Ep. 418: Render - CBS Sunday Morning Behind-the-Scenes
Bear Grease
MeatEater
4.9 • 7.4K Ratings
🗓️ 4 February 2026
⏱️ 74 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of the Bear Grease Render, host Clay Newcomb is joined by Dr. Misty Newcomb, Josh "Landbridge" Spielmaker, along with Backwoods University Podcast's Lake Pickle in the Tecovas Hot Seat. Fresh off the release of the CBS Sunday Morning feature with legendary journalist Ted Koppel at Arkansas bear camp, the crew gives context and details of what happened behind-the-scenes. It was an unscripted weekend of uncertain expectations, tough hunting, and a turn-the-table conversation around the campfire leading to a tense moment where a missed shot at a black bear puts the spotlight squarely one particular hunter. The crew shares what the cameras didn’t show and their thoughts and impressions of their time with iconic news man Ted Koppel. Plus, Clay reflects on the black bear that helped inspire his upcoming book American Bear and the deeper history of bear reverence across cultures.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an IHeart podcast. |
| 0:02.5 | Guaranteed human. |
| 0:18.6 | My name is Clay Newcomb, |
| 0:20.4 | and this is a production of the Bear Grease podcast called The Bear Grease Render, |
| 0:25.4 | where we render down, dive deeper, and look behind the scenes of the actual Bear Grease podcast. |
| 0:33.0 | Presented by FHF Gear, American-made, purpose-built, hunting and fishing gear that's designed to be as rugged as the places we explore. |
| 0:50.8 | So I'm holding in my hand, my right hand, the femur bone of uh an american black bear a big one |
| 0:57.2 | this is this is the black bear bone of the of the bear that i call rock slide which i killed |
| 1:04.5 | in over on november 30th 2013 on the very last day of the Arkansas bear season killed National Forest. |
| 1:13.6 | It's a long story, but the reason I'm holding it is that this is kind of a celebration, this event, |
| 1:21.1 | y'all be in here today as a celebration because this Friday, I will turn in the full manuscript for my book, American Bear. |
| 1:33.1 | Big deal. |
| 1:33.6 | I'll turn it into Penguin Random House. |
| 1:35.0 | It really is. |
| 1:35.7 | Yeah, really big deal. |
| 1:36.6 | They're working on for two and a half years. |
| 1:37.6 | Very big deal. |
| 1:38.5 | And, and. |
| 1:40.6 | Going to dramatically alter. |
| 1:41.8 | There's a section in the book. |
| 1:44.9 | There's a section in the book where I quote a man named John Lawson, who was a first |
| 1:51.1 | contact European with the Santee tribe in modern day South Carolina. |
... |
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