Question: What were some of the challenges filming a live episode as opposed to a taped one?

Josh Gates: I think a lot of the challenges haven’t happened yet, and that’s sort of the high wire act of doing a live show. I’m sure a lot of those challenges will present themselves the night of the show. This is the first time we’ve ever done a live investigation.

I served as the host of GHOST HUNTERS live on Halloween Night. I’ve done that for four or five years now and it’s a pretty complex machine. I mean, you’re trying to really bring the viewer in and let them experience what it’s like to do an investigation in real time, and broadcast that live. It’s sort of the anything can happen saying, and I’m sure anything will.

We’re obviously up against the challenge of filming internationally and trying to broadcast that -- weather is always a factor in Ireland -- and really our focus is about the investigation. And so, we’re trying to use interesting technology. We have these wireless backpack cameras that are able to transmit live and actually show viewers various people investigating throughout these ruins.  It’s going to be a really challenging night, but we’re really excited about it, we’re ready for it, and excited to get over to Ireland and see what happens.

Question: What’s been your favorite place out of all the different episodes and all the different places you’ve ever visited?

Josh Gates: That’s a tough question. I have a sort of standing bucket list of places that I’d like to go to, and actually one of our new episodes that’s coming up is in Antarctica -- it’s a place I’ve wanted to go to for a very long time.

We were really fortunate to be able to bring the show there and it’s an incredible episode. There are these amazing ghost stories about these abandoned whaling stations and science facilities down at the bottom of the world, and we actually sailed from the bottom of South America.

Question: What are some interesting things you discovered researching banshee before you headed over to Ireland?

Josh Gates: I think we experienced some of the same surprises that we experienced when we were investigation the leprechaun story last year, which is that there’s this really intense connection in Ireland to their folklore. And you meet a lot of people who really are invested in these paranormal reports. They really believe that these ghosts are there, they believe that the banshee is there, and they claim to have had these first person experiences that are really compelling when you listen to them.

Question: When you’re in a foreign land investigating ghosts why do you ask questions in English and expect to get a response back in English?

Josh Gates: Well, we don’t always expect a response back in English. When we go and we do these investigations, we bring a lot of different recording equipment. We set both audio recorders and video recorders up throughout the place where the sightings have been purported. And we take all that data back and we look for anything that sounds like speech, anything that sounds like it might be an EVP. 

Question: When doing a live event, is there fear that maybe nothing at all is going to happen?

Josh Gates: One of the things that we’re really intent on doing with this live show is making it about the investigation. And when we go to investigate these locations we have to boil that down to a very small amount of what actually happened. For us to be able to show you in real time what happens out there, I think it’s going to be really interesting. Our investigations are typically exciting, they’re typically funny from time-to-time, so I think it’s going to be an unexpected night. And I think that this is a place that has a pretty interesting reputation for a lot of strange activity. So, we’re very hopeful that we’ll be able to showcase some of that.

Question: When you go to a place like this, does the team spend some time coming up with, possible theories that could debunk this? Or do you just kind of go into it, to see what happens?

Josh Gates: I think what we’ll be doing during the live investigation is talking about the specific reports in and around Duckett’s Grove, which is this sprawling parcel of land with this really kind of imposing ruined estate on it, and talking about, “Well, could it be this, could it be that?” Certainly, I think that the simplest explanation for people’s experiences is often the right one, and so we’ll be looking for ways to debunk these claims.

Question: Is there actually a visual element to the banshee or is it mostly auditory?

Josh Gates: The sort of auditory element of the banshee is what’s she’s famous for, right? She has this piercing wail that really defines the banshee. The sound of the banshee is something that if you walk down the street in Ireland and polled 100 people and asked them about the banshee’s wail, you’d be amazed at how many people will have something to say about it. There are a lot of people who claim that just before a death they have heard this keening or this wailing. 

Question: What originally inspired you to sort of get into this investigative line of work?

Josh Gates: I’m in it for the women and the money! No, that’s not true.

I’m a travel nut. My father worked overseas when I was a kid. He was a commercial diver. He’s retired now. My mom’s British so we would go over to England once a year. And from a really early age, I just had this real intense desire to go and see what was outside of those airplane windows.

Question: The world has changed a lot in the past few years. Has it affected your way of doing your job and traveling around the world?

Josh Gates: In a lot of ways it hasn’t. There are obviously political hotspots around the world they sometimes become off limits for us to film in for obvious reasons. But, I think that one of the things that’s always amazing to me is how no matter what the particular conflict, people everywhere we go are almost universally unbelievably hospitable and welcoming. They want to share their stories. They want to work with us. They want to have their history and their culture featured and celebrated.

Question: Have you retired your pants that split last season?

Josh Gates: Yes. They have been retired.  Most of my wardrobe just makes it through one outing and then it usually needs to be burned.

Question: Most of the time your investigations take place at night. Why do you mostly focus on night expeditions when some creatures may actually be daytime creatures?

Josh Gates: In the instances where they tend to be seen during the day, we do go out during the day and investigate. You have to also remember kind of what makes it to the screen is not usually the full complement of what we’ve done out there. Part of the answer is that the night investigations are more compelling. Without beating around the bush, it’s certainly more interesting to go look for things at night than to look for them during the day.

Question: With the live event do you plan a follow-up or wrap up of the evidence you’ve uncovered?

Josh Gates: What we’ve decided to do is actually to try process a lot of the analysis in real time. Because the appeal of the event is to see a live investigation, we want to be able to give viewers live analysis as well.

We have a few special guests appearing on the show, and we’re going to have some familiar faces from other shows on the channel. We’re going to have some of those people while we’re investigating, working on the evidence, listening for EVPs, scrubbing through tapes.

Question: Do you guys meet together and discuss different ideas as to where you’ll go and where you won’t go? Have there been any other really wacky ideas that you guys just said, “No way we’re going to do that,” and can you tell us about any of them?

Josh Gates: Well, usually the channel tells me that we’re not going to do it. I’m the one that wants to go do the wacky idea. We’ve wanted to do something in Iraq for a while, but it just doesn’t seem to go over very well.

Question: Is there going to be any kind of interactive aspect to the live event  for the fans?

Josh Gates: Yes, we are going to have some interactive elements to the show, and what we’re trying to do is really make the focus about the investigation. We don’t want to step away from the investigation too much and get too bogged down in stuff that doesn’t keep our focus on the show.

Question: How do you pick new team members?

Josh Gates: We pick them very carefully. It’s just that the nature of the way we film is that we come home for wide stretches in between the times that we go out, and our crew are people that are in demand on all sorts of projects. So, we have a rotating group of people that come on and off the show. We also try to bring people that are tailored to each of the expeditions that we’re doing, people who speak different languages and have different regional expertise.