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Tim Ferriss

Steven Rinella — A Short Introduction to True Wilderness Skills and Survival (#482)

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Artist's rendering of Steven Rinella in a hat and camouflage jacket.
Illustration via 99designs

By being prepared, you do away with the nagging sense in the back of your head of ‘What would I do if?’ It just frees you up. I want people to have that liberated, swaggering feeling outside.

— Steven Rinella

Steven Rinella (@MeatEater, @StevenRinella) is the host of the Netflix Originals series MeatEater and The MeatEater Podcast. He’s also the author of seven books dealing with wildlife, conservation, hunting, fishing, and wild foods, including his newest, The MeatEater Guide to Wilderness Skills and Survival.

Please enjoy!

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Brought to you by Athletic Greens all-in-one supplement, 99designs global design platform, and The Ready State virtual mobility coach. More on all three below.

The transcript of this episode can be found here. Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.

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#482: Steven Rinella — A Short Introduction to True Wilderness Skills and Survival

This episode is brought to you by AG1! I get asked all the time, “If you could use only one supplement, what would it be?” My answer is usually AG1, my all-in-one nutritional insurance. I recommended it in The 4-Hour Body in 2010 and did not get paid to do so. Right now, get a FREE Welcome Kit, including Vitamin D3+K2 and AG1 Flavor Sampler, when you first subscribe. Visit DrinkAG1.com/Tim to claim this special offer today and receive your 1-year supply of Vitamin D—a vital nutrient for a strong immune system and strong bones!

This episode is brought to you by 99designs, the global creative platform by Vista that makes it easy for designers and clients to work together to create designs they love. You can work with multiple designers at once to get a bunch of different ideas or hire the perfect designer for your project based on their style and industry specialization. It’s simple to review concepts and leave feedback so you’ll end up with a design that you’re happy with. Click this link and get $20 off plus a $99 upgrade.

This podcast is also brought to you by The Ready State Virtual Mobility Coach. The first person I call for help with my athletic recovery or mobility training is Dr. Kelly Starrett at The Ready State. Kelly is a mobility and movement coach for Olympic gold medalists, world champions, and pro athletes.

Kelly created a program called Virtual Mobility Coach. It’s like carrying a virtual Kelly Starrett in your pocket. Every day, Virtual Mobility Coach gives you guided mobility videos. It walks you step-by-step through Kelly’s proven techniques to relieve pain and improve your range of motion. Right now, listeners of this podcast can try Virtual Mobility Coach totally risk-free for two weeks without paying a penny. And after that, you can get 10% off for life. Just go to TheReadyState.com/Tim and use code TIM10 at checkout. Relieve pain, recover faster, and improve your performance in the gym with The Ready State Virtual Mobility Coach. 

What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…

Want to hear Steven’s round one episode? Listen to this conversation in which we discuss how Steven got me to overcome my lifetime aversion to hunting, why the conservation-minded non-hunting crowd should care about the decline in hunting and fishing license sales in the United States, the politics of reintroducing predator species to popular hunting grounds, close encounters of the grizzly kind, and much more.

#470: Steven Rinella on Hunting (and Why You Should Care), Reconnecting with Nature, Favorite Trips, and More

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

  • Connect with Steven Rinella:

Website | Facebook | Instagram: @MeatEater / @StevenRinella

SHOW NOTES

  • Survival fantasy versus survival reality and common misperceptions. [06:07]
  • What is paradoxical undressing, and is it as risque as it sounds? [08:42]
  • What are some of the ways you can buy yourself a margin of safety when you’re facing the wilderness and its elements? [15:20]
  • Practical uses for onX, inReach, and other GPS systems when you need to navigate your way into and out of the middle of nowhere, make emergency contact with the outside world, or just meander around a new neighborhood without accidentally trespassing on someone’s property. [17:21]
  • Essentials on which Steven relies–in a variety of circumstances–that less seasoned adventurers might forget (or just not know) to pack. [30:06]
  • What is Steven’s preferred multi-tool? [44:35]
  • Recommendations for securing water in different types of terrain. [50:24]
  • Items people should always have in their cars — whether they’re going camping, visiting relatives a few hours away, or just commuting to the other side of town. [1:00:46]
  • Why you should be prepared to source your own water — even if you live in a major metropolitan area where finding it isn’t something you’re used to thinking about. [1:08:19]
  • Not just for astronauts and infantry: Steven explains the good, the bad, and the ugly behind the space-age miracle of freeze dried food. [1:11:31]
  • Something you can try at home: an incidental steak-searing trick requiring only a common household freezer. [1:19:38]
  • What the Inca knew about keeping potatoes and human sacrifices intact with their own version of freeze drying circa 1490. [1:20:20]
  • What does Steven hope and feel the psychological benefits will be for readers of The MeatEater Guide to Wilderness Skills and Survival? [1:24:10]
  • Even if Steven were otherwise rational to a cyborg level of efficiency, what seemingly non-rational practice would he still bring with him into the wilderness (even at the risk of being ridiculed by others)? [1:27:32]
  • In a life so far filled with adventures aplenty, what still remains on Steven’s bucket list? [1:30:55]
  • Parting thoughts. [1:32:47]

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