The Origins Foundation Podcast

Safari Club International Liaison (and South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment alum) Mpho Tjiane, based out of Jo-Burg, South Africa, joins Robbie to talk about recent news in CITES quotas for South Africa. South Africa released their 2026-2027 export quota this week, and Mpho dove into what that means for hunting and conservation. Mpho is the perfect person to explain this, including the context of how we got here because he was in the Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and Environment, as the CITES lead when the quotas were pulled and the litigation occurred.

Do you have questions we can answer? Send it via DM on IG or through email at [email protected] 

Text us at 601-790-0607 with thoughts, comments and ideas for guests and episodes

Support our Conservation Club Members!

Classic African Hunting: https://classicafricanhunting.com/ 

Schnee: https://schnees.com/ 

Everyone Deserves to Play: https://theoriginsfoundation.org/conservation-projects/everyone-deserves-to-play/ 

See more from Blood Origins: https://bit.ly/BloodOrigins_Subscribe

Music: Migration by Ian Post (Winter Solstice), licensed through artlist.io

This podcast is brought to you by Bushnell, who believes in providing the highest quality, most reliable & affordable outdoor products on the market. Your performance is their passion. https://www.bushnell.com 

This podcast is also brought to you by Silencer Central, who believes in making buying a silencer simple and they handle the paperwork for you. Shop the largest silencer dealer in the world. Get started today! https://www.silencercentral.com 

Don't forget to go subscribe to our new The Origins Foundation Podcast Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/@TheOriginsFoundationPodcast - who knows, you may be a lucky subscriber who wins some cool stuff from our partner companies!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There is a thing called the "Governor's Tag" in our wildlife management system. It’s an often expensive tag that is accused to be antithetical to the North American Wildlife Model - because only the rich get to play in that proverbial sand-box. This is why Robbie went to New Mexico to start a documentary around this "Governor's Tag" - there is no better place to do this than in New Mexico. Robbie sits down live with John Mark Matkin, following his three-year journey to hunt New Mexico’s coveted Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep after ultimately winning the state’s Governor’s Tag for $1 MILLION. Robbie and John Mark are joined by outfitters/guides Jim Breck and GT, John brings us through the failed bids, setbacks, surgeries, and determination that finally led him to an extraordinary 200-plus-inch ram in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico. There is so much more to this story than this podcast, but this is the beginning. 

Do you have questions we can answer? Send it via DM on IG or through email at [email protected] 

Text us at 601-790-0607 with thoughts, comments and ideas for guests and episodes

Support our Conservation Club Members!

Classic African Hunting: https://classicafricanhunting.com/ 

Landtrust: https://landtrust.com/ 

Everyone Deserves to Play: https://theoriginsfoundation.org/conservation-projects/everyone-deserves-to-play/ 

See more from Blood Origins: https://bit.ly/BloodOrigins_Subscribe

Music: Migration by Ian Post (Winter Solstice), licensed through artlist.io

This podcast is brought to you by Bushnell, who believes in providing the highest quality, most reliable & affordable outdoor products on the market. Your performance is their passion. https://www.bushnell.com 

This podcast is also brought to you by Silencer Central, who believes in making buying a silencer simple and they handle the paperwork for you. Shop the largest silencer dealer in the world. Get started today! https://www.silencercentral.com 

Don't forget to go subscribe to our new The Origins Foundation Podcast Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/@TheOriginsFoundationPodcast - who knows, you may be a lucky subscriber who wins some cool stuff from our partner companies!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ashlee and Robbie are back after a long stretch of travel to break down the most recent news, including the new Rule released changing the method by which USFWS will establish migratory bird hunting season and limits, the new quotas released for elephants, rhinos and leopards in South Africa, the latest on the Roadless Rule proposed rescission and debate, a new Elk Habitat Plan for WY, no new grizzlies for California, and whether or not Trump is selling part of Yosemite.

Do you have questions we can answer? Send it via DM on IG or through email at [email protected] 

Text us at 601-790-0607 with thoughts, comments and ideas for guests and episodes

Support our Conservation Club Members!

Classic African Hunting: https://classicafricanhunting.com/ 

Landtrust: https://landtrust.com/ 

Everyone Deserves to Play: https://theoriginsfoundation.org/conservation-projects/everyone-deserves-to-play/ 

See more from Blood Origins: https://bit.ly/BloodOrigins_Subscribe

Music: Migration by Ian Post (Winter Solstice), licensed through artlist.io

This podcast is brought to you by Bushnell, who believes in providing the highest quality, most reliable & affordable outdoor products on the market. Your performance is their passion. https://www.bushnell.com 

This podcast is also brought to you by Silencer Central, who believes in making buying a silencer simple and they handle the paperwork for you. Shop the largest silencer dealer in the world. Get started today! https://www.silencercentral.com 

Don't forget to go subscribe to our new The Origins Foundation Podcast Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/@TheOriginsFoundationPodcast - who knows, you may be a lucky subscriber who wins some cool stuff from our partner companies!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Robbie sits down with Kristie Gill, a PhD student out of the College of Natural Resources at the University of Georgia, doing her field work in South Africa. Kristie has an incredible journey from an anti hunter to actually becoming PRO hunting and the evolution of her preconceived notions to opening her eyes to the realities of wildlife conservation. This all started with her first visit to South Africa and someone taking the time to explain to her the value of sustainable use of wildlife. 

Do you have questions we can answer? Send it via DM on IG or through email at [email protected] 

Text us at 601-790-0607 with thoughts, comments and ideas for guests and episodes

Support our Conservation Club Members!

Classic African Hunting: https://classicafricanhunting.com/ 

Walther: https://waltherarms.com/

Everyone Deserves to Play: https://theoriginsfoundation.org/conservation-projects/everyone-deserves-to-play/ 

See more from Blood Origins: https://bit.ly/BloodOrigins_Subscribe

Music: Migration by Ian Post (Winter Solstice), licensed through artlist.io

This podcast is brought to you by Bushnell, who believes in providing the highest quality, most reliable & affordable outdoor products on the market. Your performance is their passion. https://www.bushnell.com 

This podcast is also brought to you by Silencer Central, who believes in making buying a silencer simple and they handle the paperwork for you. Shop the largest silencer dealer in the world. Get started today! https://www.silencercentral.com 

Don't forget to go subscribe to our new The Origins Foundation Podcast Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/@TheOriginsFoundationPodcast - who knows, you may be a lucky subscriber who wins some cool stuff from our partner companies!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Flashback Podcast to March 2025 (Episode 543):

There are certain topics in this world that are likely the most controversial - wolves, feral cats, and wild horses. Wild Horses for some reason evoke such emotions that there has been little work done on exposing what is actually going on. 

We are starting to delve into this topic more and more and there is not greater place to talk about this topic than Nevada. Former Federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) employee Jenny Lesieutre is now speaking out around the management of wild horses after being involved in the space for almost two decades. As a horse owner and self-professed horse lover herself, you’ll find that it is not from a place of malice that she advocates for management, rather because they are destroying their own habitat and environment without badly needed management protocols - because leaving them alone isn’t working. This is a MUST LISTEN PODCAST. 

Update August 2026: You have likely seen the social media posts and New York Times article discussing the adminstrations new "rules" around gathers, horse slaughter, etc. As an update, nothing has changed. Everything around horses is the same as it has been for the last 20 years. 

Do you have questions we can answer? Send it via DM on IG or through email at [email protected] 

Support our Conservation Club Members!

Classic African Hunting: https://classicafricanhunting.com/ 

Landtrust: https://landtrust.com/ 

Everyone Deserves to Play: https://theoriginsfoundation.org/conservation-projects/everyone-deserves-to-play/ 

See more from Blood Origins: https://bit.ly/BloodOrigins_Subscribe

Music: Migration by Ian Post (Winter Solstice), licensed through artlist.io

This podcast is brought to you by Bushnell, who believes in providing the highest quality, most reliable & affordable outdoor products on the market. Your performance is their passion. https://www.bushnell.com 

This podcast is also brought to you by Silencer Central, who believes in making buying a silencer simple and they handle the paperwork for you. Shop the largest silencer dealer in the world. Get started today! https://www.silencercentral.com 

Don't forget to go subscribe to our new The Origins Foundation Podcast Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/@TheOriginsFoundationPodcast - who knows, you may be a lucky subscriber who wins some cool stuff from our partner companies!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Robbie sits down with Dale Lewis, founder of COMACO (Community Markets for Conservation). Based in Zambia, Dale used the free market tit tackle a problem at the intersection of snaring, conservation and community upliftment. Dale’s pipeline allows community agricultural products to make their way in to market in exchange for conservation pledges, essentially buying their help in exchange for helping them get their products to market. It’s a genius maneuver that’s working well for everyone, including both the people and the wildlife on their landscape.

Do you have questions we can answer? Send it via DM on IG or through email at [email protected] 

Support our Conservation Club Members!

Classic African Hunting: https://classicafricanhunting.com/ 

Landtrust: https://landtrust.com/ 

Everyone Deserves to Play: https://theoriginsfoundation.org/conservation-projects/everyone-deserves-to-play/ 

See more from Blood Origins: https://bit.ly/BloodOrigins_Subscribe

Music: Migration by Ian Post (Winter Solstice), licensed through artlist.io

This podcast is brought to you by Bushnell, who believes in providing the highest quality, most reliable & affordable outdoor products on the market. Your performance is their passion. https://www.bushnell.com 

This podcast is also brought to you by Silencer Central, who believes in making buying a silencer simple and they handle the paperwork for you. Shop the largest silencer dealer in the world. Get started today! https://www.silencercentral.com 

Don't forget to go subscribe to our new The Origins Foundation Podcast Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/@TheOriginsFoundationPodcast - who knows, you may be a lucky subscriber who wins some cool stuff from our partner companies!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s deep dives are all about wild managed lions in Kalahari Oryx Reserve. This success in lion conservation has been at the expensive sacrifice of millions of Oryx. Is there a way to balance the budget of this outrageously priced all you can eat feline buffet, though? There is one, and it’s hunting. Learn more in this deep dive!

Do you have questions we can answer? Send it via DM on IG or through email at [email protected] 

Support our Conservation Club Members!

Classic African Hunting: https://classicafricanhunting.com/ 

Landtrust: https://landtrust.com/ 

Everyone Deserves to Play: https://theoriginsfoundation.org/conservation-projects/everyone-deserves-to-play/ 

See more from Blood Origins: https://bit.ly/BloodOrigins_Subscribe

Music: Migration by Ian Post (Winter Solstice), licensed through artlist.io

This podcast is brought to you by Bushnell, who believes in providing the highest quality, most reliable & affordable outdoor products on the market. Your performance is their passion. https://www.bushnell.com 

This podcast is also brought to you by Silencer Central, who believes in making buying a silencer simple and they handle the paperwork for you. Shop the largest silencer dealer in the world. Get started today! https://www.silencercentral.com 

Don't forget to go subscribe to our new The Origins Foundation Podcast Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/@TheOriginsFoundationPodcast - who knows, you may be a lucky subscriber who wins some cool stuff from our partner companies!

Intro Music: Captain Joz - Smile High, artlist.io license

If you are interested in us deconstructing a science article, report, or government brief, please send it to us at [email protected] with the subject - Deep Dive Idea.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Robbie goes off the cuff about an “election promise” by the federal Labor government suggesting a ban on trophies from 20 different animals, ranging from black bears to giraffes. Australia has already banned the importation of elephant, rhino, and lion trophies, so the basic question one has to ask oneself is: Why? Let’s call it what it is—a cynical and damaging push by the anti-hunter, anti–sustainable-use sector of Australia’s political wing. Learn all about the benefits of hunting and the amazing work hunters are truly doing on the ground in these “trophy destinations” right here in this episode of Short Truths—in just eight minutes.

Do you have questions we can answer? Send it via DM on IG or through email at [email protected] 

Support our Conservation Club Members!

Classic African Hunting: https://classicafricanhunting.com/ 

Landtrust: https://landtrust.com/ 

Everyone Deserves to Play: https://theoriginsfoundation.org/conservation-projects/everyone-deserves-to-play/ 

See more from Blood Origins: https://bit.ly/BloodOrigins_Subscribe

Music: Migration by Ian Post (Winter Solstice), licensed through artlist.io

This podcast is brought to you by Bushnell, who believes in providing the highest quality, most reliable & affordable outdoor products on the market. Your performance is their passion. https://www.bushnell.com 

This podcast is also brought to you by Silencer Central, who believes in making buying a silencer simple and they handle the paperwork for you. Shop the largest silencer dealer in the world. Get started today! https://www.silencercentral.com 

Don't forget to go subscribe to our new The Origins Foundation Podcast Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/@TheOriginsFoundationPodcast - who knows, you may be a lucky subscriber who wins some cool stuff from our partner companies!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In today’s media there are a lot of scientific reports, peer-reviewed science articles, and government gazettes that are long, cumbersome, and frankly difficult to understand. Let’s be honest too, nobody today has time to read those long articles and reports either. So we have decided to help you understand them. We have a new podcast series called The Deep Dive - where we’re taking a really dense scientific document and boiling it down for you so that you can understand it and share it at the bar, around the dinner table, on the golf course or wherever you are. We’re starting with a paper on legal reform of elephant management principles by Dr. Sam Ferreira. Please see below for the full link for the paper.

Making a case for legal reform: https://wildlife.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wsb.70034 

Do you have questions we can answer? Send it via DM on IG or through email at [email protected] 

Support our Conservation Club Members!

Classic African Hunting: https://classicafricanhunting.com/ 

Vortex Optics: https://vortexoptics.com/ 

Everyone Deserves to Play: https://theoriginsfoundation.org/conservation-projects/everyone-deserves-to-play/ 

See more from Blood Origins: https://bit.ly/BloodOrigins_Subscribe

Music: Migration by Ian Post (Winter Solstice), licensed through artlist.io

This podcast is brought to you by Bushnell, who believes in providing the highest quality, most reliable & affordable outdoor products on the market. Your performance is their passion. https://www.bushnell.com 

This podcast is also brought to you by Silencer Central, who believes in making buying a silencer simple and they handle the paperwork for you. Shop the largest silencer dealer in the world. Get started today! https://www.silencercentral.com 

Don't forget to go subscribe to our new The Origins Foundation Podcast Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/@TheOriginsFoundationPodcast - who knows, you may be a lucky subscriber who wins some cool stuff from our partner companies!

Intro Music: Captain Joz - Smile High, artlist.io license

If you are interested in us deconstructing a science article, report, or government brief, please send it to us at [email protected] with the subject - Deep Dive Idea.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After a 3 week long documentary expedition visiting multiple owners and understanding their plights as it relates to rhino conservation, Robbie sits down with all three of the largest private rhino owners, outside the South African government itself, the first time the three have ever been in the same room. The conversation that ensues covers rhinos, which these three love more than anything, rhino conservation, and what it truly takes from budgets to land to medical, security and beyond to be stewards of these animals. It’s the epitome of rhino conservation. 

Do you have questions we can answer? Send it via DM on IG or through email at [email protected] 

Support our Conservation Club Members!

Classic African Hunting: https://classicafricanhunting.com/ 

Vortex Optics: https://vortexoptics.com/ 

Everyone Deserves to Play: https://theoriginsfoundation.org/conservation-projects/everyone-deserves-to-play/ 

See more from Blood Origins: https://bit.ly/BloodOrigins_Subscribe

Music: Migration by Ian Post (Winter Solstice), licensed through artlist.io

This podcast is brought to you by Bushnell, who believes in providing the highest quality, most reliable & affordable outdoor products on the market. Your performance is their passion. https://www.bushnell.com 

This podcast is also brought to you by Silencer Central, who believes in making buying a silencer simple and they handle the paperwork for you. Shop the largest silencer dealer in the world. Get started today! https://www.silencercentral.com 

Don't forget to go subscribe to our new The Origins Foundation Podcast Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/@TheOriginsFoundationPodcast - who knows, you may be a lucky subscriber who wins some cool stuff from our partner companies!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices