The Campfire's Edge

For the Season 2 finale, Matt sits down with Douglas Batchelor of What Magic Is This? for a wide-ranging conversation about the strange territory where magic, folklore, and lived experience meet. Together they explore Joshua Cutchin's Ecology of Souls and Fourth Wall Phantoms , fairy traditions, ancestors, saints, the dead, spirit ecology, magical practice, imagination, storytelling, and why place...

This episode begins with a remembrance of Gordon White, whose work inspired the name The Campfire’s Edge and who helped give language to the idea that humans belong in a strange, haunted, more-than-human cosmos. Then we’re joined by Sylvia and Tristan Eden, the husband-and-wife team behind Leodrune Press. From their home in the Pacific Northwest, they write and illustrate books exploring ecology,...

In this episode we interview Haw River Assembly Executive Director Emily Sutton about our wild and damaged river, in a discussion that spans environmental strategy, river-personhood, and our worries for the future. HRA is lobbying NC's Environmental Management Commission. The group that is responsible for setting state pollution regulations is taking public comment on their draft language new laws...

Back from apocalyptic life difficulty season, we have the first of what we hope will be several new episodes publishing in quick succession to close out Season Two of the Campfire's Edge Podcast. In this episode, my father tells the story of his encounter with a figure on a floating platform which was investigated by the Project Blue Book operation in the 1960s. He also tells one of the strangest...

Western North Carolina opened a new chapter this year: the first regulated black bear hunts in some of the steepest, coldest, and most tangled country in the state. Sarah and Matt both drew tags for this historic hunt. In this episode, they share stories from the field; two hunts shaped by different challenges. Matt’s encounter unfolded fast, with close-distance decisions and teeth clacking in the...

In this episode, Sarah and I sit down with Hal Herring , host of the Backcountry Hunters & Anglers Cast and Blast , for a wide-ranging conversation about hunting, conservation, and what it really means to be in relationship with land. Hal brings decades of experience as an outdoor journalist, conservation advocate, and lifelong hunter, and we move through topics ranging from big-game seasons a...

In this episode we are  talking about magical practice and hunting. Human's earliest magical practices almost certainly arose from attempts to secure hunting success. But today, the overlap between these two archaic practices is very limited.  In this episode we are talking to Aspen, who is a poet and hunter and magical practitioner living out in the American west and she has a substack called Yar...

Almost fifteen years ago to the day, our friend Jeremy encountered Bigfoot in a remote part of Ohio's Tar Hollow State forest during deer season. His climbing tree stand is likely still connected to the tree, after he ran out of the woods; it's the only time he's done that, in decades of hunting encounters with other large and potentially dangerous animals. We talk about the landscape that shapes ...

Dr. Peggy Smith Epig (environmental historian, longtime ranger, and Goucher professor) joins us to talk about how stories shape land ethics, from St. Hubert and St. Cuthbert to fieldwork in West Virginia where a small chapel’s stag icon sparks a conversation about hunting, stewardship, and community norms. We trace the hagiography of “holy gamekeepers,” a pilgrim’s encounter with an Iberian wolf o...

In this episode, Sarah and Matt interview Dan Flores, author of Coyote America and Wild New World: The Epic Story of Animals and People in America . We also announce the launch of our new imprint, The Hungry Forest Gallery & Press. Go to TheCampfiresEdge.com for original art and episode notes and check out our new Patreon for The Hungry Forest to support our work.

In this episode, Matt and Sarah talk to Conner Habib, novelist and host of the podcast Against Everyone With Conner Habib. Conner's debut novel, Hawk Mountain (July, 2022 ) , pairs instances of human violence, and animal violence throughout the book, inviting comparison. We talk about that, and also discuss whether the natural history emphasis in the book makes this novel "nature writing". You can...

Sarah and Matt give updates on their projects before diving into a conversation about Sarah's experience operating trail cameras, as a artist and graduate student in Mexican Gray Wolf country. She also expands on her experiences with our trail cameras in North Carolina's Haw River watershed and we talk about our favorite captures. Sarah shares insight from our trail cam experiments and gives tips ...

Dr. Robert Michael Pyle is a naturalist and the author of 28 books, including Chasing Monarchs, Where Bigfoot Walks, Wintergreen, Nature Matrix, Butterflies of the Pacific Northwest, the novel Magdalena Mountain, and four collections of poetry. In this episode, we talk about his 2022 bigfoot sighting, what it's like playing in a band with Nirvana's Krist Novoselic, and his experience as a naturali...

In this episode, our friend Jason describes his experiences growing up in Ohio with fairy phenomenon, ghost trains, UFO dreams and his practice of chaos magic. Be sure to check out TheCampFiresEdge.com for original show art and other episodes.

Nature writer Lyanda Fern Lynn Haupt joins us to talk about bird synchronicities, the communion of saints, and love for Earthsea, etymology and corvid culture. Lyanda is the author of six incredible books, including most recently, Rooted: Life at the Crossroads of Science, Nature and Spirit . You can find all of Lyanda's books here . You can find episode art and extras at TheCampfiresEdge.com .

In this Episode, we visit Little Tennessee River guides Brent Martin and Angela Faye Martin of Alarka Expeditions in Cowee, North Carolina. Brent is the Director of the William Bartram Trail Conservancy and Angela is a musician. They share stories about supernatural incidents that occured in and around their old house on in the mountainside, and offer some perspective on how this place's layered h...

Season Two of The Campfire's Edge podcast. Sarah and I review our whitetail deer hunting season and our relationship with the Piedmont forest. You can find bonus material and original episode art at TheCampFiresEdge.com.

Sarah and Matt interview paranormal adventurer and podcast host Timothy Renner from Strange Familiars . Tim is an author of several paranormal books, and co-author of Where the Footprints End with Joshua Cutchin. In this episode we talk about mountain lion encounters, playful entities in the forest, and talk about Tim's outdoors experiences and his perspective on hunters and anglers who've been on...

In this episode, Sarah and Matt chat with Gordon White, a Tasmanian chaos magician, about the connection of hunting and animism, and his personal experiences with the supernatural in the wild. Gordon's books have been hugely influential in the magical community worldwide, and Matt has been a longtime member of Gordon's RSPM community. You can find all of Gordon's information at Rune Soup . Check o...

In this episode, Matt and Sarah interview Jason Carbajal, snowboarder and angler, about his experience meeting a white-pelt bigfoot on a quiet street in rural Illinois in a summer lightning storm. Email info@thecampfiresedge.com to share your hiking, hunting and fishing paranormal experiences and visit TheCampfiresEdge.com for show art and more information.

In this episode, Matt and Sarah describe their experience with orbs - lights in the sky over the Haw River in North Carolina in the fall of 2023 to researchers Joshua Cutcheon and Barbara Fisher, coauthors of a forthcoming book about anomalous lights. The second part of the episode, Sarah continues her discussion with Barbara from Episode 11 (Orbs, Pondered) about what these orbs might be. Email i...

In this episode, Sarah and Matt interview fishing guide Barrett Christiansen about his experience seeing a pink cryptid busting through the mangroves on the Florida coast with a six-foot long, pink and vertically compressed tail. And Sarah looks into the sea serpents of the southeastern US to find comparable critters like th St. John's River Monster (aka the Borinkus!). Email info@thecampfiresedge...

In this episode, Sarah interviews UAP and paranormal researcher Barbara Fisher about her experiences with anomalous lights in the Appalachian Mountains near Athens, Ohio. They discusses the research Barbara is conducting to collect and categorize light phenomena in her forthcoming book with Joshua Cutchin. Check out Barbara's Podcast 6 Degrees of John Keel 6degreesofjohnkeel.com and check out our...

In this episode, we interview Andy Ciccone, author, podcaster and native plant advocate. We discuss the impact of invasive species on the native plants and animals, the responsibility we have as custodians of the places we live, and challenging ideas championed by popular counterculture voices claiming invasive species management is pointless and racist or xenophobic. You can find new episode art,...

In this Episode, nature writer and poet John Lane tells a story of his experience at the Bighorn Medicine Wheel in Wyoming in the 1990s. The story is incredible, full of high strangeness and aerial entities and the uncomfortable juxtaposition of the New Age movement and Native Traditions. We also discuss how the expectations of academia and the literary community kept this story from being told fo...