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Snackin' & Yakkin'
If we told you two grown men sat in a studio, ate almost two pounds of bacon, and talked about Oreos, accents, gas station honey buns, and the dark side of the carnivore diet, would you judge us or grab a fork and sit down?
This episode of Snackin’ & Yakkin’ with Drake Hayes is part food confession booth, part fitness chat, and part love letter to bacon. We walk through eight months of hardcore carnivore, a birthday donut derailment, TikTok live chaos, and why gas stations are basically emotional support in fluorescent lighting.
Settle in, bacon lovers. This one’s crispy.
The Perfect Bacon Collab
The collab pitch was simple and legendary. Drake reached out as an aspiring YouTuber and said the magic words: “We could snack on bacon.”
We were in.
He had been documenting workouts and a carnivore diet, so a snack show made sense. For the episode we loaded the table with two styles of bacon:
- Thick cut, folded over into little “bacon patties”
- Regular cut, so thin it stuck together like prosciutto when we peeled it up
No maple, no sugar, just straight-up pork to keep it carnivore-friendly. By the end, we had taken down almost two pounds and zero regrets.
Drake’s 8-Month Carnivore Run (and Birthday Donut Meltdown)
Drake did eight months of strict carnivore. Meat, eggs, butter, repeat. Then August 29 rolled around.
His birthday.
He describes it as, “I flew off the rails hard.” That rail looked like a whole dozen donuts, wiped out solo. If you have a sugar switch that flips from “fine” to “feral raccoon in a bakery,” you know that feeling.
During that carnivore stretch he had some wild days, including the time he ate 18 eggs and a pound of bacon live on TikTok. That was not even a record day for him. He talked about hitting 7,000 to 8,000 calorie meat days, which on a carnivore diet is not easy because you feel full so fast.
From Carnivorous Carpenter to “Drake Kills Curiosity”
Drake’s channel did not start as “Drake Kills Curiosity.” It began as Carnivorous Carpenter, a nod to his day job and his meat-only phase.
The first video that clicked was simple: a tip about pork rinds as an easy carnivore snack. No cooking, usually fried in pork fat, perfect if you stick to salted or original flavor. That one idea led to more quick-tip videos, then to his first accidental live stream.
He hit the wrong button in the kitchen, suddenly went live, and thought, “Well, guess we’re doing this.” People showed up. He cooked. He ate. He talked. It felt natural.
Now he is shifting away from being “the strict carnivore guy” toward a broader curiosity vibe under the name Drake Kills Curiosity, mixing fitness, food experiments, and whatever else grabs his brain. If you want to follow that ride, check out Drake on Instagram and Drake on TikTok.
Accents, “Bo,” and Baltimore “Hon”
Drake’s voice has a little twang that keeps sneaking out. He grew up in Jacksonville, Florida and later lived in Darlington, South Carolina, which explains why he is fluent in the word “Bo.”
“Hey Bo, what you doing?” was the default greeting in Darlington.
We tossed that against Baltimore’s famous “hon,” short for “honeychild,” which has its own strange vowel shape. Down here we hear a lot of sweetie, miss, ma’am, while guy code is more dude and bro. Regional language is like food seasoning. Same dish, different flavor.
Country Is Everywhere, Even Upstate New York
Country is not just pickup trucks and SEC football. Drake told a story about a buddy from upstate New York who insisted his hometown was just as country as the Carolinas.
They drove up, and he was right. Small towns, hills, pickup trucks, and people who could have walked out of Darlington, just with more maple trees.
As his friend put it, “It’s just like home with some hills.”
If you need proof that “country must be countrywide,” you do not have to look much further than places like Brasher Falls and Crosby, Pennsylvania.
What Carnivore Gets Right (and Why It Can Go Sideways)
Drake loves a lot about the carnivore diet, but he is honest about the pitfalls:
- The community can get dogmatic, almost like the strict vegan crowd, just on the opposite side of the plate.
- Pure carnivore is not easy to sustain if you are highly active or naturally lean, because protein and fat are so filling.
He mentioned bodybuilder Tristyn Lee, who went super strict carnivore for a couple of years, got insanely shredded, then realized he could not eat enough to gain weight. You can see that shift laid out in this breakdown of Tristyn Lee’s 4,000 calorie bulking diet after carnivore.
Drake’s current approach is mostly meat, plus some purposeful carbs like “carb loading” around workouts. In his view we have to pick a primary fuel source: fat or carbs. Flood both at once, especially with sugar, and we store fat, feel inflamed, and end up tired and puffy.
Food Quality, Europe Envy, and RFK’s One Good Point
We got into food quality too, because you cannot talk carnivore without talking about what is actually in the meat.
On a trip to Ireland, we noticed the difference fast. Pork sausage cooked up pale, almost white, but juicy and rich. Bread went moldy in about three days. Cookies tasted like childhood, not chemistry class. Labels had maybe eight or nine ingredients instead of a paragraph.
We do not agree with RFK Jr. on much, but when he complains about American food additives, we are right there with him. Less junk in food would help everyone, carnivore or not.
Diet, Activity, and Gas Station Landmines
Ben shared his own experience dropping weight one summer while doing hard physical work and eating mostly whole foods. When the heavy activity stopped, the weight crept back, even with a decent diet. For him, diet plus movement together is the secret.
Gas stations are the enemy and the comfort blanket at the same time. When you work on an ambulance and live on weird shifts, that bright convenience store becomes a tiny reward center. Honey buns, sodas, quick salty snacks, all lined up like a hug in cellophane.
You can pack perfect carnivore meals, then walk into a gas station and still walk out with a “treat” you did not need. The pull is real.
Sweet, Salty, and Oreo Psychology
Drake used to attack family-size Oreo packs and half gallons of milk in a single sitting. The science is simple and evil. The cookie is bitter and a little salty, the cream is straight sugar, and together they hit that perfect sweet-salty balance.
We compared dunking styles:
- Fork method, so you can drown three Oreos at a time
- Letting the cookie “Titanic” and watching one side sink first
- Holding it under milk until the bubbles stop while thinking about your enemies
The shared nightmare: pulling up the cookie and having it break, leaving just the icing in your fingers while the cookie layer sinks to the bottom. Nothing tests patience like Oreo shrapnel.
Soft Pretzels, Pimento Cheese, and Sodium Love
Somewhere along the way we realized we are both kind of addicted to soft pretzels.
Bar pretzels with pimento cheese and a dusting of Tajín, pretzels at shows, big crunchy salt crystals that we pretend to brush off but still eat. Drake pointed out that of course they are addictive. They are warm carbs coated in sodium.
For people who used to eat carbs all day and now try to live carnivore or low-carb, pretzels are like a nostalgic ex. We know they are not good for us, but we still remember the good times.
Hormones, Cholesterol, and Costco Egg Mountains
Drake goes through eggs like most people go through coffee. A Costco run for him means 96 eggs in the cart, usually gone in a week.
We talked about how hormones are built from fat and cholesterol, and how cholesterol has been unfairly demonized when sugar is often the bigger villain. Ben eats bacon and eggs almost every day and still had a cholesterol reading of 129 at his last check.
The takeaway for carnivore folks: fat is not the enemy, especially when sugar stays low.
Hammers and Hash Browns, But Mostly Hammers
Outside of his solo content, Drake co-hosts a podcast called Hammers and Hash Browns. The format is beautifully simple:
- Hit the gym and film a workout segment, usually chest day.
- Sit down sweaty and talk life, fitness, and nonsense.
We floated the idea of a crossover, with Ben joining for the workout first, then the pod. Pray for Ben’s triceps.
The Charleston Puzzle, Cats, and Carnivore Bars
To top it off, Drake brought a gift for the set. He and his girlfriend Michelle assembled a detailed Charleston puzzle, then Drake built a custom frame from reclaimed wood off a client’s house on Moultrie Street. He mounted it without glass, using a clear medium so it feels like painted art.
It is probably going to live dead center on the Snackin’ & Yakkin’ wall. Local, hand-made, and full of charm, just like we like it.
We closed on two last bits of chaos:
- His cat treats the hallway like a parkour gym and knocks over every water bottle in sight.
- He is affiliated with a meat-based Carnivore Bar, built from beef, tallow, and simple seasonings, as a shelf-stable option when you are on the road and still eating animal-only.
Final Bites
Spending an afternoon with Drake reminded us why we love doing this show. We get to sit down, crush ridiculous amounts of bacon, and talk honest carnivore wins and failures with people who are figuring it out in real time.
If you want more of this kind of snack-fueled chaos, subscribe to the main Snackin’ & Yakkin’ YouTube channel, or come hang with us behind the scenes on the Snackin’ & Yakkin’ Patreon.
Thanks for reading, now go fry some bacon and think hard before you walk into that gas station.
