The MeatEater Podcast - Ep 819 0 Tax Stamps And Mr Bear Grease Himself Meateater Radio Live

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

Hosts Randall Williams, Seth Morris, and Cory Calkins interview Silencer Central's Brandon Maddox about all things suppressors and changes to the Tax Stamp in 2026, throw a Hot Tip Off, catch up with MeatEater's own Clay Newcomb, and help control the pet population in another round of MeatEater Price is Right. Watch the live stream on the MeatEater Podcast Network YouTube channel. Subscribe to The MeatEater Podcast Network MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTubeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Welcome to Meat Eater Trivia. Welcome to Meat Eater Radio Live. It's 11 a.m. Mountain Time. That's 9 a.m. for our friends in Pruto Bay, Alaska, where Seth Morris tells me it's negative 40 degrees. Today is Thursday, January 8th, 2026. And we're live from Meat Eater HQ in Bozeman.

I'm your host, Randall Williams, joined today by... my two friends and colleagues, Corey Culkins and Seth Morris. On today's show, we'll interview Brandon Maddox from Silencer Central about some big news in the world of suppressor ownership. We've got a sizzling hot tip-off for you. We're going to catch up with Mr. Clay Newcomb,

who recently got himself a big old buck, and we're going to play a thrilling round of the Price is Right. But... Exciting. Before we get into that, Seth, Corey, it's great to be here with you both a brand new year, exciting things ahead of us. How have you been? Oh, well, happy new year. Yeah, happy new year. Been great. Any fun adventures from the high. Corey, I know you're,

you're on the mend. It's true. Yeah, boy, the last time I was on this show, I had a big old black eye. Yeah, you look good. Thank you. Yeah, you're a lot better. You look fully healed. I, well, a couple brain cells might still be in the wood. Some of the injuries are invisible. And forever lasting. No, feeling a lot better, though. Thank you very much for asking. That's good. Seth, you have any fun holiday break adventures? Yeah, did some haunting. Hmm.

The, uh, the nice little extension on the, the deer season here in some units in Montana, capitalized on that. Yeah, we've got a, uh, we've got an extended season in some areas around the general vicinity of Bozeman because of an EHD outbreak. Yep. Um, you and the misses took advantage. Yes. We killed some doughs for the freezer and then, uh, did some ice fishing, which is tough to do in

Montana right now. Oh yeah. You got to go up to elevation to find some good ice. And you were telling me earlier that people shouldn't look for their ice reports on Facebook. Well, you can, but people are just kind of mean. They are. The ice fishermen are in bad moods right now. Yeah. Yeah, I'm in those same groups. The Montana ice report. Yeah. People are just, just, just, just, you know, nice guys going on there asking to see if there's any ice anywhere and people just light them up. It's ridiculous. Yeah. Go find out for yourself. Yeah, we shall be in the same boat here. Yeah, we're all friends, guys.

Yeah. Some folks don't want to drive five hours to have to just turn around because it's not safe. Yeah, exactly. Because someone lied to them on Facebook. Right. Corey, did you get outside at all, or were you mostly, uh, you know, I was kind of holed up for half of our break.

And then the second half, uh, I didn't get out a whole lot, honestly, gained 15 pounds, uh, did a little skiing, but yeah, it's kind of a dreary start to the winter around here. a lot of folks, I think, in the Rocky Mountain West are familiar with right now. It's very dry and warm here in southwest Montana. It's pretty sad. So the, yeah, the ice fishing's not really happening down here right now. And skiing's piss poor.

Yeah, we went for a hike hoping it would be drier, but we were, we'd gotten too high up in elevation. And it was just mud. Oh, yeah. It's like mud season. Yeah. They shot some ducks with, uh, I wanted to know how the suits live. So I thought, what better way than to spend a day with the CEO?

So Brian Calhann took me duck hunting, shot a couple ducks. All right. Turns out that CEOs live just like the rest of us. Really? Yeah. Yeah. Can they shoot? He probably wouldn't want me to say this, but Cal have kind of had a rough day.

It's tough. Yeah. Especially when you're shooting a 4-10. Cal's probably not like other CEOs, though. He probably hasn't changed a bit and won't change a bit. I don't know. I text him the other day to ask him how his first day was and he hasn't responded yet. Oh, he's changing. He's changing. Is that eight days ago? Uh, no, Monday. Okay.

Officially on Monday. Yeah. Yeah. So he's, he's a busy man. I'll, I'll hear from him at some point. Yeah, I'm sure you will. Yeah. Um, what do we have, do we have anything looking at like in the next month or two? Any outdoor adventures planned? Oh, we're going to Texas next week. That's right. Yeah. What are you doing down there? We're going to go hunt some bobcats and hogs. Boy, that sounds fun. Yeah, it should be good time. You have a special guest joining you. Yeah, yeah, Kevin Murphy.

The people love it. What do we call him? He's like the godfather of small game or the... Steve's coined him as the world's greatest small game hunter. Yeah, yeah, love that guy. That'll be fun to have him back on. Now, hunting bobcats. Yeah, calling them in.

Calling them in. Calling them in. and shooting with shotguns. Wow. Calm and close. Cool. Yeah, down there in that brush in South Texas. Mm-hmm.

Just getting like a pocket that's pretty tight and start calling them. And it's kind of crazy. Last time we did it, um, there was one stand we did where we called in 14 coyotes. Hmm. And, uh, I think 50% of the time, 50% of the stands we did, Bobcats came in. That's incredible. Wow. Yeah.

A lot of kitties. A lot of kitties. And their fur is probably as good as it's going to get down there. right now, huh? Yeah, which is not great. I bet Steve will spend a lot of time talking about how the cats in Montana are better. Yes. Yeah.

Well, as a Montana and a football fan, I'd love to shoot a bobcat right now. Coker is. Man, what a game. Yeah, Corey's not a bandwagon fan. No, not. Corey went down with the ship several weeks ago. Not like half of their fan base. It was a hell of the game.

It was indeed. Well, joining us first on the line is Brandon Maddox, the founder and CEO of Silencer Central. How are you, gentlemen? We're doing very well. How are you, Brandon? Thanks for being on the show. Yeah, speaking of suits, I feel bad. I got one on today.

I had a legislative event. Well, you lost the tie, so you'll fit right in around here. Yeah, looking good. So, Brandon, we wanted to have you on. As some of our audience might know, last week we saw a pretty significant change in world of suppressor ownership or suppressor buying. But to fully appreciate that news, you kind of need to know how it all works. So I wonder if you can begin by just explaining sort of the basic requirements and process and then also how Silence or Central makes that easier for folks.

Yeah, sure. So of course, the laws change where there's no tax stamp anymore. So it's cheaper to get a suppressor. But, you know, basic requirements are you got to be able to pass a background check same as buying a firearm. It's basically a title transfer. We're asking the feds to retitle the ownership of the silencer from us to you, and we just have to have fingerprints and photos still from like a 1934 requirement. We submit it to the ATF digitally. They approve it, and then silencer central ships that silencer directly to your front door.

So we know that's popular in a lot of areas where you don't have to leave the couch. You can buy a suppressor it shows right up to your front door. So, yeah, our process, think of it as we sort of own the whole process. So when you buy one, we're managing the paperwork for you digitally and sending you a text saying, hey, you need to sign this or sending a text saying, hey, don't forget it's approved. We're about to ship it to you. So think of it as a fully automated process through Cynancer Central from beginning to end.

Yeah. And there's, I mean, as someone who's gone through this process more times than I'd like to admit, there's a lot of sort of boxes to check. And your system just guides people right through it and kind of holds their hand and makes it relatively seamless. Yeah, absolutely, because basically we gather your information and then we put it all into the forms, and then we let you look at it, make sure we fill it out on your behalf right, and then basically you're submitting it with your own username and PIN, which kind of creates your digital signature, and then it goes right to the ATF. As soon as they approve it, we mail it to your

front door from our location and your state. So we're in all 42 states where silencers are legal. We have a physical location and FFL there. We just ship it right to your front door from there. Yeah, the first time that I received a package from you guys, it was pretty surreal because I've done it the other way. And it's a lot of trips, you know, going back and forth to a class three dealer and doing the whole like whatever. You approve the ATF submission, come back, go get it and all that stuff. So to just have it arrive at your doors is pretty amazing. You mentioned that the tax stamp, the $200 fee associated with the tax stamp has now gone down to $0. That was part of a bill last year, and now it's effective as of January 1st.

So basically all the suppressors out there are now $200 cheaper in terms of like the end user out of pocket. Yeah, absolutely. How has that changed demand in the past week or so? I imagine that that business is looking pretty good for you guys right now. Oh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, you probably look online at some of the forums and the groups. The dealers will tell you the ATS websites crashing. You know, I'm pleased to say that as of yesterday, we're in real time for submitting.

You know, anyone that was in the system on December 26 of 25 got kicked out. They basically took anything that was waiting for approval and they denied it. So, of course, we probably had a lot of people bent up demand, people wanting to get them, and then waiting to the $2 a dollar tax stamp went through. But, you know, we're real time in our submitting. You know, it's created a backlog of the ATF just because of the, you know, their computer system hasn't probably been able to handle the volume as well as we had hoped or even as they had hoped.

In some cases, we're having to submit your information, you know, 25, 26 times. But we're doing it digitally on the back end, so you're not having to fool with it. But I would say demands up three to four X. Wow. Dang. You know, in the last year, we're all sitting around going, how many silencers should we make and how many should we buy and how many should we have ready to sell and it was really a crapshoot. We were throwing dice. But now that we're in it, we've got to keep up with the demand. So we're continuing to buy more suppressors from other

manufacturers and also make our own to meet the demand. Right. And one of the bigger changes in the last few years was the reduction in that wait time. Yes. I guess maybe two, three years ago, the ATF started processing those things in what was once like a 13, 14 month timeline down to maybe even a couple days. And that's what got me in the game, so to speak, and really made me want to hop in. So it's interesting that you see. And at that time, too, all of a sudden, suppressors that you wanted were out of stock everywhere. So it's interesting how these little changes in the process of acquiring one can result in this huge demand for manufacturers like Science Central. Yeah, no, absolutely. Hey, obviously, it's exciting for us. Anytime you have demand and

you're having trouble keep it up with your phone calls. You're staying up late to return phone calls. It's always a, always called a happy problem. But you are right. Small changes can create additional demand. I mean, you know, Obama getting elected created huge demand. You know, he made some changes in 2016 that created demand. So there's been a lot of small things. But I would definitely say, you know, I've been doing this 20 plus years. And I'd say since the inception in 1934 when they started this process, this is probably the biggest change in industry scene. I think it's going to create more acceptance. I think that. that more people using them are going to educate their elected officials, and we hope it's sort of a stepping stone to further deregulation. Yeah. Well, that's exciting news. You know, as I mentioned, there's probably people that are now maybe giving more serious consideration to getting their first can. What does someone need to know or need to look into as far as figuring out what product they want and sort of what do they, for a first time consumer or first time shopper, what advice would you give that individual?

Yeah, that's a good question. So, you know, at Silencer Central, we sell everybody's stuff. So, you know, feel free to call us and we can give you all the options that are available for what you're trying to shoot. I mean, there's two schools of thought. I mean, some people will say, hey, their initial sort of gut reaction when they start going down this path is, I would like to get a suppressor, silencer, that I could use on all my firearms. So they kind of go down that path of getting something probably too big, but that they could use for everything. Typically, my personal advice has always been pick which firearm you shoot the most

frequently and then get a suppressor kind of tailored for that. And you'll find it to be so effective, it's easier to open your wallet to buy further later. You hate to buy one that's not perfect and then you don't like it and you wish you had bought one for the one you shoot the most. So my encouragement always is to think of the weapon you shoot the most and then suppress it because it's going to work better than you thought it would and then it's going to open the door for you maybe to get further later. Just some people start the path of going down, to caliber and wanting to get one that covers everything. I just don't want them to be disappointed.

Not that they would be, but I just don't want them to get something too big of a hole through the middle, and then it's not as effective as it could be. Right. And, like, there's, I remember, before I owned a can, I remember reading, oh, once you buy the first one, then you're, you're hooked, and you're just going to keep buying more and more. I'm in that boat. Oh, yeah, that's true.

Because I think, I had an idea in my mind of what owning a can would be like as far as just my shooting experience and my hunting experience, but it's really like surpassed any expectation that I had of just like changing how I use my guns and how I hunt like with a partner with my wife trips to the range and everything else like that. I mean, what do you hear from customers that a first time customer that gets their first can and how do you hear from those folks as far as like what their impressions are and what surprises them? Yeah, 100%. I mean, I'd say you're spot on. I mean, it's that's why I liked getting in a suppressors. I mean, most people know my backstory. I started out as a pharmacist and people thought, why would you leave pharmacy to go into this? And I'm like,

it's just so exciting because I feel like you really had to twist people's arms years ago when the assigneurs weren't as familiar to get them to buy one. But 100% of the time, once they bought one, they said, I'll never shoot a rifle or handgun again without a suppressor. So it's kind of a life-changing deal. I mean, people go from just kind of, you know, handling the sound, handling the recoil to now to have a tool to mitigate it. Um, it's, a nice luxury. Each of you all have seen it once you use it, you never want to shoot again without one. Yeah, and this is

not in the script here, but I'm just remembering, we did a live tour in the South in December, and one of our guests at one of those events was Will Primos, and Steve asked him if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be?

And Will, without hesitation, said, protect your hearing. So, I mean, it's a big, big, big deal. So, yeah. Brandon, looking ahead, I mean, we're obviously at a moment right now where things are real exciting, but looking ahead to 2026, what's new on your end as far as the business or the banished product line or things that folks can look forward to? Yeah, so I'd say one thing is you'll continue to see more products come out for Sylvinter Central. One thing is important is just wait,

so think about the titanium options. The other thing we have coming out, and I know your audience is probably more consumers, but we also have a software that now we're going to have dealers where they can actually use our software to help them process the forms. So, you know, we're kind of famous over the years for working events. You know, we work over 200 events a year. We sort of fine-tuned our software to help sort of intake that information from the events we've worked. So now we're going to roll it out to actual dealers too.

So, you know, we know only about 25 to 30 percent of FFL dealers actually sell silencers. Our goal is to, you know, kind of double that, at least make it where half of people that have an FFL that are in the business of selling firearms also do suppressors. So we're going to make software for them that's really cost effective. It makes it easier for them to, you know, take the information in from the consumer and then actually process getting a silencer, you know, super easy. Very cool.

And you guys was sort of touched on this a little bit, but silencer central offers services beyond just simply the retail. I mean, you do barrel threading. Last year, I did an SBR through your web interface. I mean, sort of it's a one-stop shop if you're looking to make this transition as far as like getting what you need on the legal side and also getting what you need on the product side. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, obviously, our expertise is the whole compliance side, making sure everything's done right. And I'd say that, you know, really last year we knew it was going to be slow the last seven months of the year because everyone knew this $200 tax was going away.

So we really doubled down as an organization to find ways to make us more efficient and also to add more technology to our processes so that it was just. just seamless for the consumers. So I think that, you know, even if someone's bought in the past, if they go through the process with us, again, they're going to see a lot of areas where, you know, maybe things took a little bit longer than, you know, we both hoped. And now they're just so much smoother and quicker. Just we're really in a position where we're able to handle the volume and scale it up. And it's always hard when we're, you know, we've won $5,000 every year we've applied. So, you know, you see that growth. But I feel like we really were able to spend six or seven months really focusing on the organization, making that technology and making it more efficient.

Very cool. Well, Brandon, I know you guys are busy. busy over there, so we won't take up any more of your time. Happy New Year, great chatting with you, and I hope to talk to you again here. Thank you. Absolutely. Thanks for an opportunity. You have a good new year. Thanks, Brandon.

See you guys. Oh, boy. Oh, I couldn't imagine. Suppressers. Oh, they're so awesome. I curse it carrying around, that extra length. I haven't delved into, like, cutting my barrel down. Yeah, you just need to get a shorter barrel.

Well, but I'm not that techie. I'll take it. Or I don't have the need to. I'll give you. I'll give you a guy's number. Take it over there. I'll do it while you wait for free. Nope.

Is it a steel barrel? Very competitive pricing. Very competitive pricing. No, it's not. Be carbon. Oh, yeah. No, all that. So, but like what I'm trying to say is like even just the additional, a little bit of weight,

a little bit of length, it's worth it when it comes time to pull the trigger. Oh, yeah. I tell people if they ask, like, they want to get a new gun, they want to add a rifle to the collection. I'll say buy a can. Yeah. Because you'll have a new gun. Like it's a totally different experience Yeah

Does shoot different And sit like yeah I mean just like getting out and putting rounds down range Like Sydney used to have a little bit of okay I'm done with that But you put the can on there and it's just like Oh yeah practice away. Yeah Oh yeah for kids

Oh it's great for kids Yeah no in silence or central just makes it so easy website, the customer service Good folks yeah just do it do it all from your house and then it shows up your door yeah simple Great Well, my hot tip would be to put a can on your gun, but we've got some other hot tips, Phil. Oh.

Oh, T-T-I-P-R. How about that transition? We'll do a hot tip-off. H-O-T-I-P-R. Let's all do a hot tip-off. Hot tip-off is where two listeners go head to head with competing pieces of advice. And after we hear each tip, uh, the audience will declare which one is hotter.

That's correct. I will start a poll in the live chat. So keep an eye out for that. The script had us making this judgment. But it's up to you, fair listeners. And this round's winner is going to receive our new I'd rather be line of logo wear with one shirt and one hoodie of the winner's choosing. Look at this shirt on Corey here. It says, I'd rather be hunting squirrels.

Great shirt. There's another one says I'd rather be hunting huge buttons. like so, like so. Pretty cool. And then one that says, I'd rather be trapping beavers. Big beavers. Not any big beavers.

Big beavers. I think Steve had a hand in that one. Big old beavers. So the winner will get to choose one shirt and one hoodie from that line. We're really excited about these new shirts. They will be on the meat eater store tomorrow, January 9th. Now, if you have a hot tip,

take a one-minute video on your phone and email it to radio at the meat eater.com with the subject line hot tip off. This week, it's a Battle of the Johns with John Mertz versus John Foley. Take it away, Phil. John Mertz! Hey, everybody, tis the season, early ice season. So, let's head out there, right? Well, is the ice safe?

Here's my hot tip. We're going to measure the ice with our chisel. You're going to take some electrical tape. I used white because it stands out better against my bed. blue chisel and you're going to put a stripe at four inches, a strap at eight inches, and one at 12 inches. You're going to measure that off of the shoulder of the chisel here so that when you push the chisel through, you pull back up on it, catch the edge of the ice, and then read off the water line where it is. You can see if I've got my tape here, I've got my four inch stripe, that's

thick enough for walking, an eight inch stripe, just good to know, and then a 12 inch stripe where you can feel a little more comfortable driving a truck on the ice. So I just brought through there I turn the chisel sideways pull it up so the shoulder of the chisel hits the bottom of the ice I can see the water level is pretty much up to that first stripe so we got about four inches therefore we're probably good to go because it's four inches here does not necessarily mean that this four inches out there so keep checking as you go and stay safe out there great editing John Foley yeah that you all right what's up everybody got a hot tip for you

This one's been done before, but I haven't seen it done like this. So this is one of those things that when I do it, just kind of thought everybody knew about it. I know the common way to do it, getting the brain matter out of the skull, is with a drill or a coat hanger or a screwdriver or a stick, which works. But once I figured out this way or found out this way, I don't do it any other way. It's pretty quick. All you need is an air chuck like this. This was like 10 bucks at Harbor Freight.

This is something you can pack with you and take with you on the road if you want. All you'll have to do is stop at a maybe a mechanic shop or a tire shop or somewhere on the side of the road to get you an airline. Ooh. This takes longer to talk about than actually do. The bucket's not needed, all right. You'll see why in a minute, but you can do this with the trash bag. Put a hole in it. Oh.

You stick the air nozzle. into the brain cavity set it down in there it's almost too amusing and that's it cleaned it out perfectly I'll see if I can see the aftermath in the bucket here

there's the whole brain just one quick blast of air and that's it and my pup is excited because he'll probably lick up the extra stuff enjoy that was a good that was a good one Both good.

Both good. I trust the guy, the ice guy, trusted his accent. That went a long way for me. Yeah. But I'm not an ice man. So I had to actually send that to you guys for your thoughts on how hot it was. Yeah. Yeah, Seth, you had a point that nobody's probably going to be trying to chisel through about a foot of ice.

No. For checking ice this early season, I feel like that's a good tip. Yeah, yeah. A couple wax on the chisel. If you go through, it's probably, you know, I'd measure. Mm-hmm. But, you know, like, what, two to three good chisels? And if the chisel doesn't go through, you're typically good to go.

And just a reminder to our audience, hop in there and let us know which of those tips is hotter. The pole is running. You guys, what's your preferred method of extracting or excluding whatever the proper word would be brain matter? Big stick guy. Stick guy? Yeah. But recently we had somebody on who put a tent steak in a drill bit or into a drill as a bit and just rolled it up in there and turned it into mashed potatoes and then let it fall out, give it a little rinse. Yeah, that's a way easier.

Yeah, that's a way easier. It's cleaner. Usually I just boil it with the brain matter in there and then just cover myself with it when I pressure wash it. Yeah. Get a little in your eye. Yeah. I find that if I can do anything with an air compressor, I'm always looking for new ways to use my air compressor. Yeah, that's a good point.

Everybody, when child is born, it should be given a small air compressor and a little air chuck like that. It's a great toy. It's a great toy. My kid loves to play with it. It's my favorite cleaning instrument. I wish I had an air compressor like at every door to the house to just blow out the little sills and everything. I mean, man, for cleaning out your truck. But boy, the bucket is just such a nice touch.

The bucket. The bucket with the hole in it is a nice touch. Which you're going to need ice mission. You don't get covered in it. You need that bucket. to sit on. Yeah, there you go. I like how amused he was that it worked so quickly. Yeah, he laughed. Started giggling.

His dog was pumped, too. That's a tough one to beat, honestly. I'm just going to end the poll now, because the chat agrees with 91% of the vote. This was kind of an unfair head-to-head, I would say. I felt bad, but I like that one so much.

Yeah, John Foley wins. John Foley, congratulations. John Merck. Thank you for playing. I have a hunch he's going to want the I'd rather be hunting big bucks shirt, but we'll reach out to you and find out. Thank you, John. All righty, Phil.

It's time for a little bit of... It's time for listener feedback. Listener feedback. Before we do that, would one of you please call Clay Nucco? Oh, shoot. Because he said he was going to hang out in the waiting room

and he's been gone for about 20 minutes. So I hope everything's good with him because he is our next guest. We'll probably had a mule get out. We'll be fine. We'll be fine. We'll just do a little bit of extra audience engagement here.

I'll call him. Leeland asks, how long do you guys screw around with a firearm that gives y'all zeroing problems? I'm having problems with one particular gun, but don't want to throw in the towel early. If you ever given up on a gun because it's not behaving? Yes and no. I would say, I would say there's not really like a messing around. I'm checking things methodically. like I'm putting a different scope on it.

Make sure there's no issue with the scope. Before I do that, I'm checking the mounts, like checking the even not just the rings, but the rail as well. I'm checking to see if there's any issues with stock fitment to make sure that the stock is fully seated on, like if it's got a standard like Remington-style recoil lug. I'm making sure that's seated in there.

Then I'm... Torp, make sure everything's torque to spec. Yeah. You know, check that, I'll run a dollar bill or a couple of sheets like receipt paper between the barrel and the stock to make sure that that channel is open and free floated. And then, I don't know. I mean, it depends. Like, is it really bad? Or are you looking for incremental improvements?

Yeah. I think there's a lot of variables there to answer that question. Yeah. How many different ammo have you tried? Ammo. Yeah. I mean, if something's, if something's wandering, like if your zero is wandering, it's an issue with your, your scope or there's something mechanical. But if it's just not grouping as precisely as you'd like, I would, I would start moving around with trying different ammunition and all that.

Life's too short to shoot an inaccurate rifle. So that's true. Yeah, I think the sort of the process of nailing that down really depends on what you're seeing on paper. And how much you want to throw money, how much money you want to throw out? How badly you want to chase the, you could replace stocks, you can replace, replace barrels. And is it bedded? Yeah. Maybe a good betting job. Yeah.

Brad Weber, Bunny Hunter, your name checks out. He would like me to say that Brad has a group of friends that gets together to go rabbit hunting. and every year they're doing it this weekend in northeast Wisconsin. Oh. We'd love to have a shout out. Holy cow. Good luck. Have fun.

Yeah. Enjoy your rabbit season. Your rabbit hunt. That sounds fun. Brad and crew. Best of luck on your gathering of the hosson pepper. Chris. I think it's just the hosson.

The pepper is the pepper. Well, sure. Hopefully that's maybe on the list of what he's doing. Oh, I see. I see. That's what I was getting. Bring some pepper. Sorry.

I don't speak German. Chris is wondering the, uh, the nitty-gritty-gritty detail. of creating a fleshing beam, Seth. Specific wood? Is there a particular method to making a flushing? Mine is a, you know that that like half

log siding that you side houses with? It's like one side's dimensional lumber, the other side's rounded. That's all my beam is. It's that and then I tapered it off on the end to a point. Sand it. Sand it. Treat it with anything? Make it smooth.

You don't have to because when you're fleshing, you just gets saturated with fat. Oh, yes. It's self-greasing. Yeah. Interesting. A little winter activity. There you go. Let's see. We've got a question from Rob.

He's asked, we've had multiple questions in the chat asking me about online store inventory. Unfortunately, I do not run the store. It would be good, it would be good for people to kind of like keep us update. Because this would be a perfect platform to be like, hey, this stuff's back in stock. Rob is asking about the gnome t-shirts. Most of them are sold out. We do have two there. stock. I'm not sure how many, what the sizes are there. But yeah, when we make something like the Gnome t-shirts, we usually make a certain amount as sort of become like a

special limited edition thing, especially with the gnome, because he's doing so much different stuff. So they're kind of, kind of like collectory. That no one is doing a lot of stuff. Yeah, I know all I can say is 2025, last year was the year of the gnome around here. So we did a new shirt and a new

theme every month. So I don't believe we're doing that this time. If something catches your eye, jump on it. Because, especially, with those limited runs, they do sell out. Yeah. They were popular. Then we also had a question about the hot sauce. You and me both, brother, my bottle's almost gone.

I'd love to get some more. So I cannot give you an update about when the hot sauce will be back in stock. So I apologize. Let's see here. Question for Randall. This is from Evan. When researching for both the long hunters and high hunters, did you come across any records of color phase animals back in the day? That's a great question.

Not that comes to mind. not that comes to mind uh looks like he's a bear hunter yeah the the short answer would be no but it's interesting it wasn't really something that i was paying attention to i mean i feel like uh correct me if i'm wrong but color phase are relatively rare like in the eastern half of the country when we're talking about long hunters and then pie ball deer or i don't know what the stat is

there, but it's pretty rare. But then those mountain men, they were just real fixated on gris. They do describe gris in a lot of different ways, like in terms of like the color of their coat, whether they're lighter or darker. But no, I didn't see any like chocolate cinnamon references. I'm sure, I'm sure there's a research paper out there

with like historical references to color phase bears. I'm sure someone's done that, but not, I couldn't point you. in the right direction. Cool. We'll do one more for this round. Do we have Clay on? Clay is on.

Perfect. He is waiting. I'll do one more question. That's is from Nick. Question, how do you determine whether to use a guide service, drop in or go fully self-guided when going to a new destination on a tag? He says he just drew an Idaho elk tag and he's trying to decide. Question for you would be how much money do you have and where would you like to spend it?

An experience. Yeah. Where do you want to go? I would, I'd hire a guide. Oh, I guess he's going to Idaho. Never mind. Get you a guide if you're asking. I mean, it depends on are you going on your first elk hunt? Are you going with anyone who has hunted elk before? Um, like, I think it's, I don't think it's crazy to go on your first elk hunt without an experienced elk hunter and go unguided. No. Yeah. Um, just assuming if there's a beauty and there's like, figuring it out yourself. You're going to learn a lot. Yeah, that's true. But you're going to make a lot of failures. If you're in a position in life, financially speaking, to go guided and you have a guide that has good references and you think we'll be able to really teach you about hunting the Western landscape. Yeah. I'd certainly take advantage of it, especially if it's like something that you're comfortable spending that money. Right.

Yeah, do your research. I think a drop camp, generally speaking, I would be leery of because it's. sort of you're paying for something and then you don't have that person there with you to share their experience and ultimately like if you do a DIY you know I went to this spot because I wanted to go there versus I just got dropped off there because I feel like a drop camp can make you question your decision making if you aren't seeing or make you question the outfit or if you aren't seeing animals yeah and if you do it DIY you can always bail and go to a different spot.

And you can hunt that place again for years to come without feeling like that. Because that's the other thing. It's like if an outfitter takes you somewhere and you hunt it, you don't want to go back in there on your own the next year because it's a bad. Yeah. That's a no-no.

Most outfitters are going to give you a lot of pointers for that area, though. So you're going to have a massive leg up doing that. And yeah, Nick says no comment about the finances because his wife may be reading. Ah, good for you, Nick. Yeah, good for you. Oh, look at the hot tip off up. There you go. Yeah, good luck.

I hope you have a, I hope it sounds like he drew maybe this week in the Idaho non-resident drawn. Might be planning his fall. So hope that works out for you. Joining us next on the line is a man who needs no introduction. You love him, we love him. He's a storyteller. He's a musician. And Black Bears tremble at the mere mention of his name.

Mr. Clay Newcomb. Hey, everybody. Clay, welcome to the show. Claybo. I feel like we should clap. Yeah, I know. Do we have a round of applause we can do, Phil? Oh, yeah, it might, here we go.

Hold on. Oh, there we are. He's just glistening with big white tail. Yeah. I can just see it on them. Yeah, what did you kill a big old buck or something? Well, before we get into that buck, Clay, I feel like I just said goodbye to you in a hotel hallway at 11 p.m. in Dallas, Texas.

That happened. We embraced. We did. I said, I love you, brother. And then I gave me a big hug and we parted ways. Clay, how have you been? You recovered from the tour yet? Man, the tour was so much fun.

I mean, it was hard to recover from it because, like, you come back and, I mean, I love everything about where I live. But the tour is like seven days. of just a pure 24-hour-a-day fun. You know, we're with, well, especially for me and Brent, who aren't in Montana and don't see a lot of people, you know, we're kind of isolated to be with the crew, to be with you and Steve and Janus and all the other people that were there that weren't on stage, just a ton of fun. And then, you know, every night you're going to these events where clearly it's stacked

with people who are excited to be there, excited about meat eater. And we had a great time. Yeah. Yeah, I loved it. And I think to your last point, you know, every now and then people say like, oh, this must be born for you doing the same thing every night. But like, it's actually very meaningful to hear from people that, that they're excited about the stuff that we do.

Because like right now we're sitting in this podcast studio and then we'll go on about our day, but it's really cool to go out there and meet people and hear their stories of how they got into hunting and sort of how meat eater stuff fits into their life or shaped their experiences. So I really enjoyed that and it doesn't get old for me. Clay, was it hard having to play with amateurs and hacks like Evan Felker to accompany you for the opening song after having me accompany you for the last tour? Phil, let me start off by saying, you were greatly missed. Holy cow. I mean, I was like, when I heard you weren't coming, I was like, what? Phil's not coming? I mean, Phil like made our music act last year with his harmonica, just unreal. And then so there was no other musicians traveling with us. And so we did have Reed Bargeneer of Reed's piano news. He was with me three nights.

Yeah, I watched videos of that and he killed it. I got little pangs of jealousy watching him up there with you. Yeah, he's great. Super fun guy. Great to finally meet him. He saved the day. I mean, it's so hard for someone who doesn't play a lot of live music or any to speak of, to just step up six nights in a row in front of a big crowd and play.

I mean, it was a challenge of my life. I tell people a lot of things that I do at my age I'm comfortable with, live music. I love it. It's like exhilarating, but I am not comfortable at all. And so playing with Evan Felker, holy cow, it was like, I was nervous as a cat. I actually almost backed out at the, because we'd never played together.

You know, he gets there a little bit before the show and we start playing. And I recognize that my strum pattern is different than the waltz of the bird hunter, the strum pattern of the bird hunter is different than me. And I'm not a good enough musician to really just compensate on the fly and be like, oh, yeah, I got it. And so I actually just said, we practiced one time. And I was like, Evan, man, these people, they would love to see you play this. Why don't you just play it by yourself?

And so we kind of decided that he was just going to open up. And then Steve got in there. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, I appreciate it. Of course. I mean, I was kind of surprised, but yeah, Steve came in and he was like, y'all ready? And I'm like, man, Evan's just going to do it.

I said, I think I'm going to mess the thing up if I play with him. And Steve was like, no way, you got to get out there, man. You and Evan got to play. And so, oh, I'm so glad I did. Holy stuff. And that was at the Fayetteville show, which was kind of your home crowd, too, which probably made it extra special. man it was so special of all the shows i mean there were the fadville the fadville show sold out completely

and i mean there were there were all great shows with great people so i don't i don't want to say it was the best but maybe my but you're saying it's the best well i mean we had evan falker there for crying out loud it was a very warm reception from the the well the The Newcomb clan welcomed us into their home for a lovely lunch. And then, yeah, it was, it was fun. It just felt like an auditorium full of friends and family. Oh, man, it was so meaningful that we came here. Just to give back to the community, you know, I wish we could have let them all in for free, you know.

So it was a ton of fun. A ton of fun. Yeah. Now, Clay, I could relive our rock star days, our rock star lifestyle forever, as you know. but we brought you here today because you have some very exciting news in your life. And if folks haven't seen it on Instagram, you got a big old buck just recently. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Man, on January the 4th, well, okay, Christmas Day, a buck on a place that I have access to hunt showed up.

And it was one of those pictures that within seconds I was texting it to, to my father-in-law who I stay in close touch with about deer hunting and a couple other people and was just gagging over this deer. I mean, it was the biggest deer that I've seen on camera in a long, long time. And I texted it to one of my friends who happens to be a Navy pilot stationed in Hawaii named Forest Teeter.

And he goes, Jiminy Christmas! You know, it was Christmas night. I texted him. And I was like, this buck will be named Jiminy Christmas. That's cool.

and the deer just had giant time length. And he was super sporadic. I mean, I'm hunting over in the state. Well, I killed the deer in Oklahoma. I didn't just like anybody that knows anything about this part of the world would know that because I said that I killed it over supplemental feed. And so I'm feeding a little bit. And this deer was very sporadic.

And it's very difficult to kill a big deer, a specific big deer. over any kind of supplemental feed. I don't care who you are. And it's a ton of fun. But this deer was super sporadic, came in the daytime just a couple of times, had some time, which was rare,

and I was able to hunt four and a half days. And finally on January the 4th, I don't think he'll fit in the frame of my camera. My camera's not big enough. I'm going to have to back up a little bit. Holy smokes. Look at them for us. Oh, he almost touches in the middle.

Looks like a mule deer. Yeah. But I killed that deer. Unbelievable. 22 yards with bow. Nice. And the characteristics of the rack, I mean, I'm an official Boone Crockett score. So, I mean, I truly value a beautiful white-tail rack.

This deer is only 14.5 inches wide. Narrow buck. But he has a G2 that's 14 and 6 inches long. Wow. I mean That's awesome Just when you're Analyzing a white tails rack

I mean there's very few deer that have a time over 14 inches you know So I mean just a just a stud man And yeah he's got a split split G2 And oh I mean I still can't believe I killed that deer I'm still on cloud nine Very cool very cool You see the photo up there right now Yeah

That deer fell right there. Like right, I didn't move that deer. I just kind of resituated him about six inches. Fell right at the base of this big rocky bluff. Very cool. Just a phenomenal deal, man. Yeah, he does. Like, if I glanced at that photo and I just, the only thing I looked at was where his

antler tips are and where the top of his head are, I'd guess it's some mule deer. Yeah. He's just so tall. Yeah. Yeah, he's just a dandy. Clay, is that your biggest buck? You know what? I would have swore that it was.

I mean, I actually sent pictures to people and was like, this is my biggest buck. But when we scored it, it wasn't, which that's a good thing when you had a deer from years ago that was bigger. The deer scored 162 and 7.8s. Wow. And so, and I, I killed a deer years ago a little bigger than that. But it's definitely, the biggest deer I've killed. in 18 years, you know. Well, it looks like you were tent camping there, too, which I always think,

I was thinking if you want to crank it up to like 11 on making a hunt memorable, you sleep in a tent. Man, the place I'm hunting over there, it's so cool because, I mean, there's nowhere to stay. We tent camp when we go over there. Very cool. Yeah. That's awesome. And I was totally by myself.

I was just hunting. That was kind of a unique experience. Usually there's somebody that I'm hunting with or I'm able to bring a deer home and share it with family. It was kind of, I mean, I was solo camping the whole time, which was unique. But when I did kill the deer, I did have a buddy over in that part of the world, Alvin, a good friend of mine that came and helped me drag it out and kind of celebrated with me. So that was fun. Very cool. And your son, Bear, also killed a real nice buck this fall.

So you were telling us earlier, he got to be the big, big man on the block for about six weeks. Yeah. Yeah, it's funny that it, you know, when it rains, it pours. Yeah. No, it was, it was, Bear killed a deer that scored 154. I was here in Arkansas, which is major. I mean, you know, like a, I would say a once-a-lifetime type deer for here. I mean, they grow them bigger, and I figure he'll kill a bigger one one day here,

but monster deer. And, yeah, I couldn't let him stay on top for long, you know. No, I almost wished it scored 153, but he doesn't care. We're not competitive like that. He was so excited and I killed this deer. And I was so excited for his deer. So that's great. Yeah, Clay, we appreciate you joining us.

And you guys must be doing something right over there. It's been a good fall for you guys. So you have anything else lined up? Or is that your last tag for the season? Well, we're actually going back over there to, I'm going to try to kill a dough and maybe a hog. We're going to go back over there in the next couple days. nice bear's stuff got a buck tag very cool so good luck man yeah well good luck to you clay it's

always a real pleasure to see you and uh hopefully our paths will cross here before too long great to see all of you Seth Corey Dr. Randall Phil good seeing you Clay good luck over there say hi to the family take care of that hair brother all right it's a lot more work than you think Corey we can share some styling tips next time you're in town Yeah, next time, I need some tips for you, Randall. You're getting there, man. It looks good.

It looks real good. It's called a haircut. My sign-off comment will be, I told Brent Reeves that I'll get a haircut as soon as he starts hunting a plot coonhound. Well, based on the conversations that I listen to while we're on the bus, that's not happening anytime soon. So you better get yourself some hair ties, Clay. You're just going to have to be embarrassed of your friend for a while. All right. We'll see you, Clay.

Thank you again. See you, Clay. Gosh. Love that guy. Oh, he's the best. Just a gem. I almost feel like we should just end the show there. But we've got another great segment.

We're not done. Our next segment is The Price is Right. Here it comes from Bozeman, Montana. Meteor Radio's most exciting 15 minutes. It's The Price is Right Seth Morris, come on down Cory Kalkins Come on down

You're the first two and only contestants on Meteor Radio's The Price is Right Now here's your host Randall William Now this game's real simple Phil's gonna tell you about a product from the Beat Eater Universe and you need to guess its price the player with the closest answer without going over will be declared the winner.

If both players go over, you'll both be told to try again. And the chat should play along as well, because whoever has the closest answer is going to get a real, real nice shout out from Phil. All right, we've got three exciting products for today's show. Phil, why don't you tell us about the first item up for bid? Clay's box. Fortunately not. It's never too early to start planning next year's holiday season. surprise. What is that? And what better way to tell your loved ones exactly how you really feel

about them than with a genuine deer scrotum Christmas ornament? That's right, actual deer balls. A pair of genuine buck nuggets that have been meticulously preserved and transformed into tasteful holiday decor. Yeah, look at those. Comes ready to hang just like it did between the rear legs of a big old Arkansas white tail. Perfect for the outdoorsman who appreciates that every part of the deer deserves honor, including especially Bambi's family, tools. This gives the old adage, Waste not, want-not, a whole new meaning.

Deck the halls with buck balls. How much is it going to cost to hang a pair of buck nuts on your tree? You get one set of nuts, like one scrotum? Yeah, I think it's just per-scroat. You'll get a pair and the satchel. That's brilliant, really. Yeah. And then after Christmas

you can hang them from the back of your truck. Afterwards, I'll share this guy's contact info. He's marketing them on Facebook. Facebook, huh? That helps me think. Locally? No.

Arkansas. Oh. Really? Yeah. Yeah, I was looking for weird stuff on Facebook Marketplace. They said, why don't we begin in Arkansas? Wonder where he gets all his bucks grow is at? I don't know.

The Newcomb family could probably help him with a few. Yeah, that's true. Man, down south. Corey, you're still thinking? Do you have a guess? Nope. I've done thinking for the day. All righty.

Seth, your answer is. is. 3750. Wow. Corey, your answer is? I don't know. 999.

Oh, wow. Wildly different. Phil. Well, the actual price of the item without good, well,

I didn't write down the price for myself, so I'm going to rely on you to judge this. The price of the ornament is $30 making Corey our winner of the rounds if we're going with the rules of this game show.

Yeah, it should. You can't bust. Phil, who's closest to the chat there? We had a couple people here. We had Pop-O-Metic guest $29.99. Absolute Mechanical Solutions guest $29. I love that.

There might have been a couple more in there as well. Oh, love that. Love that. Phil, what's next up for auction today? I forgot you can't go over. Let's see. It's a full case of Doc's catfish dip bait. Extra stiff, blood added.

four glorious gallons of the most ungodly smelling substance known to mankind. We're talking about a concoction so pungent, so magnificently revolting, that it makes the boat launch vault toilet smell like a Yankee candle. And not only is this stuff strong, it's got staying power. Your wife will make you sleep in the garage. This will permanently decrease the resale value of your truck. Your neighbors will call the HOA thinking something died in your yard. And they're not wrong because something did die and docked it into catfish crack cocaine.

Four gallons means you'll have to be a lot of. enough to stink up every river in the county. Doc's catfish dip bait. I'm gonna restart there. Doc's catfish dip bait. Because of catching old Mr. Whiskers means smelling like you crawled out of a swamp monster's colon, then by God, you better be all in.

Now, I'm seeing some guesses in the chat here, and I want to reiterate a point in that read. This is four gallons. Wait, I saw 12 ounces. Yeah. Oh, yeah. There's just a picture. Yeah, this is four gallons.

Yeah, you see that little thing, you think you're not getting a lot of stink, but we're talking about four gallons. That's a full case. So think about how much a gallon of stink bait would cost, and then multiply it by four. That's for the serious angler, isn't it? We had our producer, Jake, chime in in the chat and say, waste nut, want, nut. Solid Jake, very good. Oh, that's good. That's good.

Man, four? What does it cost? Yeah, careful. Don't go over. I mean, the price of everything's going up these days. Yeah. I think stink bait's no exception. I think you're trying to help them there.

They make a worm that you dunk in, and then the scent milks off the worm. Wow. I mean, need to get some of this. You guys got your answers there? Yeah, let's roll. Seth Morris says $65. Corey Culkin says $75. Well, with a price of $187, our winner again is Corey Culkins.

Domination. Dang. Boy, we could end it there with a Seth Moore's, or Cory Calkins victory, but, Phil, we've got one more prize. We sure do, Randall. It's portable heating, hunting seat, tree stand, hunting heating seat, USB comfort, foldable heating seat from TEMU. That's right, the same company that brings you $3 electronics and designer handbags. held together by prayers and glue is now in the business of putting lithium batteries directly beneath your most precious assettes.

Why suffer through cold mornings in your tree stand with non-incendiary insulation when you could be sitting on a potentially combustible device manufactured by the lowest bidder? Just crank this bad boy up to its high setting of 149 degrees Fahrenheit and see what happens. 149. Features include a battery pack of mysterious origin, heating elements that could legally be used in residential construction and instructions that have been jammed through a free translation app. If you've ever driven past a burnt-up mobile home and thought, that would make a hell of a deer blind.

Your dreams are one trans-Pacific shipping container away from reality. That was, Randall, these are all good. That was my favorite. Who wrote that? Is this all, Randall? Oh, Phil, you're brilliant. I've been shopping on T-MU a lot.

T-Mu's got excavators for sale. I'm really interested in. They sell everything. They got it really. Oh, yeah. They're really trying hard on social media. Wow. So this has got to be,

Dirt cheap I like how ordinarily You know you see heat represented by like wavy red lines But in that one They have orange arrows that look like flames I forgot to mention the person in the chat who got it closest Was Jay Palermo 84 He gets 172

I think that was the closest without going over But I'm not positive That's a cat job Jay Did Did we say old Mr. Whist's In the caskers in that catfish bait read? Yes, we did. Okay, good.

I wanted to put that in it. And this is the price on Timo? This is the price on Timo. This is the Timo price. Yep. Okay. That's going to be cheap A.F. Oh, God.

It is. It's an electronic, you know. Okay. Lithium batteries, too. Scary. Are you guys ready? Yep. Flip them over.

Corey says $11. Seth says $1. Oh, shit. Good call. That's the Tymu, man. But unfortunately, with a clean sweep and a price of $18.40. Our winner today is Corey Kalkin. Seth, I know where your head was at, and I think that was the smart approach.

I was hoping Kour was going to go over. They'll have a sale soon. Phil, do we have a, do we have anyone nailed that in the chat? We had a couple people, I guess 1799. There might have been, I think it was probably the closest without going over. Yeah. Yeah. Well, gosh, that's fun.

I wish my entire job here was just finding weird stuff on the internet and writing weird stuff about it. But unfortunately, there's other things they require me to do. That brings us to the end of the show, but we have some time for a little more listener feedback if folks managed to get any questions in between their guesses. Yeah, yeah, feel free to, I don't have a whole lot flagged right now, so get some questions in, and no matter how terrible and, Uh, in name they are, they might get red on the show. Um, let's see, Jake said, Phil, was it you that said on trivia yesterday that you didn't like vinegar barbecue sauce? I would never say that because vinegar forward barbecue sauce is my favorite. I love that tang.

Give me the tang. I like tang over sweet. Um, I don't remember who said that, but someone was really pushing ketchup. Was that Seth? No, I like, I'm with you, Phil. Okay. I like it all. Right on.

The only thing I don't really like that much is, uh, uh, Alabama. am a white barbecue sauce. Oh? Yeah. It's not like an everyday thing for me, but every now... A couple times a year I'll eat like a half chicken with that, but it's not like a staple of the pantry. I agree.

Shania says my husband and I love watching your guys a trivia show. We are currently headed to Colorado from Wisconsin to hunt Buffalo with a suppressor. Great. What's your favorite thing to make with Buffalo? Hmm. Randall, you've got some recent experience in this. Well, the short of... answer is everything.

De Pooey. My least favorite thing to eat is De Pui. Man, I think the first thing we made with the Buffalo was we did, we made some tartar with the heart.

And then, yeah, I mean, burgers, we've eaten a lot of burgers, we eat a lot of steaks, we eat a lot of roast, we eat a lot of of making good beef stew, like any beef stew recipe. I'm doing a lot of stew experiments with some of the larger roast.

But you're not gonna, unless you shoot like an old, old, old ancient animal, we shot a, Sydney shot a one and a half year old and man, there hasn't been a bite off that buffalo that I haven't enjoyed. Sounds delicious. Thoughts? I'm sure you can't go wrong with any of it.

Yeah, depending on how old it is. Yeah, it'd be. basically do anything with it that you know you would yeah do with any other red meat animal exactly we i mean it's it's a pretty i wouldn't say it's a close substitute to beef but i we just sort of treat it like the closest thing to beef that you get from a game animal and man we haven't gone wrong with anything yeah nice the heart's usually my favorite part and i can only imagine the size of that yeah it's a big boy it's a big boy enjoy that good luck on that hunt yeah i uh i wish i was hunting Buffalo right now. Seth says

shout out to Seth and his wife Kelsey. My name is Seth and my wife's name is also Kelsey. Whoa! There you go. You guys should meet up and grab lunch somewhere. Small world. Yeah. We had Mogore ask about how my production of the Christmas carolet. It went very well, Mogore. It did. It was great. Oh yeah, I was there. It was fun.

Let's see. We've got more demand for meat theater from Colby. We'll see about that. Yeah, that is a good idea. I'm going to write that down. Meat Theater. We've got the meat theater crew in here right now. I don't do it. Oh, we should have done it. Dang.

We'll do it again. We'll do it again. We messed up. We should do it. We should do it to Janus without telling him that we're going to do it. Oh, yeah. He would hate me later so much. He'd get that, his face would turn red and you get that permanent grin he gets when he's uncomfortable.

You'd have to do a thing that this camera just zoomed in on, on Yanni's face while Randall was doing his thing. Alexander Miller. Any good books lately? You guys reading anything? I've been out of a book phase recently. I've been in a hard book phase recently. Tell you what, Alexander.

I reread a classic, The Breaks of the Game by David Halberstan, which tells the story of the Portland Trailblazers in the late 70s as the franchise fell apart after Bill Walton left once they won the title. After that, I read a book called Ends of the Earth by Neil Schubin, who's an Arctic researcher,

I should say a polar researcher. A lot of it's about Antarctica as well, which I realized I don't know anything about. Yeah. What do you think the elevation of the South Pole is? Hmm. Probably higher than what we think. Man, yeah.

And how high do you think it is? Antarctica is massive. It's over 9,000 feet. Oh, God. Isn't that wild? I just pictured the whole thing being a few feet above sea level. Oh, you got to read this book. And then after,

after I finished that, as I was just telling Phil the other day, I'm reading a book by Jeff Pearlman. It was published last year called Only God Can Judge Me, the many lives of Tupac Shakur. It's a biography of the hip-hop legend, Tupac-Amaru Shakur, and it goes from his childhood until his untimely death in a shooting in Las Vegas.

Listen to a bit of Tupac. I just started the book, Lewis and Clark pioneering naturalists. Santa brought me that one. Oh, cool. at the little start to finish by chapter from starting in St. Louis all the way to the west coast, just kind of their, what they saw as far as animals and plants and what they jotted down, because Mr. Thomas Jefferson, that was one of his major goals was for those guys to jot down a lot of the fauna and flowers that they saw along the way.

I don't think you can, this is going to be a gross overstatement. I don't think I can get enough Lewis and Clark. That's true. I find Lewis and Clark the whole everything about it to be endlessly fascinating. To have like such a unique moment in time and then to have it so thoroughly documented. Yeah. Yeah. Very cool.

I, uh, I've been picking away at planes of another Yellowstone. Hmm. Which has been a good one. It's a Ronella classic. We should have a little. I got that one for me. We should have like a little library of reprints called Steve Ronella's literary classics. Yeah.

And they're just all. Steve can provide a commentary. Phil, what about you? What are you reading? I actually, I'm reading a book called The Will of the Mini by James Islington. It's a fantasy book that I wasn't really into the first 50 pages, but now it's getting twisty and thick and I'm enjoying it quite a bit. I'm switching off between that and my third play-through of Baldersgate 3 featuring Dr.

Randall the Bard. Yeah, Phil, we've got to talk games. Yeah, we do. Verizon finally sent me my free Nintendo Switch. I've been exploring Hyrule. I'm back in my Zelda phase. I love it so much. Randall told me he ordered a pro-controller

the other day, which just lit me out. I'm attacking Boblicans. Is that what they're called? Yeah, the cobblins, that's another here. Oh, man, I had so much fun. We got to find some multiplayer game. We can play together, and I'll maybe stream it together. I think the audience would like that. Yeah, yeah, once I'm better at 2K, the world better watch out.

All right, gang, unless you got anything else, Yeah, I think it's good. We can pull the plug on this grandmother and shut her down. Well done. All righty. Ladies and gentlemen, thanks for watching. Thanks for listening. We love you.

We appreciate you. Happy New Year. And we will see you here next week. Same time, same place. Good night. This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed human.