Competition barbecue, straight from the pit.
The Pitmaster's Podcast is a loose, live-feeling barbecue hangout built around contests, cooks, sauces, rubs, and people from the BBQ world. It favors practical talk over polish, with guests swapping score breakdowns, event plans, restaurant opinions, and lessons from the pit.
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The Pitmaster's Podcast is built for barbecue people who like the full scene, not just the finished plate. It has a live-room feel, with check-ins, technical hiccups, event reminders, guest welcomes, and long conversational runs that sound close to the competition circuit itself. The show spends real time on cooking details. Rubs are judged for balance, base-layer usefulness, sweetness, heat, savory notes, and whether they can stand up under pork or ribs. Scores matter too. Guests talk through chicken, ribs, pork, brisket, calls, tables, and the strange suspense of waiting through awards when a cook knows the day went well but not how well. The tone is relaxed, but the knowledge is specific. A listener may hear about a barbecue class one minute and a discussion of Texas rib glaze, direct heat, fat dripping onto coals, or the visual power of a glossy pork rib the next. The show also follows the barbecue calendar closely, with mentions of SCA finals, Yuma, Southern California classes, open-fire meetups, the Houston Rodeo, Memphis in May, and the Barbecue World Cup in Vegas. Guests widen the frame. Dave Williamson brings in the overlap between barbecue and stand-up comedy, imagining restaurants, festivals, and cookouts as places where a comedy show can break out. Daniel Vaughn steers the conversation toward restaurant criticism, road-trip eating, sauce debates, and the difference between food that photographs well and food that eats beautifully. Big John and Kim bring competition results and the realities of balancing family life, awards, sponsorships, and consistency across categories. Bobby T adds the perspective of someone who teaches barbecue, represents brands, caters, competes, and judges. The show is not overproduced or precious. It is granular, friendly, occasionally chaotic, and deeply situated in barbecue as a working community. For listeners who care about smoke, sauce, scores, classes, festivals, and the people behind them, it offers the texture of being in the room after the cook is done.
Made for: For barbecue competitors, backyard cooks, rub-and-sauce obsessives, and food fans who enjoy practical detail mixed with loose community banter. It especially suits listeners who follow KCBS, SCA, festivals, classes, and restaurant barbecue culture.
What sets it apart: The show stands out by treating barbecue as an active circuit: contests, classes, product testing, restaurant talk, comedy nights, sponsorships, and score sheets all sit together. Its strength is the lived-in conversation between cooks who know the work behind a good turn-in.
We're BBQ competition enthusiasts who love to share everything about the smoke, the sauce, and the stories behind great barbecue. Each episode, we sit down with top pitmasters, backyard legends, restaurateurs, and more to swap advice, tips, and tall tales from the world of BBQ. Whether you're a seasoned competitor or just love good food and good company, you'll learn something new—and have a few laughs along the way!
Brisket scores meet glaze arguments, giving your next cook the energy of a judges' table.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Four uneven turn-ins add up to an overall barbecue win that stays uncertain until awards.
A barbecue competitor walks through an overall win built from four very different turn-ins: 19th in chicken, sixth in ribs, 12th in pork, and fourth in brisket. The brisket was one taste point shy of a 180, but the chicken placing kept the result in doubt until the awards.
A sauce debate leads to savory Texas ribs and one pale rib remembered for its flavor.
A barbecue argument on The Pitmaster comes down to what a rib needs. One speaker likes sauce as another layer of flavor. A guest remembers savory spare ribs as a Texas hallmark, with East Texas as an exception, and says sweet glazes have become common enough that savory ribs now…
Bourbon talk, barrel stories, messy good pours.
Bourbon reviews with memory, candor, and community.
Everyday life, thought through together.
The hosts of the Pitmaster Podcast chat about barbecue competition, whiskey, and vodka while introducing themselves and their show.
The hosts of the Pitmaster Podcast introduce themselves and prepare to interview Tony Ramirez from TFTI Barbecue.
The hosts of The Pitmaster Podcast discuss barbecue competition tips and the upcoming warm weather in Utah.
The hosts struggle with technical glitches while attempting to taste and review a BBQ rub called 7 Sins.
The Pitmaster Podcast hosts introduce themselves and preview an upcoming barbecue competition event before interviewing Jim Lenzen of Jimmy L's BBQ.
The Pitmaster Podcast hosts introduce themselves and tease an upcoming interview with SCA West Coast Champion Raymond Patterson.
Big John and Kim of Big John's Barbecue discuss winning a 91-team KCBS contest in Henderson, Nevada after a 10-month break from competition.
Daniel Vaughn, the barbecue editor at Texas Monthly, explains why brisket, beef ribs, and beef sausages made Texas barbecue distinct from pork-heavy regions.
The Pitmaster Podcast interviews AJ Garza of God's Country Barbecue after he won a West Coast qualifier connected to the Barbecue World Cup and a possible one-million-dollar prize.
The Pitmaster Podcast hosts introduce BBQ Bob Trudnak, a barbecue competitor, judge, and brand ambassador, and discuss upcoming topics including tariffs on pellets.
The hosts of the Pitmaster Podcast introduce and discuss their upcoming interview with SCA World Champion Karen Wright, mother of champion Riley Wright.
The hosts of the Pitmaster Podcast introduce a special guest, Sterling Smith of Loot N' Booty BBQ, and discuss upcoming barbecue competitions and a store remodel.