The MeatEater Podcast
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The MeatEater Podcast

Building on the belief that a deeper understanding of the natural world enriches all of our lives, host Steven Rinella brings an in-depth and relevant look at all outdoor topics including hunting, fishing, nature, conservation, and wild foods. Filled with humor, irreverence, and things that will sur...

Episodes 710
Books 414

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Latest Recommendations

True Grit: A Novel cover

True Grit

Charles Portis

Mentioned 5 months ago

Ep. 833: Game On, Suckers! MeatEater Trivia CCIII

A character in the novel reportedly had an injury and stated something swelled up tighter than Dick's hat band.

Do you know what Charles Portis' novel, True Grit? A guy says... Someone has an injury. I can't remember if he gets bit by a snake. And he says it's swelled up tighter than Dick's hat band.

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The Free and the Dead: The Untold Story of the Black Seminole Chief, the Indigenous Rebel, and America's Forgotten War cover

The Free and the Dead

Jamie Holmes

Mentioned 5 months ago

Ep. 832: Osceola, Native American Slavery, and The Seminole Wars

This was Jamie Holmes's third book and it was about the Seminole Wars, focusing on complexity that turned preconceived notions about the war on their head. The book featured deep archival research, leading to a very extensive notes section that was almost as long as the book itself.

His third book's out. Just out. I'm holding my hand here. It's called The Free and the Dead, The Untold Story of the Black Seminole Chief, The Indigenous Rebel, and America's Forgotten War.

Buy on Amazon
12 Seconds Of Silence: How a Team of Inventors, Tinkerers, and Spies Took Down a Nazi Superweapon cover

12 Seconds Of Silence

Jamie Holmes

Mentioned 5 months ago

Ep. 832: Osceola, Native American Slavery, and The Seminole Wars

This was Jamie Holmes's second book, which focused on World War II and a group of scientists who invented a new weapon to shoot down airplanes, which they used successfully against a Nazi super weapon. He fell in love with archive work while researching this book, which served as a bridge from his first book on science to his third.

The bridge is my second book, which is 12 seconds of silence, which is completely within this genre, which is historical narrative nonfiction with a ton of archive work.

Buy on Amazon
The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald cover

The Gales of November

John U. Bacon

Mentioned 5 months ago

Ep. 826: Like Nuts on a Cat

The book about the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald was mentioned as an example of the type of content that would appear in the new interview show format of the podcast.

recently we had on a guy talking about his book about the Edmund Fitzgerald. Okay. For instance, that which is called the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. That's the interview show.

Buy on Amazon
Bobcat of North America (Wildlife Management Institute Classics) cover

Bobcat of North America (Wildlife Management Institute Classics)

Stanley P. Young

Mentioned 5 months ago

Ep. 826: Like Nuts on a Cat

A book about bobcats from 1960 was mentioned as containing interesting historical information about the animal, despite lacking modern collaring data.

I've got a very interesting book for you. I was going to bring it on this trip, but I forgot it. And the title of it is the Bobcat of North America.

Buy on Amazon
The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays cover

The Interpretation of Cultures

Clifford Geertz

Mentioned 1 year ago

Ep. 607: MeatEater Radio Live! Whitetail Buck Beds, Deer Sex, and Mauled By a Black Bear

The podcast host used an excerpt from this book's essay "Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight" to compare the cultural significance of Balinese cockfighting to the deer hunting traditions depicted in the movie *Escanaba in the Moonlight*. The essay discusses how seemingly irrational behaviors can hold profound meaning within a cultural context.

What sets deer hunting apart from the ordinary course of life lifts it from the realm of everyday practical affairs and surrounds it with an aura of enlarged importance is not, as a functionalist society would have it, that it reinforces status, but that it provides a metasocial commentary upon the whole matter of assorting human beings into fixed hierarchical ranks and then organizing the major part of collective existence around that assortment.

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MeatEater's Wild + Whole: Seasonal Recipes for the Conscious Cook: A Wild Game Cookbook cover

MeatEater's Wild + Whole

Danielle Prewett

Mentioned 1 year ago

Ep. 604: MeatEater Radio Live! An Alaska Moose Hunt, Utah Wants Your Land, and Buffalo Scapulas

This cookbook, an ode to seasonal cooking with wild and foraged ingredients, was described as containing over 80 recipes inspired by ingredients one can hunt, fish, forage, or grow. It was praised for its accessible recipes and beautiful, full-color photographs.

We've got a new book coming out in the meat eater universe, and for the first time, it is not one of mine.

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Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson and the Opening of the American West: Meriwether Lewis Thomas Jefferson and the Opening cover

Undaunted Courage

Stephen E. Ambrose

Mentioned 1 year ago

Ep. 597: Game On, Suckers! MeatEater Trivia CXXIX

It was discussed as a New York Times bestseller about Lewis and Clark, selling over 200,000 copies in its first month, and a planned HBO series based on it was canceled.

What is the name of the New York Times bestseller about Lewis and Clark that was written by Stephen Ambrose?

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The MeatEater Fish and Game Cookbook: Recipes and Techniques for Every Hunter and Angler cover

The MeatEater Fish and Game Cookbook

Steven Rinella

Mentioned 1 year ago

Ep. 594: Game On, Suckers! MeatEater Trivia CXXVIII

This cookbook contains over 80 recipes that use ingredients one can hunt, fish, forage, or grow in their garden, often pairing ingredients from different seasons; it is described as having gorgeous, full-color photographs.

MeatEater's Wild and Hole. Seasonal recipes for the conscious cook

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The MeatEater Outdoor Cookbook: Wild Game Recipes for the Grill, Smoker, Campstove, and Campfire cover

The MeatEater Outdoor Cookbook

Steven Rinella

Mentioned 1 year ago

Ep. 598: MeatEater Radio Live! A Salmon Smokehouse, Killer Jerky, and the 6th Biggest Yukon Moose

The MeatEater Outdoor Cookbook was referenced when discussing a cola ancho jerky recipe, which was made in a dehydrator instead of a smoker and also featured Kashmiri chili powder instead of ancho chili.

So I went to the new Meter Outdoor Cookbook and went to Cola Ancho Jerky.

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Wild Country (World of the Others, The) cover

Wild Country (World of the Others, The)

Anne Bishop

Mentioned 1 year ago

Ep. 588: Game On, Suckers! MeatEater Trivia CXXVI

It was mentioned that Mark Kenyon may have learned about the Jefferson and Madison Rivers from writing this book.

Learned this from writing his book that wild country.

Buy on Amazon
Night of the Grizzlies cover

Night of the Grizzlies

Jack Olsen

Mentioned 1 year ago

Ep. 585: Game On, Suckers! MeatEater Trivia CXXV

This 1969 book, originally a three-part article in *Sports Illustrated*, details the fatal maulings of two young women in Glacier National Park.

Most Recommended

Fathers and Sons (Oxford World's Classics Hardcovers) Cover

Ivan Turgenev

Fathers and Sons (Oxford World's Classics Hardcovers)

This book, along with Death in the Tall Grass, was saved by the speaker to read on a plane to Africa before a hunting trip.

"

And so before I went to Africa to go hunting, the first, I saved Robert Ruark's books, Death in the Tall Grass and Father and Son and all those books until I was going to Africa to read on the plane.

— Episode: Ep. 056: Las Vegas, NV. Steven Rinella t...

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Episode: Ep. 056: Las Vegas, NV. Steven Rinella takes a bre...

This book, along with Death in the Tall Grass, was saved by the speaker to read on a plane to Africa before a hunting trip.

"

And so before I went to Africa to go hunting, the first, I saved Robert Ruark's books, Death in the Tall Grass and Father and Son and all those books until I was going to Africa to read on the plane.

Just Before Dawn: Trauma Assessment and Treatment of Sexual Victimization Cover

Jan Hindman

Just Before Dawn

Trauma Assessment and Treatment of Sexual Victimization

This was described as a collection of Jim Harrison's essays on hunting, fishing, literature, and food, covering a significant portion of his career.

"

Jim Harrison is a collection of Jim Harrison writing all of his essays on hunting and fishing, literature and food. All of his essays up to a certain point in his career are all collected in a book ca...

— Episode: Ep. 056: Las Vegas, NV. Steven Rinella t...

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Episode: Ep. 056: Las Vegas, NV. Steven Rinella takes a bre...

This was described as a collection of Jim Harrison's essays on hunting, fishing, literature, and food, covering a significant portion of his career.

"

Jim Harrison is a collection of Jim Harrison writing all of his essays on hunting and fishing, literature and food. All of his essays up to a certain point in his career are all collected in a book called Just Before Dawn.

The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal Cover

Jared Diamond

The Third Chimpanzee

The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal

The podcast mentioned Jared Diamond's work in passing, referencing his insights into male reckless behavior and its role in sexual selection. His theories on fitness demonstration through risky behavior were discussed.

"

Jared Diamond talks about, Jared, the physiologist among many other things. Jared Diamond talks about why reckless behavior in males, like how that would become selected for in sexual selection.

— Episode: Ep. 054: Steven Rinella talks with Carme...

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Episode: Ep. 054: Steven Rinella talks with Carmen Vanbianc...

The podcast mentioned Jared Diamond's work in passing, referencing his insights into male reckless behavior and its role in sexual selection. His theories on fitness demonstration through risky behavior were discussed.

"

Jared Diamond talks about, Jared, the physiologist among many other things. Jared Diamond talks about why reckless behavior in males, like how that would become selected for in sexual selection.

Like why would the propensity to do ridiculous, crazy shit that will get you hurt? Why is there an advantage there? And he thinks it's like getting really shit-faced drunk.

And he talks about, I can't remember if he was given this idea of his own or given a summation of someone else's theory, but it was that it's a demonstration of fitness because you're basically saying like, I'm so fit.

I'm so fit that I can afford to do these very risky behaviors. And that has over time had like a sexual advantage in attracting females. That you're like, now there's a specimen.

Beyond Fair Chase: The Ethnic & Tradition of Hunting Cover

Jim Posewitz

Beyond Fair Chase

The Ethnic & Tradition of Hunting

It was mentioned as a staple in hunter education and the author was interviewed for a documentary. A memorable quote from the book regarding unethical hunting practices, specifically poaching, was discussed.

"

He said something to me when I was talking to him that this really really stuck with me. We're talking about like unethical hunting practices, but I think it's appropriate for poaching to is he's like...

— Episode: Ep. 052: Upper Bitterroot, Montana. Stev...

Listen on Audible 7-day free trial

Episode: Ep. 052: Upper Bitterroot, Montana. Steven Rinella...

It was mentioned as a staple in hunter education and the author was interviewed for a documentary. A memorable quote from the book regarding unethical hunting practices, specifically poaching, was discussed.

"

He said something to me when I was talking to him that this really really stuck with me. We're talking about like unethical hunting practices, but I think it's appropriate for poaching to is he's like why it's so offensive as he was explaining is is that we've created like the symbol of American wildlife.

A Traditional Bowhunter's Path: Lessons and Adventures at Full Draw Cover

Ron Rohrbaugh Jr

A Traditional Bowhunter's Path

Lessons and Adventures at Full Draw

Rohrbaugh discusses his transition to traditional bowhunting after a deer hunting injury, emphasizing the challenges and rewards of the craft. He details his hunting techniques and philosophies, including gap shooting and the importance of selecting the right spot.

"

I pulled that thing out and I started reading it. It was like it just lit a fire.

— Episode: Ep. 051: Seattle, Washington. Steven Ri...

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Episode: Ep. 051: Seattle, Washington. Steven Rinella talk...

Rohrbaugh discusses his transition to traditional bowhunting after a deer hunting injury, emphasizing the challenges and rewards of the craft. He details his hunting techniques and philosophies, including gap shooting and the importance of selecting the right spot.

"

I pulled that thing out and I started reading it. It was like it just lit a fire.

I talk a lot about, you know, performance anxiety or buck fever in this book because I think it it probably is the reason for it.

I've learned that for me about 18 yards is where I want to be you know you start getting above 18 weird stuff can happen but at 18 that's pretty good.

When I see an animal and I decide I'm gonna shoot I have this whole thing I do in my head where you know I pick a spot bow arm my bow arm goes in a certain position then I draw to my first anchor where my my hand comes to rest under my cheekbone and then I reaffirm my spot. I'm like all right I'm on my spot I'm still on my spot and then I just keep pulling until I hit my second anchor and boom the arrows away.

So once I get to that distance then I can hold the arrow right on where I want to hit and if I'm further than that if I'm 35 then I'm holding the tip of the arrow just a couple inches above where I want to be and so on out you know up to 40-50 yards.

A Wolf Called Wander (A Voice of the Wilderness Novel) Cover

Rosanne Parry

A Wolf Called Wander (A Voice of the Wilderness Novel)

The book was mentioned alongside Edward Abbey's *Desert Solitaire* as examples of works inspired by time spent outdoors.

"

Ed Abbey wouldn't have written desert solitaire if he didn't hang out outside Jim Harrison would have written wolf right if he hadn't spent a bunch of time in the Huron National Forest It's like expos...

— Episode: Ep. 043: Seattle, Washington. Steven Rin...

Listen on Audible 7-day free trial

Episode: Ep. 043: Seattle, Washington. Steven Rinella discu...

The book was mentioned alongside Edward Abbey's *Desert Solitaire* as examples of works inspired by time spent outdoors.

"

Ed Abbey wouldn't have written desert solitaire if he didn't hang out outside Jim Harrison would have written wolf right if he hadn't spent a bunch of time in the Huron National Forest It's like exposure leads to advocacy

Camera Traps in Animal Ecology: Methods and Analyses Cover

Allan F. O'Connell

Camera Traps in Animal Ecology

Methods and Analyses

A New York biologist published a book about the significance of camera traps to the field of wildlife research, including 300-600 influential trail cam images. The book discussed the implications of this tool for understanding wildlife distribution, range, and travel patterns.

"

A biologist in New York just put out a book about the significance of what they call a camera trap to the field.

— Episode: Ep. 038: Maverick County, Texas. Steven...

Listen on Audible 7-day free trial

Episode: Ep. 038: Maverick County, Texas. Steven Rinella ta...

A New York biologist published a book about the significance of camera traps to the field of wildlife research, including 300-600 influential trail cam images. The book discussed the implications of this tool for understanding wildlife distribution, range, and travel patterns.

"

A biologist in New York just put out a book about the significance of what they call a camera trap to the field.

Twilight of the Mammoths: Ice Age Extinctions and the Rewilding of America (Organisms and Environments (Hardcover)) (Hardback) - Common Cover

Paul S. Martin

Twilight of the Mammoths

Ice Age Extinctions and the Rewilding of America (Organisms and Environments (Hardcover)) (Hardback) - Common

This book, mentioned in the podcast, presents the "Blitzkrieg Hypothesis," suggesting that the rapid migration of humans into North America led to the extinction of many large animal species within a relatively short time frame. The podcast discusses evidence for and against this theory.

"

And his argument was that about 15,000 years or so ago, humans began migrating out of Asia into North America confronting a bestiary of animals that had never seen human predators before. And these pe...

— Episode: Ep. 033

Listen on Audible 7-day free trial

Episode: Ep. 033

This book, mentioned in the podcast, presents the "Blitzkrieg Hypothesis," suggesting that the rapid migration of humans into North America led to the extinction of many large animal species within a relatively short time frame. The podcast discusses evidence for and against this theory.

"

And his argument was that about 15,000 years or so ago, humans began migrating out of Asia into North America confronting a bestiary of animals that had never seen human predators before. And these people were very accomplished predators with a very sophisticated toolkit.

The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays Cover

Clifford Geertz

The Interpretation of Cultures

Selected Essays

The podcast host used an excerpt from this book's essay "Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight" to compare the cultural significance of Balinese cockfighting to the deer hunting traditions depicted in the movie *Escanaba in the Moonlight*. The essay discusses how seemingly irrational behaviors can hold profound meaning within a cultural context.

"

What sets deer hunting apart from the ordinary course of life lifts it from the realm of everyday practical affairs and surrounds it with an aura of enlarged importance is not, as a functionalist soci...

— Episode: Ep. 607: MeatEater Radio Live! Whitetail...

Listen on Audible 7-day free trial

Episode: Ep. 607: MeatEater Radio Live! Whitetail Buck Beds...

The podcast host used an excerpt from this book's essay "Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight" to compare the cultural significance of Balinese cockfighting to the deer hunting traditions depicted in the movie *Escanaba in the Moonlight*. The essay discusses how seemingly irrational behaviors can hold profound meaning within a cultural context.

"

What sets deer hunting apart from the ordinary course of life lifts it from the realm of everyday practical affairs and surrounds it with an aura of enlarged importance is not, as a functionalist society would have it, that it reinforces status, but that it provides a metasocial commentary upon the whole matter of assorting human beings into fixed hierarchical ranks and then organizing the major part of collective existence around that assortment.

What the deer hunt says--it says in a vocabulary of sentiment--the thrill of risk, the despair of loss, the pleasure of triumph; yet what it says is not merely that risk is exciting, loss depressing, or triumph gratifying, but that it is of these emotions, thus exampled, that society is built and individuals are put together.

If we go to see Macbeth to learn what a man feels like after he has gained a kingdom and lost his soul, uppers go to deer camp to find out what a man, usually composed, aloof, and almost obsessively self-absorbed, feels like when he has totally triumphed or been brought totally low.

Every people, the proverb has it, loves its own form of violence. The deer hunt is the uppers' reflection on theirs--on its look, its uses, its force, its fascination.

Like the Balinese cockfight, the deer camp's hierarchies and traditions mirror the larger social order of the community. Like the cockfight, the stakes are so high in this pastime that participation in it seems irrational to outsiders.

The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald Cover

John U. Bacon

The Gales of November

The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald

The book about the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald was mentioned as an example of the type of content that would appear in the new interview show format of the podcast.

"

recently we had on a guy talking about his book about the Edmund Fitzgerald. Okay. For instance, that which is called the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. That's the interview show.

— Episode: Ep. 826: Like Nuts on a Cat

Listen on Audible 7-day free trial

Episode: Ep. 826: Like Nuts on a Cat

The book about the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald was mentioned as an example of the type of content that would appear in the new interview show format of the podcast.

"

recently we had on a guy talking about his book about the Edmund Fitzgerald. Okay. For instance, that which is called the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. That's the interview show.

Bobcat of North America (Wildlife Management Institute Classics) Cover

Stanley P. Young

Bobcat of North America (Wildlife Management Institute Classics)

A book about bobcats from 1960 was mentioned as containing interesting historical information about the animal, despite lacking modern collaring data.

"

I've got a very interesting book for you. I was going to bring it on this trip, but I forgot it. And the title of it is the Bobcat of North America.

— Episode: Ep. 826: Like Nuts on a Cat

Listen on Audible 7-day free trial

Episode: Ep. 826: Like Nuts on a Cat

A book about bobcats from 1960 was mentioned as containing interesting historical information about the animal, despite lacking modern collaring data.

"

I've got a very interesting book for you. I was going to bring it on this trip, but I forgot it. And the title of it is the Bobcat of North America.

It's because of, listen, man, I'm not hacking on it. I'm just saying because it's from 1960. So that's great. But it's like, it's going to lack a lot of stuff. Modern collaring data.

The Free and the Dead: The Untold Story of the Black Seminole Chief, the Indigenous Rebel, and America's Forgotten War Cover

Jamie Holmes

The Free and the Dead

The Untold Story of the Black Seminole Chief, the Indigenous Rebel, and America's Forgotten War

This was Jamie Holmes's third book and it was about the Seminole Wars, focusing on complexity that turned preconceived notions about the war on their head. The book featured deep archival research, leading to a very extensive notes section that was almost as long as the book itself.

"

His third book's out. Just out. I'm holding my hand here. It's called The Free and the Dead, The Untold Story of the Black Seminole Chief, The Indigenous Rebel, and America's Forgotte...

— Episode: Ep. 832: Osceola, Native American Slaver...

Listen on Audible 7-day free trial

Episode: Ep. 832: Osceola, Native American Slavery, and The...

This was Jamie Holmes's third book and it was about the Seminole Wars, focusing on complexity that turned preconceived notions about the war on their head. The book featured deep archival research, leading to a very extensive notes section that was almost as long as the book itself.

"

His third book's out. Just out. I'm holding my hand here. It's called The Free and the Dead, The Untold Story of the Black Seminole Chief, The Indigenous Rebel, and America's Forgotten War.

The book validates one's, all of one's preconceived notions about the brutality and crime of the Indian Wars. But simultaneously it turns every preconceived notion you have about the Indian Wars on its head.

So if you're one of those guys that looks at a book and he's like, I can't read that. It's too long. Don't read the notes. I sat down with it.

The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there.

12 Seconds Of Silence: How a Team of Inventors, Tinkerers, and Spies Took Down a Nazi Superweapon Cover

Jamie Holmes

12 Seconds Of Silence

How a Team of Inventors, Tinkerers, and Spies Took Down a Nazi Superweapon

This was Jamie Holmes's second book, which focused on World War II and a group of scientists who invented a new weapon to shoot down airplanes, which they used successfully against a Nazi super weapon. He fell in love with archive work while researching this book, which served as a bridge from his first book on science to his third.

"

The bridge is my second book, which is 12 Seconds Of Silence, which is completely within this genre, which is historical narrative nonfiction with a ton of archive work.

— Episode: Ep. 832: Osceola, Native American Slaver...

Listen on Audible 7-day free trial

Episode: Ep. 832: Osceola, Native American Slavery, and The...

This was Jamie Holmes's second book, which focused on World War II and a group of scientists who invented a new weapon to shoot down airplanes, which they used successfully against a Nazi super weapon. He fell in love with archive work while researching this book, which served as a bridge from his first book on science to his third.

"

The bridge is my second book, which is 12 Seconds Of Silence, which is completely within this genre, which is historical narrative nonfiction with a ton of archive work.

So 12 Seconds Of Silence is it's a, I'm very proud of that book. It's about world war two and he's group of scientists.

Note: The book recommendations on this page are discovered automatically from podcast transcripts, and may be incorrect or incomplete.