What’s your most memorable Halloween experience?

As a kid in Omaha, our neighbor Mike was electrocuted in a flooded basement. Days before Halloween, my brother and I biked past the graveyard when Mike suddenly appeared. His voice was urgent: “Don’t go into the basement, it’s not safe.” We laughed, but the next day we learned he had already died there. That Halloween, I discovered some ghosts don’t haunt—they warn.

Tell us why you would make it to the end of a horror movie.

I’d survive a horror film because fear and I are old friends. I’ve danced with danger hang gliding off cliffs, plunged into the dark unknown scuba diving, and wandered wilderness where shadows whisper. While others trip in terror, I’d listen, adapt, and outwit whatever stalks me. The monster might get a taste, but never the kill. I’d be the one walking away when the credits roll.

What would you do with the unlucky $13,000?

With the unlucky $13,000, I’d banish the real horror in my life—the faulty electrical wiring in my 1929 bungalow. Ghosts don’t scare me, but flickering lights, buzzing outlets, and the threat of sparks in century-old walls? Terrifying. With that prize, I’d turn my haunted house into a safe haven, because sometimes the scariest thing isn’t the ghost in the basement, it’s the wiring in the walls.

Who is your real-life hero who you would want to survive a horror movie with?

My real-life hero I’d want beside me in a horror film is Anthony Bourdain. Wise, fearless, and endlessly curious, he could find meaning even in the darkest corners of the world. Though he left us too soon, I imagine him navigating the shadows with wit and grit, turning survival into an adventure. If anyone could teach me how to savor life while staring death in the face, it would be him.