His father was a world-traveler and deep-sea diver. His mother came from Great Britain. When his father would return from exotic places, he would come bearing gifts and stories. His mother shuttled the family to Europe to visit her family there. The world to a young Josh Gates was filled with one more interesting thing to see, hear, smell and dive into head-first.
If you wonder how he came to be the adventurer he is, and the television equivalent to Indiana Jones, you have only to look at this upbringing and his impressive education, as well as his standing in the exclusive Explorer’s Club to understand that “Destination Truth” is perhaps more a title for his own life than for the television show.
He began hosting because he was a regular guy people could identify with who loves to travel and ask questions. He wasn’t a monster hunter or paranormal investigator. We completely identify with him.
On my telephone Q&A given through SyFy channel yesterday, I was able to listen to his interview. I wanted to contribute but someone else beat me to the question—damn!
His stand on ghosts was what I was most interested in and he claims to be a skeptic at heart, but occasionally things happen that he cannot explain. His favorite episode of this season was episode #5. It was a dive in Micronesia where a battle occurred during WWII and lots of Japanese ships sank. They actually performed an underwater investigation including the use of hydrophones and high-def video and audio.
He said that he also really enjoyed the Siberian Snowman episode, as it was a 1-hour/one cryptid adventure of 11 days of trekking across Siberia. The show prefers to do slightly more cryptid episodes than paranormal and they like that their paranormal doesn't step on the toes of the big-time ghost hunters. These are not your normal house hunts.
When asked when he was most scared, he says in Romania when the roof tour off the airplane as they were preparing to land.
When asked where he’d like to go that they can’t, he said Central Africa (Congo) and Iraq, but they are too dangerous at this time.
So far as the show, he said he never gets scared until afterwards when he realizes where he went and what he did. During the fact, he said he feels like it’s a Hardy Boys adventure, flashlights in the middle of nowhere, searching and wondering what’s up ahead. The team we see on the show is the team. There’s no peripheral folks wandering through the marshes and mountains with them.
They even manage to descend into a volcano in one episode and in another episode, they go to an island in Micronesia where people apparently get very ill and some die. Josh said he got very ill and they aren’t even sure how much of that they can air, but it certainly rattled him.
It appears that Josh is just how he seems on TV which is probably why they have a huge audience. This fourth magical season will begin on the 9th on Thursday night at 9 on SyFy and I’m thrilled to have a reason to turn the TV on Thursday nights! This guy is smart, funny, sweet, and highly intelligent and well spoken. What you see, is what you get.
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