WEBVTT - The Mythology of Area 51 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:10.680 Get in touch with technology with tex Stuff from stuff Com. 0:00:11.880 --> 0:00:15.040 Hey there, everyone, welcome to tech Stuff. I'm Jonathan Strickland, 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:18.720 and joining me once again is Mr Ben Bolan of 0:00:18.840 --> 0:00:20.760 Stuff they Don't Want You to Know, as well as 0:00:20.800 --> 0:00:23.440 a myriad of other projects. Here at how Stuff Works 0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:27.080 then welcome back. Hey, thanks for having me. I'm excited 0:00:27.560 --> 0:00:31.480 to reach the last installment of this trilogy, but I'm 0:00:31.520 --> 0:00:34.199 a little bit sad too. Yeah. Yeah, you know, it's 0:00:34.200 --> 0:00:38.040 always that moment of elation because you have the the 0:00:38.040 --> 0:00:42.159 the conclusion, right. But it's okay. I'm here to tell 0:00:42.200 --> 0:00:44.440 you right now that just like Return of the King 0:00:44.479 --> 0:00:46.240 and Laura the Rings, there are going to be nine 0:00:46.320 --> 0:00:51.000 separate endings to this podcast. So so the farewells will 0:00:51.040 --> 0:00:54.280 not be you know, sudden, It'll be nice and drawn 0:00:54.320 --> 0:00:57.160 out over a painful length of time. We are, in 0:00:57.320 --> 0:01:00.560 fact going to be concluding our trilogy. You have episodes 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:03.160 about Area fifty one in parts one and two if 0:01:03.160 --> 0:01:05.720 you haven't listened to them already. We really went over 0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:08.800 the history of the facility and what actually goes on 0:01:08.920 --> 0:01:13.160 there and covered everything from the reason why it was 0:01:13.200 --> 0:01:17.960 built in the first place, to the various spy planes 0:01:18.000 --> 0:01:22.319 and different technologies that were tested at that facility. This episode, 0:01:22.319 --> 0:01:27.000 we're looking at the crazy yes, sir, we are looking 0:01:27.160 --> 0:01:33.800 at all of the rumors, conspiracy theories and uh, let's 0:01:33.800 --> 0:01:38.760 just say unsupported anecdotes to be diplomatic. That's very diplomatic. Yeah, 0:01:39.000 --> 0:01:41.880 So so quick rundown, Just so that we're all on 0:01:41.920 --> 0:01:45.440 the same page. Area fifty one, also known as Groom Lake, 0:01:46.000 --> 0:01:49.080 is a facility. It's out in Nevada. It's near the 0:01:49.280 --> 0:01:52.480 what Well. It's near the Nevada Test site where a 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:55.919 lot of nuclear tests were held, in fact, some during 0:01:56.000 --> 0:02:00.800 the lifetime of Very fifty one. Uh. It is uh 0:02:01.000 --> 0:02:04.200 run by the CIA and the Air Force. Lockheed is 0:02:04.320 --> 0:02:07.640 essentially the main contractor that does work there. It's not 0:02:07.680 --> 0:02:11.000 the only one. We've seen some other aircraft from different 0:02:11.080 --> 0:02:15.080 companies tested at that facility as well. And the whole 0:02:15.080 --> 0:02:18.080 purpose of it is to be remote from everywhere else 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:23.160 so that secret tests of top secret spy technology can 0:02:23.200 --> 0:02:26.799 happen without anyone learning about it. Because, as we've said, 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:29.120 if you want to be an effective spy, part of 0:02:29.160 --> 0:02:31.440 that means people can't be aware of the tools that 0:02:31.480 --> 0:02:34.320 you have at your disposal, right. Yeah, And which, as 0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:37.880 we say, that's why it is in a goldilock zone 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:41.240 for its for its purpose, right. Yeah. One of my 0:02:41.280 --> 0:02:44.679 favorite points that you made in the previous episode I 0:02:44.800 --> 0:02:49.440 believe was the first installment, was that this was just 0:02:50.080 --> 0:02:54.000 far enough away to be so inconvenient to get to 0:02:54.560 --> 0:02:58.040 that people people wouldn't try. Yeah, it was. It's a 0:02:58.080 --> 0:03:02.799 remote desert location on a dry lake bed, and so 0:03:03.000 --> 0:03:06.200 it was close enough where you could get supplies from 0:03:06.200 --> 0:03:08.560 places like Las Vegas, which is less than a hundred 0:03:08.560 --> 0:03:12.440 miles away, but far enough away where you know your 0:03:12.520 --> 0:03:16.680 your casual traveler is unlikely to stumble upon it, especially 0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:19.440 once you start posting lots of warning signs with scary 0:03:19.480 --> 0:03:23.480 wording on it warning people away. Now, the fact that 0:03:23.560 --> 0:03:26.080 it is remote, the fact that you do have these 0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:29.640 signs that warn people away, uh, the fact that you 0:03:29.760 --> 0:03:33.440 have to bring people in to work at this facility, 0:03:33.480 --> 0:03:35.480 and most of them are commuting in maybe on a 0:03:35.520 --> 0:03:37.800 weekly basis, which means you have to figure out how 0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:41.080 do you transport them from some place like Las Vegas 0:03:41.120 --> 0:03:45.000 to the actual facility itself. All that means that you're 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:50.360 leaving just enough traces to really start to peak people's interests, right, Yeah, 0:03:50.400 --> 0:03:54.600 it's tantalizing. Oh and uh, point of order for the 0:03:54.640 --> 0:03:59.280 listeners out there, Jonathan, we should probably tell everybody check 0:03:59.280 --> 0:04:03.080 out the first two episodes of this before you listen 0:04:03.120 --> 0:04:06.280 to this one, right, It will make this make I 0:04:06.320 --> 0:04:12.000 can't say more sense, but you'll at least understand the references. Yeah. 0:04:12.080 --> 0:04:15.280 So so yeah, we've got just enough information for the 0:04:15.280 --> 0:04:17.440 typical person to say, I really want to know what's 0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:21.960 happening there. And because of the security uh features that 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:25.479 are in place, including roving bands, which we'll talk about 0:04:25.480 --> 0:04:28.679 a little bit later, of security personnel, uh, it means 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:30.640 that you end up having to fill in a lot 0:04:30.640 --> 0:04:33.799 of gaps. And when that happens, when people are given 0:04:33.880 --> 0:04:37.200 the leeway to try and fill in like that, there's 0:04:37.200 --> 0:04:40.520 the big here. There be dragons on the map. That's 0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:42.440 where you get the dragons, right, You're like, well, I 0:04:42.480 --> 0:04:45.040 don't know what's out there. It's probably dangerous, so we're 0:04:45.080 --> 0:04:48.120 just gonna slap dragons on it and call it a day. Yeah, 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:52.840 which is you know, at heart of valuable instinct to have, right, 0:04:52.880 --> 0:04:57.960 it's it's caution. But what's happened here is that as 0:04:58.000 --> 0:05:02.200 we're gonna see um, one thing with a grain of 0:05:02.320 --> 0:05:06.120 truth such as oh there's something I'm not allowed to 0:05:06.200 --> 0:05:12.000 go see. Uh, became embellished and then exaggerated. And many 0:05:12.080 --> 0:05:17.480 times the people saying these things sincerely do believe this. 0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:21.600 They're not hucksters, right, Yeah, this this isn't necessarily someone 0:05:21.640 --> 0:05:23.480 who's trying to get a book deal or trying to 0:05:23.520 --> 0:05:26.880 get on the talk show circuit. It maybe someone who 0:05:27.240 --> 0:05:31.040 has just enough information to leap to some conclusions that 0:05:31.120 --> 0:05:34.160 are not supportable. And also we should say there are 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:38.159 times where people make guesses where either they latch onto 0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:40.560 something that is actually true or they've got part of 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:44.680 the story. So just because something is a theory or 0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:48.040 a rumor or a conspiracy of some sort doesn't mean 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:51.920 that there's nothing there. Right. So here's a great example, 0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:55.159 and it's one of the more grounded, no pun intended, 0:05:55.240 --> 0:05:59.640 examples of the mythology around the Area one. There's the 0:05:59.760 --> 0:06:04.640 men that there is a giant subterranean network of UH 0:06:04.720 --> 0:06:09.320 tunnels and facilities that are underneath the ground. So that way, 0:06:09.440 --> 0:06:11.760 when you get that overhead view of Area fifty one, 0:06:11.839 --> 0:06:14.120 keep in mind Area fifty one is restricted airspace. It 0:06:14.120 --> 0:06:16.440 goes all the way up into space, but there are 0:06:16.480 --> 0:06:22.039 satellites since the nineteen eighties that have taken multiple images 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:25.920 of that area. So if you know that, in fact, 0:06:25.960 --> 0:06:29.800 you're going to be photographed from space there, that seems 0:06:29.839 --> 0:06:33.240 logical that you would want to go underground, right, So 0:06:33.360 --> 0:06:36.000 you can understand why people would say, oh, well, it 0:06:36.080 --> 0:06:38.240 makes sense. You you want to have that secrecy. You 0:06:38.279 --> 0:06:40.680 can no longer depend upon it above ground, so you 0:06:40.720 --> 0:06:46.039 have to go below. But this raises some logistical issues, right, Yeah, 0:06:46.080 --> 0:06:51.320 how do you build an underground base and keep it quiet? 0:06:51.440 --> 0:06:55.120 Especially as we said in the history podcast, Uh, the 0:06:55.160 --> 0:07:00.080 construction workers that were taken out there probably would have 0:07:00.279 --> 0:07:03.039 known something about it because they would have been the 0:07:03.040 --> 0:07:06.080 ones digging. Yeah, I mean, and digging is a big deal. 0:07:06.120 --> 0:07:09.560 You're talking about subterranean network. That's a lot of earth 0:07:09.800 --> 0:07:11.480 that you have to move. And not only do you 0:07:11.520 --> 0:07:13.440 have to move it, you then have to figure out 0:07:13.440 --> 0:07:15.800 what do you do with the earth you have taken. 0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:18.720 You know, when you when you create a whole, that 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:21.720 dirt doesn't just magically disappear, right, you have to put 0:07:21.760 --> 0:07:25.920 it someplace. And so that's that's a logistical issue, and 0:07:26.040 --> 0:07:29.760 it's an enormous type of endeavor to undertake. I mean, 0:07:30.160 --> 0:07:35.280 imagine having to create something a network of tunnels that 0:07:35.400 --> 0:07:38.000 is stable enough to support the weight of whatever is 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:40.600 above it. Uh not to mention the idea of like 0:07:40.920 --> 0:07:45.480 level upon level of subterranean layer like Dr Evil style. 0:07:46.320 --> 0:07:50.000 It's it's an enormous task and it would have required 0:07:50.080 --> 0:07:53.840 such a huge investment and manpower let alone. I don't 0:07:53.840 --> 0:07:58.120 even think about the cost financially, just the practical manpower 0:07:58.200 --> 0:08:02.360 necessary to make it. It's not likely. And there there 0:08:02.360 --> 0:08:04.200 as some rumors that go so far as to suggest 0:08:04.280 --> 0:08:08.160 that there are there's an entire underground network of tunnels 0:08:08.240 --> 0:08:12.800 that connect various bases together. Yeah, and really, when you 0:08:12.840 --> 0:08:17.240 think of the engineering challenge that represents and the construction 0:08:17.360 --> 0:08:21.360 that is required, you realize that while it might be 0:08:21.440 --> 0:08:24.760 technologically possible for us to do it, it is not 0:08:24.920 --> 0:08:27.920 really feasible to do it secretly where you have not 0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:31.280 left any trace at all in the whole process right now, 0:08:31.600 --> 0:08:34.600 And I think that's really good distinction, because it's not 0:08:34.679 --> 0:08:39.720 just plausible, but it is probable that there is some 0:08:39.880 --> 0:08:45.160 sort of below the ground construction at Roswell in excuse me, 0:08:45.240 --> 0:08:48.720 at area fifty one in that when you build things 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:51.280 there might be a basement, there might be a safe 0:08:51.360 --> 0:08:56.280 room something like that. But that is a far far 0:08:56.440 --> 0:08:59.440 cry from uh, what what do we have here? What's 0:08:59.520 --> 0:09:04.240 what's the big record? Jonathan fifty stories stories. Yeah, imagine 0:09:04.280 --> 0:09:09.800 a fifty story skyscraper, but underground. I mean, if you've 0:09:09.800 --> 0:09:13.680 ever seen a skyscraper being built, you know this is 0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:16.760 a process that takes some time. And we we hear 0:09:16.800 --> 0:09:19.400 at hell stuff works. We moved into this. You know, 0:09:19.440 --> 0:09:22.440 we're in an office that has recently, over the last 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:25.520 maybe five or six years, seen a lot of growth 0:09:25.559 --> 0:09:28.040 with the buildings around us, and so we've actually watched 0:09:28.240 --> 0:09:31.640 year over year as skyscrapers were being built, and it 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:34.360 takes a really long time. Uh. And I know people 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:36.800 would say, yeah, but this is a top secret establishment, 0:09:36.840 --> 0:09:38.480 you know, you they'd really pour a lot into it. 0:09:38.520 --> 0:09:42.000 If you've ever seen the government at work, the US 0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:45.679 government at work, speed is not one of the adjectives 0:09:45.679 --> 0:09:50.079 you would typically use. If the US everyone is a superhero, 0:09:50.160 --> 0:09:53.040 it would probably not be the Flash. Everyone knows that 0:09:53.280 --> 0:09:55.679 maybe the Blob. Yeah, I was going to go safe 0:09:55.679 --> 0:09:58.520 with Captain America. Well, all right, I was he I 0:09:58.600 --> 0:10:00.199 was merely going to all the villain. So I was 0:10:00.240 --> 0:10:04.000 thinking of Blob or maybe the juggernat you know the Juggernauts. 0:10:04.000 --> 0:10:07.360 Cool though that's a different podcast. We We've got to 0:10:07.400 --> 0:10:10.760 get to one of the one of the biggest things here, 0:10:11.040 --> 0:10:15.040 the biggest conspiracies we hear about with Area fifty one. Well, 0:10:15.080 --> 0:10:18.800 first off, spoiler alert, the real conspiracy is are their 0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:23.600 secret spy planes? Yes, yeah, and that's that's exactly what 0:10:23.679 --> 0:10:26.360 it's for. And that's crazy. Yeah, I mean that is 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:30.920 the first off, the fact that that can even be possible. Right. 0:10:31.120 --> 0:10:33.240 We talked in the last couple of podcasts about some 0:10:33.320 --> 0:10:36.960 of the the aircraft that were under development there that 0:10:37.040 --> 0:10:42.280 remains secret a good twenty years after they had finished testing, 0:10:42.800 --> 0:10:45.679 and that's when they were unveiled. Uh. There was one 0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:48.920 that that I think had a run from eighty three 0:10:48.920 --> 0:10:51.160 to eighty five something like that, and it wasn't it 0:10:51.240 --> 0:10:55.240 wasn't acknowledged by the government until ninety six, which was 0:10:55.240 --> 0:10:58.439 the first time anyone outside of that that program had 0:10:58.520 --> 0:11:01.880 seen it. Um and I think that was maybe Tacit Blue, 0:11:02.320 --> 0:11:04.040 but it was one of those that just when you 0:11:04.080 --> 0:11:06.480 saw the aircraft, you thought, Wow, what a weird looking thing. 0:11:06.559 --> 0:11:09.800 I can't believe that this remained secret. Granted they only 0:11:09.800 --> 0:11:13.240 built two of them, and they were under strict rap 0:11:13.840 --> 0:11:17.360 over at one. It never got further out from from 0:11:17.400 --> 0:11:20.079 that area, like even the tests would be done at night, 0:11:20.200 --> 0:11:24.320 so it limited when the potential of even being spotted. 0:11:24.920 --> 0:11:30.439 But they were, the genuine articles of conspiracy were indeed 0:11:30.520 --> 0:11:34.400 spotted in the sky. And that brings us to, as 0:11:34.400 --> 0:11:37.720 we were saying, the biggest part of the area fifty 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:44.640 are you talking us? Yeah, yeah, officially unidentified flying objects 0:11:44.760 --> 0:11:50.320 UFOs more often than not, uh, they are attributed to 0:11:50.360 --> 0:11:55.599 being alien as an extraterrestrial in nature. Area fifty one 0:11:55.880 --> 0:12:00.960 features heavily and tons of different alien stories, both both 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:03.360 the kind that we see on the big screen, like 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:07.440 Independence Day, the famous sequence where they go down to 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:11.280 Area fifty one where they have uh, not just aliens, 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:15.120 but they're they're hardware that has been studied for years, 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:18.240 and you know, it's revealed that a lot of technology 0:12:18.280 --> 0:12:21.040 we depend upon today has been reverse engineered from this 0:12:21.360 --> 0:12:25.719 alien technology. Still can't build a decent spaceship. Though now 0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:28.200 we can't build a decent spaceship. However, we have figured 0:12:28.240 --> 0:12:30.480 out that you can introduce a computer virus as long 0:12:30.520 --> 0:12:35.320 as you have an Apple MacBook laptop, which to this 0:12:35.440 --> 0:12:39.280 day to this day, my friend, that's still that still 0:12:39.320 --> 0:12:43.960 bothered me. Uh yeah, spoiler alert again, guys. But but yeah, so, 0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:48.840 so people people started seeing UFOs, and it is correct 0:12:48.880 --> 0:12:52.320 to call them that because I think there's one of 0:12:52.320 --> 0:12:56.600 the distinctions that we're about to make, right. A UFO 0:12:57.120 --> 0:13:00.880 unidentified flying object is simply that. Yeah, it just means 0:13:00.920 --> 0:13:04.160 that you personally cannot identify what that object is. It 0:13:04.200 --> 0:13:07.800 doesn't mean it's unidentify a ball. It may very well 0:13:07.840 --> 0:13:10.080 be that there's a small group of people who know 0:13:10.160 --> 0:13:12.640 exactly what that object is, like the like the stealth 0:13:12.640 --> 0:13:15.800 technology we were just talking about. Those stealth programs when 0:13:15.800 --> 0:13:19.880 they were under development were strict secrets and only a 0:13:19.920 --> 0:13:23.960 few people, relatively few people knew about them. Anyone outside 0:13:23.960 --> 0:13:26.840 that who would have seen one of these aircraft flying around, naturally, 0:13:27.200 --> 0:13:29.520 they would not be able to identify it. There was 0:13:29.600 --> 0:13:33.000 no correlative they could say, oh, this looked like a 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:37.079 such and such. These things looked really crazy. So calling 0:13:37.080 --> 0:13:40.840 it a UFO is perfectly fine. You cannot identify it. 0:13:41.320 --> 0:13:44.360 Calling making the leap from UFO to alien is a 0:13:44.400 --> 0:13:48.400 little bit of a problem. So this brings us to 0:13:48.600 --> 0:13:54.360 probably the most famous alien UH incident in all of 0:13:54.480 --> 0:13:59.240 United States history, something that that factors into numerous I'd 0:13:59.240 --> 0:14:03.320 say dozens, if not hundreds, of different conspiracy theories the 0:14:03.480 --> 0:14:09.440 Roswell incident. Now, Roswell is in New Mexico, which, for 0:14:09.480 --> 0:14:11.439 those of you who are not in the United States, 0:14:12.000 --> 0:14:16.600 is a completely separate state from Nevada. It's in a 0:14:16.679 --> 0:14:21.000 completely different place. And you know, sometimes it's a pet 0:14:21.040 --> 0:14:25.480 peeve of mine, Jonathan, is that people often conflate Area 0:14:25.520 --> 0:14:29.240 fifty one or Groom Lake and the incident in Roswell, Right, 0:14:29.320 --> 0:14:33.680 and so two things that these are incidence, separated both 0:14:33.720 --> 0:14:38.920 in space and time. Right, Roswell, New Mexico is hundreds 0:14:39.120 --> 0:14:43.640 of miles away from Area fifty one, like almost a 0:14:43.680 --> 0:14:46.000 thousand miles away. I think it's somewhere around eight hundred 0:14:46.000 --> 0:14:50.560 miles away and actually one thousand, four hundred sixteen kilometers 0:14:51.080 --> 0:14:53.720 according to Google Maps. Thank you Google Maps for letting 0:14:53.760 --> 0:14:56.120 me know how far apart Roswell, New Mexico in Area 0:14:56.160 --> 0:15:00.240 fifty one are. That's exactly it. So, by the wait, 0:15:00.360 --> 0:15:03.360 don't don't rely upon Google Maps for turn by turn 0:15:03.440 --> 0:15:05.680 directions to Area fifty one. You know you'll just end 0:15:05.760 --> 0:15:07.880 up in Las Vegas. Did you? Did you do it. 0:15:09.680 --> 0:15:11.960 I did it by by driving. All the walking would 0:15:11.960 --> 0:15:14.520 have been hilarious. Walking would have been like, at this 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:16.440 point people are going to ask you to turn around, 0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:20.400 uh so, or at this point you've probably died of dehydration. 0:15:20.800 --> 0:15:23.240 So the other thing I said was that their separated 0:15:23.240 --> 0:15:26.920 by time. The Roswell Incident happened on July second, nineteen 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:29.360 forties seven. So for those of you who listened to 0:15:29.520 --> 0:15:33.080 our first episode about Area fifty one, you remember that 0:15:33.160 --> 0:15:36.960 it was the mid nineteen fifties when the CIA settled 0:15:37.000 --> 0:15:41.240 on Groom Lake as the the future home of Area 0:15:41.320 --> 0:15:44.160 fifty one. It was like the nive was when construction began. 0:15:44.840 --> 0:15:48.840 So this is almost a decade apart when of these 0:15:48.880 --> 0:15:51.800 two events. So then you have the The actual story 0:15:51.880 --> 0:15:54.320 of the Roswell incident is that some people in Roswell, 0:15:54.360 --> 0:15:57.720 New Mexico, I saw some strange floating objects that they 0:15:57.760 --> 0:16:02.000 could not identify on identified flying objects. Sometimes they're referred 0:16:02.000 --> 0:16:05.160 to as being kind of disc shaped. But part of 0:16:05.160 --> 0:16:07.760 the problem is that we're so far distanced from the 0:16:07.880 --> 0:16:11.520 initial event that the story has not remained consistent through 0:16:11.600 --> 0:16:14.040 all the different retellings. Yeah, and I can speak to 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:16.280 a little bit of that because we have we have 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:22.240 some copies of the newspaper articles that changed, and because 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:25.600 they changed. Uh, there's a very interesting thing here. It's 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:29.360 the interpretation of that. Uh, people who believe that there 0:16:29.640 --> 0:16:34.720 was some sort of extraterrestrial incident. Somebody, somebody managed to 0:16:34.840 --> 0:16:37.720 drive a spacecraft well enough to get to Earth but 0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:41.760 not well enough to stay above Earth, right, and then uh, 0:16:42.200 --> 0:16:45.440 the news found out about it and they got shut down. 0:16:45.520 --> 0:16:49.080 They had to change their story. Or did they just 0:16:49.360 --> 0:16:52.520 correct the reporting when they had more information. That's a 0:16:52.680 --> 0:16:56.280 that's a good question, like did did some gentlemen wearing 0:16:56.360 --> 0:16:59.440 black suits and sunglasses show up at the newspaper and 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:03.200 say you need to you need to address this, I mean, Jonathan, 0:17:03.320 --> 0:17:06.920 that's but if it happened, it wasn't because of aliens, 0:17:06.960 --> 0:17:09.960 That's right. So get moving on. We're talking about the crash. 0:17:10.760 --> 0:17:13.080 Just spotting these objects in the air wasn't the only 0:17:13.160 --> 0:17:16.159 thing that happened with Roswell incident. What specifically went on 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:18.520 from there was that some people found debris on the 0:17:18.600 --> 0:17:23.080 ground and it was described as being shiny and metallic 0:17:23.200 --> 0:17:25.600 in nature. No one was really sure what it was 0:17:25.680 --> 0:17:28.680 actually made of at the time. UM, and so this, 0:17:29.200 --> 0:17:35.080 this incident started to become embellished upon over time. In fact, 0:17:35.119 --> 0:17:38.480 there's some versions of the story where they didn't just 0:17:38.720 --> 0:17:43.480 find physical debris from some flying object, but also bodies. 0:17:44.480 --> 0:17:46.879 And this is where we get into the alien stuff, 0:17:46.920 --> 0:17:50.320 where supposedly there were these bodies of creatures that had 0:17:50.480 --> 0:17:55.439 unusual features and they were whisked away by the government. Uh. 0:17:55.600 --> 0:17:58.320 And ultimately some people say that that's they went to 0:17:58.400 --> 0:18:04.880 Area fifty one. The purpose was not to study strange materials, 0:18:04.920 --> 0:18:07.840 although we did eventually get some Soviet aircraft at Area 0:18:07.920 --> 0:18:10.639 fifty one where they were tested like the bigs. But 0:18:10.800 --> 0:18:14.159 it's not meant to be a scientific laboratory. That's not 0:18:14.240 --> 0:18:15.960 the purpose of Every fifty one. So it would make 0:18:16.040 --> 0:18:19.960 no sense to send any kind of extraterrestrials there. It 0:18:20.040 --> 0:18:22.359 also doesn't make sense to send extra terrestrial bodies to 0:18:22.440 --> 0:18:25.360 a place that hasn't been built yet. That's a that's 0:18:25.359 --> 0:18:28.280 a big one. That's a it's a bump in the road. Yeah, 0:18:28.320 --> 0:18:30.280 it's a little bit of a little bit of a 0:18:30.480 --> 0:18:36.159 problem with the story. Now what the official story from 0:18:36.200 --> 0:18:39.400 the government was that the debris came from weather balloons 0:18:39.920 --> 0:18:41.680 and that there were no bodies in fact that we 0:18:41.720 --> 0:18:44.960 should stay right now, there's no evidence at all that 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:47.520 anyone ever came across a body. That was something that 0:18:47.640 --> 0:18:50.879 was added to this story over time. Yeah, sorry, guys, 0:18:51.000 --> 0:18:58.080 that autopsy on YouTube is most likely a hope it's 0:18:58.480 --> 0:19:02.960 it's it's yeah, there there are special effects uh experts 0:19:03.000 --> 0:19:06.680 who have actually commented on it, and somewhat derisively. So 0:19:06.800 --> 0:19:08.520 we're like, like, they should have hired me. I could 0:19:08.560 --> 0:19:10.880 have done a much better job. But there is there 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:15.520 There is no no hard evidence that there was even 0:19:16.400 --> 0:19:19.359 from the debris they found when they were looking at it, 0:19:19.400 --> 0:19:21.560 because there really was debris, right, and they really did 0:19:21.680 --> 0:19:25.520 find it, but they didn't find enough to have built 0:19:25.560 --> 0:19:28.800 an entire thing, Yeah, to carry a person, you know. 0:19:29.000 --> 0:19:31.399 Now this so the official story from the government was 0:19:31.440 --> 0:19:36.040 at these were weather balloons. They were meant specifically to uh, 0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:39.000 to study the weather at high altitudes. Now, as it 0:19:39.080 --> 0:19:41.760 turns out, that's not the real story, but we will 0:19:41.800 --> 0:19:45.560 get to there in a second. So, uh, this was 0:19:45.640 --> 0:19:47.800 one of those things where people were saying, it doesn't 0:19:47.800 --> 0:19:50.040 look like any weather balloon I've ever seen, which is true, 0:19:50.160 --> 0:19:53.800 it didn't. I've seen both balloons and the weather. This 0:19:54.080 --> 0:19:57.720 is neither of those two things. So moving on to 0:19:58.000 --> 0:20:02.160 the the you know, kind of looking at the story 0:20:02.320 --> 0:20:04.680 another way. One version of this that I was not 0:20:04.800 --> 0:20:08.320 aware of until a friend of the show, Nate Lenkson, 0:20:08.480 --> 0:20:13.000 he's the editor of Wired dot Code dot uk uh. 0:20:13.160 --> 0:20:15.360 He he turned me on to this. I had never 0:20:15.440 --> 0:20:19.760 heard about this. It's a book written by Annie Jacobson 0:20:19.880 --> 0:20:23.280 called Area fifty one and Uncensored History of America's top 0:20:23.440 --> 0:20:26.600 secret military base. Now full disclosure, I have not read 0:20:26.680 --> 0:20:29.640 this book yet. I read a synopsis of the book 0:20:29.640 --> 0:20:31.560 and a synopsis of the story we're about the cover, 0:20:32.480 --> 0:20:36.399 So this may not actually be accurate to the book itself. 0:20:36.520 --> 0:20:39.760 I want to make that clear. I've also heard that 0:20:39.960 --> 0:20:42.480 most of the book is pretty much what we covered 0:20:42.480 --> 0:20:44.520 in our first two episodes of the podcast, a very 0:20:44.640 --> 0:20:47.720 thorough description of the history of Very fifty one. But 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:52.840 there's a section apparently devoted to the Roswell incident and 0:20:53.400 --> 0:20:56.920 Every fifty one supposed involvement in that, in which the 0:20:57.000 --> 0:21:00.840 story gets even weirder, I think than alien And this 0:21:01.000 --> 0:21:05.120 story involves Nazis and Communists, so you know, it's only 0:21:05.240 --> 0:21:09.920 missing Indiana Jones to make it really a Hollywood film. 0:21:10.440 --> 0:21:14.480 So the story that she tells according to a source, 0:21:14.600 --> 0:21:16.960 I don't know what her source was. I don't yeah, 0:21:17.000 --> 0:21:19.560 a source. I don't know if she names the source 0:21:19.600 --> 0:21:22.720 in the book the synopsis, I said, said anonymous. But 0:21:22.800 --> 0:21:25.480 again I haven't read the book. But according to the synopsis, 0:21:26.440 --> 0:21:29.600 the story is that a Nazi doctor, Joseph Mingola, actually 0:21:29.800 --> 0:21:35.960 the s S officer who survived the World War two 0:21:36.040 --> 0:21:39.359 and then and then eventually escaped to South America. That 0:21:39.520 --> 0:21:44.000 Mingola had worked on behalf of Joseph Stalin doing these 0:21:44.080 --> 0:21:50.280 horrific procedures on children, resulting in children around the age 0:21:50.320 --> 0:21:54.600 of twelve with abnormally shaped heads, large eyes that are 0:21:55.119 --> 0:21:57.920 of an odd shape, and that the whole idea was 0:21:58.000 --> 0:22:00.840 that they were going to pilot some simple full aircraft 0:22:01.400 --> 0:22:05.000 to fly around the United States and land and essentially 0:22:05.080 --> 0:22:09.480 star crap up yeah, scare people, Yeah, exactly, this idea 0:22:09.640 --> 0:22:14.760 that they would this idea that they would fake aliens, yeah, 0:22:15.200 --> 0:22:18.440 in order to create a panic, essentially doing a War 0:22:18.640 --> 0:22:22.280 of the World's type event. Uh, one step closer to 0:22:22.359 --> 0:22:25.160 reality for War of the Worlds. For those who don't 0:22:25.200 --> 0:22:28.359 remember or don't know what this is, um, it was 0:22:28.520 --> 0:22:33.760 a an Orson Wells project, a radio program that was 0:22:34.000 --> 0:22:36.240 portrayed in such a way that people who tuned in 0:22:36.840 --> 0:22:40.480 without knowing that it was actually a fictionalized radio program, 0:22:41.000 --> 0:22:44.520 began to think that there was actually, uh, an alien 0:22:44.640 --> 0:22:48.720 invasion happening. It was this sort of famous little blip 0:22:48.880 --> 0:22:53.080 on the radar of of people freaking out because they 0:22:53.359 --> 0:22:57.639 weren't aware that, in fact, it was a fictional account, uh, 0:22:57.760 --> 0:23:01.600 something that we still see today with things like Mermaids. 0:23:01.800 --> 0:23:05.520 At any rate, that's enough commentary on that. But yeah, 0:23:05.600 --> 0:23:09.680 the uh, the story that she relays is that Mingola 0:23:09.840 --> 0:23:13.879 had done these these horror horrific procedures and that the 0:23:14.200 --> 0:23:17.600 bodies found at the Roswal incident, which remember, there was 0:23:17.720 --> 0:23:20.800 never any evidence that bodies were found were in fact 0:23:20.960 --> 0:23:24.960 human children that then were whisked away. I think there's 0:23:25.040 --> 0:23:28.560 some big problems with this particular story. Problem Number one, 0:23:29.240 --> 0:23:32.879 Mingola was on the run from the Soviets. He did not, 0:23:33.040 --> 0:23:35.160 I mean, the Soviets were the ones who were who 0:23:35.200 --> 0:23:39.679 were approaching when Hitler committed suicide, right, they'd rather than 0:23:39.720 --> 0:23:44.240 be captured by the Soviets. Um Hitler committed suicide, and 0:23:44.400 --> 0:23:49.080 Mingola was trying to escape with records that he had uh, 0:23:49.400 --> 0:23:53.480 he had created an at Auschwitz. Um, so he eventually 0:23:53.720 --> 0:23:57.280 escaped Germany. He did at one point go back into 0:23:57.440 --> 0:24:01.560 Soviet occupied territory in order to trieve some of these documents, 0:24:02.040 --> 0:24:06.160 but he evaded capture and eventually escaped to South America 0:24:07.000 --> 0:24:11.080 and then moved around quite a bit while on the run. Yeah. Yeah, 0:24:11.160 --> 0:24:13.600 he was being he was being pursued by agents both 0:24:13.680 --> 0:24:18.480 Soviet and American. And so it's unlikely that he would 0:24:18.560 --> 0:24:23.240 have collaborated with Joseph Stalin and certainly unlikely that he 0:24:23.280 --> 0:24:29.520 would have been allowed to escape. Yeah. Um, so that 0:24:29.840 --> 0:24:33.560 already is a problem. Secondly, it would be a real 0:24:33.720 --> 0:24:38.200 problem the idea of people being fooled long enough to 0:24:38.280 --> 0:24:42.040