WEBVTT - Government Secrecy 0:00:00.520 --> 0:00:03.880 High Strange is released weekly every Thursday, brought to you 0:00:03.920 --> 0:00:07.080 absolutely free, but if you want to bene the whole season, 0:00:07.320 --> 0:00:11.000 it's available right now on Apple Podcasts for all Tenderfoot 0:00:11.000 --> 0:00:15.160 Plus subscribers. You'll also get exclusive bonus episodes throughout the season. 0:00:15.560 --> 0:00:23.680 For more information, check out the show notes. Enjoy the episode. 0:00:25.600 --> 0:00:28.280 The first gate we're going here. This one is the 0:00:28.320 --> 0:00:31.120 main gate. Where we're going is an entrance, but it's 0:00:31.160 --> 0:00:34.560 about forty minutes from the base. This is an active 0:00:34.600 --> 0:00:38.520 base on people think it isn't it is. I've seen 0:00:38.560 --> 0:00:40.520 too many planes over the years. I've seen too many 0:00:40.520 --> 0:00:44.320 things they train. Look how many cameras That one rotates 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:48.000 and watches us. That one sometimes will follow you, and 0:00:48.040 --> 0:00:50.080 then you have three cameras on that pullback. 0:00:50.120 --> 0:00:51.800 There you have a camera to the right. 0:00:53.120 --> 0:00:56.200 I don't know of any government installation of any kind 0:00:56.360 --> 0:00:59.000 in the country that goes to the level of secrecy 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:00.560 this one does. 0:01:04.920 --> 0:01:05.640 This is it right here? 0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:11.280 If you cross, they will detain you. I hold you 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:13.160 in federal prisons six months to a year. 0:01:13.920 --> 0:01:16.240 So you said, I probably shouldn't cross that stop side. 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:19.399 Do not go through that gate. I'm not going with you. 0:01:19.440 --> 0:01:31.119 If you do, welcome to high stranger. 0:01:33.440 --> 0:01:33.600 Here. 0:01:33.640 --> 0:01:36.880 If you do ones like part of this mythology, it's 0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:40.960 just become the sort of mecca for people. For a while, 0:01:40.959 --> 0:01:44.240 they wouldn't even acknowledge there was such a place. We 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:51.080 know it exists, but it's extremely secretive. The base develops 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:56.000 our most advanced secret military aircraft, so we might not 0:01:56.160 --> 0:01:59.000 find out about something for years after it already happens 0:01:59.040 --> 0:02:01.400 at that base and they're test flying it, and it's 0:02:01.520 --> 0:02:03.600 very very sensitive because you don't want our adversaries to 0:02:03.600 --> 0:02:05.640 know about what we're doing. I mean, it makes complete sense 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:10.200 that it would be secret. There's always people going around 0:02:10.240 --> 0:02:11.720 trying to peek in and stuff like that. 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:14.600 Hey that's me. Let's face it, though. 0:02:14.800 --> 0:02:17.480 The odds of getting a glimpse of anything extraordinary here 0:02:17.520 --> 0:02:20.480 are pretty much zero. But with all the hype around 0:02:20.560 --> 0:02:22.960 Area fifty one, this is a place that I still 0:02:23.000 --> 0:02:24.320 want to see with my own eyes. 0:02:25.240 --> 0:02:27.200 You get in big trouble if you try to cross 0:02:27.280 --> 0:02:29.440 fences and things that are all around that base. 0:02:30.160 --> 0:02:33.040 Indeed they do, at least that's what the sign says, 0:02:33.800 --> 0:02:37.320 And apparently in twenty nineteen it actually happened. A man 0:02:37.400 --> 0:02:40.480 with a quote cylindrical object in his hands, approached the 0:02:40.520 --> 0:02:43.400 base entrance and just kept on walking, and when he 0:02:43.480 --> 0:02:46.120 ultimately breached the security gate, he was shot. 0:02:45.919 --> 0:02:49.079 Dead on site by a guard. Yeah, we're not doing 0:02:49.120 --> 0:02:49.480 all that. 0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:53.400 Because of Area fifty one's place in UFO pop culture, 0:02:53.680 --> 0:02:57.160 it's attracted all kinds of people over the years. You 0:02:57.240 --> 0:03:00.120 might remember an event called Storm Area fifty one that 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:01.160 happened a few years ago. 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:05.880 Nevada officials are bracing for an invasion at Area fifty 0:03:05.919 --> 0:03:10.080 one by humans. Now the extraterrestrial hub is front and 0:03:10.200 --> 0:03:13.880 center thanks to a Facebook group dubbed Storm Area fifty one. 0:03:14.080 --> 0:03:15.400 They can't stop us all. 0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:18.919 In twenty nineteen, a Facebook event was made as a 0:03:19.000 --> 0:03:22.600 joke inviting people to raid Area fifty one. 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:24.799 All these people logged into Facebook and said, yeah, i'll go, 0:03:24.880 --> 0:03:26.800 I'll go, I'll go, and it became this movement. 0:03:27.560 --> 0:03:29.840 Within a few months, the event had over two million 0:03:29.880 --> 0:03:32.799 people attending and the Internet was covered in alien. 0:03:32.520 --> 0:03:36.960 Memes, attracting more than two million fans. The movement quickly 0:03:37.000 --> 0:03:39.120 went from a joke to no laughing matter. 0:03:39.800 --> 0:03:43.320 The Storm Area fifty one declares we can move faster 0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:44.280 than their bullets. 0:03:44.440 --> 0:03:46.080 Let's see them aliens. 0:03:46.560 --> 0:03:49.040 I think it speaks to the frustration that people have 0:03:49.160 --> 0:03:52.480 that's been building up over decades, the fact that they're 0:03:52.520 --> 0:03:55.440 not told what we have, they're not given information by 0:03:55.480 --> 0:03:58.160 the government. This was sort of an expression of that 0:03:59.040 --> 0:04:00.480 they don't know what to do, but they don't know 0:04:00.480 --> 0:04:02.920 what to believe. Let's just go out there and protest. 0:04:04.040 --> 0:04:07.760 On September twentieth, twenty nineteen, the storm Area fifty one 0:04:07.760 --> 0:04:11.240 event really happened, but it was quite underwhelming. A few 0:04:11.320 --> 0:04:14.840 hundred people showed up, most in costumes and holding goofy signs, 0:04:15.320 --> 0:04:20.600 one reading clap alien cheeks what. As a result, six 0:04:20.640 --> 0:04:24.000 people were ultimately arrested, but thankfully no one was shot 0:04:24.080 --> 0:04:24.520 or killed. 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:27.080 You work at Area fifty one, you're never supposed to 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:29.640 tell anybody. You're not supposed to tell your loved ones. 0:04:29.760 --> 0:04:32.400 You have a contract that doesn't really exist. 0:04:33.360 --> 0:04:36.719 So somebody working at Area fifty one could work at 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:38.760 Area fifty one their whole life and not know what's 0:04:38.800 --> 0:04:43.240 going on. They're entered into a room with security, they're 0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:44.960 working on at cog of the machine. They don't know 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:47.760 what's going on in the room next to them. There's 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:49.760 probably only a handful of people that really know what's 0:04:49.760 --> 0:04:51.880 going on in area fifty one at other places like it, 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:55.520 and to that degree, it makes me wonder why, even 0:04:55.560 --> 0:04:58.520 if it was national defense, you still think that people 0:04:58.520 --> 0:05:00.359 that were working on it should know what they're working canon. 0:05:01.279 --> 0:05:02.960 It's more about what you don't see and what you 0:05:03.000 --> 0:05:04.400 don't hear about it, and why. 0:05:04.279 --> 0:05:07.880 They go to that level. I have no clue what 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:10.559 do we know. We know nothing. 0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:16.000 I mean, it's all conspiracy opinion, so quite easily if 0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:18.640 they're hiding something here, this is a great place for it. 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:21.240 There's nothing around it, so you could hide all kinds 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:24.600 of stuff here, I was told by a sheriff. Once 0:05:24.640 --> 0:05:27.520 you enter the base through the gate, there's another gate 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:30.120 five minutes in, another gate like ten minutes in, so 0:05:30.240 --> 0:05:32.599 you're passing by multiple gates after you get the first 0:05:32.680 --> 0:05:35.520 initial one. If you drive into it, and you're going 0:05:35.560 --> 0:05:39.279 to be surrounded right away. 0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:40.000 This is it rare. 0:05:46.240 --> 0:05:48.480 Our guide parked the suv a short walk from the 0:05:48.520 --> 0:05:52.279 second gate. Dusty water was pulling across the desert road 0:05:52.520 --> 0:05:55.400 from a rare recent rain in the area, so from 0:05:55.440 --> 0:05:57.000 this point we had to get out and walk the 0:05:57.040 --> 0:05:57.640 rest of the way. 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:00.159 It's actually the dotted line. 0:06:00.520 --> 0:06:03.960 The entrance is surrounded by two massive hills in the 0:06:04.000 --> 0:06:07.159 perfect position for an amazing vantage point on pretty much. 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:07.960 Anything down below. 0:06:08.960 --> 0:06:11.480 I mean, I knew we were being watched, but it's 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:16.840 almost like you could feel it too. Throughout the course 0:06:16.839 --> 0:06:19.680 of the day, our local guide rattled off fun facts 0:06:19.680 --> 0:06:21.440 and interesting anecdotes about the base. 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:23.800 He's personally been coming here for years. 0:06:24.560 --> 0:06:27.120 The stories he told kept the illusion alive that we 0:06:27.120 --> 0:06:28.640 were in some kind of spy movie. 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:29.839 I didn't mind it. 0:06:31.800 --> 0:06:31.920 Now. 0:06:31.920 --> 0:06:34.599 About a year ago in April, I was coming to 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:37.760 Area fifty one. On the right hand side of the car, 0:06:38.600 --> 0:06:43.120 there's a stealth bomber. Literally it's flying alongside of us, 0:06:44.279 --> 0:06:46.880 and I said, hey, can you guys record that? So 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:49.479 they take video of it. When they send it to me, 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:52.520 you could hear the stealth. No, there was nothing in 0:06:52.520 --> 0:06:55.919 that video. We should have had it in the video. 0:06:57.000 --> 0:07:01.120 How did they miss it? Was they edited the video 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:04.880 or there was something blocking it from recording, But whatever 0:07:04.880 --> 0:07:06.400 it was, we should have had it in the video. 0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:10.840 I don't know about all that, but maybe I don't know. 0:07:11.800 --> 0:07:14.520 I will say this, my phone had no service the 0:07:14.560 --> 0:07:18.680 whole time, and it was a little glitchy, freezing and 0:07:18.720 --> 0:07:21.000 moving slow, and it seemed to stop when we left 0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:21.360 the base. 0:07:22.080 --> 0:07:25.239 Probably just need the new iOS update right now. 0:07:25.320 --> 0:07:28.520 I've been coming here for years, and about a month ago, 0:07:28.680 --> 0:07:31.240 I was about five eight miles up something like that, 0:07:31.760 --> 0:07:34.240 and all of a sudden we thought it was aircraft 0:07:34.240 --> 0:07:35.120 because it was super loud. 0:07:35.160 --> 0:07:36.440 So I'm like, oh my, is that a jet? And 0:07:36.480 --> 0:07:37.640 then I realized it's the tire. 0:07:38.520 --> 0:07:40.320 I got out of my car to get the tire 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:43.560 in the back, and there was a black truck, share 0:07:43.600 --> 0:07:45.559 of truck that I've never even seen in this area, 0:07:45.640 --> 0:07:47.440 and he stopped and asked me if I needed help. 0:07:48.040 --> 0:07:50.240 I don't know where he came from, and I'm not 0:07:50.320 --> 0:07:52.800 kidding about that. I literally did not see him coming 0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:55.400 or going, and it shocked me that actually somebody was 0:07:55.480 --> 0:07:56.120 right behind me. 0:07:56.600 --> 0:07:58.280 It's a fifteen minute dirt road. 0:07:58.800 --> 0:08:00.760 You can see all the way around you for miles, 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:02.880 so if you had like a black truck or anything, you. 0:08:02.840 --> 0:08:05.560 Would see it coming from miles. My opinion. 0:08:05.640 --> 0:08:09.440 Now, there could be an entrance you only could see. 0:08:09.200 --> 0:08:10.080 On the right angle. 0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:14.960 Hang on, let me get my tenfoil hat. 0:08:15.600 --> 0:08:19.920 This place is certainly mysterious, and even objectively so you 0:08:19.920 --> 0:08:21.960 could say all kinds of crazy things about it. 0:08:22.440 --> 0:08:24.480 But the fact is we truly know nothing. 0:08:24.920 --> 0:08:27.640 Even if they're just testing our own advanced aircraft here, 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:30.680 it's not really a stretch to believe that they could 0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:33.000 take their security measures to James Bond level. 0:08:33.040 --> 0:08:33.280 Shit. 0:08:34.320 --> 0:08:37.680 Thinking about all this stuff starts brewing this internal question, 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:40.960 do you want to be a skeptic, a believer, a 0:08:41.000 --> 0:08:41.880 complete neutral? 0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:43.560 Do you not care at all? 0:08:44.320 --> 0:08:47.480 For me, it's the idea of wanting to believe versus 0:08:47.600 --> 0:08:51.800 This sounds insane. As the sun was starting to set, 0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:54.360 we called it a wrap on our Area fifty one adventure. 0:08:55.040 --> 0:08:57.840 We saw no aliens or spaceships, but I got to 0:08:57.840 --> 0:09:00.800 witness firsthand a level of secure, already in flat out 0:09:00.840 --> 0:09:03.080 secrecy that I've never really seen before. 0:09:04.280 --> 0:09:05.920 And for the links that they go to in order 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:06.559 to hide and. 0:09:06.480 --> 0:09:09.760 Protect this place, you'd at least expect or even hope 0:09:09.960 --> 0:09:13.719 they're doing something pretty damn cool in there. Or maybe 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:15.680 it's just a private golf course for senators. 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:16.600 Who knows. 0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:37.200 We're going to talk about flying saucers. We're going to 0:09:37.240 --> 0:09:41.400 talk about them from the standpoint of reporters, not as Canadians, 0:09:41.600 --> 0:09:43.200 not as sensationalists. 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:47.040 I've always had an interest in the subject of UFOs 0:09:47.200 --> 0:09:49.760 since I was a kid in the wouldn't that be 0:09:49.760 --> 0:09:52.280 cool if they were a real kind of way nothing serious. 0:09:53.040 --> 0:09:56.040 Not until I started making this show, going through cases, 0:09:56.240 --> 0:09:59.080 digging up old documents, and talking to witnesses that I 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:02.679 start applying a more analytical approach to this thing. When 0:10:02.720 --> 0:10:05.640 it comes to UFOs, there's this common notion that the 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:09.319 government knows more that they're hiding the truth. Most of 0:10:09.360 --> 0:10:12.600 the conspiracy stuff, in my opinion, is nonsense. But when 0:10:12.640 --> 0:10:14.880 you really peer down the barrel of the UFO topic, 0:10:15.280 --> 0:10:18.520 you'll find that this whole government secrecy thing is actually 0:10:18.640 --> 0:10:21.720 rooted in truth. Let's talk about Project blue Book for 0:10:21.720 --> 0:10:22.200 a second. 0:10:23.280 --> 0:10:27.320 In plain English, Project blue Book said there was a 0:10:27.360 --> 0:10:30.600 certain percentage of cases they could not explain. 0:10:31.360 --> 0:10:32.400 Here's Brian Bender. 0:10:32.920 --> 0:10:35.440 They said that that's fifty years ago. 0:10:36.000 --> 0:10:38.920 There have been a certain percentage of this volume of 0:10:39.000 --> 0:10:44.000 reports that have been made by credible observers of relatively 0:10:44.200 --> 0:10:48.440 incredible things. It is this group of observations that we 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:50.560 now are attempting to resolve. 0:10:52.440 --> 0:10:55.600 From the late forties to the late sixties, Project blue 0:10:55.600 --> 0:10:58.840 Book was a public government wide effort led by the 0:10:58.880 --> 0:11:01.040 Air Force to look at this issue. 0:11:02.320 --> 0:11:05.840 The CIA convene this panel early nineteen fifties in which 0:11:05.880 --> 0:11:09.719 they decided to use ridicule and to use debunking as 0:11:09.720 --> 0:11:10.160 a tool. 0:11:10.920 --> 0:11:13.280 Here's Leslie Kane the tool. 0:11:13.280 --> 0:11:15.720 To get people to stop focusing on this so much. 0:11:16.600 --> 0:11:20.000 The United States Air Force has apparently clamped the lid 0:11:20.080 --> 0:11:23.640 on much information about UFOs and sought to ridicule such 0:11:23.679 --> 0:11:25.200 reports as it couldn't muffle. 0:11:25.920 --> 0:11:29.359 These agencies exist to withhold information. 0:11:30.120 --> 0:11:32.000 It is what they're about. 0:11:32.679 --> 0:11:36.160 They keep their weapons systems secret, how they work, sometimes 0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:40.040 even that they're developing them at all. They're not about 0:11:40.080 --> 0:11:45.280 spreading around everything they know. So if you understand that 0:11:45.360 --> 0:11:49.199 this is a culture built on keeping secrets. 0:11:49.200 --> 0:11:51.400 So that we have an edge over the bad guys, 0:11:52.920 --> 0:11:54.720 throw in the UFO topic. 0:11:55.640 --> 0:11:59.440 If they do know more things, but they don't know everything, 0:12:01.000 --> 0:12:03.559 what do you tell the world, Even if you did 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:03.920 want to. 0:12:03.920 --> 0:12:08.640 Be transparent, There is no measurement that makes it possible 0:12:08.679 --> 0:12:12.120 for us to put them in any pattern for a deliberate, 0:12:12.320 --> 0:12:14.960 custom sort of analysis to take the next step. 0:12:17.200 --> 0:12:20.400 I don't like the term cover up. It has this 0:12:20.480 --> 0:12:25.120 connotation of sort of conspiracy theories. Nobody's disputing the fact 0:12:25.160 --> 0:12:26.920 that the government is withholding information. 0:12:27.480 --> 0:12:32.800 It's absolutely a fact private organizations exist that are wholly 0:12:32.840 --> 0:12:37.800 devoted to intensive investigation of every reported sighting of UFO's 0:12:38.320 --> 0:12:44.000 unknown flying objects. From their investigations have come certain tentative 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:45.959 and disturbing conclusions. 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:51.400 Project Bluebook used ridicule to make witnesses feel bad or 0:12:51.440 --> 0:12:56.880 diminish the issue. There's basically been some level of cover up, 0:12:56.920 --> 0:13:00.240 if you want to use that word, withholding of information 0:13:00.280 --> 0:13:04.640 from the public, providing misleading information to steer people away. 0:13:05.760 --> 0:13:06.880 In Layman's terms. 0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:09.559 Project Bluebook was created by the US Air Force in 0:13:09.640 --> 0:13:13.520 nineteen fifty two to investigate UFO sidings, and among the 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:17.000 hundreds of cases they looked into, many of them remained unsolved. 0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:20.640 The Air Force decided to try and lessen the public's 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:24.440 interest in UFOs and embarked on a literal debunking campaign. 0:13:25.160 --> 0:13:29.800 They used the mass media to ridicule the topic, hired scientists, astronomers, 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:32.480 and even celebrities to poke at this subject by putting 0:13:32.520 --> 0:13:35.839 forth ordinary explanations for the sidings, when in fact they 0:13:35.880 --> 0:13:40.200 themselves didn't know what they were and continue to investigate them. 0:13:40.600 --> 0:13:44.400 One line from the now declassified documents says, quote, we 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:47.679 need to watch civilian UFO groups because of their potentially 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:52.120 great influence on mass thinking. And this isn't a conspiracy theory. 0:13:52.440 --> 0:13:55.199 These are all facts from government documents that were available 0:13:55.240 --> 0:13:56.720 under the Freedom of Information Act. 0:13:57.920 --> 0:14:01.280 We have as a date come to only one firm conclusion. 0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:06.000 It does not contain any pattern of purpose that we 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:09.880 can relate to any conceivable threat to the United States. 0:14:10.600 --> 0:14:13.880 The final closing statement of Project Bluebook said that no 0:14:14.120 --> 0:14:16.319 UFO has ever been a threat to national. 0:14:16.120 --> 0:14:19.040 Security, and then after that they said, well, we're done, 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:22.560 we don't study this anymore. So why is there all 0:14:22.560 --> 0:14:26.880 this paper trail of UFO related things that were being done. 0:14:26.960 --> 0:14:29.520 We know from the archival record there were sightings over 0:14:29.520 --> 0:14:32.800 a military bases, the security personnel on those bases. We're 0:14:32.800 --> 0:14:34.920 told to go look into this. There's obviously a paper 0:14:34.920 --> 0:14:37.240 trail for that. They've definitely been studying it. 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:41.840 In the nineteen seventies, Wealth of Documents came out a 0:14:41.920 --> 0:14:44.480 document that came out known as the bold Under Memo, 0:14:45.280 --> 0:14:48.520 saying well, even though we're closing Blue Book, everyone can 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:51.320 still continue to report the UFO cases that are relevant 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:55.160 to national security through other channels. Basically, it's acknowledging that 0:14:55.320 --> 0:14:58.680 UFOs are a national security threat, and yet The final 0:14:58.720 --> 0:15:02.520 closing statement of Projects Bluebook said that no UFO has 0:15:02.600 --> 0:15:05.880 ever been a threat to national security. So you have 0:15:05.960 --> 0:15:09.960 these documents written months apart that are absolutely contradictory of 0:15:10.000 --> 0:15:13.240 each other, all. 0:15:13.120 --> 0:15:13.880 These years later. 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:17.280 If they're saying there's things out there and we don't 0:15:17.280 --> 0:15:22.280 know what they are, with that distrust already there, do 0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:25.480 we believe them now or how do you factor that in? 0:15:26.520 --> 0:15:28.479 I just think they're not saying everything. 0:15:29.560 --> 0:15:31.120 There's no evidence that there are is. 0:15:31.200 --> 0:15:34.600 There's no evidence that they're Russian or Chinese, but they 0:15:34.640 --> 0:15:37.160 won't say these are not man made objects. 0:15:39.760 --> 0:15:42.640 A Chinese by balloon was shot down about a month 0:15:42.680 --> 0:15:45.600 before this show was set to release. In less than 0:15:45.600 --> 0:15:48.640 a week after that, the US military shot down another 0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:52.800 unknown object off the coast of Alaska, then the next 0:15:52.920 --> 0:15:56.720 day another shot down over Canada, then went over northern 0:15:56.760 --> 0:16:00.800 Michigan the following day. The first object shot down was 0:16:00.840 --> 0:16:04.440 explained to be a spy surveillance balloon from China. There's 0:16:04.480 --> 0:16:07.320 tons of pictures on the Internet and even eleaked selfie 0:16:07.320 --> 0:16:10.680 from one of the pilots clearly a balloon, but the 0:16:10.760 --> 0:16:15.160 following three objects still have no explanation, and the government 0:16:15.200 --> 0:16:18.040 has since said they've been unable to locate the debris. 0:16:19.120 --> 0:16:22.000 Looking back at the Roswell incident, it's hard to shake 0:16:22.080 --> 0:16:24.080 this little feeling of deja vu. 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:28.880 There's a lot of distrust and healthy distrust in sort 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:30.440 of American political culture. 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:34.880 I think the government knows more, even just understanding how 0:16:34.920 --> 0:16:36.320 the intelligence agencies work. 0:16:36.920 --> 0:16:40.120 There's a lot of things that they know, puzzle pieces 0:16:40.160 --> 0:16:45.080 that they've collected that they don't talk about. But I 0:16:45.120 --> 0:16:47.800 also think it's often because they have something and they 0:16:47.800 --> 0:16:51.120 don't quite know what it is. They're not like you 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:53.360 and me. They're not hey, let's tell people what we know. 0:16:54.280 --> 0:16:58.960 It's a complete opposite. So when in doubt the stamp. 0:16:58.720 --> 0:17:03.800 Classified, just classify, classify, classify. As we all know, in 0:17:03.840 --> 0:17:08.800 the Department of Events, there's a tendency to classify. Lots 0:17:08.840 --> 0:17:10.520 of times there's a good reason for it, but other 0:17:10.520 --> 0:17:13.760 times there may not be. Just the automatic response. It's 0:17:13.800 --> 0:17:15.720 the way Department of Defense operates. 0:17:16.840 --> 0:17:19.359 A lot of times it's ridiculous stuff. It's not even 0:17:19.440 --> 0:17:22.280 something that would help the bad guys, because the bad 0:17:22.280 --> 0:17:27.560 guys already know it. The popular perception, this narrative that 0:17:27.560 --> 0:17:30.439 the government knows so much more and they're just not 0:17:30.600 --> 0:17:35.800 telling us. Some of that is drawn from reality, a 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:39.679 lot of it is not. It comes from movies in Hollywood. 0:17:40.040 --> 0:17:43.760 Popular culture shows or movies that are built on a 0:17:43.800 --> 0:17:47.639 real thing or a real phenomenon tend to kind of 0:17:47.640 --> 0:17:52.879 go off the rails. There is this gap between what 0:17:53.080 --> 0:17:58.360 is probably the logical reality that we can verify and 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:01.439 this woo woo stuff that we see on TV and 0:18:01.480 --> 0:18:02.040 in movies. 0:18:03.240 --> 0:18:06.760 I think the truth is somewhere in between follow the facts. 0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:10.200 I just go by what I've seen and the people 0:18:10.240 --> 0:18:13.000 that I've met spent years with. 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:17.760 Maybe I'm a complete dupe and they've snowed me over 0:18:17.800 --> 0:18:19.480 for twenty some years. 0:18:19.520 --> 0:18:23.720 But as a journalist who covers the Pentagon, no matter 0:18:23.760 --> 0:18:28.480 what the explanation is, they're all hugely big news stories. 0:18:30.000 --> 0:18:32.920 Whether you think their aliens or not, we should probably 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:34.800 do more to try to understand what these six are 0:18:34.840 --> 0:18:36.040 if we don't know what they are. 0:18:54.080 --> 0:18:56.879 Hillary and I went to Hawaii in twenty eighteen to 0:18:56.960 --> 0:18:59.680 the Big Islands, where all the telescopes were on top 0:18:59.720 --> 0:19:02.600 of the mountain, you know, including the Keck telescope, the 0:19:02.680 --> 0:19:06.800 largest in the world, and several countries have scientific teams there. 0:19:07.359 --> 0:19:10.399 So after we toured the telescope. We went down and 0:19:10.520 --> 0:19:13.600 met with them and I said, do you guys argue 0:19:13.640 --> 0:19:18.040 about the likelihood of life and outer space? He said, 0:19:18.119 --> 0:19:21.640 we have huge arguments. I said you do, He said, 0:19:21.640 --> 0:19:25.320 oh huge. I said, what's the range? He said, there 0:19:25.320 --> 0:19:27.600 are those of us who think it's eighty five percent 0:19:27.840 --> 0:19:30.480 likely and those of us who think it's ninety five. 0:19:31.000 --> 0:19:36.040 It's very unlikely that there is not life. 0:19:38.480 --> 0:19:40.840 Not everyone out there is trying to prove the existence 0:19:40.880 --> 0:19:44.600 of aliens. The scientific community can be pretty split on this. 0:19:45.640 --> 0:19:47.679 It's fun to solve things. 0:19:48.480 --> 0:19:52.560 Here's Mick West, owner of metabunk dot com, a community 0:19:52.600 --> 0:19:55.120 driven form dedicated to debunking. 0:19:55.520 --> 0:19:59.320 With UFOs in particular, You're presented with an interesting little puzzle, 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:02.879 You get a little video and perhaps some background information, 0:20:02.960 --> 0:20:04.359 and then you've got to try to figure out what 0:20:04.440 --> 0:20:09.159 this thing actually is. I've looked at literally hundreds of cases. 0:20:10.119 --> 0:20:13.840 Most of those UFO cases are not interesting. The little 0:20:13.920 --> 0:20:16.320 dots in the sky or little blobs and things like 0:20:16.359 --> 0:20:21.000 that just simply not enough of information. It could be 0:20:21.080 --> 0:20:25.160 a balloon, it could be a bird, could be a drone, 0:20:25.880 --> 0:20:29.119 could be some kind of other aircraft, could be some 0:20:29.200 --> 0:20:33.280 kind of secret technology. It could be an unusual natural 0:20:33.320 --> 0:20:37.119 phenomena like ball lightning. It could be like an alien spaceship. 0:20:38.600 --> 0:20:41.480 These are all possible explanations, but you start off with 0:20:41.520 --> 0:20:45.720 the ones that are most likely. It sounds easy to 0:20:45.800 --> 0:20:49.560 say it's unexplained, but that's not an explanation. 0:20:51.000 --> 0:20:51.159 You know. 0:20:51.320 --> 0:20:56.480 Just saying a UFO sounds much simpler, but it's really not. 0:21:01.880 --> 0:21:07.840 People have cognitive biases. If someone's looking for something, they 0:21:07.920 --> 0:21:12.440 might find it. They might tend to see it. If 0:21:12.480 --> 0:21:16.879 they are looking for a UFO, just a generic UFO, 0:21:17.480 --> 0:21:23.440 they're going to find him. There are lots of things 0:21:23.480 --> 0:21:27.720 in the sky that you can't immediately identify. To spend 0:21:27.720 --> 0:21:30.440 one hour outside just looking at the sky, you will 0:21:30.440 --> 0:21:33.480 see all kinds of things. You'll be able to identify 0:21:33.520 --> 0:21:36.280 a bunch of them. But at some point you're going 0:21:36.320 --> 0:21:39.760 to see a white cigar shaped object off in the distance. 0:21:40.640 --> 0:21:42.520 It'll be a plane, but you won't be able to 0:21:42.560 --> 0:21:45.119 tell this it's a plane, And if you were of 0:21:45.200 --> 0:21:48.760 the mind to be looking for UFOs, you wouldn't interpret 0:21:48.800 --> 0:21:52.960 it as a plane. You think there's a UFO. People's 0:21:53.000 --> 0:21:57.840 perceptions very greatly. They're perfectly honest. People are not lying 0:21:57.880 --> 0:22:03.680 in these accounts. Say what they saw, but what they 0:22:03.720 --> 0:22:06.120 saw isn't really what was actually there, is what their 0:22:06.160 --> 0:22:07.520 brain perceived. 0:22:09.080 --> 0:22:11.639 Obviously, not every strange sighting of an object in the 0:22:11.640 --> 0:22:16.080 sky is truly something unexplainable. Our brains are not perfect, 0:22:16.480 --> 0:22:20.919 and occasionally we can remember details wrong. Working in true crime, 0:22:21.000 --> 0:22:24.199 I've seen this happen time and time again. People have 0:22:24.200 --> 0:22:27.159 been charged for a murder that an eyewitness saw them commit, 0:22:27.720 --> 0:22:31.240 only years later forensic evidence proving it was actually someone else. 0:22:35.000 --> 0:22:39.440 A few months ago, pilots started seeing what they described 0:22:39.520 --> 0:22:44.800 as lights in the sky. They see what looks like 0:22:44.920 --> 0:22:50.359 planes flying around and a holding pattern a racetrack passion 0:22:50.359 --> 0:22:56.199 because he shaped like a racetrack. Some pilots started reporting them, 0:22:56.240 --> 0:23:00.840