Welcome everyone to the very first Man of Issachar
podcast I wanted to bring some of my very wise
friends to the table and discuss some topics
that are pretty pertinent to Christ seekers of
today We walk through a range of topics from
books to farming to Marxism So I hope you enjoy
This is the Men of Issachar podcast and what
we want to do, we want to discuss and just hit
on topics that are relevant to Christians and
to the Big -C Church. My name is Jason Gall.
I'm a bison farmer and technology dude from Cookville,
Tennessee. These are some of my friends I brought
to the table. I just wanted to introduce you
to them. The headmaster of the Hickory Classical
Christian School in Cookeville, Tennessee, Mr.
Terry Gant, and the pastor of Midway Baptist
Church in Cookeville, Jeff Wright. Jason, thanks
for, yeah, thanks for kicking this off for us,
man. I appreciate you doing that. Interesting
talking with you fellas. Yeah, this ought to
be good. I'm looking forward to it. Somebody
fire. All right, well let's start. We probably
should start with the name, right? Men of Issachar.
Seems kind of obscure if you don't know, but
this comes from 1 Chronicles. This is a reference
to a Bible verse where the men of Issachar are
described as the men who understood the times
and knew what Israel should do. So we got two
things going on there, right? We've got understanding
the times and then knowing what to do. I think
this is gonna be kind of a grab bag of a podcast
But hopefully at least some of what we talk about
is what's going on and ethics, right? Like what
what what actual actions do we take based on
what's going on? Well, I think that that's got
to be there's got to be a fundamental Christian
virtue or excuse me ambition for men right, so
Who do we need in households? Who do we need
in churches? Who do we need in? a pair of church
things like classical Christian schools, or even
to know, hey, we ought to be educating our children
classically. How do we help get that started?
Well, it's people who've done the work to know
what's going on and what the Bible has to say
about how you meet it. And, I mean, honestly,
as a pastor, one of the things that's troubling
to me is that the church is clearly set up for
older, wiser men and women to teach younger men
and women the path of wisdom in a practical way.
right? But it feels like we're just suffering
from a lack of that. There's been kind of a confluence
of things, commercialism, Attractional Church
models. And so if we're going to have that at
any time soon, we're going to have to be pursuing
that. I don't know that I'm a man of Issa right
now. I trust that you guys are, but it's definitely
an ambition and something I'm giving my energies
to try to cultivate. Yeah, it's definitely something
that I... I want to strive for. And something
God's just been showing me lately is, and Terry
is to blame with this because Terry, he was my
Sunday school teacher for a long time. And we
touched on beauty, we touched on a couple different
subjects, but it really drove home the point
that being a Christian and following Jesus is
more about direction than it is what level you
are. because we're all different and I don't
think we can be compared to one another fully
and certain things we sure surely can. But I
think it's more about direction and about who
your life points to. Like we're called to be
man after God's own heart and to seek hard after
Jesus. Just for an example, like if you look
at Beauty, The beautiful things, in my opinion,
are the things that point to Jesus. Like art,
as far as art goes, as far as music goes, there's
tons of stuff that's pleasing in this world that
the world would consider beautiful, which I don't
think is beautiful. Sure. Are you supposed to
pretend like it's beautiful when everything internally
says this is hot garbage? Yes, I don't even know
like your point stands But we have a lot of people
who would who would put art in front of you And
if you were to say that is not beautiful, they'd
say well, it isn't supposed to be And it kind
of begs the question of like what is the point
of the art? if beauty is not at least one of
the things you're trying to do with it and there's
lots of different answers we hear from from contemporaries
on that but But what does it point to and why?
Right, so classically art and beauty was understood
to reflect something that was reflective of God,
his design, his own handiwork, right? Art has
been reduced to self -expression and that's why
they can put a toilet up and say, it is meaningful
to me, therefore it must be artistic. I was late
to the game on objective beauty. It just seems
so hard to quantify. But the tumbler that kicked
for me was, I believe in objective truth. I believe
in objective goodness. And since those two concepts
are so tightly wedded to beauty in Scripture,
beauty must also have an objective nature. And
I think I've kind of located it in, does it tell
the truth about who God is and what He's done?
So there is a way out of this morass of modern
art. But like everything else, to your point
about direction, it involves a return to pursuing
the truth about who Jesus is and what He's done.
The Mona Lisa is an easy example, right? I'm
not entirely sure what Christian ambitions may
have driven that creation, but it is a painstaking
effort to capture a particular woman's countenance.
And woman is a creation of God and the fairer
creation of God. who embodies beauty. So that's
what I have in mind when I say something true
about Jesus or what He's done. Again, pastoral
landscapes, I love those things. I think the
reason I love them is because they reflect something
that's actually accurate about the beauty of
God's creation. It doesn't mean everything has
to be. overtly doctrinal in its artistic representation,
but it should tell the truth about Christ and
His creation. Yeah, I would agree with all that.
Hey, I'm curious if we're talking about the kind
of what's going on right now. I think for me,
I'm still living in the wake of Charlie Kirk's
life and assassination broadly, right? Like that's
kind of the big topic that's still, what are
we, two weeks out, three weeks out? It was more
than two. More than two. September 10th. Yeah,
okay, so quite a bit out. Today's October 1st
when the recording is. That's still true for
y 'all. If you're thinking about like a national
context, still the most dominant thought. I'm
just curious where you're at since it's been
more like 20 -something days. I think we all
initially went through a state of horror. And
then I think probably for most of the men that
I know, a visceral rage. Then there seems to
have come after that a clarion call to continue
his work. Any developments from there? I'm just
curious for y 'all. It seems now that it's almost
like the the the the death of Charlie Kirk is
almost like a lens through which I'm viewing
like with subsequent things and like I've been
watching for example the ICE versus Antifa clashes
in Chicago And I just see them as downstream
I know there there's not a direct connection
that I am aware of between those two things But
I think okay, this was left -wing violence that
we've got with the murder of Charlie Kirk. This
is and I've been underwhelmed with the response.
And therefore it's emboldened the same kinds
of elements to perpetrate further violence. So
I see it as a, it's not the first left -wing
violence we've seen. An argument can be made
that it's not even the most brutal or severe.
It was the most... Pop possibly shocking just
because of the nature of how it went down but
this isn't the first person that they've killed
for for their beliefs or for being different
and But for some reason this one really just
captivated My thoughts as well, and I don't know
if it's right to say I'm looking at everything
kind of now through that lens But that's just
sort of where my head's at Yeah, I'm definitely
dealing with a lot of different angles looking
at because I'm both sad and encouraged by what's
come after it because there have been so many
people that it is exposed evil in our world in
a way that's undeniable. And they don't have
any legs to stand on anymore. And there's a lot
of people that are converting back to Christianity
because they see the truth and the true nature.
of decide they're serving versus decide Charlie
Kirk was serving. Sure. I mean, it's a pretty
visceral example of it's either Christ or chaos,
that there's no third alternative, which is helpful
in the long run because it kinda re -shocked
us into reality. We've had it so good as a country
for my adult life and beyond, you know, earlier
even than that. I think we got pretty complacent
about the benefits of Christ given to us. And
this is one of those times where the Lord reminded
us that, no, actually it's directly a gift from
me. And if my hand of blessing is removed, if
I'm provoked in such a way that judgment increases,
you're not going to like that world. And so,
of course, you wouldn't want to pull Charlie
out of heaven. But in a general sense, we'd rather
have Charlie alive. But it's clearly one of those
times where the Lord has brought really good
out of evil. But to kind of leap from that back
to what you said, Terry, pursuit and driving
out the enemy, I think to say it in a more healthy
way, I feel more ambitious than I've ever been.
There's so much remaining good in our culture
that I guess I had just become a little black
pill toward. Now you look everywhere and you
see it. How many frustrated there's not more
follow -up? Yeah, and so many people cared When
when Charlie died, I wasn't a giant Charlie Kirk
fan before I didn't dislike him But I didn't
watch his stuff regularly, but I knew who he
was and I thought that his work was fine and
good and There's probably a lot of people like
me who had heard of him but didn't follow him
and they were still outraged by what happened
and it's not it's because of what Charlie represented
in addition to just the outrage of his specific
murder and People have not it doesn't seem like
it's it's had the same effect that the left probably
hoped it would Which is the kind of the silencing
of of people like him? It's it's just fired up
people more and Charlie's unique He may not be
able to necessarily just be easily replaced in
spite of what appears to be some efforts to do
so But if there's a million Charlie Kirk's and
each one of them has 10 % of his talent then
that's still a lot of people doing some good
and working to try to make things better. I think
he planted a lot of seeds and I think they're
coming to fruition now because of his death.
I think his death sparked a lot of thoughts and
he planted a lot of wisdom that is now coming
to fruition and it's coming out through different
outlets and I'm encouraged by that. Yeah, I mean
really to get down to like what's needful in
this moment, kind of the theme of the podcast.
And it again ties to your idea about I've just
been just not impressed by the follow -up to
deal with his murderers and things like that.
I guess the thing that this far out from it is,
I guess the thing I feel most pressing on me
is that it's time for all gas, no breaks. Every
godly ambition should be pursued. We should be
completely done. with theological and civic compromisers
that there's, you know, kind of the idea that,
well, both sides have strengths to offer. Let's
just, I just think it's time to let that stuff
be evaporated. Well, I think that's one of the
great awakenings that's kind of happening, is
that there was a time when you could articulate
that the right and the left both want the same
things and they have different methods. And that's
clearly not true. Anymore, which has not been
true for a long time, but I think this has woken
up a lot of people to the reality that this is
not a This is not a discussion about methods.
This is a discussion about outcomes and It's
existential. There's going to be a winner and
a loser and it's and you know, this is not Like
tomorrow we're going to wake up and it's going
to be a communist takeover but in the long run
we're fighting against evil and darkness and
They are fighting against good And I had an article
just at American Reformer, and it was about the
vanishing middle ground. And it was done in the
context of classical schools, like that's kind
of what I had in mind because I was reacting
to a tweet where someone was trying to ride the
fence on this. Articulate that like well a class
school is really just about human beings It's
not about right versus left and my position is
that classical schools need to be done with that
they need to they need to just openly acknowledge
that they're right -wing institutions and guard
that and It's just it seems clear that with Charlie's
death and the fault the outcome which Jason you
were referring to like the the exposure of the
evil and how widespread now a lot of the people
that were celebrating his death would never pull
a trigger themselves, but they are Endorsing
and enjoying other people's evil deeds and and
you know celebrating those so whatever middle
ground that there has been is really drawing
up quick and it's gotten to the point where you
kind of need to pick a side or You're going to
find yourself with no allies and both sides are
going to either not trust you or outright hate
you, which I think has been true for the left
for a while. They've always been as far back
as I can remember. If you're not 100 % in lockstep
with whatever today's dogma is, you're out. The
right's more tolerant, but the tolerance is starting
to go away. And if you're not on our side, we're
just going to assume you're with them. So, I
think classical schools in particular need to
be thinking in those terms, because that's what
their constituency ultimately, I think, wants.
And they've just got to be prepared, because
the left is going to continue to come for them,
even if they try to ride the line. Nobody's going
to tolerate the killerism like they used to.
That's just clearly a broken approach. Well,
what you just said about classical schools, I
think is certainly true for the church as well,
and for the same reason. So, Keller, Tim Keller.
who I believe is probably in heaven, nonetheless
gave a pretty terrible legacy of sort of always
catering to the left, holding the right at an
arm's distance as an idea of an evangelistic
strategy. Well, it collapsed probably by the
time Keller died, if not immediately thereafter.
New York is no different because Tim Keller wanted
to make Christianity palatable to urban elites.
But America's different because Charlie Kirk
was very clear about where the lines were and
what the unavoidable alternatives were. And I
guess what you're saying about a classical school,
I think it's certainly true of the church as
well. Only the kingdom transcends categories
of right -wing and left -wing, but those categories
reflect greater conformity or less. And we should
be unashamed about which that is. And it's time
to be done with sort of the, well, let's tiptoe
around the feelings of people who, I don't know,
think that the left is more compassionate. Let's
just talk in frank moral categories, call people
to join in. And if you're not going to, we're
going to move on without you. I would love to
talk just a little bit. I don't know how much
you guys know about Marxism. I guess it's my
opinion that Marxism is a core principle that
a lot of the left adheres to, but most of them
don't even know about Marxism. They just know
some of the components of Marxism. And I think
that if those things were exposed, people might
get a better picture of the left and some of
the tactics that they use, such as division and
posing people groups against people groups. Sure.
Just some of the mentalities. Do any of you guys
have any wisdom on? That or does that spark any
thought? It's been a while since I've read the
Communist Manifesto, but I have read it And then
he's got his other big book Das Kapital or just
capitalism. I think it's often when it's translated
into So, I don't know what's the I'm trying to
think of how to succinctly Like summarize Marx's
view and all of life is class struggle Well,
it's basically trying to, in my opinion, what
the goal of Marxism was is to create a utopianistic
society without God. Yeah, that's certainly true.
I think it's interesting to think about what
you're saying about methodology. So, yeah, I've
read Marx. I'm also familiar with the Frankfurt
School and really the kind of insanity of the
project, but you see it everywhere. The insanity
of the project through the Frankfurt lens is
that if society can be reduced to rubble, a new
order of utopia will spring forth spontaneously.
It's insane in a way that's hard to think that
any rational human being would embrace. But that's
really what they believe. If we can destroy all
of this, this new order is going to leap into
existence. And that's why you see cities burned
and people mutilated and all that. They really
actually believe the route to growth is destruction.
That's what we're up against. We're up against
a totalizing worldview that says the only way
forward is to destroy everything. And its kind
of ultimate goal is is a pure form of egalitarianism,
sort of. There's always ulterior motives, and
I don't think that Marx would have been okay
with just being one of many. He would have wanted
to be an elite. That tends to be the way it is
with these movements, but the idea... Well, he
came from a wealthy family, right? Like, I mean,
he was kind of a ne 'er -do -well from a... Yeah.
He was sort of a... He was kind of like a freeloader
off his roommate when he grew up and started
writing and things like that, but... Yeah, I
mean it's the egalitarianism I think it gets
back to the really the core of it which is they
hate God and they don't want there to be a God
and they want to be like God and they want to
get everybody else on board with their radical
vision so they say we can all just be like God
together and We'll just be equal and everything
will be fine. No problems will happen because
everyone will be the same Just kind of reducing
humanity to like an amorphous mass and we see
this with I mean with I mean even with like Transgenderism
you have this idea that gender is nothing It
can be changed. It's mutable. It's just whatever
your preference is because it doesn't really
matter That's kind of what what the the bottom
of that philosophy is It's just your preference
of how to express yourself and everybody's all
the same and there's no real differences worth
mentioning I think that's ultimately the destruction
of the family. Yeah, I mean where that's trying
to take us but where else is hierarchy more clearly
visible right between parents and children husband
and the rest of the family and in long -term
like on a long enough time scale nations in many
cases just emerge from clans right like Tolkien
references this with one of the hobbits that
talks about how he moved across the water had
a bunch of kids they had a bunch of kids after
two or three generations he basically had his
own city and country of his own that was all
just descended from him. Goals. Yeah. Goals right
there. Y 'all heard me talk about this multiple
context, but to that point, I think you can go
even beyond family or church or all these institutions
in that it's ultimately an anti -creation project.
Yeah. So, you know, just quick summary. When
you meet the world in Genesis, it's formless
and void. And the way God does what we call creation,
is he begins to shape with boundaries and distinctions.
Light separated from dark, day from night, man
from woman, right? And so all these categories
of distinction are intrinsic to the order that
God has established. And Marxism really does
fundamentally seem to be, let's get rid of every
possible distinction, right down to the distinction
between man and woman. Well, even to the distinction
of changing definitions of words, I mean, it
talks about that. Sure. And to your point about
their tactics and are people aware, you know,
one of the first questions that came out of Charlie's
murder was, why Charlie? He's like the nicest
among us, right? Well, again, with the Frankfurt
School, they pulled off what's famously called
the Long March through the institutions, particularly
higher education, or I say higher education,
all education. Education in general, yeah. So
this is going to take generations, but we're
going to capture educational institutions because
they understand in a way the church has been
lazy and understanding that education is discipleship.
And so they capture institutions. Everybody knows
higher education is in chaos. Everybody knows
the government school system is in chaos. That's
because they did the long march through the institutions.
Charlie was running their playbook against them.
He was going to their territory, these captured
institutions, and saying, I'll change the minds
of young people. I think part of the reason he
was so hated is that he was doing back to them
what they had pulled off on a sane world generations
ago. He was so effective. Well, I have just read
something about, I was comparing him to Socrates,
and he was killed for similar reasons. That's
apt, yeah. Because Socrates was basically embarrassing
the intelligentsia of his day, and so they charged
him with corrupting the youth and they killed
him for it, and that's... That's pretty similar.
Like, he's questioning the current dogmas that
are accepted by academia. And he's, if nothing
else, even if he doesn't get everybody on board
with his particular views, he's embarrassing
the professoriate, right? He's showing that they
don't know very much. It's sort of the emperor's
new clothes. He's sitting there pointing out,
well, those guys are naked. No. Yeah. And I really
do think it offends sort of the Marxist sensibility
that, I mean, you've seen it with the state.
At least in my adult life from the Obama administration
where they were saying, we're going to extend
the school day. And I remember his secretary
of education. I can't remember the dude's name,
but he had a background in basketball. He played
in an Ivy league. But he said, look, parents
don't want to, they don't have to deal with the
hassle of taking care of their kids. So let the
government school system feed them dinner. Let
them, you know, let us watch them. We'll take
them out of your hair. The Marxist worldview
basically understands that children are the property
of the community. And they operate along those
lines. I mean, that's why they hate Christianity
so much, but it's also why they hated Charlie,
because Charlie was coming in and taking what
they understood to be their property and giving
an off -ramp from that. I just think the way
that you and I would feel if somebody had broken
into our house and stole some priceless family
heirloom, I think that's how the left saw Charlie
Kirk. How dare you take this thing that is...
quintessentially ours, which is the mind of young
people. We stole it fair and square. Right. Right.
How dare you steal it back? Jeff, are you reading
anything interesting right now? Yeah, I'm reading
a book by David Haynes called Natural Theology.
I'd recommend it. So, Natural Theology gets a
bad rap in Reformed circles. I'm part of the
Reformed tradition as a Baptist. Presbyterians
out there can freak out about that if they want,
but... I am. And so David Haynes is presenting
a vision of what we would call natural law and
showing that it's very consistent with reform
tradition. And I actually think it's a really
relevant and needed topic right now. Not to bore
anybody, but there was a famous apologist in
reform circles named Cornelius Van Teel. And
Van Til is helpful because he demands that we
view the Christian worldview as absolute. So
he would say, if I'm a believer and Terry's not
a believer, when we look at a single rose, we
do not see the same thing in absolute terms.
I see a thoughtfully crafted expression of God's
creative goodness. Terry sees a random product
of atoms bumping into each other. So I don't
hate Van Teel. I think he's very helpful in that
way. But Van Teel, you can imagine if Van Teel
is that absolute on Christians and non -Christians
don't understand the world the same. He doesn't
have a category for something we would share
in common like a natural law that says Terry
if he represents unbelievers in this hypothetical.
Terry has no reason to believe that murder is
wrong. As a Christian, I definitely do. But what
we know from human experience is, broadly, even
pagans recognize that murder is wrong. And so
Haynes is kind of recovering that we can meaningfully
talk about a natural law that governs and, I
mean, that Christians have in fullness because
we're aided by the special revelation of Scripture,
but that everybody has access to. And the reason
I think it's timely is that the nature of what
it means to be a conservative is still very much
up in the air, right? Donald Trump is not Ronald
Reagan. Who gets to be the gatekeeper on which
of those guys is more right anyway? Well, I think
the essence of conservativism is conserving any
attainment of honoring the natural law, God's
natural law. And so I'm thankful Haynes wrote
the book because it's giving what I think is
a roadmap to conservatives. I can work in the
civic arena with someone who understands that
men are men and women are women, because we actually
do both have access to a natural law. Outside
of that civic project, I'm going to try to help
that person understand why that is and what the
ramifications are. But we can actually be conservatives
together in a civic project. insofar as we both
aspire to conform to God's natural law, if that
makes sense. So yeah, it's interesting. It's
good. I'd recommend it. There's a bigger volume
set of books that he wrote, and I'm not a fan
of Davenett Institute, but Davenett published
a more approachable sort of distillation that
he wrote that's aimed at lay readers. I'd recommend
both. It's really good. What about you? Well,
I just started reading, like I said earlier,
it's kind of a biography of John Sevier. It's
relevant. We're recording this in Tennessee.
And Sevier was our first governor and one of
the founding fathers of Tennessee. So the book
is from the 1800s. It's called The Rear Guard
of the Revolution. And it's kind of a biography
of Sevier, but it's really more about the formation
of the settlements west of the Appalachian Mountains
in the early Like more than the 1750s and 60s
leading into the American Revolution. And there's
a second book called John severe Commonwealth
builder, I think is the title. And I've got that
one on the shelf. I'll probably read next, but
this is relevant to me because our school has
a hall system and my hall is severe hall. So
I'm trying to learn more about them. And I kind
of was afraid that this would be drudgery. I'm,
I'm interested enough in the guy, but you know,
history books are a mixed bag in that regard
and it's, it's really well written. It's very
fascinating. So it's, I've actually found it
to be quite a page turner and it, it's just a,
as a Tennessean reading about where our people
came from, what they were like when they first
came, how much courage, how much they endured
is just really rewarding. Terry, we talked about
it before we hit record, but Think our listeners
will be profited by you giving a description
of what they kept in their saddlebags Oh, yeah,
sure. So so the early settlers when they came
over the mountains there were no roads They had
the only they could they could bring what they
could carry and what they could basically put
on one horse So in addition to their families
who had to either walk or go on horseback They
would bring along the food that they needed for
the trip little bit of kitchen utensils and tools
that they would need to build gun of course powder
shot that that sort of thing and They would bring
whatever books that they had and their libraries
basically consisted of a Bible Isaac Watts's
hymn book They would bring it like a like a reader
or a spelling curriculum for kids To help them
with the education of the young copy of Robinson
Crusoe Fox's book of martyrs pilgrims progress
and I feel like I'm forgetting one but Well that
I mean that Say you've just described maybe the
best like proto Educational curriculum I could
imagine not just for settlers, but for humans
Well, that's the kind of things that they were
educating their children with and they would
sit around the fire at night and read aloud so
That was the education of the early American
settler and according to this historian Almost
all of them were able to read and write because
they have some charters that were signed by everybody
in town You know about 200 people and there might
be one or two names that were signed like with
X's Right that would be in lieu of a signature
because they didn't know how to write so very
few people were uneducated in the way that that
sometimes the south and old people from olden
times or it's just assumed they aren't as educated
as we are but they probably had a higher literacy
rate than moderns. Well, if you take the content
of what they're consuming, I would take that
over a lot of the modern curriculum we have foisted
upon us today. Yeah. You know, it's funny though,
because we don't read Robinson Crusoe, but we
do Fox's Book of Martyrs, of course, the Bible.
We sing hymns by Isaac Wast to this day. And
we read Pilgrim's Progress. They just got done
with that. You know, it's just funny. The things
that have stood the test of time that Christians
have always looked to and recognized, this is
a great work. And it's full of truth, goodness,
and beauty. Well done, kind of bringing it full
circle. Yeah. And you also told me a fun fact
about bison. Oh, yes. You want me to relate that
one as well? Okay, so when they came over they
they brought Some of the very early pioneers
planted some fields, right? They're just so corn
So when they got to the areas where they were
going to settle there was some kind of corn growing
They had a little bit of kind of pre seeded crops,
but not not a ton. So they had to supplement
their Their larders with whatever game they could
trap and hunt And when they were in Carolina
and Virginia, they were accustomed to shooting
a lot of turkey and deer, which they liked pretty
well. When they got into the valleys on the other
side of the Allegheny Mountains, they found massive
herds of buffalo. The North American bison that
is and so they they shot some of those because
those things had absolutely no fear of people
So they could they could get pretty close to
them probably not too close but a little bit
close and they they shot those and they hit when
they had sampled the The buffalo meat they said
that they basically lost their taste for every
other kind of meat because it was just so good
They're like, all right deer tonight because
we're out of Buffalo, but I'll get another one
tomorrow. Don't worry everyone and just FYI The
reason I like that is because we raised bison
here in Cookville, Tennessee. So that kind of
tickled me when he exposed that fact. Well, I
mean, I come from generations of beef farmers.
I love beef. Bison's better. And I think that
everybody who comes in contact with it kind of...
to realize that we were took a group of buddies
on a football road trip this week and we ended
up at this country kind of meeting three restaurant
and a bunch of guys were like give me the meeting
three but a couple other guys who don't like
that style of food like can I get a menu we're
gonna get burgers and as everybody's eating a
burger they really liked it sort of spontaneously
developed like yeah, but have you had a bison
burger? I mean Again, I love beef. I'm not coming
at this objectively. Bison's incredible. I'm
not surprised at all by that story. Yeah. Sadly,
they nearly eradicated them from this area, but
that's what Jason's doing the good work of restoring
the North American bison to their natural habitat.
We need him back. And my dinner table. Yes. You
have to prepare it a little bit different, but
fun facts that it has less fat than chicken or
salmon. It has higher mineral and vitamin content
than beef. It has more omega -3 fatty acids and
all that stuff. It's delicious. What's the best
cut? Is it similar to a fillet still the best
or sirloin? I think the ribeye. I would argue
that the ribeye. It's just because it's such
a leaner animal and the ribeye still contains
some of that fat. If you cook a ribeye from bison
correctly, you can cut it with a fork. It's,
it's so good. So good. So the book specifically
mentioned that they, a lot of Buffalo tongue,
a lot of people, we, we sell a lot of Buffalo
tongue. Yeah. I've, I've had cow time at beef
tongue and it was fine. I liked it pretty well,
especially in the Hispanic community. They, they
love tongue. They cook a lot of dishes with tongue.
What about organ meat? Do you, we do. We sell
liver. We sell heart. I'm starting to get requests
for a lot of the different tallows and things.
So, okay. I mean, again, just to come back to
sort of the theme of, um, God's goodness and
his creation. You think about what a gift this
continent was to our people. You, you had the
American chestnut everywhere and you had bison
just walking around. Um, and I mean, I don't
know. In addition to the other things that we're
more accustomed to, right? Like deer, white tail
deer. Turkey, other game animals. What a gift.
I've often speculated that maybe ingratitude
is the fundamental American sin. Maybe so. Because
you just cannot categorize or quantify what a
gift this continent is. The book records that
the early settlers, it talks about Daniel Boone,
who's one of the earliest ones who came over
and kind of charted the way. James Robertson
is also prominently featured in the book, which
if you're from Nashville, you will notice that
name because there's James Robertson Parkway.
And I think Nashville still has what I assume
is a reproduction of his log home that he settled
there when it was still French Lick before it
was called Nashville. And he knew General Donaldson,
father of Rachel Donaldson, who became Andrew
Jackson's wife. So there's a lot of intermixing,
but when they first came over and they crossed
the mountains, it says pretty much universally,
everybody looked down into the valley. That's
where kind of where like Knoxville region is
now. They were like, this is Eden. This is paradise.
And, you know, if you're from that area, you
may be like, I don't know, it's, it's fine, but
I don't know. And it may have been better back
then, or it may be that it just was like, this
has got the best climate. It's got everything
that you need. The soil is better here than it
is on the seaboard. which is where they were
all coming from. They were all coming from mostly
Virginia by way of North Carolina. And a group
of 200 settlers moved over to Watauga near the
river there and established a camp and did okay
getting along with the Cherokee in the region
for a while. And then their first big hiccup
was when King George came along and said, you
can't be over here because I decided not to.
And it wasn't too many years after that that
they decided that they didn't care for that.
They have fisticuffs over it, one might say.
Yeah, that sounds great. Jason, you reading anything
right now? I just finished up the durable trades.
Oh yeah. Yeah, so that was a fun read. Just getting
all the stats on all the different jobs and getting
perspectives on what do they entail and how many
people take part in those careers. It's just
a neat thing to know, neat thing to realize.
Well for the younger guys out there that would
be a pretty useful or even if even not like if
you're just looking for a side gig You can the
the book. It's by Rory groves. I believe it's
called durable trades and he goes through trades
that have historically stood the test of time
and he rates them on if I'm not mistaken five
criteria, so it's like historical stability resistance
to like supply shocks How expensive it is to
get started? Yeah Family center likely you can
support a family like income potential and then
you know, I think the first one was Shepherd
It's like it's like the highest because it's
you know, sheep are relatively cheap compared
to cattle They are you know, they're less dangerous
because they're not as heavy so a kid can be
around them a little more easily You can you
know, if you know what you're doing you can make
money with it It's not you know, there's not
a lot of equipment to buy and he kind of works
his way through There's like a top 20 or 25 then
he gives some shorter excerpts for some like
lesser You know, like like lawyer is one of them.
It's like, well, this has been around a long
time The cost of entry is kind of high because
you got to get education But it's it's worth
it if that's something that you're interested
in doing So if that's something where you're
like, I kind of you know, I have some time or
I have some energy I would like to supplement
my family's income and maybe teach skills to
my kids a trade something like that That might
be really useful to them. Even if it's not something
they do long term you can develop a lot of like
human potential by teaching them how to be Had
a husband to skill in a trade that might give
you some good ideas For like what would be what
would be something I could get into with zero
experience. There's gonna be answers in there
So I think we're a couple gears into a renewal
of interest in the trades as an alternative to
like college debt and Having to go to a company
with a woke DEI department that's gonna use HR
to scold you into conformity But you know if
you're someone who's like, yeah, I've kind of
felt that in the zeitgeist. I don't know where
to start that's That's where I would say start.
All the sort of career summaries you've been
talking about are wonderful reads. But I think
the two essays that open the book are worth the
cost of purchase. So that's a great book to have
in your library. It's very interesting. All right,
well, I think we're going to wrap it up. So we'll
catch you next time. Thanks, Jason. Yeah, thank
you. I've lived in