What are UFOs? Is there more than one answer to this question, and does new information forthcoming on the subject in recent years, which includes videos of unidentified objects or aircraft obtained by the Navy, change the fact that the UFO subject bears qualities of "mythic" proportions? 

After news about the exciting achievements of SpaceX and their successful launch of astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station on Saturday, we turn our attention to the "Myth and Mystery of UFOs," which became the title of a book by our guest, Thomas E. Bullard, Ph.D. Bullard's doctoral research included searching numerous newspapers for accounts of the 1896-97 airships and other pre-1947 sightings. In 1987, Bullard completed a study titled, "UFO Abductions-The Measure of a Mystery," a comparative study on UFO abduction claims.

Bullard followed this study with articles published in the Journal of American Folklore, Journal of UFO Studies, IUR, the MUFON UFO Journal, and the 1999 MUFON UFO Symposium. He contributed several articles to the Abduction Study Conference held at MIT in 1992m and in 2010 authored the book, The Myth and Mystery of UFOs, published by the University Press of Kansas. We dig into this weighty topic with Dr. Bullard, and get his perspectives as a folklorist on the enduring mystery of UFOs on this edition of The Micah Hanks Program.

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

• Orbital human spaceflight has come back to American soil.
• Strange, 'Never-Before-Seen' Asteroid Turns Out to Be Something Much More Common
• Scientists made a mouse embryo that's 4% human
• The Myth and Mystery of UFOs by Thomas E. Bullard, Ph.D.
• Thomas Bullard’s page at the Center for UFO Studies

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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.