On BYU-Idaho Radio’s The Spot, students discussed childhood fears. Our hosts were Austin Pace, Rachel Pace and Maiya Waddell.
This week’s episode started off with some “Spot Takes” - they’re hot takes, but for The Spot. Our hosts shared their ideas that childhood fears are a result of real-world concerns that children don’t understand yet.
Austin shared a recurring nightmare he would have from the time he was six up until his mission where everything was orange and a monster would eat his family members. Austin explained that he loves his family very much, and he’s afraid of losing them.
Austin then shared how his main childhood fear was heights. He shared an experience he had at an amusement park on a ride where the ride went very high up and terrified him.
Rachel disclosed that her biggest childhood fear was scorpions. She recounted a time when her mother fruitlessly tried to crush a large scorpion. Another of Rachel’s fears was the Bermuda Triangle, a large triangle-shaped area in the Atlantic Ocean known for its legends of tragedies and dangerous circumstances that give it a supernatural reputation.
Austin and Rachel spoke of the imagined protection that a blanket holds for children and the perceived danger of dangling a limb out of the blanket.
Our hosts then discussed the terror of taking the trash out. Austin recounted how he used to fear taking the trash out on his family’s large property.
The next topic was dogs. Maiya was so afraid of dogs that her mother decided they needed to get a dog to help her get over her fear. Rachel shared a story of how a dog broke her brother’s arm and bit her. Due to a funny series of events, Rachel’s family’s house ended up having a “Beware of Dog” sign even though they had a very sweet and harmless beagle.
Austin then spoke of his fear of snakes and how he finds them weird and off-putting. Rachel shared a tip on how to differentiate between a venomous snake and a non-venomous snake. Austin recounted a tale of how he found and killed seven rattlesnakes. He hates snakes, but he killed the snakes to impress his friends. Austin recently held a snake for the first time, although he still finds them disgusting.
Our hosts then spoke of how they conquered childhood fears. Rachel conquered her fear of scorpions, and Maiya conquered her fear of being kidnapped.
The topic shifted to the hosts’ favorite childhood memories. Austin recounted a birthday with a Wall-E cake. Rachel shared that she and her siblings would fight over the back seat, which was funny. Maiya spoke of how pleasantly surprised she was when her parents brought home a dog.
You can listen to this episode on YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.