An Unofficial 'The MeatEater Podcast' Reading List

Ep. 814: Photographing Wolf Kills, Underwater Beavers, and Other Impossible Shots

December 29, 2025

Description

Steven Rinella talks with Ronan Donovan. Topics discussed: What it means to be a National Geographic Explorer; doing hard shit to get the perfect image; photographing beavers through the ice; when...
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Books Referenced

Eager

Author: Ben Goldfarb

Context:

Speaker 7 recommends this book about beavers, mentioning 'He wrote that book called Eager' when discussing the beaver photography assignment and suggesting the host should have Ben Goldfarb on the show.

Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet

Author: Ben Goldfarb

Context:

Speaker 7 mentions Ben Goldfarb 'got a new book that was about crossroads' dealing with road ecology. The exact title isn't stated but it's described as being about roads/crossroads.

Catching Fire

Author: Richard Wrangham

Context:

Speaker 7 references 'a book called Catching Fire' by Richard Wrangham, describing it as being about 'how cooking made us' - discussing human evolution and how cooking affected human development. Speaker 6 confirms familiarity with the book.

Sex at Dawn

Author: Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá

Context:

Speaker 7 mentions 'it was a good book, Sex at Dawn' when discussing human sexual relationships and monogamy from a species/evolutionary perspective.

Braiding Sweetgrass

Author: Robin Wall Kimmerer

Context:

Speaker 7 references 'the book braiding sweetgrass speaks to that' when discussing animism and the relationship between humans and the natural world that indigenous communities have maintained.

Pretty Shield

Author: Frank B. Linderman

Context:

Speaker 7 mentions this as one of the 'ethnographic interviews with elders in the 1930s' that document pre-contact life of Plains peoples. He brought copies as gifts for the hosts.

Eagle Voice Remembers

Author: John G. Neihardt

Context:

Speaker 7 mentions this alongside Pretty Shield as ethnographic interviews with elders from the 1930s documenting stories of pre-contact life among Plains peoples.