Wild Thing is re-releasing its bonus interviews! Seth Shostak is the chief astronomer at the SETI Institute and we’ll hear from him about SETI's mission: how they’re looking, what they're looking for, and how they think about the search.
Wild Thing is re-releasing its bonus interviews! Rob Swiatek introduces us to MUFON—the Mutual UFO Network—whose mission is to collect reports of and investigate UFO sightings all over the US and the world. Swiatek has been with MUFON for decades and explains how the organization works and what they're looking for.
Wild Thing is re-releasing its bonus interviews! Silvano Colombano, a long-time NASA scientist, argues that the search for extraterrestrial life makes some erroneous assumptions. We talk to him about what those assumptions are, why they might be wrong, and how we might think differently about the search.
Wild Thing is re-releasing its bonus interviews! UFOs, aliens, other-worldly beings—all have appeared in art over the centuries (including, possibly, in Renaissance-era paintings). But some of the most recent depictions appear in the works of Frank Buffalo Hyde, an Onondaga artist who uses UFOs to talk about tribal histories and lore.
Wild Thing is re-releasing its bonus interviews! While we hypothesized about exoplanets for years, it wasn't until recently that we could confirm their existence. Astrophysicist and MIT professor Sara Seager has been at the leading edge of the search for exoplanets.
Wild Thing is re-releasing its bonus interviews! 2020 - already not a great year - was made worse for astronomers when the Arecibo Telescope collapsed in Puerto Rico. Abel Mendez, an astronomer who grew up in the telescope's shadow, talks about the importance of Arecibo and what future plans may bring.
Wild thing is re-releasing its bonus interviews! David Anderson likes the idea of aliens but he’s not a big fan of the TV show Ancient Aliens. The archeologist has real problems with how the show portrays his chosen field and diminishes human achievements. But, he says, while the show is misguided, he also understands why these ideas about “pseudoarchaeology” are so appealing.
Wild Thing is re-releasing its bonus interviews! Sarah Stewart Johnson is a planetary scientist who has worked on several Mars missions and is also the author of Sirens of Mars . She talks to us about the latest mission to the Red Planet—the Perseverance rover—and why our closest neighbor holds such fascination for Earthlings.
Wild Thing is re-releasing its bonus interviews! Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson gives his perspective on the rare earth hypothesis, the difficulty of wrapping one's head around the universe, and the problem with movie aliens.
Wild Thing is re-releasing its bonus interviews! In a wide-ranging conversation, Joe Scott, (host of the popular YouTube series Answers With Joe) and I discuss panspermia, whether octopuses are aliens, and the rare earth hypothesis.
Wild Thing is re-releasing its bonus interviews! In September 2020, just days before this podcast launched, scientists announced that they might have found evidence for life on Venus... or at least in Venus's atmosphere. We talk to Clara Sousa-Silva—one of the scientists involved—about their findings, what life on Venus might be like, and what the next steps might be.
Wild Thing is rereleasing its bonus episodes! In Ep. 2 of Wild Thing , I mentioned that people went crazy about the gorilla. They even wrote songs about it. But I couldn’t find the music, so I couldn’t play the tune… until now. In a special bonus letters segment, a musical performance from a Wild Thing fan, as well as some of your stories and letters. *Become a premium subscriber to Wild Thing ! Premium subscribers get ad all three seasons ad-free, not to mention the warm fuzzy feeling that come...
**THIS EPISODE CONTAINS EXPLICIT MATERIAL** Wild Thing is re-releasing its bonus interviews! We talk to Virginia Wade, author of a series of Bigfoot erotica books, about the saucier side of Sasquatch.
Wild Thing is re-releasing its bonus interviews! We hear from William Dear—director of "Harry & the Hendersons"—about how he tried to capture the magic of Bigfoot on the big screen. *Become a premium subscriber to Wild Thing ! Premium subscribers get ad all three seasons ad-free, not to mention the warm fuzzy feeling that comes from supporting the show. Go to https://wildthing.supportingcast.fm/ to find out more!...
On September 10, 2025, Jeff Meldrum passed away after a battle with brain cancer. I interviewed him multiple times for the first season of Wild Thing and he was incredibly generous with his time and extremely patient in answering my questions about Bigfoot. In memory of him, I’ve excerpted a section from one of our interviews, at a 2017 conference held in honor of the 50th Anniversary of the Patterson-Gimlin film. *Become a premium subscriber to Wild Thing ! Premium subscribers get ad all three ...
Wild Thing is re-releasing its bonus interviews! Hear an extended conversation with Bob Gimlin, half of the famous duo that shot the Patterson-Gimlin film back in 1967. *Become a premium subscriber to Wild Thing ! Premium subscribers get ad all three seasons ad-free, not to mention the warm fuzzy feeling that comes from supporting the show. Go to https://wildthing.supportingcast.fm/ to find out more!...
In memory of Peter Byrne, the longest-surviving member of the Four Horsemen of Sasquatchery. After looking for Bigfoot for decades, the 97-year-old tracker passed away in August 2023. Host Laura Krantz had the opportunity to interview him in 2017, and learned that his search for Sasquatch was only one adventure in a life that was jam-packed with them. *Become a premium subscriber to Wild Thing ! Premium subscribers get ad all three seasons ad-free, not to mention the warm fuzzy feeling that come...
What were the long-term effects of the SL-1 explosion? Nuclear power is a shrinking part of America’s energy picture; accidents and fear have tarnished it, and the old reactor fleet is reaching its end. Yet nuclear energy could provide a bulwark against the looming threat of climate change. Is it something we can make work for us, in spite of ourselves? Are the costs worth it in the long run? Sixty years on, what do we know—and are we better prepared? *Become a premium subscriber to Wild Thing !...
Incidents like Chernobyl and Fukushima are often what comes to mind when we think about nuclear energy. Thankfully, events like these actually very rare. So does that mean the risks we associate with atomic power are as bad as we think? How good are we at actually assessing those risks? And can we make things even less risky by removing humans from the equation? That’s how some next generation projects hope to make nuclear energy safer. *Become a premium subscriber to Wild Thing ! Premium subscr...
The aftermath of SL-1 highlighted a problem that we still haven’t solved, despite decades of searching for a solution: what to do with the waste. Our plans to store nuclear waste inside Yucca Mountain in Nevada fell through. So now what? Can we safely contain these materials? Should the waste be in one location, or many? How do we warn future generations about the dangers these materials pose? *Become a premium subscriber to Wild Thing ! Premium subscribers get ad all three seasons ad-free, not ...
As firefighters and medical personnel staged operations at SL-1, a plume of radioactive gas silently made its way over the Idaho desert, creeping towards the nearby towns. How much of a risk did the explosion at SL-1 actually pose? And what does radiation actually do to the human body? We are constantly bathing in what’s called background radiation—so where is the line? How much is safe and how much is too much? *Become a premium subscriber to Wild Thing ! Premium subscribers get ad all three se...
The only three people who really knew what had transpired at SL-1 were dead, and it would take months to determine what likely happened—plenty of time for rumors and gossip to take hold. Was there a love triangle? A fight gone wrong? A murder suicide? A government cover-up? Or was all of this rumor and innuendo simply a distraction from the real problems? And, ultimately, what information could people trust? *Become a premium subscriber to Wild Thing ! Premium subscribers get ad all three season...
Two of the men working the reactor that night had personal problems. They hated each other. They fought with their bosses. And those problems could easily distract a man from his work—but what does that mean when you’re working with nuclear materials? At a reactor that, although managed by the military, seemed to be falling apart due to infrastructure issues, mechanical failures, and lackluster maintenance? *Become a premium subscriber to Wild Thing ! Premium subscribers get ad all three seasons...
The horrifying devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki proved the destructive capabilities of nuclear power. But, in the aftermath of World War II, we started to experiment with how we could use atomic energy for good. It was the dawn of a new era in science, and, in that spirit, thousands of men arrived in Idaho, including the men whose deaths would later signify the difficulty of achieving this atomic America. *Become a premium subscriber to Wild Thing ! Premium subscribers get ad all three seas...
How did we figure out that such a tiny particle—an atom—held all that power? For that matter, what is an atom? A primer on the basics of atomic energy—including its destructive capabilities—to help us better understand the events that unfolded roughly 20 years later at SL-1. We’ll get a (basic!) lesson in nuclear physics from scientists, and explore some of the history that brought atomic power to the Idaho desert. *Become a premium subscriber to Wild Thing ! Premium subscribers get ad all three...
The season premiere delves into the 1961 SL-1 reactor incident in Idaho, a catastrophic event that killed three men and left a lasting, yet often forgotten, impact. It examines how Idaho Falls, a community deeply tied to nuclear research, is now considering new nuclear power projects despite the historical risks. The episode discusses the potential of next-generation reactors for clean energy, alongside public concerns about financial viability, health impacts, and environmental safety, prompting a critical look at humanity's responsibility in wielding atomic power.
Back for its third season, Wild Thing uses science, history and culture to probe the realities of nuclear energy today, while analyzing our own fascination— and ambivalence—with all things atomic. What are the true risks? And what is the actual potential? Are we better at this than we were sixty years ago? And given our nature, are we humans even responsible enough to harness the power of the universe—and should we? Coming May 17, 2022
'Oumuamua is long gone—out of sight and almost impossible to reach. The excitement over it generated endless fascination about what (and who) might be out there. Ultimately, that’s what this search for extraterrestrial life represents—a series of questions that don’t have good answers and may never have them, not now, not in another millennia. So why search? What does it matter? What are we hoping to find? And what does it mean if we don’t find anything at all? *Become a premium subscriber to Wi...
Our views on aliens can often be uplifting, offering a glimpse of a better, technologically-bright future, or a glimmer of hope about our ability to survive. In some cases, our thoughts about them are almost spiritual, as though aliens are divine beings. To understand why, we make a trip to Colorado’s UFO Watchtower, which has become something of a shrine for the alien faithful, and talk to author Sarah Scoles about why people place their faith in aliens and UFOs. *Become a premium subscriber to...
American culture is saturated with extraterrestrial and UFO references—and we still can’t get enough. Hollywood has raked in billions on alien-themed programming and it comes in every flavor you can imagine—from horror to camp to science fiction to documentary. What’s the cultural appeal? Why aliens as opposed to any other topic? How have these imagined aliens evolved as we have? *Become a premium subscriber to Wild Thing ! Premium subscribers get ad all three seasons ad-free, not to mention the...
