BSM Partners is proud to announce a comprehensive rebrand of its podcast, formerly known as The Pet Industry Podcast, to Barking Mad! Curiosity will bite back in the following episodes, in which we’ll be stripping back the fluff and getting to the meat of hot topics and trends craved by pet owners, industry professionals and veterinarians alike.

Tune in to this trailer to hear from Co-Hosts Jordan Tyler and Dr. Stephanie Clark about the “why” behind Barking Mad, and what we have in store.

Show Notes

00:00 – Introducing Barking Mad, a podcast by BSM Partners

01:09 – Getting to know Dr. Stephanie Clark, PhD, CVT, PAS, CFS, Dpl. ACAS, VTS (Nutrition), her tales from the rear-end, and her three-legged rescue

05:08 – Dr. Steph and the Miss Frizzle approach

06:12 – Getting to know Jordan Tyler, her most awkward interview, and one of her pets’ special dietary needs

13:23 – Teasing Barking Mad’s “dog on the street”

13:52 – What to expect from Barking Mad?

15:58 – Controversy in pet nutrition

16:46 – What does Barking Mad mean anyway?

17:47 – How to let us know what you’re Barking Mad about

18:08 – Stay tuned for the first official episode of Barking Mad!

Jordan Tyler: Hello, everyone. And welcome to Barking Mad, a podcast by BSM Partners. We're your hosts, Jordan Tyler and Dr. Stephanie Clark. Today we're here to shed our old identity, the Pet Industry Podcast, if you've been following along, in favor of a bigger, better, better. and bolder podcast platform dedicated to keeping pet parents and industry pros in the know about the latest developments, trends, and challenges facing the pet care industry now and in the future.

Stephanie Clark: That's right. This podcast will dig into topics that no one else wants to touch with a 10-foot pole. But we are tackling those topics just for you. You're also going to have amazing guests and experts on topics to share the insights on matters that actually matter.

Jordan Tyler: So Stephanie, many of our listeners should already be familiar with your voice and your expertise in the pet care industry, but for those tuning in for the first time, let's do a little icebreaker. What are some things that you'd like our listeners to know about you?

Stephanie Clark: Ooh, I've got some good ones, some juicy ones.

Jordan Tyler: She means that literally.

Stephanie Clark: Oh, yes, yes I do. So I've always had this bond with animals. Like, I feel like every midwestern girl, I wanted to be a vet when I was little, but then I got all wrapped up in research and ended up with a PhD.

You know, I really love research, but my family, they still think I'm the local animal whisperer or something. All the time I would get these random texts like, Hey, we haven't talked in five years, but my dog is acting strange. What do you think? And don't get me wrong, right? I love that I have people that trust me with their animal's health.

But I'm a nutritionist, not a psychic. So most of the time, I follow up with a very pleasant text asking if I can get a picture of their pet's poop. I know, I know. It sounds gross. And even those who are responding are like, Are you sure? But trust me, as a nutritionist, that brown gold can tell you a lot about what's going on.

So, yeah, poop pictures are now a normal part of my life. Moving on from poop, then there's this whole anal gland expressing saga. And every time I came home from the holidays, it was like, Hey, Steph, Thanksgiving 5, and Oh, by the way, can you handle my dog's anal glands? Yeah, yeah.

Jordan Tyler: You want to come over to my family for Christmas this year?

Stephanie Clark: Yes, as long as I don't ever have to ask you the awkward question. Do you have gloves and lube available?

You know, it's always a really good icebreaker of like hey, can I have some gloves and Some lube when you're sitting down to a holiday dinner But really I mean it was every holiday. Come on family. Give me a break You know, and, and I guess less on the gross side, I have a beagle. Uh, we renamed her, uh, when we adopted her last year.

Stephanie Clark: Her now name is Barley Hops, and she's a three legged escape artist.

Jordan Tyler: Wait, that's such a perfect name for, first of all, excellent dog name. But then the fact that three legs, barley hops, that's incredible. I'm obsessed.

Stephanie Clark: I fell in love with her. My husband was like, absolutely not. And I'm like, But look how cute and she'll probably be a little bit slower because she only has three legs... guess again.

Stephanie Clark: Yeah We you know beagles for those of you who have beagles when their nose turns on their ears turn off and on top of that I'm pretty sure she's training for the Olympics because this little tripod can outrun me But for those who have seen me run, I'm not fast to begin with but I'm really not fast She's chasing a three legged dog.

Jordan Tyler: She's going for gold.

Stephanie Clark: She is. She is not looking back. And I'm sitting there yelling, Barley, Barley, come back. Come on, girl. I got treats. Come on. Like a crazy person. One of my neighbors are probably thinking, Oh, this poor girl. She has done lost her mind.

Jordan Tyler: I think my dog just heard you say the T word. He said, Hmm.

Stephanie Clark: He's like, Oh, now I'm really going to be in this podcast. Yes. Yes. So between poop analysis, anal gland emergencies, and chasing a three legged speed demon, I have a really colorful life. And, you know, who knew being a nutritionist would involve so much, um, quality time with animal waste and cardio.

Jordan Tyler: That was maybe the euphemism of the year. I mean, who said that pet care wasn't glamorous, right? That just sounds like a day in the life. Another thing that I do want to point out to our listeners is that while Stephanie is one of our hosts, she's also a highly credentialed scientist. That's part of the reason why we're co hosting Barking Mad together.

There will be some episodes where Stephanie actually comes on as Dr. Stephanie Clark. I mean, she's definitely still Dr. Stephanie Clark right now, but she'll come on as an expert guest. So I'll get to ask her some of the hard questions, too.

Stephanie Clark: So me, as Dr. Steph, and asking all those hard questions, it's all about making science fun and accessible.

For those of you who remember the Magic School Bus, Which was probably one of my favorite cartoons growing up. I like to think of Ms. Frizzle meets your favorite podcast. You know, I'm going to be that quirky science teacher who turns complex topics into something even your mom could understand plus or minus the crazy hair some days. You know, there's going to be no jargon, no mumbo jumbo, just plain talk about really fascinating stuff.

You know, so Jordan, the BSM team is full of experts from quality assurance. Engineering, Innovation, and Nutrition. Lately we've added on Marketing, and now Media. You're the new kid on the BSM Partners block, but a name that is well recognized in the industry. So can you tell us what's your secret to winning over both dogs and listeners? Spill the beans, girl.

Jordan Tyler: I don't know if it's so much a secret. It's more, I'm just that annoying person that's always gonna ask if I can pet your dog. I just, I love animals. My little sister actually wanted to be a vet. Um, you were from the Midwest as well, so you were spot on there.

Stephanie Clark: I knew it. I knew it every time.

Jordan Tyler: But yeah, so I've spent the last five or I guess closer to six years reporting on news and developments in the pet nutrition industry with a trade magazine called Pet Food Processing. Shout out to them. It's a great publication. So when I was with Pet Food Processing, some of my favorite things to cover were Doing profiles on small businesses, I think that so much of the industry's innovation actually comes from new players and really small players in the industry.

So that was always really fascinating to me. Some other things that I like to cover are sustainability and new ingredients. Research, you know, I'm definitely not the scientist in the room here, but I'm kind of a nerd still, so I love research. No offense, Stephanie, you're not a nerd, it's just me.

Stephanie Clark: You just play one on TV.

Jordan Tyler: Another thing that I started at Pet Food Processing was The Women in Pet Industry Q&A series, and that's basically where we profiled trailblazing women in the industry and just highlighted their successes, their challenges, you know, challenges that are unique to women in what has historically been a pretty male dominated industry, you know, manufacturing.

Stephanie Clark: You know, I really love that piece.

Jordan Tyler: Yeah, and you are actually featured in the Women in the Pet Industry series.

Stephanie Clark: I mean, that's the only reason why I read it, right? No, just kidding. Totally kidding. Some very powerful women were in there.

Jordan Tyler: You included, definitely. But yeah, no, we, it was really great to highlight some of the accomplishments of women, you know, early in their careers, late in their careers, somewhere in the middle. So maybe we can link to that in the show notes and you can learn a little bit more about Dr. Stephanie Clark here.

Stephanie Clark: And all my struggles on making it to pet food, it was not an easy path, but I, I do want to know though, you know, as a, as a journalist, as an investigative journalist, what was the most awkward moment in an interview you had done?

Jordan Tyler: Well, I have a couple. I guess normally when I have a bad interview, I try to just pretend like it never happened, you know, as you do. I guess my most recent awkward moment was when we tried to record this earlier and we got pretty much all the way through it and I realized that I wasn't recording. So, that was embarrassing.

Stephanie Clark: Hey, but we still love you and we got a lot of practice for our listeners. So that's true. It's a win win.

Jordan Tyler: Actually. So one of the, one of the most awkward situations I was writing an article, it was a highly technical article, um, about a certain processing equipment. And so I was emailing all these companies trying to just like fish around who could inform me about this and who was to be included in the article.

Jordan Tyler: And I guess I asked. Maybe a dumb question the person that I asked the question replied back and I don't think he meant to CC me on that email...

Stephanie Clark: Dun dun dun... Do you open it? Do you not open it?

Jordan Tyler: Right, right. I, yeah, I sat there for a second, definitely. But I opened it. It was, I'll let you fill in the blanks. And then I immediately gave this guy a phone call because I was like, well, if that was a dumb question, like, help me ask the right question, right? And in the end, it ended up being a great interview. He was super helpful. Um, but yeah, that was one of the most probably most awkward interviews of my career so far.

Stephanie Clark: I mean, props to you for giving him a call. I probably would have like ran to like the nearest like freezer, grab some ice cream and like cried and told no one about this embarrassing moment.

Jordan Tyler: So I did that later. Don't worry. But yeah, so another thing that I kind of want to share is, you know, I'm a pet owner.

So in our household, we have two cats and two dogs, and they keep us pretty busy as you can probably imagine. But our latest dog, we found through a family member who had rescued him off the side of the road in Southern Missouri. And he was just. You know, he'd been living in the woods, totally emaciated, but just the most friendly dog, came right up to my mother in law's car and just jumped right in.

Stephanie Clark: It's like, hey lady, take me with you.

Jordan Tyler: Yeah, save me! And, you know, he's been thriving here, but fast forward a few vet visits and some blood work later, and we learn that he actually has something called EPI. Which is exocrine pancreatic insufficiency. So basically what that means is his pancreas isn't creating the digestive enzymes he needs to digest and truly absorb the nutrients that he gets from his food.

So obviously when we found this out, we had a ton of questions like which dog food might be the best for his condition. And what other measures could we take to ensure that he gains weight and is healthy despite the EPI? And through this process, I really realized firsthand just how complex it is to ensure that our dogs and our cats are truly living their best lives.

Stephanie Clark: You know, Jordan, my mom actually had a dog that was diagnosed with EPI as well. I know, it was so sad, it's a sad story. You know, and as pet owners, we don't even know a lot about this disease or even know that it exists sometimes until the blood work and the test results are staring you straight into the face.

You know, I will give you props again, it's a labor of love. It's not easy to manage straight out of the gate and that can be really frustrating for owners. But, you know, if you and another listeners are curious about EPI or other diseases and you want to know more about understanding what your vet may be saying during a visit, stay tuned because we will definitely have some episodes for you in the future.

Jordan Tyler: Yeah, it's definitely been a journey, but you're so right. Through this platform, we really want to help pet owners solve these really complex and sometimes convoluted problems. And at the very least, Support our pets health and well being in the best ways that we can. So, I guess, long story short, this is personal to me.

Stephanie Clark: I mean, it's personal to everyone, right? We all love our pets. And in addition to that, Barking Mad will also feature a super special guest. Our dog on the street, if you will. This canine inspired character will grace the mic on our future episodes with insightful clips and irreverent commentary. But you're just gonna have to hang on just a little bit longer because he's currently undergoing training to learn how to fetch the mic. So stay tuned for his grand debut.

Jordan Tyler: Yeah, super excited to have our dog on the street join us a little later on. You know, as we're talking more and more about this, I'm just getting more and more excited. So speaking of this rebrand, Stephanie, I was hoping you could tell our listeners a little bit more about what's going to change and what will stay the same.

Stephanie Clark: Yeah, as humans, we hate change, right? I know I do. And most of us prefer that things stay the same. So with that in mind, new episodes will come every other Wednesday. And they will be the same release date as our original podcast. We're just going to bring you more consistency. You will still hear from top industry experts and inspiring entrepreneurs.

And if you've been following the pet industry podcast, you've heard a ton about DCM, which is actually still being talked about. We're just going to also broaden our scope beyond DCM to include hot topics and trends that matter most to pet food pros and pet owners.

Jordan Tyler: Absolutely, that's right. So, for example, we all love family farmers, right?

Stephanie Clark: Yay!

Jordan Tyler: Yeah, Stephanie, you come from a family of farmers.

Stephanie Clark: That I do, yes.

Jordan Tyler: And we love them!

Stephanie Clark: Sometimes. I like my family. Just kidding.

Jordan Tyler: Except when they're asking you to express their dog's anal glands.

Stephanie Clark: Then, yeah.

Jordan Tyler: But, you know, speaking of the family farmer, are we really supporting them as an industry through some of our ingredient choices? And even the demonization of some ingredients without the sound research to really back that up. Another thing that we're going to talk about coming up really soon is pet obesity really an epidemic? Sadly it is. And we're going to introduce you to a brand that's on a mission to end this epidemic with some help from veterinarians.

Stephanie Clark: You know, on top of those pressing topics, we're going to also talk about human grade pet food. And spoiler alert! It does not always mean what you think it means. You know, and we're also going to talk about how the industry is tackling sustainability, how pet parents are making pet care purchasing decisions, and so much more.

And in case you thought the controversy in pet nutrition stopped at DCM, guess again. There is more topics and passionate individuals bringing those issues to the surface. But are they science based? Are pet food brands truly doing their research on their food? Or are they just throwing it out there and hoping for the best, and in reality, your dog and cat are the true guinea pigs?

Jordan Tyler: That's such a good point, and something one of our founders, Nate Thomas, always says, you know, if pet food companies aren't testing their products, they're testing them on your pets.

Stephanie Clark: Mm mm. Not cool.

Jordan Tyler: Definitely not cool. So these conversations are all coming out very, very soon. So for everyone out there listening, stay tuned.

Stephanie Clark: We've been talking about some of the new and exciting things Barking Mad has to offer. But Jordan, I gotta ask, what in the world does Barking Mad even mean?

Jordan Tyler: That's a really good question, Stephanie. So, we chose the name Barking Mad for several reasons. One of them is definitely that BSM Partners is a little crazy about pet care.

This new platform is going to be bold, it's going to ask the tough questions, and it's going to take feedback directly from pet owners in the form of polls so that listeners can help guide our future episodes based on what they want to hear about most. I'm super excited about that feature, by the way.

Stephanie Clark: Me too.

Jordan Tyler: So yeah, I guess in a nutshell, to me, this new name demonstrates our passion, our curiosity. And our expertise in the pet care space.

Stephanie Clark: So we can kind of think of it as we're barking up the right trees when it comes to important pet care topics.

Jordan Tyler: That's right.

Stephanie Clark: So listeners, do you have a pet care topic you'd like us to explore? Is there a pet industry expert in particular you'd like to hear on a future episode? Let us know what you're barking mad about and reach out to us at media at bsmpartners. net or comment on any of our podcast episodes.

Jordan Tyler: We'll be releasing our first official episode of Barking Mad next Wednesday, August 21st. So be sure to bookmark and subscribe to Barking Mad. on your favorite leading podcast platform. So you don't miss this exciting conversation or any of our future episodes.

Stephanie Clark: Thanks for tuning in and stay curious.