1 00:00:02,279 --> 00:00:05,240 Speaker 1: Strange Arrivals is a production of I Heart three D Audio. 2 00:00:06,480 --> 00:00:14,840 Speaker 1: For full exposure, listen with headphones. This is the last 3 00:00:14,840 --> 00:00:18,200 Speaker 1: episode of season two. We will be releasing a number 4 00:00:18,239 --> 00:00:21,239 Speaker 1: of bonus episodes with full interviews with some of the 5 00:00:21,280 --> 00:00:24,759 Speaker 1: people featured on this podcast, as well as others who 6 00:00:24,800 --> 00:00:27,560 Speaker 1: bring an interesting perspective on the issues we've looked at 7 00:00:27,600 --> 00:00:31,680 Speaker 1: this season. I also sat down with Alex Williams to 8 00:00:31,760 --> 00:00:35,479 Speaker 1: be interviewed about both seasons of Strange Arrivals for his 9 00:00:35,600 --> 00:00:41,040 Speaker 1: podcast Ephemeral. Alex is an executive producer of Strange Arrivals 10 00:00:41,120 --> 00:00:45,760 Speaker 1: and his creative input has been invaluable. This episode of Ephemeral, 11 00:00:45,960 --> 00:00:49,880 Speaker 1: titled simply UFOs, looks at some of the same things 12 00:00:49,960 --> 00:00:53,040 Speaker 1: the first two seasons of Strange Arrivals did, but in 13 00:00:53,080 --> 00:00:56,760 Speaker 1: a completely different way. You can hear it now by 14 00:00:56,800 --> 00:01:00,720 Speaker 1: searching for Ephemeral on the I Heart radio app or 15 00:01:00,720 --> 00:01:04,720 Speaker 1: wherever you listen to podcasts, and listen at the end 16 00:01:04,720 --> 00:01:11,319 Speaker 1: of this episode for a sneak preview. Closer to home 17 00:01:11,600 --> 00:01:15,600 Speaker 1: in Marietta, Washington, you will experience slip terror of Bigfoot. 18 00:01:16,840 --> 00:01:19,720 Speaker 1: It all began on the night of June six. Rita 19 00:01:19,800 --> 00:01:25,000 Speaker 1: Graham was sitting on our couch watching TV. Suddenly a giant, 20 00:01:25,040 --> 00:01:29,440 Speaker 1: hairy hand crashed through the window and groped about. The 21 00:01:29,480 --> 00:01:32,600 Speaker 1: monster was next seen by Tom Stern and three days 22 00:01:32,680 --> 00:01:35,840 Speaker 1: later in a boy scout camp. In all, the small 23 00:01:35,880 --> 00:01:43,720 Speaker 1: town experienced twelve encounters within thirty days. Bigfoot, the Abominable Snowman, 24 00:01:45,040 --> 00:01:48,720 Speaker 1: the Luckness Monster just three of the monsters you will 25 00:01:48,760 --> 00:01:53,080 Speaker 1: see in The Mysterious Monsters, A shocking look into man's 26 00:01:53,160 --> 00:02:07,880 Speaker 1: encounters with the unknown. The Mysterious Monsters. H I'm Toby 27 00:02:07,960 --> 00:02:24,080 Speaker 1: Ball and this is Strange Arrivals, Episode thirteen my Lar Batman. 28 00:02:27,320 --> 00:02:34,640 Speaker 1: On July, the Invernous Courier, a newspaper in Scotland, reported 29 00:02:34,639 --> 00:02:38,840 Speaker 1: an incident involving Mr and Mrs Spicer, tourists from London. 30 00:02:39,240 --> 00:02:43,639 Speaker 1: As they drove along the banks of Loch Ness. It 31 00:02:43,720 --> 00:02:48,320 Speaker 1: was horrible, an abomination. About fifty yards ahead we saw 32 00:02:48,400 --> 00:02:52,560 Speaker 1: an undulating sort of neck, and quickly followed by a large, 33 00:02:52,600 --> 00:02:57,120 Speaker 1: ponderous body. I estimated the link to be thirty ft. 34 00:02:57,400 --> 00:03:02,120 Speaker 1: Its color was dark elephant gray. It crossed the road 35 00:03:02,240 --> 00:03:06,080 Speaker 1: in a series of jerks, but because of the slope, 36 00:03:06,480 --> 00:03:10,120 Speaker 1: we could not see its limbs. Although I accelerated quickly 37 00:03:10,160 --> 00:03:12,720 Speaker 1: towards it, it had disappeared into the loch. By the 38 00:03:12,760 --> 00:03:15,760 Speaker 1: time I reached the spot, there was no sign of 39 00:03:15,800 --> 00:03:19,560 Speaker 1: it in the water. I am a temperate man, but 40 00:03:19,639 --> 00:03:22,440 Speaker 1: I am willing to take any oath that we saw 41 00:03:22,520 --> 00:03:25,880 Speaker 1: this loch Ness beast. I'm certain that this creature was 42 00:03:25,919 --> 00:03:30,240 Speaker 1: of a prehistoric species, likely spurred by a new road 43 00:03:30,320 --> 00:03:33,560 Speaker 1: that allowed for better views of its waters. This was 44 00:03:33,639 --> 00:03:36,440 Speaker 1: just one of a number of sightings of something in 45 00:03:36,560 --> 00:03:42,560 Speaker 1: loch Ness. In December n the British newspaper The Daily 46 00:03:42,600 --> 00:03:46,560 Speaker 1: Mail commissioned a filmmaker and big game hunter named Marmaduke 47 00:03:46,600 --> 00:03:52,440 Speaker 1: Weatherall to find the Lochness Monster. On December, he discovered 48 00:03:52,480 --> 00:03:55,600 Speaker 1: footprints on the shore that he said, we're from a quote, 49 00:03:56,240 --> 00:04:01,480 Speaker 1: very powerful, soft footed animal about twenty ft long. This 50 00:04:01,560 --> 00:04:04,840 Speaker 1: turned out not to be true. They were in fact 51 00:04:05,280 --> 00:04:08,880 Speaker 1: made using a dried hippopotamus foot that served as a 52 00:04:08,960 --> 00:04:13,040 Speaker 1: base for an ash tray or umbrella stand. Weather All 53 00:04:13,120 --> 00:04:20,200 Speaker 1: was humiliated four months later. In April, a physician from 54 00:04:20,200 --> 00:04:24,120 Speaker 1: England named Robert Kenneth Wilson claimed to take a photograph 55 00:04:24,240 --> 00:04:26,600 Speaker 1: of what appeared to be the neck and head of 56 00:04:26,640 --> 00:04:31,200 Speaker 1: some prehistoric looking creature emerging from the water. This became 57 00:04:31,240 --> 00:04:35,239 Speaker 1: known as the Surgeon's photo, and it is the iconic 58 00:04:35,279 --> 00:04:39,560 Speaker 1: photo of the Lockness Monster. And this wasn't the only 59 00:04:39,640 --> 00:04:43,360 Speaker 1: case where a piece of visual evidence caught the public's imagination. 60 00:04:44,640 --> 00:04:47,680 Speaker 1: Mysterious creature is roaming this wilderness, the creature that has 61 00:04:47,760 --> 00:04:52,800 Speaker 1: confounded scientists, baffled investigators, and captured the imagination of millions 62 00:04:52,800 --> 00:04:55,680 Speaker 1: of people. We've all heard of the reported sightings of 63 00:04:55,720 --> 00:04:58,559 Speaker 1: this creature, a creature most of us know as big Foot. 64 00:04:59,080 --> 00:05:01,280 Speaker 1: We've read about it and our newspapers, and heard about 65 00:05:01,279 --> 00:05:04,320 Speaker 1: it on radio and television. And some of you, like me, 66 00:05:04,480 --> 00:05:07,599 Speaker 1: might have been skeptical about these reports, wondering how it 67 00:05:07,640 --> 00:05:11,400 Speaker 1: could be possible for a sizeable population of eight foot 68 00:05:11,560 --> 00:05:14,800 Speaker 1: five monsters to live among us on the edge of 69 00:05:14,800 --> 00:05:19,560 Speaker 1: our industrialized society. I was skeptical. I was also tantalized 70 00:05:19,600 --> 00:05:22,080 Speaker 1: by what I heard, so I decided to find out 71 00:05:22,120 --> 00:05:28,600 Speaker 1: for myself whether Bigfoot was fact or fiction. In October 72 00:05:28,680 --> 00:05:32,880 Speaker 1: of nineteen seven, thirty three years after the Surgeon's photo, 73 00:05:33,520 --> 00:05:37,839 Speaker 1: Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin were riding horses along Bluff 74 00:05:37,960 --> 00:05:42,760 Speaker 1: Creek in Humboldt County, California. Patterson was in the midst 75 00:05:42,800 --> 00:05:45,960 Speaker 1: of attempting to film a movie based partly on actual 76 00:05:46,080 --> 00:05:51,560 Speaker 1: stories of a group of cowboys tracking a sasquatch. Patterson 77 00:05:51,600 --> 00:05:54,640 Speaker 1: may have already done some filming over Memorial Day weekend, 78 00:05:55,080 --> 00:06:00,680 Speaker 1: which would become important. Later in the early afternoon, Patterson 79 00:06:00,720 --> 00:06:04,040 Speaker 1: and Giblin claimed they saw a figure standing or crouching 80 00:06:04,120 --> 00:06:08,880 Speaker 1: by a stream. Patterson dismounted, grabbed his camera from a 81 00:06:08,920 --> 00:06:12,359 Speaker 1: saddle bag, and chased the creature, who had begun to 82 00:06:12,440 --> 00:06:16,320 Speaker 1: retreat from the two men and their horses. The beginning 83 00:06:16,320 --> 00:06:19,320 Speaker 1: of the film, which lasts just less than a minute, 84 00:06:19,760 --> 00:06:23,560 Speaker 1: is confused and jiggli as Patterson runs with the camera 85 00:06:23,640 --> 00:06:27,240 Speaker 1: in hand, but there's a several second shot of this 86 00:06:27,360 --> 00:06:31,279 Speaker 1: ape like creature striding away from Patterson, turning to look 87 00:06:31,279 --> 00:06:35,560 Speaker 1: back at him, and then continuing on. For most people, 88 00:06:36,080 --> 00:06:38,719 Speaker 1: this is the image that comes to mind when someone 89 00:06:38,800 --> 00:06:43,839 Speaker 1: mentions Bigfoot or Sasquatch. I bring these two examples up 90 00:06:44,040 --> 00:06:47,240 Speaker 1: because the advent of photography and film created a new 91 00:06:47,320 --> 00:06:51,640 Speaker 1: kind of folklore, one that is particularly important to UFOs 92 00:06:52,800 --> 00:06:55,520 Speaker 1: because it is one thing to hear about someone seeing 93 00:06:55,560 --> 00:07:00,200 Speaker 1: a huge, seemingly prehistoric creature in a lake, or even 94 00:07:00,200 --> 00:07:02,320 Speaker 1: foot ape that walks like a man deep in the 95 00:07:02,360 --> 00:07:06,680 Speaker 1: woods of the Pacific Northwest. But having a visual artifact 96 00:07:06,839 --> 00:07:12,320 Speaker 1: makes the story vastly more compelling Utah State University folklore 97 00:07:12,360 --> 00:07:17,800 Speaker 1: professor Lynn McNeil. Then we start adding in not just 98 00:07:18,280 --> 00:07:22,040 Speaker 1: the narratives, not just the stories, but this additional media 99 00:07:22,240 --> 00:07:25,440 Speaker 1: that comes to us from this particular time in our culture, 100 00:07:25,520 --> 00:07:29,520 Speaker 1: where there's more everyday people out there with cameras. There's 101 00:07:29,640 --> 00:07:33,360 Speaker 1: more visual media than just textual. We're able to capture 102 00:07:33,960 --> 00:07:37,400 Speaker 1: things and share them with each other in unprecedented ways, 103 00:07:37,560 --> 00:07:40,920 Speaker 1: and that changes how we talk about this stuff. I 104 00:07:40,960 --> 00:07:43,920 Speaker 1: don't think there's any question that the surgeons photo and 105 00:07:43,960 --> 00:07:47,680 Speaker 1: the Patterson film are critical pieces of the Locknest Monster 106 00:07:47,920 --> 00:07:52,160 Speaker 1: and bigfoot folklore's They are the first or among the 107 00:07:52,200 --> 00:07:54,680 Speaker 1: first things you think of when you think about these 108 00:07:54,720 --> 00:08:00,000 Speaker 1: two legendary creatures. But here's the thing, they're both almost 109 00:08:00,120 --> 00:08:05,840 Speaker 1: definitely hoaxes. The Surgeon's photo is nearly always shown cropped 110 00:08:06,120 --> 00:08:10,440 Speaker 1: to accentuate the image of the creature. The uncropped photo 111 00:08:10,560 --> 00:08:13,760 Speaker 1: includes the far shore and a wider expanse of lake, 112 00:08:14,360 --> 00:08:18,600 Speaker 1: and suddenly, with this context, the creature doesn't look so large. 113 00:08:19,840 --> 00:08:24,720 Speaker 1: In fact, two men Marmaduke. Weather all Son and Stepson, 114 00:08:25,440 --> 00:08:28,520 Speaker 1: both at different times, confessed that they had helped in 115 00:08:28,560 --> 00:08:31,440 Speaker 1: creating a hoax to get revenge on the Daily Mail 116 00:08:32,000 --> 00:08:35,440 Speaker 1: for its treatment of Marmaduke after the Hippo foot incident. 117 00:08:36,400 --> 00:08:39,840 Speaker 1: According to them, it was a small model maybe two 118 00:08:39,840 --> 00:08:43,880 Speaker 1: ft high, placed on a toy submarine and then photographed 119 00:08:44,720 --> 00:08:49,080 Speaker 1: the enlisted Wilson, the English doctor, through a mutual friend 120 00:08:49,200 --> 00:08:52,520 Speaker 1: to give the photograph authenticity it wouldn't have had if 121 00:08:52,520 --> 00:08:57,480 Speaker 1: it had come from someone in the weather all family. Similarly, 122 00:08:57,960 --> 00:09:01,920 Speaker 1: there are questions about the Patterson film. Without getting too 123 00:09:01,960 --> 00:09:04,960 Speaker 1: deep into the weeds, there's an issue about the dating 124 00:09:04,960 --> 00:09:08,440 Speaker 1: of the film, because there were very few labs that 125 00:09:08,480 --> 00:09:11,680 Speaker 1: could develop the kind of film he was using. Critics 126 00:09:11,800 --> 00:09:14,800 Speaker 1: question whether Patterson could have recorded the footage on the 127 00:09:14,880 --> 00:09:17,559 Speaker 1: date he says he did and have it developed by 128 00:09:17,559 --> 00:09:20,760 Speaker 1: the time it was made public. They point to the 129 00:09:20,800 --> 00:09:23,560 Speaker 1: filming of the movie that took place over Memorial Day 130 00:09:23,559 --> 00:09:26,679 Speaker 1: weekend and note that Patterson would likely have had a 131 00:09:26,720 --> 00:09:31,200 Speaker 1: bigfoot costume for those scenes, the implication being he filmed 132 00:09:31,200 --> 00:09:35,720 Speaker 1: a hoax video at the time. Further, and more damning 133 00:09:36,320 --> 00:09:39,040 Speaker 1: biologists who have looked at the film note that the 134 00:09:39,080 --> 00:09:42,959 Speaker 1: Bigfoot doesn't have a realistic physiology and is most likely 135 00:09:43,000 --> 00:09:47,520 Speaker 1: a man in a costume. But regardless of the authenticity 136 00:09:47,520 --> 00:09:51,600 Speaker 1: of what was filmed, these two visual artifacts are critical 137 00:09:51,720 --> 00:09:56,280 Speaker 1: parts of their respective folklores. Photos and videos, of course, 138 00:09:56,679 --> 00:10:00,839 Speaker 1: are also very important parts of the UFO folklore, especially 139 00:10:00,920 --> 00:10:05,360 Speaker 1: recently with a number of unclassified UFO videos released by 140 00:10:05,360 --> 00:10:10,160 Speaker 1: the Pentagon. The ranks of UFO videos and photographs have 141 00:10:10,400 --> 00:10:14,640 Speaker 1: also been plagued by hoaxes well. There is no single 142 00:10:14,720 --> 00:10:17,920 Speaker 1: image that has the iconic power of the Surgeon's photo 143 00:10:18,120 --> 00:10:21,800 Speaker 1: or the Patterson film. Two early photographs that set the 144 00:10:21,880 --> 00:10:26,679 Speaker 1: expectation for the stereotypical flying saucer were taken in nineteen 145 00:10:26,800 --> 00:10:30,560 Speaker 1: fifty just outside the town of Sheridan, Oregon, by a 146 00:10:30,600 --> 00:10:34,400 Speaker 1: farmer named Paul Trent. These photos have come to be 147 00:10:34,440 --> 00:10:39,040 Speaker 1: associated with a larger town not far from Sheridan called McMinnville. 148 00:10:41,080 --> 00:10:43,320 Speaker 1: It's one thing to trust your neighbor when he's like 149 00:10:43,640 --> 00:10:46,920 Speaker 1: I saw some weird lights over my farm and then 150 00:10:46,960 --> 00:10:49,640 Speaker 1: I lost three hours of my day. I don't know 151 00:10:49,679 --> 00:10:51,400 Speaker 1: what happened, but I woke up in a ditch and 152 00:10:51,440 --> 00:10:53,840 Speaker 1: I had all these bruises. You know, you tell me 153 00:10:53,920 --> 00:10:56,280 Speaker 1: what that means. It's another thing when your neighbor tells 154 00:10:56,280 --> 00:10:58,520 Speaker 1: you that same story and then shows you a photo 155 00:10:58,600 --> 00:11:02,720 Speaker 1: that he took, and you're like, oh, yeah, I can't 156 00:11:02,720 --> 00:11:05,080 Speaker 1: explain what those lights are. They don't look like an airplane, 157 00:11:05,120 --> 00:11:08,120 Speaker 1: they don't look like anything I'm familiar with. That word 158 00:11:08,120 --> 00:11:13,320 Speaker 1: of mouth culture is now being bolstered by additional things. 159 00:11:14,280 --> 00:11:17,240 Speaker 1: The sighting occurred at seven thirty in the evening on 160 00:11:17,320 --> 00:11:21,960 Speaker 1: maybe eleventh. Here's Evelyn Trent, who first saw the object, 161 00:11:22,520 --> 00:11:26,840 Speaker 1: describing what happened. I had to look up and I've 162 00:11:26,840 --> 00:11:30,520 Speaker 1: seen this thing and I ran into the house. You'll 163 00:11:30,600 --> 00:11:33,079 Speaker 1: know about it. We went one look after a camera 164 00:11:33,120 --> 00:11:35,040 Speaker 1: and I with the other way after a camel the 165 00:11:35,120 --> 00:11:37,640 Speaker 1: green above the let's we found it. The best thing, 166 00:11:37,679 --> 00:11:39,280 Speaker 1: I have to say, It would be just about the 167 00:11:39,360 --> 00:11:42,760 Speaker 1: size of the shoes without any strings ing not I said. 168 00:11:42,840 --> 00:11:44,839 Speaker 1: It was all flat on the bottom and it was 169 00:11:44,920 --> 00:11:48,400 Speaker 1: still recolored. I was about to lunking it, but there 170 00:11:48,440 --> 00:11:51,959 Speaker 1: was no smoke, no noise either. What we just suppose 171 00:11:52,080 --> 00:11:55,160 Speaker 1: the let the flight wires away and I just you know, 172 00:11:55,320 --> 00:11:57,959 Speaker 1: the distance and stuff. I just don't know if it 173 00:11:58,120 --> 00:12:01,040 Speaker 1: could have hovered for a while and all just like that, 174 00:12:01,200 --> 00:12:04,440 Speaker 1: and he's just a picture, and right, just the picture. 175 00:12:04,520 --> 00:12:06,559 Speaker 1: He ran the film the re rose in order to 176 00:12:06,559 --> 00:12:10,439 Speaker 1: take another one, and as his turn, and just to 177 00:12:10,600 --> 00:12:15,840 Speaker 1: folve very The two photos are taken from similar, though 178 00:12:15,840 --> 00:12:19,600 Speaker 1: not identical vantage points. In the lower left of the 179 00:12:19,640 --> 00:12:22,560 Speaker 1: frame is a house or shed with an oil tank 180 00:12:22,640 --> 00:12:26,680 Speaker 1: set on the side that faces the camera. An expanse 181 00:12:26,760 --> 00:12:29,760 Speaker 1: of sparsely wooded flat land ends at what appeared to 182 00:12:29,800 --> 00:12:34,040 Speaker 1: be low hills in the distance. Not far away. On 183 00:12:34,120 --> 00:12:36,559 Speaker 1: the right side of the frame is a telephone pole, 184 00:12:37,120 --> 00:12:39,440 Speaker 1: and wires can be seen going from the pole in 185 00:12:39,559 --> 00:12:44,880 Speaker 1: each direction. In the foreground, electrical wires hang across the 186 00:12:44,920 --> 00:12:48,400 Speaker 1: top of the frame. An objects seems to hover in 187 00:12:48,440 --> 00:12:51,360 Speaker 1: the air in the center of the shot. In the 188 00:12:51,400 --> 00:12:54,360 Speaker 1: first photo, the object is tilted down to the right 189 00:12:54,760 --> 00:12:58,720 Speaker 1: and away from the camera, and enlargement shows what seems 190 00:12:58,720 --> 00:13:01,760 Speaker 1: to be a flat circular or bottom and perhaps a 191 00:13:01,840 --> 00:13:05,680 Speaker 1: kind of rounded dome on top. In the second photo, 192 00:13:06,120 --> 00:13:09,160 Speaker 1: the object is still tilted somewhat to the right, but 193 00:13:09,360 --> 00:13:12,200 Speaker 1: is no longer tilted away, and you can see that 194 00:13:12,280 --> 00:13:16,280 Speaker 1: the top section is raised and flattened like a mesa, 195 00:13:16,400 --> 00:13:18,480 Speaker 1: and there's a point that sticks up from the middle. 196 00:13:19,840 --> 00:13:22,520 Speaker 1: As you heard Evelyn Trent say, she thought it was 197 00:13:22,600 --> 00:13:26,280 Speaker 1: roughly the size of a parachute. The photos were a 198 00:13:26,280 --> 00:13:31,120 Speaker 1: sensation and taken to be genuine. The Condon Committee undertook 199 00:13:31,160 --> 00:13:34,600 Speaker 1: a scientific study of the photos and found no evidence 200 00:13:34,640 --> 00:13:37,840 Speaker 1: of a hoax. In the conclusion to the section on 201 00:13:37,880 --> 00:13:42,920 Speaker 1: these photos, the researcher, an astronomer named William Hartman, wrote, 202 00:13:44,160 --> 00:13:46,560 Speaker 1: this is one of the few UFO reports in which 203 00:13:46,600 --> 00:13:51,760 Speaker 1: all factors investigated geometric, psychological, and physical, appeared to be 204 00:13:51,840 --> 00:13:56,120 Speaker 1: consistent with the assertion that an extraordinary flying object silvery 205 00:13:56,360 --> 00:14:00,559 Speaker 1: metallic disc shaped tens of meters in diameter, and evidently 206 00:14:00,600 --> 00:14:05,240 Speaker 1: artificial fluid in sight of two witnesses. It cannot be 207 00:14:05,320 --> 00:14:09,000 Speaker 1: said that the evidence positively rules out of fabrication, although 208 00:14:09,000 --> 00:14:12,120 Speaker 1: there are some physical factors, such as the accuracy of 209 00:14:12,160 --> 00:14:15,920 Speaker 1: certain photometric measures of the original negatives, which argue against 210 00:14:15,960 --> 00:14:21,040 Speaker 1: the fabrication. This validation by the United States government let 211 00:14:21,120 --> 00:14:26,000 Speaker 1: the photos a greater degree of legitimacy. Now it's the government. 212 00:14:26,040 --> 00:14:29,040 Speaker 1: Now it's an institutional element of our culture who we 213 00:14:29,160 --> 00:14:34,240 Speaker 1: know isn't joking around, and they're taking it seriously, and 214 00:14:34,360 --> 00:14:37,800 Speaker 1: they're producing documents and they're gathering photos, and you start 215 00:14:37,840 --> 00:14:40,280 Speaker 1: to go, okay, wait, hey, wait a minute, like the 216 00:14:40,400 --> 00:14:46,480 Speaker 1: authority that institutions lend to the already powerful word of 217 00:14:46,560 --> 00:14:51,360 Speaker 1: mouth consensus of folklore is really something that you can't underestimate. 218 00:14:52,960 --> 00:14:55,320 Speaker 1: In his section on the mc minville photos in the 219 00:14:55,360 --> 00:14:59,200 Speaker 1: Condon Report, Hartman had noted that it was possible that 220 00:14:59,320 --> 00:15:03,640 Speaker 1: this was a hope. Another possibility can be considered, however, 221 00:15:04,160 --> 00:15:07,240 Speaker 1: the object appears beneath a pair of wires, as is 222 00:15:07,280 --> 00:15:12,280 Speaker 1: seen in Plates twenty four. We may question, therefore, whether 223 00:15:12,320 --> 00:15:14,600 Speaker 1: it could have been a model suspended from one of 224 00:15:14,600 --> 00:15:19,280 Speaker 1: the wires. This possibility is strengthened by the observation that 225 00:15:19,360 --> 00:15:22,000 Speaker 1: the object appears beneath roughly the same point in the 226 00:15:22,000 --> 00:15:25,040 Speaker 1: two photos, in spite of their having been taken from 227 00:15:25,080 --> 00:15:29,800 Speaker 1: two positions, and in fact this may have been what happened. 228 00:15:30,840 --> 00:15:34,760 Speaker 1: Skeptical investigator Robert Shaefer has shown that the lightning conditions 229 00:15:34,800 --> 00:15:38,040 Speaker 1: and the photos indicate that the shots were taken around 230 00:15:38,120 --> 00:15:41,480 Speaker 1: eight twenty in the morning, not seven thirty in the evening, 231 00:15:41,640 --> 00:15:46,520 Speaker 1: as the trends claimed. French researchers published a technical paper 232 00:15:47,040 --> 00:15:49,720 Speaker 1: showing that the physics of the positions of the object 233 00:15:49,760 --> 00:15:52,880 Speaker 1: in the two photos indicate that it is a small 234 00:15:53,000 --> 00:15:56,880 Speaker 1: model hanging from the electrical lines in a light breeze 235 00:15:57,080 --> 00:16:01,200 Speaker 1: a short distance from the camera. A researcher named Joel 236 00:16:01,280 --> 00:16:04,120 Speaker 1: Carpenter suggested that the object was a mirror from an 237 00:16:04,120 --> 00:16:08,560 Speaker 1: old truck. The post war era saw an increase in 238 00:16:08,600 --> 00:16:12,240 Speaker 1: the ability for people to produce or consume visual culture. 239 00:16:13,080 --> 00:16:17,360 Speaker 1: Cameras became increasingly easy for non professionals to use, and 240 00:16:17,440 --> 00:16:21,760 Speaker 1: the influence and presence of television, of course grew exponentially. 241 00:16:23,280 --> 00:16:25,360 Speaker 1: So we start to see people think in terms of 242 00:16:25,400 --> 00:16:28,640 Speaker 1: images more than words, and that of course has only 243 00:16:28,680 --> 00:16:31,480 Speaker 1: grown thanks to the Internet and our ability to now 244 00:16:31,520 --> 00:16:33,840 Speaker 1: combine images and words in all sorts of new ways. 245 00:16:34,000 --> 00:16:37,080 Speaker 1: But we see folklore reflect that. We suddenly start getting 246 00:16:37,400 --> 00:16:41,080 Speaker 1: genres of folklore that scholars referred to as xerox lore 247 00:16:41,520 --> 00:16:44,960 Speaker 1: and facts lore, and we get things like visual legends, 248 00:16:44,960 --> 00:16:47,600 Speaker 1: so instead of telling a story, we just get an 249 00:16:47,720 --> 00:16:52,480 Speaker 1: image of something. And you can see how something like UFOs, 250 00:16:52,600 --> 00:16:58,040 Speaker 1: something that's relying on visual input or photography or you know, 251 00:16:58,200 --> 00:17:01,200 Speaker 1: mapping and things like that. The ability to share that information, 252 00:17:01,280 --> 00:17:03,680 Speaker 1: the ability to pass around that evidence, just gets that 253 00:17:03,800 --> 00:17:11,040 Speaker 1: much stronger. In an organization called To the Stars Academy 254 00:17:11,200 --> 00:17:15,080 Speaker 1: released three videos taken by Navy pilots in two thousand 255 00:17:15,080 --> 00:17:19,320 Speaker 1: and four and two thousand fifteen showing blurry images of 256 00:17:19,320 --> 00:17:22,320 Speaker 1: things in the sky that the audio released along with 257 00:17:22,359 --> 00:17:27,200 Speaker 1: the videos indicated could not be identified. The videos were 258 00:17:27,200 --> 00:17:29,560 Speaker 1: posted on the websites of The New York Times and 259 00:17:29,600 --> 00:17:34,200 Speaker 1: The Washington Post, accompanying stories about a secret Pentagon project 260 00:17:34,400 --> 00:17:40,720 Speaker 1: allegedly investigating UFOs rebranded as u a p s Unexplained 261 00:17:40,800 --> 00:17:46,439 Speaker 1: Aerial Phenomena. This story, to some degree is still unfolding, 262 00:17:46,880 --> 00:17:48,800 Speaker 1: and I'm not going to argue about the merits of 263 00:17:48,840 --> 00:17:52,840 Speaker 1: the videos, but what strikes me is how indistinct they are. 264 00:17:53,680 --> 00:17:56,160 Speaker 1: The objects in these black and white videos are either 265 00:17:56,240 --> 00:18:00,639 Speaker 1: blobs the result of heat detecting cameras, or dots moving 266 00:18:00,680 --> 00:18:04,040 Speaker 1: against the background. There's no way you could see the 267 00:18:04,119 --> 00:18:08,360 Speaker 1: films and then describe the objects in them. Contrast that 268 00:18:08,400 --> 00:18:10,399 Speaker 1: to a still photo that was put out to the 269 00:18:10,440 --> 00:18:14,600 Speaker 1: Internet by a newly formed online magazine called The Debrief 270 00:18:15,240 --> 00:18:17,760 Speaker 1: that shows a photo taken from the rear seat of 271 00:18:17,800 --> 00:18:21,560 Speaker 1: an F A eighteen super hornet of a metallic object 272 00:18:21,560 --> 00:18:27,159 Speaker 1: in the sky. Supposedly, the Defense Department was stumped. The 273 00:18:27,240 --> 00:18:30,160 Speaker 1: object is in the distance, but it's clear to see 274 00:18:30,880 --> 00:18:34,480 Speaker 1: you can describe what it looks like. In fact, you 275 00:18:34,520 --> 00:18:37,240 Speaker 1: can describe it well enough that it took practically no 276 00:18:37,480 --> 00:18:40,760 Speaker 1: time for the Internet masses to not only identify it 277 00:18:40,840 --> 00:18:44,600 Speaker 1: as a milar balloon, but as a batman my lar balloon. 278 00:18:46,280 --> 00:18:49,680 Speaker 1: But while this photo was quickly explained, the previous three 279 00:18:49,760 --> 00:18:52,800 Speaker 1: videos exists in that realm we've talked about throughout this 280 00:18:52,880 --> 00:18:56,920 Speaker 1: season where no single explanation has been accepted by the culture. 281 00:18:57,640 --> 00:19:00,639 Speaker 1: So it lives in that folklore realm. But there is 282 00:19:00,680 --> 00:19:03,919 Speaker 1: attached to the videos a sense that the Department of 283 00:19:03,960 --> 00:19:07,920 Speaker 1: Defense has legitimate questions about them, and this is important 284 00:19:08,040 --> 00:19:13,000 Speaker 1: when people evaluate them. When we start to see any 285 00:19:13,080 --> 00:19:17,400 Speaker 1: sort of institutional acknowledgement of that, like the declassified reports 286 00:19:17,440 --> 00:19:19,320 Speaker 1: that have come out from the U. S. Military of 287 00:19:19,560 --> 00:19:22,760 Speaker 1: we caught these things on camera, what are they? We 288 00:19:22,840 --> 00:19:26,720 Speaker 1: don't know, that sort of admission from that level of authority, 289 00:19:27,320 --> 00:19:31,960 Speaker 1: and just bam, suddenly a whole slice of people who 290 00:19:32,000 --> 00:19:35,479 Speaker 1: previously were maybe on the skeptical side, are now just 291 00:19:35,600 --> 00:19:38,080 Speaker 1: like WHOA. That was what was missing for me. That 292 00:19:38,160 --> 00:19:40,439 Speaker 1: was the resonant piece that's going to get me to 293 00:19:40,480 --> 00:19:44,280 Speaker 1: take this seriously again. And so it's an ever shifting landscape, 294 00:19:44,520 --> 00:19:47,960 Speaker 1: but one in which we can stand back and see 295 00:19:48,040 --> 00:19:51,760 Speaker 1: really big themes, but we can also zoom in and 296 00:19:51,800 --> 00:19:57,200 Speaker 1: see really really specific, small scale symbolic moments that are 297 00:19:57,440 --> 00:20:03,960 Speaker 1: generating that larger theme. So these videos have been absorbed, 298 00:20:04,359 --> 00:20:07,800 Speaker 1: at least at this moment, into the larger UFO folklore. 299 00:20:08,960 --> 00:20:12,480 Speaker 1: But what accounts for our continuing fascination with UFOs when 300 00:20:12,480 --> 00:20:16,359 Speaker 1: the culture loses interest in so many other paranormal phenomena 301 00:20:17,480 --> 00:20:38,119 Speaker 1: after the break? Why have UFOs maintained their place in 302 00:20:38,160 --> 00:20:41,479 Speaker 1: our culture while other paranormal interests seemed to come and go. 303 00:20:43,000 --> 00:20:45,680 Speaker 1: One answer, of course, is that there might be more 304 00:20:45,720 --> 00:20:49,960 Speaker 1: to the UFO phenomenon the just stories. Maybe we are 305 00:20:50,040 --> 00:20:56,560 Speaker 1: being visited again, Lynn McNeil. We know that belief doesn't 306 00:20:56,600 --> 00:21:00,879 Speaker 1: stick around for no reason, and we know that one straightforward, 307 00:21:00,960 --> 00:21:05,119 Speaker 1: if hard to accept answer is perhaps people keep talking 308 00:21:05,160 --> 00:21:08,680 Speaker 1: about UFOs because people keep seeing them, because they're they're 309 00:21:09,000 --> 00:21:11,680 Speaker 1: they're real, people are having encounters. That is a possibility 310 00:21:12,040 --> 00:21:16,080 Speaker 1: that it does us no service to discount. When we wonder, wow, 311 00:21:16,160 --> 00:21:18,280 Speaker 1: why do people keep talking about this? It's like, Wow, 312 00:21:18,680 --> 00:21:21,800 Speaker 1: why do people keep talking about Bigfoot may because they 313 00:21:21,880 --> 00:21:24,560 Speaker 1: keep seeing him. You know. That's one answer that we 314 00:21:24,640 --> 00:21:29,920 Speaker 1: don't need to erase. But what explains it if UFOs 315 00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:33,600 Speaker 1: aren't real? After all, we don't have the kind of 316 00:21:33,640 --> 00:21:36,760 Speaker 1: evidence that you'd expect from a phenomenon that has been 317 00:21:36,760 --> 00:21:39,760 Speaker 1: going on for at least three quarters of a century. 318 00:21:40,440 --> 00:21:43,760 Speaker 1: Let's say that we cannot confirm the existence of UFOs. 319 00:21:43,840 --> 00:21:46,720 Speaker 1: We don't have one that most of us know of, right, 320 00:21:46,800 --> 00:21:49,639 Speaker 1: We don't have one to look at to take apart 321 00:21:49,680 --> 00:21:53,520 Speaker 1: to dismantle, to analyze with what tools are available to us? 322 00:21:53,880 --> 00:21:57,359 Speaker 1: Why do we keep telling this story? Clearly there's some 323 00:21:57,920 --> 00:22:03,280 Speaker 1: beneficial outcome of leaving in this possibility, not meaning always positive, 324 00:22:03,320 --> 00:22:07,240 Speaker 1: but meaning it serves us in our psychological and social needs. 325 00:22:09,080 --> 00:22:13,800 Speaker 1: On August six, the first nuclear weapon to be used 326 00:22:13,800 --> 00:22:18,399 Speaker 1: in war was detonated above Hiroshima, causing destruction at a 327 00:22:18,480 --> 00:22:23,760 Speaker 1: scale unimaginable before that moment. In an instant, an estimated 328 00:22:23,840 --> 00:22:27,600 Speaker 1: eighty people were killed and tens of thousands more would 329 00:22:27,600 --> 00:22:31,040 Speaker 1: die in the days to come. Everything within a two 330 00:22:31,119 --> 00:22:36,760 Speaker 1: kilometer radius of the detonation site burned. The destruction was 331 00:22:36,800 --> 00:22:40,080 Speaker 1: on a scale that had previously been thought only possible 332 00:22:40,080 --> 00:22:46,159 Speaker 1: by gods. Now though through technology, man had acquired that power. 333 00:22:47,359 --> 00:22:51,120 Speaker 1: What did that mean? How could fallible humans be trusted 334 00:22:51,200 --> 00:22:58,640 Speaker 1: with that kind of destructive potential? After people, and particularly Americans, 335 00:22:59,119 --> 00:23:03,399 Speaker 1: were confronted with the fierce, nearly supernatural power afforded to 336 00:23:03,480 --> 00:23:07,399 Speaker 1: them by technology, less than two years after the bombing 337 00:23:07,400 --> 00:23:12,520 Speaker 1: of Hiroshima, Kenneth Arnold saw objects flying around Mountaineer and 338 00:23:12,600 --> 00:23:16,400 Speaker 1: debris was found on Mac Brazil's ranch outside Roswell, New Mexico, 339 00:23:17,320 --> 00:23:19,879 Speaker 1: and this became the form that this strain of folklore 340 00:23:19,920 --> 00:23:23,440 Speaker 1: would take. The reality is is that folklore is a 341 00:23:23,520 --> 00:23:27,199 Speaker 1: really contemporary form of cultural expression. Yes, it comes from 342 00:23:27,240 --> 00:23:30,240 Speaker 1: the past, but the whole point of it being folklore 343 00:23:30,320 --> 00:23:36,280 Speaker 1: is that it keeps itself relevant by adapting and changing dynamically, 344 00:23:36,960 --> 00:23:40,439 Speaker 1: so that when it was relevant in the past, it 345 00:23:40,520 --> 00:23:44,720 Speaker 1: can adjust to become relevant now. So, yeah, folklore dies out, 346 00:23:44,720 --> 00:23:47,600 Speaker 1: folklore disappears. For a long time, people thought of folklore 347 00:23:47,640 --> 00:23:50,399 Speaker 1: as the survivals of a past age. And what we 348 00:23:50,520 --> 00:23:52,840 Speaker 1: now know is that it's not so much that it's 349 00:23:52,960 --> 00:23:57,240 Speaker 1: dying out. It's that it's changing its face in order 350 00:23:57,280 --> 00:24:03,120 Speaker 1: to keep up the early days of the modern UFO era. 351 00:24:03,359 --> 00:24:07,720 Speaker 1: Explicitly acknowledged the centrality of the new destructive forces in 352 00:24:07,840 --> 00:24:11,840 Speaker 1: human hands. The so called contact e s were people 353 00:24:11,880 --> 00:24:15,600 Speaker 1: who in the nineteen fifties claim to have interactions with 354 00:24:15,800 --> 00:24:19,800 Speaker 1: very humanlike beings from outer space that brought messages of 355 00:24:19,880 --> 00:24:24,879 Speaker 1: peace and concern over the development of nuclear weapons. Here's 356 00:24:24,920 --> 00:24:28,880 Speaker 1: Aaron Gallias, hosts of the Saucer Life podcast, talking about 357 00:24:28,920 --> 00:24:32,480 Speaker 1: the most famous of the contacts, a man named George 358 00:24:32,480 --> 00:24:38,760 Speaker 1: adam Ski. In nineteen fifty two, George Adamsky has a 359 00:24:38,800 --> 00:24:43,080 Speaker 1: meeting in the desert with a being from a flying saucer. 360 00:24:43,480 --> 00:24:47,800 Speaker 1: He's from the planet Venus, and he communicates through gestures 361 00:24:47,840 --> 00:24:52,440 Speaker 1: that the Venusians are concerned because of atomic explosions they've 362 00:24:52,480 --> 00:24:56,840 Speaker 1: detected coming from the Earth. These other civilizations have already 363 00:24:56,880 --> 00:25:00,480 Speaker 1: passed beyond this stage of development that Earth is in, 364 00:25:01,240 --> 00:25:05,280 Speaker 1: and this might spell doom for the balance of the 365 00:25:05,280 --> 00:25:10,159 Speaker 1: Solar System. The same message was delivered by Claw to 366 00:25:10,800 --> 00:25:14,040 Speaker 1: an alien visitor in the classic science fiction film From 367 00:25:15,600 --> 00:25:19,320 Speaker 1: the Day the Earth Stood Still. If you threaten to 368 00:25:19,440 --> 00:25:23,080 Speaker 1: extend your violence, this Earth of yours will be reduced 369 00:25:23,119 --> 00:25:27,240 Speaker 1: to a burned out cinder. In fact, many of the 370 00:25:27,359 --> 00:25:30,480 Speaker 1: encounters we've looked at this season have taken place near 371 00:25:30,560 --> 00:25:35,639 Speaker 1: nuclear facilities. Roswell is near White Sands Missile Test Range, 372 00:25:36,200 --> 00:25:39,399 Speaker 1: site of the first atomic bomb test, and R F. 373 00:25:39,520 --> 00:25:43,760 Speaker 1: Bentwaters in Curtland Air Force Base, both house nuclear weapons. 374 00:25:44,640 --> 00:25:49,919 Speaker 1: The link is unmistakable. But why. Part of folklore development 375 00:25:50,200 --> 00:25:53,159 Speaker 1: is the adaptation of traditional stories to a framework that 376 00:25:53,200 --> 00:25:57,800 Speaker 1: makes sense in the context of the times. If we 377 00:25:57,840 --> 00:26:02,800 Speaker 1: want to look at the legend of the UFO visitor, 378 00:26:02,920 --> 00:26:07,159 Speaker 1: where we have odd, often vaguely humanoid, sometimes a little 379 00:26:07,160 --> 00:26:11,720 Speaker 1: extra tall, slender creatures descending from the sky or perhaps 380 00:26:11,720 --> 00:26:15,399 Speaker 1: emerging from another dimension to interact with humans, often to 381 00:26:15,480 --> 00:26:18,600 Speaker 1: kidnap them, often to interfere with their bodies in some way. 382 00:26:18,960 --> 00:26:23,399 Speaker 1: We've just described centuries of fairy lore, you know, other 383 00:26:23,640 --> 00:26:29,200 Speaker 1: creatures slender, humanoid, mysterious, powerful, emerging from the mists, taking 384 00:26:29,280 --> 00:26:31,600 Speaker 1: us away. Being kidnapped by the fairies and taken by 385 00:26:31,600 --> 00:26:34,840 Speaker 1: the fairies is a longstanding tradition. So if we want 386 00:26:34,840 --> 00:26:38,800 Speaker 1: to call that UFO lore, we could very very easily. 387 00:26:40,480 --> 00:26:44,040 Speaker 1: This modification of existing stories to fit the context of 388 00:26:44,080 --> 00:26:47,960 Speaker 1: a culture or a time is a common phenomenon in folklore. 389 00:26:49,600 --> 00:26:51,960 Speaker 1: So the term actually that folk has use for this, 390 00:26:52,080 --> 00:26:56,440 Speaker 1: which I love, is eco typification. It's borrowed from botany, basically, 391 00:26:56,480 --> 00:27:00,000 Speaker 1: the study of plants and the way that they immerge 392 00:27:00,080 --> 00:27:04,600 Speaker 1: urge differently, even though it's the same species in two 393 00:27:04,640 --> 00:27:10,240 Speaker 1: different climate and geological and geographical environments, because it's being 394 00:27:10,320 --> 00:27:14,040 Speaker 1: responsive to its context, and so folklore is seen as 395 00:27:14,080 --> 00:27:17,080 Speaker 1: operating in that same way. You can have the same story, 396 00:27:17,200 --> 00:27:19,600 Speaker 1: the same legend, the same fairy tales, show up in 397 00:27:19,640 --> 00:27:23,400 Speaker 1: two different places, and it's going to be morphologically distinct. 398 00:27:24,640 --> 00:27:27,960 Speaker 1: Morphology is the study of words and how they relate 399 00:27:28,040 --> 00:27:32,240 Speaker 1: to other words in the same language. Syntax studies the 400 00:27:32,280 --> 00:27:38,760 Speaker 1: structure of sentences. Morphology studies the structure of words. Because 401 00:27:38,800 --> 00:27:41,159 Speaker 1: of the context of those two different places, it's going 402 00:27:41,240 --> 00:27:44,639 Speaker 1: to be meeting the needs of a different time, maybe 403 00:27:44,680 --> 00:27:47,240 Speaker 1: a different culture in different region, a different language family, 404 00:27:47,520 --> 00:27:49,920 Speaker 1: all those sorts of things. So it's not that folklore 405 00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:54,159 Speaker 1: is old, it's that folklore is continuously adapting. That's what 406 00:27:54,320 --> 00:27:59,520 Speaker 1: makes it relevant. People have always used stories to make 407 00:27:59,600 --> 00:28:02,040 Speaker 1: sense of the forces that seem to control the course 408 00:28:02,080 --> 00:28:05,560 Speaker 1: of their lives. You can think of the seasonal flooding 409 00:28:05,560 --> 00:28:09,000 Speaker 1: of the nile, or the cycle of birth, life and death, 410 00:28:09,760 --> 00:28:14,440 Speaker 1: or national origin narratives. I think that UFO folklore has 411 00:28:14,440 --> 00:28:18,600 Speaker 1: developed as a response to our ability through technology to 412 00:28:18,720 --> 00:28:23,400 Speaker 1: assert control over the natural environment our lives the most 413 00:28:23,440 --> 00:28:27,160 Speaker 1: pressing problems facing us, and at the same time create 414 00:28:27,240 --> 00:28:32,320 Speaker 1: immense seemingly insurmountable problems, such as our loss of privacy 415 00:28:32,359 --> 00:28:37,160 Speaker 1: and anonymity in the computer age, and of course, climate change. 416 00:28:38,000 --> 00:28:41,719 Speaker 1: Given the unprecedented power of technology, it doesn't seem too 417 00:28:41,760 --> 00:28:46,120 Speaker 1: surprising that a folklore developed around the existence of technology 418 00:28:46,160 --> 00:28:50,640 Speaker 1: that is superior to our own in some unknowable way. 419 00:28:51,480 --> 00:28:54,240 Speaker 1: I think it's important to point out that legends, as 420 00:28:54,240 --> 00:28:59,240 Speaker 1: a genre of folk narrative, are a legend about possibility. 421 00:28:59,720 --> 00:29:02,920 Speaker 1: For a long time, legends were defined by folklorists as 422 00:29:03,360 --> 00:29:07,240 Speaker 1: stories told as true, whereas fairy tales are stories told 423 00:29:07,240 --> 00:29:09,920 Speaker 1: as fiction and myths our stories told sort of as 424 00:29:09,960 --> 00:29:13,200 Speaker 1: sacred revelation. Right, legends are the ones that were told 425 00:29:13,240 --> 00:29:17,400 Speaker 1: as literally true. We've nuanced this since then to talk 426 00:29:17,440 --> 00:29:20,560 Speaker 1: about the idea that what legends do is they allow 427 00:29:20,640 --> 00:29:26,320 Speaker 1: us to symbolically discuss possibility, and the possibilities of reality 428 00:29:26,440 --> 00:29:30,479 Speaker 1: are a thing that human beings love to discuss. We 429 00:29:31,560 --> 00:29:37,520 Speaker 1: really want to chew over the potential boundaries of reality. 430 00:29:37,720 --> 00:29:41,280 Speaker 1: Could this be, Could this not be? Could this happen? 431 00:29:41,560 --> 00:29:48,120 Speaker 1: Is this real? And UFOs are something that clearly there's 432 00:29:48,160 --> 00:29:51,479 Speaker 1: both ambiguity and importance in this. It matters to us 433 00:29:51,800 --> 00:29:54,800 Speaker 1: to not be alone in the universe, and we aren't 434 00:29:54,840 --> 00:29:56,640 Speaker 1: sure if it's going to be a good thing or 435 00:29:56,680 --> 00:30:01,840 Speaker 1: a bad thing when we get that answer. So again, 436 00:30:02,240 --> 00:30:05,800 Speaker 1: you have two possibilities. One is that there really are 437 00:30:05,880 --> 00:30:10,120 Speaker 1: craft in our skies whose origins we don't know. But 438 00:30:10,200 --> 00:30:13,480 Speaker 1: if there aren't, we have a story or a collection 439 00:30:13,520 --> 00:30:17,760 Speaker 1: of stories that speaks to something about our age. Are 440 00:30:17,800 --> 00:30:21,520 Speaker 1: we alone? And if we aren't and we are being visited, 441 00:30:22,200 --> 00:30:26,240 Speaker 1: these beings must have technology far beyond ours. We have 442 00:30:26,320 --> 00:30:30,360 Speaker 1: a sense that technology advances along certain lines, and therefore 443 00:30:30,480 --> 00:30:33,200 Speaker 1: these beings can give us some insight about where we 444 00:30:33,240 --> 00:30:37,840 Speaker 1: are headed. And our ambivalence about the exponentially expanding power 445 00:30:37,880 --> 00:30:41,920 Speaker 1: of technology is reflected in these stories where we have 446 00:30:42,040 --> 00:30:46,200 Speaker 1: no idea of the intentions of these visitors except for 447 00:30:46,280 --> 00:30:50,240 Speaker 1: fiction or in the disinformation spread by people like Richard Doughty, 448 00:30:50,800 --> 00:30:56,160 Speaker 1: their motives are opaque. Take for instance, the mysterious binary 449 00:30:56,200 --> 00:30:59,280 Speaker 1: download that Jim Peniston says he received from the ship 450 00:31:00,080 --> 00:31:03,560 Speaker 1: bringing the clearing in Rendel shimp Forest. He says his 451 00:31:03,600 --> 00:31:06,120 Speaker 1: ship came from six thousand years in the future to 452 00:31:06,160 --> 00:31:09,360 Speaker 1: give him this information, but he hasn't figured the code 453 00:31:09,360 --> 00:31:13,960 Speaker 1: out yet. It's not known, And this, I think is 454 00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:17,920 Speaker 1: important when we think of what the relationship between humans 455 00:31:18,040 --> 00:31:20,800 Speaker 1: and technology might be like six thousand years in the 456 00:31:20,840 --> 00:31:24,280 Speaker 1: future or at any time or place where technology is 457 00:31:24,320 --> 00:31:28,280 Speaker 1: greatly advanced. Is it a good picture or a bad picture, 458 00:31:29,120 --> 00:31:34,480 Speaker 1: utopia or dystopia. There isn't a consensus answer to this question, 459 00:31:34,880 --> 00:31:39,280 Speaker 1: and the UFO narrative doesn't offer one. It reflects our uncertainty. 460 00:31:42,320 --> 00:31:46,120 Speaker 1: Next week, on a bonus episode of Strange Arrivals, I 461 00:31:46,160 --> 00:31:50,760 Speaker 1: talked with Colin Dickey, the author of The Unexplained Mythical 462 00:31:50,800 --> 00:31:56,480 Speaker 1: Monsters Alien Encounters. In our obsession with the Unexplained, the 463 00:31:56,600 --> 00:31:58,680 Speaker 1: three topics that ended up being sort of the driving 464 00:31:58,720 --> 00:32:01,400 Speaker 1: force of this book, not just cryptis and aliens, but 465 00:32:01,480 --> 00:32:06,000 Speaker 1: also the lost continents of Atlantis and Lamaria. I wanted 466 00:32:06,040 --> 00:32:09,520 Speaker 1: to try and figure out a way to account for them, 467 00:32:09,520 --> 00:32:13,280 Speaker 1: a kind of hypothesis that would encompass these three areas 468 00:32:13,280 --> 00:32:15,800 Speaker 1: and why they seemed to be so interrelated to one another. 469 00:32:17,640 --> 00:32:21,640 Speaker 1: And as promised, here's a clip from my ephemeral episode 470 00:32:22,080 --> 00:32:30,800 Speaker 1: available wherever podcasts are found. Betty and Barney Hill crossover 471 00:32:30,880 --> 00:32:35,480 Speaker 1: from Canada into northern New Hampshire and they stopped to 472 00:32:35,720 --> 00:32:39,200 Speaker 1: have a snack at the diner in this place called Colebrook. 473 00:32:40,080 --> 00:32:42,560 Speaker 1: They eat. As they're leaving, they see it's around ten 474 00:32:42,560 --> 00:32:47,560 Speaker 1: o'clock at night. They started driving south. They get into 475 00:32:47,600 --> 00:32:50,680 Speaker 1: the White Mountains and they see that there's this light 476 00:32:51,400 --> 00:32:55,800 Speaker 1: that seems to be following them. They stopped at a 477 00:32:55,920 --> 00:32:58,320 Speaker 1: turn off and they get out and they look at it. 478 00:33:00,240 --> 00:33:02,280 Speaker 1: Barney thinks that maybe it's a plane, but they can't 479 00:33:02,280 --> 00:33:05,880 Speaker 1: hear any noise. They get back in the car, but 480 00:33:05,960 --> 00:33:08,560 Speaker 1: with his sense that something up and the sky is 481 00:33:08,600 --> 00:33:13,800 Speaker 1: following them. They drive through this area called Franconian Notch. 482 00:33:14,680 --> 00:33:18,920 Speaker 1: I've driven through it many times. It's this really beautiful road, 483 00:33:19,880 --> 00:33:22,760 Speaker 1: but on either side or these very steep mountains, so 484 00:33:22,800 --> 00:33:26,560 Speaker 1: it feels fairly claustrophobic. They stopped right by the old 485 00:33:26,600 --> 00:33:29,600 Speaker 1: man in the mountain and they see an actual craft 486 00:33:30,720 --> 00:33:33,960 Speaker 1: and that's the point which you know it gets real. 487 00:33:35,360 --> 00:33:38,440 Speaker 1: They get back in the car start heading further south. 488 00:33:38,480 --> 00:33:40,720 Speaker 1: They kind of get out of Franconian Notch into more 489 00:33:40,840 --> 00:33:45,880 Speaker 1: open area over their car, they hear this craft. They 490 00:33:45,920 --> 00:33:48,840 Speaker 1: pull over and the craft goes off into this field. 491 00:33:49,800 --> 00:33:53,520 Speaker 1: Barney gets out and he's got binoculars. He looked like 492 00:33:53,560 --> 00:33:55,800 Speaker 1: the kind of man who would have binoculars handy in 493 00:33:55,840 --> 00:34:01,160 Speaker 1: his car. He's looking up and he sees beings inside 494 00:34:01,160 --> 00:34:03,040 Speaker 1: the craft looking back at them. I don't think you 495 00:34:03,040 --> 00:34:05,200 Speaker 1: had to get it earlier that they were pretty human looking, 496 00:34:05,800 --> 00:34:09,080 Speaker 1: and you have to consider that looking at anyone in 497 00:34:09,120 --> 00:34:12,520 Speaker 1: a window ten stories up with the binocular the only 498 00:34:12,560 --> 00:34:15,680 Speaker 1: thing you can discern is that they look human, and 499 00:34:15,800 --> 00:34:18,919 Speaker 1: nothing good task about it. They jumped back into the car, 500 00:34:19,560 --> 00:34:23,040 Speaker 1: take off down the highway. They feel these kind of 501 00:34:23,040 --> 00:34:27,759 Speaker 1: buzzes in the car, very subtle vibrating, and it was 502 00:34:27,880 --> 00:34:31,640 Speaker 1: b B B B B b B, and they realized 503 00:34:31,680 --> 00:34:34,280 Speaker 1: they're like thirty miles down the road with no memory 504 00:34:34,640 --> 00:34:38,520 Speaker 1: of driving it. They go into Conquered trying to find 505 00:34:38,520 --> 00:34:41,560 Speaker 1: a cop to tell about what happened, get a cup 506 00:34:41,600 --> 00:34:46,680 Speaker 1: of coffee, don't find either. Drive the rest of the 507 00:34:46,719 --> 00:34:50,719 Speaker 1: way back, arriving at about five in the morning, but 508 00:34:51,120 --> 00:34:53,840 Speaker 1: they were expecting to show up around three based on 509 00:34:53,920 --> 00:34:57,880 Speaker 1: when they've gone through Colebrook. So there's a couple of 510 00:34:57,920 --> 00:35:04,040 Speaker 1: missing hours, listen and subscribe to Ephemeral Now wherever you 511 00:35:04,120 --> 00:35:08,320 Speaker 1: find your favorite shows, and learn more at Ephemeral Thought. Show. 512 00:35:12,280 --> 00:35:14,880 Speaker 1: Strange Arrivals is a production of I Heart three D 513 00:35:14,960 --> 00:35:18,680 Speaker 1: Audio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manky. This episode 514 00:35:18,719 --> 00:35:21,359 Speaker 1: was written and hosted by Toby Ball and produced by 515 00:35:21,360 --> 00:35:25,920 Speaker 1: Miranda Hawkins and Josh Thame, with executive producers Alex Williams, 516 00:35:26,080 --> 00:35:29,840 Speaker 1: Matt Frederick and Aaron Manki, and special thanks to Wendy 517 00:35:29,880 --> 00:35:33,600 Speaker 1: Connor's creator of the Faded Discs archive of UFO related 518 00:35:33,640 --> 00:35:37,640 Speaker 1: audio on archive dot org. Learn more about Strange Rivals 519 00:35:37,800 --> 00:35:41,080 Speaker 1: over at Grimm and Mile dot com, and find more 520 00:35:41,080 --> 00:35:44,080 Speaker 1: podcasts from my Heart Radio by visiting the I Heart 521 00:35:44,160 --> 00:35:47,600 Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 522 00:35:47,640 --> 00:35:52,120 Speaker 1: favorite shows. For more information on folklore, visit the American 523 00:35:52,120 --> 00:35:57,000 Speaker 1: Folklore Society on the web at American Folklore Society dot org. 524 00:36:01,160 --> 00:36:04,240 Speaker 1: A SHO on the East