Cookin' Up A Story

Growing up in Redding, California, Jake Latvala didn't have many goals beyond bonfires and keggers with his friends. After high school, he weighed his options and decided it was either the military or a job driving a forklift at a Walmart distribution center. He went with Walmart and ended up moving to Virginia and then Northwest Arkansas.  Given his lust for life, he got some cuts and burns...

In part 2 of the latest edition we discuss BBQ, TikTok, and marketing with Nick Parsons. Hear how he turns $1 into $3, legally, why small farms like to work together rather than compete, and why people buy great stories rather than great products.  Listen, enjoy, and reach out to share your time, treasure, or talent with us. Cookin' Up a Story is all about value for value and we enjoy the val...

Before there were influencers, there were sportsmen, cameramen, and producers capturing the outdoors so enthusiasts could learn more about techniques and gear, as well as just watching people pursuing the activities they loved. Nick found his opportunity in that environment, which took him from California to Oklahoma.  Once there, he began exploring his love of BBQ and his career took a few twist...

Where did the octopus come from? What about gold? How do the stars affect our daily lives? How do perceptions about the size of fruit determine what gets grown? Are elephants going extinct? Red Vanzant, Erich Blanton, and the crew discuss the mysteries of the universe, micromanagement, and more. Give it a listen, it's a good one.  And when you're done, hit us up. Your time, treasure, and...

Erich Blanton and Red Vanzant have been friends for years. Their friendship formed around their shared love of motorcycles, though that wasn't Erich's first passion. In high school, college, and for a few years after, he was a champion rodeo rider. A series of accidents left him unable to continue competing, so he transferred his competitive spirit to motorcycles.  Today, he owns a plumb...

In this installment, the boys continue their conversation with Wes Evans, covering cicadas, poetry, and buzzards, plus why we should still be positive about the future. Also find out who all Wes met on his last trip to Washington D.C. and why animal rights people once called on Rich to kill himself.  Listen, laugh, and if you get value, hit us up for ways you can share your time, treasure, and tal...

Farming and federal farm policy, artificially inseminating cows, pet cremation, and more. Wes Evans is can discuss it all. Listen to this week's episode and enjoy the stories that  he and the boys cook up.  Thanks to Wes for stopping buy and offering us some time and talent. If you have some time, treasure, or talent you'd like to lend, get in touch and we'll tell you how you can of...

In part two of our interview with Jeff White, we discuss what it's like being an air traffic controller for the Air Force, how that relates to tuna cans, and the beginning of his mission to find love in the modern age.  Like, share, subscribe, and reach out if you get value from this one. We have fun doing these, but the reason we do it is for all you listeners out there. 

Military service, insurance sales, BBQ, and disaster assistance - Jeff White has done a little bit of everything. Always with an eye toward opportunity and love, that led him down the aisle three times. For the third marriage, though, he went in a bit of a different direction and found his bride online.  After several years of blissful marriage, Jeff continues to seize life. Hear him cook up his s...

While visiting family in Pennsylvania, Tara and Joe Cook discovered a distillery and fell in love with it. Later, while sitting on the porch on their house in Pineville, they decided they wanted to bring those products to Missouri, but not as distributors. The Cooks wanted to start distilling it themselves.  After a few phone calls and additional trips, the Pennsylvania distillers gave the Cooks t...

Zachary Hall was always a nerd when it came to weather, so after high school, and a brief flirtation with becoming a law enforcement officer, he decided to pursue that passion and make a career out of it. Rather than going to college and pursuing a degree in meteorology, though, he decided to strike out on his own as a storm chaser.  Almost a decade later, Zach now supports his family by not only...

Growing up in El Paso, Texas with a police officer mother in a very Catholic Mexican family, Sam Cano first thought he would become a politician. After attending Boys State during his junior year, though, he decided politics wasn't for him.  Upon graduating, he wanted to spread his wings, so he headed to Portland, OR, to attend college. He wasn't destined to stay there, though, and ended...

Doc Jaynes always knew he wanted to help people. His initial plan was to go into the military and from there, become a physician's assistant. Deploying to Iraq two times, where he saved the lives of his brothers, ended up changing his focus.  Once back in the states, he found that he needed to pursue a new mission, one focused on helping other soldiers deal with the stresses of returning to l...

For most people, it takes a little time to figure out what you want to do. For Major General Craig Gourley, he hit upon his path when he was just six years old. It helped that his father was a chemist in the Air Force, which exposed Gourley to the path his life would take.  While on Edwards Air Force Base in California, Craig was exposed to the latest in flight technology, and his passion for spre...

Growing up, brother and sister Jeremy Morris and Lacy Hampton fought like, well, brother and sister. When they got a little older, though, the pair from a musical household discovered that their shared love of music was best shared with the world in the form of a duo. Thus, Common Roots was born. Listen to them share how they ended up performing together, their approach to life and parenting, and...

Only 10% of podcasts make it to a fourth episode. Only 10% of those that make it that far get all the way to 100 episodes. Well, Cookin' Up a Story just hit our 100th. Thank you, listeners, for giving your time to us and making it possible for us to hit this milestone. For our 100th, we went old school, just the boys sitting around a table talking over some brown water. While it was originall...

When Curt Clark was in high school, he knew what he wanted to be — a cowboy. Three days after graduating, he headed off to Montana to pursue that dream. Quickly, though, he realized that there's not much money in raising cattle and ended up spending most of his three years in Big Sky Country working as an outfitter. He ended up returning to Northwest Arkansas and becoming a farrier in additio...

As a young man, Ryan Mosburg was bullied, so his dad connected him with a local boxing trainer. With the help of this trainer, who would pummel him multiple nights a week, Ryan started to learn how to hold his own, but his newfound confidence didn't serve him as well as he'd hoped. Living in a small town and hanging out with friends who liked to push him in the wrong direction meant he f...

Ben Lagrone always wanted to be a teacher, so he started his career as one, teaching history. While he enjoyed it, it didn't satisfy his desire to have a broader reach, to teach more people. So he looked at going into the administrative side, as an assistant principal. He didn't end up moving in that direction, instead getting into curriculum development for the state. Then, his wife ask...

Red Vanzant's family has been in Arkansas since the 1800s. For that entire time, they've been growing fruit. On this episode, Red tells the boys about that family history, the changes the region has witnessed throughout their tenure, and how bureaucratic interference affected the fruit growing game. With a focus on giving back and leaving something better behind, Red's story twists...

In 2008, Jesse Deubel was dealing with the fallout from the mortgage crisis. As a realtor, his income dried up, leaving him to choose between paying the water bill or the electric bill. In the evenings, he'd spend his time on a message board dedicated to bow hunting. Through this, he met a fellow who was interested in moving to New Mexico, where Deubel was born, raised, and still lives today....

For most families, the black sheep is the one who goes off to pursue a career in the arts, but for Anthony Stevens, that meant something else. Raised in a blessed religious family where music was integral to life, Anthony went in a different direction and enlisted in the Navy in 2000. There, he spent six years focused on stopping drug traffickers. After his time was up, he found difficulty enterin...

Max Gail's life took him from Detroit to Florida to San Francisco, from stage to screen. Best known as Wojo on Barney Miller, Gail has long been more focused on Native American rights and sharing their plight with all Americans. Listen to how his journey through life led him from religion to science to spirituality and back to religion again as he shares his legacy, his rhymes, with us.

Aaron Kimball is a natural born leader. His blood running through his veins is similar to his family known for their pugnacious history. This episode we hear about the other side of combat sports. The side of passion, love, and tribe. TCB Boxing/MMA a multi decade boxing/MMA gym that also has a program called FORGE, which is designed to help at-risk youth in northwest Arkansas. As you know a const...

Radio is a platform that has given us so much for so long. Kyle Kellams, is a person who at 5 years old knew what he wanted. With a passion for producing the best stories and grasping onto a changing landscape and narrative, Kyle is a keystone in the broadcasting industry. We dive into a ton of industry and social topics on this podcast. You will learn about the drive it takes to stay relevant and...