On MeatEater, Hunter, author, cook and conservationist Steven Rinella treks into the world's most remote, beautiful regions, bringing game meat from field to table. We want to create a forum here for MeatEater & Steven Rinella fans to share and discuss all things MeatEater. Hunt, Fish & Learn
Link to Ben’s announcement: https://www.instagram.com/bennyob301/p/CYml88tPStm/?utm_medium=copy_link
Excited for this podcast as I enjoyed THC when it was part of the MeatEater lineup. It really gets me thinking about Ben O’Brien’s departure and some of the unanswered questions there. The THC podcast was cancelled right when there were these growing Facebook groups focused on mentoring new hunters, promoted by podcast listeners but not actually organized by MeatEater. I couldn’t help but notice around the same time, Steve took some heat for the MeatEater website publishing an article discussing the idea of hunter recruitment, the RRR movement more specifically, actually having a negative impact on existing hunters and conservation generally, including a quote from Steve himself expressing sympathy with the idea. (I believe his brother wrote the article). Then they announce the podcast being discontinued under circumstances they can’t discuss, the hunting mentorship Facebook groups are told they cannot use “The Hunting Collective” in their name or imagery, and Ben announces he is leaving (in an Instagram post with several pictures from his time at MeatEater, but none with Steve).
Really wonder if there was some internal conflict about what direction Steve wanted to take the company.
I’m sure I could be overthinking it, I just feel there’s a lot of unanswered questions and I would love to hear Ben’s take someday. Like I said I was a big fan of THC and am looking forward to this new show.
![r/nba - [Thinking Basketball] Podcast #90: The 75th anniversary team - Part 2. With all the renewed talk about the selection and possible snubs, it's worth a listen.](https://b.thumbs.redditmedia.com/Z9lTd9A4FprQnuUyupQVnmbHLi2AqWUMpXoA-6vO6PU.jpg)
Excited to hear Ben's newest pod.
Bummed it will be without Phil. They had a great dynamic.
I’m a big fan and love following these guys. Personally, the THC podcast was not my cup of tea just because I felt there wasn’t much substance to his episodes other than some quality guests like Dr. Geist (probably misspelled) and vegan activists. I would really like to know what the reason was for the departure was, especially Remi. Remi had great practical content.
I did notice as well that Steve and Clay seem to occasionally have some tiffs. Especially on that Texas hunt on season 10. I love clay and Steve both but all those content guys have their own personalities and beliefs. There’s bound to be some head butting.
Overall, I wouldn’t have pursued hunting the way I have without those guys and I believe what they’re doing is overall a net positive
Steve and Clay always go at each other but you can tell Steve has a great amount of respect for him. I feel like Clay’s role at the Meateater is cemented.
Steve is just generally a lot more dismissive of younger guys.
Steve obviously has an immense amount of respect for Clay, but I get a vibe like they've had some serious arguments about religion, off the record, lol.
I don’t see that. I feel like Steve is one of those guys who isn’t religious but he appreciates religious people. I’ve seen him express that many times
Someone else commented that Remi' sponsors are not part of the Meateater brands, and that probably explains it.
I don’t mind Ben personally but I never cared for his appearances on meateater podcasts. I feel like his personality just didn’t fit with the rest of the crew. His jokes often missed the mark and he just came off as a try hard to me. With all the new great personalities joining Meateater he became kinda obsolete. Mark is a resident whitetail specialist, Spencer is now their research guy, Clay is the bear/mule guy and their go to when it comes to southern hunting culture. Ben just didn’t bring anything new to the table, except for maybe his philosophical debates on ethics and hunter vs vegan arguments
It’s funny how he sort of foreshadowed his exit on one of the podcasts where guys were talking about “breaking up” with hunting partners and cutting them out. I remember Ben saying something like “now that I think about it Steve hasn’t asked me to hunt with him in years”
Hope his podcast does well though
Ben just liked to try to jump in with dumb jokes and t-shirt ideas.
The best job he did was researching that bear mauling story on the face no longer attached
There's been a few noteworthy departures lately. I know Miles had to leave because his wife got another job, but what's the deal with Ben and Remi?
People change jobs all the time for all sorts of reasons, I just changed jobs because I felt I was undervalued at my old job. Probably the same for Ben and Remi.
People like to imagine big drama when it’s likely just as boring as what happens at their work.
I'd assumed Remi just left to do his own thing with his YouTube videos/sponsors. Always liked him, but it seems like his recent videos are 8 minutes of close-ups of his gear followed by a minute or two of actual hunting footage.
Remi never seems to last long with any particular show or partnership. Seems to always be chasing the next thing or the most dollars and doesn't seem to play well with others. He's cares too much about sponsorships and himself in my opinion and seems fake.
Remi has said it over and over again. He prefers not to keep all his eggs in one basket and if you work for a large company like Meateater that is what you are doing. They are going to make him leave all of his sponsors and they will tell him what he has to do versus him having the freedom and flexibility to do what he wants to do.
Steve’s wife got involved Bc people were gaining more popularity . She didn’t like that and made the decision to let some folks go
I’m sure there’s drama, there’s “drama” between friends, there’s drama between coworkers, there are conflicting opinions. People also, frequently in my opinion want to forge their own trail. If someone’s goal is to be “the guy” (like Steve, not saying it in a bad way at all) it’s hard to do when you have the meat eater behind you.
Take into account ratings, take into account that Ben might have always wanted to do his own thing. Or found out that he wanted to do his own thing for any number of reasons.
Enough meat eater TMZ for me lol
Seriously. So weird to spend time hypothesizing about drama between people you don’t even know.
I was more so curious about what looks to me like a somewhat shift away from RRR at MeatEater, and with Steve being the leader of the company and Ben hosting a podcast focused on RRR, I think that relationship is relevant.
Other than the direction it takes the company and their content, I couldn’t care less about drama between the crew.
Might be Matt’s influence tbh.
Just saw Ben O'Brien updated his LinkedIn to show he now works for 'Duck Camp Co' out of Austin Texas. Makes sense since he was just in Austin hanging out with Rogan this week.
I couldn’t stand listening to him glad to see him go
Same he was mega wack
It’s possible Ben left to get back to Austin. Seems like a similar role that he had at yeti and duck camp co is an emerging Trendy company. I could see the appeal with a defined role at a more traditional outdoor company.
My guess is it's just a shitty place to work. I mean they are on this sub trying to recruit employees. Ben and Remi left and my guess is Spencer or Janis will be next prolly followed sometime down the road by Clay. The disdain for Steve in Spencers voice can be felt through earbuds when Steve basically tells him to hush during podcasts. Steve apparently only let's Jani on the podcast anymore to do childish book reports that Steve just interrupts and argues about. I'm sure Clay and Steve's pissing matches will eventually push Clay away especially now that Clay has a very successful podcast that's better than the Meateater podcast. If anyone remembers April Vokey use to be part of the Meateater team and she left also. Seth and Chester are Steve's "yes men" so they're not going anywhere. I hope Ben's new podcast is heavy on hunting discussion and leaves the cults, whiteclaw, and etc out cause that shit was stupid.
You do know that all these other people have jobs that don’t involve the podcast right? Janis is a producer for the tv show, which I would imagine has a rather demanding production schedule.
Vokey did Das Boat fairly recently. She’s still listed as a part of them team. She’s just more of a freelancer and does her own thing.
Dude you’re just posting negativity on every thread. I thought this sub was about those who like the meateater content not those who hate on it.
What's wrong with looking at Meateater with a critical eye? Matt Rinella sure does.
Nothing wrong, but say something positive once in a while at least. Matt doesn’t always act like a douche, he just did that one time on the Christmas podcast
Agreed. He seemed like he had a point to make and wanted to really ruffle Steve’s feathers on that episode. Outside of that I don’t think Matt legitimately hates Meateater like he expressed on the podcast. We just got to witness an argument between rinella brothers hahaha
Where’s this critical eye?
So so tired of Seth and Chester, the Walleye fishing BS, and chewing tobacco convos.
Nah those two are salt of the earth. Missed on this one
Nah. Don’t think you’re overthinking it. That all sounds pretty spot on. Haha.
Hilarious that you fanboys have a subreddit to talk about this soap opera. You should meet up at a pint night in your flannels to discuss, really get into the MEAT of it.
Having met with Ben in person and working with him on a project, I can say that he is a very honest and down to earth person.