NPR Interviews Laura Krantz About Bigfoot

Journalist Laura Krantz found herself pulling a never-ending string once she started digging into the bigfoot background of her late distant relative Grover Krantz.

MERAJI: We do go way back. You worked here at NPR for a long time, but you left...

KRANTZ: I did.

MERAJI: ...And you spent the last year and a half making a podcast about Bigfoot called "Wild Thing." And I think a lot of us want to know why you did that.

(LAUGHTER)

KRANTZ: Sometimes I want to know why I did that. So when I was working for NPR - this would have been back in 2006, so over a decade ago - I was flipping through The Washington Post, and there was this huge article in the Style section about a guy named Grover Krantz. And I was, like, oh, same last name. Let's read a little more about this guy. He was this tenured professor of anthropology who was known for driving around the Pacific Northwest looking for Sasquatch with a spotlight and a rifle.

And so I tried to find out if we were related because the last name kind of - you know, it rang a bell. So I called my dad, and he called my grandfather, who was, like, oh, yeah. That was my cousin. And he used to show up at the family picnics and measure people's heads with calipers.

MERAJI: Grover Krantz.

KRANTZ: Yeah.

MERAJI: What a character.

KRANTZ: I know. I wish I'd met him. He died in 2002, so I never got the opportunity. But he sounds like he would have been quite the guy to have a glass of wine with.

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