The American West

America’s first famous gunfighter also happens to have been a titanic fraud. Join best-selling author Bryan Burrough as he dives separates the into facts from the fictions enveloping the career of Wild Bill Hickok. Thank you to our sponsor, Tecovas . Follow now on Apple , Spotify , iHeart, and YouTube . MeatEater on Instagram , Facebook , Twitter , Youtube , and Youtube Clips Check out more...

Join best-selling author Bryan Burrough as he drills deep into the legend of John Wesley Hardin, the teenaged Texas psychopath who may have been the Old West’s deadliest gunfighter. Thank you to our sponsor,  Tecovas . Follow now on Apple , Spotify , iHeart, and YouTube . MeatEater on Instagram , Facebook , Twitter , Youtube , and Youtube Clips Check out more MeatEater's American Histor...

This season on Blood Trails, host Jordan Sillars follows eight brand-new cases: hunting trips gone horribly wrong, decades-old disappearances, suspicious deaths, and crimes hidden deep in the woods. Some cases are ice cold. Others have been solved—at least, according to the law. But every case in Season 3 is still haunted by unanswered questions. Through firsthand interviews, archival audio,...

Where did all those gunfighters popping up the Old West actually come? Join best-selling author Bryan Burrough as he explores the extraordinarily violent place that gave birth to a whole lot of them: Texas.  Thank you to our sponsor, Tecovas . Follow now on Apple , Spotify , iHeart, and YouTube . MeatEater on Instagram , Facebook , Twitter , Youtube , and Youtube Clips Check out more MeatEate...

Join author Bryan Burrough as he delves into the little-known stories of the first notable Old West gunfighters, from the Texans who popularized the first revolvers during the 1840s  to the outlaws of Gold Rush California and the first gunfighter to achieve literary acclaim — thanks to a young Mark Twain. Thank you to our sponsor,  Tecovas . Follow now on Apple , Spotify , iHeart,...

Best-selling author Bryan Burrough explores the surprising origins of Old West gunfights in America’s deep involvement with the duel, a contest used by so many men during the early 1800s, including politicians from Andrew Jackson to Abraham Lincoln, chose to settle their disputes by drawing guns and firing at each other. From the duel that left Alexander Hamilton dead in 1804 to the dozens o...

Join author Bryan Burrough as he begins telling the epic story of the Gunfighter Era, the years between 1865 and 1901, when Old West figures such as Billy the Kid and Wyatt Earp became famous for something unusual in 19th century America: Shooting other Americans. From Wild Bill Hickok to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, learn the true stories of the troubled men who left behind the frontier&rs...

Author Bryan Burrough exhumes the gritty history of Old West gunfighters. From Billy the Kid to Wyatt Earp to John Wesley Hardin and dozens more, this collection of stories proves how very violent America's nineteenth century frontier actually was, and traces the blood-soaked history of the troubled men who made it that way.  Follow now on Apple , Spotify , iHeart, and YouTube . See omnystudi...

Since the 1903 showing of The Great Train Robbery , film has steadily become our primary way to tell the stories of the American West to the larger world. More than a century’s worth of movies and television shows later, in this episode of The American West Dan, Randall, and guest Dr. Sara Dant reveal their favorite films about the West. Subscribe now wherever you listen to podcasts. YouTube...

The 1538 distribution of Cabeza de Vaca’s Relacion about his shipwreck and trek across the Southwest marks the beginning of books that tell the stories of the American West to the larger world. Hundreds of thousands of books later, in this episode of The American West Dan, Randall, and guest Dr. Sara Dant reveal their favorite western authors and book choices. Subscribe now wherever you list...

Two ideas about living in the modern West, bioregionalism and rewilding, emerged in the 1970s and early 2000s, and while neither has gone mainstream they have influenced how residents who prioritize nature have made decisions about a new western lifestyle. Subscribe now wherever you listen to podcasts. YouTube , Spotify , Apple , iHeart , Pandora , Amazon . MeatEater on Instagram , Facebook , Twit...

When the U.S. acquired the West with the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, President Thomas Jefferson dispatched two scientific expeditions to explore it. Lewis & Clark became legendary. The historical fiction that follows indicates that with a different outcome, Freeman and Custis would have been famous westerners, too. Here, then, is Part II. Subscribe now wherever you listen to podcasts.  Yo...

When the U.S. acquired the West with the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, President Thomas Jefferson dispatched two scientific expeditions to explore it. Lewis & Clark became legendary. Like Apollo 13, Jefferson’s Red River Expedition into the West was a failure. This is how their story should have gone. Subscribe now wherever you listen to podcasts. YouTube , Spotify , Apple , iHeart , Pando...

One of the stories that will long define the American West in the modern era is the return of the wolf after a century of wholesale attempts to obliterate it. From New Mexico to Montana and west to the Pacific Coast, a five-million year-old native is on its way home again. Subscribe now wherever you listen to podcasts.  YouTube , Spotify , Apple , iHeart , Pandora , Amazon . MeatEater on Inst...

With its many diverse, stupendous landscapes and public lands, the West has long been a region of bucket list adventures. A descent down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon has always been near the top of the list for almost everybody. Here’s what it’s like. Subscribe now wherever you listen to podcasts. YouTube , Spotify , Apple , iHeart , Pandora , Amazon . MeatEater on Insta...

The Endangered Species Act of 1973 is one of America’s most famous laws and contributions to world culture, yet half-a-century after its passage it has become yet another political lightning rod. But if you value having Thoreau’s “entire Earth,” the ESA is one of America’s best ideas. Subscribe now wherever you listen to podcasts.  YouTube , Spotify , Apple , iHe...

In the eyes of the world, the West’s several deserts have become defining landscapes for the modern region. But one of them, the Chihuahuan Desert, has produced the only large public lands found anywhere in Texas. Therein lies a story that shapes a state. Subscribe now wherever you listen to podcasts. YouTube , Spotify , Apple , iHeart , Pandora , Amazon . MeatEater on Instagram , Facebook ,...

Calling on the photographic record made of the American West from 150 to 100 years ago, modern photographers have repeated many of the same scenes and found remarkable differences in the ecology and look of western landscapes. The question is, why such change? Subscribe now wherever you listen to podcasts.  YouTube , Spotify , Apple , iHeart , Pandora , Amazon . MeatEater on Instagram , Faceb...

While conservation focused national parks creation on the vertical mountains and canyons of the West, the Great Plains ended up de-buffaloed and mostly ignored. But with new, 21st century approaches to reversing that historical slight, the Plains Serengeti is on its way back. Subscribe now wherever you listen to podcasts. YouTube , Spotify , Apple , iHeart , Pandora , Amazon . MeatEater on Instagr...

Almost exactly 500 years ago, a shipwrecked Spaniard named Cabeza de Vaca and three companions made the first trans-continental journey in the history of the American West. Then he wrote down his account of eight years in Native America, one of the great First Contact stories of all time. Subscribe now wherever you listen to podcasts.  YouTube , Spotify , Apple , iHeart , Pandora , Amazon . M...

Religion is often at the center of historical events in the West. The founding of modern Montana, in fact, happened when Native people famously pleaded for Christian missionaries. The question was whether the Christians actually understood what the Indians were asking for. Subscribe now wherever you listen to podcasts. YouTube , Spotify , Apple , iHeart , Pandora , Amazon . MeatEater on Instagram...

Charlie Russell and L.A. Huffman became famous for their nostalgic art about the Frontier world they experienced in the West. But with a fascination with what Russell called “Dreamtime Montana,” exactly what were they trying to tell us about the West’s future? Subscribe now wherever you listen to podcasts.  YouTube , Spotify , Apple , iHeart , Pandora , Amazon . MeatEater on...

Not only do most Americans misunderstand the great variety in western places, but many westerners are similarly clueless. This episode makes a stab at explaining nature in a part of the West unfamiliar to many, the southwestern state of New Mexico. Subscribe now wherever you listen to podcasts. YouTube , Spotify , Apple , iHeart , Pandora , Amazon . MeatEater on Instagram , Facebook , Twitter , Yo...

A tangible and fascinating landscape record of the human past in the West exists in a form barely found elsewhere in America. So-called rock art, images incised and painted on rock faces, still reach out of the past to connect us with the thoughts, dreams, gods, and myths of ancient America. Subscribe now wherever you listen to podcasts.  YouTube , Spotify , Apple , iHeart , Pandora , Amazon...

In the summer of 2019 a small group of us does a 12-day river descent from Alaska’s Brooks Range through the heart of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, experiencing a preserved slice of primeval western America that seems in perpetual danger of being destroyed by humanity’s relentless addiction to oil. Subscribe now wherever you listen to podcasts. YouTube , Spotify , Apple , iHeart...