Getting Into The Weeds

Ron Wilson

A year ago in September, a seemingly unlikely duo at first glance launched the North Dakota Game and Fish Department’s podcast, aptly named NDO Podcast where the “ND” stands for the obvious and the “O” stands for outdoors.

One of the twosome looks as if he hung up his helmet and shoulder pads not long ago, while the other could be mistaken for just walking off the soccer pitch from her midfielder position.

Mutt and Jeff, if you will. Physically, at least, a mismatched pair. Yet, when you get to know them, maybe by tuning into their audio program, or hanging with them inside or outside of this agency’s walls, the unevenness fades.

Casey Anderson, Department wildlife division chief, and Cayla Bendel, Department R3 coordinator, are consummate conservation professionals and avid outdoor enthusiasts along the same level. They understand their constituency. They pursue the opportunities the Game and Fish offers.

It didn’t dissuade them when the gears started turning about launching a podcast that you couldn’t swing a fox squirrel by the tail nowadays and not hit a podcaster sitting behind a microphone. The upside of reaching out in way that was once unlikely and unique to the agency outweighed the trendiness.

“I think it reaches a different audience at some level. The other thing it does is it allows us to give some more information as we go through podcasts,” Anderson said. “We’re talking a half-hour to an hour in a lot of cases with guests, experts, on various topics.”

Casey and Cayla on a successful pronghorn hunt earlier this fall.

As Bendel put it, NDO Podcast affords them the opportunity to get into the weeds a little more no matter the topic — fish surveys, the ins and outs of State Trust Lands, the importance of hunter surveys, cooking what you harvest from a boat or in the field, the list goes on.

“I think it also showcases that we’re human here at the Department,” she said. “It’s a little more informal than some of our other platforms ... we get to laugh a little.”

Anderson added: “We’ve gotten into some non-science-based topics that we don’t hit on all the time. For instance, we recorded one with the wild game cook, and we just did one with some veterinarians talking about things that might matter to those running dogs in the field. So, we can dive into a few more topics that we wouldn’t normally that are of interest to those who hunt and fish.”

Of course, they’ve waded into the science end of things, the straw that stirs how the agency does business. Chronic wasting disease, an always fatal disease to deer and other cervids that will forever remain on the landscape, is a topic of note.

“CWD has been a big one. We’ve already done two podcasts on CWD that allowed us to get into a little more depth, allowed listeners to get to know Charlie, who is difficult not to trust because of his voice and his expertise,” Bendel said in reference to Dr. Charlie Bahnson, Department wildlife veterinarian.

While recording, sitting with guests from Department staff to other folks from many walks of life, Anderson and Bendel play to their strengths. It’s a dynamic that works.

“Cayla and I both like to laugh, so that helps. You know, we definitely have a different perspective, which is good. Kind of helps play off each other,” Anderson said. “Of course, she didn’t grow up here and I didn’t get very far. I still live 7 miles from the hospital I was born in, and my career obviously has been longer with the Game and Fish. I think those two things work well together.”

Bendel said: “Casey just has so much expertise in everything in the Department. I always feel like he asks stronger questions, has that experience of what the public’s been thinking or what is commonly a concern or talked about in forums. I try to kind of keep things organized and then try to throw in some humor that’s not usually that funny.”

Year-long followers who have tuned in to most, if not all, of the nearly 30 podcasts likely have a sense of who Anderson and Bendel are outside the agency’s interior. Some, not so much. Here’s a taste.

Bendel and son, Fischer, walleye fishing.

BENDEL FIRST: “Recently, I became a mother. Obviously, I’m an avid outdoors person.

No matter what the season is, I want to be doing something outside.

I’m very much a generalist and never doing any of it very well, but just trying to kind of fit in everything and soak in the seasons.

Primarily that’s been with my husband, my favorite person to spend time with outside.

And now with the little one, Fischer.

Our bird dog, Finley, is also a big part of our adventures, even if it’s not bird hunting.

I love cooking the wild game, but I think I would even do it without the meat. I mean, I love being out there and it’s kind of the only way I decompress and get reinvigorated for another week of work.”

Anderson packs a mule deer buck out of the badlands.

ANDERSON’S TURN: “I’ve been a Game and Fish employee for almost 22 years and sometimes you feel like you’re living and breathing it no matter where you go.

But I do spend as much time as I can outdoors.

Hunting is more my thing ...

I fish in the off season when hunting seasons are closed.

I’m kind of a generalist hunter as I’ll take the opportunity to hunt something that I’ve never hunted before.

A few years ago, it was for Wilson’s snipe.

I got an opportunity to go after those shorebirds and didn’t even realize I had them right on some of our land that we’ve got.

Also, I’m into ranching a little bit. We have a ranch north of Bismarck with my wife and two boys, with another one on the way in November.

We just spend a lot of time outdoors, whether it’s fixing fence or chasing critters, or looking for puffball mushrooms. Unlike Cayla, my wife doesn’t hunt with me near as much, but she’s very, very supportive.”

Who knows where this gig goes from here, how long they’ll hit the red record button.

“When you get into social media and outreach type of stuff, things come and go,” Anderson said. “I think as long as podcasts are relevant and something that people want to listen to, there’s a place for it. I don’t know, Cayla, do you want to shoot for 500 episodes?”