Hunter-Gatherers: The Podcast of Hunter S. Thompson Stories

Hunter S. Thompson once offered this advice about telling stories that name-dropped famous people: be careful when you introduce them, because too early and it becomes clear you're leaning on celebrity to carry your narrative and too late and you might imply that you're just name-dropping to salvage attention. The advice came to a room of mostly writers just after he's published a rousing example in TIME magazine called "Doomed Love at the Taco Stand" in which he refrained from introducing Johnny Depp until the fourth paragraph, although to be fair the editor's note – it introduced the piece as HST's take from the movie set of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" – did mention The Colonel (as some of us sometimes called Mr. Depp in those familiar days) twice.

Hunter had been a copy boy at TIME back in the day and the editors might have learned from his example. In "Doomed Love," Hunter name-drops via the double-parabolic jump-cut transition paragraph, pivoting from a subtle third-axis story to the direct thru-line, casually inserting that, for purely professional reasons, he has traded identities with Mr. Depp. It is all in service to the greater good of the movie, and we're off to a world of dog attacks and felony operation of automobiles. Also Lyle Lovett earns a mention.

Scholars take note: That was the one with Hunter's line that ".... I am a teenage girl trapped in the body of a 60-year-old career criminal who has already died 16 times." You know, there's a story that the original line was "... I am a 13-year-old girl..." which, ah, seems different nearly two decades later, doesn't it? The story goes that TIME editors insisted on the change, perhaps because of those wonderful Ralph Steadman illustrations?

But enough of all that. Except to say that we are out to gather some Hunter S. Thompson stories. Many of you will know what we mean by "Hunter stories" because you've had your own encounters. They are not unlike UFO stories in that engagement varies, perhaps ranging from observing bright lights zipping around the night sky to being abducted into a surreal kitchen-like setting. Some perhaps recall enduring advanced examination while odd-smelling wisps of clouds float about the ceiling. Some of us just moved on, assuring ourselves that it was only swamp gas interacting with refracted sunlight. Others, however, knew that We Are Not Alone... the great magnet had chosen us (and not Them) to grasp the horrible truths.

We'd been given the red pill, albeit with a side of Wild Turkey.

Hunter-Gatherers is a podcast where people tell Hunter S. Thompson stories. Why not? His was certainly a storied enough life... but, since this is the "about" section of the website about the podcast about Hunter and already about 500 words too long... let's just say we're off and running. We all know better, of course, but Our Times have grown so very dark and instinct drives the sane and insane alike toward shelter, toward the light.

– THE GATHERERS