581 | Hunting for Mental Health with Dr. John Delony

The Hunt Backcountry Podcast

by Exo Mtn Gear

Sports:wilderness, Sports, Wilderness, Health & Fitness

4.9 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 20 May 2026

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Dr. John Deloney is a mental health expert, bestselling author, comedian — and, yes, passionate backcountry hunter. In this conversation, we explore the intersection of mental health and hunting. This conversation is unlike any other we have had over the 10+ years of The Hunt Backcountry Podcast. We explore... Escaping vs. Reconnecting: The fine line between using hunting to avoid real-life responsibilities and using it as an intentional tool to find beauty, slow down, and return home as a better husband and father. Bonds Formed In The Backcountry: How modern culture has left us digitally "connected" without authentic human connections, and why hunting serves as a rare forge for authentic adult friendships. Dangers of a Hunting Identity: How easily men can get trapped in living for a "dance monkey dance" lifestyle of achievements, and how to tether your identity to something bigger than a trophy scorecard or an Instagram photo. Connect with John... Website: https://johndelony.com/ Podcast: The Dr. John Deloney Show Instagram: @johndelony Books: https://amzn.to/4wFig5a The Hunt Backcountry Podcast is brought to you by Exo Mtn Gear: https://exomtngear.com/ Email Sign-up: https://exomtngear.com/newsletter Contact Us: podcast@exomtngear.com Leave A Message: https://speakpipe.com/huntbackcountry Podcast Episode Archive: https://exomtngear.com/podcast

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Huntback Country podcast. This is episode number 581, and our guest today is Dr. John Doloney. John is a mental health expert,
0:26.4	a best-selling author, a podcast host, a comedian, and yes, a hunter. I happened to see that John
0:34.9	had bought a pack from us through Xo Mountain Gear and was roughly
0:39.1	aware of who he was and just thought it was cool that he bought a pack and sent him a quick
0:44.3	thank you and we got to talk in and otherwise he'd be a great podcast guest.
0:49.1	And in this podcast, we speak a little bit about John's background and experience his hunting, but dive deeper into
0:56.5	the intersection between his hunting and what he spends a lot of time talking about with
1:01.7	his professional life with mental health. And we explore that in a wide variety of ways in this
1:08.8	conversation. As you'll hear, I kind of mentioned at the end after having the conversation.
1:13.8	We've been doing this podcast for well over a decade,
1:16.1	and I've never had a conversation like I've had with John on this episode.
1:21.9	So it's something completely different than we've done before.
1:25.4	There are quite a few takeaways you can get from today's conversation.
1:29.3	And again, these are takeaways that are totally different than anything else you've maybe
1:33.4	heard or learned through this podcast.
1:36.4	I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.
1:40.3	Before we dive into that with John, it does help us if you can leave a rating or review in your podcast app or even just share the show directly with a friend.
1:50.0	So thanks for taking a quick moment to do that.
1:53.6	Right now, let's dive into this conversation with John.
2:03.6	John, I'm excited to have you here.
2:07.6	I'm excited to get to know you.
2:09.1	I'm aware of who you are a bit online.
	...

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