Ep. 35: Brandon Brinkman - Whitetail Hunter's First Elk Experience
In Pursuit
MeatEater
4.9 • 6.8K Ratings
🗓️ 9 April 2026
⏱️ 64 minutes
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Summary
Brandon Brinkman from Garmin joins Rich and the crew for a conversation on building a life around the things that matter. They get into late-onset hunting, CrossFit, Western hunt lessons, Garmin tech, and why small wins are what keep people coming back for more.Brandon shares how ideas from Atomic Habits shaped the way he trains, hunts, and works. Instead of chasing one finish line, he talks about building systems you can actually sustain and stepping into the identity of the person you want to become. The conversation also dives into public land train wrecks, learning through failure, stacking fitness year-round, and how the right tools can make a real difference when you're deep in the backcountry.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an IHeart podcast. |
| 0:02.5 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:04.4 | Hey, it's Clay Newcomb here from Bear Greece, and I want to tell you about my new 12 and 26 film |
| 0:10.9 | presented by Maltry and Onyx. |
| 0:13.7 | These are 12 of meat eaters' biggest and baddest hunts from the last year that are going |
| 0:18.6 | to be released through 2026. |
| 0:20.7 | These are long-form episodes, or what I call films, so you are going to be released through 2026. These are long-form episodes, |
| 0:23.1 | or what I call films, so you're going to get more of what you love. My film will take us |
| 0:27.6 | into the deep and cold, rugged country of southwest Utah on a lion hunt with hounds, where we |
| 0:34.6 | traveled over 80 miles and five days on mules. But the best part, I'm hunting |
| 0:39.9 | with the legendary lion hunting family, the meekums, but also one of the country's top mule men, |
| 0:46.6 | Ty Evans. This is about mules and lions. This is the kind of place where winter hangs on tight |
| 0:53.4 | and every track in the snow tells a story. |
| 0:57.4 | If you've ever wondered what it's like to pursue a mountain line in big country on muleback, then this is the episode for you. |
| 1:05.4 | Check it out now on the Meteor YouTube channel and be on the lookout for more 12 and 26 in the coming months. |
| 1:12.7 | One of my favorite books, it's Atomic Habits. And so a lot of that builds on, like, |
| 1:17.6 | building out sustainable systems, right? And for me, I'm like, I look at it. And my background, |
| 1:22.5 | I'm like industrial engineering process improvement type of stuff. It's like, borderline, |
| 1:26.9 | I'm like, I'm a nerd with like 10% social skills. Okay, there you go. But really for me, it comes like, how do I go build out a life system that allows me to like do something I love? Because it needs to be somewhat enjoyable. Figure out a thing that you love showing up and doing every day. And then figure out how do you do that over time? And then that builds into what you're trying to accomplish. The other big thing I took away from that book is, like, you want to almost adjust your identity to become whatever it is that you're trying to become. Like, I don't want to, okay, I'm going to go accomplish this thing. I'm going to run a triathlon. I want to become a triathlete. I'm going to be, I'm going to, like, I'm going to know I'm going to become an athletic person. |
| 2:03.8 | Right. |
| 2:06.6 | Out here, the stakes are real. Effective preparation starts with fitness, but it requires so much more. |
| 2:14.9 | This show explores the tools, knowledge, resilience, and skills needed to be ready |
... |
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