intentional life.

Looking ahead, Season Two will dive into summer outdoor adventures with folks who are actively living this out—whether it’s on the water, in the woods, or out on the farm. Join us as we continue exploring what it means to slow down, steward well, and live with purpose in a busy world.

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What is the Natural Obsession Podcast all about?

Growing up, we all had those moments in nature that stuck with us—whether it was a quiet walk in the woods or a grand adventure. On Natural Obsession, it’s our desire to bring those moments to life. As we talk to people from all walks of life we will learn how they fell in love with the outdoors, the different ways they enjoy it today, and explore how we can work together to ensure these spaces are around for years to come. It’s all about sharing memories from the outdoors and ensuring future generations can make their own.

To find out more about Natural Obsession and hosts, Daniel Emison and TJ Virden, visit our website at https://www.natob.co/.

If you have questions about episodes or have guest recommendations please email us at [e-mail].

Follow us on social media to keep up with upcoming guests and episode info:

• Natural Obsession on Facebook
• @NatObPodcast on Instagram

Episode Transcript

TJ (00:07):
Hi, this is TJ Virden, this is Daniel Emison and this is the
Natural Obsession Podcastwhat's up,

Daniel (00:24):
what's up

TJ (00:27):
you doing?
Okay, today

Daniel (00:28):
Doing great

TJ (00:29):
feels like it's been a while since we've done this.

Daniel (00:31):
Yeah, we took a little break there.
Yeah, get everything lined up.

TJ (00:35):
Yeah, been busy with work.
You have too.

Daniel (00:38):
Yeah, very busy Busier than I want to be

TJ (00:40):
yeah.
We still got some progress tomake as far as slowing down
ourselves.
It looks like.

Daniel (00:45):
Yeah, we still got some progress to make as far as
slowing down ourselves.
It looks like yeah.

TJ (00:47):
We're still in the journey with everybody else here.

Daniel (00:48):
That's okay, I think, yeah, we know where we're going.
We just got to be intentionaland get there.

TJ (00:53):
Yeah, well, what do you got for us today?

Daniel (00:56):
So just wanted to wrap up season one, jump on here and
thank everybody for listening toour episodes.
We've loved the support and andthanks.
Yeah, thank you everybody, wedidn't really know where this
was going to go.
It was on our mind to dosomething more in line with our
beliefs, and this is kind ofwhat came of it.
We knew we wanted to havehonest conversations with people

(01:18):
who love outdoors.
They're out there actuallydoing it and talking about it.

TJ (01:22):
Yeah, yeah.
It's definitely been a passionfor a while, something we wanted
to get into, and now we're intoit.
We didn't know what we weredoing when we got started.
Still don't know really whatwe're doing Trying harder and
harder.
Interviewed some really coolguests, had a lot of good
feedback from friends and peoplewho know us Really.
That's where our listening baseis right now.
I was just looking.
We do have some peoplelistening from Germany and

(01:44):
Oklahoma, michigan, places.
I don't even know who they arelistening

Daniel (01:47):
Probably family traveling.

TJ (01:48):
It may be Maybe at this point, who knows?
But thank you everybody for,wherever you're at, listening to
us and supporting us so far.
We're looking forward to aseason that we got coming up
soon.
Before we go into that, I thinkwe'll maybe rehash some of the
episodes and some things thatwe've learned along the way,
some things that we got from ourguests and takeaways.

Daniel (02:10):
Yeah, I think it's been more rewarding than we initially
thought it would be.
I don't really like beingbehind the microphone or on
camera, but we've met somereally cool people.

TJ (02:20):
Yeah, it's definitely been an opportunity to grow.
It's been cool to talk to thedifferent people that we've
talked to.
If you want to go into somethings that we've got from that,
I'm cool to do that.

Daniel (02:31):
Yeah, I guess what sticks to me most we've talked
about, I lean toward the healthaspect of it.
When Alan was talking about weare what we eat eats, that
really hits home.
That's a good message for a lotof people to think about.
It's just awesome seeing themout there really doing the work,
putting in the time and makingthat happen.

TJ (02:51):
It was really cool to hear them talk about the way that
they're raising their food andkind of getting back to some
forgotten ways there, and theway that we raise our animals

(03:12):
with the rotational grazing andeating grass instead of being
grain fed every meal that theyhave.

Daniel (03:19):
Yeah, we've talked about native grasses, stewarding the
forest and those kinds of things.
It all ties together.
They're feeding their animalsnative grasses for the most part
, and being intentional with theland use, being good stewards
of the land.
I think it's important, nomatter if you have a little bit
of land, a lot of land, there'sways to incorporate that.

TJ (03:38):
From that first episode on, we talked about how my time in
nature is reflecting on deathnot in a morbid way, but coming
for all of us eventually and sohow we live between now and
death.
That was Angela's words to us.
We've heard that repeated fromdifferent guests in different
ways throughout the season.
Jez talked about doubling downand being intentional with those

(03:58):
people, that we spend time withour family.
Making sure that we're doingthat in episode three with the
waterfall chasing

Daniel (04:05):
yeah and take those things out of life that aren't
adding value to you, really beintentional with your time, and
we've talked about that severaltimes yeah,

TJ (04:13):
like he was saying, putting those things in your life into
three piles the things that youcan discard, the things that you
may want around but don'treally need, and then the things
that you really need yeahthat's something I feel like we
as a family are doing all thetime is trying to figure out
what's important and what's not.
That's part of this wholejourney that we're on is getting
back to a more natural,sustainable way of doing things.

Daniel (04:34):
It is.
We live in a very busy world.
It doesn't cater to slowingdown and being intentional with
your time.
I like the journey of slowingdown.
It's hard, though yeah.

TJ (04:48):
Danny in our episode two we named that one put the fishing
pole down because he was talkingabout his son just being more
intentional with that time andsome of the best time that he
had fishing was when he wouldput that fishing pole down and
focus on time with his soninstead of catching a fish doing
things that he was wanting.
I have a hard time with that.
It's really hard for me to notbe doing what I want to do and
be intentional with my family orthings.

Daniel (05:08):
Yeah,

TJ (05:08):
I'm a doer

Daniel (05:08):
.
I kind of think that's humannature, though, yeah, kind of
selfish.

TJ (05:12):
Yeah, definitely I am, I admit it.

Daniel (05:15):
That kind of makes me think of the episode with Paul.
He wasn't really slowing down,he was a busy guy but he was
very intentional with who he wasspending his time with.
He has those stories from thepast with those people.
Still today he still talksabout them.
So, he wasn't slowing but hewas definitely intentional with
his time and who he was around.

TJ (05:35):
Yeah, the people that he coon hunted with.
The people that he fished, withthe people that he was canoeing
with Randy and the girls.
All of his stories includedpeople that were important to
him, valuable to his journeyyeah,

Daniel (05:47):
something kind of off the rails that I just thought
about.
I'm always interested to hearpeople from his generation talk
because they have so many lifeskills, so many experiences.
It's just very interesting tome.

TJ (06:01):
Yeah, it's almost like a forgotten way of living from
generation to generation thethings that we forget.
I know dad always says I'veforgotten more than you'll ever
know.
I feel like that.
That's true with eachgeneration.
There are things that we forgetand leave behind.
We are modernizing everythingthat we do and we're leaving
behind some valuable things.
That's part of what we'retrying to pick back up in this

(06:22):
podcast.

Daniel (06:23):
Yeah, maybe they had more skills because they had to
have those skills to survive.
Now you get into your job andyou do that thing really well.
You try to get me to build adeck brother.
That thing ain't going to stand.
I love that the podcast ismaking us think about these
things.
Hopefully making other peoplethink about these things.

TJ (06:41):
Yeah, I've heard from several people already who have
said that different episodeshave made them want to get
outside and slow down indifferent things, so I think
it's happening.

Daniel (06:48):
Yeah, I think if we can just put little nuggets in
people's brains, maybe it'llchange.

TJ (06:55):
Yeah, it's not about getting there all at once, but for most
of us it's more of a slow,gradual thing.
Yeah, good or bad.

Daniel (07:03):
I think we could jump in both feet, but it's hard
without a drastic, life-alteringchange coming along.

TJ (07:10):
Yeah, I think so too.

Daniel (07:13):
You want to talk about our next season?

TJ (07:15):
I think so.

Daniel (07:16):
We've kind of put out some posts about working on
season two.
We're lining up our guests forthat.
Sure, getting our vision forthat ironed out.

TJ (07:24):
Yeah, maybe leaning a little less on experts, a little more
on individuals that are actuallyout there doing some of the
things that we've talked aboutin this season.
It is the summer and soexploring new ways to get
outside, slowing down, creatingthose spaces with family, is
going to be the focus.
Talk to some canoers orkayakers, fishermen, horse

(07:44):
riders all those things that wedo in the summer and encouraging
people to get out there andmake those times.
It's hard, as busy as we are tomake those times.
I know we've been wanting to gocanoeing on the Buffalo for a
while and just haven't made thattime.
I've told the wife we've got toget the kids out, because
they've never been on a canoetrip down to Buffalo or anywhere
like that.

Daniel (08:04):
We've done some rafting with the girls, but no canoe
trips.
We need to line that up and doit.

TJ (08:06):
That's what we want to encourage people to do is make
that time to get outside.

Daniel (08:11):
If you've enjoyed any of this first season.
Keep following along andsupporting our journey.
We'd love your help to spreadthe love of the podcast.
Reach out to any friends thatyou think would like it.
If we've said something that'smade a difference in your way of
thinking, we'd love for you toreach out.
That'd be awesome.
The project's just gettingstarted.
We're hoping to do a lot of bigthings with it.

(08:32):
Just glad you are a part of it.
Keep following along for freshconversations from Season 2.

TJ (08:38):
Thanks for listening.

Daniel (08:40):
That's it for this week's episode.
Thanks for hanging out with us.
If you like the show, you canfind more at natobco or follow
us on Instagram at natobpodcast,or find us on Facebook at
Natural Obsession.
We'll see you there.