Mississippi Outdoors Podcast

Stafford Shurden has been a farmer, a duck guide, a county judge for 14 years, a restaurant owner, an author, and is now one of Mississippi's most recognized faces on social media — all from eating gas station food off the tailgate of his truck.

He also tells the story of the Delta Wings Festival — a duck call competition on a floating duck blind in the dead center of the Delta — and how he convinced Governor Haley Barbour to na...

Mississippi State environmental historians Jim Giesen and Mark Hersey join the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast to talk about something every hunter and landowner should understand — the history of the land they're on.

They walk through how the Mississippi Delta went from dense forest to farmland after the Civil War, how whitetail deer nearly went extinct in Mississippi, and how the shift from cotton to soybeans quietly became one o...

Malcolm Reed of How to BBQ Right and Killer Hogs BBQ joins the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast to talk about how he built one of the most recognized barbecue brands in the country — starting from a trailer in Southaven and his wife's kitchen bowls.

Malcolm shares the full story: competitive barbecue in the Memphis area, a leap of faith with six months of severance money, making seasoning by hand and selling it out of his house, and...

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Hunter Farrior started Spring Legion Turkey Hunting in 2019 from a trailer in Learned, Mississippi — no internet, no warehouse, no plan. He joins the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast to tell the story of how it all happened.

Hunter talks about accidentally publishing his first book during quarantine, accidentally selling his first hat before he even knew how to ship it, and somehow ending up with an 18-wheeler dropping pallets at hi...

MDWFP waterfowl biologists Houston Havens and Darren Hardesty joined the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast during the final weeks of the 2025-26 season to explain what was driving conditions across the Delta. It was a dry year, and these two break down exactly what that meant for bird movement, habitat availability, and hunting pressure on public lands.

The conversation covers aerial waterfowl surveys, the freeze-thaw cycle, GPS rese...

Henry and Lakisha Woodard of Halo Hunting join the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast to share their family’s journey into the woods. From Lakisha’s first spring turkey hunt to creating traditions like the Mississippi Shuffle and the Family Slam, they talk about how hunting became a shared way of life for their entire household.

They also discuss filming hunts together, building Halo Hunting as a brand, and launching the Halo Bridge O...

Ryan Jones, Assistant Chief of Fisheries at MDWFP, joins the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast to explain what makes Ross Barnett Reservoir such a strong bass and crappie fishery. He breaks down how water levels, native vegetation, and long-term management all work together to support consistent fishing year after year.

The conversation covers frog fishing in the pads, invasive plant threats like giant salvinia, how anglers can help ...

Super Bowl champion and former NFL linebacker Swayze Bozeman joins the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast to talk about life after football and the perspective that comes from spending time outdoors.

Swayze walks through his journey to the NFL, winning a Super Bowl, and what came next. He explains how hunting and time outside helped him slow down, reflect, and redefine success beyond the game. The conversation connects discipline, fai...

MDWFP deer biologist Carmen Campbell joins the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast to explain a new way scientists are detecting Chronic Wasting Disease — without relying on a dead deer.

The conversation breaks down what deer scrapes are, why multiple deer use them, and how soil collected from scrapes can be tested for signs of CWD. Campbell explains how this method can detect the disease earlier than traditional hunter-harvested sampl...

Joey Buchanan and his son Joe join the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast to talk about traditional bowhunting — making their own bows, building their own arrows, and hunting at distances most people never experience. Joey explains how he started crafting bows in the late 1980s, while Joe shares what it meant to grow up around the tradition and recently harvest a deer with a bow he built himself from wood taken off their hunting land.

In this episode of the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast, host Matt Wyatt sits down with former national baseball player of the year and College World Series MVP Tanner Allen to talk baseball, banana ball, and the outdoor life that shaped him long before he became an SEC legend.

Tanner explains why he considers himself “an outdoorsman who plays baseball on the side,” and shares stories of growing up hunting and fishing with his dad a...

In this episode of the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast, host Matt Wyatt sits down with Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks Executive Director Lynn Posey for a wide-ranging conversation about how Mississippi manages wildlife, deer, parks, law enforcement, licensing, and conservation efforts across all 82 counties.

Posey shares how he went from growing up in Union Church to serving in the Mississippi Senate, to t...

Winter doesn’t shut bass fishing down in Mississippi — it just changes the game. In this episode of the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast, Matt Wyatt talks winter bass fishing with longtime fisheries expert and former MDWFP Deputy Director Larry Pugh.

Larry explains why water temperature — not air temperature — drives everything, how bass become more predictable in cold water, and why January and February offer some of the best chanc...

In this episode of the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast, Matt Wyatt sits down with Mississippi author Brooks Eason to talk about his book The Scoutmaster — the story of his father’s extraordinary 61 years leading Troop 85 in Tupelo. Eason shares memories of monthly campouts dating back to 1947, rope-bridge traditions at Tishomingo State Park, canoe trips on Bear Creek, and the hundreds of boys who grew up under his father’s leadership.

In this episode of the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast, host Matt Wyatt sits down with longtime Mississippi Outdoors TV host Amanda Mills — a familiar face to anyone who’s watched the show over the past two decades.

Amanda shares how she started with the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks back in 2005, the surprising phone call that put her on Mississippi Outdoors TV for the first time, and what it was like to...

In this episode of the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast, host Matt Wyatt catches up with David Ellis, better known as “Yawt Yawt”, the Mississippi trapper and YouTube personality whose mix of humor, wildlife work, and storytelling has made him a fan favorite.

David talks about his latest deer season, how filming his own hunts has changed, and what it’s like balancing social media fame with everyday life. He shares stories about bein...