Wildlife Biologist Dr. Bindernagel Discusses Bigfoot Research Journey

So, I just stumbled across this incredible interview on the Bigfoot Society YouTube channel, and honestly, I had to share it with you all. Jeremiah Byron sits down with Dr. John Bindernagel, and if that name doesn't ring a bell, let me refresh your memory. This is the guy who has dedicated decades of his life to studying Sasquatch in a scientific capacity. He's an author, an investigator, and a member of the Manimal Research Team. Yeah, that Manimal Research Team. The conversation kicks off with Jeremiah asking the question every researcher eventually gets asked: how did you get into this? And John's answer is honestly one of the most relatable origin stories I've heard in a while. Before he ever thought about Bigfoot, he was just a guy living in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, who liked to hike over the mountain to Jemez Springs to go trout fishing. Picture this little town with about 350 people, a public hot spring, a bar, a Baptist Convention Center, and apparently a monastery for priests dealing with addiction. What a place. Anyway, John would hike half a day in, half a day out, fishing these cascading pools. And every single time he cast his line, something across the stream would throw a rock into his pool. Every time. No one else on the trail. No human beings anywhere. He eventually yelled at whatever was doing it, and it stopped for one pool before starting up again at the next. At the time, he wasn't thinking Bigfoot at all. He just thought someone was messing with him. Fast forward about eight years, and John is living in Rome, Georgia, trying to get back into trout fishing. While searching for good fishing spots near Blue Ridge, he stumbled across a map with little yellow circles marking BFRO expeditions. That random discovery led him to Lori Wade, who ran the Georgia and Tennessee BFRO expeditions. After a vetting conversation, he joined her last expedition of the season, which happened to be an all-investigator outing. From there, he was hooked. He started attending expeditions in Georgia and Tennessee, hooked up with Charlie Raymond from the Kentucky Bigfoot Research Organization, and eventually connected with Wayne Totherow, who was just forming Manimal Research at the time. The numbers John drops are pretty staggering. Six years straight of expeditions, around 30 total, with over 300 hours of actual boots-on-the-ground research time. That's not counting camping or driving. That's just being out in the woods with a team, doing the work. But here's where things get really interesting. John mentions two Class B encounters that left him with absolutely no doubt. And before he dives into those, he talks about Scott Carpenter, who was the Bigfoot guide for Les Stroud's Bigfoot episodes. Scott came to one of Lori's expeditions and started sharing stories about these creatures materializing and dematerializing right in front of people. Stuff that ended up on the cutting room floor, by the way. John bought Scott's books, including Nephilim Among Us and Nephilim Among Us Revisited, and what he found in those pages genuinely changed him. Scott had these small cameras mounted on his backpack straps facing backward, recording what was following him. The photographic plates in the book show the original frame, a cleaned-up version, and then an artist's rendering. And John admits he grew up in the country, was never afraid of the woods, until he looked at those images. Some of them look more like monsters than Sasquatch. There's even a photograph of something that looks like the alien from E.T. sitting on a Bigfoot's shoulder, whispering in its ear. After seeing that, John became genuinely anxious about going back into the woods alone. And this is where the discussion cuts off, right as John is about to describe his experience at the Pocket State Park, which adjoins the John's Mountain Wildlife Management Area in Georgia. He had asked what makes a place look "squatchy," and someone was answering him when the audio ends. Frustrating, right? The thing that really gets me about this interview is how grounded John is. He's a scientist by training, but he's not afraid to entertain the interdimensional theories, the cloaking ideas, the slipping-between-dimensions concepts. He's experienced enough strange things in the field to keep an open mind, and that's exactly the kind of perspective this community needs more of. If you haven't checked out this conversation yet, do yourself a favor and go watch it. Dr. John Bindernagel is one of the most respected names in Sasquatch research, and hearing him talk about his personal journey from skeptical trout fisherman to seasoned investigator is something you don't want to miss. Plus, the way he describes those Class B encounters has me on the edge of my seat waiting for part two. Also, a quick note, Jeremiah Byron mentions at the top of the episode that he's fighting cancer and asks listeners to keep him in their prayers. There's a Caring Bridge link in the show notes for anyone who wants to follow his medical journey. Sending all the positive energy his way. Catch you next time, and keep your eyes on the trees.