Smalltown Monsters Filmmaker Discusses New Sasquatch Book

# Could AI Be the Key to Finally Finding Sasquatch? A New Book Thinks So If you've ever found yourself frustrated by the same old conversations about Bigfoot—the eyewitness accounts, the blurry photos, the endless debates over footprints—then a recent podcast episode might just be the breath of fresh air you've been waiting for. Filmmaker and author Aaron Deese, known for his work with Smalltown Monsters, sat down with Morgan Kudson on the *Supernatural Circumstances* podcast to discuss his brand-new book, *The Sasquatch Variable*, and trust me, this isn't your typical Bigfoot read. Deese makes it clear right from the start that he's not trying to solve the Bigfoot mystery single-handedly. Instead, he's taking a completely different approach to the conversation—one that treats Sasquatch encounters almost like a mathematical equation. The idea, which he credits to Cliff Barackman, is simple but brilliant: you have to have a person AND Bigfoot in the same place to have a Sasquatch encounter report. Sounds obvious, right? But when you break it down into variables and start examining all the moving parts, things get a whole lot more interesting. What really caught my attention was Deese's exploration of artificial intelligence as a potential tool for Sasquatch research. He acknowledges that the AI conversation has evolved dramatically in the three years since he first started developing this concept, and he's careful to clarify that he's talking about purpose-built systems, not the broader AI debates happening today. But the core idea is fascinating: could a future AI system analyze the patterns in thousands of eyewitness reports, footprint casts, and sighting data in ways that human researchers simply can't? Imagine feeding decades of Sasquatch encounter data into a system designed to find correlations we might have missed. And speaking of correlations, Deese and Kudson touched on something that sent chills down my spine. There's apparently a video floating around online that overlays Bigfoot sighting locations with Missing 411 cases—those mysterious disappearances in national parks that researcher David Paulides has documented extensively. The correlation between these two datasets is reportedly striking. When you start mapping where people have reported Sasquatch sightings against where people have vanished under bizarre circumstances, patterns emerge that are hard to ignore. The book also dives into some genuinely thought-provoking territory about Sasquatch camouflage. Deese explores known animal camouflage mechanisms in nature and asks whether something similar could explain those countless reports of witnesses who swear they watched a Sasquatch simply... disappear. The animal kingdom is full of creatures with incredible abilities to blend into their environments, from octopuses to certain species of frogs and insects. Could Sasquatch possess something similar? It's the kind of question that pushes the conversation beyond the typical "blurry photo" debate. Deese also references the foundational work of researchers like Dr. Jeff Meldrum, whose footprint analysis has been groundbreaking in the field, and Cliff Barackman, whose expertise in track casting and Sasquatch morphology is well-known among serious researchers. These aren't fringe ideas—they're building on established research while pushing into new territory. One thing that really stood out about Deese's perspective is his acknowledgment that he's reached a point where he got "bored" with the same old discussions. Not because eyewitness accounts aren't compelling—they absolutely are—but because he believes something is genuinely out there, and the conversation needs to evolve. After years of reviewing raw interview footage for Smalltown Monsters documentaries, he's noticed the same patterns repeating over and over: the way these beings appear, how they behave, the environments they choose. That consistency across thousands of independent reports is, in his view, strong evidence that something real is happening. *The Sasquatch Variable* isn't just another Bigfoot book rehashing the same evidence. It's an attempt to take all the pieces we've gathered—footprints, sightings, vocalizations, environmental factors—and look at them through a completely new lens. Whether you're a longtime researcher or someone who's just curious about the subject, this conversation is absolutely worth your time. Do yourself a favor and check out the full episode. Deese's enthusiasm is contagious, and his willingness to think outside the box is exactly what this field needs right now.