Bigfoot, Aliens, and…Atoms?
For those of you started with Season One of Wild Thing (the Bigfoot season) and then went on to Season Two (ETs), the topic for Season Three might have come as something of a surprise. I’ve gotten a few questions about why I chose to dive into the world of atomic energy instead of, say, the Loch Ness Monster or ghosts.
Well, I’m glad you asked, because there are a few really good reasons!
As with Grover and Bigfoot, it starts with a personal connection—the nation’s deadliest nuclear reactor accident happened just down the road from where I grew up. Three men died but why that happened—freak accident or poor planning or a love triangle gone wrong?—remains something of a mystery.
So what makes this crazy story a Wild Thing story? There’s amazing science (and sometime, over a beer, you should ask me about trying to grasp nuclear physics...). There’s history that pulls on some of our darkest moments, as well as some of our best. There’s culture and myth and all the elements that make this a very human story. And there are big, universal questions about what we like to believe is true, what actually is true, and what we do with that information.
So yes. It’s different. But it’s also the same. And I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the number of people who’ve told me that it’s actually their favorite season—or were encourage to listen to the other seasons because they liked the nuclear season so much.
Will there be a Season Four? I have ideas. Many ideas. But the podcast industry is in dire straits at the moment and as much as I want to do another season, it has to make sense. So I’m talking to other podcast producers and seeing if there’s a way forward for this industry, where I can actually be decently compensated for the tremendous amount of work, time and money that I put into each season and don’t have to take on other jobs. More to come…