Making great BBQ is easy. You just need a little patience… right?

This week on Smoke(less), Nick Pencis of Stanley’s Famous Pit Bar-B-Q, Wayne Mueller of Louie Mueller Barbecue, Justin Fourton of Pecan Lodge and Vic Barry respond to the claim that anyone with a cheap offset smoker and a little patience can make great barbecue.

The guys get into the huge difference between cooking a brisket in the backyard and producing consistently great BBQ for hundreds of customers every day then tackle another argument that refuses to go away: why has barbecue become so damn expensive? F

rom rising beef prices and restaurant costs to tiny margins, fuel, labour and the pressures facing independent BBQ joints, they explain what customers rarely see behind the menu price.

Plus, they offer advice to a listener getting ready to launch his own BBQ operation, talk about protecting your sanity from online reviews, and finish with Plate or Hate, including a brisket cheesesteak and a brisket cooked on the other side of the Atlantic.

Think BBQ is easy? Grab a $200 Facebook Marketplace smoker and show us what you’ve got.

🔥 PLATE OR HATE: Cooking something you're proud of — or something you want the guys to tear apart? Post it on Instagram and tag @smokeless_podcast for a chance to be featured on the show.

New episodes of Smoke(less) every week.

What started as a backyard BBQ in Dallas has grown into something nobody could have predicted.

This week on Smoke(less), Nick Pencis of Stanley’s Famous Pit Bar-B-Q, Justin Fourton of Pecan Lodge, and Wayne Mueller of Louie Mueller Barbecue sit down with Alice Laussade, founder of Meat Fight, the brilliantly weird BBQ fundraiser that has now raised more than $4 million for the National MS Society.

Alice tells the story of how Meat Fight grew from a small backyard cookout into a full-blown annual event involving incredible BBQ, giant pig races, carnival games, Meat Bike, Meat Hike, Project 13 and plenty of wonderfully strange ideas along the way.

But behind all the madness is something much bigger. Alice’s brother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and Meat Fight has become a way of supporting people living with MS, from providing specially adapted bikes to helping fund MS research at UT Southwestern.

There’s also the small matter of a kidnapped glitter pig, ransom demands and one of the stranger ongoing mysteries in BBQ.

It’s a conversation about BBQ, family, community, doing good, and how something that started in a backyard can become far bigger than anyone ever intended.

The Backyard BBQ That Raised $4 Million | Alice Laussade

Before Texas BBQ became a global phenomenon, Wyatt McSpadden was already there — camera in hand, documenting the people, places and traditions that helped define it.

For decades, Wyatt has captured some of the most iconic images in Texas barbecue, from the old-school joints of Lockhart and Taylor to the rise of a new generation that would completely transform the scene.

In this episode of Smoke(less), Wyatt joins Nick Pencis, Justin Fourton and Wayne Mueller to look back at an extraordinary career behind the lens. He shares stories from photographing legendary BBQ joints, climbing onto a semi-trailer to get the perfect shot, documenting Aaron Franklin before anyone could have predicted what was coming, and the photographs and memories that mean the most to him.

Wyatt also opens up about his battle with cancer, why photography became so important during his recovery, photographing everyone from Willie Nelson to Beyoncé, and what happens to a lifetime of work when the photographer behind it is no longer around to tell the stories.

This isn’t just the story of a photographer. It’s the story of someone who witnessed — and preserved — a remarkable era of Texas BBQ history.

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