On this edition of The Micah Hanks Program, after news and listener emails pertaining to strange things in our skies, we have an odd question about pandemics in mind: how are outbreaks like UFO flaps, and why do some similarities exist between the two?

To look at these questions, and how science applies to both scenarios, we are joined by retired epidemiologist Thomas Glass, Ph.D., an expert on outbreaks whose Ph.D. in medical sociology was obtained at Duke University. Over the last three decades, Glass has held faculty positions in epidemiology at Yale, Harvard and Johns Hopkins. Dr. Glass joins us both to share his interest in the building current interest in the UFO topic, as well as to lend his expertise with regard to the current coronavirus pandemic situation. With so much news building on public concerns about the coronavirus, Dr. Glass brings an informed message of hope--not hype--that presents both an engaging and interesting discussion of the current global pandemic situation. 

When an outbreak occurs, how do viruses spread, and what kinds of factors do epidemiologists watch for as the situation unfolds? And why are there similarities between how an epidemiologist investigates and outbreak, and how UFO researchers investigate some sightings reports? We look at all of these questions, and more on this week's edition of The Micah Hanks Program. 

Enjoy The Micah Hanks Program? Check out Micah's other podcasts here. 

Below are links to stories and other content featured in this episode:

• The Fragment of an Ancient Lost Continent Has Been Discovered Off The Coast of Canada
• Astronauts Share Insightful Tips On Self-Isolation During Coronavirus Pandemic
• Thomas Glass, Ph.D. An epidemiologist’s perspective on the COVID-19 pandemic
• More from Thomas Glass: Recommended Steps for Preparation
• Top 10 Everyday Precautions to Reduce Risk of Infection
• Are You in a Higher-Risk Group?
• The Household Go-Kit
• A Handy Glossary of COVID-19 Terms and Definitions

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Music featured on The Micah Hanks Program includes songs composed by Caleb Hanks (The Clerk Chronicles), Decepticons (Dreamland, Start the Machine) and Micah Hanks. All songs are either in the public domain, Royalty Free, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0, or are used with permission of the creators. Please note that some links to books and other items on this page may feature Amazon Associate links.

For centuries, there have been stories about large, manlike animals in the Pacific Northwest and other remote parts of America. The creature known as Sasquatch or Bigfoot has long been searched for, but meager physical evidence has left its existence in question. Hence, many skeptics and advocates alike have proposed that only one thing will ever settle the debate: a body.

After catching up on news, we feature an update on the coronavirus this week, looking at its origins, and what scientists know about it as concerns about the virus spread. Then after getting caught up on listener emails, we turn our attention to the controversial question of killing Sasquatch. Many would dismiss the idea entirely based on the presumption that the creature is only a myth, but concerns over would-be Sasquatch hunters have resulted in legislation being passed in places like Skamania County, Washington, as a public safety measure. Even those who don't believe in Sasquatch can see how laws "protecting" the creature may be a good idea... but in the unlikely event that a body was ever discovered, what would that mean for science, and how would state and local government respond?

Even more unusual is the question over whether bodies of unidentified, manlike creatures actually have been recovered in the past, and lost. Claims of Sasquatch killings have been made for years, and yet no physical remains have been recovered. Is it time to close the book on hopes for the creature's existence, or is the merit to the idea of continuing the search... and even killing one, if it's necessary to prove they're out there? We weigh all of these questions on this week's edition of The Micah Hanks Program. 

Enjoy The Micah Hanks Program? Check out Micah's other podcasts here. 

Below are links to stories and other content featured in this episode:

• NEWS: Something strange is going on with the North Star
• Paleontologists from Argentina present a “South American Yeti” of more than 10,000 years ago
• Dead Sea Scrolls at the Museum of the Bible are forgeries, investigators say
• Dead Sea Scroll Conference Has Been Postponed
• COVID-19: Chinese foreign ministry spokesman pushes coronavirus conspiracy theory
• Inside China’s campaign to blame the U.S. for the coronavirus pandemic
• Scientists ‘strongly condemn’ rumors and conspiracy theories about origin of coronavirus
• Why Coronavirus Is Turning People Into Hoarders: A Q&A on the Psychology of Pandemics
• SASQUATCH: To Kill or to Capture Bigfoot: The Great Cryptozoological Debate
• If You Spot Bigfoot, Should You Shoot Him?
• Is It Legal to Shoot Bigfoot?
• Killing Sasquatch: The Debate Between Law, Science, and Conservation
• Darren Naish on the Strange Case of the Minnesota Iceman

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Visit Micah's Website and check out Our Podcast Page

Music featured on The Micah Hanks Program includes songs composed by Caleb Hanks (The Clerk Chronicles), Decepticons (Dreamland, Start the Machine) and Micah Hanks. All songs are either in the public domain, Royalty Free, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0, or are used with permission of the creators. Please note that some links to books and other items on this page may feature Amazon Associate links.

In 1977, panic had struck the northern coast of Brazil. Many residents on the island of Colares and nearby locales like Belém were reporting nighttime observations of strange lights in the sky, which often cast bright beams of light toward individuals that left burns, unusual markings, and other physical effects. 

The reports became so concerning that local officials requested aid from the Brazilian Air Force, who spent four months between 1977 and 1978 investigating the unidentified flying objects appearing over the island. The program, dubbed Operação Prato or "Operation Saucer", resulted in four pieces of film footage depicting one of the objects, along with hundreds of photographs representing unusual illuminations and aerial objects in the skies above Northern Brazil. The files were later released by the Brazilian National Archives, and comprise what some feel to be one of the most comprehensive government UFO studies in all history. 

We examine this unusual period in Brazilian history, the "attacks" by UFOs that were allegedly occurring at that time, and what the government response to the affair had been on this week's edition of The Micah Hanks Program. 

Enjoy The Micah Hanks Program? Check out Micah's other podcasts here. 

Below are links to stories and other content featured in this episode:

• Rendlesham Forest: UFO 'sighting' becomes legend like King Arthur
• Archaeologists Find Mythical Man-Monster in English Cesspit
• Space Force’s 2021 budget plan is heavy on satellites and launch
• The Official Search For UFOs That Attacked Brazilians With ‘Light Beams’ In 1977
• Physician compelled by Brazilian Air Force to lie about UFOs
• Brazil Releases Files on 1977 UFO Flap

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Sign up today and get access to the entire back catalog of The Micah Hanks Program, as well as “classic” episodes of The Gralien Report Podcast, weekly “additional editions” of the subscriber-only X Podcast, the monthly Enigmas specials, and much more.

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Visit Micah's Website and check out Our Podcast Page

Music featured on The Micah Hanks Program includes songs composed by Caleb Hanks (The Clerk Chronicles), Decepticons (Dreamland, Start the Machine) and Micah Hanks. All songs are either in the public domain, Royalty Free, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0, or are used with permission of the creators. Please note that some links to books and other items on this page may feature Amazon Associate links.

This week, biologists are excited about what might be a unique protein found inside an ancient meteorite, which could have tremendous implications not just for alien life, but also raises questions about the origins of life here on Earth. Astronomers have also located what is believed to be evidence for the biggest explosion ever found in the cosmos, and an unusual, anaerobic life form that lives in the living tissue of another aquatic creature. 

We then turn our attention toward the topic of mystery aircraft and secretive black budget programs that the U.S. military has allegedly been involved with for decades. The history of spy planes and secret aircraft since the end of WWII begins at Area 51, the secret test facility at Groom Lake, Nevada, which has attained near-mythical status over the years for the rumors about UFO-like aircraft developed there. However, among the known kinds of aircraft that were built and flown out of the facility were the U-2 spy plane and its successor, the SR-71 Blackbird.

Since the SR-71 was decommissioned in 1990, many aerospace experts and UFO buffs alike have wondered what other kinds of top-secret, experimental aircraft might have been developed there over the years. Further questions surround reports of eerie, massive flying wings and "black triangles" seen in the skies over parts of the American southwestern deserts and various other locales. The Pentagon has maintained that no such aircraft exist... but if so, how can we account for the hundreds of sighting reports, which have led to investigations by organizations ranging from the Federation of American Scientists, to Robert Bigelow's National Institute for Discovery Science? Our deep-dive this week takes us beyond "Deep Black" as we go in search of answers behind the enduring mystery aircraft of Area 51. 

Enjoy The Micah Hanks Program? Check out Micah's other podcasts here. 

Below are links to stories and other content featured in this episode:

• Boom! Scientists spot the biggest known explosion in the universe
• Scientists Claim to Have Found The First Known Extraterrestrial Protein in a Meteorite
• Unique non-oxygen breathing animal discovered
• Archived Link to the Federation of American Scientists “Mystery Aircraft” Page
• President Reagan's State of the Union Speech 2/4/86
• Jack Northrop and the UFO-Lookin' Flying Wings
• From the Archives: “America’s New Top Secret Aircraft”
• “The Top-Secret Warplanes of Area 51” by Bill Sweetman (2006)
• Mystery Booms Caused by Supersonic Aircraft
• Aurora: The Pentagon's Secret Hypersonic Spyplane (Mil-Tech Series)
• Black Jets: The Development and Operation of America's Most Secret Warplane
• Area 51 - Black Jets: A History of the Aircraft Developed at Groom Lake, America's Secret Aviation Base

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Sign up today and get access to the entire back catalog of The Micah Hanks Program, as well as “classic” episodes of The Gralien Report Podcast, weekly “additional editions” of the subscriber-only X Podcast, the monthly Enigmas specials, and much more.

Like us on Facebook

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Visit Micah's Website and check out Our Podcast Page

Music featured on The Micah Hanks Program includes songs composed by Caleb Hanks (The Clerk Chronicles), Decepticons (Dreamland, Start the Machine) and Micah Hanks. All songs are either in the public domain, Royalty Free, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0, or are used with permission of the creators. Please note that some links to books and other items on this page may feature Amazon Associate links.

This week, we lead off with news about artificial intelligence, and the passing of an influential NASA mathematician, Katherine Johnson, before turning our attention to Project Blue Book, the U.S. Air Force study of UFOs, and its scientific consultant J. Allen Hynek. 

During the early years of the Air Force’s UFO investigations, Hynek, a professor of astronomy at Ohio State University, was tasked with lending his scientific knowledge as the astronomical consultant to programs like Project Blue Book. 

As noted at the website of the Center for UFO Studies (which Hynek founded in 1973), “At first, Dr. Hynek was skeptical of the whole UFO business, but after examining hundreds of UFO reports by credible witnesses, he became convinced UFOs were worthy of serious study.” Even for years after the close of Project Blue Book, Hynek would continue to pursue answers to the UFO mystery, instituting a system of classification comprising Nocturnal Lights, Daylight Discs, Radar Cases, and three different levels of “Close Encounter,” the most rare and controversial of all the UFO sighting types. We explore all of these, as well as what Hynek had to say about Project Blue Book and his participation with it, on this edition of the podcast.

Enjoy The Micah Hanks Program? Check out Micah's other podcasts here. 

Below are links to stories and other content featured in this episode:

• Artificial intelligence yields new antibiotic
• Katherine Johnson, NASA mathematician depicted in 'Hidden Figures,' dies at 101
• Interview with NASA Pioneer and "Computer” Katherine Johnson
• The Hynek UFO Report at Internet Archive
• The Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) 
• Project Blue Book resources at the National Archives
• FBI Files related to Project Blue Book

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Sign up today and get access to the entire back catalog of The Micah Hanks Program, as well as “classic” episodes of The Gralien Report Podcast, weekly “additional editions” of the subscriber-only X Podcast, the monthly Enigmas specials, and much more.

Like us on Facebook

Follow @MicahHanks on Twitter

Follow Micah on Instagram

Visit Micah's Website and check out Our Podcast Page

Music featured on The Micah Hanks Program includes songs composed by Caleb Hanks (The Clerk Chronicles), Decepticons (Dreamland, Start the Machine) and Micah Hanks. All songs are either in the public domain, Royalty Free, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0, or are used with permission of the creators. 

This week we open "The Real X-Files" as investigative reporter Tim McMillan brings us an update on the Pentagon's UFO program, and Bruce Maccabee, Ph.D., discusses his years studying the FBI-CIA connection with UFOs.

This week's podcast looks at the enigma of Skinwalker Ranch, a purported hotspot for UFO activity and other strangeness, with journalist MJ Banias.

This week's program looks at the UFO experience and its relationship with shamanic traditions, dreams, ancestral worship, and other traditions with guest blogger Red Pill Junkie.

This week we take a deep-dive into the events surrounding the Tehran UFO incident of 1976, which remains one of the most significant military UFO encounters of all time.

This week's podcast explores the idea of lost knowledge that ancient cultures may have had, and whether evidence of these early technologies may be "encoded" in world mythology.