Photo byJupiter Images

-- Do you think that the Bermuda Triangle exists? Tune in tonight and let us know what you think.

Is It Real: Bermuda Triangle airs tonight at 7p et/pt.

Shachar Kafka - Post Facilities Supervisor
Ahhhh….coffee shops….the only hang out where they really want you to hang out. A few years ago my sister and I started meeting on Sundays at our local coffee shop in Baltimore. She was supposed to teach me how to crochet, but our conversations always ended up on every other topic except yarn! I think that we both learned a lot more about each other by enjoying each other’s company casually.

The coffee shop was a great place to meet and catch up without feeling like we were taking up valuable space or someone’s time. Whether we only got coffee or ended up staying for lunch, the owner would always make sure we were happy and comfortable. With our hectic lives, it is really nice to have a place to relax and catch up without a time limit.

Share your coffee house stories with us and you can check out Coffee: Beans To Buzz tomorrow night at 7p et/pt

Greetings. I first want to thank everyone for taking the time to write into the blog. I am very excited about the show on Monday night, and have spent the week in the US talking about it. 20/20 ran a great preview friday night - I hope you were able to see it - and of course the full documentary premieres Monday night at 9 on NGC.

There have been so many great comments and questions, I wish I could reply to each of you. But, there is one thing I want to address - and that has to do with my kids. I think it is important for people to know that while living with the wolves involved great sacrifice on my part and my family's part, my children continue to be and will always be an important part of my life. As I am sure any parent can relate too, you never stop loving your kids - even when you are not able to spend time with them. I do see them frequently, and they along with my fiancée Helen are very supportive of the work I do. Frankly, I couldn't do it without them. For me, the wolves are also my family, and I do love them too. I am so committed to the work that I do so that wolves will still be around in my children's future.

Thanks again for all of the great comments!

Best,

Shaun

NGC: When did you become interested in studying wolves?
Shaun Ellis: It began growing up in a farming community where we always had dogs. Preferring to spend time with them versus other little kids was probably the first indication. Because we were surrounded by forest where I was living, animals such as foxes always deeply interested me. My perception of wolves was much the same as any other kid. I was brought up to fear them. But it was through the fox that I got interested in wolves at an early age.

NGC: Why did you decide to join a wolf pack?
Shaun Ellis: It was really evident that what we were learning from a scientific point of view from wolves wasn’t very much. The Native Americans I lived with knew far more about wolves than we ever did. I believe it was because they had the time to live alongside these creatures, to share their world.

NGC: What do think can be learned from your research?
Shaun Ellis: I think the research into wolf interaction with rival packs has tremendous possibilities. The work we’ve done at Wolf Pack Management is a mere start to what can be achieved. I think a lot more researchers could benefit from understanding the workings of a pack. Maybe it’s for people like myself who are actually living with these guys to help the scientists and maybe bridge the gap between the wolves and mankind.

NGC: How do you respond to critics who question your approach?
Shaun Ellis: They have called me bizarre, neurotic or silly, and said that what I am doing is pointless. “Animals don’t need a human to teach them how to behave.” Many of these critics are generally misinformed about my intentions. This is not a one-time experiment. My “science,” or my way of researching wolf behavior, is from inside the pack and actually becoming part of their world — exploring the unknown and untested. I think the madness that some people will see in living alongside a pack of wolves will be justified when people see the results of what we’ve learned.

NGC: What are your long-term goals for the wolves you work with?
Shaun Ellis: My ultimate ambition is to introduce a captive pack of wolves into the wild and live with them. I have so far been able to teach a pack of captive wolves to behave more naturally and instinctively. I learned a tremendous amount from raising these wolf pups. The next step is to work with a new pack, and make slight adjustments in raising them so that they do not take on elements of the human world and can eventually be released into the wild.

NGC: So you literally sleep and eat with the wolves?
Shaun Ellis: The lunch that I have with them is slightly cooked. The wolf pack is determined by the food that it eats. Dominant animals such as alphas are largely eating food such as brain, heart, liver, kidneys and fresh meat. Each social order is determined by the food that they eat. So in order for me to maintain my position I have to eat the food source that I’m allowed to eat. In this case my colleagues would flash-cook the food to a very rare standard and then place it in a bag inside the carcass where it would normally be found. When the carcass is brought in, both myself and the wolves have to defend what’s ours; the only difference is that mine is placed in a nice bag inside the carcass rather than the carcass itself. Water is available from a bag in the woods. Drinking water is fine.

NGC: Which wolves are you with now?
Shaun Ellis: We’ve introduced four new pups to the pack I raised. Now we’re observing a pack of adult wolves teaching the pups as opposed to me doing it personally. Although the work is not as round the clock as it was, you still have to spend a lot of hours in there with them.

NGC: After you’ve been with the wolves, is it difficult to interact with humans again?
Shaun Ellis: Wolves don’t suffer things like guilt or remorse. They don’t have any problems with the amount of discipline that they give to a fellow pack member, because in their world, the family is what matters, not the individual. So when you go in with a pack of wolves, you have to leave your emotions at the gate. When you come back out, it’s very difficult to pick those emotions back up again. My family has said that it’s very difficult to communicate with me for three or four weeks after I’ve come out from living with the wolves. But I seem to be able to move more easily between the two worlds now.

NGC: How long do you see yourself doing this kind of work?
Shaun Ellis: Giving your all to these animals means that something’s got to be second best, and that’s my partner Helen and the family right now. Because of that, there’s going to have to be an avenue for me at some point not to live with the wolves anymore but to take what we’ve learned and maybe establish some other way of helping these animals.

NGC: What would you say to someone who sees this program and wants to try it?
Shaun Ellis: Don’t do it. It’s very dangerous for people who haven’t been trained to think that they can just walk into a wolf pack and be accepted.

Preview A Man Among Wolves and check back later in the week for an interview with the producer Bernard Walton.

A Man Among Wolves premieres Monday, April 16, 9:00 et/pt.

Josh Gershenson - Producer

Much like the program itself, producing The Final Report: Watergate was a process of answering questions.

How could we make this program as authentic and accurate as possible?
During filming, authenticity was critical. Watergate is one of the most covered stories in American history, and we knew viewers would recognize inaccurate props or scenes. With that in mind, we contacted The Watergate Hotel to film on location. The hotel gladly gave us the go-ahead. A few weeks later, I showed up with my Director of Photography and Audio Engineer. I had a laundry list of shots we needed for the program, one of them being the famous shot of the stairwell that the Watergate burglars taped open during the break-in.

That Saturday, the three of us set up lights outside the stairwell and started to map out our first couple of shots. We were so engrossed in our filming that we failed to notice a hotel security guard walking through the parking garage toward us. He must have thought that we were breaking into the hotel because he shined his flashlight in our faces and yelled, "HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Within minutes, I explained the situation and he walked away. I turned to my crew and said, "Okay, I want this show to be authentic, but that was ridiculous!"

As it turned out, we were more authentic than we knew. I hadn't planned it, but we were filming our Watergate abstracts on the exact anniversary of the Watergate break-in, June 17th, 2006 -- 34 years to the day. That night, I went to sleep in room 214 and my Director of Photography slept above me in room 314, the two rooms rented 34 years ago by the Watergate burglars. I have to admit -- it was an eerie experience, one I'll never forget.

How could we tell the story of Watergate in a way that was different than previous programs?
It had been 34 years since the Watergate burglary and in that time, other networks and production companies had produced a number of terrific documentaries. So what was our angle? What would we do differently? For months, we researched the subject, looking for any new angle.

The results were shocking. Even 34 years after the fact, heated debates raged among key members of Nixon's staff and historians. What were the Watergate burglars looking for? What was on the 18 and a half-minute gap? And of course, "What did the President know and when did he know it?"

Rather than guess at possible answers, we turned to the best living experts, journalists and former Nixon aides, including: John Dean, Alexander Butterfield, Chuck Colson, Lesley Stahl, Ben Bradlee, G. Gordon Liddy, Leonard Garment, Lowell Weicker and Stanley Kutler. Almost immediately, I was taken aback by the connection these people felt to the Watergate story. For Lesley Stahl, it was the first major news story of her young career. For John Dean, it was a story that forced him to challenge the President of the United States. Each of them recounted the events, minute-by-minute, as if it had happened yesterday. As a result of these fascinating conversations, our program evolved into an unprecedented look behind-the-scenes inside the Nixon White House during the worst scandal in American history.

Preview Final Report Watergate

Jeff Darnell - Viewer Correspondence

One of my fondest memories growing up was watching the general manager of my local television station in Michigan respond to viewer letters. Sad, but true. He would sit behind his desk, read a letter from a viewer, look at the camera dramatically and give his answer, sometimes at the risk of alienating the viewer. I respected his honesty and interest in reaching out to viewers directly.

Thankfully, we don’t need to go on camera here, but we can and should take the time to respond to viewer comments in a bigger forum than one-to-one email. We get a lot of questions through our email – comments@natgeochannel.com – and I encourage you to write questions, compliments, complaints, concerns either via the email or this blog. We will, on as regular a basis as possible, take up some emails and concerns here in the blog and answer them so other folks who have the same question can respond.

Without further ado, let’s take a few emails we’ve had recently here at NGC headquarters in Washington, DC.

Stacy writes: Why stir up controversy about Jesus during the week before Easter with a show like "Secret Lives of Jesus"? All you are going to do is confuse some people and cause others to doubt. You could find something more factual that could instead bring some people to Christ. I am so sick of this. Many stations do this every year. I find it very disrespectful. Let's see a show that talks about all of the historical evidence for the existence of Christ and his diety.

NGC: Religion is a topic that National Geographic has covered and will continue to cover over the years. Its an important topic in world culture, but one that clearly brings out very strong emotions on all sides. Our intent is not to be disrespectful in any way, we seek to bring out theories and discussions on all forms of religion and allow viewers to make their own opinions. We often air themed programs surrounding religious holidays simply because that’s when viewer’s interest is at the highest for these topics. Our goal is not confusion, but discussion and sometimes that does mean covering controversial topics. We believe we broach them in a way that allows people to make their own decisions about the topics we are covering.

Fitzie writes: I was wondering if you are planning to make more DVDs of the great programs you produce. I am a huge fan of your shows, such as MegaStructures and Is it Real. It would be great if you could release more great DVDs of shows like, Seconds from Disaster and Dogs with Jobs. I know many people would appreciate it too.

NGC: All of the DVD’s that we have available can be found on www.shopngvideos.com. However, as pointed out here and by many other viewers, we do not have everything available. There are a few reasons for that:.

1. Many programs we only license for television broadcast, so we do not have the right to distribute on home video – then its up to the producers themselves.

2. We know some shows will not sell enough copies to make the DVD investment.

3. Sometimes there is footage (and it can come down to less than 30 seconds of footage) that was not owned by the producer of the film nor by NGC and without removing the footage, altering or paying further rights, it could preclude us from distributing on DVD or other platforms outside of television.

4. Having said all of that, we are working towards having more and more of our shows available on DVD, through iTunes and other online download sites as well as other opportunities to receive our programming.

Doris writes: National Geographic Channel is at the top of my viewing and recording list, and this is the first time I visited your web site -- and am I glad I did. It is marvelous. Thank you so much for the marvelous programming. I have learned so so much since I began my DVR project to record worthwhile programs. We carry a little DVD player in the car when we go here and there, and pop in any one of the many NGC programs to enjoy during the drive.

NGC: Thanks, we love letters like that!

Thanks to all the viewers who take the time to write in; good, bad or ugly we truly appreciate all correspondence and try to get back to everyone we can. Please write in and we’ll try to answer common themes or specific requests here in the blog as well. If you’re interested in joining our viewer panel, we periodically send out surveys on upcoming programs, promotions, etc to help us get direction on our channel. Follow this link to be a part of the panel.