00:00:00 Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, and welcome to a special episode with the Hunting Collective on Been O'Brien. Today. We have no guests on the show, uh, because we're gonna talk about something pretty momentous for the podcast and and for me personally, hopefully for you everybody that listens every week uh and joins us for every conversation. Um. It's an announcement that I've been alluding to probably for months. Uh, something we've been working on for quite some time, around a year to get this to you guys. And it's an announcement that I care a lot about. So further, without further ado, a special episode of the show coming up, just me talking about this new thing. Enjoy it. Well, this is weird for me because there is no guests on the podcast today. It's just me talking to me in a room. Kind of weird. Weird because that's not what this podcast is meant to be. It's not be it's not been to me about me. It's not really meant to be about announcements or or what we're doing right now. It's meant to be a shared conversation between all of us that go hunting, love to do it, love going outside, love, the natural world, love issues around it, love politics. I love the philosophies of of hunting and hunters, love all the ideas we share in those types of things. UM. Obviously, if you're if you've listened to the podcast, you care about this announcement, you'll already know all those things. But what you won't know is that, for for the last ten months or so, I've been working on UM what had led to today, what had led to this announcement. Now, I could take you way way back to when it when this first started, but I think UM, everybody knows the history of the person that we're talking about. UM. Even if you listen to episode one of this podcast, you'll know UM Stephen Rennell, and you'll know that he was the first episode of this podcast for a reason, because he's somebody that I very much admire, and I very much hope that my career could at some level achieve the heights that he has, not in money or adulation or fame, but an impact, an impact on the hunting community, the fishing community, the community of people that like to go outside and appreciate the natural world, want to learn about it. I want to share that with others and truly think it enriches their lives. Steve has has in his you know, relatively short career as a writer, author, TV show host, po cast host, done that at spades. I think, I mean, I think Steve is a great example of somebody who has affected many people and only the first podcast we talked about how the power of ideas. We talked about the power of having something in your gut, in your head and your heart and not being able to really talk about in the way you'd want to, not be able to express yourself, having an idea but not being able to form it, and then reading someone's writing or listening to their podcast, or experiencing their ideas and their perspective and allowing those things to shape your own ideas and allowing you then better to express yourself. Steve went through that. I've gone through that in my example. I've gone through that mainly because of Steve's writings and because of his podcast and all the things he said and done over his career, and it inspired me to hopefully he create a podcast that would do that for for the folks that would listen to it, they would experience a conversation, they would be able to listen intently to that conversation and then get some perspective from shared ideas. So I say all that to say the announcement is that The Hunting Collective is joining a company called Mediator Inc. And Mediator Inc. Is a company founded by Steve Rinella. It's a company that's based in Bozeman, Montana, and is going to be a media company. The media company is going to focus on what we're calling h F two C. It's a fancy acronym for hunt fish conservation culinary of the four things that you know, we really care about the most, and the podcast is is joining a network of other podcasts, other podcasters, other writers, other people that share the ethos that Steve and I share. You know, that is basically that we love the outdoors. We were guarded as sacred and we believe that that deeper connection to nature enriches all of our lives. That's why we get up in the morning. And that's why The Hunting Collective is joining Media Incorporated and all this all this properties that will become this company. Um and I that's why I joined the company. Left Eddie went from Texas, moved to bozman Montana to join me Eating Incorporated and become its editorial director. Um, those who don't know, I can tell you that in my past life before I was with Yeddie, I was journalism student and a longtime editor for different websites and magazines around the hunting industry. And that's really my passion. And so what a partnership with Steve Ranella and Meetia and Incorporated offered to me was a chance to take this podcast to a larger platform, and it was it was a chance for me to lead the editorial output of the platform at the same time. And so that's what this is, and that shared idea you know that I talked about in the beginning of this, it's really like we're just this like minded group of people who are passionate about uh content creation. And hopefully what Steve teaches you guys, and when he taught me, is is the ability to articulate these complex ideas and an honest and thoughtful of challenging in a funny way. That's it's it's irreverence sometimes uh and sometimes surprising. And so the reason that I followed Steve to this and other folks have as well, is because we want to become one really I mean, that's that's kind of melodramatic way to say. But we we want to come and take this shared idea and bring as many people into it as we can, both content creators, audience members, people that listen. We want you to come and be a part of this thing and share it with us. We want to be collective story tellers of hunting, fishing, eating, living the outdoor life, and letting the natural world be the thing that drives us. Yeah. So you'll see a lot of press releases today and and other times about this company. You'll see kind of the blocking and tackling right of of how you announce a company, press releases and and different things like that. But I wanted you to hear this from me in in the audio format of a podcast because it it takes more explanation than just here's a list of people doing a thing to make for their jobs, and they'll make money and they'll make content and all these other things. Because that, to me, is not the purpose for my joining Mediater Incorporated, for the Hunting Collective, joining it's podcast network and content network. When Steve and I first started talking about this company and possibly my my coming aboard and leaving my great job where I was prior we started talking about you know why you get out of bed in the morning, and I'm not the kind of person. If you listen to this podcast, hopefully you know that by now, I'm not the type of person that I can get out of bed in the morning for any other reason than I would just just say it's tribal nature. I want to get up in the morning and feel like I'm working towards my passion with a bunch of other people that share that same passion. And at the end of the day, being a journalist means you tell stories, and in this case, you tell stories to increase the opportunity for other folks to come along in that passion and maybe have that kind of sprout or bloom in them, and for them to um take up hunting or fishing or whatever it might be, going outside and procuring your food, eating that stuff. And so it's it's that's what it is. Um at the end of the day, it's why do we get out of bed in the morning. It's not how are we gonna make money and build houses and have have life. It's we'll get there, But it's why why do we get out of bed in the morning. And as a content creator, there's not you know, go look at cable TV, look around the internet, uh, clickbait, network news. There's so many types and forms of media and content out there that's not meant to better you, and it's not made by people that are passionate about what you care about and care about you. And so part of it is this is my idealism, and and everybody else involved a media and incorporated the idealistic notion that when we get up out of bed in the morning, we're thinking about the same thing. We're thinking about hunting, fishing, the conservation of our ideals, and the cooking of the thing that we gather when we go outside, and those things enrich our lives. And that's what we're thinking about when we get out of bed, those things. And if if that is true, if everybody is is on that same basic wavelength, then meteor incorporated and the hunting collective in and in all that this really becomes in the future, because it has a long way to go, but we won't have to worry about clickbait or sensationalism. We won't have to worry about those things because we care about what you care about. And that's the basis of this thing. And so when people ask what's the company? What are you even doing? Wasn't me either? A TV show? Isn't that Steven Ella's TV show? What do you even are? You just? Do? You just work for Steven Ella's TV show? Um, and I would say no. Steve an LSTV show and Meat Eater as a brand will be a big part of our company. Will it will not be the only part of our company. Um. The Hunting Collective will be a big part of our media brand Wired Hunt with our friend Mark Kenyon, a white tail expert, all around good dude, He'll be a big part of the company with his he'll he's bringing on his brand Wire to Hunt expert fly Fisherman straight out of British Columbia. April Vokey has come on to be a big part in her podcast Anchored her brand Around that has come on at Wardo Garcia Celebrated Chef and was featured in the documentary Charged. He's also coming on to share his his thoughts and ideas with us man and those are all parts of this company. So it's a network of content creators. That's what I would say, and we can see if we create, we distribute you know, digital and physical content experiences, and we'll have events, will have all types of things uh out there for you. That's what's gonna grow. So there's a lot of questions around what this is going to be, but in reality, it's a bunch of content creators who care about the space, care about hunting, fish, conservation, culinary and are coming together for that mission that that spoke about in our y. And it doesn't really matter what kind of media we create. You know, Podcasts are certainly popular right now, and everybody I just mentioned that's coming aboard has a podcast. Um, so that's important right now. But there's also every other connection we can have with you, you know, whether it's having a live podcast event or whether it's just coming going from town to town and cooking backstress with everybody. I think for me, what Media Incorporated hopefully will be was just a commonplace for us to share ideas and passions. You know. I try at the same time, and I say that to make sure that it doesn't come off cliche or marketing eat or whatever, but it is, um, it's very sincere, and it's something that Mr Ronella and I Mr Kenyon, Mrs Folkey, Mr Garcia. We also have Patrick Durkin, great writer at the Wisconsin. I've got Daniel Pruwett from All in Hold doing recipes. We've just and and and really we're gonna add many more. You're gonna see lots of announcements in the coming months about what we're doing, why we're doing it. We'll bring any more folks. Um it's it's all those folks come together to speak in one voice to the things we care about. So hopefully that's not too cliche for you, but that's what this is, and that's what it's going to be in the future. Just won't change the hunting collective. It will still be exactly how it is. We will continue next week with the episode thirty and our episodic string of conversations, and those conversations will be designed to make the hunting community a better place through other people's stories, perspectives, and ideas. That will continue and it will be amplified by Media Incorporated and its networking podcasts. So the first effort we've done is is our website. So if you go to the meat Eater dot com, you're going to check out articles from the aforementioned contributors, including Kenyan and Boki and myself and Steve Ronella. You'll see a lot of things starting to happen there around hunting, fish, conservation, and culinary And what I'm asking you today is the follow along with the rest of our path, our journey of creating this company. Because it's a media company, it's not for us, um it's for you. And so we've really decided that being you know, open with everyone about what we're trying to do, what we're trying to accomplish, and letting you follow us along the way as we build this thing is the best way to do it. So we're going to We're gonna show you behind the curtains, who we want to add, why we want to add them to this network, what they can bring to the table. And there's gonna be a lot of folks you'll recognize, hopefully come and join us, uh And there'll be a lot of folks maybe you don't recognize that we think are talented folks that that share our why and that can share thoughts, ideas and creativity with you. Folks who listened to this, who listened to meet eats podcasts, Who listen to our and hunt? Who listened to anchor? Who? And who enjoy the things we enjoy and it and I have this like bulleted point list of what to talk about in front of me, But I keep going back to the why. And when you create a company, any company, it's around you know, if you don't know your why, then you're just selling widgets. I mean Steve Jobs New Apples why and he told them to think different. I think different. They did. They changed the freaking world. Now we're not gonna We don't have visions of changing the world here with this company, but we surely do have visions of making a difference and lifting up the entire hunting hunting world, man, the entire hunting world being lifted up by this thing. Um, that's what we want to do. We don't want to push anyone else down. Rising tide, man, we want to be the rising tide. We want to lift all ships and lift h our world up with us, our hunting world, our fishing world. And and bear in mind that this is this is called the hunting collective, but fishing it's not something I do a whole lot of right now. To be honest with you, because I love hunting so much to kind of enveloped my whole life. But fishing, I think is is that is much the same activity as hunting. It's just that it's appreciation of the natural world. So while we probably won't cover that a whole lot on this podcast, UM, I'm happy to be working with somebody like April Okey, who hopefully if you know or if you don't know, or look her up, but if you do know her, you'll know that she's an expert of experts man. She is fully immersed in the fly fishing world. She knows more than I'll ever hope to know. And similar from our Kenyon, who knows you know more about white tails than I'll ever hope to learn. And uh, that's what's exciting about coming together with those folks and learning from them, and then learning from my experience and and vice versa with Steve. And so I think we all know at the end of the day that the hunting world has room to improve, right, that's not the reason we're doing this, but we know that there's some things we can do better as a community. Two message against to learn against and to let the world know what we're all about And now that brings me back to like, what was the purpose of this this podcast, if you can call it, that just me talking like the pro we made this company, right, we put this company together and we sat down and said why are we doing this? What? What's our why? And it was that whole big thing about how the natural world enriches our lives. I mean, that's what we came to. We sat in the room, we talked, and we talked to him, We talked and Ronnella through this line out and we all were like, whoa, that's it. That's it. Man. I gave me chills when I heard the first time when he said what would become our why? But also like why? I also thought, like for hunters, why do we kill things? And I'm think about this a lot lately. Why you know, we we know why we made this company, but do I know why I kill things? And again, it's not harvesting, it's killing. You harvest the meat, but you kill the animal. There's a living being that now he's gone from the earth because you made it so and so connected to the why the company is the why for our community? Why do we go hunting? Why do we kill things? And in the doing, in the hunting and the killing. Why do we act the way we do when we're doing it? And what's more important, why can't we seem to get across to the rest of the world this most enriching thing in the right way. Why does it seem that our storyline falls short with the non hunting public. Why did our message get twisted somewhere along the way? And it's an interesting parallel. I believe, I believe why anybody does anything? Uh is one of the more interesting topics that we could cover. You know, we talked about it. Like I said earlier, why do you get out of bed in the morning? Well, why do I get out of bed in the morning? Is different than everyone else. But let's find our common beliefs and let that drive us. So that's what meatia or ink will do. But parallel to that, what I want to do with the hunting collective going forward, propelled by this new network of content creators, is explore everyone's why you know? Why is Mark Kenyon like whitetail honey? Why does Stephen Ronnella love a good elk countin? Why does someone celebrate when when an animal dies? Why does the person across the room become very side Allumn and sad when an animal dies. Why? Because I think we've struggled with why. That's the hunting community, and I've struggled with my own why. And I think just once a year, I check in with myself and I said, do your why change? Did the way you hunt change? You've experienced a whole year's worth of hunting. Did that change you in any way? And like, take retake stock of of why I go and do what I do, and try to keep that as pure as possible in this world with all the motivations and all the things that can happen, try to keep it as pure as possible. And so connecting those two wise why we and why we made me eat? And incorporated a company? And why do we go hunting? The way they're connected is by the people people involved, the media incorporated, the content creators that can help teach me why they go. So maybe it'll it'll shine a light on why I go. And that brings it all the way back to the very beginning of this podcast, when I asked Steve Ronella, you know, like, what is the point of all this? What is the point of being a writer? And editor and author, and he said, because somewhere deep and down inside of me was a why. Somewhere deep down inside of me was this idea that I couldn't articulate, but it was my why. It was deep down in there. And then I read a book by someone who who already had their wife figured out. I read a book and that book said shared an idea of that shaped the way that I was able to express my why. And that changed my life. How damn that was a great first podcast. Hopefully you can after this one go back and listen to a real podcast, which is me talking to Steve, not me just talking. But go back and listen to that one and try to find the part where where Steve connects his his brother's experience with shaping ideas, his experience with shaping ideas. There's a bit in there that goes to Steve's why and my why. It's because shared ideas shape perspectives, and perspectives can't shape the freaking world man, without being again too dramatic about it. So if anybody might criticize the creation of this company, they might criticize it as just another media venture, just another venture of a bunch of people trying to get together, put media out there, sell advertising against it, trick people into buying stuff. What I can tell you is is this company is about more than that. This company is about more than that. And uh I hope, I hope we can prove that to you as a group led by Steve Ronella. I hope we can prove that to you in the weeks, years, months to come, that we are about more than just a dollar, that we are about more just just a commerce side of things, and that our content will be only influenced by you, the audience who reads, listens, and takes it in and then out. If anyone joins our company and begins to create content for any other purpose, we will kick them out. And so again I fear that I fear that I am being dramatic, But I'm passionate about this idea. I'm passionate about my why right now, and I'm passionate about this company. So I hope that you follow along but this podcast with Wird Hunt with a Provokes podcast anchored with of course the Meat Eater podcasts, I hope you listen to what everybody has to say and enjoy our shared ideas and as we bring more folks onto this community of constant creators. Hope you follow them too, And I hope we don't take up your whole day listening to podcasts and reading things, but some level, I hope we do, because I hope we're you know, it's a conversation in exchange that makes sense. And so I'll close by saying, um, thanks for everybody that follow along in our our Texas series of podcasts and the podcast that uh followed it. It took us a while to get to this announcement, but I'm glad we're here. I'm glad Mediator Incorporated is out to the world. The new Mediator dot Com is there. Don't think that's the end of our products and the things we're gonna put out for everybody. I don't think that's it. I mean, we're gonna have TV. We're gonna have, you know, way more than just podcasts. As an example of that, Stephen freaking Ronnella, the man we've been talking about this entire time, is launching a freaking hunting show that's a Netflix original. It's a Netflix original hunting show, and he's launching it on October two, which is today. So if you're downloading this one Tuesday, October two or any other day did she listened to this? Go to Netflix, find Meat Eater and watch it, because inside there will be a big reason that The Hunting Collective is part of that show. Are not part of that show. It's part of the of the company that was born from that show, and it's a part of reason why this five minute podcast exists. But really it's this also kick ass show. First episode you got Joe Rogan on their hunting nuilier in Nevada. It's a badass, man. I've been privileged to watch it before everyone else got their hands on it. So just going and look and listen and um follow along with us, and hopefully we'll see you out in the field somewhere. Man, We'll see you at an event, see you at a conservation function, and we can talk about these ideas, because that's what it is, a shared conversation. So until next time, episode thirties coming at you, and it's gonna be a good one. It's one of my favorites, so we'll see. Then that's it. That's all special episode of The Hunting Collective is done. Hopefully you uh understood my ramblings twenty six minutes or so ramblings, just me in a room alone, talking to myself and talking to you. So hopefully you understood what I was getting at and um are excited for the launch of The Hunting Collective is part of the Meat Eater podcast network and Meetiata Incorporated as a whole. So in the meantime, before you get the episode thirty next week with my friends Charles the Rabbitman Rodney, one of my favorite podcasts we've ever done. Before we get there next week, spend the next seven days over at the meat Eator dot com and the Metator dot com. We'll have all of the Hunting Collective episodes that we've we've posted in the past. I mean, we'll have new articles by our friends Mark Kenyan, a provokey Arctic Garcia, Pat Durkin, Daniel Pruitt and of course Mr Ronella, Steve Ronella, and there's plenty of poke around over there. We spent a lot of time put this website together and hope you enjoy the content they're in. Uh. We again cranked and cranked and cranked over this in the last month or so to try to get it live, so you guys can enjoy. In the next coming months and weeks, will be adding other contributors to it. We'll be adding other articles and content to it. Make sure also if you go to that website you sign up for the weekly newsletter that will get everything gone and again, make sure tonight today, whenever you hear this, go to Netflix and watch Meat Either TV season eight. It's the Netflix original, dude, that's celebration. There is one hunting show that the Netflix original in the history of the freaking universe, and is Meat Either TV with Stephen Ronel. So I'm excited to be a part of that in some small way and excited to have this here for you. So we'll see you next time on The Honey Collector. Bye Foster and the O