Bear Grease - Ep. 9: Bear Grease [Render] - Ol' Slew Foot

Episode Date: July 7, 2021

On this episode of the Bear Grease [Render], Clay Newcomb is joined by the regular crew, minus Gary Newcomb -- however, the empty chair is filled by his wife Misty and her banjo.The crew has fun by playing some live music including a cow bell and bear baculum. They talk about Clay's inaccurate pronunciation of the word "pronunciation" and have a conversation about acorn soup. They give Dr. Daniel Rupp the floor to expound on his contribution to the "Searching for Akerns" podcast and discuss how Clay had to be vetted before he could call Mr. Roy Clark. You'll get a real behind-the-scenes look into Bear Grease and hear some insightful commentary on the two episodes "Searching for Akerns" and "Fifty Years in the 'Baccer Field." Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. First Lights fieldware 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 and 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. This is all pretty new, so I wanted to restate what we're doing. You're listening to the Bear Grease podcast, which is a documentary-style podcast about people who live their lives,

to the land. Every two weeks, we produce such a podcast, and it includes multiple interviews stitched together to form a robust story. On the off weeks, we release the bear grease render. And that's what this episode is. Render is a metaphor for taking solid bare fat and rendering it down into a liquid. This is where myself, along with a group of folks, distill and dissect. the previous documentary style episodes. It's Bear Grease Unplugged. So get ready for some fun on this one. All right.

Welcome to the Bear Grease Render. We're singing this song in honor of the Clark family over in East Tennessee. Mr. Roy was on 50 Years in the Backerfield podcast. This song is called Old Sleof. We got Misty Nucke. on the banjo, Brent Reeves on the washboard, Josh Spillmaker on the guitar, Daniel Rup on the Calabell Baculum, and Mr. Malachi Nichols on percussion.

High on the mountaintop, tell me what you see. Bear tracks, bear tracks, looking back at me. You better get your rifles, boys, before it's too late. Bear's got a little pig, and he's headed for the game. Oh, he's big around the middle, and he's crawled across the front, running 90 miles an hour taking 30 feet a jump. He ain't never been caught, he ain't never been treated.

Some folks say he's a lot like me. I thought you were going to sing with me, Josh. Misty saved up her money, and she bought her some bees. Started making honey way up in the trees. She cut down them trees, but the honey's all gone. Old slew foot done made himself at home. Oh, he's big around the middle, and he's brought across the front, Running 90 miles an hour, taking 30 feet of jump.

He ain't never been caught. He ain't never been a tree. Some folks say he's a lot like me. All right, winter's coming, boys. Winters are coming, and it's 40 feet low. Rivers froze over, so where can he go? Put him up the holler and we'll put him in a well Shoot him in the bottom just to listen to him, yeah

Everybody Oh, he's big around the middle of the hand He's brought across the front Running 90 miles an hour We're taking 30 feet of jump He ain't never been caught He ain't never been treated Ain't had nobody after him like me

He ain't never been caught. He ain't never been trained. He ain't never been caught. I can do a little Loretta Lynn. Oh, totally. Hey, welcome to the Bear Grease Render podcast. The Bear Grease Render. This is the second Bear Grease Render.

And for those of you who might be new to this here, a little show, the Bear Grees Render, the bear grease render is where we render down and distill the documentary style podcasts that are the bear grease podcast. So the bear, and because this is new, we got to explain it, don't you think, Dr. Dan? I feel good about it. So the every week, the bear grease podcast is a documentary style narrative storytelling podcast where we explore culture, where we explore all kinds of interesting, fun stuff, right? The Bear Grease Render is where me

and my merry group of men and one lady who I will be introducing soon these podcasts. So we've had two podcasts that we're going to talk about. But before we do that, I've got to give proper introductions, okay? Last time you guys would have met

Brent Reeves, who is, did you guys know that Brent Reeves was an undercover narcotics agent for many, many years? Is he allowed to say that? He looks like one. My man crush on you just like quadrupled. Brent Reeves is my spirit animal.

Well, rar. What that essentially equates to is that he is a professional liar. Oh, it's true. Now, this goes back to my Panther story. No, true story. When I first met Brent, I was like, I was joking. You guys didn't meet while he was working. joking. I hope not. I don't think so. I was I was sort of joking, but I was sort of serious. I felt like he may have been working undercover for like the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission to try to infiltrate and bust me. And I was like, dude, I got nothing to hide. That's what everybody says. That's what everybody says. But now, had you actually thought I was an undercover cop, I would have been really bad at it. Well, see, I thought that was the genius of it.

reverse you come in and you're like man I used to be an undercover narcotics agent and then I would be like well he just told me a schick you see what I'm saying yeah yeah and now I'm a full-time game of fish agent and then we have Josh spillmaker welcome Josh hello so Josh is just my long time buddy got lots of funny stories about you but I couldn't really uh some of them can't be repeated but uh keep those between you we've also got Dr. Daniel Rup here Dan is a highlight guest today because he was on the Acron podcast. So Dan was riveting. He was riveting.

He was the feature academic guest on the podcast searching for Akerns. And, man, I thought you did a phenomenal job. And we'll get into that later. As of yet unpaid guests. You shouldn't feel discriminated against because you say Acorn. I do. Do you say Acorn? I think it's interchangeable, probably.

Wow. Code switching. You code switching son of a gun? What did you say? It's a pledge of allegiance interchangeable? Yeah. Exactly. No, hey, did you guys know, did you guys know, Daniel Rup speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese?

Do you know that my wife minored in Mandarin? I did not. I did know that. That's awesome. She can't speak a lick. Dan, here's my question for you. How do you say bear? Greece and Mandarin Chinese.

Bergeet. Grease would be shomau. That's actually panda. That would be awesome. Talk about taking it up a notch, Clay. I'd like to see one of those mounted in here. Do that again. I swear it's like oil.

We are not. Shomal y'all. I think that's a panda oil would be the dynamic equivalent. Wow. Yeah. Now, just like in like a very short snippet, talk to me about tonal languages. So I was mesmerized in.

one time at a bear camp around the fire, are you talking about tonal language? I can't guarantee to mesmerize everybody. But you can have like the same like M-A-M-A-M-A, or like we would say mama, that same word, Ma, ma, ma, ma. There's four different tones,

and each one means a totally different thing. So one is horse, one is immediately, one is tumor, one is... Wow. And the crazy, the most frustrating thing about it is, is there seems to be very little cooperation in context if you're talking with a person who's fluent in Chinese and you accidentally use the wrong tone, which is like me every five seconds. And you're saying, hey, you know, I like that immediately.

You have a tumor. I'm sorry, you have a tumor? Like, no, I want it immediately. You have a really large tumor? No, I'm not talking about tumors. It's very. So they repeat back what you said, like almost to show you that you're. Yeah.

Because it's important. get their language right. Well, it's like they have a different word for everything. Well, in that, well, Boring. No, tonal language, man. That's like, we don't have tonal languages. Are there other tonal languages? Yes, there are tons. Are we Arabic tonal? I don't know the answer to that. Yeah. We use tone all the time, but it's like to communicate emotion or a question. Like, at the end of the sentence, you'll go up. Right. But they use tone.

means meaning and then hey speaking of tonal languages this the most fascinating thing and I'm not getting ahead of myself we're still in introductions because there's still two guests yet to introduce wow but I want to bring this up this book Southern Mountain Speech by Crattis Williams if in the the most intriguing thing about 50 years in the backerfield with mr. Roy Clark is his accent like I just like hearing the man talk and this book talks about how mountain people sometimes, well, they use that, well, I was going down through there to really emphasize and they elongate the endings of sentences and bring them way up.

And Mr. Roy does that all the time. Are we talking about the podcast now? Are we still in introduction? No, we're not. We're still in introductions, Josh. Okay. I'd like to just say Arabic is not a tonal language. You Googled it.

Okay. Okay. So we're going to do. So we're going to come back to this because I want to talk about the reasons why the content that is in that podcast is in it. Okay. So directly to my left, Dr. Malachi Nichols. How are you, I'm doing good. What did you think of that music?

It was nice. It's nice live. I don't think I would drive home listening to it. It was nice live. Okay. You and Mary Kempower. That's a nice way to say it. But you were a part of the band.

I was. I was representing percussion. Yes, yes. Would I be invited back next week? I don't know. You were able to listen to the podcast, so I know you've got some meaty stuff to say. Yeah, some meaty, some acorn meat, to be specific. Acorn meat.

That was actually a phrase you quite a bit. He showed his hand. He just showed us. Do you trust me? We're not into this yet, buddy. We'll get there. Introductions, my guy. To my right is our guest of honor.

Whoa. This is my wife, Misty Newcomb. Hi. All you guys know. Yeah. But Misty is, for many reasons, qualified to be here, but she has been on the Bear Grease podcast. We've said a couple of times,

the only person that's really not qualified to be here is Josh. Because he hasn't been on an actual Bear Grease podcast, but everybody else says, but Misty was on Death of a Bear Hunter, which has been one of the probably the most talked about of the podcast to date. Probably my specific contribution. It was the great contribution. Misty went with me at the end.

Do you guys remember? We walked down into where we believe Erskine's grave to be. And we got some commentary. So, Misty, how are you? I'm good. Thanks for asking. Nice band you at work. Thank you.

You glad to be here? I'm very glad to be here. Misty's sporting her farm boots today. It's true. Yeah, Misty's got a boot. I was going back and forth to the house. Hey, I want to say, too, that my dad, Gary Newcomb, was unable to come today. He loves coming up here.

And a lady that was 98 years old that was quite influential in his career, passed away, and the funeral was today. And he couldn't get around not coming. So he went to that funeral. Way to bring it down. Well, no, it's a celebration, man. Celebration. Ghali, if you live 98 years old and people want to come. to your funeral, you probably are doing pretty good. So, but hey, Gary Newcomb, there is like

rumor on the internet of like a Gary Newcomb fan club. Multiple people. Multiple people. The Black Panthers. I think it's called the Black Panthers. The Black Panther believers. The Black Panther believers. Yeah. Yeah. No. So there's a couple of things I want to bring up that some, some feedback that I got. Okay. And I want you guys. guys to chime in with your commentary. So, you know, on the Akron podcast, and that's what we'll talk about first, okay? We're going to get to a point where we don't have multiple episodes to discuss in every Bear Grease render.

This one we have two. Last Bearish render, we had a bunch more. But I had some guys hit me pretty hard for the way I... I think I was one of these people. Well, tell me what you were going to say. I have no problem with your use of the... Whether you choose... to say acorn or acorn makes no difference to me.

What I do have a problem with is the way you pronounce pronunciation. I didn't know that was a word. I always thought it was pronunciation like it was spelled, but apparently there's a new dialect. How do you pronounce? So this has gone. Okay. Every time. Many, many people were like, Clay, great podcast. You're an educated guy.

The way you say pronunciation is totally wrong. I never even heard it. I didn't hear it. You didn't hear it? I say it. Pronunciation. Do you really? Yes.

You say pronunciation? Malachi. Pronunciation. You're German. Aren't you German? Pronunciation. I was raised just a few miles south of him, and we said pronunciation. I mean, in Hatfield, we said pronunciation.

No, they didn't. I mean, it's not very old. If Hatfield's getting it right. Well, I, no, it's fair game. Like, that's exactly the kind of feedback I need. I think I'm not going to change. Dr. Daniel Rup can work with you on your tonality. You would say pronunciation.

I would. I guess I'm wrong. I would you say that in Mandarin. The way that I think about it is I don't, I've never pronounced a word. and been worried about the way I pronounced a word until now that I have to say pronunciation. Oh my goodness. You see where I'm going with this?

Yeah, I thought you had a minestro. Because I never heard it. That's like that. So that was one thing. That was one thing that came up. Hey, the people came out in droves to leave reviews on iTunes for us, which is awesome. And we, I mean, like, I don't know, sometimes like you just want to do somebody a favor, just for no good reason.

And it's helped us. And overwhelmingly, like, positive reviews, a couple, a couple not so positive. Did anybody stand up for me not having been on the Bear Grays podcast yet? Nobody was worried about that. We think it's the silent majority. Yeah. Yeah. So to find those bad reviews, you'll have to go through and read all the other reviews.

So you're not going to read them? Kind of like the mean Twitter messages. I thought about giving, I think if we give too much credit to the bad guys and people are going to be like, well, let's live a bad review. What happens if you read one and somebody's like, oh, yeah, I never thought about that. That does sound. Let me change my review. So thanks to everybody that's listening that gave us iTunes reviews. That was really great.

Aikram podcast. A guy sent me a guy from Amador, California sent me a private message on Instagram about this First Nation tribe called the Mewalk. M-I-W-K-S. And there's this big, and I believe it's sandstone. I'm not sure the type of rock that it is, but it's in this area that they used to camp and whatnot. And a lot of the Indians in California, there's several tribes that milled acres into flour and made bread.

And so there's this rock, this big rock that's about as big as the building here that we're in. and there were holes, divvets in the rock where they had ground acorn flour for, you know, presumably thousands of years. And so he wanted to show me that. And there's an incredible video that was made in the 1930s about making acorn bread. And it was, you could tell it was like a real deal Native American lady. And it was in California. I'm not sure if she was one of the mewarks, but there's a video.

making bread from Acorns, I think. It's on YouTube. But this guy said, one of his friends is a Miwok. And he told his Miwok good friend about the Acron podcast. And he said, hey, this guy made this podcast about Acorns. This is what his friend said to him. He said, well, he said, I told my Miwok buddy about your podcast. And he said, thank God, I don't have to eat my uncle's acorns.

soup again. Time's better. I thought that was funny. Pretty funny. That was pretty funny. Nisie think it's pretty funny. I mean, Acorn podcast, searching for Akers.

What'd you think? Malachi, what do you think? Man, first of all, I've never heard you say Acorn. Like, I can't even, Acorn. I can't even get it out of my mouth. Like, Acorn. If you hadn't heard me say Acorn, you hadn't been listening. Man, it's acorn.

I just, I was raised on acorn. I'm from Texas. Yeah. And it's always been, I've always heard it and pronounced it. Now I can't even talk. Acorn. And I just thought it was pretty crazy. So you're like listening to that content, like this would have been something totally new to you.

Yeah. You didn't even know there was a thing. It was a big issue. Yeah. Yeah. Had no idea it was a big issue. Right. I was an adult when I realized.

it was a big issue. And I had actually, you know, and this is a conversation for another day, but I had been a little embarrassed about how my family was treated when they would talk in public up north. And so I had put a lot of effort into changing my accent when I was younger so that people wouldn't, like, snicker when I spoke. When I met her, she was 16 years old. And the first conversation I had with her, I said, you're not from around here. Really? Mm-hmm. And she said, yes, I am.

And I said, really? Where are you from? And she told me the town, which was like five miles away. I was like, you're from there? Like, you didn't move there? And it was because code switching. Code switching. Code switching, son of a gun.

And I went to, drove by the school district with your wife, Christy. Yep. Christy Spillmaker. And I said, that's where Clay's mom works. That's Akron School District. And I had put all this effort into changing how I spoke. And she said, what did you do? just say? And I said, Acorn. And she said, oh, that's funny. I thought that that was like the

oak, the thing that grew into Oaks. I thought that was how it was spelled. And I said, what are you talking about? I had no idea that there was any, I would have attempted to change the way I said it at that point in my life. And Christy kept saying, are you saying acorn? And I said, yeah, Acorn. And it was kind of like when you talked to a kid who thinks they're saying it the right way, like my niece would say, Tudis, and we would say, you said, she meant cooties? Anyways, we'd go back and forth, but Christi and I went back and forth and we could never figure out that,

and it was a shock to me that she was a little before you realized this. And so what was the impact Malachi of, like if you didn't know there was this thing going on, like was it, was it, what did you take on it? Because you would be in the 80% like so it's, you know.

Yeah, I think, you know, my general takeaway is that there's always something deeper. You know, you can't assume. And I think what, what you're getting at is that southern draw, that southern culture, the way people talk. I talk different.

I'm educated. It doesn't matter. And I think people, when you hear me talk or hear certain things that people say, you automatically try to put them in a group. And I think inside of the podcast you show, and also challenge people to think differently.

And that don't automatically assume that you know the full picture by just what one person says. But at the same time, I also agree and also dabble with it being like a signal, what people say. Because there's different sex. There's different, you know, I'm in education.

So when people say different things, I kind of know their level of understanding. But you have to use it appropriately. And I think inside of the issue of acorn versus acorn, I think it challenges people just to don't always assume there's something deeper. And usually that thing, something deeper is people's history, right? How they're raised. I think, you know, listening to your mom, Juju, talk about Akron School District.

It's like, I get where you, why you say it. That's, that's a history that's valuable that can't, you can't shun it off just because it's different than what you do. Or different than what you've experienced. And what's interesting, Dan, I think you might can speak to this, but the trend inside of a world that's massively communicating with each other is to do kind of what Misty did to try to sound normal. I read about, just yesterday watched a video on an island off the coast of North Carolina. Ocarcoke. Yeah. Have you heard of that?

Yeah. And they had this, like, incredible, very distinct dialect that could direct. that could directly be linked back to England and different things. In the 80s, basically that dialect started to be lost because of television and kids moving off and outside influence. And, you know, I guess in some ways you kind of just have to decide, like, what has value. And I mean, like, I don't think anybody's, I'm not necessarily, I'm not staking my life on whether my kids say acorn or a, Acorn, but I do think it has value. I do. And so I think there is value in maintaining some cultural identity. Well, I mean, like the pronunciation of that word, pronunciation of that word,

has value because identity has value. And so like you say, the story of Gerstocker, you know, and that story and how it's impacted your life, that has value. And so maybe, probably has more value than acorn or acorn. So you would hope that that would shape your family. And everybody, essentially, we all construct identity. And we're all trying to have and maintain a stable, I mean, we're all fundamentally insecure. And so we're all trying to, except for Josh, with that mustache,

how could you be insecure? I don't know. If you're not, Josh. I got something to say about mustaches later. Oh, and it's going to be good. Oh, my goodness. But we're all one a stable identity. And so we're always using things, all kinds of things, of greater and lesser kind of value and worth, depending on your perspective, to make that identity.

And then you, in our world where we're so, you go up north for the first time as a child, and all of a sudden it's like, if I talk the way I talk in Hatfield, I get laughed at. And I don't want my family to get laughed at, you know, or there's so many different things. And you don't even think of it. You know, consciously you thought of it. But a lot of times as a young, young, young child. child, if we want to fit into our family, then we talk the way they do, you know? Or as teenagers, if we want to rebel, we do things that our family doesn't do, you know. Yeah. Yeah. That's incredible, man. So in this book, Southern Mountain Speech, this guy was a professor at the university in Boone.

What is it? Appalachian State University. Yep. And he was, it's the first part of the book is his history. He's been gone for a while, 20 years or so. Basically, he became this, he was raised in rural Appalachia. And he noticed that when kids went to public schools, that these kids came with like basically this fundamental way of communication. And he makes a case that that fundamental way of communication and grammar and pronunciation of words had been, scripted for the last 150 years.

When they went into public school, they were wrong, and they were taught something totally different. And he felt like that it was stripping identity away from these people. And he basically was making a case for who's to say what's right or wrong. And it was interesting because he actually used the word bear as an example. He gave four different examples of the pronounce. I can't pronounce. I'm

pronouncing. I'm 40 years old, I can't change, okay? The pronunciation of the word bear. And I can't even say it the way he described it, but like way up north,

they would be like, beer. They had a way of saying it. And then I would say it like, bear, like an emphasis on the air. Bear. In East Tennessee,

they say, bar. I can't replicate it, man. I mean, like, I feel like I am like, I love Tennessee. I feel like I'm at home when I'm over there.

I can't say it like Roy Clark and those boys do. Bar, bar, bar, bar. Do they say Creek or Crick over there? Crick is Midwestern, man. Crick is not Southern. He specifically said that. He said, people in Appalachians don't say crick. I had a lot of people write me and say, you could have done that on Creek and

Crick. And I was like, no. I've never said trick in my life. Have you, Brent? Don't even get started on Pecan. I'm not particular on that. word. Really?

Pecan. Yeah. Pecan, that's what you put on the bed at night. It ain't what you're eating a pie. A pecan under the bed? Yeah. Pecan.

Well, Miss is looking to me like I'm crazy. I want to know more about what you put under the bed. A pecan. The can you pee in. Oh, okay. You know what Daniel, in that podcast, Daniel talked about community. And the trust thing, and you seek out people that are part of your community, that you identify with.

While I'm sitting there listening to that, I'm driving back from Oklahoma and I'm listening to that. When I was in basic training in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, of course, I'm in there with people from all over the United States, we all look at the same, we all got the same haircut. Everything that we have and identify with is just like we're dressed and clothed and outfitted identical to the other 40 people in this barracks. Yeah. And the only thing that about midway through, I found myself talking with these three other guys all the time.

We were just kind of like we always, if there was any downtime, we were always together. Nobody even thought to ask where we were all from. One guy was from Houston, Texas. The other two were from Tennessee, and I was from Arkansas. And we were the only people in there from the south, not one other person. And we didn't go together because of that. We were drawn together because we all talked the same. And it was, I never even thought about it.

You found yourself just like drifting towards these guys. You just gravitated toward them. I just read in the last couple weeks, I can't remember the name of the author, but a study has been done on like the underlying factors of PTSD and men and women returning from tours of duty. And the psychologists are beginning to connect PTSD symptoms not to active duty like combat front lines encounters, but to I was embedded in a community where we shared everything. Language, culture.

We wore the same stuff. We talked the same ways. You're using the same lingo. And for the first time in a lot of these people's life, they were part of a home, like a social group that had integrity across its kind of members. And then you're removed from that. And all of a sudden, you have all these, you're depressed, you can't sleep. You're anxious and psychologists are beginning to say, yes, of course, you know, intense combat

experience of our, nobody's going to argue that's going to mess you up. But we underestimate the deep need that we have for what you experience and how wonderful that was. Yeah. And we're just drawn to it. We want it. And successful organizations, successful companies, they use language to create culture. They've got acronyms.

They've got lingo. They've got, even like your Malachi you're talking about in education, somebody uses certain terms. You can kind of tell what background they're coming from. We do this all the time everywhere. But we, and we can, you know, have differences over it. But we don't realize how deep-seated that need is. You know what? You know what, really, when you're talking about that, it makes me think about, you know,

there's such a push in society these days for freedom. I want my freedom. I want to be able to do what I feel like I want to do. When in reality, there is actually a lot of safety. and stability inside of having boundaries, people thrive inside of boundaries. And when you take away those boundaries, they feel unstable and insecure. And it really is, in my opinion, it's a disservice to people to say, you can go do whatever you want. You got the freedom to do whatever you want. I don't do that for my own children because I love them.

You know, I give them accurate boundaries. And I say, here's your boundaries. Inside of those boundaries, knock yourself out. You know, I mean, do whatever you want to do. But here's what the safe line is. And that actually, those boundaries form their identity. Exactly. Because identity isn't just what this is what we do and this is what you can do,

but it's also this is who we are not. Yes, identity is formed by both things. Who we are and who we're not. Bingo is the name of that dog. Boundless, boundless identity is no. identity. Yeah. So there are no bounds on your identity.

You have no identity. Now, of course, as humans, you know, depending on kind of language that you use, we're kind of, we're totally messed up. And so we do identity in messed up ways. And we take those bounds and they're entirely counterproductive. But the answer is not necessarily, well, let's remove all the bounds. Yeah. Because he have no identity.

Yeah. Being a parent and being a law enforcement supervisor and supervising multiple officers in the undercover capacity and later on as uniformed officers and my children. Everybody operates when they know what the parameters are. And they know if you get too far out of the left side, there's repercussions. If you get too far out of the right side, there's repercussions with that. But if they stay in those parameters in there, that's where they operate best and that's where life is best.

It's more structure. That kind of structure is really good. 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 backwards. 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 2 of Blood Trails premieres April 16th. Follow now on Apple, Iheart, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. Here's my biggest takeaway from the exploration of this word, which in all honesty,

I didn't know the answers to these questions that I set out to find. Like this wasn't some like, it wasn't some mastermind plan. Proof myself right. No, I really like, you know, Rinella made fun of me. about saying Akerne. And I, you know, I've picked up now that that's a word that people kind of cue in on. And so I was like, what's the deal? So like everything I discovered on there, even talking to Dan, was a discovery.

And this is the way I described it to him. It was almost spooky how familiar we were with what you said, Dan. Just like social groups and identification and safety and trust. It's like you were describing to me an operating platform. that I would have swore wasn't there because no one taught it to me, quote unquote. It was never conscious, but highly, highly connected to this thing.

Everyone, there's no escape from it. There's nobody that doesn't identify in some way. But this is where I feel like the veil gets pulled back because, like, you talk about, like, these social groups that we connect to. And I mean, and I have no shame in saying, like, when I hear somebody say an acre and like I want to give my high five.

Now that I'm old and realize there's a different. At first I just thought normal people said that. But that is an external identifier of people. And they have stuff that they identify with that I do not. And by me identifying and having insight and awareness to my own self of what makes me feel comfortable and safe, I think that allows me to look into another person. person's culture who does something way different than me and be like, I get it. Like to look into,

you know, I mean, and I can just say like the opposite of rural culture would be urban culture. Right. And like sometimes I would, it could be confusing for someone in the inner city to look at rural culture and just be like, I don't get it. I mean, you could take me for example. Like I grew up in a pretty big city, you know, 150,000 graduating class of 700 and coming into Arkansas, it's totally different than what I grew up on. And I think what you're describing is being able to see the value of people and being able to look at, even though what they're doing is different. There is possibly something I can learn and that I can build and bring inside of my life. The only reason that I have a hunting license is because I watch Josh.

You want to be on this podcast. That's the only reason. They asked me at the door, you got your hunting license? I just bought it yesterday. Hot off the press. You know, watching Josh and Clay, you know, go hunting with their sons. And, you know, I'm never going to be the type of guy that wants to sit in a tree stand all day. That's just not my life.

I don't place that value there. We need to put a fly rod in his hand. Yeah, that might be. But like watching you all what you do with your kids through hunting, I saw it as an avenue that I can potentially build inside of my life. And so I think it's important that as you interact with people who might say things differently, who might do things differently, you have to look and say like, what can I value from their life? Yeah. What can I take a way that I can build inside of my own culture, something that I, and that, I think that's a beautiful thing. And I think we have to challenge ourselves to do that consistently.

It's a, it's a, it's a spiritual, internal discipline to be able to, like the passion with which I say acorn and, you know, wear cowboy boots sometimes and have mules and like it kind of have this identity, external though it be. Like, I can look into somebody else that's, and be like, man, they're doing the exact same thing as me. There's, there's food that they like. There's words that they like. There's smells that they like.

There's literature that they're like. There's kinds of people that they like. And they're doing the exact same thing as me. And I can respect, I can respect that, you know. So really, that, so my intent was not that the Akron podcast would drive us deeper into our social groups. Siloes. You've created intense division. Pick aside now, Daniel.

You have taken another thing and ruined. And you are what is wrong with America. You have polarized this nation. Single-handed me. No, my intent is that awareness is going to bring... The acres will rise again. Really, man. And I said it again on the 50 years in the Backer Patch podcast with Mr. Roy,

is that like my intent is not to highlight that culture and say that it's like the L. primo culture of anywhere. Man, I pray that somebody else is, and I know they are, are making media about other groups that I don't have insight into. That with pure intentions, my intention is not to elevate these guys to, it's just they're valuable. Their culture is valuable. How boring would this place be if we were all the same?

Yeah. Talking about boring. That would be boring. Yeah. Yeah. Overall companies would do good. Oh, yeah. And I buy stock in that. I have stock in it. It's the tension. And it's like the tension between I want to have my really tight-knit social group that are similar to me and the same as me. But I love different things and I don't want things to be bored. And so like it's this tension.

And we're not good at living in the tension between two things. We kind of oscillate from one extreme to the other. Well, this is what, this is the truth is that as humans, as the most conscious beings on planet Earth. Did you say beans? Beans. Bains. I'm sorry, I just wanted to make sure. The most conscious. Did you say ma or ma?

This is not a total language. The most conscious beings on the earth. We have the right to complexity. Like, challenge, I challenge myself to be complex. Like, I love my culture. I do. I love it. I love it.

I don't want to be anything other than that. I like it. But there's a complexity that can be built inside of us, a layer that's like, man, I bet if I love my culture, I bet that guy loves his culture. And I bet he's not that much different than me. And I bet he's a good guy. And it's complex. It's like a layer deeper of thinking that I think is real hard for,

people. But it's not hard. It's not hard. And obviously, I mean, I'm not saying, you know, there are bad people in the earth. I'm not saying that we glorify them, but I'm saying as it pertains to culture. Because our country really is in kind of like culture wars, you know, in a lot of different ways. Because people are using these external identifiers, which is what you're talking about. Culture is an external thing. It's the things that you can see and hear. They're using these external definers to build. silos between and to build draw lines between and really what we should be what we should really care about is the internal definers that people use to define themselves and to build their lives

and those are the things that matter the most and you can talk to a guy from Appalachian you can talk to a guy from a city and they have two different external cultures and two different external definitions of identity, but they can also very much so live their lives by the same internal principles and build their homes by those same principles. And that those things are what make a person you know, a desirable companion or not. Why in the world did you settle for Clay? Hey, I want to, I want to, I want to spend the last little bit here talking about the Appalachian Mountain Culture podcast because we're trying to get tied up. But Dan, I want to give you the floor one more time. Acreham podcast, you were the star of it. Best one yet. Yeah. No, I, yeah, I think maybe like a mark of,

like a mark of maturity will be able to know the bounds of your identity, but see something that's different and be able to celebrate. But it's so tricky because there are, like Misty said, highly negative ways of doing identity and going about it. Yeah. That's a tough place to live this world. Yeah. Okay. 50 years in the backer patch, backer field, impressions. So I listen to that podcast twice. Did you? The first time I listened to it, I have to say. Now, mind you that I married a woman whose family heritage goes to southeast Oklahoma, and they are rural country folk. My wife's grandmother got married at 14. Her first two houses had dirt floors.

When we were, one night we spent some time talking with her about what her life was like years ago. And we said, what was it like living through the Depression? And she said, well, we didn't know there was a depression until someone told us it was over. And that was just their way of life. And so even having spent a lot of time around my wife's family there, I did not understand what Roy Clark said until the – it was almost like I got fed the rubric of how to translate it the first time I listened to it because the second time I listened to it, I understood every word he said. Really? You had a hard time understanding. The first time I listened to it. And I was doing some work while I was listening to it. But it was like, I'm not. sure what that what that whole string of words was but the second time it was like I caught every single

syllable that he said so I thought that was very interesting just that that culture of speak that dialect almost he he has this the most unique dialect that I've heard over there it's interesting amongst even families so he's got an accent within that accent yeah and I'm not I mean anybody you talked to over there would have a very strong accent to the average ear. But Mr. Roy's, like, I would actually like to get somebody that, like a language specialist to, like, dissect some of the things he says because it's just so unique. But, no, a lot of the things that I left in, Mr. Roy talks for about 15 minutes. He was just talking about his life. I mean, like selling tomatoes and tobacco and, I just wanted, I just wanted them to hear him talk.

And then he did tell some pretty wild stuff about, they had a live bear. That was pretty wild. Right. I got to tell you guys, so I met Mr. Roy through bear hunting. Like I went and I bear hunted with him for three days. And we made a film that did really, really cool film on YouTube. It's called Best Bear Hunt. I think it's on the Bear Hunting magazine YouTube channel.

I think it's titled the best bear-hound hunting film of all time or something. I was trying to do like a clutchy tagline. But it turns out that it was. Oh, it was incredible film. So that's how I met Mr. Roy. And man, let me tell you something. You don't just walk into East Tennessee and people just open their doors to you. They're just like anywhere.

Like they never asked for attention. They didn't invite me to come to them. them. I, when I first met Mr. Roy, they wouldn't even give me his phone number. Really? I had to go through somebody to get to Mr. Roy. I communicated multiple times. Appalachian Mafia. Appalachian.

So over the years, I've developed a relationship with Mr. Roy. And I mean, he, he just has a way about him. And it's hard to describe, and you can't replicate it. Like, you couldn't, I can't watch him and do what he does and me, be like this. But he is like, when you watch him interact with his family, when you watch him interact with you, you feel like you're the guy's best friend in the world. And here's the best example.

Several times I've stayed with them all day and ended up driving home through the night. So we might have hunted all day. And then once it got dark and we skinned the bear, I was like, fellas, I'm out of here. had a 12-hour drive home. Mr. Roy called me at 2 in the morning. Clay, you doing all right, buddy? Making sure you was awake.

Yep. I just woke up. I was thinking about you. Staying awake. I mean, just call me when you get home. I mean, little stuff like that, just normal. But it's like he makes everybody feel welcome. I can't tell you, like, my mom, my mom,

My mom is, you know, she's known as the queen of hospitality. And I watch people as a child that would come in contact with our family and the way that my mom would care for people and take care of them and do things that she know they would prefer. And as I, you know, as I was growing up, as I became an adult, there's something very special inside of a culture that makes people feel valued. I was talking with my daughter the other night. And it's more than just making people feel comfortable around you. There is something lacking in the world that makes people at an internal level feel valued. And like Misty was talking about just a minute ago, because I don't care what you do. What you do doesn't define you.

Who you are is what defines you. And when you come in contact with someone who sees the value in you and cares enough to call you in the middle of the night, that's a pretty special thing. I mean, that's something that's unique and rare. Yeah. And honestly, quite beautiful. Yeah. I mean, it's amazing what that does. And I think just listening to that podcast and hearing you talk about their family, it's like something that they've, that they have cultivated inside of their little clan.

Yeah. And when you're able to come in contact with it, you realize the special thing they have. Yeah. Yeah. The other thing that I wanted to bring up was, what did y'all think about Britt Davis? His dad. Seven minute. That seven minute interview.

Yeah, how about that? Pretty amazing. He was. Was he 13 when he bought that property? His dad died, right? Yeah. He was 13 years old and grew a crop of tobacco and bought the farm that he lives on to this day. Literally by the point.

Holy cow. I mean, that's a heck of a mantle to put on a 12-year-old kid. Yeah. They didn't, it wasn't like somebody said, hey, Clay, ask Mr. Britt about how he got his house. Because they would have done that, because they did that about a couple other things. They were like, hey, ask him about this or that. Well, they told me to ask him about how the doctor. I talked about how the doctor in the community went around.

They put a white flag on their mailbox. and nobody asked me to, it was just normal. And what was really neat from like an interview journalistic standpoint, I did not come there to interview Mr. Britt. Mr. Britt is always there. He says very little. And I really wasn't sure how he would respond to me, like putting him on the spot. And so I got done interview on Mr. Roy.

and Roy is constantly trying to bring other people in for real. Like if you're hunting with hounds, he's wanting you to put your dog out on the track. And he said, hey, you need to get, you need to get Brett over here. Brett, come over here. Come over here. Sit down.

And they put the headset on Mr. Britt. And I wasn't prepared to interview Mr. Britt. And I think that's what made it so good. Yeah. Because I just asked him, I was just like, what are your first memories? and you know he's and and he just started talking and and i kind of choked up talking about his dad yeah yeah and that surprised me that was pretty emotional

listening to it yeah that surprised me because i ran into you know that his father had died and i don't know you just you just have you i did learn something you have this sense that like a 90 year old man like you could just ask him outright about his dad that that was my sense And I hope it didn't come across as brash. I actually take out some of the spaces. Like sometimes there's in normal communication, there'll be a pause for emphasis on bear grease because we're trying to make it efficient.

I take out a lot of stuff. So it sounded like I just was like, how'd you handle that? But really, there was kind of a little bit more thought in it. But, but, uh... Just throwing that in there. Well, I know. As I was listening to it, I didn't want to feel rude.

Yeah. The way it came across. because I said, how did it affect you when your dad died? And he didn't say anything for probably four or five seconds. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and that was, he's 90. He'll be 90.

Well, he's 90 now. He said if I live until June 2nd, because we recorded it before then. He's 90. 78 years ago. And it still, you know, I'm the same way. And my dad's been gone 10 years now, 11 years now. but his reaction to that was just like mine would have been six years ago or right after it happened yeah it's still a you know a deep emotional effect that has guided him to where he sat from that

day to where he's sitting right now that was you know what one of the things that guided him to where he is yeah yeah mr britt hunted with them every single day this year really He drives a little Suzuki sidekick, a little four-wheel drive. Really? And he just rides around, listens to the bear. You know, the guys have their trucks, and they, the guys that are hunting are, you know, it's a hustle. They're trying to cut off dog races, and it's just like, it's pretty cool. Mr. Britt stays on the radio and knows that country, and, you know, he'll hear him say,

man, the dogs are headed to Cal Penn Pass. Well, he'll get in his Suzuki and head over there. He can get out and listen to the dogs. And I'm pretty sure he told me he hunted every day with him this year that they hunted. So Tennessee season has like, you know, they have three different seasons that are, you know, however long. But pretty unique. I thought, so part two of the podcast is going to be about moonshine, NASCAR, and bear hunting. It was all supposed to be in one podcast.

And when I got diving into it, it was just too much. I really want to dive into moonshine because moonshine was... It's a little racist. It's handled. Listen, I'll forecast to you what's going to happen on this. Like, people talk about moonshine, hard liquor, as if it's, like, candy. I mean, like, even when you're in that country, like, you see it on billboards, and it's just this, like, playful thing.

Like, oh, moonshine. Well, man, moonshine ruined a lot of families. I had a guy over there who did. didn't want to be on the podcast. I kind of tried to get him on and he decided he didn't want to be. But, you know, he told me, he said, man, Moonshine was like the meth dealers of that time. Wow.

It ruined families. And so, and that's one, like, pretty dramatic extreme. But the other extreme is that, that, yeah, moonshine, no big deal. And you heard what Mr. Roy said. I gave you just a snippet. Yeah. is he said, I said, what do you think about liquor? And he said, I don't want anything to do with it.

And he was real up front, and he wouldn't have said it if he didn't want, you know, he didn't, he just said it because it was true. He said, he said, might some of my family stayed drunk their whole life? And I wasn't going to be that way. That is why I like Mr. Roy. I mean, nobody's perfect. But that kind of character is just like, I made the decision when I was a kid, I ain't going to be like these guys.

I'm not going to have somebody to have to take care of me. And that type of character is only found when you go deeper, right? You think about that region and that country. I think you immediately have ideas and thoughts of who they are and, you know, what they're about. I bet if you polled, if you listened to that podcast

up until that point, and you polled 100 people and you said, does this guy drink moonshine? Oh, yeah. Well, how many would have said, yes, he does? 93. 90% Yeah And then he was like

No sir I ain't touching this stuff Very adamant about it Now I'll confess Whoa whoa whoa Are you drunk When he was talking about Those fermenting peaches in that barrel

Yeah I was thinking now How would it be bad To walk by there with a coffee cup Maybe take a dip out of that I thought about that on the way up here That did come through your mind It did it did

We're being total honesty Here's the Here's the cool part is that I go in quite a bit of depth with Dr. Dan Pierce about moonshine. And when you hear the whole context, it makes a lot of sense. I mean, he talks about the Scots-Irish culture. He talks about how they came here before there were laws regarding liquor. And then how the government came in and made laws that basically took the legs out.

And basically, when you see the whole thing, it kind of makes sense. and you kind of get it and you realize that maybe all these people weren't just bad people and they certainly were not all drunks. I mean, like there's many ways to look at it but I feel like in this next podcast

we're going to get a balanced look at it. That doesn't glorify it but also just shows why it was there. You know, this artifact of these people being who they were. So it's very interesting. And then NASA

car is a big part of that. And then Roy Clark, I mean, like, most of what we talked about in the interview was Bear hunting. And so we're going to dive into that a bunch more. And there's a couple other guests. And so part two will be... It won't be me, folks. Still not Josh. Still not Josh. You're an Appalachian expert, though. Hey, what about the music? Epic. It was pretty epic. I love how you can hear everybody in the background like, come on. They're pulling everything together. How many folks were in that room? Oh, I don't know, 25.

Mm-hmm. All family? Yeah. We were the only people that weren't. There was a neighbor, a couple neighbors. Family or family-like. They kind of take care of. Yeah.

You know, you get lumped into family. Yeah. There'll be some more music on the next podcast, but what do you think about Olabel Reed? Oh, wow. That's a treasure. What that cool? Yeah, absolutely.

I wanted to show her, you know, she, like, obviously none of us knew her. anything. But she was a iconic Appalachian woman and banjo player, songwriter, and I called her a philosopher because she kind of was. Do you know when that recording was from? 1973. What, what, I mean, the stuff she was saying was just like how apropos to today. Right. Yeah. Yeah. She was very, she was very, uh, balanced. And she, there's quite a bit of recordings of her talking. And I loved how she said that she's not trying to go backwards. And other places in her speech, she's like, I'm not saying that we need to go back to these times. And that's how I ended the podcast is I said, I am not, I hope people don't get

the idea that like I am like lustfully looking back at the past wanting to go back. Because that is not true. The only way. to progress is to, I mean, we've got to find ways to be relevant today. Right. And that is my goal. Yeah, I think that that's even part of the bear grease is that you're acknowledging the good and you're taking the good from these ancient things, but you're combining them together with progression, movement forward, advance.

How did you think I ended the podcast, Ms. Nukum? Would you have done it any different? Always. Light answer. Misty or Gary Nukomwery. Misty's like, I give it a strong six. I'll give it a bit.

I think Gary gave it a three, right? I don't know. Five stars. My favorite podcast. No, I also want to say as we close here, and we are about to close, I'm going to get out of the South at some point. Like almost all the podcasts have been,

I know Dan, sorry, man. All the podcasts. have been Southern focused. And honestly, that was for no, that wasn't really strategy. I mean, people have been like, oh, a mediators trying to get into the South. I mean, if that was their plan, they didn't tell me. And I could have done anything, you know,

I mean, inside the boundaries of what they asked me to do. Before they send you abroad, are they going to, are you going to have some tutorials or workshops on how to say acorn? How to speak. I don't know. I just, you know, it might be a bit of a barrage. I just wonder. Britt Davis only made one trip out of Appalachia's whole life.

That was pretty much. Yeah. And he went to go to Texas. Yeah. That's about like me. You spent a lot of time of Canada. Yeah. That's a definitely foreign country.

Yeah. No, I just want to say that for people. I've had a few people be like, oh, you got to get it. Or, you know, just like, is this all this is going to be? But I tell you what, I've got to. much feedback, positive feedback from non-southern people as anything. We are going to get out of the South and do some different things. But all the negative feedback is from people at North.

Yeah, it's going to basically be us critiquing their culture. It's going to be me and Brent going around critiquing everyone else's culture. That don't make no sense. What do you think, Brent? That don't will not hunt. No, really. Thank you guys for coming. the bear grease rendered, ton of fun.

Thank you guys. Beautiful Cal Bell Dan. Beautiful percussion. Brent, good job in the washboard. Thank you, buddy. Everything. Hey, leave us a review on iTunes, man. I mean, just tell us the truth.

Or woman. I mean, man, when I say that, I mean, mankind in general. This is the kind of thing you can't do when you leave this out. This is, this needs to be in the workshop. Hey, this is what I was going to end on. And I'm not like, maybe I am trying to bring this up. But Joe Rogan, did you hear the compliment he gave on my mustache, Josh?

I did. I did. And I was like, it was like, I'm so proud. I kept waiting for him to give you credit. That was his chance. That was his chance. Sorry, Josh. I was like, just the way he described it.

We should ask, though, Joe Rogan is probably an urban dweller. How many mustaches is he exposed to? hipsters have mustache is like crazy. Oh, getting the stink eye from Dan. The stank eye. Yeah, that came out of the field for me. Hey, so I didn't. Hey, if anybody from the bear grease world doesn't know,

check out the whatever episode it was on. I was on Joe Rogan. That was pretty cool. Take it out. Check it out. Everyone in this room is totally unimpressed. They've never heard of Joe Rogan. Probably none of you have either.

I think it's Rogan. Yeah, there was a lot of confusion in my family. It's kind of a big letdown when you tell your dad, hey dad, I'm going to be on Joe Rogan, and he's like, who's she? Well, my son, Hunter, he was very impressed. He's still impressed. He called me and talked to me about it today. Now that Guy's wife thought that Clay was going to, I don't know the chain of events, but thought Clay was going to do carpal karaoke. With Joe Rogan?

We just did that. I don't know how this happened. I don't know how this happened. Well, hey, I really like the live music edition to the Bear Grease podcast. You may hear more of this kind of stuff in the future. Take us home, Clay. Freebird. High on the mountaintop.

Woo! All right. Keep the wild place is wild because that's where the bears live, and that's where we get Bear grease. High on the mountaintop. Tell me what you see. Bear tracks, bear tracks, look back at Misty. 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 bed. 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 2 of Blood Trails premieres April 16th. Follow now on Apple, IHeart, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.