Over the past year, I have fully immersed myself in the hunting side of the modern hunter gatherer lifestyle. From trout and deep sea fishing to hunting wild turkey, black bear and coyote, my experiences harvesting wild animals to put meat on my table have been profound and life-changing, and I’d like to share my story with you. As a conscientious omnivore, I’m always striving to develop a closer relationship with the food I consume. Through hunting and gathering bio-regionally, I’m able to participate with my local ecology and develop an intimate relationship with the place I call home. In this solo episode, I detail the reasons why I hunt and share a bit about how I got started and how you can too.
Deep gratitude to my mentors, to the wild creatures who have become part of my body and to you for your support of my journey to deepen my connection to my local ecology and ancestral heritage.
Are you eating what you think you are? As a modern hunter gatherer, I am quite conscious and meticulous about the foods I consume. I base my diet on a Four Kingdoms approach (eating from the animal, plant, fungal and bacterial kingdoms), and I strive to source the majority of my food bio-regionally. I still shop at Whole Foods and occasionally dine at farm to table-style restaurants, of course, and I was shocked to learn of the rampant food fraud that extends to seemingly reputable grocers and eateries.
Award-winning food journalist and travel writer Larry Olmsted wrote a comprehensive exposé on fraud in the unregulated food industry, and he is here to reveal some of the industry’s most adulterated foods. He teaches us how we can be more vigilant consumers as we navigate grocery store aisles, food labels and restaurant menus.
Julie Angel is a filmmaker, author and photographer who documents the current ‘age of athletisiscm’ with a focus on Parkour, MovNat, buildering and much more. What’s buildering, you might be asking? I thought it was a typo at first, too, but Julie explains this small, but passionate, subculture as we get into the fascinating world of urban movement mavericks.
In this interview, Julie takes us back to the early beginnings of Parkour. In researching her Parkour-themed PhD thesis, she spent time on the streets getting to know the Yamakasi — the original group of Parkour practitioners — and got an up-close and personal look into the lives of these interesting characters who shaped the modern Parkour movement. To me, Parkour represents human wildness breaking free in domesticated landscapes — the human animal in movement across urban habitat. City dwellers, take note, this can be a unique way for you to utilize your environment for your natural movement practice! At the heart of Parkour, is a message of looking past the limitations of our environment, our innate, primal drive for sovereignty and embracing our intrinsic wildness.
What a treat it was to talk with primatologist and biological anthropologist Craig Stanford. If you’re a regular listener of ReWild Yourself podcast, you probably know how deeply fascinated I am with the great apes. I think they give us a window into understanding ourselves biologically, into understanding our wildness and even help us to glimpse into our origins.
Craig — author of sixteen books and over one hundred scholarly and popular articles — has studied chimpanzees extensively, studying their hunting behavior in Tanzania in collaboration with Dr. Jane Goodall, studying chimps and mountain gorillas in Uganda and more. He takes us on a journey to the meeting place of primatology and anthropology. He breaks down the social behaviors of some of the great apes, focusing on chimps and bonobos, and shares some of his controversial findings on the popularized "peaceful bonobo" research. This interview provides context to many of the themes we discuss on this podcast and was my favorite of the season. if you’re interested in ReWilding, I think you’ll find our conversation fascinating.