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

Episode Date: March 7, 2025

Hosts Randall Williams, Brody Henderson, and Maggie Hudlow sniff out fake news in a new game, talk with Rebecca Powell about her work with the Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation, get a tour of MeatEater HQ and a sneak peek into "MeatEater Roasts," catch up with Kaitlin Lospinoso (@oldtrapperkate) about her trapping season, and dive into 1988's The Bear in another installment of MeatEater Movie Club. Watch the live stream on the MeatEater Podcast Network YouTube channel. Connect with The MeatEater Podcast Network MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTubeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey American history buffs, hunting history buffs, listen up, we're back at it with another volume of our Meat Eaters American History series. In this edition titled The Mountain Men, 1806-1840, we tackle the Rocky Mountain beaver trade and dive into the lives and legends of fellows like Jim Bridger, Jed Smith, and John Coulter. This small but legendary fraternity of backwoodsmen helped define an era when the West represented not just unmapped territory, but untapped opportunity for those willing to endure some heinous and at times violent conditions. We explain what started the Mountain Man era and what ended it.

We tell you everything you'd ever want to know about what the mountain men ate, how they hunted and trapped, what gear they carried, what clothes they wore, how they interacted with Native Americans, how 10% of them died violent deaths, and even detailed descriptions of how they performed amputations on the fly. It's as dark and bloody and good as our previous volume about the white-tailed deer skin trade which is titled The Long Hunters 1761-1775. So again, you can buy this wherever audiobooks are sold. Meat Eaters American History The Mountain Men 1806-1840 by Stephen Rinella. Welcome to MeatEater Radio Live. It's 11 a.m. Mountain Time. That's 7 p.m. Hungary time for those listeners in Hungary. On Thursday, March 6th, and we're live from MeatEater

HQ in Bozeman, Montana. I'm your host, Randall Williams. Joined today by Maggie Hudlow and Brody Henderson. On today's show, we're kicking off a new segment called Fake News. We'll call in with Rebecca Powell from the Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation. We're going to take you backstage for a look at MeatEater's new culinary show, MeatEater Roast. We'll chat with Caitlin Lospinoso, aka old Trapper Kate, and we'll round out the show with another long-awaited Meat Eater movie club.

Maggie and Brody, how are you guys doing? Doing great. Not so bad. Lovely. How are you doing, Randall? I'm doing well. I'm doing well. It's great to have you here at Bozeman HQ. It's good to be here. Well, first up in a new segment we're calling Fake News. I'm going to share a selectively edited hunting or fishing related headline from the news. And Brody and Maggie need to fill in the blank with multiple choice options. Only one of these is true, according to this news article.

And here's where we'll add Phil's drop in later. Phil's just had a real busy week. We kind of apologies to the listeners out there. Phil, what do you have to say? I don't mean to disappoint anybody. It's been a crazy week here at meat eater HQ. We got a lot of new projects happening and so I didn't have time to make a drop this week. I do have an idea. But then we thought we'd bring Chili in and then he wimped out. Chili, if you're watching, good job. So now we have nothing for you.

And frankly, it's all Chili's fault. Yeah. Chili's working on meteor roast right now, Phil. Well, the thing is, is he had agreed to do this, but then he said he couldn't figure out the chords, the chord progression. So he did wimp out. Yeah, yeah. So just imagine something, if you guys want to make some pitches in the live chat, I will read them, not necessarily take them into consideration, but if you have a really good

one, you might break through the ceiling. And I know it sounds like we're just killing time here, but I really think that with the announcement, with the announcement of the new segment, folks were keyed up. They were ready to go. Yes, they were ready. So just imagine in your head what this would sound like. The live viewer count is dropping fast.

Not to mention that Phil's drops are the best part of the whole damn show. Oh, right, he's too kind. I know, I know. I already feel like this show's a flop. On to our first headline Phil Sure thing I'm using this slideshow for the very first time every are hey, so this is our first headline Rocky Mountain National Park has too many a

trails Rocky Mountain National Park has too many B elk Rocky Mountain National Park has too many C visitors or Rocky Mountain National Park has too many B elk, Rocky Mountain National Park has too many C visitors, or Rocky Mountain National Park has too many D moose. So we're looking for the one that's fake. You're looking for the one that's true. For true? Oh, okay.

The actual headline. Okay. I'm going to say B elk elk Meg says be elk I think I just read an article about something else like I know they've had too many elk at one time but I think the headline might be moose that was my other thought moose is your final answer mm-hmm Brody gets it so do we have like a ding ding ding If I were a professional engineer, I would have one prepared but gosh Well, although I could find you a headline that says they have too many out I could find you a headline that says they have too many visitors. Yeah

This one comes from our friends at outdoor life While moose populations are down across much of their range in North America Colorado is a noteworthy exception. In Rocky Mountain National Park, wildlife managers are concerned that a moose population growing at 5% year over year is having a deleterious effect on wetland habitats and willow growth. A single moose can consume up to 45 pounds of willows in a day, and some areas of the park have seen a decline of up to 80% of their willows since 1999 the wolf will take care of that problem for too long

Just just give it a little time. I almost added wolves in there as an option But I thought it might be too on the nose and perhaps, you know traumatizing or triggering to some of our audience Onto our second headline here, Phil. Can wildlife heal blank, the science behind nature's unexpected remedy? The first answer is A, chronic pain. The second is PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder. C is autoimmune disorder. D is hypertension. What are we thinking here gang? What can nature

heal according to this article? Go ahead Maggie, you pick yours. Ha! I'm gonna go B again, PTSD. I'm gonna go with C. Well it's one to one gang. The correct answer is B PTSD. Thank you Cory. This show is really taking off. This one comes from CyTech Daily. Researchers from the University of Massachusetts studied 19 veterans with PTSD and observed notable psychological benefits, particularly reduced levels of anxiety among those who engaged in visits to wildlife sanctuaries, participated in wildlife care at rehabilitation centers, and engaged in birdwatching. According to Dr. Donna Perry, while many studies involving interactions between humans and other species aimed at improving

psychological or physical health have involved domestic animals, few studies have focused on wildlife." I think that's great news, but I don't think it's new news. People have been doing, you know, like when I was a guide we used to do like wounded warrior things in the outdoors. The news is that we have the study to back it up. Phil, why don't you read me the date on that article? It says March 6th, 2025. Holy crap. That's today's news Brody. Yeah. Well, like I said, don't think it's new news. Boy, Rocky start here. Onto our third headline. I kind of like this bit though. It's fun. And I would, this is kind of a dry run. If people like it, we'll be back with with bells and whistles and hopefully Brody will be more excited. Yeah. Well, it's not that I'm not excited. I like, I like it because I like arguing and you know, and trivia Spencer just doesn't put up with arguing about his questions. So, you know,

You know, and trivia Spencer just doesn't put up with arguing about his questions. So, you know, I know the answer to this one. 100% we should. Oh yeah, this one's been all over the place. You don't even know. But I thought my answers are so clever. Well, let's let's read the headline for the audio listeners here. Blank for dinner. California officials urge residents to eat invasive blank.

Your options are skate for dinner. California officials urge residents to eat invasive blank. Your options are skate for dinner. California officials urge residents to eat invasive stingrays. Frog legs for dinner. California officials urge residents to eat invasive bullfrogs. Rodent for dinner. California officials urge residents to eat invasive nutria. Or D,actus for dinner. California officials

urge residents to eat invasive African prickly pear. It's C. C. Nutria. Well we've got a tie game gang. There's a sound I found one. The correct answer is rodent for dinner. California officials urge residents to eat invasive nutria. According to an article in The Guardian, this call to action came during National Invasive Species Awareness Week in late February. Nutria were believed to have been eradicated from the Golden State in the 1970s, but a growing population was detected in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in 2017. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has removed some 5,500 nutria from these wetlands so far and federal officials

are trying to make the consumption of nutria somewhat enticing by drawing similarities to the taste of rabbit or dark turkey meat. Resources including recipes for nutria dishes such as stews and chili are available on nutria.com Yeah the New York Times really didn't do a good job of selling it. Their headline, their headline was keep invasive species in check. Eat a big rat-like rodent. I think, I think the funny thing about this is that this is coming out of California, which is like one of the most anti-hunting states

in the country. And they're like, Oh yeah, go kill these things. That's a lot of dead things. I know. But um, they need to call, uh, they need to call our old friend, Mark Kendrick, who, uh, he managed operation rolling thunder in the Chesapeake Bay, which is like the only place they fully eradicated those things. Yeah, I gotta say, California Nutria weren't on my radar. Yeah, I mean, they scattered those things all over the place to create, you know, a fur industry back in the day, I believe. Yeah, I will point out that there is an invasive African prickly pear cactus called the Devil's Cactus. Sounds nasty. Yeah, I will point out that there is an invasive African prickly pear cactus

called the devil's cactus. Sounds nasty. Yeah, I did a little bit of research. Can you eat it? Uh, no, I don't think so. Um, we don't have a tiebreaker yet. That's a little wrinkle we should add next time we do this. So let's hold on. I just want to make sure we have this. I'll correct. There was no drop. Yes. No sound effects. I'll take credit for that yes no tiebreaker right how do we feel this segment went you know I like it I think I like it a lot to potential I think it's got real potential Brody observed to me yesterday when we're sort of going over this that this would be a segment best played with some of our less less news following crew members. Yeah sure. The less online people would

probably have more fun with this one. But I was pleased that you both didn't get all of them right. Yeah yeah. So learn something new every day man. That's a start. Fantastic gang thank you. Joining us on the line first is Rebecca Powell, the program director for the Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation. Rebecca, welcome to the show. Hey, thanks for having me. Happy to be here. Great to have you. Great show. Yeah. Oh, man.

It can only go up from here. So, uh. I love the honesty, Rebecca. Yeah. Yeah. You're glad that that first segment didn't kill. It's tough to follow. Um, first thing, can you tell us a little bit about the Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation and maybe for folks that are not from this part of the world, uh, what the Bob Marshall Wilderness is? Yeah. So, uh, I am the program director at the Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation.

We're a nonprofit partner of the forest service and we help steward the Yeah, so I am the program director at the Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation. We're a nonprofit partner of the Forest Service and we help steward the 1.6 million acre Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex. So the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex is in northwest Montana, kind of below Glacier National Park, above Yellowstone and Missoula area. And it makes three wilderness areas so there's the Great Bear to the north, the Bob Marshall in the middle and the scapegoat wilderness on the south end and together that makes up the 1.6 Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex that we all just refer to as the Bob.

So that is a little bit about the Bob Marshall Wilderness and us as a nonprofit organization, we're pretty small. We have seven full-time year-round staff. We've been around for almost 30 years. And the Bob Foundation started as a place for volunteers to get together and help clear those secondary trails and do some of the trail maintenance that wasn't getting done

as Forest Service was facing those budget cuts. As we've evolved, you know, we've gone from more than just moving dirt. And now as an organization, we do a lot of education about wilderness. We do have a pretty robust internship program. We have some traditional skills programs such as packing. We have artist wilderness connection program where we partner with the Hockabay

Museum of Art in the Flathead National Forest and place a few artists in the backcountry each season to do some art. And then of course the bread and butter is our volunteer program. So we have about 40 projects usually each season that we take volunteers out. We have anything from a day like National Trails Day, doing a day of trail work to 10 day trips where you're in the back country for 10 days. All of them are led by one of our crew leaders.

We provide food and pack support, all the tools, and those opportunities are free for anybody who wants to join, given that it's within your physical limitations to do it. Yeah, and a lot of our work with the volunteers is clearing trails, is brushing, you know, all that alder off the trails, clearing drains and improving tread. We do some work on some of those admin cabins in the back country, rebuilding corrals, that kind of stuff. And there are some unique challenges to that type of work in a wilderness area.

Can you tell us a little bit about what a day of trail maintenance looks like for a wilderness area? Can you tell us a little bit about what a day of trail maintenance looks like for a volunteer crew? Yeah, so I always tell our crew leaders that they have the hardest job within the complex because they're training new volunteers each week, you know? So depending on their hitch schedule, volunteers show up at a trailhead. We have up to eight to 10 volunteers each project that meet a crew leader at the trailhead. We have volunteer packers that use horses and mules that carry in all the food and tool and group gear

into a backcountry site. And we set up a base camp and work out of that base camp for however many days the trip is. And because it's a designated wilderness, you know, no mechanized use within the wilderness. So we're using cross cut saws, handsaws, Pulaski's, loppers, that kind of stuff. And all the stuff that we get is transported

into the back country with horses and mules. So it's primitive. It's just how we like it. A lot of sweat. It is a lot of sweat. And you know, volunteers are, they're into it, man. People like to work hard and it's impressive to see the amount of people that come out

and wanna do hard work with us. That's great. Recently, we've been covering a lot of the layoffs affecting our public land management agencies, the Forest Service included. Can you speak to how those cuts at the Forest Service are affecting your organization, sort of how you interface with the Forest Service? Yeah, there's a lot of ways that that's affecting our organization. We are like, you know, we pride ourselves on the

relationship that we have with the Forest Service, the folks at the district level within those others five districts that manage the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex and we are close with all of them. So each season around January or so we meet with those trails and wilderness folks and and ask them like, hey where do you guys need help? How can we help you get some volunteers in? And that's how we build our summer schedule and work through that. And then once the field season starts, you know, those folks that are on the ground for the Forest Service, those river rangers, those trail crews, those backcountry rangers, those are the people that we're communicating with on our trips. We're checking in on the radio every day with those folks where they're flagging out the work we need to do. Maybe they're out there a couple days before that we show up and they're flagging out where to put a drain, you

know, or to clean up a campsite or that kind of stuff. And the complex has experienced significant workforce cuts over the over the last few weeks. You know, Rocky Mountain Ranger District had a backcountry crew of 11, and now they're down to three. Spotted Bear is similar. They had a backcountry crew of 20-something, and now they're down to four or five people. So that's going to create significant barriers for the public and for us to be able to achieve the level of work that we hope to do. You know, as an example, we work with the Forest Service. We have our seasonal workforce that we ramp up to is about 26 folks. That's crew leaders, that's interns, that's packer apprentices. Usually we hire two wilderness river rangers to go out with the river ranger at a spotted bear, and that position no longer is there. And so we can't have those two interns go out on their own without any supervision.

So we're readjusting, we're getting creative. We're trying to think of ways that we can still be effective and help out and be of service to what's left out there. Gotcha. Do you have sort of concrete plans looking forward to the summer or are there still a lot of uncertainties at the moment?

Yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah, working in wilderness, there's never any concrete plans, right? We're used to plan A, plan B, plan D. You know, we're always adapting for weather and whatever, injuries, illness, everything. injuries, illness, everything. This is definitely a big hitch in our program. Because of, I mean, shortages aside, workforce cuts aside, our program budget was cut 50% because of a lot of the funding that we get is frozen currently. So the funding from, you know, the great American outdoors act that helps fund our interns and our trail crews and that kind of stuff. Some of the grants that actually fund paying for the food for our volunteers, those are all currently frozen.

And we're hoping that- Hey, Rebecca, that's money that was already approved to go to you guys, correct? Correct. That's money that's approved to us. That's like, for instance, the America the Beautiful grant that we get that funds our invasives crew. So we have an invasive species coordinator that works for us and he has four interns and a crew leader that go around the complex and spray and map invasive weeds all summer long. That's funded from the America the Beautiful grant, which we're in year three of a five-year grant of that, and that has been frozen.

So this is the time of year that we're hiring all of our interns and placing all those folks. And we kind of put a temporary pause on that because we don't want to hire all these folks and then be like, hey, guess what? We don't have the funding, so you can't go out there and do the work. So we have decided to just keep moving on

as if we have that funding in place. And then we've made a deadline that if we don't have, you know, confirmation of that funding at a certain time, we'll call it off and regroup our summer schedule. I mean, there's, like I said, there's seven of us year-round staff and like five of us are ready to roll up our sleeves and get in the back country. You know, it's folks that still spend quite a bit of time doing work in the back country. So we can still do some volunteer trips. We can still do some packing.

We can do some other things. It'll just be quite abbreviated from from what we had hoped and planned. So folks, the folks are interested in supporting your work, how do they either go about volunteering and getting out there with you guys this summer? Or if they maybe live remote or can't do trail work themselves, how else can they support your mission? Yeah, well, we do a lot of fundraisers right now. We have, we partner with the Telluride Mountain Film Festival and do like a fundraiser and kind of circumnavigate

the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex on Friday, tomorrow. We have a show in Big Fork. We have a show in Choteau, Montana, in Helena and Missoula and Whitefish. So anybody can go and buy tickets to come see us at those events. And we have raffles and fun stuff and a lot of great films on that.

We also have like business partners. So if you're a business owner and you wanna be part of the Bob Marshall Women's Complex and supporting that, you can join our business, become a business partner. Big fundraiser for us actually is our license plates. So we have like the Bob license plates. It's when you go to the DMV, it's the one with like a pack screen on it.

Get those on your car, that's super supportive of us. We have monthly donations, all kinds of different donations. You know, like I said, really only 20% of our funding comes directly from the forest service. The rest is all donations and fundraisers and merchandise sales and all that stuff. So. Good deal.

Any of that support is great. And as far as the volunteer side of things, if I get in the weight room or get in shape and ready to grab ahold of crosscut saw, what's my next step there? Yeah, so traditionally we've launched our volunteer projects by March 1st, that's on pause for right now, so we get confirmation that we have the funding to go ahead with that and hire our crew leaders

and buy volunteer food and all that stuff and pay for the PAC support that joins us out there. Our trips are all posted online on our website, on our social media, we'll promote that once we launch those. Some of our trips fill up really fast, some of them don't. We like to have a large variety of

trips. So we'll have, like I said, some like just one day trips that are like lopping or pulling weeds or something. And then we have like, I think our most popular trip is like a five day trip. So you hike in, you work for two days, you have a day off, you work for two more days or one more day and then you hike out. And those, you know, there's different variations of the fitness levels you need for that. And we advertise that on our website. Some of them, you know, you're hiking 14 miles into the back country over a mountain pass and that's more strenuous and the work you're doing is like clearing a trail that's, you that's had a significant blow down and you're on a cross cut all day.

Some of the trips that are even longer are you hike six miles into a back country site and you work on campsite restoration and getting rid of fire rings and burying poop and all that kind of stuff. That's a little less strenuous. So we have- There's some for everyone. Is what you we have- There's some for everyone.

Is what you're saying. There's some for everyone. Excellent. Yep. Well, Rebecca, I think I can speak for everyone in the building that we love the Bob Marshall wilderness as we love all of our public lands. And so we appreciate the work that you do

and hopefully we can maybe get a couple of us out on a crew with you this summer or the next. Yeah, that sounds great. We have partner trips too. So if you wanna just grab your friends and come join us, the whole mediator crew can come out and- Oh, I like that idea. You can't film it, because we're in wilderness.

I like that idea very much. Yeah, you can take some pictures. Yeah, I appreciate you guys taking the time to hear from us and kind of shed some light onto the work that we're doing and our passion for the public land and the place. And thanks for having us. Yeah, happy to do it. And good luck.

We appreciate you. Thanks. Thanks, Rebecca. Phelps has a new thing this spring. They're coming out with what they call the Prime Cut's turkey diaphragm calls. And one of them is called the Clay Neukom Prime Cut. And I'm not just gonna talk about it. I'm gonna blow on it here.

I'm a simple turkey hunter who likes a simple system. I usually carry one, maybe two diaphragm calls in a single pot call every year. Don't even carry a box call. I wanted a versatile diaphragm call that was the best of two worlds. I wanted loud and raspy, a call that I could cut on, but also one that was the best of two worlds. I wanted loud and raspy, a call that I could cut on, but also one that was soft and subtle that I could purr and kiki run on. I love to make those raspy cuts and the soft subtle purrs on the same call and I find many of them I can't do both and this call that I worked

with Jason Phelps to build simplifies my turkey kit. These prime cuts come in a three pack. There's the Clay Newcomb call, but also Steve Rinella and Jason Phelps favorite turkey diaphragm cuts. You can check all these out along with all the other meat eater and Phelps turkey calls at store.themeateater.com.

Now here's a transition we didn't rework at store.themeateater.com. Now here's a transition we didn't rework after a little edit to our script. Oh, hold on here, I'll help you out. Hey, I guess that's why they call it fake news. There's an Elton John drop for you. Oh, that's good. Very good. That's really good.

Throw in something about like the P tape or Pizza Gate, and then you know, you've got yourself a drop right there. Oh, that's good. Yes, Phil. Yeah. Talent. That's how the magic happens, right here in this chair. You guys got to witness it live.

That's great. That's an example of someone adapting and making it work in the show. But I'm gonna read a transition that has not been reworked. Speaking of our new show, Meat Eater Roast, Corey, why don't you walk down the hallway to the kitchen and see what's cooking? Oh, great idea, Randall.

Hey there, bud. You guys are making me hungry with all that chatter about Meat Eater Roast. Walking down the hall. And I just wanna, I don't wanna understate how this is like a first time experience. People are getting to see the behind the scenes meat eater headquarters right now.

Yeah. Who's that? Is Yanni juggling? Holy cow. Yanni, what's cooking? Well, I'm just tenderizing these avocados. Ooh, careful. In case they have to use these for a part of their meal today.

What do you want me to do? You want me to just explain what MeatEater Roasts is, Corey? Yeah, what are you guys doing in here? It's MeatEater's new competition cooking show where we have two ordinary Wild Game cooks, which up to this point have all been MeatEater employees and not just the ones that you expect to be good while a game cooks you got folks like Corrine in here Maggie Hudlow maybe you would expect them. Yeah take that Corrine or Maggie. Alright honey. What do you mean? The challenge or the mystery or what makes the competition.

Well, we have two people which makes the competition. Every episode there's a protein or a chunk of meat that is unknown to the contestants until the moment that I reveal it. And like right here in to be Maggie Hudlow. We also have the most famous butcher I know, Anna Borman, judging today. And they're gonna have 90 minutes to cook us up something delicious. What that means. The best part about this show, this is episode number four that we're filming today, is that we've come to see that while game cooking is not that hard everybody that's participated so far is whipped up some amazing stuff in an unlimited amount of time not knowing

what they had to work with when they started so the energy level is high for digging producing it with us so I'm hoping that the viewers are gonna like it too any questions Corey or from the next door? I can just walk over there to get one talk to me in person. Yeah, you're honest. I wonder if you're a little overconfident there in your assessment that the show is demonstrating that wild game cooking is not that hard. I will be joining you there in about an hour

and I'll be taking the helm at that stove. So I wouldn't really count your chickens before they hatch as the old proverb goes I think I might set a new standard for incompetence Difficult chunk of game meat for you, too You're not gonna have I'm not giving you like a an elk tenderloin to work with so put your thinking cap on Randall Oh you hear that from Max no here in an hour you're late. Oh geez that 30 minutes Well, we better wrap this sucker up then

Anything you like to add chili? Yeah You know really rooting for you Randall and the other contestant as well. But, uh, he who should not be named. She only just wants to make sure you keep the kitchen clean while you're working. Yeah. Chili's done a great job remodeling this kitchen. Check out some beautiful artwork.

That's our new art gallery. For those of you watching. Well, which way? This way. That's our new art gallery for those of you watching. Well, which way? This way? A lot of credit being given to... Sam, there's the brains behind the whole operation and the creative engine behind it all.

Sam, why don't you say hi to the folks instead of hiding behind the... Hi. Lovely. There's some real interesting stuff on that shelf behind Sam too. Oh yeah. What are some interesting ingredients that these folks have to work with here in the

kitchen? Oh listen, Corinne, she's attracted to the craziest stuff that is available in the outdoors. And so she really wanted to use the Python oil. I can't remember who sent this to Steve, but unfortunately or fortunately, if you look at it, it's rancid. So if you see this in an upcoming episode, you will know that that person that used it lost because they really wanted to use it. It did not smell good. Yeah, we got grizzly bear fat, which we did use some grizzly bear grease the other day.

I wish I knew the story on how they legally obtained it. Maybe they got it from Alaska. I guess, but it was actually very delicious. Oh, and then what the Maggie and Corinne the other day used bison garum, which was basically tasted like an extra rich soy sauce, like mega umami. Yeah, I'm really curious how that was made. I would love to learn how to make garum.

It was delicious. We also, if you've never seen this exotic pasta from Italy called penne, penne ran. I thought the E was silent, just peeing. Maybe you see Randall? Elbow macaroni, also from Italy. Got any Wonder Bread? Any ketchup? Oh yeah. Yeah buddy, we have like a crush shell. We have a crush shell for those that can't get it done with, you know, from scratch. You can use ketchup, Wonder Bread, that sort of stuff.

And I'll be happy to eat it, but it's probably gonna cost you a little bit of, in the creativity point. You don't know what I'm gonna do with it yet. I don't, I don't. But I feel like that stuff's a little bit of a crutch it's a little bit of an easy button. Well I'm gonna see what I get for my mystery ingredient today and we'll just proceed from there how's that sound? We'll see ya. See ya in a little bit. Now get back to entertaining these folks okay. Thank you thank you sir. Now

Randall has teased me with the prospect of a meat smoothie. Yes Yes, I've been told there's a blender and if all else fails can't nail the texture on the on the hot pan It's they're going in there Take it through a straw. I hope I'm not drinking my meal today. You very well might be Phil what do we got for some listener feedback here? Yeah. Have a good time. Just a reminder, now's a good time

to submit some questions for the crew today. Maggie Brody and Randall. Yeah. This one was just funny to me. When you were looking at the TV, Randall, someone said, why does Randall always look like he's trying to remember his AOL password? Which, that's just a funny joke.

Yeah, you know, it's funny. From Ryan. I am really bad with passwords. So this is, I usually, I don't know what I look like when I'm trying to think of my password. I think you're just making sure you're saying what you're supposed to say. Yeah, that's true, that's true.

Just trying to stick to the script. Speaking before you think can get you in trouble. We like to have a nice clean show here. That's really on that note And I I'm trusting you guys right now. I'm putting a lot of faith in You for not spoiling what's coming up next week? Mm-hmm But Juan Gonzalez asks if Randall wins the trivia tournament Are we going to see some suck it Randall stickers to replace the suck it Brody stickers? And we'll have to come up with something better and suck it

From the man himself you heard it here to replace the suck it Brody stickers. And we'll have to come up with something better and suck it. From the man himself, you heard it here. That one's copyrighted to me. This is something that I'm curious about. Maybe it'll be a short answer, but Brandon asks, he says, hey guys, y'all have any issues with lower turkey numbers due to predation? My turkey flocks that I've hunted for years got decimated by coyotes over the winter. I don't know where you are, Brendan, but if you're still in the chat, if you want

to let us know. Yeah, that's like very location dependent, I feel like. I would say out here, numbers here numbers are more influenced by the severity of winters and whether turkey flocks have access to the some people might not like hearing this but where turkey flocks out here have access to cattle pastures in the winter they're gonna do a lot better because they like getting down in that cattle pasture and pecking through the cow poop. And where they can do that, they do pretty good. But we had a cold winter, well, a long stretch of cold.

So it's yet to be seen what's going on with turkey numbers in Montana. I can't speak to anywhere else. Brendan says he's in New Jersey, by the way. Yeah, I I mean predation is certainly a problem, like a nest predation. I think probably raccoons are doing as much damage as coyotes. This might be a question to Caitlin to share with our next guest. Oh yeah, she knows a lot about turkeys and coyotes. She's smiling in the waiting room. I hope that's a good sign. Good, good. In the Woods asks, Maggie, what's the craziest article you've written

for me here? And I'll extend to like maybe your favorite or something you're the most proud of that people should check out too. I wrote one about seafood fraud a few years ago. Oh, yeah. I think it was titled something like hog bung of the sea, because people actually use hog bung and slice it up as calamari and sell it as calamari. And there's like other instances of, you know, like Chilean sea bass. It's, I forget what it was actually called. It's like something, tooth fish. Yeah. And it's just like this renaming, rebranding,

selling seafood is something that it maybe isn't just to market it to the consumer, which is really interesting because people still consume it and buy it. And that name really took hold after it was served for lunch at Jurassic Park headquarters. Patagonian Tooth Fish. Yep, that's right. That's right. So it just took a little bit for the gears to turn. Clearly they must have taken some of those off the coast of Isla Nublar.

Fictional island where Jurassic Park was set. Phil, you got anything else from the chat? Does Randall like Skyline chili? Oh, I love it so much. I love it so much. Dawson, do you have any? Send it to me. I just made some fake Skyline a couple weeks ago.

Maybe you'll be making some in half an hour. I could, yeah. Yeah, in a blender, we'll see. Do you put beans in Skyline Chili? No, you can add beans. Beans and noodles seems weird. Yeah, so typically it's served in a number of ways. You have a three way, which is chili.

It's spaghetti, chili, and cheese. And then you can have a four way, where you either add chopped onions or beans. Oh, chopped onions seems like. Or a five way, where you add both. Or or beans. Oh, chopped onions seems like. Or a five-way where you add both. Or you serve them on a coney. Hot dog, little mini hot dog. Hot dog with noodles?

Oh no. You could, but that's typically not the traditional way. Be a Dawson, I could go on for hours about Skyline Chilla, I love it. Also a gold star man, but Skyline really is probably my number one. A question from Mogor. He says he finished the new audio book this week, the one that you made with Steve. He really enjoyed it. Congratulations.

His question is how much research was needed for the project. And I guess like you could say that in terms of months or books or hours. I'll just say that that's my full-time job. Trivia and podcasts and Radio Live are just sort of the icing on top, but none of that is in my job description. It's a full-time job. I don't really know where to start with number of books, but yeah, we probably worked on that for, oh, I guess, maybe seven months for the first draft, and then rewrote a bit, and then recorded it probably nine months out from when

we started. So it's like a year-long life cycle, basically, between getting it started and then the launch and promotion and everything. You're already researching the next one, aren't you? In the spare time that I have, yes. We've got another one coming out on the Buffalo hide hunters, which is kind of a subject near and dear to Steve's heart. So that's been a fun one to get started. There was a question regarding your crossword puzzle scores, Randall that we haven't haven't gotten an update in a while But then spencer our very own spencer newhart responded that randall scores are posted at the top of every crossword puzzle

If you go look at any of them, you'll see his score in the first sentence. Do you know what that means? Probably in the little Lead in instructions thing. Yeah, so when Spencer puts together a crossword every week, he and Logan, who plugs it into the website, give me that link a day in advance. You take it first. And I take it first, so then everybody can... and this week, let me just

point out here that this week I scored a 395 with a record time of a minute and 34 seconds. Pretty proud of that one. Thanks Spencer. That's great. Uh, crosswords are another part of my job that aren't in my job description. Curiously enough, you got a lot of superhuman ability to get them done in that amount of time. I just don't have much else. Let's, let's do one more on the heels. Let's do one more on the heels of the meat Eater behind the scenes HQ. Yeah.

This is kind of a big question for everyone, but Michael asks, what's your favorite part of working at Meat Eater? That could be anything from crossword puzzles to researching mountain men for months. Who wants to start? My favorite part is turning in a finished manuscript. The rest of it isn't necessarily that fun, but man, when you're like, holy shit, we're done, that's a good feeling.

That's got to be satisfying. Yeah. Maggie? I would say just the content that we get to work with day in and day out is really great and fun. And we like, everyone that we work with is a fantastic person. Like there's true. It's just a really great community here. Sorry, I interrupted.

I just couldn't help myself. No, and every time I come into the office, I'm reminded of all the good folks that work here. So it's nice. You don't always get that, so I try not to take it for granted. Yeah. I would probably echo some variation of that. I enjoy coming into the office and just having fun all day long. Like today. All you're doing is having fun all day long.

Yeah, just make a couple stupid jokes and act like a buffoon. You know, a lot of jobs require you to maintain some level of professionalism and I like that I can just be a weirdo. I'll second that. just be a weirdo. I'll second that. Yeah. Let it shine. Just let it fly. Cool. Well, let's keep sending those questions in.

We'll do one more round of those at the end of the show. Please, those are some good ones. Thank you. Joining us on the line is wild turkey researcher and fur trapper, Caitlin Lo-Spinoza. Or as some of you may know her better on social media as old trapper, Caitlin Lospinoso, or as some of you may know her better on social media as Old Trapper Kate. Caitlin, welcome to the show. Hi, how are you?

We're doing great. How are you? I'm good. Mentally recovered. Oh, no. Uh-oh. She'll be back. But, you know, we'll get there. Good, good. Well, Caitlin, tell us a little bit.

You are a wildlife researcher and a fur trapper, and anybody who's following along on social media knows that you've been rather busy lately with your trapping season. Can you just give us a quick overview of of your trapping season and kind of what when that starts, when that ends and how hard you go. Yes. So it's been a crazy season. Land trapping wrapped up here. The season closed on Friday. So I've been taking this week for some R&R, just kind of relaxing before I start setting for beaver. We have another month of water trapping coming up here. So I had a great land trapping season targeting bobcats and coyotes. I'm trapping all on public land, so I can't run a huge line.

I probably average about 12 sets at any given time and just run those as I can while I'm working. And I did a fantastic on bobcats. It was a record year. I doubled my goal. I was hoping I would get four. I got eight. Nice. And two of them were amazingly spotted. Just beautiful cats.

Yeah, that was actually my last hurrah. Last week on them, I doubled up and that spotted one was just a beautiful tom. But yeah, I got nine coyotes as well. And it was, it was a grind this season. I really, really enjoyed it. Um, had a great time. Very cool.

How did you get into trapping? If you don't mind us asking. Yeah. Um, very non-traditionally. Um, I didn't have any history of trapping in my family. I didn't know any trappers. I just, it was totally not on my radar. But I love the grind.

I taught myself how to hunt on public land. I taught myself how to bass fish like a pro. I just always loved having some kind of really complex problem to solve in the outdoors. And I found myself in that kind of dead space between deer season and turkey season just really trying to find something I could go hard on and really get into. And I had the hardest time figuring out what that could be until I went into undergrad and I had a wildlife

management course where trapping was discussed as a method for both research and harvest. And it kind of got my wheels turning. And I actually remembered the Wyoming beaver trapping episode that was in, I think, season six of Meat Eater, where Steve snared one. And it just clicked instantly. I was like, that's the next step. That's it.

I can do that. And I had tons of beaver in the creek bottom that I was hunting on public. So I went in there. It took me two days, got my of beaver in the creek bottom that I was hunting on public so I went in there it took me two days got my first beaver and it just snowballed from there I was I was hooked and now now I'm doing everything that I possibly can coyote bobcat raccoon possum skunk beaver hopefully otter I'll get back into there's not many here where I'm at here in Kansas now but and these and possum, skunk, beaver, hopefully otter, I'll get back into. There's not many here where I'm at here in Kansas now, but.

And these pillows here that are on the screen, those, you set those in for the auction house of oddities, if I recall. So not those ones in the picture. There's a photo of me holding to those. Those are the ones that I sent in. But yeah, I started. So when I started trapping and and I started out with Beaver,

I was getting all these, you know, beautiful pelts and looking at the fur market, obviously dried fur. It's been talked about a lot like the fur market was just in the tank. Beavers come up a little bit with the with the Western hat crazed. But at the time, I was trying to figure out how can I use this fur in kind of a unique way that I'm gonna be able to turn more of a profit than I would if I just sold the dried pelts to a fur buyer.

And I started thinking about like, how can I make it a novelty? And the first thing I thought it was like, man, these would make like a really awesome throw pillow. So I just took you know, I took the beaver that I got that first season, I tandem myself and, and I just got to making them into into pillows and selling them on just through Facebook. And they were selling really well. So then I thought, you know, what about Etsy if I really got a store going and sold, you know, wall hanger pelts and, you know, what about Etsy? If I really got a store going and sold, you know, wall hanger pelts and, you know,

different fur items that I could make myself. And yeah, it just kind of went from there. And those, the ones that I donated, when I made them, I really loved that pair. It was this beautiful dark kind of chocolate beaver pelts and they matched perfectly. And I was just sitting there like fixing them up and I was going to the meat eater live show that night actually when I finished them and I was like, I wonder, I wonder if they

would take this for the auction house. Cause I was like, that would be a really cool thing to see, you know, how much these could get for the, for the cause. And yeah, I messaged Spencer and he was like, yeah, we'll take them, heck yeah. And then I was super worried that they weren't gonna do much in the auction but they actually did really well, so that was awesome. Do you remember what they sold for?

I'm super happy about that. I think it was 805 if I remember. Wow. Nice. Yeah, and I mean, they were a beautiful set and I was gonna keep them for myself I was like, oh like if this can go to to raising some money for the cause and and obviously just like a super cool Thing to do so very cool. We appreciate it very much. What do you typically sell a beaver throw pillow for? so I had been selling them for

depending on the size probably 80 to 180 depending because I would make some like really little tiny ones that are like like just a cute little thing to have and then I had some that were like 18 20 inches Um that would be and depending on the backing that I put on them Like if I just did a basic kind of corduroy backing, obviously that's much cheaper. Some of them I did suede, which is a lot. Yeah, Spencer just confirmed 805. Yeah, I did suede on those. So it was really, those were a really nice set.

But yeah, I've done double sided fur, which is going to be the most expensive. But yeah, I've done double-sided fur, which is going to be the most expensive. But yeah, the backing material adds a big variation in the value and then the size. Sure. Did you already know how to sew or did you learn that as well as learning how to track? I had that same question if that's another thing you just figured out for something to do. Yeah. I learned to make the pillows. I was like, the idea for a pillow came

into my head and I was like, I don't know how to stitch like a pillow cover. And so I, yeah, I learned that on the fly and it's so much fun. It's just, you know, another thing to keep me engaged with it and do something more with that fur. It really, it makes me very happy to, you know, make as much back on that harvest,

like make that harvest as meaningful as possible and get as much use out of it as I can. So yeah, I really enjoy that part. Very cool. It's impressive. So how are the critters in your neck of the woods doing this year? What are your takeaways from the season as far as, uh, hair and hides and the

health of the health of the, um, populations? Yeah. So they've been, um, they were really, really healthy started the year. The coyotes were as about as fatty as I've seen them and, um, super primed up. They stayed prime all the way through the end of the season on Friday. I think, you know, obviously, it was just talked about. We had a really hard winter. The last couple of winters have been kind of mild to where getting into February,

they would already have some rubs and and just losing those guard hairs. But this season, they were they were primed like I have not seen since I've been here. This is my third season trapping here. So they're they were just fantastic. I was I was over the moon with it. Especially like Friday I picked up my last coyote of the season and she I was expecting her to have rubs and stuff but she was still super prime. And she, I was expecting her to have rubs and stuff, but she was still super prime. So this, this is not a, I mean, Kansas, it's not, you know, a top tier first state usually, but the, the animals that I pulled this year were very, very well, uh, doing very well. So very cool.

Um, yeah, they had some, I saw some crazy injuries, which I sent in a picture of one that that coyote that I pulled on Friday. She was super big, healthy. You wouldn't have thought that anything was wrong with her. And when I got to skinning her, got down to her face and I hit metal. And I was like, oh gosh, right around her eye, I hit metal.

So I like pulled the skin back and there's a broad head sticking out of her eye socket. Wow. Which was just gnarly. It was it was just, I, when I got in there and started digging around, it was just sitting under her eyeball. Like, yeah, you could not go, Phil. Thank you. Yeah. You could not tell, um, that anything was wrong. She had like a little lump under her eye that was healed over, scabbed over. And when I got to skinning, I hit metal and I could not figure out what it was and

had to clean it out before I could see that it was a broadhead. But yeah, you wouldn't have known her. Her one eye was like up a little higher than the other because it was resting on the broadhead, but the eye wasn't punctured. Like she was, she was doing great. So yeah, pretty crazy stuff. They're, they're tough and they, they made it through Very well this year despite the harsh weather. So, oh, yeah incredible well Thank you for joining us. I know you've got to rest up before You kick off your your spring beaver trapping. So appreciate the update and we will check in with you again here soon

Yeah, sounds good. Thank you Our next segment is meat eater movie club Thank you, Phil. Jean-Jacques Anod's 1988 feature The Bear offers a mesmerizing glimpse into the wilderness through the eyes of its ersine protagonists. This largely dialogue-free film follows an orphaned cub who forms an unlikely, dare I say unnatural, bond with an adult male grizzly while fleeing human hunters in the Canadian wilderness. The arc of the film, though simple, carries surprising emotional weight. We

witnessed terror, playfulness, curiosity, and tenderness through the bear's experiences. In my own reading of the film, the human hunters are portrayed not as unredeemable killers, but as yet another species on the landscape, prisoners of their own nature, which adds a layer of moral complexity to the tale. Above all else, the bear is a noteworthy technical achievement in the underappreciated genre of animal movies. A nod somehow elicits authentic performances from real bears, only rivaled in my mind by the profound work of Sam the Orangutan as the title character in the 1996 comedy Dunstan checks in.

The bear manages to create moments of genuine emotion without excessively anthropomorphizing its subjects. Although I think we might have some discussion on that later. I did add the qualifier excessively. The film's stunning cinematography captures both the brutal reality and sublime grandeur of nature as it is read in tooth and claw. Most remarkable is the film's successful execution of what can only be described as the peculiar artistic vision of its French director.

Ennard had long been fascinated by non-verbal communication and specifically sought to make an animal the lead character in a psychological drama. A revolutionary concept that challenged conventional Hollywood wisdom, he boldly inverts the traditional literary conflict type of man versus beast, placing humans as the antagonists rather than the protagonists. Whereas films like The Grey, parentheses meteor to Radio Live episode 2, position large conervores as an existential threat to human survival, and those like The Gray, Parentheses Meteor to Radio Live Episode 2, position large conervores

as an existential threat to human survival, and those like The Edge, Parentheses Meteor to Radio Live Episode 15, employ them to heighten familiar conflicts rooted in the human experience. The Bear elevates animal consciousness to the narrative center. This radical perspective shift forces viewers to confront uncomfortable questions about our fundamental relationship with wildlife and our place within nature's hierarchy. The bear is a unique cinematic experience, particularly after a few glasses of wine. It's a testament to the power of filmmaking that transcends language barriers to speak directly to our primal understanding of survival, family, and the wilderness. Phil, I appreciate your screen grab there. Now what do the critics say?

Roger Ebert gave this film three out of four stars and had this to say about the dialogue of the Hunters. Quote, their words are not meant to be language but simply the sounds made by the animal named man. And I have a couple quick facts for you here. It's based on a 1916 novella called The Grizzly King. Brody characterized it as a book written by a repentant Frenchman. It was filmed over 19 weeks in the Dolomites in Italy with three actors, 23 bears, and lots of other critters.

They had to teach this bear how to fish because he had been living in captivity in Utah and didn't have experience with fishing. So they hired a guy to come on set every day and release a fish into the pond, but the bear was initially afraid of the fish. And then this is my final note here. This one might go on a little bit. One day during production Bart the Bear injured Ennard while the two posed for photographers. Ennard's wounds, which included claw marks on his

back, had to be drained with a shunt for two months. Then I happened to find this quote from an interview. I believe it's translated from the original French, so I'll do my best. I was a very good friend of the bear. One day the photographer had to make the usual picture of the director and the star of the film. I had to show that my star was huge, so I stood on a little mound, of course. All that protected me was a flimsy fence. So I went into his part, his domain. I was standing but he was so high I could not see his head. To make it even more apparent, I decided to squat. I always

carry my viewfinder, you know. I took it like this. He had never seen my viewfinder. I immediately understood that I did something wrong. Ooh la la. He didn't add that. I did. He leaned down with his mouth open. that means you are not my friend I knew what to do. I decided to go limp being great German accent I Really tried not to make this German Randall. It's really good. You're kind of toeing the line I'd say it's more French than German though. I'm giving you credit He stroked me on the shoulder and I went six seven meters down. I

Heard his mouth go. Ech, echck eck his trainer says okay good boy good boy Clearly he too wanted to kill the director The stench was incredible. I felt like I am you missed an opportunity. Oh And crab I felt that this was my mistake very fortunately I had read the book called bear Attacks, and they explained that the only survivors of a bear attack were those who were playing dead. Apparently that was the only time I was a good actor. When I was playing dead, so I trusted that I was dead.

The last two months of shooting, I had to go to the hospital every morning and evening after the shoot, as I was seriously wounded. Otherwise I should be in a wheelchair today. The very touching thing is that for the rest of the shoot, Bear never met my eyes again. Each time I was moving on the set, he looked away like a dog feeling guilty." Well done, Randall. So I just thought that was too good not to share and we couldn't play the video because it's in French.

So. Well, you could have translated in that voice. What do you guys think of the movie here? Um, big picture. I have a hard time calling it a movie. I think it's, um, propaganda at best. I have it's propaganda at best. Oh, come on in. Anthropomorphism at its finest, ladies and gentlemen.

It's like nature good, man bad, hunting worse. And we were talking about Roger Ebert's review, that man, who was a very respected movie critic when he was still alive, said like, part of his review is like, it gives you a glimpse into how bears live, which tells you like how much that guy knows about like how bears live. Like I would add more respect for this movie if it was a Disney channel or a Disney movie where the bears talked and they had the funny raccoon sidekick that followed them around. Like it would have been better if it was done that way. Alright. I would have more respect for this movie if they didn't use a monkey and a child note. The noises that the cub makes Because if you haven't watched the bear the entire time the cub is just like

Yeah, making these horribly I looked it up It was either a monkey or a child making those noises. In my notes here, right between the note that says, oh, this is too sad and the note that says steep ass country, I have a note that says this bear is giving off strong monkey vibes. So monkey or child. So they couldn't just the noises were bad. The noises were bad.

I think it like the cinematography in the movie is beautiful. And it's it's it's really striking. Yeah. Like this movie looks looks incredible. Like the Dolomites, I- It's really striking. Yeah. Like this movie looks incredible. Like the Dolomites, it's really cool. And I think if they just had like music, like a good score, I think it would be a lot more powerful

than these horrid whimpering noises coming out of the cub. It's not just the bear either. The foley work overall is kind of rough. There's, as I see at the very beginning when the mom is cleaning off her cub with her tongue and it sounds like a human being slurping jello. Oh yeah, it's bad. Now Phil, for those of us who aren't in showbiz, a Foley is a... Oh yes, a Foley artist is someone who records sounds after the movie is shot. Basically fake sounds, I mean the sounds aren't fake.

Something you have a lot of experience with I do Yeah, I not just at meat eater but for for TV shows I worked I worked on mountain men on the history channel and all those footsteps you hear through the snow are my footsteps Walking through snow that's fully you recording something after the fact and then plug it in and I think moments like that are my favorite part of this movie should have ended with the foley of that male grizzly crunching that cub skull that's how it would have ended in real life yeah not the cub that licking the bullet wound yeah I mean that was that was my least favorite part of it was just the dynamic between the cub and the boar but otherwise that there were a lot of times

where if I wasn't paying attention to what was coming out of the speakers, I was just like, man, I'm looking at some bears doing bear stuff in beautiful country. But the bear acting was really impressive. And apparently, Bart the Bear almost got an Oscar for not killing the cub. Like that specifically. Yeah, I mean, there's also a,

there's a whole book about how they made this and there's also a 50 minute documentary on YouTube of behind the scenes footage. Did you watch it? I skimmed through it. And you get to see the trainers trying to stimulate the bears into making different faces and then sort of leading them around through their steps on the scene. You get to see the lion.

I think Bart the Bear was better in Legends of the Fall when he rips up Brad Pitt. Agreed. Totally, totally. But I think one of the things that bothered me the most, I mean my notes are just chaos. Same. I think one of the things that bothered me the most, I mean, my notes are just chaos. Same. Were you just watching a movie with a coldie in your hand writing stuff down?

Yeah, yeah. And it was not a movie that I felt I had to pay particularly close attention to. But when he's cleaning the gun, and there's not, it's like this beautiful gun, and he's got the action open, and there's not like a drop of grease on it anywhere, there's no gr it's like this beautiful gun and he's got the action open and there's not like a drop of grease on it anywhere. There's no grime or grit anywhere.

That was the thing that just jumped out to me the most. You appreciated that or you felt it was unrealistic for that guy, the way that guy looked. I don't think his gun was as clean as it was. I don't think you would have had that pretty of a gun either. I think this was like French director wanting to have this like, he's a bear hunter. He has a bear gun. He has this pile of dead bears that the cub lays on, you know, like,

but I did think it was a really cool gun. And I looked it up and apparently it's Tom is this man's name. I'm assuming you didn't pick that up in the. No, I picked it up from reading the Wikipedia article. Yeah, same. So this is Tom and that's a Winchester 1866 yellow boy rifle, which is a very cool name for a very cool gun. I believe it was 44 rimfire.

Not one you'd want to be shooting a grizzly with. Well, clearly. You know, the other note I have. When he cuts the tips of the bullets? When he shoots, no, when he shoots the bear and he goes, the guy goes, ah, you spooked him. And I was just thinking that you usually don't, if someone shoots something in the front half

and there's a big gaping wound You usually don't call it spooked. You hit it. Yeah, you hit it and probably grievously wounded it but spooked was the the word choice of the The screenwriter there so and then the bear goes on to kill a mule Yeah, like seriously injure a horse and then leave I wrote here I also like how the guy said, my gun jammed after he went, I don't know how that affected it. I wrote, uh, I wrote horse wounds are wild because they did have a lot of animal

blood in this film. Oh, and the dog guts. Yeah. What about the sex scene? Oh my gosh, there was there. Speaking of animal noises, there did not need to be that level of grunting. It was unnecessary.

It's just like a regular old movie with a sex scene. Yeah. And the kid just watching. With a kid watching. Yeah, that, you can't do that if humans are your protagonists. No, you can't. No, you can't.

So would you recommend this film? It's so hard for me. Like, when my boys were younger, they would have watched it and probably enjoyed it, but I wouldn't have been able to watch it with them because I'd have just been like, that's not right. That's not right. That's not right.

That would never. So, I mean, it's like has its moments. I guess but no look when I was like 10 years old when I was a child I watched old yeller on repeat that was like my go-to movie. That's some real shit there That is some real shit, but I also enjoyed like you guys ever see a wild America. Yeah Marty Stover Yeah, was that his America? Yeah. Marty Stofer? Was that his name? Marty Stofer? Yeah.

With really, really awful animatronic bears. But I loved that as a kid. Isn't that the guy that got in trouble for for raisin bears? Yeah. Yeah. For staging wildlife. Yeah.

If this movie is 97 minutes long, there's probably 50 minutes of it that I could clip out and just play on repeat with a different soundtrack. And I just glance over at the monitor every now and then when I'm watching an NBA game and they go to a TV timeout and I could just watch the Bears kind of moving across the landscape. I'm saying if I was a 10 year old, I would have been this would have been my jam. Yeah. 10 year old, I would have been, this would have been my jam. Yeah. Randall, you said that you watched a little behind the scenes documentary. Yes.

And saw some kind of wild stuff. Yes. Like what? I'm sorry. Well, I just suggest to you like, some scenes where they use puppets or how they were kind of, like they had the bears chained up. Yeah, they did use, um, like puppet or animatronic bears for some of the fighting scenes.

Um, but otherwise it's just real bears and yeah, they were in the dream scenes. Yeah. When he eats the Mario mushrooms, the super Mario mushrooms and just goes wild. That reminded me of a time that I went to Chuck E. Chee when I went to Chuck E. Cheese and I was much too old to go to Chuck E. Cheese and the animatronic animals kind of pop out of the wall and there's purple lights flashing around. Made you uncomfortable. Horrible flashbacks to that. But yeah, they, I mean to move the animals around, they had chains on them and they would kind of like walk them on the rocks

like across the river and like you can see would kind of like walk them on the rocks, like across the river, and like you can see them sort of setting the bear on that piece of wood that he floats down on. It was pretty weird stuff, pretty weird stuff, but also interesting. I think that brings us to the end of Meat Eater Movie Club, another flawlessly executed segment until I dropped Phil's little prompt there at the end, but I think it turned out all right Phil what's the chat saying? Well, I there was a funny little Conversation that happened

Canadian hunter asked us now that you no longer have an intern Nate. Are you looking for a new intern Nate? I'm assuming Canadian hunters name is Nate and then our very own, Nate, piped in and said, intern isn't a title, it's a way of life. Once an intern, Nate, always an intern, Nate. And then Spencer said, get back to work, Nate. I just thought that was funny. JacksFishing asks that his kids or her kids love meat eater trivia. Is there any more coming up soon? There will be more meat eater kids episodes this summer. We are currently in pre-production on the sighting so stay tuned And honestly, that was pretty much the only

Question we got between the last No reactions to the movie a lot of a lot of reactions. I don't know. I don't know if a lot of people Watched watch the movie so they didn't have a lot to say, but they had a lot of comments, mostly suggesting new movies, like Leland suggested The Legacy of a Whitetail. Yeah, there's been a number of- A lot of hundreds of beavers suggestions, and that's a newer movie, so that might be kind of fun to do. Yeah, that is one that's on the list. Cory's been helping us curate our selections.

So just a Cal guy said that Brody was the only one old enough to see it by himself, which isn't true. This movie came out in 1988. Randall was alive, I believe. I bet I was two years old. Yeah. And it's just like, Ben, like it's people are still watching. Like it's been around. It's on Amazon. Yeah. that's right Yeah, it's very accessible for those of you with an internet connection Like people think they can hit me with those age jokes and i'm telling you they does they just like it just doesn't matter Give up Get him brody also spencer pulled a guy and another good one and wished you a very happy birthday today brody happy birthday brody and wished you a very happy birthday today, Brody. Happy birthday, Brody.

What's that? Spencer wished you a happy birthday in the chat. Now you have a lot of happy birthday messages from people. So I just thought I'd extend that to here. I didn't fall for it this time, Spencer. I'm not following. Spencer gets a ride. Spencer, about once a month,

Spencer wishes happy birthday to someone in the chat. And it's when it's not their birthday and he gets a kick out of it and a Well gang before we go Brody's got a special call to action for you folks out there yes, sir For the 2026 calendar we are doing another F'd Up Old calendar. This year, it is gonna be F'd Up Old Trucks, which you should interpret as F'd Up Old Hunting Rigs. So we'll be taking submissions.

Kids, if you're listening, close your ears. The email to submit photos of your F'd Up Old Hunting Truck is fuckedupoldtrucks the meateater.com. This year the calendar, we're going to donate a portion of the sales to backcountry hunters and anglers so they can keep on fighting these attacks on public lands. So that's like that reason alone is why you should buy the calendar, but they'll end up being some really cool photos of old trucks. And we'll sort through them. We'll

get a bunch of them hopefully. Then we're going to have run a little contest for the fans where they can hop on the website and choose. We'll narrow down the selection to whatever 50 or 100 that we like. And then, then our fans can hop on the webpage and vote. And those, the ones that, that, uh, get the most votes will end up in the calendar. And this is an example of a, of a fucked up old truck. And you can tell that it's actually in pretty good shape, but it's got a lot of character here.

So this is an example. That's a chop down suburban, I believe. If you would like an insane conversation about the parameters of this prompt, please listen to Monday's Next Mondays Media Podcast. When Randall and Janice were telling Steve and I how to make the calendar that Steve and I are making, that was great. I wasn't telling you how to make the calendar. Well, gang, it's been fun and we're running a little over time.

So with that, I think we will bid you adieu. Thanks for tuning in and we'll see you here next week, live from MeatEater HQ. Signing off. Phelps has a new thing this spring. They're coming out with what they call the Prime Cut's turkey diaphragm calls. One of them is called the Clay Neukom Prime Cut. I'm not just going to talk about it. I'm going to blow on it here. I'm a simple turkey hunter who likes a simple system. I usually carry one

Maybe two diaphragm calls in a single pot call every year don't even carry a box call. I wanted a versatile diaphragm call that was the best of two worlds. I wanted loud and raspy, a call that I could cut on, but also one that was soft and subtle that I could purr and kiki run on. I love to make those raspy cuts and the soft, subtle purrs on the same call. And I find many of them them I can't do both

and this call that I worked with Jason Phelps to build simplifies my turkey kit. These prime cuts come in a three pack. There's the Clay Newcomb call but also Steve Rinella and Jason Phelps favorite turkey diaphragm cuts. You can check all these out along with all the other meat eater and Phelps turkey calls at store.themeteater.com.