Bryce Zabel and Brent Friedman, creators of NBC’s Dark Skies, join Podcast UFO to discuss the strange real-life event that sparked their new investigative podcast, Sound, Light & Frequency. They share how their personal interest in UFOs began (including Bryce’s childhood discovery of the McMinnville “Trent Farm” photos, and Brent’s startling “aliens are real” disclosure from a Reagan-era family friend), plus Brent’s more recent UFO-style sighting during the Perseid meteor shower on Vancouver Island, tiny star-like lights moving erratically and seeming to drop into the ocean. The conversation turns to why witnesses stay silent, including stories Bryce heard from strangers after Dark Skies aired, schoolyard sightings with dozens of witnesses that never made the news, followed by families insisting: “don’t ever talk about it.” From there, Bryce and Brent explain the premise of Sound, Light & Frequency: an active investigation into whether Hollywood has been part of a long “chicken-and-egg” feedback loop with UFO culture, did filmmakers invent ideas that later entered ufology, or were real narratives quietly fed into film and TV? They preview their central claim: a mysterious “Man in Black”-type figure crashed their Dark Skies premiere party in the 1990s, claimed ties to the Office of Naval Intelligence, and allegedly offered a “deal” connected to a slow-drip disclosure program, truth inserted into fiction. They won’t fully reveal the details here (they insist listeners start with Episode 1), but they confirm follow-up meetings occurred and that the encounter never stopped haunting them. They also reveal how Dark Skies was sold with an elaborate “top secret” style series bible mapping a multi-season timeline, then the eerie twist: the exact “cover of fiction to tell truth” concept they pitched to networks later appeared to boomerang back on them in real life. The episode closes with their plan to examine iconic UFO films and series (Close Encounters, Contact, The Abyss, The X-Files, V, and more), vet tips from insiders, and look for patterns, without claiming they already have the answers.
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THIS WEEK'S BLOG BY CHARLES LEAR: MR X