INTERVIEW: Dan Riskin investigates ‘Monsters Inside Me’ on Animal Planet
Monsters Inside Me, the successful Animal Planet series, follows tales that are both horrifying and real. The show details the scary developments that can occur when humans encounter viruses, bacteria and parasites. Viewers should expect some nightmare scenarios after hearing these subjects open up about their trials and tribulations in the world.
The new series, which premieres Thursday, Oct. 29 at 9 p.m., features 10 episodes and several intense cases: a scratch on a knee that swells to the size of an orange and massive lesions that may be the beginning of leprosy.
Each of the viruses, bacteria and parasites, when magnified and animated, become monster-like, almost like stunt doubles on the movie Tremors. They are so small, yet so potentially deadly.
There to document the cases and offer expertise on these monsters is Dan Riskin, the host of the series. He’s a biologist and author of Mother Nature Is Trying to Kill You. Recently, Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Riskin about the real monsters he’s been investigating. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
Why do these little “monsters” scare humans so much? There’s the real danger involved, but is there something else about fear of things we cannot see?
It makes intuitive sense that a human would be scared of a lion because we evolved as creatures that needed to worry about being eaten, but an even bigger danger throughout our evolutionary history as a species has been the threat of the small — the monsters that can get into our bodies and kill us from the inside.
Lions have picked off a person here and there, but the bubonic plague wiped out half of the humans in Europe in two years. Diseases are far more terrifying than predators, and we know that intuitively. It’s ingrained in our DNA to be repulsed by the kinds of situations where we can get diseases.
For example, if I put some raw hamburger out in the sun for half a day and you watch a dog poop on it, you know not to eat it. That’s because your instincts have been shaped by the threat of parasites and disease throughout human evolution. That repulsion is just as important to surival as the fear of predators.
This season there are some interesting cases, including suspected MRSA and leprosy. What makes a case interesting enough to be profiled on the series?
The story needs to be relatable. Usually the victim lives in the U.S. and has a normal lifestyle, like that of the viewer. When the victim in the story starts getting sick, they deal with it in the way we would, too. They might shrug it off or go to the doctor right away. Either way, the disease sticks around, and soon it’s a life-or-death situation. I think it’s the helplessness that really resonates — these people didn’t ask to get sick, and we can sympathize with their horrors as they battle to survive.
How long does it take to produce an episode of Monsters Inside Me?
Our production company is constantly churning away on stories. We’re always looking, talking to victims and doctors, and now we’re fortunate that lots of people reach out to us with their stories.
When we get the green light to make a new season, we step it into overdrive — filming re-creations, interviewing victims, talking to experts. It takes several months to whip a season up after that green light, but we’ve had parasites “in our blood” ever since we started working on this back in 2008.
In the age of finding medical information on Google, and essentially trying to diagnose in one’s home rather than with a medical professional, do you think some folks wait too long to deal with parasites, viruses and bacteria?
If anything, I think self-diagnoses using Google causes more people to think they have parasites than actually do. But in general, I think it’s great when people take their health into their own hands. Whenever people contact me telling me they think they have a parasite, I always say, “Look, I’m an evolutionary biologist, not a medical doctor, so you need to talk to a doctor. Specifically, ask for a tropical disease expert or a parasitologist.” I don’t trust myself to make those diagnoses — parasites are serious stuff!
Many of the stories involve contracting the “monsters” when traveling. What are some tips for travelers who would rather not bring anything home?
Traveling is one of the best things a person can do, and it would be sad to avoid doing so just because you’re worried about parasites.
Any time you travel, it’s a good idea to read up on what kinds of diseases lurk where you’re going. When I went to Belize, for example, I knew botflies were a big threat, so when I came home with my own mosquito bite that kept getting bigger and bigger, I knew there was a maggot in there and knew what the prognosis was. A week later it was removed, and I was none the worse for wear. I’m not really making a good argument for traveling, am I? Never mind the botfly, you’ll be fine. Get out there!
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
My son has crypto fungi meningitis and not getting better please help
I actually had an episode of staff infection of my thumb. It landed me in the hospital for a week with surgery. I was bitten by my cat. I was dmbarrased to seek treatment for a thumb, until I had a hot, throbbing, pus oozeing thumb. I ran a temp, got very sick, and could not sleep. Redness radiated up my arm as the infection spread. I finally saw the Dr and was sent to the hospital. I was shocked such a small thing resulted in a week stay at the hospital and almost killed me.
Im not sure if anyone can help or not..my sister went overseas to peru an when she came home she started gettin very ill started with severe backpain now its gone to her muscles joints an she is only gettin worse! No tests are showing anything she has always been a healthy person we dont understand what has happened she struggles to walk anymore..if anyone can help please all the doctors she has seen which is many many doctors they say its in her head we know its not! I swear its parasites ive watched the show monsters inside me an its like she is fighting an invisible monster! Please if you can help or have any ideas let me know!
praying for your help. I have been diagnosed with blood flukes,s.mansoni and a variety of exto,protozoa,fungal parasitic,schistomiasis. .My infectious disease [deleted sentence in this comment] I HOLISTICALLY PRODUCED EVIDENCE, AND NEED TO BE INTERVIEWED AND HOPEFULLY APPRISE OTHERS OF THE DANGERS OF BEING A NATURE LOVER IN S.W.FLORIDA. NEMATODES AND TREMATOADS. PLEASE CONTACT ME, AS TIME IS OF ESSENCE OF MY QUALITY AND TIME IN THIS DIMENSION.
I am a caregiver. This antebellum home is infested with what I have discovered/been told is Black Mites/ Black Pepper Mites. They have bitten us (5 of us) and invaded our bodies. They eat and crawl ALL THROUGHOUT our body. We think they are killing us. Weaker, off balance, memory failing, out of breath, tired all the time. These things bite, you look and there’s nothing. They just went in your skin, they lay silver eggs, turns into white larvae, then bug with legs, then bugppls with wings. They rip out of your skin. Some look like ants with wings and a cream coloured band on its tail. There’s different stages, some are like crystallized salt. The micro blackish/reddish dark brown ones are very slow. Then there’s like a cream colored with a dark stripe in the middle of it’s body that is very fast. ALL of these are in and out as they choose. Please help. Doctors have no idea
Hi Sinthia : I live in Mexico and I’m suffering the same faith, I’m itchy all the time, these tine black peris- sites come out of my head, my arms ,legs , and face at this point I’m invaded. I’ve gone to specialist and they also told me its all in my head, I’ve never seen something in my thoughts make tiny holds in my body. I’m all scared up . I can fell them crawling on my face, if I wet my sink, and brush my hair out I will see tiny bubbles like round water drips, once I poop it it turns black, or silver. they also live in my nose, I’ve gone to dermatologist that told me that if I continue with that nonsense he had no trouble sending me to a mental hospital. i was so angry. this started 3 years ago and I’m still living like this. if anyone out their can tell me what are these things, id truly appreciate for the rest of my life, i truly need help. i’m an American but decided to live out here cause of the perfect weather. thanks Mary
Has anyone reached out to you
I was trying to contact the show, to try and help my sister. She has now been in and out of 2 hospitals since Thanksgiving (2017) Out of at least 10 of those visits, she has been injected with dyes for tests that have been done. Tests for her heart, bladder,uterus, and more have been done. She has a burning that goes from her vagina area up to the middle of her breast bone, she says it goes up and down non stop. They have taken out her gall bladder, and were considering a hysterectomy, until they got the tests results back. They have been up one end and down the other and not one test shows anything wrong. No cancer, no nothing. She is exhausted and continually in pain. She has also been to specialists in all these fields, and not one of these doctors can find anything wrong with her. They also took her off of her beta blocker, that she has been on for over 20 years, because her blood pressure went too low. I don’t know where to go from here, and I thought the show could recommend anything that we can do.