OUR RATING:
Where Hemingway Meets Hipsters With Hunting Licenses
“The MeatEater Podcast” is a show that somehow makes sitting in frozen blinds for 12 hours waiting to shoot something sound like the height of philosophical enlightenment. Host Steven Rinella has mastered the art of making listeners like me, whose idea of “roughing it” is when the hotel Wi-Fi doesn’t reach the bathroom, feel woefully inadequate about our survival skills and connection to the natural world.
Nothing quite broadcasts “modern masculinity crisis” like urban professionals obsessively downloading episodes about field dressing techniques while sitting in traffic on their soul-crushing commutes. It’s the podcast equivalent of buying a $500 flannel shirt from a boutique that’s been artificially distressed to look like you’ve actually done manual labor. “The MeatEater” fills that primal void in our spreadsheet-dominated lives, giving listeners the vicarious thrill of self-sufficiency without the inconvenience of actually sleeping on the ground or removing animal intestines.
The real magic of the show is how it convinces you that you’re basically a conservationist now because you listened to someone talk about sustainable hunting for 90 minutes. Forget actually protecting habitats or understanding ecology, you’ve absorbed some hunting jargon and can now confidently mansplain the difference between whitetail and mule deer at dinner parties. It’s environmentalism for people whose primary interaction with nature is their lawn care service.
Let’s discuss the guests, shall we? A parade of individuals who casually reference their recent three-week solo expeditions into the Alaskan wilderness as if they were mentioning a quick trip to the grocery store. “Oh, this scar? Just a little souvenir from when I had to cauterize my own wound after a grizzly encounter while bow hunting elk.” Meanwhile, I pulled a muscle last week reaching for the remote control. These conversations serve primarily to remind the average listener that their wilderness skills rank somewhere between “would be the first to die in an apocalypse” and “might survive until Tuesday.”
The food discussions deserve special mention. Never has listening to people talk about eating make you simultaneously hungry and nauseous. Rinella’s descriptions of various organ meats and obscure game preparations have a special way of making you question everything you’ve ever put in your mouth. “This woodland caribou heart tartare with spruce tip garnish really captures the essence of the northern forest.” Sure, Steve, and my microwave burrito captures the essence of my crushing despair.
Perhaps the most entertaining aspect is how the show blends advanced hunting strategies with philosophical musings about humanity’s place in the natural world. One minute you’re learning the optimal angle for a clean kill shot, and the next you’re deep in an existential discussion about the ethics of meat consumption that would make Sartre reach for his hunting rifle.
“The MeatEater” has also perfected the art of gear talk. Endless discussions about equipment that costs more than my mortgage. It’s remarkable how a podcast focused on our primal connection to nature frequently devolves into what is essentially shopping advice for extremely specialized products. Nothing says “returning to our hunter-gatherer roots” quite like debating the merits of a $2,000 GPS system with satellite connectivity and atmospheric pressure sensors that can predict deer movement patterns.
The die-hard fans are a special breed unto themselves. suburban warriors who’ve transformed their garages into jerky-making laboratories and speak with authority about field judging trophy animals despite their hunting experience being limited to a guided trip their brother-in-law’s cousin organized four years ago. They pepper their everyday conversations with terms like “backstrap” and “rut phase” while their coworkers nod politely and make mental notes to exclude them from the next happy hour invitation.
In the end, “The MeatEater Podcast” fills an important cultural niche, providing the illusion of ruggedness and self-reliance in a world where most of us would struggle to start a fire without YouTube tutorials and lighter fluid. It’s a weekly reminder that while our ancestors hunted woolly mammoths with sharpened sticks, we get winded climbing a flight of stairs and consider successfully assembling IKEA furniture our greatest triumph over nature.
So go ahead and keep listening while you sip your craft IPA and plan that hunting trip you’ll probably never take, at least until then, you can tell everyone at the office about how you “really connect” with Rinella’s philosophy on ethical protein harvesting.
Where to listen to The MeatEater Podcast
Episodes.fm | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Overcast | Pocket Casts | Castro
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