Pentagon UFO report: from shrouded history to a data-driven future - podcast

After the Pentagon released its report on unidentified aerial phenomena, we explore the cultural history and scientific taboo around UFOs. And three months after rebels killed the president of Chad in central Africa, we talk to experts about the balance of power there. Welcome to The Conversation Weekly. In the end, when it finally dropped on June 25, the Pentagon’s report on unidentified aerial phenomena didn’t mention the word extraterrestrial once. And nobody had expected it to. We talk to Chris Impey, university distinguished professor of astronomy at the University of Arizona, about what it did actually say and why doing serious research into UFOs has been such a taboo for scientists. And Greg Eghigian, professor of history at Penn State University, gives us a cultural history of UFOs and how what started as an American obsession spread around the world. And in our second story, we head to Chad in central Africa where the country's long-serving president, Idriss Déby was killed suddenly by rebels in April. Line Engbo Gissel, associate professor of global political sociology at Roskilde University in Denmark and Troels Burchall Henningsen, assistant professor at the Royal Danish Defence College, talk us about Chad's 'gatekeeper politics' and why its legacy will live on beyond Déby. And Naomi Joseph, arts and culture editor at The Conversation in London, gives us some recommended reading. The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. You can find us on Twitter @TC_Audio, on Instagram at theconversationdotcom or via email on [e-mail]. You can also sign up to The Conversation’s free daily email here. Full credits for this article available here.
Further readingPentagon UFO report: No aliens, but government transparency and desire for better data might bring science to the UFO world, by Chris Impey, University of ArizonaThe truth is still out there: why the current UFO craze may be a problem of intelligence failings, by Kyle Cunliffe, University of SalfordPentagon report says UFOs can’t be explained, and this admission is a big deal , by Adam Dodd, The University of QueenslandUFOs: how to calculate the odds that an alien spaceship has been spotted, by Anders Sandberg, University of OxfordLegacy of Chad’s gatekeeper politics lives on beyond Déby - and carries grave risks, by Line Engbo Gissel, Roskilde University and Troels Burchall Henningsen, Royal Danish Defence CollegeFrance’s decision to pull troops out of the Sahel invites a less military approach, by Folahanmi Aina, King's College LondonChina is using mythology and sci-fi to sell its space programme to the world, by Molly Silk, University of ManchesterWhy this Rodin scholar would gladly see the back of The Thinker, by Natasha Ruiz-Gómez, University of Essex

[@PerScientiaAdAstra]

...this episode is, in my opinion, the very best exposition on the history and current status quo, of the UFO phenomenon, on the internet today. However one comment is in order. The current impetus for the reexamination of recent UAP or UFO incidences isn't the discovery of the ubiquity of earthlike exoplanets. Rather it is mostly due to the fact that many Navy pilots and other military personnel are beginning to demand serious investigation due to the increasing safety threat and frequency of near miss incidences posed by these unknown aircraft. Corroborated eyewitness testimony combined with highly correlated warfare systems data simply constitutes proof of the reality of these unusual objects.

[@anthonystants1421]

5The , 4RŔŔ

[@anthonystants1421]

Ŕŕ

[@bodystomp5302]

@Kurt Allen The videos are fake and fighter pilots in on the hoax?

[@edmonstar]

Avi Loeb is a leading scientist looking into UFO's. He's a star 🌟. Have you seen Skinwalker?

[@lucybelle4768]

The historian didn’t mention Roswell or Aztec crashes in 1947. There are so many verified incidents of craft visiting schools in Australia and Africa. See the Phenomena.

[@JohnDoe-oc2sz]

Awesome "NPR" feel to it, love it, a new fan here!

[@Hertzultra]

Between 1947 and 57 there were also a number of jet chases and crashes. Plus you guys never mentioned Roswell which came shortly after K Arnold.

[@user-yj5fp2go1x]

Washington DC 1952 Edwards Air Force Base 1965 (Complete with audio recordings of the military communication among 5 radar towers.) Westall School Melbourne Australia 1966 Dexter Michigan 1966 Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia 1967 Malmstrom Air Force Base missile launch facility, Montana 1967 Hudson Valley New York 1982-86 Japan Air Lines Cargo Flight 1628 Alaska 1986 Bierset Belgium 1989-90 Ariel School Zimbabwe 1994 Gosford Australia 1994 Holland, Michigan 1994 Trumbull County Ohio 1994 (911 dispatch recordings of communications with local law enforcement.) Phoenix Arizona 1997 Tinley Park Illinois 2004 USS Nimitz carrier battle group 2004-2015 O'hare International Airport 2006 Stephenville Texas 2008 USS Roosevelt, East Coast USA 2014-2015 Pentyrch Wales UK 2016 USS Omaha, Southern California 2019 ( Add your favorite mass sighting to the list here. I'm pretty sure I missed quite a few.) Yeah. All of the people witnessing those events were just part of a "craze". They were all just "true believers" and "conspiracy theorists" and "kooks". Yeah. Don't think about it anymore. Stop asking so many questions.

[@SteveMagnante]

I appreciate the topic and this program but please tell the Show Producer to DROP THE SILLY BACKGROUND SOUND EFFECTS. They degrade the effect and add a lame tabloid vibe. No need to spoon feed this audience.

[@dwaneyocum1718]

I disagree in part with your historian. Interest in the topic of UFOs may have seemed to have waned because it wasn't covered as frequently by the mainstream media, and when it was the stories always ended with giggling. But, the core UFO community of people like me who have maintained interest worked around the media found other ways to read, talk about, and link to information. Your historian left out the observations and reports from pilots during the Korean War where many of them went on to become well known, as well as the astronauts and space station workers who have had and reported similar experiences.

[@mjjumps]

Agreed

[@vice2versa]

I read recently that there is a link between the frequent UFO sightings and The nuclear testing's.

[@dwaneyocum1718]

@@vice2versa Well, that's not really a new idea.

[@jacksonnc8877]

You always here experiences about sightings we should be trying to listen to the UAPS they have to be communicating some way but how?

[@Hertzultra]

22:28 Apparently there are some fragments of objects being held. Also They have had evidence of flying ORBS for many years all via Satelite imagery using various infra red bandwidths. Plus there are lots and lots of ordinary people taking video and stills of flying objects all around the globe.

[@dominicseanmccann6300]

Apart from that, they don't exist! Only kidding....

[@bodystomp5302]

Unknown & unidentified advanced machines are flying with apparent impunity in our airspace, almost on a daily basis according to Navy pilots. This is a big problem and needs serious, financed investigation.

[@ClashNunite]

Ha. Ok Jeremy Corbell..

[@EpicURL34]

The 22M$ have nothing to do with this report

[@tonsofbricks1]

Yes it does

[@EpicURL34]

@@tonsofbricks1 the 22M$ were meant for AAWSAP, only a part went to AATIP (Elizondo's program) and nothing of those 22M$ were for the UAPTF report

[@richardkennedy8481]

So much noise. Had to turn it off.

[@stevengrammer5261]

Aliens can land anywhere and get redirected to a base.

[@gilsantos7701]

Gil180 BX 👽👍🏼👽👍🏼👽👍🏼👽

[@kingtriplebbb5347]

Roswell👽 my dad WW2 said never heard. Why...Top Secret🤦🇺🇸 back then ...they didn't play that...💀👥

[@TONYPARAMOTOR]

corses for remote viewing. and astral travel. that can gain info . to prove proof in real time.

[@SlapMssterson]

So there’s no money in it. Therefore it’s not worth pursuing.

[@raymondesquivel7501]

You have to start by saying SERIOUSLY !!!!😮!!

[@2.7petabytes]

What about airmen in WW2 and their reports of so called foo fighters?

[@songofseikilos8659]

aaw fooey

[@frederiquecouture3924]

Illustration of the missed phenomenon.

[@youtube-ispure-evil7774]

UFO = peace keepers!

[@adamsmith6594]

No, no and no. The reason you have seen such a shift towards more governmments and individuals in government who are willing to a conversation are very simple. 1. You are now seeing in government a new generation. And I mean in age terms. These people that are coming through now are less homophobic, racist, bothered about stuff that worried or rather infected their forebears. They are careful politically but also grew up with all the stories and more and more 'science' is being shown to be a sham run by "shocker" - investment. It is no longer a paragon of virtue but rather a gang of bought and paid for 'truth shovelers. Obviously some of these individuals are loons. But the majority. Open minded and engaged. 2. Money. More tech firms are using AI. The AI's are clawing data from everywhere. And can look at that data in a heart beat. Someone posts on social media that there is a ufo and shows a photo of a grey blob. An AI can look at everything from every platform from the same location and time. It can then assess speeds of that grey blob from photo to photo. But it can also look at message contents. And work out that rather than one official report from a certain area ... 600 people on fbook are talking about it. So never before have you had such a platform of data that can be analysed so fast. And tech firms own that data not, governmnent. But no one cares about the sightings .... the data showing craft, speeds, locations whatever .... whoever can capture or use that data to build tech like that, could end a government in a month. Or travel the cosmos to search for raw materials in an afternoon. Or whatever they want. So money in getting that tech is the pure driving force. And with money ... 3. Global power. And that's why people "seem more willing to have that conversation" governments keep what they know so they will maintain power. The nuclear bomb industry taught them that. A game changing weapon, that everyone has. Stalemate.

[@dominicvioli7098]

I think the reason why the scientific community is so put off by the idea of uap's is simple. Ego. There is a really deep and severe issue with ego in the sci community. Just look at people like Neil degrasse Tyson. Why? Well because let's face it 95% of the people who become scientist capable of researching such phenomena grew up in a world where they existed on the margins. Not being invited to parties, not getting the girls ect. They were the "nerds". Their way of fighting back against this was to use their science to achieve recognition. It's about the discovery. They want to be the one to discover such and such and go down in history with names like Einstein and hawking. They want the Nobel prize and have things named after them. They want fame and glory just like everyone else in the world. Their is no fame ad glory, no discovery involved with uaps. It's a global phenomenon, the same data is available to everyone. The shockwaves that this would send through the world would far outweigh some scientist. I don't buy the theory that they don't bother because their simply isn't enough data. Scientist dedicate their lives to all kinds of things that have no data. Theoretical science is extremely popular. I also don't buy the theory " why would they come all this way and bla bla bla" first of all who said they came a long way? Whos to say weather or not they care if we see them or not. Maybe they do maybe they don't. Maybe they don't care if we see them and it's our ever increasing technologies that is exposing them to us. I find it strange that it's even debated wether or not aliens exist.i mean the fact that we exist should be proof alone no? I mean if you change your perspective to someone not of earth and you look at our planet. Here we have a water planet that's teaming with life. Natural organic life. It exist in all different forms. There have even been multipl species of human. To say that life can only exist here on earth is so strange to me. I mean what is so special about earth. Life exist is every different climate and environment on earth. That much diversity has to tell us that it ist just one special component of earth that gives rise to life wether it's extreme pressure, low oxygen , extreme temperatures, radiation, different levels of elements, dry, wet, frozen, ect. Life exist everywhere.

[@richk322]

THEY ARE ALL ALIEN.

[@cyberneticinterfacemodular3996]

Does not make them of Alien origin from outer space.

[@Slowmo896]

Boring not listening to a black screen on KZbin..

[@zhangsan1065]

U f O=✝️🏹⚙️=🧷🪡🖋️

[@bobmarshall3700]

BORING......

[@kelliebrooks9094]

Their is only one expert and that is the Creator (God) every one else is just guessing....unfortunately I mean their are smart folks paying attention the rest are not...or only committed to their book oh sorry their side ofcthe story...when we are aligned with God we worry about answers we will automatically know..we wouldn't have to ask