Destination Truth: A Live Encounter with Josh Gates

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Destination Truth: A Live Encounter with Josh Gates
March 2011
by Troy Rogers
The Deadbolt

Josh Gates and his Destination Truth crew are celebrating St. Patrick’s Day on Syfy with the first-ever live investigation in which Gates will whisk viewers away to the rolling hills of Ireland for a four-hour season 4.5 premiere of Destination Truth. On Thursday, March 17 at 7pm on Syfy, Josh Gates and his team investigate the crumbling ruins of Duckett’s Grove Castle in search of the truth behind the legend of the frightening Banshee.

The live special kicks off six new episodes of Destination Truth that begin on March 22 and will feature adventures in Namibia, Cyprus, Panama and Argentina. Also in a Destination Truth first, Gates and crew will venture to Antarctica for an expedition to uncover strange phenomena occurring around abandoned research stations. As Syfy prepares for a new season of Destination Truth, fans are in for bigger investigations on a haunting global scale.

[Destination Truth] Leading up to the live St. Patrick’s Day investigation of Destination Truth, TheDeadbolt hooked up their recorders to get investigative thoughts from host Josh Gates about his Irish exploits into the Banshee, his journey to Antarctica, and how Gates and his crew deal with paranormal speech on Destination Truth.

THE DEADBOLT: What are some interesting things you discovered while researching the Banshee before you went over to Ireland?

JOSH GATES: I think we experienced some of the same surprises that we experienced when we were investigating the Leprechaun story last year, which is that there’s this really intense connection in Ireland to their folklore. You meet a lot of people who really are invested in these paranormal reports. They really believe that these ghosts are there. They believe that the Banshee is there and they claim to have had these first person experiences that are really compelling when you listen to them. So I think that the real challenge for us is to be as respectful as possible of these beliefs.

These are stories and legends that really define Irish culture. So we’re excited to go over there and take these great stories, some of which you’ll be seeing on the night of the live show from these eye witnesses, and then going in and investigating their claims and seeing if we can put a face to what it is that they’re seeing and hearing and experiencing.

THE DEADBOLT: Aside from the ice and snow, how is Antarctica different from other isolated places you’ve investigated?

[Destination Truth] GATES: I think one of the things that makes it so impressive is how pristine it is. It is a place that really has benefited from being removed from human contact. It has an unbelievable amount of actual wildlife. It’s a place that you think of as being sort of barren, but when you get there you realize that it’s actually this flourishing ecosystem.

It’s a desert essentially. As well, a snow covered desert. It’s just a really unique environment. The other thing, as a guy who is a traveler, that is so impressive is the amount of fortitude and bravery that it has taken people to go and explore that place. When you go to these old explorers’ huts and these old whaling huts, there’s this unbelievable legacy of intrepidity. I mean, these people who risked, and many times, lost their lives trying to explore this extremely hostile environment.

THE DEADBOLT: I’ve always wanted to ask you this. When you’re in a foreign land investigating ghosts, why do you ask questions in English and expect to get a response in English?

GATES: Well, we don’t always expect a response back in English. When we go and we do these investigations, we bring a lot of different recording equipment. We set both audio recorders and video recorders up throughout the place where the sightings have been purported. We take all that data back and we look for anything that sounds like speech and anything that sounds like it might be an EVP.

So, there’s not an expectation on our part that it’s going to be in English. There actually have been a few instances where we’ve tried to speak in the native language as well. I think for us it’s about validating eye witness claims. So if eye witnesses are claiming to see and hear what sounds like speech, we’re just seeing if we can see and hear what it is that they’re seeing and hearing.