"Minnesota's Bigfoot" w/ Rich Sommer

Summary

Bigfoot Collectors Club – “Minnesota’s Bigfoot” w/ Rich Sommer

Podcast: Bigfoot Collectors Club
Episode: "Minnesota's Bigfoot"
Date: April 16, 2025
Guest: Rich Sommer (actor, “Mad Men")
Hosts: Michael McMillian & Riley Bray
Theme: Exploring Minnesota’s regional cryptids, tales of high strangeness, board-game culture, skepticism vs. belief, and local legends with guest Rich Sommer.

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EPISODE OVERVIEW

In this episode, Michael McMillian and Riley Bray welcome actor and avid board-gamer Rich Sommer to the Clubhouse for a deep-dive into paranormal lore, high-strangeness in Minnesota, and the Bigfoot mythos. The trio traverses personal histories, nostalgic boardgames, skeptical and wishful approaches to the unknown, and classic local legends — including Stillwater’s own folklore and Reamer, MN's hairy hominids. Sommer brings humor, candor, nerdy reverence, and a fresh perspective to classic cryptid chatter.

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GUEST INTRODUCTION & BOARD GAME NOSTALGIA

[01:16 – 16:14]

• Michael introduces Rich Sommer, calling out his roles (“Mad Men”, “Minx”) and shared past of “fun voicemails” (an ongoing bit never before discussed outright).

  • “We’ve had each other’s phone numbers for at least a decade, maybe more, but…we've never actually had a real conversation.” — Michael [03:01]
  • “We would only speak as these characters we've created.” — Rich [03:36]

• Rich describes a unique game on his shelf: “Toodles”, a two-person cooperative drawing game.

• Board Games & The Paranormal:

  • Michael recalls “Ideal Haunted House,” a 3D haunted house board game from the 1960s, evoking his “earliest tactile memories of something spooky.”
  • Rich reminisces about “Shrieks and Creaks,” an interactive game with a tape player that provided creepy commands and sound effects.
    • “You'd pick up these keys...the right combination would activate the speaker. So wherever the tape was, it would impact the game...split up by spooky sound effects.” — Rich [07:13]
  • The group cracks up over the “non-binary character” comment about classic peg game pieces.
    • “I doubt there were non-binary characters in that game. This thing’s from a long time ago.” — Rich [08:22]

• Bigfoot-themed Board Games:

  • Michael brings up the 1970s Milton Bradley “Bigfoot” board game, admired for its kitschy art and memorabilia value. Rich notes the German version: “Yeti Der Schneemensch” — “Snow Dude.” [11:01]

• Modern Games:

  • Rich talks about “Cryptid” (a deduction game with a cryptid theme) and “Horrified: American Monsters,” referencing Mothman, Chupacabra, and others.

• Personal History:

  • Rich traces his board game love to friendship, outsider-dom, and finding “the thing I’d been looking for” on boardgamegeek.com.

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PARANORMAL ENCOUNTERS & SKEPTICISM

[20:55 – 26:03]

• Ouija Board Experiences:

  • Rich describes trying the Ouija board as a kid, but, thanks to Penn & Teller and James Randi’s writings, always approached with skepticism:
    • “Here's the thing. Before we ever tried a Ouija board, Matt and I grew up on Penn & Teller...I read all of [James Randi’s] books and it really guided my thinking as far as becoming a skeptic.” [21:58]
    • “The planchette moved, but…we were like wow, isn't physiology amazing that we're moving that thing and it doesn't even feel like we're moving it?” [23:25]
  • Rich and the hosts maintain an “agnostic” or open-while-skeptical stance:
    • “Part of…being a skeptic is also acknowledging that I…don't know shit.” — Rich [24:14]
    • “We ultimately remain agnostic to this stuff.” — Michael [24:54]

• Supernatural Interests In Childhood:

  • Rich, a voracious library-goer, loved cryptid and witchcraft books, UFO stories, and “wished them to be real,” though eventually skepticism grew.
    • “It's a lot like how I feel about other aspects of life. I always and still wish them to be real. I don't…my gut is that they're not. But also I wish for them to be.” — Rich [26:03]

• UFO pop-culture moments recalled, especially “Communion” by Whitley Strieber and its iconic “grey” alien cover art:

  • “Whoever drew that cover effectively prescribed what we would think of aliens looking like for maybe ever…That's what we picture when we see aliens or think of aliens 100%.” — Rich [29:28]

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MINNESOTA STRANGENESS & LOCAL LEGENDS

[30:04 – 34:49]

• Michael tells of “walking tin cans” — oddball alien sightings from Minnesota described by John Keel, highlighting the spectrum of paranormal encounters (not just “greys”).

• Rich speculates that, if aliens exist, there’s no reason they’d all look the same; perhaps the “walking tin cans” are agricultural spirits evolved for modernity.

  • “I also have a theory…maybe they aren't aliens at all, but there's some sort of, like, representation of…nature spirits…evolution of the nature spirit of the corn gods…now appearing as cans.” — Michael [32:13]
  • “Totally tracks, as far as I'm concerned.” — Rich [32:59]

• Rich recounts local Stillwater legends:

  • “Buster”, a well-known eccentric in winter garb, often seen with a baseball bat and rumoured to bash street signs.
  • “Leaping” or “Limping Linda,” a beloved, peculiar woman known for hopping into the street.
  • “He was always kitted out in…winter clothes…had a coat, a scarf…carried a baseball bat…there were stories he had done all these things…” — Rich [47:18]

• Local “campfire story” about “Crazy Charlie” and phosphorescent woods at Boy Scout camp. Rich connects this to the larger pattern of unexplained phenomena inspiring folklore.

  • “You could see the glowing wood…they were like, oh, he's been all over the place…and I slept on the floor of their cabin that night…sobbing.” — Rich [43:54]

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GAME SEGMENT: RAPID-FIRE BELIEVE IT / BULLSHIT

[36:15 – 41:14]

• A Clubhouse staple, the hosts put Rich to the “Believer or Skeptic” test, listing paranormal phenomena for Rich to quickly label as “Believe it” or “Bullshit.” See below for highlights and Rich’s tone of agonized skepticism:

Notables:

• Ghosts: Bullshit

• Bigfoot: Bullshit

• UFOs: Believe it

• ESP, Chupacabra, Mothman, Abominable Snowman: Bullshit

• Loveland Frogman (giant frog with a wand): Believe it

• Hopkinsville Goblins (Kentucky classic): Believe it (if family “shot at something”)

• Hollow Earth, Michigan Dogman, Tarot, Out of body experiences (as experiences): nuanced skepticism

• Life on Other Planets: Believe it

• Life After Death: Believe it (possible, thanks to recent physics reading)

• “I’m sweating…I don’t know if you can see but I am pouring sweat.” — Rich [41:14]

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MINNESOTA BIGFOOT/HARRY MAN LEGEND

[46:09 – 65:02]

Stillwater Area Lore (Rich's Hometown)

• Rich reacts to local legends Michael found during prep — Buster and Leaping Linda.
• “Buster…was definitely…a guy that everybody knew or knew of Buster.” — Rich [49:31]

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The Story of High Strangeness: “Minnesota’s Bigfoot”

Main narrative starts [49:40]

• Michael recaps a 2008 Bigfoot sighting near Washburn Lake and the long-standing lore of hairy hominids in Minnesota, especially in the towns of Vergas and Reamer (“Reamer, MINN — Home of Bigfoot”).

• Trail Cam Evidence:

  • The Kadrowski family’s 2009 trail cam photo captures a large, blurry figure (about 7 feet tall) at night. The image, while inconclusive, set off local speculation and investigation.
  • “It’s a color trail cam photo, which we don’t see often…what looks like—a figure, a blurry figure walking through the trees.” — Michael [54:33]

• Bigfoot Woods:

  • Rich casually drops that he just filmed a movie, “Bigfoot Woods,” in Minnesota, set in a fictionalized "Steamer," riffing on local Bigfoot legend. The movie is both about Bigfoot and about a small-town father grappling with his child’s gender transition.
    • “It is about a small town that basically has an easier time grappling with the idea of an imaginary monster than…someone going through a transition.” — Rich [53:49]
    • The film consciously includes themes of acceptance and understanding (metaphorically linking Bigfoot belief with embracing difference).

• Local Encounters:

  • Multiple sightings of the “hairy man” or Bigfoot described:

    • Eight-foot, scraggly, malodorous, perpetually barefoot, seen in winter.
    • Notable “attacks” on cars (with dented hoods as “evidence”), teens seeing the figure with a stick burst from a cabin, and mysterious screams.
    • A “mysterious skull” (later deemed clearly fake) shown off in a diner, adding to viral Bigfoot lore.

  • “Known as the hairy man, this local legend is described as an eight foot tall, scraggly haired beast…barefoot even in winter.” — Michael [56:43]

  • “Whoever made it…it's just, ‘I wonder what it looks like under that skin’…and that's what that skull is.” — Rich [62:22]

• Celebrating the Legend:

  • Reamer leans hard into cryptid folklore: “Bigfoot Gas & Gifts,” Woodsman Cafe with “Bigfoot hashbrowns," and an annual “Bigfoot Days Festival.”
  • “The way they make them Bigfoot-themed is to call them Bigfoot…Bigfoot burger, Bigfoot Coke, Bigfoot fries…” — Rich [64:18]
  • “This would 100% get my money. That’s all you need to do.” — Michael [64:30]

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NOTABLE QUOTES & MEMORABLE MOMENTS

• On skepticism vs. wonder:
  • “I always and still sort of wish them to be real…My gut is that they're not. But also I wish for them to be.” — Rich Sommer [26:03]
• On explaining the "unexplained":
  • “You could get into why so many things are just explanations for a thing that we don't have an explanation for yet. That would explain, I don't know, 90% of the wars we fought on this planet.” — Rich [44:41]
• On the tension of the rapid-fire game:
  • “This is painful…I want to be fun and cool…I'm trying to be open.” — Rich [39:16]
  • “I’m sweating…I don’t know if you can see but I am pouring sweat.” — Rich [41:14]

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TIMESTAMPS OF MAJOR SEGMENTS

• Rich Sommer Introduction: [01:16 – 05:08]
• Paranormal Board Game Nostalgia: [05:08 – 16:14]
• Ouija Boards & Skepticism: [21:23 – 25:19]
• Childhood Paranormal Fascination: [26:03 – 30:04]
• Minnesota Alien Lore (Walking Tin Cans): [30:04 – 32:59]
• Stillwater Local Legends (“Buster”, “Linda”): [46:25 – 49:40]
• Minnesota’s Bigfoot/Story of High Strangeness: [49:40 – 65:02]
• Rapid-Fire Belief Game: [36:20 – 41:14]
• Discussion of Themed Diners (“Space Aliens”): [66:05 – 67:37]

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EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS & THEMES

• Nostalgia and Community: The shared love of games, storytelling, and local legends brings the Clubhouse together, whether as skeptical adults or credulous kids.
• Embracing Difference: Both cryptid folklore and human diversity are treated as wonders to be embraced, not shunned.
• Critical Thinking and Openness: Rich models an agnostic’s skepticism: hoping for the fantastic, accepting he cannot know for sure, and relishing the stories either way.

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FINAL NOTES

• Rich Sommer’s upcoming film “Bigfoot Woods” uses Bigfoot belief as a metaphor for embracing all kinds of difference, inspired by real small-town lore.
• Reamer, MINN, continues to make the most of its cryptid status with annual festivals and tongue-in-cheek tourism.
• The episode is full of warmth, humor, and surprising personal connections to both the paranormal and the deeply human.

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FOR FURTHER LISTENING

• BCC Patreon: patreon.com/bigfootcollectorsclub — bonus episodes & community
• Check out Rich Sommer’s future “Bigfoot Woods” film for more on Minnesota’s legendary hairy men
• Visit Reamer during “Bigfoot Days” (and get those hashbrowns)

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Transcript

[Michael McMillan]

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[Rich Sommer]

It's Bigfoot Collectors Club with Michael and Riley. I know a story of highest rangeness or two. Let's do this.

[Michael McMillan]

Hello, everybody, and welcome to Bigfoot Collectors Club, the show where we talk to amazing guests about their personal paranormal history and share stories of high strangeness. I'm your host, Michael McMillan. With me always is the non parel neuromancer of musical notation and mystic arts.

[Rich Sommer]

Wow.

[Riley Bray]

Riley Bray.

[Michael McMillan]

That was submitted by our dear patreon, Joseph Hilario.

[Riley Bray]

What a title.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah, Joseph says as a nod to Riley's continued pursuit of AI human unification. I thought a little William Gibson cyberpunk flavor was in order, so.

[Riley Bray]

Hell yeah.

[Michael McMillan]

There you go. And we're not alone today in the cyberpunk universe, we have we're never alone. We're never alone.

[Rich Sommer]

That's the point.

[Michael McMillan]

You may recognize his voice from your television screens and shows like Mad Men and the Minx, which was one of my favorite shows. Also, that's a part that I auditioned for that you booked and you crushed it. You did a way better job than I ever would. Club's cast of all timelines, please welcome to the podcast for the very first time, the one, the only, Rich Sommer. Rich.

[Rich Sommer]

Hi.

[Michael McMillan]

Hi.

[Riley Bray]

Hi.

[Michael McMillan]

I love that. If you're watching this on the YouTube channel, there's a board game behind you called.

[Rich Sommer]

Oh, yeah, Toodles.

[Michael McMillan]

What's Toodles about?

[Rich Sommer]

Takes two to doodle. That's the subtitle of it. It basically is a drawing game. I'll admit my son plays it more than I have played it. But as you can see by the people having fun on the front, it's a drawing game, but two people hold on to the drawing apparatus together and have to draw together.

[Michael McMillan]

Do you have to open your mouth that wide while playing the game?

[Rich Sommer]

You have to close your eyes and open your mouth as wide as it will go while someone screams tood.

[Michael McMillan]

It takes two to doodle. I knew this about you because. Listen, Rich listening. I've been an admirer of yours for years now. From afar, you know, we've crossed paths.

[Rich Sommer]

Like, outside the woods. Not that far. We've had. We've had each other's phone numbers for at least a decade, maybe more, but.

[Michael McMillan]

We'Ve never actually had a real conversation. We just.

[Rich Sommer]

No, that's true.

[Michael McMillan]

Leave little fun voicemails to each other.

[Riley Bray]

That's true.

[Rich Sommer]

Here's my favorite thing. It's like sometimes I'll see you in something. And because I've played so without going too far into detail, Michael and I have left only fun voicemails for each other. In fact, I believe the first earnest text maybe I've ever gotten from you was asking me to do this podcast. Yes, it was. And we have done this. Just these voices for each other. We've never discussed this, so it's interesting to say it out loud. But I've played several of your messages from my wife because they always make me laugh and they're always about sort of. I mean, lately, the last five years, they've been a. You know, it was like we did it during COVID and we would only speak as these characters we've created. Again, it bears no going any deeper than that.

[Michael McMillan]

But no, that's true. Keep it our secret.

[Rich Sommer]

That's right. But when I see you on TV or see you in a commercial or something, I will say to my, oh, that's Michael. That's the guy. We leave the messages and she's like, oh, that's him. Yes.

[Michael McMillan]

I want to know what she was picturing in her mind.

[Rich Sommer]

Well, the voice that we do for each other has a. I mean, I have a picture in my head of.

[Michael McMillan]

What they look like, but, yeah, they'll never know.

[Rich Sommer]

It's not this. It's not what we look like.

[Michael McMillan]

No. It's not what we're doing, and it's not how we sound now. Sorry, Riley.

[Riley Bray]

No, I have never been more in the dark.

[Michael McMillan]

No, no, listen, I haven't even discussed these voice messages with anyone.

[Rich Sommer]

No, no.

[Michael McMillan]

So I know. I'm so sorry to reach out earnestly for the first time to be like, please come be on my podcast. We need a guest by next week.

[Rich Sommer]

Well, no, but we had run into each other for the first time in a very long time. And it was nice to see you.

[Michael McMillan]

It was lovely to see you in 3D.

[Rich Sommer]

And then to get this invitation, I'm glad to.

[Michael McMillan]

Well, as your screen tipped off and as I was gonna say, I know that you're a fan of board games and I wanna. Board game Geek is on his T shirt. I sent you a link earlier from the same website. We're gonna dip into your personal paranormal history. We're gonna crack this open by discussing a few board games that have to deal with the paranormal.

[Riley Bray]

Okay, easing on in.

[Michael McMillan]

All right, easing on in. Now, the first one that comes to. Well, not the first one that comes to mind. There's a big one that comes to everybody's mind that we're going to get to. But when I was a child at my grandfather's house, they had an old electronic haunted house board game made by Ideal Riley. I meant to put the links to this in the show notes. You can just Google Ideal Haunted House. I'll throw images up. I'll put this up. Did you ever play with this game?

[Rich Sommer]

I don't believe I've ever encountered that game. I've certainly heard of it. There's another game, and I want to hear about this game in particular. But there's another game that maybe had been inspired by this game or something that I did play as a youth called Shrieks and Creaks. And in Shrieks and Creaks, there was a little speaker that you plugged into a tape player, like a Walkman. And then the game came with a tape. And so you just put in the tape and you hit play. But no sound would come out of the speaker. And as you explored the board, you'd pick up these keys and you'd combine them and put them in the speaker. And the right combination of keys would activate the speaker. So wherever the tape was at that moment, it would impact the game in some way. There'd be a sound effect or something like that. And so that was the electronic aspect of that. Even though it technically it wasn't electronic. You had to provide the electronics, but it had this interactive feature. So when I saw that you sent me that game earlier today and I. I looked at. Must have somehow inspired shrieks and Creaks. At least.

[Michael McMillan]

What would the tape say?

[Rich Sommer]

It would be. It depended on where you picked it up. But it would be like if he's in the middle of speaking, you would ignore it until the next thing. But it would be sort of little commands split up by spooky sound effects. So there'd be this constant, like, wind blowing and thunder crashing. You can find the tape audio online. It's out there. I think it might be on YouTube, but it would be like, you know, he'd be like, whoever put the key in the thing has to go back three spaces or something to that effect.

[Michael McMillan]

So it's like a. I forget the guy. I should know this off the top of my head. It's like a haunted mansion voice or like a Vincent Price voice.

[Rich Sommer]

Exactly, exactly.

[Michael McMillan]

I love this. You know, Riley, this seems like something that you would find and just listen to. To relax.

[Riley Bray]

Just regularly. Yeah, Just to calm down.

[Michael McMillan]

This one was like. And maybe it wasn't even electronic. It's like a 3D haunted house. It's molded and it stands upright like a backdrop. And then there are little doors. And your man was a little. Or woman. Or non binary character was a little peg.

[Rich Sommer]

I doubt there were non binary characters in that game. This thing's from a long time ago.

[Michael McMillan]

I don't want to genderize the pegs, but you would basically, like. I don't even know how to play this game because this was clearly from my mom and my aunt's childhood, because this is, like, from the 60s. But the was like, little doors would open to reveal a wolfman, a Dracula, a Frankenstein monster. It was very, very fun and one of my earliest tactile memories of something spooky.

[Rich Sommer]

I'm looking at the board right now, the sort of the form of it. Do you remember? Were the things behind the doors able to be changed? Was it randomized?

[Michael McMillan]

I don't think so. I think that was the weird thing was it was always where the characters were. Always where the characters. And again, we kind of made up our own rules because the booklet had been lost. So, you know, my sister would probably know more about this than I do.

[Rich Sommer]

But I'm looking at it.

[Michael McMillan]

I'm obsessed with this.

[Rich Sommer]

It looks to me, first off, the toy factor of it is really high. Like, it's really, really cool. I'm thinking it seems a little like a glorified Chutes and Ladders. Although now I'm looking and there's like, a gem in one of the doors. This is very cool.

[Michael McMillan]

The gem had been lost. We definitely did not have the gem as children.

[Rich Sommer]

Hidden jewel in the attic. The thing says. No, there's some electronic aspect to it. There's a speaker of some sort.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah.

[Rich Sommer]

A hidden owl spinner.

[Michael McMillan]

The owl was cool. There would be, like. It looked Like a gravestone with an owl on it. And you click it to see how many paces you would go. And then, of course, I want to know if you've ever come across this. I don't have this, Riley. I'm putting this link up. There is another. There's a Milton Bradley Bigfoot board game.

[Riley Bray]

Whoa.

[Michael McMillan]

From the 70s. The box is amazing. The box is like a group of 70s children with Bigfoot. Like a breakfast cereal style mascot. Bigfoot.

[Rich Sommer]

It's like Harry and the Hendersons drawn from memory.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah, it really is. But look at this. They come with little Bigfoot game pieces. I need to put all of this stuff up. Like, the Bigfoot game pieces look like something you would get off of a roadside Bigfoot stop.

[Rich Sommer]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tchotchkes that you would get. There's a German, by the way, if you go to the board game geek link, and I imagine it'll be in the show notes, the German version of the Bigfoot game is called Yeti. Yeti Der Schneemench.

[Michael McMillan]

And what does that translate to?

[Rich Sommer]

I'm not Schneemench. Mensch is like, dude. Right?

[Riley Bray]

Snow dude.

[Rich Sommer]

Snow dude.

[Riley Bray]

Probably, yeah.

[Michael McMillan]

The Abominable snowman.

[Rich Sommer]

Yeah, Right, right. But there's like a formed. There's like a big footprint in the insert of the game. That's really. It's really cool. You'll have to see some pictures on the.

[Michael McMillan]

I'm gonna put this all up on the YouTube and this will all be in the Instagram, so this makes sense. There is just one Bigfoot walking around on the board game. And I'm assuming you encounter him. We have to get our hands ahold of this.

[Rich Sommer]

Riley, we need this.

[Michael McMillan]

We need to play this game. And Rich, you're invited to come play it with us.

[Rich Sommer]

I'm in. I'm in. Well, I've got a game here on the shelf. I'm trying to. Here we go. That's called. Hold on. Sorry. I have to move this mini chess set to get to it. That's called Cryptid. Oh, Cryptid is sort of. It's really neat, actually. It's like you're. The theme is.

[Michael McMillan]

That was the exasperated sigh of a man who has explained a million board game rules off the top of his head. And it's just like. Do they want to hear this? We do.

[Rich Sommer]

Don't worry what we do. Well, I don't want you to be disappointed. This game is not necessarily, like, theme heavy is my point. Like that Bigfoot game and that haunted house game. You're looking At. Those are theme before mechanics. Right. Whereas Cryptid is mechanics. Sort of like the gameplay over theme. So the theme is. Is. Is there. You're looking for a Cryptid, but it's more of like a deduction game of like, is it by a lake? Yes or no. And then you know that. That kind of stuff.

[Michael McMillan]

So you could, you could play. There's no like major visual aspect to it. It's not like it's correct.

[Rich Sommer]

It's a bunch of hexagons. Or. Or. Yeah, I don't know why I matter. What's the six sided one? Not hexagon. Yeah, yeah, that's. Yeah, hexagon. Look at us, we're doing great.

[Michael McMillan]

We know our elements are shaped.

[Riley Bray]

It's not a science podcast.

[Michael McMillan]

I have to say, anytime I see a honeycomb game board, I'm immediately intimidated. I don't know what's happening.

[Rich Sommer]

I get it. The war games from the olden days were often on those kind of honeycomb boards and they were huge and highly complex and had like multiple terrain rules and going like learning the game would take you several hours. So I can. That's probably just built into the human brain now that those hexagons can be a little scary. So I understand it.

[Michael McMillan]

Okay. There is a cool modern game. I think we have it. I don't know if it's here. It's not here in the room with me. Called Horrific. But it's. I think there are a number of these.

[Rich Sommer]

Horrified.

[Michael McMillan]

Horrified, yes. And there is a cryptid version that comes with a Mothman. Yes. There's a Cryptid version that has Yeti. Mothman Sheep Squatch.

[Rich Sommer]

I think that one is Chupacabra. Horrified American Monsters. Is it that one? Yeah.

[Michael McMillan]

Where does this come. How did this all happen?

[Rich Sommer]

I like games. This one, this horrified is the universal monsters one. That's my favorite one. It's basically the same game as all the others. It's a cooperative game, but you're. You have the actual universal monsters. Where does my love of board games come from? Yeah, I grew up playing games, loving games. My best friend Matt, with whom I grew up, he was an only child and my brother was a bit younger than me. So Matt and I really hung out a lot. And we were not the coolest kids in school, so we hung out with each other mostly. And one of our sort of pastimes was to take the Hoyle book of card games and just sort of flip through it and find whatever two player game was there and learn it and play it for weeks and Then change the scoring system. So it was not the first to 100. We would play, you know, have a sleepover and be the first to 100,000. You know, things like just play it all night. So I have always been drawn to them. And then that same friend Matt and I at about the same time, this was in about 2002, found our way to this sort of the modern board gaming world, which. Oh boy. Okay.

[Michael McMillan]

Yep.

[Rich Sommer]

You know, you've heard of the settlers of Catan? Yes, of course. That was sort of the game that like kicked off the modern board game movement. That was in 94, I think. And then slowly it started to pick up. And then I was in Cleveland in grad school, very, very broke. Walked by a game store that was going out of business and they had games at like 80% off. And so I wrote down the names of a few because I couldn't afford to buy many. I knew I could buy one. And I went home and on my not proto Internet, but early Internet was looking up these board games and was led to the website board game geek. And I've often described it as, you know, children of alcoholics. Often they say have one of two reactions when they try alcohol the first time. They either become flushed like an allergic reaction or they take a drink and they say, oh, that's what was missing the whole time. Finding board game geek for me was like, this is the thing I've been looking for and I didn't even know about it. And now it's become a big part of my.

[Michael McMillan]

Did you as a child turn your nose up at a Nintendo?

[Rich Sommer]

No, I liked Nintendo.

[Michael McMillan]

Okay, okay. You liked video games.

[Rich Sommer]

I'm pro Nintendo.

[Michael McMillan]

Got it. Okay, great, great. We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we're going to talk about the spookiest board game of all time with Mr. Sommer. Hey, Riley.

[Riley Bray]

Hey, Michael.

[Michael McMillan]

I just received a box in the mail and in that box were my new brunt work boots. And I got to tell you something, not only are these boots stylish and cool looking, I slipped these things on and I thought I was putting on some, some luxury comfort slippers. These things are comfortable.

[Riley Bray]

I agree. I, I just got mine. My, my big old size 13 Brunt boots and tell me more. They are truly massive. I'm holding them up right now. So I'm like, look at that, look at that bad boy. I mean they're, they're waterproof. They're really nicely made. These are like perfect shaver stomping boots. I can't wait to go and do the. Do the yearly pine needle clearance in these bad boys.

[Michael McMillan]

Oh, yeah.

[Riley Bray]

And yeah, I put them on right fresh out of the box. And they were so comfortable.

[Michael McMillan]

So comfortable.

[Riley Bray]

Such a rugged boot and they're like, so comfortable.

[Michael McMillan]

I know. I felt like I was like, I could wear these around the apartment.

[Riley Bray]

I did wore them around just like stomping around my house.

[Michael McMillan]

Well, these might be the most comfortable work boots on the planet, but they also deliver real performance on the job. Riley. Whether you need waterproof safety toe or soft toe, pull on or lace up, they've got you covered. They're so confident in these boots that these boots will blow you away, that they will even let our listeners try them on the job, risk free. Listen to this, Riley. For a limited time, our listeners get $10 off at Brunt with code BCC at checkout. Just head to Brunt or Workwear.com and use code BCC and you're all set. And after you buy, do us a favor. When they ask where you heard about Brunt, tell them it was from your friends at Bigfoot Collectors Club.

[Riley Bray]

Tell them your boys send you. You know, one thing I noticed about these that I really liked right off the bat is that the top lace, because I like a tall boot. I got the tallest ones. And the top lace have this dual lace thing where you can either thread them through for like a really secure fit, or there's also a quick latch for the laces so you can just pop them on and pop them off. I just thought that was such a cool, thoughtful design.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah, because element, one of the things that I always find when I'm putting on boots, I'm like, it takes too much time. Like, I'm always happy when I have, like, boots on, especially if you're like, feeling a little extra special that day. But that top that, you know, getting on those tall boots, I can be, it can be a deterrence. So I'm happy to hear that.

[Riley Bray]

Yeah, they got that great quick lace. And also, Brunt isn't just about work boots. They offer a full range of high performance gear built for tough jobs. I got my, my sweet Brunt trucker cap as well. With my boots. It's awesome. I went with the, the hunter orange logo on the gray Brunt cap.

[Michael McMillan]

Like, what is it? Wonderful minds think alike.

[Rich Sommer]

Yeah.

[Riley Bray]

And, you know, I gotta say, it's a great hat. It felt really high quality and, you know, like, like, you know, I'm, I'm telling you the truth here. I really like this.

[Michael McMillan]

No it's great stuff.

[Riley Bray]

Really good.

[Michael McMillan]

Really, really great quality. And listen, if you are sasquatching out there in the woods, I truly cannot imagine better boots than these. Brunt work boots for.

[Riley Bray]

Yeah.

[Michael McMillan]

For your. For your paranormal adventures.

[Riley Bray]

Yeah. The pair we got are waterproof.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah, it's nice.

[Riley Bray]

Nice thick stitching there. They're very solid. I'm very excited about them.

[Michael McMillan]

All right, well, Brunt didn't just make a durable work boot. They reinvented comfort for the hardest workers out there. For a limited time, our listeners get $10 off at Brunt by using code BCC at checkout. Just head over to BruntWorkwear.com and use code BCC and you're all set. After your purchase, they will ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and let them know BCC sent ya.

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[Rich Sommer]

Fast.

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[Michael McMillan]

It's on Prime. Okay, Rich, we're easing into the personal paranormal history stuff. Going one step deeper. Ouija boards. The Ouija board. Did you have an Ouija board when you were a kid, and did you have any experiences on it?

[Rich Sommer]

Yeah, I mean, I had, like, sleepovers with people, and I knew that. I seem to remember. I know that there have been several iterations of the rules for Ouija board throughout the years. The one that we had said, it's best if it's a male and a female. Female that are sitting. I mean, that sounds like some slumber.

[Michael McMillan]

Party antics to me.

[Rich Sommer]

Well, that's what I think what the intention is, but Matt and I were. We didn't have that option, so we. We would just do.

[Michael McMillan]

You're like, who's wearing the wig tonight?

[Rich Sommer]

We just, you know, tapped into our. Our feminine energies.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah, we're.

[Rich Sommer]

We're all on a spectrum. We all. We all live on a spectrum. There's no binary, in my opinion. So. So Matt and I were fine. We did the Ouija board. Here's the thing. Before we ever tried a Ouija board, Matt and I grew up on Penn and Teller. Penn and Teller were like our sort of totems. We really thought they were incredible. We would find VHS of Penn and Teller specials and watch them. Matt's parents had Showtime. We had like basic cable, but they had the pay channels, so we would tape anytime there was a Penn Teller special. And I read they had books they also recommended. I remember to read the readings of. And this was important for me. James Randi and James Randy.

[Michael McMillan]

I know that name.

[Rich Sommer]

The Amazing Randy.

[Michael McMillan]

Oh, the Amazing Randy, of course, yes, yes.

[Rich Sommer]

Who is sort of their mentor and by proxy became sort of my mentor as well, in a way, just through the books. I never met the man, but I certainly read all of his books and it, it really guided my thinking as far as becoming a skeptic. But unfortunately I had read those books before we were sitting with a Ouija board or I'd at least heard of some of those things before I was sitting down. So yeah, we had experiences. The planchette, the little thing you put your fingers on moved, but it. We also were like, wow, isn't physiology amazing that we're moving that thing and it doesn't even feel like we're moving it?

[Michael McMillan]

So that's the idea, that's the debunkery, is that it is. You are moving it subconsciously.

[Rich Sommer]

Are you asking me?

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah. Yes.

[Riley Bray]

How do they.

[Michael McMillan]

I want to hear the skeptics that were what the books were telling you.

[Rich Sommer]

That's my opinion. Yes. And the opinion shared by many in the skeptic community.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah, yeah, no, that's fair. Listen, did I have a ghost named Sean that contacted me multiple times on a Ouija board in high school and said things that I did not know I wouldn't even be able to know the answers to? Yes, I did. But it's possible I was just all creating this. I was maybe far more intuitive than I believed.

[Rich Sommer]

Listen, let me also be very clear that part of, for me being a skeptic is also acknowledging that I don't. I don't know if I'm allowed to swear in here, but I'll just let em play. I don't know shit. I mean, I don't really know anything. So to say that people have not been contacted by a spirit through a Ouija board is not in my purview. I don't get to say that. I can simply say that I don't feel as though I've had that experience. But when someone firmly believes that they have, wow, who am I to argue with them? I don't. You know what I mean?

[Michael McMillan]

I think that's fair. I mean, as much as we love the stories on this show, I think we ultimately remain agnostic to this stuff. And there were definitely times where Riley and I are both in agreement on like, eh, this seems like maybe not supernatural, you know, but we also come across the things where we're like, I don't know, this seems to happen and we don't know why.

[Rich Sommer]

Yeah.

[Michael McMillan]

Were you in. So you painted a very good picture of the type of. I'm going to go ahead and say nerd. You were growing up. I was a comic book or geek, I should say I was a comic book geek. I was fantasy sci fi geek. And I feel like based on what you've said, a lot of the. You were on the other side of the toy aisle getting board games while I was collecting action figures. And maybe that's still happening today for both of us. For both of us, exactly. But I'm wondering, where was the supernatural in your childhood? Did UFOs capture your imagination? Did hauntings? Bigfoot? Any of this stuff ever grab you?

[Rich Sommer]

Yeah, it all grabbed me. I mean, look, I was a big library goer growing up. I spent a lot of time at the Stillwater Public Library in Stillwater, Minnesota. And I checked out every book that caught my fancy. And among those were things like books on Cryptids, books on sightings, books on witches, spells, books, you know, I loved that stuff. And it's a lot like how I feel about other aspects of life. I always and still sort of wish them to be real. I don't. I can't. My gut is that they're not. But also I wish for them to be. I don't see any reason not to. I mean, I wear. I watched the Alien Autopsy.

[Michael McMillan]

Oh, yeah.

[Rich Sommer]

I mean, I can't imagine. I don't remember how old. I mean, I had to be maybe 12:30. And I have no idea how we got our hands on it, but it was a.

[Michael McMillan]

Well, you know. I'll tell you how FOX network aired it. It was like a big special on like network television.

[Rich Sommer]

Okay. So then someone, whether I saw it live or someone taped it off of the tv, it made the rounds. And I remember talking to people at school about it. And that for a moment I think I was like, you know, boy, that sure looked real. Who am I to say it's not real? I wasn't in the room. I've since come to a different conclusion. But I did.

[Michael McMillan]

It's safe to say that's not real.

[Rich Sommer]

Yeah, but I was certainly entranced by it. I remember seeing the book Communion on the shelf at the grocery store and when it was everywhere. And of course it was Something that I got caught up in as well.

[Michael McMillan]

Well, let's talk about that for a moment because I do think that if you're a kid of a certain age growing up in the mid to late 80s and 90s. I was born in 78, so I'll date myself. Okay, great. I had a suspicion that you and I were the same age. That coming across the communion cover was like a moment that all of us remember. Like, where were you when you discovered the communion book jacket cover? And how much did it scare you?

[Rich Sommer]

Well, specifically, I was at the grocery store because it was, you know, at a time where paperbacks were on the end caps of the, you know, the big selling paperbacks because, you know, we didn't have phones. We didn't have. We. You didn't have TV on Demand. You had whatever was available to you. And paperbacks were huge. And Communion was a giant seller. And I, you know, I remember sit staring at it in line at the grocery store and. And yes, being freaked out, being like, that's what they look like. And now being much older and understanding that whomever drew that cover effectively prescribed what we would think of aliens looking like for maybe ever. I mean, only recently does it feel like they're starting to kind of break out of. I mean, it went like Marvin the Martian, the communion cover. And the communion cover has sort of stuck. I mean, it's really what we still think of the gray sort of almond eyes. And that's what we picture when we see aliens or think of aliens 100%.

[Michael McMillan]

And I would also say that, like Steven Spielberg, Close Encounters of the Third Kind helped ease us out into that transition as well.

[Rich Sommer]

Absolutely.

[Michael McMillan]

It is funny how we all collectively decide like, this is what it is. Like Bigfoot. You know, everyone's kind of collectively decided this is what Bigfoot looks like. And now everyone's collectively decided these are what aliens look like.

[Rich Sommer]

Yeah.

[Michael McMillan]

Which is wild because the more you get into these stories that we've done over the past, what, almost eight years now. Riley.

[Rich Sommer]

Yeah. Wow.

[Michael McMillan]

There is a much larger menagerie of aliens out there that people have claimed to run into. For example, I don't know if you know, being from Minnesota, have you heard about the walking tin cans?

[Rich Sommer]

I don't know that I have.

[Michael McMillan]

There's a story that comes from a book by John Keel where he collected a story about a salesman that was driving home one night in Minnesota. I'll have to Google what town it was exactly. But it was in the middle of, like, there were corn fields around.

[Rich Sommer]

That's a lot of Minnesota.

[Michael McMillan]

And in the middle of the night. And his car beams hit what looks to be a old school Looney Tunes Marvin the Martian rocket just sitting in the middle of the road. And he's got his high beams glaring at this thing. He gets out of the car and he looks down, and he sees what look like tin cans with legs walking around the base of this miniature rocket. And they all get into it, and then the rocket takes off. I mean, what do you make of this? The only thing that corroborates the story is that there were farmers that lived nearby that said that they saw a strange beam of light shoot off into the night sky on the same night, around the same time. But we have alien grays. We also have walking tin cans.

[Rich Sommer]

So it's a spectrum of Minnesota.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah, it's a spectrum. Yeah.

[Rich Sommer]

And we can't presume, if we presume that there is extraterrestrial life, which again, even as person who has kept. I believe that science requires that there is some sort of life outside of Earth. Right. How developed it is, I don't know. How intelligent it is, I don't know. But I would also allow for the likelihood that should the gray aliens exist, there's no reason to believe it's only we humans and those gray aliens that exist as far as intelligent extraterrestrials, terrestrial life. So why not tin cans? Why not whatever the hell you can imagine?

[Michael McMillan]

I think those are tiny little robots that were just, you know, sent here as a probe.

[Rich Sommer]

Emissary.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah, emissary.

[Rich Sommer]

Just checking it out.

[Michael McMillan]

I also have a theory. This might be a little too out there, Rich. Stop me. That maybe they aren't aliens at all, but there's some sort of, like, representation of, you know, how, like, we used to have, like, gods of agriculture and nature spirits. Because as I was researching that story, I realized that a lot of our canned goods, like the Jolly Green Giant and canned corn, all come from Minnesota. So perhaps what this man was seeing in the 60s was a evolution of the nature spirit of the corn gods. Or the green bean gods. Green bean spirits. But now they're appearing as the modern version of themselves as cans.

[Riley Bray]

That is grim.

[Rich Sommer]

Totally tracks, as far as I'm concerned.

[Michael McMillan]

How dare you? I agree. Thank you. All right, we're gonna take a break. We're gonna come back. We're gonna play a game with Rich summer.

[Rich Sommer]

Yay.

[Michael McMillan]

Streaming September 4th on Peacock. We sell toilet tissue and local newspapers. That is in order of quality. From the crew that brought you the office, my name is Ned Sampson, I am your new editor in chief. Comes a new comedy series.

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Have you read this paper?

[Michael McMillan]

Uh huh. It sucks. But we are going to make it better. Meet the underdog journalist. I hope it's not too disruptive to have me shake everything up. Don't be so self defecating with major issues, Oscar. Oh God, not again. The paper only on Peacock September 4th. All right. Riley, do you have a five star review queued up?

[Riley Bray]

I do. I just can't shake the Minnesota Canned gods from my head.

[Michael McMillan]

All right. Okay, here we go. Riley, before we drop in, why don't we nominate a five star club scout of the week. This is a listener of the show, Rich, who's done us the favor of giving us a five star review on Apple Podcasts so more people can find the show.

[Riley Bray]

Well, this is from Ethanolia and the subject is Best podcast of all time.

[Michael McMillan]

Whoa.

[Riley Bray]

And the review is as follows. Bigfoots are awesome. If I could give this a million stars, I would. And Riley for president. Oh boy. Okay.

[Rich Sommer]

Hey, I'll take it. These days I'll take it.

[Riley Bray]

Couldn't do worse, I'll tell you that much.

[Michael McMillan]

Also, Rich, I know you have or have had a podcast, so apologies that we're better than yours.

[Rich Sommer]

Oh, no, no, no. The fact that yours went more than the three or four months that mine went shows that yours is better.

[Michael McMillan]

But it's about remind us all it's a board game podcast was.

[Rich Sommer]

Yeah, it was a podcast. I actually had two iterations of my podcast. One did go a little longer than a few months, but they were both called Cardboard with Rich Summer. The first one was through a subsidiary of what was then Earwolf podcast. And it was a very highly produced podcast with music and things like that. I did nine episodes and then it truly almost killed me. I mean, it was just way too much work and no fault of theirs. They told me over and over, don't take this all on yourself. And I kept saying, no, I can handle it. And they were right and I was wrong. But the second, the other iteration of the podcast was really fun and some I still think about often trying to fire it up again. But it was simply. I did no advertising, I did no. There was no regularity to the releases. It wasn't like once a week. It was whenever I felt like it, I hit a switch. I sent out a tweet. This dates it. I sent out a tweet that basically said, hey, the podcast is live. And it was a live. It was like a radio show so people would Call a phone number. I would talk to them. And it was just talking about board games or conversations sort of like this, where board games were the jumping off point to learning about their lives. And that one was really fun. They were both enjoyable in their own way. But that one didn't almost kill me, the phone call one. I just got to a point where, you know, I didn't want to do it anymore.

[Michael McMillan]

Fair enough.

[Rich Sommer]

That's.

[Michael McMillan]

That's what comes for every podcast host eventually.

[Rich Sommer]

That's right. That's right.

[Michael McMillan]

Sooner or later, you just go, I'm done. Okay, we're going to play a game that we play with all of our guests. Now, this is not a board game, but you can use your imagination. Okay, I'm going to go down a list of phenomena. Rapid fire.

[Rich Sommer]

Oh, boy.

[Michael McMillan]

Okay, now I'm going to ask you to open your mind just a little bit, Rich. Okay? If you're open to the specific phenomena, you're just gonna go ahead and say, believe it. If you're not open to it, there's no way in hell. You just say bullshit. Okay, Those are your two options. We can come back at the end of the list and relitigate any one of these if you want to.

[Rich Sommer]

I'm intrigued to find if there's any that I'm 100% not open to. Cause I'm kind of. I do have a semi open. Even though I don't necessarily believe in these things. Again, I allow for the possibility.

[Michael McMillan]

Now, this is. You know, we usually. Most of the time on this podcast, we keep. We stay in the realm of agnosticism, but for this game, you got to decide, understand?

[Rich Sommer]

I'll do my best, Rich.

[Michael McMillan]

Summer. On your mark, get set. Ghosts, Bullshit.

[Rich Sommer]

I've already flown it.

[Michael McMillan]

Bigfoot.

[Rich Sommer]

Bullshit. I don't know. Never mind.

[Michael McMillan]

UFOs, believe it. Mothman bullshit. ESP bullshit. Chupacabra bullshit. The Abominable Snowman bullshit. Ouija boards, bullshit. I hate this.

[Rich Sommer]

I'm trying to be open.

[Michael McMillan]

Hang with me. The Loveland Frogman.

[Rich Sommer]

The what?

[Michael McMillan]

Loveland, Ohio. In the late 60s 70s, people saw a large frog like man who carried a wand.

[Rich Sommer]

He had a wand.

[Riley Bray]

He had a wand.

[Rich Sommer]

Believe it.

[Michael McMillan]

The Hopkinsville Goblins. Have you heard about this case?

[Rich Sommer]

No.

[Riley Bray]

Hillbillies Shootout in Kentucky.

[Michael McMillan]

A whole family basically sees gremlins after witnessing a UFO like creatures poking their head in the window and they're shooting at them.

[Rich Sommer]

Let me ask you this before I. I know we're rapid fire, but I have to just pause for one second if I believe that this Family shot at something, whatever they interpreted it as that there was a thing that they shot at that they saw and shot at. Would I say believe it?

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah, you can.

[Rich Sommer]

Okay, believe it.

[Michael McMillan]

Okay, great. Skunk Ape.

[Rich Sommer]

Yeah, but like the guy Skunkor in Marvel Masters of the Universe. Masters of the Universe.

[Michael McMillan]

Okay, now you're talking my language.

[Rich Sommer]

That's one of the guys I had, so I'll say believe it.

[Michael McMillan]

Great. Where were we? Hollow Earth.

[Riley Bray]

Oh, God.

[Michael McMillan]

The Loch Ness Monster.

[Rich Sommer]

I don't. God, this is painful. I want to be fun and cool and whatever.

[Michael McMillan]

Look, I. Oh, you're being fun. Don't worry. Okay, fine.

[Rich Sommer]

Believe it.

[Michael McMillan]

Crystal balls. The Beast of Busco. Big turtle. Big. Big like alligator stamping turtle. Big.

[Rich Sommer]

Big like the turtle in it.

[Michael McMillan]

Smaller than the turtle in it.

[Rich Sommer]

Smaller than that.

[Michael McMillan]

But smaller than a car. Bigger than a wheelbarrow.

[Rich Sommer]

Believe it.

[Michael McMillan]

Out of body experiences.

[Rich Sommer]

I wish there was nuance here. I guess I'll say the very real experience of feeling like you're outside of your body. Believe it.

[Michael McMillan]

The Michigan Dogman.

[Rich Sommer]

Probably. Bullshit Tarot cards.

[Michael McMillan]

Bullshit Wendigos. A Minnesota Cryptid, by the way.

[Rich Sommer]

I know, I know. I do remember some campfire stories. Oh, I have to. I have one campfire story. But I'll say, don't believe bullshit life on other planets.

[Michael McMillan]

Believe life after death. It can be your interpretation.

[Rich Sommer]

Yeah, I read a really good book, okay. And I'm trying to remember the name of it off the top of my head. It was written by the son of a physicist and it's in My time of dying. I believe it's called Sebastian Junger.

[Michael McMillan]

I've heard of this book.

[Rich Sommer]

And he gives a fairly concrete case for the possibility of some type of existence beyond this one. That I believe is possible.

[Michael McMillan]

Okay, so that's a belief. All right. Well done, Rich. You got through it. You're alive.

[Rich Sommer]

That I'm sweating. I don't know if you can see, but I am pouring sweat.

[Michael McMillan]

It is interesting to see that some people, like, really sweat under this game.

[Riley Bray]

It's intense.

[Michael McMillan]

It's intense. It can be an intense one. What's the campfire story involving Wendigos?

[Rich Sommer]

Well, it isn't Wendigo the war campfire story is about the Chupacabra and Wendigos. I mean, I heard them, but this was simply when I went to Boy Scout camp when I was in. God, was I in seventh grade? It's possible. I'm embarrassed to say I was in seventh grade because of what my. I was just. We have to remember that seventh graders are just Little boys. They're just little boys.

[Michael McMillan]

I was still playing, actively playing, not just collecting with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in seventh grade. So it's okay.

[Rich Sommer]

When we went to Boy Scout camp, two momentous things happened. One was I tried smoking for the first time. But let me tell you what we smoked, because nobody had any cigarettes or anything. The older. So the theme of these two stories is that big kids ruin everything. The big kids were like, no, this is cool. This is what you smoke. It was a piece of notebook paper, as the rolling paper, a full piece of notebook paper, a length of twine, like a thin rope set across and then sprinkled with grass. Not the good kind, just grass. Then rolled up and tied in three points with more twine. And I was like, you smoked this? And they were like, yeah. I was like, okay. And I tried it. And I obviously. Obviously, inhaling burning rope and paper.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah.

[Rich Sommer]

Thought I was going to die.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah.

[Rich Sommer]

These same gentle souls told me the story of Crazy Charlie. And Crazy Charlie was the camp cook, apparently. And he had, of course, murdered several campers. And they told this with such an earnestness. And they said, you can see where he's been because his footprints glow in the dark. Now, I have still to this day not seen this wood in the wild. But I've looked it up. It does exist. There's this phosphorent, phosphorescent, rather wood bark that when it falls off the tree, it glows. And they took us out and you could see the glowing wood all through. They were like, oh, he's been all over the place. And I was like, bah. And I slept on the floor of their cabin that night. The bigger kids, sobbing. I was sobbing. Could not sleep with the younger guys. Had to sleep with the cool, kind, protective big guys who had tried to kill me lung wise already in the day. And then were try. Then tried to commit. No, Crazy Charlie's just a story. And I was like, bullshit. I saw the footprints out there. It was terrifying.

[Michael McMillan]

I mean, it's terrifying. I would have been scared too, believe me. But that's so funny, you know, and you have to think that, like, also, like, it must. That's the type of, like, folklore that must have been handed down for generations before people understood that the bark, you know, glowed in the dark.

[Rich Sommer]

Yeah, right. It's just. It's some chemical reaction that happens when it falls off the thing. But look, that. Oh, boy, that's a long conversation. But you could get into why so many things are just explanations for a thing that we don't have an explanation for yet.

[Riley Bray]

Totally.

[Rich Sommer]

You know, that would explain, I don't know, 90% of the wars we fought on this planet.

[Michael McMillan]

Well, there's that all the time. Yeah. And also, if we're just going to, like, shrink it down to this topic, I truly believe that a lot of the stuff that we call ghosts or UFOs, we will understand one day and they will have a lesson, possibly less supernatural definition to them. You know, it's just all going to fall within the realm of science because if it exists, it would anyway. You know what I mean?

[Rich Sommer]

That's right.

[Michael McMillan]

There was. Well, why don't we break here? We come back. It'll be time for this week's story of high strangeness. And then I'm going to offer a couple more local legends into your brain. I guess that's where I want to.

[Rich Sommer]

That's where they go.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah. Yeah. All right.

[Riley Bray]

We'll be right back.

[Rich Sommer]

Abercrombie is an official fashion partner of the NFL, and I'm CeeDee Lamb, wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys. You know, I'm here for Abercrombie's Cowboys gear. That's not a question, but I need a whole wardrobe to go with it. No shade to the guys, but I'm used to having the best tunnel fits. This season, Abercrombie has me covered. Shop NFL by Abercrombie in the app, online and in store.

[Michael McMillan]

Okay, Rich, so I was fumbling a little bit as we cut to break for words, because while I was talking, I was trying to find a link that I found while researching this week's story about local legends in Stillwater, Minnesota.

[Rich Sommer]

Oh, my goodness.

[Michael McMillan]

I did a little sleuthing.

[Rich Sommer]

My hometown.

[Michael McMillan]

Found out that was your hometown, but they had a couple. The crazy Charlie thing reminded me there was a local eccentric lady named a Leaping Linda or a Limping Linda. Do you know about her?

[Rich Sommer]

That name is ringing a bell. But it is a long, rusted and dented bell. I don't remember, but Leaping Linda sounds. Sounds like it's ringing a bell.

[Michael McMillan]

She was just like a local lady that obviously, I think needed medication and maybe some therapy. But everyone took care of her in town and they all loved her. But she would walk out into the street swearing, and she jumped a lot, so they would call her Leaping Linda.

[Rich Sommer]

Did you come upon Buster at all?

[Michael McMillan]

Yes, I was. Tried to bring up Buster.

[Rich Sommer]

Okay, Wild.

[Michael McMillan]

Why don't you tell us who Buster is?

[Rich Sommer]

So Buster was a dude.

[Michael McMillan]

Buster sounds awesome.

[Rich Sommer]

He was. He was. If I'm not mistaken, he Was a local. Like a long, long standing local. I mean, this is me. So you have information on Buster. This is very exciting to me.

[Michael McMillan]

In my head, I couldn't find the. The link that I had, the article I had about him.

[Rich Sommer]

Okay. But. Yeah, so I just wondered if you'll be able to corroborate any of my memory. I mean, this is me reaching back 30, 40, almost years ago. But Buster was a guy. He was always kitted out in, like, winter clothes, big time winter clothes. Like, no matter what time of year it was, he had, like a coat, a scarf all the way around his mouth and nose, and his hood was up, and he usually carried a baseball bat. And of course, like the next door neighbor in Home Alone there. It was sort of like, I heard Buster's out today. You know, there was sort of lore about him, and it was scary. Like, there were stories that he had done all these things. But my friend Matt, aforementioned, his dad Todd, said, I know Buster. He's not. He's fine. He's just a little, you know, he's just maybe, like you said, maybe probably could have used some medication or something. You don't have to be scared of Buster. And if I'm not mistaken, it's some point. Matt, like, talked to Buster and they had a conversation, which is not something I ever did. I mean, if you saw Buster, I, like, cross the street. I mean, the worst, you know, whatever. I didn't understand. All I knew is there was a guy with padding on, basically, and a baseball bat. Always sort of muttering and walking down the streets of downtown Stillwater.

[Michael McMillan]

Well, and what I had read was that they called him Buster because he used to walk around busting up stop signs, punching them or hitting them with the bat.

[Rich Sommer]

I believe it.

[Michael McMillan]

That was like his thing. He liked to hit road signs with it. That's why they called him Buster.

[Rich Sommer]

Wait, so his name wasn't Buster?

[Michael McMillan]

It was his nickname. He had, like, a real name. That's what I was trying to find. It was like, Bob something. And they called him Buster because he busted stuff up.

[Rich Sommer]

I love that you found some lore about Buster. That's crazy. I haven't thought of him in a while.

[Michael McMillan]

It was. I'll find it. Before we sign off, as soon as.

[Rich Sommer]

You mentioned sort of local legends, Buster popped right into my head because he was. He was definitely. He was a guy that everybody knew or knew of Buster, you know, and.

[Michael McMillan]

Then there was leaping or limping Linda as well. All right, well, let's get into this week's story of High strangeness that takes place about a four hour drive from Stillwater, Minnesota. And it begins in Washburn Lake, Minnesota. 2008. A man hauling lumber on his way home from Crosby suddenly encounters a massive figure stepping into the road. It was big and hairy, with hands resembling baseball mitts. The creature took three swift strides across the road before vanishing from sight, leaving the driver stunned and speechless. This encounter is just one of many Bigfoot sightings revealing reported in Minnesota during the mid-2000s. However, the legend of Bigfoot or a similar creature is not new to the area. Sightings have been documented in the land of 10,000 lakes for decades. One town in particular, Vergis, claims that a Sasquatch like creature has inhabited the area for years. Another town, Remmer. Is that how pronounced Rehmer?

[Rich Sommer]

I think it's Remer. I think it's Remerable.

[Michael McMillan]

Reamer also proclaims to be the home of Bigfoot. In honor of our guest this week, it's time to pay tribute to the hairy man of the Vargas trails. Minnesota's elusive Bigfoot. In 2009, during a surge of Bigfoot activity, a family of deer hunters, Tim Kadrowski and his sons Casey and Peter gained attention while when they captured what appeared to be a hairy figure walking through the woods in a trail cam photo near their hunting shack in Reamer, Minnesota. The blurry image shows the figure gliding through the autumn trees at night, its back and head turned towards camera. Though inconclusive, the Kadrowski brothers assert that nobody knew where the trail camera was set up. Judging by the height of the tree next to the figure, they estimated that whatever it was stood about 7ft tall. Casey told local News, we all kind.

[Rich Sommer]

Of had the idea in the back of our minds, but we didn't want to go and say Bigfoot because I'd never seen one.

[Michael McMillan]

Now let's take a look at this photo here. This is another thing that I meant to send you before the show started. So I'm gonna. I can't drop this in the chat, can I?

[Riley Bray]

I don't know.

[Michael McMillan]

Okay, well, I'm gonna email this to Rich. Okay, Real time everybody.

[Riley Bray]

Real time.

[Michael McMillan]

Real time everybody. Now, while I'm doing this, Rich, have you ever heard of any of these Minnesota big men, specifically the Virgus Trail hairy man?

[Rich Sommer]

Well, it's funny, I hadn't until. One thing I've been remiss is I haven't mentioned yet that I did a movie in Minnesota last October and the title of the movie is Bigfoot woods and oh boy, Richard. I know. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

[Michael McMillan]

What are you doing? Well, let me explain. What are we even doing here?

[Rich Sommer]

The movie takes place in the fictional Minnesota town of Steamer, Minnesota, which is very directly based on Reamer.

[Michael McMillan]

Reamer. Okay.

[Rich Sommer]

And I'll just say that it is basically, it's a dad and his kid who have a sort of a YouTube type show that they do together in this very small town just for fun, and they accidentally catch what may be a bigfoot sighting, Much like these guys on the trail cam. In fact, it's swinging through the trees in the exact same way, I believe. A direct. Yeah, I'm looking now.

[Michael McMillan]

Take a look at this photo.

[Rich Sommer]

I'm looking at that photo. I should email you a photo that we took during our filming that is made basically to replicate this photo.

[Michael McMillan]

This is insane.

[Riley Bray]

Amazing.

[Michael McMillan]

This is what we call synchronic.

[Rich Sommer]

But I will also tell you this, that bigfoot woods, the movie, it is about bigfoot, but it is more about.

[Michael McMillan]

A father rediscovering his love for his son.

[Rich Sommer]

Well, actually, his daughter, with whom he makes the videos, announces that she is going to transition into his son. And it is about a small town that basically has an easier time grappling with the idea of an imaginary monster than it does with the idea of someone going through a transition. So that's the.

[Michael McMillan]

I love this because this has been actually rich A philosophy embedded in the DNA of our show since the get go of, like, if you can keep your mind open to these things. Keep your mind open to all the different types of people that live on this earth.

[Rich Sommer]

Yeah, exactly.

[Michael McMillan]

I love that. I cannot wait to see that movie.

[Riley Bray]

Damn.

[Michael McMillan]

So let's take. Riley, take a look at this picture here.

[Riley Bray]

Oh, I'm looking.

[Michael McMillan]

It's a color trail cam photo, which we don't see often.

[Riley Bray]

How is this from 2008? And it still looks like it's from 1996.

[Michael McMillan]

I know, but it's a trail cam. You know what I mean?

[Rich Sommer]

You know, there's a reason maybe.

[Michael McMillan]

I don't know.

[Rich Sommer]

Who knows?

[Michael McMillan]

Who knows?

[Riley Bray]

Can't say.

[Michael McMillan]

We can't really say. But we definitely see, like, what looks like. I'll say a figure, A blurry figure walking through the trees. That's what it looks like. It's pretty. Like, we can't definitively say, like, most of these pictures, that this is a sasquatch. But I'll tell you what happens next. Their father, Tim, contacted two gentlemen, Don Sherman and Bob Olson of the Northern Minnesota Bigfoot research team, to Investigate the photo and the area. I'm just gonna sidebar here and say if you were born with the name Don Sherman or Bob Olson, you are becoming a Bigfoot hunter when you grow up.

[Rich Sommer]

It has been assigned by your name.

[Michael McMillan]

Yes. While they couldn't provide conclusive evidence of a Sasquatch in Reamer's woodlands, they noted it wasn't a bear. That's what they decided. This is not a bear. Interestingly. Yeah, I'd say we're narrowing it down. Yeah. They spoke to two other hunters who were out that night claiming to have heard strange squealing noises and screams from a location coincidentally near the trail cam's position. Now, Don and Bob are likely familiar with what could be considered Minnesota's most favorite Bigfoot or most famous and possibly famous, the hairy man of the Vargas trails. Located about a two hour drive southwest of Reamer, this place has been home to this elusive hairy hominid for decades. Known as the hairy man, this local legend is described as an eight foot tall, scraggly haired beast that walks on two legs, exudes a rank, musty odor, and is barefoot even in winter. That's what everyone keeps saying. I can't believe it was barefoot. It's like, well, Bigfoot's always barefoot. When is Bigfoot ever wearing shoes?

[Rich Sommer]

That's kind of part of the deal with Bigfoot.

[Michael McMillan]

It's iconically the thing about bigf not wear shoes.

[Rich Sommer]

I can upload this picture for you, but that's from our movies. Very fun. Basically the.

[Michael McMillan]

It's basically the same photo.

[Rich Sommer]

It is, yeah.

[Michael McMillan]

Wow. I cannot believe this. This is thrilling.

[Rich Sommer]

Yeah.

[Michael McMillan]

So the hairy man's territory encompasses the deep woods of Vergis, a rural area only accessible by service roads. And the roads are referred to as the trails. Interestingly, Vergis is also known for additional supernatural activity, including reports of malevolent white hooded cults chasing cars, floating torso shadow beings, and the ghost of a little girl who drowned in a lake called Crystal Lake. I even read online that some people think that this area was the inspiration for Jason Voorhees and Friday the 13th, although that cannot be corroborated. And also I think that that was a cropsy on the east coast. But anyway, it all folds into the local lore. Now, depending on which version of the legend you follow, the hairy man is either seen as an ape like creature or a crazed hermit abandoned by his family as a child. Most stories converge on the belief that the hairy man resides in and around a dilapidated farm shack from the 1919s known as Old Man Bunyan's Cabin.

[Rich Sommer]

OMBC, man.

[Michael McMillan]

You know where I'll be Chilling. Stories of the hairy man began to emerge in the 1960s, though no one seems to recall the legend's origin. Activity peaked during the 1970s when several local residents claimed to have encountered the creature. A man named Ken Zitzow, a lifelong resident of Vergis, came home one night from the Vergis trails in a state of shock, insisting that a big hairy monster had jumped onto the hood of his car, banging against the vehicle with his fists. The evidence, Ken's hood was deeply dented. I mean, come on.

[Rich Sommer]

And he said so.

[Michael McMillan]

And he said so. The other thing about this is they talk about how Ken would go out to the Vargas trails a lot. And I'm like, maybe Ken was part of this cult that's hanging out and.

[Rich Sommer]

Running around with the white hoods.

[Michael McMillan]

With the white hoods.

[Riley Bray]

The white hooded cult is a little suspect.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah, I would say. Yeah.

[Rich Sommer]

I think a lot of people have seen that out in the woods, and it's not general. Yeah.

[Michael McMillan]

Another Vargas. Excuse me. Vargas resident Rob Barnett, or Barnett, claimed a giant hairy beast tried to push his 1973 Chevy Malibu into a ditch. Rob wasn't sure what it was, but he was adamant it was no hermit. I also like that this might just be excuses that these men have had for, like, banging up their car while driving.

[Rich Sommer]

How many insurance claims are in Virgus?

[Michael McMillan]

The Herman did it. I was sober. I swear. Then there's Cheryl Hansen, who, as a teenager in 1972, was out snowmobiling with her cousin Jolin when they spotted the hairy man off the Vargas trails. The girls were circling an old cabin off Country Road 130. Are you familiar with Country Road 130 by any.

[Rich Sommer]

No, but is it by old man Bunyan's cabin?

[Michael McMillan]

Nine miles from old man Bunyan's There is a cabin. It's not the same one. Okay, I made a note of that. Now, according to Cheryl, we were snowmobiling around and around this old cabin we found, and all of a sudden, a beastly like creature popped out of the cabin holding a huge stick. It had a very broad shoulders. And I was trying to rationalize what it was, but what really stood out to me is it was barefoot in the snow. We took off fast and went back to tell the adults. Cheryl's family still owns the property where she encountered the creature that faithful winter after fateful winter afternoon. I still, to this day, can't drive out there at night alone. The Family still has campfires out there, but none of us wander out into the woods alone. Sightings of the creature declined in the 1980s, but interest in the legend surged in 2012 when photos of a mysterious skull went viral. Everyone check your emails and check the Instagram.

[Rich Sommer]

Yeah, I saw that.

[Michael McMillan]

It began when Kim Doyle, a Virgus resident, was shown a peculiar skull. Excuse me. It's the Burgesses making me. Cause Burgas sounds like Vegas. But saying Burgess, I'm now putting intrusive Rs next to all my vows.

[Rich Sommer]

Burglar Skirl.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah. Was shown a peculiar skull in her diner by an anonymous patron who claimed it had been found in the Virgus trails and kept in his family for years. The skull appeared old, dirt covered and mossy, with some vertebrae hanging from the base and a few yellow teeth visible. Yes, I know, Rich. It looked almost man made, raising countless questions. And since the owner has never.

[Rich Sommer]

It raises one question.

[Michael McMillan]

Who made this?

[Rich Sommer]

Yeah.

[Michael McMillan]

Since the owner has never had it tested, we might consider it a hoax or at the very least, a strange artifact. Let's talk about this gold. This is 100% not real.

[Rich Sommer]

100%. There are all those relics, you know, in the. Like, if you go to Italy and every church you go into says, I got a piece of a thing and a guy's finger bone.

[Michael McMillan]

I got this dude's finger bone. Yeah.

[Rich Sommer]

There's the nasal cartilage of this lady or whatever. You know, I really, truly believe a very large portion of those are much like this skull, perhaps created from whole cloth. That skull doesn't. Whoever made it. It's before pictures of skulls were available in books. It's before, like, they disseminated da Vinci's notebooks so you could see what a skull looked like. It's just like, I wonder what it looks like under that skin. Maybe this. And then that's what that skull is.

[Michael McMillan]

There was a very gracious biologist who was interviewed in the local news story that I found about this skull, who was like, like. Well, I can't tell from a photo alone, but it's definitely not a human skull. I would need to get a hold of this to test, but, you know.

[Rich Sommer]

Like, I like that you're inferring. You're inferring the pitch of their voice from.

[Michael McMillan]

Yes. I mean, it's.

[Rich Sommer]

It's definitely not a human.

[Michael McMillan]

Now, could it be a Bigfoot skull? Just, like, really trying not to spoil the fun human interest story.

[Riley Bray]

Also, the best way to enter something into the scientific record is definitely bring it to your Local diner.

[Michael McMillan]

Yes. And then not let anyone hold it.

[Riley Bray]

Not let anyone see it further.

[Michael McMillan]

However, just because the skull is fake, that doesn't mean that the hairy man isn't real. Rich.

[Rich Sommer]

Absolutely. No, I agree. I agree.

[Michael McMillan]

At the very least, the spirit of Bigfoot is alive and well in Minnesota. Reamer, the town where the trail cam photo was taken, has declared itself the home of Bigfoot. Visitors can fuel up and grab snacks at the Bigfoot Gas and Gifts. Stop by the Woodsman Cafe to indulge in a Bigfoot burger or Bigfoot hash browns. I love the idea of Bigfoot hash browns.

[Rich Sommer]

I love that the way they make them Bigfoot themed is to call them Bigfoot. Yeah, yeah, we got the Bigfoot burger. Comes with a Bigfoot Coke and Bigfoot fries and then a Bigfoot sundae at the end.

[Michael McMillan]

You don't understand. This would 100% get my money. That's all you need to do. Since 2016, the town has held the annual Bigfoot Days Festival, which attracts thousands of visitors who participate in the Bigfoot Olympics and share their encounter stories with each other. This year, I urge all residents of Reamer to keep an eye out for any hairy visitors who aren't wearing shoes. And there you have it. Minnesota's Bigfoot, AKA the hairy man of the Vargas, trails. Rich.

[Rich Sommer]

Excellent.

[Michael McMillan]

A little piece of local lore from the land you grew up in.

[Rich Sommer]

I know some of the crew on a weekend made it down to Reamer just to see. I mean it was an hour. We filmed an elite Minnesota, which is way up north, it's on the boundary waters. And I did not go down to Reamer, but there were photographs of all of those places. And then we on our shoot sort of recreated some of, you know, the sign to enter steamer had a big cut out of Bigfoot and we had a Bigfoot diner and things like that. It was, it's. Look, I love a theme and I love a. Like there was this terrible chain restaurant that popped up when I was. I went to college in Moorhead, Minnesota, which is right across the Red river from Fargo, North Dakota. And it's a very, you know, small towns in. Up. Up there, four hours north of the Twin Cities and. God, what was it called? I. I found out it was in other states as well. It was an alien themed diner.

[Michael McMillan]

Fun.

[Rich Sommer]

And it basically like you went in, it was sort of like, you know, when Planet Hollywood was really Planet Hollywood and you'd see all that, that kitsch everywhere. It was like that, but for aliens. And it truly was like, when playing.

[Michael McMillan]

Hollywood was really Planet Hollywood and men were really men.

[Rich Sommer]

Hey, you've been to a planet Hollywood lately? It's like they got a. They got a jacket over there and, like, a picture of Schwarzenegger. That's it. No, none of the. None of the true memorabilia like, we had.

[Michael McMillan]

How was the food at the alien place?

[Rich Sommer]

So bad. But the theme was delightful. It was like green ketchup and the whole thing, you know, like a hot sauce that had a little guy on it. It. It was, it was. It was fun. The whole place was. I think it was called Space Aliens. Now that I think about it. I think it was just called Space Aliens. And it was a big, like, UFO shaped joint. It was. It was great. And there. There was one just outside of Fargo. And then I know there was another one somewhere in North Dakota. We came across one, but it was. That was fun. I, I look, I love a themed place. I would go to Reamer. Absolutely. And do all the big fourth stuff. I'm. I'm into it. I mean, bar and grand.

[Riley Bray]

Yeah.

[Rich Sommer]

I'm. Yeah. See, is it still. It cannot be operated. It's still here.

[Michael McMillan]

No way it survives wild. Yeah.

[Rich Sommer]

Oh, it definitely survived. Covid. Nobody gave a. They all went there. For sure. It stayed open the whole time.

[Riley Bray]

Also, you know, this is old because they locked in the URL. Spacealiens.com, right?

[Rich Sommer]

Yeah. Wow. Getting the Gmail address with just your name, that's the. I mean, it's. Yeah, that's rare. Wow.

[Michael McMillan]

Wow. I'm trying to find Buster's real name. When I find it, I'll send it to you.

[Rich Sommer]

Please do. Yes, please.

[Michael McMillan]

I can't find it in my timeline here.

[Rich Sommer]

We could at least honor him. I can honor him by learning what his name was.

[Riley Bray]

There's one in Fargo, one in Bismarck, and one in Albertville, Minnesota.

[Rich Sommer]

Okay. Okay.

[Michael McMillan]

It's a shame.

[Rich Sommer]

I may have been to all three of those. It's possible. I've been to every space. Yeah, my girlfriend, my college girlfriend and I, we would see it and be like, go to space Aliens. Like, we went there many times.

[Michael McMillan]

Oh, my Lord. A quick googs gave me this news from June 11, 2015. Local Stillwater legend Buster Lassen dies at age 87.

[Riley Bray]

Oh, RIP Buster.

[Michael McMillan]

There's a picture of Buster.

[Rich Sommer]

Wait a minute. He was 87 in 2015.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah. Stanford Eugene Lassen, more commonly known as Buster, died at age 87, June 10, at the Golden Living center on Creely Street. Wow.

[Rich Sommer]

Creeley or Greeley.

[Michael McMillan]

They say Creely.

[Rich Sommer]

It might Be a type.

[Michael McMillan]

Greeley. Greely. Sorry.

[Rich Sommer]

That's all right.

[Michael McMillan]

It's being blocked. I shouldn't have questioned it. Yeah. Here's some quotes about Buster as we sign. I know you got to go, but just before you leave. In my mind, Buster represents the last of the more colorful people we've had in Stillwater, said Niall Crissle, a Stillwater native in former city of administrator. Growing up in Stillwater, we had a variety of people who brightened our lives, and Buster was one of them. Somebody else says he would scare the living daylights out of people. A lot of us look for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but he enjoyed the rainbow, said Gary Crystal. Well, there we go. A little tribute to Buzzer.

[Rich Sommer]

I don't know what the hell Gary's talking about, but it's a nice thing to say about so much.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah, you know, a lot of people look for the gold at the pot of the. But Buzz, he enjoyed the rainbow.

[Rich Sommer]

He was just all rainbow all day.

[Michael McMillan]

He was just rainbow all day. Rich Sommer, thank you so much for joining us. This was a gosh darn delight.

[Riley Bray]

A delight.

[Michael McMillan]

Love it.

[Rich Sommer]

Thank you for having me.

[Michael McMillan]

When is this movie going to come out, do you know?

[Rich Sommer]

I don't know. I don't know. They're still working on it. It's, you know, it's not going to be like a big. It's an independent film, but I also, I don't know. I hope it. If, if no one finds it except for the people who need to find it, that will make me happy, which.

[Michael McMillan]

Is everybody on this podcast.

[Rich Sommer]

So we're going to let everybody. But it's one of those things, like the idea. It's inspired. The guy who wrote it wrote it with his son. I love it. And they. It was based on some of the experiences that they went through. And I, they. When they were going through their experiences, they looked for a movie like this and couldn't find it. Every movie that dealt with the issues they were dealing with ended in tragedy. And so the notion was to just make a movie that's there for someone to find, that doesn't have it has a happy ending.

[Michael McMillan]

I love it.

[Rich Sommer]

That's a spoiler. It has a happy ending. But I'm pretty sure that's gonna be part of our point with it, is that it doesn't end in tragedy. So I'm excited for it to make its way out.

[Michael McMillan]

Bigfoot doesn't eat the kid in this storyline. Maybe it's a final cut. Yes. Well, Let us know when it when it's eventually released and we'll make sure that our listeners know how to find it. Rich, anything else you want to plug before you bounce out?

[Rich Sommer]

Nope.

[Michael McMillan]

Okay, great.

[Rich Sommer]

Nice.

[Michael McMillan]

We love you, Rich. Thanks so much for being here.

[Rich Sommer]

Thanks for having me.

[Riley Bray]

Thanks.

[Michael McMillan]

Thank you. The weather is warming up like a raccoon in heat in a Mississippi July. As a Southern gentleman ghost, I know how important it is to stay cool in this lifetime or the afterlife. And it's coming for you all.

[Riley Bray]

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[Michael McMillan]

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[Riley Bray]

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[Michael McMillan]

He farts in his sleep. I kept waking up wondering who'd let a barrel of rotten catfish aboard. Disgusting.

[Rich Sommer]

You know.

[Riley Bray]

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[Michael McMillan]

I was cleaning white mustache hairs off my velvet cape for weeks.

[Rich Sommer]

Weeks.

[Michael McMillan]

I've seen less shedding from my muskrat. Timothy.

[Riley Bray]

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[Michael McMillan]

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[Michael McMillan]

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[Rich Sommer]

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[Michael McMillan]

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[Rich Sommer]

See select stores for detail.

[Michael McMillan]

Rich Sommer, everybody. What a great guy.

[Riley Bray]

What an absolute delight.

[Michael McMillan]

He is a true delight. He told me. He warned me. He's like, I'm a bit of a skeptic and I don't have any real stories to share. I'm like, don't worry. We'll figure it out. And then we didn't have to figure anything out.

[Riley Bray]

No, there's no figuring.

[Michael McMillan]

There's no figuring out. You know what? Rich would brighten up any boring cocktail party. You know what I mean?

[Riley Bray]

Oh, for sure. Yeah. Great guy also, man, and I'm a big fan of his. His performance in Mad Men is pitch perfect.

[Michael McMillan]

He's great. He's great, Harry.

[Riley Bray]

He's so good.

[Michael McMillan]

He's really lovely. I very much look up to him as a performer and he's just a good guy. And I'm glad I actually got to have a real conversation with him.

[Riley Bray]

I'm so, so curious about these voicemails that you guys.

[Michael McMillan]

No one will ever know. They'll never know. Only me, Rich, and Rich's wife.

[Riley Bray]

I accept the mystery.

[Michael McMillan]

All right, before we head over to Collector's Corner, Riley, why don't we give a big thanks to our listeners, especially our friends who recently joined us over at bcc, the other side, the parallel dimension, Bigfoot Collectors club. Let's do some Patreon shout outs.

[Rich Sommer]

All right.

[Michael McMillan]

Michael Castillo, Cosmeteer.

[Riley Bray]

Thank you, Michael. Welcome.

[Michael McMillan]

Gordon Steinberg.

[Riley Bray]

Thank you, Gordon.

[Michael McMillan]

Ivy, Cosmeteer.

[Rich Sommer]

Thank you, Ivy.

[Riley Bray]

Welcome to the ranks.

[Michael McMillan]

Jathan T. Thank you, Jathan. Jathan T. Sounds like a Jason Statham guy.

[Riley Bray]

Yeah, he sounds cool.

[Michael McMillan]

He sounds cool. Deborah Cosmeteer.

[Riley Bray]

Deborah. Thank you. Welcome.

[Michael McMillan]

If you're listening or watching, I want to let you know, and Riley will back me up on this, that you can join us [e-mail] bigfootcollectorsclub where you'll unlock total access to BCC. You get three bonus episodes every month. You get access to the BCC Discord. We're throwing in little bonuses left and right. You can upgrade the cosmit tier membership for ad free main episodes and exclusive music tracks from the non perel neuromancer of musical notation and mystic arts himself, Mr. Riley Bray.

[Rich Sommer]

That's right.

[Riley Bray]

And you know, I'm dropping, or probably have dropped by now. The the scores to Jim Sparks.

[Michael McMillan]

Yes.

[Riley Bray]

And the ufo. What is it? Jim Sparks on the UFO People. What do we call them?

[Michael McMillan]

Star People.

[Riley Bray]

The Star people, of course.

[Michael McMillan]

Remember that's. We're creating new bands over here. We've got Gary Wilcox. The Gary Wilcox UFO Encounter, which I was thinking the other night, I think we might tweak the name to be the Gary Wilcox UFO Experience.

[Rich Sommer]

Stronger, Stronger, Stronger.

[Michael McMillan]

Jim Sparks and the Star People.

[Riley Bray]

Jim Sparks and the Star People is perfect. Yeah. And those two scores I was really happy with. I did one on a grand piano and one with a baritone guitar through this wild processor thing that spaced it all out. And so, you know, we got lots.

[Michael McMillan]

Of requests to get that cosmic track out there, so.

[Riley Bray]

Oh, they're coming. If not already posted by the time.

[Michael McMillan]

This is live, people are psyched. Also, I'm going to see if I can find that archival footage of Jim Sparks and Star People playing at Tomorrowland on opening day of Disneyland. I think it happened. Let me see if I can take up that footage. All right, let's stop by Collector's Corner before we head out. What are you reading, watching, consuming, collecting, or is there anything you want to plug right now where I. I'd like.

[Riley Bray]

To plug something that is not mine, but I love that, that I'm really into. So my. My friends that are in the. The band Jungle, if you may have heard me talk about on the. On the other side, if you're over there, that I've been doing some visuals for their DJ sets lately and their old friends and that band, also incredible. Look up Jungle. Listen to it. It's like futuristic space disco kind of neo soul. It's amazing. It's so good. But two of them have this new band that is called Loaded Honey and they've released a couple singles. One of them was sampled by the weekend actually, which is pretty cool. But wow. It's. It's this new. It's this new thing. I shot some BTs on. On their. They. They shot a whole sort of short film of music videos for this album that's coming out, all shot on film. All these one take shots are incredible. I shot BTS on that.

[Rich Sommer]

But.

[Riley Bray]

But they've just started releasing the videos and the new song. So they're going to be rolling out leading up to the album releasing this year. But just go follow Loaded Honey. Check out the videos that have come out so far. It's your favorite new band, I'm telling you. Just go check out Loaded Honey. You will love it.

[Michael McMillan]

I love this. I'm going to go check them out as soon as we get off this record. I don't have any new things and I've been in a very. As I've said, over on the other side, I've been in a very retro mood. I'm reading a lot of retro Marvel comics. I'm doing a lot of comfort escapism right now. But I would just like to say, for those of you who have never watched Peaky Blinders, I can't remember if I recommended this already, but God, what a good show Peaky Blinders is. I am now a die hard Cillian Murphy fan. I've always enjoyed his work, but my God, this man is doing such amazing work in this show. It's unbelievable. It is so good, Riley. It's so well written. I watched the finale of 1923 with Kate, which I have a love for. Taylor Sheridan stuff. I thought this season of 1923 was disappointing. And I compare. Because they're set in the same general time period. I compare the plots and twists and character development of peaky blinders to 1923. And it's just like heads and shoulders above most stuff that's out there that's popular. It's so well written. So Peaky Blinders, if you guys haven't watched it yet, definitely go watch it. And it's one of those. It's only six episodes a season and. Six seasons. Six seasons. So you can get through it pretty quickly. It's not like who made it. It's on Netflix. They might also. I'm sure they have DVD collections of this if you want to get a hard copy. Steven Knight is the executive writer, creator, producer. It's very, very, very good. Cannot recommend it enough. And amazing music in it. The theme is Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, the Red Right Hand, which feels like when that started in the first episode, I was like, well, this song, don't you feel. I love this song, but it might be a little played out. It's not. And they find other artists to cover the song. They use it as a theme in many different ways throughout all six seasons. It's not a traditional theme song to the show.

[Riley Bray]

Sort of like the Weeds theme song where they keep changing.

[Michael McMillan]

Yeah, a little bit like that. And then there's also. They use one of the only shows that I've seen license and use Radiohead in all the music is modern, even though it takes place in the past. There's such great music, such great stuff. If you're a music fan on the show. So highly recommend it I have to.

[Riley Bray]

Convince Caitlin to watch that so I can watch it over her shoulder and pretend like I still don't use streaming services.

[Michael McMillan]

I'll tell you what, as soon as I'm done, I've got a few episodes left left. I'm canceling my Netflix until Stranger Things comes back out. Because I got to watch Stranger Things. I'm hopping off. Speaking of online, swing by my ebay shop. I'll put a link to the show notes. I'm selling some collectibles like we talked about with Rich and I have copies of Adventure Van left. I want to thank everybody who's been picking those up. It's been really fun to talk to the club scouts, send them doodles of cryptids and sign their books and all that stuff. So join me over there. I'll put a link in the show notes. Pick it up. 20 bucks for adventure Van. Free shipping. I got you covered. I throw in some goodies too, so love to come get it. All right, one last thanks to Rich for joining us. Please like and subscribe to BCC on YouTube. Riley and I are crossing over to the other side to discuss a a pre Columbian American mystery. If we don't see you there on Friday, we will see you back here next week for an all new episode of bcc. Until then, good night and go get regressed. Bye Bye. Bigfoot Collectors Club is produced and engineered by Riley Bray, an executive produced by Riley bray and Michael McMillan. Our theme song Come Alone is by Suneaters, courtesy of Lotus Pool Records. Follow Suneaters on Spotify for three bonus episodes every month and ad free episodes. Check out BCC the Other side at patreon.com bigfootcollectorsclub whether it's in Drive, Dropbox, Slack or that folder called ugh.

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[Michael McMillan]

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[Riley Bray]

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