Ear Buds: Garden & Gun’s new podcast guides listeners through The Wild South

David DiBenedetto and T. Edward Nickens are having fun. That fact is clear from the first listen of The Wild South, the podcast launched by Garden & Gun magazine in early June. “Dave,” G&G’s editor-in-chief, and “Eddie,” the magazine’s sporting life contributor, share the easy banter and congenial ribbing of longtime friends who’ve waded into the rough surf together.

They bonded, as Nickens explained during a recent interview, over a passion for both the outdoors and the printed word. Now, they’ve gone digital. “To be able to express our gratitude and affinity for the South in this new way, we’re just totally stoked. We have talked about this for two years, and for it now to come together, we just hope people love it as much as we love doing it.”

Across the first season’s eight episodes, which drop each Tuesday, DiBenedetto and Nickens invite fishing and hunting guides such as Hilary Hutcheson and Alvin Dedeaux, wild turkey expert Mike Chamberlain, chef Andrew Zimmern, and sporting legends such as Flip Pallot into their circle for authentic and soulful conversations about what it means to truly love a place and all its wildness. Woven through the expert insights, belly laughs, tall tales and conversations, the thread of conservation advocacy emerges.

“It’s really interesting to me, and you’ll see this as the podcast goes on, how the folks that we chose to interview are all, kind of, on the forefront of conservation, battling climate change, and figuring out what we can do,” said DiBenedetto. “We know the climate is changing, but we also are not throwing up our hands and saying, ‘Oh well, it’s over!’ Every time I get toward the end of the conversation… I’m so thankful that this person is out there fighting the good fight for the outdoors that we love.”

Nickens echoed his colleague. “Conservation is a cornerstone of Garden & Gun, but to have these folks just underscore it, yeah, that’s been powerful.”

In praise of free-range childhoods

Just like the hosts, nearly every guest developed their affection for where the wild things are during slightly feral childhoods when they could wander outside unhindered until the porch light came on. DiBenedetto’s memories are filled with exploring Savannah’s Wilmington River in “a jon boat with 6 gallons of gas and a 9.9 Evinrude motor. There were no cell phones. I had to paddle if I broke down.”

Added DiBenedetto, “My upbringing on the Wilmington River was so important to who I’ve become. I point to things that have helped me get to where I am.”

Those free-range kinds of childhoods are vanishing as fast as some of the South’s beloved landscapes as regional growth accelerates four times faster than the national median, according to a study by the Pew Charitable Trusts, and virtual reality and blue screens overtake real experiences and clear blue skies. One of the more engaging of The Wild South’s episodes involves Nickens and DiBenedetto having a candid conversation about the fits and starts of raising kids outdoors.

“My biggest challenge is not forcing it, not expecting that my kid is just like me,” admitted DiBenedetto, who said that his rule now is “we only are going to do fun things.”

Nickens offered that parents have to be proactive about connecting kids with nature. “I made getting our kids outdoors and traveling an absolute cornerstone of family policy. We built everything from family budgets to family schedules around that, because if you just try to sneak it into the corners, I don’t know that it’ll happen.”

The beating heart of The Wild South

Making meaningful connections with the natural world and with others is the beating heart of The Wild South podcast, and early indications are that these conversations are reaching beyond the traditional readers of Garden & Gun.

“I love the fact that my son and daughter, who are in their twenties, posted this on their social media, and their friends have now posted,” said Nickens. “We think this strikes a chord that goes beyond the so-called ‘right audience.’ We hope it does because these are not David’s and my hobbies. These are our lifelong passions and there are a lot of people that feel that way.”

Some of those people include singer-songwriter Robert Earl Keen, slated as a guest for season two.

“That’s like the soundtrack of my life,” enthused DiBenedetto. “It’s fun to talk to someone who you know as an amazing musician and who’s been around for the great moments in terms of music for your life and then talk to that person as a sportsman.”

On the list of dream guests: Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia, and actor Henry Winkler, an avid flycaster.

“It’s a whole different connection, because he’s an obsessed trout fisherman” said DiBenedetto, who confessed he had a Fonz lunchbox as a kid.

The podcast goes beyond the celebrity, however. “We’ve got to get people out there to experience it so they’ll care about it,” said DiBenedetto. “If we can’t get them out to these places, those places will disappear along with the experiences.”

“You’re right,” said Nickens. “I think our challenge is expanding the notion of connectivity to the natural world… I think what we find exciting is helping people see and understand those connections. I mean, this is aspirational, too.”

Subscribe to The Wild South podcast, wherever you listen.

Amy Paige Condon is a content coach and editor at the Savannah Morning News. You can reach her at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: listen to garden and gun magazine's the wild south podcast