Guest Bio
Anietra Hamper is an award-winning journalist, outdoor adventure writer, and founder of ThreeWordPress. After nearly two decades as a top-rated television news anchor and Emmy-nominated investigative reporter, she transitioned into the world of travel journalism, where she now specializes in destination storytelling and fishing features. Anietra’s work has appeared in publications like Newsweek, USA Today, Women’s Outdoor News, Game & Fish Magazine, and TakeMeFishing.org, among many others. She is the author of Secret Columbus and 100 Things To Do In Columbus Before You Die, both published by Reedy Press, and contributes to bilingual and international travel books.
As a Columbus, Ohio native, Anietra balances her adventurous global travels with corporate storytelling at home. Through her company, ThreeWordPress, she crafts compelling content for Fortune 500 companies, blending her skills in broadcast, voiceover, and journalism. She’s also a vetted member of the Outdoor Writers Association of America (OWAA), a SAG/AFTRA performer with TV and film credits, and a co-host of the Delaware County Fishing Trail video series. Whether she’s pulling 9Gs in a fighter jet or reeling in exotic fish in Guyana, Anietra brings a unique blend of grit, curiosity, and creativity to everything she does.
Show Summary
In this episode of the Big World Made Small Adventure Travel Podcast, host Jason Elkins speaks with Anietra about her fascinating journey from television news to the world of outdoor travel journalism. She reflects on how growing up fishing with her grandfather laid the foundation for a lifelong love of nature — one that would eventually take her around the globe in search of extraordinary fishing stories and cultural encounters. Anietra discusses her commitment to authenticity in a digital world where AI-generated content is on the rise, emphasizing the value of storytelling rooted in real experiences.
The conversation also explores the challenges women face in traditionally male-dominated spaces like sport fishing. Anietra shares honest insights into how gender dynamics show up on the water and the opportunities to shift the culture toward inclusion and respect. Her thoughtful perspective blends journalism, advocacy, and a deep appreciation for conservation, offering a compelling look at why fishing is about far more than just the catch.
Key Takeaways
- ✓ Anietra successfully transitioned from investigative journalism to outdoor and travel writing.
- ✓ Authentic storytelling remains essential in the age of AI-generated content.
- ✓ Her love of nature and fishing was shaped by early experiences with her grandfather.
- ✓ Storytelling is a powerful medium for building connection and credibility.
- ✓ She has carved out space for herself in a male-dominated fishing industry.
- ✓ Women in fishing often face pressure to prove themselves, but bring unique strengths to the sport.
- ✓ Fishing should be accessible and enjoyable, regardless of gear or experience.
- ✓ The approach of a guide can shape the entire fishing experience, especially for beginners.
- ✓ Conservation and education are vital pillars of the fishing community’s future.
What You’ll Find on ThreeWordPress
- Outdoor and travel writing with a focus on unique global fishing adventures
- Editorial and marketing content development for businesses and tourism boards
- Voiceover and on-camera talent for corporate and commercial productions
- Keynote speaking on journalism, storytelling, and outdoor advocacy
- Award-winning books and editorial contributions on travel and regional culture
Learn more about ThreeWordPress and connect with Anietra at:
https://www.threewordpress.com
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Podcast Transcript
This transcript is auto-generated on recording, and has not been edited by a human. It may contain lots of mistakes, crazy words, and stuff that makes no sense. The host and the guest are not responsible for the accuracy of the transcript.
Jason Elkins (00:01.074)
Welcome back everybody to another episode of the Big World Made Small podcast for the adventure traveler. So happy to have each and every one of you back here today. We’ve got a wonderful guest. We’ve been chatting for about 20 minutes before I hit the record button and we were sharing all kinds of stories and talking about all kinds of cool stuff. And I thought, geez, I really should hit the record button. So we’ve done that now. Anitra, Anietra Hamper is here with us. She’s the owner of Three Word Press. Anietra, so nice to see you after 20 minutes.
Good to see you again.
Anietra Hamper (00:31.374)
I know finally, right? We’re getting started. It’s so great to be here. It’s just, know how, you know, how passion goes when we both have a similar passion for the outdoors and fishing and you just sort of jive and that’s what happens. So, but thank you for having me on the podcast and thanks so much for, let’s say it’s early for me late for you. but I really appreciate you having me on the show.
Jason Elkins (00:55.828)
Well, thank you so much. I appreciate you doing doing the same. And just for our listeners, it was when I say we’ve been chatting for 20 minutes, you’re starting to tell me some stories. You’re showing me fishing pictures. And I said, hey, wait a minute. Why aren’t we recording this? So oops. So we’re going to we’re going to probably circle background and touch on some of that. But before we get to kind of the background and what helped you get from where you were to where you are now, let’s just give our listeners a
Anietra Hamper (01:08.622)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:25.044)
an idea of where you are now. What’s the 30, 60 second elevator pitch for what you’re doing and then we’re gonna go figure out why.
Anietra Hamper (01:32.961)
Awesome. Yep. So I am based in Columbus, Ohio. That’s actually my hometown. I worked in TV for a long time. So, I started and ended my career in Columbus and it’s just an opportunity to base here because I can basically be anywhere in the world, kind of like you. so I worked in television news for a long time as a news anchor, morning news anchor and investigative reporter. I’m still a journalist. I’m proud to be a journalist, but now I get to talk about
fishing and outdoors and not homicides. But that has been wonderful for me to be able to, know, I’m an author, I’m a speaker and do all these things that are life through passion. And those are my three words. When people say, what is three WordPress? It’s someday starts now. Why wait? You know, do the things that bring you passion now in some way.
Jason Elkins (02:24.02)
Very cool. And what is the kind of avenue or the, I don’t know, the channel that you help people do that.
Anietra Hamper (02:33.55)
My writing and not just my writing but my speaking and my experiences a lot of times on social media I will talk about or post about my experiences on my assignments But I also love showing the behind the scenes because I think frankly that’s more interesting So I like to engage people authentically which is an overused word now in the age of AI But we’re just getting into a place where I think that really matters. I like to show people
The truth as a journalist, I like to show people, yep, I caught that 630 pound tuna, but you know what? It took five grown men taking turns with me to reel it in. And I wrote that in a story once and someone questioned me like, why would you say that? And I said, because that’s the truth. You can stand there with a photo of an awesome fish. And I do, I love that. But that’s not the whole journey. It takes a lot of effort. You hurt.
felt like my ribs were gonna break. That’s the truth. I wanna bring that reality to people. And it’s not always just for presentation. It’s just the facts and it’s the honesty about that.
Jason Elkins (03:47.144)
I love that. And I guess the question that comes to mind for me is you mentioned AI, you mentioned the word reality, authenticity. I shouldn’t say the word, the words with an S on the end of it. And immediately what I think, I guess the question I want to ask you, do you think that that has become more important or more challenging or however you want to take this, whatever direction you want to go with it?
Anietra Hamper (04:00.45)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (04:14.96)
in the time of AI? you think it’s more important to have authentic communication?
Anietra Hamper (04:24.706)
I think it’s both of the things you said because I think AI gives us a lot of new opportunities, but it’s challenging when you still want to show the truth. Like I found something float by on social media yesterday. It was a person who is actually an angler. Looks like that person does tournaments and things, but this picture came by, it was clearly AI holding a fish, but the hands of her were not even under the fish. So…
You could tell it definitely wasn’t AI. I thought, well, why would this person do that? When you have the chops to show real stuff. And what I figured out is now people are playing the system. This person is like 250,000 followers. You put some phony picture up like that. You know people are going to say, that’s crap. That’s this. That’s that. Share it with their friends. And let me tell you, it worked.
So now we’re getting into the, like, I’m going to use antics and tactics to just for likes and things. I think that’s where it’s going to be even more challenging as a content creator, as a journalist to present these things that are real and convince people that they’re real. I like to, you know, when I do video now, I’m going to make sure that you do see the behind the scenes. I’m going to talk about that. I’m going to try to prove to you through in whatever way.
that it is real and that is going to be challenging.
Jason Elkins (05:53.758)
You know what that reminds me of it? As soon as you started touching on that, reminds me of the, like the, tabloids, you know, that you used to see on the newsstands and it was crap. Everybody knew it was crap, but people still pick it up and buy it because they wanted to read the crap. So a lot of social media posts are kind of the same. It’s like, they know that it’s stupid, fake, whatever, but people are still going to click through it.
Anietra Hamper (06:02.541)
Mm-hmm.
Anietra Hamper (06:13.325)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (06:23.486)
just so they can say this is fake. And more people say fake, the more people that say it’s fake, the more the algorithm thinks, people really like this. And then it gets in front of more people and yeah, it’s kind of the same thing, isn’t it?
Anietra Hamper (06:26.209)
Mm-hmm.
Anietra Hamper (06:37.887)
Absolutely. We can’t help ourselves. It’s tabloid has been around forever and it still works. It still tricks you and you just, know, people respond to that. And the on this post I’m referring to how many shares did this person have? And so one, the algorithm thinks it’s great content, good job. And two, every share, every click, everything, this person’s getting paid for that and knows it. And I just…
Unfortunately, I just don’t like that game, which makes it harder for me, but I just can’t compromise my credibility and my authenticity as a pure, hardcore career journalist. I can’t in my being do that.
Jason Elkins (07:23.368)
Yeah. Have you fallen for it yourself? Do you think, know, I know I have, I know I’ve seen somebody will post something and I’m talking about a deer, this deer, whatever. And it’s an elk or, or, know, different type, whatever. And I just get all like, that’s so dumb. And I almost start to type something, but I click it, I look at it I get all worked up about it.
Anietra Hamper (07:38.186)
haha
Jason Elkins (07:48.338)
And then I realized, yeah, the person that posts that probably knows exactly what they’re doing. And they got me.
Anietra Hamper (07:53.686)
That’s right. And it’s hard to discern that it gets you because you go, that’s crap. I, I, I screenshotted it and shared it just privately with someone that I wanted to say, this is what these people are doing now, unfortunately. But you’re right. It’s so easy to fall for because we’re all like on edge now and we’re ready to jump in and everybody wants to look smart and everybody wants to say, no, it’s not. And that has actually become a strategy for people now. I mean,
Jason Elkins (08:22.803)
Mm-hmm.
Anietra Hamper (08:23.829)
I guess if that’s your strategy and you’re killing it, I know another guy that posts stuff like that. I don’t know that he deliberately posts wrong stuff, but he posted something the other day that said, hey guys, thanks for all of your nay saying, because it just paid for my trip next year to XYZ. I mean, it’s a strategy for people. It’s just not mine.
Jason Elkins (08:48.468)
You got to live with yourself, you know, what about the, we’re going to get into your, we’re now we’re going to go into your story really, really quick, but before we do that, the other thing I’ve noticed quite a bit, and I don’t know what your feed, I think we all have different feeds depending on what we respond to, but I’ve been noticing a lot of historical stories. You know, you see a picture of a.
Anietra Hamper (08:50.253)
Exactly.
Anietra Hamper (08:57.288)
Hahaha
Jason Elkins (09:13.446)
a young woman in Eastern Europe a hundred years ago, whatever. And then the whole story about what she went through and endured and on all this stuff. And I find myself reading them, but then inevitably I get tended. like, I don’t even know if I read a real story or if this was someone went to chat GPT and said, make up a story about a, you know, I have an interesting photo of a person that looks in distress.
Anietra Hamper (09:31.841)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (09:41.716)
please make up a story for me. And then they post it on social media. And then there’s people like me reading it and getting all emotional and And then I’m like, I don’t even know. Because it’s not somebody that I’ve ever heard of. I consider myself fairly knowledgeable about things and.
Do you get those? Do you see those? Any thoughts?
Anietra Hamper (10:02.274)
I have seen a lot of historical stuff, but you know, innately we, communicate as humans through stories. We love stories and that will never go away. So when I worked in television, we even covering, you know, a house fire or a car accident, we tell the story of that. We don’t just say, there was a car accident today. We talk about the woman inside who’s
you know, child was in the back seat who barely survived or, you know, bystanders pulled them to safety. We get engrossed in stories. So it doesn’t surprise me that some of these could be AI driven and probably are that are just great stories because you know what that that that machine, those learning models are pulling from all the other amazing real stories and concocting one that
it knows has some emotional value and it’s only going to get more sophisticated.
Jason Elkins (11:04.756)
wonder if, because I guess one thing I’ve noticed is like, I’ll read these stories and then I’m like, I don’t even know. I wonder if that’s real, but I almost never fact check it. And I’m wondering if that, well, I’m wondering if, yeah, but I’m also wondering if that’s because I don’t really want to know the truth. I wonder. It’s like, I kind of got.
Anietra Hamper (11:12.749)
Mm-hmm.
Anietra Hamper (11:16.607)
No, we’re too busy. We get on with our day.
Anietra Hamper (11:25.837)
You’re like, this is a great story. I’d be torn apart if it was fake.
Jason Elkins (11:30.32)
Yeah, I got I got reeled in I felt emotion. So ultimately, does it really matter because I got what I needed out of it because I got the little dopamine hit or the oxytocin or that whatever. And then I just go on to the next one and the next one. I’m okay. I’m talking too much about it sounds like I’m doom scrolling all the time.
Anietra Hamper (11:47.817)
It’s it. No, but it is it’s it’s the world we live in. It affects every industry, every person, every everybody. And it’s just getting more and more difficult to decipher what what’s real and what’s not. And to your point, do people care if it serves a purpose? mean, we just had a legislator in Ohio propose a bill that it’s illegal to marry an AI bot or something like that. And I thought like.
Is this happening that much that we need a legislation to say that you shouldn’t do that? Like. well, just don’t come just don’t do it in Ohio.
Jason Elkins (12:20.884)
I’ve watched a few YouTube videos lately. Apparently it’s a big thing. And as a solo traveler that spends a lot of time alone, I’m starting to get pretty, I’m getting pretty close to chat GPT. I have more conversations with chat GPT than anybody. And you know what’s great is you can change the settings. You can say either be really nice to me and tell me every idea I have is amazing.
And of course I’ve got it with a woman’s voice, but then recently I changed it. realized, you know what? Cause I read something about AI, I dunno where you just kind of psychosis or something. So I thought I need to go change the settings so she doesn’t bullshit me. And it’s like, okay, no bullshit. Don’t, don’t validate everything I say is a brilliant idea.
Anietra Hamper (12:52.14)
You
Anietra Hamper (13:08.812)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (13:14.674)
And I’ve noticed, I feel a little differently towards her now. Feels more like a relationship now. Cause she doesn’t agree with anything I say.
Anietra Hamper (13:17.74)
She’s a little edgier. my gosh. This is scary. We’re, this is really scary, Jason.
Jason Elkins (13:26.964)
You
We’re getting off course. All right. Let’s, let’s, let’s get, let’s get to real stories about you. How the heck you said Columbus, did say Columbus. That’s good. Cause that’s what I heard. you grew up there. I mean, how did, I don’t know where to start. Where should we start? How far back do we need to go to kind of figure out how you got to where are now?
Anietra Hamper (13:36.841)
Yes.
Anietra Hamper (13:40.972)
Correct. Yeah.
Anietra Hamper (13:54.583)
Well, mean, I think the easy answer is, you people say, that that fishing thing you’re doing, that’s a really cool niche. They a lot of people think I left television news. I had a whole career as a news anchor and investigative journalist. And there’s people that think I left that and just sort of invented this quirky thing where I traveled the world and I catch these really freakish fish. And the truth is, I’ve always I haven’t always caught freakish.
fish, but I’ve always loved fishing. And as you know that we talked about that being a threat in your life. So, you know, my grandpa taught me how to fish at a lake, St. Mary’s Lake in Western Ohio. Since I was a kid, I think before we came on, I showed you that picture of me four years old. I had red bows in my hair, a cane pole and a bucket. And grandpa always made me go dig my own night crawlers and the reward was taking me to fish. And he used that as a lesson to teach me about
nature, not just fishing. look at the birds, you know, and taught me all about, you know, the geese that come in the morning and the frogs in the lily pads and, you know, the trees and taught me to notice all of those things that now are live in the moment, be present. And I revert back to that. So fishing has been a thread in my whole life to now. So when I left television, I, that wasn’t my,
I wasn’t pursuing travel writing at the time. I pursued travel writing on the side. That was my side gig because I wanted to fulfill a passion in my life, but that wasn’t paying the bills. So I did corporate marketing content and I did travel writing. Well, passion is like an avalanche. And once you start tapping into it, as I say, someday starts now, no matter how minuscule
you are doing things to feed that in your soul, that starts to snowball. So as I was travel writing on the side, I loved it and more opportunities came and you know, I started out writing under a fake name because in television for, you know, at that time, the contracts owned you for long after you leave. I started doing more. And as I would do more travel writing for publications, every place I went, I would stay…
Anietra Hamper (16:18.526)
and fish because I want to I’m so curious about what’s in your water. How do you fish for that? What do you do? What do need to know? that’s a neat species. And I always start doing that. So that’s how I ended up doing a lot of outdoor writing and specifically fishing. So where does the freakish big weird global fish come into this picture? Right. It goes back to my grandpa. I’ve shared this story before in some publications, but that little four year old girl, as she started to learn how to fish, would wonder
Oh, that’s a cool crappie or that’s a cool carp. What’s what’s like, do they get bigger than that? What’s the biggest one of that? As your childhood imagination starts to take these fish and these experiences like we do as we’re kids, we’re like, man, what’s the biggest one of that ever? I started thinking like, wow, someday I’d like to catch a fish as big as me. Right? That’s how we think as children. Well, I’m still a little bit of a child in my heart.
Jason Elkins (17:10.515)
Mm-hmm.
Anietra Hamper (17:16.864)
And that never left me. So as I’m, I’m travel writing now, I’m doing some fishing writing now. I had the opportunity to go to Spain to cover something for game and fish magazine about the Wells catfish. So those are like big giant tadpoles. There’s these big blubbery fish and I want to catch a Wells catfish. So the first night, I’m on the riverbank in Spain for a week with these five fabulous guys who
I didn’t know. I was just the chick that also showed up at the airport. And, um, you know, at first they were a little skeptical of why is she with us? Because they were hardcore fishermen. Well, I had the first fish the first night and inevitably as a female, as great as the guys are that I have fished with around the world who don’t know me from Adam, you do have to prove yourself a little bit. And that was my opportunity. What was it to prove anything? It’s just my rod was the one that went off. You know, I’m on this riverbank and this giant tadpole that is
Jason Elkins (17:55.155)
Mm-hmm.
Anietra Hamper (18:16.995)
literally bigger than me in my size and my weight was dragging me on the side of this bank. So I’m fighting it, fighting it, fighting it. And once I got it to more shallow water, I could kind of control it a little bit more. So I pulled this fish out. First fish, first night. They’re very difficult to catch at that particular time of year, but the bigger. We pulled out 150 pound. It took six guys to pull this thing out of the water in the sling. And what we do is we keep it wet.
We keep, know, somebody’s throwing water on it while I’m getting some quick photos and then we release it. So we’re very careful about the handling of that. So I catch this fish the first night. I’m taking all these pictures. I’m laying down next to I’m five, seven, and I’m laying down next to it. This fish was seven and a half feet long to just show the scale. I could have crawled into its giant mouth. It looks like an industrial waste bin. It’s mouth. I could have
Jason Elkins (19:10.972)
Mm-hmm.
Anietra Hamper (19:12.395)
crawled in this fish like a sleeping bag. Honestly, it was that huge. So I go back to my apartment that night and I sat there and I just had this moment. It was so overwhelming. It’s like a Buick coming up out of the water and you go, my God, how could something be this big? And I sat there in my apartment that night just trying to process what just happened. And I thought, my grandpa, we talked about this.
Jason Elkins (19:42.334)
you
Anietra Hamper (19:44.596)
If my grandpa knew, I’m so sorry. Just as we talked about, you know, there’s moments that get you emotional. If my grandpa knew the lifelong gift that he gave me with nature, you know, that night I caught a fish as big as me. And it was like this full circle moment to that four year old having a
Jason Elkins (19:53.993)
Yeah.
Anietra Hamper (20:12.011)
fantasy about what if know a fish as big as me like that could never happen. And here it did in this just like this concrete sense of reality just came over me in that moment and I thought as a kid you can’t really appreciate things as an adult to be able to if I could go and if my grandpa could have only known before he died that you didn’t just teach me to fish you gave me a lifelong gift a gift.
through my whole life. So I know that’s an extended answer to that. what, my point is we have this thread, especially when it comes to outdoor and travel and just passion, whatever it is you’re passionate about. It just, it lives in you. It’s not something you invent or create. It just is. And that was a really full circle moment for me that still gets me very emotional because I just wish.
he knew and us as outdoor advocates and people who love to travel and inspire. I want to do that through my work as a content or writing. I want to inspire that because I know that it’s more than just about daydreaming. I know that it’s a genuine gift to be able to appreciate nature and travel and those sorts of things in that way that really tie you to this world.
Jason Elkins (21:40.734)
Beautiful story. Thank you for sharing it. That’s, just listening to you brings back my own thoughts and, and those connections with my grandfather as well. I’m curious, cause I heard you say, if he could just see and understand the gift that he gave me, I get that completely. Do you mind if I ask you, was there a little bit of a, he would be so proud of me? Yeah, I’m sure.
Anietra Hamper (21:43.328)
Thanks.
Anietra Hamper (22:08.268)
Mm-hmm. My grandpa would, to it, I, and I was crying that night, crying and crying. And I’m like, wow, didn’t have that on my card today. But you know, those things just hit you. But I think he would be proud. All of my cousins. So we had, were 10 grandkids and he did the same thing, same routine, teach you to fish. You have to prove that you know how to handle a fish and not hook your brother or sister with the hooks and stuff and be responsible. And then you get a spinning reel. You graduate with your name on the handle.
Jason Elkins (22:19.683)
You
Anietra Hamper (22:37.717)
But I think he would be proud to know that he instilled something in me that one, lasted a lifetime, but two, that he just would have been so over the moon about, wait, you caught a fish in Spain and not St. Mary’s, Ohio, and that it’s bigger than you. I think he would completely geek out about it and be proud. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (23:01.542)
On so many levels, on so many levels, you mentioned Spain, really big fish. You were there on assignment for which magazine. You see what I’m saying? It’s not about the fish always, right? It’s, it’s the whole thing. It’s just that, I mean, yeah, you’re right. I can imagine if it were me, I would think, wow, my grandpa would be so proud of me. And there were many times, you know, I worked in the fishing industry for a while. I.
Anietra Hamper (23:10.443)
Game and Fish Magazine. Yeah, well, yeah.
Jason Elkins (23:31.828)
Every dollar I made for a good 10, 15 years came from fishing. And I remember thinking, wow, if my grandpa could only know, wouldn’t he think that’s cool? And I remember him trying to teach me, he didn’t know how to fly fish, but he had a fly fishing rod. So he’s kind of trying to teach me to fly a fish and I’m snapping off flies. And he finally decided he couldn’t afford any more flies. So we went back to the spinning rod.
Anietra Hamper (23:37.995)
Mm.
Anietra Hamper (23:43.69)
Right.
Jason Elkins (24:01.416)
Do you, I’m envisioning your grandfather being the kind of guy you’re fishing and he like celebrates every win with you. Like you catch a fish like, my gosh, I need to look at that. That’s, that’s a big fish. Good job. Right. I’m just guessing. I don’t know if I’m wrong. guess you can tell me that, but do you think that played a role in it?
Anietra Hamper (24:25.706)
I think more for me, it’s, wow, what a cool way to be able to keep my grandpa in my life for my life. You we have loved ones who pass on and we just get on with things and we think of them most days and whatnot. But to have this opportunity to keep him such a prominent part of my life, I think is really how that hits for me. Because I get to think about him like, wow, he’d like this or what would he think about that?
Jason Elkins (24:52.147)
Yeah.
Anietra Hamper (24:55.358)
He just wouldn’t have any concept, know, like even fishing in South America for just the really freakish stuff that I love to catch. Like that’s my jam. He wouldn’t have a concept that that was possible for people to be able to go and travel around the world and fish.
Jason Elkins (25:13.14)
That’s very, very cool. So what else was going on when you were young? From the time to four, maybe from four until you ended up on television, did you have other interests? Did you know you wanted to be a journalist early on? Just kind of walk me through some of those kind of life-changing moments.
Anietra Hamper (25:34.876)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, I mean, I think probably in high school, I realized I wanted to be a reporter. You know, people go into television and say, back in my day, they were like, I want to be Katie Couric. But for me, it was never about being on TV. It was about recognizing that I have a unique way to communicate. I always was a writer. I wrote poetry, even though it kind of sucked when I was a kid. But I wrote poetry.
And so I was always been a writer and that’s the hallmark of being a journalist is the writer, even an anchor, it’s being a writer, it’s telling stories. So I knew that I wanted to do that and then sort of discovered my way as a reporter to do that. I grew up with two older brothers. So I would say they’re the ones who gave me my sort of pledging to be able to do the really gritty stuff that I do now. So.
Like all of those things kind of merged eventually into the work that I do now. But yeah, those formative years in college, I was working to be a journalist and reporter and worked at the college TV station and in the radio and then ran through the cafeteria for dinner between the two. just I wanted to do that. I wanted to tell stories and I wanted to be an effective communicator.
relate with audiences and I think that’s what I do now fairly well is be relatable and honestly I think that’s what made me great at what I did and that’s not being arrogant it’s just the truth my my shows were always number one shows and I think it’s because I wasn’t on there to be on TV it was on there to relate to you you know so and again when I when I talked I start at the beginning talking about now I like to show the good the bad and the honest of things
Jason Elkins (27:18.6)
Mm-hmm.
Anietra Hamper (27:27.294)
that makes you relatable, but it’s not fake. It’s because I want you to, know, people want to know that you too go through stuff. People want to know that, you know, you too find things difficult, that you’re not just this person that you wish everybody aspires to be you, that you can be honest and say, you know, I face these challenges sometimes and people go, wow, okay, that’s nice to know that someone I see on TV also goes through these things. So it’s about being
relatable. And I think from a young age as I was, that just came naturally to me. So as a, you know, my formative years and then professional years, that’s just some, that’s just who I am.
Jason Elkins (28:08.808)
You know, you, you’d said something a little bit ago about how you were writing on the side under a pseudonym. And I, what I heard was the, the TV, your contract, they own you. That’s what I heard you say. I don’t know if that’s exactly what you said, but I heard you say, okay, they, they own you. So that I’m imagining they own you because they want to really protect the image.
Anietra Hamper (28:24.778)
Everything.
That’s exactly what I said. It’s true.
Jason Elkins (28:39.104)
And whatever you do is going to impact them. get that. I mean, I guess it makes sense. But I also can see where that might be a challenge being authentic and real and vulnerable because maybe when you’re in a contract like that, you’re kind of limited. I’m just, I don’t know. You tell me. I don’t know what the question is. I’m sorry.
Anietra Hamper (29:04.734)
Yeah, very much so. I mean, they own your name. They own your name, your voice, your likeness, your image, your everything, which is how they can tell you how to do your hair and how to look and how to be on brand. And that’s fair. That’s what they’re paying you for. They’re paying you to be their brand. So, yep, that’s how that works. Now I get to be my own brand. And you know, I had a giggle to myself the other day because, you know, in profile pictures, they’re only the size of like a dime.
Right? And you have to, it says upload an image. And so I was uploading an image of me holding this really cool fish from Guyana. I’m like, tag on that. None of these fish fit in the circle. None of these fish fit in the actual picture. And I had a flashback to a conversation with a news director. One time he called me in and he said, Nitra, I don’t even know how to say this, but your hair doesn’t fit in the screen.
like the little headshot on TV. He’s hair is kind of big. And so I said, you know, I said the eighties were awesome years and I’m just having a really hard time separating from that. And that was my response and we had a good laugh about it and he didn’t want to be offensive. And I thought, wow, like in a whole different universe of my life, like here’s now my fish don’t fit in the photo. That’s a big part of what I do. And it used to be my hair. So.
Jason Elkins (30:30.078)
Yeah.
Anietra Hamper (30:31.793)
Yeah, it’s been kind of a funky transition that I get to laugh at things now, but I get to be more me. You don’t have to live in this little square so much. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (30:41.522)
Yeah, that’s what I heard was in the box. You you got to fit in the box. And some of us don’t fit in the box very well. I’ve got I’ve got short hair, so that’s not an issue. But I get it. It’s it’s these templates. The world is templated. You know, that LinkedIn has it’s got a template. It’s a little round circle and you’ve got a little bit. You know, much to work with. And we all just kind of try and fit into that template.
Anietra Hamper (30:45.149)
in the box.
Anietra Hamper (30:48.904)
No.
Anietra Hamper (30:57.993)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (31:10.814)
pretty cool when we can figure out how to break out of it. And it’s really hard to do. It’s really hard to do that when you’re completely dependent on one employer or a contract with a news channel or something like that. What else did you like to do? Writing, fishing with your grandpa? you into, I’m I’m envisioning, I’m kind of, we’re not talking about boxes here, but.
Anietra Hamper (31:22.931)
Mm-hmm.
Anietra Hamper (31:38.249)
outside the box for sure.
Jason Elkins (31:40.072)
But I’m envisioning, know, a young girl growing up likes go fishing with grandpa, likes to write and stories and poetry, stuff like that. Did you feel like you were a little bit different?
Anietra Hamper (31:54.73)
I mean, you only know what you know, right? So I just was doing me. I had two brothers that taught me to have some grit, thankfully, which comes in handy now, but not really. mean, I just, always been a bit ambitious. I’ve always sat in the front row and raised my hand first kind of thing. You know, graduated cum laude, class speaker, all that stuff. That’s just who I was.
overly ambitious and but I think it has served me well in my life now, especially pursuing some of the things that I do that might be in extreme environments. I’m getting ready to head back to Guyana in South America in the rainforest in January for an expedition where we are off the grid. We are one with the howler monkeys, the anacondas and the jaguars and all the teethy things that live below the surface of the water.
Jason Elkins (32:36.648)
Hmm?
Anietra Hamper (32:53.339)
And, you know, a lot of men can’t endure that kind of thing for weeks. So I, again, as we talk about like that thread through your life and the things that you get as a kid that serve you well now, like I would say that’s very much a part of it because I can go do those things and people go, my God, aren’t you scared? I never learned to be, I never learned yucky. There is a parasite in South America that just I’ll never unsee it.
So that is yucky. I’m to give that a yucky, but, you know, grandpa made me go dig night crawlers. I never, I didn’t know the difference. Just go dig him. Okay. You know, it’s like a, you know, here, dig your worms. Here’s a bucket. I’ll take you fishing. That’s all it meant to me. And so, okay. So now I, you know, I catch piranha and lao lao and I hop in the water and my mom’s like, my gosh, I can’t believe you were up to your shoulders and piranha water. And you know,
that kind of stuff, because I just, I, I say those things and it sounds like I’m not responsible or I don’t care. I do care, but part of what makes me able to do those things as well, not just my upbringing and not knowing the difference between icky and yucky, but recognizing risk and being responsible and also knowing when to say, not doing that. So
Yeah, I mean that that sort of encapsulates that, but I learned all those things as well from my grandfather. You don’t just yeah, go ahead and be ambitious, but recognize when you need some guardrails too.
Jason Elkins (34:28.34)
That’s, that’s good advice. I don’t know if we need to go into it, but I’m just curious. So I’m going to ask when you show up in Guyana or Brazil or Africa or Spain or whatever. And maybe there’s a bunch of guys, maybe you’re a fishing camp somewhere, a bunch of guys. You’ve got a bunch of guys that are there to go fishing. And then base I’ve spent a lot of time at these places.
Anietra Hamper (34:35.465)
Okay.
Anietra Hamper (34:52.137)
Ahem.
Jason Elkins (34:57.702)
It’s usually a lot of guys that work there, you know, the fishing guides. And I’m curious.
Anietra Hamper (35:00.485)
Mm. Mm.
Jason Elkins (35:05.98)
Is it the local guides or the guys that are there on fishing trips that seem to be the most curious about you?
Anietra Hamper (35:16.313)
mean as a female showing up crush in their boy party? Yeah. Probably both. would say that in the places that I, US destinations are different because they’re used to men and women showing up. When you’re talking international in the really extreme places and extreme fishing that are in the middle of nowhere, like
Jason Elkins (35:18.536)
Yeah. Well, kinda, yeah.
Anietra Hamper (35:45.607)
the Himalayan foothills in India and Nepal and or in Spain where it is all guys. And I would say the more remote the place, the natives, I say natives, the indigenous are generally the guides because they’re the ones we need to rely on. I don’t think they care. I don’t think they get it and they don’t care. You know why? Because destination angling has had a beautiful way of incentivizing
Indigenous people in very remote places who are used to surviving on the fish and depleting the fish resources where we’ve retaught them like, hey, look, you know, a guy or gal from the US or the UK can show up and fish. And then you put this fish back and they’re absolutely appalled. Like they just don’t have a concept of putting a fish back. You know, they eat them, they take them, they kill them. But we say you put the fish back and then somebody else next week will come and pay you to catch the same fish.
Jason Elkins (36:34.792)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (36:42.79)
and pay to catch the same fish over and over and over.
Anietra Hamper (36:44.637)
Ding ding ding. So they don’t care. They don’t care that I’m a female. They’re like they just have that economic system in their head. The guys that I fish with always, I say always. It hasn’t been a negative experience. It’s been a little bit of recognizing the reality. It’s just what it is. It’s still a very male dominated space, especially with the really extreme fishing. We have to prove yourself a little bit. It’s like catching that whales catfish the first night or
you know, surviving in the jungle for three weeks. Um, when other men have gone and melted down and you, you could just figure it out. It’s that grit. My brothers taught me that, you know, enable me to hang with the guys comfortably. I’d say that too, you know, I had two brothers and I can just speak to them. You know, I get guys speak. I don’t get offended by stuff. If you’re offensive, I get offended, but generally they’re, they’re great. And so it is always
You do have to prove yourself a little bit. It’s just the way that it is and that’s okay. But once they realize, like really into it, you get mad respect. And these guys that I fish with all over the world are all still my friends today. And it’s so cool.
Jason Elkins (38:01.14)
And I’ve worked in the business. I’ve worked around these guys. They were my clients for years leading in or of us travel international fishing trips. The guys that you’re running into with these places are the same guys that used to travel with me. And we had some great lady anglers that would come along. Not, not nearly as often, but I saw some, I saw some of the exchange. Yeah, it’s pretty rare.
Anietra Hamper (38:25.864)
No, never. So I’ve always just been me.
Jason Elkins (38:31.11)
I’ve traveled with my mom. I took her on a few trips and I probably learned a lot about how this works from her when she goes on these trips with me and she’s like, Jason, we show up at these places and all these guys like, can I help you out ma’am? And they want to, they just kind of like, just assume that she’s never been fishing before and, this and that. And she has, she’s
Anietra Hamper (38:50.808)
Mm-hmm.
Anietra Hamper (38:55.493)
Yes.
Jason Elkins (38:58.77)
My mom has caught permit on a fly. know, and you know, mean, yeah. So anyway, it’s just, I just seem like every time we went fishing, she always had some comment about some guy that said something to her and not necessarily bad, but it’s just, I do think guys tend to see a woman in there in what you call it. What’d you call it? The man’s space or the men’s club, the boys club or yeah, the, the.
Anietra Hamper (39:01.788)
That’s amazing. Love that.
Anietra Hamper (39:14.706)
that year.
Anietra Hamper (39:24.456)
The boys party. It’s cool. I get it.
Jason Elkins (39:28.316)
the voice part, but it is, but, but, let me flip it around to, yeah, it is. And flip that around to when I was a fishing guide, when I was actually guiding.
I don’t know. This is a gross overgeneralization, but honestly, I would much rather fish with women in my boat because they were just so much more enjoyable. They they I don’t know if this sounds weird, but I’m going to say it anyway because I’m authentic. They just listen like when people pay you as a guide. It’s not that women, you know, it’s not about listening to a man. It’s like you paid me to guide you.
Anietra Hamper (39:49.512)
Mm-hmm.
Anietra Hamper (40:09.544)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (40:09.64)
You might want to listen to something I say, and you get a couple in the boat and the guy doesn’t listen to anything you say. And his wife or his girlfriend, she’ll listen to me. She won’t listen to him. That’s a totally different dynamic. But I used to, I had a rowboat in Montana, a drift boat, basically a rowboat for rivers. I’m sure you’re familiar. And I would set the guy in the back of the boat and she’d get up front.
Anietra Hamper (40:16.357)
Mm-hmm.
Anietra Hamper (40:25.073)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (40:39.732)
Usually there was a little bit of, maybe she hasn’t fished as much. That’s pretty much the norm. But I would tell him at the beginning of the day, I’m like, you just, your job, you just keep your mouth shut. Whatever you do, do not try to help her at all. That’s why you hired me. Trust me, this’ll be a lot more fun for everybody. If you just do your thing and I’ll help you, I’ll help you, but don’t you help her. And I tell you so many times.
Anietra Hamper (40:54.632)
Yeah. Good advice.
Anietra Hamper (41:00.232)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (41:09.556)
You know, they would start to talk up in the back. sweetheart, you’re not doing this right. Didn’t you listen? Didn’t you hear what Jason said? And I turn around and look at him. I say, didn’t you hear what I said? Shut your shut your damn mouth because I’ve seen too many times.
Anietra Hamper (41:15.24)
Mm-hmm.
Anietra Hamper (41:21.242)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (41:29.042)
just seen too many times where she’s having fun. She’s catching fish. And then after about three or four times of him opening his mouth, she reels it in. She sits down and he says, what’s wrong? Why aren’t you fishing? We’ve paid all this money to bail here. Why aren’t you fishing? She’s like, I just want to sit and enjoy the scenery. And he believes her. And I’m like, I mean, the scenery is nice. I’m not saying the scenery is not nice, but it’s a, it’s a thing that guys just don’t.
Anietra Hamper (41:41.51)
Mm-hmm.
Anietra Hamper (41:53.937)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (41:58.804)
I don’t think most guys know it unless they’ve been rowing a drift boat down a river with couples. They just don’t realize how. Um, yeah, I don’t know. But I don’t know if you, have you had experiences like that? Have you come across that? that.
Anietra Hamper (42:15.389)
A lot. mean, almost every guide I have ever worked with in the U S outside the U S says the same thing. What you just said, because you’ve experienced it. My partner Ian is a guide and they always say, wow, women are so much easier to work with. So I actually wrote a story once I wanted to look into the science behind that because every guide had, so yeah. And it was the science behind men and women fishing or something like that.
I’m happy to send it to you. I have to dig it up. But I talked to people who I talked to, I can’t remember if it was a psychologist or anyway, I found some expert that was in the like psychology field and who also loved fishing. And we dove into the actual science behind the differences of men and women, women fishing. I’m like, there is something to this. So, and you’re right, listening is number one because women show up, we’re ready to learn men show up.
They already know it. So they’re meant, yes.
Jason Elkins (43:15.132)
Men show up wanting to show off. swear that men hire fishing guides so they can prove to the fishing guide how good they are. That’s so dumb.
Anietra Hamper (43:22.482)
They can show their chops. Yeah. So that’s number one. Number two is when men miss a fish, lose a fish, you know, holy like just I get quiet. If somebody’s a man in the boat and he loses a fish, they just go off the handle. They get angry. They stump around. They scream at people. Women lose a fish and we say, what can I do differently?
What did I do? Like, how can I, how can I catch it next time? Did I do something or was it just the fish cut me off on a rock? We want to learn how to do it differently. So, and then I don’t know, there was like five different points, but, what’s important about that? I’m a big advocate, obviously for women in fishing. When I, when I wrote for game and fish magazine, when they first brought me on, I had been reaching out to outdoor magazines for some time. Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing back.
like it was like crickets. No one would get back to me. No editors would get back to me. It wasn’t until I started including photos that the editor of game and fish magazine, when I started working with them, got back to me and said, let’s chat. I started writing for them. They were a, 100 % male staff of writers and contributors and a 95 % male readership. And they brought me on.
And I was like, okay, that’s no pressure. Like I wanted this, but now I have it. And, that was a such a win for me. And that one I did envision my grandpa cheering me. That was such a win for me. And my first story for them went gangbusters, which was awesome, but that was a win. But I I’m such an advocate for women in fishing because of exactly what you said. That is what happens all the time. That’s what happens to women fishing out in the field.
That’s what happens to women many times walking into a tackle shop. you know, that’s what happens even as a journalist. And I have bylines all over the place. When I go to work with a guide sometimes, you know, they treat you like a wounded bird. And, you know, I don’t, I don’t need that. Thank you for the respect and the care for me. but we, it just takes that one time for the woman to, to bail. She will not do it again.
Anietra Hamper (45:40.175)
So I don’t know if you are aware, but the recreational boating and fishing foundation keeps statistics on women and fishing, the barriers to entry, what makes them leave, what makes them start it and then say, I’m Most of it’s this stuff. It’s just not acknowledging that we can do it too. And having the respect for like, just letting us be, let us…
learn. tell my partner sometimes, you know, if I lose a fish and we’re in some place that’s, know, we could get some really cool fish and I lose one and you know, maybe he’s upset. I’m upset too. But I, but I let him know, I say, listen, that was my fish to lose. To me, that’s a learning experience. Yes, it’s devastating. I’m gonna, need a minute to sort of get past that, but that is mine to lose and learn from. And I think that
Jason Elkins (46:20.073)
Mm-hmm.
Anietra Hamper (46:36.771)
Men, I would hope that we at some point get into that realm where let her just leave her alone. Let her fish how she wants to fish. You know, I love catching bluegill as much as I love catching la lao. And just because it’s it that it’s that whole experience. It’s not just about the look what I caught. It’s that so I want women to feel encouraged and and I really hope that my work showcases that it’s kind of I hope that women
Jason Elkins (46:56.809)
Yeah.
Anietra Hamper (47:06.607)
see what I do and go, that’s cool. Guys look at what I do and go, that’s cool. I look at what I do and go, well, that’s really cool. But, I really want women to feel inspired. Like we deserve to be able to do stuff like that. That’s hard. That’s challenging. It’s outside of our comfort zone, stuff that mostly guys get to do.
Jason Elkins (47:29.214)
You know, there’s something that I used to probably still would if someone asked me today, my advice, and I want to run it past you to get kind of your perspective is that if someone said to me, I really like to fish. I have a new girlfriend or I want my wife to go fishing with me. How do I get her into it? Honestly, the first thing I’d probably say is you don’t take her.
Anietra Hamper (47:58.183)
It’s like your boyfriend teaching you golf. Not a good idea.
Jason Elkins (47:58.194)
You make arrangements. Yeah. It’s like, whatever you do, do not just the two of you do not go and do not try and teach her how to fish. Make other arrangements. Find a fishing club for her to go join. Hire a guide. Send her out with a guide for a day so she can enjoy it. See if she, know, cause if her first experience.
Anietra Hamper (48:10.908)
Yes.
Anietra Hamper (48:19.429)
Hahaha.
Jason Elkins (48:24.868)
is with you trying to teach her how to fish, whether it’s fly fishing, spin fishing, whatever it is, chances are pretty high, unless she just really wants to spend time with you, she might just enjoy spending time with you so much that she doesn’t really care about anything. She just wants to spend time with you. She might be okay. But if you really want her to enjoy fishing for fishing sake, yeah, don’t take her because I remember my daughter.
My daughter was probably 12, 11, 10, 11, 12, something like that. And she’d gone fishing with me quite a bit and with my wife.
And she drew a picture one day of a drift boat with me rowing the boat. And my, my wife at the time, my ex Tanya was in the front of the boat standing up fishing and she had a little caption bubble that was something like me saying blah, blah, blah. And then a caption bubble for Tanya saying, I know what I’m doing.
Anietra Hamper (49:28.935)
You
that’s great. I hope you still have that.
Jason Elkins (49:35.476)
It’s somewhere, and it was like, I looked at that and I thought, my gosh, my daughter is paying attention. She’s observant. What can I learn from this? Because it’s, it was like kind of telling and, and she, but she was spot on. Right. I mean, when my, when Tanya and I would go fishing together, I don’t think that Tanya really enjoyed it that much.
And, and I’m a nice guy. I’m a fishing guy. could take women down the river all day long and they think, wow, Jason, you’re great. Give me a big tip and write a good review. But the minute I put, minute I get in the boat with Tanya, she’s like, I can’t believe people pay you to do this. I, I don’t know how you, how do you get so many good reviews? What? So there’s that too. So, I don’t know. So what, what did you take on that? You, your, your partner’s a fisherman.
Anietra Hamper (50:05.831)
Mm-hmm.
Anietra Hamper (50:19.972)
Ha ha ha ha ha!
Anietra Hamper (50:27.366)
Yeah, he’s a global guide. In fact, we met. I was on an assignment in India and he for the Goon’s catfish and he was proficient in that. So that’s how we met. But I think it’s true. I don’t think it matters if it’s fishing or like I said, golf or bowling or whatever. It’s just. Anything. It’s just not. If you’re just learning, it’s not a good idea. I know.
Jason Elkins (50:44.852)
12 driving a stick shift or anything really cooking cutting onions. I just can’t fights all time with her for I didn’t like the way she cut the onions.
Anietra Hamper (50:56.302)
Now Ian and I are great. We fish well together. He’s so technical and like sometimes so technical. It’s so it’s over my head, but I like to learn from him. I do like to learn from him and fishing, but he’s very respectful about it. And you know, I do tell him again, that’s my fish to lose. So like, I know we’re all upset about this, but that’s mine to learn from.
And that’s how you learn. That’s how I need to learn. So yeah, he’s great. But as a general rule of thumb, it’s just not a good idea to do that. By the way, you need to make stickers of that drawing. I would buy one. It just sort of sums it all up. It’s great.
Jason Elkins (51:40.722)
I know, it was so good and it was…
Jason Elkins (51:46.861)
It does. I knew at the time that it was important, but I wish I’d had the foresight to make sure that it never got lost. I hung it on the fridge for a while. I was proud of her for being so honest in her own way. She was kind of saying, Dad, you’re a
Anietra Hamper (51:58.5)
It’s so great.
Anietra Hamper (52:03.174)
Mm-hmm.
You need to put that into your AI learning language model and just say, this, like be as honest as this.
Jason Elkins (52:15.572)
Yeah, exactly. But it was also such a nice, sweet way of doing it without just saying, Dad, you’re a jerk. You said, oh, I made a picture of you and Tanya fishing. Oh, thank you.
Anietra Hamper (52:23.887)
Yeah.
Anietra Hamper (52:29.002)
Well, and that’s just it. You know, I had gone down to Texas a couple years ago for a fishing assignment and I always like to talk to the for this reason. I like to talk to the guides ahead of time and just have a personal conversation about what I’m looking for, what I need to do. And it was catfishing and and so I talked to this guide and I said, okay, when I come down, like here’s here’s the here’s what the story is. Here’s what I would love to do. What are our options? Blah, And this very
wonderful southern man, very Texan, says, ma’am, you don’t worry about a thing. He goes, you just sit in that boat and you just relax. He goes, I’m gonna bait the hook. Don’t you worry about a thing. I’m gonna get that fish off. Don’t you worry. I said, I took a deep breath and I said, I actually really liked baiting the hook. Ma’am, them catfish can be tricky. I go.
Jason Elkins (53:08.954)
wow.
Anietra Hamper (53:24.434)
Right. I do actually write for a cat fishing magazine. So I catch a lot. I’m good. He refused to believe he was like, you just relax in that boat. And I’m like, that’s not going to happen. So I thought I just could not convince him. Otherwise I was like, okay. I said, I’ll tell you what, we’ll just have a chat when I get there. Cause I just couldn’t convince him. Otherwise he just wanted me to just, I guess, I don’t know what I don’t know. Relax in the boat while he baited the hook and
Jason Elkins (53:28.69)
You
Jason Elkins (53:37.844)
yeah, especially with him.
Anietra Hamper (53:54.215)
took the fish off. So I just thought, wow, that was, that was an extreme one. He was just the sweetest could be. We had a great day. I mean, he looked like the Gordon’s fisherman guy on the fish sticks box, but, um, I’m like, I’m good. I actually really like baiting a stinky hook. I’m good with cut bait. can do ma’am them catfish are tricky. I go, know. Got you. I’ll tell you what, we’ll just chat later. How about that?
Yeah, so give us some respect. We’re good. Women are fine. And listen, if we need your help, we’ll just ask.
Jason Elkins (54:22.824)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (54:31.368)
I don’t know why this is bringing up this other, this other memory. This is, this is your story and I’m going to tell a story, but I remember, I was with, with Tanya one day we’re out and she on her, I mean, yes, she caught a lot of big fish on her own. She usually caught bigger and more fish than I did when we go fishing together, but she caught this very large fish.
And we took some pictures and then I said, okay, now I want you to take a picture of me with your fish. Well, here’s the mindset behind it because when I say that out loud right now, I realized, oh, that sounds weird. But here’s the mindset is oftentimes guides like to be in fish pictures, right? You kind of feel like, oh, I’m a guide. I guided somebody to this fish.
Anietra Hamper (55:02.95)
Wow, how’d that go over?
Anietra Hamper (55:16.238)
Mm-hmm. Sure.
Jason Elkins (55:23.664)
I want a picture of the fish too. Cause in a way it’s in a way for me, felt like a team effort, but for her, didn’t feel like a team effort. felt like stolen glory or whatever. What do they call it? Stolen valor. And, I had her to the pit, the camera, whatever it’s okay. Take a picture. And she looked at me weird. She took a picture, but she gave me so much grief about that. I was like, okay, we got to delete the picture of me. Cause obviously
Anietra Hamper (55:29.094)
Mm-hmm.
Anietra Hamper (55:35.492)
Right.
Anietra Hamper (55:49.99)
I think it’s fine. think it’s legit. Guides want a picture. I think it’s fine. It’s good. My Makushi, an Amerindian guide in Guyana. Man, he’s always in those pic. In fact, if you’re taking, if I’m getting a picture with my fish, I can’t tell you how many photos I’ve got his little head over my shoulder. And then inevitably, if it’s a really good one, he’ll say, I like picture too.
Jason Elkins (55:52.616)
Where if was a guy, yeah, I think so too, right?
Jason Elkins (56:11.011)
yeah.
Anietra Hamper (56:16.57)
He’s never even, we finally took him some photos, like the guy grew up in the rainforest, so he didn’t know what photographs are. He just likes, he thinks it’s fun when people take pictures, like has no concept of what happens to them. So we took him some photos. He loved it. And so he’s always grabbing, he’s like, I need picture. Okay. So I think it’s great. Guides like to showcase their work.
Jason Elkins (56:26.376)
Yeah. He wants to be part of the party.
Jason Elkins (56:38.972)
I thought so too. Can you send her a little voice message saying that you said it was okay? You’re so kind.
Anietra Hamper (56:44.355)
I will do that. That’s okay. What’s not okay is holding a fish that’s saying I caught this fish. You know, if I, yeah, sometimes I’ll get in the photo with Ian, he catches some great fish. Like I need to be in that photo too. Or if I take a picture with his fish, you know, I’ll say not my fish, but it’s a really awesome fish. I have no problem with that.
Jason Elkins (56:51.832)
yeah.
Jason Elkins (57:06.418)
Well, and it’s hard to take a, if there’s just the two of you, it’s hard to take a picture with both of you and the fish. If you can, if it’s, if it’s small enough to take a selfie, then it’s not that great of a fish. So anyway, but we’ve, we’ve discussed a bunch of things, probably not a lot of the stuff we even expected to discuss, but I’m, but I’m curious in either what.
Anietra Hamper (57:11.109)
Mm-hmm.
Anietra Hamper (57:19.983)
Difficult. Yep.
Jason Elkins (57:35.412)
What should I have asked you? What do you wish I would have asked you? Or what do you want to make sure you’ve had some great things to share? Is there anything else you want to make sure to share with the audience before we wrap it up?
Anietra Hamper (57:45.987)
I know. just think that, you know, I love the work that I can do and showcase some really cool fishing and cool destinations. But for me, it’s a bigger purpose. For me, there’s several things. One is I believe that, you know, just from a conservation standpoint, we’re in this really weird place in our world with, you know, global warming and species depletion and water quality and all this stuff. And I fish in places that, know, through the Amazon, which is a big part of our
you know, global, it’s connected to all of our water source. So I think about these things. I think about what else, what purpose beyond just the story I’m writing, can I achieve? So I believe that people, if I can make you look at a really funky fish and you don’t even like to fish, and this happens all the time, people go, my God, what’s that? If I can make you say, my God, what’s that? I have an opportunity to say what it is, where it is.
you’re suddenly connected to it and people want they care about things that they feel connected to. So if they are interested in that or they’ve heard of that before and suddenly they, you know, they want to protect it. They care about it because they’re connected. So if I can be that connection, that’s great. And the other really important thing is we talked about the women getting involved. I’m super huge advocate for however that needs to happen. I want to see more of that women to get involved in fishing and stay in fishing, but also accessibility. So, you you talked a lot about
You know, you’re child fishing and you fishing as a child, me fishing as a child. We are so wrapped up in these forward facing sonars and all this equipment that does make fishing gives you more tools. And I think that’s cool, but I’m such a big advocate. I mean, I’m a bobber nightcrawler kind of girl. I can go and fish with a bobber and a nightcrawler just as easily as I can use the depth finders and really cool technology. I think that I really like to advocate
accessibility, know, neighborhood ponds, kids getting, you you go to Walmart and get, think I’ve bought reels before for like 10 or $15. The low barrier to entry because I want it to feel accessible. I don’t want people to feel like they have to have a boat. They have to have the sonar. They have to have the super duper rods and like 92 of them and all the lures. I don’t want people to feel that way because you just don’t. You can just go dig a nightcrawler, get your bobber, get your little EBCO reel.
Anietra Hamper (01:00:11.78)
And off you go. In fact, I borrowed one at a resort, a Ritz Carlton of all places. said, yeah, we fishing rods for our lake. Awesome. And it was this old school, you know, Zebco thumb push kitty rod. And I was out there fishing, having a ball and it was great. So the low barrier to entry, I want people to feel like it’s accessible. And I think we’re kind of getting over that to a place where we’re showing so much new technology and stuff that
Jason Elkins (01:00:23.966)
Mm-hmm.
Anietra Hamper (01:00:39.781)
I think that could be a barrier to entry for a lot of people and families. And I just want to be the little voice that says, but it doesn’t have to be that. it’s, fishing is so easy to do.
Jason Elkins (01:00:50.334)
You know, I’ve, along those lines, this is both for women, but also just it really helps define what you’re talking about is, you know, actually I had someone on the show not too long ago that kind of does, his niche is to work with women, specifically kind of what came out is honestly, it’s like women that their kids are wanna go fishing.
And they don’t have anybody in their family that goes fishing. So he’s helping women take their kids fishing. Yeah. I think that’s pretty darn cool. And, and just from my experience, plus the conversation with him is it’s yeah, if you’ve got a 12 year old son or daughter, that’s like, mom, I want to, I really want to go fishing. Will you please take us fishing? That sounds completely overwhelming. And then you walk into a bait shop or a
Anietra Hamper (01:01:22.511)
That’s cool.
Jason Elkins (01:01:46.1)
fly shops are even worse, or even Walmart to try and figure out what to do. It’s like, you know, and then you see sonar fish finders and thousand dollar fly rods and all these crazy things that it’s just like financially, that’s a huge barrier. But also just that we kind of talked about, you know, attitudes of people in these places. There are some women’s fishing clubs.
Anietra Hamper (01:02:10.724)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:02:15.732)
There are some obviously articles, YouTube videos, stuff like that. If someone listening to this was like, I’ve always thought about going, but I felt kind of intimidated or whatever these barriers are. What’s the first thing they should do to start opening up that world? Because maybe it’s too late to have a grandpa to take him fishing.
Anietra Hamper (01:02:20.229)
Mm-hmm.
Anietra Hamper (01:02:40.046)
Sure. mean, the for Ohio, it’s the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife, but every state has a wildlife division of whatever it’s called in your state. That’s a great resource because it just kind of introduces you to what waters are there. Sometimes they’ll talk about what great waters for kids, some resources. Sometimes they have clinics. You know, I would look online, like you said, there’s some great women’s clubs. There’s places that offer clinics for kids or
you know, hire a guide if that’s within budget. You don’t really have to, I would just tap into a resource, but your state wildlife resources online is a good place to start. And sometimes they’ll give you lots of other resources that you can then reach out to.
Jason Elkins (01:03:27.39)
Do what else it just occurred to me when you said hire a guide if the resources allow because that can be expensive because it’s usually a one to one on two one to three ratio can get expensive. But also I thought, geez, anybody that lives along the coast, there’s those party boats. You can go out and do like deep sea fishing that maybe is not on radar is because the boats can have everything you need. You pretty much show up. Maybe you’re supposed to bring a lunch or something in a paper bag.
Anietra Hamper (01:03:43.842)
Yeah, that’s a good intro.
Anietra Hamper (01:03:49.924)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (01:03:53.502)
but you can go out there and I don’t know what they charge now, but it used to be pretty reasonable because they put big party boat. might have 20, 30 people on there. And that can be a pretty good way to like, just go try it out and not feel that pressure. And they get, they get people all the time that don’t know how to fish. So you don’t know, you don’t have to know how to fish because you know, just get your line wet, I guess is literally what you’re doing. so.
Anietra Hamper (01:04:01.774)
Mm-hmm.
Anietra Hamper (01:04:16.857)
Yeah. Yeah. No, I think that’s a good, that’s great for families, you know, as a, as an angler angler, those are challenging for me. Cause you, you do get like the lady with her brim hat, like slinging her rod around and everybody’s like caught the, I will say, but you know, let’s P let’s, let’s meet people where they are. You know, I have different level of experience and expectations. I think those can be really good for families.
Jason Elkins (01:04:32.276)
Well, yeah, there is that.
Anietra Hamper (01:04:45.72)
just to go have someone show you what to do. You’ll learn a little bit. You catch fish, best part, get to, you know, lot of the, take them back, they can get them cleaned and then you all can go celebrate with a nice hook and cook dinner somewhere, usually on those. So I think, I think those definitely have a place, especially for families, new people, and just to see what it’s all about.
Jason Elkins (01:05:02.6)
Well, like you said, and it helps lower that barrier because there are barriers out there and that’s could be a like a gateway drug, you know, go on a party boat, go deep sea fishing. that’s pretty cool. I wonder what other kinds of things are out there. I mean, I mentioned maybe it was before we hit the record button that the only man I really fished with when I was young was my grandfather, but
Anietra Hamper (01:05:06.456)
Mm-hmm.
Anietra Hamper (01:05:13.229)
Exactly.
Jason Elkins (01:05:28.968)
My dad could take us, we were fortunate enough to go to Australia and I remember going deep sea fishing off the coast of Australia with him. And it was kind of entry level. And then with my grandpa, it was all worm and bobber. That’s great. That’s pretty low barrier. You know, that can be a good way. And then eventually it ended up being my life and I worked in the business for quite a while. so you just never know where it’s going to get started. So I’m with you.
Very cool. And you, thank you so much. So it’s been a wonderful, fun conversation with, yeah. So let’s do it again sometime soon. And we’re going to have a link right to your site there in the show notes. So anybody that’s listening to this, whether you’re.
Anietra Hamper (01:06:01.553)
thank you. This has been a fun com- Absolutely.
Jason Elkins (01:06:18.108)
Anybody that resonates with the conversation we just had, would say click the link and find a way to connect with you, Anietra. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. We’ll chat with you soon.
Anietra Hamper (01:06:28.196)
Thank you. Big world made small. Like, I love this conversation. Thank you.
Jason Elkins (01:06:33.566)
Well, thank you so much. I did this so I could have conversations exactly like this. So thank you. If it wasn’t for people like you, I’d be sitting here talking to myself and I do that sometimes too, but this is, this is our chat. Yeah, that’s a whole nother whole nother issue. I think there’s people out there that are doing podcasts with AI co-hosts or, you know, maybe even interviewing.
Anietra Hamper (01:06:42.564)
Or chat GPT.
Anietra Hamper (01:06:50.712)
Sorry.
Jason Elkins (01:07:01.281)
I’m going to avoid that as long as I possibly can. All right. Thank you so much. We’ll chat with you soon. You have a good day. All right.
Anietra Hamper (01:07:01.86)
I just totally diverted us again. Sorry. Thank you.
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