Pod Insights The MeatEater Podcast Ep. 840: Polar Bear Jail and an Olympic Cheesemonger | MeatEater Radio Live! About this episode Hosts Spencer Neuharth, Randall Williams, and Seth Morris interview Sgt. Ian Van Nest about life as a conservation officer in the "Polar Bear Capital of the World," key into some listener Hot Tips, revisit 2018's The Legacy of a Whitetail Deer Hunter in the MeatEater Movie Club, and chat with cheesemonger Emilia D'Albero about taking home a different kind of Olympic gold medal.
Watch the live stream on the MeatEater Podcast Network YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/@MeatEaterPodcastNetwork
Subscribe to The MeatEater Podcast Network https://www.youtube.com/@MeatEaterPodcastNetwork
MeatEater on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/meateater, Facebook https://www.facebook.com/StevenRinellaMeatEater/, Twitter https://twitter.com/MeatEaterTV?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor, and YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@MeatEaterPodcastNetwork
See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript 15,734 words · 13 speakers
Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:00 Speaker 00 This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human. Cash flow crunch? OnDeck's small business line of credit gives your business immediate access to funds up to $200,000 right when you need it. Cover seasonal dips, manage payroll, restock inventory, or tackle unexpected expenses without missing a beat. With flexible draws, transparent pricing, and control over repayment, get funded quickly and confidently. Apply today at ondeck.com. Funds could be available as soon as tomorrow. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.
0:34 Steven Rinella? In military families, service is more than a job. It's a legacy. At American Military University, that legacy can help open new doors through education. If someone in your family served in the military, you could be eligible for reduced tuition. Take the next step with flexible online programs built for real life. Learn more at amu.apus.edu/military. Listen, we're all trying to save up for something. I got buddies saving up to buy their new house. I got people eyeing a new boat. I know buddies that are trying to switch out trucks and get an upgrade in their truck, whatever. People are always saving up for stuff.
1:16 Steven Rinella? In reality, though, we see that it can be hard to actually save money. But that's what's great about the One Pay app. It makes saving money easy. First, you earn 3% cash back on up to $150 in monthly spending. You choose categories, okay? Like Walmart, gas, or dining. And then get rewarded when you spend in those categories. So you're rewarded for what you're already buying. And with high-yield savings, your money keeps growing. Download the One Pay app or visit onepay.com for banking that gives you more for what matters.
1:53 Speaker 02 One Pay is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided by Coastal Community Bank or Lead Bank, members FDIC. Cash back is earned as points. Go to onepay.com/rewards/terms for redemption options and additional details.
2:11 Speaker 03 Smell us now, lady. Welcome to Meat Eater Trivia. Meat Eater Podcast.
2:34 Speaker 03 Welcome to Meat Eater Radio Live. It's 11 a.m. Mountain Time. That's also 11 a.m. for our friends in Poplar, Montana on Thursday, February 26th, and we're live from Meat Eater HQ in Bozeman. I'm your host Spencer, joined today by Randall and Seth, as well as the Poplar Middle School from Fort Peck Reservation in northeast Montana. They are here to see how a media company works. You can see them live on our YouTube channel right now. You guys are really nervous, right?
3:04 Speaker 04 You guys should wave to our viewers.
3:06 Speaker 03 No, okay.
3:07 Speaker 04 Say hi.
3:08 Speaker 03 We told them they couldn't cuss live on air, so they got all their cussing out right before we went live.
3:12 Speaker 05 And I'll do some more later. It was shocking, to be frank.
3:15 Speaker 03 All right, on today's show, we'll interview Sergeant Ian Van Ness about Canada's Polar Bear Jail. After that, we have a hot tip-off about PVC rod holders and finding lost arrows, followed by a review of the legacy of a whitetail deer hunter for Meat Eater Movie Club, and finally, we'll interview Amelia Del Baro about winning gold at the Cheese Monger Olympics. But first, we have a few programming notes. Our first video of Meat Eaters 12 and 26 is live on the Meat Eater YouTube channel right now. Yannis goes on his first baited bear hunt and encounters more bears than you can shake an arrow at. It's a one-hour film that's presented by Moultrie and Onyx. You can see it on our YouTube channel right
3:57 Speaker 03 now. Phil, you have some details about another podcast coming out that accompanies that.
4:02 Speaker 05 Yeah, that's right. Yannis is going to be doing a Q and A and fielding questions about that episode. So if you want to watch the episode and either shoot Yannis some DMs, I think we're pulling questions from the comment section of that video as well. So if you have any burning questions for Yannis about the hunt or his experiences there, get him in. That's going to be dropping next Tuesday, which is the
4:27 Speaker 05 Oh no, what's the date next Tuesday? The 3rd, March 3rd.
4:30 Speaker 03 February.
4:31 Speaker 05 Check that out.
4:31 Speaker 03 Third.
4:32 Speaker 06 March 3rd.
4:32 Speaker 03 He's always got that little camera.
4:35 Speaker 05 I don't cut to it often because it makes me uncomfortable.
4:38 Speaker 06 Steve's hidden in the corner, he's leading the tour for these students, so he's tucked himself where you can't see him, but he is here.
4:44 Speaker 03 And they're joining us for our second to last episode of Media Radio Live. Next week is the finale, and Seth won't be joining us.
4:51 Speaker 04 Yep.
4:52 Speaker 03 Why is that Seth?
4:53 Speaker 04 This is my last episode ever of Media Radio Live. Um, my wife is gonna have a kid next Thursday.
4:59 Speaker 03 Hmm.
5:00 Speaker 04 Yep.
5:00 Speaker 03 Congratulations. Not very good planning on your part, though, to put it during the Media Radio Live finale.
5:05 Speaker 04 Well, you know, it wasn't supposed to be, but uh, one thing led to another. The little dude does not want to turn his head down, so... That means we gotta do a C-section, was not...
5:15 Speaker 03 Seth told him, "Keep your head up."
5:16 Speaker 06 And I'm hopeful that if everything goes well and we have a happy mother and happy child, uh, that we can do a live cut-in to the hospital.
5:25 Speaker 04 Yes.
5:26 Speaker 06 With Seth.
5:26 Speaker 04 Maybe.
5:27 Speaker 06 For our very last, our very last rut report.
5:29 Speaker 04 Baby's actually coming out early in the morning. We're scheduled early.
5:33 Speaker 06 Oh yeah, you can probably still make it in, so...
5:35 Speaker 03 That's a great coverage, man.
5:36 Speaker 04 Yeah.
5:37 Speaker 03 You know Seth, uh, some cultures believe in reincarnation, you know, like, the Pope dies, and then Cardi B has a baby, and it's like, "Welcome back, the Pope." The same day that Media Radio Live dies, your son is going to be born.
5:52 Speaker 04 Oh my god.
5:53 Speaker 03 Maybe, maybe it's a... I'm gonna call that baby, uh, Little Media Radio Live for the rest of its life. There's nothing you can do about that, Seth.
6:00 Speaker 06 Boy, that kid's gonna have a rough go of it.
6:02 Speaker 03 No, I don't. Virgil.
6:03 Speaker 06 Virgil.
6:04 Speaker 04 Virgil is his name.
6:05 Speaker 03 Virgil. I'm gonna call it Radio.
6:07 Speaker 05 Okay, like Michael Cuffee Gooding Jr.?
6:09 Speaker 03 Yes, exactly like that. Uh, and there's nothing you and Kelsey can do about that.
6:13 Speaker 04 This is Uncle Spencer, he's gonna call you Radio. He'll be the only person that calls you Radio.
6:17 Speaker 03 Yeah.
6:18 Speaker 04 Just let him do it.
6:18 Speaker 06 But we're all thinking it.
6:20 Speaker 03 That'd be an interesting child if it comes out as Meat Eater Radio Live reincarnated.
6:25 Speaker 05 That would be weird.
6:26 Speaker 06 A lot of bad segments.
6:29 Speaker 03 Uh, for our finale, we have something very special planned. Randall, fill some folks in on what's gonna happen next Thursday.
6:35 Speaker 06 Yeah, I think everybody here is eagerly awaiting the Meat Eater Radio Live Grand Finale Live Extravaganza. Yeah, well, I mean, you know, with mixed emotions, of course, but um, I just want to give everybody a shout out. I alluded to this earlier, heads up that we uh, we will be going long next week. Uh, Spencer and Phil and I are aiming for about six plus hours in the studio.
6:59 Speaker 05 That and that's not, that's not a joke.
7:01 Speaker 06 That's not a joke. Uh, we have guest hosts lined up. Uh, all of your favorite Radio Live co-hosts will be joining us during various segments. We're gonna try to hit every single segment we've ever done. We have some
7:13 Speaker 03 Literally.
7:14 Speaker 06 Special, literally, every single segment. Um, so even the ones that we just did once, we'll try to hit those if we can remember how they go and if we have got a jingle for them. We've got some special messages from celebrities that will be playing on air.
7:29 Speaker 03 A music video.
7:30 Speaker 06 A music video.
7:31 Speaker 03 Cameos.
7:32 Speaker 06 Phil, yeah, I mean, there's a lot to look forward to.
7:36 Speaker 05 And because it's six hours, we're not expecting everyone to, to sit down and watch the whole thing, though you, you're more than welcome to and I encourage it, but it's one of those things you can kind of tune in for a while. Take a break, come back later.
7:46 Speaker 06 Yeah, I think it'll be best be viewed in parts.
7:49 Speaker 05 Yeah.
7:50 Speaker 06 And segments.
7:52 Steven Rinella? The, the, it won't work for the younger folks listening, but I think the only real, uh, point of comparison would be the Jerry Lewis Telethon.
8:01 Speaker 06 Yeah, yeah.
8:02 Speaker 05 It says we're not raising any money for children.
8:05 Speaker 06 Yeah, maybe we should raise money for some, we're gonna, we're gonna burn through a lot of hot tip-offs.
8:11 Speaker 03 That's right. Emptying the clip.
8:13 Speaker 06 We've been swamped with hot tip-offs in the past two weeks after someone bad-mouthed the recent round of submissions, so we've been swamped with some good ones. We're gonna hit those hard. Uh, it's gonna be a lot of fun.
8:23 Speaker 05 We're gonna play some, play some games.
8:25 Speaker 06 Play some games.
8:26 Speaker 05 With the audience participation.
8:28 Speaker 03 That's right. We will talk to the chat all day, so, so be in our weight room. Uh, we'll answer your questions every hour. Uh, this, this is the podcast version of if your parents want you to not smoke cigarettes when you're a kid. Um, they'll be like, oh, you, you like that, huh? Well, how about you smoke a whole pack of Meat Eater Radio Live?
8:47 Speaker 03 That's what we're doing. We know some of you are going to miss this.
8:49 Speaker 06 Yeah.
8:50 Speaker 03 More media to radio.
8:51 Speaker 06 After this, you won't want anymore.
8:52 Speaker 03 Yeah, we're gonna make sure that.
8:53 Speaker 06 Sick to your stomach.
8:54 Speaker 03 You're exhausted.
8:55 Speaker 06 You might throw up. Yeah.
8:59 Speaker 06 No, I'm excited. There's still a lot of work left to put that thing together, but uh, but we're excited. And I think there's gonna be some fun surprises along the way. And really, it's a celebration of what we all share together.
9:13 Speaker 03 Coming to you for the finale.
9:14 Speaker 06 As a community. Yeah.
9:15 Speaker 03 One week.
9:16 Speaker 06 Yeah.
9:16 Speaker 03 Uh, there's gonna be a movie club for that one. Do we know what movie it'll be yet?
9:19 Speaker 06 Yes, we'll be reviewing the film Congo.
9:21 Speaker 03 How did you land on Congo?
9:23 Speaker 06 Uh, it's one of my favorite movies.
9:24 Speaker 03 Oh.
9:25 Speaker 06 It involves, uh, not necessarily hunting, but there's camping, there's outdoor adventure, there's wild animals, and a bunch of animals do get killed.
9:34 Speaker 03 Okay.
9:35 Speaker 06 Uh, by lasers. So.
9:37 Speaker 03 Hits all the criteria.
9:38 Speaker 06 Based on a Michael Crichton novel that I read, uh, last year for the first time, actually.
9:43 Speaker 03 Did you love it?
9:44 Speaker 06 Yeah, and it, it's actually, the, the, the adaptation is remarkably faithful, so.
9:49 Speaker 03 I hear fantastic things about the Jurassic Park book.
9:52 Speaker 06 Yeah.
9:52 Speaker 03 Have you read that?
9:53 Speaker 06 Yes.
9:53 Speaker 03 Is it very good?
9:54 Speaker 06 Yes, and, and, um, Congo came out the year after Jurassic Park, so it was like,
10:00 Speaker 03 He was on a heater.
10:01 Speaker 06 Let's take the momentum of Jurassic Park and carry it into a new universe. Uh, it's a classic, especially knowing what we know now about satellite communications and technologies. This is made when that was just like a fanciful idea. Uh, and it's, plays a, a big role in the plot, so yeah. Big ape guy, as we all know, and so I'm melding my two primary interests, uh, bad movies and great apes. And we're gonna review Congo, so. Uh, I didn't look up where you can view it, but I'm pretty sure it's on Netflix. I own it.
10:30 Speaker 03 Okay.
10:31 Speaker 06 So I'll be. Of course you do. Just as I owned the novel, and, uh, yeah, that'll be a lot of fun. That'll be a lot of fun. So we're gonna, that one's just gonna be. Yeah, I think probably the most demented radio club or movie club on Radio Live we've ever had. So, except for maybe today.
10:47 Speaker 03 February 5th is the finale again, probably a six plus hour episode. Hop in the Meat Eater YouTube channel that day and you'll get to participate in our finale.
10:58 Speaker 06 Yeah, so if you've got a doctor's appointment that afternoon at like 2 or 3pm, you're gonna wanna cancel that one too, because that will actually be a conflict.
11:08 Speaker 03 Yeah.
11:09 Speaker 06 So.
11:09 Speaker 03 Call in sick.
11:10 Speaker 06 Plan ahead.
11:11 Speaker 03 Yep. Do what you gotta do. Alright, let's get on with the show. Joining us on the line first. Do we wanna say goodbye to the Poplin Middle School kids? Thank you for joining us.
11:19 Speaker 06 Thanks for joining us, Media Studies class.
11:22 Speaker 03 Mm-hmm. Played an important role.
11:23 Speaker 06 Anybody wanna give a quick shout out to your friends or family?
11:26 Speaker 03 Now's your chance. Uh-oh. They forgot all the names.
11:29 Speaker 06 Step up.
11:30 Speaker 03 Name a friend.
11:32 Speaker 07 Give a shout out to my cousin Kendall.
11:34 Speaker 03 Shout out to Cousin Kendall. Alright, we did it. Shout out Kendall and Nicholas.
11:41 Speaker 03 Yeah, yeah, let's hear that. Say it into the microphone. Yeah, say it in the mic.
11:48 Speaker 06 Hihana Washte.
11:50 Steven Rinella? Can you guys say Randall's a loser in Lakota?
11:54 Steven Rinella? Randall's a MSK.
11:57 Speaker 03 We did it. Thank you for joining us.
11:59 Speaker 06 I've gotten a lot of angry emails and DMs over the years, but I've never seen it expressed quite that way. Thank you.
12:07 Speaker 03 Enjoy the rest of the day. We'll see you guys around the office.
12:10 Speaker 06 Thanks for visiting, guys. See you guys.
12:12 Speaker 03 Oh.
12:13 Speaker 06 Oh.
12:14 Speaker 03 Alright, joining us.
12:15 Speaker 06 Got me bad.
12:16 Speaker 03 Joining us on the line first is Sergeant Ian Van Nest. He's a Manitoba Conservation Officer in the polar bear capital of the world. Ian, welcome to the show.
12:28 Speaker 08 Hey, guys. Super pumped to be here.
12:30 Speaker 03 We're excited to have you. Now, you live and work in a place that has as many humans as it does polar bears. There are about 800 of each in Churchill. What is your role there?
12:43 Speaker 08 Oh, so I'm Sergeant Conservation Officer up here in Churchill, Manitoba. So I'm in charge of the Polar Bear Alert Program. One of a kind program in the world. It's it's basically an apex predator management program. And what we do is we are solely there to make sure that people can coexist with these these giant critters.
13:09 Speaker 03 Okay, what is it about that area that creates such a dense population of polar bears?
13:16 Speaker 08 Yeah, Churchill, again, polar bear capital of the world. It's got to be, you know, the habitat. You've got the ringed seal out on the Hudson Bay there. That's the primary food staple for polar bears. And not to mention too that there's also the largest denning area in the world, Wapuas National Park, just to the to the southeast of Churchill. So Churchill is essentially in a migratory path of these bears. And it's quite incredible because we have 800 plus people living right in their path. So thanks to our program, we're able to keep people safe and also the bears safe and prevent any problems from happening.
14:00 Speaker 03 How common are maulings?
14:03 Speaker 08 Well, again, thanks to that Polar Bear Alert Program, not very common. Like you mentioned there, like back in 2013, we did have a mauling. That was our last mauling. So quite proud to say that due to our program, we've been able to stop and prevent a lot of these tragedies from happening.
14:25 Speaker 03 Can you explain what the Polar Bear Alert Program is? How does that tell people that they need to be on alert for a polar bear?
14:34 Speaker 08 Yeah, it's a it's an apex predator co-management program where the province will identify. So the province I say is of Manitoba, I'm a I'm an employee of of Manitoba. So basically what we're doing is we're identifying any bears that are potentially a problem, uh, whether they're food conditioned or uh, that they're aggressive in any any way. And we will do proactive measures like setting up bear traps and preventing uh, some of these bears from hanging around. And it's the bears that are hanging around town that are essentially problematic because then they become comfortable around humans. And we all know uh, wildlife, right? They're unpredictable. So
15:20 Speaker 08 uh, anytime you get these uh, these dangerous critters hanging around town, it's usually a recipe for uh, for a dangerous situation. So we'll either utilize uh, proactive things like uh, bear traps. We might have to dart these bears um, using wildlife uh, immobilization tactics. Whether we're darting them from helicopters or from the ground. Uh, other things we'll be doing is just simply what we do is hazing tactics. And hazing is essentially just using a loud sound and making it uncomfortable or unpleasant for that bear and letting that bear know that it's not okay to hang out in town. So 99% of the time, this is what we're doing. We're we're utilizing a shotgun.
16:05 Speaker 08 We're going to be firing cracker shells uh, towards the bear and steering them in a specific direction to get them out of town and and and away.
16:14 Speaker 03 Uh, what's the closest that you've come to being attacked?
16:19 Speaker 08 Oh, uh, there's been lots of times. Uh, I gotta think of one. I mean, it's a thrilling job and after a while, you you develop a comfort with the animals and that no other person has ever experienced until you do this job. So my comfort level with these creatures are a lot different than the average person, but there has been a few times of whoa, and you know what? You gotta you gotta be a little more careful there. Like, you're only fifteen feet away from this thing and it's giving you the side eye. And once you see the whites of those eyeballs, it's like, holy smokes. Okay, a little close, but I swear those bears, they they they can read you and they feel your energy.
17:03 Speaker 08 And they also know that you've got something that's a long stick called a boomstick, and they know that that thing might hurt them. So it's like they they're they're smart enough to know, hey? So I I I mean, I've been fifteen feet away from these things and giving me the side eye and and we we have our protocols where we've got somebody with lethal force in case we need to use it, but um, most of the time, I've walked up ten fifteen feet up to a bear like that, uh, eight hundred pound, thousand pound male, uh, and give it a dart so we can make it go to sleep. And and that that's the key part is getting it safely down, get to sleep so we can get it in the facility.
17:45 Speaker 03 Uh, and what kind of boomstick do you carry for the protection against these polar bears?
17:51 Speaker 08 Yeah, great question. You know, um, I got a bunch. I mean, I'm using a twelve gauge uh with slugs uh mostly because I can also fire my cracker shell, which is a non-lethal ammunition. Uh, but also I can quickly switch to a slug in case I need to use that. Uh, the other thing we just recently got is a Daniel Defense DD five and it's in a three oh eight cartridge. Uh, three twenty round magazine, so uh, red dot sight and know what? I think that is a very accurate and incredible weapon to use for defense against these creatures. So um, I've got that in my arsenal as well as a nine millimeter uh on my side. So
18:36 Speaker 08 that's also comforting to know in case uh one of them's on top of me or something and I gotta I gotta get in close quarters with this thing, so.
18:45 Speaker 03 Loaded to the teeth. You you said that they they've been fifteen feet from you. In those situations, have you ever drawn a gun ready to use lethal force?
18:55 Speaker 08 Yeah, lots. I mean, if I'm in that close, I'm drawn and ready with lethal force. And you know what? Knock on wood, I have never had to use use it and kill a bear in a situation like that. So again, it's a lot of reading the animal and they're smart and they can feel your energy. So staying calm is, I think, a big part of it, too.
19:19 Speaker 03 Okay, now if the polar bears aren't running around biting people all the time, tell us what kind of problems they do create.
19:26 Speaker 08 Yeah, I mean, it's pretty rare for them to bite people, but they they can't, right? That that risk is there. And it's a real risk and and they're very dangerous and we're in their territory. So basically, a lot of what we're doing is preventing that situation from happening. And the key thing of preventing that is stopping habituation. Uh, we have a lot of restaurants in town. People are careless with their garbage. So a lot of the inexperienced bears that are not great at
20:03 Speaker 08 their jaws on some garbage. So we're we're out doing proactive measures such as removing those attractants. And trying to keep them away from that because soon as they get that taste of garbage, they ain't leaving. And they're gonna hang around there and tell the sea ice forms again, they go back to hunting seals. So, you know, we gotta haze them out of there. Sometimes you might have to shoot them with a rubber slug if the the loud noise ain't working. And just getting them moving along and stop that that that food conditioning from happening.
20:33 Speaker 03 Uh, go ahead.
20:36 Speaker 08 Oh, go ahead. Yeah. Oh, I was just gonna say that, that like the problems that mainly arises, the food conditioning, getting it to human food sources. And because once they get that taste of human food source, they're not gonna leave. And then that's when we have to intervene. There will be a bear that's hanging out for a week in town. And, you know, someone will open up their doorstep and walk out their porch and there's a thousand pound polar bear sitting beside them. Well, that's happened many times and I've got videos sent to Me and this happening and and and so we respond right away. Uh, we got, we got an emergency line in town. So I got that phone beside my bed and they can call it and it wakes me up and I'm out the door.
21:15 Speaker 08 With my shotgun and and I'm going to scare that thing away. Uh, but it's a lot of proactive. The problems that they're they're. Getting into is that basically getting into human sources of food.
21:28 Speaker 04 How often are you getting those calls in the middle of the night that that there's a polar bear too close?
21:34 Speaker 08 Yeah, like you, you know, in bear season, which is, uh, starting now from August till December. So when there's no ice on the Hudson Bay. Those bears are all on land and that's when they're causing problems and or the potential for them to cause problems. Once that ice is formed. They don't care about our town. They don't care about Churchill or being on land or humans. All they care about is seals. So. Uh, so during the bear season, August to December. Basically what's happening is they're getting hungry and I I need to find some food. So so then we're going to be getting calls, five, 10 calls a night. And and it's like you're you're not sleep, you're not sleeping. And so you're up, you're up all night. My phone beside my bed, go deal the call, go home, try and.
22:18 Speaker 08 An hour phone goes again. And, uh, yeah, so there I don't sleep in bear season.
22:25 Speaker 03 Uh, and if there is a problematic bear, you guys sometimes send that bear to the polar bear jail. Tell us about that facility.
22:34 Speaker 08 Yeah, the polar bear holding facility, again, it's a world renowned, uh, there's no other place like it in the world. Um, so there's 28 holding cells in there. And and so only bears that are problematic end up in there. I'd say 99% of bears were able to get. Through town and get them away and they don't come back. It's that 1% that they're just causing problems. And they're not going away. So then I gotta go and dart them, put them to sleep. And then we'll transport them through, put them in a, uh, trap, uh, or we could just use it. We have what's called a bear board. It's basically a stretcher for a polar bear. And and you know, the bear is sleeping, goes on the stretcher back of my truck and I bring him inside the facility.
23:19 Speaker 08 And and they stay there for thirty days. Uh, so it's it's kind of marries a little bit of deterrence with separating them from people so that they don't hurt people. And and thirty days, they don't get fed. Uh, because again, we don't want them to introduce them to human, human food sources. So, uh, they're already in a state of hibernation and their bodies adapted to living off fat, off their their food stores when they were hunting seal all winter. So like, uh, so basically they're in there and they're like, oh, this sucks. You know, I'm not doing this again.
23:56 Speaker 08 I'm never coming back here again.
23:58 Speaker 03 Say, say a bear is thrown in jail, uh, for a month. Walk us through what happens from the time they're locked up to the time they're set free.
24:07 Speaker 08 Yeah, so bears hanging around town, it's been there for a week. But geez, we can't get this thing, we can't scare it away. So I end up darting it. Uh, a lot, a lot of times I gotta use a helicopter to see if you get to them. So you're darting out of hel- helicopter. You get them down and then we transport them on the stretcher, get them inside. They go inside an individual cell. But before we do that, we give them a number. So they have a number that identifies them as an individual. So then I can go back at a database and love, oh yeah, I dealt with this one before. And so then it's a repeat offender, right? And so this is how we better manage these bears. And and so, yeah, we get them a lip tattoo.
24:52 Speaker 08 So there's gonna be a corresponding number on their lip and their ear, they get a tag. And so this way, when they're, I'm in the field again, I got, deal with the same bear, I can easily identify them again. And yes, I do have a reoffender list. It's about twenty bears long.
25:13 Speaker 08 And this is the way we we can tell if they're just they have it in their behavior. And again, a lot of times these bears are like humans. Some of them are just bad actors and they just wind up in this facility over and over again. I it's it's true and I just can't believe it sometimes. But anyways, yeah, it's so thirty days. They're not getting any any food. They do get water. They stay in there. And then we're going to put them down again to sleep after their thirty days. We're going to load them on the stretcher, get them and make sure that we've got all the data off them that we need to. Bears will also be weighed so we know how much weight they lost inside the facility.
25:57 Speaker 08 And because they do lose about, to believe it or not, three to four pounds a day. And actually, this is kind of similar in the wild. They do as well.
26:07 Speaker 03 Must be nice.
26:09 Speaker 08 Yeah, there it's quite amazing. Yeah, I wish I could lose that much weight. But anyways, they are an incredible species and it's just amazing how they've adapted to live.
26:22 Speaker 03 Here's a dumb question. How pissed are they when they're locked up?
26:27 Speaker 08 Oh, so mad, yeah.
26:31 Speaker 08 Like they they'll pound those bars and it's incredible their strength, like they'll bow the bars like those bars are just solid steel and concrete cylinder block cells. So there's we've never had one escape other than we did actually have a little cub escape one time. But it got through the trough where we feed them or where we give them water, sorry. So pardon me, we don't feed them, but we give them water and it got through that trough. So now we've got a special insert that goes in there so that the little cubs can't squeeze through the trough.
27:08 Speaker 08 So, yeah, and and it's in a they're powerful. They they hiss at you. They they give you the side eye. They got a really mean, deep growl. There's the like, it's pretty eerie sounding.
27:22 Speaker 03 That's good.
27:22 Speaker 08 And you can, yeah, it's you can hear it. It's there's nothing else like it like I've never experienced anything else like that. But, yeah, incredible.
27:31 Speaker 03 What's the most bears you've ever had locked up at once? You said you have twenty eight holding facilities. Do you ever get to max capacity?
27:40 Speaker 08 Yes, we have done that. And back, back in, back in the day when it first started in the 1980s, they filled that, that's those cells over and over again. It was a rotating door, revolving door. Uh, now I've put 20 in a season, so a fraction of that.
27:59 Speaker 03 Wow.
27:59 Speaker 08 We're not handling them as much anymore. And that's because we've changed our tactics. We don't want to have to handle them. Unless we absolutely have to. So.
28:09 Speaker 03 Tough on crying. I like it.
28:12 Speaker 08 Yeah. Back in the eighties, they put a lot of bears through there. Now in, uh, 2026, we're, we're a little, uh, more selective on the bears we put in there. And on average, I'd say we probably put 20 per year in there.
28:28 Speaker 03 All right. So walk us through the process of what happens when you go to let them go.
28:33 Speaker 08 Yeah. So once we get all the data off them, weight, their length, their girth, make sure we got their numbers, what male, female, are they pregnant, stuff like that. You gotta watch, you gotta pay attention to stuff like that. Um, then we're gonna, we're gonna put them in a cargo net and basically helicopter and sling them out to their, their, their habitat to the north. We put them to the north because these bears are naturally migrating from east to west and then north again. So we want to follow their natural migration. And essentially, yeah, we just, we get them in the, in the cargo nets and put them in the, in a remote area to the north away from people. That's essentially all it is.
29:18 Speaker 03 Uh, and if folks want to come visit Churchill, the polar bear capital of the world, what advice do you have for them?
29:25 Speaker 08 Well, come check out the polar bear holding facility because there's no other place like it in the world. You might even be able to hear the loud growl if you put if you put your ear close to the door and listen. And and ask some questions about polar bear alert program, Google it, check it out. Not a lot of people actually know about it. And it's it's a success story. It's protecting humans and protecting bears. And and come to Churchill and just it's the polar bear capital of the world. There's no other place where you can easily access. Basically, while a viewing areas where it's very likely you're going to see a polar bear. So. Book through a guide, though. A licensed guide is your way to go.
30:10 Speaker 08 There are restrictions on how to view bears, and so the the guides all know how to do that. And you don't because you don't want to get yourself in a bad situation. I've I've seen people five feet away from these things. They think it's the zoo and it's just. It's it's so incredible how fast they can move and and people just. Sometimes don't realize they get caught in the moment like, oh, this magnificent creature. And yet they're only five, 10 feet away from the thing. It's just. It's it's not ideal, but again, go through a guide and they'll keep you safe. So.
30:41 Speaker 03 Have you gotten any emergency calls while doing this interview?
30:46 Speaker 08 No. So luckily, right now, those bears are out on the sea ice and they're they're going to be there till probably June, July and ring seal. That's their primary diet. And so I get to rest right now.
30:58 Speaker 03 Okay, good. Good for you. Thanks for joining us, Ian. Stay safe out there.
31:03 Speaker 08 Yeah, thanks, guys. Been a pleasure.
31:05 Speaker 06 Yeah, likewise.
31:06 Speaker 04 Thanks, Ian.
31:08 Speaker 03 I noticed you boys perk up when he talked about what he carries for protection. Did anything surprise you about what he has on him?
31:15 Speaker 04 Oh, I mean, shotgun, I feel like is pretty run of the mill protection weapon for bears, but the the Daniel Defense.
31:22 Speaker 03 308?
31:23 Speaker 04 Yeah. It makes sense.
31:26 Speaker 06 Okay. Yeah, I mean, I'd assume they're just trying to. Put one in the central nervous system.
31:32 Speaker 03 Uh huh.
31:32 Speaker 06 So, um, probably a bullet.
31:36 Speaker 03 To be accurate.
31:38 Speaker 06 Probably bullet. What'd we get, Randall? A pack of smokes from Steve.
31:45 Speaker 03 Poplar Middle School brought gifts to the meat eater office. Uh, one of them was tobacco.
31:50 Speaker 06 It's a traditional, it's a traditional gifting, uh, you know, culture of gifting. And so tobacco is one of the gifts and.
31:57 Speaker 03 What do you got there?
31:58 Speaker 06 Steve just re-gifted. Steve just gifted me a, a hard pack of Marlboro Smooth Originals.
32:05 Speaker 03 I thought Steve said they were, uh.
32:06 Speaker 06 I thought they were reds too. This is a gold pack. Yeah, it's a gold pack, but these, I mean, don't, don't do that. Don't smoke cigarettes.
32:14 Speaker 03 Well, we could bust him out when, uh, baby radio is born.
32:17 Speaker 06 Oh, yeah.
32:19 Speaker 03 That's how we'll celebrate.
32:22 Speaker 06 Um, yeah.
32:25 Speaker 06 I love that guy. That was one of the best interviews. Spencer's, Spencer's throwing heat all the way to the end with his guest recruitment. And, uh, yeah, man, we're probably the only Americans that guy's gonna talk to for the next year that won't mention the hockey, uh, game. Oh, yeah. Don't worry, the, the chat has been on it. Yeah.
32:43 Speaker 03 Hopefully he doesn't look back and feel bad about that silver medal, uh, because the chat was really poking him for that whole interview.
32:49 Speaker 06 Man, that guy was great. That was a great interview. Thank you, Spencer. That, that just, uh. Who would have thought? Bear prison.
32:55 Speaker 03 Bear prison.
32:56 Speaker 06 For 30 days. I wanna go.
32:58 Speaker 03 Only 20 re-offenders. They've been doing this since the eighties. So that's, uh, that's pretty incredible that it's like that successful at keeping these bears out of the way of humans.
33:06 Speaker 06 That was great.
33:07 Speaker 03 Gosh.
33:08 Speaker 00 Cash flow crunch? OnDeck's small business line of credit gives your business immediate access to funds up to $200,000 right when you need it. Cover seasonal dips, manage payroll, restock inventory, or tackle unexpected expenses without missing a beat. With flexible draws, transparent pricing, and control over repayment, get funded quickly and confidently. Apply today at ondeck.com. Funds could be available as soon as tomorrow. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.
33:39 Speaker 06 In military families, service is more than a job, it's a legacy. At American Military University.
33:46 Steven Rinella? That legacy can help open new doors through education. If someone in your family served in the military, you could be eligible for reduced tuition. Take the next step with flexible online programs built for real life. Learn more at amu.apus.edu/military. If you spend a lot of time outdoors, you got dogs, you got kids, you know how hard it is to keep the floor of your rig clean. A thing we do in our, in our little fleet of vehicles that I have at my household, if you go look, open the door on any one of them, they all got WeatherTech. We get a car, we throw the mats out and put in WeatherTech. That way, when there's a mess, it's like your kid's fault, your dog's fault, it's the weather's fault, doesn't matter.
34:30 Steven Rinella? You take them suckers out and hose them off and you're back to being good as new. I'm telling you, if you got a vehicle, put WeatherTech in there, you're going to be happy you did it. And check this out, American-made floor liners and cargo liners, okay? They laugh in the face of all weather. Go take a look for yourself today at weathertech.com.
34:49 Speaker 03 All right, our next segment is Hot Tip Off.
34:52 Speaker 09 H O T T I P R. Let's all do a hot tip off. H O T T I P R. Let's all do a hot tip off.
35:06 Speaker 03 Hot Tip Off is where two listeners go head to head with competing pieces of advice. And after we hear each tip, we'll declare which one is hotter. This week, it's Dalton Picard versus Marshall Loftus, and they're competing for a $100 Meat Eater Store gift card. Take it away, Phil.
35:25 Speaker 10 Marshall Loftus.
35:29 Speaker 10 Hey guys, Marshall here, and I have an extremely simple tip for finding your arrows.
35:37 Speaker 10 I know most of your listeners probably don't actually ever miss, but I do, so I had to come up with a creative solution. Number one, I use iViz, wrap some veins, nothing new there. Uh, but number two, I utilize a UV or black light flashlight. These are like 10, 15 bucks on Amazon. So, you know, anytime you shoot, you don't know where your arrow goes, it goes into something like this. Um, this is kind of standard what you see. Here's one of my arrows. Um, you know, it gets buried in the grass, it gets buried in the leaves. Very difficult to find, but I actually utilize this to find the arrows in the dark. So I'm back at that same area, but in the dark here, obviously, I have my black light flashlight on and I'm gonna walk
36:22 Speaker 10 up to that general area of where the arrow is and we'll see if it'll show up on here. Boom, there you can see it.
36:31 Speaker 06 Oh, that's wild.
36:31 Speaker 10 Looks like a headlight out there in the dark. This makes finding your arrows a thousand times easier and saves you a lot of money on having to buy new arrows.
36:52 Speaker 07 Hello, Meat Eater. I got a hot tip here for you and a great project to do if you, with your kids, if you've got them. This is my homemade jaw jacker, as my buddy likes to call it, the ghetto jacker. I just built this out of inch and a half PVC pipe. You could build it with a block of wood and a pipe angled in the back of it to hold the rod. The main thing is this trigger mechanism, which you just gotta do a hook and I built this out of a paint can handle. You could use a coat hanger or whatever you've really got laying around. I used a zip tie here to connect it to the rod. Ran it through an eyelet and you just run your line up through the hook end of it.
37:39 Speaker 07 My fish grabs it.
37:42 Speaker 07 Works pretty good. Sets up nice. Can fit a couple of them in a bucket. I keep these feet to where they can just come off.
37:52 Speaker 07 So you can fit a couple in a bucket.
37:55 Speaker 07 And
37:57 Speaker 07 surely beats the $60 price tag.
38:00 Speaker 03 All right, those are our two hot tips. The chat is going to decide who the winner is of the $100 Meat Eater Store gift card. Phil is going to give you a couple minutes to vote.
38:10 Speaker 04 Poll is live.
38:11 Speaker 03 All right, Seth, which one do you like? Dalton's, uh, hot tip about the PVC jaw jacker? Or Marshall's of the UV light arrow finder?
38:20 Speaker 04 Well, I don't know Pixies. I don't want to call anyone out, but the, uh, the arrow one has been, has been done before.
38:26 Speaker 03 On this show?
38:26 Speaker 04 On this show.
38:27 Speaker 03 Oh, no.
38:28 Speaker 04 Um, well, I got a better memory than me because I have no recollection.
38:32 Speaker 03 I did not know that.
38:33 Speaker 06 Sorry, you began that by saying you don't mean to call anybody out?
38:38 Speaker 04 No.
38:38 Speaker 03 Okay, which one do you like better?
38:40 Speaker 04 Was that Phil? Was that you, Phil?
38:41 Speaker 03 No.
38:42 Speaker 04 No.
38:42 Speaker 06 Okay, sorry.
38:44 Speaker 04 I don't, I don't mean to call anyone out, but I should have, I should have.
38:46 Speaker 03 Guys, no one's noticed. Let's just go back to the thing.
38:48 Speaker 04 Okay, um, the, the ice fishing one for me.
38:52 Speaker 03 Okay.
38:52 Speaker 04 The homemade jaw jacker. Jaw jackers aren't, aren't, they're not cheap.
38:56 Speaker 03 $60, he said.
38:57 Speaker 04 Yeah, so the, the homemade stuff is fantastic. And I did mention, or I did mention, I did notice he had, uh, Buddy Jay Siemens in the background on the television.
39:06 Speaker 03 I wondered if it was him, but I couldn't identify just from that quick shot, but Seth has his ice fishing eyes on.
39:12 Speaker 04 Yeah.
39:12 Speaker 03 He knew it was Jay.
39:13 Speaker 04 I like that one.
39:14 Speaker 03 All right, Seth is voting for the PVC jaw jacker. Randall, what do you think? Uh, the UV light arrow finder from Marshall? Or the jaw jacker from Dalton?
39:23 Speaker 06 I mean, to me, these two tips embody some of the finest traditions of tipping. One is just getting some device that's useful for one thing and applying it to another. As we remember from the air compressor blowing out the, the brains of the deer skull. Um, and the other is just going to Ace Hardware and buying a bunch of shit.
39:46 Speaker 03 Yeah.
39:46 Speaker 06 And building your own, like. Little device. Um, so I appreciate both of them in different ways, but um, man, I do like that that homemade. I mean, anytime you can just make a mess of PVC. I was a big potato cannon kid. We made a battery gun one time that just shot double A batteries and we were punching holes in plywood with it.
40:09 Speaker 03 Oh, okay.
40:10 Speaker 05 That sounds fun.
40:10 Speaker 06 Uh, we moved on from the hairspray to dry ice and water.
40:15 Speaker 03 We should do that for a meat eater video. I don't know how it applies to what this company does, but uh,
40:19 Speaker 06 Yeah.
40:20 Speaker 03 Randall making a potato cannon.
40:21 Speaker 06 The nice thing about the hairspray though, is if you want to launch an incendiary round of some sort, uh, you know, you have that ignition source from the hairspray, but yeah. I'm gonna vote for the jawjacker.
40:33 Speaker 03 Okay, that's two votes for the jawjacker.
40:34 Speaker 06 That was a long-winded answer, sorry.
40:36 Speaker 03 Yeah, I, uh, both of these, again, like mini hot tips, it's about how to save some money. Um, one is you're gonna recover more arrows. The other is you don't have to buy a $60 jawjacker.
40:45 Speaker 06 Yes.
40:46 Speaker 03 I'm going to vote, vote for the UV light arrow finder. Uh, you should go watch this video on our podcast YouTube channel. Uh, because that thing lit up like somebody turned on a light switch on the back of that arrow. It was so easy to find. Here's the other thing. I love having a UV light with me. Um, when I go camping, there's like, I don't know, probably 20 things that just stay in my camping kit that no matter what kind of camping I'm doing, they're coming with me. Uh, one of them is a UV light that I look for UV, uh, I look for rocks that show up under UV light. Um, so if you've got that with you, turn that on at night, you can recover some very cool rocks. You'll find other uses for that UV light. And it's only like 15 bucks from Amazon besides just recovering arrows.
41:31 Speaker 06 Yeah, it's making me think I should attach arrow fletchings to my car keys and my earbuds.
41:36 Speaker 03 That'd be good. Uh, Phil, what does the chat think?
41:39 Speaker 05 Uh, it's been a pretty decisive lead this entire time, so I'm gonna go ahead and end the poll and with 64% of the vote, the winner is Marshall with the black light.
41:52 Speaker 03 Oh, alright.
41:53 Speaker 05 Ooh, he didn't win the last time, so he won this time.
41:55 Speaker 06 That's a real dark horse. Get it?
41:59 Speaker 03 Marshall, good one Randall. He gets a $100 meat eater gift card. Uh, next week for the finale, we are just going to empty the clip for all of the hot tips that we have left.
42:08 Speaker 06 Indeed, indeed.
42:09 Speaker 03 Alright, let's take a break for some listener feedback. Phil, what's the chat have to say?
42:14 Speaker 05 Let's see here. This is from Nate. He says, Randall, are you going turkey hunting this spring? Or was last year a one and done and you're back to bears forever?
42:21 Speaker 06 Um, no, I'd like to. I enjoy eating wild turkey, so I'd like to shoot another turkey or two. It's just a, just a question of getting on someone's dance card. Max Barta is a
42:35 Speaker 03 Busy guy.
42:35 Speaker 06 Busy guy in the spring. I was talking to Cal last night and we were discussing a little turkey family camp. Family turkey camp, I should say. Um, so that's, that's in the cards as well, but definitely going to, uh, go out and look for some Bruins. I already have one of those trips on my calendar.
42:56 Speaker 05 Question for Seth from Coda. What's your go-to razor for a clean shave?
43:00 Speaker 03 Oh.
43:00 Speaker 05 I too have a mustache, but find it hard to keep up with a clean cut like you. Razors give me razor burn on my neck and jawline.
43:05 Speaker 06 Well, you need the jawline first. That's my problem with, with trimming facial hairs. I don't have anything like what Seth has there.
43:12 Speaker 04 Um, I, uh, ah, the ones I buy from the store are often different. I look at price more than, uh,
43:20 Speaker 03 There we go.
43:21 Speaker 04 I'll tip off. Yeah, I look at price more than the actual razor itself. A few blades is good, although I recently, uh, was given one of those proof razors. It's made in Belgrade.
43:33 Speaker 03 Oh.
43:33 Speaker 04 It's like a machined, all machined aluminum razor.
43:37 Speaker 03 Okay.
43:38 Speaker 04 Has one blade, replaceable.
43:40 Speaker 03 Hmm.
43:42 Speaker 04 It's, it works great. Yeah. It's like, uh, it's like a razor that you'll just have for the rest of your life.
43:47 Speaker 03 Okay.
43:48 Speaker 04 So.
43:48 Speaker 06 And then an aftershave or something like that?
43:51 Speaker 04 No.
43:52 Speaker 06 As long as we're leaning into this.
43:53 Speaker 04 No, I don't, I don't use an aftershave. I use, uh, the shaving cream I use is like, uh, they call it like a shh. It's, it's like one of those healthy kinds. It's not edge.
44:03 Speaker 03 Hmm. Best kept mustache in the company. What else you got, Phil?
44:08 Speaker 05 Question for King Randoml himself, if he only had to choose one for the rest of his life, would it be dogs or brats?
44:14 Speaker 06 Oh, hmm.
44:15 Speaker 05 I think I know.
44:18 Speaker 06 Man, it's probably dogs.
44:19 Speaker 05 Yeah.
44:19 Speaker 03 I agree.
44:20 Speaker 06 Just for the emotional factor. I just don't get the same feelings from eating a brat at a ballgame. But I do find brats, I find myself cooking brats more at home. And I feel like it's a more versatile tube meat. But yeah, I can't make a cheese coney with a brat.
44:41 Speaker 03 Phil, let's do a couple more and then after that, I think we put movie club at the end of the show.
44:45 Speaker 05 I think it's a good call.
44:46 Speaker 03 Because our next guest is waiting, so we'll do that last year.
44:49 Speaker 06 It's a great idea.
44:49 Speaker 05 Yeah, who knows how long that'll take. Any of the crew from Valencore hopeful for a sheep or goat tag this year? Did you guys put in for?
44:57 Speaker 06 Yes, every year.
44:58 Speaker 05 Oh, yeah.
44:59 Speaker 03 Not hopeful, though. Hopeful and putting in are two different things.
45:03 Speaker 06 Well, yeah, I'll.
45:06 Speaker 06 I probably will have a sheep tag. Just an unlimited sheep tag.
45:10 Speaker 03 Oh.
45:10 Speaker 05 Oh.
45:11 Speaker 03 They're changing that this year, I saw.
45:13 Speaker 06 Yeah. I just. Whatever.
45:16 Speaker 03 Okay. Randall's gonna be the sheep hunter.
45:18 Speaker 06 Yeah, yeah, we'll see, we'll see. My calendar's lining so that I might be able to get out there for the unit that I want to get out there.
45:24 Speaker 03 Let's do one more, Phil.
45:26 Speaker 05 Uh, sure, I'm gonna be selfish with this one. Phil, how's Cast and Chill treating you? That was that lo-fi fishing game that I've been talking about. I have it, so I just got myself a better monitor for my, the room where I stream, when I stream.
45:37 Speaker 06 Oh.
45:39 Speaker 05 But tomorrow, tomorrow's a big day because their Nintendo is, and Game Freak are releasing Pokemon Fire Red and Leaf Green for the Nintendo Switch. I'll be picking that up. But more importantly, for my streaming purposes, Resident Evil 9 comes out tomorrow.
45:54 Speaker 06 Wow.
45:54 Speaker 05 And I'm a big fat baby, and so I'm thinking about, and here's the scariest one so far.
45:59 Speaker 06 Sick day.
45:59 Speaker 05 Thinking about streaming it, uh, if you guys want to watch that.
46:03 Speaker 06 I do. It's like I'm taking a sick day, too.
46:06 Speaker 04 When did the original Resident Evil come out?
46:08 Speaker 05 Oh, like 1998 or something?
46:10 Speaker 04 Wow, did you play that one?
46:11 Speaker 05 No, I didn't. I've, I've only been starting, I've been dipping my toe into horror stuff over the last couple of years, but I've, over the last year, I've played Resident Evil. Two, four, seven, and I'm almost done with eight. Um, and I've, I've been really enjoying them. The writing is, is god awful. The plot makes no sense. Uh, but that's kind of part of the charm.
46:30 Speaker 06 So you don't like the films then, I assume?
46:32 Speaker 05 Uh, the films are, are, are, the films are bad. Like, it's like if you took the dialogue and plot from the games where it's kind of campy and fun. And when you put it into a movie format, it just, it doesn't translate.
46:41 Speaker 03 So how do I tune into this Phil Taylor livestream?
46:43 Speaker 05 Oh, oh God. Uh, that's a great, that's a great question. I, I'll, I'll put, I don't think this is self-promotion because I make no money off of this. In fact, I think I lose money with the equipment that I've bought, but I'll, I'll put my, I'll put my YouTube handle up here because it's stupid and nonsensical. Um, I'll, I'll spill it out here. This is, this is good program.
47:01 Speaker 03 And maybe Phil will tell us on his Instagram story how we can watch it live as well.
47:05 Speaker 05 So that's my YouTube handle and my Twitch handle, Philabuster Sword. Phil, it's my name. Philabuster with a P H because that's what people called me in high school. Buster Sword, as we all know, is the iconic sword that Cloud Strife wields in Final Fantasy VII. So it's a, it's a portmanteau of, of kinds.
47:21 Speaker 06 I'm sure our next guest's head is spinning.
47:24 Speaker 03 Good stuff.
47:25 Speaker 06 Who've gone from shaving products to goat and sheep tags to Philabuster Sword.
47:30 Speaker 05 So I'll, I'll be doing that Fri- this Friday or Saturday. So.
47:33 Speaker 03 Okay.
47:33 Speaker 05 Tune, tune in. You can watch me pee my pants. You never know what you'll get here.
47:36 Speaker 06 That got, yep.
47:38 Speaker 03 Let's go to our last interview. Joining us on the line next is Amelia Del Baro, who won the gold medal at the 2025 Cheese Monger Olympics. She's here to educate us on pairing cheeses with wild game. Amelia, welcome to the show.
47:55 Speaker 11 Hey, thanks so much for having me on the show. Super stoked to be here and chat cheese.
47:59 Speaker 03 Great. Uh, first thing, what are the Cheese Monger Olympics?
48:04 Speaker 11 I'm happy to explain. Um, so the Mondial de Fermage, which is the Cheese Monger Olympics, it happens every two years in France. Uh, and champion cheesemongers from all over the world compete against each other in this like grueling eight hour day of cheesemonger challenges. With the goal of being crowned the world's best cheesemonger for that year. So. The challenges span everything from general knowledge, written tests, to blind tasting, pairing challenges, cheese sculpture, a one-square-meter-themed, absolutely massive cheese display made with like a hundred mystery cheeses that they just put down in crates behind you. So it was obviously very difficult, but it is also as much about stamina and
48:47 Speaker 11 time management as it was about cheese knowledge and monger's skill and technique.
48:52 Speaker 03 Okay, I want to be there. What's the most difficult part of the competition?
48:57 Speaker 11 Um, I would say that all of the challenges were equally difficult in terms of execution and preparation. But for me personally, truthfully, the hardest part of the entire experience was just finding the guts to show up. I have like crazy imposter syndrome, so I actually did a lot of work with my therapist in the months leading up to the competition to help manage that, so that I could like show up, be fully present, and just do my best. And I actually think that aspect of the preparation is super important to talk about openly because I know a lot of people struggle with this.
49:32 Speaker 03 And then you went there and won the gold medal. Congratulations for that. Tell us about your background. How does one become such an accomplished cheesemonger?
49:40 Speaker 11 Um, so I actually have a degree in Italian. I went to college for Italian studies. And after that, I was working a kind of a corporate job, just managing a cooking school. It was a cooking school in educational space, so I was seeing a lot of these classes and events that were happening, everything from like, obviously, cheese tastings to butchering demonstrations, to pizza making, pasta making, dinners, things like that. So there's a lot of really cool stuff that I was experiencing for the first time. And then after a couple of years of managing that particular space, I decided I wanted to kind of make a switch and learn a craft, hopefully probably one of the things that I had witnessed in the
50:23 Speaker 11 school. And I also had a little bit of a, like a run-in, let's call it, with an animal rights group, and that kind of changed the trajectory of my career. So I decided I really wanted to learn butchery. That's what I was going to focus on. But at the time, I was like a little 23-year-old girl with no knife skills. So nobody was going to hire me for a butcher job, obviously. So I was advised to take a job at a cheese counter for a few months, learn how to handle knives, and then try to make that transfer. Obviously, I ended up loving cheese so much that it won and I I pursued the career in cheese quite successfully, I might add. But I did actually stay at the counter part-time while I was doing a butcher apprenticeship for a while.
51:08 Speaker 11 It ended up being a really fun combination because I was managing a cheese counter in Brooklyn during the pandemic and there was a nose-to-tail butcher in the same grocery store. So during the pandemic, I was able to kind of like pop over there when they needed some help and like make sausages, trim pork chops, that kind of thing. So since then, I have been the cheese manager and buyer of that grocery store. I'm currently the sales and marketing manager for Formaticum. We are the country's premier importer of cheesepaper, packaging, tools, all the professional quality items that you need to run a cheese department. And that is a really cool role that allows me to do a lot of travel and educate both cheesemongers and consumers alike
51:49 Speaker 11 about how to properly take care of cheese and taste cheese and just, you know, sharing the love and encouraging enthusiasm for cheese.
51:57 Speaker 03 Okay. You were the first American to win gold at the Cheesemonger Olympics. Congrats for that. There were 14 countries represented at last year's competition. What kind of reputation does America have when it comes to cheeses and cheesemongers?
52:14 Speaker 11 So obviously, the United States does not have a great reputation globally when it comes to cheese and like all other food.
52:22 Speaker 03 Because of American cheese?
52:25 Speaker 11 I'm, I actually am going to talk about that. Like, some of that is completely justified, but we actually do have a pretty thriving cheese culture here, pun intended. There is a lot of misconception about the term "American cheese" and what that means. And when you say that, most people think of the like plasticky orange slices, which totally do have their time and place. But when I think of American cheese, I think about all of the amazing cheese producers that we have all across the country, in every state, who are making absolutely incredible cheese every single day. They're winning awards. They are focusing on regenerative agriculture. They're giving back to their communities. And I like to say, good American cheese is
53:07 Speaker 11 everywhere for those with eyes to see. So being able to show up at this competition and represent the United States.
53:16 Speaker 11 In my own way and be able to be able to prove on the world stage that American cheesemongers are skilled and talented and creative was just amazing and especially to be surrounded by so many other wonderfully talented cheesemongers, just being inspired by them and being able to learn from them. We left France with a lot of new friends, I am happy to say.
53:35 Speaker 03 That's great. Our audience eats a lot of wild games, so we want your advice on how to pair cheeses with different wild foods. Let's start with venison. Please give us some recommendations on what cheeses pair well with deer meat.
53:49 Speaker 11 First of all, I love venison. But with these types of unconventional pairings, let's say, instead of focusing on like the pairing exclusively, I try to think about like who would be eating these things and how they would be prepared and like what those people might have access to. So in the cheese industry, we have this, the saying that's what grows together, goes together. And that basically means that products from the same region will likely be a good pairing. So for venison, I'm thinking like, like braised venison, roasted meat, stew, ragu, things that would likely be found in like a mountain region, like the Alps of Italy or Switzerland, things like that. So that automatically takes
54:28 Speaker 11 me over to like a funky oniony mountain cheese like Gruyere or Fontina, something that really melts well. But on the other side of things, specifically Smokey Blue, which is a really cool blue cheese made by Rogue Creamery in Oregon, I think would pair really well with that.
54:45 Speaker 03 Okay, Randall is shaking his head in agreement. What about feral hogs?
54:50 Speaker 11 I love this question. I got so excited. I immediately was like, this reminds me of Chingiale, which is Italian wild boar ragu from Tuscany specifically. Makes me want to do a little bit of like grated Parmigiano Reggiano on top, give it a little bit of a salt kick, a little umami, or specifically a Tuscan pecorino.
55:10 Speaker 03 Okay, how about small game, like squirrels and rabbits?
55:14 Speaker 11 I'm gonna be really honest, I didn't know that you could eat squirrel. But rabbit is one of my grandfather's favorite foods. Um, I have this like distinct memory of special ordering a whole rabbit to bring to their house and, and cook for him. Um, so we did that, we did a rabbit ragu with some tomatoes and fresh handmade pasta. Um, so I'm gonna go with pecorino romano for this one, cause that's what my grandparents always have in their fridge for putting on top of pasta.
55:39 Speaker 03 All right, let's talk about cheese pairings with fish. Uh, let's, let's start with fish that have a white flesh like a walleye or perch or crappie. What cheeses pair well with them?
55:50 Speaker 11 Cheese and fish is a hot topic. Um, a lot of people think that like eating cheese with fish is kind of sacrilege. Um, but I think that there's definitely a right way to do it. Uh, I'm gonna say pecorino romano again, that is just kind of a go-to when it comes to fish. That it has this really beautiful like brininess, this saltiness that goes well with a lot of fish dishes.
56:12 Speaker 03 How about fish, uh, that, that have some color in their meat, like a trout or salmon?
56:18 Speaker 11 Hmm. For this, I'm thinking like smoked trout, smoked salmon. Um, I would, I'm gonna go pecorino fiore sardo, which is specifically a smoked pecorino. It's a little bit drier. Um, I think that that might be nice with a more oily fish.
56:37 Speaker 03 Okay. Uh, final one, what cheeses pair well with wild mushrooms like morels, chanterelles and bolettes?
56:43 Speaker 11 Yum. Um, immediately umami, I, I wanna go for an umami bomb here. Um, one of my favorite dishes to make is a mushroom risotto with some melted toleggio. Uh, toleggio is a kind of stinky washed, dried cheese from northern Italy. I think that that pairs really well with those mushrooms, but also if we're like, you know, on the umami train, we can do something with truffle. And I know that truffled toleggio is a thing that exists, so, um, if you can find it, I think that that would be wonderful.
57:12 Speaker 03 Uh, last question, I, I assume that boutique grocers and markets are the best places to find a really good selection of cheeses. But what about the chain options, uh, when it comes to places like Costco, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Kroger's, Albertsons? Who has the best cheeses?
57:28 Speaker 11 That's a good question. I get that a lot. Um, so of course, like a dedicated cheese shop or a specialty cheese counter is my first recommendation, but I know that not everyone has the access physically or financially to, you know, frequent those places. Um, and like, while my job is partially to promote these like high quality cheeses, it's also part of my job to just encourage people to eat cheese in general. So whatever cheeses that you choose to enjoy, no matter where they come from, I'm just happy that you're eating it because what I like to say is that cheese is for everyone and everyone deserves to enjoy it. I can't personally speak to the selection of cheese in everyone's local grocery store.
58:10 Speaker 11 Um, but I can encourage you to branch out, try something new and just most importantly, keep cheese on your table physically and metaphorically.
58:21 Speaker 03 Okay. And then our chat has two things that they want your take on. Um, one is cheese curds and the other is Velveeta. Please tell us what you think of cheese curds and Velveeta.
58:32 Speaker 11 I love them. I love both of those things. Um, I love a fried cheese curd. I love a fresh cheese curd, very squeaky. I love a flavored cheese curd. Um, Velveeta, I am told is like one of the best cheeses to make macaroni and cheese with. I personally, uh, I didn't grow up with it. Um, I am a Cooper Sharp girly. I live in Philly, absolutely love Cooper Sharp. Um, but my, my partner loves Velveeta. So, um, a lot of those cheeses are like chemically designed to melt beautifully. Uh, they're, they're specifically meant for that and that's what they do. So that's why I like, that's why I say that they have a, a, a place and a time. And I would say that mac and cheese is the place and time for that. So.
59:13 Speaker 03 Okay. Thanks for your time and wisdom, Amelia, and congrats again on winning gold at the Cheese Olympics.
59:19 Speaker 11 I just wanted to show it.
59:21 Speaker 03 Hell yeah. Flashing her gold medal.
59:24 Speaker 11 She's thick.
59:25 Speaker 04 Oh, wow. Yeah.
59:25 Speaker 03 That's great.
59:26 Speaker 04 That's awesome.
59:27 Speaker 03 Thank you. Have a good day.
59:28 Speaker 11 Thank you so much for having me.
59:30 Speaker 03 Wow. Seth was nodding his head about the Velveeta and mac and cheese.
59:35 Speaker 04 Yeah, it does make good cheese for mac and cheese. I haven't had Velveeta though in long time.
59:42 Speaker 03 Yeah, I think of childhood.
59:43 Speaker 04 Yeah.
59:44 Speaker 03 I heard a lot of names of cheeses I'm not familiar with. I need to go back and listen to this.
59:48 Speaker 05 We had Boondog in the chat saying his girlfriend is the cheese monger at Smith's here in Bozeman, and that this lady is her hero. Oh, that's amazing.
59:54 Speaker 04 Nice.
59:55 Speaker 05 So Amelia, Amelia's still here. She heard that. That's good. That's amazing.
59:59 Speaker 03 Good, good. I saw another person say that she could lead Wisconsin into battle.
1:00:06 Speaker 03 That would work.
1:00:08 Speaker 12 Cash flow crunch? OnDeck's small business line of credit gives your business immediate access to funds, up to $200,000, right when you need it. Cover seasonal dips, manage payroll, restock inventory, or tackle unexpected expenses without missing a beat. With flexible draws, transparent pricing, and control over repayment, get funded quickly and confidently. Apply today at ondeck.com. Funds could be available as soon as tomorrow. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.
1:00:38 Steven Rinella? In military families, service is more than a job, it's a legacy. At American Military University, that legacy can help open new doors through education. If someone in your family served in the military, you could be eligible for reduced tuition. Take the next step with flexible online programs built for real life. Learn more at amu.apus.edu/military. If you spend a lot of time outdoors, you got dogs, you got kids, you know how hard it is to keep the floor of your rig clean. A thing we do in our, in our little fleet of vehicles that I have at my household, if you go look, open the door on any one
1:01:20 Steven Rinella? of them, they all got WeatherTech. We get a car, we throw the mats out and put in WeatherTech. Cause that way, when there's a mess, it's like your kid's fault, your dog's fault, it's the weather's fault, doesn't matter. You take them suckers out and hose them off, and you're back to being good as new. I'm telling you, if you got a vehicle, put WeatherTech in there, you're gonna be happy you did it. And check this out, American-made floor liners and cargo liners, okay? They laugh in the face of all weather. Go take a look for yourself today at weathertech.com.
1:01:48 Speaker 03 All right, for our last segment of the day, we have the Meat Eater Movie Club. This week, we're reviewing the 2018 comedy, The Legacy of a Whitetail Deer Hunter.
1:02:04 Speaker 05 Coincidentally enough, there's a conversation about American versus other cheeses in this film.
1:02:09 Speaker 03 There is. I enjoyed that. I watched it last night. I was like, oh, we gotta bring that up tomorrow.
1:02:14 Speaker 06 Boy, I haven't heard that that jingle in a while. Thank you, Phil.
1:02:16 Speaker 05 Oh, yeah.
1:02:17 Speaker 06 Should I begin?
1:02:18 Speaker 05 Happy to play. Oh, please do.
1:02:19 Speaker 06 Okay.
1:02:21 Speaker 06 On February 15th, 2009, I fell in love with a man.
1:02:27 Speaker 06 I was home for my first year at college. I was at a friend's house. Across the room, I caught a glimpse of a face unlike any I'd seen before. I heard his voice and I was transfixed. He told me in no uncertain terms that he had a mind for victory and an arm like an effing cannon. His name was Kenny Powers, the maladjusted protagonist of the HBO series Eastbound and Down. In the years that followed, I came to know and to love many other characters in the Danny McBride Jodie Hill universe who resemble Kenny Powers. These men are not villains. They're not even precisely fools. Each is simply a man who has confused his own success in one domain of life for mastery in all domains. The inevitable consequence of this mindset is an existence punctuated by eruptions of frustration at the world around him.
1:03:13 Speaker 06 The expected results of his actions never quite align with his delusions of grandeur. These are men undone by their own mythologies. Josh Brolin, Josh Brolin plays just such a man in the 2018 Netflix original, The Legacy of a Whitetail Deer Hunter.
1:03:30 Speaker 06 Despite the provocative opening sentence of this review, what follows is not a celebration of my favorite comedic catalog. This is Meat Eater Movie Club, where our focus, as always, remains laser focused on the film at hand.
1:03:41 Speaker 03 Yes.
1:03:42 Speaker 06 But I thought it was too good of a cold open, so I kept it in there. And that detail explains the lack of a decent transition at this point in the review. The plot of Legacy is relatively simple. Man loves hunting, man ignores son, man attempts to force son to love hunting, son declines. Josh Brolin stars as Buck Ferguson, the host of a successful hunting video series, who takes his estranged son into the wilderness to shoot his first deer. A ritual Buck believes will forge the bond their fractured relationship has lacked. Jaden predictably would rather be elsewhere. Buck Ferguson wants his son to want a deer. And beneath that, he wants his son to want him. To see in his father, not a man, his mother divorced, not a stranger who shows up with camera equipment and a bumbling sidekick,
1:04:27 Speaker 06 but a living repository of masculine wisdom. This is of course, not how children work. Children are not vessels waiting to be filled with their father's hobbies. Listen up Seth. They're already full of their own desires, most of which involve guitar practice and texting their girlfriends. Here's another spot where I could have come up with a better transition. In 1956, the sociologist Irving Goffman published the presentation of self in everyday life, in which he argued that human social interaction is essentially theatrical, that we are all at times performing versions of ourselves for audiences we have consciously or unconsciously assembled. Goffman did not mean this point cynically. The performance he suggested is not a distortion of the self, but an expression of it. We become in some meaningful sense, what we repeatedly enact.
1:05:12 Speaker 06 The costume becomes the skin. Buck Ferguson does not merely hunt. He films himself hunting. Every descent into the wilderness is simultaneously a descent into the role of Buck Ferguson, legendary outdoorsman, as mediated through the lens of Don, a role masterfully inhabited by Danny McBride. The film's sharpest, excuse me, this is the film's sharpest and most underexplored insight. The camera does not actually capture authenticity. It replaces it. The moment Buck raises his rifle, he is no longer a man in the woods. He is a man in the woods being watched, which is an entirely different psychological condition, one that forecloses the very intimacy with nature and with his son that Buck so desperately desires.
1:05:57 Speaker 06 This is, I apologize, this is going on longer than I thought. No, we all expected this. There is a cruelty to this arrangement that the film only partially acknowledges. Buck wants to give him, Buck wants to give his son something real. A memory, a tradition, a moment of shared significance. But he has invited a camera to witness it, which means he has already converted the moment from experience into content. The deer if shot will not be a private communion between father and son. It will be episode 47 of Buck Fever. The memory will be archived before it is even formed. This is not, it should be noted, an affliction unique to men named Buck Ferguson. We live now in a civilization that has developed an extraordinary and insatiable appetite
1:06:40 Speaker 06 for the documentation of its own significant moments. Births, deaths, proposals, first steps, last words. All of it fed into the great digital maw, transforming from experience into artifact, from felt into filmed. It is widely acknowledged that writing restructures consciousness. One shudders to contemplate what the selfie lens on an iPhone camera has done to it. Or I might add, a set of three cameras on tripods used to livestream a podcast every Thursday during which occasionally a man reviews films. It is not lost on your reviewer that this segment is itself a performance during which Randall Williams, movie critic, is as much a constructed identity as Buck Ferguson, outdoorsman. The difference perhaps is one of self-awareness.
1:07:24 Speaker 06 Buck never quite grasps that the camera has replaced the experience he was chasing. Whereas I know that I'm full of shit. A meaningful conclusion to this review was hard to come up with.
1:07:34 Speaker 03 Okay.
1:07:37 Speaker 05 Randall, you're a really good writer. I just want to throw that out there.
1:07:40 Speaker 06 Oh, thanks, guys.
1:07:41 Speaker 04 Someone says here in the chat that, oh, Randall writes well.
1:07:44 Speaker 06 Oh, thank you.
1:07:45 Speaker 04 Randall writes so well.
1:07:46 Speaker 06 Thank you. Yeah. Yeah, Irving Goffman, that was a text that I read in probably my worst series of classes in college. It's terrible. And I skipped two of them to watch some of my favorite teams lose in NCAA championship games that year.
1:08:01 Speaker 03 Okay.
1:08:02 Speaker 06 Both to Florida, if I recall.
1:08:03 Speaker 03 You must have been a good student if missing two classes was no.
1:08:06 Speaker 06 No, no, I missed more than that, but two of them were specifically to watch Ohio-based sports teams lose in college.
1:08:12 Speaker 03 Got it. Okay.
1:08:14 Speaker 04 Hopefully the Penn State.
1:08:16 Speaker 06 Guys, I think if you go to this film wanting to see a great hunting film, you're missing the point.
1:08:23 Speaker 03 Yeah.
1:08:24 Speaker 06 I, I think that the, you know, like, nobody watches Ricky Bobby Talladega Nights and says, that's not how sports cars work. Nobody watches, so. Throw away the weird camo, the CGI deer.
1:08:41 Speaker 03 Yeah.
1:08:41 Speaker 06 All that stuff. I enjoyed this film, not as much as I enjoy the rest of his catalog, but I thought it, I mean, the reviews I read were terrible, but I thought it was good.
1:08:52 Speaker 03 Twenty-five percent on Rotten Tomatoes. I think I saw another, IMDb had it like 2.8 out of 10 stars, so not a well-received, straight-to-streaming.
1:09:02 Speaker 05 I think that's fair.
1:09:04 Speaker 03 Yeah, I would agree with that, yeah. And if you see the title, what's wrong?
1:09:09 Speaker 06 Oh, just you guys didn't, you guys didn't enjoy it.
1:09:12 Speaker 03 No, I'm glad I got to watch it. I imagine there's some point in my life I would have needed to have turned this on.
1:09:18 Speaker 06 Yeah.
1:09:18 Speaker 03 But if you're like, if you see the title and you're like, this is a movie for deer hunters, that would be incorrect. It's not. And like Danny McBride's catalog, you wouldn't watch Righteous Gemstones if you attended a megachurch in the South.
1:09:33 Speaker 06 Yeah.
1:09:33 Speaker 03 Like, it's just not for you.
1:09:35 Speaker 06 Yes.
1:09:35 Speaker 03 And this film isn't really for someone, you know, who really loves the outdoors.
1:09:40 Speaker 06 Although there's a lot of stuff in there that you wouldn't pick up on if you didn't live in this space.
1:09:44 Speaker 03 I would agree with that.
1:09:45 Speaker 06 When he wrecks the ATV and he's like, now I have to pay for that?
1:09:49 Speaker 03 Yeah.
1:09:49 Speaker 06 It's great.
1:09:50 Speaker 03 I agree.
1:09:51 Speaker 06 When he says the air mattress, he's like, they sent me this, you know, like to test this out. And he just reads like the product description to his son, like, it's very in conversation with the real.
1:10:02 Speaker 05 And Jody Hill and Danny McBride both grew up in North Carolina, like really inundated in this culture. And so I think they bring a lot of affection for it while also, you know, kicking it a little bit.
1:10:13 Speaker 03 Yeah. I liked that while he is talking about getting the air mattress for free, you have a well-placed Ozark Trail logo on the tent. And my wife and I disagreed on if Ozark Trail paid for that placement or not. I said, there's no way that Ozark Trail has that budget to do that. And then also, the tent was like, just kind of loose and sloppy. Like, they wouldn't be satisfied with seeing their tent like that. But you could see it and, you know, feel either way, that like, oh, he's talking about a sponsorship thing while there's a sponsorship thing happening on this movie. It was like breaking the fourth wall in a way.
1:10:52 Speaker 06 Yeah. I mean, I think. For me, I have a hard time coming into this and judging it on its merits because there's so many elements of a classic Danny McBride product in it. There's the the lackey. McBride plays essentially Stevie Janowski from Eastbound and Down. He's he's the man who wants to be the great man. Who really cares nothing about his welfare. And in fact, he suffers disfigurement for that man.
1:11:24 Speaker 03 Several times.
1:11:25 Speaker 06 This several times. Saying inappropriate things to children. When he describes parkour as gymnastics, I couldn't help but think of the classic line, I'm not trying to be the best at exercising. To describe a triathlon. He has like a very precise understanding of behaviors that make characters look like losers. Like when the stepdad is riding the hoverboard.
1:11:50 Speaker 03 Right.
1:11:51 Speaker 06 And then the guy taking pleasure in secretly sabotaging. So like one of his rivals. When he's deleting the pictures off the phone, like these are our classic Kenny Powers motifs.
1:12:05 Speaker 03 You think you think if someone loved Kenny Powers, they would love this?
1:12:08 Speaker 06 I I mean, I don't want to go. I don't want to go overboard here. I don't. I wouldn't say that I loved it. I enjoyed it. I don't know that I'll watch it again. I won't revisit it, but given the state of of comedy movies. In the I guess this is 2018. So sort of coming out of the tail end of that. That era, but I don't know. I enjoyed watching something that I'd never seen before, and it kind of tickled my. Tickled the right notes for me.
1:12:34 Speaker 03 I there's certain times when we're making a piece of content at MeatEater. And you know, when you're doing it like this is really good. Or this kind of sucks. We like didn't hit our marks. I'm certain they knew when they were making this movie that they were making. A movie that was gonna get 25% on Rotten Tomatoes.
1:12:52 Speaker 06 Yeah.
1:12:52 Speaker 03 I'm sure that they felt it and were very aware and that probably was a little freeing for them. They're like, boy, this is just a steaming pile we've made.
1:13:02 Speaker 06 Oh, yeah.
1:13:02 Speaker 03 And that's okay, uh, because that's, that's what it is.
1:13:05 Speaker 05 Yeah, I don't, I don't think it's a good movie, but it's very watchable, mostly because of Brolin and Danny McBride. I think they're just very compelling, fun actors to, to watch. And it does have, like Randall said, most of the hallmarks of a McBride, like Jodie Hill thing, which is like a, a guy who wears his fragile ego, just like all plastered right.
1:13:24 Speaker 06 Yeah, Brolin is.
1:13:25 Speaker 05 All over his body.
1:13:25 Speaker 06 Brolin's great.
1:13:26 Speaker 05 Yeah.
1:13:27 Speaker 06 There's just like the moments where he's like not on camera and he's like quietly sad or desperate. Um, he, the other, the other thing I enjoyed was it ending with a climatic, like whitewater. Negotiating the rapids. How many movies have ended with that? I'd like to think that they didn't know how to end the movie and they were just like, let's just do.
1:13:49 Speaker 05 Yeah, do the rapid scene.
1:13:51 Speaker 03 Yeah. Uh, another thing I enjoyed was that they had a Mary Poppins backpack. We're like, it, it didn't matter the size of the backpack they had. Any piece of gear could have come out of that thing.
1:14:02 Speaker 06 Yeah.
1:14:02 Speaker 03 At any time.
1:14:03 Speaker 06 And the guitar.
1:14:04 Speaker 03 Mm-hmm.
1:14:04 Speaker 06 I did enjoy, um, like the VO, mid-sequence in the film, he talks about, he has like the VO where he's like Buck Ferguson goes, always gets his deer. And that was dead on.
1:14:16 Speaker 05 Yeah. Yeah, those, those videos are great. I specifically, uh, flagged the soundtrack of, of, of those, those hunting videos, which was very like Manheim Steamroller, like 80's jangly synth stuff. It like, it, but it fits so well. I thought that was like a really inspired.
1:14:32 Speaker 06 Yeah.
1:14:32 Speaker 05 Decision.
1:14:33 Speaker 03 Phil, I saw the Manheim Steamroller in Bozeman a couple of years ago.
1:14:36 Speaker 05 Yeah, I remember you telling me about that.
1:14:37 Speaker 03 And then they played convoy while they were there, even though it was a Christmas show. They said they can't do a show without playing convoy.
1:14:43 Speaker 05 You gotta do the hits. Um, I've got some questions for you guys, cause, uh, you know, I'm not really, I'm, I'm new to this whole world, but just, just some vernacular. Have you ever, uh, before shooting an animal said, referred to shooting it as punching a time card?
1:14:57 Speaker 03 No.
1:14:58 Speaker 05 Okay.
1:14:58 Speaker 03 Never heard that one.
1:14:59 Speaker 05 One of my favorite lines too was, I'm gonna honor this deer by splitting its dang eyebrows.
1:15:03 Speaker 03 Yeah.
1:15:03 Speaker 05 Have you ever said that?
1:15:04 Speaker 03 No.
1:15:04 Speaker 06 I don't like that.
1:15:06 Speaker 05 I was just wondering if those were common phrases I'm just not, not privy to. Okay.
1:15:11 Speaker 03 The other one was that people will joke about other people saying, catch a deer. And I personally never heard someone say, catch a deer.
1:15:18 Speaker 06 Yeah.
1:15:18 Speaker 03 And so it feels like it's like being overplayed that
1:15:22 Speaker 06 Yeah.
1:15:22 Speaker 03 Someone who's out of the loop would say, catch a deer. But they say it multiple times in this movie.
1:15:26 Speaker 06 Yeah, they make, I mean, they make like hats that say, catching deer.
1:15:30 Speaker 03 Yeah.
1:15:31 Speaker 06 You know, it's like a joke.
1:15:32 Speaker 03 Yeah. Seth watched this movie back during COVID.
1:15:34 Speaker 06 Yeah.
1:15:35 Speaker 03 Seth, what did you think of it then?
1:15:36 Speaker 04 Uh, well, I don't remember a whole lot of it, to be honest.
1:15:41 Speaker 03 Yep.
1:15:42 Speaker 04 But it was one of those, like, when you guys said you were gonna review this movie, I was like, I'm not gonna watch that again. Like, I feel like
1:15:48 Speaker 03 That's fair.
1:15:49 Speaker 04 I feel like what I've seen and remember is like enough to get through this segment of the show. I just didn't wanna spend any more time watching it again. Cause what I remember was that it was, it was, it had its funny moments, but overall it was, you know, I'm with the folks on Rotten Tomatoes.
1:16:08 Speaker 03 Yeah. Seth had observed that it was like watching Jackie Bushman be portrayed in a movie. And I said, well, actually it's about Roger Regland. That's who Josh Brolin's character was based on. So if you're a fan of Roger Regland, then maybe you need to watch this movie.
1:16:23 Speaker 05 It did have one of my favorite sort of tropes of a Danny McRide project, which was genuine emotional sweetness that's punctuated by something like horribly explicit. When he's telling the story to the son about his girlfriend, he's like, I got this girlfriend, Kim, did you know she's a registered nurse and a mechanic?
1:16:41 Speaker 03 Yeah.
1:16:42 Speaker 05 And so I told her that I had a broken truck and a heart condition and she liked that, you know. It's like a genuinely sweet moment. And then he's like, and check these out. And then he pulls out the cuckold Polaroid pictures.
1:16:53 Speaker 06 Yeah, I apologize to anybody that watched this. I didn't realize that scene was in there. I'd never seen this before.
1:16:59 Speaker 05 It was great. He's got one where he's got his foot with the missing toe. He's like, see that? That's my foot.
1:17:03 Speaker 06 The missing toe is so good. I don't know how much more we want. I like that the kid's playing redemption song. And the dad, the dad compliments it. And he's like, I didn't understand any of the lyrics, but it sounded good. The dad not knowing that his son has been playing guitar for two years is great.
1:17:20 Speaker 05 Yeah.
1:17:21 Speaker 06 And then my last note is one of my favorite all time lines from a film.
1:17:26 Speaker 03 Oh, from this film?
1:17:28 Speaker 06 Yes.
1:17:28 Speaker 03 Okay.
1:17:29 Speaker 05 One of mine too.
1:17:30 Speaker 06 When he begins to um, tell the story to the kid of him splitting up with the kid's mom. And he goes, it started at oh nine. DVD sales were down slightly.
1:17:45 Speaker 06 And then proceeds to say that uh, the, he had to, he had to prevent uh, the kid's mom from going to the mall. After that, that was great.
1:17:55 Speaker 03 Yeah.
1:17:55 Speaker 05 Sorry if you heard some static on this stream here. Uh, I don't know where it's coming from. It doesn't sound like cell phone stuff. I've never heard this sound before. So it's probably a good thing the show's ending.
1:18:02 Speaker 06 Yeah.
1:18:03 Speaker 05 Uh, I just wanted to throw out one, a couple, a couple of lines I really enjoyed.
1:18:06 Speaker 06 Please, Phil.
1:18:07 Speaker 05 Uh, when Brolin finds him with the pictures and uh, he's kind of yelling at the kid, even though it's not his fault at all.
1:18:13 Speaker 06 Mm hmm.
1:18:13 Speaker 05 And, and uh, he says, I'm not a kid anymore. He goes, you are a kid when it comes to nudity and sexual relations.
1:18:18 Speaker 06 Yeah.
1:18:19 Speaker 05 That was a good one.
1:18:20 Speaker 06 I did, I did love nudity.
1:18:22 Speaker 05 Uh, there's one where he's talking to his girlfriend on the phone and it's clear that there's some, like the, the kid is the 12 year old kid. And uh, and he says, you know, it's something about how his girlfriend is hanging out with another boy that he found that peculiar. And there's some silence on the other line and he goes, I know life's peculiar. I'm the one who taught you that. That was a good one. Uh, and then when, when, when, when he shoots Dawn. You see like an explosion of blood and Josh Brolin goes, shit, it's Dawn.
1:18:51 Speaker 05 Those are, those are some of my favorites.
1:18:53 Speaker 03 Not strong muscle control in this movie.
1:18:56 Speaker 06 I mean, the big question for me is, did he shoot at the end? Puts the rifle down, then he brings it back up. That was great. That was great. But it wasn't going to be on camera.
1:19:05 Speaker 03 Mm hmm. I bet this looked very familiar to you, uh, big buck hunter boys, because that's like how the deer looked. The CGI-ness of them was as though they just pulled them from a big buck hunter video game.
1:19:16 Speaker 06 Yeah, I liked how bad the deer looked.
1:19:18 Speaker 03 Yeah. Oh, and they're always around, like, they're always in the most picturesque.
1:19:21 Speaker 06 They're always at the water.
1:19:22 Speaker 03 At the waterfall.
1:19:23 Speaker 06 Yeah. It was like they found a beautiful place and they're like, we know that buck will be here. Great. That's how it works.
1:19:29 Speaker 03 All right. Again, our last episode next week with the movie club topic being Congo, Randall's favorite movie?
1:19:37 Speaker 06 It's one of them. Yeah, it's a classic.
1:19:39 Speaker 03 Top 10, top 10 favorite movies.
1:19:40 Speaker 06 For show.
1:19:41 Speaker 03 All right, Phil, let's get some final feedback from the chat.
1:19:44 Speaker 05 Uh, this is from Chase. Phil, you gotta ask Randall what led to his trivia beat down from Steve.
1:19:48 Speaker 06 Oh, man. Sometimes you just don't have it.
1:19:52 Speaker 03 Vermin.
1:19:53 Speaker 05 Tough times.
1:19:54 Speaker 06 Vermin killed me. That question, I will say that question is, is an experience that I haven't had before in the room where Steve was just talking and talking. And there was, there was nothing that could happen in my head. I just blew up. Um, it's like playoff, it's like game six hardened, you know?
1:20:15 Speaker 03 Man in the arena.
1:20:16 Speaker 06 Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I like, it's fun to have competition sometimes. So we'll be back.
1:20:25 Speaker 03 Sometimes. What else you got, Phil?
1:20:27 Speaker 05 Uh, I'll throw this one to Seth if you've got something to say. It's from Sarah. What's a good steelhead fishing tip? Midwesterner fishing off the Great Lakes, and I'm new to the method, so any tip would be appreciated.
1:20:36 Speaker 04 Oh, I'm not the right person to ask. I've never caught a steel, I've never steelhead fished before.
1:20:42 Speaker 03 I've never touched one in my life.
1:20:43 Speaker 04 Not a big trout guy.
1:20:45 Speaker 05 Oh, that sounded, it sounded kind of angry.
1:20:47 Speaker 03 Sorry, Sarah. Find a, what do you have against trout, Seth?
1:20:49 Speaker 06 Find a buddy.
1:20:50 Speaker 04 Uh, just like warm, warm water stuff.
1:20:53 Speaker 03 YouTube, go to YouTube, type in steelhead fishing, Great Lakes.
1:20:57 Speaker 04 Message Chester Floyd.
1:20:58 Speaker 03 There you go.
1:20:59 Speaker 04 On Instagram.
1:21:00 Speaker 05 Couple of shout outs here. Uh, I thought this was fun. This is from Tyler. If any listeners of the, or of the Meat Eater Squad are ever in Southern Indiana, check out Old Homestead Distilling Company at Patoka Lake. We are sportsman friendly and out, and they have outlets to charge boat batteries.
1:21:14 Speaker 04 Oh, that's fantastic.
1:21:15 Speaker 06 That's good.
1:21:16 Speaker 04 Love that.
1:21:17 Speaker 05 And then, uh, Jay Seuss is asking for a shout out from Randall for his daughter, who's probably one of his biggest little fans.
1:21:26 Speaker 06 Shout out to your daughter.
1:21:27 Speaker 05 Or, or her. Looks like it might be a woman in the picture there.
1:21:30 Speaker 06 Shout out to your daughter, J. Seuss, two, one, four, five. I don't know what it is that she sees in me, but it's good to have that support out there.
1:21:39 Speaker 03 What else you got, Phil?
1:21:40 Speaker 06 I don't think I play to a young crowd. Maybe I do.
1:21:44 Speaker 06 I've always thought I skewed older.
1:21:46 Speaker 03 What do you think, what do you think a random demographic is?
1:21:50 Speaker 06 Uh, I don't know. Guys watch Eastbound and Down a lot.
1:21:54 Speaker 03 Yeah.
1:21:54 Speaker 06 Um, history buffs, maybe.
1:21:56 Speaker 03 What, what would he walk out of a gas station with? He goes in there for beer and snacks.
1:22:01 Speaker 05 Roller dog.
1:22:02 Speaker 06 Roller dog.
1:22:03 Speaker 03 Okay, what else?
1:22:03 Speaker 06 Cooler Ranch Doritos.
1:22:05 Speaker 03 Cooler?
1:22:07 Speaker 06 Yeah, didn't they change?
1:22:08 Speaker 03 There's more cool?
1:22:09 Speaker 06 Yeah, they're, no, they're, they're not Cool Ranch. Am I right? It's all, it's all cooler and, and, uh, not nacho cheesier. Didn't they change all that?
1:22:18 Speaker 05 It, yeah, it used to be nacho cheesier and I think cooler ranch, but then they, they just kind of simplified. I guess everyone was using saying cooler ranch anyway. I might be wrong.
1:22:26 Speaker 06 They made them all comparative. Oh no, maybe they did go back to Cool Ranch.
1:22:29 Speaker 03 Okay, real random, I think. So a random walks into a gas station.
1:22:33 Speaker 06 A random would know that.
1:22:34 Speaker 03 Uh, he gets a roller hot dog.
1:22:36 Speaker 06 I feel like a fool now.
1:22:38 Speaker 03 Cooler Ranch Doritos. What else? What else is he getting?
1:22:40 Speaker 05 I'll press the cut button.
1:22:41 Speaker 06 Uh, couple of, uh,
1:22:46 Speaker 06 couple brew dogs.
1:22:47 Speaker 05 Yeah, some brewskis.
1:22:49 Speaker 03 Okay.
1:22:49 Speaker 06 Yeah, maybe some night crawlers.
1:22:51 Speaker 03 Yeah, very kid friendly still.
1:22:53 Speaker 06 And he's got weird, he's got something weird that he's thinking about.
1:22:56 Speaker 05 Maybe, maybe some zen.
1:22:58 Speaker 06 Yeah, he's not going home to like a traditional, I feel like he's not going home to like a traditional, like, uh, you know, like happy family, sitting around the dinner table. I feel like he's kind of a loose cannon.
1:23:12 Speaker 03 Uh huh, and, and the cigarettes are speaking to him, but he doesn't listen. Usually.
1:23:18 Speaker 06 Sometimes he listens.
1:23:21 Speaker 06 Bill, let's do two more. But if he's not buying them, it's like he never smoked them.
1:23:28 Speaker 05 Favorite smoked trout recipes or techniques from Lane?
1:23:32 Speaker 06 I like them gifted to me.
1:23:34 Speaker 04 I like the, I like we turned into smoked trout dip.
1:23:38 Speaker 03 Anybody will enjoy, even if they're like, I don't enjoy fish, they can enjoy a smoked fish dip.
1:23:43 Speaker 04 Yep.
1:23:44 Speaker 06 God, I'm totally shaken by the Doritos thing. I always thought that was like a fun nugget that I had in my head.
1:23:48 Speaker 03 Oh, man.
1:23:50 Speaker 04 Sorry.
1:23:50 Speaker 03 Last one, Bill.
1:23:51 Speaker 05 Oh, I don't even know if I have a last one, Spencer.
1:23:53 Speaker 03 That's all right. We will be back for the finale next week.
1:23:57 Speaker 05 Yes, six hour mega stream, lots of stuff happening, every segment you could imagine. It's gonna be fun.
1:24:04 Speaker 06 And this.
1:24:04 Speaker 03 Please join us.
1:24:05 Speaker 04 This is me signing out for good.
1:24:07 Speaker 05 Oh, sad.
1:24:07 Speaker 03 Well, you're gonna call in and, and deliver the happy news.
1:24:10 Speaker 04 That's true, yeah.
1:24:11 Speaker 03 Of the baby radio.
1:24:13 Speaker 04 That's true.
1:24:13 Speaker 03 Share with us.
1:24:13 Speaker 06 Did you know that internationally, they're called cool American Doritos?
1:24:17 Speaker 04 I like that. That's way cooler.
1:24:21 Speaker 06 So it was, it was, it was cooler from 1995 to 2005, 2006. So in the heyday of my Doritos consumption.
1:24:29 Speaker 03 There's your flavor text for the future. All right. We'll see you back here for one last time next week, same time and place. Bye now.
1:24:48 Steven Rinella? In military families, service is more than a job, it's a legacy. At American Military University, that legacy can help open new doors through education. If someone in your family served in the military, you could be eligible for reduced tuition. Take the next step with flexible online programs built for real life. Learn more at amu.apus.edu/military. Okay, so buying a new car or a new home starts by building credit, right? So how do you start building credit? It's easy. With One Pays Builder Card, there's no credit check and no monthly or annual fees, just a card.
1:25:31 Steven Rinella? That helps you build credit to reach goals like buying a car or home. Download the One Pay app or visit onepay.com for banking that gives you more for what matters.
1:25:44 Speaker 02 One Pay is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided by Coastal Community Bank or Lead Bank, members FDIC. Builder card results may vary and aren't guaranteed. Learn more about banking through One Pay at onepay.com/podcast.
1:25:58 Steven Rinella? If you spend a lot of time outdoors, you got dogs, you got kids, you know how hard it is to keep the floor of your rig clean. A thing we do in our, in our little fleet of vehicles that have in my household, if you go look, open the door on any one of them, they all got WeatherTech. We get a car, we throw the mats out and put in WeatherTech. Cause that way, when there's a mess, it's like your kid's fault, your dog's fault, it's the weather's fault, doesn't matter. You take them suckers out and hose them off and you're back to being good as new. I'm telling you, if you got a vehicle, put WeatherTech in there, you're gonna be happy you did it. And check this out, American-made floor liners and cargo liners, okay? They laugh in the face of all weather. Go take a look for yourself today at weathertech.com.
1:26:38 Speaker 00 This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.
Previous Ep. 839: 2026 MeatEater Trivia Tournament, Round 3 Next Ep. 841: Theodore Roosevelt on Love, Ladies, and Conservation Page updated October 31, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated