Matt Moneymaker: Why Bigfoot Never Attacks Humans | Planet Tyrus

Summary

Planet Tyrus Podcast

Episode: Matt Moneymaker: Why Bigfoot Never Attacks Humans

Date: August 11, 2026
Host: Tyrus (with co-hosts/interviewers Harry & Ryan)
Guest: Matt Moneymaker (Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, “Finding Bigfoot”)

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Overview

In this energized, humorous, and insight-filled episode, Tyrus welcomes Matt Moneymaker—founder and president of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO) and star of Animal Planet’s “Finding Bigfoot.” The central theme orbits Bigfoot’s intelligence, behavior in interactions with humans, the mysteries around sightings and evidence, and the BFRO’s enduring search for answers. Moneymaker addresses why Bigfoot never attacks humans, draws on parallels with other intelligent animals, discusses evidence and hoaxes, and explores the persistent crossover between Bigfoot and the paranormal.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

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1. Bigfoot in Native American Lore and Prehistory

[03:00–07:49]

• Tyrus discusses research into Native American and Maori (New Zealand) tribal histories, remarking on consistent depictions of "Sasquatchian" beings.
• Notably, indigenous descriptions often cast Bigfoot as another people—not an animal—including accounts of treaties, respect, and clear boundaries.
  • “They didn’t describe them as animals, they described them as beings... individuals they did trades with, had treaties and understandings.” [04:33, Host]

Quote:

“It’s very easy to underestimate something that’s covered with fur and lives in the woods and doesn’t do engineering... but you go in thinking they’re a dumb animal, you come out thinking... this is something that’s on the level of intelligence with a human, but it’s different.” — Matt Moneymaker [05:10]

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2. Bigfoot’s Intelligence and Survival Tactics

[07:49–11:46]

• Moneymaker explains Bigfoot’s non-confrontational behavior as a sign of superior intelligence compared to other large mammals.
  • Like orcas vs. sharks; orcas rarely attack humans despite capability, reflective of discernment vs. instinct.
  • Bigfoot’s intimidation displays are subtle and calculated—they avoid direct conflict, preferring to remain unseen or gently push humans away from their territory.
  • This, he argues, is a learned trait with survival advantages (unlike the extinct California grizzly, which attacked openly).

Quote:

“These things are a perfect expression of the environment... it’s you being there that feels out of place. And it’s... humbling... the encounters are almost all the same, which is, the thing turns around and leaves.” — Matt Moneymaker [07:56]

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3. Paranormal Parallels & Possible Interdimensional Ties

[11:46–20:06]

• Tyrus and Moneymaker discuss connections/gaps between Bigfoot sightings and UFO/UAP phenomena.
• Moneymaker leans toward open-mindedness, noting overlapping "weird" phenomena—especially that many Bigfoot hotspots also experience frequent orb/UFO sightings.
• Theories posited by both include:
  • Possible attempts at “friendly” encounters by both UAPs and Bigfoot—displaying abilities or presence, but not harming.
  • The importance of not ruling out any explanation due to incomplete or misleading information.

Quote:

“A lot of places where there’s Bigfoots around... if you hang out there long enough at night, you’ll see UFO stuff, and not just orbs, but, like, real UFO stuff in the sky.” — Matt Moneymaker [00:41, echoed at 68:00+ in Q&A]

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4. Hoaxes, Skepticism, and Real Evidence

[13:28–18:09]

• The hosts dissect recent “body” hoaxes—stories, DNA claims, and why reputable institutions won’t touch them.
• Moneymaker explains his methodology for sniffing out scams (e.g., claims of DNA from Cornell when Cornell categorically refused to participate, evasive answers from claimants).
• The negative but also curious effect of hoaxes: they draw attention and sometimes inspire genuine investigation.
• The BFRO only posts sound, cast, or sighting reports with high vetting, often discarding dubious or unverifiable claims.

Quotes:

“Cornell was absolutely steadfast: ‘We are not going to get into that subject.’ ...I knew immediately, you know, that’s a lie.” — Matt Moneymaker [14:14]

“Fake reports, fake AI YouTube videos... you could create a false conversation. But hey, I want to mention something, because you’re talking about the parallels with the UAP thing.” — Matt Moneymaker [17:15]

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5. Habitat and Behavioral Shifts

[23:53–31:45]

• Tyrus asks about unexpected hotspots (Connecticut, New Jersey) and population migrations possibly due to climate change and deer population shifts.
• Moneymaker affirms that Bigfoots go where deer are abundant, regardless of human assumptions about regions.
• Changing deer populations (from winter kills or mild winters) directly drive Bigfoot migratory patterns.
• Behavioral analogies are drawn with whales appearing bolder and more social around humans over time—Bigfoots, too, may now approach humans more frequently as cultural memories of “hunting” fade.

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6. Human Fear, Native Rules, and Personal Encounter Stories

[31:45–37:44]

• Fear is a common, instinctual reaction; Moneymaker’s own up-close experience illustrates that years of witness interviews prepared him to react calmly.
• Native rules about forbidden lands resonate—accounts of “don’t go there, you won’t come back” are widespread.
• Bigfoot’s method is mostly warning or intimidation, rarely if ever actual violence—paralleling dominant-animal protest (like a bison tossing a hiker but not pursuing).

Quote:

“If I hadn’t had all those conversations with witnesses... I probably would have been... a lot more scared. I would have been terrified. Because you’ve got a big hairy animal... you just don’t think the thing is coming to do anything other than harm.” — Matt Moneymaker [36:20]

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7. BFRO Expeditions: Approach and Philosophy

[37:44–46:05]

• The BFRO picks expedition sites based mainly on credible visual encounters, but considers sound reports when supported by other data.
• Visual encounters are far less ambiguous than sounds or prints—“a class A sighting” is prioritized.
• Expeditions mix seasoned searchers and skeptics, employing night walks and team separation to cover more ground and confirm phenomena by consensus.

Quote:

"We want to put those [visual] out there... especially if they're very recent because we want people in the area to keep an eye out for them." — Matt Moneymaker [40:44]

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8. Public Involvement, Skepticism, and Crowd-Sourced Proof

[41:36–46:05]

• The BFRO encourages public participation, listing numerous state expeditions and inviting both believers and skeptics to come, camp, and see for themselves.
• Dash cams are highlighted as a potentially transformative tool—most “close encounter” road sightings could generate invaluable footage if only a dash cam was running.
• The “Patterson-Gimlin film” remains the gold standard of impactful evidence, but the search for modern equivalents is ongoing.

Quote:

“If more people had dash cams... you would have some very valuable footage. This just keeps happening over and over again...” — Matt Moneymaker [45:15]

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9. TV vs. Reality: Behind the Scenes

[49:04–56:53 / 69:32–71:20]

• Town hall meetings on “Finding Bigfoot” effectively displayed the scale and seriousness of witness reports.
• The show, driven by producers' time and technical constraints, never captured the full, often anticlimactic reality of field research (mostly waiting, dismissing false positives, and lots of boredom).
• Moneymaker prefers expeditions without TV crews for authentic, undistracted research.

Quotes:

“It was glorious to be able to go out in the field and do expeditions again where we did not have a TV crew there...” — Matt Moneymaker [56:53]
“You’re out there with your own eyes or ears. You’re catching things that a camera isn’t going to catch.” — Matt Moneymaker [70:50]

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10. Evidence, Hoaxes, and Vetting Reports

[46:52–49:04; 47:48–49:04]

• The most frustrating hoaxes remain the fake “Bigfoot body” claims—recurring every few years, undermining public trust yet not silencing interest.
• BFRO’s vetting is extensive; lack of contact info or reluctance to converse with investigators is a red flag.

Quote:

“Somebody who saw it is just like, funny. Ask me any questions you want. ...if it’s real, they're happy you want to talk to them.” — Matt Moneymaker [48:17]

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Audience Q&A with Tyrus, Harry, and Ryan

[60:23–74:51]

• Strongest Evidence?
  • Patterson-Gimlin film is still the most influential, but real “conversion” comes from personal encounters or seeing skeptics shaken by the unexplained.
    • “It's a culmination of a whole bunch of little things... When you finally have an encounter... that's how you know they're real.” — Matt Moneymaker [62:49]
• Bigfoot & the Paranormal?
  • Yes, oddities (UFOs, orbs) often coincide with Bigfoot activity, especially in certain areas. While he believes Bigfoot is a flesh & blood creature, he acknowledges strange phenomena frequently occur alongside.
    • “There is weird things happening. We don’t know what it means, but, yeah, a lot of places where there’s Bigfoots around, if you hang out there long enough at night, you’ll see UFO stuff.” — Matt Moneymaker [68:00–69:32]
• Contrast: Real Expeditions vs. Filming TV
  • TV captures only a sliver; reality includes much more waiting, subtlety, and off-camera happenings (e.g., Bigfoot investigating camps at night).
• Taking Tyrus & the Team on an Expedition
  • Nighttime, no lights, trying to blend in and draw Bigfoot closer. Focus is on creating the right conditions for an encounter, which rarely translates to good video content but provides personal validation.

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Memorable Moments & Quotes

• On Bigfoot Never Attacking:
  “Not attacking has a survival advantage.” — Matt Moneymaker [11:17]
• On Indigenous Lore:
  “They were not described as beasts, not as animals. They were people that they traded with. They were another type of people.” — Podcast Host (Harry) [34:06]
• On Hoaxes:
  “As soon as we introduce this, where there’s some TV making going on, then the whole trip suddenly revolves around the TV making.” — Matt Moneymaker [55:52]
• On Why It Matters:
  “The more we learn about him, I think we learn a bit about ourselves.” — Podcast Host (Harry) [57:17]

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Suggested Timestamps for Segment Highlights

• Bigfoot’s Intelligence & Native Treaties: 03:00–07:49
• Behavioral Comparison to Other Animals: 09:03–11:46
• Hoaxes/Body Claims Discussion: 13:28–18:09
• Bigfoot, UFOs, and Orbs (Paranormal): 18:09–21:15; 65:53–69:32
• Expeditions & Sighting Vetting: 37:44–46:05
• Personal Encounter Story: 36:20–37:44
• Dash Cam & Photographic Evidence Need: 45:15–46:05
• TV Show vs. Reality: 49:04–56:53; 69:32–71:20
• Q&A Segment: 60:23–74:51

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Conclusion

This episode offers a lively, deeply informed look into the enduring Bigfoot mystery, blending respectful skepticism, field wisdom, and humor. While definitive “proof” remains elusive, Moneymaker and the BFRO remain steadfast in their mission, valuing firsthand experiences, critical vetting, and open-minded consideration of the unknown. Tyrus and team encourage listeners to get outside, join the search, and keep questioning—because in probing Bigfoot’s world, we discover as much about ourselves as we do about the legendary creature.

Transcript

[Matt Moneymaker]

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[Ryan Reynolds]

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[Matt Moneymaker]

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[Matt Moneymaker]

See terms you get out there with these things, you realize we are the, the monsters, we are the freaks.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Do you think that fear response is instinctive in, in humans when they come into contact with a Bigfoot?

[Matt Moneymaker]

Yeah, a lot of places where there's Bigfoots around you. If you hang out there long enough at night, you'll see UFO stuff and not just orbs, but like real UFO stuff in the sky.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Clean shaven civilian Matt Moneymaker on Today. What is going you Hollywood star? What are you doing?

[Matt Moneymaker]

Well, hey, you know, we got to do what, what the producers say. You know how that is.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Yeah, kinda. They just gave up, they just gave up on me. Well, first of all man, for those who don't know in our audience know you very well, but I'll just say say it again. Matt Moneymaker is the founder and president of the Bigfoot field researchers organization bfro. The longest and most legitimate I added that Bigfoot research group in North America. He is best known as a lead investigator on the on air smash hit show that I never missed on Animal Planet, finding Bigfoot. And today he continues to lead b fro expeditions, vet sightings, reports nationwide and appears on podcasts like mine to discuss methods, evidence and the state of research. I mean let's just get right into it. So last time we talked and it's been, it's been a little bit, a few months.

[Matt Moneymaker]

It.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

One of the cool things about having you on as a podcast guest is that I refer to episodes as you as evergreen because it never goes away, right? And it was, you know, we had an, the first week we had outstanding numbers and then you know, a few weeks go by and it kind of drops down. Then all of a sudden it was a huge spike about two months later. And I think that's the cool thing about what you do is that when people are looking for information it doesn't get old, you know because the. The thirst and I think it also picked up there's been a claim about finding a Bigfoot remains which here's the end. Before we get into that I always I after and I always do research and stuff and I'm. I'm working on a current book while I'm writing about the. What slavery actually is. Right. And I want to go through it from the beginning of time. And pretty much once man figured out there was work to be done slavery was invented invented pretty much a few days after that. So it kind of goes through and I go through all the way back to before Christ all the way back to the. And each kind of. Each cut in time different groups were who was slaving, who was not slaving etc, etc and when I started getting into Native Americans which that was a very common thing when they conquered other tribes they would take women and children on as slaves. But in, in doing that I was doing a lot of research on. On some tribes that were up around Oregon and that area and I ran into. I was noticing a lot of the hieroglyphics and stuff and I wasn't. It wasn't really about looking for Sasquatch but I noticed there was this particular being in a lot of their historic stuff. Then when I was over getting information about slavery in New Zealand the Kiwis same very similar beings on the walls now especially with there's a lot of the de extinction stuff and the Moa, the giant nine foot bird. Well the females are nine feet and the. Their remains are on sacred Kiwi ground and they don't disclose those. You're not. Pub's not open to the public. You have to get permission from the tribe to go in there. And when they were in there the wall paintings inside there once again a very similar Sasquatchian looking being. And one of the things that I've noticed with the Native American I'll call it folklore but they didn't describe them as animals, they described them as beings. They just. They described them as things as individuals. They did trades with, had treaties and understanding with hey this is their forest. We don't hunt on their grounds and they don't hunt on ours. So when I hear and it's just. Do you think maybe there's an. That we have underestimated their intelligence and their legacy trying to just attach them to apes?

[Matt Moneymaker]

Absolutely. And that's one of the things I tell people frequently I say it's. It's very easy to underestimate something that's covered with fur and lives in the woods and doesn't do engineering or any of the fabulous stuff that humans do. And think because it doesn't do any of those things or build houses or any of the trapments that we have of showing intelligence, that they must not be very intelligent. And when you get out there and you have like encounters with them, I had a good face to face one time and I've had them around me not very far away in a number of times. It's really as if they're trying to impress you. Even when they're circling around you trying to intimidate you. It's as if they're trying to impress you is how intelligent they are. And it's as if they know if they can impress you that they're intelligent, then you will respect them as like another person. And you will give them credit in that regard. And you will, you will. Absolutely. You go in thinking they're a dumb animal. You come out of those experiences thinking this is something that's on the level of intelligence with a human, but it's different. It's perfectly adapted to their lifestyle. But you got to figure this too, their bodies are so much bigger than ours. They're huge and their heads are bigger than ours too. So in that big head and the way it's shaped, there's almost certainly a brain that is larger than ours. And so generally, animals with larger brains tend to be more intelligent than animals with smaller brains. And so there's only a few animals that have brains that are larger than humans. Dolphins have larger brains, elephants have larger brains, whales have larger brains. And none of those things do the sorts of impressive stuff that humans do. But humans are always impressed by the level of intelligence and how well these things work in kind of family groups and how well adapted they are to their lifestyle. So I guess it's just you don't judge how intelligent something is by comparing it on a human scale. Because humans are so unique in the animal world in that all the things, the tool making and everything that we

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

do but intelligence, our intelligence is almost alien to this planet.

[Matt Moneymaker]

It really is. And that's the thing you get out there with these things. You realize we are the monsters, we are the freaks. These things are a perfect expression of the environment. And when people see them, they come away just thinking these things are just such a natural thing in that environment. And you being there is the one that feels out of place. And it's very humbling. And usually at the same time, the encounters are almost all the same, which is the thing turns around and leaves.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

It does not engage.

[Matt Moneymaker]

Right. And that's a level of intelligence too because they know it's not gonna do them any good to interact with people and it puts them in danger so they just turn around and leave. Dumber animals. It's kind of like the difference between orcas and sharks. You know both of them could kill you but sharks might well eat a seal and eat a, or eat a human if it has an opportunity. But orcas don't do that. The only times orcas have been known to attack and kill humans were when they were in captivity and in a couple of cases.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

But out in the wild they don't do that. Yeah, yeah.

[Matt Moneymaker]

And that's, that's an intelligence level gap because orcas could kill you if they wanted to and they just, they obviously identify you as something different than what they want to eat and maybe they have a certain level of respect for you and they want you to respect them too. But you've seen, and a lot of people have now seen many videos of orcas coming up to people who are swimming and totally checking them out and looking at them. What's to stop them from eating those people? But they just don't.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Intelligence.

[Matt Moneymaker]

Yeah, they're large brained animals.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

A perfect example is for a lot of times I thought that maybe the, the connection was Autosompiscus which is a very large but related to the orangutan. But even gorillas, chimpanzees, monkeys, primates, they all have a mock aggressive charge. When they're afraid, they attack. And it takes a certain level of intelligence that they, that for them to say I don't, I'm not going to attack, it's better for me to just walk away. And that is something that case by case with Bigfoot it's never been. There was a huge mock charge, a huge bluff, a display. You know chimps do the huge display, so do gorillas where they tear trees off and they beat on their chest and they're like stay away from me, stay away from me. Bad things are coming. These things are very dismissive. I guess that's the best way to describe it. Just very right, oh, one of them, I'm out.

[Matt Moneymaker]

Right. They might try to intimidate and scare but they don't need to do more than that because that always works. Yes, just the scaring you. And if they, you know, if they don't want to just immediately leave. If it's dark and they really want you to leave the Area they'll do things in a way that doesn't put them in danger where like if you turn on a spotlight they're going to be just far enough behind trees where you can't shoot them but they'll still make you uncomfortable all night long. So you won't want to stay there because they know how to make, they know how to get you out of the area without physically attack.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Because given their size, a lower intelligent thing like a, a grizzly bear, he's going to stand up and show you look how big and powerful I am. You don't want any of this, you know and, and that's not something that has. Otherwise we'd have photos everywhere because they would.

[Matt Moneymaker]

Why is the, why is the California grizzly bear extinct? The California grizzly bear distinguished from. There was a particularly aggressive species of bear and they're all extinct because as soon as they would see any kind of an intruder, a human or a human on horseback, whatever, it would just make a beeline and attack small brained animal. And what happened? They all became extinct in California. So not attacking has a survival advantage.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

So like I said there was the. There's been all kinds of reports and at the same time we've had a lot. You know, the UFO discussion has completely changed and we're starting to see a lot of things that we just knew, we really didn't know. And I keep. And again this is a long stretch but for just conversation purposes I feel that sometimes I feel like there might be a connection in terms of Sasquatch being a higher being and to the point to where maybe our visitors have a relationship or they're in fact able to go to different places. We keep hearing a lot of the wormhole stuff, the, the hopping in out of dimensional things and it's. And like I think we just shouldn't rule anything out when it comes to this phenomenon because we just, we don't know that much about it and we've had so much misinformation, so much fraud when it comes to the, to what this is. And I think especially whenever. And again I'm, you know the, the whole the body thing. And I got, I had them get me some stats on this. What really, you know, the man came out and let's see. Charles, I hope I said his name right. Stewart, known as Snake, the Big Snake, the Bigfoot hunter. Yeah. Okay. Claims he found a dick decomposing remains of an eight foot 300 pound specimen. 300 pounds is not enough weight for something eight feet. I'm six eight, 300 pounds. Okay, so there's. That would be an anemic starving Bigfoot.

[Matt Moneymaker]

Good point.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Specimen. And, and he says the DNA testing proves is 58.5% Neanderthal and 41.5% human. If it was in fact 58% Neanderthal, it would be someone from the Russian area and it would be very short. Neanderthals were not tall, right? They were not. And humans are not even the tallest human. I think it had to be on average is not 8ft. So when you hear that DNA testing, that's the part that I just. It should have been, there's no DNA testing. It was a lie. There's no baseline. So it should have been 58% unknown.

[Matt Moneymaker]

See, let me tell you how I knew that that was a lie to begin with. Because a few years back, maybe 10 or 15 years ago, we had a guy approach us saying we know that there's some hair samples out there. He gives money. He actually single handedly provides the full ride scholarships to people in the veterinary program at Cornell, which is exactly where Snake, the Bigfoot hunter said he got his thing done. Cornell, even with a guy who has a relationship with him, who funds half their full ride scholarship, was willing to write a blank check to them to look at some hair samples. Cornell was absolutely steadfast. We are not going to get into that subject. Their reputation is too important to them. They wouldn't touch a Bigfoot anything with a ten foot pole. So I, and that, of course that, that culture, even though it was a few years ago, they would not have changed. So immediately I'm like, you know, that's, that's a lie, you use a different word. But that's, it's not true. And so I got in contact with Snake and I put the question because I knew as soon as I hear there was so many things of like this is just another one of these scams or a guy comes forward, he gets hype going, saying he's got a Bigfoot body and it's just a dummy, it's fake. And this happens repeatedly over time. I mean, name about five cases of this where somebody's popped up claiming to have a Bigfoot body truck. So Snake is just the more recent one. And all it took was one question, him saying, who at Cornell, who at Cornell did your DNA study? And he came back with some evasive, well, we're going to do the New York State Fair. And I just knew he was lying, right? And that's where I got it. This guy is a fraud. Because if he really did something at Cornell, he'd say, who did it there?

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Well, not to mention we would all see pictures of the decomposed body. They would have the bones, the skeletons, the autopsy. I mean, we would, we would have a pretty complete. Even if you had, even if you had four teeth and a rib that was a legitimate bone and they did the tests on it, it would be everywhere. I don't think they would be like, yeah, you wouldn't. That's not going to the state fair. That's going to the Smithsonian.

[Matt Moneymaker]

The Cornell themselves would do the announcement, right?

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Yes.

[Matt Moneymaker]

Some guy who dresses like a clown at a state fair fair.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Yeah, it's, it's, it's part of the, the, the history and the lore of the, of the Bigfoot to have these stories, you know, And I, I. The bad thing is that it's. Eventually you're going to see that it was, it was not, I will just say, not accurate. And, but the good thing is it does get people aware. It's the one mystery that when somebody is a fraud, it seems to inspire other people to look for more of the truth.

[Matt Moneymaker]

That's true. So it has some.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

I'm not condoning it by any stretch of the imagination.

[Matt Moneymaker]

No, it makes people look into it and do it more, but at the same, it's like a wash. Because on the other hand, they could say when it turns out to be fake, somebody will say, look, I told you, all this evidence is fake. Well, it's like, well, if you take, if you're just focusing on evidence that researchers knew was fake from the beginning and you just put all the spotlight on that, then, yeah, you could say that. But there is stuff, Jeff Melder, a lot of footprint casts out there, a lot of hair samples that no university really wants to actually take the time and do some analysis of, like, Cornell. And so there is evidence out there, but you could always just focus on the snake, the Bigfoot hunter. You could always focus on fake reports, Fake. Fake AI YouTube videos. And if you just look at that, put that out there, you could create a false conversation. But hey, I want to mention something because you're talking about the parallels between the UAP thing.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Yes.

[Matt Moneymaker]

Or potential connection. Here's something that came up again between the last time we talked and now, and I'm very convinced about this because I've seen this happen over the course of time, and it is a parallel with the UAP thing and I think gives me some insight, and I want to pass along that insight. So Bigfoots like UAPs, there's been so many situations where these things are powerful enough and mobile enough and fast enough where they really could do some damage.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Yes.

[Matt Moneymaker]

If they wanted to. And there was a case not long ago where a bunch of teens, like 18 year olds up in Idaho were camping over Memorial Day weekend and a couple of these things came around their camp. They actually shot at them at night. They were that scared. And it was a group of kids. So I mean, there's a whole lot of witnesses there. So what I said, and I knew that from previous cases, a lot of these approaches, when they're just coming up, not making any sound, not being aggressive, they're just coming close enough and it's always at night to show themselves. I really think those are attempts to be friendly. And the parallel with the UAP thing, when they're coming over New Jersey or bopping over this, I really think that's their way of trying to say, hey, we're here. They're almost like being friendly because they could ruin your day.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Yeah, you wouldn't have. He wouldn't have time to get a shot off.

[Matt Moneymaker]

Right, exactly. But with the UAPs, they could knock planes out of the sky. There's all sorts of. But if they just come up and just like try to impress you and do dances in the sky, come over there, that's really like they're trying to get you to show you that they are real.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Almost a level of communication hostile.

[Matt Moneymaker]

When it gets close to airports, it's a joy. Oh, there's restricted airspace. And so they interpret that as, oh, it's really big bang. But you know what, they would come into restricted airspace areas because that's where there's other things flying around and, and they're launching from those areas. So if you're going to look for a friend, you might well look for something that flies around in the air like you. And you're going to.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Not to mention they didn't get the memo. It's not like they got the email knowing what's clearance. That's one of the things that I always laugh about with like, like this recent bison charge and the guy got launched eight feet in the air. And you know the expert. Well, you need to. He didn't. He needs to stay 24ft away. I'm sorry, the bison in the rutting season isn't getting the memo on 25ft. You know, the bison isn't like going, oh, he's, he's only 25. Sorry, I thought it was 19. You're good, bro. You're good, bro. Like, they just. They. They say these things, and it's like, mother Nature does not abide by the same rules. And another thing that is. Was blatantly obvious is how fragile human beings are against the force of mother Nature.

[Tyrus]

Right.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

And the bison launched him. And again. Because the bison was acting out of fear or just get away from me. Once the launch. Once he hit him, the bison went about his business. He didn't finish him.

[Matt Moneymaker]

Exactly. He could have.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

He could easily.

[Matt Moneymaker]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

But it was like, you are no longer a threat, and I'm gonna go back to looking for cows.

[Matt Moneymaker]

Yeah. It's almost like it was a protest. It's like. And it made its point. It showed its dominance. It let you know it wants you out of there. So that's all it wants to do. Doesn't need to kill you, doesn't need to eat you. And so, yeah, it's almost more like a communication than it is like an attack. And the guy got the message.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Yeah. Yeah. And again, he wasn't. And he wasn't doing anything wrong. I actually. I don't know if you saw the video or not. I actually. I blame the guy in the truck who really. Who drove up in the truck and then sped off. And again, I. The bison. The charge, to me looked like he was going at the truck. And he.

[Matt Moneymaker]

You're right about that. You know, it's funny. That did occur to me when I saw it. I'm like, oh, he's gonna go out. He's gonna hit the truck, right?

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

And then he pulls the truck and the guy standing by the tree, and it's kind of like. Another thing was the guy in the truck couldn't have said, get in. He just. You just left him, you know? And then what happens? While the man is running, another car pulls up, and then the. Then the bison goes into overdrive. So in his. And their peripheral vision is not like ours, you know, it's like a horse they see on this side and this side, and they're seeing all these things. You know, it's in a combination of a lot of things. Instead of. So I was watching it back, and again, I don't. I. He wasn't like some kid trying to twerk in front of the bison or, you know, stand up, get right next to it and take a picture. For instance, for the gram, you know, he was. He was on a camping trip, and he was just, wrong place, wrong time. But again, it goes back to, we are more fragile than we realize. We watch too many movies. You Know, in all the movies, we beat the T. Rexes and we beat the monsters. But the only reason why we did it is because we had an imposable thumb and the ability to make a pistol, you know, and a spear, you know, because if not, we would not be in the numbers that we are today.

[Matt Moneymaker]

Right. And there would have been a lot of things that could have taken us down and reduced us. So we. Again, it goes back. Our tool making kind of gives us some advantages and protects us.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Now, to get into something that is interesting. And Connecticut, no one ever thinks as it would be a bigfoot hotbed, you know, because it's kind of like also New Jersey is. Because all you see is the. When you first get into it in New Jersey, you see all the manufacturing. You don't realize once you get past the factories, it's this beautiful green place with huge forests and a deer population out of this world. And then in Connecticut, very similar. Vermont, very similar, you know.

[Matt Moneymaker]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

You don't expect it.

[Matt Moneymaker]

People look at a map of the United States and they see all the lines of the highways.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Right.

[Matt Moneymaker]

And it gets real dense over there in the northeast, you know, New York and Boston and. And Connecticut, it's like, you see a lot of lines. So you figure, oh, there must be people all over the place. But if you drive from New York to, like, Rhode island, you drive through Connecticut on the 95, you're in woods, like, the whole time.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Yeah.

[Matt Moneymaker]

You're driving through forest on both sides, you 90% of the way. So it's a Connecticut especially. There's just whole regions of Connecticut that are just mostly forest. And one of the things is the soil wasn't good for farming. It was rocky soil in so much of it. And that's why there's still forest there.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Right?

[Matt Moneymaker]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Because otherwise it can make great farmland.

[Matt Moneymaker]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

So have you run a lot of expeditions into Connecticut, or is that a new. Is that something new that you're going to start doing more in the area?

[Matt Moneymaker]

Well, we, the guys in the group, we have a guy over there who's done expeditions in Connecticut a few times, and it's usually been on a different part of the state. It's been over toward the New York border, Although he did a private trip over by the Rhode island border, and we shot an episode in Rhode island that focused on reports that were right along that border zone, which is Just hardly has any people. It's mostly forest. And I was out there looking around saying, okay, well, they've got bears and they've got moose. And a lot of deer and a lot of forest. So just because, you know, an hour away is New York City in one direction and Boston in another, that doesn't mean that you can't. That the ecology here is somehow unfit for these things. If they, like deer, manage to get in all sorts of habitats that will support them. Deer are able to survive. They're bear and moose, basically all the large mammals. So why can't sasquatches get in there as well? And it's just, again, it's a matter of the mind overcoming the mind of thinking about the map, thinking about how it looks so much more developed compared to the west, but still a lot of. Still a lot of forest out there.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

And, you know, because there are certain places, like when I like Texas and the Saban river corridor, that's another one where there seems to be. There's been an uptick of sightings. And that's. That's right up your. That's your. That's your hotbed right there. So there's a lot of. There seems to be a lot of. And I. Let me ask you with the change in weather patterns, because we're seeing, like, Tornado Alley is no longer Tornado Alley anymore. It's kind of shifted. It seems like Louisiana and parts of Texas, we're seeing more the. When the hurricanes and the wind, tropical storms, it seems to have shifted. We're seeing it more up in the Northeast, and we're seeing it more away from where it used to be. Do you think that could cause also migrations? You know, because they're more. All creatures of the forest are more sensitive to weather changes than we are. We build houses on a beach, and then we're shocked. In six years, the flood, the title changes. And, you know, we want to call it global warming and stuff if you're trying to run for political office, But Mother Nature is always changing. And they don't take in a. Fact, they don't take an effect. When you built your dream house somewhere, you know, and you've dammed up the river, and then all of a sudden, the weather patterns change and that dam is destroyed, and you're still. Do you think there's been. Maybe there's more. It has been more of a migration to the Texas area than before due to change in weather. Because now it's, you know, Texas. The winters are getting a little more severe. Houston in particular, Louisiana is getting a lot more tropical. They call it tropical storms because it's just a little less than a hurricane. But the precipitation and destruction and Wind is a lot higher. So do you think that could be why the sightings are starting to be more? Because there's a shift, there's a movement? Possibly.

[Matt Moneymaker]

It could be. But the way it would immediately affect them Is how it would affect deer population.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Right.

[Matt Moneymaker]

Deer being the thing they go after. So if the change in weather is going to benefit deer in some areas and make more deer, then there's going to be more predators there. And if the weather is difficult, makes deer difficult, or kills a lot more deer in the winter from what's called winter kill. Most people don't know that in the winter, if the winter conditions are really bad and goes on for a long time, A significant percentage of the deer die during and it's called winter kill. And so when you have a few years of very mild winters, Their deer population will go up Because a lot more of them can survive it. So it's a question of deer. And the sabine river has that area coming out. And it's east of Dallas. And it basically, it isn't straight east west, it kind of angles down, but it's an area where there's a ton of deer. Texas has one of the highest states For a white tailed deer population. Cause you have a mix of forest and grassland. You have a lot of. There's just a lot of food for them there. And there's enough roads where people might see them. I also think something that A change, I think that's happening with bigfoots Is like a change that people are seeing with whales. Whales collectively are a lot more bold about approaching boats. They'll come right up to boats. They'll come up to people on the shore. They're doing behaviors with respect to humans that really hadn't been seen before. You know, after a couple hundred years of them being rigorously hunted by humans, it's as if there's some kind of cultural knowledge which can be transmitted through generations of even whales, of young ones. Watching what older ones do and seeing that they're not getting hunted in the process, but they're getting closer. Well, the same thing might be happening with bigfoots, I think in the past. One of the reasons it happened, and you could see it in these recent cases when the things would just walk up. And it wasn't just in that Idaho case, There were others where one just kind of walked up and stood there, where there was people hanging out at night in the woods. And the people just freak out. They freak out and leave. They strive. They start yelling or they'll shoot guns. It's et cetera. So that's been going on a long time. And I think in the past, a lot more people were being much more aggressive because, of course, they were convinced that they were being attacked just because here's this giant hairy thing that got close to them. And I think it's inconceivable for people to think, well, when that happens, the thing actually may just want to come up and be friendly and maybe get some food. And that's the way it does it. It doesn't come up and say, hey, how you doing?

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Right.

[Matt Moneymaker]

But it does come close enough for you to get a look at it and just checks you out. And that's different than what an attacking animal would do.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Do you think that fear response is instinctive in humans when they come into contact with a bitch?

[Matt Moneymaker]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Like, maybe there's a story, because going back to native americans, they respected the rules set for a reason. And I believe it was. I don't know if it was lewis or clark, but it was the early explorer who was like, well, let's go hunt the deer in that mountain. And the native american said, no, you don't go in there. You go in there, you won't come out. And we don't go in there. So they don't come here because if we go in there, they come here.

[Matt Moneymaker]

It's funny because they say that about. They'll say that about bigfoots, and they'll say that about spirits, too.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

[Matt Moneymaker]

Because they might follow you back home.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Yeah. The more I, like, look into, I think the evidence is there. It's just

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[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

it has been recorded before our modern technology era, when you go and you look at different tribes of native americans who had no contact with each other, There was no texting. There was no carrier pigeon. And if they did had contact with each other, it was aggression because very much like, they formed tribes and humans at that time, if you weren't from their tribe, you, were a competitor for food, for shelter, for protection. So there wasn't an exchange of technologies and ideas. It was if you are not in my tribe, I'm going to conquer you. Primitive man, early man. That's what it was. So when I'm seeing on the pottery and the walls and they put only important things, they weren't doodlers, they weren't like drawing family. They put important messages to be passed down to generations of their people. And there is a common dude in all of them. He's an extremely large individual that is gravely respected, honored, almost like a godlike, but an immense fear. And so I refuse to believe that they were saying, hey, if we keep making up stuff about an ape like person, eventually we're going to get a TV deal. I just, you know what I'm saying? There was, there's. There was no back then a bullshit artist hadn't been invented yet.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

You know, and they, it wasn't for fear because otherwise they would make fake things to scare settlers. They would make giant. This was something that was just understood. We do not f around and find out with these individuals. They were almost and they were described not as beasts, not as animals. They were people that, that they traded. They were another type of people. So I'm wondering that initial response and you can attest to that because you've had that experience. Was the, was the flight, did you. Was there a flight feeling at first, but then because we are humans and you have the experience and the education and studying in them that you were able to contain it. But if you don't have those things and it's the first time you're going to go into the I need to run away. I take my sleep seriously. When you're working, traveling, training and constantly on the move, getting into a comfortable bed at the end of the day makes a big difference. Lately I've been sleeping on cozy earth sheets and they are incredibly comfortable. They feel soft, smooth and they help keep the bed from feeling too hot during the night. Cozy earth sheets are made from viscos from bamboo and are designed to wick away heat and moisture, helping you sleep cooler and more comfortably. And Cozy Earth stands behind them. You get a 100 night sleep trial so you can try them for yourself plus a 10 year warranty. But once you feel how comfortable these sheets are, you won't want to give them back. Head to cozyearth.com and use my code planet for up to 20% off. That code planet for up to 20% OFF. And if you get a post purchase survey be sure to mention you heard about Cozy Earth right here.

[Matt Moneymaker]

Well, when I had one walk up to me, remember this is after years.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

That's what I'm talking about.

[Matt Moneymaker]

After years of talking to people about, like, exactly what happened, what did it do? What did it approach? I realized if I hadn't had all those conversations with witnesses, even in the same state where they're telling me exactly how they approached and they growled and they came a certain distance, but then they stopped. If I hadn't heard that so many times, then when it did happen, I probably would have been. Yeah, a lot more scared. I would have been terrified. Because you got a big hairy animal and it's obviously coming close to you. You're thinking it's not. You just don't think the thing is coming to do anything other than harm.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Right.

[Matt Moneymaker]

And in this case, I think what it was doing, again, it was just trying to get me to leave because this was an abortion area just like so many other people. But when it started doing exactly what I had heard described so many times, I'm like, okay, I know what's gonna happen now. It's not gonna come any closer. It's gonna stand there and growl until I leave. And that's what I did. And so that was kind of a protest. I don't think the thing wanted to be friends at that point. But it's just like interactions with human. Sometimes you. Your human will approach you and they're friendly. Sometimes a human will approach you and he wants you to get out of there, you know, but they don't attack.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Now, the B FR O field ref. You guys have an expedition map for 2026. And it's so. Just so I understand it. So you select locations based on sightings, encounter information. And is that also the calls too? Because that seems to be. People hear that call a lot more than they see the actual.

[Matt Moneymaker]

They do.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

And so do you take into account when you. When you decide what you're going to pick as an area to investigate? And you hear a lot of reports of the vocalizations, is that just as important or almost more important than someone seeing a sighting? Because if someone says they see a sighting, then you gotta prove it, you gotta interview them. But it's a real. What did it sound like? Because you have data and information of the calls?

[Matt Moneymaker]

If they recorded it, yes. Here it's a little different in that we do actually place a lot of weight on a visual sighting. If we can communicate, if we can talk to the person. Because we've gotten pretty good. I've gotten pretty good over the years after having spoken with thousands of witnesses.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

And for those of you who need to see this, go back and watch any episode of finding bigfoot and you would have the town halls where you would talk to. And it was never three people in the room. I just want to say that it was, you know, communities coming forward.

[Matt Moneymaker]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

And you were very systematic in terms of what you deemed investigatable and what you deemed as it's something else.

[Matt Moneymaker]

Right, right. And they didn't include. There was a lot of instances in those town halls where somebody came and got up and were telling a story and I could tell they were lying. They didn't include most of those instances. And where other people in the audience could tell. I didn't believe it. They didn't want to include a lot of those in the episodes, but that happened enough. When you're hearing, though, from just a regular person, a normal person who's just telling you about something they saw, it's. It's not difficult if you could talk to them for a while to get a feel. Because usually people who are lying are nervous, they're dodgy, they're kind of defensive.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Too much information.

[Matt Moneymaker]

Yeah. There's a whole different vibe to it when they're just making up a story if they hear something, though. I mean, what people don't realize, if you just look at the reports we post, you think there's more sightings than sound reports. And that's not the case. We're not posting most of those sound reports because there's a potential that even the people, if the witnesses truly believe that it was a bigfoot, they might be wrong. Same thing with footprints. So you can't just tell based on talking to the witness to see if the witness sounds believable or credible, because they might be and they might be wrong about a footprint or a vocalization. A sighting, though, you're seeing a big 8 foot tall thing, arms and legs. There's not a lot of room for misinterpretation.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Right. Yeah.

[Matt Moneymaker]

A class a one. So we want to put those out there. We put those front and center. And we especially want to put them out if they're very recent because we want people in the area to keep an eye out for them.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

All right. So for people out there who want to investigate this stuff, because I think America in general needs to get back outdoors. You know, we got to put the tablets down.

[Matt Moneymaker]

Oh, it's been going down in the last 20 years. There's fewer people hiking, fewer people hunting. It's almost like that was a boomer pastime. And everybody's now on their computer and their phone. There's not many people in the woods, not as many people camping, which is

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

going to be an increase in wildlife because there's not as much pressure. But you know, BFR, BFRO. You guys have, I guess, July 14, which I think is today. You have a lot of expeditions coming up.

[Matt Moneymaker]

Yes, I don't mean all of them, but in various parts of the country. The BFRO has been around for a long time. There's thousands of people in the bfro. So from among those, we have people in the group who will say, hey, listen, I want to lead an expedition to bring a group of people into a particular area. It is actually useful. You'll have some people say, oh, you're going to have a bunch of people tromping around. That's going to scare them away. It's like, no, because you'll be a lot more confident about vocalizations this and that. When you have several people who are hearing it and being able to say no, it was like definitely loud WOOD knocks and also you're throwing out a bigger net because you could have one little group. You take a large group, you take like 30 people, and you put four or five over here, four or five over there, four or five. That's a lot of ears and a lot of eyes to spread out. And when one group gets a hit over in this canyon, and then you kind of know where to focus. But a lot of people end up having encounters, and we get recordings on these trips. But yeah, people. There's a lot of people who've attended a dozen of them over the years, or 20 of them, because we've been doing these since like, you know, 2,000. You know, we've been doing the different parts of the country. So there's a. There's a lot of people, and eventually they get their encounter if they. If they just persist with it enough and they like doing it, being out there with other people who have new, different kinds of technology. So when you're getting into it a little more comfortable to do along with other people rather than doing it by yourself, you know.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

And so I'm going to give you some plugs here, because I want to see people come out. And you guys got Washington, Arizona, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Massachusetts, Ohio, Minnesota, Wisconsin, West Virginia, northern New Jersey and Missouri. So fans, you're close to one of these states. Get off your asses and go explore. Go be the one to find the substantial proof. And then we're just gonna. I'm just gonna Keep the plug party going because Washington state Bigfoot event is coming up in September. Might try to get Harry out there for me so we can get some interviews. Sasquatch beyond the Footprint is listed for Saturday and Sunday, September 26th and 27th, 2026 at the Cowlitz River Rentals in Randall, Washington.

[Matt Moneymaker]

The event, well, actually it's at the Packwood, the Packwood Mill site. The location has changed.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Okay, so location is breaking news.

[Matt Moneymaker]

Yeah, yeah, it's in Packwood. So Beyondthe Footprint.com has the updated information. Big conference. It's in a place that used to be a logging site. Beautiful area, view of Mount Rainier. And what's interesting about this is, is it is literally right next to a Bigfoot area just outside the parking lot. There's been track lines, everything like that. So you're in a Bigfoot zone when you're at this conference. Okay.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

And then of course also, you don't have to believe, you can be a skeptic, go on these things to prove them wrong, you know, and also you get a chance to see a beautiful part of this country. And there's, you know, there's campfire storytelling, my favorite thing, family activities, hands on classes, cameras, audio captures, print casting and 3D imaging. So educate yourself and have a lot of fun. For those of you who are watching this and then what do you think the strongest evidence that needs attention right now that we. There's a lot of stuff out there. But for the people who are trying to get information and legitimately want to find the truth in this, what do you think right now is we should most be paying attention to in terms of evidence?

[Matt Moneymaker]

Well, I really think it would be great if more people had dash cams. Cuz there's so many reports we get where the things like walked in full headlight illumination right in front of a car and were close enough where you would get a lot of good detail of it. And people say, well, how come nobody got a photo? How come no one got this one? You're driving down the highway, your hands on the wheel, something walks across the road in front of you and into the darkness. No, you don't have time to pull up your camera and get a picture. But if you had a dash cam, you would have some very valuable footage. And this just keeps happening over and over again. And we're like, oh, if they would have only had a dash cam. So that, that photographic evidence is very important because it was the Patterson footage that really moved people kind of, you know, brought me into the subject.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

I Remember where I was when I first saw it? I was in the living room, my house, in. In Palmdale, California, sitting down. I think it came on National Geographic seeing that walk. And I was like, it's something that has stayed in my mind my entire life.

[Matt Moneymaker]

So.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

And we, we are desperate in need for another moment like that because there's been a lot of the zoom in cameras that are kind of of the. The of it resting on a tree. But it's always resting on the tree the same height as a human being. I think if you're 8ft tall, you're not going to squat and lean on a tree, but that's just me. And some more dash cams. And what, you know, with what is the. I think this. I think we talked about already. But what is the worst hoax you've ever had to deal with?

[Matt Moneymaker]

Well, it is probably these fake Bigfoot body hoaxes because they get so much press attention and they really do kind of people get all hopeful.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Yeah. I think that's the worst part about it.

[Matt Moneymaker]

Yeah. And they get all hopeful and they think there's something going on. And it just keeps recurring over and over again. It's like every few years there's somebody who's saying, I got a Bigfoot body. I've solved the mystery, et cetera, et cetera. Then they'll show just one photo of the body, kind of from a distance, and you can just tell.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Yeah, it looks like a decomposed cow. Yeah.

[Matt Moneymaker]

Yeah. Or a bear. It's ridiculous. And then they've got some cockamamie story to go along with it. So that sucks. But no, we've gotten dealt with every manner of just like fake stories. We receive them all the time and we have to get good at being able to figure out whether.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

So you do a lot of vetting?

[Matt Moneymaker]

A lot of vetting. And vetting is. It's just if somebody sends in a report and they don't put any contact information in, it doesn't matter how good the report sounds, we know that's a very strong red flag that the report is fake.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Yeah. Because you would want some recognition for it.

[Matt Moneymaker]

Well, people know, they're willing to talk about it if it's something that happened to that. But if it's something they, you know, if they're faking it, they don't really want somebody to interrogate them.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Right.

[Matt Moneymaker]

Somebody who saw it is just like, funny. Ask me any questions you want. I'm just telling you that I saw walking in front of the car. They're. They're not. They're not intimidated by somebody asking them questions. So they'll put in their phone number and their email address and they'll let you know, they'll get a hold of it. And you can just tell immediately when, especially when somebody's telling you a true report. They're happy when you get in touch with them and you want to talk to them. Whereas somebody who's faking it is always a little bit scared when you finally get in touch with like, all right, what do you want to know? I think I told you everything there is to. There's a certain nervousness. They're not happy to talk to an investigator. Somebody who's legit, though, is more than happy because they think, wow, I felt like I was worried that nobody would believe me.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

And I get that now. Again, I first learned about you through the show Finding Bigfoot, and I think the fame from the show was. It definitely was a life changing thing. I would argue with that. And you kind of touched on it before. The show didn't show necessarily all of what went on, but what do you think the show got right in terms of furthering the interest in the investigation and the legitimacy of what it is that you do?

[Matt Moneymaker]

I think the thing that was most impressive to a lot of people about it was the town hall meetings. And when we first it was the producer, it was Brad Kuhlman and the other guy, I can't forget. Anyway, Brad Kuhlman is the main guy at ping pong. When we were on a phone call, like kind of a group phone call with all the producers and the cast members when we first started doing and they said, okay, we want to do town hall meetings. And I was just, yeah, that'll be awesome. And it didn't occur to me that I might do that because I'm thinking that's going to take a lot of work to organize it, to get all these people there, to get a venue to do all those things. But they had enough staff and advanced producers and stuff like that where they could arrange it, they could organize. They start doing it months in advance for each episode. So. But when I heard that, I'm like, that's going to make a difference. Because people are going to see that it isn't just somebody making a claim here. Somebody make a claim here? No. When you're in an area where there's Bigfoot activity, there's a lot of people who've had sightings. And what we knew is that there was a multiple, like, for every one report that we get we knew there was like, at least 10 others, and that was borne out as true when we did the town hall meetings, because most of the people who came in and had sightings had never sent us a report. They just heard about the meeting on Facebook or a local radio station, et cetera, and they thought, okay, I'm gonna come and tell my story. But they, for whatever reason, didn't wanna write it down beforehand and submit it through a form. But they'd come to a town hall meeting, and if you wanna listen, they'd tell you. So we know even though we've got four thousands of reports out there posted online, there's probably at least 10 incidents. Good visual encounters for every one that we have posted. And the effect of that is in so many different parts of the country, you could go and you put a call out for witnesses. You're going to get a bunch to come forward. Same thing with UAPs. I mean, in certain parts of the country, you're going to get droves of people coming in and telling you what they said. Some of them may be wrong about it. They may be misinterpreting things, but if they're gonna get together as a group where they know they're gonna be around other people who aren't gonna laugh at them, then you'll have a lot of people coming forward to make testimony, and then, you know, okay, this stuff would not be happening like that. There would not be so many people claiming to see these things, either UAPs or Bigfoots, unless these things were there. Because, as you noted with the Indians, people would be imagining a whole menagerie of different strange things.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

But, no, it's very consistent. Alien dragons, you know, et cetera. Yeah, exactly.

[Matt Moneymaker]

And they don't.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Now, you. I, personally, I didn't know this, and this is something I learned that they. That you had to deal with. A lot of. You called a lot of people out in the town halls that were lying and stuff like that.

[Matt Moneymaker]

It. It.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

It's funny to me because one of the main characters on the show or main people on the show was a skeptic who was pretty much there to prove everything wrong. She was. Didn't matter, you know, And I think that would have. I think, in my opinion, they got it wrong by not showing those. Because I think it's important to show how important legitimacy was to you and your team. And I think that's the only. And it's a great. It was a great show. I think if it was ever to come around again, I think it's it is important for the legitimacy to show you weeding out the completely ridiculous off the cuff sightings because it gives more weight to. It's just like anything else. When someone makes false reports and false reports and accusations, etc, when someone tells the truth, it just means more. Do you think that's an accurate criticism?

[Matt Moneymaker]

Yeah, it is. In other words, it would go to the credibility of what we're doing to show. I mean, and here's a parallel to that is they say we got in the woods and everything we heard was a Bigfoot. And of course we'd be out for hours and they only see literally a few minutes of a nightmare.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

You only had what, 26 minutes to do the show. That's how long it 30 minutes.

[Matt Moneymaker]

So for any one night investigation, because we do a few of them in any one episode, when they boil it down, they don't show the 99% of times we're out there, we hear a sound, we say, yeah, that's just a coyote. That's this. That's. So we're not, we're, we're accurately able to debunk sounds or anything that we have. But they don't include that, right? They don't include us just going, yeah, it was just there was an owl. That was this that they're only putting in the parts. We go, wait a minute, what was that? You know, and then people get the perception, oh, everything they hear is a Bigfoot. Now we're so much better than most people at being able to set being out there so many times, knowing the difference between the sound of an owl and a coyote and a Bigfoot and various other things that make sounds at night because we've heard all those things so many times. But they're only going to get that. They're only going to show the parts. We think we might be hearing a Bigfoot.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

You know, for someone that was like, how much for one episode, how much field time do you think you put in on average for one episode?

[Matt Moneymaker]

It wasn't enough. We would go, we would be out in a place, a place where we should spend a few days in a row and we'd be out there for like four or five hours. And that was because, you know, you've got a crew there, they can't camp there overnight, they got to charge up batteries after a few hours. And so it's just like I told people all the time, because we have people constantly want, filmmakers, foreign journalists, et cetera, wanting to go on our expeditions, YouTubers, podcasters, all sorts of want to go on our trips. And so we have developments. We say as soon as we introduce this, where there's some TV making going on, then the whole trip suddenly revolves around the TV making.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Right?

[Matt Moneymaker]

It really, it really.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

And even it's almost a distraction.

[Matt Moneymaker]

It's. And it's more. It's not just a distraction. It changes the course of what we're doing. Everything becomes subservient to that media product. So that's why it was good when the show was finally over. And of course, there was good things that the show did. But it was glorious to be able to go out in the field and do expeditions again where we did not have a TV crew there, where we could, we could focus on doing stuff where it. By nature, most of it is. There's not a lot of action going on. Like with hunting, you're sitting there 95% of the time and it's. It's kind of. It would be kind of boring for you to watch. It's very interesting if you're there, but if you're watching, it seems like nothing's going on. But that's, you know, a lot of stuff. Subtle things happen when you're out there and you're putting in the time. So we like it going out without a TV crew there. We can do a TV crew, but there's. There's benefits of being unfettered by all that.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Well, like I said, I always enjoy our time together. And yeah, I, I was not buying. I'm just going to say I'm. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I have a. I'm going to say no on the remains story. And I think we both can agree on that. But we're going to say yes on, keep the search going and keep the education going because the more we learn about him, I think we learn a bit about ourselves.

[Matt Moneymaker]

We absolutely do.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

You know, and before I let you go, I'm not the only one who's a big fan. Harry and Ryan, you know, the first thing I get today is when they see you on the marker is, hey, you think we get it? Can we ask him questions? And I'm like, if he's got the time, 1000% do it. But I'm not cutting my time short with him for you guys. So I think Harry's ready to go. He's chomping at the bit again. Get back out in the wilderness. Who knows what you might find. The best part is you might find yourself again. So, you know, keep doing what you're doing appreciate you and always come back every time, you know, every couple months or two so we can talk and see what's going on and you know, hopefully eventually we'll have some real strong evidence and we can put this thing to rest.

[Matt Moneymaker]

Well, you're the most informed news guy out there, so it's my pleasure doing it. You've a world away from all the other kind of smarmy newscasters. I shouldn't put them down like that. But you're very different in your attitude and knowledge about this subject. So it's very refreshing.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

I believe it's there. There's enough evidence. I don't. It's not even a believer thing. It's that you can't tell me, you can't convince me. It's not based on. I'm a history guy. And if our ancestors are recording it when it's not when they wouldn't. If it was not there, they would not have. People did not waste their time back then. We had short lifespans, things ate us. Other people hunted us. We only recorded information that was valuable. So again, that's all you know and you can't tell me anything different.

[Matt Moneymaker]

Independently minded, you're not trying to kowtow to what you think is kind of common perception out there and pandering to that. And it takes a bit of bravery to have your own opinion and kind of stand by it. And that's kind of what you don't see among other journalists who are really just trying to, to put, you know, to pander to what they pander to

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

you or try to gotcha moment. I mean you've dedicated your life to this and you're an intelligent man. So you know, because otherwise you would have been finding bodies everywhere, you know, you know what I'm saying? So again, like I said, I appreciate it. And here's the thing, since we're throwing a lot of times when I speak to people in the field, they and I want to have just a scientific, let's just roll some facts around. They're very off put by it and very dismissive and I appreciate you allowing me to ask hard questions, but they're not, it's, it's just in the betterment of trying to get an understanding of something that I'm going to treat it as it's there until it's not, you know, and so yeah, and a lot of guys, they, they're stuck in their mold but maybe that's because they're more interested in making a buck off an idea than solving One of the last few of the missing mysteries in. In this world we have. So again, I appreciate your time and oh, boy, they're chomping at the bit, so good luck and wow. Enjoy these guys, because I don't.

[Matt Moneymaker]

Okay.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

All right, man.

[Tyrus]

Matt, what's going on? I'm Ryan. Nice to meet you.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

And I'm Harry. We both grew up watching Finding Bigfoot.

[Tyrus]

Big fans for sure.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

And I'm the one who's been texting with you.

[Tyrus]

That's been me.

[Matt Moneymaker]

Okay.

[Tyrus]

I grew up watching Finding Bigfoot on Animal Planet for so many years. I would record it back when you would DVR stuff. My brother and I would watch it. You and Bobo and Cliff and Renee. It was. It was fun. It was definitely a really fun show to just get into. Raising a lot of awareness too. 100%.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Yeah.

[Tyrus]

So we had a couple questions for you, if you don't mind. Hopefully we won't disappoint Tyrus, who is our Bigfoot.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yes.

[Tyrus]

So the first question I had for you is, everybody has criticized the Bigfoot community, but is there a piece of evidence that you can say so confidently that there's no doubt in my mind about his existence?

[Ryan Reynolds]

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[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

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[Matt Moneymaker]

A strong piece of evidence that I think is. Well, if you could take. We can always go back to the one thing that convinced me and convinced Tyrus and. And was very influential and that was the Patterson footage. And there was that silly documentary that came out not long ago where it's trying to say that they brought forward what they said was evidence that it was faked and the whole thing was ridiculous. Cuz it was somebody trying to replicate the footage after the fact. And these documentary producers tried to say that it was filmed beforehand and therefore it was a dress rehearsal for the Patterson. And that's ridiculous. So the Patterson footage is still the most influential. The other thing. So it's not like people often ask this. It's a common question. What is the one thing?

[Tyrus]

Yeah.

[Matt Moneymaker]

And it's not only like that. It's a culmination of a whole bunch of little things. And for the people who go out into the field, et cetera, all of that stuff only kind of applies to everybody else, because when you finally have an encounter with one or you've been out there and they've been around as many times, that's how you know that they're real. You think back to your own experience, not to some piece of evidence, not to some piece of footage, et cetera, because you've had something better than that. And another thing that affects me, too, is there are skeptics who come on these trips, and it usually isn't like the main guy who signs up. Like, a guy will sign up and he'll bring his skeptical friend. I always love that they bring the skeptical friend who really puts down on it. And so when that. That skeptical friend who's very dismissive about everything, who thinks it's silly when he has an encounter and then has this. I just love when I'm there, this look of like. Of like they saw a ghost. Yeah, that has. I mean, they didn't see a ghost, but they just had that, like, complete shock that of reevaluating, like everything. They had to reevaluate so much of what they thought was true. That's impressive for me, too.

[Tyrus]

Well, also, the thing is, is, like, you. You look at how big our planet is, every single time you go on a boat, you're not going to see a great white shark. You know what I mean? Like, our planet is so big, and in the areas that people are actually hiking in and claim to have encounters or say, oh, I didn't see a Bigfoot this weekend, so it's not real. When you think about it, those areas might be heavily traveled, so they're not gonna necessarily be in those specific areas. The planet is very large, and I feel like it's very unfair to narrowly put him in a column and say, oh, Bigfoot's not real, because I haven't seen it. So to your point about the skeptics, I think that's a great point.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And to that.

[Matt Moneymaker]

Right. And a lot of the skeptics says, I mean, is also that, you know, people. You'll have rangers and stuff go out and say, well, I've never. I've been out here and this worked in this terrain for so long, I've never seen one. It's like, yeah, you only work during the day, and these are things that come out at night. If you were to walk around in these woods at night without a flashlight, you'd probably end up having an encounter. But these are very smart creatures. They're really. They're most moving around like crossing roads out in the open. It's usually after midnight. It's the times of day when there's basically nobody in the woods. And when you're out in that environment, in that situation, that's when they're coming up and trying to intimidate you. And you get the message that, like, you're not supposed to be out there. This is their time and their place, and, you know, they're gonna back off you during the day, but they want you out of there after dark. You mentioned how they operate.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

You mentioned the relationship between Bigfoot and uap.

[Tyrus]

Is there.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Would you say that there could potentially be almost a paranormal aspect to Bigfoot?

[Tyrus]

Like, is there some.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Because you've mentioned, you know, calls and

[Matt Moneymaker]

that sort of thing.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Like, could there be a paranormal aspect to Bigfoot?

[Matt Moneymaker]

Well, it's. It, yes, but it's not the same thing. You'll hear some people just like they're all in the. Bigfoots come from outer space. They come from the stars. They're brought around and delivered, transported to places by UFOs, et cetera. I think the relationship could be from. I mean, there's a couple of abductees, and I wouldn't have believed in that without having spoken with these guys. Travis Walton is one of them. But there was another guy, too, who was abducted. He was regressed, et cetera. And he said he was never interested at all in the Bigfoot subject until after that experience, which had to do with aliens. But then he said for some reason, he was very interested in this subject too. So I think it's entirely plausible because UFOs are very often seen in the same area and clap. You know, even if you heard of Travis Walton, fire in the sky, that whole thing that happened in a part of Arizona where there's. We do expeditions because there's Bigfoots around there. So if, you know, UFOs are coming down in places where there's Bigfoots around, it could be that there's contact with UFOs just like with humans. With some humans, there's contact with them. So it may only be that kind of a relationship. At the same time, though, there's what you call low level UFO activity. I mean, that's a term that people have been used for a long time. Another way of saying that is orbs. So in other words, you have a light in the sky going around. You know, people call that a uap, but when it's about as big as a baseball and it's floating around among the trees and stuff, they're calling it an orb, and those are in. Especially in places in the California sierras. Our expeditions have had multiple encounters with. In the same areas, they're having encounters with bigfoots, and they're seeing orbs as well. And that doesn't happen. It happens in other parts of the country, but not in every place where this bigfoot's around. So it's strange because, okay, when you think about a ball of light that's moving around, is that more like a UFO thing, or is that more like a ghost thing? So you're in an area where all three things might merge, Kind of paranormal. You have orbs, there's bigfoots around, Orbs up in the sky. You might call it a uap. So there is weird things that happens around bigfoots in some areas that stuff that you would call paranormal. But it doesn't necessarily mean that bigfoots themselves are paranormal. They could still be flesh and blood creatures and strange stuff might happen around them and may follow them around, or they may have some kind of relationship while still being flesh and blood creatures that descended from gigant or an offshoot of his gigantopithecus. But, yeah, there is weird things happening. We don't know what it means, but, yeah, a lot of places where there's bigfoots around, if you hang out there long enough at night, you'll see UFO stuff, and not just orbs, but, like, real UFO stuff in the sky. So take that for what it's worth.

[Tyrus]

We've seen a lot of interesting, unusual things happen on tv, but my question to you is, granted only what we have seen. What is different from the TV series than what you've done on your own, independently, when the cameras aren't on? Can you give us the contrast between those two experiences?

[Matt Moneymaker]

Yeah, it's the TV show. It doesn't give a lot. We're not out there long enough to document the sorts of things that'll happen. If you're out there for a long time, and one of which is you're out walking around at night, you're making sound, you're doing stuff, and then you come back and you get in your tent to go to sleep, these things will very often come around to check out your tent and, like, open your cooler and look inside of it and do things back at your camp. And that part of it isn't really captured in the show. Because we have a crew. We're out there for four hours. We make some sounds. We try to get responses. We know that things aren't going to walk right up to us because frankly, there's too many people there for that to happen. But we try to at least get sound recordings so that doesn't document what happens. If you're out there for a couple of days and you're using instead of you're in a TV show, you're only getting what this camera catches. And the camera's like only seeing a slice of reality, whereas you're out there with your own eyes or ears. You're catching things that a camera isn't going to catch. Yeah, you're going to see things and hear things that isn't going to catch. So there's a lot more that happens when you're actually there as opposed to you just watching it on tv.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

And we got one last question for you, Matt.

[Matt Moneymaker]

Sure.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

If you were to take myself, Ryan Tyrus, on a field expedition, what would that look like? Amazon Health AI presents Painful thoughts.

[Ryan Reynolds]

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[Matt Moneymaker]

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[Ryan Reynolds]

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[Matt Moneymaker]

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[Ryan Reynolds]

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[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

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[Matt Moneymaker]

It would just be the four of us. I've wanted tyrus to do that for a long time because I think he spends a lot of time in Texas, as I'm not. But there's a couple places in Texas, like especially Sam Houston national forest, where you're out at night in a particular place. These things will come around. So it would be the four of us out there. You gotta be able to stay up late. Out to midnight, you'd be walking around with no lights on, Walking through the woods, and occasionally making sounds because you're trying to trick them into thinking that there's other bigfoots coming into the area. And they're not like territorial where they're trying to, like, push you out. They're actually more social. It's like they want contact with other things. So they're coming up hoping that it's just like there's a friendly meeting going on. It would have been different with primitive humans because they would have had to protect resources. You have a large group and another large group, and there's only so much deer to go around. But with bigfoots, they're in such small numbers that when they come together, I think they're happy to see each other. So we play upon that by going out at night in their conditions. And it's very important to not have any lights on. And just to make the sounds and move through the woods. And that's when you're gonna have an encounter. And then when it happens, it's just. It's in elation, because then you know they're real. And you understand why it's so difficult to get them on camera. Because these things are happening at night, and they're just not gonna stand there and pose for you. They're getting close enough to figure out what you are. They realize you're not one of them, and then it's kind of over. But at least you've had that encounter. And it just. I don't. I could be overly dramatic and say it changes your life, but it doesn't. But it lets you know that there's stuff going on. And the common wisdom out there be, oh, there's no such thing. You realize how many people Are just dead wrong about this subject. And it's endlessly amusing after that point.

[Tyrus]

We'll have to take you up on that offer. And maybe in the fall, when it starts to get cooler, there's less bugs, no ticks, maybe. We'll have to get out there, the four of us.

[Matt Moneymaker]

Where are you right now?

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

We're in new york. Yeah.

[Matt Moneymaker]

There's not a lot of new york.

[Tyrus]

There's not a lot of bigfoots by us. Right.

[Matt Moneymaker]

Well, there is high point state park in new jersey. There is fongstock state park up in the hudson river valley. There's a couple of, like, decent places not terribly far away, but they're just. They're awfully aggressive in this one part of texas. So that's why we're talking about.

[Tyrus]

Let's.

[Matt Moneymaker]

Pennsylvania. There's some, you know, but we could potentially find someplace if you guys want a night up. But you can't be on a school night because you're going to be out until sunrise.

[Tyrus]

Matt, tyrus. And the b team Goes to find bigfoot. I think that's a great episode right there. America, what do you think?

[Matt Moneymaker]

There you go.

[Tyrus]

Let's do it. All right, matt. Well, thank you, matt. Appreciate it. Harry, you have anything else to say to him?

[Ryan Reynolds]

No.

[Podcast Host (possibly Harry)]

Thank you so much.

[Tyrus]

Thanks, matt. Have a good one. All right.

[Matt Moneymaker]

Thank you so much.

[Ryan Reynolds]

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