WEBVTT

1
00:00:40.159 --> 00:00:45.439
Hello, and welcome to Open Mind
UFO Radio. This is your host Alejandro

2
00:00:45.799 --> 00:00:51.560
Rojas, and I am here with
my good buddy Martin. Busy dude,

3
00:00:51.560 --> 00:00:56.560
Willis. Yeah, yeah, a
little bit busy out there, but that's

4
00:00:56.560 --> 00:00:59.920
a good thing. Yep. Oh, I got to keep this brain busy,

5
00:01:00.079 --> 00:01:03.560
boy. Yeah. If you don't
keep your brain busy, it goes

6
00:01:03.640 --> 00:01:10.079
to mush or dark places. Oh
yeah, that's even worse. There's a

7
00:01:10.120 --> 00:01:12.519
lot of dark places to go.
So let's keep you busy. We'll keep

8
00:01:12.519 --> 00:01:17.280
your brain busy. So, speaking
of which, you know, I need

9
00:01:17.359 --> 00:01:19.920
to I want to start mentioning this
at the beginning of the show because I

10
00:01:19.959 --> 00:01:23.840
don't mind, but I want people
to know, you know, at the

11
00:01:23.879 --> 00:01:26.920
beginning of the first segment of the
show, here with me and Martin for

12
00:01:26.959 --> 00:01:30.079
the first about twenty four minutes go
over UFO news. So we're going to

13
00:01:30.120 --> 00:01:34.560
have the latest UFO news in just
a minute here, and then the actual

14
00:01:36.159 --> 00:01:40.359
interview starts at about twenty four minutes. So sometimes people like to skip ahead,

15
00:01:40.879 --> 00:01:44.840
so I want to let people know
that. But let's get into the

16
00:01:44.920 --> 00:01:48.359
new news first. But I do
want to introduce who my guess is going

17
00:01:48.439 --> 00:01:53.400
to be, and that is Mike
Damonte cool name, I think, but

18
00:01:53.879 --> 00:02:00.000
he is the guy who runs punk
rock and UFO is a cool block.

19
00:02:00.840 --> 00:02:05.840
He's also written a couple of books. Those books are punk Rock and UFOs,

20
00:02:05.879 --> 00:02:13.120
Cryptozoology Meets Anarchy and then punk Rock
and UFO's True Believers. So Mike

21
00:02:13.520 --> 00:02:17.800
is a journalist by trade. That's
what his degree is in. He's written

22
00:02:17.800 --> 00:02:23.639
for the Houston Chronicle quite a bit. He was a staff writer for them.

23
00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:28.240
He's still writing for them regarding music, so that's one of his big

24
00:02:28.280 --> 00:02:32.080
beats, his music. He also
has written for sports and other topics,

25
00:02:32.159 --> 00:02:37.599
but music is kind of a big
one. That's the punk rocks you know

26
00:02:37.800 --> 00:02:43.759
thing in his title. But it's
really helpful to talk to someone, you

27
00:02:43.800 --> 00:02:47.560
know, who's a journalist and kind
of his viewpoint as to, you know,

28
00:02:47.599 --> 00:02:52.360
being someone's who's trained in mainstream journalism, what does he think of what's

29
00:02:52.400 --> 00:02:54.560
going on right now? In fact, I've read some of his blogs and

30
00:02:54.560 --> 00:02:58.680
that's why I'm having him on is
that I think he's got some really interesting

31
00:02:59.280 --> 00:03:05.639
perspective and things to say. Also, we talk about why punk rock and

32
00:03:05.719 --> 00:03:07.280
UFOs, What does punk rock have
to do with UFO? Some of us

33
00:03:07.400 --> 00:03:12.120
might kind of you know, intuitively
think, oh, I get what the

34
00:03:12.120 --> 00:03:15.120
thing is. But we'll talk to
Mike about that, and I think it's

35
00:03:15.159 --> 00:03:17.639
an interesting perspective he has on that
as well. He does share that in

36
00:03:17.639 --> 00:03:23.599
his first book, which is about
cryptozoology, because he likes other paranormal kind

37
00:03:23.719 --> 00:03:27.719
of topics. And then his second
book, True Believers, is actually more

38
00:03:27.719 --> 00:03:31.400
focused on UFOs and kind of the
UFO community and what the UFO community feels.

39
00:03:31.439 --> 00:03:36.479
Now he has had his own siding
and that's what has inspired him.

40
00:03:36.560 --> 00:03:40.800
So he's definitely really into the topic
and fiels there's something to it. So

41
00:03:42.400 --> 00:03:45.280
great interview. I had a lot
of fun talking to him, and we'll

42
00:03:45.280 --> 00:03:50.319
have that interview coming up after the
news. But first UFO news, mister

43
00:03:50.400 --> 00:03:54.719
Martin, Well, today there's a
lot of great stuff and actually, if

44
00:03:54.759 --> 00:04:00.840
you go into the UFO headlines over
at open mindst TV deals see some links

45
00:04:01.240 --> 00:04:05.439
to some great stories in this one
here, this is a blog by Cheryl

46
00:04:05.479 --> 00:04:10.479
Costa. I know she's been on
your show a number of times and she

47
00:04:10.599 --> 00:04:16.560
writes for the Syracuse New Times.
She does a blog there, and you

48
00:04:16.600 --> 00:04:24.279
know it's been several years now on
this topic of UFOs and this particular blog

49
00:04:24.720 --> 00:04:29.720
I find very interesting because it's something
that I talk about quite a bit actually,

50
00:04:29.759 --> 00:04:33.160
and get asked about. And the
title is Timing is Everything for UFO

51
00:04:33.439 --> 00:04:40.720
Observations. Well, she writes this
like she's actually telling the story here,

52
00:04:40.879 --> 00:04:45.519
so I will go in some quotes
here. As a UFO researcher and journalists,

53
00:04:45.519 --> 00:04:53.360
folks frequently asked me about when people
observe UFOs, I usually smile and

54
00:04:53.759 --> 00:04:59.160
reply, that's not an easy answer, and she continues. After Linda Millercosta

55
00:04:59.279 --> 00:05:04.360
and I built the UFO Sightings database, which we used to create our twenty

56
00:05:04.439 --> 00:05:10.639
seventeen book. The title of that
book is UFO Citing Desk Reference began to

57
00:05:10.720 --> 00:05:18.839
process the process of analyzing the raw
data on a relatively superficial level. In

58
00:05:18.879 --> 00:05:26.040
twenty seventeen, we could tell you
that the UFO siting reports were generally driven

59
00:05:26.199 --> 00:05:31.839
by three principal factors. I find
this interesting population, temperate weather, and

60
00:05:32.160 --> 00:05:35.319
leisure time. There's something I never
thought of, but that makes sense.

61
00:05:35.600 --> 00:05:40.600
That does make sense. Yeah.
Since twenty eighteen, we have had the

62
00:05:40.639 --> 00:05:45.680
opportunity to dig deeper into the data, which now totals one hundred forty six

63
00:05:46.439 --> 00:05:53.680
eight hundred sighting reports by utilizing some
creative algorithms, we've been able to refine

64
00:05:53.759 --> 00:06:00.639
our understanding of the UFO siting phenomena, and there are more factors population,

65
00:06:00.839 --> 00:06:06.240
regional, seasonal weather, daily seasonal
activity, and time of day. This

66
00:06:06.319 --> 00:06:13.079
part here I find very interesting because
she continues on here. Whenever I publish

67
00:06:13.079 --> 00:06:15.720
a listing of the top states for
UFO sightings, I get a lot of

68
00:06:15.720 --> 00:06:20.959
social media responses that informed me the
reason California is number one is because of

69
00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:29.279
its population and depth. Examination of
the data reveals that California is a unique

70
00:06:29.319 --> 00:06:35.279
situation. California crosses nine lines of
latitude, which makes the state a complex

71
00:06:35.439 --> 00:06:41.480
model. As an experiment, I
constructed a pseudo California using the East Coast

72
00:06:41.519 --> 00:06:46.959
states, which by the same lines
of latitude and similar land mass. California's

73
00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:51.079
population in twenty eighteen was thirty nine
point five to six million. By comparison,

74
00:06:51.399 --> 00:06:57.480
the pseudo California represented on the East
Coast was fifty two million people.

75
00:06:57.519 --> 00:07:02.160
And guess what, the East Coast
model has far less UFO sighting reports.

76
00:07:02.560 --> 00:07:08.360
I really think a lot of that's
weather myself, But she does talk about

77
00:07:08.399 --> 00:07:13.079
that regional and seasonal weather. She
goes into that and not to take too

78
00:07:13.160 --> 00:07:15.600
much about this, you know,
to take up too much time about this.

79
00:07:15.720 --> 00:07:21.000
But you know, the daily seasonal
activities, there are more sightings during

80
00:07:23.160 --> 00:07:27.839
when people are busy outdoors, you
know, doors doing things, baseball games,

81
00:07:27.879 --> 00:07:30.600
you name it, things like that
time of day. In the United

82
00:07:30.639 --> 00:07:35.079
States, seventy two point six percent
of the UFO sighting reports generally occurs in

83
00:07:35.120 --> 00:07:41.319
the hours between four pm and midnight, and with a peak between nine and

84
00:07:41.399 --> 00:07:46.160
ten pm. In essence, you
know bedtime or the last smoke outside walking

85
00:07:46.199 --> 00:07:50.040
the dog. You hear about that
smokers and dog walkers. The hours between

86
00:07:50.040 --> 00:07:56.079
midnight and four pm represent twenty seven
percent of the typical days UFO sightings.

87
00:07:56.480 --> 00:08:01.120
And we've noticed that after about five
am, the daily UFOs sings volume is

88
00:08:01.160 --> 00:08:07.319
relatively flat, about twelve point five
percent of peak hours. Isn't that something?

89
00:08:07.800 --> 00:08:13.360
This is all really interesting to me. So, you know when people

90
00:08:13.519 --> 00:08:20.279
in cufos in Alaska, the peak
months are in the dark winter months and

91
00:08:20.240 --> 00:08:24.759
in the months with measures of light
in the dark days, but in May,

92
00:08:24.879 --> 00:08:30.040
June, and July UFO setting reports
are at rock bottom. So the

93
00:08:30.040 --> 00:08:33.159
summer months are mostly all daylight all
the time, or white nights as they

94
00:08:33.200 --> 00:08:43.840
sometimes call interesting stuff, isn't it? Are you there, Alejandro, Yes,

95
00:08:43.960 --> 00:08:48.720
I think it is really interesting.
Stuph. I think it's just really

96
00:08:48.799 --> 00:08:52.960
hard to cut up the data,
I mean in a useful way. So

97
00:08:54.000 --> 00:08:58.159
for instance, mirroring the west coast
with the East coast states, I don't

98
00:08:58.200 --> 00:09:01.799
know that that's really accurate. And
I don't I think what she's getting at

99
00:09:01.840 --> 00:09:05.559
with these different geographic lines because I
did look at that story is they're different

100
00:09:05.600 --> 00:09:11.440
climates. You know, it changes, So I mean I think it would

101
00:09:11.480 --> 00:09:16.000
be more accurate to look at specific
climates, to segregate them, and then

102
00:09:16.440 --> 00:09:22.840
look at those as opposed to kind
of glombing big areas. Because I think

103
00:09:22.879 --> 00:09:26.120
she has something. I mean,
I looked at one of the latest or

104
00:09:26.120 --> 00:09:31.759
at least one of the reports I
have up where I agree with those people

105
00:09:31.759 --> 00:09:35.120
who say population is a big deal, and when I just did it,

106
00:09:35.240 --> 00:09:41.879
per population per state, California dropped
to fifteen. Now, of course,

107
00:09:43.000 --> 00:09:48.600
a state border is a pretty random
line itself. I mean, it's just

108
00:09:48.919 --> 00:09:54.120
kind of just chosen out of nowhere, you know, as political reasons and

109
00:09:54.159 --> 00:10:01.159
stuff. So it's just kind of
segregations of populations and stuff. So so

110
00:10:01.399 --> 00:10:05.360
fifteen is still pretty high for California
per pop you know, as far as

111
00:10:05.360 --> 00:10:09.720
sightings per person. But then again, that's just a number of reports.

112
00:10:09.759 --> 00:10:15.279
That's not good reports necessarily, And
like you said, you know, I

113
00:10:15.320 --> 00:10:20.679
think weather because it's nicer out in
the Western States, which are higher at

114
00:10:20.799 --> 00:10:26.279
least when I've put these together typically, although Maine is pretty high too.

115
00:10:28.679 --> 00:10:31.320
Yeah, Maine. I forget where
Maine is. When I did per population

116
00:10:31.799 --> 00:10:37.279
and let's see this one's twenty fourteen, Maine was number nine. Hmm.

117
00:10:37.600 --> 00:10:41.279
Okay, wow, yeah, that
is pretty high. Yeah, we're very

118
00:10:41.440 --> 00:10:46.200
very low population by the way.
Yeah, I think it's something like three

119
00:10:46.279 --> 00:10:50.159
hundred thousand. I don't even know
for sure. And twenty fourteen is one

120
00:10:50.159 --> 00:10:54.720
point three million. That's close to
three hundred thousand, which is still pretty

121
00:10:54.759 --> 00:11:03.200
low. I mean in that you
know, any cities have over more yeah

122
00:11:03.279 --> 00:11:09.120
than that som and in relation,
California has you know, nearly it probably

123
00:11:09.120 --> 00:11:15.240
has over about thirty nine million people, So I should say it feels like

124
00:11:15.279 --> 00:11:18.960
there's about three hundred thousand people.
Yeah, yeah, a lot of open

125
00:11:18.039 --> 00:11:22.440
land, yeah, which is nice. Yeah. Yeah, so an interesting

126
00:11:22.440 --> 00:11:26.559
story. I think it's a great
service she does to tackle these numbers and

127
00:11:26.639 --> 00:11:33.159
to look at them and then to
also offer up some ideas about them in

128
00:11:33.200 --> 00:11:35.759
her articles. So, yeah,
that was a good one. Let's see

129
00:11:35.799 --> 00:11:41.480
what else did we have out there? And headlines we have, but we

130
00:11:41.600 --> 00:11:43.279
move on. Let me just just
I'd like to add just one last thing.

131
00:11:43.320 --> 00:11:46.600
Yeah, and you know, because
I'm sure people have asked you,

132
00:11:46.600 --> 00:11:50.600
you know, like when is a
good time and all that, and it

133
00:11:50.720 --> 00:11:54.639
is so random. I mean,
that's the one thing that's the one reason

134
00:11:54.720 --> 00:12:03.759
science stays away from you know,
UFO researching is because of the random ways

135
00:12:03.759 --> 00:12:07.639
really to show up. You can't
reproduce it well. Like you said,

136
00:12:07.639 --> 00:12:11.279
there's less sightings during the daylight hours
and more at night. The problem with

137
00:12:11.399 --> 00:12:16.000
the night things, of course sightings
is that just things that are normal can

138
00:12:16.080 --> 00:12:20.159
look abnormal at night. You know, when you see lights, you don't

139
00:12:20.200 --> 00:12:24.759
know what the light configuration is.
Very likely those lights are on an aircraft

140
00:12:24.799 --> 00:12:28.840
and if it was daylight, you
would be able to see that, recognize

141
00:12:28.840 --> 00:12:33.840
that very quickly, or drone or
what have you, So you could tell

142
00:12:33.840 --> 00:12:37.120
people to look at night. The
other problem with night is it's hard to

143
00:12:37.159 --> 00:12:41.600
identify things, and it's even harder
to photograph things, So it may be

144
00:12:41.720 --> 00:12:46.759
best to tell people during the day. I just tell people they're seen everywhere.

145
00:12:46.080 --> 00:12:48.759
It is. Does seem to go
better, you know, better to

146
00:12:48.759 --> 00:12:56.960
go to hot spots, but time
putting in the time just looking up a

147
00:12:56.000 --> 00:13:05.600
lot. Yeah, we're looking most
people looking down at their smartphones. Yeah,

148
00:13:03.799 --> 00:13:09.200
exactly and going on with their daily
lives. So yeah, yeah,

149
00:13:09.240 --> 00:13:13.320
So a couple of other stories out
there. There's an opinion piece out there

150
00:13:13.799 --> 00:13:18.840
in the Buffalo News. It's Don
Paul. He writes what he believes about

151
00:13:18.879 --> 00:13:24.600
aliens, and he goes over I
think this is good. I know a

152
00:13:24.600 --> 00:13:28.519
lot of people interested in this stuff
will be frustrated because he takes a skeptical

153
00:13:28.600 --> 00:13:31.120
look, but of course that's why
I appreciate it. But essentially he's saying

154
00:13:31.159 --> 00:13:33.399
that, you know, there are
a lot of sightings, so we can't

155
00:13:33.440 --> 00:13:37.039
just blow them all off. But
you know, that doesn't mean that they're

156
00:13:37.039 --> 00:13:41.240
all alien. And so he goes
over, you know a lot of some

157
00:13:41.360 --> 00:13:46.960
of the science and thoughts about if
they're out there, or you know,

158
00:13:46.039 --> 00:13:48.759
how could they be out there,
how would they get here? All of

159
00:13:48.840 --> 00:13:52.519
kind of the science around some of
this stuff, And I think it's really

160
00:13:52.559 --> 00:13:58.039
interesting. Don Paul, the guy
who wrote the article, was a broadcast

161
00:13:58.480 --> 00:14:03.519
meteorologist for thirty five or thirty four
years Buffalo TV. You may say,

162
00:14:03.559 --> 00:14:09.159
well, what does that, How
does that, you know, qualify him

163
00:14:09.200 --> 00:14:11.120
to speak on the science of this, But meteorologists, you know, do

164
00:14:11.240 --> 00:14:16.360
a lot of science around I mean, first of all, they use the

165
00:14:16.399 --> 00:14:20.559
dopplers, so they understand, you
know, that sort of radar and everything.

166
00:14:20.679 --> 00:14:26.440
And then they also do you know, they they learn a lot of

167
00:14:26.480 --> 00:14:31.440
science around climate and weather and how
it works. And so they also learn

168
00:14:31.480 --> 00:14:35.039
over the years, you know,
about the types of things that can't see,

169
00:14:35.559 --> 00:14:41.519
kind of cosmological phenomena as well.
So in that respect, I mean,

170
00:14:41.639 --> 00:14:48.840
meteorologists are scientists, and so yeah, I think it's pretty interesting,

171
00:14:48.879 --> 00:14:52.080
and I think what's great is just
that he's talking about it. Right.

172
00:14:52.080 --> 00:14:56.799
We're seeing a bit of that now. It seems. There was also a

173
00:14:56.799 --> 00:15:01.480
big meteor in Georgia. Yeah,
that's Tallahassee Democrat. Did you see that

174
00:15:01.559 --> 00:15:05.799
one? I did, Yeah,
I mean really lit up the sky.

175
00:15:05.440 --> 00:15:11.080
That was something else. Yeah,
that made the news right away. This

176
00:15:11.159 --> 00:15:16.879
is a fun one. Phew.
The Russians did a fly by of Area

177
00:15:16.919 --> 00:15:20.960
fifty one and this was written by
Tyler Rogaway. Have you had him on

178
00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:24.440
your podcast. Yet how luckily I
have Yes, I thought, so,

179
00:15:24.720 --> 00:15:28.519
yeah, he's great. So he
wrote a story. This is an interesting

180
00:15:28.559 --> 00:15:31.840
one that the Russians just did a
fly by of Area fifty one. Dunt

181
00:15:31.879 --> 00:15:35.960
dunt dam. What are those Russians
up to? But this is not like

182
00:15:37.039 --> 00:15:39.919
some secret thing where they just secretly, you know, flew over and we

183
00:15:39.039 --> 00:15:46.279
caught him or something. This is
a regularly scheduled program where there are agreements

184
00:15:46.320 --> 00:15:50.919
where they can fly over some of
our stuff and we fly over some of

185
00:15:50.960 --> 00:15:52.480
their stuff, you know, and
we're aware of it. So, I

186
00:15:52.519 --> 00:15:56.480
mean, that is the one you
know, hid anything you don't want to

187
00:15:56.519 --> 00:16:00.679
see. But this is a they
threw. They flew one of their one

188
00:16:00.799 --> 00:16:04.759
fifty four m aircraft. You know, they get real specific on this website,

189
00:16:06.360 --> 00:16:08.440
but yeah, took pictures of area
fifty one, and they've got some

190
00:16:08.600 --> 00:16:14.039
pictures of Area fifty one and some
more information about Area fifty one on this

191
00:16:14.360 --> 00:16:21.200
article about this situation that really is
something in the open what is it called

192
00:16:21.240 --> 00:16:27.000
the Open Skies Treaty. Basically it
was signed back in nineteen ninety two,

193
00:16:27.759 --> 00:16:34.799
and I think it's kind of almost
bizarre that this treaty exists, but that

194
00:16:34.840 --> 00:16:37.440
you can actually fly over and take
pictures. I mean, it seems like

195
00:16:37.480 --> 00:16:41.440
we're always trying to hide things,
and everyone's trying to hide things. But

196
00:16:41.519 --> 00:16:42.759
in no way. I guess it's
a good thing, you know, kind

197
00:16:42.759 --> 00:16:48.159
of if it's a if it's an
even playing field for everyone, I guess

198
00:16:48.240 --> 00:16:51.960
that's a good thing. Yeah,
you know, I'm sure we're still trying

199
00:16:52.000 --> 00:16:59.399
to look at each other and observe
and do you know, reconnaissance off of

200
00:16:59.440 --> 00:17:03.279
these times. But yeah, I
guess it is at least some openness as

201
00:17:03.319 --> 00:17:07.440
far as and you know, I
don't even know the whole history about it.

202
00:17:07.480 --> 00:17:10.119
Maybe it's to make sure that you
know, they can see what we're

203
00:17:10.119 --> 00:17:14.960
doing with our you know, nuclear
facilities and stuff like that, so we're

204
00:17:14.960 --> 00:17:18.599
all on the same page and we
have some openness. But it is I

205
00:17:18.720 --> 00:17:22.319
felt like you, I felt kind
of like, hey, it's nice to

206
00:17:22.359 --> 00:17:27.960
have you know, this cooperative sort
of program in the news as opposed to,

207
00:17:29.279 --> 00:17:34.720
of course, so much fighting and
you know, stress and a really

208
00:17:34.720 --> 00:17:41.759
stressful time when it comes to the
US and American relations. Yeah. What

209
00:17:41.799 --> 00:17:45.839
I think is really interesting about this
is it also states that a copy of

210
00:17:45.880 --> 00:17:51.240
all data collected will be supplied to
the host country, so they actually give

211
00:17:52.160 --> 00:18:00.559
the host country what they've surveiled.
Yep. So if you're sneaking to trying

212
00:18:00.559 --> 00:18:03.640
to sneak on the Area fifty one, the Russians might see and say,

213
00:18:03.680 --> 00:18:07.160
hey, you got some goofballs over
here trying to sneak in Area fifty one.

214
00:18:07.640 --> 00:18:14.759
What if they see a saucerne Yeah, hey we saw you got one

215
00:18:14.799 --> 00:18:18.559
of those aliens that busted out of, you know, one of your containment

216
00:18:18.640 --> 00:18:21.759
areas at Area fifty one. We
got a picture here of him crawling around,

217
00:18:21.799 --> 00:18:23.440
so you might want to know,
this looks like a guy with Bob

218
00:18:23.519 --> 00:18:30.279
Lazaar maybe yeah, oh spotting him
down there. Yeah, so uh yeah,

219
00:18:30.319 --> 00:18:33.920
so that's a good one. Uh. The also Billy Cox. So

220
00:18:34.079 --> 00:18:38.039
this is what's funny about Billy Cox. You know who Billy Cox is?

221
00:18:38.119 --> 00:18:44.599
Right? Yeah, he's in Florida, Yeah, Sarasotada. Harold Tribune is

222
00:18:44.599 --> 00:18:48.359
is something. It was what he
writes for. Again, he's another I

223
00:18:48.359 --> 00:18:51.880
guess he's not full time there,
so he kind of has to make a

224
00:18:51.880 --> 00:18:53.559
living on the side. He used
to be a little bit more prolific with

225
00:18:53.720 --> 00:19:00.079
writing these stories. But he has
a blog over there called The Void and

226
00:19:00.319 --> 00:19:03.759
he writes about UFOs and it's funny
because he's so well known, at least

227
00:19:03.799 --> 00:19:07.640
amongst many of us in the UFO
field, that I kind of took it

228
00:19:07.680 --> 00:19:11.039
for granted and thought, you know, oh, he's got to be so

229
00:19:11.160 --> 00:19:15.440
popular and everything. But it is
kind of a little unknown thing. And

230
00:19:15.480 --> 00:19:18.359
I could see why I always make
fun of his titles because they don't have

231
00:19:18.480 --> 00:19:22.640
UFO in them, and you wouldn't
know what the hell he's writing about,

232
00:19:22.359 --> 00:19:26.119
that's right. I noticed that.
And he doesn't like get on social media

233
00:19:26.160 --> 00:19:30.839
a lot. You can't like subscribe
to an email, so you're notified when

234
00:19:30.880 --> 00:19:33.880
his stories come up. Because his
stories are great, So you got to

235
00:19:33.880 --> 00:19:37.839
go search for him at least,
you know, check back on his blog

236
00:19:37.880 --> 00:19:41.440
once in a while. But it's
well worth it, and I just this

237
00:19:41.599 --> 00:19:47.759
is a big plug for watching his
sight. Fortunately I got to meet him

238
00:19:47.799 --> 00:19:52.160
for the first time in Alabama.
Oh really yeah, Oh so he was

239
00:19:52.200 --> 00:19:56.680
at the SEUs. Yep, he
was, And he doesn't look like I

240
00:19:56.720 --> 00:20:00.480
thought he would look like for some
reason. I've even seen some pictures which

241
00:20:00.480 --> 00:20:04.480
are hard to find. But that
was kind of funny. But it was

242
00:20:04.599 --> 00:20:11.960
great to meet him and he was
there and he just posted yesterday an article

243
00:20:12.160 --> 00:20:21.160
kind of overviewing his thoughts on the
SCU presentation on the Nimetz case and some

244
00:20:21.240 --> 00:20:26.759
more, a little bit more about
you know, the SCU event. He's

245
00:20:26.799 --> 00:20:30.839
got another article about the SEU event
that he wrote, you know, a

246
00:20:30.839 --> 00:20:36.759
week ago, but this one is
newer. And yeah, going over to

247
00:20:36.759 --> 00:20:41.880
the Nimits encounter, which was a
great presentation that was done at the SCU

248
00:20:41.960 --> 00:20:48.640
conference. And of course you've had
Robert Powell on most recently, and I

249
00:20:48.720 --> 00:20:52.880
think you're one of the few to
have Robert Pooll recently because he was waiting

250
00:20:52.000 --> 00:20:57.559
till he gets his Nimmetsy report out
to do more interviews. But so your

251
00:20:57.640 --> 00:21:00.480
listener's got some of the latest,
but they can see some more and then

252
00:21:00.519 --> 00:21:11.319
that presentation that they did will be
shared publicly in a not too distant future

253
00:21:11.319 --> 00:21:15.319
as well. Yeah, I can't
wait till that's out. So, yeah,

254
00:21:15.880 --> 00:21:18.319
I don't know, I didn't hear
you say that the title to this

255
00:21:18.079 --> 00:21:22.599
article is called drilling In. Yeah, exactly, But it's not clickbait,

256
00:21:22.720 --> 00:21:26.559
that's for sure. Yeah, it's
not clickbait and drilling in you'd be like,

257
00:21:26.680 --> 00:21:30.599
what the heck is he talking about? And his titles are like that.

258
00:21:30.920 --> 00:21:33.200
So, you know, I didn't
get a lot of time to talk

259
00:21:33.279 --> 00:21:37.599
to him. I would love to
talk to him some more, but I

260
00:21:37.960 --> 00:21:42.359
don't think that he really likes to
draw attention to the fact that he writes

261
00:21:42.400 --> 00:21:47.559
about UFOs. Yes, I've written
him in the past, never got a

262
00:21:47.599 --> 00:21:51.680
response to see if he'd come on
my show, you know, But I

263
00:21:51.759 --> 00:21:55.799
just don't think he's you know,
I you know, you can take that

264
00:21:55.839 --> 00:21:57.319
in a number of different ways.
But maybe he just doesn't want to be,

265
00:21:57.880 --> 00:22:00.920
you know, so known for it, but still was interested in writing

266
00:22:00.960 --> 00:22:04.720
about it. Yeah, but I
mean you met him, what do you

267
00:22:04.759 --> 00:22:10.200
think. I think you're right,
I think you know what. I don't

268
00:22:10.240 --> 00:22:12.920
know. You know, we didn't
get as we were. I was hoping

269
00:22:12.920 --> 00:22:15.200
to have a lot of you know, one on one time with him because

270
00:22:15.200 --> 00:22:21.079
I have so many questions and just
to kind of connect some more. But

271
00:22:21.160 --> 00:22:25.759
we never had that chance. Time
just flew by. But that is an

272
00:22:25.880 --> 00:22:33.240
interesting question, and he is somewhat
humble about his his stuff. But yeah,

273
00:22:33.960 --> 00:22:37.319
that would be a good question.
But some of the examples of his

274
00:22:37.400 --> 00:22:44.240
titles are kind of funny. Here's
one abcd FGS. Is he talking about

275
00:22:44.279 --> 00:22:48.720
Chief Force? No, he's talking
about all of the acronyms and this you

276
00:22:48.720 --> 00:22:52.480
know group, and this group and
all of these different groups, especially lately

277
00:22:52.519 --> 00:22:56.359
with these potential UFO groups, where
do they lie with all these acronyms?

278
00:22:56.400 --> 00:23:02.079
So pretty funny. Finally, I
do want to talk about and of course

279
00:23:02.119 --> 00:23:07.279
we do in the last couple of
minutes here I mentioned this probably every April

280
00:23:07.559 --> 00:23:11.440
Full Day, but it is I
think the best April Fool's UFO story.

281
00:23:12.000 --> 00:23:19.799
But this is a Virgin's UFO prank
that happened in nineteen eighty nine. This

282
00:23:19.920 --> 00:23:26.200
was over London. But it's a
really good story where Richard Branson, the

283
00:23:26.319 --> 00:23:30.440
founder of Virgin you know, the
earner of Virgin Galactic and Virgin Airlines and

284
00:23:30.480 --> 00:23:33.799
all of that Virgin records, of
course, I think is where it started,

285
00:23:33.640 --> 00:23:37.759
he pulled this UFO prank. And
so we've got this article that I

286
00:23:37.799 --> 00:23:41.599
posted today as well in the headlines
that people can check out. But it

287
00:23:41.680 --> 00:23:45.920
is a really funny prank that really
scared the police and freaked a lot of

288
00:23:45.960 --> 00:23:51.680
people out. But it's a pretty
balloon. Yes it was a balloon.

289
00:23:51.759 --> 00:23:55.680
Now you gave away with a it's
a really some great pictures of it too.

290
00:23:55.759 --> 00:24:00.640
This the bottom lights up in I
guess it's a saucer with the dome

291
00:24:00.720 --> 00:24:04.799
on the top and yeah, like
you know, propulsion lights down below or

292
00:24:04.799 --> 00:24:08.640
whatever it is. Sure enough,
you know, this story gets out every

293
00:24:08.960 --> 00:24:15.319
pretty much every April. First,
somebody kind of talks about this story,

294
00:24:15.079 --> 00:24:18.720
and the History Channel has an article
out. Actually I linked to it.

295
00:24:18.720 --> 00:24:25.240
It was it's called nine Outrageous Pranks
in History, and one of those nines

296
00:24:25.400 --> 00:24:29.079
is this one. And I've seen
little bits of it here and there,

297
00:24:29.119 --> 00:24:33.319
but they're usually just this little summary
of a paragraph or two. So when

298
00:24:33.359 --> 00:24:38.880
I put together this article a few
years ago, I wanted to do something

299
00:24:38.920 --> 00:24:42.559
that was more full, because you
never get the full story. And I

300
00:24:42.599 --> 00:24:47.039
wanted something with a lot of pictures
because you never get you know, each

301
00:24:47.039 --> 00:24:49.680
of these stories they'll have two paragraphs
and maybe one picture. So I wanted

302
00:24:49.720 --> 00:24:55.960
to compile a lot of pictures as
well. And Virgin had written this great

303
00:24:56.000 --> 00:25:00.480
thing about it a few years ago, so I wrote out a really full

304
00:25:00.839 --> 00:25:04.599
piece with lots of great pictures from
it. Do you know how I didn't

305
00:25:04.599 --> 00:25:07.880
read through the article totally, but
do you know how long this thing was

306
00:25:07.920 --> 00:25:14.839
airborne for and what type of reactions
that they had Oh, yeah, I

307
00:25:14.880 --> 00:25:18.400
don't know how long. Oh I
do know how long it was airborne,

308
00:25:18.400 --> 00:25:22.039
but I can't remember right now.
I'd have to review the story. But

309
00:25:22.160 --> 00:25:25.920
yeah, people freaked out. There
were some people who knew, but a

310
00:25:25.920 --> 00:25:29.799
lot of people freaked out. And
you'll see why he did this very early

311
00:25:29.839 --> 00:25:32.559
in the morning. And when you
look at the pictures, you'll kind of

312
00:25:32.680 --> 00:25:34.799
see why people freaked out. I
mean, it was a UFO, it

313
00:25:34.880 --> 00:25:38.559
was very intentional to look like one. And then the lights, the way

314
00:25:38.559 --> 00:25:44.160
it was lit up was very interesting
as well. They did a great job.

315
00:25:44.240 --> 00:25:48.160
This thing must have been really expensive. Yeah, but we're out of

316
00:25:48.200 --> 00:25:51.960
time, buddy, we are c
Yeah, all right, Well, thank

317
00:25:52.000 --> 00:25:56.359
you so much Martin Willis from podcast
UFO for joining us with the news.

318
00:25:57.000 --> 00:26:03.720
My pleasure is always We are going
to take a short break and then we

319
00:26:03.759 --> 00:26:08.400
will be back with Mike Demante of
Punk Rock and UFOs, So stay tuned.

320
00:26:22.839 --> 00:26:26.720
I am happy to welcome for the
first time to Open Mind GUFO Radio,

321
00:26:26.920 --> 00:26:32.000
Mike Dimante of Punk Rock and UFOs. Hello, Mike, Hi,

322
00:26:32.680 --> 00:26:34.920
thanks so much for having me.
I was saying earlier, kind of before

323
00:26:34.920 --> 00:26:37.279
we went on air, that you
know, I'm really honored to be on

324
00:26:37.319 --> 00:26:41.640
the show. You know, we
share some mutual friends and Open Minds TV

325
00:26:41.799 --> 00:26:45.000
launched the careers of you know a
lot of people that I'm friends with in

326
00:26:45.039 --> 00:26:48.079
this field that I kind of gotten
to know, and you guys are one

327
00:26:48.079 --> 00:26:52.279
of the first websites to really put
this stuff out there. So thank you.

328
00:26:52.640 --> 00:26:56.640
Yes, I am so happy to
have you on and to talk to

329
00:26:56.680 --> 00:26:59.480
you. This is kind of funny
too, because I've been watching your work

330
00:26:59.519 --> 00:27:02.240
ever since started working, because you
started working closely, I know, with

331
00:27:02.359 --> 00:27:07.079
Jason, and I remember Jason and
Maureen who used to work for Open Minds.

332
00:27:07.079 --> 00:27:10.039
For those who don't know coming,
you know, talking about you when

333
00:27:10.039 --> 00:27:14.160
they met you. And I've been
wanting to connect ever since then and just

334
00:27:14.240 --> 00:27:17.680
haven't had the chance and it's been
so busy, but especially right now,

335
00:27:18.160 --> 00:27:21.160
it's like I got to do it
because the moment's right. And we'll get

336
00:27:21.200 --> 00:27:23.960
into this but because of some of
what you've been writing about lately, but

337
00:27:25.079 --> 00:27:27.920
before we get into that, I
do want to kind of talk about who

338
00:27:27.920 --> 00:27:33.160
you are, what angle you're taking. So I really love that you're a

339
00:27:33.279 --> 00:27:37.680
journalist because you know it's important and
I understand that perspective in that world a

340
00:27:37.720 --> 00:27:44.960
bit so that's what's exciting as well. But it also makes me understand that,

341
00:27:45.119 --> 00:27:48.640
you know, as you've probably ran
into, this is kind of a

342
00:27:48.720 --> 00:27:53.279
difficult area to dip your toe in
as a journalist. Would you agree with

343
00:27:53.319 --> 00:27:57.319
that or have you found that to
be true? Oh yeah, absolutely So

344
00:27:57.799 --> 00:28:00.519
just to kind of give you some
of my background, I mean, currently

345
00:28:00.559 --> 00:28:04.279
I teach full time. I do
my you know, UFO research on the

346
00:28:04.319 --> 00:28:08.039
side, like many of us do. I'd previously worked at the Eastern Chronicle

347
00:28:08.680 --> 00:28:12.079
and here in Euston, I did
web producing and copy editing, I did

348
00:28:12.079 --> 00:28:17.359
writing, I did reporting. I
covered music and features and uh sports,

349
00:28:17.440 --> 00:28:19.000
and you know, I used to
remember, you know, I used to

350
00:28:19.119 --> 00:28:22.480
kind of push for this stuff and
it was always kind of met with,

351
00:28:22.319 --> 00:28:27.079
you know, kind of like this
criticism. And I remember Eric Berger,

352
00:28:27.519 --> 00:28:32.359
this name kind of I was in
the news in our field because he his

353
00:28:32.440 --> 00:28:34.599
story on to the Stars going bankrupt
became this huge thing. But I used

354
00:28:34.599 --> 00:28:38.119
to work with him. We used
to work together, and we got a

355
00:28:38.160 --> 00:28:44.400
little Twitter banter about Bigfoot, so
they decided to have us debate Bigfoot on

356
00:28:44.480 --> 00:28:47.359
air. We did a Google hangout
on cron dot com, which was Recent

357
00:28:47.440 --> 00:28:49.559
Chronicles website and it was. It
was actually very good, but the way

358
00:28:49.599 --> 00:28:52.000
they presented it was still very goofy, Like we had a guy in the

359
00:28:52.039 --> 00:28:56.359
background in an ape suit towards the
end come out, which is kind of

360
00:28:56.359 --> 00:28:59.440
funny, kind of lighthearted, but
just in general, that's kind of the

361
00:28:59.480 --> 00:29:03.640
way these stories were looked at.
And one why is that? You know,

362
00:29:04.119 --> 00:29:08.599
being a person in journalism, there
is always this tendency and I'd love

363
00:29:08.640 --> 00:29:15.559
to hear your perspective aswer why that
happens to add something goofy, whether that

364
00:29:15.640 --> 00:29:19.160
be a graphic or as we've all
heard a gajillion times the X Files music.

365
00:29:19.880 --> 00:29:25.079
Why why? Why is that?
You know, it's hard to answer.

366
00:29:25.680 --> 00:29:26.799
You know. In my first book
I talked to I kind of had

367
00:29:26.799 --> 00:29:30.799
a whole chapter about media literacy,
and my whole thing was, you know,

368
00:29:30.799 --> 00:29:33.680
a lot of times, you know, we see these stories on the

369
00:29:33.720 --> 00:29:36.640
news and there's usually you know,
if there's a sighting or reporting, usually

370
00:29:36.640 --> 00:29:40.799
don't see much in terms of a
follow up story. You have a story

371
00:29:40.799 --> 00:29:42.480
and a lot of times you know
it's given proper attention, but then it

372
00:29:42.519 --> 00:29:47.960
dies from there. You don't have
the you know, the follow up or

373
00:29:48.119 --> 00:29:51.559
you know what's next, And even
some of the more mainstream cases nowadays.

374
00:29:51.599 --> 00:29:55.079
I mean, it's been months since
we've heard you know, after the Pentagon.

375
00:29:55.119 --> 00:29:57.079
You have story that was almost a
year ago at this point. So

376
00:29:59.720 --> 00:30:02.720
I can answered that question in terms
of, you know, why do these

377
00:30:02.720 --> 00:30:04.079
stories kind of die in the media
just because a lot of times there's not

378
00:30:04.119 --> 00:30:07.160
a follow up, because there's a
lot of times there's not resources. I

379
00:30:07.160 --> 00:30:10.759
mean, obviously you have certain journalists
you have like like George and app for

380
00:30:10.799 --> 00:30:14.119
example. He obviously has some pull
where he works, so he can do

381
00:30:14.160 --> 00:30:15.960
these things, but a lot of
journalists don't. They kind of have to

382
00:30:15.960 --> 00:30:18.680
go where, you know, go
where the money is in terms of,

383
00:30:18.720 --> 00:30:22.839
you know, what's going to get
clicks and what are the big stories of

384
00:30:22.839 --> 00:30:26.240
the day, And sometimes, unfortunately, the UFO siding is not considered a

385
00:30:26.240 --> 00:30:30.359
big story of the day in terms
of the you know, the playful nature

386
00:30:30.400 --> 00:30:34.640
with the graphics and the musics.
That's just probably somebody you know in that

387
00:30:34.720 --> 00:30:40.039
department just not taking it seriously unfortunately. But I do think we're turning a

388
00:30:40.079 --> 00:30:45.240
page in that sense where these stories
are being taken more seriously nowadays. Now

389
00:30:45.279 --> 00:30:48.480
when it comes to your colleagues,
I'm sure you've heard some feedback because as

390
00:30:48.599 --> 00:30:52.480
you you know, at least it's
been my experience and rightfully so, I

391
00:30:52.480 --> 00:30:56.319
mean, this is this thing you've
got. You've got a degree in journalism.

392
00:30:56.400 --> 00:31:00.960
Journalists are supposed to be skeptical,
and so they are, and so

393
00:31:02.160 --> 00:31:06.920
it's often, you know, you're
met with some of the largest skepticism with

394
00:31:06.920 --> 00:31:11.519
with fellow journalists. And absolutely that's
how it should be. I mean,

395
00:31:11.680 --> 00:31:14.720
you should question everything. That's the
first one of the first thing I learned

396
00:31:14.759 --> 00:31:17.680
in college is as journals, you
need to question everything. But it comes

397
00:31:17.720 --> 00:31:21.960
to the point, especially in our
field, where everybody is questioning everything,

398
00:31:22.079 --> 00:31:26.160
to the point where it's no one's
gonna believe anything. Yeah, it's good

399
00:31:26.160 --> 00:31:27.759
to have a skeptical eye, but
it's gotten I mean, I've only been

400
00:31:27.799 --> 00:31:30.640
involved in this field for you know, a few years. I mean,

401
00:31:30.680 --> 00:31:33.799
I've been studying this stuff for my
whole life, but I've only been i

402
00:31:33.799 --> 00:31:37.279
guess visible and active, I guess
ever since I started writing my books.

403
00:31:37.279 --> 00:31:38.920
But I've always been interested in the
subject. And I've noticed, you know,

404
00:31:40.119 --> 00:31:45.079
these people who study this they're very
jaded. And it's you know,

405
00:31:45.119 --> 00:31:47.960
some of the comments you know,
Facebook and Twitter, it's very synarchy.

406
00:31:48.119 --> 00:31:51.000
It's very kind of back and forth. And I mean it's probably like that

407
00:31:51.079 --> 00:31:52.680
in anything, but you know,
this is a community that's supposed to be

408
00:31:52.720 --> 00:31:56.720
coming together and you know, pushing. We're all pushing for the same thing,

409
00:31:56.759 --> 00:31:59.480
and it's kind of hard to see
that at times, right. And

410
00:31:59.680 --> 00:32:04.279
it's kind of interesting because you know, for instance, luel Azondo, when

411
00:32:04.400 --> 00:32:07.400
I talked with him earlier on,
he was like, everybody has to work

412
00:32:07.400 --> 00:32:08.799
together. You know, that's going
to be cool to talk to everybody,

413
00:32:08.880 --> 00:32:13.079
get everybody to work together. I
think he's found that that's a much more

414
00:32:13.079 --> 00:32:16.720
difficult task than he thought it might
be. But you you felt similarly.

415
00:32:16.799 --> 00:32:20.440
I remember seeing a lot of your
posts that you know, we all have

416
00:32:20.480 --> 00:32:25.559
to work together. Yeah, no, absolutely, And in like I said,

417
00:32:25.559 --> 00:32:28.599
I don't work full time a journalism
anymore, but I still have a

418
00:32:28.640 --> 00:32:31.519
lot of colleagues and I've done some
some local local press in Texas. And

419
00:32:31.599 --> 00:32:35.119
I remember I have a buddy of
mine, she's a producer for Fox twenty

420
00:32:35.119 --> 00:32:37.400
six here. I was like,
hey, get me on, you know,

421
00:32:37.279 --> 00:32:40.519
because I was on there. I
did their evening show once, but

422
00:32:40.640 --> 00:32:43.480
I was like, hey, have
me come in in the morning, like

423
00:32:43.599 --> 00:32:46.279
be in the studio and they're like, yeah, no, like you know,

424
00:32:46.319 --> 00:32:51.960
they're still kind of like hesitant,
you know, regarding regarding that,

425
00:32:52.200 --> 00:32:55.480
so like there's not necessarily I would
say pushback, but it's you know,

426
00:32:55.640 --> 00:33:00.359
there's still other things that take present
over UFOs and thanks of that nature.

427
00:33:00.559 --> 00:33:05.880
M H. I would like you
know your perspective on this as well.

428
00:33:06.200 --> 00:33:09.880
And I think this is something that
a lot of the UFO community quote unquote

429
00:33:10.640 --> 00:33:15.519
doesn't get completely, is that you
know, as journalists, like for instance,

430
00:33:15.599 --> 00:33:21.680
with you and I are with you
for speaking with skeptics. You know,

431
00:33:21.799 --> 00:33:28.680
your biggest the most convincing to an
editor or to a fellow journalist are

432
00:33:28.720 --> 00:33:31.119
your sources. Do you have any
sources? And typically we don't have credible

433
00:33:31.160 --> 00:33:37.519
sources, but with this new you
know, Pentagon program being revealed and with

434
00:33:37.559 --> 00:33:39.720
to the stars and their members,
all of a sudden, we have a

435
00:33:39.880 --> 00:33:47.400
huge ingest of credible sources, and
I think everybody else is frustrated, Well,

436
00:33:47.440 --> 00:33:51.319
why didn't anybody listen to us when
we were saying some of the things

437
00:33:51.319 --> 00:33:54.440
that they said, And they don't
get it that they're just not no disrespect.

438
00:33:54.680 --> 00:34:00.440
They don't have the background to be
considered you know, a credible source.

439
00:34:00.319 --> 00:34:04.880
Yeah, absolutely. And the kind
of things I wrote about recently on

440
00:34:04.920 --> 00:34:07.679
my website on a punk correctingfos dot
com is that a lot of people don't

441
00:34:07.719 --> 00:34:12.679
know, you know, journalism,
journalists we rely heavily on these official titles,

442
00:34:13.039 --> 00:34:16.199
and sometimes to a fault. But
if somebody works for the government pentagon

443
00:34:16.280 --> 00:34:21.639
and you quote them, that is
an official source. Now whether they lie

444
00:34:21.719 --> 00:34:23.119
or not, you know, that's
not on the journalist. That's for the

445
00:34:23.199 --> 00:34:27.719
audience to decide. And one of
the things you know, I always try

446
00:34:27.719 --> 00:34:30.360
to teach my students, because I
teach journalism as well, is that you

447
00:34:30.719 --> 00:34:34.039
a good story needs to show balance
and you need to try to have quotes

448
00:34:34.079 --> 00:34:37.000
from you know, different sources from
each side of the argument or each side

449
00:34:37.000 --> 00:34:39.360
of the story. But a lot
of cases in our field, it's hard

450
00:34:39.360 --> 00:34:43.559
because a lot of times you only
get one source, or you know,

451
00:34:43.639 --> 00:34:47.960
the sources the person who saw UFO, not the person who said, you

452
00:34:49.000 --> 00:34:52.440
know, not that like I said, not the sheriff in town who lied

453
00:34:52.440 --> 00:34:54.199
about it. You know, sometimes
you know, those stories are hard to

454
00:34:54.239 --> 00:34:59.239
track down. If a lot of
times I report sightings, people will you

455
00:34:59.320 --> 00:35:02.480
know call into me or an email
into me or semi photos and I'll report

456
00:35:02.480 --> 00:35:06.559
on their signings, but I don't
have the time because I teach full time

457
00:35:06.559 --> 00:35:08.639
and resources to go out to that
town and try to track down a cop,

458
00:35:08.880 --> 00:35:12.599
you know. So a lot of
the times you kind of have to

459
00:35:12.639 --> 00:35:15.320
go with what we have in terms
of resources and time. M h.

460
00:35:15.920 --> 00:35:21.000
And then it's also hard when you
have finding the other side, especially when

461
00:35:21.039 --> 00:35:24.280
it comes to doing your due diligence
and finding a skeptic at least I find

462
00:35:24.280 --> 00:35:28.599
that in that. You know,
you want to find someone who's skeptical,

463
00:35:29.039 --> 00:35:31.840
but if you go to let's say, a university professor, they're going to

464
00:35:32.000 --> 00:35:39.480
just offhandedly dismiss without educating themselves often, and so that's not fair either,

465
00:35:39.679 --> 00:35:45.400
which kind of puts you in a
difficult situation. Yeah. Absolutely, I

466
00:35:45.440 --> 00:35:50.039
think that that's a very fair It's
very that's a very fair assumption of it,

467
00:35:50.039 --> 00:35:52.199
because it's true because a lot of
times, if you're going to go

468
00:35:52.280 --> 00:35:54.199
to somebody who you automatically know is
going to shoot down the story, then

469
00:35:54.199 --> 00:35:59.800
it's like, what's the point.
You want to try to get somebody who

470
00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:04.079
alas provide some insight and go from
there. Yeah, And I think you

471
00:36:04.159 --> 00:36:10.679
made another really great point that just
because we're writing about what an official says

472
00:36:12.119 --> 00:36:15.320
does not necessarily mean we are validating
what they say. Of course, we're

473
00:36:15.320 --> 00:36:21.920
going to do our due diligence to
reveal any deception or any issues that we

474
00:36:22.440 --> 00:36:28.079
canna cover about these comments. But
it just the fact that an official is

475
00:36:28.199 --> 00:36:31.280
saying something is news that justifies it. Whether you like that or not,

476
00:36:31.360 --> 00:36:36.199
even if you think you can say
something better or more wise, you just

477
00:36:36.280 --> 00:36:39.320
don't have the title, like you
said that this person has. Yeah,

478
00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:45.960
absolutely, that's the official source and
that's what they're saying, and you quote

479
00:36:45.960 --> 00:36:47.800
them as so. And I said, people make their judgments from there.

480
00:36:50.239 --> 00:36:54.519
Now, when it comes to punk
Rock and UFOs, you kind of the

481
00:36:54.559 --> 00:36:59.800
punk rock part is a bit kind
of like your mission statement. It fits

482
00:36:59.840 --> 00:37:02.360
in to at least your perspective of
this field. And I wanted you to

483
00:37:02.440 --> 00:37:07.800
explain that. So this is always
a great question when people ask. So

484
00:37:08.039 --> 00:37:10.480
the book, the books are called
punk Rock and UFOs, and obviously the

485
00:37:10.480 --> 00:37:15.880
website and the brand is the same
name. The idea behind it is,

486
00:37:15.360 --> 00:37:19.559
you know, punk rock the way
of thinking, not necessarily the music,

487
00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:22.639
but the way of thinking. There's
obviously this rebellious nature to it and why

488
00:37:22.639 --> 00:37:27.039
do we choose to rebel against some
beliefs and accept others? And I definitely

489
00:37:27.039 --> 00:37:30.039
saw a parallel between I mean,
what people believe in terms of religion and

490
00:37:31.000 --> 00:37:35.000
political beliefs and you know, as
opposed to what they believe in with UFOs

491
00:37:35.039 --> 00:37:37.719
and other stuff. So it's like, you can believe in this one thing

492
00:37:37.760 --> 00:37:40.079
and accept it, but this other
thing is all of a sudden out of

493
00:37:40.079 --> 00:37:45.559
the realm of possibilities. So it's
kind of more about our process of belief.

494
00:37:45.760 --> 00:37:49.039
And then also too, I mean, the punk rock scene really births

495
00:37:49.039 --> 00:37:51.679
a lot of underdogs, you know, a lot of those bands and the

496
00:37:51.800 --> 00:37:55.920
mentality and we are underdogs as well
as researchers, and you know, this

497
00:37:55.960 --> 00:38:00.920
whole community is kind of underdogs and
everything that we're striving for. So one

498
00:38:00.920 --> 00:38:02.960
of the things I try to do
a lot with the website is and with

499
00:38:04.000 --> 00:38:06.639
my second book, True Believers,
is I try to give us a voice

500
00:38:06.639 --> 00:38:10.519
too. Who are these people that
are researching this? Why should we care?

501
00:38:13.400 --> 00:38:16.199
And yeah, what what can we
all do to better understand these questions?

502
00:38:16.599 --> 00:38:21.480
M hm? With your second book
also, I mean, is that

503
00:38:21.559 --> 00:38:24.679
something that you feel that you find
is this kind of rebellious nature, and

504
00:38:24.719 --> 00:38:30.760
a lot of the researchers, uh, I think intrinsically, Yeah, because,

505
00:38:30.760 --> 00:38:36.840
like I said, we're rebelling against
this, these preconceived notions and these

506
00:38:37.480 --> 00:38:40.960
you know, like these dismissive kind
of comments. And you know you said

507
00:38:40.960 --> 00:38:44.960
earlier with you know, the graphics
on TV playing the X files in the

508
00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:47.119
background, and you know, all
those things are kind of dismissive, and

509
00:38:47.199 --> 00:38:51.760
we've been rebelling against that for a
really long time. You know, there's

510
00:38:51.800 --> 00:38:58.840
some serious people involved in this research
and with serious credentials. And this isn't

511
00:38:58.840 --> 00:39:00.599
new. There's serious people. I've
been setting this for a really long time.

512
00:39:01.679 --> 00:39:06.559
Yeah. Yeah. Did you when
in researching your book and doing your

513
00:39:06.639 --> 00:39:09.039
interviews, what was some of the
information that you felt? I mean,

514
00:39:09.119 --> 00:39:15.280
I'm assuming that you learned and what
was it that was the most impactful to

515
00:39:15.360 --> 00:39:21.199
you that you learned. That's a
great question. So one of the important

516
00:39:21.199 --> 00:39:22.360
things I learned is you know,
you never stop learning. You know,

517
00:39:22.400 --> 00:39:25.519
the more people you talk to,
the more perspective you get. And just

518
00:39:25.559 --> 00:39:29.719
looking at my first and second book, it's like night and day. Like

519
00:39:30.280 --> 00:39:34.320
my first book is very theory based
and very kind of opinionating and it's kind

520
00:39:34.320 --> 00:39:37.079
of all over the place. The
second one is this this more concentrated idea

521
00:39:37.119 --> 00:39:40.719
of you know, what do we
need to do to kind of get more

522
00:39:40.760 --> 00:39:44.159
people involved in this? And hey, these are the people who are trying

523
00:39:44.159 --> 00:39:46.599
to get more people involved in this. And one of the big takeaway from

524
00:39:46.679 --> 00:39:52.320
me was we all had this commonality
where it all started with something that sparked

525
00:39:52.719 --> 00:39:58.159
our our in yourself, you want
your research this. You know a lot

526
00:39:58.199 --> 00:40:02.039
of people I spoke to had a
sighting or they had something and then next

527
00:40:02.079 --> 00:40:05.760
thing you know, years later,
they're either doing a podcast, writing a

528
00:40:05.760 --> 00:40:09.559
book, a YouTube channel, or
a radio show. So it's all started

529
00:40:09.599 --> 00:40:14.559
with something. And I think there's
something to be said there that you know,

530
00:40:15.000 --> 00:40:20.599
it all starts with with with a
spark. And that's actually did get

531
00:40:21.280 --> 00:40:22.840
to kind of come back to my
original question, which I didn't kind of

532
00:40:22.840 --> 00:40:30.119
finish that whole path was what was
yours spark? So I was interested as

533
00:40:30.159 --> 00:40:34.639
a as a very young child about
UFOs and Bigfoot and the Lockness Monster and

534
00:40:34.719 --> 00:40:37.079
unexplained I see, my mom used
to get me these books, these time

535
00:40:37.119 --> 00:40:40.719
life books. Every month there'd be
a new it was like these hardcover books.

536
00:40:40.760 --> 00:40:45.400
They had these really really really nice
photos inside them, and I was

537
00:40:45.400 --> 00:40:47.400
just drawn to them at an early
age because you know, I was I

538
00:40:47.440 --> 00:40:50.880
was a comic book guy. I
was a horror movie guy. So to

539
00:40:50.920 --> 00:40:52.199
me, it was this is right
in my alley. But at the same

540
00:40:52.199 --> 00:40:54.679
time, though, there was like
a mystery to it, and there was

541
00:40:54.679 --> 00:40:58.639
a truth in there. There was
something in there that was to me that

542
00:40:58.760 --> 00:41:02.239
was nonfiction. So I was always
interested in that and I never really stopped

543
00:41:02.280 --> 00:41:07.599
being interested in that. But then
I had my first sighting. I remember

544
00:41:07.679 --> 00:41:09.320
driving home when I used to work
downtown. I used to work at the

545
00:41:09.360 --> 00:41:14.039
Chronicle. I was driving home and
I saw the traditional white orb and then

546
00:41:14.400 --> 00:41:16.000
next thing, you know, a
couple years later, I'm writing about this

547
00:41:16.039 --> 00:41:22.559
stuff. So that was my first
sighting that I recall. So that sighting,

548
00:41:22.599 --> 00:41:28.000
when did you say that was?
I would say I can't remember the

549
00:41:28.039 --> 00:41:30.559
exact year, but I was in
the two thousands, so it's probably within

550
00:41:30.639 --> 00:41:34.480
the past two I was nineteen in
the past nineteen years. Yeah, I'm

551
00:41:34.599 --> 00:41:37.920
older. I'm in my mid thirties, so that was probably in my twenties.

552
00:41:38.480 --> 00:41:44.119
It's funny you call that older,
but in the post ride, yeah,

553
00:41:44.559 --> 00:41:49.679
I feel old for when it happened. But yeah, so you know,

554
00:41:49.760 --> 00:41:53.760
and then so that kind of experience
compelled you. Yeah, it's weird.

555
00:41:53.920 --> 00:41:57.360
It wasn't something like instantly I was
like, oh, I got to

556
00:41:57.400 --> 00:42:00.760
write a book, you know,
something that kind of just said and you

557
00:42:00.760 --> 00:42:06.599
know, festered. And then I'd
probably say maybe a year or two later

558
00:42:06.880 --> 00:42:08.880
is when I or maybe a year
later. I don't recall the timeline,

559
00:42:08.920 --> 00:42:13.559
but I remember when I wrote my
first book, it was just I would

560
00:42:13.559 --> 00:42:16.280
get up every day. Actually know, at the time, I transitioned into

561
00:42:16.400 --> 00:42:21.159
education, so I was a teacher, so I summers off so and I

562
00:42:21.159 --> 00:42:22.800
believe that was my first summer off. So I'd had this routine where I'd

563
00:42:22.800 --> 00:42:27.559
get up every morning, rite go
to the gym, come home, research,

564
00:42:27.800 --> 00:42:30.159
write some more research, go to
bed. And I did that for

565
00:42:30.280 --> 00:42:31.840
like basically three weeks straight, and
next thing you know, I had a

566
00:42:31.880 --> 00:42:35.880
book done. So it was it
was very I was very involved in it

567
00:42:35.920 --> 00:42:37.639
from the seeing that I started writing
about it just kind of took over.

568
00:42:39.079 --> 00:42:43.400
And then you started your blog just
a couple of years ago, I think,

569
00:42:43.519 --> 00:42:46.400
right, yeah, it was right
trying to think when it was probably

570
00:42:46.440 --> 00:42:50.920
it's two years old at this point, just because I felt like I needed

571
00:42:50.920 --> 00:42:53.280
a continuation. I want to shore
if you know, how if another book

572
00:42:53.320 --> 00:42:55.840
was going to happen and when and
people, you know, I wanted to

573
00:42:55.880 --> 00:43:00.000
continue to write and research about it. And the way site is basically,

574
00:43:00.119 --> 00:43:04.519
you know, it says on the
thank cryptozoology and culture, and it's yes,

575
00:43:04.639 --> 00:43:07.639
it's obviously the more traditional news stories. There's commentary. There's reviews on

576
00:43:07.679 --> 00:43:10.440
there as well, So I wanted
to be a little mix of everything.

577
00:43:12.719 --> 00:43:15.679
You know, I always, I
always like to kind of interview, you

578
00:43:15.719 --> 00:43:19.519
know, the fellow researchers, people
who are involved in this as well,

579
00:43:19.559 --> 00:43:22.599
so people get to know them and
what makes them tick, what makes them,

580
00:43:22.679 --> 00:43:25.199
you know, what makes them research? And the way, you know,

581
00:43:25.199 --> 00:43:28.480
even though it is a blog format
and the name is punk rock at

582
00:43:28.519 --> 00:43:31.599
UFOs dot com, I definitely approach
them like I'm writing a serious news article

583
00:43:31.639 --> 00:43:37.519
for print, just because I have
that background, which I very much appreciate

584
00:43:37.960 --> 00:43:42.239
and and I'm sure others do as
well. But I guess, what is

585
00:43:42.280 --> 00:43:47.400
your niche what do you do you
see kind of a space for yourself in

586
00:43:47.440 --> 00:43:54.960
this arena And I guess this arena
meaning journalism and in ufosh and what is

587
00:43:54.960 --> 00:44:00.000
that space? It's a great question. I'm not sure if it really technically

588
00:44:00.039 --> 00:44:05.320
thought about that. But like for
me, the journalism I do now is,

589
00:44:05.480 --> 00:44:07.519
you know, I'm not attached to
anyone. I'm basically you know,

590
00:44:07.159 --> 00:44:10.039
I have my own website. I
don't have an editor to answer to.

591
00:44:10.360 --> 00:44:15.239
I don't have an organization to answer
to. I do a music blog on

592
00:44:15.280 --> 00:44:19.280
the side for the chronicles still,
but that's just like for fun. But

593
00:44:19.480 --> 00:44:22.239
I don't, you know, I
don't have all those mechanisms controlling what I

594
00:44:22.280 --> 00:44:25.199
want to do, so I'm able
to still continue this research and do it

595
00:44:25.199 --> 00:44:28.719
the way I want to do it. In terms of you know, this

596
00:44:29.440 --> 00:44:35.039
UFO community, I think I'm just
one of many newer people just getting involved

597
00:44:35.039 --> 00:44:39.519
in. I'm always very honored and
humbled when you know, people like yourself

598
00:44:39.519 --> 00:44:43.960
and other other people asked me to
be on their shows and say nice things

599
00:44:43.960 --> 00:44:45.079
about me, because it's you know, that's the biggest takeaway. You know,

600
00:44:45.280 --> 00:44:49.559
I wrote a book, and I
haven't made any money off those books,

601
00:44:49.559 --> 00:44:52.639
but I've had so many opportunities in
doors open, and to me that

602
00:44:52.719 --> 00:44:54.880
means more than you know, making
three hundred dollars in royalties. You know,

603
00:44:57.599 --> 00:45:00.079
and do you think you've what do
you think you've learned, especially I

604
00:45:00.119 --> 00:45:07.440
guess related to especially the community.
I mean it can be kind of strange

605
00:45:07.199 --> 00:45:12.960
and getting to know and you know, figuring out the space, uh and

606
00:45:13.360 --> 00:45:17.079
especially kind of you know, done
this through Aleasondo's experience in last year.

607
00:45:17.360 --> 00:45:22.639
What was yours like? It's you
know, it was great because it was

608
00:45:22.800 --> 00:45:27.519
very welcoming from the start. It
doesn't seem as competitive and cut through.

609
00:45:27.599 --> 00:45:30.639
I mean, obviously there's people you
know who are jetted, and I get

610
00:45:30.679 --> 00:45:35.119
that, but Jason McKellen was the
first person to reach out to me.

611
00:45:35.960 --> 00:45:37.079
He was a you know, a
road planet. He was the first one

612
00:45:37.079 --> 00:45:40.599
to put me on and put me
on a show, and automatically, I

613
00:45:40.639 --> 00:45:44.960
mean we had so much in common
and I felt like this, this isn't

614
00:45:45.039 --> 00:45:46.079
just a colleague. This is all
even though I've never met him. I

615
00:45:46.079 --> 00:45:49.320
mean we talked on the phone,
but like this is a friend now,

616
00:45:49.760 --> 00:45:52.679
so you know, and then obviously
talking about to Ryan Sprague and Eric Lukes

617
00:45:52.679 --> 00:45:57.239
and some other people, and you
know, it's it's very tight knit and

618
00:45:57.239 --> 00:46:00.280
it's really cool how people are supportive
of each other. And you know,

619
00:46:00.320 --> 00:46:02.079
obviously you know there's other side of
that too, where there's people who've been

620
00:46:02.079 --> 00:46:06.000
doing this for a long time.
They're jaded, they've been disappointed, they've

621
00:46:06.000 --> 00:46:09.239
seen things not go certain ways,
and I get that, but it's you

622
00:46:09.280 --> 00:46:13.599
know, it's how you how you
choose to respond to it, and a

623
00:46:13.679 --> 00:46:15.280
lot of times, a lot of
times it's you know, it's not even

624
00:46:15.320 --> 00:46:20.079
worth engaging, you know, some
of the people who have arguments, you

625
00:46:20.079 --> 00:46:22.360
know, like one of the researchers, I'm not gonna name who it is,

626
00:46:22.400 --> 00:46:25.440
but I blocked them on Twitter and
I referenced them in my last article

627
00:46:25.480 --> 00:46:30.159
because we got in this whole debate
because this person believed that to the Stars

628
00:46:30.320 --> 00:46:37.920
was a mechanism to sell alien T
shirts, which is probably the worst take

629
00:46:37.159 --> 00:46:43.840
I've heard on that. Yeah,
yeah, yeah, we'll definitely get into

630
00:46:43.880 --> 00:46:47.360
some of that because I agree that
that's that gets pretty silly out there.

631
00:46:49.639 --> 00:46:54.400
But what then, I guess when
it comes to the phenomena itself, at

632
00:46:54.480 --> 00:47:00.000
least to me, and especially as
a journalist, you know, for you,

633
00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:05.719
so to me, it seems like
even though other journalists can't find stories,

634
00:47:05.760 --> 00:47:07.440
and I kind of understand that because
you've got to really kind of get

635
00:47:07.519 --> 00:47:14.400
in there, especially with all the
signal to noise so much noise. There

636
00:47:14.440 --> 00:47:19.599
are a lot of really compelling stories
to tell. Yeah, absolutely, and

637
00:47:19.639 --> 00:47:24.960
not like not every story has to
be necessarily huge or groundbreaking. Like I

638
00:47:25.000 --> 00:47:30.360
love sharing people's stories. I had
so at work, we had a professional

639
00:47:30.360 --> 00:47:35.519
development day and I did a class
on UFOs and crypt zoology, and I

640
00:47:35.519 --> 00:47:39.119
had a teacher come up to me
afterwards saying she's had experiences her whole life

641
00:47:39.159 --> 00:47:43.119
and she was always ashamed to tell
people, and she let me tell her

642
00:47:43.159 --> 00:47:46.639
story on my website, and that
was really cool because, like I said,

643
00:47:46.679 --> 00:47:50.400
this isn't anything you know, it's
going to make front page news,

644
00:47:50.400 --> 00:47:54.119
but still someone's experience that they're sharing, and you know, once again it's

645
00:47:54.159 --> 00:47:58.519
up to the audience's side whether they
buy it or not. And there's other

646
00:47:58.559 --> 00:48:04.840
stories like I picked up the story
that Muffon passed on multiple times as this

647
00:48:04.960 --> 00:48:09.440
older man who claimed to have a
military experiment on him where he was fed

648
00:48:10.280 --> 00:48:15.079
supposedly a serum from an alien spaceship, and everything about his story just sounds

649
00:48:15.119 --> 00:48:17.840
like something out of a comic book
or science fiction, Like it sounds crazy,

650
00:48:19.320 --> 00:48:22.559
but you know, he was very
eager and helpful to provide proof that

651
00:48:22.599 --> 00:48:25.559
he was in the military. And
his paperwork and his blood work, and

652
00:48:27.199 --> 00:48:29.840
he had really nothing to gain from
this. It's like, you know what,

653
00:48:30.159 --> 00:48:31.000
I'll go for it, even though
it kind of sounds out there,

654
00:48:31.000 --> 00:48:36.760
But you know, I did three
different stories on him, and here's a

655
00:48:36.800 --> 00:48:39.599
sweet old man who wanted his story
told. So a lot of times it's

656
00:48:40.039 --> 00:48:44.840
giving these people a voice or an
outlet for them to tell their story.

657
00:48:45.679 --> 00:48:49.480
And you know, and I know
that story. In fact, I was

658
00:48:49.519 --> 00:48:53.559
familiar with it, and of course
I did see you what you had written

659
00:48:53.599 --> 00:48:58.280
about it. And those are kind
of hard. How do you take those

660
00:48:58.360 --> 00:49:06.239
where someone seemingly, you know,
genuine has an extraordinary story to tell.

661
00:49:06.880 --> 00:49:09.719
That's that's kind of a tough one
to tackle. Yeah, absolutely, And

662
00:49:10.599 --> 00:49:14.360
I don't take every story that people
will just kind of throw at me,

663
00:49:14.480 --> 00:49:17.840
and they're just person on Twitter who
is just sending me stuff all the time,

664
00:49:17.880 --> 00:49:21.559
and I just I just had to
pass because it was so kind of

665
00:49:21.679 --> 00:49:24.840
out there and a lot of it
wasn't able to be so like a lot

666
00:49:24.880 --> 00:49:29.800
of times, if someone pitches something
to me and it sounds like something I've

667
00:49:29.840 --> 00:49:32.079
heard before or something that could be
possible, then of course you're am more

668
00:49:32.079 --> 00:49:37.559
open minded to doing that. Story
in this case, you know, it's

669
00:49:37.119 --> 00:49:42.400
you kind of have to try to
use your judgment and see this person's credible

670
00:49:42.400 --> 00:49:45.000
in the sense that they're not trying
to dupe you or deceive your audience.

671
00:49:45.719 --> 00:49:49.320
So for for this one, I
said, I spoke to the guy multiple

672
00:49:49.400 --> 00:49:53.880
times, and he just sounded like
a nice guy who wanted his story told.

673
00:49:53.920 --> 00:49:59.360
And and he wasn't necessarily like a
ufologist, like he didn't know a

674
00:49:59.400 --> 00:50:04.119
lot of the uf post stuff.
He's just like he saw the Roswell the

675
00:50:04.119 --> 00:50:06.639
Coded show on CW. He's like, oh, yeah, Roswell, and

676
00:50:06.639 --> 00:50:08.039
he was just kind of like,
I have a story to tell. You

677
00:50:08.079 --> 00:50:10.280
know, that just kind of you
know, jogged back his memory. But

678
00:50:10.559 --> 00:50:14.000
he didn't know a lot of cases
like I told him about, you know,

679
00:50:14.639 --> 00:50:17.159
Corso's book the day after Roswell and
a few other ones. And a

680
00:50:17.159 --> 00:50:20.519
week later he called me and said, hey, I read those books.

681
00:50:20.559 --> 00:50:23.039
They were great. I had no
idea. So it's you know, it's

682
00:50:23.119 --> 00:50:27.239
kind of part of the sharing.
Mm hmm. Well, we've got to

683
00:50:27.280 --> 00:50:31.960
take a quick break. We're taking
to Mike Demante of punk Rock and UFOs

684
00:50:32.199 --> 00:50:36.880
dot com and uh, we'll take
a short break for those of you listening

685
00:50:37.079 --> 00:50:39.920
on a radio channel that you're going
to hear a commercial break. The rest

686
00:50:39.920 --> 00:50:45.400
of you will hear a short musical
interlude and we'll be right back. You're

687
00:50:45.400 --> 00:51:04.039
listening to Open Mind GFO Radio.
We are back. You're listening to Open

688
00:51:04.039 --> 00:51:07.719
Mind GFO Radio. I'm your host, Alejandro Rojas, and we're talking to

689
00:51:07.920 --> 00:51:12.719
Mike Demante, a punk rock and
UFOs dot com. And you mentioned one

690
00:51:12.719 --> 00:51:16.639
of your recent stories that you had
written about this gentleman with this this kind

691
00:51:16.679 --> 00:51:23.920
of interesting story claiming to have been
part of this military experiment where he drank

692
00:51:23.960 --> 00:51:30.400
this alien serum. Now, was
he convinced that it was extraterrestrial in nature?

693
00:51:30.400 --> 00:51:34.039
And was he did? He say
he was told that? Yeah,

694
00:51:34.199 --> 00:51:37.320
he said he was told that.
But he signed these NDA agreements and he's

695
00:51:37.360 --> 00:51:40.800
at the point where he doesn't care
violating because he's eighty four years old.

696
00:51:42.440 --> 00:51:45.599
So at this point of his life, even though he's very healthy, he's

697
00:51:45.639 --> 00:51:49.000
in great shape, he doesn't care
anymore in terms of if he gets in

698
00:51:49.000 --> 00:51:54.159
trouble and what you know, he
shot a video I think probably two three

699
00:51:54.199 --> 00:51:59.920
years ago he videoed his whole story
and it's only been like kind of living

700
00:52:00.039 --> 00:52:02.039
and on like a few message boards. That's it. Like, no,

701
00:52:02.039 --> 00:52:05.159
no one's really picked it up and
ran with it. So that's why I

702
00:52:05.199 --> 00:52:07.519
was like, well, if this
is out there, but nobody kind of

703
00:52:07.519 --> 00:52:09.400
bit on it. So I wanted
to be the one to bite on it

704
00:52:09.440 --> 00:52:14.639
because I thought it was interesting.
M And I personally feel it's good you

705
00:52:14.679 --> 00:52:16.440
did. I mean, with a
lot of these and people get frustrated because

706
00:52:16.440 --> 00:52:19.400
I don't write about it. I
just like you, you know, I

707
00:52:19.440 --> 00:52:22.719
just don't have the time. It's
a it's a great story to get out

708
00:52:22.760 --> 00:52:27.119
there, especially if it's someone who
sounds you know, to be a sound

709
00:52:27.239 --> 00:52:31.599
mind and have an interesting background,
but you just don't have the time.

710
00:52:32.280 --> 00:52:36.320
Yeah. Yeah, And that's the
thing too. You know, a lot

711
00:52:36.320 --> 00:52:38.280
of us don't do this, you
know, full time for a living,

712
00:52:38.360 --> 00:52:43.119
so you know, it's whenever we
have the time to do so. And

713
00:52:44.400 --> 00:52:45.679
you know, I guess I wish
I had more time to vote to you

714
00:52:45.679 --> 00:52:49.199
know, doing three, three or
four posts a week. You know,

715
00:52:50.519 --> 00:52:53.239
now with your stories, do you
necessarily make a judgment, so like,

716
00:52:53.760 --> 00:52:58.440
how do you feel about, you
know, whether or not this particular person

717
00:52:58.519 --> 00:53:02.800
is you know, accurate that that
that that actually happened. He drank an

718
00:53:02.880 --> 00:53:07.920
extraterrestrial serum created by the government.
Well, well, you know, it's

719
00:53:07.920 --> 00:53:09.920
hard because you kind of have to
trust. In that case, we'll not

720
00:53:10.000 --> 00:53:14.239
trust, but you kind of have
to give them the opportunity and then go

721
00:53:14.320 --> 00:53:17.800
from there. He was able to
send me some of his documents that I've

722
00:53:17.800 --> 00:53:21.840
showed, showed to a nurse and
somebody in the military, and they were

723
00:53:21.840 --> 00:53:23.960
able to collaborate that yes, these
are real documents, and this is his

724
00:53:24.000 --> 00:53:29.480
blood work, and yes, this
is extraordinary for someone his age. So

725
00:53:29.599 --> 00:53:31.119
for me, you know, the
fact I was able to get get a

726
00:53:31.119 --> 00:53:35.840
hand of those, you know,
those documents and go from there was definitely

727
00:53:35.880 --> 00:53:38.880
helpful in making that decision to go
forward. M hm. And you know

728
00:53:38.920 --> 00:53:44.039
what's it's kind of funny as a
journalist because it's there's a different perspective also

729
00:53:44.159 --> 00:53:47.719
in that we don't necessarily have to
know when we put together a story.

730
00:53:49.239 --> 00:53:54.280
We're looking at the credibility of like
the witness or or the interest in the

731
00:53:54.480 --> 00:54:01.679
story, but we're not necessarily making
judgments. We're looking for information that'll give

732
00:54:01.760 --> 00:54:07.960
us something indicators one way or another. But at least many of us I

733
00:54:07.960 --> 00:54:10.920
don't know about. If you go
about it differently, but I don't judge

734
00:54:10.920 --> 00:54:15.639
it. I put together the story
to get it out there, and then

735
00:54:15.679 --> 00:54:16.440
people will ask, well, what
do you think it. I'll be like,

736
00:54:16.480 --> 00:54:19.039
I don't know, and they'll be
like, oh, you got to

737
00:54:19.079 --> 00:54:21.320
know, you wrote about it,
you got to believe in it or have

738
00:54:21.400 --> 00:54:24.599
some opinion, and sometimes I just
I don't know, you know, No,

739
00:54:24.760 --> 00:54:28.559
absolutely, yeah, I hear it, because sometimes you have to try

740
00:54:28.599 --> 00:54:30.199
to keep our personal opinions out of
it too. So yeah, it's a

741
00:54:30.199 --> 00:54:35.760
tough one. Mm hmm. So
uh Blink one eighty two. Would you

742
00:54:35.840 --> 00:54:40.239
consider them punk rock? Oh?
Absolutely, obviously. You know, nineteen

743
00:54:40.320 --> 00:54:45.079
ninety nine was a year where you
know, you had Blank and previously had

744
00:54:45.119 --> 00:54:47.920
Green Day and all those those bands
that were making the mainstream were considered sellouts.

745
00:54:49.000 --> 00:54:52.440
But we're like so far past that, you know, those days,

746
00:54:52.480 --> 00:54:58.400
And obviously I've covered you know,
I've covered their music and their career my

747
00:54:58.440 --> 00:55:00.119
whole life, and I've been a
big fan, and obviously they were on

748
00:55:00.159 --> 00:55:05.960
the pop punk side for sure.
But yeah, that's definitely was my gateway

749
00:55:06.039 --> 00:55:08.079
drug and punk rock music was Blank
at a really young age. Hmm.

750
00:55:08.679 --> 00:55:16.800
Interesting, So it had to be
especially compelling or impactful to you when you

751
00:55:16.840 --> 00:55:22.159
know, after you even started using
this this name punk rock in UFOs,

752
00:55:22.679 --> 00:55:29.480
that Tom DeLong comes out so full
on about UFOs and eventually, really and

753
00:55:29.559 --> 00:55:31.559
I make this justification. I don't
know if you've seen that in the articles.

754
00:55:31.559 --> 00:55:36.760
And I think it's true that we
wouldn't have had these Pentagon revelations without

755
00:55:36.840 --> 00:55:43.159
him. Yeah, how I mean
that had to be pretty a pretty big

756
00:55:43.199 --> 00:55:47.119
deal for you, especially well,
I mean he's never really hit his you

757
00:55:47.119 --> 00:55:52.920
know, his UFO obsession. He's
talked about it in interviews. Before one

758
00:55:52.920 --> 00:55:55.440
of their DVDs, there's like this
bonus footage of him going on like he's

759
00:55:55.519 --> 00:55:58.880
drunk. He drank like a bottle
of wine. Here's going on. He's

760
00:55:58.920 --> 00:56:00.920
showing, you know, all the
books in his house, and he wrote

761
00:56:00.920 --> 00:56:06.119
a song Aliens Exists, and anyone
who's listening to Angels and Airwaves, there's

762
00:56:06.480 --> 00:56:13.320
very good literary references to the mysteries
of the universe and kind of secret society.

763
00:56:13.519 --> 00:56:15.400
So all throughout his career he's kind
of been interested in this. And

764
00:56:15.559 --> 00:56:20.039
you know, I'm kicking myself because
I've interviewed him, I met him multiple

765
00:56:20.119 --> 00:56:22.800
times, and we never I never
got the opportunity to ask about this,

766
00:56:22.920 --> 00:56:25.400
because at the time I was asking
him about you know, Blink and when

767
00:56:25.840 --> 00:56:30.519
Angels and Airwaves was here in Houston
years ago, I interviewed him backstage and

768
00:56:30.840 --> 00:56:34.000
it was obviously you know, I
got through in some fanboy questions there,

769
00:56:34.039 --> 00:56:36.840
but never at the time that I
think to ask him about that. I

770
00:56:36.880 --> 00:56:38.960
don't know why I should have,
because now he's a really hard guy to

771
00:56:38.960 --> 00:56:43.440
get in touch with. Obviously,
you know, went to the Stars Academy

772
00:56:43.440 --> 00:56:47.360
and things are being controlled a certain
way. You know, kudos to you.

773
00:56:47.159 --> 00:56:52.519
You're probably you're the first one to
get mister Elizondo, so that that's

774
00:56:52.599 --> 00:56:55.159
huge, and I think that's great
that they're starting to come out and slowly

775
00:56:55.199 --> 00:56:59.400
talk more to outlets and and be
more transparent, because I think that's what

776
00:56:59.440 --> 00:57:02.320
a lot of people for the past
year. Yeah, that's what's been hard

777
00:57:02.400 --> 00:57:07.519
too, because you know, Jason
and Maureen got that great interview for Open

778
00:57:07.519 --> 00:57:12.320
Minds with Tom DeLong a few years
ago, and I haven't had the opportunity

779
00:57:12.360 --> 00:57:16.559
to. I've got to speak with
him off the record about several things in

780
00:57:16.599 --> 00:57:20.280
the last few years, well,
all related to all of this, but

781
00:57:20.360 --> 00:57:24.679
it's all had to be off the
record. And so, And it's not

782
00:57:24.760 --> 00:57:28.519
because, oh, major secrets or
something like that. It's just because,

783
00:57:29.400 --> 00:57:32.079
rightfully so, they're being careful about
how they're releasing information, and you know,

784
00:57:32.199 --> 00:57:37.920
right now lose the guy who's sharing
the information about the group. So

785
00:57:38.599 --> 00:57:44.800
I know what you mean. And
it's still I guess, you know,

786
00:57:45.880 --> 00:57:50.559
did you did it really hit you
how significant? And I imagine it was,

787
00:57:50.599 --> 00:57:54.079
but I just kind of I'm curious
about your reaction, how significant you

788
00:57:54.119 --> 00:58:00.079
know these stories were, you know, back in twenty sixteen with the October

789
00:58:00.159 --> 00:58:06.119
His to the Stars Academy coming out, and then soon after the Pentagon story,

790
00:58:06.440 --> 00:58:10.159
I guess, how did you react
to to the Stars being created?

791
00:58:12.559 --> 00:58:16.000
So optimism, I guess is the
best way to say. But you also

792
00:58:16.039 --> 00:58:19.480
have to be skeptical too, And
to this day, you know, I've

793
00:58:19.559 --> 00:58:22.880
said multiple times I'm not really a
fan of the business model aspect to it,

794
00:58:22.360 --> 00:58:27.480
but I do say this. You
know, the Pentagon uf U Foe

795
00:58:27.559 --> 00:58:30.480
story was big for a lot of
us because it confirms a lot of us

796
00:58:30.480 --> 00:58:34.960
have been saying for years regarding secret
programs. So you know, he's taken

797
00:58:35.079 --> 00:58:37.760
risks his whole life and his whole
career. So for him to walk away

798
00:58:37.800 --> 00:58:40.519
from Blink, which was the banning
created and one of the largest bands in

799
00:58:40.559 --> 00:58:45.880
the world. To do this,
he obviously has a lot of people involved

800
00:58:46.039 --> 00:58:51.159
that have credibility, so it's kind
of it was kind of exciting, you

801
00:58:51.199 --> 00:58:53.119
know, just kind of see where
it goes from there. And everything that

802
00:58:53.159 --> 00:58:57.400
they slowly said was going to happen
is slowly happening for the most part.

803
00:58:57.480 --> 00:59:00.280
It may not be as fast as
you know some people want or as a

804
00:59:00.360 --> 00:59:04.760
specific but I always said, hey, worst case scenario if we get a

805
00:59:04.800 --> 00:59:07.599
documentary TV series or a movie,
or if we get you know, we

806
00:59:07.679 --> 00:59:10.320
get this, like, it's not
a it's not a complete loss. You

807
00:59:10.320 --> 00:59:15.280
know. I think people have these
these lofty expectations. You know, let

808
00:59:15.280 --> 00:59:17.199
them do their work and it may
take a while, but you know,

809
00:59:17.239 --> 00:59:22.800
if they get people talking. You
know, mister Alizondo has been all over

810
00:59:22.079 --> 00:59:25.440
you know, some major meat outlet's. You know, he's been referenced in

811
00:59:25.719 --> 00:59:29.400
plenty of articles, and I think, you know, he's the guy going

812
00:59:29.440 --> 00:59:32.119
forward because he has so much credibility
because of his his background and a lot

813
00:59:32.159 --> 00:59:36.320
of He's going to be a household
name sooner, sooner rather than later.

814
00:59:36.920 --> 00:59:40.519
So what is shocking though, especially
as as someone writing about this this all

815
00:59:40.719 --> 00:59:47.519
and who's a student of kind of
the history of UFO research, and it

816
00:59:47.559 --> 00:59:52.239
was probably shocking to you. It
was shocking to me because Tom DeLong personally

817
00:59:52.320 --> 00:59:54.920
had been telling me, you know, here and there that big stuff is

818
00:59:54.920 --> 00:59:58.920
coming, big stuff is coming,
and even I was kind of like,

819
00:59:59.039 --> 01:00:04.519
yeah, sure, we'll see,
but I was not prepared for and of

820
01:00:04.559 --> 01:00:09.280
course was completely shocked and still am
to this day about everything that is kind

821
01:00:09.280 --> 01:00:15.199
of happening at this point. Yeah, I think it's, like I said,

822
01:00:15.199 --> 01:00:19.480
a lot of it's a pleasant surprise. I was never shocked by him

823
01:00:19.800 --> 01:00:23.639
kind of hyping things up because he's
been that way his whole career. It's

824
01:00:23.679 --> 01:00:27.119
not a bad thing. That's just
you know, I've interviewed him before about

825
01:00:27.119 --> 01:00:30.679
blinking about angels and air waves,
and he always he knows how to get

826
01:00:30.679 --> 01:00:34.800
people excited about projects he's working on. Does he always deliver, I mean,

827
01:00:34.800 --> 01:00:37.719
that's up to people to decide,
but I always think his heart's in

828
01:00:37.800 --> 01:00:40.599
the right place and he has,
you know, he aims high, and

829
01:00:40.719 --> 01:00:46.599
that's something I think that's very admirable. I think that's another there's another disconnect

830
01:00:46.639 --> 01:00:51.239
there too, also, and let's
get into that. So first, this

831
01:00:51.320 --> 01:00:54.559
is a question kind of leading into
this next set of questioning, is the

832
01:00:54.639 --> 01:00:59.800
pacing. Like you said, people
have been disappointed about information not coming out

833
01:01:00.440 --> 01:01:04.719
and enough have you felt that same
disappointment. Have you felt, oh,

834
01:01:04.760 --> 01:01:08.039
man, they're so slow in their
release of information. No, because I

835
01:01:08.159 --> 01:01:13.719
understand for the Stars was still a
very small operation, even though they have

836
01:01:13.719 --> 01:01:16.639
a lot of big people working for
them. I know in San Diego obviously

837
01:01:16.639 --> 01:01:21.119
to the Stars aspect of it,
the entertainment aspect of it, it's still

838
01:01:21.159 --> 01:01:23.440
a very you know, very small
business. It's almost family ran at this

839
01:01:23.519 --> 01:01:29.440
point. But going forward, you
know, I think it's going to obviously

840
01:01:29.519 --> 01:01:31.119
have to grow, if you know, if the academy is going to take

841
01:01:31.159 --> 01:01:36.039
off and so forth. So,
and I also know how how he works.

842
01:01:36.159 --> 01:01:37.840
You know, he doesn't work well
with deadlines. Tom likes to work

843
01:01:37.880 --> 01:01:42.519
at his own pace. That's why
musically, Angels and Airwaves is his baby,

844
01:01:42.519 --> 01:01:45.639
and he's able to kind of do
things as he pleases. And that's

845
01:01:45.639 --> 01:01:49.000
why that was a major rift with
Blank that he had with the other members

846
01:01:49.000 --> 01:01:51.559
of Blank. But no, I
mean I think it was something like this

847
01:01:51.639 --> 01:01:55.000
though intrinsically, you have to be
patient because there's there's analysis that needs to

848
01:01:55.000 --> 01:02:00.119
be done, you know, with
these television networks as contracts, Like for

849
01:02:00.159 --> 01:02:02.440
anyone who's you know, ever done
television or even interviewed with producers, they

850
01:02:02.519 --> 01:02:07.639
know that sometimes producers will be jung
ho about a show and then the network

851
01:02:07.679 --> 01:02:10.440
will sour on it or you know, or the direction will change or so

852
01:02:10.559 --> 01:02:14.199
forth. So these things take time, all these things that they promised,

853
01:02:14.280 --> 01:02:16.440
Like, I get it, it's
gonna take time absolutely because they're not self

854
01:02:16.519 --> 01:02:21.920
releasing any of this stuff. You
know, there's obviously other companies and people

855
01:02:21.960 --> 01:02:25.519
involved, right right, and so
I it's kind of been a disconnect for

856
01:02:25.599 --> 01:02:29.360
me also because I'm like you,
I've been like, you know when people

857
01:02:29.440 --> 01:02:37.400
say that. Recently, I was
on a podcast and Steinfeld Steinfeld is his

858
01:02:37.519 --> 01:02:39.719
name, but it was sort of
the same thing. He's like, you

859
01:02:39.719 --> 01:02:43.599
know, people are so frustrated with
him, like there's nothing that's come out

860
01:02:44.119 --> 01:02:46.159
since the announcement. I'm like,
are you kidding? There's a ton that's

861
01:02:46.199 --> 01:02:50.159
come out. And I shared that
with him and how I felt, at

862
01:02:50.280 --> 01:02:54.719
least from my perspective, we've been
getting a lot of great information, you

863
01:02:54.760 --> 01:03:00.360
know, since they've been releasing it, although there's also kind of a different

864
01:03:00.400 --> 01:03:04.320
expectations with what information's coming out,
and I could see that, and I

865
01:03:04.320 --> 01:03:07.119
would love to hear your thoughts on
this. So for instance, and it's

866
01:03:07.239 --> 01:03:12.119
partially Tom's problem, and I kind
of written about this as well. He

867
01:03:12.239 --> 01:03:17.119
kind of set up this expectation of
some really extraordinary, wild kind of revelations

868
01:03:17.159 --> 01:03:22.519
that were coming, and that's what
a lot of people in the UFO community

869
01:03:22.519 --> 01:03:28.960
were expecting. Now, what was
announced for me, from my perspective,

870
01:03:29.159 --> 01:03:36.039
was just jaw dropping and amazing and
the absolutely most incredible type of information I

871
01:03:36.079 --> 01:03:40.679
could hear, which is that these
government agencies were existed and that these ex

872
01:03:40.760 --> 01:03:45.360
officials are now coming out and working
with Tom DeLong. So for me,

873
01:03:45.519 --> 01:03:49.440
that was great, But for a
lot of others, they were wanting to

874
01:03:49.480 --> 01:03:53.960
hear about the aliens at Roswell and
about Dulce and all of this other stuff.

875
01:03:54.079 --> 01:04:00.079
And I think they still expect that's
what is coming out. Yeah,

876
01:04:00.159 --> 01:04:03.199
I mean, who knows, you
know, But like you said, we

877
01:04:03.280 --> 01:04:10.280
have to, you know, keep
our expectations to you know, was gonna

878
01:04:10.280 --> 01:04:15.119
say. Tom did a little short
documentary with this group called Meta. It's

879
01:04:15.159 --> 01:04:18.159
like a it's like a motorcycle thing, and he referenced to the Stars as

880
01:04:18.159 --> 01:04:25.599
a as an aerodynamic Oh I'm sorry, it's wrong. Words had a brain

881
01:04:25.639 --> 01:04:28.239
fart. Yeah, he is an
aerospace company. And it's like it's not

882
01:04:28.360 --> 01:04:30.360
that yet. It's like pumped the
brakes. But like that's just him speaking

883
01:04:30.400 --> 01:04:34.000
and aiming high. And you know
someone's gonna hear that and say, oh,

884
01:04:34.039 --> 01:04:38.039
he's lying. They're not this,
they haven't done this. That's just

885
01:04:38.039 --> 01:04:41.920
like I said, him speaking and
aiming high. So I think the first

886
01:04:42.000 --> 01:04:45.159
year to the Stars, you obviously
had you know, the Pentagon UFO story

887
01:04:45.199 --> 01:04:47.239
and all these official people coming out, which is great and fantastic, but

888
01:04:47.280 --> 01:04:51.480
then you know, no one was
speaking they really want to speaking to the

889
01:04:51.559 --> 01:04:57.280
media. Outside of that, you
know, Tom wasn't doing any press outside

890
01:04:57.280 --> 01:05:00.599
of a few main treatment outlets,
and then it got pretty much shut down

891
01:05:00.719 --> 01:05:03.880
after the Joe Rogan interview. And
now you see Eli Zander. Now he's

892
01:05:03.880 --> 01:05:08.039
coming out, he's doing some press, and now you see him showing up

893
01:05:08.079 --> 01:05:11.719
to convention. So maybe there are
some things that they can discuss at the

894
01:05:11.760 --> 01:05:14.760
time. I don't know, but
I think this is good now that they're

895
01:05:14.800 --> 01:05:18.199
being more transparent because I think that
was one of the main concerns with them

896
01:05:18.239 --> 01:05:24.719
the first year, and they're kind
of in a tough spot, and I

897
01:05:24.719 --> 01:05:28.480
don't think people see that as well. And I think that you know,

898
01:05:28.519 --> 01:05:32.920
in Alabama recently, Lou talked about
this and that he's got to walk a

899
01:05:33.039 --> 01:05:36.719
very fine line because there's certain things
he cannot say he could get in a

900
01:05:36.760 --> 01:05:41.280
lot of trouble for. And also
he has colleagues where he doesn't want to

901
01:05:41.320 --> 01:05:45.639
step on their toes. So he's
kind of this de facto spokesperson, even

902
01:05:45.679 --> 01:05:48.159
though he doesn't want to be,
and he shouldn't be, but he's the

903
01:05:48.159 --> 01:05:51.760
one everybody wants to hear from.
Yeah. Absolutely, I think he's doing

904
01:05:51.800 --> 01:05:56.679
a great job, and I think
going forward he probably will be the spokesperson

905
01:05:56.679 --> 01:06:00.400
in terms of that sense, just
because like, he doesn't have to do

906
01:06:00.400 --> 01:06:01.559
this, but he is. And
I think a lot of people in their

907
01:06:01.599 --> 01:06:05.239
community appreciate that that he's going to
these conventions, you know, and a

908
01:06:05.239 --> 01:06:08.639
lot of them are small, like
the Alabama one. I didn't even hear

909
01:06:08.679 --> 01:06:10.679
about it till like a week before. I'm like, oh, this is

910
01:06:10.719 --> 01:06:15.159
a thing. But you know,
I think that that speaks volumes about you

911
01:06:15.199 --> 01:06:20.679
know, his his dedication. Mm
hmmm, yeah, and so I think

912
01:06:20.719 --> 01:06:27.119
that's been important. But also your
article, So you've written about, you

913
01:06:27.119 --> 01:06:30.639
know, some of the detractors,
some of the people who are upset,

914
01:06:30.920 --> 01:06:33.400
and you mentioned and I wanted to
talk some more about, you know,

915
01:06:33.719 --> 01:06:38.960
your article and kind of how you've
dispelled some of the what you see in

916
01:06:39.039 --> 01:06:44.079
laps of logic. So, for
instance, which makes it Yeah, Tom's

917
01:06:44.119 --> 01:06:50.079
got a lot of money and he
is not in trouble financially, fortunately for

918
01:06:50.199 --> 01:06:56.119
him, and hopefully this project does
not put him in any financial jeopardy.

919
01:06:56.639 --> 01:07:01.000
But yeah, he's not doing this
for teas and book tales. Yeah,

920
01:07:01.559 --> 01:07:04.960
because any anyone who's written a book
knows you don't make money unless your names

921
01:07:04.960 --> 01:07:11.440
like Stephen King. Yeah, exactly. So, but what are some of

922
01:07:11.480 --> 01:07:15.039
the other, you know, arguments
that you've seen that you think are kind

923
01:07:15.039 --> 01:07:19.480
of invalid. Well, I think
obviously it starts with there this is a

924
01:07:19.559 --> 01:07:23.920
money grab or you know, oh, this is just another you know,

925
01:07:24.199 --> 01:07:27.960
one of these these uh, you
know, these egotistical celebrities trying to throw

926
01:07:28.000 --> 01:07:30.440
their hat in the game. You
know, this isn't Megan Fox hosting a

927
01:07:30.480 --> 01:07:33.679
show. You know that she doesn't
eat this isn't William Shatner hosting a show

928
01:07:33.679 --> 01:07:36.280
he doesn't need to host. You
know, this is somebody who's actively been

929
01:07:36.320 --> 01:07:40.400
involved with this stuff, into the
stuff for a really long time, who's

930
01:07:40.400 --> 01:07:43.840
passionate about it, who's putting his
money where his mouth is, and wants

931
01:07:43.840 --> 01:07:46.159
to do something about it. You
know, like I just said, you

932
01:07:46.199 --> 01:07:50.599
know a lot of these things are
common sense things that you know, why

933
01:07:50.639 --> 01:07:56.519
would you leave arguably one of the
biggest bands in the world to come up

934
01:07:56.559 --> 01:08:00.880
with some company to fraud people.
It just doesn't make logical sense. And

935
01:08:00.920 --> 01:08:03.840
that it's all going to be fiction
and it's all uf tayment and its all

936
01:08:03.840 --> 01:08:06.639
this stuff. It's one of the
I mean the things they said. You

937
01:08:06.639 --> 01:08:11.440
know, they have three non fiction
book series, I'm sorry, the three

938
01:08:11.440 --> 01:08:13.920
books in the non fiction book series. They said, this documentary is coming

939
01:08:13.960 --> 01:08:16.640
out. Obviously there's a fictional aspect
of that they're doing too, But they

940
01:08:16.640 --> 01:08:19.359
said that from the start. They
said that before the Academy even happened,

941
01:08:19.359 --> 01:08:25.000
before you know, when anything about
UFOs even happened. You know, Tom

942
01:08:25.119 --> 01:08:29.560
was doing his fictional series with the
poet Anderson in strange times, so you

943
01:08:29.560 --> 01:08:35.960
know, this isn't a affront,
you know, to sell Hollywood projects.

944
01:08:36.079 --> 01:08:40.520
You know, that's another thing too. And then just in terms of like

945
01:08:40.560 --> 01:08:43.000
the patients, you know, these
things take time. But I think that's

946
01:08:43.000 --> 01:08:45.880
a logical thing. If if they
have this data like they say they do,

947
01:08:45.880 --> 01:08:47.960
and they're analyzing it, you would
want it to go through the proper

948
01:08:49.319 --> 01:08:54.760
avenues to say, you know,
you wouldn't want that rushed. So let

949
01:08:54.760 --> 01:08:57.079
them do their due diligence and the
just see from there and be patient.

950
01:08:57.479 --> 01:09:00.199
Right, And like you said earlier, there there's small group. I mean,

951
01:09:00.560 --> 01:09:04.399
it's really not all of the people
that are listed as team members are

952
01:09:04.439 --> 01:09:09.920
full time TSA. Some of these
people, I mean, I don't think

953
01:09:09.920 --> 01:09:14.560
people realize I mean, Chris Mellen, some of these others. These people

954
01:09:15.039 --> 01:09:23.399
come from some very very uh you
know, substantial backgrounds, not being with

955
01:09:23.640 --> 01:09:27.800
billionaires and everything, and they have
a lot of their plate and you have

956
01:09:27.880 --> 01:09:32.680
to imagine that they're taking a substantial
peicup right. And some of them,

957
01:09:32.840 --> 01:09:38.720
fortunately they don't need money either.
I mean, for since the Melons,

958
01:09:38.720 --> 01:09:45.399
they've got plenty of money still there. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, Like

959
01:09:45.399 --> 01:09:46.560
I said, a lot of those
people are, like you said, are

960
01:09:46.600 --> 01:09:49.960
set already for life in terms of
money. Yeah, I mean, you

961
01:09:49.960 --> 01:09:53.199
know, I don't know. I
can't speak to all their financials, but

962
01:09:53.600 --> 01:09:57.000
you know, Tom doesn't need money. If he wanted to, he could

963
01:09:57.000 --> 01:10:00.239
probably fund a lot of this himself. But then again, you know,

964
01:10:00.359 --> 01:10:04.039
that's a lot to ask. I
like it. M There's a couple other

965
01:10:04.079 --> 01:10:08.439
things that I wanted to ask you
about. And it's also kind of to

966
01:10:08.520 --> 01:10:12.039
check myself to see if I'm off
on this at all, and I like

967
01:10:12.119 --> 01:10:15.560
to do that a lot, but
especially with you've got a journalists background.

968
01:10:15.760 --> 01:10:20.800
One of the big questions out there
is whether a tip had anything to do

969
01:10:20.840 --> 01:10:26.279
with UFOs, And you know,
there are arguments that we don't have any

970
01:10:26.359 --> 01:10:30.840
documents explicitly saying that, which is
true. However, we do have.

971
01:10:31.279 --> 01:10:35.439
Some people have argued all we have
is lose word. Well not necessarily.

972
01:10:35.479 --> 01:10:41.399
We also have Harry Reid's word.
We also have all of the big low

973
01:10:41.520 --> 01:10:44.720
aerospace people. At least we've heard
from how put Off, you know,

974
01:10:44.920 --> 01:10:48.520
Eric Davis. We've heard from others
who confirm that as well. And of

975
01:10:48.520 --> 01:10:51.079
course, if people knew the background, which many of these people who are

976
01:10:51.079 --> 01:10:55.600
making these claims do. Bigelow has
been looking at the UFOs for a long

977
01:10:55.680 --> 01:11:00.279
time and then was contracted to do
that. So there's I don't understand any

978
01:11:00.439 --> 01:11:02.600
doubt. And as a journalist,
and I think this is another thing that

979
01:11:02.640 --> 01:11:08.840
they're not getting as a journalist,
we're looking for credible sources to say this

980
01:11:08.960 --> 01:11:13.479
was a UFO program. When we
have the guy who ran the program,

981
01:11:13.720 --> 01:11:18.199
the Harry Reid who generated the funds
for the program, and scientists who are

982
01:11:18.399 --> 01:11:23.800
inside the program all confirming this.
We don't need an official document. We

983
01:11:23.920 --> 01:11:29.119
got the guys in the program telling
us this. Yeah, no, absolutely,

984
01:11:29.560 --> 01:11:32.159
I know. Even the documents that
have came out, you know,

985
01:11:32.199 --> 01:11:35.880
people like to argue, you know, the playing semantics was an a TIP?

986
01:11:35.960 --> 01:11:39.800
Was it with a W, with
a T? You know all,

987
01:11:39.840 --> 01:11:42.520
you know, with the different names
it was. And we have to understand

988
01:11:42.520 --> 01:11:47.640
with anything the Freedom Information Act,
it's partial disclosure, so things could be

989
01:11:47.680 --> 01:11:51.279
redacted, So there could be things
that we have not seen or they're not

990
01:11:53.359 --> 01:11:56.960
disclosing. So the fact that we
have a got official document that says in

991
01:11:57.000 --> 01:12:00.039
big bold letters, a TIP was
a one hundred percent UFO program, And

992
01:12:00.920 --> 01:12:02.840
you know, I don't think that's
that's the smoking gun, you know,

993
01:12:03.079 --> 01:12:08.199
I think as of right now,
you know, we have these people's word,

994
01:12:08.279 --> 01:12:12.399
and we have some documentation that these
programs existed, even though doesn't say

995
01:12:12.399 --> 01:12:15.439
they were UFO and this is other
things. We know that they were investigating

996
01:12:16.039 --> 01:12:23.920
an almost activity, right and and
so hopefully we'll get some more information out.

997
01:12:23.960 --> 01:12:28.279
But you know, there's been a
little bit more information we've gotten even

998
01:12:28.359 --> 01:12:33.640
recently. I noticed you retweeted UFO
Joe who was recent at the recent talk

999
01:12:33.720 --> 01:12:39.640
by George Knapp, and George kind
of filled in a few of the gaps

1000
01:12:39.680 --> 01:12:45.039
there and explained how he got a
lot of this information from sources he cannot

1001
01:12:45.079 --> 01:12:53.479
share in Washington, d C.
Yeah, absolutely, And I think I

1002
01:12:53.479 --> 01:12:56.199
mean, George Knapp is a journalist
and a lot of times you're not allowed

1003
01:12:56.239 --> 01:12:58.439
to share your sources, or if
you do, you have to get that

1004
01:12:58.479 --> 01:13:05.239
approved by your editor. I would
think some of George Knapp's editors at Im

1005
01:13:05.279 --> 01:13:09.640
Mosse has no his sources. I
would definitely think those are some of the

1006
01:13:09.640 --> 01:13:13.079
people who know him. For sure. Very few people will probably know them.

1007
01:13:13.119 --> 01:13:16.239
But I would argue that if he
ever runs any of those stories,

1008
01:13:16.239 --> 01:13:20.279
that they're going to go through one
of those editors first, right exactly.

1009
01:13:20.319 --> 01:13:26.800
And of course, as we know
with journalists. They're going to be skeptical

1010
01:13:26.840 --> 01:13:30.319
and they're going to be hard on
the information, and I'm in fact they

1011
01:13:30.359 --> 01:13:33.279
give a surprise. They give George
so much leeway that they do to run

1012
01:13:33.319 --> 01:13:38.920
so many of these stories and I'm
which is great because we get so much

1013
01:13:39.479 --> 01:13:44.439
really good information from George Knapp.
Yeah, absolutely, Like you know,

1014
01:13:44.520 --> 01:13:47.000
he has he's been doing this forever, and he has the credibility within his

1015
01:13:47.119 --> 01:13:51.920
organization and as a journalist and you
know throughout us so's it's really cool that

1016
01:13:53.159 --> 01:13:55.840
he's able to, you know,
be one of those mainstream journalists. Obviously

1017
01:13:55.840 --> 01:14:00.079
there's Leslie Key and Ralph Blumenthal too
who work for a big news out but

1018
01:14:00.359 --> 01:14:03.520
you know, they have the credibility
and they're willing to write these articles and

1019
01:14:03.600 --> 01:14:10.720
their outlets are willing to support them
for running it. So what's next for

1020
01:14:10.800 --> 01:14:14.640
you? So you've got are you
working on another book? Do you are?

1021
01:14:14.680 --> 01:14:18.199
There? Is there another kind of
angle you're looking at tackling UH in

1022
01:14:18.239 --> 01:14:23.760
your blog? So what's next for
me? Eventually I'd like to write another

1023
01:14:23.760 --> 01:14:29.279
book. I have some other books, non UFO related, potentially in the

1024
01:14:29.359 --> 01:14:31.880
pipeline as far as my blog goes, you know, Puck rocking Foes dot

1025
01:14:31.920 --> 01:14:35.119
coms, continue what I'm doing and
just monitoring all these stories and seeing who

1026
01:14:35.159 --> 01:14:38.960
I could speak to next and who
wants to come to me next, And

1027
01:14:40.279 --> 01:14:45.079
there's possibly some other opportunities in multimedia. I don't want to kind of reveal

1028
01:14:45.119 --> 01:14:47.159
things. I don't know anything yet
and I want to jump the gun.

1029
01:14:47.199 --> 01:14:51.880
But I may be able to go, you know, use some someone else's

1030
01:14:51.920 --> 01:14:57.600
resources to go research some things,
and maybe it'll be on TV or the

1031
01:14:57.600 --> 01:15:01.479
internet. I don't know, but
yeah, that's what's next. And you

1032
01:15:01.520 --> 01:15:03.199
know a lot of this is you
know, I said, we have to

1033
01:15:03.279 --> 01:15:06.640
be patient. You know, many
of us don't have the resources to go

1034
01:15:06.720 --> 01:15:12.159
out ourselves and you know, go
hunt down uh you know, politicians and

1035
01:15:13.359 --> 01:15:15.760
you know break into area fifty one. So you know a lot of just

1036
01:15:15.800 --> 01:15:19.079
you know, we have to wait
and see and go from there. Punk

1037
01:15:19.199 --> 01:15:24.920
rock and UFOs dot com is where
everybody can find your books and your blog

1038
01:15:25.359 --> 01:15:28.279
is there? Are there any other
u ur ls or maybe social media you

1039
01:15:28.319 --> 01:15:30.920
want to send people to. That's
it. I mean my social media is

1040
01:15:31.159 --> 01:15:38.520
at Mike Demante on Twitter. I
tweet obviously about the subject and my other

1041
01:15:38.560 --> 01:15:43.079
interests as well. If you can
get past that. But yeah, awesome,

1042
01:15:43.239 --> 01:15:45.039
Yeah, I love the other interests
as well. Thank you so much

1043
01:15:45.079 --> 01:15:47.760
for being on the show. Oh, thank you so much. One.

1044
01:15:47.840 --> 01:15:50.119
Like I said earlier, this is
an honor to be on and as soon

1045
01:15:50.119 --> 01:15:54.000
as you asked me, I got
really excited. So thank you so much.

1046
01:15:54.359 --> 01:15:58.359
I really appreciate it. Thank you
so much to Mike Demante for being

1047
01:15:58.600 --> 01:16:00.640
on the show. It was more
wonderful to have him. A lot of

1048
01:16:00.680 --> 01:16:05.760
really cool information. Be sure to
check out his website punk rock and UFOs

1049
01:16:05.800 --> 01:16:11.079
dot com for more information and also
information on how to get his book.

1050
01:16:11.119 --> 01:16:15.840
You can see some of his blog. You can also even got merchandise up

1051
01:16:15.880 --> 01:16:19.479
here. Help him out by buying
some of his cool shirts and other stuff

1052
01:16:19.479 --> 01:16:25.479
here. Lots are really cool stuff. But anyways, I really appreciate having

1053
01:16:25.520 --> 01:16:30.960
Mike around. I've appreciated his blogs
and some of what he's been contributing to

1054
01:16:30.159 --> 01:16:34.119
this conversation. And of course it's
great to have someone else who's a fellow

1055
01:16:34.199 --> 01:16:41.640
journalist so that we can kind of
share our perspective so people can understand where

1056
01:16:41.640 --> 01:16:45.560
we're coming from. And speaking of
a lot of the cool information coming up.

1057
01:16:45.600 --> 01:16:49.399
The SEU, the Scientific Coalition for
Youthology. So this is an organization

1058
01:16:49.479 --> 01:16:54.640
I've talked quite a bit about because
I've been involved with working with him and

1059
01:16:54.680 --> 01:17:01.680
getting information out and hopefully getting access
to the world of academiam and science.

1060
01:17:01.880 --> 01:17:09.800
And so their website is the place
to go for information about the Anomalous Aerial

1061
01:17:09.840 --> 01:17:13.880
Phenomenon conference. So the conference they
put together that went on a couple of

1062
01:17:13.920 --> 01:17:18.560
weeks ago, wonderful conference that Luis
Elizonda was at, So explore SEU dot

1063
01:17:18.680 --> 01:17:25.039
org. That's the official release of
information. Unfortunately, there were some people

1064
01:17:25.119 --> 01:17:31.479
who shared information a little prematurely.
They were recording and or audio taping,

1065
01:17:31.640 --> 01:17:34.279
you know, the talks, and
you know, some people said, well,

1066
01:17:34.279 --> 01:17:38.640
why couldn't we do that? And
the reason is that, you know,

1067
01:17:40.359 --> 01:17:43.439
as we get in these conversations and
I tell you guys this, sometimes

1068
01:17:43.479 --> 01:17:45.920
you know when and you guys know
this, when you're talking with people one

1069
01:17:46.000 --> 01:17:51.319
on one, then you share stuff
that you wouldn't share publicly. That's just

1070
01:17:51.439 --> 01:17:55.520
obvious, right. And if we
want to get in kind of these think

1071
01:17:55.560 --> 01:18:00.159
tank type of situations where we're kind
of talking about things and spitballing, you

1072
01:18:00.159 --> 01:18:03.439
know, there's going to be information
that will be shared that not everybody's wanting

1073
01:18:03.479 --> 01:18:09.479
to share, so for instance,
information could be taken out of context or

1074
01:18:10.000 --> 01:18:13.279
We talked with Kevin about this last
week. Kevin Kanuoth one of the scientists

1075
01:18:13.319 --> 01:18:17.199
who was there, and he talked
about how it's important that you know anything

1076
01:18:17.239 --> 01:18:24.279
we say or do is handled carefully
and correctly, and that's why we're careful

1077
01:18:24.319 --> 01:18:28.359
about releasing what we're releasing, getting
permission before we're doing it. That's a

1078
01:18:28.439 --> 01:18:31.600
professional and respectful way to do it. There's no way as a journalist that

1079
01:18:31.680 --> 01:18:38.119
I can go to any event and
then just you know, write about things

1080
01:18:38.159 --> 01:18:43.239
when I was asked not to.
I even then I'm even more careful to

1081
01:18:43.319 --> 01:18:45.159
make sure, hey, this was
a topic, this was a situation that

1082
01:18:45.239 --> 01:18:48.680
was all clear right, And especially
when you're working with scientists, you also

1083
01:18:49.119 --> 01:18:53.600
to make sure you're framing the information
right, to make sure you're accurate,

1084
01:18:53.680 --> 01:18:59.359
because it's so so complicated that if
you want to share with the public accurate

1085
01:18:59.399 --> 01:19:01.880
information and you've got to verify that
you're doing it correctly. So there's a

1086
01:19:01.960 --> 01:19:06.439
number of reasons why that's important,
and there's a number of reasons why for

1087
01:19:06.600 --> 01:19:14.640
the AAPC for that event really explore
SCU dot org is the official outlet and

1088
01:19:14.680 --> 01:19:17.840
the best outlet for that information.
And there's going to be more and more

1089
01:19:17.920 --> 01:19:23.920
coming to the website there that you'll
see. So you'll see there's an AAPC

1090
01:19:24.119 --> 01:19:28.680
link and there'll be some more videos
and information. One exciting piece of information

1091
01:19:28.720 --> 01:19:35.479
that's coming really soon is the Nimtz
Report, So the investigation that SCU members

1092
01:19:36.880 --> 01:19:43.239
Peter Reality and Robert Powell did into
the Nimetz case, and that's really exciting.

1093
01:19:43.279 --> 01:19:45.920
I got to see a little bit
of a preview and a presentation they

1094
01:19:45.960 --> 01:19:49.439
did at the event. But they
did some really great work there, talk

1095
01:19:49.560 --> 01:19:56.479
to many witnesses, many more witnesses
and have even been heard out there.

1096
01:19:56.840 --> 01:19:59.640
So it's a lot of fun.
So you'll be able to check that out

1097
01:19:59.680 --> 01:20:03.399
soon as well. Of course,
as usual, please do go to the

1098
01:20:03.479 --> 01:20:10.520
UFO Congress and get on the email
list that has kind of become that the

1099
01:20:10.600 --> 01:20:15.239
Facto Open Minds email list, to
be honest, because as open Minds,

1100
01:20:15.279 --> 01:20:17.840
you know, I'm the only guy
and I'm working from homeworking on open Minds.

1101
01:20:17.880 --> 01:20:19.920
At this point. We used to
have a staff, as you all

1102
01:20:19.960 --> 01:20:25.600
know, people like we were mentioning
earlier Jason and Maureen, but no longer.

1103
01:20:25.960 --> 01:20:30.359
It is just I and the website
is kind of hosted remotely by John

1104
01:20:30.439 --> 01:20:35.600
Reo who owns the company, and
there's changes that go on, and it's

1105
01:20:35.640 --> 01:20:39.359
not like, you know, they
have a whole core company to run over

1106
01:20:39.399 --> 01:20:43.000
there. So like email, right
now, we really just don't have an

1107
01:20:43.039 --> 01:20:46.960
email list ability to send out to
on the open mind side, but we

1108
01:20:47.079 --> 01:20:51.880
do on the UFO Congress side,
So we have been sending out UFO Congress

1109
01:20:51.960 --> 01:20:59.439
emails and we do include information and
stories on open Minds as well. So

1110
01:20:59.680 --> 01:21:02.680
if you haven't joined that email list, please go to Ufocongress dot com and

1111
01:21:02.880 --> 01:21:06.840
do so. And if you are
already on the open Minds list, you

1112
01:21:08.479 --> 01:21:12.359
will be fine because that was a
joint list of the Congress and open Minds,

1113
01:21:13.680 --> 01:21:17.720
and so keep an eye out for
that. Otherwise, other cool stuff

1114
01:21:17.720 --> 01:21:20.800
at the UFO Congress. There's a
lot of new products there for those of

1115
01:21:20.840 --> 01:21:26.520
you who like UFO and alien kind
of paraphernalia, clothes and junk like that.

1116
01:21:26.920 --> 01:21:30.279
Lots of really fun stuff there,
so you can find that at Ufocongress

1117
01:21:30.520 --> 01:21:34.079
dot com. Otherwise, I want
to thank Martin Willis for the news.

1118
01:21:34.479 --> 01:21:40.399
Martin Willis a podcast UFO The news
that we talked about can be found on

1119
01:21:40.399 --> 01:21:46.159
the front page of Openminds dot tv, including that fun story from April Fools

1120
01:21:46.199 --> 01:21:51.119
of nineteen eighty nine where Richard Branson
fulled of virgin galactic you know, kind

1121
01:21:51.119 --> 01:21:55.039
of fold all these people in London. Great story, so check that out

1122
01:21:55.079 --> 01:21:58.479
if you haven't before, but again
you can find that all in the front

1123
01:21:58.520 --> 01:22:01.960
page of open Minds TV. Otherwise, I want to thank Caleb Hanks for

1124
01:22:02.039 --> 01:22:09.199
the opening and Close Music Systematics for
the bumper music, and of course,

1125
01:22:09.640 --> 01:22:13.920
as usual, I want to thank
you the listeners for being here once again.

1126
01:22:14.199 --> 01:22:17.680
Thank you so much for being here
until next time, which will just

1127
01:22:17.720 --> 01:23:11.239
be next week. In case you're
wondering audio smooth chuchos, you were motionless