Hello listeners of the ticket. I'm Julia Lungoria, host of a new weekly podcast called The Experiment

from the Atlantic and WNYC Studios. It's about the powerful ideas that shape the United States

and what happens when those ideas collide with people's everyday lives.

Today we're sharing with you the first episode of The Experiment.

It's a story about an elk hunter, a glitch in the Constitution, and a quest to prevent disaster.

If you like what you hear, please subscribe to our show, search for the experiment,

wherever you get podcasts, or visit theatlantic.com slash experiment.

Hi, Mike. This is Julia Lungoria from the Atlantic and WNYC. How are you doing?

I'm doing good. How are you doing? Good. We are going to just kind of jump in. Are you ready to

go back in time? Sure. Okay, cool. Who were you in December of 2005?

I was a real rowdy guy, I guess you could say. Why do you think you were rowdy at that time?

Does that beat people up? 15 years ago, Mike Beldrain was a little rough around the edges.

You know, someone was an asshole in the bar, I'd go have a beer by you and tell you to say something

to me and then it'd be all bad for you. He was a bit of an asshole. There were a lot of things that

pissed him off, but there was one thing that he loved completely. I mean, I lived to hunt elk,

literally. I lived to hunt elk. He lived in Montana, not far from Yellowstone National Park,

where elk are everywhere and Mike had the hunt down to an art form. Elkund's hard,

but if you could call good, you know, I'd guarantee my hunters a shot at 30 yards and closer.

What is that? What does that mean? Sorry, I'm like from Miami, Florida. I live in Brooklyn.

Like, I got, I got nothing. So what does that mean? So you have a cow call, you imitate a

cow call and you call them in. So you make the sound of a cow because like the elk are looking

for cows to, with whom to mate, is that what it is? Okay, pretty, kind of a way to die.

...