
Podcast by Matt Stansberry and Sarah Rose

Podcast by Matt Stansberry and Sarah Rose

20 January 2026
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

06 January 2026
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

02 December 2025
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

20 November 2025
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

10 November 2025
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

18 October 2025
00:00
01:21:03