The Joe Rogan Experience

Joe Rogan Experience #1674 - Clay Newcomb

Clay Newcomb is a 7th-generation Arkansan that grew up in the Ouachita Mountains. He's a hunter, mule skinner, curious naturalist, and observer of rural culture. He's also a writer, filmmaker, owner/publisher of "Bear Hunting Magazine" and host of the hit MeatEater podcast "Bear Grease."

Joe RoganhostClay Newcombguest

Jun 26, 20242h 37mWatch on YouTube ↗

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

Clay Newcomb, Joe Rogan Reclaim Bear Hunting’s Forgotten American Legacy

Joe Rogan and Clay Newcomb dig into the history, culture, and ethics of bear hunting in North America, using Newcomb’s Bear Grease podcast as a springboard. They explore how bear fat once functioned as frontier currency, how much of a bear can be used, and why bears remain both spiritually symbolic and biologically crucial. The conversation also covers the North American conservation model, the misunderstood role of “trophy hunting,” and how modern media has distorted public perception of hunters. Along the way they veer into mule lore, Native taboos, mysterious wildlife sightings, and how storytelling connects modern people to a quickly vanishing frontier past.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

Bear fat was once frontier currency and remains highly useful.

Rendered bear grease kept longer than pork lard without refrigeration, was traded by the ‘elle’ as a unit of value, and can still be used for cooking, pastries, leather care, soap, salves, and even traditional medicines.

Properly handled bear meat is excellent food, not a novelty.

Newcomb and Rogan stress that bear is rich ‘red pork’-like meat; risks like trichinosis are easily controlled by correct cooking temperatures, opening the door to diverse preparations from roasts to sweet ‘bear candy’ dishes.

Black bears are thriving and must be actively managed.

Black bear numbers are booming across North America, with double-digit annual growth possible; without hunting, they can heavily depredate moose, caribou, deer fawns, and livestock, forcing some form of lethal control regardless.

Indigenous cultures treated bears with complex rules and reverence.

Newcomb cites Koyukon ‘taboos’ like speaking cryptically about hunts, never pointing at bears, slitting their eyes post-mortem, and holding funerals nearly equal to human burials, reflecting deep respect and a codified way of engaging powerful animals.

‘Trophy hunting’ originally incentivized conservation, not ego.

The Boone and Crockett Club, led by Theodore Roosevelt, popularized scoring big antlers and skulls to encourage hunters to target old males and spare females and juveniles, helping pull North American wildlife back from market-hunting collapse.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

“This country was founded on… it really was bear hunting. The American frontier was fueled by bear meat and bear fat.”

— Clay Newcomb

“Where an animal has cultural value, it will be protected and preserved. Where that animal has no cultural value… he will not be protected.”

— Clay Newcomb

“Trophy hunting is what saved North American wildlife… They changed the entire hunting culture of North America.”

— Clay Newcomb

“If you’re a person who eats meat and you don’t know where your meat comes from and you are casting aspersions at hunters, you’re doing it wrong.”

— Joe Rogan

“We are not the bad guys. We are the good guys. Why can’t we tell that story?”

— Clay Newcomb

Historical value and uses of bear grease and bear fatCulinary qualities and safety of eating bear meatBear populations, predator ecology, and population managementIndigenous bear-hunting taboos and spiritual views of wildlifeModern hunting ethics, ‘trophy hunting,’ and conservation fundingMedia portrayals of hunters vs. lived hunting cultureMules vs. horses and their role in traditional backcountry travelMysterious big-cat sightings and human perception of wildlife

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