GoWild on MeatEater Podcast!

Please reach out to them and tell them that. I would love to go toe to toe with Matt. I disagree with most everything he puts out. I agree with a few things he says but most of it is ridiculous. I think I’m going to have to write this article because people keep asking me about this but let’s get team GoWild on meateater. 👊@Joel @Derek @Mike @Brayden

I will start off by saying that I haven't listened to this episode yet, and I only have GoWild for social media, so I'm not able to follow Matt on any other platforms, but I've almost always found myself disagreeing with him when I have heard and seen him in various things. I think he would probably be a pretty cool guy to hang out with and hunt with, I know he knows his stuff, but I just don't agree with his philosophy. I totally agree, we need to get GoWild toe to toe with meateater!

I’m in! First rule has to be a time limit to each point and allowing zero interruptions though. That kind of arrogance and ridiculous stance just shows how selfish he is. I’ve learned a few things after being a cop for almost 3 decades, not the least of which is that you can’t reason with unreasonable people. His movement will never get traction, but his words will draw negative attention that do more harm than good. Get him Brad! 🤣👊

@Brad I've got some free time this week since I'm on Christmas break. So I'll finally start this campaign and see if I can get others on here to join me in telling them they should have you on. The more voices we can get the better.

@Derek Matt said in this episode that he doesn't have any social media at all. So I'm not sure how he is such an expert on it since he knows pretty much nothing about it. 😂

@Mike I completely agree with you, and I feel like his stance is very selfish. Matt is definitely someone who can't be reasoned with. But a thunderdome match between him and @Brad would be very entertaining. 😂

@Cody I’m getting some popcorn and the pay per view prepaid🤪

@Mike

@Joel 🤣

I’m ready

@Cory Fels I completely agree with you there. Those kinds of "influencers" bug the heck out of me. The fact that Matt didn't seem to care when that was brought up showed me a couple things, but mostly that he was just there to argue and be confrontational.

I get Matt’s frustration with overcrowded public lands. Deer season is full of folks in orange and messing with your favorite spots. He seemed to use social media as a scapegoat instead of saying he is pissed that it’s crowded and blames Steve.

Matt did a better job in his article than he did on the podcast. I empathize about the crowding of public places. I also agree that we need to be recruiting folks to do it the right way for the right reasons. That being said, the decline is real and it's a significant problem that affects not only funding but also our strength in numbers. But more people for numbers' sake is not the answer. I'm okay with "guarding the gate" against those who would do more harm than good. But Matt is definitely not the right spokesperson. Ultimately, we all fell victim to BRCC and Meateater capitalizing on the exact thing that Matt is supposedly against.

Following. #MeatEater and #GoWild unite please lol

Public lands are just that you can't get upset others use them the same as you intend to. Sad part is big group shotgun hunters here in Iowa have tons of privet land but the first ground they will hunt every year is all of the public access then they will hunt their own ground. Sad deal but a majority of hunters without the Dads a farmer so I gotta in privilege will only have public land to hunt. Fighting and bickering will eventually kill our sports from the inside sadly. Enjoy what you have because its not promised for tomarrow!

Ok I just finished this. I'm not going to lie. Straight up a good listen. I don't agree with slot of what he says. But I also agree with some of what he says. People have opinions, they aren't wrong. Be open to them and help each other understand one another.

I listen to that podcast every week...... I'm not sure why they would even have Matt on there. Steve obviously got the brains in that family

@Justin those are good points. I almost couldn't believe it when Matt said he'd forfeit all the funding for conservation if there could be half as many hunters. I think instead of trying to battle overcrowding on public lands by cutting the number of hunters, let's find ways to open up more public land to hunting.

@Chad amen. Public land is for everyone, not just hunters. I do a fair amount of trail running, and lots of the areas I do my trail running are where myself and others hunt. It has helped me to think more about the multi use concept of public land.

@Troy

If Matt Rinella boiled his argument down to a single sentence, I’d tend to agree with him. Something like “hunting influencers and wannabe influencers are giving people unrealistic expectations and encouraging people to hunt for attention and sponsorships instead of the love of the hunt, and I think we should discourage people from giving these influencers any more attention.” But unfortunately, the more he talks, the worse his argument gets because he views everything as black and white. Namely, the fact that he thinks ANYONE who posts a picture of a dead animal is trying to be an influencer, which simply isn’t the case. Most people aren’t, and they’re just proud of an accomplishment. He can’t fathom that people might post an animal and not want millions of likes and money being thrown at them. Also his argument that if you want to be home with your wife and kids at any point, you must be hunting for the wrong reasons is absolute crap. Guess I go to the grocery store for the wrong reasons since I’d rather be home with my family than picking up milk and bread. As though you have to be loving every second of your hunt or you’re just as bad as a market hunter. Guess he’s never been stuck out in the wind and rain, wishing he could be in a warm bed, but still grinding through because he wants to have a successful hunt.

@Katie I agree, very well said! I completely agree with you about "influencers." Matt also says that these influencers are creating brand new hunters, which I disagree with. I think that the vast majority of their reach already hunts. And it killed me when he said he is okay with BHA posting and "influencing" because they voted not to actively pursue R3 efforts right now. It felt like he was saying that vote stopped them from creating new hunters from their social media posts, but everyone else that posts on social media is still creating new hunters even though they aren't actively trying. It made no sense to me.

@Cody yeah I’d agree that most people getting into hunting are not doing so because of influencers. There might be some exceptions of course. I would guess both joe Rogan and meateater have gotten some people interested in hunting. But I don’t think the number is as high as he thinks. I think a big part of why things seem more crowded is that people who already hunt are watching shows and listening to podcasts that encourage them to hike farther and do bigger backcountry hunts. So media is still having an effect, but more so on existing hunters than creating new ones

I agree with a lot of what y’all are saying! Man, at some points it got down right awkward, and you could’ve cut the tension with a knife.

@Katie

He made a fool of himself. Completely generalized a large community based on a couple interviews. I know many people who post the results of failed hunts, and the antlerless successes they have too. He sounded whiny about it all and frankly a little jealous. Would love to see @Brad give his rebuttal

@Katie also, if nobody should post pics of their successful hunt then I guess nobody should get the head/shoulders mounted right? After all, that’s showing off your harvest too just on a smaller scale

@Harvesting it is odd that he says it’s okay to hunt for meat, hide, and horns, but not ok to share online…considering horns/antlers are pretty much only used to admire what you killed and show others

@Katie exactly. And while some people unfortunately hunt for trophies, the vast majority do not but still present the head like you said

@Cindy @Rachelle 👀👀👀

@Cody pretty’s

I disagreed with most of what he said, and didn’t like how he dismissed everyone especially Sean weavers very valid point of the diminishing private land opportunities. would be awesome to hear you guys give your input!

@Brad I don’t even know what to say anymore. I haven’t listened but I’m already so exhausted with it all. These arguments (on a personal basis) go so much farther back than the public outcry. At this point, I just feel bad for him. He’s become an angry, rambling, nearly incoherent person that I don’t even recognize anymore.

@Rachelle I don’t know him personally but knew you’d find this interesting discussion on GoWild. Keep doing what you’re doing we need your voice.

This is getting interesting. I should give this episode a listen!

I only value the opinions of men who have bigger deer then me, see I can say dumb shit too 😂

@Brad For years, I referred to him as the better Rinella. He was intelligent, welcoming, and just a good person to be around. I’m not sure what he is anymore. Perhaps he and I will speak face to face again and at some point try to find common ground, but I feel it’s unlikely. His opinions will not change the way I present our traditions and what we do. We have too much to lose.

@Rachelle 👊👊👊

@Nick 😂😂😂

@Nick

@Rachelle it's interesting to see your insights. While it's interesting to listen to people like this on podcasts, it's more interesting to hear from people that know them personally.

Matt may have had an argument, but he was not willing to listen, was constantly criticizing, interrupting and was obnoxious. I saw no reason to listen to him.

@Andrew amen. I'm willing to listen to views I don't agree with or don't understand, but when they act like he did I'm done listening.

As a new hunter largely introduced by Meateater, this makes me very very sad…

I don't think his argument stands. As everyone on here has stated. More hunters isn't a bad thing. I hunt public lands every year and it all comes down to respect. If a guy has a blind in my spot I will find another.

I also thought it was silly to suggest that people who were not into hunting would randomly come across a social media post and suddenly flood the public lands. It seems more realistic that it is a "first world problem". My dad and I just went on our first trip to Montana not because we are on social media but because he saved money for most of my life and took us as a retirement gift to himself. I believe travel has gotten so much less burdensome and as a whole our population has more expendable income. Social media Is almost definitely inspiring some to travel more but my dad and I have been talking about going out west since I was a small child long before social media was a thing.

@Bryan ignore the haters like Matt. He’s a contrarian. Hunt on man! 👊

@Brad thanks!

Me personally I stand with the meat eater crea

I personally stand with the meat eater crew on this debate and to have @Brad with the folks frome the go wild crew would greatly help us normalize hunting in social media.

I don’t get his point about wanting there to reduce the number of

I don’t get his point about wanting to reduce the number of hunters by half. What, he just expects people to stop because he asked? The states and FWS will bow down to Matt Rinella and cut the number of available tags in half?

Alright everyone, it's time to band together and get the GoWild team on MeatEater! Start sending emails to MeatEater asking them to have Brad, Chris, Donovan, and the team on The MeatEater Podcast.

@Hunt. Sleep. Repeat. I’m not commenting on that specific photo but GoWild is a more controlled environment than a Facebook or Instagram. Everyone here mostly understands that wounding and long retrievals happen, for example. I don’t disagree with your point. Images should be tasteful and respectful regardless, but GoWild is in an environment that’s not going to put your content in front of non hunters if you’re using our forums correctly.

@Hunt. Sleep. Repeat. We are on the same page 🤘

@Brad I agree with @Rachelle, this is exhausting. I haven’t listened to the MeatEater podcast yet, but as you know, I did listen to the Blood Origins version and it was painful. My written rebuttal to Matt’s article laid out where I disagree with him. I will listen to the ME podcast, but with the week I’ve had, I’m already in a pretty sour mood, I doubt that podcast is going to help much.

@Cindy I’m trying to listen and it feels like homework

Listening now…

@Brad I’m listening now, they just got to the discussion involving Matt, and I’m already uncomfortable.

@Cindy 😂 me too. I’m taking notes on all of the points I disagree with

@Brad I can’t handle how rude Matt is, to like, everyone in the room. Steve is showing a lot of restraint, I don’t know that I could keep my mouth shut. But yeah, this is not enjoyable.

Wow, listened to this MeatEater podcast.. it’s interesting how Matt can go on these shows and just explode on people like a news reporter… I honestly felt like I was listening to somebody arguing with the opposite Ben Shapiro!… (only not as smart) my take, I tend to agree with @Katie on this one.. he’s kind of a ranting belligerent classic democrat, stuck in a republican’s world. Climate change. That’s the problem. Oh, and Covid (I’m honestly surprised his rant didn’t include these two things… kind of did…). He seems angry and lashing out, he is smart, smart enough to reason through his frustrations and I can’t say I 100% disagree with him. But, his angle is off. And, his problem is with such a small percentage of hunters, that it really isn’t even a problem. Its like getting mad at science professors for making more scientists, because I’m a creationist and don’t agree with the message they’re spreading. Like I said, going about it all wrong. If his angle was positive, “let’s do this to combat bad hunting press and poor quality hunters” rather than “I’m mad at my brother and his friends”, he might have had a better response

@Michael I like your take. I'd be willing to bet there's more behind why he is pushing this and acts like this on the episode.

@Cindy I’m very impressed with Steve’s restraint and I still have 30 minutes left. Next up: @Blood

So I haven’t listened to this one yet so I am confused about what is going on.

@Brad I just downloaded the Blood Origins episode too. Steve showed good restraint, but I laughed when at the end he said "in the end it's my f%*$ing show." 😂 He had definitely had enough.

@Mike you can probably get the jist of it from my post and some of the comments here, but I would recommend going and listening to it.

@Cody 😂😂😂

@Brad I shut it off with about 25 min left, I was tired of the chaos. 🤦🏻‍♀️

I used to love meat eaters, now it’s like “The View”. I followed ME because they talked polices and history, now it’s just a talk show. I liked it much better when it was educational

I’ve now nearly finished the meateater episode and also @Blood show with Matt and the Blood Origins show is way better. There isn’t all of the back and forth. I still disagree with a lot of Matt’s points but he at least explained himself without yelling.

Thanks I’ll have to check it out

@Brad I’m glad you mentioned blood origins. I started listening to it and I have to say it is one of the most thought out podcast I’ve heard. I absolutely love the different perspectives and it really gets you thinking 👍😉. I’m not big on telling people what they should do but I think EVERYONE on this site can get something out of it. Kudos the the Blood Origins crew and what they are trying to achieve.

@Blood is legit!

@Brad making us blush 🤣 - thanks @Mat appreciate the kind words!