The MeidasTouch Podcast - Wondery Presents: Will Be Wild

Episode Date: April 27, 2022

From critically acclaimed podcast studios Pineapple Street and Wondery comes a new 8-part series called Will Be Wild that shines a light on the human stories left out of the headlines. It goes deep into the lives of people who took part in that day. People who saw it coming. And people who fear that January 6th was just the beginning of something, not the end. Follow Will Be Wild wherever you get your podcasts, or you can listen early on Amazon Music or early and ad-free by subscribing to Wondery Plus in Apple Podcasts or the Wondery app. Listen Here: wondery.fm/Meidas_WillBeWild Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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is Brett and today I gotta share with you a very special series that you have to subscribe and listen to. I mean, wow, this is incredibly, incredibly special. The January 6th insurrection, right? Arguably the biggest story of our time and one of the biggest in American history. But there's still so much we don't know. We're all still piecing this puzzle together. In comes my new favorite series, Will Be Wild, from the critically acclaimed podcast studios Pineapple Street and Wondery. We all remember that infamous Trump tweet before the insurrection that this series is named after when Trump proclaimed, while he was still on Twitter, I may add, be there on January 6th. Will be wild. Man,

we really should have heeded that warning. Well, this new podcast series, Will Be Wild, shines a light on the human stories left out of the headlines. It goes deep into the lives of people who took part in that day, the people who saw it coming, and the people who fear that January 6th was just the beginning of something and not the end. So today, I am thrilled to bring you an exclusive preview of Will Be Wild. You can find the show wherever you get podcasts or listen early on Amazon Music or early and ad-free by subscribing to Wondery Plus in the Apple Podcasts or Wondery app. Here's a little taste of what you could expect from the series.

It's Christmas Eve, 2020, when Jackson Reffitt makes the biggest decision of his life. He's been watching anime in his bedroom, or trying to. I just hear behind my wall my dad talking about the government and Nancy Pelosi, and it's all mumbled, and I'm just like, God, this is just, it's crazy. Like, it's crazy talk. Jackson's 18 years old, and he's come to the conclusion that his father is a dangerous man, and he needs to do something about it. What did he say that made you think he could be violent? That he's going to do something big.

And I know that's very vague, and that's what I think triggered me to be so worried about it, is how vague it was and how, I guess, active he was. It just got to a point where I was getting so paranoid and anxious and nervous that I didn't really, I almost wanted to take this off my shoulders and give it to someone else. He Googles, how to tip the FBI. A text box pops up. Jackson looks at the blank space and gives himself a pep talk. Okay, I'm going to do this right now.

I have to do this right now. Get it over with. I'm going to just do it. He starts to type. I don't know what my dad's doing. He's a part of a couple organizations, Texas Freedom Force, I believe it's called. He's prominent three percenters. He says he's high up in the organization.

He says he's doing something big. I don't know what, but I'm just worried. I don't know where he's high up in the organization. He says he's doing something big. I don't know what, but I'm just worried. I don't know where he's going. He might do something soon. I have no idea. And send. Although they lived under one roof, Jackson Reffitt and his dad were not close. The older Jackson got, the more he came to see his dad as bossy and intolerant.

Still, he didn't start to worry about what his dad was capable of until the pandemic hit. That's when his dad joined the militia, the Three Percenters. He started patrolling racial justice rallies as a self-appointed security force protecting private property. He got obsessed with this one Black Lives Matter activist. Jackson found out about it from his mom, who knocked on his door late one night. She talked about a BLM preacher off Facebook that my dad was keeping an eye on. I was like, what are you talking about? She was like, your dad went to Mississippi for this guy. He tried tracking him to find dirt on him. And I was like, what? This is weird.

Jackson's dad has disputed this version of events. He says it's all his son's fantasy. But Jackson sees it as part of a bigger pattern. He says his dad got deep into conspiracy theories, was stockpiling ammo and gasoline, water and a generator, convinced that electrical power in the U.S. would shut down and the electoral votes would be reset. He was clearly, I don't want to say unstable.

I don't even know a word for it. Everything about Jackson feels like a direct rebuttal to his dad's brand of masculinity. He wears his long, wavy hair pulled back in a pink scrunchie. There's a miniature Winnie the Pooh doll dangling from his cell phone that's a gift from his girlfriend. And where Jackson is soft-spoken, his father can be downright aggressive. This is a quote he uses a lot in his arguments. He put me in this world, he can take me out.

That's a classic for him. He loves that one. He said that to you? Oh, all the time. He'll get in my face. He's like, I put you in this effing world, I can take you out. It happens a lot. And I don't think it's okay. And my dad has had moments of violence. I mean, have you read the reports of him choking on my mom? It's pretty horrible. All of this is weighing on Jackson when he hears his dad in late 2020 talking about doing something big. I was like, I can't call the police. I mean, they're going to come here and do what? They're going to do nothing. So I was just like the FBI. I mean, you can send in tips to the FBI. I mean, almost everyone knows that. And after pressing send, he feels some semblance of relief.

Okay, that's off me. It's on their shoulders. Whatever they do, whatever they say, whatever my dad does, it's on them. USA! USA! USA! I'm Andrea Bernstein. And I'm Ilya Maritz. From Pineapple Street Studios, Wondery, and Amazon Music, this is Will Be Wild, a podcast about January 6th. But it's not a recap of the news you hear every day. It's a deeper look into the forces that led to an insurrection and the fight to save democracy before it's too late.

It's about the people who were there that day. Y'all, we're one block away from the Capitol now. I'm probably going to go silent when I get there because I'm going to be a little busy. The people who saw it coming. We're not saying we think that when the president speaks, people do violent things. We're saying the evidence shows that it happens. And the people whose lives will never be the same.

I mean, there were people in the crowd that were chanting things like, you know, get his gun, kill him with his gun. We talk about January 6th like it's in the crowd that were chanting things like, you know, get his gun, kill him with his gun. We talk about January 6th like it's in the past, a day in history that we survived. But it's more than that. No, we didn't dodge a bullet. That was a practice run. Right? Insurrections without consequences are just practice runs. Follow We'll Be Wild wherever you get your podcasts. Or you can listen early on Amazon Music or early and ad-free by subscribing to Wondery Plus in Apple Podcasts or the Wondery app.