An Unofficial 'The MeatEater Podcast' Reading List

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

December 29, 2025

Description

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

Eager

Author: Ben Goldfarb

Context:

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

Catching Fire

Author: Richard Wrangham

Context:

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

Sex at Dawn

Author: Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá

Context:

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

Braiding Sweetgrass

Author: Robin Wall Kimmerer

Context:

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

Pretty Shield

Author: Frank B. Linderman

Context:

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

Eagle Voice Remembers

Author: John G. Neihardt

Context:

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

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

Author: Ben Goldfarb

Context:

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