February 17, 2019
Note: The terms “Sasquatch” and “Bigfoot” can be used interchangeably to describe the creature that supposedly dwells in North America. I utilize both in this review.
SOMETHING NEW
SOMETHING NEW
For the general public, finding the perfect gateway podcast to get you hooked can be like searching for a mythical creature. A couple of your more eccentric friends probably swear by one show or another, and a community of avid followers serves as testament to the medium’s appeal. Most of society is familiar with a couple notable examples. Is Serial the Lochness monster of podcasts? Is Marc Maron Bigfoot? Do any of these things merit one’s investment of time and the questionable impact on one’s social standing? (Generally speaking, professing my love of podcasts to a new acquaintance garners much less interest than if I were to tell someone how I enjoy basketball). Laura Krantz’s Wild Thing bares witness to those who’ve aligned themselves with an embattled cause - be it hunting for a new species or bootstrapping a serialized nonfiction narrative podcast with a quirky focus.
To my knowledge, no one else has made a podcast about Sasquatch using the tools of investigative journalism. There are certainly a number of more conspiratorial shows out there with similar subject matter, but Wild Thing’s fact-driven approach sets it miles apart from those that recall a late night AM radio timeslot. Laura Krantz is a great reporter with an affable personality - one that couldn’t be better suited for earnestly and aggressively pursuing a story that is likely to be held at arm’s length by others in the journalistic and scientific communities (she is an NPR Morning Edition alum, and has contributed to Popular Science, Smithsonian Magazine and Outside). Still, the amount of super-extensive reporting on this project gave me pause. A YEAR spent tracking down endlessly diverging threads of Bigfoot lore? Is it even possible for this whole operation to be anything more than one giant fluff piece, regardless of the integrity of the reporter bringing us the story?
There are some things that work to debunk that skepticism at the outset. For starters, Krantz has a family connection that drew her into the story, which adds a welcome dimension to the concept of the show. Her cousin Grover Krantz, a deceased anthropologist who specialized in studying human evolution, inspired the project and makes several cameos that often serve as a nice intro to an episode. This link made it easier for me to understand why someone with Krantz’s credentials would pursue a topic I pretty readily place in the “doesn’t-exist-don’t-bother” part of my brain. But from start to finish I could never really reconcile the ease of imaginative pondering with the approach of scientific objectivity, and found it hard to be totally whisked away to the edge of my imagination. There was, however, a really intriguing thread that, while mostly implicit, kept me going through all nine episodes: why do people love Bigfoot, and why does the idea of its existence occasionally capture even the imagination of non-believers?
From the very first episode, Krantz admits we might not find anything. Nevertheless, she maintains a sort of spirited optimism of someone newly open to the possibilities of the unknown. The posture feels sincere, and I get the sense this gameness bought Krantz a lot of credibility among the various individuals she interviewed and rode along with for the show. In episode 6, our host sets off on an overnight Bigfoot-centric camping trip. This outing helped flesh out the humanity of squatchers, as the rudimental nature of comuning in the great outdoors was as central to the trip as the act of specifically scouting for the big fella. Episode 7 finally tackles the heart of my hangup with the series: how to square serious scholarship with theories that have rather zany connotations. It turns out that the community is troubled by individuals more grounded in magical optimism than by biological proof, which is a nice reminder that there are degrees of absolutism within any band of people united around a common cause.
Perhaps the best episode is the ninth and final one. After teasing the results of DNA testing for a couple installments, the big reveal comes rIght up top - there is no sign of a not-previously-discovered-species in the samples procured from ground nests earlier in the series. A lesser show might’ve strung listeners along for the majority of the finale before piecing together a half-baked “But what does it all mean?” monologue. This can be an excellent way to enforce life’s utter lack of certainty, but all too often comes off as opportunistic and anticlimactic self-aggrandizing. Wild Thing winds down with a nice antidote to this sort of disquieting bow-tying, with a frank discussion about how people can be primed to take an idea and run with it. Krantz does editorialize about her own feelings, as she has earned the right to do, but it is devoid of any authoritative ambivalence. This isn’t a hard right turn to matter-of-factism, and our journalist host doesn’t pound in the puny nails of wonder with her righteous “SHOW ME THE EVIDENCE” hammer.
The final minutes of Wild Thing’s denouement celebrate the unintended side effects of wading through the unknown. Camping, protecting the environment as a preemptive measure, keeping meddlesome humans away from our great missing link, just having some kind of distraction to ponder at a safe distance that seems more than fake and less than real...there are many reasons to pursue Sasquatch. Or video games. Or professional sports fandom. Or podcasts. It’s a fitting end to a show about the intersecting forces of science and myth, and honestly I found it kind of reassuring. There is room for some gray area in life, and maybe sometimes it’s better to strive for something the world largely dismisses as imaginary.
From: Foxtopus
Recommended for: Squatchers and the squatch-adjacent
Drop Schedule: Seasonal:Weekly (all episodes now available)
Average episode length: 30 minutes
Rating: Make It Work
THE LIST
Another wonderful show from Decoder Ring, focusing in this installment on the nature of communicating truth. Not only is there a super compelling biographical tale at the episode's core, host Willa Paskin analyzes the way Decoder Ring (and so many other narrative nonfiction endeavors) choose to present real-world events as entertainment. Maybe this will be a defining moment in the deluge of hit crime-based podcasts, causing producers and listeners alike to really question the way a set of facts comes together in a titillating package.
Some podcasts have a schtick that guests adapt with varying degrees of commitment. These are usually podcasts led by and featuring comedians. When a titan in the music industry goes all in on being playful with a fellow musician (with, perhaps, a lesser-known ouevre), great things happen. I enjoyed Weird Al growing up, but never would've considered myself a super fan...and I loved this.
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It's hard to strike out when you've got as winning a formula as The Anthropocene Reviewed (essentially: brilliant writing + engaging concept + earnest narration = a must-listen experience). After listening to this episode, however, I would like to see how the author would change his tune if he lived elsewhere in Indiana, the Midwest, or really in any much-smaller-than-Indianapolis-sized semi-urban area. Is any place capable of winning over an NYC expat? Let alone at first sight? Mr. Green, consider this an invitation to experience mid-sized-town Michiana as it suits your schedule.
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HONORABLE MENTION
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