"Traveling across America you may see a hand-painted sign featuring one word. If you are lucky, you will continue on wondering if something that old can refer to a thing that still exists. Unfortunately it does. You are following a sign that reads 'Zoo'."
Zoo is an ongoing podcast audio drama that premiered on September 17, 2018 with the second season starting on April 15, 2019. Its creators are Coni Kitts, CJ Housh, and Codi Phillips, with music by Nathan Gandy. Coni Kitts also portrays the main character McKayla Kespar.
The podcast centers on FBI Agent McKayla Kespar in Cold Cases as she unravels a decades long mystery concerning strange animals, odd events surrounding missing persons, a shadowy group led by a "Red Eyed Bastard" and a sign with one word: 'Zoo'.
The podcast has no connection to the James Patterson novel of the same title, or the 2015 TV series based upon it.
This podcast provides examples of the following tropes:
- And the Adventure Continues: The first season ends with McKayla joining the Zoo and Agent Beckett investigating her disappearance, even recording himself.
- Bullying a Dragon: There are some cases with people thinking it's a good idea to fight a cryptid or try to enslave it. It never ends well with them.
- Formula-Breaking Episode: After two episodes of McKayla going over FBI's cold cases, Episode 3 "Brrrt-Ping" has a redacted FBI file, a small town newspaper column and a blog from Titanium Violet.
- Framing Device: A good portion of the series is McKayla recording herself as she reads cold cases, commenting on them and trying to reason what may have happened. In the second season, she still records everything but her friends are aware of it, more or less.
- Gossipy Hens: The news of McKayla's interest in "weird cases" has reached to the Chicago branch. According to her, you can't keep a secret in the FBI because it's filled with 'Chatty Cathys'.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: McKayla can a bit abrasive and has a habit of ignoring her loved ones, but she does care about people.
- Missing Child: There are a lot of missing people, especially missing kids. A nightmare for any parent. They're never seen again because they unfortunately encountered a hungry cryptid.
- Noodle Incident: Episode 7 "Dear Director" is this. An elderly man managed to trick Margaret Thatcher, the Nazis and President Nixon, but the audience doesn't know how he hid it.
- Town with a Dark Secret: The Missouri town from the first episode has been letting a Devil's Snare eat teenagers, thinking it's necessary. It wasn't.
- Two Lines, No Waiting: Season 2 splits between McKayla working at the Zoo and Agent Beckett investigating her disappearance.
