(PodcastUFO.com) -  Ralph Blumenthal has been an investigative reporter and author for over 40 years. He was with the prestigious New York Times from 1964 to 2009 and has written four books on topics ranging from prison wardens to the famous Stork Club. His most recent piece for Vanity Fair took a departure from mainstream journalism and covered alleged alien abductions. Blumenthal will join Willis on the next episode of Podcast UFO (available May 24th) to discuss his piece, his opinions and the reaction he has received. This is the first interview he has done on the topic and promises to be an interesting discussion. “Actually I was surprised by the positive reaction,” he recently told Podcast UFO host Martin Willis. “I think everyone was so relieved to find a so-called mainstream journalist treating the subject seriously that I was quite flattered by the outpouring of positive reaction.” The episode will be the first of two released over the Memorial
Day Weekend, each on the topic of abductions.

Surprising many, Blumenthal has a sympathetic take on the topic. “A  lot of these experiencers… are very publicity averse. They’re not looking for attention, contrary to what you know outsiders often believe that these are either hoaxers or publicity seekers, fabricators looking for attention,” he said. “It’s quite the opposite, they’re very troubled people based on what has happened to them. They weren’t troubled before but they were troubled as a result of what they went through.” Despite believing that abductees are not generally making up their stories, Blumenthal realizes there are problems with simply declaring abduction cases to be actual alien contact. “There’s never enough physical proof to be persuasive, that’s one of the mysteries of the whole UFO and alien abduction phenomenon. No one has ever been able to come back with incontrovertible scientific proof. There’s always tantalizing things, there’s little cuts that heal quickly, there’s
witness sightings that coincide with abductions, you know there’s a pattern of evidence, fragmentary evidence, that falls short of incontrovertible proof.”

As always, the episode will have the weekly round up of UFO related news in addition to Martin’s discussion with Ralph Blumenthal. Then on Memorial Day listeners will be able to listen to a special bonus episode with returning guest Kathleen Marden and Denise Stoner, co-authors of the new book The Alien Abduction Files: The Most Startling Cases of Human-Alien Contact Ever Reported.

About Podcast UFO:

Podcast UFO is a weekly audio podcast that brings listeners news and interviews related to unidentified flying saucers and the search for alien intelligence. Each show features in-depth conversation with today’s most important and interesting UFO researchers, skeptics and experiencers. Produced and hosted by veteran podcaster Martin Willis, the show can be streamed through PodcastUFO.com or youtube.com/user/PodcastUFO as well subscribed to via iTunes. Podcast UFO can be contacted at martin@podcastufo.com.

(Immediate Release) – After the weekly news round up, Martin Willis is joined by Canadian UFO researcher Chris Rutkowski on the latest episode of Podcast UFO. The episode, which premieres on May 17th, will feature a discussion on Canadian sightings. It has recently been reported that 2012 was a record year for UFO sightings in Canada with more than twice the number of 2011 sightings. Rutkowski will address this and other aspects of the study of unidentified flying objects including the overlap with other areas of the paranormal. “There’s so many different facets that you can be involved with that you may have to pick and choose eventually,” Rutkowski said, also adding “There’s been some interesting overlaps…”

Chris Rutkowski also tells host Willis that he hopes to see more scientific study of unidentified flying objects. “There’s a lot of grist for the mill here for people to do a lot of interesting scientific research,” he said in the interview, “and it’s simply not being capitalized on.”

On the Podcast UFO Forums, which can be found at PodcastUFO.com, Chris Lambright will be featured in a Guest Star Forum starting on Friday, May 17. For almost a week, forum members can pose questions and interact directly with him through the dedicated Guest Star Forum. A former Podcast UFO guest featured in both Episode 25 and Episode 29, Chris Lambright is the author of X Descending, a book focusing on evidence collected by Ray Stanford and Paul Bennewitz. As always, the forums are free to join and also allow listeners to interact with one another as well as the Podcast UFO Team. Archives of previous Guest Star Forums with Kathleen Marden and Peter Robbins are still available to read.

About Podcast UFO:

Podcast UFO is a weekly audio podcast that brings listeners news and interviews related to unidentified flying saucers and the search for alien intelligence. Each show features in-depth conversation with today’s most important and interesting UFO researchers, skeptics and experiencers. Produced and hosted by veteran podcaster Martin Willis, the show can be streamed through PodcastUFO.com or youtube.com/user/PodcastUFO as well subscribed to via iTunes. Podcast UFO can be contacted at martin@podcastufo.com.

For the last century or so the world has been able to take an animated glimpse at its past thanks to motion pictures. Although we have always had history books and, better yet, source materials such as newspapers, speeches and journals, the ability to actually see our past can enhance our understanding. There are so many small details, such as the way people spoke or the now strange seeming everyday items surrounding them, that are easily forgotten or misunderstood otherwise. The films do not have to be documentaries or old home movies, either, because even popular films show the details and reflect the attitudes of the day. If you doubt this watch a black and white movie (or even a television show) with a ten or twelve year old child. They will be shocked by things such as phone dials, the constant smoking, how all men seem to wear ties, how everyone seems to wear hats and countless other observations.

By going back and examining a selection of films from the dawn of the “flying saucer era” we can catch a glimpse of the paranoia, fear, hope and wonder felt by the American public as they were first confronted with the questions posed by UFOs. Were they actually a weapon controlled by the Soviet Union? If they were actually aliens, were they here to help or hurt? The following five films (presented in chronological order and without spoilers) are not necessarily the best from a cinematic viewpoint, but they provide a nice glimpse into the mindset of the 1950s American public when it came to UFOs.

The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)

Widely regarded as a science fiction classic, the original The Day The Earth Stood Still starred Patricia Neal and Michael Rennie as an alien visitor. It was directed by Robert Wise, who would later win Academy Awards for his film versions of West Side Story and The Sound of Music. Although the bulk of Wise’s work was not in the science fiction realm he also directed the motion picture version of Michael Crichton’s The Andromeda Strain and Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

The movie portrays the events that occur when a flying saucer lands in Washington DC (not on the White House lawn) and a very human appearing alien emerges with his robot. There are definite references made to religion in the movie, although some of the more overt references may have been forced into the production by film censors. The movie questions whether or not Earth is ready to join the larger galactic community, a question many still ask today. It is interesting to note that although the movie, which was written by Edmund H. North, was produced in the post-Kenneth Arnold era it was actually based on the 1940 story “Farewell to the Master” by Harry Bates in which the ship (described as ovoid, or egg shaped) simply appears in Washington DC.

Forbidden Planet (1956)

Drawing heavily from Shakespeare’s The Tempest with a good measure of Jungian psychology mixed in, Forbidden Planet features a flying saucer that is operated by humans. The crew of a United Planets saucer (led by Leslie Nielsen, who frequently played ‘tough guy’ roles in his early career) is sent to investigate the fate of an expedition to the planet Altair IV, which was lost two decades earlier. They find a survivor (portrayed by Walter Pidgeon), who has been exploring the remnants of the planet’s lost civilization, and his daughter (Anne Francis).

The film is interesting because it shows humans exploring space in their own saucer (implied to be part of large fleet) with their own robot in the 23rd century. Intelligent extraterrestrial races are implied, after all the characters are exploring the ruins left by the original inhabitants of Altair IV, but not seen. Originally written to take place in 1976 on Mercury, the film’s final script was moved further away from both our present time and location. Few expenses were spared in making this movie. Robby the Robot was built for the project (at a cost of more than $100,000) and state of the art special effects were featured. The movie also used an electronic music soundtrack. The vision of our future, intrepidly exploring our universe, juxtaposed against a story with obvious Elizabethan era roots is an interesting take on what makes up our essential humanity. The flying saucer in human control is probably a cinematic first as well (although it was not
the first film, as is sometimes claimed, to show humans in an interplanetary spaceship).

Earth Vs The Flying Saucers (1956)

Boasting impressive special effects by Ray Harryhausen (the man behind Jason and the Argonauts and the original Clash of the Titans), Earth Vs The Flying Saucers takes a very grim, Cold War stance of the prospect of meeting extraterrestrials for the first time. Despite the fact that George Adamski was supposedly consulted by filmmakers, these are not the peaceful, helpful Space Brothers shown in films such as The Day The Earth Stood Still. The saucers appear and, much like in War of the Worlds, are intent on our destruction.

The film was inspired by Major Donald Keyhoe’s Flying Saucers From Outer Space with a screenplay by Clifford Siodmak (who also penned 1941 version of The Wolf Man). It very much applies the World War II “we did it before and we can do it again” attitude to the prospect of an invasion from the stars.

Unidentified Flying Objects: The True Story Of Flying Saucers (1956)

This is perhaps the strangest flying saucer film of the decade, and perhaps of all time. Most of the film is a docu-drama depicting the events surrounding the famous incidents in 1952 that saw UFOs over Washington DC on two successive weekends. Based on the story of Al M. Chop, the real life press agent who had to handle the affair, it even features Captain Edward Ruppelt as a character. In addition to the re-enacted version of Chop’s story the film also features several interviews and two pieces of footage that purport to show flying saucers. It is not, to be brutally honest, a particularly good movie. The acting is dry and the narration only makes things worse. It is, however, a fascinating glimpse at an important episode in the history of unidentified flying objects in an age before television projects such as UFO Hunters or Ancient Aliens.

Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959)

Perhaps the most maligned film in the history of cinema, there is a great deal going against Plan 9 From Outer Space. The special effects are awful (at best). The acting is a little worse than the special effects with the film’s most established actor, Bela Lugosi, actually appearing only in silent scenes the director shot for another project as Lugosi had died before Plan 9 began production. The plot is fairly ridiculous but the motivations of the invading extraterrestrials are actually quite interesting.

There is plenty to hate about Plan 9. The aliens are resurrecting the dead (this is the “Plan 9″ referred to in the title) to force the governments of Earth to acknowledge their presence in our skies. However, they only resurrect three or four corpses and never do anything to reveal the fact they have done even this! The film has merit for two reasons, though. The first, as mentioned before, is the motivation of the extraterrestrials as explained by Eros, the alien commander, near the end of the film. The second is because Plan 9 From Outer Space is a kind of symbolic nail in the coffin of high profile media attention for UFOs. In the years since its release the terrible visuals of its saucers, obviously suspended by a string, have been used over and over to ridicule both science fiction and UFOs.

The Day The Earth Stood Still Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfpSXI8_UpY

Forbidden Planet Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BogNQ__nOeI

Earth Vs The Flying Saucers Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o4fdX8gUMY

UFO: The True Story…. has no trailer but the full movie can be seen here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPoB1aZLMpk

Plan 9 Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBoT0LJ0mgM

Chinese UFO Sighting Explained

The English language version of the China Daily website reports that a recent UFO sighting in China was actually a research rocket launched by the Chinese Academy of Science. The May 13th launch was part of an aero-logical sounding program. You can read the original article, which includes some interesting photographs of the rocket, through the link in our shownotes.

http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2013-05/14/content_16498847.htm

Washington Post Article Tackles Why People Believe in UFOs

A recent Innovations Column on WashingtonPost.com reports on an essay by psychologist Stephen Diamond that attempts to link a belief in UFOs, and other subjects such as ghosts, with a need to deal with the fact that some things are simply without meaning while others are beyond our understanding. You can read the coverage and the original article from Psychology Today through the links in our shownotes.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/wp/2013/05/14/the-fear-that-drives-our-alien-belief/

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evil-deeds/201010/ufos-close-encounters-and-the-cry-meaning

Insert Your Own Star Trek Joke Here

The NBC News website recently ran an article on Dr. Howard “Sonny” White, a physicist whose experiments may prove that warp drives are possible. Although the obligatory Star Trek references are included, the article is actually a very readable summary of the “warp bubble” theory, a loophole in Einstein’s theory that would allow practical faster than light travel. You can read it through the link in our shownotes.

http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/14/18253709-warp-speed-scotty-it-may-actually-be-possible?lite

Blue Book Investigator Saw UFOs and Extraterrestrials

In his testimony before the Citizen Hearing on Disclosure panel retired Lt. Col. Richard French stated that he had not only seen UFOs in 1952 but actually saw alien creatures that were apparently repairing a downed craft. French further claims that at the time he was assigned to the fledgling Project Blue Book as an investigator. You can read more about the incident, which occurred in Newfoundland, in Lee Spiegel’s article which we have linked to in the shownotes. Spiegel’s piece also contains video excerpts from French’s rather remarkable testimony.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/13/alien-beings-repaired-und_n_3240437.html

Record Amount of UFO Sightings In Canada

Finally, as this week’s episode will be focusing on Canada it is worth mentioning that according to the Winnipeg Sun, the UFOlogy Research annual report states there were 1,981 sightings in Canada in 2012. That is an increase of slightly over 200% from 2011, which previously held the record for most Canadian UFO sightings. According to the report, the majority of the reports were from the province of Ontario. You can read more about it through the link in our show notes or just stay tuned and hear more about UFOs in Canada from this week’s guest Chris Rutkowski.

http://www.winnipegsun.com/2013/05/13/manitoba-ufo-sightings-up-last-year

Interview with Chris Rutkowski

Chris speaks about the report on 2012 sightings,  http://survey.canadianuforeport.com/  and overall statistics of the year.

He later speaks of specific Canadian sightings, the Stephen Michalak Encounter at Falcon Lake: http://www.ufoevidence.org/cases/case376.htm

As well as: Shag Harbour: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shag_Harbour_UFO_incident   and more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFO_sightings_in_Canada

They further talk about Chris’ view on abductions and much more.

Check out http://uforum.blogspot.com/

Ask questions of upcoming guests by clicking on the guest title, and posting your question as a reply.

The Following are confirmed upcoming guests
 

ralphblumenthal.com

Ralph Blumenthal was a reporter for The New York Times from 1964 to 2009, and has written four books based on investigative crime reporting. He took a buyout from the paper in December 2009 to teach and pursue other writing projects. Most recently he had been on the metro staff and before that served as Southwest Bureau Chief based in Houston. In 2001, Blumenthal was named a Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to research the progressive career and penal reforms of Warden Lewis E. Lawes, “the man who made Sing Sing sing.” The book on Warden Lawes, Miracle at Sing Sing, was published by St. Martin’s in June, 2004.

For more than 45 years, Blumenthal led an extensive and illustrious career at the Times as an arts and culture news reporter (1994-2003), an investigative and crime reporter (1971-1994), a foreign correspondent (Germany, Vietnam, Cambodia, 1968-1971) metro and Westchester correspondent (1964-1968) and a reporter/columnist for The Grand Prairie Daily News Texan in 1963.

Blumenthal earned a Guggenheim Fellowship (April 2001), the prestigious Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism Alumni Award (2001), and the Worth Bingham Prize for distinguished investigative reporting, 1994. The Worth Bingham Prize honors newspaper or magazine investigative reporting of stories of national significance where the public interest is being ill-served. He was inducted into the C.C.N.Y. Communications Alumni Hall of Fame in May 2010. He taught journalism in the summer school of Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, N.H., and is joining the faculty of the Baruch College of the City University of New York to teach journalism.

Career Narrative:

Having edited my college newspaper, The City College Campus, and gone on to the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, I joined The New York Times as a news clerk in June 1964. Within months I was promoted to the metro staff. In 1968 I was named a foreign correspondent — at 26, the youngest in many years — in the Bonn Bureau where I covered the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, the rise of neo-Nazism and the West German economic miracle.

The following year the Times sent me to Saigon to cover the war and what became the spread of fighting to Cambodia. Assigned back to New York in 1971, I became an investigative reporter specializing in stories about foreign and American corruption and organized crime. My series on Nazi war criminals hiding in America helped pass a Congressional bill to bar persecutors from entering the country, the Holtzman Amendment. I was the American reporter who first got the tip on Kurt Waldheim’s secret Nazi past.

Another series, on corrupt dealings and cocaine use by Brooklyn Representative Fred Richmond, led to the Congressman’s guilty plea and resignation from the House. My articles on questionable financial dealings by the 1984 Democratic Vice Presidential nominee, Geraldine Ferraro, and her husband, John Zaccaro, became a factor in the election. In 1987 I led the Times team that exposed the Tawana Brawley racial hoax and produced the series (and later a book, Outrage) nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. In 1988, Last Days of the Sicilians, my first book, on the FBI’s Pizza Connection drug case was published, and I was invited to the annual retreat of the judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to speak on electronic eavesdropping.

In 1993, I led the team covering the World Trade Center bombing, which won the paper a Pulitzer Prize for spot reporting. The following year, I co-authored another series on the fatal crashes of USAir. It prompted new safety procedures, was nominated for a Pulitzer and won the Worth Bingham prize for investigative reporting, presented by President Clinton at the White House Correspondent’s dinner. It was also a finalist for Harvard University’s Goldsmith’s Prize.

In 1994, looking for a change of pace, I joined the culture news department as an arts reporter, where I shared, with co-writers, a Times Publisher’s Award for a series on the Sotheby’s and Christie’s antitrust scandal — one of some two dozen of such Times awards made to me over the years. After Sept. 11, 2001, I briefly rejoined the investigative team covering terrorism. Meanwhile, I wrote two other non-fiction books: Once Through the Heart, on a police narcotics detective’s struggle to rescue his own daughter from drugs, and Stork Club, a history of the Stork Club, its renegade owner and the nightclub and gangster era in Gotham. The book became the focus of an exhibit, “Stork Club,” at the New York Historical Society, which I curated and which ran from May-Oct., 2000. My fifth book, Miracle at Sing Sing, for which I received the Guggenheim grant, was published in June, 2004.

In 2003, I went to Texas to cover the Southwest where I investigated death penalty cases, President George W. Bush’s military record, and the polygamist cult. Upon my return to the Metro staff in 2008, I wrote news features and blogged on city issues.

My proudest achievements, I must say, however, are none of these. They are Anna, a graduate of the University of Delaware and rock guitarist of her band, the Anabolics; and her sister, Sophie, now also a UDel student, for whom I gratefully share credit with my wife, Deborah, a nutritionist and fellow writer and journalist.

Black Triangle Sighting Witnesses 1200 Miles Apart

Roger Marsh is reporting on the Huffington Post that a black triangle was sighted by multiple witnesses located hundreds of miles from each other on April 27. The reports, which have received national attention on shows such as Coast to Coast AM, originate from Tennessee and Colorado. Read Marsh’s coverage through the link below.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/roger-marsh/witnesses-1200-miles-apart_b_3179709.html?utm_hp_ref=ufo

New UFO Video Surfaces From NASA

Scott Waring, who recently broke the story of the apparent UFO seen on Google Earth images near Area 51, is reporting on UFOSightingsDaily.com that a newly released NASA photograph shows something strange that he purports is a disc shaped object. See the image and judge for yourself through the link below.

http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/2013/05/disk-shaped-object-above-earth-in-nasa.html

Recent Australian UFO Sighting Now Has Video Evidence

Cell phone footage has now surfaced supporting the reports of a strange light over Tannum Sands and Gladstone, Queensland Australia on May 4th. The bright orange light initially sounds like a fireball, except witnesses report it literally stopped in the sky. You can see the video for yourself and read the local coverage through the link below.

http://www.northernstar.com.au/news/more-people-come-forward-confirm-ufo-sighting/1857728

Filmmaker Says Chasing UFOs Damages National Geographic’s Image

Michael Parfit, who has made films for National Geographic in the past, stated at the recent International Wildlife Film Festival programming choices are damaging the group’s credibility. Specifically mentioned were the National Geographic Channel shows Chasing UFOs and Diggers, which is about metal detecting and Animal Planet shows. Read Parfit’s comments and a reply from a National Geographic rep through the link below.

http://missoulian.com/news/local/filmmakers-at-iwff-ufo-ghost-shows-damage-national-geographic-others/article_8408814c-b39a-11e2-b7a3-0019bb2963f4.htm

Citizens Hearing on Disclosure Convinces At Least One…

Former Alaska senator Mike Gravel has stated that UFOs are real and the cover goes to the White House. We have a link to a fairly snarky MSN blurb on his statements, and some other stories about the Hearings, in our below. News from the Hearings did pick up over the weekend and there has a bit of controversy as well.

http://now.msn.com/mike-gravel-former-senator-says-ets-have-visited-and-the-white-house-is-covering-it-up

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/40196-draft-thousands-of-airline-pilots-witness-ufos/

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Leslie Kean Interview

Martin Willis: Leslie Kean, http://ufosontherecord.com/leslie-kean/ welcome back. How are you?

Leslie Kean: Thanks, Martin, I’m great, and it’s great to be with you, again.

Martin: Yes. Let’s talk, right away, about the symposium coming up. For the website, it’s C–U–F–O–R–N–C.com.

Leslie: Okay. Well, this is a symposium that’s going to take place in North Carolina, that’s what the N–C is, on June 29th and June 30th, and it consists of a lot of, I think, very good speakers, very serious. The whole point of the organizer’s interest in this, a man named Kent Center, who has been with MUFON http://mufon.com/ for many years, and had a very powerful sighting, years ago, he is interested in putting on a conference where he feels like the very most credible, and most scientifically–oriented people can come together to, kind of, counteract some of the, sort of, New–Agey, and, kind of, you know, unscientific stuff that goes on in the UFO field, so that’s what’s his inspiration, and I think he’s got a really good lineup of speakers, including General DeBrower http://irdial.com/blogdial/?p=882 from Belgium, who was the investigator for The Air Force during The Belgian Wave, http://www.ufoencounters.co.uk/the-belgian-ufo-wave.html and Dr. Richard Haines, http://www.nicap.org/bios/haines.htm who’s the head of NARCAP, http://narcap.org/ and the national aviation safety organization, and very interesting cases that he represents, and talks about, and Charles Halt http://ufocongress.com/ufo-conference/2011-speakers/charles-halt/ from The Bentwaters Case, http://www.therendleshamforestincident.com/ and a lot of – some academics are going to be coming, political scientists, and a sociologist who’ll look at the whole issue of the taboo, and the meaning of people’s, sort of, resistance to the – to it, and we’ve got a very interesting component of this is active government officials from both the official organization in Chile, and the official organization in France, and these two countries, really, have the leading agencies in the world that are investigating UFO – UAP or UFOs within a government, and the agency in Chile is located within the equivalent of our FAA, the agency in France is located within the equivalent of our NASA, so the current representatives from both of those organizations are going to be there, which is really special, because they don’t – they rarely go to conferences –

Martin: Oh, wow!

Leslie: – and they’re going to be able to talk about how – why their governments are involved with this, what their governments have learned, how they approach their investigations, and what kinds of cases they’re working on, and I think that’s going to be really, really fascinating, and we’ve also got Parviz Jafari, http://www.noufors.com/Parviz_Jafari.html General Jafari from Iran, who was the Air Force pilot in the famous 1976 Iranian case, who was in, kind of, a dogfight with –

Martin: Right, yeah.

Leslie: – with a UFO, so I just think it’s – I’m excited to be – have been invited to speak, there, myself. I’m excited to see these other speakers, and I think it’ll be a really fascinating conference, and the other really interesting thing we have, actually, Martin, is Saturday night there’s a special science lecture by Dr. Jeffrey Bennett, who’s an astrophysicist astronomer. He’s a really, really prominent person in the, sort of, exobiology, astrobiology world, and he’s going to talk to us about how science is approaching the searching for extraterrestrial life. His lecture is titled: Beyond UFOs: The Scientific Search For Extraterrestrial Life And It’s Astonishing Implications For Our Future, and we’ll learn about the Earth–like planets that have been detected by The Kepler Satellite, and, you know, the work of various scientists to go about and find life in the universe beyond the realm of UFOs, but just what the actual scientific community is doing, and I think that’s going to add a really interesting dimension to the conference to have somebody like that there.

Martin: Absolutely. Does he have a take on UFOs, himself?

Leslie: Well, as far as I know, he’s open to the subject, ’cause, obviously, he wouldn’t be participating in this, but I don’t think – I think, like most scientists, he feels there’s not really enough evidence to prove that there’s vehicles visiting us from elsewhere. I mean, he’s, you know, the scientists are, you know, they’re hard to get onboard on –

Martin: Yes.

Leslie: – the subject, and they’re very – they tend to be very skeptical, and I think that’s fine, and I just – I’m happy whenever we can bridge the scientific world with the best that we have in the UFO field. I think it’s a great thing to be able to make a link between the two.

Martin: Absolutely.

Leslie: Yeah, and, so, that’s what I think is going to happen, here, with Dr. Bennett, because I’m sure that there’ll be a very interesting discussion. We’re allowing a long time for a Q and A session after his lecture, and I think it’ll be very interesting for some of the people at this conference to interact with him about the UFO question, and how he sees it, so – and, sort of, you know, to cross over into the scientific realm is going to be really exciting.

Martin: And there’s also a woman, there, talking about a little controversial subject: crop circles.

Leslie: Right, but I didn’t mention Nancy. Nancy Talbot http://www.jerrypippin.com/UFO_Files_nancy_talbot.htm was invited to talk about, really, the question that people ask all the time. Is there any relationship between UFOs and crop circles? And what I respect about Nancy is that she has pulled together a team of scientists, and, for many years, has been engaging these scientists in actual laboratory analysis of plants, and the, you know, the effects that the crop circles have on the soils, and she’s really taken a scientific approach to, sort of, looking at the physical effects of the crop circles, the ones that are not formed by humans, which, of course, many of them are, so then she’s very interested in sorting out the genuine crop circles from the hoaxed ones, and she’s not, sort of, into the whole New Age aspect of crop circles, so I think of all the people who study crop circles she’s really the most scientifically–oriented, and I commend her for having brought in very credible scientists into her team. Her group is called The BLT Research Team, http://www.bltresearch.com/ and it is a team, so she’s going to be presenting what the physical aspects of crop circles are that have been determined in the lab, which is interesting, and she’s going to be a –

Martin: Yeah.

Leslie: – very scientifically–oriented lecture about crop circles, and addressing the question of: does she think there’s any links to them with UFOs? And we’ll – I’m not going to try and answer that question, but I think it’ll be interesting to have her address it.

Martin: Yes. Oh, did we even mention what the dates were, on this?

Leslie: The – it’s June 29th and June 30th in North Carolina, and the website, again, it’s like the – it’s the abbreviations for The Center For UFO Research – North Carolina, so if – and if anybody goes to my website, UFOs On The Record, http://ufosontherecord.com/ or my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/lesliekean there are links to the website for this conference.

Martin: So where did they come up with that name?

Leslie: Well, the reason that we have the – that the organizer, Kent Center, has this name is because he is organizing this conference through a very prestigious venue in Greensboro: The Greensboro Coliseum. It’s this huge complex of lecture halls, and performance halls, and they – in order for them to have a contract with him they said he had to have an organization. I guess they only – they’ll only deal with organizations, so they required him to set up an organization to be – in order to produce this thing, so he’s – he just came up with the name: Center For UFO Research because there were no – there’s no organization, already, with that name, but it’s just because he had to come up with something, and that’s how it happened. It’s, really, basically, just an entity that exists in order to produce this conference.

Martin: You know, something I was thinking of – perhaps if someone didn’t listen to your last interview they really don’t know your background. However, if they’re interested in UFOs, I’m sure they probably seen something, you know, some of the documentaries that are out there that you’re involved in, but can you just, quickly, go over your background, and how you became interested – just a real quick – in a nutshell?

Leslie: Yeah. I mean, in a nutshell, I’m an investigative reporter, and I had a track record writing, and publishing, and doing radio work before I got interested in UFOs on just a normal range of topics, I say normal before I became an abnormal journalist studying UFOs, but, anyway – and back in 1999, I believe it was, I was given a copy of The COMETA Report http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/sociopol_cometareport01.htm before it was, you know, released in America. Probably, your listeners probably know what that is. It’s a military study from – that came out of France on UFOs, and a very impressive group of people wrote it, and somebody from France sent me the English translation of this thing. It was a 90–page study with incredible group of authors, and I, as a journalist, I was just, sort of, blown away by that, because the – not only did they document great cases, but they made the statement that they thought that the extraterrestrial hypothesis was the most valid and logical, and likely, explanation for these cases that they studied, which were among the very best cases, and, so, that’s – I did a story about that for The Boston Globe in 2000 http://rense.com/general/cometadss.htm after researching some stuff around it for months before I did the story. That’s what got me started covering UFOs as a subject, and because I been so – it’s so compelling to me. After that story came out I became even more interested in it, and have stayed with it, basically, ever since, and the – my work is culminated in my book: UFOs: Generals, Pilots, And Government Officials Go On The Record, http://ufosontherecord.com/the-book/ which was – came out a couple of years ago, and was a New York Times Bestseller. That’s, sort of, the culmination of all my work. My approach is, base – it’s journalistic. I’m not a UFOlogist. I’m not, like, a UFO researcher. I’m a journalist. I’m reporting on the best information, the best sources, and, you know, the most credible information that I can find to represent the subject, because I believe that there, obviously, there’s something to it. I believe we have enough evidence to show that there is some kind of a phenomenon that exists, and I’ve just been trying to get that – the message out, you know, from a journalistic perspective, which is a rigorous perspective in what you’re willing to accept as legitimate, and not legitimate.

Martin: Right. Well, you’re a definite asset. I’m really glad that you’re doing what you’re doing. How would you say that your life has changed since you chose this path?

Leslie: Well, it’s – and, you know, at first, I was – it was nerve–racking, and I felt, kind of, marginalized from the whole journalistic world, because I was taking on a subject for which there’s a taboo, you know –

Martin: Right.

Leslie: – and I remember when I was working at a public radio station in California in The San Francisco Bay Area during the time I was researching the issue after I got the report from France, and before I published in The Boston Globe, and I, literally, did not want to tell any of my colleagues at the radio station, even though it was a very progressive radio station, any of them that I was interested in this topic. I mean, it was very, you know, I was really nervous about it, and, after the story published in The Boston Globe, because that was such a mainstream publication, and I was not ridiculed for the story, I, gradually, gained more confidence in it, you know, but the first few years are, kind of, it’s just, kind of, nerve–racking when everybody thinks the subject matter is a joke, but, as it stands, now, you know, I’ve really gone through an evolution with this, and more and more people take it seriously, and I’ve also gained more and more confidence in the validity of the subject over the years the more – the harder I’ve worked at it, the more people I’ve come to know at high levels who investigate it. I have absolutely no problem, anymore, with just taking a strong stand on the issue, but that’s the really – the hard part about it is just the stigma against the subject. It’s also been very inspiring, to me, because it does, you know, it stretches your mind, and there’s a lot of strange things about the subject, of course, that I would never talk about, really, publicly, or in a mainstream context, that really make you wonder, and make you think about a lot of things, and, so, it’s a, sort of, this exciting thing to be involved with, because if, indeed, it is ever proven that we are being visited by – from somewhere else it’s, to me, the biggest story a journalist could ever want to have.

Martin: Absolutely.

Leslie: It’s a huge story, so I feel like I’m on the cutting edge of something that’s really, really a game–changer. You know, it’s really a paradigm shift possibility, here, for the planet. The problem is we don’t have the kind of material we need to actually prove what these things are, and, so, my goal is to try to get what I think is necessary for that proof to, hopefully, be established, at some point.

Martin: Now, you’re on the real, what I consider, the real credible side of UFOlogy, and what you’re trying to do and develop, and all that. How do you think the other side affects what you’re trying to do? Fringe side, let’s say.

Leslie: It really doesn’t affect what I’m trying to do, at all. I mean, I feel like the, sort of, the more fringe kind of New Age, and less rigorous, you know, UFOlogy types are, sort of, in a world by themselves. I don’t think they really bleed, very much, out beyond their own close–knit community, and the only time it affects me is if it, somehow, gets out. I mean, the media coverage can affect the work I do, to some extent, but even that is, really, not terribly significant, you know, when you have something ridiculed in the media, because of the way something was presented that wasn’t – shouldn’t have been said, or that kind of thing, but, basically, I’m really working in another world. I’m not – I don’t identify with the whole UFOlogy world, because I’m not a UFOlogist, I’m a journalist, and it’s very different. It’s a very different role to be playing in, you know, dealing with the subject matter than the, sort of UFOlogy, UFO community people. I’m not like a true believer, you know, and I respect a lot of the researchers. I mean, there’s incredible researchers in the – credible UFOlogists, very dedicated, smart people, and, obviously, I benefit tremendously from the work that researchers have done over the decades.

Martin: Right.

Leslie: I have great respect for the work they’ve done. I mean, we didn’t have anyone else doing it, except civilians, and some scientists, but, mainly, civilian researchers, and it’s just been amazing what they’ve been able to do, so that I respect, but I, you know, so, in that sense, I really benefit a lot from the work that they’ve done, and I’m – I, obviously, have a lot of books and make use of research that’s been done by people, but my job is, basically, to, one, make the most credible information available to the public, so they can have a clear sense of what we actually know about UFOs, and what we don’t know, is to sort out the, sort of, more ambiguous information from the more solid information, and I think – and another goal I’ve, sort of, taken on is to translate the subject, if I can use the word: translate, to put it into a language and a context that the political world can relate to, that, you know, policymakers can relate to, and scientists can relate to in order to try to get them engaged with the subject, and it’s something I’ve worked very hard on learning how do for many years, and I’ve had very, very good advisers in the heart of Washington D. C., including a prominent politic – public relations firm, there, which have instructed me on how to position the issue among these people, so –

Martin: Wow!

Leslie: – that they can accept it as best, you know, it’s very hard for them to accept it, but you have to be so careful what you say, and how you approach these people, and I feel like that’s, sort of, another job I’ve taken on is being a person that can translate the issue for those people if – or, sort of, put it into the way that they can relate to it, and I – it’s very important, to me, to try to do that –

Martin: Wow, that’s right!

Leslie: – and, you know, the most extreme stuff these people are not going to have anything to do with anything too extreme, and it actually makes them very nervous, so I have a whole approach that I use, which I think is effective in engaging them.

Martin: Speaking of translating, you were in Chile for quite a while. I follow you on Facebook. Are – you’ve gone back and forth. Can you talk about what’s going on with that?

Leslie: Yeah. I’m very interested in the official agency in Chile, because they, I think, are the leading agency in the world in terms of, number 1, what they’re actually able to accomplish, but, also, number 2, in the way they are so thoroughly integrated into the whole fabric of the country’s – of the country. I mean, all the different branch of government, there, the military, the aviation world, all the airports, all the flight schools, the universities, everybody there knows about this group, this official group, and when anything happens this group immediately hears about it, and they have committees from all these different scientific disciplines who they can call on, at a moment’s notice, to come and help with any investigation –

Martin: Wow!

Leslie: – not just scientific, but, you know, military people, the police, the police are in total cooperation with them, so it’s – and there’s 4 full–time staff that work in it within the agency that would, for us, would be The FAA, so, to me, it’s like a metaphor. It’s like being able to go down there, and observe how an ideal – an – a country should, ideally, handle this issue, as far as I’m concerned. I think –

Martin: Absolutely.

Leslie: – that they, you know, they figured out how to do it, they’ve worked really hard on changing the attitude from ridicule to one of respect, and they have a lot of collaboration from every, as I said, from The Air Force, The Navy, The Army, The Police, everyone in the official world, so that when it – when something’s happens they’re in a position to do a very good investigation on it. The problem with – and the reason the official agencies can do a better job is, simply, because they have access to information that a civilians just don’t have access to, such as, you know, immediately being able to get radar tapes, immediately being able to get to the head of the organization that handles all the radar in that country, and talking to them, and, you know, they have access to everything, immediately being able to get interviews with the witnesses. I mean, when official agency requests this kind of thing nobody objects. When you have civilians everything takes forever, you have to go through Freedom Of Information, you can’t, necessarily, get all the information you need, the police aren’t, necessarily, going to cooperate with you, etcetera, so it’s very interesting and exciting for me to watch an official agency, like this, that is so well–respected, and integrated into the country, to see how they work. It’s just a – so I’ve – and I’m also very close to the people in the organization, there, and I really enjoy going down to Chile, so it’s been a – I been down there a number of times, this year, and it’s been really exciting.

Martin: Wonderful! I – it would be so great if some part of the government would look at that, our government, I’m talking about, and use that as a model to do something with.

Leslie: Yeah, well that’s what I want to have happen, Martin. I mean, I want to – it’s, you know, I’ve got to get back into trying to work with officials within our government, and do want to write up a document in which I lay out the way they work, as an example, and the other exciting thing is that an official from that Chilean agency will be at this conference in June, and he’s The International Affairs Director, and he’s never been spoken at any conference, before. He’s the guy – deals with all, from the base of Chile, deals with all the other countries, and he speaks 7 languages, you know, and he can deal with the –

Martin: Wow!

Leslie: – agencies in China, and he’s in touch with, sort of, the whole universe, and around the world, of the official world investigating this, so it’s going to be very interesting to have him at the conference, and I think, you know, one of my interests in this conference is to, sort of, have the DVDs, which we are going to make of all the lectures, which Kent is going to make, to have them be, sort of, something that can be used to provide a message to the official world who might want to learn something about, for instance, how the government in Chile works, or how the government in France works with respect to this, so we’re going to have these, sort of, on the record statements, now, from these 2 officials, and I think that’s a really important, in terms of what you just said about creating, you know, letting our government know that there is a model for how this kind of a thing can work, and it does work.

Martin: That’s great. I spoke with a gentleman named Clas Svahn http://www.ufo.se/information/organisationen/svahn.shtml from Sweden. He was on our past podcast. They have a very similar way of doing things. It’s not official, but it’s more of a scientific look at what’s going on, and there is absolutely no ridicule, according to Clas Svahn, himself.

Leslie: That’s fantastic. It’s interesting you bring him up, because I know that Kent Center also invited him to speak at our conference, and he – the only reason he couldn’t come was ’cause he was on a family vacation at the time –

Martin: Oh.

Leslie: – but, yeah, I think he is one of the really good – his organization is one of the better ones in the world, and I agree with you that they’re going about it in the right way, and they’re – they seem to be taken very seriously, which is terrific.

Martin: Yeah. I was on your Facebook page, oh, I would say, maybe, a month ago, I’m not really sure when it was, and there was something that was going to be revealed from Chile. Can you talk about that?

Leslie: Yeah, that may have been this case that the official agency in Chile investigated over a period of many months, which occurred last September, and a very, very, unusually strong case, and I’m fortunate enough to have been given exclusive access to this case, ’cause I’d been down there, and I’d been briefed on it by the agency, there, and I’m going to be presenting that case at the conference. Permission has not been given to talk about it, yet. It has to go through various governmental channels in Chile before it can be released, but –

Martin: Oh, wow! Governmental channels, really. It has to do that. Can you give us a little teaser, maybe?

Leslie: Just to make sure – I mean, everything in Chile is made public. They don’t keep secrets, there, and they even have a law that doesn’t allow them to keep secrets, but it just has – we – they have to make sure that the investigation is absolutely complete –

Martin: I see.

Leslie: – you know, and that the necessary authorities have signed off on the case before they can actually make it public, so it’s just a matter of timing –

Martin: I see.

Leslie: – but, yeah, well, what’s fascinating about this case is that it’s a multiple–witness case, and it involves – it took place at an Air Force academy, and it involves 2 videos of the same phenomenon, so we have 2 videos that show the same phenomenon, and I just, you know, it involves formations, and we know the government was able to find out that it absolutely could not have been airplanes, because they have access to all the data that document airplanes, there, so that’s about all I can say about it. It’ll be really fascinating to people. I guarantee it.

Martin: Okay.

Leslie: It’s really, really a strong case.

Martin: So, by the conference you’ll be able to talk, completely, about it.

Leslie: By the time the conference happens it’ll have gone through what it needs to go through in Chile, and it’ll be – I’ll be I’ll be able to present it, show the videos, and talk about what the process was that they went through to investigate it, and read, you know, there’s transcripts of interviews with the witness, and all kinds of data that they’ve accumulated on this case, so I – it’ll be really fun to present it. I think people will be blown away by the case.

Martin: Well, let me ask you something. Have you been in Chile, itself, when something was going on, and actually had some type of involvement to see how the process works?

Leslie: Well, I’ve – I haven’t – I wasn’t actually in Chile when there was a sighting, if that’s what you mean, but I’ve been there, in the office, and, sort of, watched them work, and, also, have lots communications with The International Affairs Director, who’s a very close friend of mine, also, but he, sort of, keeps me in the loop of how things are unfolding, so, throughout the investigation of this case that I’m going to talk about, for instance, you know, I was kept informed of what they were learning as they learned it, you know, just through Skypeing and talking this – the agency, so, even though I have, you know, there’s a lot you can do without actually, physically being there, but I have been there, and see how they work, but I’ve also been, sort of, kept in the loop on a daily basis when they’re involved with researching cases, so I just feel very aware of how they work, and how they draw on outside sources, and how everybody cooperates with them. It’s very – been very clearly demonstrated, to me, through seeing them work on various cases. It’s so inspiring to think that, you know, if that could only happen, here, even – I’m in here I’ve only been – I been saying, you know, even just one staff person. We don’t, necessarily, have to have 4. Let’s just have one person who can be a sort of point person for this issue, and who can cooperate with agencies like the one in Chile, like the one in France, who can be internationally plugged in with the rest of the world, and, of course, discriminate. You don’t investigate every person that calls up and says they’ve seen lights in the sky, but you investigate the cases that are really worthy of investigation, in terms of – that have enough – have a lot of data, that have multiple witnesses, you know, that have, hopefully, military or police involvement. There’s a discrimination that goes on, but there’s so much that could be done by just having one, even one or two people, and I think the important – the most important element, actually, of having a U. S. Government agency, like that, would be the message that it gives to the scientific community in this country, and then, of course, beyond that, but the message is: we, now, recognize – we, in the government, now, recognize that there is something, here, worthy of investigation. That’s all they would have to be saying by putting a staff person on this. They’re not saying: oh, we’re being invaded by ETs, or anything like that. They’re just saying: well, there’s something, here, that we should look into along with the other countries that have already been doing this for a while, and that’s all, and by just saying that it lifts the stigma against the topic for the scientific community, and, therefore, the –

Martin: Right.

Leslie: if the stigma’s lifted, because the government has legitimized this, then the scientific community is free to get involved, and, hopefully, over time, to acquire resources and grants and support for the work that needs to be done, and, then, hopefully, that could lead to some kind of an international scientific effort to try and get to the bottom of what this actually is. I mean, that’s, sort of, the idealistic vision that I have, and I think it just starts with – it could, even, just start with one person in The U. S. Government being assigned to this.

Martin: I –

Leslie: That’s –

Martin: – think they’d rather spend billions on finding dark matter.

Leslie: Well, dark matter’s also fascinating, but, yeah, why not just make this one more – the, sort of, cutting–edge issues that the scientists explore just like they do dark matter, black holes, and, you know, these gigantic particle accelerators that cost millions, or billions, of dollars that they have to shoot these particles around?

Martin: Right.

Leslie: I mean, why not put a little bit of money into this, as well? Imagine what could be done if the best minds made a decision to become proactive on this, and to really go after it?

Martin: Absolutely.

Leslie: Imagine what they could do to, really, learn something, you know. We – and the problem is that the other countries have done a lot of great work, but, I think, without the United States involvement, yes, we’re going to continue to have great investigations of cases, but we already have so many case investigations that establish the reality of the phenomenon that it’s just, sort of like, we need something more than that, now, ’cause that – that’s not enough to solve the problem, so that’s why the other agencies feel, around the world, that we need the United States involvement, because they could, sort of, up the ante, and bring in a lot more resources into this quest than these countries can ever do just operating by themselves. It can only go so far, and, yes, they can do great case investigations, but, as I said, it’s really – we have that. We have that many, many times over, and it’s not enough to push us over to really open the door in a new way that is what’s needed, you know, in the way that will really change the perspective, and actually solve the mystery of what these things are. That’s what needs to happen.

Martin: Yes, so, Leslie, thank you so much. This has been very interesting, again, and I – I’m excited to have you back on, several times, as we go along, here, but, again, the symposium is on June. Can you give the dates one more time –

Leslie: Sure.

Martin: – please?

Leslie: The symposium is June 29th and 30th in North Carolina, and there is a website, which is The Center For UFO Research: North Carolina, and it’s on my Facebook page, and my book page, as well, UFOs On The Record, and I will be there along with some absolutely fascinating, leading people in the scientific approach to all of this, as well as witnesses, military witnesses, and so on, and, so, I just hope that people will come out for that, and thanks a lot for giving me the opportunity to talk about it, Martin.

Martin: All right, Leslie, thanks, again.

Leslie: Thank you, very much.

The End

Music by: Killawatt – Capa