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If you enjoy this podcast and look forward to it in your inbox, consider supporting it by becoming a paid yearly subscriber for $60 or you can buy me a cup of coffee for $8Welcome to another episode of "Dishing with Stephanie's Dish." Today, I interview acclaimed food writer, wild foods expert, and self-described hunter-gatherer Hank Shaw. Hank is the author of the brand new cookbook, "Borderlands: Recipes and Stories from the Rio Grande to the Pacific," an exploration of the flavors, cultures, and stories that define the borderlands between the United States and Mexico. He also has a Substack that's wonderful, called Hank Shaw “To The Bone” and a website full of recipes.In this episode, Hank and I dive into everything from his early days as a restaurant cook and investigative journalist to his passion for foraging, preserving, and hunting wild foods. Hank discusses the vibrant mix of culinary traditions that thrive along the border, debunks myths about iconic ingredients (like acorns!), and shares the fascinating histories behind beloved dishes such as chimichangas and parisa.They also touch on practical advice—like the art of drying herbs, the joys and challenges of single-person food preservation, and the ins and outs of self-publishing cookbooks at a high level.Get ready for an episode filled with storytelling, culinary wisdom, and inspiration for your next adventure in the kitchen or the great outdoors. Whether you're a curious home cook, an aspiring cookbook author, or simply a lover of good food, there's something here for everyone. Let's get started!Original Episode Transcript Follows:Stephanie:Hello, everybody, and welcome to Dishing with Stephanie's Dish, the podcast, where we talk to fun people in the food space and sometimes they have cookbooks. And today's author is an author. He's an author of great magnitude, Hank Shaw. His new book is Borderlands Recipes and Stories from the Rio Grande to the Pacific. And Hank, you are such a prolific, beautiful writer. This book, I feel like, is just so you. Do you love it?Hank Shaw:It's been a long journey to make this book, and I'm pretty proud of it. And it's. It's been probably the biggest project of my adult life in terms of time, commitment, travel, really unlocking understanding of things that I thought I knew but didn't necessarily know until I got there. And it's just been this. This crazy, fantastic journey and a journey that you can eat.Stephanie:Can you talk a little bit about your history? Like, I think many people know you as the hunter, forager, gatherer, type, and Borderlands obviously has a lot of those elements to it. But can you just walk readers that are listeners that might be new to your journey kind of through how you got here?Hank Shaw:Sure. Many, many years ago, when I was still fairly young, I was a restaurant cook. So I worked first as a dishwasher and then as a line cook and then as a sous chef in a series of restaurants, mostly in Madison, Wisconsin. And I left that job to be a newspaper reporter. And I ended up being a newspaper reporter for 18 years. And I cooked all throughout that and traveled and learned more about food and did fishing and hunting and foraging and such. And then I left the News Business in 2010 to do my website, which is hunter, angler, gardener, cook. And I've been doing that full time since 2010.So, yeah, my entire kind of current incarnation is wild foods. But Borderlands is kind of an outgrowth of that for two reasons. The first is I've been basically written all of the fishing game books you can possibly write already. I've got one for every kind of quarry you can imagine. And then the other thing was, oh, well, you know, a lot of that travel for those other books was on the border on both sides, on the American side and on the Mexican side. And that kind of grew into this. Wow, you know, God, the food is so great and God, this area is just so neglected, I think, by most, you know, the. The food, or radio, for lack of a better term.Yeah, because all of the, like, everybody seems to love to hate Tex Mex without really fully knowing what Tex Mex actually is. And people say that the Southwestern cooking is so very 1987. And. And, you know, the people who know Mexico are like, oh, all the good foods in Oaxaca or Michoacan or Mexico City or Yucatan. And really that's not the case, as over and over and over again, I was discovering these amazing just finds. And a lot of them had to do with wild foods, but not all of them. And so that borderlands became my diary of that journey.Stephanie:And quite a diary it is. What's interesting to me is I didn't actually ever know that you were in the newspaper business.Hank Shaw:And that makes a Pioneer Press graduate.Stephanie:Oh, you work for them. How did I not know this?Hank Shaw:Yeah, I was a St. Paul Pioneer Press investigative reporter from 2002 to 2004. And if you're of a certain age and you remember there was a big story about some Republican operatives getting involved with a telecommunications boondoggle. And yeah, that was probably. That was us. That was our story.Stephanie:Well, and it makes sense because the book is so like. It's the storytelling that's so good. And, you know, cookbooks are cookbooks with beautiful recipes and different people's point of view on recipes. But what I love about your book, too, is it really goes into ingredients a little more in depth. It tells the story of the terroir, of where the recipe's from and why it's the way it is. And it makes sense now to me that you're a journalist because it's so beautifully written.Hank Shaw:I really appreciate that. I mean, I tried in this particular book. There are essays in all of my books, but in this particular one, I really, really wanted people from the rest of the country to get a flavor of what it's like to was really honest to God, like on the border. Everybody has thoughts and opinions about immigration and about the border and about blah, blah, blah. And it's like, well, how much time have you actually spent on the border? Do you actually know what it feels like, what it smells like, what it tastes like? Chances are you probably don't. And I really wanted this book to shine a light on that in ways that go well beyond food.Stephanie:When we talk about the borderlands, can you talk about it without talking about immigration and the close connection between the United States and Mexico? I mean, we share this border. People have this idea that it's like this gated, fenced situation, and really there's tons of the border that's just. You'd only know it was a border if someone told you you were crossing it.Hank Shaw:It's very true. In Fact, one of my favorite moments to that was in south southwest Texas there's a beautiful national park called Big Bend. It's one of the biggest national parks in the country. It's fa. It's famous, it's amazing. But you're going to drive and hike and hike and drive and hike and drive a gigantic park. So one place that you can go to. And it's actually, if you open up a copy of Borderlands and you see this huge vista right at the beginning of the book, there's this huge vista and it's on a cliff. That is exactly it. That is. That is Big Bend National Park. And if you're looking right in the back end of that back center, a little to the left, you'll see a canyon in the background. In that canyon is St. Helena Canyon. And St.Helena Canyon is created by the Rio Grande. So you can go to that park and you can walk across the border literally to Mexico and not have the Rio Grande come up over your ankles. And there's Mexicans on their side, there's Americans on our side, and everybody's crossing back and forth until their families are there and having a fun time, blah, blah, blah. And it's just, it's one of these great moments where it shows you that, yeah, that border is really just sort of a fiction.Stephanie:Yeah. Yes, in many ways. Right. Figuratively. And also, I don't know, we seem to be in a global food economy whether we want to or not. When you look at the individual ingredients that you're using here in Borderlands, obviously there's very different things because of temperature in Mexico than you might have here in the Midwest. But is it really different from like say, Texas to Mexico in.Hank Shaw:Yes, there, there are definitely different. So the food you'll get in Nueva Leon or Coahuila or Tamaulipas, which are the three Mexican states, that border Texas is going to be different from what you would think about as Texas food. However, on the Borderlands, that. That change really is minimal. And I talk about in the book the idea of Fronteraisos, people who are neither fully Mexican nor full. They're. They're border people and they can slide between English and Spanish in mid clause. And it's really the, you know, the, the pocho or Spanglish or whatever you want to call it that you'll hear there is very different from what you'll hear from a bilingual person from, say, Mexico City, where typically those people will speak in full sentences or paragraphs in one language and then maybe switch to another language in the next sentence or paragraph.Hank Shaw:Well, on the border, it's a mishmash. So the structure, the words, the adjectives, like, it's everything. It's like no function. And so it's like. It's like this whole kind of amalgam of what's going on. And that kind of translates into the food where you've got some Texas, you know, some very Texas. Texas. Things that don't cross the border, like yellow cheese doesn't really cross the border.Stephanie:Right.Hank Shaw:The idea of, like, rotel queso. So it's. It's like Velveeta cheese melted with rotel. That's queso. That's the bad queso in North Texas. Like, you'll get that in, like, Amarillo. But the real queso is south of Interstate 10. And that is a white Mexican cheese.That it where you get, you know, roasted fire roasted green chilies folded into it and a little bit of Mexican oregano and salt and a little bit of crema to thin it out. And it's is to the rotel queso what a match is to the sun.Stephanie:Yeah.Hank Shaw:And, you know, I mean, that said, I'm not gonna poop all over the Velveeta one, because that while I don't think it tastes great, what I realized is that particular version of queso, which I personally don't like, is really heavy with cultural significance.Stephanie:Yeah.Hank Shaw:And. And so that's. There's a place for it. It's just not. That's not really as border food as you might think. That's a little bit more North Texas, and that's an example of where things don't cross. But a really great example of where things are damn near the same is Arizona and Sonora. So that there's almost no difference between Arizona Mexican food and Sonora Mexican food because they're one and the same.The burritos are pretty similar. The flour tortillas are similar. The carne asada is pretty similar. And so that. That's a case where the border's really. I mean, yes, it's a border, but I mean, it's like the. It's. There's no food border.Same thing with Southern California and Tijuana and Northern Baja. There's almost no. No functional difference between the two of them. Now, New Mexico and Chihuahua has a difference. And, like, north of Interstate 10 in Texas and the border in Texas are quite different.Stephanie:There's a recipe in here that I didn't even really know existed called Parisa.Hank Shaw:Oh, yeah.Stephanie:And, you know, you we will order steak tartare or make tartare. And I didn't realize that there was a. In many cultures, you sort of see similar foods or similar food groups, and they're just treated differently with herbs or spices. This looks delicious.Hank Shaw:It really is. It's the best way to describe it if you. If you're not familiar, because it's very. It's. It's super regional in Texas. Like, you can't even really get barista in Dallas or in. Or in El Paso. It's not a thing there.It's sort of a south central Texas thing. But the best way I can describe it is really accurately describe it. It is steak tartar meets aguachile. Because most people will say it's steak tartare meat ceviche. And yes, you absolutely can get it like that, but the. The acidity and the citrus will turn the. The raw beef gray, which I think looks gross. Yeah, I mean, it.It tastes fine, but it just kind of looks like, meh. So my recipe and what I do is I. I mix the steak tartare with the. Essentially, pico de gallo is really what it. What it's being mixed with, and a little bit of cheese, and I. I'll mix it and serve it right away so that when you eat it, the meat is still pink.Stephanie:Yeah, it looks really good. And then also in the book, so you're a hunter, obviously, we established that. But in many of these recipes, you have substitutions of different animal proteins that can be used. So whether it's elk or bison or sheep or duck, I think that's cool.Hank Shaw:Yeah, I mean, I think I. I started that process. It's done with icons. So if you look at a recipe for. Oh, there's a stew that's very popular. They're called puchero. And I'm just to that page, so I'll. So.Oh, that's a sour puerto. So always pork, but, like, no. Babies will die if you use something else from that. But that is traditionally a pork dish. Buchero is traditionally beef or venison, but really, you know, you're gonna be fine if you put damn near anything in it. It's a big, giant stew, a lot of vegetables, and it's fantastic. And to. To really make the book more versatile, because I.The two things that I always do in my books. Number one is I'm going to give you the recipe as faithfully as I can to what it actually is, wherever it's from, and then I'm going to give you all these substitutions so that if you live in, you know, Bismarck or Crookston or, you know, rural Iowa, you're going to be able to make it. And that's important to me because it's more important to me that you make some version of it than to be exactly proper and specific. I hate cookbooks where it's like, especially with cheese, where you'll see someone be like, it must be the, you know, Cowgirl Creamery point raised blue from 2012. Otherwise this recipe won't work. I'm like, come on guys, this is a stupid recipe. Like it's blue cheese. It'll be fine.Stephanie:I was surprised that you have a chimichanga in the book. Can we talk about chimichangas? Because people that grew up in the Midwest, Chichis was like the first Mexican restaurant besides El Burrito Mercado. And El Burrito Mercado was authentic and chichi's was like the Americanized what they thought Mexican food was. Which also I will say I have taste memories of chi cheese. I say this not dogging on them and they're actually coming back. And the chimichanga is something that like, if I actually go to the new restaurant, which I'm sure I will, I will order a chimichanga. It's like a taste memory for me. What is the origination of chimichanga?Hank Shaw:It's shrouded in mystery. So there's a couple different theories. And then I'll tell you what I think the general story is that a woman was making burritos in Arizona and either dropped, which I don't believe because that would create a splash that would, you know, send 350 degree oil everywhere, or placed a burrito in the deep fryer. And the, the legend, which I don't believe this is true at all, is she drops the burrito in the deep fryer and you know, says something like, you know, ah, chingo to madre or whatever, like just like swears something bad and. But then sort of does what you would do in a kind of a mom situation. And if you instead of saying the F word, you would say oh, fudge. And so she goes, oh Jimmy changa. And which is sort of vaguely reminiscent of some Mexican swear words.And so that thus the, the dish was born. But I think that's not true because there is a fantastic resource, actually. I mean, I found it in some of my older Mexican cookbooks that I own. But there's a fantastic research that the University of Texas at San Antonio of Mexican cookbooks. And some of these Mexican cookbooks are handwritten from the 1800s, and so they're all digitized and you can. You can study them. And so there's a thing in Sonora. Remember I just got done saying that, like, there's almost no difference between Sonora and Arizona.There's a thing from Sonora many, many, many, many years ago, you know, early early 1900s, for a chivy changa. C H I V I C H A N G A ch and it's the same thing. So I'm convinced that this is just a thing, because if you have a burrito and you fry things, there's zero. There's zero chance that at some point you be like, I want to. I wonder if frying the burrito will make it good? You know, like, the answer, yes, yes, all the time.Stephanie:And.Hank Shaw:And so, you know, I, like you, came into the chimichanga world just thinking with a definite eyebrow raised, like, what is this? And when it's done right, and if you see the picture in my book, it is dressed with a whole bunch of things on the outside of the burrito. So it's crema, it's a pico de gallo. It's shredded lettuce or cabbage, limes. The thing about a properly served chimichanga is that you have to eat it as a whole because the chimichanga itself is quite heavy. You know, it's a. It's a fried burrito with, like, rice and beans and meat inside it. Like, it's a gut bomb. But when you eat it with all these light things around it that are bright and fresh and acidic, it completely changes the eating experience. And I was sold.Stephanie:I can imagine. The one you have in the book looks really good. I'm going to. I keep asking about specific recipes, but there were, like, some that just jumped out at me, like, wow. Another one that jumped out at me was from that same chapter about the acorn cookies. I've always been under the impression that acorns, and maybe it's from just specific to the oaks, but that they're poisonous. I didn't think about making acorn flour.Hank Shaw:So, number one, no acorns are poisonous. Zero, period. End of story. It's a myth. You were lied to. Sorry.Stephanie:Yeah. I mean, it helps me because my dog eats them.Hank Shaw:I mean, acorns have been a source of food for human beings forever, you know, all the way. I don't know how long ago, but way more than 10,000 years. Way more. Okay, so what the myth comes from is most acorn varieties, so most especially red oaks, are full of tannins. And tannins are not poisonous. Tannins are not toxic. Tannins will make you constipated if you eat too many of them. And I suppose it would be possible to poison yourself with tannins, but I mean, good luck.Yeah, good luck eating enough of that astringent stuff to be able to get yourself poisoned. But tannins are water soluble. So for millennia, the people who eat acorns, and especially in. In northern California, where, you know, acorn. Acorns were their main starch, the idea of leaching the tannins out in a stream or wherever is as old as time. And so you make the. You make a meal. It's really a meal is probably a better way to put it.I call it flour, but there's no. There's no real gluten in it. In fact, there's no gluten in it, but there is some starch in it that will help the flour stick to itself. So that's true everywhere. In fact, it's a very good acorn year here in Minnesota this year. And I found some bur oaks in a. In a place that I'm going to go back and harvest them to make some more acorn flour this year. And I'll have to leach them here.But this is a very long walk up to this cookie recipe, because in south Arizona and in Sonora, there's an oak called an emery oak. And the emery oak is in the white oak. It's in the white oak clan. And it is sweet in the sense that you can roast those acorns and eat them. And in fact, you can get roasted acorns as a snack on some of the reservations down there or really wherever. I mean, it's a thing like it's. It. It.They could just roast it. Roast the acorns? Yeah. It's just like a chestnut. Very good. That's exactly with the. Because it's the same kind of a texture as well. And so that particular oak is unique in. In North America.The cork oak in Europe is the other one that doesn't have any tannins to it. So you can just sit there and eat them. And that's why they make flour out of them. It's an indigenous thing. You don't really see it too much among the Hispanic Sonorans. You see it a lot more with, like, Yaqui or Pima or Tono O', Odham, those indigenous groups.Stephanie:It's so Cool. I also subscribe to your substack, which I would encourage people to subscribe and. And yes to the Bone, it's called. And you just had a post about herbs and how important herbs are in your cooking and in your yard. And I know that you have kind of a small St. Paul yard because we've talked about it. What are you doing with your herbs now that we're at the end of the season? Are you. Do you have anything that's special that you do with them? Do you dry them? Do you mix them with salt?Hank Shaw:I do all of the above. I am a preservation fanatic. I could talk for hours just about various ways to preserve things for our Minnesota winners. Maybe that's another podcast for sure. But the short version is, yes, all of the things. I mostly will do things like make pesto with basil, because I love pesto. But I do dry some and there are tricks to drying herbs. The trick is low heat for a long time, so the don't use your oven and try to get them dry within 40, 48 hours, but also try to do it at less than 110 degrees, otherwise they turn brown.Stephanie:Do you use it like a dehydrator, then?Hank Shaw:Yes, I use a dehydrator. And most herbs dry really well. In fact, many herbs are better dried because it concentrates their flavor. Basil's iffy. Parsley's kind of terrible. Dried parsley's one of those ones where eat it fresh, make pesto. I suppose you could freeze it. I mostly will.I will gather big scabs of it because I grow a lot and I will freeze it. And even though it's going to suffer in the freezer, it is one of the most vital things I use for making stocks and broths with the game I bring home. So freezing, drying, you can, you know, I just mixed a whole bunch of. Of lovage with salt. So you go 50, 50 the herb and. And coarse salt, like ice cream salt almost. And then you buzz that into a food processor or a blender, and then that creates a much finer kind of almost a wet salt that is an enormous amount of flavor. And if you freeze it, it'll stay bright green the whole winter.And sometimes I like to do that, but the other times I kind of like to. To see it and progress over the. Over the months. And it's kind of a beautiful thing to see that herb salt kind of brown out and army green out as we get to like, late February, because it really is. Is sort of also indicative of how of our Harsh winters and feels a little bit more of the time and place than pulling something out of a freezer.Stephanie:Yeah. So let's talk about that because you're a single man, you are a recipe writer and developer, so you're also cooking and testing recipes. You're preserving all these things. I mean, my freezer right now is kind of a hellscape. I just closed up my summer and I came home with so much food. I have, like, canned and pickled and preserved. And I just literally feel overwhelmed by all of the food in my home right now. And I realize this is a real first world problem.So, you know, my daughter's kind of in her young 20s and sort of poor, so I've loaded her up with stuff. But do you just feel overwhelmed sometimes by all of the abundance of food?Hank Shaw:Absolutely. It's one of the things that's been really remarkable about it, about sort of single life, is how less I need to hunt or fish. So I find myself. I mean, I still. I. Because. So, side note, background backstory. I don't buy meat or fish at all.I occasionally will buy a little bit of bacon because I love bacon. And I'll occasionally buy pork fat to make sausages with game, but that's it. So if I'm eating red meat, it's going to be venison. If I'm eating white meat, it's probably going to be grouse or. Or pheasants. If I'm eating fish, I've caught it. And so that's what I find is that I eat. Hey, I don't eat that much meat anymore.Like, I eat plenty. But I mean, it's not like I. I don't gorge myself on giant steaks anymore. And it's just me. So, you know, a limit of walleyes can last me a month. And before, it was definitely not like that. And so, yes, I can feel the overwhelm. But what's, you know, I have neighbors that I give things to.I have friends that I give things to. Like, I. I had two deer tags last year, and I shot the second deer because I had a whole bunch of friends who didn't get a deer and needed medicine. So it was really cool to be able to give to. You know, I butchered it all and gave them an all vacuum seal. It was like all ready to go. And. And that was really satisfying to be able to help people like that.And then, you know, I like, you know, have a dinner party here and there.Stephanie:Yeah, I want to come to a dinner party. Not to invite myself. But please, I'll. I'll reciprocate in the. I have a cabin in the summer, so I'm sort of like between here and there. But once sets in, I really like to entertain and have people over. I find that it's a really easy way to gather new people too. Like, I like collecting people because I just think people are so amazing and I love putting like, new people at the table that people don't know yet or making those connections.I think I'm actually kind of good at it. So I can't wait to have you over this fall.Hank Shaw:Yeah, likewise. We'll. We'll do a home and home.Stephanie:Yes, I would love that very much. Your book is available, Borderlands on. I found it because obviously I. You sent me a copy. But also it's on Amazon and you self publish. So there's a lot of people that listen to this podcast that are cookbook writers themselves or people that maybe are trying to get published or find publishing. Can you speak to that a little bit and why that's been your route. You've been doing this a long time.Hank Shaw:Yeah, this is my force. Fourth self published book. And self publish is really kind of a misnomer in a way because the books that I put out are of Random House quality. Like, they're for sure. There's no way you're gonna be able to tell this book is apart from a gigantic publishing house, because what I ended up doing is creating a publishing company. So the books are published in big, big runs at Versa Press in Illinois. I'm very happy to say that these books are entirely made in America. And that's kind of important to me because most cookbooks are made in China and not a fan.So the books are printed in Illinois and they are stored and shipped at a, at a, a warehouse in Michigan. So the best ways to get the books are to either buy them from my website or buy them from Amazon. Those are probably your two best avenues for it. The thing about self publishing, if you want to do it at the level that I'm doing it, which is to say, make a book that, you know, even a snooty Random House person will be like, damn, that's a good book. You have to go big and it's not cheap. So I do, I, I don't ever do runs less than 5,000. And a typical run for me is between 10 and 15,000. And because your unit costs go way, way down.Stephanie:Right.Hank Shaw:And we can get in the weeds of it, but I have some Advantages in the sense that my sister has designed books for a living for 30 some odd years and her husband has edited books for 30 some odd years.Stephanie:Oh, so you got like family business going.Hank Shaw:Yeah, and my ex, my ex does most of the photos like this. Borderlands is the first book where the majority of the photos are mine. They're nice, but the. But even she's cheap. She photo edited this book. And so like I have people with very good skills. And so what I would say is if you have a kitchen cabinet where you have people who have those skills. And I have to kind of stress that, for example, copy editing, copy editing or proofreading or indexing a book are entirely different from copy editing or proofreading something in businessIt's just not the same skill. And I found that out. So if you have that ability to put together a dream team, then you can make a really, really beautiful book that will, that will impress people and that you will actually love. The print on demand system is still not good enough for cookbooks. It's fantastic for like a memoir or something without a lot of pictures, but it is not good for, for cookbooks still.Stephanie:All right, I'm just making notes here because people ask me questions about this all the time. All right, well, I appreciate that you've done all this work, and the book is beautiful, and I love talking to you about food. So hopefully we can call you again and just wrap it down.Hank Shaw:Yeah, let's talk about preservation.Stephanie:Yeah, I. Because I've never met anyone that only was eating what they killed.Hank Shaw:Well, you could go up north. I bet you'd find more people who do.Stephanie:But yes, yes. And I just, I find that to be fascinating and also just the idea of preserving food and how you use. Use what you preserve. So yeah, that's a great topic to get into at a later date. The book is Borderlands. I'm talking with Hank Shaw. Recipes and Stories from the Rio Grande to the Pacific. You can find it at Amazon or at his website.I always say this one wrong. Hunt, Gather. CookHank Shaw:So. So the best way to get to my website is just go to huntgathercook.com okay.Stephanie:And you have lots of recipes there too. I want people to just explore thousands. Yeah, it's incredible the mon recipes that you have there. And you know, if you think about protein as being interchangeable in a lot of these instances, it's definitely a really well done website with tons of recipes.Stephanie:Thanks for your time today, Hank. I appreciate it.Hank Shaw:Thanks a lot. Thanks for having me on.Stephanie:We'll talk soon.Hank Shaw:Bye.Stephanie:Bye. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit stephaniehansen.substack.com/subscribe

If you enjoy this podcast and look forward to it in your inbox, consider supporting it by becoming a paid yearly subscriber for $60 or you can buy me a cup of coffee for $8Welcome to another episode of "Dishing with Stephanie's Dish." Today, I interview acclaimed food writer, wild foods expert, and self-described hunter-gatherer Hank Shaw. Hank is the author of the brand new cookbook, "Borderlands: Recipes and Stories from the Rio Grande to the Pacific," an exploration of the flavors, cultures, and stories that define the borderlands between the United States and Mexico. He also has a Substack that's wonderful, called Hank Shaw “To The Bone” and a website full of recipes.In this episode, Hank and I dive into everything from his early days as a restaurant cook and investigative journalist to his passion for foraging, preserving, and hunting wild foods. Hank discusses the vibrant mix of culinary traditions that thrive along the border, debunks myths about iconic ingredients (like acorns!), and shares the fascinating histories behind beloved dishes such as chimichangas and parisa.They also touch on practical advice—like the art of drying herbs, the joys and challenges of single-person food preservation, and the ins and outs of self-publishing cookbooks at a high level.Get ready for an episode filled with storytelling, culinary wisdom, and inspiration for your next adventure in the kitchen or the great outdoors. Whether you're a curious home cook, an aspiring cookbook author, or simply a lover of good food, there's something here for everyone. Let's get started!Original Episode Transcript Follows:Stephanie:Hello, everybody, and welcome to Dishing with Stephanie's Dish, the podcast, where we talk to fun people in the food space and sometimes they have cookbooks. And today's author is an author. He's an author of great magnitude, Hank Shaw. His new book is Borderlands Recipes and Stories from the Rio Grande to the Pacific. And Hank, you are such a prolific, beautiful writer. This book, I feel like, is just so you. Do you love it?Hank Shaw:It's been a long journey to make this book, and I'm pretty proud of it. And it's. It's been probably the biggest project of my adult life in terms of time, commitment, travel, really unlocking understanding of things that I thought I knew but didn't necessarily know until I got there. And it's just been this. This crazy, fantastic journey and a journey that you can eat.Stephanie:Can you talk a little bit about your history? Like, I think many people know you as the hunter, forager, gatherer, type, and Borderlands obviously has a lot of those elements to it. But can you just walk readers that are listeners that might be new to your journey kind of through how you got here?Hank Shaw:Sure. Many, many years ago, when I was still fairly young, I was a restaurant cook. So I worked first as a dishwasher and then as a line cook and then as a sous chef in a series of restaurants, mostly in Madison, Wisconsin. And I left that job to be a newspaper reporter. And I ended up being a newspaper reporter for 18 years. And I cooked all throughout that and traveled and learned more about food and did fishing and hunting and foraging and such. And then I left the News Business in 2010 to do my website, which is hunter, angler, gardener, cook. And I've been doing that full time since 2010.So, yeah, my entire kind of current incarnation is wild foods. But Borderlands is kind of an outgrowth of that for two reasons. The first is I've been basically written all of the fishing game books you can possibly write already. I've got one for every kind of quarry you can imagine. And then the other thing was, oh, well, you know, a lot of that travel for those other books was on the border on both sides, on the American side and on the Mexican side. And that kind of grew into this. Wow, you know, God, the food is so great and God, this area is just so neglected, I think, by most, you know, the. The food, or radio, for lack of a better term.Yeah, because all of the, like, everybody seems to love to hate Tex Mex without really fully knowing what Tex Mex actually is. And people say that the Southwestern cooking is so very 1987. And. And, you know, the people who know Mexico are like, oh, all the good foods in Oaxaca or Michoacan or Mexico City or Yucatan. And really that's not the case, as over and over and over again, I was discovering these amazing just finds. And a lot of them had to do with wild foods, but not all of them. And so that borderlands became my diary of that journey.Stephanie:And quite a diary it is. What's interesting to me is I didn't actually ever know that you were in the newspaper business.Hank Shaw:And that makes a Pioneer Press graduate.Stephanie:Oh, you work for them. How did I not know this?Hank Shaw:Yeah, I was a St. Paul Pioneer Press investigative reporter from 2002 to 2004. And if you're of a certain age and you remember there was a big story about some Republican operatives getting involved with a telecommunications boondoggle. And yeah, that was probably. That was us. That was our story.Stephanie:Well, and it makes sense because the book is so like. It's the storytelling that's so good. And, you know, cookbooks are cookbooks with beautiful recipes and different people's point of view on recipes. But what I love about your book, too, is it really goes into ingredients a little more in depth. It tells the story of the terroir, of where the recipe's from and why it's the way it is. And it makes sense now to me that you're a journalist because it's so beautifully written.Hank Shaw:I really appreciate that. I mean, I tried in this particular book. There are essays in all of my books, but in this particular one, I really, really wanted people from the rest of the country to get a flavor of what it's like to was really honest to God, like on the border. Everybody has thoughts and opinions about immigration and about the border and about blah, blah, blah. And it's like, well, how much time have you actually spent on the border? Do you actually know what it feels like, what it smells like, what it tastes like? Chances are you probably don't. And I really wanted this book to shine a light on that in ways that go well beyond food.Stephanie:When we talk about the borderlands, can you talk about it without talking about immigration and the close connection between the United States and Mexico? I mean, we share this border. People have this idea that it's like this gated, fenced situation, and really there's tons of the border that's just. You'd only know it was a border if someone told you you were crossing it.Hank Shaw:It's very true. In Fact, one of my favorite moments to that was in south southwest Texas there's a beautiful national park called Big Bend. It's one of the biggest national parks in the country. It's fa. It's famous, it's amazing. But you're going to drive and hike and hike and drive and hike and drive a gigantic park. So one place that you can go to. And it's actually, if you open up a copy of Borderlands and you see this huge vista right at the beginning of the book, there's this huge vista and it's on a cliff. That is exactly it. That is. That is Big Bend National Park. And if you're looking right in the back end of that back center, a little to the left, you'll see a canyon in the background. In that canyon is St. Helena Canyon. And St.Helena Canyon is created by the Rio Grande. So you can go to that park and you can walk across the border literally to Mexico and not have the Rio Grande come up over your ankles. And there's Mexicans on their side, there's Americans on our side, and everybody's crossing back and forth until their families are there and having a fun time, blah, blah, blah. And it's just, it's one of these great moments where it shows you that, yeah, that border is really just sort of a fiction.Stephanie:Yeah. Yes, in many ways. Right. Figuratively. And also, I don't know, we seem to be in a global food economy whether we want to or not. When you look at the individual ingredients that you're using here in Borderlands, obviously there's very different things because of temperature in Mexico than you might have here in the Midwest. But is it really different from like say, Texas to Mexico in.Hank Shaw:Yes, there, there are definitely different. So the food you'll get in Nueva Leon or Coahuila or Tamaulipas, which are the three Mexican states, that border Texas is going to be different from what you would think about as Texas food. However, on the Borderlands, that. That change really is minimal. And I talk about in the book the idea of Fronteraisos, people who are neither fully Mexican nor full. They're. They're border people and they can slide between English and Spanish in mid clause. And it's really the, you know, the, the pocho or Spanglish or whatever you want to call it that you'll hear there is very different from what you'll hear from a bilingual person from, say, Mexico City, where typically those people will speak in full sentences or paragraphs in one language and then maybe switch to another language in the next sentence or paragraph.Hank Shaw:Well, on the border, it's a mishmash. So the structure, the words, the adjectives, like, it's everything. It's like no function. And so it's like. It's like this whole kind of amalgam of what's going on. And that kind of translates into the food where you've got some Texas, you know, some very Texas. Texas. Things that don't cross the border, like yellow cheese doesn't really cross the border.Stephanie:Right.Hank Shaw:The idea of, like, rotel queso. So it's. It's like Velveeta cheese melted with rotel. That's queso. That's the bad queso in North Texas. Like, you'll get that in, like, Amarillo. But the real queso is south of Interstate 10. And that is a white Mexican cheese.That it where you get, you know, roasted fire roasted green chilies folded into it and a little bit of Mexican oregano and salt and a little bit of crema to thin it out. And it's is to the rotel queso what a match is to the sun.Stephanie:Yeah.Hank Shaw:And, you know, I mean, that said, I'm not gonna poop all over the Velveeta one, because that while I don't think it tastes great, what I realized is that particular version of queso, which I personally don't like, is really heavy with cultural significance.Stephanie:Yeah.Hank Shaw:And. And so that's. There's a place for it. It's just not. That's not really as border food as you might think. That's a little bit more North Texas, and that's an example of where things don't cross. But a really great example of where things are damn near the same is Arizona and Sonora. So that there's almost no difference between Arizona Mexican food and Sonora Mexican food because they're one and the same.The burritos are pretty similar. The flour tortillas are similar. The carne asada is pretty similar. And so that. That's a case where the border's really. I mean, yes, it's a border, but I mean, it's like the. It's. There's no food border.Same thing with Southern California and Tijuana and Northern Baja. There's almost no. No functional difference between the two of them. Now, New Mexico and Chihuahua has a difference. And, like, north of Interstate 10 in Texas and the border in Texas are quite different.Stephanie:There's a recipe in here that I didn't even really know existed called Parisa.Hank Shaw:Oh, yeah.Stephanie:And, you know, you we will order steak tartare or make tartare. And I didn't realize that there was a. In many cultures, you sort of see similar foods or similar food groups, and they're just treated differently with herbs or spices. This looks delicious.Hank Shaw:It really is. It's the best way to describe it if you. If you're not familiar, because it's very. It's. It's super regional in Texas. Like, you can't even really get barista in Dallas or in. Or in El Paso. It's not a thing there.It's sort of a south central Texas thing. But the best way I can describe it is really accurately describe it. It is steak tartar meets aguachile. Because most people will say it's steak tartare meat ceviche. And yes, you absolutely can get it like that, but the. The acidity and the citrus will turn the. The raw beef gray, which I think looks gross. Yeah, I mean, it.It tastes fine, but it just kind of looks like, meh. So my recipe and what I do is I. I mix the steak tartare with the. Essentially, pico de gallo is really what it. What it's being mixed with, and a little bit of cheese, and I. I'll mix it and serve it right away so that when you eat it, the meat is still pink.Stephanie:Yeah, it looks really good. And then also in the book, so you're a hunter, obviously, we established that. But in many of these recipes, you have substitutions of different animal proteins that can be used. So whether it's elk or bison or sheep or duck, I think that's cool.Hank Shaw:Yeah, I mean, I think I. I started that process. It's done with icons. So if you look at a recipe for. Oh, there's a stew that's very popular. They're called puchero. And I'm just to that page, so I'll. So.Oh, that's a sour puerto. So always pork, but, like, no. Babies will die if you use something else from that. But that is traditionally a pork dish. Buchero is traditionally beef or venison, but really, you know, you're gonna be fine if you put damn near anything in it. It's a big, giant stew, a lot of vegetables, and it's fantastic. And to. To really make the book more versatile, because I.The two things that I always do in my books. Number one is I'm going to give you the recipe as faithfully as I can to what it actually is, wherever it's from, and then I'm going to give you all these substitutions so that if you live in, you know, Bismarck or Crookston or, you know, rural Iowa, you're going to be able to make it. And that's important to me because it's more important to me that you make some version of it than to be exactly proper and specific. I hate cookbooks where it's like, especially with cheese, where you'll see someone be like, it must be the, you know, Cowgirl Creamery point raised blue from 2012. Otherwise this recipe won't work. I'm like, come on guys, this is a stupid recipe. Like it's blue cheese. It'll be fine.Stephanie:I was surprised that you have a chimichanga in the book. Can we talk about chimichangas? Because people that grew up in the Midwest, Chichis was like the first Mexican restaurant besides El Burrito Mercado. And El Burrito Mercado was authentic and chichi's was like the Americanized what they thought Mexican food was. Which also I will say I have taste memories of chi cheese. I say this not dogging on them and they're actually coming back. And the chimichanga is something that like, if I actually go to the new restaurant, which I'm sure I will, I will order a chimichanga. It's like a taste memory for me. What is the origination of chimichanga?Hank Shaw:It's shrouded in mystery. So there's a couple different theories. And then I'll tell you what I think the general story is that a woman was making burritos in Arizona and either dropped, which I don't believe because that would create a splash that would, you know, send 350 degree oil everywhere, or placed a burrito in the deep fryer. And the, the legend, which I don't believe this is true at all, is she drops the burrito in the deep fryer and you know, says something like, you know, ah, chingo to madre or whatever, like just like swears something bad and. But then sort of does what you would do in a kind of a mom situation. And if you instead of saying the F word, you would say oh, fudge. And so she goes, oh Jimmy changa. And which is sort of vaguely reminiscent of some Mexican swear words.And so that thus the, the dish was born. But I think that's not true because there is a fantastic resource, actually. I mean, I found it in some of my older Mexican cookbooks that I own. But there's a fantastic research that the University of Texas at San Antonio of Mexican cookbooks. And some of these Mexican cookbooks are handwritten from the 1800s, and so they're all digitized and you can. You can study them. And so there's a thing in Sonora. Remember I just got done saying that, like, there's almost no difference between Sonora and Arizona.There's a thing from Sonora many, many, many, many years ago, you know, early early 1900s, for a chivy changa. C H I V I C H A N G A ch and it's the same thing. So I'm convinced that this is just a thing, because if you have a burrito and you fry things, there's zero. There's zero chance that at some point you be like, I want to. I wonder if frying the burrito will make it good? You know, like, the answer, yes, yes, all the time.Stephanie:And.Hank Shaw:And so, you know, I, like you, came into the chimichanga world just thinking with a definite eyebrow raised, like, what is this? And when it's done right, and if you see the picture in my book, it is dressed with a whole bunch of things on the outside of the burrito. So it's crema, it's a pico de gallo. It's shredded lettuce or cabbage, limes. The thing about a properly served chimichanga is that you have to eat it as a whole because the chimichanga itself is quite heavy. You know, it's a. It's a fried burrito with, like, rice and beans and meat inside it. Like, it's a gut bomb. But when you eat it with all these light things around it that are bright and fresh and acidic, it completely changes the eating experience. And I was sold.Stephanie:I can imagine. The one you have in the book looks really good. I'm going to. I keep asking about specific recipes, but there were, like, some that just jumped out at me, like, wow. Another one that jumped out at me was from that same chapter about the acorn cookies. I've always been under the impression that acorns, and maybe it's from just specific to the oaks, but that they're poisonous. I didn't think about making acorn flour.Hank Shaw:So, number one, no acorns are poisonous. Zero, period. End of story. It's a myth. You were lied to. Sorry.Stephanie:Yeah. I mean, it helps me because my dog eats them.Hank Shaw:I mean, acorns have been a source of food for human beings forever, you know, all the way. I don't know how long ago, but way more than 10,000 years. Way more. Okay, so what the myth comes from is most acorn varieties, so most especially red oaks, are full of tannins. And tannins are not poisonous. Tannins are not toxic. Tannins will make you constipated if you eat too many of them. And I suppose it would be possible to poison yourself with tannins, but I mean, good luck.Yeah, good luck eating enough of that astringent stuff to be able to get yourself poisoned. But tannins are water soluble. So for millennia, the people who eat acorns, and especially in. In northern California, where, you know, acorn. Acorns were their main starch, the idea of leaching the tannins out in a stream or wherever is as old as time. And so you make the. You make a meal. It's really a meal is probably a better way to put it.I call it flour, but there's no. There's no real gluten in it. In fact, there's no gluten in it, but there is some starch in it that will help the flour stick to itself. So that's true everywhere. In fact, it's a very good acorn year here in Minnesota this year. And I found some bur oaks in a. In a place that I'm going to go back and harvest them to make some more acorn flour this year. And I'll have to leach them here.But this is a very long walk up to this cookie recipe, because in south Arizona and in Sonora, there's an oak called an emery oak. And the emery oak is in the white oak. It's in the white oak clan. And it is sweet in the sense that you can roast those acorns and eat them. And in fact, you can get roasted acorns as a snack on some of the reservations down there or really wherever. I mean, it's a thing like it's. It. It.They could just roast it. Roast the acorns? Yeah. It's just like a chestnut. Very good. That's exactly with the. Because it's the same kind of a texture as well. And so that particular oak is unique in. In North America.The cork oak in Europe is the other one that doesn't have any tannins to it. So you can just sit there and eat them. And that's why they make flour out of them. It's an indigenous thing. You don't really see it too much among the Hispanic Sonorans. You see it a lot more with, like, Yaqui or Pima or Tono O', Odham, those indigenous groups.Stephanie:It's so Cool. I also subscribe to your substack, which I would encourage people to subscribe and. And yes to the Bone, it's called. And you just had a post about herbs and how important herbs are in your cooking and in your yard. And I know that you have kind of a small St. Paul yard because we've talked about it. What are you doing with your herbs now that we're at the end of the season? Are you. Do you have anything that's special that you do with them? Do you dry them? Do you mix them with salt?Hank Shaw:I do all of the above. I am a preservation fanatic. I could talk for hours just about various ways to preserve things for our Minnesota winners. Maybe that's another podcast for sure. But the short version is, yes, all of the things. I mostly will do things like make pesto with basil, because I love pesto. But I do dry some and there are tricks to drying herbs. The trick is low heat for a long time, so the don't use your oven and try to get them dry within 40, 48 hours, but also try to do it at less than 110 degrees, otherwise they turn brown.Stephanie:Do you use it like a dehydrator, then?Hank Shaw:Yes, I use a dehydrator. And most herbs dry really well. In fact, many herbs are better dried because it concentrates their flavor. Basil's iffy. Parsley's kind of terrible. Dried parsley's one of those ones where eat it fresh, make pesto. I suppose you could freeze it. I mostly will.I will gather big scabs of it because I grow a lot and I will freeze it. And even though it's going to suffer in the freezer, it is one of the most vital things I use for making stocks and broths with the game I bring home. So freezing, drying, you can, you know, I just mixed a whole bunch of. Of lovage with salt. So you go 50, 50 the herb and. And coarse salt, like ice cream salt almost. And then you buzz that into a food processor or a blender, and then that creates a much finer kind of almost a wet salt that is an enormous amount of flavor. And if you freeze it, it'll stay bright green the whole winter.And sometimes I like to do that, but the other times I kind of like to. To see it and progress over the. Over the months. And it's kind of a beautiful thing to see that herb salt kind of brown out and army green out as we get to like, late February, because it really is. Is sort of also indicative of how of our Harsh winters and feels a little bit more of the time and place than pulling something out of a freezer.Stephanie:Yeah. So let's talk about that because you're a single man, you are a recipe writer and developer, so you're also cooking and testing recipes. You're preserving all these things. I mean, my freezer right now is kind of a hellscape. I just closed up my summer and I came home with so much food. I have, like, canned and pickled and preserved. And I just literally feel overwhelmed by all of the food in my home right now. And I realize this is a real first world problem.So, you know, my daughter's kind of in her young 20s and sort of poor, so I've loaded her up with stuff. But do you just feel overwhelmed sometimes by all of the abundance of food?Hank Shaw:Absolutely. It's one of the things that's been really remarkable about it, about sort of single life, is how less I need to hunt or fish. So I find myself. I mean, I still. I. Because. So, side note, background backstory. I don't buy meat or fish at all.I occasionally will buy a little bit of bacon because I love bacon. And I'll occasionally buy pork fat to make sausages with game, but that's it. So if I'm eating red meat, it's going to be venison. If I'm eating white meat, it's probably going to be grouse or. Or pheasants. If I'm eating fish, I've caught it. And so that's what I find is that I eat. Hey, I don't eat that much meat anymore.Like, I eat plenty. But I mean, it's not like I. I don't gorge myself on giant steaks anymore. And it's just me. So, you know, a limit of walleyes can last me a month. And before, it was definitely not like that. And so, yes, I can feel the overwhelm. But what's, you know, I have neighbors that I give things to.I have friends that I give things to. Like, I. I had two deer tags last year, and I shot the second deer because I had a whole bunch of friends who didn't get a deer and needed medicine. So it was really cool to be able to give to. You know, I butchered it all and gave them an all vacuum seal. It was like all ready to go. And. And that was really satisfying to be able to help people like that.And then, you know, I like, you know, have a dinner party here and there.Stephanie:Yeah, I want to come to a dinner party. Not to invite myself. But please, I'll. I'll reciprocate in the. I have a cabin in the summer, so I'm sort of like between here and there. But once sets in, I really like to entertain and have people over. I find that it's a really easy way to gather new people too. Like, I like collecting people because I just think people are so amazing and I love putting like, new people at the table that people don't know yet or making those connections.I think I'm actually kind of good at it. So I can't wait to have you over this fall.Hank Shaw:Yeah, likewise. We'll. We'll do a home and home.Stephanie:Yes, I would love that very much. Your book is available, Borderlands on. I found it because obviously I. You sent me a copy. But also it's on Amazon and you self publish. So there's a lot of people that listen to this podcast that are cookbook writers themselves or people that maybe are trying to get published or find publishing. Can you speak to that a little bit and why that's been your route. You've been doing this a long time.Hank Shaw:Yeah, this is my force. Fourth self published book. And self publish is really kind of a misnomer in a way because the books that I put out are of Random House quality. Like, they're for sure. There's no way you're gonna be able to tell this book is apart from a gigantic publishing house, because what I ended up doing is creating a publishing company. So the books are published in big, big runs at Versa Press in Illinois. I'm very happy to say that these books are entirely made in America. And that's kind of important to me because most cookbooks are made in China and not a fan.So the books are printed in Illinois and they are stored and shipped at a, at a, a warehouse in Michigan. So the best ways to get the books are to either buy them from my website or buy them from Amazon. Those are probably your two best avenues for it. The thing about self publishing, if you want to do it at the level that I'm doing it, which is to say, make a book that, you know, even a snooty Random House person will be like, damn, that's a good book. You have to go big and it's not cheap. So I do, I, I don't ever do runs less than 5,000. And a typical run for me is between 10 and 15,000. And because your unit costs go way, way down.Stephanie:Right.Hank Shaw:And we can get in the weeds of it, but I have some Advantages in the sense that my sister has designed books for a living for 30 some odd years and her husband has edited books for 30 some odd years.Stephanie:Oh, so you got like family business going.Hank Shaw:Yeah, and my ex, my ex does most of the photos like this. Borderlands is the first book where the majority of the photos are mine. They're nice, but the. But even she's cheap. She photo edited this book. And so like I have people with very good skills. And so what I would say is if you have a kitchen cabinet where you have people who have those skills. And I have to kind of stress that, for example, copy editing, copy editing or proofreading or indexing a book are entirely different from copy editing or proofreading something in businessIt's just not the same skill. And I found that out. So if you have that ability to put together a dream team, then you can make a really, really beautiful book that will, that will impress people and that you will actually love. The print on demand system is still not good enough for cookbooks. It's fantastic for like a memoir or something without a lot of pictures, but it is not good for, for cookbooks still.Stephanie:All right, I'm just making notes here because people ask me questions about this all the time. All right, well, I appreciate that you've done all this work, and the book is beautiful, and I love talking to you about food. So hopefully we can call you again and just wrap it down.Hank Shaw:Yeah, let's talk about preservation.Stephanie:Yeah, I. Because I've never met anyone that only was eating what they killed.Hank Shaw:Well, you could go up north. I bet you'd find more people who do.Stephanie:But yes, yes. And I just, I find that to be fascinating and also just the idea of preserving food and how you use. Use what you preserve. So yeah, that's a great topic to get into at a later date. The book is Borderlands. I'm talking with Hank Shaw. Recipes and Stories from the Rio Grande to the Pacific. You can find it at Amazon or at his website.I always say this one wrong. Hunt, Gather. CookHank Shaw:So. So the best way to get to my website is just go to huntgathercook.com okay.Stephanie:And you have lots of recipes there too. I want people to just explore thousands. Yeah, it's incredible the mon recipes that you have there. And you know, if you think about protein as being interchangeable in a lot of these instances, it's definitely a really well done website with tons of recipes.Stephanie:Thanks for your time today, Hank. I appreciate it.Hank Shaw:Thanks a lot. Thanks for having me on.Stephanie:We'll talk soon.Hank Shaw:Bye.Stephanie:Bye. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit stephaniehansen.substack.com/subscribe

On today's AgNet News Hour, Nick Papagni and Josh McGill spoke with Jake Barcellos of A-Bar Ag Enterprises, a fourth-generation farmer based in the Los Banos–Firebaugh area. Barcellos shared how his family's diversified operation is navigating California's regulatory, water, and labor challenges while keeping an eye on the future. Farming a Wide Range of Crops A-Bar Ag grows an impressive mix of commodities, including almonds, pistachios, pomegranates, olives for oil, Pima cotton, processing tomatoes, asparagus, garlic, and onions. Barcellos explained that this broad diversification is both a strategy for stability and a necessity in today's volatile marketplace. “You just can't trust the row crop market right now. We have to be in everything we can to stay sustainable,” he said. Water and Regulation Pressures Water remains a critical issue. While some of A-Bar Ag's acres receive reliable deliveries, others face allocations as low as 55 percent, often announced too late in the year for planning. Barcellos emphasized the need for new water storage projects to ensure that productive farmland doesn't sit idle. He also pointed to burdensome regulations on hours, wages, and inputs as barriers that strain both growers and their employees. Labor and Immigration Barcellos underscored the value of his longtime workforce, many of whom have been with the farm for more than 25 years. He called for a sensible immigration solution that distinguishes between community members who contribute and those who pose risks. “We need outside labor—we just don't have the labor force here in California to be sustainable,” he explained. Innovation and the Future A-Bar Ag has leaned into automation and drip irrigation across 95 percent of its acres, adopting underground systems to combat rodent and bird damage. Looking ahead, Barcellos stressed the importance of maintaining quality in niche crops like asparagus and olive oil, as well as ensuring the farm remains viable for a fifth generation. “My main goal is to pass on the opportunity to my children and my cousin's children,” he said. Barcellos also highlighted the role of FFA and agricultural education in preparing future leaders, and he continues his own development through the California Ag Leadership Program. For the full conversation with Jake Barcellos, listen to today's AgNet News Hour at AgNetWest.com.

This was a very nice Friday crossword -- not soul-crushingly difficult, but with enough razzle-dazzle (see yesterday's episode

Today's bonus IVECCS live session wasn't your average ‘clinical 101'. I had the absolute privilege of getting two brilliant minds on the yellow couch, and … wow.  Apparently 1 + 1 =

We open loose and light—think random earworms and inside jokes—then tee up next week's format: a full-on Work AMA. We've got a stack of questions coming in, so send yours and we'll fold them in.Life update: a teen flipped a truck, wiped out our mailbox, and mangled a few fence posts outside the house in the middle of the night. Everyone was okay, we stayed calm, patched the fence, hammered the mailbox back into shape, and even got a chuckle out of the “just junk mail today” timing. Perspective > panic.Show news: Natural State Savage is getting real—venue walk-throughs, lights, audio, trophies, the works. Parking could be wild with a Notre Dame home game in town, so plan to walk a bit (follow the smell of meat on the grill). If you're on the fence about competing: pull the trigger. First shows are about growth, not perfection, and our stage vibe is zero ego.Cutting/Reverse update: Robert's alternate-day fasting experiment is dialed. Feast days: ~5,500–6,000 kcals; “fat-fast” days: coffee with heavy cream to keep sanity without sliding backward. Scale target: ~174 lbs after fasting, ~179 lbs after feasting—steady, strong, and psychologically easier when you expect those fluctuations.Client wins: Ralph hit his first strategic refeed (+1,000 mg sodium), woke up three pounds lighter and looking sharp. Momentum's real.Product pipeline: Cookie Dough (tallow) and Mocha Cream are back—new rendering technique brings a firmer set and (we think) a bump in stearic acid for a slightly different bite. Fresh from the fridge is elite.Ops & brand: International shipping is still a slog—Norway customs drama, and a big India endurance project got hung up despite premium shipping. We'll re-run the numbers on whether the juice is worth the squeeze. On a happier note, apparel's moving: we found a Pima-cotton blank that fits and performs, and we'll launch it right when it's truly ready.That's the vibe this week: keep it calm under pressure, train hard, eat with intention, and build things the right way. Drop your questions—we're stacking them for the AMA.Greg Mahler is also a lifetime natural bodybuilder, and can be followed on Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/ketogreg80/Register For My FREE Masterclass: https://www.ketobodybuilding.com/registration-2Get Keto Brick: https://www.ketobrick.com/

Send us a textRobert grew up in Upstate New York, knew he was not going to college, and left for Air Force bootcamp shortly after graduating high school. Initially he was in logistics/ supply, but cross trained a few years later and began flying in C130's, gathering battlefield intel for boots on the ground!At 38, he retired and decided to go into law enforcement. After several ride alongs with family in Las Vegas and one with Pima county, he knew that was his next adventure.In 2000, he finished the police academy and trained in Operations Division East, then got assigned to Midtown (my second-most favorite division in the city). In 2008, he promoted to Detective and was assigned to some of the toughest units in Criminal Investigations, Child Abuse and Adult Sexual Assault. He finished his 25 year career in Team Detectives...I'm glad he agreed to be on the show a whole week and half after retiring. And I'm excited to share him with you all.Come see me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/choir.practice.94 or on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/cp_sfaf/

Kicking Off Independence Day Week! 1st hour: Recap of our Summer Dining Event at Shish Kebab plus the best local coverage in any medium in SOAZ. Pima releases drug od/suicide report, NGOs don't want cleanups of drug camps, Project blue job numbers in the actual contract. Former LD head calls in to talk about Pima's new voting envelopes 2nd hour National news: Huge Supreme decisions, Canada Trade deal, Big Beautiful bill heading towards a signature, Chuck Todd sums up the DNC in one sentence3rd hour State budget wrap up, State Senate demotes Sen. Shamp, teachers union spending priorities. Whew!

Liz Barbatelli, the visionary behind E. Braun Beverly Hills, takes us on a journey from the bustling corridors of Wall Street to the serene world of luxury linens. Liz shares her transformation story and how her 30-year tenure in fashion and design has shaped E. Braun Beverly Hills into a sanctuary of modern luxury. Her insights into the balance between heritage and contemporary design, alongside practical tips on luxury linens, open up a world where everyday items are elevated to an art form. Liz personifies the concept of everyday luxury, demonstrating how something as simple as crisp bed linens or elegant cloth napkins can transform daily routines into cherished experiences.As the episode unfolds, you'll encounter the intricate world of luxury textiles, from the choice of exquisite materials like Pima cotton and Sea Island to memorable projects like outfitting a mega yacht. Liz discusses the significance of collaboration and trust in her work with top designers, while also sharing her dreams for future projects, including aspirations to be a creative director for Christian Dior Maison. Through stories of personal growth, gender dynamics, and the challenges of running a business, Liz weaves a narrative that highlights the powerful blend of passion and vision. This episode is a tribute to those who appreciate the artistry of fine linens and the elegance they bring to life.

As Scott Marchand and Andrew Boehly, CEO and Director of Collections of the Pima Air and Space Museum, respectively, were in town, I had to drag them to the pub to find out what the future holds for the expanding Museum. With the arrival of Philippine Mars, the opening of the Tucson Military Vehicle Museum, and a raft of projects on the go, Scott and Andrew bring us up to speed with all the latest from Pima and the current trends affecting aviation museums. Welcome to the Pima Pubcast!Many thanks to @boneyardsafari for the footage of the Martin Mars move!-----------------------------------------------------

Kit, Trev, and Harper crack open the mailbag and take on the big (and small) stuff that comes with party season, milestone birthdays, and finding joy when life gets quieter.From prom night panic to dolphin disco cruises and a chef who almost sent everyone to the ER with Cajun spice overload, this one is full of stories you'll want to retell at your next girls' night. We talk party stress, showing up for your friends, and why it's totally normal to feel a little lost in your 50s—even when life looks good on paper.Also in this episode:• The party that almost broke Kit (but turned out magical thanks to her girl gang)• How to start a conversation when you know no one (Kit-style)• Celebrating your mom without making her cry (unless it's from laughter)• Why spicy cocktails and black rice don't mix• The loneliness of your 50s—and how to fill your cup againThis one's for anyone who's ever thrown a party, dreaded a party, or been saved by their friends who show up with bar carts and flower crowns.Listen now, and text it to the friend who always brings the fun (and maybe the antacids).--This episode was produced by Kit Hoover and Harper McDonald. Business Development by Casey Ladd. Editing by You & Me Media.--To learn more about our sponsors:Erin GrayThe perfect white Tshirt has been found.The softest Pima cotton from Peru.Pre shrunk and pre washed and no tags.https://eringraydesign.comUse code COOP20 for 20% off your next order.Blue Delta JeansThere is nothing like custom-fit jeans.Once you try them, you will never go back.Easy measuring system to your best-fitting jeans ever.bluedeltajeans.comUse code COOP20 for 20% off your next order Follow The Coop with Kit on Instagram @kithoover and @thecoopwithkithoover

What happens when two ride-or-die besties, with nearly 40 years of friendship under their belts, sit down for a no-filter catch-up? You get this heart-bursting, laugh-out-loud, “I needed this” episode of The Coop.Kit is joined by her best friend Casey “Trev” Ladd—track teammates at UNC turned lifelong partners in crime (minus the crime… well, mostly)—for a deep and hilarious dive into what makes friendship last through decades, drama, and dip gone wrong. Harper McDonald, Producer of The Coop, jumps into this inner circle—asking the juicy questions and guiding the girls through stories, lessons, and laugh-out-loud moments.From their wildest college days to parenting, loss, life pivots, and parties gone sideways… this is the kind of soul-nourishing chat that makes you want to text your bestie right now.In this episode:• How Kit and Trev met (hint: it involves a daughter and dad wrestling for fun)• The difference between being close… and showing up in life's biggest and hardest moments• Wild 20s stories: Mardi Gras, track team dropouts, and “Lieutenant Smoothback”• The moment that changed their friendship forever• Why friendships in your 50s hit different (and better.. thank you White Lotus)• Lessons from their powerhouse moms (shoutout to Bug!)• And the key to being that friend: laughter, honesty, and the courage to say, “I need you”It's one part slumber party, one part therapy session, and 100% joy.Hit follow and share this episode with the person who's been through it all with you—bad haircuts, big feelings, and every last French toast stick.--This episode was produced by Kit Hoover and Harper McDonald. Business Development by Casey Ladd. Editing by You & Me Media.--To learn more about our sponsors:Erin GrayThe perfect white Tshirt has been found.The softest Pima cotton from Peru.Pre shrunk and pre washed and no tags.https://eringraydesign.comUse code COOP20 for 20% off your next order.Blue Delta JeansThere is nothing like custom-fit jeans.Once you try them, you will never go back.Easy measuring system to your best-fitting jeans ever.bluedeltajeans.comUse code COOP20 for 20% off your next order Follow The Coop with Kit on Instagram @kithoover and @thecoopwithkithoover

In the 1960s, a deep anxiety set in as one thing became seemingly clear: We were headed toward population catastrophe. Paul Ehrlich's “The Population Bomb” and “The Limits to Growth,” written by the Club of Rome, were just two publications warning of impending starvation due to simply too many humans on the earth.As the population ballooned year by year, it would simply be impossible to feed everyone. Demographers and environmentalists alike held their breath and braced for impact.Except that we didn't starve. On the contrary, we were better fed than ever.In his article in The New Atlantis, Charles C. Mann explains that agricultural innovation — from improved fertilization and irrigation to genetic modification — has brought global hunger to a record low.Today on Faster, Please! — The Podcast, I chat with Mann about the agricultural history they didn't teach you in school.Mann is a science journalist who has worked as a correspondent for The Atlantic, Science, and Wired magazines, and whose work has been featured in many other major publications. He is also the author of 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus and1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, as well as The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow's World.In This Episode* Intro to the Agricultural Revolution (2:04)* Water infrastructure (13:11)* Feeding the masses (18:20)* Indigenous America (25:20)Below is a lightly edited transcript of our conversation. Intro to the Agricultural Revolution (2:04)I don't think that people realize that the fact that most people on earth, almost the average person on earth, can feed themselves is a novel phenomenon. It's something that basically wasn't true since as far back as we know.Pethokoukis: What got my attention was a couple of pieces that you've worked on for The New Atlantis magazine looking at the issue of how modern Americans take for granted the remarkable systems and infrastructure that provide us comfort, safety, and a sense of luxury that would've been utterly unimaginable even to the wealthiest people of a hundred years ago or 200 years ago.Let me start off by asking you: Does it matter that we do take that for granted and that we also kind of don't understand how our world works?Mann: I would say yes, very much. It matters because these systems undergird the prosperity that we have, the good fortune that we have to be alive now, but they're always one generation away from collapse. If they aren't maintained, upgraded and modernized, they'll fall apart. They just won't stand there. So we have to be aware of this. We have to keep our eye on the ball, otherwise we won't have these things.The second thing is that, if we don't know how our society works, as citizens, we're simply not going to make very good choices about what to do with that society. I feel like both sides in our current political divide are kind of taking their eye off the ball. It's important to have good roads, it's important to have clean water, it's important to have a functioning public health system, it's important to have an agricultural system that works. It doesn't really matter who you are. And if we don't keep these things going, life will be unnecessarily bad for a lot of people, and that's just crazy to do.Is this a more recent phenomenon? If I would've asked people 50 years ago, “Explain to me how our infrastructure functions, how we get water, how we get electricity,” would they have a better idea? Is it just because things are more complicated today that we have no idea how our food gets here or why when we turn the faucet, clean water comes out?The answer is “yes” in a sort of trivial sense, in that many more people were involved in producing food, a much greater percentage of the population was involved in producing food 50 years ago. The same thing was true for the people who were building infrastructure 50 years ago.But I also think it's generally true that people's parents saw the change and knew it. So that is very much the case and, in a sense, I think we're victims of our own success. These kinds of things have brought us so much prosperity that we can afford to do crazy things like become YouTube influencers, or podcasters, or freelance writers. You don't really have any connection with how the society goes because we're sort of surfing on this wave of luxury that our ancestors bequeathed to us.I don't know how much time you spend on social media, Charles — I'm sure I spend too much — but I certainly sense that many people today, younger people especially, don't have a sense of how someone lived 50 years ago, 100 years ago, and there was just a lot more physical suffering. And certainly, if you go back far enough, you could not take for granted that you would have tomatoes in your supermarket year round, that you would have water in the house and that water would be clean. What I found really interesting — you did a piece on food and a piece on water — in the food piece you note that, in the 1980s, that was a real turning point that the average person on earth had enough to eat all the time, and rather than becoming an issue of food production, it became an issue of distribution, of governance. I think most people would be surprised of that statistic even though it's 40 years old.I don't think that people realize that the fact that most people on earth, almost the average person on earth, can feed themselves is a novel phenomenon. It's something that basically wasn't true since as far back as we know. That's this enormous turning point, and there are many of these turning points. Obviously, the introduction of antibiotics for . . . public health, which is another one of these articles they're going to be working on . . .Just about 100 years ago today, when President Coolidge was [president], his son went to play tennis at the White House tennis courts, and because he was lazy, or it was fashionable, or something, he didn't put on socks. He got a blister on his toe, the toe got infected, and he died. 100 years ago, the president of the United States, who presumably had the best healthcare available to anybody in the world, was unable to save his beloved son when the son got a trivial blister that got infected. The change from that to now is mind boggling.You've written about the Agricultural Revolution and why the great fears 40 or 50 years ago of mass starvation didn't happen. I find that an endlessly interesting topic, both for its importance and for the fact it just seems to be so underappreciated to this day, even when it was sort of obvious to people who pay attention that something was happening, it still seemed not to penetrate the public consciousness. I wonder if you could just briefly talk to me about that revolution and how it happened.The question is, how did it go from “The Population Bomb” written in 1968, a huge bestseller, hugely influential, predicting that there is going to be hundreds of millions of people dying of mass starvation, followed by other equally impassioned, equally important warnings. There's one called “Famine, 1975!,” written a few years before, that predicted mass famines in 1975. There's “The Limits to Growth.” I went to college in the '70s and these were books that were on the curriculum, and they were regarded as contemporary classics, and they all proved to be wrong.The reason is that, although they were quite correct about the fact that the human race was reproducing at that time faster than ever before, they didn't realize two things: The first is that as societies get more affluent, and particularly as societies get more affluent and give women more opportunities, birth rates decline. So that this was obviously, if you looked at history, going to be a temporary phenomenon of whatever length it was be, but it was not going to be infinite.The second was there was this enormous effort spurred by this guy named Norman Borlaug, but with tons of other people involved, to take modern science and apply it to agriculture, and that included these sort of three waves of innovation. Now, most innovation is actually just doing older technologies better, which is a huge source of progress, and the first one was irrigation. Irrigation has been around since forever. It's almost always been done badly. It's almost always not been done systematically. People started doing it better. They still have a lot of problems with it, but it's way better, and now 40 percent, roughly, of the crops in the world that are produced are produced by irrigation.The second is the introduction of fertilizer. There's two German scientists, Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch, who essentially developed the ways of taking fertilizer and making lots and lots of it in factories. I could go into more detail if you want, but that's the essential thing. This had never been done before, and suddenly cheap industrial fertilizer became available all over the world, and Vaclav Smil . . . he's sort of an environmental scientist of every sort, in Manitoba has calculated that roughly 40 percent of the people on earth today would not be alive if it wasn't for that.And then the third was the development of much better, much higher-yielding seeds, and that was the part that Norman Borlaug had done. These packaged together of irrigation fertilizer and seeds yielded what's been called the Green Revolution, doubled, tripled, or even quadrupled grain yields across the world, particularly with wheat and rice. The result is the world we live in today. When I was growing up, when you were growing up, your parents may have said to you, as they did me, Oh, eat your vegetables, there are kids that are starving in Asia.” Right? That was what was told and that was the story that was told in books like “The Population Bomb,” and now Asia's our commercial rival. When you go to Bangkok, that was a place that was hungry and now it's gleaming skyscrapers and so forth. It's all based on this fact that people are able to feed themselves through the combination of these three factors,That story, the story of mass-starvation that the Green Revolution irrigation prevented from coming true. I think a surprising number of people still think that story is relevant today, just as some people still think the population will be exploding when it seems clear it probably will not be exploding. It will rise, but then it's going to start coming down at some point this century. I think those messages just don't get through. Just like most people don't know Norm Borlaug, the Haber-Bosch process, which school kids should know. They don't know any of this. . . Borlaug won the Nobel Prize, right?Right. He won the Nobel Peace Prize. I'll tell you a funny story —I think he won it in the same year that “The Population Bomb” came out.It was just a couple years off. But you're right, the central point is right, and the funny thing is . . . I wrote another book a while back that talked about this and about the way environmentalists think about the world, and it's called the “Wizard and the Prophet” and Borlaug was the wizard of it. I thought, when I proposed it, that it would be easy. He was such an important guy, there'd be tons of biographies about him. And to this day, there isn't a real serious scholarly biography of the guy. This is a person who has done arguably more to change human life than any other person in the 20th century, certainly up in the top dozen or so. There's not a single serious biography of him.How can that be?It's because we're tremendously disconnected. It's a symptom of what I'm talking about. We're tremendously disconnected from these systems, and it's too bad because they're interesting! They're actually quite interesting to figure out: How do you get water to eight billion people? How do you get . . . It is a huge challenge, and some of the smartest people you've ever met are working on it every day, but they're working on it over here, and the public attention is over here.Water infrastructure (13:11). . . the lack of decent, clean, fresh water is the world's worst immediate environmental problem. I think people probably have some vague idea about agriculture, the Agricultural Revolution, how farming has changed, but I think, as you just referred to, the second half, water — utter mystery to people. Comes out of a pipe. The challenges of doing that in a rich country are hard. The challenges doing a country not so rich, also hard. Tell me what you find interesting about that topic.Well, whereas the story about agriculture is basically a good story: We've gotten better at it. We have a whole bunch of technical innovations that came in the 20th century and humankind is better off than ever before. With water, too, we are better off than ever before, but the maddening thing is we could be really well off because the technology is basically extremely old.There's a city, a very ancient city called Mohenjo-daro that I write about a bit in this article that was in essentially on the Pakistan-India border, 2600 BC. And they had a fully functioning water system that, in its basics, was no different than the water system that we have, or that London has, or that Paris has. So this is an ancient, ancient technology, yet we still have two billion people on the planet that don't have access to adequate water. In fact, even though we know how to do it, the lack of decent, clean, fresh water is the world's worst immediate environmental problem. And a small thing that makes me nuts is that climate change — which is real and important — gets a lot of attention, but there are people dying of not getting good water now.On top of it, even in rich countries like us, our water system is antiquated. The great bulk of it was built in the '40s, '50s, and '60s, and, like any kind of physical system, it ages, and every couple years, various engineering bodies, water bodies, the EPA, and so forth puts out a report saying, “Hey, we really have to fix the US water system and the numbers keep mounting up.” And Democrats, Republicans, they all ignore this.Who is working on the water issue in poorer countries?There you have a very ad hoc group of people. The answer is part of it's the Food and Agricultural Organization because most water in most countries is used for irrigation to grow food. You also have the World Health Organization, these kinds of bodies. You have NGOs working on it. What you don't have in those countries like our country is the government taking responsibility for coordinating something that's obviously in the national interest.So you have these things where, very periodically — a government like China has done this, Jordan has done this, Bolivia has done this, countries all over the world have done this — and they say, “Okay, we haven't been able to provide freshwater. Let's bring in a private company.” And the private company then invests all this money in infrastructure, which is expensive. Then, because it's a private company, it has to make that money back, and so it charges people for a lot of money for this, and the people are very unhappy because suddenly they're paying a quarter of their income for water, which is what I saw in Southwest China: water riots because people are paying so much for water.In other words, one of the things that government can do is sort of spread these costs over everybody, but instead they concentrate it on the users, Almost universally, these privatization efforts have led to tremendous political unhappiness because the government has essentially shifted responsibility for coordinating and doing these things and imposed a cost on a narrow minority of the users.Are we finally getting on top of the old water infrastructure in this country? It seems like during the Biden administration they had a big infrastructure bill. Do you happen to know if we are finally getting that system upgraded?Listen, I will be the only person who probably ever interviews you who's actually had to fix a water main as a summer job. I spent [it at] my local Public Works Department where we'd have to fix water mains, and this was a number of years ago, and even a number of years ago, those pipes were really, really old. It didn't take much for them to get a main break.I'm one of those weird people who is bothered by this. All I can tell you is we have a lot of aging infrastructure. The last estimate that I've seen came before this sort of sudden jerky rise of construction costs, which, if you're at all involved in building, is basically all the people in the construction industry talk about. At that point, the estimate was that it was $1.2 trillion to fix the infrastructure that we have in the United States. I am sure it is higher now. I am delighted that the Biden people passed this infrastructure — would've been great if they passed permitting reform and a couple of other things to make it easier to spend the money, but okay. I would like to believe that the Trump people would take up the baton and go on this.Feeding the masses (18:20)I do worry that the kind of regulations, and rules, and ideas that we put into place to try and make agriculture more like this picture that we have in our head will end up inadvertently causing suffering for the people who are struggling.We're still going to have another two billion people, maybe, on this earth. Are we going to be able to feed them all?Yeah, I think that there's no question. The question is what we're going to be able to feed them? Are we going to be able to feed them all, filet mignon and truffled . . . whatever they put truffle oil on, and all that? Not so sure about that.All organic vegetables.At the moment, that seems really implausible, and there's a sort of fundamental argument going on here. There's a lot of people, again, both right and left, who are sort of freaked out by the scale that modern agriculture operates on. You fly over the middle-west and you see all those circles of center-pivot irrigation, they plowed under, in the beginning of the 20th century, 100 million acres of prairie to produce all that. And it's done with enormous amounts of capital, and it was done also partly by moving people out so that you could have this enormous stuff. The result is it creates a system that . . . doesn't match many people's vision of the friendly family farmer that they grew up with. It's a giant industrial process and people are freaked out by the scale. They don't trust these entities, the Cargills and the ADMs, and all these huge companies that they see as not having their interests at heart.It's very understandable. I live in a small town, we have a farm down there, and Jeremy runs it, and I'm very happy to see Jeremy. There's no Jeremy at Archer Daniels Midland. So the result is that there's a big revulsion against that, and people want to downsize the scale, and they point to very real environmental problems that big agriculture has, and they say that that is reason for this. The great problem is that in every single study that I am aware of, the sort of small, local farms don't produce as much food per acre or per hectare as the big, soulless industrial processes. So if you're concerned about feeding everybody, that's something you have to really weigh in your head, or heavy in your heart.That sort of notion of what a farm should look like and what good food is, that kind of almost romantic notion really, to me, plays into the sort of anti-growth or the degrowth people who seemed to be saying that farms could only be this one thing — probably they don't even remember those farms anymore — that I saw in a storybook. It's like a family farm, everything's grown local, not a very industrial process, but you're talking about a very different world. Maybe that's a world they want, but I don't know if that's a world you want if you're a poor person in this world.No, and like I said, I love going to the small farm next to us and talking to Jeremy and he says, “Oh look, we've just got these tomatoes,” it's great, but I have to pay for that privilege. And it is a privilege because Jeremy is barely making it and charging twice as much as the supermarket. There's no economies of scale for him. He still has to buy all the equipment, but he's putting it over 20 acres instead of 2000 acres. In addition, it's because it's this hyper-diverse farm — which is wonderful; they get to see the strawberries, and the tomatoes, and all the different things — it means he has to hire much more labor than it would be if he was just specializing in one thing. So his costs are inevitably much, much higher, and, therefore, I have to pay a lot more to keep him going. That's fine for me; I'm a middle-class person, I like food, this can be my hobby going there.I'd hate to have somebody tell me it's bad, but it's not a system that is geared for people who are struggling. There are just a ton of people all over the world who are struggling. They're better off than they were 100 years ago, but they're still struggling. I do worry that the kind of regulations, and rules, and ideas that we put into place to try and make agriculture more like this picture that we have in our head will end up inadvertently causing suffering for the people who are struggling.To make sure everybody can get fed in the future, do we need a lot more innovation?Innovation is always good. I would say that we do, and the kinds of innovation we need are not often what people imagine. For example, it's pretty clear that parts of the world are getting drier, and therefore irrigation is getting more difficult. The American Southwest is a primary candidate, and you go to the Safford Valley, which I did a few years ago — the Safford Valley is in southeast Arizona and it's hotter than hell there. I went there and it's 106 degrees and there's water from the Colorado River, 800 miles away, being channeled there, and they're growing Pima cotton. Pima cotton is this very good fine cotton that they use to make fancy clothes, and it's a great cash crop for farmers, but growing it involves channeling water from the Colorado 800 miles, and then they grow it by what's called flood irrigation, which is where you just fill the field with an inch of water. I was there actually to see an archeologist who's a water engineer, and I said to him, “Gee, it's hot! How much that water is evaporated?” And he said, “Oh, all of it.”So we need to think about that kind of thing if the Colorado is going to run out of water, which it is now. There's ways you can do it, you can possibly genetically modify cotton to use less water. You could drip irrigation, which is a much more efficient form of irrigation, it's readily available, but it's expensive. So you could try to help farmers do that. I think if you cut the soft costs, which is called the regulatory costs of farming, you might be able to pay for it in that way. That would be one type of innovation. Another type of thing you could do is to do a different kind of farming which is called civil pastoral systems, where you grow tree crops and then you grow cattle underneath, and that uses dramatically less water. It's being done in Sonora, just across the border and the tree crops — trees are basically wild. People don't breed them because it takes so long, but we now have the tools to breed them, and so you could make highly productive trees with cattle underneath and have a system that produces a lot of calories or a lot of good stuff. That's all the different kinds of innovation that we could do. Just some of the different kinds of innovation we could do and all would help.Indigenous America (25:20)Part of the reason I wrote these things is that I realized it's really interesting and I didn't learn anything about it in school.Great articles in The New Atlantis, big fan of “Wizard and the Prophet,” but I'm going to take one minute and ask you about your great books talking about the story of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. If I just want to travel in the United States and I'm interested in finding out more about Native Americans in the United States, where would you tell me to go?One of my favorite places just it's so amazing, is Chaco Canyon, and that's in the Four Corners area — that whole Four Corners area is quite incredible — and Chaco Canyon is a sign that native people could build amazing stuff, and native people could be crazy, in my opinion. It's in the middle of nowhere, it has no water, and for reasons that are probably spiritual and religious, they built an enormous number of essentially castles in this canyon, and they're incredible.The biggest one, Pueblo Bonito as it's called now, it's like 800 rooms. They're just enormous. And you can go there, and you can see these places, and you can just walk around, and it is incredible. You drive up a little bit to Mesa Verde and there's hundreds of these incredible cliff dwellings. What seems to have happened — I'm going to put this really informally and kind of jokingly to you, not the way that an archeologist would talk about it or I would write about it, but what looks like it happened is that the Chaco Canyon is this big canyon, and on the good side that gets the southern exposure is all these big houses. And then the minions and the hoi polloi lived on the other side, and it looks like, around 800, 900, they just got really tired of serving the kings and they had something like a democratic revolution, and they just left, most of them, and founded the Pueblos, which is these intensely democratic self-governing bodies that are kind of like what Thomas Jefferson thought the United States should be.Then it's like all the doctors, and the lawyers, and the MBAs, and the rich guys went up to Mesa Verde and they started off their own little kingdoms and they all fought with each other. So you have these crazy cliff dwellings where it's impossible to get in and there's hundreds of people living in these niches in these cliffs, and then that blew up too. So you could see history, democracy, and really great architecture all in one place.If someone asked me for my advice about changing the curriculum in school, one, people would leave school knowing who the heroes of progress and heroes of the Agricultural Revolution were. And I think they'd also know a lot more about pre-Columbian history of the Americas. I think they should know about it but I also think it's just super interesting, though of course you've brought it to life in a beautiful way.Thank you very much, and I couldn't agree with you more. Part of the reason I wrote these things is that I realized it's really interesting and I didn't learn anything about it in school.On sale everywhere The Conservative Futurist: How To Create the Sci-Fi World We Were PromisedFaster, Please! is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit fasterplease.substack.com/subscribe

Today in The Coop, Kit is joined by the unstoppable Melissa Stark — trailblazing sports broadcaster, Sunday Night Football sideline reporter, and mom of four. From interviewing legends to raising teens, Melissa opens up about her fearless career in a male-dominated field, how she walked away from her dream job at 26 to raise her family, and how she made an epic return in her 50s.Melissa opens up about what it really took to make it in a male-dominated world — from navigating locker rooms and live broadcasts with zero margin for error, to cutting her hair short just to blend in, to proving (again and again) that she belonged. In this episode:• How Melissa landed her Monday Night Football job at 26• The unfiltered truth about being “the woman on the sidelines”• Identity shifts, and the impossible pressure to do it all• Melissa's take on motherhood, mentorship, and giving yourself permission• Why she's calling this next chapter “Melissa 2.0”• Being coachable at every ageThis one's packed with laughs, career grit, behind-the-scenes stories, and real talk about the juggle of working motherhood, aging, ambition, and what it looks like to come back stronger.Whether you're chasing your next chapter, navigating work/life crazy, or just need a reminder that you do belong in the room — this episode is for you.Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe to The Coop with Kit — and share this one with a friend who's ready to start their 2.0.--This episode was produced by Kit Hoover and Harper McDonald. Business Development by Casey Ladd. Editing by You & Me Media.--To learn more about our sponsors:Erin GrayThe perfect white Tshirt has been found.The softest Pima cotton from Peru.Pre shrunk and pre washed and no tags.https://eringraydesign.comUse code COOP20 for 20% off your next order.Blue Delta JeansThere is nothing like custom-fit jeans.Once you try them, you will never go back.Easy measuring system to your best-fitting jeans ever.bluedeltajeans.comUse code COOP20 for 20% off your next order Follow The Coop with Kit on Instagram @kithoover and @thecoopwithkithoover

It's a little bit breast milk, a little bit Hamburglar—and a whole lot of real talk.In this hilarious and heartfelt Letters to the Coop episode, Kit and Harper get personal, reflecting on the chaos, comedy, and big-life shifts of early motherhood, career curveballs, and what it feels like to hit the big 5-0.From on-air fails (hello, live from Hamburglar Germany) to pumping backstage, Kit shares the behind-the-scenes moments that shaped her journey—on camera and off. The duo opens up about the messy beauty of trying to do it all, the guilt that comes with new motherhood, and the freedom that comes with age and perspective.They cover:• Kit's cringiest live TV moment • Juggling babies, breastfeeding, and broadcasting• Why turning 50 might just be the best chapter yet• Mom guilt and letting go of perfection• That universal feeling of needing “permission” as a new mom—to stop breastfeeding, to ask for help, to go back to work, to not do it all• Plus: McDonald's characters, scenes from Sex/Life, and a little shoutout to Sarah ShahiWhether you're a new mom, a seasoned pro, or just wondering if you'll ever sleep again, this one will make you laugh, feel seen, and maybe even call your mom.It's chaos. It's connection. It's The Coop.To learn more about our sponsors:Erin GrayThe perfect white Tshirt has been found.The softest Pima cotton from Peru.Pre shrunk and pre washed and no tags.https://eringraydesign.comUse code COOP20 for 20% off your next order.Blue Delta JeansThere is nothing like custom-fit jeans.Once you try them, you will never go back.Easy measuring system to your best-fitting jeans ever.

House Committee on Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs Examining 50 years of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act in Indian Country Friday, April 4, 2025 | 10:00 AM On Friday, April 4, 2025, at 9:00 a.m. (CDT), the Committee on Natural Resources will hold an oversight hearing titled “Examining 50 years of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act in Indian Country.” This hearing will examine the successes and opportunities for tribal self-governance in economic development and healthcare as the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act turns 50. This hearing will be held at the First Americans Museum, 659 American Indian Blvd., Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Witnesses The Hon. Bill Anoatubby Governor Chickasaw Nation Ada, Oklahoma The Hon. Chuck Hoskin Principal Chief Tahlequah, Oklahoma The Hon. Gary Batton Chief Durant, Oklahoma The Hon. Wena Supernaw Chair Quapaw Nation Quapaw, Oklahoma The Hon. David Hill Principal Chief Muscogee Creek Nation Okmulgee, Oklahoma Mr. Mark Rogers Chief Executive Officer Osage Nation Health System Pawhuska, Oklahoma The Hon. Martin Harvier President Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community Scottsdale, Arizona [Minority witness] Mr. Jay Spaan Executive Director Self-Governance Communication & Education Tribal Consortium Tulsa, Oklahoma [Minority witness] More on Indianz.Com: https://indianz.com/News/2025/04/01/witness-list-for-house-subcommittee-field-hearing-on-indian-self-determination/

What if your immune system, not your genetics, is the key to unlocking longevity and vitality? In this powerful episode, Darin sits down with the legendary Dr. Jeffrey Bland, the father of functional medicine, to explore how environmental toxins, ultra-processed foods, and chronic inflammation are silently robbing us of our health—and what we can actually do about it. From angry fat to immuno-rejuvenation, this episode reveals the science and solutions behind healing from the inside out.     What You'll Learn in This Episode: (00:00:00) Opening – Why functional medicine matters more than ever (00:04:44) A legal war against toxic corporations & the real cost of chemical exposure (00:06:09) What functional medicine actually means—explained by its founder (00:08:00) The 4 core pillars of health: physical, metabolic, cognitive, and spiritual (00:09:17) 300,000+ chemicals: how environmental signals hijack your genes (00:10:34) Why chronic exposure to everyday toxins is worse than we think (00:12:00) Neurotoxicology & immunotoxicology: the hidden fields shaping your future (00:13:00) How low-level chemical exposure impacts mood, energy, and brain clarity (00:14:56) Scaling solutions: where we start, and why Himalayan buckwheat matters (00:17:23) New study: reversing immune aging by 47% in 90 days with food (00:20:37) Why nature's orchestration is more powerful than any isolated nutrient (00:22:20) Bitter foods, GLP-1, and the natural way to stimulate weight loss (00:27:23) Adaptogens explained: how plants adapt to stress—and help you do the same (00:31:19) The danger of long-term GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic: what we don't know yet (00:34:07) Angry fat vs. friendly fat—how inflammation starts in your gut and spreads (00:40:01) Santa Claus vs. Mars: the science of fat as a signaling organ (00:41:18) The Pima vs. Tarahumara paradox: genetics, food, and diabetes (00:44:32) The 70% processed food problem: how we're feeding chronic disease (00:46:14) Are we floating off the planet? A metaphor for today's health crisis (00:48:13) Changing the economic system through farming, soil health & food quality (00:52:04) What ancient crops like Himalayan buckwheat can teach us about immunity (00:56:00) Why paying farmers fairly can actually reverse public health decline (01:00:01) Agrochemicals, glyphosate, and the broken agricultural model (01:02:27) How do we scale food as medicine? Practical steps to reboot the system (01:05:24) Why we must shift from quantity to quality in food and farming (01:07:28) Are we growing potatoes from oil? Redefining sustainability (01:10:01) What gives Dr. Bland hope—and how the next generation is already leading     Thank You to Our Sponsors: Therasage: Go to www.therasage.com and use code DARIN at checkout for 15% off Bite Toothpaste: Go to trybite.com/DARIN20 or use code DARIN20 for 20% off your first order.   Find More From Dr. Jeffrey Bland: Website: jeffreybland.com Instagram: @drjeffreybland Book: The Disease Delusion Organization: Big Bold Health     Follow Darin Olien: Website: darinolien.com Instagram: @darinolien Book: Fatal Conveniences     Key Takeaway: "Our genes are not our destiny—our environment, our food, and our choices are the true architects of health." – Dr. Jeffrey Bland

Kit sits down with powerhouse Margueritte Aozasa — the youngest coach ever to win an NCAA soccer championship — for a wide-ranging, wisdom-packed convo that goes way beyond the field. They talk about the mindset that made her a champion, how her parents shaped her confidence, and what it really takes to lead with heart. From childhood dreams of playing Major League Baseball to balancing motherhood and coaching at the highest level — this is one of those episodes you'll want to bookmark and share with your kids.--It's a coaching masterclass for the driven — and the ones who helped them rise.On this episode of The Coop with Kit, host Kit Hoover is joined by UCLA Women's Soccer head coach Margueritte Aozasa — who made history as the youngest coach to win an NCAA championship… in her very first season.

Get ready for a funny, keep-it-real ride as Kit and Harper dive into more juicy, hilarious, and relatable listener questions!This week, we're talking:• How Kit keeps her energy sky-high (spoiler: it's not just coffee)• The gray hair debate: embrace the silver or dye till you die?• Group texts gone wild (should you leave? how many emojis is too many?)• Botox, fillers, eyelid lifts… & the million-dollar question: can you ask if someone had work done?• Future grandma names, slumber party fails, and a Jennifer Aniston sighting

In which someone suggests a radical idea - actually collecting hard data on and documenting the impact of upstream diversions to the O'odham living along the Gila River.

Snag Our Simplified Budget System!Budget Besties, we've got a treat for you! Meet Semajh—a 29-year-old child of God, self-proclaimed America's Sweetheart, and a man on a mission to afford (not just buy!) 300 luxury cotton pajamas. Yes, he knows his Pima from his Supima, and yes—he's doing it the bougie and budget-savvy way.In this hilarious and heartfelt episode, Semajh walks us through his journey from struggling with a clunky budgeting app to discovering a system that actually works for real life. He's getting ahead on his bills, setting up buckets (from “New Teeth” to “10% and Then Some”), and feeling what it's like to truly trust his budget.We chat about:Why separate accounts are everything

What happens when two longtime friends—TV host & journalist Natalie Morales (The Today Show, Access Hollywood, The Talk) and Kit Hoover—finally sit down to spill the tea on everything they nevertalked about before? Pure magic. Today's episode is real, raw, and ridiculously fun—just two girlfriends catching up and dishing on career twists, hilarious behind-the-scenes moments, and the unexpected things that bring them joy (hint: horses, wine, and letting go of perfection).Some of Our Favorite Moments:“What are we waiting for?” – Natalie talks about making the bold move from NYC to LA, inspired by Kit, and realizing that the perfect time never comes—you just have to jump.“I feed my therapist hay.” – Natalie opens up about her deep connection with horses and how they've taught her to let go, trust, and be present.“Don't underestimate me.” – For years, she was told she wasn't “Latina enough” or that she didn't have the right news “edge.” Natalie shares how she finally found her voice and learned to ask for what she deserved.“Forget hair, makeup, and glamour.” – Advice for aspiring journalists? Be ready for 3 AM wake-up calls, working weekends, and rolling your own teleprompter—because that's the real grind.“Give me wine, cheese, and chocolate, and I'll talk for days!” – Natalie reveals her go-to indulgences and her undeniable love for a good hangout session.“Laugh at yourself more.” – Even now, she admits she's her own toughest critic. But she's learning to let go, internalize less, and embrace the joy.“Sleep. Turns. Me. On.” – Forget the fancy answers. A solid night's sleep is what gets Natalie feeling her best! (Relatable, right?!)“I've just started manifesting.” – While she doesn't know exactly what's next, one thing is for sure—Natalie is creating space for new opportunities and FUN.This isn't just another interview—it's two besties getting real about reinvention, change, and finding clarity in life's pivots. If you've ever thought about making a big life move, chasing a dream, or just wondering what's next, this one's for you. And don't forget to LIKE, COMMENT & SUBSCRIBE for more from The Coop with Kit.--This episode was produced by Kit Hoover and Harper McDonald. Business Development by Casey Ladd. Editing by You & Me Media.--To learn more about our sponsors:OluKaiLive the Ohana Life with OluKai.Incredible lifestyle shoes and sandals for everyday comfort and style.Check out their new pickleball and golf shoes!https://olukai.comUse code COOP for Free EXPEDITED Shipping.Erin GrayThe perfect white Tshirt has been found.The softest Pima cotton from Peru.Pre shrunk and pre washed and no tags.https://eringraydesign.comUse code COOP20 for 20% off your next order.Blue Delta JeansThere is nothing like custom-fit jeans.Once you try them, you will never go back.Easy measuring system to your best-fitting jeans ever.bluedeltajeans.comUse code COOP20 for 20% off your next order Follow The Coop with Kit on Instagram @kithoover and @thecoopwithkithoover

We're back with another round of Letters to The Coop, and y'all keep bringing the good questions! In this episode, we dive into everything from dating after divorce (Katie Couric gave us GREAT advice for dating in your 50s!) to handling a friend who's suddenly way too critical. We also talk about surviving the college admissions process (spoiler: the stress is real, but we've got tips!), and of course, middle school drama—because is there anything more brutal than those tween years? Plus, Kit spills her best parenting hack for making middle school a little easier (trust us, this one's a game-changer). Whether you're in the thick of it or just here for things that make us all laugh, we've got you!Today we cover:Dating After Divorce – Okay, deep breath. We talk about confidence, embracing the unknown, and why we're all about the “don't chase, attract” mindset and the slow burn (thank you Katie Couric!).When Your Friend Gets a Little Too Critical – We've all been there—one of your closest friends suddenly starts questioning your decisions. How do you handle it without blowing up the friendship? College Admissions Stress – If you're a parent going through this process, we see you! We're sharing what's worked for us (and what definitely didn't) to help keep the stress levels down—for you and your kid.Middle School Madness – The mean girl phase? The friend drama? The why-is-this-so-hard moments? We get into all of it.Fav quote of Kit's this week:The lotus flower grows in the mud—sometimes, you've got to sit in the mess before you bloom.---Got a question you want us to tackle? Drop it in the comments or send it our way through our Contact Us on our website (thecoopwithkit.com) — we love hearing from you!Follow The Coop with Kit on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen or stream!--This episode was produced by Kit Hoover and Harper McDonald. Business Development by Casey Ladd. Editing by You & Me Media.--To learn more about our sponsors:OluKaiLive the Ohana Life with OluKai.Incredible lifestyle shoes and sandals for everyday comfort and style.Check out their new pickleball and golf shoes!https://olukai.comUse code COOP for Free EXPEDITED Shipping.Erin GrayThe perfect white Tshirt has been found.The softest Pima cotton from Peru.Pre shrunk and pre washed and no tags.https://eringraydesign.comUse code COOP20 for 20% off your next order.Blue Delta JeansThere is nothing like custom-fit jeans.Once you try them, you will never go back.Easy measuring system to your best-fitting jeans ever.bluedeltajeans.comUse code COOP20 for 20% off your next order Follow The Coop with Kit on Instagram @kithoover and @thecoopwithkithoover

Ladies, it's time to take back control of menopause—and get hopeful! No more raw dogging menopause. This episode is your ultimate menopause game plan, Coop Chicks!In this eye-opening episode, Kit sits down with Dr. Mary Claire Haver—the #1 menopause doctor—to get mad, educated, and hopeful. We break down the myths, the medical gaslighting, and the game-changing solutions that every woman needs to know. From hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to weight gain, libido, bone health, and brain fog, Dr. Haver gives us the real talk about what's happening to our bodies—and how we can take back our power with proven strategies.- Why are women STILL being dismissed when it comes to menopause?- What does testosterone REALLY do for women? (Hint: It's not just about libido!)- Can breast cancer survivors safely use HRT? (This answer will surprise you.)- Struggling with weight gain, brain fog, rage, sleepless nights, or painful sex? Here's why.- The BIGGEST mistakes doctors make when it comes to menopause treatment.Dr. Haver is on a mission to change the conversation, and she's not holding back with us. If you've ever felt dismissed by your doctor, confused by the options, or just freaking tired of feeling like a shadow of yourself—this episode is for YOU.AND HIT LIKE, SUBSCRIBE & SHARE if you're ready to JOIN US and feel AMAZING! It's go time ladies.--This episode was produced by Kit Hoover and Harper McDonald. Business Development by Casey Ladd. Editing by You & Me Media.--To learn more about our sponsors:OluKaiLive the Ohana Life with OluKai.Incredible lifestyle shoes and sandals for everyday comfort and style.Check out their new pickleball and golf shoes!https://olukai.comUse code COOP for Free EXPEDITED Shipping.Erin GrayThe perfect white Tshirt has been found.The softest Pima cotton from Peru.Pre shrunk and pre washed and no tags.https://eringraydesign.comUse code COOP20 for 20% off your next order.Blue Delta JeansThere is nothing like custom-fit jeans.Once you try them, you will never go back.Easy measuring system to your best-fitting jeans ever.bluedeltajeans.comUse code COOP20 for 20% off your next order Follow The Coop with Kit on Instagram @kithoover and @thecoopwithkithoover

House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Date: Wednesday, February 26, 2025 – 9:30 AM Location: Capitol Complex, 2008 RHOB, Washington, DC, 20515, USA Witnesses Panel one Harry Antonio Governor Pueblo of Laguna Myron Armijo Governor Pueblo of Santa Ana Charles Riley Governor Pueblo of Acoma Panel two Chuck Hoskin Jr. Principal Chief Cherokee Nation Jonodev Chaudhuri Ambassador Muscogee (Creek) Nation Rodney Butler Chairman Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and Native American Finance Officers Association Panel three Mitchell Hicks Principal Chief Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Cheyenne Robinson Secretary Omaha Tribe of Nebraska Victoria Kitcheyan Chairwoman Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska Panel four Doreen Leavitt Tribal Council Secretary Iñupiat Community of the Artic Slope David Boxley Councilman Metlakatla Indian Community Cynthia Petersen President Yakutat Tlingit Tribe Panel five Stephen Roe Lewis Governor Gila River Indian Community Duane Clarke Chairman Hualapai Tribe Martin Harvier President Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community Terry Rambler Chairman San Carlos Apache Tribe Panel six Carla Johnson Vice-Chairwoman Tohono O'odham Nation of Arizona Tanya Lewis Chairwoman Yavapai-Apache Nation of Arizona More on Indianz.Com: https://indianz.com/News/2025/02/24/video-american-indian-and-alaska-native-public-witness-hearing-day-2-morning-session/

Tune in for our takes on how these teams will face off against one another!!

Go grab your vodka cocktail (or your gummy) and tune in for today's conversation in The Coop, which is fearless, funny, and packed with wonderous truth bombs. The one-and-only Chelsea Handler brings us her signature mix of sharp humor and unapologetic truth-telling. With her upcoming book, I'll Have What She's Having, she dives into what therapy taught her, why she's strutting into her 50s with confidence, and how she's done proving herself to anyone—and we get into all of it.From her obsession with giving advice to the fine art of curating the perfect girl gang (spoiler: Mallorca invites are earned, not given), Chelsea doesn't just bring the laughs—she brings the wisdom. She gets real about letting go, embracing vulnerability, and living life entirely on her own terms. She also shares the one thing she wishes men understood about strong women, why she's over traditional relationships, every pharmaceutical pill she brings on tour, and how she's prioritizing joy in every aspect of her life.And because The Coop always leaves you with something to chew on, we'll close it out with a Chelsea-ism to live by:“I don't have to prove myself to anyone. Either get on board or get out of the way.”And the life mantra we all need:“Find your happy. Chase it down. Hold onto it for dear life.”

In today's fearless episode of The Coop, we welcome the one and only Margaret Cho—comedian, actor, musician, activist, and absolute legend. From crushing stand-up stages at 14 years old, to breaking racial barriers with All-American Girl, to selling out Carnegie Hall, and even playing Kim Jong-il on 30 Rock—Margaret has done it all, and then some.She's Live and Livid on stage these days, and we get into exactly what's fueling her fire—from women's rights to political absurdity to finding joy in the madness. She opens up about sobriety, body image, love, loss, and why she's choosing “situationships” over marriage. And yes, we dig into her famous 12 hours up, 12 hours down sleep practice, how she writes a joke every single day before getting out of bed, and why her mother has an actual prayer group dedicated to finding her a husband (bless her heart).Margaret doesn't just push boundaries—she obliterates them. Whether she's talking about being one of the few women in stand-up in the ‘90s, the sheer injustice of Hollywood's double standards, or why love isn't just for the young and beautiful (the theme behind her new song Lucky Gift), this conversation is as bold as it is soulful—with just the right amount of bite.And because The Coop always leaves you with something to chew on, we'll close it out with a Margaret-ism to live by:“You reap what you sow. So I'm sowing joy.”Or just the life mantra we all need:“Do it. It doesn't have to be good. Just do it.”So y'all, tune in and get ready for a conversation that is sharp-witted, unfiltered, and deeply, beautifully human.

In this episode,Jeff and Reyes take a deep dive into theCopper Tournament, breaking downmatchups, team rankings, and key predictions. They analyze top contenders likeValley Christian, North Valley Christian, and Palo Verde, while also discussing theemotional intensity of postseason basketball. The conversation is packed with insights onplayer matchups, coaching strategies, and the evolving landscape of Arizona high school hoops.

Grab a glass of wine and settle in, y'all - Kit and Harper are back with another edition of Letters to The Coop! They're swapping stories, tackling your questions, and keeping it real.From learning to say no without guilt to surviving menopause with humor (and maybe a hot flash or fifty), they dive into the messy, beautiful chaos of life. Kit shares how she unwinds after marathon days on set, dishes out wisdom on staying close with adult kids, and talks about embracing growth and letting the world catch up with you - even when those around you don't quite get it. Whether you are juggling family, career, or just trying to keep your sanity, this episode is packed with laughs, honesty, and a little wisdom from the trenches.Remember to follow The Coop with Kit, hit subscribe, and keep those questions coming!--This episode was produced by Kit Hoover and Harper McDonald. Business Development by Casey Ladd. Editing by You & Me Media.--To learn more about our sponsors:OluKaiLive the Ohana Life with OluKai.Incredible lifestyle shoes and sandals for everyday comfort and style.Check out their new pickleball and golf shoes!https://olukai.comUse code COOP for Free EXPEDITED Shipping.Erin GrayThe perfect white Tshirt has been found.The softest Pima cotton from Peru.Pre shrunk and pre washed and no tags.https://eringraydesign.comUse code COOP20 for 20% off your next order.Blue Delta JeansThere is nothing like custom-fit jeans.Once you try them, you will never go back.Easy measuring system to your best-fitting jeans ever.bluedeltajeans.comUse code COOP20 for 20% off your next order Follow The Coop with Kit on Instagram @kithoover and @thecoopwithkithoover

In this special episode of The Coop with Kit, Kit sits down with Dr. Tina Payne Bryson, renowned author, parenting expert, and mental health professional, to explore the emotional terrain of grief, loss, and resilience. Tina shares her personal journey, professional insights, and tangible strategies to help us navigate life's toughest moments, from natural disasters to personal transitions.The conversation explores the neuroscience of grief, the power of self-compassion, and actionable tools for emotional regulation. Tina also introduces her book, The Way of Play, highlighting how connection, humor, and community can help us heal.Whether you're facing adversity or supporting others, this episode offers valuable insights and actionable takeaways for anyone... parents, caregivers and friends.Key Moments:The Power of Showing Up: How to create safety, connection, and resilience for yourself and your loved ones.Practical tips for managing grief and lossWhy “history is not destiny” and how parents can repair relationships, even after missteps.The unexpected science of “freaked-out chickens” and how not to become one.Tune in and join the conversation—because showing up matters.--Follow Dr. Tina Payne BrysonInstagram: @tinapaynebrysonLearn more about Tina at her website. Pre-order her latest book, The Way of Play. --This episode was produced by Kit Hoover and Harper McDonald. Business Development by Casey Ladd. Editing by You & Me Media.--To learn more about our sponsors:OluKaiLive the Ohana Life with OluKai.Incredible lifestyle shoes and sandals for everyday comfort and style.Check out their new pickleball and golf shoes!https://olukai.comUse code COOP for Free EXPEDITED Shipping.Erin GrayThe perfect white Tshirt has been found.The softest Pima cotton from Peru.Pre shrunk and pre washed and no tags.https://eringraydesign.comUse code COOP20 for 20% off your next order.Blue Delta JeansThere is nothing like custom-fit jeans.Once you try them, you will never go back.Easy measuring system to your best-fitting jeans ever.bluedeltajeans.comUse code COOP20 for 20% off your next order Follow The Coop with Kit on Instagram @kithoover and @thecoopwithkithoover

In this episode, Jeff dives into the first official AZ Prep rankings, highlighting standout teams, breaking down performances, and sharing predictions for upcoming matchups

In this episode, Jeff breaks down the current state of Arizona high school basketball, diving into the latest rankings, standout teams, and exciting matchups for the week

Kit (Host) and Harper (Producer) are cracking open The Coop mailbag to tackle Coop Chicks' burning questions! From rediscovering passions at 50 with the “ready, fire, aim!” mindset to taking fearless leaps and celebrating why girlfriends are the ultimate MVPs, Kit is serving up advice with her signature Southern charm and wild stories (raw egg milkshakes, anyone?).  This one is packed with heart, laughter, and a whole lotta wisdom. --This episode was produced by Kit Hoover and Harper McDonald. Business Development by Casey Ladd. Editing by You & Me Media.--To learn more about our sponsors:OluKaiLive the Ohana Life with OluKai.Incredible lifestyle shoes and sandals for everyday comfort and style.Check out their new pickleball and golf shoes!https://olukai.comUse code COOP for Free EXPEDITED Shipping.Erin GrayThe perfect white Tshirt has been found.The softest Pima cotton from Peru.Pre shrunk and pre washed and no tags.https://eringraydesign.comUse code COOP20 for 20% off your next order.Blue Delta JeansThere is nothing like custom-fit jeans.Once you try them, you will never go back.Easy measuring system to your best-fitting jeans ever.bluedeltajeans.comUse code COOP20 for 20% off your next order Follow The Coop with Kit on Instagram @kithoover and @thecoopwithkithoover

https://www.myheraldreview.com/news/education/thatcher-middle-school-principal-recovering-after-being-hit-by-vehicle/article_13df2d3f-5a14-539f-b4e8-471d0bdb938b.html Today - we have a developing story out of Pima, where police are investigating an incident that left a local school principal seriously injured. Support the show: https://www.myheraldreview.com/site/forms/subscription_services/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this special episode, Kit (Host) and Harper (Producer) reflect on the funniest and most memorable moments from The Coop's incredible 2024 lineup. From Jenny McCarthy's outrageous tale of her $1,500 mall boob job (yes, she was awake!) to Katie Couric's hilarious exchange with Ryan Reynolds about colonoscopies.Cindy Crawford brought both humor and heart, sharing candid reflections on empty nesting and the famous story of her husband Randy, George Clooney, and a million-dollar duffle bag. And ever-popular fan-favorite bedside drawer question, with answers ranging from Jenny's “gummies and gadgets” to Elizabeth Hurley's self-proclaimed junk drawer of random treasures?Each story is a testament to the humor, heart, and honesty that have defined The Coop this year. And, in true Coop fashion, Kit and Harper deliver this wrap-up like two girlfriends swapping stories, inviting listeners into the laughter, warmth, and occasional absurdity that make their show so special.Pour yourself a big ol' glass of wine, settle in, and join us for one last laugh-filled stroll through 2024!--This episode was produced by Kit Hoover and Harper McDonald. Business Development by Casey Ladd. Editing by You & Me Media. --To learn more about our sponsors:OluKaiLive the Ohana Life with OluKai.Incredible lifestyle shoes and sandals for everyday comfort and style.Check out their new pickleball and golf shoes!https://olukai.comUse code COOP for Free EXPEDITED Shipping.Erin GrayThe perfect white Tshirt has been found.The softest Pima cotton from Peru.Pre shrunk and pre washed and no tags.https://eringraydesign.comUse code COOP20 for 20% off your next order.Blue Delta JeansThere is nothing like custom-fit jeans.Once you try them, you will never go back.Easy measuring system to your best-fitting jeans ever.bluedeltajeans.comUse code COOP20 for 20% off your next order Follow The Coop with Kit on Instagram @kithoover and @thecoopwithkithoover

We've got a corker of an episode for you today. The incomparable Elizabeth Hurley is joining us—actress, model, entrepreneur, producer, and all-around icon. From her unforgettable turn in Austin Powers to her impact on Breast Cancer research, Elizabeth has spent decades captivating us all with her charm, sharp wit, and unmistakable style.In this episode, Elizabeth pulls back the curtain on her extraordinary journey in career, advocacy, and relationships.We, of course, touch on the lighter side—the legendary Versace dress, her devotion to peanut butter, her idyllic life in the English countryside, and even what really turns her on.Favorite Quote:"Aging is challenging. But you can't be angry about it—use great creams, eat well, do your best, and face it with grace."Get ready for a fireside chat that is as insightful as entertaining. Elizabeth Hurley is proof that elegance, humor, and self-reflection never go out of style.--Follow Elizabeth HurleyInstagram: @ElizabethHurley1Shop her stunning swimwear collection at ElizabethHurley.com.--This episode was produced by Kit Hoover and Harper McDonald. Business Development by Casey Ladd.--To learn more about our sponsors:OluKaiLive the Ohana Life with OluKai.Incredible lifestyle shoes and sandals for everyday comfort and style.Check out their new pickleball and golf shoes!https://olukai.comUse code COOP for Free EXPEDITED Shipping.Erin GrayThe perfect white Tshirt has been found.The softest Pima cotton from Peru.Pre shrunk and pre washed and no tags.https://eringraydesign.comUse code COOP20 for 20% off your next order.Blue Delta JeansThere is nothing like custom-fit jeans.Once you try them, you will never go back.Easy measuring system to your best-fitting jeans ever.bluedeltajeans.comUse code COOP20 for 20% off your next order Follow The Coop with Kit on Instagram @kithoover and @thecoopwithkithoover

Today in the Coop, we've got the queen of keepin' it real herself—Rachel Hollis.She's a bestselling author, powerhouse speaker, and your no-BS friend who'll tell you to chase those big, scary dreams with everything you've got. Known for Girl, Wash Your Face and Girl, Stop Apologizing, Rachel's here to talk about grit, growth, and getting out of your own way. Lucky for all of us she has her 10th book coming out, What if YOU are the Answer. And today she is teaching us exactly how to ask ourselves the right questions. She's built an empire on owning your story, flaws and all, and today, she's dropping some true wisdom you won't want to miss. Buckle up—Rachel Hollis is in the Coop y'all!If you pre-order Rachel's book right now, you get access to a bunch of free awesome gifts from Rachel!  Go here for details. Follow Rachel at Instagram here.Or visit her website for all the ways you can soak up Rachel's wisdom. --This episode was produced by Kit Hoover and Harper McDonald. Business Development by Casey Ladd.--To learn more about our sponsors:OluKaiLive the Ohana Life with OluKai.Incredible lifestyle shoes and sandals for everyday comfort and style.Check out their new pickleball and golf shoes!https://olukai.comUse code COOP for Free EXPEDITED Shipping.Erin GrayThe perfect white Tshirt has been found.The softest Pima cotton from Peru.Pre shrunk and pre washed and no tags.https://eringraydesign.comUse code COOP20 for 20% off your next order.Blue Delta JeansThere is nothing like custom-fit jeans.Once you try them, you will never go back.Easy measuring system to your best-fitting jeans ever.bluedeltajeans.comUse code COOP20 for 20% off your next order Follow The Coop with Kit on Instagram @kithoover and @thecoopwithkithoover

Get ready, because this week in The Coop, we've got the one-and-only—Uzo Aduba. You know her as the unforgettable Suzanne "Crazy Eyes" Warren from Orange is the New Black, but Uzo's story is so much bigger than her iconic characters. Her new book, The Road is Good, dives into a life filled with resilience, joy, and the unstoppable strength and spunk she inherited from her mother.Growing up as a Nigerian-American in a Boston suburb, Uzo faced challenges fitting in but learned to embrace her identity (and gorgeous tooth gap), thanks to her mother's wisdom and love. Her mom's lessons—like insisting people learn her name instead of changing it—taught Uzo about self-worth and pride. Uzo nearly walked away from acting, but on the very day she quit, she got the call for Orange is the New Black and life's trajectory took a powerful, joyful turn.Oh, and did we mention Uzo is a classically trained opera singer, former figure skater, AND a track star? Holy talent, people.This episode is packed with joy, grit, and laughs as we explore staying true to your roots, and your Mama. So, trust the stage—let the universe do its thing—and join us in The Coop for this unforgettable and heartfelt conversation with Uzo Aduba.--This episode was produced by Kit Hoover and Harper McDonald. Business Development by Casey Ladd.--To learn more about our sponsors:OluKaiLive the Ohana Life with OluKai.Incredible lifestyle shoes and sandals for everyday comfort and style.Check out their new pickleball and golf shoes!https://olukai.comUse code COOP for Free EXPEDITED Shipping.Erin GrayThe perfect white Tshirt has been found.The softest Pima cotton from Peru.Pre shrunk and pre washed and no tags.https://eringraydesign.comUse code COOP20 for 20% off your next order.Better HelpGive online therapy a try and be on your way to your best self.Professional therapy that is accessible and affordable.Get matched with the best licensed therapist for you.10% off your first month. Go to get started or betterhelp.com/THECOOPBlue Delta JeansThere is nothing like custom-fit jeans.Once you try them, you will never go back.Easy measuring system to your best-fitting jeans ever.bluedeltajeans.comUse code COOP20 for 20% off your next order Follow The Coop with Kit on Instagram @kithoover and @thecoopwithkithoover

In this special episode, The Coop with Kit gives breast cancer the real talk treatment with Dr. Kristi Funk, the powerhouse specialist who's guided Angelina Jolie and Sheryl Crow. Ready to cut through the clutter? Dr. Funk busts open myths around bras, deodorant, and cell phones, debunking once and for all what does—and doesn't—contribute to breast cancer. And she dives into the often-overlooked issue of breast density, shedding light on why many women need more than just the standard mammogram. We also hit on hormone replacement therapy, IUDs, saving the nipple, and foods that protect us from cancer. Our takeaway? Power up with knowledge and take charge of your health journey.We're also catching up with three fierce survivors and past guests—rock icon Melissa Etheridge, beach-read queen Elin Hilderbrand, and news legend Katie Couric—who share raw, unfiltered stories of staring down breast cancer and coming out stronger. Each has channeled their experiences into fierce advocacy and awareness, rallying others to be vigilant, informed, and empowered.With a mix of humor, heart, and actionable advice, today's Coop turns what could be a heavy topic into a lively, must-hear episode for every woman—and those who stand beside them. This isn't just breast cancer talk; it's a powerful reminder that we love you, to be your own advocate, stay informed, and go get your damn mammograms and secondary screenings. --This episode was produced by Kit Hoover and Harper McDonald. Business Development by Casey Ladd.--To learn more about our sponsors:OluKaiLive the Ohana Life with OluKai.Incredible lifestyle shoes and sandals for everyday comfort and style.Check out their new pickleball and golf shoes!https://olukai.comUse code COOP for Free EXPEDITED Shipping.Erin GrayThe perfect white Tshirt has been found.The softest Pima cotton from Peru.Pre shrunk and pre washed and no tags.https://eringraydesign.comUse code COOP20 for 20% off your next order.Emogene & CoAmazing Botanical Skin Care line.The most natural and hydrating productsMade by a licensed pharmacist, Dr Allyson Brennan.https://www.emogeneandco.comUse code COOP20 for 20% off your next order.Better HelpGive online therapy a try and be on your way to your best self.Professional therapy that is accessible and affordable.Get matched with the best licensed therapist for you.10% off your first month. Go to get started or betterhelp.com/THECOOPBlue Delta JeansThere is nothing like custom-fit jeans.Once you try them, you will never go back.Easy measuring system to your best-fitting jeans ever.bluedeltajeans.comUse code COOP20 for 20% off your next order Follow The Coop with Kit on Instagram @kithoover and @thecoopwithkithoover

Arizona Prop 134 - Just my take   Balanced Decision-Making: By requiring voter approval from all 30 legislative districts, Prop 134 ensures that wildlife and conservation policies reflect the interests of both urban and rural communities across the state.   Protects Science-Based Management: This approach guards against policies driven solely by urban populations, supporting evidence-based wildlife management.   Prevents "Ballot Box Biology": It reduces the risk of policies shaped by public sentiment alone, promoting more informed and sustainable conservation. You will hear people say it's a double edged sword, but I don't believe this to be true. Lets think about it… First off hunting and fishing since my involvement in it politically never seeks to add policy via ballot initiative because our measures typically have merit so it will be sponsored by a senator etc or brought up through the legislature.   Secondly outdoorsman will have a much easier time collecting signatures about hunting, fishing or wildlife in general from a citizen in Wilcox than they would in downtown phx, Conversely it's a much harder road for the other side. Lastly I don't want to make this a partisan thing but if you want to think of it on the big stage.. the democratic party doesn't want this to pass at all because they use the ballot initiative process more than anyone and they know right now that their largest constituency resides in Maricopa and Pima county. Lets say they want to stop a rancher from raising cattle they know they have a much easier time collecting signatures and get support from people that are removed from the issue.   And that's exactly what this bill does it allows for a much more well balanced representation of the state on citizen initiated measures which is good for everyone!!!!!   Learn more here 

Today in The Coop, we carve through life lessons with the legendary Lindsey Vonn. As the first American woman to win Olympic Gold in downhill skiing, with 82 World Cup Wins and 2 World Championship Golds, Lindsey's accolades are well known. But in today's conversation, we focus on what shaped her beyond the medals.Lindsey has been outspoken about her mental health journey, all the ups and downs. And in today's conversation... we touch on this, and then the conversation really becomes a beautiful love letter to her true mentor… her Mom, who recently passed away. Lindsey opens up about her late mother's strength and how it continues to shape her outlook on life. We talk about her retirement from skiing and how she's feeling now in a pain-free, new bionic body. This conversation is all about grit, mental toughness, and how she has found balance and happiness through life's highs and lows. This woman is simply fearless. This is Lindsey Vonn.--This episode was produced by Kit Hoover and Harper McDonald. Our Technical Producer is Christian Brown, and this episode was edited by Christian Brown. Writing by Harper McDonald. Business Development by Casey Ladd.--To learn more about our sponsors:OluKaiLive the Ohana Life with OluKai.Incredible lifestyle shoes and sandals for everyday comfort and style.Check out their new pickleball and golf shoes!https://olukai.comUse code COOP for Free EXPEDITED Shipping.Erin GrayThe perfect white Tshirt has been found.The softest Pima cotton from Peru.Pre shrunk and pre washed and no tags.https://eringraydesign.comUse code COOP20 for 20% off your next order.Emogene & CoAmazing Botanical Skin Care line.The most natural and hydrating productsMade by a licensed pharmacist, Dr Allyson Brennan.https://www.emogeneandco.comUse code COOP20 for 20% off your next order.Better HelpGive online therapy a try and be on your way to your best self.Professional therapy that is accessible and affordable.Get matched with the best licensed therapist for you.10% off your first month. Go to get started or betterhelp.com/THECOOPBlue Delta JeansThere is nothing like custom-fit jeans.Once you try them, you will never go back.Easy measuring system to your best-fitting jeans ever.bluedeltajeans.comUse code COOP20 for 20% off your next order Follow The Coop with Kit on Instagram @kithoover and @thecoopwithkithoover