Laura Krantz

Laura Krantz is the host of Wild Thing. Follow Laura on Twitter here. Wild Thing on Twitter here.

Kindly introduce yourself and tell us what you do!
My name is Laura Krantz - I'm a long-time journalist and the host/ creator/ producer/ reporter/ writer/ intern for the Wild Thing podcast. It explores some of the weirder things that capture our imaginations using science, history, culture, and a little humor. The first season drew on a family connection to explore the idea of Bigfoot—what evidence we have and why, even if we don't want to believe, we want something like Bigfoot to be out there. The second season, which launched just this past September, is about the search for extraterrestrial life, from NASA's astrobiology programs all the way over to the UFO Festival in Roswell. Additionally, I also run Foxtopus Ink, a teeny-tiny media company that my husband (a fellow journalist) and I began as a home for our own projects but that is now starting to work with other journalists on their cool ideas. Aside from Wild Thing, we also partnered with Imperative Entertainment and a local Denver journalist to produce The Syndicate, which tells the story of a sophisticated marijuana ring run out of Colorado, and how it fits into the question of marijuana legalization.

How did you get introduced to the audio space? Have you always loved it, before podcasting?
My career in audio started when I worked for NPR. I took an internship with All Things Considered as I was finishing up my second year of grad school in Washington, DC. Prior to that, I'd only been a public radio listener and had no journalism background, so it was something of a steep learning curve to go from listening to doing but it was such an invaluable experience. I spent 8 years editing and producing with NPR in DC and at KPCC in LA, and then took a break from radio to give freelance magazine writing a shot (not gonna lie - it was very hard and I have a lot of respect for magazine journalists). I missed audio, though - I love writing for it, the way it comes together, and the way hearing people's voices can transport you to places. And I really wanted to sink my teeth into a big, long-term project, as opposed to going back to daily or weekly news, so that's what brought me to podcasting.

What made you go from exploring Big Foot to extraterrestrial life?
While I was reporting the Bigfoot season, two things happened, back to back. First, this weird, interstellar object came cruising through our solar system, raising questions about what it was, including the possibility of it being alien technology—an idea that was floated by the head of Harvard's astronomy department. The second incident came two or three weeks later when the news broke that the Pentagon had been running a secret UFO program from 2007-2012. The way people reacted to both those stories, the debates about science and government cover-ups and alien technology and life on other planets—it totally sucked me in and I saw it had the same effect on lots of other people. So switching to extraterrestrial life for season two seemed like a good way forward.

Fill in the blank: You will like Wild Thing if you like _____.
Trail mix. There's a lot of good, rational, healthy, science-based raisins and nuts in there but you can also dig through and pull out all the conspiracy theory, imaginative M&Ms if you want that sugar high.

What’s something listeners don’t understand about podcasts and what goes into making them?
It's funny - I'll tell someone I have a podcast and the reaction is usually, "Who doesn't?" Podcasting is great because it is simple to get one started and I like that so many different voices can make themselves heard without having to wait for a gatekeeper to let them through, as has been the case with a lot of traditional media. However, I always feel that I have to explain that the kind of podcast I'm doing takes a pretty specialized skill set, one that I've developed over the last fifteen years of my career and it is a lot of work and takes a lot of time and resources. I just can't pump new episodes out every week. I think that we need a word that differentiates between the kinds of podcasts like Wild Thing (long-form, narrative, highly-produced) and the more interview-style shows. One is not necessarily better than the other, but they are very different and it would be really nice to have listeners, and people in general (advertisers, especially, I'm looking at you), know what that difference is without a long-winded explanation. So if any of your readers have a suggestion for what to call podcasts like Wild Thing, I'm all, ahem, ears. Let's make it happen.

What do you hope the show does for people?
Oh man. There's a lot of ways I could go with this. First of all, I really wanted to approach these topics from a more scientific perspective and try to bring real, good science into the conversation. I want people to think critically about these ideas but also encourage them to be open-minded (although not so open-minded that their brains fall out, to borrow that phrase). But I hoped they might think about all the possibilities, and be more willing to consider different ones than they had before. And I think, above all, I want them to just get joy out of the journey. Learn new ideas. Meet new people. Think differently about things you might not have ever thought about before. The world we live in is a fascinating place; there are a lot of questions we just don't have answers for and we may not have those answers ever. But playing around with ideas, bouncing them around in your brain, thinking creatively and imagining "What if?"—it's all part of being human.

Why are you the perfect host for this show?
Perfect is a big stretch but I think I'm well-suited to hosting Wild Thing for a couple of reasons. I have a journalism background, which helps with thinking about how to approach people in a neutral way. I'm not there to make fun of anyone or knock their beliefs. I want to understand what makes them tick and why. I've really tried to maintain that neutrality and just be kind to people and hear what they have to say. Secondly, I love science but really struggled to grasp it in school, so I understand how intimidating it can be sometimes. I go into a lot of the reporting not knowing much about the science and learning along the way. I think that helps me at finding people to talk to who can explain concepts clearly, and also helps me be better at laying it out for the audience. I always worry that I'm dumbing down the brilliant work that scientists are doing but many of the ones I've interviewed have been really pleased with the final product, which warms the cockles of my heart.

What do Bigfoot-believers and alien-believers have in common?
This one's easy and I think it's actually something we all have in common, which is hoping there's more out there than just ourselves. I think we all want to believe that there are mysteries in the world—and the universe—that we may never solve. There's so much yet to explore and learn and be awed by, and the looking is at least as much fun as the finding.

Women in podcasting are constantly being criticized for their voices. What is your relationship with yours? How would you describe your voice?
I HATED listening to my own voice, especially when I first started. It made my skin crawl. Now I tolerate it and, honestly, part of that is because I think I've gotten better at reading. My husband, Scott, will sit in the room while I'm tracking my script and he has a good ear for how things should sound. We had a lot of stopping and starting in Season One as I struggled to have the right tone and emotion. Season Two was a breeze in comparison and took about half the time. There is still something weird about listening to myself when I'm editing/producing and I'm super critical and cringe at all the mouth noises, but I haven't ever had anyone say anything negative to me, for which I am eternally grateful because I am already so self-conscious about it. Oh. Except one thing. I don't know where this comes from, but I say "melk" instead of "milk" and "meletary" instead of "military" and Scott makes fun of me endlessly for that but I have embraced it.

Should podcasters read their Apple Podcast reviews?
No. They should get their mothers to go through them and then read the good ones aloud to you on the phone.

What shows do you love?
I've loved everything Dan Taberski has done. Also, I really liked The Habitat which was essentially The Real World in a simulated Martian habitat with both science and anthropology mixed in. I loved the second season of APM's In The Dark, although I also cried like a baby, sitting in my garden, listening to one of the episodes. It still makes me tear up to think about it. Let's see, what else...Code Switch (because I think Shereen is the cat's pajamas—she is so good and conversational and real). Dolly Parton's America. Wind of Change. Bear Brook. Slow Burn (seasons 1 & 2—I haven't listened to the later ones yet). Against The Rules (season 1 is better). Bundyville, both seasons. And Leah Sottile has another podcast, Two Minutes Past Nine, that is excellent. You can probably see a pattern here—I'm pretty partial to the long-form, narrative podcasts.

Thanks, Laura!