Bear Grease - Ep. 418: Render - CBS Sunday Morning Behind-the-Scenes

Episode Date: February 4, 2026

On this episode of the Bear Grease Render, host Clay Newcomb is joined by Dr. Misty Newcomb, Josh "Landbridge" Spielmaker, along with Backwoods University Podcast's Lake Pickle in the Tecovas Hot Seat.  Fresh off the release of the CBS Sunday Morning feature with legendary journalist Ted Koppel at Arkansas bear camp, the crew gives context and details of what happened behind-the-scenes. It was an unscripted weekend of uncertain expectations, tough hunting, and a turn-the-table conversation around the campfire leading to a tense moment where a missed shot at a black bear puts the spotlight squarely one particular hunter. The crew shares what the cameras didn’t show and their thoughts and impressions of their time with iconic news man Ted Koppel. Plus, Clay reflects on the black bear that helped inspire his upcoming book American Bear and the deeper history of bear reverence across cultures. Thank you to our sponsor, Tecovas. If you have comments on the show, send us a note to [e-mail] Connect with Clay and MeatEater Clay on Instagram MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Youtube Clips MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube Shop Bear Grease MerchSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. First Lights field wear collection is made for the work that happens long before opening day and continues when the season ends. Products built for early mornings, full days in real use. Hard wearing where they need to be versatile where it matters. No shortcuts. Just gear designed for the work that earns the season.

Built to perform, built to last. Check out. First Light's new field. Worldware Gear at firstlight.com. My name is Clay Newcomb, and this is a production of the Bear Grease podcast called the Bear Grease Render, where we render down, dive deeper, and look behind the scenes of the actual Bear Grease podcast. Presented by FHF Gear, American Made, Purpose Built, Hunting and Fishing Gear that's designed to be as rugged as the places we explore. So I'm holding in my hand, my right hand, the femur bone of an American black bear, a big one.

This is the black bear bone of the bear that I call rock slide, which I killed on November 30th, 2013, on the very last day of the Arkansas bear season, killed in National Forest. It's a long story, but the reason I'm holding it is that this is kind of a celebration, this event. you'll be in here today as a celebration because this Friday I will turn in the full manuscript for my book American Bear. Big deal. I'll turn it into Penguin Random House. It really is. They're working on it for two and a half years.

Very big deal. And going to dramatically alter. There's a section in the book. There's a section in the book where I quote a man named John Lawson who was, a first contact European with the Santee tribe in modern day South Carolina. And he said that it was, he said that when they, when they, when their people, when their people died, he watched them do this and reported it is that they would rub bear oil on the corpse and leave it until the meat rotted off the bone.

Oh. Then they would take the bones of their ancestors and keep them in wooden boxes. And yearly, they would pull the bones out of the boxes and oil them with bare grease. And the quote was, he said, it is not uncommon for a man to have the bones of his grandfather in the place that he stayed. Interesting. this is this is the kind of data info the T that you're going to get from this book and this is what coffee time conversations have been like for the last two years whose bones do you have in your house

well that is vaguely related to that I have the bone of that bear the femur bone which is really impressive you know in my hand that was a big thing big bear too. It was at least a 450-pound bear, I think 500-pound bear. And, but what was interesting about all the boreal peoples of the whole planet, so in the northern hemisphere, you know, the boreal, the, the plants, animals of the, of America in the boreal regions is pretty similar to all around the globe, you know, and all the boreal peoples had this a very similar idea. ideology about the bones of bears. Most other animals could be disposed of just however you need to dispose of them.

You eat a deer, you just kind of pitch its bones out. A bear not so, reverential ceremonial disposal of bear bones because dogs could never touch a bear bone. So a lot of times they would put them in rivers. A lot of times they would bury them like humans. incredible documentation all across the world of ceremonial disposal of bare bones very interesting

it just it in what that does to me is it makes me think about kind of our Western ideology ideology about wildlife like basically wildlife is something we revere but really it's a it's kind of a thing put here for us to use

in a utilitarian way and these people would have used those animals in the utilitarian way. They would have eaten them. They would have made bear grease. They would have used the hides for blankets. And they would use the animal the same way. But I feel like they had a pretty robust doctrine that, you know, today to me would translate. I'm not an animist. I don't think that the bones of this bear are alive. Right. I don't think his spirit is in this bone. but it does challenge me to like be pretty serious about animals that I'm taking. Would there be a modern equivalent to carrying your family's bones with you and oiling them down every year?

I don't know one. Not down in Mississippi. If you know somebody that does that. Pictures on your phone, I guess, would be the closest thing. Well, welcome to the bearergris render. We have with us today, Dr. Misty Newcomb, so glad you're here. Good to be here. Brent Reeves chair.

Brent is basically dead to us. I mean, like, he hadn't been here months. He's just off strolling around in the glory of this country life podcast. We invited him with case knives. He, like, lays in a bed of case knives every night. I saw a video of him the other day jumping into a kitty pool full of case knives. I saw that one too. disappearing into them.

It's a joke. Okay. So Misty is in Brent's chair. We have Josh Lambridge spillmaker. And then in the Tova's hot seat. Oh. Literally in the Tocova's hot seat rocking chair. And we said this before, but the Tocova's hot seat rocking chair actually has a pair of Toccova's on the front of the rocking chair.

Is the one and only Lake Pickle from Backwood University. I drove straight here this morning from Mississippi. I did. Thanks. Oh, you're welcome. Happy to be here. And we've got a lot to cover. You may or may not have seen the CBS Sunday morning episode that came out by legendary broadcast American journalist Ted Cople. And that's what we're going to spend quite a bit of time today talking about that.

Misty, how would you describe Ted Cople? the just the man that hung out with us no well just for someone who wouldn't know who that was okay okay yeah there's an age demographic there's definitely an age demographic so I actually when when Clay said Ted Cople

was gonna you know was interested in coming to Bear Camp and doing this special that was huge to me because I'm like right at the cutoff of people who were deeply impacted by Ted Cople's reporting When I think about Ted Cople, it literally is my very first news memory is Ted Cople and the Berlin Wall. And my parents were pretty into history and what was, you know, current events and the world.

And I remember one night getting to stay up late so that we could watch. And it was Ted Cople. And I can tell you why I know it was Ted Cople later because I often got him confused with a famous journalist on a sitcom. And I thought it was him. But all those years, but I learned later he did not talk about the Berlin Wall. Dan from Murphy Brown is who I thought Ted Cople was most of my life. I got the two confused. But anyway, so Ted Cople, he got his start, you know, he's got a long history.

You can listen to Clay's podcast. But where he kind of got famous in the U.S. is during the Iran hostage crisis. In the late 70s. Yeah. And he started to every night broadcast about what was going on over there. And that's when Nightline started. And he was kind of a young man. He probably would have been in his 30s at that time or maybe early 40s.

Yeah. So I think it was ABC Nightline. And then that became something that was just a staple. And I think he, and I could look it up if you want me to, but I think he stayed there until 2005. Yeah. I mean, and that's what we watched. Nightline is what it was. Yeah.

That's what we watched. So Nightline was one of the most watched American television news program. that was on nightly every night of the week. And it's kind of wild that we have to describe how television used to be. Yeah. I mean, you know, it's not like we're like in our 70s. I mean, Lakes, Lake Year 33. Yeah.

And we're all in our 40s. But television used to be way different. And there used to be these faces that were, today there's just many more faces. Like at one time there would have been probably five faces that every human in America, would have recognized, you know, from different networks and different things. Today there's hundreds. I mean, like, the Internet has just split up people so much. So Ted Koppel was one of the last faces in American journalism from the 70s, 80s, and 90s.

And his career has continued since then, but he retired in 2005. So when they told me that Ted Koppel was coming, I mean, to be honest, and with all, respect to Mr. Cople, who I I mean, I have nothing but good things to say about the man. I thought, I was surprised he was alive. Yeah. And he's 85. You know.

And so when he, so this is where you boys come in. Like, when I called you and said Ted Cople is going to be at our bear camp. What did you say to me? I think, honestly, I think the first thing I sent to you was that I said the guy that

interviewed and Nixon? Did you know that or did you have to Google that? No, the only reason I'm, I, it's one of those things, the memory's so old, I don't know exactly how I got it. I know I got it from my grandmother, Mimi. Like that's the only, I don't know, I can't tell you why I knew that. Mimi would have definitely been a huge couple family.

Yeah, but somehow I remember, I was like, that's the dude who interviewed Nixon. And I was like, he's coming to, I had a lot of questions. Yeah, questions about Clay's, uh, integrity. I mean, no. I was just like, why is he, for what? I didn't know what he wanted, you know? And this Lake's original question to me, is this the guy that interviewed Nixon would strangely come back into the story for Lakes, in Lake's exact circumstance.

Yeah. Because the interview with Nixon, he became, that was one of his famous interviews, because he really like pinned Nixon to the floor a little bit. Yeah, good, yeah. Yeah. I remember when you told me, I was like, the Ted Cople? Like, the Ted Cople? I was like, no, his lookalike.

Yeah. Well, it didn't really make sense to me why he wanted to come, nor was it made super clear what he was interested in. If I had to critique the whole thing, and I would say this to the producer, Ted Cople's producer, was that he really, didn't tell me what they were going to do. Yeah. It was kind of just like, it was pretty vague that the story was going to be focused on hunting. Now, maybe it was so obvious that I should have picked up on that. But I actually, the way they sold it to me a little bit was like they're interested in the podcast.

They're interested in your storytelling. Which they didn't mention in the CBS thing at all. I don't know. Yeah, they did. Yeah, they threw it out there. Okay. Yeah. Okay.

So I don't, the intent is not, I would have positive things to say about the whole crew, but I would say that it was not super clear what they were after. Well, but do you think they knew what they were after? I mean, I feel like,

as a storytelling. Yeah, it does. And boy, if Ted Coppel watches this, Ted, call me. I knew that I had been a little bit, bit not misled but because when when ted couple got there i asked him in a private conversation i

said what what do you what do you really want to know from us i said it just about like that and he looked at me and he said i think we all know why i'm here i want to talk about hunting and i i was not right i was like no i didn't know that i thought you were here to talk about storytelling and Bear Grish podcast. I didn't say that. But that's when I realized that was his intent the whole time. Potentially, they didn't really... I think this is...

You should have known. I think I should have known. Yeah, you should have known. Ted Koppel's not going to come down to talk about the art of storytelling with you. Yeah. No, I know. I'm not blame shifting. I'm just telling you I was surprised a little bit.

Where my head was, is I thought I was like, mainstream news, Ted Cople, if there's, I mean, in the mainstream, hunting's not known for getting all the love. And then you can compound that with the stuff that bear hunting tends to get. I was like, I don't know. But then I was like, Clay's got it. Man, I thought Clay was part of some major political scandal that I was going to find that right there. What do you mean? Well, that's what Ted Cople does, you know?

Oh, oh. Well, what if he had pulled out my connections to Clinton? that your aunt went to high school with him? Now we all know. Now we all know. That wouldn't have been awesome if he'd have been like, so clay. You know, in the 90s, I went fishing where Whitewater was, too. You know, the whole Clinton thing with whitewater.

That's where I used to fish. Hey, didn't you used to own a canoe that supposedly? I forgot about that. I bought a canoe on Craigslist or something back in the day. And the guy was like, you know, I heard that. Bill Clinton took his girlfriend out in this canoe. Did she pay extra for that? No.

Yeah, like everybody in Arkansas has got some connection to Clinton. Yeah. You know, so, you know, my dad went to high school with Clinton. So, you know, the Barry Grays podcast is like one jump away from Bill Clinton, you know. Basically. One degree of separation. So it could have been that. It could have been that.

It could have been about the Mina connection. I wish it was. I just today heard. a little clip on the Sean Ryan podcast about a guy and they brought up MENA Arkansas by name and Barry Seal and the drugs and flying planes in the Mina. I watched that movie, just an aside, I watched that movie with Keith Rose.

Oh, wow. In the theater. The Mena Airport. Yeah, from who grew up on the Mena Airport since the early 60s. And through the whole movie, he just go, I call BS on that. I call BS on that. that because it was like so much of us fabricated.

I actually thought about doing it. Just today I thought about doing an episode on that. Like, what's Mina's version of this story? Man, growing up everywhere I went when people would ask where we were from and we would say Hatfield or Mina, you know, Hatfield just south of Mina, everybody would be like, oh, and then they would start talking about the airport stuff. And I mean, every time I introduce myself to someone outside of, outside of Polk County, that's what would come up.

Yeah, that's very much what they were interested in. I think Ted really missed it. Me too, man. You had all this low-hanging fruit, and he goes from the bear hunting. Oh, come on, Ted. Come on, Ted. Well, so they were at our camp for a day and a half. We hunted for five days.

Was it just a day and a half? It felt like three days. I mean, it could be, I was like, it's just a day and a half? It felt like they did the whole time. It was wild. I kind of wanted to tell the structure, like, of what they did. but they came to our camp. The producer got there the day before Ted got there.

And he stayed with us kind of that afternoon. And we showed him around and talked with him for a long time. And cameraman showed up. This is a guy who has lived for many, many years, like in downtown New York. Yeah. And he showed up in his, like, new hiking boots and, like, hiking pants. He's from Texas. He is from Texas.

He wasn't completely a stranger. His family owns a meat processing. their meat processor. Yeah. And so, and then Ted came in on, on the next, the next day and was there with us the entire day. From, you know, early until late, ate with us, hung out with us. And then he was there the next morning, too. So he was there a day and out.

And then the camera guys were there through the remainder of that day, but we hunted five days. And I am still a huge Ted fan. Oh, yeah. I'm a huge. I really appreciated Ted couple on that. I mean, I think we should probably acknowledge that, that he was extremely respectful, very, he was delightful. Yeah, very delightful to hang out with.

Pleasant, engaging, humble. Clearly a family man. So when everybody, you know, started calling him Mr. Coppel and he's like, no, please, Ted, you know. And, yeah, just. He was. Class-out. Anybody on planet Earth, regardless, and I don't, I honestly don't know how people would classify him in terms of politics. I mean, it certainly wouldn't be right wing, but I don't know if he would be considered far left.

All I know is that he showed up at my bear camp and wanted to talk about bear hunting. but anybody on planet Earth would have been in that camp with us and would have respected Ted Cople. Yeah. Yeah. Do you agree with that? No, yeah, I do. I mean, just a pretty stellar person. Yeah, it's a nice guy.

Mm-hmm. I mean, just very, just he treated everybody the same. Mm-hmm. I remember one time, well, this is a great example. Justin House was there. My friend Justin House, who was just kind of like on the side. Like he wasn't involved in the filming. Justin's not one to just go out of his way to talk.

No. He wasn't going to insert himself into the deal. Right. And at some point, Ted realized he hadn't talked to Justin. And he just turned his whole focus to Justin. And he said, you know, he just said, hey, this is like pretty deep in. It wasn't like introductions. And he said, Justin, tell me what you do.

Tell me about your life. And Justin told him just, you know, a few things. And anyway, he didn't, he was interested in every person. Yeah. Especially Lake. Can I read one of the, if we're going to talk? So, you know, just reading through the comments, I sent Clay a couple comments from the, from the podcast, or not from the podcast, but from the show. And, you know, they posted on Instagram, and so you can kind of see, poor Lake.

This is one of the comments. One of his lowest moments spotlighted on national television. that's a good intro oh boy oh boy well oh lake so we the first well this would have been the third night of our camp was it yeah i don't i believe it would have been the third night and we had anticipated already taking a bear usually we would have i mean i just feel like we walked into the season like feeling like maybe it was going to be okay and we were going to kind of pull something out and then the hunting just was not very good at all and ended up proven true they killed 284 bears out of a 550 bear quota yeah in the ozarks and it was because of fallen acorns i mean

you've heard me talk about it like hunter harvest success is in great correlation with the amount of mass crop and so you don't really know it's just day by day as the season comes up like how it's going to be. So we anticipated already killing a bear. Yeah. And having just bear meat and bear fat in camp. And we were going to, I knew Ted wanted to render bear fat. And it just so happened on the night that Ted, the one night, he was at our camp one night.

Yep. Was the night that like shot a bear. Shot one, yeah. And what happened? I didn't find it. Just shot it a little high. Yeah. So, I mean, I replayed that whole night because I was thinking, in the throes of it, I was like, if I would have known that that was going to happen, would I have shot at that bear the night that Ted was there? And I was like, yeah, I still would have.

Yeah. I mean, that's what we were there to do. It was a good shot. Yeah. I just hit high. Yeah. You know? Not very high. Just a little high. No, but enough where I didn't get the bear.

You know, it is what it is. Yeah. So well and we've given like like a hard time, but he knows we're joking. You were just the collateral damage. Oh, dude. Look, man, I, it ain't the first time I failed. It ain't going to be the last. Every time you, every time you bow hunt, you risk failure.

Every time you shoot your risk failure. I mean, what are you going to do? That part of it, it is what it is. I mean, I hate it. I hate that it happened. But, I mean, trust me, if anyone else in that camp would have done it other than me, I'd have been giving them a hard time. So, I mean, it just kind of comes with it.

Well, and we weren't giving you a hard time. I felt like it was more like suffering, co-suffering. Yeah, it was only hard because it was the night that Ted was there. On blood trails, the stories don't end when the hunt is over. They just get darker. I've seen something in the road. I instantly thought it was a sleeping bag. And there was a full of blood.

Oh, my God. He doesn't have a hit. Blood Trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors. Where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence is scarce, and the truth gets buried under brush and silence. Indications were he should be right there. But he wasn't. This season, we're going deeper. From cold case files to whispered suspicions.

From remote mountains to frozen backwoods. Each story begins in the wilderness and ends in darkness. Because out here, there are no witnesses, no cameras, just fragments, and the people left behind trying to piece them back together. He's not an honest person. He's incapable of being honest. Somebody somewhere knows something. I'm Jordan Sillers. Season two of Blood Trails premieres April 16th. Follow now on Apple, Iheart, YouTube, or wherever.

you get your podcasts. Here's what happened, though, that you wouldn't have seen on the nine-minute section on CBS Sunday morning. Yeah. Is that we're, we're, we've set up this kind of like round table, round the fire discussion. I was hoping we'd talk about this. And it's staged. Were you hoping?

Were you hoping? I legitimately was. Let's just set the scene and then everybody tell their perspective. I mean, it's stage. There's cameras. There's lights. You know, people are set in specific spots. They're wanting us to play music.

Right. Brent and Clay and Brent are sitting right there, and they have miced Clay and Brent. And Bear Newcomb. And so we're all sitting there. We play music for the camera. And then the music finishes. So Ted. We think we're just pretty faces. Look.

My mom and dad are there. Justin House is there. Lake's there. Me, Brent, Bear, Misty. So I shoot just, I shoot. I shoot the bear. Christine Ava. Right when I shoot the bear, I'm like, boom.

You know, me and Drew who was filming, we're both excited. Yeah. Because at the time, I thought I'd hit it good. Yeah. So we get, I mean, shortly there, fast forward, we realized, okay, I don't think I hit it as good as I hit it, but there's still some hope there. And there's that time between you don't know if you're going to recover the animal or not, where I don't care how many times, how many years you've been bohunting. That time between, you're just like, you know? Oh, yes.

And so I go riding back up to the camp and I'm like kind of just thinking, you know, because the other thing, I'd never bear hunted before. So, you know, I'm like, I really want to get this bear. And so my head's all over the place. And you were like, okay, well, we're going to go look. But we got to shoot this thing with Ted first. I'm like, all right. But again, I'm looking at them, Mike and you and Brent and bear up. And they're like, we just need this fire pit to look full. And I'm like, all right, I'll just sit over here and bide my time and think about looking for this bear while they're. setting up doing their music stuff, right? This is, here, we'll do that. You're me. I'm Ted Cople. And this is the first five seconds. I'm in between you and Ted Cople. Yeah, but in this, so I'm Ted right now.

I'm Ted and you're me. And you're being like, okay, we're role playing. All the miced up people are over here. Yes. All the cameras are faced here. All the lighting's here. And Ted goes, they're like, speed rolling. And Ted's like, tell me about this very shot.

She goes, so late. No, I'm like, you shot a bear. But he, I think he did it on purpose. Oh, 100% in which all credit to him, journalism chops. Yeah. Power to him. But I don't know. I've been in doing meat, in the hunting space.

I've been doing media stuff since I was 19 years old. Never in my life have I been more put on my heels than Ted Chopper did that. Well, you weren't even expected to speak. No. I didn't have a mic on anything. He turns and asked me that. And then all of a sudden, the dude. who interviewed Nixon is asking me about the bearish.

And I'm like, I looked at, I looked over. Are you a crook? I looked over and Lake's eyes just go, bing! I remember after all that cleared out when we're going to look for the bear, it's just me and Clay in the truck, and Clay goes, there's that time between, you know, when you shoot, you know, you shoot something and you're going to look for it, where you're just very vulnerable.

And in that time between, you got interviewed by Ted Copp. And I'm just driving the truck going, yeah, yeah, I did. It was so, oh, my gosh, you have, anybody listening out there, however stressful that you would perceive that moment to be, particularly me and like, multiply at times 8 to 10. because I was just absolutely, I was stressed out. Brother, I was already thinking about different career paths. I was like, what am I going to do?

Accounting. And it was such a weird moment because we, Ted didn't understand why we didn't have the bear in the truck. Even if it had been a 10-ring shot, we would not have had the bear in the truck. No. Because you would have come back to camp. We would have given the bear time to expire. And that's the part that confused him because he was like, I mean, he asked some questions that, I mean, to a hunter would be, it was clear it was coming from someone who didn't have experience. He said, well, is the arrow still in the bear?

Yeah. Some of the questions were so, like, fundamental that I was like, is he messing with me? Like, I didn't, I mean, legitimate. I was like, what did? But in retrospect, I'm like, he's just. out of touch with this world. He was being, they were legitimate questions to him. Yeah.

Like he, he thought the bear was out there still alive, just waiting to die. Yeah. And we, and I was kind of trying to insert myself a little bit and playing wingman as much as I could. And we were trying to, and maybe it was a mistake. We were trying not to say, yeah, we're giving the bear time to die. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And, you know, it's like, do we give time to?

Ted Cople, at the start of this, like a thesis on arrow, you know, when an animal shot with a bow, you know, how quickly it dies and where you're aiming and the amount of blood you expect. And it was minutes before we walked into that circle that I saw the video and all of a sudden, I mean, you knew it, but all of a sudden I knew it too. It was like, okay, this may, it's a little, it's in question how this. is going to turn out. And so we try to mend it up. And to me, it kind of set the tone for the whole rest of that deal.

I mean, I was shook up. My head, I was just, I didn't know what. I mean, when I watched it back yesterday, I was, and they played a little bit of that. I was like, I have no recollection of saying any of that. I think I blacked out for most of it. I'm telling you, dude. I was like, ha ha ha.

Well, okay, so now this is some behind-the-scenes stuff. And again, complete respect to cop and his crew and his producer. Cople. Cople. I think we have the right to call that man

whatever we want. No. Beloved man. It's like a grandfather to me. Oh, grandpa, Ted. The, I felt like that they kind of bushwhacked bushwhacked

At the time Now at the time I felt like that I'm just being honest They didn't even ask it Like he didn't know that he was on the sheet That was like okay Lakes in the ballpark of being spoken to

Yeah And so I have a different take on all this And I'm not And I had a different take that night too Okay And today I have a different take Okay still

I still don't I just think it's a It's a given They had, what do you call them? The mics that just like hang out? Boom mics. Boom mics. Boom mics. Not puff mics, boom mics.

You know, those were around. I mean, anyone was open game. I don't think any of us expected that, but it wasn't, it wasn't deviant. And I think the questions he was asking felt like a normal, like a curious mind would ask those questions, a curious mind. And I don't think that Ted thought it was a surprise

that he was coming to talking to. about hunting when you said that. Right. So he was like, oh, this is actually the exciting part. This is what I came for was to talk about hunting. And this is the only hunting story we have. So obviously we're going to talk to Lake about hunting. So and not to not trying to throw anyone under the bus, Clay.

But the reason that I thought that is because when it was, Clay was like, they're coming to talk about the podcast and this, you know, and it like, it was portrayed that I wasn't going to be on any sort of interview. You would support staff. Yeah. Yeah. Which again is why I was like, I'm just a filler over here. You're just a pretty face.

You're just a pretty face. I don't. What he says is true. I mean, that's what we, what's what I thought. Which, because again, if I, if I, I mean, I would like to think it would have gone a little bit better. But because if I would have gone to that fire pit knowing he's about to ask me about this bear. You might have just curled up in a fetal position. Well, you know.

But I mean, I just, I hadn't thought of anything to say. Yeah. know, or I've thought through like, and you're still thinking about going to get that bear. Yeah. Going to look at it. And this is where it was naivity on my part kind of as leading the thing. Yeah.

Because I shouldn't, you shouldn't even been in a circle. Yeah. I mean, in that vulnerable moment. Oh, dude. I went and sat in that circle. Someone asked me to go there. If they had said, you don't have to go sit in there, I'd have gone, peace. Yeah.

Call me when we can go look for the bear. And for that, you know. I apologize. Like at the, look, when I say at the time I felt like I was bushwhacked, yeah. I have, I have nothing but good things to say about Ted Cople. Dude was doing his job and he's good at it. You know, it's just like at that time, I was like, who, he got me.

Yeah. But. And I think from his perspective, and just from a journalistic perspective, especially in old school journalism, you know, where you're not just trying to persuade people. You're trying to actually show people the facts and help them make, a decision about it, if he would have just let everyone, like he, if he wouldn't have talked about the controversial things, if he wouldn't have talked about those things, that would have been, you know, fraudulent to the people who were watching. I think that's the way old school

journalists think. They don't think we're trying to set up a case and everything's biased and we bring our bias into it. Like, that's not the, that's not the mindset. And so I think he was just trying to ask, ask those questions. And whether we were prepared for, to, be, you know, we're not Nixon. We weren't prepared to be interviewed at that. I'm not exactly sure. Nixon was prepared either. He wasn't. He didn't seem prepared. He got cobbled. He got cobbled. He got cobbled. That's one thing, me and Nixon have in common. Both of you got cobbled. You got cobbled real good. That's the other thing, too. Behind the scene stuff, they don't know that. That's been an inside joke ever since then. Yeah. You've been

cobbled. Yes. It's like we've probably said it 50 times. Yes. And I've probably said it a hundred times behind your back. That's all right. But listen, the reason I can say that, like, is because I went to bat for you. I mean, I'm going to tell this. And, I mean, I don't see any reason why I wouldn't. You think I shouldn't tell this? I just stop.

Yeah. Really? Yeah. Which part? It's a great story. Everything turned out great. Well, I think it makes Ted look good. Yeah.

I don't know what part you're talking. talking about. I don't know if I should talk about it to be honest with you. Oh, well, then I'm just going to say it. Well, no, the next day

I went to Ted and the producer and I told them, I said, I feel like it's unfair what you did the lake last night. And I said, we're not going to try to avoid talking about it. But if you want to talk about the bear,

talk to me about it right now on camera. I mean, just because you were caught off guard. Yeah. We didn't know the outcome. Mm-hmm. It was just so ambiguous whether we were going to find the bear or not, whether it was dead, whether it wasn't. Yeah.

That next morning we had resolution, full resolution. There was hardly any blood on the arrow. It was a high shoulder hit. Yeah. Air passed through. It's like the bear's not hurt. We looked for the bear extensively. Mm-hmm.

Found, you know. A little bit like muscle blood. Like three drops of blood, like half the size of a penny in a hundred yards. and we all know, especially having the footage. And basically I said, interview me about it. Don't pin like on that with what you just did. Now, you knew that, didn't you? I just didn't know what you were about to tell.

That's right. I knew you did that. And I felt like they handled me really respectfully. And it was interesting seeing Ted Koppel's response. And if for some reason this is negative about him, I don't think it is. I think he said, Clay, he said in my whole career, if I have filmed someone and they have spoken to me, I have never told anybody that I wouldn't use the content. You know, he said, if there's a camera rolling and I'm talking to you, it's fair game to use.

He said, I've done that my whole career. So I'm not going to tell you that I'm not going to use it. And I respected that because he ended up using it, the little piece of it. And it would have been easy for. him to say, okay, we won't use it, and then them use it and it just be water under the bridge at that point. He was very honest and direct with me and what he told me, and I believe he, I believe that he held true to his words, as he said, Clay, my intent will never be to belittle or to hurt anyone. And basically, he just said, you're just going to have to trust me.

Yeah. Fair enough. And I, and I just felt like I, did all I could do. Yeah. And he did interview you, me about it, and they did use a piece of it. Yeah. They used some of both. They used a little bit of mine and, I think, a little bit more of yours. Right.

Yeah. And so it's just kind of behind the scenes. Yeah. Yeah. Of what happened. And, but. But it wasn't gotcha journalism. Like, I think that's where I'm wanting to push back just a little.

It's like, we were unprepared, but I'm not sure that we were unprepared because, because they did anything sinister or were trying to catch us in something. I actually felt like they were being pretty generous to us. And that they gave us a good platform to explain ourselves and explain. So that's what I just want to be careful of.

It wasn't, it was very neutral and if anything, I felt very, very generous reporting. What I told Christy, as I said, I said it was respectfully balanced. And I thought it was a good, I thought it was a good, you know, it didn't, like it wasn't an expose, but it was just presenting, hey, this is the lifestyle of these people. This is normal for them. Yeah. And I felt like it, I felt like for people who might have a, and, uh, it wouldn't be familiar with hunting, it presented it in a way that made it, maybe not palatable, but understandable to other people, you know. Yeah. Yeah.

And I think that he, I think when he walked away, you know, we never got him to eat bare meat. Yeah. We tried. He never got Ted de Cople to actually eat bare meat. Oh, he didn't. Did he turn it down? He, he wasn't disrespectful, but he just, he chose the alternative. There was an alternative there, and he chose the alternative.

He wasn't like, ooh, yeah, no, he was like, oh, that looks good to me. I think I'll try that. You know, he sat on the back porch while you guys were out hunting with me and Misty. I can't remember who else was there. Gary and Judy. Gary and Judy. And just let us ask him questions about his life for an hour probably. And he was just so generous with his time and attention.

Yeah. And I think that he, in this part that we're not really talking about, but we kind of joked. And I took some pictures of Ted and Bear talking. and we had a joke I sent him to Clay and Clay I think you said you were the one that said it you should find a guy that looks girl yeah he said he said he said bear should well you were talking about

yeah anyway he said you should find someone that looks at you like bear looks like Ted Cople looks at bear yeah he was enamored with bear I think he was enamored with bear and I think overall he appreciated and respected that that intergenerational dynamics that he saw I think he's a real family man and he has respect for that. And I think

bear kind of wanted his respect over the weekend. And so I don't think, I think there was a real sense of that was more what he wanted to show than anything. Yeah, and it did. And it came through and the piece was very positive. Very positive.

And any piece about especially bear hunting or hunting in general in the mainstream media that's going to be positive is a huge win. You know? Huge win. I wish, if I I had several people ask me what I thought about it. And I wish it could have been, I mean, if you'd have had a segment twice as long, you could

have, I would have liked to have put meat on the bone of exactly how hunters are actually champions of wildlife and habitat. I mean, because you say that and maybe that connects with a non-hunter, but I wanted, you know, I wanted to give them a version of the 100-year history of really habitat restoration in this country has come through the funding of Pittman Robertson and licensed sales and donations by people motivated by hunting. And, you know, kind of just build out this idea that where an animal has cultural value through hunting, it and its habitat will be protected if it's in this country. And I mean, there's just every single species. You just start naming them. I mean, from white-tailed deer, the restoration of white-tailed deer to the turkey to the book that I'm writing about bears,

you're going to learn stuff about the restoration of black bears in the east and relocations. And it wasn't anti-hunting people. It wasn't bird watchers. It was people motivated by hunting. Ducks, duck habitat. It's not birdwatchers saving, you know, nesting habitat up north and flooding timber. down here. I mean, it's just, the story is overwhelming without an ounce of spin.

And basically, if someone can hear you say that, they almost think you're lying because of how wild it is and how counterintuitive it is. And that, and that, so the simplicity of their story was, these guys want to kill bears, but they also love them. And that's about as deep as it went. But I get it. It was a fast-paced segment. People's appetites for things are so low that people wouldn't know that they were interested in bears.

But Ted made it interesting. I love that he pulled in Hulk Collier. Yeah. That was pretty cool. Yeah. I mean, I thought it was over. Like I text you when it came out. I said, it's good.

I thought it was good. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. And we all know, like, you're a great shot. Yeah. He should have put in a segment of Lake out practice target shooting before he left to go hunting. Just to prove that he could put it in the 10 ring.

It's like I said, I just not. The missing part of it was, I mean, like, don't be wrong. I hate that I missed. I do. I mean, any time. Of all the times you're going to miss that that's the time that it happened. Yeah. It's just the way the whole interview side of it went down.

And like I said, just briefly going back to like you said, I don't think it was gotcha journalism either because calling a spade of spade. he wouldn't have anything to gachamie on if I'd have made a good shot. If you got to take ownership of that stuff, you know? It's like if I'd have made a good shot, it'd have been a different conversation. It is what it is. Well, I want to share with you guys something that has happened since none of you know this. There's a, I'm not going to say their name. Don't want to give me any publicity, but there is a wildlife group in the

country that has is demanding a correction from CBS for misleading for a misleading bear segment. So there's a there's a anti-hunting wildlife group that has basically put their foot on the ground and said they're demanding that CBS apologize for a misleading segment. And it says the great well da da da da da da da da da. It has a formal letter to say, CBS submitted a formal letter to CBS Sunday morning requesting a correction, a counter segment, and an investigation following their February 1st, 2026 broadcast on the hunt for bear in the Ozarks. The segments, which prominently featured Clay Newcomb and the Bear Grease podcast, presented a romanticized and scientifically unsupported portrayal of bear hunting in America.

The piece omitted critical context, amplified demonstrably false claims, and failed to examine the broader system. of wildlife governments that shapes how bears are managed across the states. It goes on and on. There's a good podcast shout out, though. Yeah. For the bear. Yeah.

Thanks, guys. Yeah, I haven't thought about that. Good plug. I'm going to ask him to put a link in there. No, it's pretty interesting that they did that. And, I mean, you know, there's just some places where, you know, I would stand behind and defend every word of what was said. I mean, and it's just like,

so I just think it's interesting that these guys saw that and were just like, this is false what has been portrayed here. There was one part in their segment where they said, you know, Newcomb failed to, or maybe they blamed Cople, but just we failed to talk about the serious health risk involved in eating bear meat. Oh. And I mean, we're going to have to talk about pork too. And they talked about how they specifically cited. Has anyone eaten lettuce? They specifically cited and that you can't get rid of it by freezing as if that would be the way that we think. If you know the truth about trichinosis

and then you read that statement, basically it paints a picture of every single thing they're saying because we're on this side and the truth about trichinosis is that yeah, many wild bears do have trichinosis but it is killed instantaneously at 141

degrees. It's an incremental there's incremental Misty's fact checker. I just don't want you to be responsible. I've been saying that for years. And I've always said 145 degrees. That's what I look at. Well, but basically it's a gradient scale.

You can kill trichinosis at 120 degrees, but it has to be for a certain period of time. Right, right. So it's... If you want to suave your bare meat. You can suvee bare meat. 160 to 175. That's bull. Well...

What Google says is not... I mean, this is coming from the USDA research that done in the past. More than ample temperature to kill all forms. I mean... Just putting that out there for the... you know, for the people who sue for such things. Well. Point being,

I mean, so many of us have lived off bare meat for big sections of our life, and it is not a significant health risk. I actually wonder which is greater health risk. My mom's fear, or actually your mom's fear, of us getting salmonella from eating cookie dough. That, which I've also never known anyone to get, Yeah, I've heard that my whole life I've heard it my whole life

And I've never Yeah But experientially I've never known anyone to actually have it Yeah Do you know anyone that's had salmonella Period I think that I have heard of it

From lettuce Okay I actually think I think I do know And I can't 100% say that From vegetables Than from meat Yeah

With Ebola I mean it's not Trichonos I don't want to minimize Trichinosis It's a serious thing But It's just interesting

that that... And again, I don't even want to minimize it, but like, you get really bad diarrhea for a while. Steve Ronella had it. It's not like this thing that's going to... I mean, I suspect you could die from it. I mean, just like you could die from...

I think it's like the flu. Something terrible. You know, some minor thing that just goes unchecked for decades. Last spring, Clay Newcomb and I collaborated with Jason Phelps at Phelps Game Calls and building each of our own favorite turkey diaphragms called prime cuts. Now, I'm going to tell you, I love mine because it's easy to use. I'm not going to go, I'm not going to win a turkey calling contest.

It's just not going to happen. But when I run this call, I get the sounds that gobblers are looking for. I have a great turkey hunting track record. If you go listen to real turkeys out in the woods, they're not going to win calling contests, right? That's who I listen to. I can make those sounds on my cut. I also hunt with Phelps's cut, and I hunt with Clay's cut because they're all three great cuts. Check out prime cuts at Phelpsgamecalls.com.

I think you'll be glad you did, and you'll find out that the Steve Ronella cut is an easy-to-use cut for beginning callers who just want to start making good turkey noises and getting action. You don't know one outstanding question I had about the piece, like genuine question? they showed the shot on there. They showed the, like, me shooting the bear. Now, take that and replace it with any other video clip of a bear getting shot with a bow. From the, like, the hunter side, like, I text you, and I was like, from the way I look at life, I thought it was a good thing that they showed it, because I see that's like, okay, you can show that we're not taking irresponsible shots. You can see that, you know, from that angle.

But then the other thing, I was like, man, because the anti-hunter thing that just came out, I was like, man, I don't know if it's the best thing to show. That's just the question. I didn't know how I felt about, I was like, I don't know if that was the best thing to put that in there. But that's the one question mark I had. Whether it was me shooting bear or not, any shot of that, I didn't know how if that was good. I thought it was kind of cool that they did it. Like I thought it was like on primetime TV. Yeah.

At first I did, but I was like, I don't know. Is that, like, fuel that kind of stuff? Or would that kind of stuff happen regardless? I don't know. If it had been our choice, that wouldn't have been on there. Yeah. Because I would have been like, man, I just don't know if that's the best to put that on there. Regardless of, I mean, like, I think it's positive, right?

But I don't know. That was like the one thing. Well, you know, what the way Ted said it, I thought it was interesting. He said it was good for the bear. He said bad for the hunters, good for the bear. a hunter that is actually thinking about animal welfare like i i would view a wounded animal as oh man yeah i feel i feel responsible you know that this bear you know and and i would bet my truck that that bear is totally alive oh yeah i mean it just unless you got it by a truck i mean if he's dead it's

not because of that arrow. Yeah. And I mean, the razor sharp, I mean, I don't want to minimize the, anyway, do you see my point? Ted was like, good for the bear. And we were like, wait a minute, bad for the bear, right? That was interesting. Yeah. I think that goes back to, if I had to guess, because I remember him saying that, I think

that goes back to that same deal when he was asking those very fundamental questions. I just think Ted just, he's not in that world, you know. I think it's just a misunderstanding. Yeah. Well, and I was honored that he wanted to come do a story on bear hunting. That's what I'm saying. You know what prompted that? Like where he, I mean, was that something that was presented to him?

They have hundreds of stories pitched to them every year, and the journalists pick out the stories that they want to do. Okay. And I don't know what stood out to him about this one, but he was interested in it. And I think Ted is interested in kind of middle America that doesn't get a lot of press and just things that are really normal to a set of people that might be really unusual to most of America. Right. And, you know, I mean. Y'all, we are interesting. News to us.

News to us. but no i i hope if if somebody's listening to this like i i i would have said everything i've said to ted coppel's face i don't want to paint them in a negative light he was just i i put ted meet and ted coppel up there with like getting to spend some time with mourner glen that's what he felt like he just felt like a guy that was just kind of in a different stratosphere of life experience, what he's seen, what he's done. And I learned so much from being around people like that. Like the way that he treated people, I challenged, challenges me. The way that he treated people. And everything he said he was going to do, he did. I have no complaints. Yeah. I like him because

he just has a lot of gravitas, but is so approachable. Yeah. It's like he let you in. And maybe, I mean, that's part of what's made him good at his job, and that's part of his job. But he does a good job, even if he's faking it. He does a good job at doing it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I think it was a great experience. I have nothing but respect for him. And I was really grateful for the way. I think it is a really vulnerable thing just to even let your family talk to people. Like, say the shot wouldn't have gone off, you know, that there would have been no shot to discuss at the, even without that, to put the, any type of exposure, you're vulnerable to how that person paints, what picture that person paints.

And I felt like when I watched it yesterday, it was like, okay, he was trustworthy with these people that we love so much with Lake, with that difficult circumstance, with bear, with clay. And so I felt like he did a good job. And I also appreciated the bear grease crowd just in the roll out of it. I just thought the Bear Grays crowd was,

and I know not, yeah, they were vocal and they were supportive. And I think that makes a big difference inside of when, when. On the internet. Yeah, when one of us gets a, gets portrayed, it's really good to show that there's good people that back them of as well.

And I felt like by and large, what I saw, what people were putting out there, people, even in the comments, it was just very respectful and very and that's what we want to be we don't want to be the trolls we want to be the people that are respectful and it just felt like the bear grease

it was good you feel like people are out there with you we're all out there together and that's kind of what it felt like yesterday because you never know are people going to say crazy stuff is that going to be the overwhelming thing in the comments and it kind of felt like we weren't out there on that limb alone yesterday that other people were out there with us so big thanks to the bear

grease ground. I got several messages from people I haven't heard from in years that were just like, I just saw you on CBS on there. Yeah. Josh, Billmaker got a call out. You got a big, you had to play a big role in it, man. Yeah. I mean, right out there hunting Winnie the Pooh. Yeah, I mean, they interviewed us for hours. Yeah. Like, what I told people when they said, well, do you think it was good, Clay? I was like, yeah, I did. I said, I did at least an hour and a half of like face to face interview with Ted Cople. And they probably played my voice for four minutes. Yeah.

Maybe. Maybe three. Yeah. Maybe two. Yep. So it's like could I possibly, I mean, we talked about Pittman Robertson. We talked about, I want to address something that we talked about that, okay, if there's one thing that I could go back and redo was the stuff about agriculture. I had some ranchers be like, well, you threw us under the bus

because I basically at the end, I say, hey, if you got a problem with me going out into the wild, killing a bear and bringing it home and eating it, but yet you're okay with confinement agriculture. That's the word that I used. It's a double standard. You're going to lose that argument.

And yeah, and what they didn't play, and it's not their fault. I qualified that statement. Like I talked about, and I don't remember, I don't, I'm a little bit afraid to say what I said because I actually don't entirely remember. But I remember saying, man, I grew up in a region that was full of chicken farms. I've got dear friends that are chicken farmers. I don't think they're bad people.

No. And I don't, I'm not necessarily against a confinement chicken farm. I'm just saying, if you're mad at. at me for killing a bear. Exactly. And then you're eating chicken nuggets. I feel like you articulated that at the end. They're saying if you eat meat but you have a problem with, like if you eat meat from

confinement agriculture but have a problem with this, you're going to lose that argument. That's not saying don't eat meat from. Well, I mean, I think we all do. It was interpreted. It was interpreted. Well, everybody, just like me, if I hear somebody talking about hunting, I'm on pins and needles, like trying to interpret what they mean and what they said, and I take offense if they handle it wrong. I don't, I mean, I'm pro-American agriculture. Right. And, I mean, we've got to

have chicken houses to feed people. The fact of the matter is there's not enough wild games to sustain the entire country. Our dear friend, Terrell Spencer, across the creek farms right down the road here, has a incredible pastured poultry operation. And Spence would sit here today and tell you that his chicken is notably more expensive than what you can buy down here at the store. And so my point is, and his chicken is also better, like, no one argues that. Excellent chicken. Nobody wants to argue that. But it's like, we've got a lot of people to feed on this planet.

Not everybody can eat pasture, poultry, unfortunately. I mean, it's the best case scenario the way they do it. And not everybody can eat wild game. Exactly. So I apologize that that's the way that that could have been portrayed. Yeah, we didn't want to pit one against the other. We just wanted to say, let's not have a double standard. Like you can't say one's okay and one's not.

These are essentially... That's right. I interpreted it that way, but I could see, you know, why someone in the line of work of agriculture could, you know, maybe take misinterpreted what you said. Yeah, yeah. Well, so again, I've, you can't win. everything and nor can you do it right every time.

I mean, I'm not a train. I'm not trained to, you know, stand in front of the world's greatest energy. I think we've both proved that that night. I think we both proved that. It's true. It's true. Oh, man. Well, it was a really.

It's a wonderful opportunity. Hey, what about? But it's a little bit stressful. What about? That's the part that people don't see. It's like, and we are grateful, but. this whole time we've not known, what on earth is this thing going to look like? Yeah, exactly.

When I started getting text yesterday morning, granted, everyone were people over 50, but they were, but I started getting text, and I was like, oh, it's out. And so I found, and I, like, I just got myself where I wouldn't be any distractions. I watched it. When it was over, I went, whew. Yeah, yeah. Well, that makes me feel good.

Yeah. And I think it's cute that like referred to people over 50. Like they're the old folks. Josh, how old will you be? And May I'll be 50. Hey. So people like Josh. That's the CBS Sunday morning demographic.

People like Josh and his mom. That's right. Me and Deb are sitting there watching CBS Sunday morning over our medamusal. Gary and Juju, man. Their phones were lightened up. Oh, I bet they were. I mean, like, everybody they know. So my mom called me.

She was like, Lake, were you just on CBS? All of her friends were calling her. And you didn't tell her? I didn't know. I didn't know until it was out. Also, that, Mom, check this out.

You're going to want to really see me not get this bear. You're going to love it when I don't get the bear. Don't get too excited. Oh, gosh. That's hilarious. Hey, okay, so I was pretty amazed at the, number of people that told me that they watched CBS Sunday morning. I mean, the people that were messaging me were people who were older and, you know,

late 30s, early 40s. And so I was surprised. Well, those aren't older people, Josh. Well, one of the guys was in his 60s. 25 to 54 demographic. 25 to 54. Interesting. A consistent leader in the 25 to 54.

I've kind of purposely stayed away from, well, not kind of, like, absolutely. stayed away from politics and whatnot. But I got to give a little shout out. Just talking about where you get your news. I listened to this breaking points with, what's my buddy's name? Segar. That's what you always say.

Yeah. Yeah. There's a podcast called Breaking Points. And probably like a lot of people. But I believe it to be true. They talk about how it's, you know, they've got people from all sides of the political spectrum and every day they give commentary on what's going on. I find it pretty interesting.

They're not shouting at each other. You know, like sometimes you have all sides of the political spectrum and I have no tolerance for shouting at each other. I don't want to hear that. I don't want to hear that. So I don't listen to them every day, but I don't listen to them every day. When I'm in the car with Clay, I listen. But it's pretty informative. Well, man, this, we didn't get a chance to talk about the second meal episode. And, fortunately, which just seems so relevant. I would have liked to have gotten Ted on a mule. That would have been awesome. Yeah, Ted and Warner Glen.

That would be, Ted would have gotten a Bear Grays Hall of Fame on that one. Yeah, no doubt. If I would have introduced Ted Cople to Warner Glen, he would have never come to Arkansas. He would have just gone. Yeah, Warner Glen. I mean, holy cow. Yeah, you could do it quite the piece on immigration. I mean, if you're, if you remember on the episodes I did with Warner Glenn years ago, he, you know, the southern border of the Malpire ranch is the Mexican-U.S. border. And for 50-plus years of Warner's life, that fence was an eight-strand barbed wire fence.

I wonder. Today, it's a new section of Trump's wall. Wow. It's a huge, it's a huge, I mean, I've been there. I put my hands on the bars. It's a 20-foot wall, new concrete. But oddly, every time there's a road that goes down the wall, every time you go down in a little drainage where a creek has to roll through. Yeah, there's enough room to get under there. There's holes big enough to drive a truck through. For real?

100%. up if I'm just being literal big enough to a hybrid Kia a hybrid Kia your Can-Am you could drive your can am on the room yeah really yeah are there tracks I mean I didn't look for tracks but the day the day the the first time I pulled into the driveway of Warner Glen I'm driving out and I have to pull off of the road so that two white vans can pass me. They've been at his house clearly because it's a two-mile-long driveway. And when I get there, I say, hey, who is that that we just passed?

And they go, oh, that was immigration. They just picked up 17 people and they were hiding out behind the barn. Oh, my. I'm serious. Wow. I showed up in that. So, Ted, if you'd like to talk to Warner Glen, you have to come through me. 555.

I just wonder if there's any other controversial topics you'd like to discuss today. Like any other areas that we... It's interesting. That we've just not related. I'm not... I'm not... I am... It's just interesting.

That's all of this. It's not... I mean, it might be controversial, but it's just interesting. Is it not? I mean, it's pretty fascinating the whole landscape there. Hey, man.

Oh, you want to talk... I've got nothing to fear. I wish the world could just open up my chest and just peer in and see everything I think about issues. I know. Misty, we were talking this week. I mean, if you're a... Oh, my goodness.

What are you about to say? He's taking some heat off me. Keep going. If you... I mean, talking about immigration... I actually don't know what he's going to say. If you're talking about immigration, I mean, I think many people in this country would say that they believe the Bible

and that they would lean onto the Bible, look for it for instruction for life. Littered throughout the Bible, as much as anything, is... is talk of how God thinks about immigrants. And how important it is how we treat them? I mean, I'm just, I'm not even the delivery boy. I just read it myself. I mean, so it just kind of makes you think, just, I'd be careful the way I thought about it.

Yep. You know what I mean? I mean, there's a narrative that's very easily to grab onto, and there's a balance inside of it. I mean, absolutely. Keep the wild place is wild because that's where the bear's life. this has been a great episode this has been a great episode

well clay baby woke up and had his coffee you know what I just I think I think I just no I did these are great things to discuss I like I like thinking about these

just any any of these kind of topics and it's okay for people to hear that for me there's certainly turning on any possible channel and hearing very extreme narratives on every possible side of all these things, you know. But like closing comments, I'll give you the closing word, like. You're going to give me the closing word?

Like, like, was not afforded to you in the CBS space. No, I think it was an overall positive experience. If I was given the same opportunity tomorrow, I would take another swing at it. You'd show back up. Oh, yeah. I mean, like I said, I mean, I have nothing. And like I said, at the time, it was a little rocky there. But in retrospect, it's, I mean, I would do it again.

I would just try to make a better shot. Well, you know you could have to go back through this all again when a meteor film comes out. I mean, yeah. It's a meteor film. Like, what the world doesn't realize is that that clip has not been broadcast to the world yet. It's going to be on Meteor YouTube channel at sometime. So here's that. Like the whole part where it was Rocky had nothing to do with that part of it.

Yeah. Because it was just the interview with Ted was where I was like, whoa. Because thankfully, because of my primo's ears, like, man, I remember the first time that I missed a shot at a bull elk. And then I had to go archery. I had to go back hunting the next day. It was the first time I messed up anything on video. And I was like, I remember waking up next morning. like, can I actually do this?

You know? And then I didn't get a shot until I think it was two days after and I killed a bull. And that was like, good. Mentally, it was good. I was like, all right, I can overcome that. But then it was like, after that, I think I hadn't missed a turkey in a long time. And I missed like two on back-to-back days, all on video. And so I say all that to say, like, I have been raked across the coals in the YouTube

comment section many times. That You're okay Whatever Yeah I don't That doesn't It is what it is You know

But like it was the whole Like interview part That I was like Yeah Yeah It is what it is I get it I get it

Well Lake because of being Being the guest In the Tukovas hot seat Today Lake's got some new Tukov's boots Looking sharp

It really does And he's also Got a new picture A new piece of art Oh Lake! I thought that was out there. I didn't know that was there.

Has that been there the whole time? Yes. I can't believe we forgot about it. It looks like y'all planned it. Roll the tape, Josh. We got to film this. It looks like y'all planned that. I didn't notice it was there.

Do it vertical so that I can use it. Okay. There we go. Yes, I cannot believe I didn't think about this. I didn't think about it either. This is your, this is your little thing. It's beautiful. It's a so yeah, I'm sorry

You may have seen me a few Weeks ago at an antique store Buy a print For Lake of some fruit It's a three piece Framed print Not in great shape Pretty very old

I'm they The guy at the antique store said for sure Late 1800s early 1900s So well over 100 years old And it's pretty cool huh What kind of animal Almost do we have? We've got a roughed grouse,

we've got an American woodcock. We have a Drake Mallard. The fruit is... Self-explanatory. Yeah. Then we've got some Bob White quail and some rabbits. You've got just a small game smorgasbord going on over here. But, yeah, the Drake Mallard and the grouse and the woodcock and the quails would spoke to me.

I had to have it. We started taking footage of Clay because he was... River was filming him. Bear and I were laughing so hard because it's a super cool antique shop in downtown Prairie Grove. We love going there. But it's like as you walk on the wood, you can hear it Creek. So everyone kind of walks a little bit like tiptoes around in there. And Clay's children love and respect him.

They really do. And they also kind of joke about just the level of intensity that he brings to everything he does. and he's in that antique store just like going both barrels on on this we can hear him over here we can hear him walking back up the stairs we can see that here when he gets excited that he found a picture and he's so we bear and I were having a good time down on the lower story see for me it's like it's like a good it's a good confirmation that I'm putting my best foot forward if Clay saw an old picture with, you know, Mallard's grouse and quail in it and said, Lake needs this.

Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. It's a pretty cool picture. Oh, it's fantastic. And really cool frame, too, just that you can see on the back of it, how old it is. It's a little bit worse shape than I thought. I'm trying to take the price tag off.

It's a little bit worse shape than I originally realized, but it's just kind of faded. Kind of got an old antique look. Oh, the shape of it adds to it. Yeah, I think so. team. So what are you going to do with this? I'm on, so I've got my room in there. I've got some taxidermy and stuff, and then I'm actually got that

painting of Buffalo that Kyle Carroll gave to me. Oh, yeah. I'm going to put it right up there. I'm next to it, above it, below it, somewhere, and pair it up with that. Nice. I think it's a cool vibe. It looks good. Yeah. It's good. I'm glad we did that. You got a lot of things. You got a pair of Tocovas and

that painting. Yeah. I have to come up here more often. Yeah. Yep. And you might even get cobbled. Sometimes if you hang around with Clay Long enough. You never know. What's your biggest take? Someone's like, what's your biggest takeaway from getting interviewed by Ted Cople?

Stay on your toes. Yeah, exactly. Always be on your game. Stay on your toes. And the cameras are rolling. Thanks, everybody. Thank you so much. Keep the wild places wild because that's where the bears live.

Last spring, Clay Newcomb and I collaborated with Jason Phelps at Phelps Game Call and building each of our own favorite turkey diaphragms called prime cuts. Now, I'm going to tell you, I love mine because it's easy to use. I'm not going to go, I'm not going to win a turkey calling contest. It's just not going to happen. But when I run this call, I get the sounds that gobblers are looking for. I have a great turkey hunting track record. If you go listen to real turkeys out in the woods, they're not going to win calling contests, right?

That's who I listen to. I can make those sounds on my cut. I also hunt with Phelps's cut, and I hunt with Clay's cut because they're all three great cuts. Check out Prime Cuts at Phelpsgamecalls.com. I think you'll be glad you did, and you'll find out that the Steve Ronella cut is an easy-to-use cut for beginning callers who just want to start making good turkey noises and getting action. This is an I-Heart podcast, Guaranteed Human.