Moore Outdoors With Chester Moore 12/27/24--Chester talks about what maybe nature's greatest mystery

• Chester Moore interviews the founder of Wild Man of the Woods and talks about what might just be nature's greatest mystery

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to More Outdoors on Newstalk five sixty KLVI. This
is Chester More. Over the last five years, I've had
my friend Paul Pazinsky on the show probably four or
five times, probably once a year, a couple of years,
maybe twice a year, talking about our various adventures in
the wild. He is the host of the Aptitude Outdoors podcast.
We've done some believe it or not, award winning filmmaking together.

(00:23):
We've won awards for a Higher Conning Wiloffe Elevation documentary,
won awards for Journey into the Dark Outdoors documentary, and
last year he launched something that has become extremely successful,
the wild Man of the Woods documentary series via YouTube.
And wild Man of the Woods is all about a

(00:44):
very fun and very popular topic, Bigfoot, and the way
Paul does it is the right way with integrity. It's
really interesting guests. So to talk about his Wild Man
of the Woods documentary series on YouTube, we have Paul Pazensky.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
Welcome to the program, Hey Chester, thanks for having me
back on. Really excited to talk about wild Man of
the Woods. I know it's like a closeted topic for
a lot of people, but you know, I'm not that.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
Worried about it.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
I started this actually a couple of years ago. You
had brought me down to Texas and you were giving
a presentation about, you know, the dangers of going out
into the woods that a lot of people don't think
about because you have your whole podcast series, The Dark
out Doors, and you're just trying to keep people informed
of how to stay safe out in the woods. That's

(01:34):
not to discourage people from going in the woods. And
it just happened to be that your presentation was taking
place at a Bigfoot conference. And I've always been a
fan of the.

Speaker 3 (01:42):
Topic since i was a little kid.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
You know, I grew up watching every Bigfoot show that
was on television, all the Monster Quests and the History
Channel shows and whatever was on. My dad was always
talking about it. So I was like, hey, we were
basically were literally in the car together. I was like,
you think we can get some people to do a
couple of just interviews. Because I had started making films
at that point, documentaries and stuff. I was like, this

(02:04):
would just be a fun maybe like a Halloween episode
or something. And we went out with a few people,
you know, like including you know, the very well known
Ken Gearhard was interviewed in this and and he's been
on so many of the Bigfoot shows.

Speaker 3 (02:18):
Was kind of starstruck in the moment.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
There are a lot of really you know people who've
done a lot of work in the field, and at
the time I didn't know anything about it. I just
thought it was like a fun, hokey bigfoot thing, and
it's fun because I'm an outdoors guy and interview these people.
They talk about stuff that's happened to them. And we
went out with some night vision cameras I had brought
along and we did some cool bigfoot investigation stuff and
I just had fun. We also saw cotton mouth snakes

(02:43):
and a bunch of cool wildlife and ducks that I'd
never seen before. You think you call the Mexican whistling ducks.
I thought you were messing with me, Like, no, that's
what they're called down here. And belly whistlers, Yeah, yeah,
black belly whistlers. And it took a lot of cool
wildlife photography. I got to experience the swamps Arkansas and
things that nature I'd never seen before, and I just

(03:04):
was like, Hey, I'm gonna turn this into a fun
little Bigfoot movie and have fun with it, and you know,
time goes on. And I threw it up on YouTube.
Didn't really think about it. It just was there, and
I sent it to a couple of my buddies, like, hey,
I made this Bigfoot thing.

Speaker 3 (03:19):
It was real fun.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
I came back like a couple of months later and
it had gotten like one hundred and fifty thousand views
or something.

Speaker 3 (03:25):
I was like, WHOA, that's cool, and.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
You know, I was I had done Bigfoot stuff before,
I've interviewed people.

Speaker 3 (03:35):
And then I was like, you.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
Know, conservation is not a pretty topic. Nobody really cares
about it at the end of the day when it's
either you know, we talk about hunting, we talk about fishing,
we talk about our great successes at our boot and
Crockett deer that we're chasing after, but we rarely talked
about the conservation side of thing. And my mind and
your mind immediately jumped to we could use this to

(04:00):
get a conservation message out to people. So we made
a second Bigfoot documentary up in my neck of the
woods at a place called Salt Fork, which if anybody
follows the Bigfoot stuff, and I didn't even know this
Salt Fork is like one of the biggest places in
North America where people claim to have big Foot encounters,
especially here in Ohio. We found a naturalist out there

(04:23):
who was very much into the bigfoot stuff. His name
is John Hickinbottom. He's a super cool guy. He's just
like us. He's very knowledgeable about the outdoors. He's a
you know, he's a park naturalist. He's like their head
naturalist out at Salt Fork. Interviewed him and we talked
about wildlife conservation in the return of white tail deer
coming to Ohio and how the part you know, the
state was like ninety percent forested and those numbers dropped

(04:47):
critically low and now it's coming back. But we also
talked about you know, famous Bigfoot encounters. That video got
two hundred and seventy thousand views or something insane. So
it was just like, this is a great way I'm
and it's not to downplay the Bigfoot phenomenon, you know,
it's not to make fun of people. It's a good way,
a fun way to talk about conservation to reach a

(05:10):
big audience that most people don't ever think about. And
that's something we've maintained throughout this whole endeavor. We've really
tried to make a strong case for conservation. We've also
tried to make a strong case with these of using
wildlife footage and beautiful scenery. And at the end of
the day, if you want to go outside and look

(05:31):
for bigfoot, that's awesome. And it gets people outside and
gets them caring about the outdoors. And we need that
as much as that as we can nowadays, in my opinion,
And we're just trucking along. Man, it's been so much fun.
I've got to go to a lot of cool places,
and we get to make wildlife films still alongside the
bigfoot stuff, and it's just basically another extra interviewer too,
and it gets us. This reach that is for the

(05:53):
conservation world is insane. I don't think there's a conservation
organization out there reaching two hundred and fifty thousand people
for video. Maybe that's a little arrogant, but I just
don't see it on the stuff I watch, So why
not take advantage of that.

Speaker 3 (06:06):
No, it's it's a great idea.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
And I remember back when I was doing my Southern
Crypto conferences, you know, we were considering starting something called
the North American Primate Conservation Alliance to get people into
We actually had some people named for it, to get
people interested in, you know, conserving hardwood bottom lands in
some of these areas where a lot of these reports
are in, to think about conservation through this extremely popular topic.

(06:29):
And you mentioned the fact that you know, the following
on like social media and YouTube on this versus like
a mule deer video, there's not even a remote comparison
in the interest. And it's not just fanatics. It's people
who've had encounters, people who are really interested. So I
want to go back to you. Weren't you called the
wild man at some point? Didn't someone give you a

(06:51):
title that kind of started the title with that?

Speaker 3 (06:54):
Yeah, it's funny because my.

Speaker 2 (06:57):
Wild man has been you know, in the Bigfoot mythology
and folklore. It before it was bigfoot, before it was anything,
it was wild man. If you go back to Eastern
Europe and our Europe in general, and even the United
States or North America, they called these things the wild
men of the woods, of the wild women of the woods.

Speaker 3 (07:16):
And not much has changed.

Speaker 2 (07:18):
But I was a very energetic child, very rambunctious, and
my grandpa always called me wild man. Ever since I
was a little kid because I was just bouncing off
the walls, and people are like, you know, why did
you choose the name wild Man of the Woods. And
that's basically as It's as simple as that. I've met
Grandpa called me wild Man growing up, and that was

(07:39):
the impetus for that. There was not a lot of
thought going into it. I was like Bigfoot, wild man, nickname.
I used to have perfect lines up. I don't put
a lot of thought into those kinds of things. I
thought it was just fun.

Speaker 3 (07:50):
That's awesome. Man. So you mentioned, you know, things you
were into a monster quest.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
Was there a particular program or book or something in
the very beginning to kind of put the could your jaw?

Speaker 2 (08:01):
I think it was probably like show like like monster
Quests specifically, because when I was growing up, you know,
finding Bigfoot and stuff wasn't That was when I was
a little bit older, and it was all those shows,
even like they used to have the Sci Fi Channel
and all those like I don't want to they were
cheesy now because like we have so the technology for
graphics and effects and stuff have just got like through

(08:24):
the roof, and it's just like people like me with
a studio in their house can do crazy graphic effects
and stuff without that much work. But back then, you know,
it was like the top of the line stuff. And
I just remember all those bigfoot shows that were on
like History, Discovery. You know, you've got Sasquatch, Legend, Meet
Science and Monster Quests.

Speaker 3 (08:42):
These shows just are ingrained into my brain.

Speaker 2 (08:47):
So I would say those were definitely where I got
the the interest in that kind of.

Speaker 3 (08:51):
Style of shooting.

Speaker 2 (08:52):
It was very much even Unsolved Mysteries had that really
cool episode with Bigfoot in it and the I always
thought that was really cool, And I just grew up
on those shows and I just remember them, and I
wanted to kind of bring that style back because that's
not a thing anymore. Everything that I see and this
isn't a criticism, and I don't follow every single Bigfoot

(09:12):
in the world. Everything I see is people going in
the woods with night vision cameras and thermals and running
around for five or six hours, and you know, it's like,
you know, that's not the stuff I remembered seeing. I
liked interviews and hearing people's stories and turning these into
you know, like cool recreations and visuals to try and
recreate what these people saw. That's fun for me as

(09:33):
a as a filmmaker, and that's fun for me is
like pushing the boundaries of my skill level. But it
also lets a lot of these people are like, thank
you for making that. Like that it brought what it
has been in my mind onto a visualization for people
to see. And it's not just as vague memory I have,
which is cool too, because people, you know, they they
the memory fades and things you know, don't. It's it's

(09:55):
a good way for them to be able to see
what they saw and show it to people so they
don't think that they're crazy.

Speaker 1 (10:02):
Welcome back Tomorrow Outdoors on News Talk five sixty klv I.
This is Chester Moore talking my good friend Paul Pazinski.
He is the procure, the producer, the director of the
wild Man of the Woods series, the wild Man of
the Woods YouTube channel, and it is a bigfoot centric
channel that really tries to get down to really good
interviews and a contrivation centric message as well in terms

(10:26):
of getting people out in the woods and appreciating wildlife, wildlands,
wild places and maybe wild things that go bump in
the night as well. And so you know, I remember
taking you out in the woods and we're like with
a group of my friends in Falk, Arkansas, where the
Legend of Boggy Creek was filmed, which was a true story,

(10:48):
and we're in some of the exact areas of those woods.
So what was your thoughts of that as you're out
you know, just Ohio dude, know me for about a
year and a half and we're in the woods together,
they're in Arkansas with the Legend of Black Creeks film.

Speaker 3 (11:02):
What was that like?

Speaker 2 (11:05):
I was very excited going into it because I'd never
done anything like that before. It was just a cool
another reason to get out in the woods and have
a good time. And about the first time we stepped
out of the car and walked into the woods and
it was quiet, I thought, wait a minute, what am
I doing right now? Like this is insane, Like I'm

(11:25):
out here with a bunch of people.

Speaker 3 (11:27):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (11:27):
We're in a freaking swamp where there's you know, venomous
snakes and there's alligators and god only knows what else
feral hogs running around that could you know, murder me?
And then we're we don't have any flashlights or anything
We're just kind of trudging through the woods. It's hot,
my clothes are sticking, I'm sweating profusely, and I just

(11:48):
I flew there, so I didn't have like a weapon
of any sort.

Speaker 3 (11:51):
I'm just like, they're in the woods.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
And then I all these people try to tell me
that they're trying to call in towards us this animal
that potentially is like a thousand pounds and like seven
and a half feet tall.

Speaker 3 (12:02):
I'm like, this is not a good idea. What am
I doing?

Speaker 2 (12:05):
This is insanity? But it was really fun. Everybody was
very nice. Everybody's cool, and I.

Speaker 3 (12:10):
Had a blast.

Speaker 2 (12:11):
Man, It's it's you know, it's like it's like chasing
the Boogeyman.

Speaker 1 (12:15):
Yeah. That and and by the way, I just have
to mention this, this is a very adventure sitution. So
on the way home that night, we're going back to
the hotel in Texas Arcana, and I go, Paul, I
want to film in a spot real quick for this
dark outdoors documentary we're working on, Okay, whatever, and we're
setting up the shot in this really remote, creepy park

(12:36):
and then you asked me, Hey, Chester, what happened here?

Speaker 3 (12:40):
Uh? Yeah, that was interesting. It's it's dark. It's uh.

Speaker 2 (12:45):
I kind of relate it to that scene if anybody's
ever watched Dumb and Dumber. And he grabs all the
beef jerky off the counter and he he's like, he
puts the whole tab that they spent on this guy
at the restaurant that like bullied them, essentially, And he
gets in the car and they're driving away. He goes, oh,
that was a good one. Where did you learn that?
He goes, oh, I saw it in a movie. He goes, oh, man,
that's cool. Did they get away scott free? And he goes, no,

(13:07):
they caught up to him a half a mile down
the road and killed him. And I was like, that's
what I was thinking. We're in this park. I was like,
what what happened here? And You're like, oh, yeah, these
people got dragged to their cars and murdered in this
really in this exact spot. I'm like, why are we
filming here? It's like one o'clock in the morning. This
is a terrible idea. Uh yeah, So that is That's
just a debt normal day with Chester Moore, if anybody

(13:29):
knows him, that is just any trip we're on.

Speaker 3 (13:31):
It's just normal.

Speaker 2 (13:31):
At this point, I'm like, oh, yeah, we'll go to
this famous spot where people were murdered and we'll talk
about it, and I will stand there with my camera
and just hope nothing happens.

Speaker 1 (13:40):
Yeah, or like some grisly attack happened or something crazy.

Speaker 3 (13:44):
You know.

Speaker 1 (13:44):
It's all about raising awareness, you know, but it takes
going into dark places. But I had to mention that
from our Arkansas encounter now and your research for doing
wild Man, I know you're you're into the one on
one interviews and and really getting to the essence of
the people and they're owners. But in your research for
all of this, have there been any particular bigfoot stories

(14:06):
or encounters that really intrigued you? You thought, Man, that's
pretty interesting.

Speaker 3 (14:11):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (14:11):
I would say probably the encounters from the people that
I've interviewed, because they're you can read stuff in a
book and it could be you know, this could just
be you know, something someone wrote because they know it
gets attention. And you know, I'm a very skeptical person
about everything, even wildlife stuff like that doesn't sound right

(14:33):
to me, you know, So if I if I have
any sense of like gut feeling, I'll usually just be like, well,
you know, I'll take over a grain of salt. When
you're sitting in a room with someone and they're telling
you the story and they're looking you dead in the
eyes while you're talking to them, and that you could
see that that really screwed them up and it freaked
them out, you know, I would say probably. We interviewed
a guy named Jerry, and he talked about being these

(14:54):
in these swamps and going out there and basically seeing
stuff on thermal cameras and out like he was surrounded
and there they came back to their boat, these people,
and that just like these oars were removed from their
boat and they were like one hundred percent sure the
boat had been dragged far up on shore while they
were out there.

Speaker 3 (15:11):
And that's creepy because I was in that exact.

Speaker 2 (15:14):
Spot with the guy filming, and it was another situation
like what am I doing out here? The boat was
like sinking while we were going through this swamp, and
I'm more concerned about like getting sucked into the water
and get eaten by alligators. And then I remember two
hours before we'd interviewed the guy and he's like, this
is the exact spot where I thought I was gonna die.
I'm like, why are we out here. It is the

(15:36):
middle of the night. We're in a boat that's barely
staying together, and the motor died, so we're paddling. So
even if we wanted to get out of here, there's
nothing we can do about it. So yeah, I think
that that is one of the creepiest stories I've heard.
And you just hear stuff about, you know, people getting
surrounded or you know, getting whatever, but like there's never

(15:56):
any of these really reports of someone being killed or anything.
So it's not like that freaky. It's just like any
other wild life. If you go to you know, Colorado
or something, you risk being around are you know, like
Wyoming or Yellowstone, you risk being around grizzly bears. They're dangerous.
But it's not like people are getting killed all the time,
and it happens, but it's not something that is like common,

(16:18):
you know what I mean. So I think it's just
being there with those people and watching them talk about
this in person is very How could you not believe them,
you know, they're telling you right to your face, you know,
And that's.

Speaker 1 (16:32):
That's a great point because of course the report that
got me into this as a kid. Was the most
famous thing that ever happened in the history of Bigfoot,
which is the Patterson Gimwin film. Roger Patterson and Bob
Gimwen were in Bluff Creek October twentieth, nineteen sixty seven,
and they were working on a with you know, a
little small camera, working on a documentary the film, and

(16:56):
they ended up running across what I do believe is
the real thing, and I think that film is to
the test of time. Well, I got to know Bob Gimlan.
Roger Patterson passed I believe in seventy one seventy two
from cancer, and Bob is still with us, thank the Lord.
And I met him in California and I had him
in my conference. So I got to moderate a panel

(17:16):
a talk with Bob Gimlin at the Southern Crypto Conference
in two thousand and four and in Conro of Texas,
and so I got to talk to the guy who
was there when this famous incident happened, and it really
took all of that up to a new level with me.
You mentioned like when you're looking your maybe like Amy Boo,

(17:36):
who was on one of your shows, you know, in
different people that you look at and you go, man,
this is sincerity. Well, it was the same thing for
me interviewing Bob Gimlin, and he had this very consistent
story and it was very sincere, and that blew me away,
you know, that even made me believe that was And
let me just say this, like, if there are skepticisms, fine,
most of the stuff I'm skeptical of, but that particular film,

(18:00):
if it was a fake, there'd been a thousand more
better ones made since nineteen sixty seven, right, And if
you look at that, and you look at some of
the work that doctor Jeffrey Meldrums and on others on
that film, it's it's incredible. But when I interviewed Bob,
it was a very you know, it was a very
consistent story. And then I remember me and my wife

(18:20):
Lisa and our friend of ours were in a hotel
with him and another guy who had done some enhancements
of the film before the conference started, and he had
never seen this level of enhancement of the creature in
the film, which he still maintains the day was the
real thing, and Bob tears came out of Bob's eyes
and I'm like, man, what's going on, Boby, okay, buddy,

(18:41):
He's like, if Roger could have seen this, seen it
like the because all they saw was like, you know,
just the thing run. They never saw the enhancements back
in the day. He could have seen it blown up
like this, He goes, he would have died in peace
because he would have known and been verified that the
people could believe this was a real thing. And he died,

(19:02):
you know, and people thinking he was crazy to a
large extent. So moments like that, and I think that's
what you're capturing in wild Man as you're talking to people,
and generally speaking, the people a lot of the people
you're talking to are not like knowing researchers. They're people
just regular people who have incredible encounters and it's up
to the audience to make you know whether that's a

(19:22):
real thing or not, you know. So to me, that's
always a great part of what wild Man of the
Woods is all about. And like you know, you know,
listen to Amy's story and you know Jerry's story and
others on there. It's pretty compelling stuff. And when we
come back on More Outdoors, we're gonna talk more with
Paul Beazinsky. The Wild Man of the Woods himself about

(19:42):
his Wildman of the Woods YouTube channel, his very unique
conservation centric take on the Bigfoot phenomenon, and we're just
gonna dig deeper into a pretty deep topic here on
More Outdoor on News Talk Am five sixty k l
v I, as well as the iHeart Radio app. Welcome

(20:03):
back to More Outdoors on News five sixty klv I.
Follow More Outdoors on iHeartRadio. Go to the podcast link
of KLVI dot com or go to the iHeartRadio app
and listen to archival programs. We've got lots of them
years dating back there. And also follow my blog at
Higher Calling dot net, follow me at the Chester more

(20:23):
on Instagram. And I'm talking with Paul Pazinski from the
wild Man of the Woods YouTube channel and documentary series.
This is just a dude with the camera interviewing people.
These are really, really, really well done, uh documentaries. And
one of the things I wanted to ask you, as
you're getting deeper into this process of, you know, of

(20:45):
the phenomenon itself, is there an aspect of the phenomena
as you've interviewed the people that is kind of rising
to you as a greater interest. I mean, is it
is it just the psychological impact of the encounters on
the people? Is it a localizations?

Speaker 3 (21:01):
Is it?

Speaker 1 (21:01):
Uh? You know, is it what the creatures look like allegedly?
You know what is there something that really jumps out
at you? That's kind of a growing area of interest.

Speaker 3 (21:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (21:09):
For me, as someone who went to school and studied
anthropology in my undergraduate studies, I really got trained in
basically interviewing people and how to pull out information out
of these people and from not only you know, like
a scientific perspective, but from a cultural perspective, from like

(21:30):
almost like a folklore perspective, because a lot of this stuff,
if you look at native cultures across the country and
things of that nature, a lot of these mythologies they
have are based on real wildlife, you know, like some
of these some of these native cultures have this story
of how the earth was made in there on the
back of this turtle, like a turtle's real animal, just

(21:51):
because the story is them living on the back of
this giant turtle, which is the earth or whatever. It's
all based on real creatures. And then you know, Kathy
Strain put out this book called Cannibal's Giants and monsters
or something about bigfoot, and you know, I've been reading
that and you hear all these native stories and there's
just hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of encounters where they're

(22:14):
talking about fanciful stuff like these giants that turn into
mountains and they're heard squealing and fighting in the woods
and it sounds like this racket. That stuff is so
interesting to me because of my background, and you're learning
like just because something is like a quote unquote a
fairy tale, Like there's elements of these things that go

(22:34):
back into history. Like you don't just make stuff up
on about a giant, hairy ape thing running around in
the woods for people on of thin air. You know,
especially if North America had no native ape population. Since
Native Americans have been here, where are they getting this stuff?
Where like they have the carved wooden masks and the
totem poles and all these suits that they made of

(22:54):
these hairy creatures. If they've never seen if you've never
seen a chimpanzee before, how do you know what that is?
How do you know that they make whooping sounds and
whistling sound like these are known primate things that they
do on a regular basis. You can watch any YouTube
video of a chimpanzee or a gorilla or a holler
monkey or whatever. They make these noises. Uh, And you

(23:17):
know they're in South America, but in North America it's
not like they had YouTube, you know, a thousand years ago,
ten thousand years ago. They're not just like, I wonder
what this is like. You know, if someone lives in
the Pacific Northwest and there's howler monkeys in Mexico, that's
a little bit of a trek, you know, even with
word of mouth, that doesn't move that quickly up these

(23:39):
up these chains of people up and down the coast
and stuff. So that just really fascinates me. I think
it's very interesting. I think it's fun to think about
and that aspect it. But I also I am very
much into bigfoot researches forever. It gets a really bad
rap because a lot of these people and this isn't
like a a smack on anything. They're just like regular

(24:02):
average guys and girls, and they a lot of the
time you get they make these A lot of documentaries
I've seen are these guys. They're from the South and
they're wearing overalls running around in the woods yelling and screaming,
and they kind of make like a farce out of it.
But there's actual people out there, like you know, Project
Zoo Book, which I'm a part of and you've you've
been in before, where they.

Speaker 3 (24:23):
Have actual it's a closed group meeting.

Speaker 2 (24:26):
It is has actual scientists, primatologists, biologists, people with doctorates
and like forensics and DNA talking about this topic and
it's not open to the public. It's very much a
safe zone for these people to talk about this without ridicule.
And when you start going to these meetings and listening
to somebody who's like, I've been a primatologist at a
zoo for my entire career, and this is so intriguing

(24:49):
to me because the stuff you guys are talking about
lines up exactly with primate behavior. It really makes you think, So,
that's right now, what I'm most interested in, and you
can see that shine through and the documentaries that I'm
making in that you're helping us voiceover with and do
research for, is that these this isn't just like a goofy,
little fun topic for people anymore. There's actual real scientific

(25:11):
research going on and with the advents of things like
e DNA, which is environmental DNA, of people being able
to get DNA samples from not only you know it
used to you need fossils with DNA like teeth or
something to get this DNA historically in the past from
an anthropological point of view. Now they've found this new
study that you can get this from the environment, and

(25:34):
that's like a huge thing, not that they've found anything yet,
but that it's a huge advance in DNA technology that
I think is really going to help, you know, change
the world. And the fact that there's actual scientists taking
heed in this now privately because they're tired of getting
you know, made fun of and you know, potentially losing
their jobs. I think that this is going to be

(25:54):
a big advancement. If there's anything out there, we all
just might be figments of our collective imagination.

Speaker 3 (25:59):
We don't know.

Speaker 2 (26:00):
I don't claim to know anything. I'm just a guy
making movies. But it's interesting to me. I think it's
fun and I love doing it gets me outside a
lot too.

Speaker 1 (26:08):
Well, I'll tell you this much. You know, the late
doctor Grover Krantz, the late doctor John Bendernagol. It never
got to meet Krantz, he was kind of my Bigfoot,
one of my bigfoot heroes of John Green. But I
did get to know doctor Bendernoggle a little bit very
a primatologist and a wildlife biologist.

Speaker 3 (26:23):
Right.

Speaker 1 (26:24):
I wrote incredible books, put compelling cases out. And now
we have doctor Jeffrey Melgrum out there and there are
others who are studying this at a scientific level. And
what I say as a wildlife journalist, my statement on
this is this, I'm going to be straight. People know it,
they've heard it, they read it. I think these things
are real. I think there's a reality this phenomenon. But

(26:47):
I cover it not only from an interest point, but
to me, either way, it is the biggest wildlife story
in history. It's either delusion at a scale that's terrifying,
or it's real and all it takes one report, one

(27:12):
native account to be real. So I cover it from
that perspective. And I think that goes back to the
views you're getting and people. I mean, you know, put
a good mule, deer, giant trophy, mulder up. You have
a few thousand people care about it. You put something
up that's compelling in the big foot topic, it might
be a few million people you know, definitely in the

(27:32):
hundreds of thousands and tens of thousands. So think I
think you've tapped into something, Paul. And it's interesting you
talked about like the aDNA and I think those are
some things you're getting from that great group you're part
of Project Zuo book, and I think it's really neat
that we're at that level now where we can even
talk about that kind of stuff. I mean, you know,
even ten years ago that wasn't a reality.

Speaker 2 (27:53):
Yeah, and it's very exciting listening to these people talk
because it's not just a guy like me who doesn't
have a biology background, you know, it's people that understand
this topic. There's people with forensics degrees and people with
degrees and how know how to study DNA and like
actual primatologists, not people who read about primatology.

Speaker 3 (28:17):
That's me.

Speaker 2 (28:17):
I read about ancient human history and all the different
hominids that are out there. I listen to podcasts about it.
It's some of my favorite topics in the world. I
love that stuff.

Speaker 3 (28:27):
It's so fun.

Speaker 2 (28:28):
But when you have someone come on and talk about
this is like I work with primates on a daily basis.
That's my only job in the world and they're talking
about this. It's way different than you and I running
around in the woods making calls and beating on trees.
Is a different realm, and they have this understanding of
the science of it. And when people talk about, like

(28:48):
you know, if the Olympic Project's talking about these nests,
they're like, well, yeah, primates make nests in Africa all
the time.

Speaker 3 (28:53):
That's a normal thing.

Speaker 2 (28:54):
And you're just like, whoa, that's crazy, you know, even
if it's even if it's just you know, coincidents or whatever.

Speaker 1 (29:01):
John Green, what a great journalist. I mean, to me,
the greatest big Foot book ever written is still Sasquat
Shapes among Us And this was it where we could
go out in like you know, newspaper archive, the study
and you know or whatever. He's out one on one
interviewing people all around the nation and getting on the
phone for hours and hours about this topic and whittling

(29:24):
down something that became this legendary book. And it was
the first journalist to do this. So John Green, who
I got to meet, I gotta sign copy of Sasquatch.
He was among us, behind us here somewhere, and yeah,
it's really cool, man, But John Green was a great
journalist and he predicted something that he would probably die

(29:45):
before Bigfoot was proven to be real. And when we
come back on More out therese we're gonna talk more
about that scientific and journalistic pursuit of this phenomenon and
talk about some positives and the reason that I'm even
touching topic anymore. We come back on More Outdoors. Welcome
back to More Outdoors on News Talk five sixty klv I.

(30:06):
This is Chester where my good friend Paul Fazenski could
do a lot of wildlife documentaries with He has wild
Man of the Woods big Foot Channel, and we had
a little clip of Lyle Blackburn on the program earlier
this year talking about the Lake Warth Monster and some
of that fun stuff. But I always try to do
one Bigfoot show a year, and this is my full
one big Foot show for More Outdoors. I always thought

(30:28):
it's a fun topic, but I think it's an important
topic because Paul's been talking about getting people involved in
nature because of it. I've won on one seen that.
But we ended the last segment talking about how John
Green prophetically predicted that there would probably be he would
pass away before Bigfoot was ever proven and now we're
in the era where he's passed away a decade or
so ago. We have the e DNA and these different

(30:51):
scientific things on that now. Although I don't think these
are linked subjects, they're both controversial subjects. The US government
is openly talking about what they're calling, you know, UAPs
now or whatever, you know, unidentified aerial phenomenon we call
UFOs back in the day, right, And they're openly talking

(31:12):
about this stuff, and they're doing like this wrung of
this closure on whatever this topic is in Congress. You know,
it makes me think, Paul, that maybe we're getting closer
to some kind of a disclosure or some kind of
closer to discovery because technology is catching up with the phenomenon.

Speaker 3 (31:32):
Yeah, I don't see why.

Speaker 2 (31:34):
With the technology we have today at a consumer grade,
they always say the technology that we have as consumers
is like ten years behind what the government has. And
I don't think that's a conspiracy at any capacity.

Speaker 3 (31:45):
I really do believe.

Speaker 2 (31:46):
That, And you know, I would hope that something would
come of this with all the technology we're having, because
even as if you want to call people running around
in the woods yahoo's and crazy out there running around
doing Bigfoot research. They have access to now even thermal drones,
which is a mind blowing technology.

Speaker 3 (32:07):
People are using these to.

Speaker 2 (32:08):
Find deer in that have been wounded or whatever or
they've lost. They're instead of tracking dogs and things of
that nature. Were places some places that's not even legal
to use. They're using thermal drones to go find deer
that have been shot by hunters and recovering them.

Speaker 3 (32:24):
So it's not a loss.

Speaker 2 (32:25):
And you know, with technology like this, I think it's
absolutely feasible to find something.

Speaker 3 (32:30):
And I know the consumer.

Speaker 2 (32:31):
Grade stuff is still very expensive, like a thermal drone
is probably more than either you or I could afford
at the moment. You know, if anybody was wealthy and
we wanted to send one our.

Speaker 3 (32:41):
Way, you know, it wouldn't complain.

Speaker 1 (32:43):
We will we will take this. Yes, because I don't
have the I would end up in Guatemala.

Speaker 2 (32:49):
Yeah, but I think that with the technology out there,
and this is something that I've been talking about in
a new series that I've been working on that you're
also helping me with, is called, uh, you.

Speaker 3 (32:59):
Know, wild Man Mystery.

Speaker 2 (33:00):
It's kind of a break from our documentary style so
we can tie into topics that are more interesting than
just encounter reports like teaching. You know, we just did
a whole segment Chester and I on sounds that are
commonly mistaken.

Speaker 3 (33:12):
For Bigfoot vocalizations.

Speaker 2 (33:14):
But when you talk about that stuff, you talk about
I'm doing a whole series on with people that are
credible in the field, not just you know, people who
think bigfoots of floating spaceship crap, ghost monster or.

Speaker 3 (33:26):
Whatever they talk about out there.

Speaker 2 (33:27):
Nowadays, where we talk about is do you think AI
is a technology that can help find this stuff? And
you know, AI is a very powerful tool. It's not
just you know, making goofy pictures online that people think
it is a It can do Excel spreadsheets, it can
crunch numbers, it can do data analysis, it can do
very many things that people aren't aware of. And with

(33:48):
just the advent of technology, we're only at the press
of this. This is gonna be exploding over the next
decade with the technology available to us. I don't think
there's any reason that it couldn't find something if it's
out there.

Speaker 1 (34:01):
Yeah, and that's that's interesting, with the tech catching up
with the with the topic, you know, and what we
may or may not be able to discover. But you know,
I've always been interested in this. I've been open about it.
It's never been my number one topic, you know, of
other wildlife stuff interests me more, but it's always there.
But the reason I even stay involved at any level

(34:21):
on this now is because of our work with children
through our wild Wishes program, in particular, wild Wishes grants
wildlife encounters for children have a critical illness traumatic loss.
We've been work with trafficking victims. Any kid going through
serious hell on Earth stuff and they love wildlife, we'll
give them an encounter. The very first was a girl
meeting at Zebra, and then we do expeditions through Higher

(34:43):
Calling Wildlife Branch, and Paul's been part of the Yellowstone
and Colorado expeditions. We've got documentaries in play on Yellowstone.
We didn't win in Colorado, and we went.

Speaker 3 (34:54):
An award for that. I'm very proud of that.

Speaker 1 (34:56):
Hal konon Wilffe Elevation check it out on my YouTube channel.
But but the third Wish we ever did was a
Bigfoot expedition, and I'm getting more and more requests and
people interested in that. And because of the interest of
youth in the topic, especially a lot of youth that
are disenfranchised and feel like they're the loner are really
into this topic because of the mystery of it, and

(35:16):
I want to stay involved because of that. So I
have a channel called Global Bigfoot that I'm doing, and
we know, we put information out, but the point is
to find in solicit families that have kids that are
have struggling are into the Bigfoot. We might send them
a gift package. A matter of fact, right now, I'm
raising funds for gift packages for kids around the country

(35:36):
and some of them want some big Foot gifts, so
we're gonna send them big Foot gifts kids that are
going through stuff. So that is a big interest of mine.
And my dad was interested in the topic. And my
dad grew up dirt dirt, dirt poor, literally almost a
dirt floor poor, you know, and he never had a
lot of opportunities growing up. So me and my mom talked,

(36:00):
we're gonna end up doing a scholarship in his name,
and we're gonna give it to kids into this stuff
that are dirt poor that want to go to college.
So you know, it won't be a lot, maybe a
couple of thousand dollars, but a help and a hand up.

Speaker 3 (36:10):
And I like working with you because you're.

Speaker 1 (36:12):
Wanting to tie this into conservation, and it ties into
a good thing. But I want to ask you something,
what has been your perspective seeing us working with these
kids in the wild through the lens of a camera,
because that's what we're gonna expand into more with this
bigfoot type stuff.

Speaker 2 (36:27):
It's been insane to watch that because you know, a
lot of a lot of the problem that I see
nowadays with people is like there's just not even like
nieces and nephews I have and young kids that I
you know, am around in my family, they just.

Speaker 3 (36:43):
Don't go outside. Man. And when they do go outside,
they just love it.

Speaker 2 (36:48):
They can't get enough of it, whether it's swimming or
just going around in the woods. Like sometimes I'll just
take them on this paved trail in the woods and
the ride bikes, and they love it. Kids need to
be outside. Until when you add that element with with
your Higher Calling Wildlife and your Wild Wishes program, of
these kids seeing these iconic animals from North America, you

(37:09):
just see their faces like you've got to be kidding,
Like we had a kid, you know, going crazy about
prairie dogs that was cool. I've never even seen a
prairie dog. That was awesome just to see, like a
kid watching these elk bugle on a golf course. It
doesn't have to be in, you know, the most epic
place of all time. It was a golf course in
Estes Park, which is still generally more epic than anything
surrounding me.

Speaker 3 (37:29):
At the moment. But you know, I but you.

Speaker 2 (37:32):
Know, it's just seeing these kids just like it.

Speaker 3 (37:36):
It's like a zoo to them.

Speaker 2 (37:37):
They don't you know, they've never seen these animals before,
and they're right in their backyards.

Speaker 3 (37:40):
You know, kids seeing black bears.

Speaker 2 (37:42):
Kids seeing elk and moose and these just big cool animals,
wild sheep, all these things that we're interested in. It's
amazing mountain goats. I saw a mountain goat and I
freaked out. I can't imagine what that's like for a
kid who's just hasn't experienced the world yet. And it's
great what you guys are doing. And I think if
Bigfoot can help kids do the same thing, get them

(38:03):
interested in the outdoors, I think it's the greatest thing
ever ever.

Speaker 3 (38:07):
Like it doesn't matter that people need mystery in their life.

Speaker 2 (38:10):
We're humans or our entire foundation as a species is
built on mystery. We used to say, you know what
is thunder its it's a magic demon. And then we
figured out what Thunder was and we lose the mystery.
Come I give people some mystery back, man.

Speaker 3 (38:24):
We need it in our lives. It's part of our.

Speaker 2 (38:26):
Being as human beings, Like it's been ingrained in us
from day one. You know, everything out in the woods
is creepy, and to me, even as a grown man,
Bigfoot brings that back and it's fun and I just
love it, you know, I've I've never been more scared
in my life than just standing outside of a car
and you with you and the pitch black you know,
in East Texas.

Speaker 3 (38:44):
I'm like, why, I'm a grown up.

Speaker 2 (38:46):
This shouldn't be scary to me, and here I am
freaking out with my heart's pounding. It's like, the mystery
is alive, man, and it's fun and it's beautiful and
for a kid, I don't think I can't think of
anything better.

Speaker 1 (38:57):
Well, thanks for being there for us and being for
the kids and caption those moments to share with the
others so we can help more kids. And that's really
the ticket. And if anyone would like to make a
donation of tax up to the donation for the end
of the year to help our program at wild Wish,
you can go to Kingdom zoo dot com. That's kingdomzoo
dot com. You can click on the wild Wishes link
there and you can donate specifically to that program. Or

(39:17):
if you're more interested in the expedition side of things,
where we take kids out into different areas like Colorado
in place like that higher ConA wildlife. We appreciate it
and we appreciate what Paul brings to the table. And
by the way, if you want to hire someone who
does like epic wildlife filmmaking, Paul, you to reach out
to Paul three out to do outdoors. He does incredible,
incredible work. And where can people find you.

Speaker 2 (39:40):
You can find me at Wildmanofthewoods dot com. That'll take
you to the YouTube. We only have an Instagram and
a Facebook. Enjoy being on social media that much, so
I'm just kind of putting it out on the base level,
but the YouTube channel is our main platform. That's where
all the cool stuff goes down.

Speaker 1 (39:58):
Thanks for listening to more Outdoors. God bless and have
a great Outdoors weekend