MeatEater’s Campfire Stories: Narrow Escapes & More Close Calls

The second installment in the “MeatEater’s Campfire Stories” series (following New York Times best-selling audio Close Calls) presents a new collection of 10 harrowing survival tales. Steven Rinella, host of the MeatEater television show, serves as the central narrator, infusing his introductions with an engaging mix of approachability and knowledge. Additional contributors include MeatEater crew members Clay Newcomb and Kimi Werner, joined by several other accomplished outdoors people. The stories in this collection take place in wildly different locations, from ice chunks in the Arctic Ocean to the clear waters of Florida and Hawaii. The narrators tell of grisly gunshot and arrow wounds, tumbles into canyons and frozen lakes, and even a brutal hand-to-hoof battle with a buck. Relayed by seemingly unscripted and entirely authentic narrators, these tales are intriguing, appalling, and surprisingly touching. A carefully engineered soundtrack and occasional sound effects—the echo of a shotgun, the whup-whup-whup of a helicopter’s blades, the roar of whitewater—enhance the production and ramp up the tension and drama.