The MeatEater

Steve draws a coveted muzzleloader elk tag in the majestic San Juan Mountains of Colorado, but the hunt is harder than expected. More hunters than elk, lung-breaking elevation, and primitive equipment stack the odds against him. Presented by Busch Light.

Steven Rinella talks with Backcountry Hunters and Anglers President and CEO Ryan Callaghan.

Topics discussed: Cal’s life as a new dad and new CEO; the BHA mission; creating coalitions, community, and giving a shit; how our natural resources are not guaranteed; politicians claiming to carry TR’s torch; throwing the baby out with the bathwater in regards to regulation; approaching rollbacks and management changes with clarity; motivation behind scrapping the Roadless Rule; the pitfalls of absolutism; corner crossing; being engaged in the minutiae; and more.

Connect with Steve and The MeatEater Podcast Network

Steve on Instagram and Twitter

MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube

This week, Cal covers updates to Montana’s mountain lion policy, threats to recommended Wilderness, vultures hungry for python eggs in the Everglades, and a new new addition to the family.

Connect with Cal and MeatEater

To learn more and get involved with any Cal to Action, click here.

Cal on Instagram and Twitter

MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Youtube Clips

Subscribe to The MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube

Shop Cal's Week in Review Merch

In our final chapter of our series with Antonin Scalia, we will be taking a close look at why this man was so loved and respected by everyone that knew- including people that completely disagreed with him. On top of that, we'll learn how hunting, wild game, and the outdoors played a critical role in it.

Connect with Lake Pickle and MeatEater

Lake Pickle on Instagram

MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and YouTube Clips

MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube

Anybody who’s ever dreamed of an Alaska moose hunt knows those kinds of trips don’t come cheap. Some hunters spend years saving up enough money for a bucket list hunt in the Last Frontier. But prosecutors say nearly 40 hunters who thought they were booking the adventure of a lifetime lost almost $60,000 to an illegal guiding scheme that left some of them stranded in rural Alaska.

Michael Mikhael Beans, 37, began advertising trophy hunts to the Lower Yukon River area on Facebook in 2021, according to court documents. Beans has never held the required state licenses to act as a guide or transporter. Multiple out-of-state hunters booked trips and paid deposits to Beans via Venmo or other payment apps beginning in 2022, expecting fully outfitted hunts out of the remote village of St. Mary’s.

The first group of hunters arrived in Alaska in September 2022, expecting a camp, meals, and a fully guided hunt, but Beans canceled the hunt by text message without ever seeing them in person. They were left stranded in rural Alaska and had to scramble to find lodging and transportation. Beans also canceled other booked hunts before hunters arrived but pocketed the deposits. He and his family of seven vacationed in Oahu, Hawaii, for two weeks that same year.

Not every hunter who booked with Beans went home empty-handed. In September 2022, three hunters tracked Beans down after he tried to cancel their hunt and convinced him to take them moose hunting per their agreement, according to a press release. The hunters killed three bull moose during that trip, with Beans acting as guide, although he was not licensed to do so.

Prosecutors say Beans collected almost $60,000 in fraudulent fees, deposits, and advance payments. He pleaded guilty in February to wire fraud and violations of the Lacey Act related to illegal guiding. Last week, a judge sentenced Beans to three years in federal prison and ordered him to pay more than $64,110 in restitution to 24 victims.

Beans is already serving a separate 30-year state prison sentence for felony sexual assault and sexual abuse of a minor, according to KYUK Public Media. The first two years of Beans’s federal sentence will overlap with time served for those crimes. The remaining year will be served upon completion of that sentence.

Stories like this are rare, but they do happen. Anyone planning a bucket-list hunt should do more than scroll Facebook before booking. No matter how affordable or exciting the hunt may sound, hunters should take the time to verify licenses, read reviews, and ask for references before dropping money on a deposit. Doing a little homework up front is a whole lot cheaper than showing up to Alaska for a hunt that doesn’t exist.

State and local wildlife officers do their best to monitor and enforce game and fish laws, but inadequate resources and manpower complicate those efforts. They often rely on anonymous tips from locals, which is what led to the arrest of Woodrow Snyder, 28, a southern Indiana man, who has been charged with more than 100 wildlife-related crimes.

On the morning of December 18, 2025, Clark County Sheriff's deputies and conservation officers set a roadblock after a complaint of shots fired. Snyder was stopped at the roadblock in a pickup, where officers discovered multiple dead deer. Apparently, Snyder decided to ditch the evidence before stopping at the roadblock because officers located “several discarded” guns along the roadway. At the scene, Snyder’s passenger was immediately arrested, and the vehicle was seized as evidence.

It wasn’t until June 4, 2026, that Snyder was taken into custody after conservation officers executed multiple search warrants and collected extensive evidence. The investigation revealed that Snyder and currently unnamed accomplices had illegally taken more than 30 deer during the 2025 season.

Depending on the county, bag limits for whitetail deer in the Hoosier State range from two to four, well under the 30-plus deer that Snyder illegally shot. His current charges include obstruction of justice, illegal sale of wildlife, unlawful taking of deer, jacklighting, hunting without a license, hunting with the aid of a motor vehicle, and hunting without consent of a landowner.

If his charges stand, Snyder might face serious restitution fees, depending on the size deer he poached. It’s hard to equate a dollar amount to that many deer missing from the local herd, but that won’t stop the state of Indiana from trying. In some ways, DNR TIP lines allow locals to help reclaim some of those damages.

Indiana Conservation Officers remind the public that they can submit anonymous tips through the TIP (Turn in a Poacher) hotline at 1-800-TIP-IDNR.

Photo via IDNR

Settle in for a guided trip to iconic landmarks from Brent’s life. Bridges, trees, and even old homesteads serve as places of importance. Recognition of them sometimes comes after they’re gone but their importance remains the same. As a bonus, Brent’s sharing a couple recordings of his father that are his and fan favorites. 

National Champion Loblolly Pin: https://youtu.be/gEihlGtoYFQ?is=VYT2y_6vltaVyGJL

Thank you to our sponsors, Case Knives and Stor-Mor.

Shop This Country Life Merch

Connect with Brent and MeatEater

MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Youtube Clips

Subscribe to the MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube

Shop This Country Life Merch

This week on In Pursuit, Rich sits down with two-time Olympian Jake Dalton to talk about life after chasing greatness.

Jake spent more than two decades in gymnastics, competing at the highest level and representing Team USA at the Olympic Games. But after retirement, he found himself searching for a new challenge. That search led him to the mountains, where fly fishing, bowhunting, and the pursuit of hard things became the next chapter.

The conversation covers everything from the pressure of competing on the world stage to the lessons learned through failure, fatherhood, and finding purpose beyond sport. Jake shares the highs and lows of his first successful mule deer and elk hunts, including the nerves, mistakes, and moments that make bowhunting unforgettable.

Rich and Jake also dive into why high performers are drawn to challenge, how the outdoors sharpens the mind, and why the best memories are often built alongside family and friends.

Connect with Rich Froning

MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Youtube Clips

Subscribe to The MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube

This week on the show I'm joined by Clay Newcomb to discuss failure in the whitetail woods, and beyond, and the lessons he's learned along the way.

Connect with Mark Kenyon, Jake Hofer, and MeatEater

Mark Kenyon on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook

MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Youtube Clips

Subscribe to The MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube

Shop Wired to Hunt Merch and MeatEater Merch

Growing up, I always wanted to be around my dad. My older sister and mom tell stories of me standing at the screen door in diapers, crying and screaming because I wasn’t on the tractor with him. Eventually, I got old enough to realize that if I wanted to hang with the old man, I better learn how to fish.

Now, I don’t envy anyone attempting to teach a preteen girl how to cast a fly rod. Somehow, my dad managed to pull it off and instill a lifelong love of angling in me. He would hammer (what I now realize are common) fly-fishing mantras into my head: 10 and 2, don’t break your wrist, keep your rod tip down, foam is home, and recast, recast, recast.

While these might be standard sayings to hear from a fishing guide, they’ve stuck with me as sound advice over the years. Something about hearing it over and over and over again from your dad really embeds it in your brain, I suppose.

I still rely on these tidbits of knowledge when I’m struggling to catch a fish or cast in the wind; that’s when the mantras he’s grumbled at me all these years come up. Give your backcast more time. Let the fish eat it. Your line’s dragging, recast.

I'm grateful for the time we’ve spent on the water together and for the phrases that help me focus when fishing. I look forward to many more years of tight lines and muttered mantras with my old man.

A lot of us have our dads to thank for taking us out for our first hunting, fishing, or camping adventures. So for this Father’s Day, we’d like to celebrate some of the best outdoor and life lessons we’ve learned from our fathers.

My old man had three obscure terms of insult that he'd apply to other men that he didn't like. Each term that he used seemed to have its own distinct meaning. One of the terms was Italian, or at least he said it was, but I've checked with Italians, and they don't recognize it.

It was something like "minguela morta," though I've never seen it spelled out. It meant, basically, that a certain important part of that man's anatomy was not operational. My dad would use it to describe someone who was timid or passive or boring. If he called a man a "yabatz," he was saying that the guy was generally just a goofball or a person not worth taking seriously.

The worst of his terms, the one you'd least want to be, was "a horse's ass." He'd almost spit this term through his teeth, as though it was literally painful to say it. Being a horse's ass meant you were an idiot and couldn't do anything right and would never amount to much of anything. If I learned anything from my old man, I suppose it's that you really don't want to be a horse's ass. I always try to keep that in mind, especially on Father's Day.

My dad taught me so much that it’s hard to narrow it down. One of the first things that he taught me early as a little kid was how to find squirrels in a tree. When he saw I was having trouble finding them, he told me to stop looking for the squirrel and start looking for his ear.

That little triangle shape will stand out against the sky even if they’re laying flat and still. Once you find his ear, the rest of him will be easy to see. It worked. I still do that to this day and taught my kids the same thing.

My grandfather and father used to say, "Better be quiet and let people think you’re stupid than open your mouth and remove all doubt.” As a podcaster, I’m pretty sure I’m not heeding their advice.

My dad's greatest skills as an outdoorsman is being a pro at DIY. As a kid, I got to watch him build his own treestands, chop his own wood, fabricate his own livewell, make his own sausage, fix his own boat motor, load his own ammo. It was a valuable thing to witness. I hope I have 20% of that craftiness someday.

My dad would reference this phrase, after my grandfather coined it, anytime my brothers or I misplaced his tools, broke a window, or just royally screwed up in general.

My grandfather was an absolute turkey killer. He rarely wore a mask or toted more than one or two calls in his pockets. Nearly all his khakis had red blood stains on the back pocket from where turkey heads slapped against them on their ride out of the woods.

In middle school, I saved up to buy fancy Ol' Tom turkey vest. My dad drove me to my grandparents to drop me off for the week of spring break so I could turkey hunt, and I was mighty proud to show my grandfather my new vest.

I was already wearing that vest when I walked in my grandparents house. I spun around, unzipping pockets that had no real use and flapping that magnetic seat up and down like a traveling turkey vest salesman. Without looking up from whatever basketball game was on TV, my grandfather cooly said, "That's about as useful as the British pissing in the wind."

To this day, I'm not sure what he meant. But I think I got the point.

My dad's advice was simple: “Shut up, don’t move around, and be quiet!”

It remains great advice to this day that I continually share with my own sons.