While visiting family in Pennsylvania, Tara and Joe Cook discovered a distillery and fell in love with it. Later, while sitting on the porch on their house in Pineville, they decided they wanted to bring those products to Missouri, but not as distributors. The Cooks wanted to start distilling it themselves. 

After a few phone calls and additional trips, the Pennsylvania distillers gave the Cooks their blessing to start making their recipes and Tall Pines Distillery MO was born. Timing wasn't on their side, though, as they opened in January of 2020. Tara and Joe stuck with it, though, and made it through and are now offering a variety of moonshine, gifts, and live music on site Tara's family farm. 

The Cooks hard work and grit remind us that opportunity is always out there if you're willing to take a few risks and work hard and we think you're going to enjoy listening to how they made it through and continue to thrive. We also think you'll get value from this episode. If so, don't hesitate to reach out and provide some value back to us because Cookin' Up a Story isn't about just us or the stories we share, but about the community we're creating with our listeners. 

Zachary Hall was always a nerd when it came to weather, so after high school, and a brief flirtation with becoming a law enforcement officer, he decided to pursue that passion and make a career out of it. Rather than going to college and pursuing a degree in meteorology, though, he decided to strike out on his own as a storm chaser. 

Almost a decade later, Zach now supports his family by not only chasing storms, but also by providing Arkansans with news about weather throughout the state, all from his social media channels. Listen to the boys and Zach discuss his path upward, while also going down a few rabbit holes, in the latest episode. 

And if you get some value from this, don't hesitate to reach out with any value you want to provide us in return. Cookin' Up a Story is about value for value and we are thankful that you listeners give us an opportunity to provide some value to you. 

Growing up in El Paso, Texas with a police officer mother in a very Catholic Mexican family, Sam Cano first thought he would become a politician. After attending Boys State during his junior year, though, he decided politics wasn't for him. 

Upon graduating, he wanted to spread his wings, so he headed to Portland, OR, to attend college. He wasn't destined to stay there, though, and ended up heading back to Texas to finish his degree before ending up at the University of Arkansas to pursue his PhD in Space and Planetary Science. 

In this episode, Sam takes us through a discussion of space, particles, the upcoming eclipse, and the possibility of using the moon as a rest stop for deep space exploration. We also meander around the possibility of using rabbit piss as an exit strategy. As always, if you get value from this episode, hit us up to discuss exchanging some value for value. Brown water, equipment, and hosting services do require a little bit of change as we keep working to bring you new and engaging episodes. 

Doc Jaynes always knew he wanted to help people. His initial plan was to go into the military and from there, become a physician's assistant. Deploying to Iraq two times, where he saved the lives of his brothers, ended up changing his focus. 

Once back in the states, he found that he needed to pursue a new mission, one focused on helping other soldiers deal with the stresses of returning to life as civilians. Absent a tribe or a mission, our men and women who give all too often suffer when they are given the opportunity to relax. That's where Doc continues to heal people. 

Whether cooking for friends and family or working with veterans and first responders through Snake Mountain Pack Goats, Doc guides people on their own healing journeys through the great outdoors, hoping to help them find some peace and their next mission. 

As always, we thank you for listening and hope you get value from this episode. If you do, don't hesitate to reach out and offer some value to us for the value we provide. You're the reason we're doing this and we hope to keep growing this community. 

For most people, it takes a little time to figure out what you want to do. For Major General Craig Gourley, he hit upon his path when he was just six years old. It helped that his father was a chemist in the Air Force, which exposed Gourley to the path his life would take. 

While on Edwards Air Force Base in California, Craig was exposed to the latest in flight technology, and his passion for spreading his wings was born. From elementary school to junior high to high school to the Air Force Academy, he stayed en route to realizing his dreams. 

From there, he went on to a successful career as Inspector General of the Air Force while also serving as a commercial pilot for Delta Airlines. Along the way, he picked up a few stories to tell, including about how he landed in Northwest Arkansas and began working with Game Composites, an experimental aircraft company that's poised to take change the way we think about aviation. 

Gourley was kind enough to exchange some of the value he's achieved in his life to provide value to our show and treat listeners to a tale that most of us only dreamed of achieving back when we were playing with Hot Wheels. If you enjoy, feel free to pay it forward and contact us with any value you might have to offer. As always, Cookin' Up a Story with Aaron and Joes is all about value for value and we appreciate anything you have to offer.

Growing up, brother and sister Jeremy Morris and Lacy Hampton fought like, well, brother and sister. When they got a little older, though, the pair from a musical household discovered that their shared love of music was best shared with the world in the form of a duo. Thus, Common Roots was born.

Listen to them share how they ended up performing together, their approach to life and parenting, and what motivates them. There are also a couple of performances as well as a lively discussion on potlucks from the duo that's currently up for a couple of Arkansas Country Music Awards — Lacy for promoter of the year for Songwriters in the Round, a monthly gathering of musicians at the Meteor Gallery in Bentonville and the pair for acoustic act of the year.

We hope you get as much value from this episode as we did. As always, if you want to return some of the value you received, reach out and we'll be happy to let you provide some value in return. Thanks for listening and don't forget to like, subscribe, and share.

Only 10% of podcasts make it to a fourth episode. Only 10% of those that make it that far get all the way to 100 episodes. Well, Cookin' Up a Story just hit our 100th. Thank you, listeners, for giving your time to us and making it possible for us to hit this milestone.

For our 100th, we went old school, just the boys sitting around a table talking over some brown water. While it was originally just Joe and Aaron, the crew has grown to include Bill, also known as Red Words, second Joe, and Rich. We answered some of our own questions, reminisced, and laid out our respective visions for what we'd like to see in the future.

We hope you'll find value in this special episode, and continue to find value into the future. As always, it's about value for value, so if you're interested in donating to the cause, hit us up and we'll let you know how. Also, thank you to those who have provided the value to get us this far: Crossland Construction, Townsend Spice & Supply, Sweet Swine O' Mine, and [who am I forgetting?]. Don't forget to like, share, and subscribe as we keep building toward the 200th episode.

When Curt Clark was in high school, he knew what he wanted to be — a cowboy. Three days after graduating, he headed off to Montana to pursue that dream. Quickly, though, he realized that there's not much money in raising cattle and ended up spending most of his three years in Big Sky Country working as an outfitter.

He ended up returning to Northwest Arkansas and becoming a farrier in addition to working with the state. It was in his role with the state that he ended up going to work for a bail bondsman. After honing his skills in that role, Curt decided to open his own company, Action Bail Bonds. In the over 20 years since, that job has taken him on adventures around the globe. Listen to this episode to hear how Curt has seized opportunity, grown as a man, and his concern for his fellow man.

As always, Cookin' Up a Story is about value for value. We value our listeners and hope you value us in return. If so, don't hesitate to reach out about becoming a sponsor or providing us with some other value that we can use to keep producing episodes.

As a young man, Ryan Mosburg was bullied, so his dad connected him with a local boxing trainer. With the help of this trainer, who would pummel him multiple nights a week, Ryan started to learn how to hold his own, but his newfound confidence didn't serve him as well as he'd hoped. Living in a small town and hanging out with friends who liked to push him in the wrong direction meant he fought more than he needed to, even after getting the bullies off his back.

But then he saw a better path and realized how coaching other fighters could help him build something positive. With the help of his then girlfriend, now wife, who Ryan and his father credit with keeping him out of prison, he started to help others build themselves up. Through this, he also built himself up.

He started in his native Missouri, then headed to Hawaii for a stint, before heading to Arkansas and then back to Missouri. At every stop, he kept training himself, and training others. Now a father who aspires to open his own gym and keep training champions, Ryan shows us the value of hard work, dedication, and service to others.

As always, Cookin' Up a Story is about value for value, so if you gained insights, laughed, or otherwise got some value from this episode, like it and share it. We're also looking at adding video equipment and generally enjoy some bourbon while we're cooking up these stories, so if you've got a lead on either, or some spare brown water or equipment laying around, we'd truly value those, too.

Ben Lagrone always wanted to be a teacher, so he started his career as one, teaching history. While he enjoyed it, it didn't satisfy his desire to have a broader reach, to teach more people. So he looked at going into the administrative side, as an assistant principal. He didn't end up moving in that direction, instead getting into curriculum development for the state. Then, his wife asked him a question. She wanted to know what was next.

She had a growing passion for helping women pursue natural childbirth, but in a way free from the extreme sides of the debate that tend to dominate that conversation. Together, they ended up founding Balanced Families, an online coaching service dedicated to that topic and one that aimed to help women and men navigate birth. Along the way, Ben realized that for all the focus on families, men weren't just left out of the discussion of their role in childbirth, but in becoming great fathers. That's how he returned to teaching, this time with the Dad Class, for dads who want to father with confidence and build their legacies.

Listen to Ben discuss his techniques, what he's observed about modern fatherhood, and what he hopes to help men achieve though his own decision to answer opportunity when it called in this episode. And as always, if you find value in this discussion, value for value is what powers this podcast. Whether a bottle of whiskey, some cash for the video equipment we hope to purchase, or just a like, subscribe, and share, your contributions are what make Cookin' Up a Story possible.

Links are in the comments. Give it a listen, let us know what you think, and share it with anyone else who might value from it. While you may not be in the room with us, you're just as much a part of the community we're building as those of use who are on the mics.

If you're looking to take Ben's Dad Class, visit www.balancedfamilies.com. Use code "AARONANDJOE" for 25% off.