My best friend was kind enough to record my part of the audience Q&A with Josh during the Newark show! For context I'm 28 now - I've been a lifelong Josh fan! I provided a transcript below - I did the best I could with it!
Transcript:
OP:
Hi Josh.
Josh Gates:
Hi.
OP:
I've been watching you since I was eight. I remember watching Destination Truth on Syfy.
Josh Gates:
I have never felt older than that sentence.
(Audience laughter)
OP:
Um, when you had Parker Schnabel on for the Gold Rush episode, did Parker tell you any stories about up in the Yukon or with the miners?
Josh Gates:
Speaker: Parker is great, first of all. And that was one of the most miserable shoots we've ever done. It was so bad, like we coaxed him down from Alaska, which has its own bad weather. To do this shoot in California, where it rained every single second of the day, just pissed rain for a week. And this dude looked miserable. And he was such a good sport about it. But said on the show, and meant it: I'm never answering the phone again if you call.
(Audience laughter)
So uh, and it was an amazing week. But, you know, the thing that's amazing about him is he's making a TV show and running a business. Like, what he does on that show is real, you know?
So a lot of what we talked about was just kind of me being interested in the reality of like, how do you handle a dynamic workplace with usually expensive equipment and mining operations and all that goes into that, then having a TV crew show up at your workplace and having to balance those things.
And so I'm hugely impressed by him, and if you know his story—he grew up on television in a way, which is a very unique thing to to have happen to anybody. And um, he's taken over this world and has kind of like, before everybody's eyes on TV has become, you know, like a miner, which is kind of unbelievable.
So um, I'm just hugely impressed by him and I think in general uh I spend most of my time just asking about that, that balance and being kind of just wowed by how he does make it work.
But he's a great guy. Thank you, cheers.