A teenage FBI tipster, intelligence officials, and more share stories from the January 6th insurrection on ‘Will Be Wild’
Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios present “Will Be Wild,” an 8-part series sharing stories left out of the headlines. Start this season from the beginning to take an in-depth look at what led to the January 6th Capitol insurrection, what followed, and what could happen next.
This story is told by different characters involved in the day – from an FBI tipster to intelligence officials and other folks who foresaw the series of events – we’ll also hear from people who partook in the insurrection and those on the frontlines who tried to stop the attack. There are folks who worry January 6th and Trump’s call to storm the Capitol are just the beginning of more impending horrors.
Hosts Andrea Bernstein and Ilya Marritz examine the effort to bring autocracy to America and how these efforts are chipping away at our democracy. This podcast also explores our attempts to fight anti-democratic forces in America.
Episode 1 begins interviewing a teenager in Wiley, TX who suspected his father was about to commit wide-scale violence and submitted a tip via the FBI’s website. Meanwhile, a government official in Washington, DC learned about online plans to interfere with the presidential election certification, and this knowledge fell on deaf ears.
By episode 2, we learned that nearly 1 in 7 of the people charged with insurrection-related crimes had military or law-enforcement backgrounds. If the government knew about radicalization spreading in the military and to the general public, why did they not address growing issues?
The Department of Homeland Security’s job is to protect America against foreign and domestic threats. Evidence continues to pile up about homegrown radicalism in the US, but the DHS did not issue any warnings prior to January 6th. Two agency insiders joined episode 3 to explain why. Episode 4 unpacks the Reffitt family’s involvement in January 6th and what the future holds for them.
How is political discordance tearing apart American families? Is the government prepared to combat growing threats against democracy? What is happening to the people who followed Trump’s orders? These are just some of the questions explored in “Will Be Wild.”
The first episodes were released in April and run less than an hour on average. Tune in weekly for new episodes. If you’re a Wondery+ subscriber, you’ll have early and ad-free access to new episodes.
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