Season 2, Episode 2: Fly fishing for the soul with Chad Brown

Full episode transcript available in our attempt to make this an accessible experience for all.

This is the second episode of our #AmplifyBlackStories season, which exclusively features Black voices.

In this episode hosted and co-produced by Tariq Rashid, we spoke with Chad Brown, founder of Soul River Inc. Chad shares his love for fly fishing, including the story of his first casting, and how he’s expanding that love to help youth experience nature through camping excursions with other military veterans. We chat about Chad’s childhood, as a descendant of one of the last Black cowboys in Texas, his experience in the military and how he’s navigating his subsequent PTSD, plus his thoughts around systemic racism in the Great Outdoors-- particularly following the police killing of George Floyd and the recent uprising for Black lives.

Check out Chad Brown on Instagram @_chadbrown_ and support his work at Soul River Inc.

This episode was co-edited and mixed by our Sound Editor, Jeff Alvarez.

PHOTOS:

From top left to top right:
Photo of Chad, close-up, wearing a fur-lined winter coat and looking directly at the camera with a calm, stoic expression. A moment in the Backcountry wilderness survival portrait shot in Maine Wilderness

Photo of Chad bending down in a river in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and holding an arctic grayling fish with his bare hands.

Photo of Chad posing in a grassy meadow, trees and dry mountains in the background, the tundra inside the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, north of the Brooks Range mountains. Chad has a folded American flag draped over one arm and the leash of his service dog, Axe.

From bottom left to bottom right:
Photo of Chad in the woods, wearing an olive green bucket hat and khaki-colored shirt, bow hunting in the backcountry of Montana.

Photo of Chad in the snow, wearing a thick fur-lined winter coat and peering through his DSLR camera, one eye shut. Taken during a photoshoot expedition in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge documenting Gwich’in community.

Photo of Chad bow hunting in a meadow, with his service dog Axe beside him.