This week we examine theories about UFOs and their origins, from the popular "extraterrestrial hypothesis" to alternatives that include psychological and social concepts.

12.16.19. UFOs: Theories of Origin

The Micah Hanks Program is a weekly podcast that covers science and the mysteries of our universe. Taking a critically-minded approach to the study of our world, each week Micah presents commentary and discussions with guests on subjects that include mysteries of physics and astronomy, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), UFOs, myths and folklore, archaeology and ancient mysteries, artificial intelligence, futurism, cryptozoology, science fiction, and entertainment. Each week we journey to the boundaries of human knowledge, in search of the most unusual things our world has to offer.

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What do we really know about UFOs, following several decades of studying these phenomena? With the many questions that remain about unidentified aerial phenomena, how can science help us to implement new strategies that may allow us to broaden our knowledge about these aerial mysteries?  This week on The Micah Hanks Program, former R&D; scientist Robert Powell joins us to discuss his nearly two decades of investigation into UFOs, culminating in his new book UFOs: A Scientist Explains What We Know (And Don’t Know).  Have you had a UFO/UAP sighting? Please consider reporting your sighting to the UAP Sightings Reporting System, a public resource for information about sightings of aerial phenomena.  The story doesn't end here... become an X Subscriber and get access to even more weekly content and monthly specials.  Want to advertise/sponsor The Micah Hanks Program? We have partnered with the AdvertiseCast to handle our advertising/sponsorship requests. If you would like to advertise with The Micah Hanks Program, all you have to do is click the link below to get started: AdvertiseCast: Advertise with The Micah Hanks Program Show Notes Below are links to stories and other content featured in this episode:  FOIA:  FOIA Documents Reveal AARO’s Authorized and Repeated Attempts to Engage with David Grusch  CHRISTOPHER MELLON:  Another Signal Exchange...  ROBERT POWELL:  UFOs: A Scientist Explains What We Know (And Don’t Know)  SCU: Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies  BECOME AN X SUBSCRIBER AND GET EVEN MORE GREAT PODCASTS AND MONTHLY SPECIALS FROM MICAH HANKS. 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 Keep up with Micah and his work at micahhanks.com.

UFOs: A Scientist's Perspective | MHP 04.23.24.

On March 8, 2024, the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) released its historical report on UAP, shortly after briefing only a select group of journalists associated with seven mainstream media outlets, none of whom seemingly bothered to fact-check the error-ridden report. "The disappointing lack of critical press coverage of this important report prompted me to begin compiling the insights of UAP scholars and experts who have studied the history of UAP and the US government," wrote former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Christopher Mellon, in a recent lengthy rebuttal in response to the report's release.  This week on The Micah Hanks Program, we analyze Mellon's response to the AARO report, along with several intriguing revelations it contains, including the purported existence of a secretive UAP sightings program at Area 51 in the 1980s, how the CIA may have once considered whether UAP were extraterrestrial technologies, and much more.  Have you had a UFO/UAP sighting? Please consider reporting your sighting to the UAP Sightings Reporting System, a public resource for information about sightings of aerial phenomena.  The story doesn't end here... become an X Subscriber and get access to even more weekly content and monthly specials.  Want to advertise/sponsor The Micah Hanks Program? We have partnered with the AdvertiseCast to handle our advertising/sponsorship requests. If you would like to advertise with The Micah Hanks Program, all you have to do is click the link below to get started: AdvertiseCast: Advertise with The Micah Hanks Program Show Notes Below are links to stories and other content featured in this episode:  NEWS:  Iran and Israel's shadow war is exposed. What's next?  World leaders urge Israel not to retaliate for the Iranian drone and missile attack    Bishop and worshippers attacked in another mass stabbing in Sydney     FBI opens criminal investigation into Baltimore bridge collapse, AP source says  AARO:  DOD Report Discounts Sightings of Extraterrestrial Technology CHRIS MELLON:  The Pentagon's New UAP Report is Seriously Flawed   BECOME AN X SUBSCRIBER AND GET EVEN MORE GREAT PODCASTS AND MONTHLY SPECIALS FROM MICAH HANKS. 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 Keep up with Micah and his work at micahhanks.com.

Broken AARO: The 'Mellon Report', UAP, and Area 51 | MHP 04.15.24.

In the Autumn of 1957, a series of events unfolded that, for a time, left U.S. defense officials believing that the country was on the verge of war with the Soviet Union, as a pair of mysterious objects were tracked on radar systems making their way toward a series of high security facilities. Before action could be taken, the objects mysteriously vanished, and the story receded into the shadows of Cold War memories for decades, prior to a series of once-secret CIA files surfaced detailing the startling incident. What do such circumstances say about the U.S. military's capabilities in terms of unidentified aerial phenomena? Based on a recent series of documents released through FOIA requests, decades later the U.S. is still struggling to reconcile the problem presented by UAP in our airspace. This week on The Micah Hanks Program, we analyze the ongoing problem that may very well represent the DoD's darkest UAP secret of all: what it doesn't know about mysterious aerial phenomena.  Have you had a UFO/UAP sighting? Please consider reporting your sighting to the UAP Sightings Reporting System, a public resource for information about sightings of aerial phenomena.  The story doesn't end here... become an X Subscriber and get access to even more weekly content and monthly specials.  Want to advertise/sponsor The Micah Hanks Program? We have partnered with the AdvertiseCast to handle our advertising/sponsorship requests. If you would like to advertise with The Micah Hanks Program, all you have to do is click the link below to get started: AdvertiseCast: Advertise with The Micah Hanks Program Show Notes Below are links to stories and other content featured in this episode:  NEWS: The Great American Eclipse of 2024  N.J. earthquake aftershock tally climbs to 39 after Friday’s big tremor. More expected.   Strong Taiwan Quake Kills 9, Injures Hundreds  Weather Service radar, warning systems fail during severe storm outbreak  Media Outlets Sunk By April Fool's Prank of the Navy's New "Caterpillar Drive" Stealth Submarine  Look at What NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Just Caught Speeding in Orbit Around the Moon  BECOME AN X SUBSCRIBER AND GET EVEN MORE GREAT PODCASTS AND MONTHLY SPECIALS FROM MICAH HANKS. 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 Keep up with Micah and his work at micahhanks.com.

The DoD's Dark UAP Secret | MHP 04.09.24.

 In 1950, a bizarre story involving the alleged crash of a flying saucer near Aztec, New Mexico, and its subsequent recovery by the U.S. military, sparked one of the most notorious claims in 20th-century UFO studies. Although revealed to be a hoax, why might U.S. intelligence agencies have taken interest in the story, and its bizarre claims about alien bodies recovered from the wreckage? This week on The Micah Hanks Program, after an analysis of the current state of the UFO debate, we reveal why it’s really only another case of history repeating itself. However something that is often left out of the debate over U.S. government disclosure of information about aerial mysteries involves human deception, and why it is so interwoven with the UFO mystery. Have you had a UFO/UAP sighting? Please consider reporting your sighting to the UAP Sightings Reporting System, a public resource for information about sightings of aerial phenomena.  The story doesn't end here... become an X Subscriber and get access to even more weekly content and monthly specials.  Want to advertise/sponsor The Micah Hanks Program? We have partnered with the AdvertiseCast to handle our advertising/sponsorship requests. If you would like to advertise with The Micah Hanks Program, all you have to do is click the link below to get started: AdvertiseCast: Advertise with The Micah Hanks Program Show Notes Below are links to stories and other content featured in this episode:  NEWS:  U.S. Army Moves Closer to Unleashing ‘Dark Eagle’ Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon   Driver arrested after ramming car into gate at FBI Atlanta office in Chamblee  Over 150 students and staff at North Carolina university 'are diagnosed with host of tumors   Investigation Links Russia's Shadowy "Unit 29155" to 'Havana Syndrome' Attacks  First human case of avian flu in Texas raises alarm  What UFO Cultists Can Teach Us About Political Paranoia  UFO DECEPTION:  The Aztec New Mexico UFO Hoax FBI Records on Majestic 12  James Carrion to Podcasters: Deception Inherent to Ufology  BECOME AN X SUBSCRIBER AND GET EVEN MORE GREAT PODCASTS AND MONTHLY SPECIALS FROM MICAH HANKS. 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 Keep up with Micah and his work at micahhanks.com.

The UFO Deception Game | MHP 04.02.24.

For years before the beginning of the modern UFO era in 1947, sightings of bizarre, cigar-shaped flying objects capable of unusual aerial feats were reported by pilots during World War II, as well as military and civilian pilots over the Americas. After the war, strange sightings continued involving aircraft that were mysterious for their time... but which look eerily familiar to us today. What were these mysterious objects, and do some of the "UFO" reports from decades past actually point to a secret history of aviation in the U.S. that could explain some of the mystery? This week on The Micah Hanks Program, we look at some of the most compelling UFO reports from over the decades that could point to the existence of experimental technologies developed by the U.S. that have never been fully disclosed.  Have you had a UFO/UAP sighting? Please consider reporting your sighting to the UAP Sightings Reporting System, a public resource for information about sightings of aerial phenomena.  The story doesn't end here... become an X Subscriber and get access to even more weekly content and monthly specials.  Want to advertise/sponsor The Micah Hanks Program? We have partnered with the AdvertiseCast to handle our advertising/sponsorship requests. If you would like to advertise with The Micah Hanks Program, all you have to do is click the link below to get started: AdvertiseCast: Advertise with The Micah Hanks Program Show Notes Below are links to stories and other content featured in this episode:  NEWS:  Key Bridge collapses into Patapsco River in Baltimore after vessel hits support column  Putin Acknowledges 'Radical Islamists' Committed Moscow Attack   Elon Musk’s Starlink Terminals Are Falling Into the Wrong Hands   Lawsuit by Elon Musk's X was an attempt to punish free speech, judge rules  Roswell conspiracy source revealed | Annie Jacobsen and Lex Fridman   BECOME AN X SUBSCRIBER AND GET EVEN MORE GREAT PODCASTS AND MONTHLY SPECIALS FROM MICAH HANKS. 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 Keep up with Micah and his work at micahhanks.com.

12.16.19. UFOs: Theories of Origin

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