Our guest returns to Top Shelf Studios for his third appearance, one of the most quickly-rising — or descending, rather — cavers in the Rocky Mountain West. Please welcome back, friend of the show & the Editor-in-Chief of Rocky Mountain Caving: Braxton Fuller!

Follow Braxton @BraxtonAF on Instagram & go support Rocky Mountain Caving — It is the best quarterly publication in the game & powered nearly entirely by humans like you supporting! And let’s be honest, your foyer or side table is in desperate need of high-quality film photography of caves. Subscribe by emailing editor@rockymountaincaving.com — Print edition is $35/year. Trust me, you will want it in your hands.

Braxton’s Master’s from DU is being held in escrow (missed a summer email, debt collection, he’s good for it), he’s 308 applications deep with two interviews, and Whole Foods told him a Master’s degree overqualified him to work in meat & seafood. Give him the job, Outside!

We talk “CaveWay” vs real LiDAR, Schrödinger’s box of exploration, autonomous caving robots & Olive as the canary in the coalmine, crossing the 140° ‘Lake of Fire’ which Braxton (God knows why) plans to traverse again in two weeks, calcium carbide helmets, why drones would have ruined Silent Splendor, and finally why cavers are funny beans. In the After-Hours Braxton reviews Sean’s signature smoked chicken wings, we learn that caves were Humanity’s first ancestral home, we discuss the Land of the Seven Caves, historical tribal stories of Spider Mother & the Sipapu, NAGPRA, and whether objective truth even exists.

EATIN’ (the full uncut hang) with Braxton is up for our supporters on Patreon.com/InTALLerable You get the inner sanctum, vaulted episodes, & when your support reaches the cost of a hat, I will stitch you one with my own two hands. How ‘bout that?

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FO & BW

0:00 — Guest Intro

0:29 — Master’s Degree Held in Escrow

1:06 — Rocky Mountain Caving

2:07 — Spalding’s Cavern

5:05 — CaveWay, LiDAR & 14ers

9:16 — Schrödinger’s Box of Exploration

10:47 — Autonomous Caving Robots

11:18 — 140° Lake of Fire

14:52 — Olive, Autonomous Caver

17:48 — Don’t Drone Silent Splendor

19:03 — Calcium Carbide Helmets

20:33 — The Chicken Is Flipped

20:55 — 308 Applications, Two Interviews

22:54 — Give Me the Job, Outside!

25:42 — This Isn’t Krakauer’s Outside

27:00 — Take a Point Off Serena

29:56 — Pallet City / Comedy Works South

33:45 — Cavers Are Funny Beans

34:34 — Free-Play Zone

38:03 — Mark Dickey Rescue & NCRC

44:06 — The Brax Experience

47:19 — Government Big Daddy

48:58 — Hadrian, Elagabalus & the Capture Card

53:09 — Israel & US Policy

55:29 — EATIN’ — Patreon.com/InTALLerable

55:46 — After-Hours & Wing Review!

57:00 — Charlie Kirk / TPUSA

59:14 — Caves Were Our First Home

1:02:06 — Monsters, Inc. Is Adrenochrome

1:05:14 — Land of the Seven Caves

1:06:16 — Spider Mother & the Sipapu

1:07:14 — Chaco & Calendar Cities

1:10:13 — Mesoamerican Ball Game

1:11:22 — Bernal Díaz, Conquest of New Spain

1:15:26 — Schliemann Found Troy

1:18:55 — Interview Riley Blackwell

1:19:51 — Mancos Canyon / NAGPRA

1:22:46 — Anasazi Means Enemy

1:25:13 — Archaeology Master’s at CSU

1:27:34 — Identity Acknowledgements

1:30:07 — Does Objective Truth Exist?

1:34:22 — Raw-Dogging a 14-Hour Flight

1:37:32 — Follow Braxton / FO & BW