Tinfoil Tales - MonsterQuest | Interview with Showrunner Jared McGilliard

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at gmail dot com. Thanks to Cult to Conspiracy, Welcome back to tenfoil Tells tonight. I'm joined by Mike Guess, Jared Jared, thanks for coming on here and talking to me.

just been a blast to put together. So that's just uh, that's just premiered and this week will be episode four. So yeah, that's that's monsters and creatures and unknown, unknown encounters. That's been my word for, like in a very intense way for the past year and.

Hemalays and Nepal looking for the Yetti. For an earlier version of Monster Quest. And you know, I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, Sasquatch was one hundred percent part of my childhood. I don't I didn't have really any encounters as a kid, but uh, my friend's parents did, people I know that did. So I've always had a

general curiosity about this stuff. And you know, we were we were talking History Channel about a couple of different shows, and Cryptids came up, and you know, it was obviously a place that I thought, you know, I always think about how do I want to spend next you know, the next year or two of my life and I and I've always wanted to sort of do something that that took a kind of a deep dive look into

the world as encrypted. So it started as like a really informal conversation and then it just took me down a road. And I've known Adam Davies for a long time and so you know, that's sort of just sort of like a constant communication about the little adventures he's

gone on. So I've always been curious about it. And so when the opportunity sort of came up up to sort of do a little bit of deeper dive into it, I jumped at it because it's just it's always something that I've been curious about, and it's it's definitely something that you know, a lot of encounters here in my backyard.

And yeah, so that was that was the real reasoning is I I tend to believe that it's more interesting to think that there are things out there that we don't understand and to think that we know it all. And so it felt like a real unique opportunity to sort of to make that my life and my focus for a bit, and I'm glad I did. It's been a lot of fun.

on because it's something that twenty years ago. Was one of the first outlets for me was to watch that show because I was like, oh, there's other people so it was just one of those things because back then, like when that first came out, it wasn't really it was before Finding Bigfoot, it was before some of these other shows whatever, and you didn't hear a whole lot.

You had shows like maybe Sightings back in the nineties, I think it was, and you had like In Search of a Leonard Nimoy years and years ago, but there wasn't a show like Monster Quest up until Monster Quest, And I think that kind of paved the way for a lot of the stuff that people do, I think and be one hundred percent, I don't have it paved the way for me doing my podcast because it gave me that inspiration. So it's it's cool to see it back.

So I'm glad that you're involved with it and bringing it back out there for everyone.

be part of bringing it back. It's been a blast, and I like, you know, I think that you know a lot of these shows tend to live on the sensational side of the story, kind of making in something else or poke holes and and I always felt like, you know, the original Monster Quest really went about it very objectively and thoughtfully, and and it was kind of fun to carry that torch forward in terms of our approach for this season and just trying to you know, not not question it, not try to look for or

it is, not try to even ask the question is this true or is this not true? It really was not the point of the show. The point of the show is just to elevate credible stories where somebody had an encounter with something that they cannot understand, and trying to look into history and trends and patterns to sort of elevate this idea that they are not one off experiences and that these are part of all there are part of like deeper histories and that these people have

gone through. So yeah, anyway, I'm glad, I'm glad you're excited that it's back, and I'm pretty excited.

really fascinating. You know. There's a story coming up in this Friday's episode with which with Shane Luthold, who's a who's he's a judge right now in Ohio and he had an encounter when he was a kid in some cornfields out there. That that is just a really cool story. You know, it's a really interesting story. And obviously his background and and and and in sort of his place in the in in In as a judge is interesting. He's super credible. So Shane's was really fascinating too. Uh.

There's a guy also named Johnny and Chinsky. He's a he's a wildlife biologist out of Wyoming who had an

encounter and his story was fascinating as well. And now I remember leaving that interview with him, and and it was right before Jeff Meldrum passed tragically, and I had reached out to Jeff right after I met John because I thought, oh, man, we're going to do a feature documentary with these guys, Like they're just so much to the story and they had some unique evidence, and I think I'm really drawn, you know, just the stories where you know, I think some people have a lot to

lose by coming out and telling these stories, you know, and somebody who's like a wildlife biologist who exists in science and its credibilities everything to come out and say, oh, I've seen I've had it encounter with sasquatch, and this is the evidence I've had. It's a it's a larger barrier for someone to overcome to come out and do that within withinter of that scientific community, with a creature

that science hasn't recognized yet. And so I don't know, I really John's story is fascinating, has some really cool evidence to it, and you know, there are certain people I've talked to that I feel like are right on that precipice of delivering something to the scientific community that I think will just change the narrative to one hundred and by one hundred eighty degrees, you know, and just general consensus in the public. So I know those three.

It's it's hard for me to choose though, because I tell you there's a really tough crush because I found, and I really don't mean this, every story that we crop covered I found to be so credible and so interesting, and I really left those interviews with a completely different perspective. And whether it was like an alien abduction or a dog man or a bigfooter goat man, there's a lot of things out there that I feel like we don't quite understand. So they're all really incredible stories.

one in Texas too. It's the same story where it's a goat man, it's around an old railroad bridge. Where does this like where do they come from? Like when it comes to like goat man, this is what I like to find out, Like where did the stories originate from? Like how did the legends happen? Where people are seeing these things all around railroad tracks? Like when we talked off air about dog Man around river systems, Like a

lot of people see them around the rivers. So it gives some sort of credence to the idea that, well, if someone sees the goat man around train tracks all the time, around a bridge for trains, and then people see dog Man around river systems, like, you have to think that there's some sort of credibility to what the people are seeing because it sounds so similar to what other people have talked about that they might not even know someone talked about it before.

one spooked me out a little bit. But I think sometimes people see something they might not say in the moment, oh, that was a goat man. But then they do exactly what you do. Is they they research, they look, they they try to find similarities to what they saw, and they come to the clusion it must have been it must have been that, you know. Uh, Gil Sanchez is the there's a police officer in the first episode that that believe he hit. He ran right over this goat man,

he thought, erecked his entire cruiser. Can't find any any evidence of of anything, you know, any sort of collision or anything. But he he saw sees this thing. Then he connected it to these old these old mines in New Mexico is where he felt like that history was. But yeah, there is there are these sort of very strange connections and similarities from one encounter to the next that kind of make it feel undeniable. That's something peculiar isom and running around.

I'm actually on my way to a bigfoot convention. And then he just did straight looked me in the eye and said, so you're into this type of stuff. I said yeah. He's like, what is something that kind of looks like a deer has like deer looking legs, but it almost had like the body of a pig. I was like, what, it's like, I don't and then he proceeded to tell me that when a couple of years ago he was driving a truck at night and he said he swore like a big hog come running out

across the road, but it was on deer legs. I was like, I've never heard of that before, so I don't. I can't tell you anything. I was like, it was just just random random guys saw me wearing a big foot shirt, so he come over. I was like, Okay, you could have been making the whole thing up. Maybe, I was like, but the chances are like, why would you just randomly make that up for no reason?

And you know, some of the stuff that was really fun of the series was to go you know where you know, part of the castle is obviously just going and talking to people and you know, chatting with someone like you and Sam I had that you should talk to this person. A lot is word of mouth is really how how the whole process happened. But something of a lot of it was just trying to find really famous stories, you know, and and then trying to see if there was somebody who could take us right to that.

And the Mothman it was a story you know, like Christina Bennett, the Bennett Family, which the Mothman feature Faimily Rich brigheers build up based on their family experience, and man, that was awesome getting sit down with her and talking about I mean, she was only four years old when it happened, but uh, that first person perspective on these very famous stories, which I have some familiarity with, but then hearing somebody specifically, you know, that was uniquely tied

to it was really fascinating. Or like Geraldine stiff with like the the Kelly you know, the Hopkinsville green Men, you know, and she's amazing storyteller, truly amazing storyteller. But that that that story isn't is crazy. You know. It's just a really really wild story that not only have stuck with sort of those people, but have up with that family for generations, you know, in terms of like

how that sort of continues. So I don't know, it's been It's been a very eye opening experience during that show. There's there's no doubt.

I was like, I wonder if you've actually talked to Geraldine, because I was like, the Hopkinsville story, the Kelly Greenman is one of those stories that I think would have been great to have included in there.

and I thought I had a great idea. I'm going to talk about cryptids and aliens and all sorts of stuff that no one's doing, and little.

visualize the creatures. But filming his his recreation was was really fun. I mean, we we I call it, we darked out with that one. That's just like getting into a cornfield. And then we hired this actor. He did just an awesome job. And but yeah, you kind of like you want the idea is that you're trying to get the audience to sort of just like relive it. But it's it's his. The way he tells his story is really fascinating and very captivating and very so I

can see why that stuck out to you. I was like, and really has stuck with you through the years for sure.

what I had the idea for starting one. And the first podcast I came across was called Sasquatch Chronicles and the first episode was with Shane. I was like, I was like, so I got hooked instantly after I heard his interview. I started binging through these episodes and then I was like, yep, I gotta do this now. Yeah.

was not. There's there's yeah, I probably say this too much, but it's not like these type of encounters have a type. There's no type.

no there's no rhyme or reason. Martin story. He was out there, he didn't he didn't believe in he didn't think about this. It wasn't even something that was crossing his mind. He was He's just thinking turkey and dinner is all he was thinking of a break. So, yeah, they set a high bar for the type of stories that we were going after. But yeah, they're awesome.

never see anything. How come you can have all these encounters all the time, but all these other people don't see anything. And then it's the people that were not even wanting to see something that get freaked out by it, don't even want to talk about it. I was like, that seems to be the ones that stick out the most to me because it resonates with me because I understand it at the same time, like you don't want to talk about it, you don't want to deal with it.

You're just like, nope, I don't know what that was. Don't want to deal with it.

in that show is cognitive bias. You know, and you have basically created a an idea in your head and then and then the evidence sort of feeds into that idea, right Like it's and I think that's why for me, I's similar to you, Brandon, Like I really people's first encounter was the most is the most fascinating to me because there's no there's there's no they're not looking for anything. They're not. There's no there's no there's no cognitive bias,

there's nothing there that they're sort of setting this. So I have this this idea of I'm going in the woods looking for for such and such, and I see I hear something, and I immediately connected, well is it this or is it not? When you're not where you're going in the woods just a camp or not do anything, you're not thinking about that when you hear a noise,

just like, well that's an odd noise. You have no organizational thing to organize it in your head other than after the fat going and trying to figure out, okay, what what was that attached to? You know, And you know, it reminds me of like last week's episode with with Daniel Hamilton and he was a young kid going out, you know, just this hunting of his family and he heard something and in that moment he probably thought it

was a bear. But afterwards, you know, he heard Ron Moorehead's see our sounds and he's like, oh, no, that's what I heard. And I find that fascinating when people sort of hear something after the fact, they go looking for answers and they go, well, that's that's the same sound I heard. But it's so that the people's first encounters, I always feel like they're the purest. You know, the first time they see something doesn't mean that when they

see something afterwards they didn't see things. Doesn't mean that they didn't see it, but that first time where it was like that was odd, that was unexpected, I can't explain it, and then you go searching for those answers. But yeah, cognitive bias, man, that's a pretty interesting theory.

they can't take photos of them. I was like, how does that work? So it's like it gets into like a little murky area that I don't try and argue

with people or prove or does prove anything. But it's like, I feel like at this stage of technology where we're at in society and with the shows and everything else, it's gotten to the point to where it's going to take some really definitive proof to bring a lot of people over into the believing side that are on the fence about it just because the stories are great, but

there are some I can settle myself. I've seen stuff, but I'm still that way too, like I have to see some sort of proof to understand what's going on out there. And I think that's that's just how it is for a lot of people.

the great great ape researcher back in the day. Was he was murdered and when she was murdered, he he sort of stepped in, stepped into her she's and we were up there and yeah, and I remember asking him. We were in the Pall and we're just you know,

suppicing around, drinking, drinking a little whiskey or something. One night, I was like, hey, man, you know, what are you thinking and do you think that like something like this could really exist up here and he said, well, you know, people didn't believe the Great Apes of Varuna were real for forever until two British guys saw one, killed them

and brought back the body. I mean, that's that. That is how science moves to recognize these things is so you have to have the body, you have to have evidence. So I totally agree. I think that will be the the piece of evidence that really changes the the narrative around some of these creatures.

think this format worked really well. I think early on I was at more concerned about our ability to fit five stories in. Maybe it's because I sat down and talked to each one of these folks for like one to two hours each, you know, so I you know, it's like, oh man, how do I cut that into a ten ten minutes or so story. It's sort of it's hard to but I the way it shook out, it really worked. I think it worked really really well.

Five stories per episode, but each one, I will say this, each one of most stories certainly has a lot more details, you know, And that's why there's so many different platforms for each one of these stories. You know, they're all meant for different audiences. The podcasting platform is great, Like you guys can get in such detail with these stories that you know, we're not necessarily able to you know,

sometimes I'm on a cable show like that. So it's these stories have multiple platforms and multiple reasons, and these stories are there's a reason they're re told multiple times because they're deserving, for sure. But yeah, five five per episode is something that they were hoping we could we could hit and you know, when we got in there and started the editing process, that worked pretty well.

their encounter. So I don't try and edit anything like that. But with my documentary, I don't have time to keep someone's attention, so I've had to go in and edit some stuff out that wasn't really as needed to be

in there. And that's what I've struggled with, is like how do I go into someone's stuff and edit it down because it goes against like my golden rule of what I do with my podcast to try and make everything fit, because you can't have someone talking for twenty straight minutes and then try and keep it all into a very small section of a video. So that's that I don't envy you for I to sit through all these interviews and do that.

change the channel. Yeah, but those decisions are the absolute worst. They're the worst of the artists. It's like the content that ends on the cutting room floor is sometimes real painful.

the Yetti. So that sort of was one of the areas made us focus on this specific area in the Henleys of Nepal. But you know we yeah, we this was before the time of drones, you know. So when we had like an aerial platform created with a helium balloon with a flair camera at the bottom of it that we raised up at this crazy altitude that you know, remoted down and Adam had like a little monitor that so we could so we could sort of look at this area at night and see if any there are

any heat signatures, you know, roaming around this area. We we brought a lot of cool tech and a lot of cool people out there, I mean Ian when we went down. So Adam and I went up with the AGI to this high, high altitude area and then we split and so Ian went down to this river area which he felt like was likely a more of a likely habitat for a creature matching the Yeddi barnable snowman er Yeti's description, and they found some some funny things

they found, some skeletons and stuff and that not. You know, we really didn't find any evidence that furthered it, you know, but I think that's kind of the state of any expedition, you know, sort of you go out there and you you try to follow the evidence that sort of has come before you to see what else you can find.

And I think we did that really successfully. But I think what I left there with was like a clear understanding of of you know, the Rihann said to me and Adam too, It's like, here we are in you know, a very remote area. You know, if we haven't seen this yety, the likelihood that it's seen us as high. You know, they've lived there and be able to distinguish and to disguise themselves for years. They know the area

very well. The likelihood we're going to find something like that and see it with a creature that knows this area way more than I than we do and have any generations is so freaking low. But still it planted a very very large seed of curiosity. I will say in myself, you just understand, like you know that there, you know, there are certainly humans have seen a lot

of our planet. You know, we've seen a lot of places, but there are still a lot of places that are very remote and untouched where creatures like this can live. And there's places, you know, like around the river systems earlier, where they can't hide as much and there are a

larger concentration of sightings. So anyway, it just that that trip really just gave me a new perspective, you know, in terms of the conditions by which a creature like a sasquatch or a YETI could exist for so so long and still we don't have we don't have like that that proof, but that doesn't mean that doesn't exist.

And personally that got me pretty excited. You know. I like the fact that there are things out there that that humans haven't discovered, and I think that makes the world way more interesting place to live.

have permits to live there. There are no roads, there are no there's nothing, and this remote wild wilderness exists, like you said, exists in our world, and I just love giving the opportunity to exist in those places is pretty thrilling, where it just feels like there's really no imprint of humanity and no really difficult ways to access it as well. So, yeah, that's a that was a

pretty special part of the world. But I didn't think about this is after de Paul, and I certainly thought about what else exists up here outside of grizzlies, for sure. When I was in that part of Alaska, I.

So I applied to a bunch of art colleges. I was like, I wrote down school design was one and the other one was Emerson College in Boston, and I this is the long answer to your question, so just sick that you could. And I went there and they said what do you want to what do you want to declare? I had a glitter major, and I said, well, I temkasa what what's the quickest way I can graduate And she said film and TV production or studies like that, and I was like, that sounds cool. And so I

studied and it was a really good fit. You know, I think I I only had like another year left of my four year degree, and so I did that, and then I moved out to l A and I first started working. I thought I wanted to do scripteds stuff. So I was working at Warner Brothers, just reading scripts, and I just hated that culture. Man. I hated just like everyone's in a suit every day, everyone's just networking.

One was hanging out with their friends. And so I called a friend of mine he was working in TV. I just said, hey, get me, get me in shorts and a T shirt. I don't care what I'll do. I just want to go do something fun and and I'm The first show I did was like this, this this like kind of I was a PA, you know, on this on this reality cleaning reality show. It was pretty nasty. And then when I went to it was

showing the Cayman Islands. And then my next show, I was in the Arctic of Canada working on the ice road truckers. You know. It was like a camera out producer, and it just it fit. It fit me. But I dove into it pretty pretty big. I mean, I like lived out of my car for years and I just lived on the road. You know. I was just a this isn't a technical term, but I was like a

TV bum, you know. I just I went where the adventure was and and I loved putting myself in places and situations that I didn't exist, and I was just curious, you know, I might I think I had success because I just liked talking to people about stuff, you know, and sitting in a truck with someone driving up an ice road for one four hours straight, you know, staying up. Like I liked putting myself through kind of like that suffering.

And I liked just having I would always say, like sort of non disposable conversations, like deep conversations with people fun, but also just asking tough conversations. I'm sure you know this in your job too. Some of the coolest things that I love is I can ask people questions that they're best friends would ask them, you know, because I'm in their life, and then I'm out of their life and I still care about them and I still keep

in touch with a lot of those folks. But my job sort of demands that I ask hard questions in a very respectful way. And I loved that. I just loved having very real, deep conversations. So yeah, I kind of got into it at the right time, you know, when a lot of this travel unscripted. I never really got into, like the reality. I didn't like that type of you know, backbiting, high drama stuff. I like man

versus mother nature. I liked going to difficult places and you know, kind of I mean this literally, but it is sort of writing shotgun with people who are living really extreme lives. You know, that's working with you know, chimps or elephants and remote parts of Africa, or you know, living a unique lifestyle in Alaska. So I just kind of jumped into it. And and to be honest, like

I think with anything, I found my community. You know, I've I've met all my good friends in that in that industry, and and you tend to sort of you sort of find your people and then you kind of jump from from from adventure to adventure to adventure together. And and I was also pretty careful about this stuff that I did, and I really wanted to do shows that I felt like there was a real story there. We weren't gonna have to make up a bunch of stuff or fake a bunch of drama. Like I really

just felt like the real story is enough. And so I picked my projects pretty carefully and that served me really really well, but really just finding out the right people and I just dove right into it so that I was a real long winded no, you're long, long winded answer to your question.

I moonlight as a podcaster. So but uh, it's just one of those things, like I've always found it fascinating when it comes to like making art, maget music, making shows. To me, it's like you're creating something like you said, it's like a creative outlet. I think that's why I come to the podcast, because I can actually do this when I don't have to necessarily rely on a lot of other people. It's just my own thing where I can come out here and talk to people.

across the world. It's like there's no predictability, and some people really struggle with that, right, Like I think a lot, especially having kids, I need a little bit more predictability that I have when I was younger, But there's still that sort of there's still that piece of unpredictability that I really really like that, you know, I think for myself, I like living in that chaos. I love living in

the unpredictability. I love being like, I'm gonna tell stories this year, but I don't know where it's gonna take me. I don't know what situation is going to boot me in front of. And then you got to get them and you got to educate yourself as quickly as possible, you know. And it's such a cool way to continue my education and and learn about things that I literally could not have guessed. It could never have anticipated anything that these adventures or stories that I would get that

I get to go tell. And I like that about it a lot, the randomness and the chaos of it. And yeah, it's fun. It's fun to create, you know. For me, I think the hard part is just you know, people I'm should have same with you, Like when people tell you tell tell me their story and put their trust in me that I'm gonna you know, I'm putting it on a big platform. I just want to do the justice, you know, And that really is like what

drives me. It's uh, if my if my mother was on this podcast so that she said, it's your guilt, your guilt is what drives you. But I think it is It's like I really do have this sort of like sense of of the kind way of putting his responsibility. But I like the fear side of me, Like I just want to take and tell these stories as best as I can, whether that's like a SoundBite or a visual or whatever that is. It is just try to

like do that person story justice. And when every one of these episodes air, like every time Friday night comes, I'm just sitting there waiting for the emails that come back. Oh man, I hope they liked I really truly that is like my my level of anxiety. But yeah, I've always loved creative stuff. I love music growing up too, just like you. I never got it was never in a banner aything that, but I just I always wanted

to pursue something that felt creative. I think the challenge is always like how do you make that a business? You know? The business of creativity, I think is really tricky. You know. It's just like it's once you add that that aspect into it, it inevitably changes it, you know, it changes having to figure out how you monetize that creativity. I remember I worked as like a I used to

do like blown glass back in the day. I mean growing up in the Northwest, it's like a big thing out here is like you know, it's making those things. So I remember I did a class with this guy and I and part of the class was like you had to make like a I made like a really tall, long vase and he's like, I like that. Now the trick is how do I make a hundred of those? And I was like, ah, that doesn't sound fun, man, I want to put this one aside and make a

new one. But that is like the business of creativity, which is sort of like that, that repetition. And I think that that's a I think for anyone who has creative endeavors, that's a really tricky thing to figure out. Is the business behind creating and change.

be something you would have to be interested in. You wouldn't go and do something that you've already said, like you're not gonna go to like DOUP reality TV of the drama and stuff like that, it's something that you would enjoy. You have to enjoy what you're doing.

And I think that's the part of storytelling I really like is sometimes what's like on the surface is what most people tell them. I'm gonna tell the surface of the story, that's the obvious story. But I think what I find interesting in terms of what I do is like is like in this why like most of my interviews I do were like hours and hours and hours and hours long, because that you wear people down, you find the part of their story or the part of

an adventure that I think is interesting. And so that's what I kind of always like It's almost like the search for that little nugget is what is curious to me. That's what that's what I kind of get get excited about. But you're right if if I can't just I wouldn't be if I'm just doing something for like a paycheck or something. Sometimes I wish I was that guy, because it'd be be a little bit easier to operate that way.

But I always feel that there has to be something else, uh, something else there that that that that speaks to me, and that to your point, that's when I feel like I actually do a good job, you know, And I have like that self. I'm invested in that way.

but I think they believe what they're telling me. So that doesn't mean that I don't believe them, but it also means, like we talked about it, it could be a mistaken identity. You may not have seen what you think you saw. You may not have experience with you, but you saw something. So it's yeah, I wasn't there, I didn't see it. So who am I to say that you didn't see what you said you saw.

like you're saying, to these conversations, I'm super curious. I really want to hear what people say and I and I'm not having the conversation in my head going do I believe this or not? That question is not in my head. It is not the point of it. It's not what I'm after. It's not why I'm having the conversation. And I think that I think that puts people at ease. I think you can read that on people's faces, you know.

And I'm for me, I'm always trying to I always truly am like leaning in like I get out of that and I feel exhausted after an interview. I'm sure people will talk to me. I feel exhausted too, because I'm just I am I'm hooked, like I'm just really I'm I'm obsessed with their story. I remember went to the to Nepaul like and Adam like seeing you a hard time about this, but like I went to the Paul. I remember, I turned to my crew. I was convinced we were going to cap we were going to capture visually.

Yetie like that. That's That's how I wanted to go into that experience, convinced that what we had put together was going to come back with some evidence. I remember I looked at my crew and I was like, everyone's in charge of getting the shot. You know, just because you're not Adam or Ian or Yagihara and you're not on camera, your job is to keep an eye out as well. Your job is to look around and see what we see because we're in a really unique area.

This is a really unique opportunity, and I think we set this up really well. And I was bought in, you know, that was that That's what made it exciting for me and believe that this was really going to like net something. So yeah, I'm I'm, I'm. That's kind of like my philosophy with all this stuff is it's it's always imbody. I'm always about it. I choose not to live with this. Maybe later I'll think skeptically about it and sort of ponder it a little bit and

think about it. But in the moment, I'm just there to sort of like receive it and just experience it. And I think that's that's it's more fun for me.

there for like twenty eight years. And Adam was with his daughter. And this guy must have recorded, I mean, just had piles of tapes, just cold cassette tapes. And I just pictured him like having those old cassette recorders and he would just record the sounds of the Cascades, you know, just thinking what is he recording? Is here recording the sounds of sasquatch? And so we went back up there and he took me up there and moved to the tree and got to that tree, and Laurie,

who was was Donald, had passed this point. But Donald's daughter went to this tree and he she's talking, hey, big guy, Hey, big guy. Put apples down and some chocolate and weird nothing. And I brought a buddy along and I was like, oh, I'm not going to hear the end of this. My buddies said, give me, give me a hard time about this for the rest of my days. And we walk around a little bit and we come back and Laurie's like, O, Jared, just why

he's come over? Just just you and I come over this tree and go to this tree and it's kind of just right early springs. There's still a little bit of snow on the ground. It's like kind of a camping area there's but there's nobody else there. And we go to this area and she's like, hey, big guy, And I heard a growl coming from beneath this tree

and then like a knocking from underneath this tree. And brain went on for hours, like a long, long long time, and I'm like, hey, my head, I'm like, it's a bear. It's this, you know. I'm just in my head. I'm like, I'm kind of questioning because it's just so bizarre. And the areaway had had it was like a thick moss floor.

There's like as a massy floor basically. And I walked around that area for a long time looking for some entryway in, but I kind of figured it out, and I had a little recorder with me and you can if you if you have the lay headphones on, you can hear the growl. And I think about it a lot, like I think about that a lot, and I just

could not explain it. And since it was the same place RI had come back for years and years and years and years, and she said, oh, yeah, this is the tree that this this asquatch like lives underneath this tree. And I heard it. I can't explain it. Even my buddy that went out there, inevitably, he's a dentist. I'm gonna see him tomorrow and I guarantee you tomorrow morning, this is what he brings up with me. I guarantee it.

It is like it is it is. It is like the constant source of communication, constant, constant source of conversation between us is going back to this event with Adam and the cascades. And I can't explain it. I I find that the other the other things that I've seen, I have a terrible memory, have a terrible memory. So sometimes I will think, I, like have a memory, and I can't. I don't know if other people go through this, but I can't sometimes like did I am I just

imagining that this happened or did this really happen? That one, mostly because there's other people there that was a that was an event I cannot I cannot explain, but it was cool. I'm really glad it happened. It was it was awesome.

it really really does. I live on like five acres out here and in the Northwest, and ever I'm walking around my property night with my dog taking her out or something, or going to check on the chickens, closing the chicken coope. Man, I will tell you these stories, especially for the first the first couple of months after I did all my interviews, it was I could not

not think about that. I could not walk out of my house into dark and not ponder his dog man out here, his sask here is something from the sky about to come down? And like, you know, shy, I just in my I had to almost say, like Jared, chill out, like this time, you've never seen anything on the property here, But it's a you know, I kind of like accepted the fact that I knew that was

going to happen to me. I knew that these stories, not just because I hadn't experienced what they have, but they've really stuck to me, and they have like literally changed the way that I operate when I'm in the dark and what I'm looking for and what I'm listening to. And it kind of goes back to cognitive bias, you know, even not consciously, unconsciously, I am like looking and seeking and listening for the unexpected, and it's just just changed the way I operate.

I think I might know what's out there. And I come around to where the goat barn is and the moon is shining, and there's just a silhouette and it's the whole Boffamet shape. It's the goats with the antlers, like the horns and everything, and it's standing up against a tree eating the bark. But the way I see it, it's on its back legs and it's standing up like

a person. And I instantly was like, the fear hits you because you're just like, oh, oh, I just and then I realized it's just the goat eating the bark, but like that you're just not expecting to go out there and see it on its hind legs and then the silhouette of the horns sticking up and everything else. I was like, what kind of a house did we just buy? Because apparently the devil's in the backyard.

if I ever see it again? I was like, I'm on trump the gas. So it's for the longest time. Like I said, I've tried to write it off as it was just something explainable, But if you have time, I'll tell you off air the whole thing, because there's a lot to it. It makes no sense, and I don't want to bore the audience with it. But there's just so much too that makes absolutely no sense that I don't. I struggle to accept my own but I struggle to accept what I saw because there's absolutely no reason why

they should exist. So it's just one of those things that, like it haunts you because I can't explain. And I'm someone that's like very science based. So I was, like, there's no biological explanation of how a canine can walk like a human, Like there's no evolutionary line for that, at least not that I'm aware of. Like I could understand Bigfoot as a primate, but how do you explain

that about a canine. So that's where I just struggle with it, because there's no right, there's no way this would have it should have existed.

how we survive in the world. Right, you have a certain a line of knowns any animal, Right, it creates your patterns of activity, your expectations we're safe and not safe, something that happens. The reason I think it sticks with us so much is because it challenges that system by which you've been how you've been operating your entire life, you know. And it's it's probably the source of your kid's question too, Hey, if you see this again, what are you going to do? Because it's a whole new

It's something completely new. But that's I think that's what makes life interesting. And I think sometimes some people obviously have some terrible things. But when I would say, as long as I survive it, get through it, I really love it. You know. I look back and I appreciate those experiences because I think they change who I am, you know. And obviously I'm not talking about just like encounters are the unexpected, but anything that sort of like

changes your perspective or reality on the world. As long as you get through it, well as I get through it, I'm like totally for it, you know, because it just makes it, well, it makes my existence that much more interesting.

you would like to discuss beforehand? Because I know with Monster Quest Aaron, right now, what is on the horizon for you and your company after Monster Quest?

some limited series. You know, I find that whenever I do a show, it becomes a new part of my life. So you know, I did that Treasure show. There's some cool treasure stories out there that we're sort of searching looking at some more. So it's anytime I do one show, I feel like it just is like a gateway into some more of that other stuff because I just, you know, I kind of want to tell more stories like it.

But you know, so it's following a little bit of the stuff that's that we've done historically and then trying to find some new things to dig into as well. But yeah, like I said, it's the greatest part about my job is that it's it's chaos and I can never really predict where it's going to take me going to take me next, So I'll be excited to find out. But I'll let you know.

Word of mouth is the best way to help the show grow, and just remember truth comes at cost. Are you willing to pay the price.