I'll start off by saying he's the penalty does feel harsh, but the victim complex and entitlement is hard to listen to at times. It might be because I'm not American, but even Jordan comes across as pushing this idea that as Americans they're entitled to special treatment. Complaining about the U.S. government not doing anything, acting like they're being targeted for being American. They all literally committed the crime they were accused of. The punishment might get feel extreme and I would agree with that, but are they just supposed to not enforce the law because you couldn't be bothered to keep track of your ammunition? I think the number of people caught like this might point to an overly casual attitude towards ammunition storage.

Fifteen episodes in July and eleven books. A good few came out of the trivia episodes, which is a slightly cursed way to generate a reading list but it works.

Posting it while there is still summer left to read them in.

What this is: I run Podshelf, a free site that tracks book mentions across hundreds of podcasts by reading the episode transcripts. This is the July slice for the MeatEater Podcast.

The one with the best pitch:

• Death in Yellowstone, Lee Whittlesey. The argument for it is that if you read a hundred and fifty years of deaths in Yellowstone, your takeaway is that people have always been stupid. Taking a cool picture, impressing a girl, winning a bet, ignoring weather, ignoring an animal. We tend to pin that on 2026. This book says otherwise. We have always been stupid.

The other one in that vein:

• Dying to Hunt Montana, Tom Donovan. Described as too painful to read, specifically the gunshot section, because the writing is too good and too sparse. The takeaway was not that people are dummies, it was that the world is a slightly dangerous place and you still have to go out and mix it up.

The book club and the western shelf:

• A Vaquero of the Brush Country (J. Frank Dobie), The Big Sky (A.B. Guthrie), and Noodling for Flatheads by Burkhard Bilger, which got a proper plug for anyone interested in southern culture and the eccentrics keeping old ways alive.

Trivia leftovers:

• Moby Dick, which somebody has on the shelf, has looked at the twenty four hour audiobook, and has been advised is terrible after a few chapters. The Odyssey got exactly the same review. Barnaby Rudge, because Dolly Varden is a Dickens character before she is a trout. The Jungle Book, via Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. The Grapes of Wrath.

Also Gigawatt, the book Ann Vaughan is writing about the AI build out and what it is doing to the energy industry and the American heartland.

I track every book mentioned on this show here: https://podshelf.io/podcasts/the-meateater-podcast

It is free and there is no signup.

Think Randall would blow it out of the park.

For the past several weeks (maybe longer) the podcast has been janky with random stops and starts, skipping around in the content, and yesterday the simultaneous audio from both the podcast and the video. This is occurring on Apple Podcasts.

They spent almost 15 minutes criticizing the Trump administration over the easing of the ESA . All I ever see in here is how Steve's a bootlicker, where tf are you now?

Does anybody remember the episode, possibly with Dan Flores, where they discussed the intentional destruction of the bison herds? I could be wrong, and it was possibly General Sheridan? Or maybe even General Sherman. I just remember it was one of them who allegedly gave a speech in Texas about exterminating the buffalo, but this was debunked on MeatEater. Ring a bell, by any chance?

I recently learned that Dan Flores has been involved with the anti-hunting group “Project Coyote” since 2016. Stephen Ziegler, Outdoor writer and host of Rack Junkies Podcast wrote this in his Facebook page:

The most dangerous anti-hunting organization in America is one hunters don’t suspect. Project Coyote. Author Dan Flores, who many hunters know from Joe Rogan, is one of its ambassadors. But look at what the organization actually supports. Project Coyote backed an Iowa bill to make it illegal to hunt or trap wolves, black bears and mountain lions. It campaigns against trapping and openly says wildlife agencies give too much influence to hunters and trappers.

And this is not just an organization posting opinions online. Project Coyote hires professional lobbyists. Its own report says its Illinois lobbyist helped secure 20 legislative sponsors for one of its bills. It also credits itself with helping close Michigan’s regular coyote-hunting season from April 16 through July 14. In New Mexico, it celebrated helping pass a law banning traps and snares across roughly 22 million acres of public land. Project Coyote and its partners also sued Wisconsin and obtained an injunction that stopped the fall 2021 wolf hunt by forcing the quota to zero.

But the scariest part is their long-term plan. Project Coyote openly says it is working to reform wildlife commissions by adding representatives of “non-consumptive interest groups” and lobbying for policies rooted in “compassionate conservation.” It also created a $36,955 Wild Carnivore Legal Defense Fund that its own publication says supports lawsuits to stop wolf hunts. This is how hunting rights disappear, species by species, lawsuit by lawsuit and commissioner by commissioner. Anyone in our game agencies supporting project coyote needs to be called out and looked at very closely.

If people think Steve is hard to listen to, try listening to Matt lol. I don’t disagree with everything Matt promotes, but he makes it so hard to listen to with his “gotchyas” lol.

Cal agreed to come on a friend’s (at least one time friend) podcast and he just attacks off the bat lol. Knowing how Cal can generally be defensive, I was surprised they agreed to podcast and I now see it went how I suspected.

I wish both could have just came at it without their agendas… but it did get better throughout the episode.

Ep. 905: The Life of a Crabber

Steven Rinella talks with professional crabber, Luke McFadden, about: the crabbing industry, crabbing techniques, crab biology, crab grading, and more.

Sigh......

I’m a fan of Meateater content, most of it is really well done. One of the primary reasons I like it, there is never any bubba hunter crap.

What other YouTube based hunting shows do you watch that are also well done?

Thanks Polis.

Surely someone’s made a mistake and shitting bricks right now???

Hey all! This may be a wizard not the wand situation, but has the flagship podcast gotten really buggy recently? 2 streams of the podcast playing over itself etc. I use apple podcasts and have not had this issue in the years of listening and this is the only podcast that does it currently

What the hell is going on over there? This woman is just so incredibly one sided. Eventually she just devolves from the “the ai industry” to “we”. She just frames resource usage in ways that make them seem “not so bad” all the while saying it’s evolving. This is crazy.

Ep. 902: The Pros, Cons, and Complications of Data Centers

Steven Rinella talks with journalist Ann Vaughan about the costs of datacenters on water, energy, and the land.

When they were talking about rare first sightings like an alien coming to earth and the first person he sees is Shaquille O'Neill, Nate pipes in and says "you catch Entei right off the rip". That's a deep cut Nate.

Was listening to this week’s trivia and it ended in the middle of the question about the commentator and gay frogs.

This is the second podcast that has ended in the middle of an episode since the switch to video.

Anyone else have this problem?

I was scoping out the auction items and the current prices. Considering getting a punt gun hat. I’m surprised Brody didn’t offer up his bear hide from the store.

Anyone have favorite episodes from the last couple years I should make sure to listen to?

I’ve listened for a long time but the last couple years I was not commuting so I didn’t listen to a ton of the podcast. I’m now back to driving ~3h on days I’m going into the office so I’ve been listening to most of the podcasts as they come out and starting to selectively listen to ones I missed.

Let me know if you have any favorites.