Hi, I'm Willow Belden, and you're listening to Out There, the show that explores big questions through intimate stories in the great outdoors.

About five years ago, I moved to Wyoming. For those of you have never been here, it's one of those square states out west.

And it's beautiful, vast, open prairies, tall, jagged mountains, and lots of wildlife.

And one of the things I noticed right away was that a lot of people out here hunt.

Each year, when hunting season starts, they'll go out into the woods and spend

days on end trying to shoot deer and elk and other big game.

Now, I'm originally from New York City, and so the idea of hunting was pretty foreign to me.

None of my friends were hunters, and I have to admit I had a pretty negative opinion of the whole thing.

Going out and killing animals seemed, frankly, kind of barbaric.

But out West, everyone was doing it.

PhD scholars, small business owners, elementary school teachers.

It wasn't just some redneck pastime.

And, as I would come to appreciate, it wasn't

really all that barbaric. It helps keep wildlife populations sustainable and supplies families

with non-factory farmed meat. And yet, even though I've come to appreciate hunting, I've

never tried it myself. I like to joke that if I had a choice between hunting and being a vegetarian, I would almost

certainly be a vegetarian.

I somehow don't think I have it in me to willingly kill an animal.

So why is that?

Are some of us just not cut out to be hunters? Or is there more to the equation?

Today's story comes from Brooklyn-based reporter Sam Anderson, who wanted to answer that very question.

Did he have it in him to be a hunter? And if so, would taking the life of an animal fundamentally change who he was?

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