Podcast Review: Wild Boys from the Chameleon Podcast

What would you do if two “Wild Boys” showed up in your town without family or connections? How far would you go to help them?

I’ve threatened it since I was a kid: one day, I’ll move somewhere, change my name, and become a whole new person without you! People would talk about this kid who went to my church and how he just set off on his own adventure cross country (it didn’t exactly end well), and even though I didn’t know him, it all sounded so romantic and freeing. I could do that! I could become anyone I wanted! Except for one small problem… I never really planned on leaving; it was just a fun idea. But what if I had left? And what if I moved to an entirely different country where no one knew me? Would my story be as intriguing as the story of the two “wild boys” from Chameleon’s podcast series?

Each season, the Chameleon podcast team tackles a new topic, and Wild Boys follows host Sam Mullins as he revisits a story that hits close to home. Growing up, Sam heard reports of two boys who came from the wilderness to live in their small Canadian town. Although the story intrigued him as a kid, he forgot about it for a long time until one day, he got the idea to turn it into a podcast.

Should you listen?

Wild Boys grabbed my attention from the start; although it doesn’t involve murder or violent crimes, it’s a fascinating story about human nature. The podcast unfolds like something out of a best-selling novel: in 2003, two boys, claiming to be orphans with no family, arrive in a town where they know no one. Yet, kind people care for and try to help them, even after they discover the boys aren’t who they say they are. It’s hard to keep a secret, so what happens when the truth comes out?

Wild Boys touches on the capacity for human kindness, the professional treatment of eating disorders in Canada vs. the United States, and the psychology behind our choices. Trust me; there’s no time to be bored during the 9-part podcast series. Listen for yourself:

They’d been raised in the British Columbia wilderness, and this was their first-ever contact with society — they’d never seen a TV, gone to school, or registered for IDs. So the community took them in and set about introducing them to the modern world. Before long, the international media descended on the town, enthralled by the mysterious “Bush Boys.” There was just one problem: not a word the boys said was true. Nearly 20 years later, award-winning comedian and journalist Sam Mullins uncovers the bizarre true story of the strangers who turned his hometown upside-down.

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