0:00

Welcome to this special bonus

0:02

episode of the Camp Monster's podcast.

0:05

Earlier this summer of twenty twenty two,

0:08

Our senior producer, Chelsea Davis and

0:10

I, recorded an interview with Shelby

0:12

Stenger, host of another

0:14

RAI podcast called Wild Ideas

0:16

Worth Living. The

0:18

episode turned into such a fun glimpse

0:21

behind the scenes at camp monsters that

0:23

we've decided to rerelease it here.

0:26

Now remember that the interview

0:28

was recorded earlier this summer, so

0:30

frequent listeners will recognize the

0:32

sneak peek that I read has

0:34

an excerpt from the first episode of this

0:36

fall season, Melineheads. But

0:39

anyway, we hope you enjoy this

0:42

conversation about the who

0:44

how and why of the Camp Masters podcast.

0:47

And if you do, check out all the

0:49

other great interviews and exciting people that

0:51

Shelby regularly hosts over on wild

0:53

ideas worth living. Thanks

0:57

and enjoy.

1:03

It's that time of year again. Halloween

1:06

approached and spending time outside

1:08

is a little spookier than usual.

1:11

As it gets

1:13

dark earlier and leaves start to

1:15

fall, our minds can run

1:17

wild with visions of unknown creatures,

1:20

hiding in lakes, or slithering across

1:23

trails. Whether it's Sasquatch

1:25

or the Cupacobra, many

1:28

communities around the US have

1:30

stories of monsters or supernatural

1:33

beings that live in the woods. Weston

1:37

Davis, host of the Camp Monster's

1:39

podcast, tells the stories

1:41

of these Impossible creatures and

1:44

folks of all ages can't get

1:46

enough of them.

1:50

I'm Shelby Stanger, and this is

1:52

wild ideas worth living, an

1:55

REI co op studios production. This

1:59

episode

1:59

of Wild Ideas hits pretty close

2:02

to home. In the end credits

2:04

of every episode, I mentioned her

2:06

senior producer. Chelsea Davis.

2:09

Well, a few years ago, Chelsea

2:11

enlisted her brother, Weston Davis,

2:14

to write and host camp monsters.

2:17

It's a fictional podcast about

2:19

the things that run across the trail

2:21

in the middle of the night just

2:23

beyond the beamid air flashlight. Growing

2:27

up surrounded by the dark rainy

2:29

forest of the Pacific Northwest gave

2:31

Chelsea and Weston a

2:33

sixth sense for eerie,

2:36

blood, curdling tales. And

2:38

fans of spooky stories eat

2:41

them up. CANT MONTHERS

2:43

HAS BEEN NOMINATED FOR THE IHeart MEDIA

2:45

AWARDS TWICE. MUCH

2:47

OF THE CLAIM GOES TO WEST FOR HIS

2:49

EMaginative RIDING and the

2:51

dark tension in his voice. He

2:53

knows exactly how to

2:55

build suspense and to make the

2:57

hairs on the back of your neck

2:59

stand up.

3:01

You blink your eyes slowly

3:03

open. Where

3:06

are you? Oh,

3:08

Yes. You're tucked snugly

3:11

in your bunk. It camp wild away.

3:14

What time is it? After

3:17

midnight, the

3:19

porch slight filters through the old

3:21

fabric of the curtains, casting the

3:23

dimest orange glow across

3:26

the road. So

3:28

damn it. It's hard to see anything but

3:30

shadows.

3:31

shadows.

3:35

You

3:35

find yourself staring at the

3:38

shadows. Especially that

3:40

one over in the far corner. And

3:44

as you your heart begins

3:46

to beat.

3:47

fast and

3:50

faster.

3:55

Weston Davis, host

3:57

of camp monsters welcome to

3:59

wild ideas worth living. Thanks

4:01

for having me, Shelby. I'm just super

4:04

excited to be here. Okay.

4:05

You have the best camp monster

4:07

voice ever. How did you get such a deep

4:10

monster voice? Is this genetic or like

4:12

Oh, years of exercises and

4:14

practice. No. Just luck. Just dumb luck. You

4:16

know? But I'll

4:18

take it. You

4:19

know? Whenever anyone sees me, they always

4:21

say I have a perfect voice for radio.

4:24

So camp monsters, it's such a great

4:26

show. Maybe you can just start by

4:28

telling us your experience with

4:30

monsters, especially camp monsters,

4:33

and camping outside. Well,

4:35

one thing everyone should know about me

4:37

is that As

4:39

a child, I was terrified of

4:41

scary stories, and I wanted nothing

4:43

to do with them. So anyone that's out

4:45

there that, you know, it's

4:47

just too intense for them. I totally understand

4:50

and I get it because I was a very

4:52

imaginative kid and I think that

4:54

you know, someone would tell a Camp Fire story

4:56

or a scary story or anything like that, and I would

4:59

it would be so real for me that

5:01

I had a really hard time with it.

5:03

you know, so that's that was my initial relationship

5:05

with Scary Stories. But

5:07

as I got older, it got to be something

5:09

that I learned to enjoy.

5:12

and kinda kept going back to.

5:14

And

5:14

so when this opportunity came along, it was,

5:16

you know, I had a lot to say, and I had a lot of

5:18

interesting ways to say it, I guess.

5:21

So like I said, I think the best place to

5:23

come at monsters from is a place of

5:25

real terror, and

5:25

that's where I was coming from. So hope

5:28

I'm able to infuse some of that into these camp

5:30

monster stories. Where

5:31

did the idea for the show even come from?

5:33

Like, how did you and Chelsea come up with

5:35

this idea?

5:36

Well, you know, it was it was

5:38

easy because the way this whole thing happened

5:40

was

5:41

very accidental. Yeah.

5:42

And it was It was a really it was a really backwards

5:45

kind of way to come at it. So the

5:47

situation was that REI had this artwork

5:49

that they'd

5:49

come up with with

5:51

this map of of the US with all

5:53

these different legendary creatures on

5:55

it. And they loved the artwork so much that they wanted to

5:57

make a podcast. out

5:59

of it.

5:59

And Chelsea

6:02

Davis full disclosure, she's

6:04

actually my sister. Which is

6:05

so awesome. because I remember

6:07

when she was looking for a host, and she

6:09

couldn't find one. But okay.

6:11

Well, that was the thing. So she approached me

6:13

just as a proof of concept. you know, I

6:15

have background in theater and and voice

6:17

and all that sort of thing. So she said, Wes,

6:20

can you just do an episode

6:22

that I can take to

6:24

REI and kind of give them an idea and

6:26

outline of what I'm thinking of, and

6:29

then we'll go and replace you with

6:31

you know, someone who's known, someone

6:33

a name, and all that kind of thing. And she

6:35

started talking to multiple different

6:37

people that she was wanted to host it,

6:39

and you know, it got started

6:41

with this person. It got started with that person. Negotiations

6:44

kinda, you know, got tough. And

6:46

they were thinking they were gonna have to scrap the season.

6:48

And she said, well, hold on. Can we

6:49

just listen to this pilot

6:51

episode that I made as a proof of concept?

6:54

Let's just play this and see what we've got.

6:57

And that first episode was a badwatch

6:59

episode. And once they once they heard

7:01

that one, they really loved it. So they

7:04

greenlighted the whole thing and and we put

7:06

together our first season and it was such

7:08

a success that, you know, they've had us they've had

7:10

us back every year. So

7:12

I

7:12

love it. I love it. It sounds like

7:15

monster stories and ghost stories

7:17

must have been a part of your upbringing, because for

7:19

Chelsea to have seen

7:20

a poster on the wall of an REI

7:23

office, and

7:24

to, like, take that and think of a Camp Monster

7:27

podcast. And then for you to end

7:29

up becoming the host, like, there has

7:31

to be some sort of like ghost

7:33

culture in your family. Well,

7:35

I had two younger sisters and I had to scare

7:38

That's true. She was one of them. And so, you know,

7:40

she knows how it was. But the problem was I was I

7:42

would always scare myself as well.

7:44

You know, where we grew up the

7:46

the

7:48

nearest large green

7:50

space that we had to kind of

7:52

to play in

7:53

was a cemetery. And

7:54

so as

7:55

I was going out. What? It sounds really more

7:57

of it. It sounds really more of it to say, but it wasn't at the

7:59

time. It

7:59

was just a big open green space

8:02

that we could play in. So regularly

8:04

growing up, we'd go down to the cemetery and

8:06

play and run around. And

8:08

this was back in the day

8:10

when I guess you were comfortable. People felt comfortable

8:12

with you know, a ten year old

8:14

or something going there and and playing

8:16

on our own. So we'd be

8:18

running around this cemetery. And of course, I'd

8:20

have to make up stories about

8:22

the people and make up

8:24

stories about the things in the

8:26

woods, the only the the the woods

8:28

were pretty intimidating all around

8:30

that that cemetery. So

8:33

so those kind of stories, I

8:35

would make them up on on the fly and tell them,

8:37

but the problem was as soon as Chelsea

8:39

or my other sister, Alexis, got

8:41

scared and ran for home. I was not far

8:43

behind them because by the time I got them

8:45

scared, I was right there with him and convinced

8:47

that whatever it was was gonna fly out of those

8:49

trees at me. So Oh my

8:51

gosh. That's amazing. Yeah.

8:53

Scaring your siblings is is it was

8:55

a big part of of growing up.

8:57

Everything I have, I have

8:59

thanks to scaring my siblings, you know. I mean,

9:01

that's really where it comes what it comes

9:03

down to. Wise's

9:06

sister Chelsea remembers his

9:09

scary stories pretty well,

9:11

so he got them together for a little

9:13

family reunion. As far

9:15

and

9:16

as what West did to scare us, like

9:18

he he was

9:19

always a good storyteller and so

9:21

after the big storm that happened in nineteen

9:23

ninety five, they knocked a bunch of trees over

9:25

and one of the trees like split in

9:27

a way that the trunk looked like a

9:29

big bird And so

9:31

Wes took

9:32

us there, my sister and I, and

9:34

told us that it was a devil bird

9:36

and

9:36

it came alive at night. and

9:38

would fly over the cemetery and, like,

9:40

snatch up kids

9:41

or people who dared to go through the cemetery. So

9:44

That's right. Although the Denver story

9:46

backfired because I scared myself of that one. Yes.

9:48

We

9:48

all went screaming out of the cemetery. Yeah. He

9:50

is so good at writing stories. He scared

9:52

himself.

9:56

Weston

9:56

prided himself on scaring

9:58

the crap out of Chelsea and their

10:00

sister, Alexis, with ghost

10:02

stories and urban legends.

10:04

He always had

10:06

a flair for the dramatic. In

10:08

junior high in high school, Weston

10:10

started acting in plays and

10:12

after college he pursued theater

10:14

professionally in Chicago. Ten

10:16

years later, Weston decided that

10:18

it was time for a change of pace.

10:21

He moved back to the Pacific Northwest,

10:23

he got a day job, he

10:25

started a family, and he thought

10:27

his professional acting days

10:29

were behind him. That

10:31

all changed when Chelsea asked him to

10:33

write and record a sample episode

10:36

of Camp Monsters. Becoming

10:38

the accidental host was

10:40

in many ways a blessing

10:43

in disguise. It gave

10:45

Wes a chance to flex his acting

10:47

muscles, plus he gets to

10:49

creatively write out the scary

10:51

stories that are rattling around in

10:53

his

10:53

head. Okay.

10:58

So how many monsters have you

11:01

guys featured so far?

11:03

Let's

11:03

see. We've done thirty

11:06

two now, and we'll have forty by

11:08

the time this season

11:10

is complete. And that's full

11:12

episodes. And then in between our full

11:14

seasons, we've had little

11:16

smaller monster stories. kind of little

11:18

monster blurbs as it were. Sometimes we take them

11:20

overseas and we do creatures from

11:22

other countries. So all

11:24

told we're probably pushing fifty fifty

11:26

creatures now. How do

11:27

you learn about these creatures? Like,

11:29

where do you learn about them? How do you hear

11:31

about them? Yeah.

11:32

It is a deep dive What's

11:35

really cool and really exciting about getting to

11:37

do this podcast is that

11:39

you

11:39

really get to access all these local legends.

11:42

I mean, we really just scratched the surface in

11:44

terms of what

11:45

people in one particular region

11:47

or one particular area

11:49

have as kind of common knowledge in

11:51

their area. People will write in

11:53

and tell us, oh, we should do an episode

11:56

about this

11:57

creature that I've never heard of. I mean, you've never

11:59

heard of, but in particular

12:01

part of the country, everybody knows about this thing,

12:03

you know, and it has a whole backstory and a whole

12:05

legend related to it. So our

12:07

listeners provide us with a lot of ideas and

12:10

the Internet fills in some spaces, fills in

12:12

a few blanks, you know. And then imagination

12:14

also plays a bit of a role when you've got

12:16

that foundation laid and you've got to go in there

12:18

and and

12:19

decide what it

12:20

would be like to

12:22

actually encounter this creature. Oh,

12:24

I love that. So how do you research

12:26

them? What are some of the rabbit holes you go down

12:28

and

12:28

how? I wanna know like a method to

12:31

your madness. Yes. No. I like it. It's

12:33

mostly madness. The the the method is that

12:35

it's mostly madness. Some of these

12:37

creatures have Camp Fire

12:39

stories have gone and passed down through

12:41

generations for so long that you'll

12:43

find a thousand

12:45

different variations on a similar story.

12:48

online, even in books, all kinds of

12:50

things. And I just take that and run with

12:52

it. So, you know, you can

12:54

kinda get a starting point based on what

12:56

everyone's seen, what everyone's experienced, and

12:58

then with a little artistic

13:00

license, we're able to put together something. We

13:02

always try to do something different. Sometimes

13:04

it's first person sometimes a third

13:06

person, sometimes it's, you

13:08

know, kind of in the present, sometimes it's

13:10

in the past, and that always seems

13:12

to add a bit of depth to the fear factor.

13:13

I heard you listen to these stories and

13:16

share them with your kids. Oh,

13:17

yeah. Hey. Well, one of my

13:19

kids actually did one

13:21

of our mini episodes. It

13:23

was during the early days of the

13:25

pandemic, and everybody was just going so

13:27

crazy, and nobody knew what was gonna happen.

13:30

and we've been listening to a lot of episodes

13:32

and my son who was I think he

13:34

was three or four at the time. He was

13:36

retelling a lot of these stories and it

13:38

was so good that I just had to

13:40

get some

13:40

of it

13:41

on tape. So I

13:44

bought him in the studio and he was so excited

13:46

to be part of it. He

13:47

did a great job, presented a lot

13:49

of the episode just like it occurred

13:51

to him. And then

13:53

I sent it to Nick, our engineer, and

13:55

Nick couldn't

13:55

help but set it to the intro

13:58

music and the sound effects that we'd use for a

14:00

normal episode. And it was so much

14:02

fun at such a tough time

14:04

in the world that We

14:05

released it like

14:06

an episode and got a great

14:09

response. Everybody loved it. I

14:10

think we should hear a clip from that episode.

14:12

It queechew. He

14:14

was driving late at night,

14:17

and then he

14:19

saw something in the headlights at

14:22

Mount Saint Helens. who's

14:25

driving later and I can

14:27

then use

14:27

face, size packs

14:30

of eyes cuttle of

14:33

teeth and orange and blood,

14:35

and that looked like tail

14:38

but locked.

14:38

Now, Albi is very my son's name is

14:41

Albi. He's he's very he's mortified now.

14:43

You know now? He's a big boy. He's seven.

14:45

Whenever that one comes on, he makes just get

14:47

past it.

14:49

That's so cute. Do the

14:51

kids your kids, are they starting to tell their

14:53

own camp monster stories?

14:55

Oh, yeah. and they have a lot of one that they're really

14:58

upset that I haven't made into full episodes

15:00

yet. And I explain what

15:02

we're kinda trying to base it on. real

15:04

creatures and all that. And I said, yeah. But this is so

15:06

scary, dad. And so

15:08

so, you know, I I wanna pitch them. I wanna

15:10

pitch those ideas because, you know,

15:13

It's

15:13

very real to them. So

15:14

we'll just have to make it real to everyone else. And

15:16

you have a full time job as well.

15:18

I

15:18

do. Yeah. That's amazing.

15:20

Well, for those of you listening, we're recording

15:22

this at night after dinner because West

15:24

is obviously just a busy man and

15:27

you're a good model for us all. How do you

15:29

do it all?

15:30

Well, you know, I was telling a little friend of

15:32

mine that I've I'm finally

15:34

becoming the disciplined person that I

15:36

always wanted to be before before I realized how

15:38

unfunded is being a disciplined person.

15:42

Yeah. So that's it. You know, there are massive

15:44

demands on my time, especially see right

15:46

now. And so it is, it's just hammering

15:48

away at things, you know, and get up in the morning, you

15:50

start working, and you just keep working until it's time

15:52

to go to sleep again, and you get up and do it again. So

15:54

you

15:56

know, it's tough, but, you

15:58

know, you're you've you're an athlete

15:59

and an influencer and all kinds of amazing

16:02

things and so you know what it is go after

16:04

something that you really want. And I have a lot of

16:06

different things that I want, so I gotta go after all

16:08

of them. And the fun is in the journey and

16:10

in what you're doing along the way. So

16:12

I'm having a blast. When

16:16

we come back, Weston talks about

16:18

how camp monsters has evolved,

16:20

He gives us a sneak

16:21

peek of a script fresh

16:23

off the press and he shares

16:25

his advice on making art.

16:38

People are so into the camp monsters

16:40

podcast that they send Wes

16:42

handwritten fan mail to REI

16:44

headquarters. The team's

16:46

research, penchant for creativity,

16:48

and sound designed by Nick

16:51

Petrie have produced some pretty

16:53

incredible, and bone

16:55

chilling episodes. They're releasing

16:57

their fourth season right now and

16:59

already

16:59

have plans for more. There

17:01

is certainly no

17:02

shortage of monsters to investigate. The

17:05

show has featured more

17:07

than forty monsters so

17:09

far.

17:10

How has the

17:13

show evolved since, you know, that

17:15

first pilot?

17:16

You know, we've come a long way when we

17:18

have

17:18

kept the basic structure

17:21

intact. So that first season, we were doing it

17:23

very much,

17:24

very minimalist. We had

17:26

fireside sounds in the

17:28

background, We were steering clear of anything

17:30

that kinda sounded like sound effects.

17:32

It was just a fire

17:34

and a voice and that was it.

17:36

as the seasons went on and on, you know, we we're

17:38

able to keep coming back to that, but

17:42

working a little bit more suspense with

17:44

sounds and create little bit more of a

17:46

world with the sound that

17:48

I think is able to kind of bring people

17:50

that much further into the stories that we're

17:52

telling. Plus like I said, we've started

17:54

experimenting with some sort of first

17:56

person episodes where we try to take the

17:59

listener. right there along with us sort

18:01

of in the field as it were

18:04

and and other kind of plot

18:06

twists and things that just add some

18:08

layers to these

18:10

awesome creatures that everybody ought

18:12

to know about.

18:13

I'm

18:14

really curious because I've looked at some

18:16

of the reviews last night and people are obsessed

18:18

with this show. So I wanna from you what feedback

18:20

you've gotten from listeners. I

18:23

love

18:24

love them. I love

18:25

them. I love my listeners and

18:28

you know, it's cool. We have them all over the world,

18:30

and

18:30

we get reviews from

18:33

overseas. But my favorite ones, young

18:36

people of, you know, ten, eleven,

18:38

twelve, thirteen have written

18:40

letters and sent them to REI, and

18:43

they've come by way, and those are just

18:45

treasures. love every single one of them

18:47

and, you know, I was right back because I feel like

18:49

what we're doing here is accessible

18:52

to younger people and

18:55

hopefully speaks to them in a cool

18:57

way. And I just I'm honored to

18:59

be doing this because I remember being

19:01

young and getting to read stories really

19:03

impacted me and really affected me.

19:06

And and I hope that's kinda

19:08

what I'm we're able to deliver on this

19:10

show now. Yeah.

19:11

I mean, what do these letters look like

19:14

from kids? It's really cool that you reach

19:16

kids. Like, that is the coolest

19:18

genre and kids are

19:20

like the coolest

19:20

demographic ever, I think. They really are.

19:23

Yeah. They don't suffer fools. When I'm writing this

19:25

show, I'm not writing it for kids. And when you

19:27

listen to the show, I don't think it comes off

19:29

as anything that is written for

19:31

that audience because I don't think they'd like

19:33

it if we did it that way. you know, as

19:35

want something that is sort of

19:37

watered down for you. You know, you want the

19:39

real thing. that

19:41

it's being presented in a way that's still accessible to you.

19:43

And the letters we get from kids are great. Everything

19:46

from an eight year old that's still working on their

19:48

writing and spelling just telling

19:50

us how great it is and and drawing a picture

19:52

of the monster. You know, we've had crayons

19:54

that the monsters send in and all that kind of thing

19:56

and they're really good too. the way up

19:58

to, you know, twelve or thirteen year olds riding

20:00

very precisely and very well, I

20:02

might add. We had some very, very literate

20:05

young people write in

20:07

to say, It's a favorite show and

20:09

they really like it and make suggestions for

20:11

episodes and things like that. So keep them

20:13

coming. I mean, I just can't get enough of

20:15

that stuff it's like I said, it's so

20:17

meaningful to be doing something

20:19

that you hope twenty

20:21

years from now they think, gosh, that show. Why was you

20:23

just listening to as a kid? Camp officers? Yeah.

20:25

was so much fun. You know? I mean, that's if

20:27

if we do that and I think we are doing

20:30

that, I mean, that's that's as good as it

20:32

gets right there.

20:32

So endearing too. Can you give us

20:34

a sneak peek at season five?

20:37

Sure.

20:37

You know, we got a little clip here that we

20:39

haven't recorded yet even. I mean, it's hot off

20:42

the press. Yeah. I could I could do a little reading of if that's

20:44

gonna be of any use to you. I would love

20:45

that. Alright.

20:47

Let's do it.

20:49

The is main character

20:51

character driving

20:53

along a terrifying narrow road to

20:55

the woods at night. That's

20:58

really all we need to know.

21:00

It shouldn't be

21:02

far now. Trevor

21:05

squinted out into night

21:07

ahead looking for

21:08

signs. And as

21:11

he did,

21:11

he cut just the slightest glimpse

21:14

of movement. way off of the edge

21:16

of his windshield almost beyond

21:18

the palest fringe of his headlight.

21:20

A sudden movement of

21:23

flashing reflection of eyes and pay on this

21:25

and emotion he couldn't interpret

21:27

at first.

21:28

Like a Something

21:30

like a

21:30

throwing motion.

21:33

Trevor would have

21:34

looked in that direction if the very next

21:36

instant the whole world

21:38

hadn't shattered, but

21:42

it did.

21:46

cut out the sound of pages turning. I

21:48

thought I was part of

21:51

it. Trevor had

21:53

slammed on the brakes when his world

21:55

exploded, but in the next hard beat.

21:57

He decided he was in no hurry to meet

21:59

whoever throwing that rock, so he put

22:01

the pedal to the floor. Little

22:04

van's wheels spun in the gravel just

22:06

as something low and

22:08

dark, broke cover from the edge of the forest

22:10

ahead, running towards

22:12

the van. running

22:14

with unbelievable speed. Trevor

22:16

only saw it for a moment before

22:18

the van spinning drift pointed his

22:21

headlights in the other direction. Whatever

22:23

it was, Trevor did

22:25

not want to meet it.

22:27

And we'll leave

22:30

it

22:30

there. Yeah.

22:31

Got me. Oh,

22:33

it's about to get real. It's so

22:35

good.

22:35

You're very talented, Wes.

22:40

So did you

22:43

take any, like, voice

22:45

lessons or

22:46

growing up? Okay.

22:48

Yeah. I mean, as a part of wanting to

22:51

be a theater artist, you

22:53

know, I worked on

22:55

singing and I worked on speech

22:58

and addiction and, you know,

23:01

voice. But it's just an ongoing process.

23:03

You know, it's something that you just have to kinda keep

23:05

working on. And again, working in the audio space is a lot

23:07

different because in theater, you're a

23:09

lot of it's working on projection and addiction and

23:11

making sure that people can hear you

23:13

whereas in the audio space, it's very

23:16

intimate. I'm gonna have to remind myself that

23:18

I can speak

23:19

very softly. I think we're

23:21

still gonna hear what I have to say. and

23:23

it's gonna draw them in to certain points

23:25

of the story. You know, so that's been a

23:27

real adjustment. Not only do you

23:29

record a show, but you write it, which

23:31

is a whole other skill, any

23:33

advice on people who wanna write scripts

23:35

for podcasting. Like, how do you

23:37

do it? How did you learn how to do it? How

23:39

do you get better at it?

23:41

Yeah. Like

23:42

anything else. I wish I had a magic bullet, but

23:44

I think it really comes down to doing it and

23:46

then listening to yourself and

23:49

being not being afraid to be know, not tearing yourself down

23:51

and saying, oh, gosh, you know, going down

23:53

that road of being really negative, but

23:56

just listening to yourself and saying like, if I

23:58

were listening to this

23:58

and I didn't know

23:59

me, I would want

24:01

more here, I'd want less

24:03

there. And a lot of times,

24:05

it's about less when it comes to these at

24:07

least the dramatic side of of

24:09

a podcast script. because

24:12

the temptation is always to tell people too

24:14

much. And when I write a script, I

24:17

found even just this

24:19

season that I to let myself just

24:21

write and write and write and I'll just scribble it

24:23

out long hand because I need

24:25

to build the world enough that then

24:27

I can narrow it down and focus

24:29

on, okay, now that I've got these

24:31

great characters, and I've got this great creature, and I've got

24:33

this great world, what

24:35

are the parts that are actually exciting? What parts can we

24:37

you know, how can we

24:38

move through this story in a way that's

24:40

gonna be engaging from start

24:43

to finish?

24:43

What do you hope camp monsters does

24:45

and gives for listeners? That's a

24:47

good

24:47

question. I'm gonna say I hope it gives them two

24:50

things. I hope that it gives them worlds

24:52

that they're able to

24:55

jump into and inhabit and

24:57

experience that are different than

25:00

maybe they've experienced before in their life or

25:02

in their podcast listening or just in

25:04

the way that they engage with

25:06

this large entertainment sphere

25:08

that we have. here. And then part two would be, I hope the way

25:10

that we tell these stories and the way that we structure these

25:13

stories lets them know

25:14

that you can tell a

25:16

really great story without

25:19

telling

25:19

too much that

25:20

you can engage people and you can

25:22

give them a positive experience

25:26

that involves a lot of negative factors. So most of our stories,

25:28

you know, they go to pretty intense places,

25:30

but we always manage to bring

25:32

them back to something

25:34

that's relatively, I don't want

25:36

to say uplifting,

25:37

but it's relatively positive.

25:39

And I think it's really important

25:42

in the world today and also in the entertainment

25:44

space. We think we have a responsibility as

25:46

artists to change

25:48

the world in a positive

25:50

way. I love

25:56

that even by making and

25:58

telling Gary stories, we can bring

25:59

joy to so many people. Weston,

26:02

you're practically Superman.

26:04

I'm in awe

26:05

of your ability to work full

26:07

time to parent several young kids

26:09

and still make time to write

26:11

and create Camp Monster stories.

26:13

And your voice is

26:15

awesome. If you wanna learn more

26:17

about Weston Davis and Camp Monsters,

26:20

search for camp monsters on Apple

26:22

Podcasts, Spotify, or

26:24

wherever you listen to podcasts. To

26:26

get in touch with Weston, check

26:28

out his website, westin davis

26:30

dot com, that's WEST0NDAVIS

26:36

dot com. Wild

26:38

ideas worth living is part of the

26:40

REI podcast network. hosted

26:42

by me Shelby Stanger,

26:44

written and edited by Annie Fastener

26:46

and Sylvia Thomas of Puddle Creative.

26:49

Our senior producer is Chelsea Davis,

26:51

and our associate producer

26:53

is Jenny Barber. Right now,

26:55

we're all in Portland, Oregon or high

26:58

around is a wild idea. We're

27:00

prepping for an amazing slew of

27:02

shows for twenty twenty

27:04

three. Our executive producers on

27:06

this show are Palomotala, and

27:08

Joe Crosby. And as

27:10

always, we appreciate when you follow this

27:12

show, when you read it, and when you

27:14

take the time to write a review

27:16

wherever you listen. And

27:18

remember, some of the best adventures happen

27:20

when you follow your wildest

27:22

ideas.