In this episode of This Week in Barbecue, Rasheed Philips sits down with Meat Dave for a wide-ranging conversation about barbecue, stand-up comedy, health, community, and the reality of building a career in modern food media. They dig into Meat Dave’s weight loss journey, the connection between crowd work and live-fire cooking, the rise of social media in barbecue, the pressure of performance, and why community matters more than competition.

This conversation also explores the Gundo Comedy & Barbecue Festival, Old Town Patio, mentorship, respect in the barbecue world, and Dave’s new “Yard Hard” vision for bringing people together through food, storytelling, and backyard culture. If you care about barbecue culture, pitmaster life, barbecue media, open-fire cooking, and the people shaping where this world is headed next, this is one to watch. Subscribe for more conversations at the intersection of barbecue, culture, and craft.