Skunk Apes and Skinwalkers with Cryptid Chat Yami (Bigfoot Society Classic)

And I remember seeing it looked like a black cat, okay, and I I kind of took it like, I mean, there's stray animals. It's it's not in common on the military base to have seen like a fox or even a bobcat just wandering around. But I don't know. It just like really struck me. And then this cat like starting to kind of pop out of the tree lining toward us. And as it got like, I realized this is not a stray cat, because this is a lot larger than a normal house cat. They say a life is what happens to you on the way to try to get to where you're going. And in this case, life is a small desk and the basement of your old house us and talking into your iPhone with terrible audio quality. It's meeting people along the way to end up becoming a large part of what it is that you're making. So we're going back to episode number one, and then we're starting all over. See where we've come, where we went through, and maybe some episodes along the way that you name catch so join me. So we hear old episodes and me old friends for the first time. In this week's Bigfoot Society Classic Hello, you're listening to Bigfoot Society and I'm Jeremiah Byron. And usual episodes, I talked to witnesses and researchers about how they've seen Bigfoot. However, on Wednesdays, we take a step back and play through old classic episodes, so they're going to be a little bit different. It's important to know the time frame between this episode and the episodes of last week, where I played a combination of four episodes together. The timeframe was about six months, putting this episode at about April sixteenth of twenty twenty. Now, if you remember, at that point in history, we were getting well into the beginning of the pandemic, which means a lot of people, including myself, had a lot of free time on their hands. At that point in time, I had also been trying to get people to come on for an interview for an extenuous period of time, which I may have just made up that word. But on April sixteenth, I put out a plea on Instagram for someone to come on the podcast, and if no one had come on, I would have shut down big Foot Society that very night, fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you like the podcast. Yemmy from Crypto Chat. Yammy took up the call to come on and be an interview for the podcast that night. If she had not done so, I would have shut it down harder than I can't even think of an analogy. So enjoy this episode of big Foot Society. Without this episode, there would have been no future big Foot Society after it. So thank you Yemmy for that. And if you like what you're hearing, make sure you subscribe and hit the bell and all that good stuff on your platform that you're on, and share this episode with a friend without further ado, Let's get on with the show. All right. This is Jeremiah with the Bigfoot Society podcast. Today. We have the privilege of talking to Yami or cryptid Chat girl, and I'm going to go ahead and have her introduced herself and I give some background before we get into the interview. Go ahead, all right, So thanks for having me. I'm super super excited to be here. So a little bit about me, jeremiam And so I was actually going through this like kind of rehearsing this in my head to my mom today and it's very like if I just have man, I've just done a lot of things that don't really like add up to what I'm doing right now, but just in overall, like I am a college student, super senior, graduating or maybe not graduating. I don't know what's going on right now, but I've always been super passionate about cryptids, a supernatural, a paranormal pretty much all my life. So once like all the craziness happened, I was like, you know, you have a lot of time on your hand, why not like really dedicated to connecting with other people and like really doing some research into the things that you really like. So it was kind of just like a shot, see if you know how other people would react and stuff. So thus from all this came Cryptid Chat with Yami, And so it's just kind of a Instagram page right now that we're slowly building to a podcast. So we're just going to talk about different cryptids, different legends, conspiracy theories, and beyond. So that is kind of meaning in that show. Very exciting, very exciting. That's awesome. Yeah, And if you're not following crypto check Girl on Instagram, you really should. There's a lot of good content on. There's a great job, and you've really had some good responses so far. It's especially noticed that today from when you ask questions about you know what, you know what you're into. So that's kind of cool something. I well, first off, I'm curious, so what are you studying in college? Shift you don't mind me asking, So this is a funny part. I'm actually finishing studying ministry. So that's really funny because most people think, like the religious and the paranormal and whatnot, those are like two separate worlds. But I'm actually finishing up a degree right now in children's ministry okay, which absolutely again has nothing to do with the cryptive community. But I you know, you like what you like, and you're passionate about what you're passionate. Yep. Actually, if you know a small town monsters Mark Madski, the gentleman who works with Seth, he's actually a minister, I believe, yes, I think in the Lutheran Church. Maybe don't quote me on that, but yeah, he's a pretty cool guy. He is going to be on the podcast eventually or we're working back and forth. So I noticed today that you had mentioned that you're into flying cryptids, mothman stuff like that. What kind of draws you to that, would you say, I think it's just the the idea of a winged cryptid in general, like Mothman and the legends of like the thunderbirds, those are like on my top of my list of cryptids. So like, as a kid, I always loved birds, So I think the fascination just kind of grew into winged cryptids as I got older, And Mothman was actually one of the first like really big cryptids that I learned about as well, So I think it's just spiraled from there, this idea of like, you know, cryptids on the ground, Like I don't know, like I feel like like just the idea of something hovering up of me is like equally terrifying and exciting all that once. I don't know, it's funny. Yeah, yep. So I'll mention where I'm from. I'm from a central Iowa right now, so De Moines area, And if you want to mention where you're from, that's cool too. I'll leave it up to you. But we have actually a local crypted out here in the Van Meter area. Have you ever heard of this? The Van Meter visitor? Yeah, if you're if you're familiar with the story, it's pretty awesome. Like we actually have a festival, a day festival out here every year and it is it's a lot of fun. Every year. It's getting a little bit bigger. I've been going for about four or five years so far. But it's cool because we have the all. They have a tour that they lead through the town and they show you, Okay, here's the bank where one of the guys was shooting at it and it would have been hanging out sorry the van meter visitor, if you don't know, is pretty much I would have been a wing cryptod that was like a terod actyl but was shooting a light out of like a horn on its head. Right. So anyways, in the late eighteen hundreds, this wing cryptod just started terrorizing the town, freaking out the banker and all the top dudes in the town. They were trying to shoot at it, and at the end they end up actually chasing it to the outskirts of town there's a mine and we actually walk there to the mine on the end of the tour. And so pretty much there's a posse, which every good story ends with a posse chasing the thing. So the posse chases the van Meter visitor, and I believe there's a smaller one too to this mine and they just shoot it up, but it somehow gets away, and there's people that say that they still see it around and it's it's an awesome local legend. It's probably my favorite, I would have to say local cryptid legend. But we have all sorts of people that show up for that festival. We have. I don't know if you've ever watched Finding Jay on like Amazon Prime with Jay Pechochin. He's a big, big foot guy from Wisconsin. He made it down since you know, both in the Midwest, so that's cool and you know paranormal people and guy from Missouri that was talking about how he travels from around the Midwest to uh, you know with his kids. Two different weird things like UFO houses, which are kind of cool if you've ever looked into that. But yeah, you know, it's it's a fun cryptids and legends and all that. It's a fun way to kind of see the US, right. Oh yeah, and imagine what's out there? What are your dream guests that you're trying to get on your podcast? Oh, honestly, like there's so many people like there really are one of the first people I really would like to get just because I'm I'm actually based here in central Florida. Okay, so like the outskirts Orlando Kissimi area. Everything's fifteen minutes from Disney kind of deal. So the we don't really have. I guess the closest scripture that we have is skunk Gape. So I've followed a man named Dave Sheley. If I butchered his last name, I'm so sorry. So he's basically known as kind of like the Jane Goodall of skunk Gape community. And yeah, he lives down in the Everglades area, and I've I've kind of like followed his work and he's dedicated so much of his life to actually finding evidence of the skunk Gape, and you know, I really want to talk to him in person. Like I first heard from him actually, like he had an art goal in the Smithsonian magazine and I was like, man, it seems like a really cool dude. And he's just right down kind of right down the streets, so he'd be one of the first up. I kind of want to just talk to you, just as somebody it's a Floridian and just see what he's what he's experienced down there. Yeah, that would be really cool because I mean you'd have a great interview right off the back because you could you know, you'd have all these things you could connect with, you know, being in the same area. That's pretty cool. Like, there is one guy I like to get on my show is I believe it? His name is Ronnie LeBlanc or leblancs from Expedition Expedition Bigfoot. But he's from the Massachusetts area and I'm originally from Western mass So that's awesome. I don't know if you've ever heard of any podcasts about big Foot up in the Western mass area, But man, there's some crazy stuff out there, some crazy crazy woods. But before I segue too much, so for the listeners, maybe haven't heard can you I'm gonna put you on the spot here? Can you explain kind of So is it half skunk has a half ape or what's the skunk cape? Guy? So, skunk Ape is basically like the Florida Bigfoot. The all the eyewitness accounts that I've combed through and whatnot, like the descriptions are very very similar to the big Foot in size and build in like the like overall features. But the name skunk Ape really comes from the fact that, like eye witnesses really account that before they see him, they smell him. So it's really like a very sort of futurd sort of scent that I guess just encompasses him. So that's where the name actually comes from. So he's he's our Florida Bigfoot down here. That's awesome, that's awesome. And he's he's seen a lot or is he kind of hard to see or what do you think? Lots of reports, So the reports that I've seen, if it's in Florida, it's usually in the Everglades region of the old ones that I've seen, but he's been spotted up to the Arkansas area. So really so it's really like the southeastern side of America that we've seen a few reports. I would say less than for example, big Foot, but yeah, we still do get a few every now and then, and it's it's really cool. That's awesome, that's really cool, really cool. Here's a question for you, so not to totally shift gears, but it might be in a way. So you got the crypted thing, how do you feel about Well, I guess this could involve crypted to have you been watching the whole Secret of Skinwalker Ranch TV show that's going on? So I had vaguely heard of the skin Walker Ranch, like the legends behind it. And then I actually had a friend that recently was like, Hey, have you been seen what's going on with like Skinwalker Ranch, like how they're really documenting lately, And I was like, no, I guess I'm gonna have to take a look. So I had seen not these series. It had just started, but I had looked at a few videos on YouTube just to get familiar, okay, And I'm just I was blown away. This is kind of like I was joking. I'm like, this is kind of like the Olympics of like the Supernatural. It seems like everything and anything kind of happens. We'll be back with more Bigfoot Society after these words from our sponsors. Yeah, if you haven't watched the the documentary that came out about Skinwalker a few years ago Jeremy Corbell, that's really good. You should check that out. But also this new show on History, it is kind of a reality show, but I think it's good to get to know Skinwalker through the released scientific stuff that's happened in the past, and a really good source of that is a German Corbell documentary. And also like you know, read some George Knapp stuff, listen to his you know, you know, Coast to Coast interviews, stuff like that, and then see, the thing is is like when Bigelow was in charge of Skinwalker, he didn't really get to know what was going on, and now with this new guy who owns it, it's crazy because you're seeing the whole thing and the access to it is wild. I've actually ran into a guy on TikTok that is from Utah and actually met the new owner of Skinwalker Ranch at a Halloween party last year, so I've been kind of doing back and forth with him, and he's actually been invited by Brandon to visit the ranch. He just hasn't really taken him up on it yet. So I'm like, dude, you gotta what you gotta do is you gotta take him up on that, and you gotta do a TikTok life from Skinwalkergain. I'd probably be like the first TikTok Life from Skinwalker Ranch, right, But yeah, it's pretty wild up there, and they actually there's a really good podcast by rogue playing it. That's just coming out about kind of like talking about each episode after it airs, right that, I'm trying to get them to talk about the big Foot sightings that have been, you know, on Skinwalker, and they're they're kind of like, yeah, we've never seen that were whatever, you know, So I'm like, there's got to be something there. Like the show talks a lot about radiation and you know that trying to there's an astrophysicist and he's trying to figure out stuff. But I kind of want to get to the crypt and stuff too. Yeah, I know, you know, there's bring on the dire Wolves and the big Foot, so yeah, yep, yep. So let's say if we ever oh sorry, so for people listening to this in the future, life is fun right now because we're in the coronavirus yes of twenty twenty. Unless that never finishes, that's a new normal forever. But we won't get too crazy on that. But so let's say, if you ever get to you know, leave the house and you graduate school, are you gonna do you have like a dream? Let's say, if you could go anywhere and you know you're kind of studying cryptids, where would you go. I actually have a list that I've been compiling over the past few years of like I want to start in the US. So the idea for me was to basically kind of do like a supernatural road trip and just go off. So start here in like central Florida into the like Greater Florida area, and then from there just kind of trail off. So like one of the one of the places like I want to go to in some I guess central Florida area. First off would be Cassadega. I'm sure if you've ever heard of Cada. Cassadega is the psychic capital of the world. Interesting location and it's a very tiny little town. Literally, I think it's like an not even an hour and a half away from where I live. And it's just a spiritualist hub. So it's very very strange. I know, I've seen a lot of people actually go down and just recount a lot of paranormal activity down there, and it's it's just very interesting to see. Like some people view it as like kind of like a vortex, so like it just it seems to be an area that just accumulates like a lot of energy and it's just right next door kind of, so I kind of want to pop down there and then from there go off. I really want to visit some of like the iconic places, so like Point Pleasant. Oh yeah, I have to go to the Mothman Festival. I gotta do it. I really wanted to go this year, but we'll see. Yeah, plans kind of changed on that one. So I've just kind of been amassing a list and like just going. I kind of want to go, like stay from state if I can, and just visit all these iconic places, just go off and see where it leads me. Honestly, Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. I what I really wanted to use someday is go to Cliff's big Foot Museum in Boring, Oregon. But I also want to go to the Bluff Creek area and see all that stuff, you know, go to like big Foot books that that bookstore out there has like every book you could ever want, you know, with cryptic stuff and whatever. Hard to find ones too, And I don't know, I just like the like kind of weird like there's if you look into it, there's a lot of like Bigfoot themed bars and like restaurants out there. They're kind of kind of fun, right, and to visit those there's also like I don't know if you've ever seen the pictures all like Monster mart and foul Karkansas. That's kind of cool. You should look that up. Like the building is just like a huge big foot like with its arms over the top of it. It's pretty wild. I love creativity. Man. Oh okay, I got a good question for you. So let's say, let's so you're going into children's ministry, right or you said something of that regard, So let's say sometime well or something like that. So let's say, if we have kids listening to this, have you ever thought of how would you encourage like a kid that maybe wants to get into like looking after like looking into skunk gape or Bigfoot or things like that. Have you ever thought of that before? I have? So my interests in cryptids and the paranormals, if I got, came from when I was a kid actually and just being a kid watching when like the Travel Channel and the Discovery channels turned like really like paranormal and like that's when they really started like having like the really big iconic shows and whatnot. So like by watching those shows is what got me interested as a kid from the very beginning and then like actually having kind of like a cryptid experience as a child too, cemented the I guess you can say the interests, but like I guess, like if kids are watching it like I would, just one of the biggest things is just I love to encourage the curiosity. Like, no matter what your age, I think we all should explore or the curiosities that we have, like the passions that we have to Like, it doesn't matter if you're seven years old, but if you watch something on TV, or you saw a book, or you read something, you listen to a podcast, and you're like, that sounds interesting. I really like, I really do encourage people to like, if it sounds interesting, go and research it. Just learn a little bit more. You never know, honestly where you're like, we're a curiosity or an interest in something will take you. Oh yeah, totally. I totally agree with that. Yeah yeah, I mean that's awesome. Like focusing on like cultivating that creativity in the next generation, that's pretty awesome. You kind of touched on that this seed can maybe go more into detail about like the cryptic experience that you had when you were younger, that could be kind of interesting. So I was like really thinking about it too, like preparing for the podcast, because I've been thinking a lot about it lately. But when I was about seven or eight years old, so it's it's been a it's been a minute since this happened. I actually lived in Colorado at the time. We lived on a military base and Fort Carson, and we lived in military housing, but we had like a large backyard and our specific like housing area what had like a large backyard, a field, and then like a tree line, this large highway that was randomly there and then it actually connected to Cheyenne Mountain in the back, which is where No Rad and all that is from. Okay. So I was with my younger sister and one of our neighbors just out in the backyard and we were playing at the time, and I just remember like feeling something watching us, which is you never want that feeling ever, But we were just out there and it was in the middle of the day, and I felt something just staring at us. So I looked over to the tree line and I remember seeing it looked like a black cat. Okay, And yeah, I kind of took it like a I mean there's stray animals. It's it's not in common on the military base to have seen like a fox or even a bobcat just wandering around. But I don't know. It just like really struck me. And then this cat like started to kind of pop out of the tree line toward us. And as it got close, like I realized, this is not a stray cat, because one, this is a lot larger than a normal house cat. This is a lot larger than a dog. And I just remember seeing like again, it was just all black and it had like a like a long tail. Okay, just something within me said run, yeah, just run. So I remember I just like looked back at my sister and our friend and I just literally yelled run, like I just screaming, and I pointed at the animal, and they saw it and we just booked it. And the thing is that when you're a kid, you don't you know, logic would say I'm going to run to my house. As a kid, terrified, logic told me I'm going to run to the playground where I can climb on top of the swings and be above it so it can't get me. It's a big cat, I can just jump right up there. I wasn't I wasn't thinking that far into it. I guess, so me and our nigh me and my neighbor we were able to climb up the swing set, and I remember my sister she was she was like three years old at the time, three four. Poor thing. She couldn't climb up. And I was just remember looking down and being like, she's gonna die. She's going to die. And this cat was like it was just kind of like crouching over to us. It wasn't really running at us, it was just kind of like observing, but I was. I was terrified. And then in that moment where I'm like my so, did are one of the dogs in the backyards of another one of our neighbors. So's this really big german shepherd started going crazy, like it started barking. It started like actually like jumping at the fence near us, and the cat looked at the dog, and I guess the noise freaked it out. I'm not sure, but it bolted back to the tree line, and in that moment we I just remember I dropped down from the swing set, I grabbed my sister, and I ran from my house and I just remember crying and like trying to explain to my mom what happened, and she didn't believe us. She's like, you guys just saw you probably saw a bobcat, you saw something else. It's not what you think. And to this day she's like, Okay, whatever, But like it's always stuck with me, like it traumatized me as a kid to have seen something that big and have just felt like the terror, Like it just felt like something was just not right. Is it was real? Crazy? That's incredible. Yeah, I totally get that feeling where it's like something's watching. Like you know, used to do a lot of hiking in New England and it's like sometimes you're in those pine forests and you're like you can feel like, oh, it feels like a cougar or something is like staring me down right. Oh man, thank you for sharing that. That's that's amazing. Wild time. I can't believe it. But it is almost already the end of our time. And when you don't have a Zoom account that's paid up, time is limited, right, So we'll work on that. But yeah, any other Oh, so before we go, is there any how can people getting get in touch with you or keep in touch with you social media, what you're working on, stuff like that. So the main way if you just want to get in touch, I'm always on my Instagram account, so you can search up cryptid chat Girl and you'll find my Instagram. I post daily different like cryptids, and I'm going to start posting like also different like conspiracy theories and lords. Just like hyping up to the podcast. It will be eventually. I'm going to be starting it on Anchor, so that'll be kind of everywhere. Yeah, exactly. So just Instagram, I'm I have a lot of free time lately, so I open for messages. If anyone wants to just chat, that's where you can find me. Awesome. Well, it's been fun chatting with you tonight, Yami, And it feels like we just we just started. So we'll have to main do a follow up in a few weeks or something. We'll see we'll be in touch. But thank you again for coming on the podcast today. Yeah, and thank you for having me as well. It was a little good time, have a good one, all right, you see, bye bye. What an interesting first episode that was. I forgot almost all of that. Oh boy, A lot to learn. For example, you can edit podcast episodes and you don't have to leave it the way that it was when you originally recorded it. But I digress. Thank you to Yammy for coming on back then. I just checked in with her recently and she's still doing well down there in Florida, I believe. Again, thank you all for listening. If you do enjoy this content and you also like listening to bigfoot encounters from witnesses and researchers, make sure you subscribe hit the bell, and if you like to hear episodes early and ad free, make sure that you become a supporting member of big Society over at Patreon or become a YouTube chan anal member. Again, thank you for listening and we'll see you next time.