The Campfire's Edge

podcast artwork

Podcast by Matt Stansberry and Sarah Rose

The Campfire's Edge

The Campfire's Edge is a media project to collect the paranormal experiences of hunters, anglers and others encountering the more-than-human in wild places. Hosted by Sarah Rose and Matt Stansberry. Sarah is an outdoorswoman, mother and artist documenting the physical interaction of humans and animals in the landscape. Matt is a writer, fly fisherman, father, deer hunter and magician. They live in the Haw River watershed in North Carolina.

Latest episodes

episode artwork

20 January 2026

Hunting Western North Carolina's New Bear Management Units

Western North Carolina opened a new chapter this year: the first regulated black bear hunts in some of the steepest, coldest, and most tangled country in the state. Sarah and Matt both drew tags for this historic hunt. In this episode, they share stories from the field; two hunts shaped by different challenges.

Matt’s encounter unfolded fast, with close-distance decisions and teeth clacking in the brush. Sarah battled brutal terrain and a sudden mountain cold snap that shut down bear movement and made for dangerous conditions.

After the stories, we sit down with Justin McVey, the district wildlife biologist overseeing the region. Justin walks us through the biology and politics behind the new season, and what’s at stake as populations expand into both wilderness and neighborhoods.

Check out TheCampfiresEdge.com for episode notes, hunt photos and original art.

If you enjoy the work Sarah and I are doing, please consider supporting our publishing project on Patreon.

Also, it helps the show a ton if you give us a rating on your podcast player of choice, or share it on social media.

00:00

01:37:43

episode artwork

06 January 2026

Folk Medicine, Politics and Interdimensional Swamp Trees with Hal Herring

In this episode, Sarah and I sit down with Hal Herring, host of the Backcountry Hunters & Anglers Cast and Blast, for a wide-ranging conversation about hunting, conservation, and what it really means to be in relationship with land.

Hal brings decades of experience as an outdoor journalist, conservation advocate, and lifelong hunter, and we move through topics ranging from big-game seasons and public land realities to harder questions: who gets to shape conservation priorities, why conflict is unavoidable (and necessary), and what hunters owe the landscapes that feed and sustain them. Along the way, we talk herbalism, fire ecology, strange experiences in the woods, and the ways knowledge forms when you spend enough time paying attention outside.

Check out Hal here: https://www.halherring.com/ and BHA Cast and Blast here: https://www.backcountryhunters.org/Media/BHA-Podcasts

If you enjoy the work Sarah and I are doing, please consider supporting our publishing project on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheHungryForest

And it helps the show a ton if you give us a rating on your podcast player of choice, or share it on social media.

Go to TheCampfiresEdge.com to check out photos from my 2008 trip to the high desert of Eastern Oregon on a habitat restoration project with one of BHA's founding leaders, Mike Beagle. https://thecampfiresedge.com/

00:00

01:27:01

episode artwork

02 December 2025

Hunting and Magical Practice - Aspen from Yarrow & Bone

In this episode we are talking about magical practice and hunting.

Human's earliest magical practices almost certainly arose from attempts to secure hunting success. But today, the overlap between these two archaic practices is very limited.

In this episode we are talking to Aspen, who is a poet and hunter and magical practitioner living out in the American west and she has a substack called Yarrow and Bone which we encourage folks to check out.

If you are a hunter who has a magical practice that you follow, we'd love to hear from you. You can reach out to us at info@thecampfiresedge.com.

Aspen's Substack: https://yarrowandbone.substack.com/

The Campfire's Edge Site has original artwork and show notes: https://thecampfiresedge.com/

Follow The Hungry Forest Gallery & Press on Patreon for more writing and art projects and support the show: https://www.patreon.com/TheHungryForest

00:00

01:02:02

episode artwork

20 November 2025

Bow Hunter Encounters Bigfoot in Tar Hollow State Forest

Almost fifteen years ago to the day, our friend Jeremy encountered Bigfoot in a remote part of Ohio's Tar Hollow State forest during deer season. His climbing tree stand is likely still connected to the tree, after he ran out of the woods; it's the only time he's done that, in decades of hunting encounters with other large and potentially dangerous animals. We talk about the landscape that shapes hunters, what real fear in the woods feels like, why credible people stay quiet about encounters, and make plans for all of us to go back and stand in “their living room” again.

For more episodes, original art and show notes, check out TheCampFiresEdge.com. You can support the show by giving us a review wherever you listen to podcasts, and you can find more of our work on Patreon.com/TheHungryForest

https://thecampfiresedge.com/

https://www.patreon.com/TheHungryForest

00:00

52:27

episode artwork

10 November 2025

Holy Enforcers, Supernatural Gamekeepers, talking saints with Dr. Peggy Eppig

Dr. Peggy Smith Epig (environmental historian, longtime ranger, and Goucher professor) joins us to talk about how stories shape land ethics, from St. Hubert and St. Cuthbert to fieldwork in West Virginia where a small chapel’s stag icon sparks a conversation about hunting, stewardship, and community norms.

We trace the hagiography of “holy gamekeepers,” a pilgrim’s encounter with an Iberian wolf on the Camino, and the local work of river care and urban stream monitoring—asking how lived experience (and occasional high strangeness) changes how we act on the ground.

Dr. Epig's Pilgrimage Substack is here: https://peppig.substack.com/

Her nature journal substack is here: https://peggysmitheppig.substack.com/

Her Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6Wo_fg9XF0NU8aRq4oq0mw

Find original episode art and more episodes at TheCampfiresEdge.com. And if you would like to support the show and get exclusive publications related to the topics we discuss, check out Patreon.com/TheHungryForest.

00:00

01:52:16

episode artwork

18 October 2025

Interview with Dan Flores, Author of Coyote America and Wild New World

In this episode, Sarah and Matt interview Dan Flores, author of Coyote America and Wild New World: The Epic Story of Animals and People in America. We also announce the launch of our new imprint, The Hungry Forest Gallery & Press. Go to TheCampfiresEdge.com for original art and episode notes and check out our new Patreon for The Hungry Forest to support our work.

00:00

01:21:03

Copyright © The Campfire's Edge. All rights reserved.

Powered by