Jesse Michels

in elementary school and you're getting, you know, videotapes, you know, of like, you know, duck, dive and roll or whatever, because you're so worried that like, you know, an atomic war could start at any time.

So the CIA makes that call.

They create this thing called Project Blue Book, which is the official UFO investigations program on behalf of the Air Force.

And that takes place from 1952 to 1969.

And basically, like in the mandate, in the charter of Project Blue Book, you have this basically let's downplay UFOs, let's rationalize, let's explain away UFOs.

We were talking earlier, you said you're from Michigan.

There's a famous case in 1966 where J. Allen Hynek, who's this Northwestern astronomer, who's basically the chief astronomer for Blue Book,

who later admits that he's part of the cover-up and that he didn't take UFOs as seriously as he should have.

He partakes in documentaries about UFOs.

In 1966, they say that there's this swamp gas in Michigan.

Everybody in Michigan is like, that's ridiculous.

We saw UFOs.

We saw lights in the sky.

Yeah.

And so in 1966, there is a review by this guy named Edward Condon about, you know, basically what was Blue Book's efforts?

Were they, like, actually worth it?

Did we spend money on anything possibly productive?

He does this with the University of Colorado.

And...

He comes out of the thing saying, like, I think, you know, this was a total waste of time.