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<v Speaker 1>Now one of your pudding. I got a stream going

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<v Speaker 1>on here, something just cause my dog. Something killed your dog,

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<v Speaker 1>my dog. We're flying through the air over the tree.

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<v Speaker 1>I don't know how it did it, Okay, Damn, I'm

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<v Speaker 1>really confused. All I saw was my dog coming over

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<v Speaker 1>the fence and he was dead. And once you hit

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<v Speaker 1>the ground like, I didn't see any cars. All I

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<v Speaker 1>saw was my dog coming over the fence. Sat, what

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<v Speaker 1>are you putting? We got some wonder or something prowling

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<v Speaker 1>around out here? Did you see what it was? Or

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<v Speaker 1>was it was? Standing enough? I'm out here looking through

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<v Speaker 1>the window now and I don't see anything. I don't

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<v Speaker 1>want to go outside. Jesus Quice, you better hello, get

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<v Speaker 1>the Boddy out here, quin, I'm out there. I thought

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<v Speaker 1>of Avenu about Tech fort nine. I don't know. Easy

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<v Speaker 1>ann out there? Yeah, I'm walking right. Hey.

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<v Speaker 2>If you caught my last newsletter, either reading it or

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<v Speaker 2>listening to it here on the show, you already know.

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<v Speaker 2>I spent some time on the documentary capturing Bigfoot the

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<v Speaker 2>claims around it, the new footage supposedly tied to the

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<v Speaker 2>Patterson Gimlin film. I gave you my initial read on

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<v Speaker 2>what was being put out there, and I was straight

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<v Speaker 2>with you. I hadn't watched the full documentary as of

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<v Speaker 2>right now. I still haven't, but I've been watching what's

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<v Speaker 2>been happening around it closely, and what I've seen has

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<v Speaker 2>been more revealing than anything in the documentary itself, because

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<v Speaker 2>what's unfolded over the past several weeks isn't a conversation

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<v Speaker 2>about the Patterson Gimlin film. Not really. It's not about

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<v Speaker 2>Roger Patterson or Bob Gimlin. It's not about what happened

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<v Speaker 2>at Bluff Creek in nineteen sixty seven, or whether that

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<v Speaker 2>footage shows something real walking through those trees or something staged.

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<v Speaker 2>Those questions matter, they deserve real attention, but that's not

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<v Speaker 2>what people are actually doing right now. What people are

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<v Speaker 2>doing is picking teams. What people are doing is older

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<v Speaker 2>than any film, older than any documentary, older than Bigfoot

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<v Speaker 2>Research itself. What people are doing is tribalism, plain and simple.

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<v Speaker 2>And I want to spend some real time today talking

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<v Speaker 2>about why that should bother every single person in this field,

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<v Speaker 2>not just because of this one documentary, but because of

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<v Speaker 2>what it says about us, about how we handle evidence,

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<v Speaker 2>about how we treat each other. About whether this community

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<v Speaker 2>is actually capable of doing what it claims it wants

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<v Speaker 2>to do, which is fine, the truth. I need to

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<v Speaker 2>take you somewhere first. It's going to seem like it

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<v Speaker 2>has nothing to do with Bigfoot. I promise you it does.

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<v Speaker 2>Just give me a minute. Dayton, Tennessee. The summer of

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<v Speaker 2>nineteen twenty five, a high school teacher named John T.

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<v Speaker 2>Scopes goes on trial for breaking the Butler apt That

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<v Speaker 2>was the Tennessee law that said you couldn't teach human

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<v Speaker 2>evolution in a public school. The trial became a national event.

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<v Speaker 2>It became known as the Scopes Monkey Trial, and to

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<v Speaker 2>this day it's one of the most famous legal spectacles

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<v Speaker 2>in American history. Most people have a version of this

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<v Speaker 2>story in their head. Evolution versus creationism, Clarence Darrow on

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<v Speaker 2>one side, champion of science, William Jennings Bryan on the other,

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<v Speaker 2>defender of the Bible. A small town courtroom where the

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<v Speaker 2>modern world collided with the old one. Good versus evil,

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<v Speaker 2>reason versus ignorance. Pick your hero, pick your villain, and

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<v Speaker 2>enjoy the show. Except that's not what happened, not even close.

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<v Speaker 2>Here's what actually happened. A local businessman named George rapple

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<v Speaker 2>Yee saw the Butler Act and realize something. If someone

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<v Speaker 2>got arrested for teaching evolution in Dayton, it would make

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<v Speaker 2>national news, and national news meant national attention, and national

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<v Speaker 2>attention meant money, tourism, prestige. He literally recruited Scopes to

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<v Speaker 2>get arrested. They planned it out at a drug store

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<v Speaker 2>over SODA's. Scopes later admitted he wasn't even certain he'd

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<v Speaker 2>taught evolution in his class. The entire thing was staged.

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<v Speaker 2>Not the legal proceedings, those were real enough, but the

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<v Speaker 2>reason it happened. That was manufactured from day one. Then

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<v Speaker 2>the press showed up and it became a circus. H. L.

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<v Speaker 2>Mincn came down from Baltimore. He was maybe the most

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<v Speaker 2>influential journalist in the country at the time, and he

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<v Speaker 2>had no interest in the actual legal or philosophical questions

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<v Speaker 2>at stake none. What Mincoln wanted was a spectacle, a

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<v Speaker 2>story with heroes and villains. He painted the people of

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<v Speaker 2>Dayton as fools, ignorant, backwoods hicks, too dim to understand

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<v Speaker 2>the world they lived in. He turned Darrow into a

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<v Speaker 2>crusader for enlightenment and Brian into a relic. He created

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<v Speaker 2>a narrative so clean and so satisfying that people are

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<v Speaker 2>still repeating it one hundred years later, and the thing

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<v Speaker 2>is almost none of it reflected reality. Darrow was brilliant, sure,

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<v Speaker 2>but he was also a showman who understood the press

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<v Speaker 2>better than anyone in that courtroom. Brian wasn't an idiot.

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<v Speaker 2>He was a three time presidential nominee, a former Secretary

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<v Speaker 2>of State, and a man who genuinely believed he was

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<v Speaker 2>protecting communities from having their values overridden by distant institutions.

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<v Speaker 2>The people of Dayton weren't rubes. They were ordinary Americans,

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<v Speaker 2>living ordinary lives who suddenly found themselves at the center

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<v Speaker 2>of a media machine they didn't ask for and couldn't control.

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<v Speaker 2>But none of that complexity fit the story Mincin wanted

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<v Speaker 2>to tell, so he told a simpler one, and it stuck.

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<v Speaker 2>The reporters who followed Mencoln's lead turned Dayton into a joke.

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<v Speaker 2>They wrote about the town as if it were some

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<v Speaker 2>kind of museum exhibit, a living diorama of American backwardness,

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<v Speaker 2>and the people who lived there, the farmers and shopkeepers

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<v Speaker 2>and school teachers and families who had to walk those streets.

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<v Speaker 2>Long after the press went home. They got to carry

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<v Speaker 2>that reputation for the rest of their lives. Their grandchildren

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<v Speaker 2>are probably still carrying it. That's the part that never

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<v Speaker 2>makes it into the history books, the human wreckage left

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<v Speaker 2>behind after the circus moves on, the people who got

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<v Speaker 2>used as props and then discarded. Here's what I need

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<v Speaker 2>you to understand. The Scopes trial wasn't just a weird

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<v Speaker 2>chapter in American legal history. It was a prototype. It

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<v Speaker 2>was the first great media manufactured culture war in this country,

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<v Speaker 2>and it created a playbook that has been running on

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<v Speaker 2>repeat ever since. The playbook goes like this, a controversy

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<v Speaker 2>is identified or manufactured. Sometimes both advocates on both sides

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<v Speaker 2>race to claim the moral high ground. The media, always

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<v Speaker 2>hungry for conflict and drama, amplifies the most extreme voices

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<v Speaker 2>on each side and ignores everyone in the middle. A

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<v Speaker 2>complex issue gets reduced to a binary. You're either for

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<v Speaker 2>science or for religion, for progress or for tradition, for

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<v Speaker 2>the enlightened or for the backward. And there's no room,

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<v Speaker 2>none at all for someone who thinks maybe the question

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<v Speaker 2>itself has been badly framed. Then comes the rest of it.

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<v Speaker 2>The tribal sorting. People pick their side and it becomes

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<v Speaker 2>part of who they are. The outcome gets mythologized, performance

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<v Speaker 2>replaces substance, and eventually, quietly, inevitably, the truth gets forgotten,

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<v Speaker 2>entirely buried under the noise. That's what happened in Dayton.

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<v Speaker 2>The Butler Act wasn't really a question about whether evolution

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<v Speaker 2>was true or false. It was about who gets to

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<v Speaker 2>decide what kids learn. It was about the tension between

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<v Speaker 2>science and religion, between local control and national norms, between

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<v Speaker 2>holding on and moving forward. Those are serious questions, hard questions,

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<v Speaker 2>questions that don't have tidy answers. But tidy answers were

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<v Speaker 2>all the media wanted, because tidy answers create two sidesdes

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<v Speaker 2>create conflict, Conflict creates engagement. An engagement then, as now,

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<v Speaker 2>creates money. So the question got flattened, stripped of its complexity,

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<v Speaker 2>shoved into a box it didn't fit in, and the

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<v Speaker 2>people of Dayton got handed a binary they never asked for. Now,

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<v Speaker 2>I need you to hear what I'm about to say,

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<v Speaker 2>because this is where it matters to us. That exact

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<v Speaker 2>same playbook is running right now, not in Tennessee, in

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<v Speaker 2>the Bigfoot community, in your Facebook groups, in your YouTube recommendations.

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<v Speaker 2>In the way this community is processing the Capturing Bigfoot documentary,

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<v Speaker 2>a controversy has been identified. People on both sides are

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<v Speaker 2>scrambling for the moral high ground. The loudest voices, the

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<v Speaker 2>most extreme ones, are getting all the attention, while anyone

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<v Speaker 2>trying to occupy the middle gets shouted down. And a

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<v Speaker 2>genuinely interesting, genuinely complex question about a piece of evidence

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<v Speaker 2>is being flattened into a binary. You're either a believer

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<v Speaker 2>or a debunker, loyal or a trader. You either defend

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<v Speaker 2>the Patterson Gimlin film without hesitation, or you're trying to

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<v Speaker 2>burn it down. There is zero room right now for

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<v Speaker 2>the person who says hold on. Maybe this isn't about

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<v Speaker 2>whether I'm for the PGF or against it. Maybe it's

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<v Speaker 2>about whether I'm actually willing to look at what's being presented.

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<v Speaker 2>That person is getting eaten alive from both directions, and

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<v Speaker 2>that should concern every one of us, because every single

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<v Speaker 2>time a complex question gets crammed into a binary, the

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<v Speaker 2>first thing that dies is the truth. So I'd suggest this,

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<v Speaker 2>and I mean it sincerely, be skeptical of any story

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<v Speaker 2>that comes with clear heroes and clear villains. Be suspicious

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<v Speaker 2>of any narrative that makes you feel righteous and comfortable

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<v Speaker 2>and absolutely certain that your side is the right side.

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<v Speaker 2>That feeling, that warm, settled certainty. That's almost never what

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<v Speaker 2>truth feels like. That's what belonging feels like. And those

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<v Speaker 2>are very, very different things. Mencoln understood this probably better

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<v Speaker 2>than anyone in that day and courtroom. He understood that

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<v Speaker 2>people don't really want the truth. They want a story

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<v Speaker 2>that makes them feel like they're on the right team.

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<v Speaker 2>They want a villain to point at and a hero

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<v Speaker 2>to root for. They want the world to be simple

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<v Speaker 2>because simple feels safe, and complex feels dangerous. And if

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<v Speaker 2>you hand people that simplicity, if you give them a

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<v Speaker 2>clean narrative that sorts the world into good guys and

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<v Speaker 2>bad guys, they will follow that narrative anywhere. They'll defend

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<v Speaker 2>it against any evidence, they'll attack anyone who questions it,

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<v Speaker 2>and the whole time they'll tell themselves they're the righteous ones.

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<v Speaker 2>Mencoln didn't create this pattern, He just figured out how

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<v Speaker 2>to weaponize it for newspapers, and every generation since has

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<v Speaker 2>been running the same play. Find a topic people feel

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<v Speaker 2>strongly about, strip the nuance, build two camps, amplify the

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<v Speaker 2>loudest voices, and let the engagement take care of itself.

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<v Speaker 2>It worked in print in nineteen twenty five. It works

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<v Speaker 2>on social media in twenty twenty six. The technology changes,

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<v Speaker 2>the pattern doesn't, and the people who pay the price

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<v Speaker 2>are always the same. The ones who wanted to understand,

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<v Speaker 2>the ones who were trying to think, the ones who said,

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<v Speaker 2>I think this is more complicated than either side is

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<v Speaker 2>making it. Those people get chewed up every time because

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<v Speaker 2>they don't serve the narrative, and once the machine is running,

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<v Speaker 2>the narrative is all that matters. The Patterson Gimlin film

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<v Speaker 2>is the single most significant piece of evidence in the

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<v Speaker 2>history of sasquatch research. That's not hyperbole. I say that

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<v Speaker 2>as someone who's been involved in this field for nearly

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<v Speaker 2>forty years, Since a childhood encounter in North Georgia in

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<v Speaker 2>nineteen eighty six that changed the trajectory of my life.

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<v Speaker 2>Since a visual sighting in Washington State in twenty twenty

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<v Speaker 2>four while I was filming a documentary, Since decades of

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<v Speaker 2>walking through those woods, reading the research, talking to witnesses,

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<v Speaker 2>and trying to bring the same discipline to this subject.

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<v Speaker 2>That I brought to my work in law enforcement. The

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<v Speaker 2>PGF matters, It's always mattered, and because it matters, it

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<v Speaker 2>has always generated controversy. That's expected, that's even healthy when

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<v Speaker 2>it's done right. For decades, researchers have debated what the

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<v Speaker 2>film shows. Some are convinced it's a genuine unknown primate.

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<v Speaker 2>Others believe it's a man in a suit. Both sides

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<v Speaker 2>bring technical arguments, detailed analysis, and a lot of personal

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<v Speaker 2>conviction to the table. People have spent entire careers defending

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<v Speaker 2>this footage. Others have spent entire careers trying to dismantle it,

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<v Speaker 2>and somewhere along the way, the actual question of what

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<v Speaker 2>the film shows has taken a back seat to what

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<v Speaker 2>the film means, what it represents, what side you're on.

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<v Speaker 2>That's what happens when evidence becomes a symbol. It stops

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<v Speaker 2>being something you examine. It becomes something you identify with,

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<v Speaker 2>something you protect, or something you tear down, and your

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<v Speaker 2>response to it stops being about what you see and

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<v Speaker 2>starts being about who you are. That's exactly where this

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<v Speaker 2>community is right now. Capturing Bigfoot has brought claims about

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<v Speaker 2>new footage, about the circumstances behind the filming at Bluff

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<v Speaker 2>Creek about what that footage might tell us regarding the

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<v Speaker 2>pgf's authenticity. I'm keeping this general on purpose because I

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<v Speaker 2>still haven't watched the full documentary. What I've seen are clips, interviews,

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<v Speaker 2>online reactions, and a lot of people with very strong

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<v Speaker 2>opinions about something most of them haven't fully sat with either.

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<v Speaker 2>And it's that last part that gets to me. I'm

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<v Speaker 2>not concerned about the documentary's claims. Those can be weighed

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<v Speaker 2>on their own merits once people have actually seen them.

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<v Speaker 2>What concerns me is the behavior surrounding the documentary, the

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<v Speaker 2>speed with which people picked sides, the way the conversation

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<v Speaker 2>splintered into factions that don't look anything like researchers evaluating evidence.

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<v Speaker 2>They look like sports fans defending their teams honor. I've

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<v Speaker 2>watched people reject this documentary outright, not after careful analysis,

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<v Speaker 2>not after seeing the footage and finding it wanting without

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<v Speaker 2>seeing it at all, just because they've already decided the

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<v Speaker 2>PGF is real and anything that might complicate that conclusion

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<v Speaker 2>has to be an attack. I've also watched people celebrate

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<v Speaker 2>the documentary's claims without any scrutiny. Whatsoever, because they've already

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<v Speaker 2>decided the PGF is fake and this feels like proof.

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<v Speaker 2>And then there are the people in between, the ones

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<v Speaker 2>who said something as simple as I'd like to see

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<v Speaker 2>this before I form an opinion, and for that they

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<v Speaker 2>caught heat from both directions. Think about where we are saying,

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<v Speaker 2>I want to look at the evidence is now a

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<v Speaker 2>controversial position in a community that exists to look at evidence.

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<v Speaker 2>That's the scope's playbook running in real time. The controversy

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<v Speaker 2>identified both sides racing for the high ground. The extreme

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<v Speaker 2>voice is drowning everyone else out, and stay tuned for

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<v Speaker 2>more sasquatch out to see. We'll be right back after

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<v Speaker 2>the these messages, a complex question crushed into a binary.

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<v Speaker 2>The middle turned into a war zone, different century, different subject,

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<v Speaker 2>identical dynamics. Let me be straightforward. I don't know what

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<v Speaker 2>the Patterson Gimlin film shows. I have opinions, I have

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<v Speaker 2>instincts shaped by decades of fieldwork, but I don't have certainty,

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<v Speaker 2>and neither do you. That's the whole reason this conversation

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<v Speaker 2>exists at all. That's why this documentary matters. If you

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<v Speaker 2>believe the PGF is authentic and the thought of new

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<v Speaker 2>evidence makes you defensive rather than curious. You need to

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<v Speaker 2>sit with that. Ask yourself what you're actually defending. Is

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<v Speaker 2>it the evidence or is it the identity you've built

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<v Speaker 2>around your interpretation of the evidence. There's a difference. Research

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<v Speaker 2>means following the evidence wherever it goes, even somewhere you

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<v Speaker 2>don't want to be. Belief means holding your ground no

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<v Speaker 2>matter what. And belief is fine, it's human, but it's

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<v Speaker 2>not research. Don't confuse the two. If you believe the

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<v Speaker 2>PGF is a hoax and you're ready to embrace this

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<v Speaker 2>documentary without putting it through the same filter you'd apply

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<v Speaker 2>to anything else, the same question applies. Are you evaluating

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<v Speaker 2>evidence or are you celebrating because someone finally validated what

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<v Speaker 2>you already thought. Here's the uncomfortable reality. Most of us

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<v Speaker 2>are doing a little of both. We want truth and

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<v Speaker 2>we want to be right, and we don't always notice

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<v Speaker 2>when those two things stop being the same. That tension

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<v Speaker 2>right there, that's the soil tribalism grows in the people

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<v Speaker 2>of Dayton in nineteen twenty five. Weren't fools. They were

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<v Speaker 2>people caught in a moment that demanded they pick a

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<v Speaker 2>team for evolution. Or against it with Darrow or with Brian,

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<v Speaker 2>modern or backward, And the moment they chose, everything they

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<v Speaker 2>encountered got filtered through that choice. The same filter is

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<v Speaker 2>running in the Bigfoot community right now for the PGF

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<v Speaker 2>or against it, believer or debunker, loyal or treason us.

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<v Speaker 2>Once you've been sorted, the evidence stops driving the conversation.

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<v Speaker 2>The fight becomes the point. I won't do it, and

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<v Speaker 2>I'd ask you not to either. I want to talk

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<v Speaker 2>about why this works so well on us, because understanding

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<v Speaker 2>the mechanism is how you start to see past it.

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<v Speaker 2>We are, at our core tribal creatures. We evolved in

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<v Speaker 2>small bands where social belonging wasn't just nice to have,

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<v Speaker 2>it was survival. Getting expelled from your group meant death.

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<v Speaker 2>So our brains got very very good at reading social cues,

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<v Speaker 2>at identifying who's in the group and who's not, at

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<v Speaker 2>adjusting our behavior to match the people around us, at

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<v Speaker 2>punishing anyone who threatens the group's unity. That wiring is

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<v Speaker 2>still active. Every time you see a post from someone

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<v Speaker 2>in this community who disagrees with you about the PGF,

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<v Speaker 2>something happens in your nervous system. You might not feel

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<v Speaker 2>it consciously, but it's there, a small jolt, a titan,

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<v Speaker 2>a flash of that person is wrong and I need

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<v Speaker 2>to say something, A quiet signal that whispers they're not

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<v Speaker 2>one of us. That has nothing to do with evidence,

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<v Speaker 2>nothing to do with the actual content of the film.

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<v Speaker 2>That's pure tribal machinery, your brain identifying an outsider and

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<v Speaker 2>mobilizing a response. It's ancient, it's automatic, and it hijacks

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<v Speaker 2>your ability to think clearly about the very thing you

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<v Speaker 2>claim to care about. The Scopes pattern works because it

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<v Speaker 2>taps directly into this wiring. It gives people a team,

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<v Speaker 2>a flag, an enemy, something to fight about that feels important,

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<v Speaker 2>even when the real questions underneath are more complicated than

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<v Speaker 2>anyone on either side wants to deal with. Now, let

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00:18:46.200 --> 00:18:48.359
<v Speaker 2>me add something to this picture that makes it worse.

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<v Speaker 2>There's a concept in psychology called the backfire effect. It

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<v Speaker 2>describes what happens when someone encounters evidence that contradicts something

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<v Speaker 2>they believe deeply. You'd think the evidence would weaken the belief.

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00:19:01.519 --> 00:19:05.359
<v Speaker 2>It doesn't. It strengthens it. The person digs in harder,

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00:19:05.880 --> 00:19:09.839
<v Speaker 2>the belief gets more entrenched, not less. The evidence that

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00:19:09.920 --> 00:19:13.079
<v Speaker 2>was supposed to change their mind actually fortifies the position

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00:19:13.200 --> 00:19:16.880
<v Speaker 2>it was supposed to undermine. This has been studied extensively.

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<v Speaker 2>It shows up in politics, in religion, in medicine, and yes,

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<v Speaker 2>in the Bigfoot community. It happens because our brains aren't

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<v Speaker 2>designed to process information neutrally. They're designed to protect our

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<v Speaker 2>existing understanding of the world. Revising a core belief is

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<v Speaker 2>cognitively expensive. It disrupts your sense of who you are,

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<v Speaker 2>so your brain resists it, often without you even knowing.

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<v Speaker 2>This is why the response to capturing Bigfoot has been

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<v Speaker 2>so predictable, not because Bigfoot researchers are uniquely pigheaded, because

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<v Speaker 2>they're human, and this is what humans do when something

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<v Speaker 2>threatens a belief that's become part of their identity. They

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<v Speaker 2>circle the wagons, They discredit the source, They retreat to

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<v Speaker 2>their tribe and tell each other the threat isn't real.

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<v Speaker 2>Brian did this at the Scopes trial when Darrow put

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<v Speaker 2>him on the stand and pressed him on the literal

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<v Speaker 2>truth of Genesis. Brian didn't engage the questions. He deflected.

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<v Speaker 2>He played to the gallery. He invoked the authority of faith,

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<v Speaker 2>and the audience loved every second of it because they

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<v Speaker 2>weren't there for a legal proceeding. They were there to

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<v Speaker 2>watch their guy win. And here's the part that makes

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<v Speaker 2>this so insidious. Nobody in that crowd thought they were performing.

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<v Speaker 2>They thought they were standing on principle. They thought they

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<v Speaker 2>were defending something that mattered. The performance and the sincerity

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00:20:36.519 --> 00:20:40.680
<v Speaker 2>weren't opposites. They were woven together so tightly that nobody

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<v Speaker 2>could tell where one ended and the other began. And

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<v Speaker 2>that's what makes tribalism so hard to recognize from the inside.

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<v Speaker 2>It doesn't feel like tribalism when you're in it. It

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00:20:51.279 --> 00:20:55.000
<v Speaker 2>feels like conviction. It feels like integrity. It feels like

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<v Speaker 2>doing the right thing. The people going after researchers right

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<v Speaker 2>now for expressing even mild curiosity about capturing Bigfoot are

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<v Speaker 2>doing the same thing Brian did. They're not engaging with evidence.

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<v Speaker 2>They're performing loyalty, proving to their tribe that they're solid,

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<v Speaker 2>that they'll hold the line, that they'll defend the cannon

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<v Speaker 2>and the folks on the opposite end, the ones treating

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<v Speaker 2>the documentary like it already settled the question without actually

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<v Speaker 2>subjecting its claims to scrutiny. Same game, different Jersey. Both

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<v Speaker 2>sides are sure they're the rational ones. Both sides are

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<v Speaker 2>sure they're following the evidence. Both sides are wrong because

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<v Speaker 2>neither side is looking at the evidence. They're looking at

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<v Speaker 2>each other. And this is the thing that keeps me

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<v Speaker 2>up at night about this field. We spend more time

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<v Speaker 2>watching each other than we do examining evidence, more energy

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<v Speaker 2>crafting rebuttals to people we disagree with than analyzing data.

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<v Speaker 2>I've watched Facebook threads about the PGF go from a

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<v Speaker 2>genuine question to a full scale tribal war in under

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<v Speaker 2>an hour. The question forgotten, the evidence never discussed, just

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00:22:01.000 --> 00:22:07.759
<v Speaker 2>accusations flying in every direction. Gullible, trader hill, closed minded,

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<v Speaker 2>hidden agenda. You know who watches all of this The

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<v Speaker 2>scientific community, the people with the resources, the training, the

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<v Speaker 2>institutional support to actually move this field forward. They watch

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<v Speaker 2>us devour each other, and they walk away. I've had

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<v Speaker 2>conversations with academic researchers who were genuinely interested in the

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<v Speaker 2>sasquatch phenomenon, good scientists with real curiosity, And what drove

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<v Speaker 2>them off wasn't the skeptics, wasn't the lack of a

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<v Speaker 2>type specimen, wasn't the difficulty of the field work. It

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<v Speaker 2>was us, the community itself, The way we eat our own.

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<v Speaker 2>They looked at that and decided it wasn't worth the grief.

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<v Speaker 2>We are chasing away the people who could help us

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<v Speaker 2>the most, and we're doing it because we can't stop

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<v Speaker 2>fighting each other over who owns the truth in a

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<v Speaker 2>field where nobody has actually found it yet. I'm not

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<v Speaker 2>exempt by the way. I've let my frustration get ahead

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<v Speaker 2>of my judgment. I've said things about other researchers that

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<v Speaker 2>had more to do with my pride than with any evidence.

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<v Speaker 2>I'm not above this. I'm in the same valley as

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<v Speaker 2>everyone else. But recognizing you're in a valley is the

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<v Speaker 2>first step toward getting out of it. I want to

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<v Speaker 2>say something now that isn't going to make everyone comfortable,

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<v Speaker 2>but I think it needs to be said, so here

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<v Speaker 2>it is. The Patterson Gimlin film is not sacred scripture.

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<v Speaker 2>It is a piece of evidence, and evidence exists to

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<v Speaker 2>be tested. That distinction matters more than it might seem,

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<v Speaker 2>because when a piece of evidence becomes sacred in a community,

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<v Speaker 2>when it gets elevated from important data that deserves examination

383
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<v Speaker 2>to foundational truth that must be protected, something fundamental shifts.

384
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<v Speaker 2>You stop evaluating it and start guarding it. You stop

385
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<v Speaker 2>welcoming new analysis and start viewing it as a threat,

386
00:23:54.640 --> 00:23:57.440
<v Speaker 2>and you start treating anyone who approaches the evidence with

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<v Speaker 2>open ended curiosity as if they're committing heirin. I've watched

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00:24:01.640 --> 00:24:06.640
<v Speaker 2>that shift happen with the PGF. Slowly over years, the

389
00:24:06.720 --> 00:24:09.279
<v Speaker 2>film went from being the most important piece of evidence

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<v Speaker 2>in this field, which it still is, to being the

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<v Speaker 2>untouchable arc of the Covenant that no one is permitted

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<v Speaker 2>to question. And the people who enforced that shift didn't

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00:24:18.880 --> 00:24:22.200
<v Speaker 2>do it consciously. They did it out of love, out

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00:24:22.240 --> 00:24:26.039
<v Speaker 2>of investment, out of decades of defending something they believe in.

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<v Speaker 2>I understand the impulse. I respect the devotion, but devotion

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00:24:31.119 --> 00:24:33.319
<v Speaker 2>to a conclusion is not the same as devotion to

397
00:24:33.359 --> 00:24:36.839
<v Speaker 2>the truth, and somewhere along the way those two things

398
00:24:36.880 --> 00:24:40.160
<v Speaker 2>got confused. I realize that's going to land hard for

399
00:24:40.200 --> 00:24:44.519
<v Speaker 2>some people. There are researchers who've spent decades defending this footage.

400
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<v Speaker 2>There are people who knew Roger Patterson. There are people

401
00:24:47.839 --> 00:24:51.640
<v Speaker 2>who consider Bob Gimlin a personal friend. I have enormous

402
00:24:51.640 --> 00:24:55.119
<v Speaker 2>respect for Bob. The scrutiny that man has endured over

403
00:24:55.160 --> 00:24:58.160
<v Speaker 2>the decades would have broken most people, and he's handled

404
00:24:58.200 --> 00:25:00.960
<v Speaker 2>it with more grace than anyone could rea reasonably ask for.

405
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<v Speaker 2>But respecting the people connected to the film doesn't mean

406
00:25:04.799 --> 00:25:08.400
<v Speaker 2>the film itself gets to be off limits. If anything,

407
00:25:08.799 --> 00:25:12.960
<v Speaker 2>it means the opposite. If the PGF is authentic, rigorous

408
00:25:13.000 --> 00:25:17.559
<v Speaker 2>examination only makes it stronger. Every serious analysis that can't

409
00:25:17.599 --> 00:25:21.559
<v Speaker 2>debunk it adds to its credibility. The only scenario where

410
00:25:21.599 --> 00:25:24.759
<v Speaker 2>examination is dangerous is if the film can't hold up

411
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<v Speaker 2>under it. And look at the track record. The PGF

412
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<v Speaker 2>has withstood a tremendous amount of scrutiny, the biomechanical analysis,

413
00:25:32.920 --> 00:25:36.279
<v Speaker 2>the proportional studies, the work Bill Mounds and Jeff Meldrum

414
00:25:36.359 --> 00:25:40.200
<v Speaker 2>have done. That's some of the most careful, substantive analytical

415
00:25:40.240 --> 00:25:43.319
<v Speaker 2>work this field has ever produced. And it wasn't done

416
00:25:43.319 --> 00:25:46.440
<v Speaker 2>by sheltering the film from hard questions. It was done

417
00:25:46.480 --> 00:25:50.519
<v Speaker 2>by inviting them. That's what confidence and evidence actually looks like.

418
00:25:51.160 --> 00:25:55.279
<v Speaker 2>Not defensiveness, not aggression toward anyone who raises a concern,

419
00:25:56.160 --> 00:26:01.279
<v Speaker 2>just the steady, patient willingness to say go ahead, will wait.

420
00:26:02.359 --> 00:26:05.000
<v Speaker 2>If this community can't summon that kind of composure in

421
00:26:05.039 --> 00:26:07.799
<v Speaker 2>the face of a single documentary, then we've got a

422
00:26:07.799 --> 00:26:11.319
<v Speaker 2>problem much bigger than any film. Here's what I believe

423
00:26:11.359 --> 00:26:14.839
<v Speaker 2>about Capturing Bigfoot. Anyone in this field who cares about

424
00:26:14.880 --> 00:26:18.200
<v Speaker 2>the truth should want to see the new footage period.

425
00:26:19.039 --> 00:26:22.279
<v Speaker 2>If there's additional material connected to the Patterson Gimlin film,

426
00:26:22.799 --> 00:26:25.960
<v Speaker 2>material that could illuminate what happened at Bluff Creek, then

427
00:26:26.039 --> 00:26:28.920
<v Speaker 2>everyone with a genuine stake in this question should be

428
00:26:28.960 --> 00:26:32.559
<v Speaker 2>eager to examine it, not to confirm what they already believe,

429
00:26:33.200 --> 00:26:35.559
<v Speaker 2>not to tear it apart on behalf of their tribe,

430
00:26:35.960 --> 00:26:40.240
<v Speaker 2>to examine it with open eyes and honest intent. If

431
00:26:40.240 --> 00:26:44.880
<v Speaker 2>it supports the pgf's authenticity important. If it raises new

432
00:26:44.960 --> 00:26:49.200
<v Speaker 2>questions also important. The only bad outcome is the one

433
00:26:49.240 --> 00:26:51.720
<v Speaker 2>where we refuse to look because we're afraid of what

434
00:26:51.759 --> 00:26:56.160
<v Speaker 2>we might see. Anyone dismissing this documentary without watching it

435
00:26:56.200 --> 00:26:58.759
<v Speaker 2>has already made a decision they're not entitled to make.

436
00:26:59.519 --> 00:27:01.640
<v Speaker 2>I don't care how long you've been in this field.

437
00:27:01.839 --> 00:27:04.359
<v Speaker 2>I don't care how many conferences you've spoken at, or

438
00:27:04.359 --> 00:27:07.680
<v Speaker 2>how many books you've published. If your reaction to new

439
00:27:07.720 --> 00:27:10.400
<v Speaker 2>evidence is to cover your ears and go after the

440
00:27:10.400 --> 00:27:14.200
<v Speaker 2>person presenting it, you're not doing research. You're doing fandom.

441
00:27:14.759 --> 00:27:17.200
<v Speaker 2>And fandom is fine, But it doesn't get to run

442
00:27:17.200 --> 00:27:21.119
<v Speaker 2>the investigation. I'm going to watch this documentary. I'm going

443
00:27:21.160 --> 00:27:23.519
<v Speaker 2>to look at the footage with everything I've got, the

444
00:27:23.599 --> 00:27:27.839
<v Speaker 2>decades of field experience, the investigative training, the willingness to

445
00:27:27.880 --> 00:27:30.920
<v Speaker 2>be wrong, and I'm going to share what I honestly think,

446
00:27:31.160 --> 00:27:34.599
<v Speaker 2>even if it's messy, even if it contradicts positions I've

447
00:27:34.599 --> 00:27:38.480
<v Speaker 2>held before, even if it makes people angry, because that's

448
00:27:38.519 --> 00:27:41.920
<v Speaker 2>the job. That's what real inquiry looks like. And I

449
00:27:41.960 --> 00:27:44.400
<v Speaker 2>want to be clear about what I mean by real inquiry,

450
00:27:44.839 --> 00:27:47.319
<v Speaker 2>because I think the term has been so diluted in

451
00:27:47.359 --> 00:27:51.799
<v Speaker 2>this community that it barely means anything anymore. Real inquiry

452
00:27:51.799 --> 00:27:54.640
<v Speaker 2>doesn't mean watching a trailer and deciding you've seen enough.

453
00:27:55.279 --> 00:27:58.160
<v Speaker 2>It doesn't mean reading someone else's review and adopting their

454
00:27:58.200 --> 00:28:01.480
<v Speaker 2>conclusions as your own. It doesn't mean waiting to see

455
00:28:01.519 --> 00:28:03.920
<v Speaker 2>which way the wind is blowing in your Facebook group

456
00:28:04.200 --> 00:28:08.279
<v Speaker 2>before you say what you think. Real inquiry means sitting down,

457
00:28:08.599 --> 00:28:12.480
<v Speaker 2>doing the work yourself, engaging with the material directly, and

458
00:28:12.519 --> 00:28:15.599
<v Speaker 2>then forming your own honest assessment based on what you

459
00:28:15.720 --> 00:28:19.559
<v Speaker 2>actually observed, not what your friends think, not what your

460
00:28:19.599 --> 00:28:23.119
<v Speaker 2>audience wants to hear. What you observed that used to

461
00:28:23.160 --> 00:28:25.720
<v Speaker 2>be the baseline in this field. It used to be

462
00:28:25.759 --> 00:28:29.039
<v Speaker 2>the minimum. I'm not sure it is anymore. If the

463
00:28:29.079 --> 00:28:33.039
<v Speaker 2>Patterson Gimlin film shows a real Sasquatch, no documentary on

464
00:28:33.079 --> 00:28:36.960
<v Speaker 2>Earth changes that. The film stands on its own, and

465
00:28:37.039 --> 00:28:41.000
<v Speaker 2>if the film shows something else, I'd rather know. I

466
00:28:41.039 --> 00:28:43.559
<v Speaker 2>want to tell you something from my years in law enforcement,

467
00:28:44.039 --> 00:28:46.480
<v Speaker 2>because I think it connects directly to what we're dealing

468
00:28:46.519 --> 00:28:50.559
<v Speaker 2>with here. Every good investigator I ever worked with understood

469
00:28:50.559 --> 00:28:53.759
<v Speaker 2>one rule above all others. Don't fall in love with

470
00:28:53.799 --> 00:28:57.440
<v Speaker 2>the theory. Don't do it because the moment you decide

471
00:28:57.440 --> 00:29:00.119
<v Speaker 2>what happened before you've looked at everything, you start bending

472
00:29:00.160 --> 00:29:03.839
<v Speaker 2>the investigation to fit your conclusion. You give extra weight

473
00:29:03.880 --> 00:29:07.319
<v Speaker 2>to evidence that confirms what you think, You minimize the

474
00:29:07.359 --> 00:29:11.599
<v Speaker 2>stuff that doesn't fit. You explain away inconsistencies instead of

475
00:29:11.640 --> 00:29:14.799
<v Speaker 2>chasing them, and eventually you've built a case that looks

476
00:29:14.799 --> 00:29:18.720
<v Speaker 2>bulletproof on paper but lives nowhere near the truth. I

477
00:29:18.799 --> 00:29:23.440
<v Speaker 2>watched it happen good investigators, smart people who locked onto

478
00:29:23.480 --> 00:29:25.960
<v Speaker 2>a theory too early and missed the answer that was

479
00:29:26.000 --> 00:29:29.039
<v Speaker 2>sitting right in front of them. And the price wasn't

480
00:29:29.079 --> 00:29:33.640
<v Speaker 2>an argument lost online. It was real cases that went cold,

481
00:29:33.960 --> 00:29:38.119
<v Speaker 2>real victims who didn't get answers, real damage done because

482
00:29:38.119 --> 00:29:40.640
<v Speaker 2>someone wanted to be right more than they wanted to

483
00:29:40.640 --> 00:29:43.960
<v Speaker 2>be thorough. That's a lesson you learn once and carry

484
00:29:43.960 --> 00:29:46.480
<v Speaker 2>for the rest of your life, because you see what

485
00:29:46.559 --> 00:29:51.359
<v Speaker 2>confirmation bias actually costs when the stakes are real. Sixteen

486
00:29:51.440 --> 00:29:53.680
<v Speaker 2>years of working cases taught me that the people who

487
00:29:53.759 --> 00:29:56.480
<v Speaker 2>get it right aren't the ones with the strongest convictions.

488
00:29:57.079 --> 00:29:59.839
<v Speaker 2>They're the ones with the most discipline, the ones who

489
00:29:59.839 --> 00:30:02.000
<v Speaker 2>can hold a theory in one hand and doubt in

490
00:30:02.039 --> 00:30:04.839
<v Speaker 2>the other and not let either one go until the

491
00:30:04.880 --> 00:30:09.000
<v Speaker 2>evidence tells them which one to keep, and stay tuned

492
00:30:09.039 --> 00:30:11.200
<v Speaker 2>for more sasquatch ott to see. We'll be right back

493
00:30:11.279 --> 00:30:18.440
<v Speaker 2>after these messages. I know bigfoot research doesn't carry the

494
00:30:18.440 --> 00:30:22.200
<v Speaker 2>same weight as a criminal investigation. Nobody's going to prison,

495
00:30:22.720 --> 00:30:26.880
<v Speaker 2>nobody's freedom hangs in the balance. But the principle is identical,

496
00:30:27.400 --> 00:30:31.039
<v Speaker 2>the mechanism is the same, and the consequences for this field,

497
00:30:31.359 --> 00:30:34.799
<v Speaker 2>if not for any individual person, are real, and they

498
00:30:34.799 --> 00:30:38.480
<v Speaker 2>accumulate over time. I carry that with me into every

499
00:30:38.519 --> 00:30:42.720
<v Speaker 2>conversation about the PGF. That's why I resist the tribal pool,

500
00:30:43.480 --> 00:30:46.440
<v Speaker 2>not because I enjoy being difficult because I've seen what

501
00:30:46.519 --> 00:30:49.240
<v Speaker 2>happens in the real world when you let your conclusion

502
00:30:49.279 --> 00:30:53.519
<v Speaker 2>outrun your evidence. You get it wrong every time, and

503
00:30:53.599 --> 00:30:56.920
<v Speaker 2>in this field, getting it wrong has consequences beyond your

504
00:30:56.960 --> 00:31:00.559
<v Speaker 2>own ego. Every time this community tears it so apart,

505
00:31:00.880 --> 00:31:04.799
<v Speaker 2>the people on the outside take notice. Mainstream science looks

506
00:31:04.799 --> 00:31:07.599
<v Speaker 2>at us eating each other alive and says, why would

507
00:31:07.640 --> 00:31:10.319
<v Speaker 2>we invest time and credibility in a community that can't

508
00:31:10.319 --> 00:31:13.480
<v Speaker 2>even have a civil conversation. And they're not wrong to

509
00:31:13.559 --> 00:31:17.880
<v Speaker 2>ask that we are our own biggest obstacle, not the debunkers,

510
00:31:18.279 --> 00:31:23.640
<v Speaker 2>not the media, not the giggle factor. Us. Our tribalism

511
00:31:23.720 --> 00:31:27.000
<v Speaker 2>is doing more damage to the credibility of sasquatch research

512
00:31:27.240 --> 00:31:30.880
<v Speaker 2>than any documentary could ever do. Now I already know

513
00:31:30.960 --> 00:31:34.839
<v Speaker 2>someone is thinking, Brian, come on, some of these documentaries

514
00:31:34.880 --> 00:31:37.599
<v Speaker 2>are just money grabs. You can't just take every new

515
00:31:37.640 --> 00:31:41.920
<v Speaker 2>claim seriously. And I hear you. You're right. I'm not

516
00:31:42.000 --> 00:31:45.039
<v Speaker 2>asking anyone to accept claims at face value. That's the

517
00:31:45.119 --> 00:31:48.119
<v Speaker 2>exact opposite of what I'm saying. I'm asking you to

518
00:31:48.200 --> 00:31:52.279
<v Speaker 2>look to evaluate, to bring your skepticism and your experience

519
00:31:52.319 --> 00:31:55.799
<v Speaker 2>and your sharpest critical thinking to bear on what's being presented.

520
00:31:56.240 --> 00:32:00.359
<v Speaker 2>That's not credulity. That's investigation, and it's all also the

521
00:32:00.400 --> 00:32:03.880
<v Speaker 2>opposite of dismissing something before you've even seen it. This

522
00:32:04.000 --> 00:32:08.079
<v Speaker 2>requires discipline. It means holding your opinions loosely enough that

523
00:32:08.119 --> 00:32:11.839
<v Speaker 2>new information can actually reach you. It means separating who

524
00:32:11.920 --> 00:32:15.680
<v Speaker 2>you are from what you've concluded. It means being willing,

525
00:32:16.039 --> 00:32:20.319
<v Speaker 2>genuinely willing to discover you've been wrong, not hypothetically wrong,

526
00:32:20.920 --> 00:32:25.039
<v Speaker 2>actually wrong in a way that changes things. That's hard.

527
00:32:25.799 --> 00:32:29.599
<v Speaker 2>I know it is. I've been wrong before, held positions

528
00:32:29.640 --> 00:32:32.599
<v Speaker 2>with real conviction, then realized I've been looking through a

529
00:32:32.640 --> 00:32:35.759
<v Speaker 2>warped lens the whole time. And the hardest part was

530
00:32:35.799 --> 00:32:39.000
<v Speaker 2>never accepting the new information. It was letting go of

531
00:32:39.000 --> 00:32:43.759
<v Speaker 2>the old certainty. Because certainty feels so good. It's warm,

532
00:32:44.119 --> 00:32:48.480
<v Speaker 2>it's stable, it tells you where you stand. Uncertainty is

533
00:32:48.519 --> 00:32:52.000
<v Speaker 2>the opposite of all that. It's cold and it's exposed,

534
00:32:52.279 --> 00:32:55.759
<v Speaker 2>and it's uncomfortable. But that's where the real discoveries live,

535
00:32:56.480 --> 00:32:59.240
<v Speaker 2>not in the comfortable warmth of your tribe, in the

536
00:32:59.279 --> 00:33:02.839
<v Speaker 2>open air of not knowing. An older officer told me

537
00:33:02.920 --> 00:33:06.480
<v Speaker 2>something early in my career that I've never forgotten he said,

538
00:33:07.000 --> 00:33:09.200
<v Speaker 2>the moment you stop being willing to be wrong is

539
00:33:09.200 --> 00:33:11.640
<v Speaker 2>the moment you stop being any good at this job.

540
00:33:12.759 --> 00:33:15.279
<v Speaker 2>That followed me through sixteen years of police work and

541
00:33:15.359 --> 00:33:19.559
<v Speaker 2>nearly four decades of sasquatch research, because it's true in

542
00:33:19.599 --> 00:33:22.799
<v Speaker 2>both worlds, the second you decide you have all the

543
00:33:22.839 --> 00:33:26.480
<v Speaker 2>answers is the second you become useless. I've watched people

544
00:33:26.480 --> 00:33:29.720
<v Speaker 2>in this community build their entire identity around the PGF.

545
00:33:29.799 --> 00:33:34.880
<v Speaker 2>Being authentic, their online presence, their friendships, their standing among

546
00:33:34.920 --> 00:33:38.279
<v Speaker 2>their peers, all of it balanced on that one conclusion.

547
00:33:38.920 --> 00:33:42.119
<v Speaker 2>And when your identity depends on a single position, any

548
00:33:42.200 --> 00:33:45.160
<v Speaker 2>challenge to that position becomes a challenge to who you are.

549
00:33:45.880 --> 00:33:49.599
<v Speaker 2>That's not a foundation for research, that's a foundation for war.

550
00:33:50.559 --> 00:33:54.119
<v Speaker 2>I've also watched people build their entire identity around debunking

551
00:33:54.160 --> 00:33:59.079
<v Speaker 2>the PGF, their reputation in skeptical circles, their self image

552
00:33:59.119 --> 00:34:02.519
<v Speaker 2>as the clear eye rationalist who sees through the nonsense.

553
00:34:03.160 --> 00:34:06.599
<v Speaker 2>And those people are just as trapped, just as unable

554
00:34:06.640 --> 00:34:09.760
<v Speaker 2>to look at something new with fresh eyes, just as

555
00:34:09.800 --> 00:34:14.039
<v Speaker 2>invested in their predetermined answer. Both groups need to loosen

556
00:34:14.079 --> 00:34:17.519
<v Speaker 2>their grip, not let go of their positions, just loosen

557
00:34:17.559 --> 00:34:20.199
<v Speaker 2>the grip. You can hold a view and still be

558
00:34:20.280 --> 00:34:24.280
<v Speaker 2>open to revision. You can believe something strongly and still

559
00:34:24.280 --> 00:34:28.159
<v Speaker 2>acknowledge the gap between belief and proof. You can think

560
00:34:28.159 --> 00:34:30.840
<v Speaker 2>you're right while keeping enough humility to look at evidence

561
00:34:30.880 --> 00:34:34.960
<v Speaker 2>that says you might not be. That isn't weakness. That's

562
00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:38.400
<v Speaker 2>the strongest, most adult thing a person can do in

563
00:34:38.440 --> 00:34:41.960
<v Speaker 2>a field like this, and it's in dangerously short supply

564
00:34:42.119 --> 00:34:45.639
<v Speaker 2>right now. I think sometimes about the ordinary people of Dayton,

565
00:34:46.199 --> 00:34:49.960
<v Speaker 2>not the lawyers, not the journalists, not the national celebrities

566
00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:52.559
<v Speaker 2>who rolled into town and turned it into a stage set.

567
00:34:53.079 --> 00:34:56.079
<v Speaker 2>The people who actually lived there, went to church there,

568
00:34:56.440 --> 00:35:00.599
<v Speaker 2>ran the hardware store, raised kids, had normal lives in

569
00:35:00.639 --> 00:35:04.079
<v Speaker 2>a normal town that was suddenly anything but normal. Most

570
00:35:04.079 --> 00:35:07.000
<v Speaker 2>of them didn't have fierce opinions about evolution before all

571
00:35:07.039 --> 00:35:10.039
<v Speaker 2>of this started. They were just going about their business.

572
00:35:10.639 --> 00:35:13.920
<v Speaker 2>But once the circus arrived, they had to choose. The

573
00:35:13.920 --> 00:35:17.920
<v Speaker 2>whole country was watching, Their neighbors were watching, their pastor

574
00:35:18.039 --> 00:35:21.639
<v Speaker 2>was watching, and every set of eyes asked the same question,

575
00:35:22.400 --> 00:35:25.480
<v Speaker 2>whose side are you on? Some of them surely had

576
00:35:25.559 --> 00:35:29.599
<v Speaker 2>nuanced thoughts. Surely some quiet voice in some quiet kitchen

577
00:35:29.639 --> 00:35:33.159
<v Speaker 2>said maybe it's not that simple. Maybe both sides have

578
00:35:33.199 --> 00:35:36.360
<v Speaker 2>a point. Maybe the truth is more tangled than anyone

579
00:35:36.400 --> 00:35:39.400
<v Speaker 2>out there wants to admit. But that voice didn't get

580
00:35:39.440 --> 00:35:44.000
<v Speaker 2>a microphone because nuance doesn't sell papers, Nuance doesn't fill

581
00:35:44.000 --> 00:35:48.000
<v Speaker 2>a courtroom with gawkers. Nuance can't compete with the adrenaline

582
00:35:48.039 --> 00:35:51.079
<v Speaker 2>of a good, clean fight. I think about those people

583
00:35:51.119 --> 00:35:54.440
<v Speaker 2>because I see them in this community every day. Good people,

584
00:35:55.079 --> 00:35:58.639
<v Speaker 2>curious people, people who look at capturing Bigfoot and think

585
00:35:59.119 --> 00:36:02.159
<v Speaker 2>that's interesting. Let me sit with it, let me see

586
00:36:02.159 --> 00:36:05.639
<v Speaker 2>the evidence and think for myself. But the tribal machinery

587
00:36:05.679 --> 00:36:08.920
<v Speaker 2>won't let them. The moment they express anything other than

588
00:36:08.960 --> 00:36:12.159
<v Speaker 2>full throated allegiance to one side, they get pounced on.

589
00:36:12.960 --> 00:36:17.320
<v Speaker 2>Believers call them traders, Skeptics call them naive. They end

590
00:36:17.400 --> 00:36:19.639
<v Speaker 2>up in no man's land, wondering why they bother to

591
00:36:19.679 --> 00:36:22.519
<v Speaker 2>speak up at all. I've spent most of my career

592
00:36:22.599 --> 00:36:26.000
<v Speaker 2>standing in that no man's land. It's not comfortable, but

593
00:36:26.079 --> 00:36:29.320
<v Speaker 2>it's honest, and I'd rather be honest and standing alone

594
00:36:29.360 --> 00:36:32.760
<v Speaker 2>than popular and compromised. I need to say something to

595
00:36:32.800 --> 00:36:35.840
<v Speaker 2>the content creators in this space, and I'm saying it

596
00:36:35.880 --> 00:36:40.079
<v Speaker 2>as a content creator myself, someone who understands the pressures

597
00:36:40.360 --> 00:36:43.840
<v Speaker 2>the algorithms the grind of building and keeping an audience.

598
00:36:44.599 --> 00:36:46.840
<v Speaker 2>If you are positioning yourself on one side of this

599
00:36:46.920 --> 00:36:50.159
<v Speaker 2>debate purely because that's where your audience lives, you are

600
00:36:50.199 --> 00:36:53.440
<v Speaker 2>making this worse. You know who you are. I don't

601
00:36:53.440 --> 00:36:56.159
<v Speaker 2>have to name anybody. You know the math you're running.

602
00:36:56.599 --> 00:36:59.920
<v Speaker 2>You know, defending the PGF gets more engagement than examining it.

603
00:37:00.519 --> 00:37:04.400
<v Speaker 2>You know, tribal certainty generates more interaction than intellectual honesty.

604
00:37:05.159 --> 00:37:07.480
<v Speaker 2>You know, the path of least resistance is to tell

605
00:37:07.519 --> 00:37:10.400
<v Speaker 2>your audience what they already believe and make them feel

606
00:37:10.440 --> 00:37:14.800
<v Speaker 2>good about believing it. I get the temptation. Building content

607
00:37:14.920 --> 00:37:18.920
<v Speaker 2>is hard. Keeping people engaged is hard, and every platform

608
00:37:18.960 --> 00:37:21.760
<v Speaker 2>on Earth is designed to reward the hottest take over

609
00:37:21.800 --> 00:37:27.639
<v Speaker 2>the most careful analysis. The algorithm loves conflict, It loves certainty.

610
00:37:27.679 --> 00:37:32.239
<v Speaker 2>It loves extreme positions because extreme positions provoke reaction, and

611
00:37:32.320 --> 00:37:36.239
<v Speaker 2>reaction is the only currency that matters. But easy isn't

612
00:37:36.239 --> 00:37:39.119
<v Speaker 2>the same as right, And at some point everyone with

613
00:37:39.199 --> 00:37:41.440
<v Speaker 2>a platform in this field has to make a decision.

614
00:37:42.119 --> 00:37:44.400
<v Speaker 2>Are you here to grow numbers or are you here

615
00:37:44.440 --> 00:37:47.920
<v Speaker 2>to push this subject forward? Because right now those two

616
00:37:47.920 --> 00:37:51.360
<v Speaker 2>things are pulling in opposite directions. I made my choice

617
00:37:51.400 --> 00:37:54.360
<v Speaker 2>a long time ago. I say what I actually think,

618
00:37:54.679 --> 00:37:58.519
<v Speaker 2>even when it shrinks my audience, even when people unsubscribe,

619
00:37:59.199 --> 00:38:01.760
<v Speaker 2>even when I get that email that starts with I

620
00:38:01.840 --> 00:38:04.639
<v Speaker 2>used to respect you. But I didn't get into this

621
00:38:04.679 --> 00:38:07.280
<v Speaker 2>to be liked. I got into this because something happened

622
00:38:07.280 --> 00:38:09.360
<v Speaker 2>to me in the North Georgia Woods when I was

623
00:38:09.400 --> 00:38:11.840
<v Speaker 2>a kid, and I've spent every year since trying to

624
00:38:11.840 --> 00:38:15.519
<v Speaker 2>make sense of it. That's the engine, not metrics, not

625
00:38:15.639 --> 00:38:19.880
<v Speaker 2>downloads understanding. I think most people in this community started

626
00:38:19.920 --> 00:38:24.000
<v Speaker 2>with that same engine. Something happened, something they couldn't explain,

627
00:38:24.519 --> 00:38:27.239
<v Speaker 2>and they wanted to know more. But for some of them,

628
00:38:27.440 --> 00:38:32.239
<v Speaker 2>wanting to know quietly became wanting to belong. Curiosity seated

629
00:38:32.280 --> 00:38:36.719
<v Speaker 2>ground to certainty. Investigation gave way to performance, and they

630
00:38:36.760 --> 00:38:41.159
<v Speaker 2>stopped chasing the truth and started chasing Applause worth asking

631
00:38:41.199 --> 00:38:44.760
<v Speaker 2>yourself which mode you're in right now? This moment, with

632
00:38:44.880 --> 00:38:47.519
<v Speaker 2>capturing Bigfoot sitting in front of all of us, is

633
00:38:47.599 --> 00:38:49.920
<v Speaker 2>a good time for that kind of honest self check.

634
00:38:50.840 --> 00:38:55.320
<v Speaker 2>There's a line investigators use, follow the evidence, not the narrative.

635
00:38:56.079 --> 00:39:01.320
<v Speaker 2>Sounds obvious, it's not. Narratives are powerful. They organize information

636
00:39:01.400 --> 00:39:05.880
<v Speaker 2>into stories with meaning, with roles, with emotional stakes. And

637
00:39:05.920 --> 00:39:09.119
<v Speaker 2>in the Bigfoot world, the narratives have been running for decades.

638
00:39:09.599 --> 00:39:14.159
<v Speaker 2>They're deep. There's the narrative of the noble pioneer Patterson

639
00:39:14.199 --> 00:39:17.360
<v Speaker 2>as the gutsy independent filmmaker who went into the wilderness

640
00:39:17.559 --> 00:39:20.800
<v Speaker 2>and got the shot of a lifetime. In that story,

641
00:39:21.000 --> 00:39:24.719
<v Speaker 2>the PGF is a triumph. Anyone who questions it is

642
00:39:24.719 --> 00:39:28.960
<v Speaker 2>attacking a hero's legacy. There's the narrative of the Great Deception,

643
00:39:29.719 --> 00:39:32.199
<v Speaker 2>Patterson as the con man who pulled off the biggest

644
00:39:32.239 --> 00:39:36.639
<v Speaker 2>hoax in cryptozoology and got away clean. In that story,

645
00:39:36.840 --> 00:39:40.840
<v Speaker 2>the PGF is a cautionary tale about gullibility. Anyone who

646
00:39:40.880 --> 00:39:43.880
<v Speaker 2>defends it is a sucker. There's the narrative of the

647
00:39:43.920 --> 00:39:48.079
<v Speaker 2>Tragic Witness Gimlin as the honest, decent man who was there,

648
00:39:48.519 --> 00:39:51.599
<v Speaker 2>who saw what he saw, and who spent sixty years

649
00:39:51.639 --> 00:39:55.320
<v Speaker 2>being either worshiped or accused for it. In that story,

650
00:39:55.519 --> 00:39:58.880
<v Speaker 2>the PGF is almost beside the point. The human cost

651
00:39:59.000 --> 00:40:02.760
<v Speaker 2>is the real subject. All three of those narratives are compelling,

652
00:40:03.360 --> 00:40:07.280
<v Speaker 2>all three contain pieces of truth, and all three, without exception,

653
00:40:07.760 --> 00:40:12.039
<v Speaker 2>obstruct the actual examination of evidence. Because once you've settled

654
00:40:12.039 --> 00:40:15.719
<v Speaker 2>into a narrative. You're no longer processing evidence on its merits.

655
00:40:16.280 --> 00:40:19.400
<v Speaker 2>You're processing it as a plot point. Does this new

656
00:40:19.400 --> 00:40:23.760
<v Speaker 2>footage support my story or threaten it? Does this documentary

657
00:40:23.800 --> 00:40:27.320
<v Speaker 2>confirm my narrative or attack it? And your reaction isn't

658
00:40:27.360 --> 00:40:30.800
<v Speaker 2>driven by what the evidence actually shows, It's driven by

659
00:40:30.800 --> 00:40:34.079
<v Speaker 2>what role the evidence plays in the story you've already chosen.

660
00:40:34.960 --> 00:40:37.360
<v Speaker 2>This is why the PGF debate has been spinning its

661
00:40:37.360 --> 00:40:41.320
<v Speaker 2>wheels for decades. Not because the evidence is ambiguous, though

662
00:40:41.320 --> 00:40:45.559
<v Speaker 2>it is, not because the analysis is incomplete, though there's

663
00:40:45.599 --> 00:40:49.000
<v Speaker 2>always more to do, but because the people arguing aren't

664
00:40:49.039 --> 00:40:52.719
<v Speaker 2>actually arguing about the evidence. They're arguing about the narrative,

665
00:40:53.320 --> 00:40:56.440
<v Speaker 2>which story is the right one, And a documentary like

666
00:40:56.519 --> 00:41:01.039
<v Speaker 2>Capturing Bigfoot doesn't interrupt that pattern. It gives each narrative

667
00:41:01.119 --> 00:41:04.760
<v Speaker 2>a new chapter to absorb. If you're in the pioneer camp,

668
00:41:05.039 --> 00:41:08.400
<v Speaker 2>the documentary is slander. If you're in the deception camp,

669
00:41:08.639 --> 00:41:12.800
<v Speaker 2>it's vindication. Either way, you've folded it into your existing

670
00:41:12.840 --> 00:41:16.039
<v Speaker 2>framework without letting it challenge a thing. The only way

671
00:41:16.039 --> 00:41:18.760
<v Speaker 2>out of this is to do something unnatural. Set the

672
00:41:18.840 --> 00:41:22.800
<v Speaker 2>narratives down, all of them, just for a moment and

673
00:41:22.840 --> 00:41:25.239
<v Speaker 2>look at whatever evidence is being presented as what it

674
00:41:25.320 --> 00:41:29.559
<v Speaker 2>actually is. Not a plot twist, not a weapon, not

675
00:41:29.679 --> 00:41:35.159
<v Speaker 2>confirmation or attack. Data, information, something that deserves to be

676
00:41:35.239 --> 00:41:38.280
<v Speaker 2>weighed on its own terms, regardless of which story it

677
00:41:38.360 --> 00:41:41.920
<v Speaker 2>helps or hurts. That requires a kind of discipline most

678
00:41:41.960 --> 00:41:46.480
<v Speaker 2>people aren't used to exercising. The narratives are comfortable, familiar.

679
00:41:47.000 --> 00:41:49.119
<v Speaker 2>They tell you what to think and how to feel.

680
00:41:49.920 --> 00:41:53.480
<v Speaker 2>Walking away from them, even briefly means sitting in uncertainty,

681
00:41:54.079 --> 00:41:57.639
<v Speaker 2>and most people will do almost anything to avoid uncertainty.

682
00:41:57.679 --> 00:42:01.719
<v Speaker 2>But that discomfort is where actual discovery rehappens. That's the

683
00:42:01.719 --> 00:42:05.400
<v Speaker 2>space where real researchers live, not in the warmth of

684
00:42:05.440 --> 00:42:09.639
<v Speaker 2>the narrative, but in the cold clarity of genuinely not knowing.

685
00:42:10.519 --> 00:42:14.440
<v Speaker 2>If this community could learn to occupy that space, even temporarily,

686
00:42:14.920 --> 00:42:17.639
<v Speaker 2>I think the results would surprise every one of us.

687
00:42:18.119 --> 00:42:20.280
<v Speaker 2>Here's what I know about the history of this field,

688
00:42:20.679 --> 00:42:23.000
<v Speaker 2>and it's a history that gives me both hope and

689
00:42:23.119 --> 00:42:28.360
<v Speaker 2>a deep grinding frustration in roughly equal doses. The Bigfoot

690
00:42:28.400 --> 00:42:33.719
<v Speaker 2>community has always been fractured, always since the beginning. Patterson

691
00:42:33.760 --> 00:42:36.519
<v Speaker 2>and Gimlin themselves ended up in a bitter falling out.

692
00:42:37.320 --> 00:42:40.599
<v Speaker 2>Grover Krantz, the first tenured professor to publicly defend the

693
00:42:40.639 --> 00:42:44.800
<v Speaker 2>reality of Sasquatch, was ostracized by his academic peers for

694
00:42:44.840 --> 00:42:50.119
<v Speaker 2>the trouble. The early wave of researchers, John Green, Peter Burn,

695
00:42:50.599 --> 00:42:53.960
<v Speaker 2>Renee dot Hendon, they had decades long feuds with each

696
00:42:54.000 --> 00:42:58.360
<v Speaker 2>other that got genuinely nasty. This field has never been unified.

697
00:42:58.679 --> 00:43:01.679
<v Speaker 2>It has never spoken with one voice. It has always

698
00:43:01.760 --> 00:43:05.320
<v Speaker 2>been a loose collection of individuals and small factions, often

699
00:43:05.360 --> 00:43:08.920
<v Speaker 2>working at cross purposes, often more invested in being the

700
00:43:08.920 --> 00:43:11.639
<v Speaker 2>one who was right than in actually getting to the

701
00:43:11.679 --> 00:43:17.119
<v Speaker 2>truth together. And Yet despite the infighting, despite the egos,

702
00:43:17.719 --> 00:43:21.119
<v Speaker 2>despite the tribalism, and the occasional outright fraud that has

703
00:43:21.199 --> 00:43:25.000
<v Speaker 2>surfaced over the years, this field has also produced work

704
00:43:25.199 --> 00:43:30.159
<v Speaker 2>that deserves respect. Serious work. The dermal ridge analysis, the

705
00:43:30.199 --> 00:43:35.280
<v Speaker 2>footprint morphology studies that showed consistent anatomical features across casts

706
00:43:35.320 --> 00:43:40.480
<v Speaker 2>separated by decades and thousands of miles. The biomechanical analysis

707
00:43:40.480 --> 00:43:44.239
<v Speaker 2>of the PGF by Meldrum and Muns, work I mentioned earlier,

708
00:43:44.440 --> 00:43:47.440
<v Speaker 2>which represents some of the most careful and rigorous analysis

709
00:43:47.440 --> 00:43:52.719
<v Speaker 2>this field has ever seen. Thermal imaging audio analysis habitat

710
00:43:52.840 --> 00:43:57.480
<v Speaker 2>correlation studies. There are people in this community doing real, substantive,

711
00:43:57.599 --> 00:44:01.639
<v Speaker 2>scientifically grounded work that would hold up under peer review

712
00:44:01.679 --> 00:44:04.280
<v Speaker 2>if anyone in the mainstream cared enough to submit it

713
00:44:04.280 --> 00:44:08.760
<v Speaker 2>for consideration. That work doesn't come from tribal spaces. It

714
00:44:08.800 --> 00:44:12.119
<v Speaker 2>never has. It doesn't get done in Facebook threads or

715
00:44:12.159 --> 00:44:15.880
<v Speaker 2>YouTube comment sections. It gets done by people sitting alone

716
00:44:15.960 --> 00:44:19.800
<v Speaker 2>with data, asking honest questions, and being willing to follow

717
00:44:19.840 --> 00:44:23.320
<v Speaker 2>wherever the answers lead. It gets done when someone has

718
00:44:23.360 --> 00:44:26.000
<v Speaker 2>the courage to say I was wrong about that piece

719
00:44:26.000 --> 00:44:28.920
<v Speaker 2>of the puzzle, and the humility to start again with

720
00:44:29.000 --> 00:44:32.960
<v Speaker 2>cleaner eyes. And here's the irony that kills me. The

721
00:44:33.079 --> 00:44:36.320
<v Speaker 2>very people who cite that rigorous work to defend the PGF,

722
00:44:36.840 --> 00:44:40.760
<v Speaker 2>the ones who point to Muns's proportional analysis or Meldrum's

723
00:44:40.800 --> 00:44:44.480
<v Speaker 2>biomechanical models is proof the film can't be faked. Those

724
00:44:44.519 --> 00:44:48.119
<v Speaker 2>same people often refuse to apply the same intellectual standard

725
00:44:48.320 --> 00:44:52.159
<v Speaker 2>to new evidence. They love rigorous analysis when it confirms

726
00:44:52.199 --> 00:44:54.920
<v Speaker 2>their position, they treat it as an attack when it

727
00:44:55.000 --> 00:44:58.400
<v Speaker 2>might challenge their position, and they don't seem to recognize

728
00:44:58.400 --> 00:45:02.840
<v Speaker 2>the contradiction and stay tuned for more sasquatch otyesee, we'll

729
00:45:02.880 --> 00:45:09.559
<v Speaker 2>be right back after these messages. If you invoke the

730
00:45:09.639 --> 00:45:12.880
<v Speaker 2>rigor of Muns and Meldrum to support your case, you've

731
00:45:12.920 --> 00:45:16.719
<v Speaker 2>accepted that rigorous analysis is the standard. You don't get

732
00:45:16.719 --> 00:45:19.519
<v Speaker 2>to abandon that standard the moment it's applied to something

733
00:45:19.519 --> 00:45:23.960
<v Speaker 2>that makes you uncomfortable. Either careful, honest analysis matters or

734
00:45:24.000 --> 00:45:27.320
<v Speaker 2>it doesn't. If it does, then it matters just as

735
00:45:27.360 --> 00:45:30.440
<v Speaker 2>much when applied to capturing Bigfoot as when applied to

736
00:45:30.480 --> 00:45:35.360
<v Speaker 2>the PGF itself. Consistency isn't just an intellectual virtue. It's

737
00:45:35.400 --> 00:45:39.559
<v Speaker 2>a credibility requirement. And the selective application of standards happening

738
00:45:39.559 --> 00:45:42.480
<v Speaker 2>in this community right now is doing more to undermine

739
00:45:42.480 --> 00:45:46.840
<v Speaker 2>our standing than any documentary ever could. There's something else

740
00:45:46.880 --> 00:45:49.440
<v Speaker 2>at work here that makes everything harder, and I don't

741
00:45:49.440 --> 00:45:52.920
<v Speaker 2>think it gets enough attention. In nineteen twenty five, the

742
00:45:52.960 --> 00:45:56.280
<v Speaker 2>Scopes trial moved at the speed of print. Lincoln would

743
00:45:56.320 --> 00:46:01.480
<v Speaker 2>write his dispatch, it would get typeset printed, people would

744
00:46:01.480 --> 00:46:04.440
<v Speaker 2>read it over coffee the next morning. The whole cycle

745
00:46:04.519 --> 00:46:08.239
<v Speaker 2>had breathing room built into it. Time to think before reacting,

746
00:46:08.880 --> 00:46:11.719
<v Speaker 2>time for that initial surge of emotion to cool before

747
00:46:11.719 --> 00:46:16.599
<v Speaker 2>you had to respond. We lost that completely When Capturing

748
00:46:16.599 --> 00:46:21.119
<v Speaker 2>Bigfoot started making waves. The reaction was instantaneous. People were

749
00:46:21.159 --> 00:46:25.199
<v Speaker 2>posting before they'd finished processing what they'd seen. Within hours,

750
00:46:25.239 --> 00:46:28.559
<v Speaker 2>The trenches were dug within days, the positions were set

751
00:46:28.639 --> 00:46:31.840
<v Speaker 2>in stone, and the platforms where all of this plays

752
00:46:31.880 --> 00:46:35.960
<v Speaker 2>out are built deliberately engineered to make it happen exactly

753
00:46:36.039 --> 00:46:41.519
<v Speaker 2>that fast. Social media doesn't reward careful thought. It rewards engagement,

754
00:46:42.079 --> 00:46:49.159
<v Speaker 2>and engagement runs on strong emotion, outrage, indignation, tribal solidarity, fear.

755
00:46:50.039 --> 00:46:53.159
<v Speaker 2>The algorithm is indifferent to whether you're right, or thoughtful

756
00:46:53.239 --> 00:46:57.559
<v Speaker 2>or fair. It cares about one thing. Did you generate activity?

757
00:46:58.159 --> 00:47:00.639
<v Speaker 2>And the fastest way to generate activity is to say

758
00:47:00.639 --> 00:47:04.079
<v Speaker 2>something extreme. The person who says, let me take a

759
00:47:04.119 --> 00:47:07.960
<v Speaker 2>week to think about this gets buried. Their post reaches

760
00:47:08.039 --> 00:47:11.599
<v Speaker 2>thirty people. The person who says, this documentary is an

761
00:47:11.599 --> 00:47:14.320
<v Speaker 2>attack on everything we stand for and here's why you

762
00:47:14.320 --> 00:47:18.599
<v Speaker 2>should be furious gets three thousand and Over time, that

763
00:47:18.639 --> 00:47:23.840
<v Speaker 2>selection pressure reshapes the entire conversation. The loudest, most certain,

764
00:47:24.119 --> 00:47:28.039
<v Speaker 2>most combative voices rise to the top. The thoughtful ones

765
00:47:28.119 --> 00:47:30.760
<v Speaker 2>learned to stay quiet, And then we all look around

766
00:47:30.840 --> 00:47:32.800
<v Speaker 2>at the toxic landscape and wonder how it.

767
00:47:32.760 --> 00:47:33.519
<v Speaker 1>Got this bad.

768
00:47:34.320 --> 00:47:37.159
<v Speaker 2>It got this bad because the systems were built for it,

769
00:47:37.760 --> 00:47:40.280
<v Speaker 2>not by the people using them, by the people who

770
00:47:40.320 --> 00:47:44.840
<v Speaker 2>designed them. Tribalism is the most engaging thing human beings do.

771
00:47:45.519 --> 00:47:47.920
<v Speaker 2>It's been the most engaging thing we do since long

772
00:47:48.000 --> 00:47:51.320
<v Speaker 2>before we had phones in our pockets. Social media just

773
00:47:51.360 --> 00:47:55.320
<v Speaker 2>industrialized it, gave it a megaphone, made it operate at

774
00:47:55.360 --> 00:47:58.000
<v Speaker 2>a scale and speed our brains were never built to handle.

775
00:47:58.679 --> 00:48:00.840
<v Speaker 2>So what I'm watching happen right now now with capturing

776
00:48:00.880 --> 00:48:05.119
<v Speaker 2>Bigfoot is two forces working in tandem. There's the ancient

777
00:48:05.159 --> 00:48:07.719
<v Speaker 2>pull of tribal belonging that's been part of us since

778
00:48:07.760 --> 00:48:10.800
<v Speaker 2>we lived in small bands on the savannah. And there's

779
00:48:10.840 --> 00:48:14.880
<v Speaker 2>the modern technological amplification of that pull, which turns what

780
00:48:15.079 --> 00:48:18.159
<v Speaker 2>used to be a heated conversation around a campfire into

781
00:48:18.280 --> 00:48:21.760
<v Speaker 2>a wildfire burning across the entire community in a matter

782
00:48:21.800 --> 00:48:26.000
<v Speaker 2>of hours. Both of those forces are enemies of honest inquiry.

783
00:48:26.599 --> 00:48:30.480
<v Speaker 2>Both have to be actively deliberately resisted, and that resistance

784
00:48:30.519 --> 00:48:34.400
<v Speaker 2>takes conscious effort. It doesn't come naturally. It can't come

785
00:48:34.519 --> 00:48:39.440
<v Speaker 2>naturally because the impulse toward tribalism is natural. Fighting It

786
00:48:39.519 --> 00:48:42.079
<v Speaker 2>is the part that takes work, and I want to

787
00:48:42.079 --> 00:48:44.719
<v Speaker 2>be practical about this for a second, because I think

788
00:48:44.760 --> 00:48:47.960
<v Speaker 2>it's easy to talk about resisting tribalism in the abstract

789
00:48:48.320 --> 00:48:50.920
<v Speaker 2>and much harder to do it when you're actually scrolling

790
00:48:50.960 --> 00:48:53.719
<v Speaker 2>through your feed at eleven o'clock at night and you

791
00:48:53.800 --> 00:48:56.360
<v Speaker 2>see someone you disagree with saying something that makes your

792
00:48:56.360 --> 00:49:00.679
<v Speaker 2>blood pressure spike. Here's what i'd suggest when you feel

793
00:49:00.760 --> 00:49:05.519
<v Speaker 2>that spike, and you will because you're human. Pause, just pause,

794
00:49:06.199 --> 00:49:10.119
<v Speaker 2>don't type, don't respond, don't share the post with your

795
00:49:10.159 --> 00:49:14.559
<v Speaker 2>own commentary, give yourself ten minutes, walk away from the screen,

796
00:49:15.039 --> 00:49:17.960
<v Speaker 2>get a glass of water, and then ask yourself one

797
00:49:18.039 --> 00:49:21.599
<v Speaker 2>question before you engage. Am I about to respond to

798
00:49:21.639 --> 00:49:24.280
<v Speaker 2>what this person actually said? Or am I about to

799
00:49:24.320 --> 00:49:27.519
<v Speaker 2>respond to how what they said makes me feel? Because

800
00:49:27.559 --> 00:49:30.559
<v Speaker 2>those are different things, and the tribal impulse lives in

801
00:49:30.599 --> 00:49:33.519
<v Speaker 2>the gap between them. If you can learn to operate

802
00:49:33.559 --> 00:49:37.840
<v Speaker 2>in that gap, even sometimes even imperfectly, you'll be ahead

803
00:49:37.880 --> 00:49:40.800
<v Speaker 2>of ninety percent of the people in this community, and

804
00:49:40.840 --> 00:49:42.840
<v Speaker 2>you'll be doing your part to make this field a

805
00:49:42.880 --> 00:49:47.039
<v Speaker 2>place where honest conversation is still possible. Before I start

806
00:49:47.039 --> 00:49:49.199
<v Speaker 2>wrapping this up, I want to come back to something

807
00:49:49.239 --> 00:49:52.159
<v Speaker 2>I touched on earlier because I think the tension between

808
00:49:52.280 --> 00:49:55.719
<v Speaker 2>entertainment and truth seeking is more central to this problem

809
00:49:55.840 --> 00:49:59.440
<v Speaker 2>than people realize. There's a version of the Bigfoot world

810
00:49:59.559 --> 00:50:03.519
<v Speaker 2>that's pure entertainment. The TV shows with the thermal cameras

811
00:50:03.559 --> 00:50:07.280
<v Speaker 2>and the dramatic score, the YouTube channels with the breathless

812
00:50:07.320 --> 00:50:12.320
<v Speaker 2>titles and the blurry thumbnails, the merchandise, the tourism, the

813
00:50:12.360 --> 00:50:16.119
<v Speaker 2>cons that version of Bigfoot is a product, and I'm

814
00:50:16.119 --> 00:50:20.199
<v Speaker 2>not knocking it. People enjoy it. I produce content myself.

815
00:50:20.760 --> 00:50:23.719
<v Speaker 2>There's nothing wrong with engaging with this subject because it's fun.

816
00:50:24.480 --> 00:50:27.960
<v Speaker 2>But the entertainment version of Bigfoot is structurally invested in

817
00:50:28.000 --> 00:50:31.960
<v Speaker 2>a specific narrative, the narrative that Bigfoot is real, it's

818
00:50:31.960 --> 00:50:35.239
<v Speaker 2>out there, the next expedition could be the one, and

819
00:50:35.280 --> 00:50:38.719
<v Speaker 2>the mystery is always just one step away from being solved.

820
00:50:39.480 --> 00:50:43.119
<v Speaker 2>That narrative is the engine of the entertainment machine. Without it,

821
00:50:43.400 --> 00:50:48.079
<v Speaker 2>there's no show, no channel, no industry. So the entertainment

822
00:50:48.159 --> 00:50:50.719
<v Speaker 2>side has a built in reason to resist anything that

823
00:50:50.760 --> 00:50:54.719
<v Speaker 2>complicates the story, not out of dishonesty, not because the

824
00:50:54.719 --> 00:50:58.039
<v Speaker 2>people involved don't care about truth, but because truth might

825
00:50:58.079 --> 00:51:01.960
<v Speaker 2>not be entertaining, truth might be ambiguous, truth might not

826
00:51:02.079 --> 00:51:05.360
<v Speaker 2>fit into a forty two minute episode, and this creates

827
00:51:05.400 --> 00:51:08.920
<v Speaker 2>a dynamic that most people in the community don't even recognize,

828
00:51:09.119 --> 00:51:13.039
<v Speaker 2>let alone talk about. The entertainment machine becomes a kind

829
00:51:13.039 --> 00:51:17.519
<v Speaker 2>of immune system. Anything that threatens the narrative triggers a response,

830
00:51:18.360 --> 00:51:25.199
<v Speaker 2>not a coordinated conspiratorial response, just a natural, organic, structural one.

831
00:51:25.320 --> 00:51:28.239
<v Speaker 2>Creators who depend on the Bigfoot is real narrative for

832
00:51:28.280 --> 00:51:31.280
<v Speaker 2>their livelihood are going to push back against anything that

833
00:51:31.320 --> 00:51:35.440
<v Speaker 2>puts that narrative at risk. Audiences who consume that narrative

834
00:51:35.480 --> 00:51:38.920
<v Speaker 2>for enjoyment are going to resist anything that spoils the story,

835
00:51:39.599 --> 00:51:43.639
<v Speaker 2>and the whole ecosystem without anyone consciously deciding to do so,

836
00:51:44.159 --> 00:51:48.239
<v Speaker 2>mobilizes against the threat. That's what's happening with Capturing Bigfoot,

837
00:51:48.800 --> 00:51:51.880
<v Speaker 2>not because there's some cabal of Bigfoot creators working together

838
00:51:51.960 --> 00:51:55.880
<v Speaker 2>to suppress it, but because the documentary, by its very nature,

839
00:51:55.920 --> 00:52:00.039
<v Speaker 2>threatens the narrative that the entertainment machine depends on, and

840
00:52:00.079 --> 00:52:05.039
<v Speaker 2>the machine responds the way machines always respond automatically. If

841
00:52:05.039 --> 00:52:07.400
<v Speaker 2>you can see that dynamic for what it is, you

842
00:52:07.440 --> 00:52:10.239
<v Speaker 2>can start to step outside it. You can enjoy the

843
00:52:10.360 --> 00:52:13.079
<v Speaker 2>entertainment for what it is and still ask the hard

844
00:52:13.159 --> 00:52:17.000
<v Speaker 2>questions without feeling like you're betraying anything, because you're not.

845
00:52:17.800 --> 00:52:20.679
<v Speaker 2>You're just operating in two different modes and having the

846
00:52:20.719 --> 00:52:23.679
<v Speaker 2>awareness to know which one you're in at any given moment.

847
00:52:24.480 --> 00:52:26.920
<v Speaker 2>This is the same force that powered the Scope's trial.

848
00:52:27.800 --> 00:52:30.519
<v Speaker 2>The trial was never really about truth. It was about

849
00:52:30.559 --> 00:52:34.920
<v Speaker 2>selling newspapers and putting Dayton on the map. The actual questions,

850
00:52:35.239 --> 00:52:38.440
<v Speaker 2>the ones about education and governance and the relationship between

851
00:52:38.480 --> 00:52:42.920
<v Speaker 2>science and religion, were too messy, too resistant to clean storytelling,

852
00:52:43.400 --> 00:52:46.480
<v Speaker 2>to be useful to anyone running the show. So the

853
00:52:46.519 --> 00:52:50.320
<v Speaker 2>show ran itself and truth got buried. I'm not calling

854
00:52:50.320 --> 00:52:53.480
<v Speaker 2>out the entertainment side of this community. What I'm saying

855
00:52:53.519 --> 00:52:56.119
<v Speaker 2>is that there's a difference between enjoying a narrative and

856
00:52:56.199 --> 00:52:59.239
<v Speaker 2>seeking the truth, and it matters which one you're doing

857
00:52:59.360 --> 00:53:02.679
<v Speaker 2>at any given moment. If you're here for fun, great,

858
00:53:03.159 --> 00:53:06.320
<v Speaker 2>no judgment. But when your fund requires other people to

859
00:53:06.320 --> 00:53:10.199
<v Speaker 2>stop asking hard questions, you've crossed a line. When your

860
00:53:10.280 --> 00:53:14.239
<v Speaker 2>enjoyment depends on nobody examining the evidence too closely, You've

861
00:53:14.280 --> 00:53:17.880
<v Speaker 2>crossed a line when you attack a researcher for expressing

862
00:53:17.920 --> 00:53:22.159
<v Speaker 2>curiosity about a documentary because that curiosity threatens the story

863
00:53:22.199 --> 00:53:27.159
<v Speaker 2>you prefer. That's not entertainment anymore, that's something else. The

864
00:53:27.320 --> 00:53:31.199
<v Speaker 2>entertainment consumer wants a satisfying story, the researcher wants an

865
00:53:31.280 --> 00:53:35.199
<v Speaker 2>accurate answer. Those are different goals, and the trouble starts

866
00:53:35.199 --> 00:53:38.119
<v Speaker 2>when one camp tries to impose its rules on the other.

867
00:53:38.880 --> 00:53:42.519
<v Speaker 2>So where does this leave us? The Capturing Bigfoot documentary

868
00:53:42.599 --> 00:53:45.440
<v Speaker 2>is out there, The claims it makes aren't going away.

869
00:53:46.119 --> 00:53:49.280
<v Speaker 2>Whatever footage it contains is going to be discussed, debated,

870
00:53:49.320 --> 00:53:52.440
<v Speaker 2>and picked apart for years. That train has left the

871
00:53:52.440 --> 00:53:55.639
<v Speaker 2>station regardless of what any of us do today. The

872
00:53:55.679 --> 00:53:58.239
<v Speaker 2>only question is how we handle it. We can do

873
00:53:58.280 --> 00:54:02.800
<v Speaker 2>it the scope's way. Our sides, dig our trenches, throw

874
00:54:02.800 --> 00:54:07.079
<v Speaker 2>grenades until everyone's exhausted and nothing's been resolved. Let the

875
00:54:07.119 --> 00:54:11.639
<v Speaker 2>loudest voices drive the conversation, let the algorithm do the sorting.

876
00:54:12.199 --> 00:54:15.159
<v Speaker 2>Let the narrative swallow the evidence, and the performance swallow

877
00:54:15.239 --> 00:54:19.880
<v Speaker 2>the inquiry, and the entertainment swallow the truth. Or we

878
00:54:19.960 --> 00:54:23.920
<v Speaker 2>can actually watch the documentary, look at the footage, bring

879
00:54:24.000 --> 00:54:28.440
<v Speaker 2>everything we've got, the experience, the expertise, the critical eye,

880
00:54:28.880 --> 00:54:31.360
<v Speaker 2>and apply it honestly to what's in front of us.

881
00:54:31.800 --> 00:54:34.800
<v Speaker 2>We can disagree without going to war. We can hold

882
00:54:34.880 --> 00:54:38.719
<v Speaker 2>uncertainty without treating it like defeat. We can separate what

883
00:54:38.760 --> 00:54:41.639
<v Speaker 2>we believe from who we are just enough to let

884
00:54:41.719 --> 00:54:45.920
<v Speaker 2>new information in. We can be the community this subject deserves.

885
00:54:46.719 --> 00:54:49.960
<v Speaker 2>I'm not sure we will. If I'm honest, I think

886
00:54:50.000 --> 00:54:53.159
<v Speaker 2>most people will default to what they've always done. The

887
00:54:53.239 --> 00:54:57.440
<v Speaker 2>tribal pull is strong, the backfire effect is real. The

888
00:54:57.519 --> 00:55:00.599
<v Speaker 2>platforms are designed to push us toward conflict and away

889
00:55:00.599 --> 00:55:04.400
<v Speaker 2>from thought, and this community has a long, well practiced

890
00:55:04.440 --> 00:55:07.440
<v Speaker 2>history of eating itself. But I hear from people who

891
00:55:07.480 --> 00:55:11.159
<v Speaker 2>want something different. I read the messages. I see the

892
00:55:11.159 --> 00:55:13.519
<v Speaker 2>comments from people who came to this subject out of

893
00:55:13.599 --> 00:55:17.119
<v Speaker 2>genuine wonder and stayed because the questions matter to them,

894
00:55:17.599 --> 00:55:20.119
<v Speaker 2>and who are looking for a place where honest thinking

895
00:55:20.199 --> 00:55:24.079
<v Speaker 2>is more valued than tribal allegiance. That's what I'm trying

896
00:55:24.119 --> 00:55:28.079
<v Speaker 2>to build through my shows, through my books, through the

897
00:55:28.119 --> 00:55:32.880
<v Speaker 2>stories I share, through my documentaries, through this newsletter, through

898
00:55:32.920 --> 00:55:36.599
<v Speaker 2>every conversation I have about this subject. A space where

899
00:55:36.639 --> 00:55:41.039
<v Speaker 2>asking questions isn't disloyal, where changing your mind isn't weakness,

900
00:55:41.599 --> 00:55:44.880
<v Speaker 2>where the truth matters more than the team. If you're

901
00:55:44.920 --> 00:55:47.800
<v Speaker 2>nodding right now, I want you to know something. There

902
00:55:47.840 --> 00:55:50.519
<v Speaker 2>are more of us than you think. We're just quieter

903
00:55:50.599 --> 00:55:53.840
<v Speaker 2>than the people doing the screaming. One hundred years ago,

904
00:55:54.079 --> 00:55:56.519
<v Speaker 2>two remarkable men stood across from each other in a

905
00:55:56.519 --> 00:56:00.159
<v Speaker 2>small courtroom in Dayton, Tennessee, and argued about the nature

906
00:56:00.199 --> 00:56:04.119
<v Speaker 2>of truth. One appealed to reason, one appealed to faith.

907
00:56:04.960 --> 00:56:07.880
<v Speaker 2>The crowd cheered for their side. The papers wrote the

908
00:56:07.920 --> 00:56:11.760
<v Speaker 2>story they wanted, The country picked its teams, and when

909
00:56:11.800 --> 00:56:15.119
<v Speaker 2>it was done, nobody had learned a thing. The Butler

910
00:56:15.159 --> 00:56:17.639
<v Speaker 2>Acts stayed on the books. It was still illegal to

911
00:56:17.639 --> 00:56:21.480
<v Speaker 2>teach evolution in Tennessee public schools after the trial. The

912
00:56:21.559 --> 00:56:25.039
<v Speaker 2>law wasn't repealed until nineteen sixty seven, more than forty

913
00:56:25.119 --> 00:56:27.800
<v Speaker 2>years later. I don't want that to be the story

914
00:56:27.800 --> 00:56:30.239
<v Speaker 2>of Capturing Bigfoot. I don't want it to be the

915
00:56:30.280 --> 00:56:33.239
<v Speaker 2>story of the Patterson Gimlin film, and I don't want

916
00:56:33.239 --> 00:56:35.920
<v Speaker 2>it to be the story of this community. I want

917
00:56:36.000 --> 00:56:38.280
<v Speaker 2>us to do better than Dayton. I want us to

918
00:56:38.320 --> 00:56:41.320
<v Speaker 2>look at the evidence instead of each other, to hold

919
00:56:41.360 --> 00:56:45.480
<v Speaker 2>our convictions with confidence and our minds with openness, to

920
00:56:45.559 --> 00:56:48.760
<v Speaker 2>remember that we're all here because something, at some point

921
00:56:48.800 --> 00:56:51.880
<v Speaker 2>in our lives didn't fit inside the world. As we

922
00:56:52.000 --> 00:56:55.360
<v Speaker 2>understood it, and instead of looking away, we kept looking.

923
00:56:56.039 --> 00:56:59.119
<v Speaker 2>That's what brought us to this field. That courage, that

924
00:56:59.159 --> 00:57:02.719
<v Speaker 2>refusal to stop asking and think about what that means.

925
00:57:03.199 --> 00:57:05.920
<v Speaker 2>Think about where you were when this subject first grabbed you.

926
00:57:06.639 --> 00:57:09.159
<v Speaker 2>For me, it was the woods of North Georgia. I

927
00:57:09.239 --> 00:57:12.320
<v Speaker 2>was a kid. I didn't have theories, or tribal affiliations,

928
00:57:12.400 --> 00:57:15.519
<v Speaker 2>or an audience to perform for I had an experience

929
00:57:15.519 --> 00:57:18.000
<v Speaker 2>I couldn't explain, and I had a question I couldn't

930
00:57:18.000 --> 00:57:21.880
<v Speaker 2>put down. That question has driven me for nearly forty years,

931
00:57:22.400 --> 00:57:25.920
<v Speaker 2>through a career in law enforcement, through decades of field work,

932
00:57:26.360 --> 00:57:29.559
<v Speaker 2>through conferences and late nights and arguments and frustrations and

933
00:57:29.599 --> 00:57:33.119
<v Speaker 2>moments of genuine wonder. That question is still the point,

934
00:57:33.760 --> 00:57:36.320
<v Speaker 2>not the answer I hoped for, not the team I

935
00:57:36.400 --> 00:57:40.280
<v Speaker 2>belonged to, the question, and the willingness to follow it

936
00:57:40.320 --> 00:57:44.199
<v Speaker 2>honestly wherever it goes, even if it goes somewhere I

937
00:57:44.239 --> 00:57:48.000
<v Speaker 2>didn't expect. Even if it goes somewhere that means rethinking

938
00:57:48.039 --> 00:57:51.159
<v Speaker 2>things I've believed for a long time, even if it

939
00:57:51.239 --> 00:57:53.239
<v Speaker 2>means standing up in a room full of people I

940
00:57:53.320 --> 00:57:56.880
<v Speaker 2>respect and saying I looked at this, and here's what

941
00:57:56.960 --> 00:57:59.079
<v Speaker 2>I think, and I know some of you aren't going

942
00:57:59.159 --> 00:58:02.760
<v Speaker 2>to like it. That's the price of admission for honest inquiry,

943
00:58:03.239 --> 00:58:06.719
<v Speaker 2>and it's a price I'm willing to pay. The question

944
00:58:06.840 --> 00:58:08.760
<v Speaker 2>is whether enough of us are willing to pay it

945
00:58:08.800 --> 00:58:11.719
<v Speaker 2>to make a difference. I think about the people I've

946
00:58:11.760 --> 00:58:14.599
<v Speaker 2>met in this community who still carry that original spark.

947
00:58:15.480 --> 00:58:18.000
<v Speaker 2>The witness in Kentucky who had a siding twenty years

948
00:58:18.000 --> 00:58:20.800
<v Speaker 2>ago and still goes back to those woods every fall,

949
00:58:21.400 --> 00:58:24.400
<v Speaker 2>not to prove anything to anyone, but because the question

950
00:58:24.559 --> 00:58:28.039
<v Speaker 2>won't leave him alone. The retired teacher in Oregon who

951
00:58:28.079 --> 00:58:31.039
<v Speaker 2>catalogs track casts with the kind of patients most people

952
00:58:31.079 --> 00:58:35.000
<v Speaker 2>reserve for things that pay a salary. The biologist I

953
00:58:35.079 --> 00:58:37.360
<v Speaker 2>know who won't put her name publicly to her interest

954
00:58:37.360 --> 00:58:39.639
<v Speaker 2>in this subject because she's seen what happens to people

955
00:58:39.639 --> 00:58:43.199
<v Speaker 2>who do, but who still spends her weekends analyzing habitat

956
00:58:43.320 --> 00:58:46.800
<v Speaker 2>data because the question matters to her more than the risk.

957
00:58:47.760 --> 00:58:50.840
<v Speaker 2>Those people are the real backbone of this field. Not

958
00:58:50.960 --> 00:58:54.679
<v Speaker 2>the loudest voices, not the biggest channels, not the most

959
00:58:54.760 --> 00:58:59.480
<v Speaker 2>combative debaters, the quiet, persistent, honest ones who keep doing

960
00:58:59.519 --> 00:59:02.920
<v Speaker 2>the work because the question won't let them stop. Those

961
00:59:03.000 --> 00:59:07.119
<v Speaker 2>people deserve a community that matches their integrity, and right now,

962
00:59:07.360 --> 00:59:10.519
<v Speaker 2>I'm not sure we're giving them one. Don't let tribalism

963
00:59:10.559 --> 00:59:13.320
<v Speaker 2>take it from you. If there's new footage connected to

964
00:59:13.320 --> 00:59:16.440
<v Speaker 2>the Patterson Gimlin film, I want to see it. I

965
00:59:16.440 --> 00:59:18.960
<v Speaker 2>want to turn it over. I want to understand what

966
00:59:19.039 --> 00:59:21.920
<v Speaker 2>it shows and what it means. Not because I know

967
00:59:22.000 --> 00:59:25.119
<v Speaker 2>the answer, because I don't, and I'm okay with that.

968
00:59:26.000 --> 00:59:28.480
<v Speaker 2>I think not knowing and being willing to say so

969
00:59:29.079 --> 00:59:31.639
<v Speaker 2>might be the most honest position anyone in this field

970
00:59:31.719 --> 00:59:35.960
<v Speaker 2>can hold. The PGF has been debated for nearly sixty years.

971
00:59:36.559 --> 00:59:40.119
<v Speaker 2>It will survive one more documentary. The real question is

972
00:59:40.159 --> 00:59:44.400
<v Speaker 2>whether we will. I'll be back with more soon, including

973
00:59:44.440 --> 00:59:46.920
<v Speaker 2>my full take, once I've sat down and watched the

974
00:59:47.000 --> 00:59:51.119
<v Speaker 2>documentary start to finish. Until then, keep your eyes open.

975
00:59:51.440 --> 00:59:54.480
<v Speaker 2>You're thinking sharp, and your ego a little smaller than

976
00:59:54.480 --> 00:59:57.679
<v Speaker 2>your curiosity. And if someone asks you what you think

977
00:59:57.719 --> 01:00:01.199
<v Speaker 2>about the new film, try something that takes real guts.

978
01:00:01.800 --> 01:00:04.920
<v Speaker 2>Try saying I don't know yet, but I'm willing to look.

979
01:00:05.760 --> 01:00:08.239
<v Speaker 2>You'd be amazed how much power is in those words

980
01:00:08.800 --> 01:00:12.239
<v Speaker 2>when you actually mean them. That's what separates a researcher

981
01:00:12.280 --> 01:00:16.400
<v Speaker 2>from a fan, an investigator from a cheerleader. The willingness

982
01:00:16.400 --> 01:00:20.480
<v Speaker 2>to not know, the willingness to look anyway, the willingness

983
01:00:20.519 --> 01:01:01.960
<v Speaker 2>to let the evidence speak louder than the tribe you