This Top General Pushed UFO Disclosure. Now He’s Missing [Here’s Why…]

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4,467 segments

What do you call it when a retired Air Force general,
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one who once ran the most notorious lab in UFO history,
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vanishes from his house in broad daylight?
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The general was involved with the Pentagon's most advanced aerospace research.
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When the NASA material scientist behind a breakthrough rocket engine alloy
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disappears 30 feet from her friend on a hike.
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She was right behind them, 30 feet behind them, and then she disappeared.
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When one of MIT's top plasma physicists is gunned down outside his own front door.
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This many top scientists getting killed or going missing in just under a year
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looks like a major red flag.
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Who were the first people the Israelis killed in Iran when they went in?
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The first thing you do is kill your scientists.
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It's the kind of thing that sounds like the Chinese science fiction book,
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The Three-Body Problem.
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A world where scientists don't just make discoveries,
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but become the front line of a war they don't even know they're in.
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A world where the future rests on some of the most important minds on Earth.
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And those minds start disappearing.
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Except here, the names and the people behind them are real.
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Garcia went missing after taking lunch to her teenage daughter at a cafe in Taos Plaza.
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Some of them were very important people, and we're going to look at it over the next session.
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What we're looking at might not just be geopolitics in the dark or pressure coming from nation states,
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but from an unseen force shaping our timeline from somewhere above it.
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And a hidden struggle over who gets to control humanity's next leap.
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Or maybe none of these cases are connected.
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It's really sensitive stuff, and I'm not a big believer in coincidences.
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So tonight we're following the trail through missing scientists,
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murdered physicists, defense world gatekeepers,
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in this strange shadowland that forms wherever advanced knowledge becomes too dangerous to leave walking around.
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There's a state that researchers called hypnagogia,
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that threshold between waking and sleep where the brain is doing something genuinely unusual.
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The kind of thing that comes up in remote viewing accounts,
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or other out-of-body experiences,
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and honestly some of the most fascinating conversations I've had on this show.
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Since moving to Austin, sleep is something I've thought about a lot more,
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mostly because I'm not really doing it.
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That is, until recently.
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I used to sleep on whatever mattress I'd had for years,
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and it was clearly not helping me get the sleep I need.
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Then I did a comprehensive search,
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and I learned that most mattresses are kind of lame.
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And a total insomniac friend of mine told me that he tried Helix,
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and it fixed all of his issues.
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Helix is the mattress of the future.
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They have a sleep quiz that matches you to the right mattress based on your sleep position,
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your body type, and whether you sleep hot or cold.
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I got matched with the Helix Midnight.
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It has a cooling cover which I know is going to matter a lot in these extremely hot Austin summer days.
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When I started using it, the change hit immediately.
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I'm waking up feeling like I actually recovered overnight.
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For someone who does 4- and 5-hour interviews,
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sleep is maybe the most important thing for me to dial in.
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Ask any health or biohacking expert,
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and it's the number one thing that impacts the rest of your life.
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Helix has 20-plus mattresses, free shipping,
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And Helix's Midnight Luxe was ranked best overall mattress by both Forbes and Wired.
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Thank you so much to Helix Sleep for sponsoring today's episode.
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And 20% is a lot when it comes to mattresses.
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Again, that's helixsleep.com slash jessiemichaels,
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Michaels with no A.
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The trail begins in Albuquerque, New Mexico,
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in the shadow of Sandia Mountains.
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It's February 27, 2026,
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a late Friday morning on Quail Run Court.
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Neil McCasland, a 68-year-old retired Air Force general,
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is at home in a quiet neighborhood at the edge of the Cibola National Forest.
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A repairman sees him at the house around 10 a.m.
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Then, about an hour later, around 11.10 a.m.,
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his wife leaves for a medical appointment.
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At 12.04, barely an hour after that, she's back home.
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But her husband is gone.
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Left behind are his prescription glasses,
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his phone, which had been switched off,
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and his smartwatch.
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All the things that would make him trackable in the 21st century.
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But what's missing is a red backpack,
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his wallet,
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and a .38 caliber revolver with its holster.
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Not the best combination.
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At 3.07,
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his wife Susan reports him missing,
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and the official police investigation begins.
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In a newly released 911 call,
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she tells the dispatcher he's been gone for about three hours.
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I have some indication that he must have planned not to be found.
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She said he changed his clothes,
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and appears to be on foot,
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since none of their cars or bikes were missing.
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She also tells dispatch that he's been dealing with some medical issues,
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and that both of them were seeing a doctor for anxiety,
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lack of sleep,
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and short-term memory problems.
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In fact,
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it was the same doctor she had seen earlier that day.
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But Susan chalked the health issues up
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to garden-variety things that you face in old age.
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She never thought that Neil would actually act in a way to harm himself.
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Saying if his brain and body keeps deteriorating,
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he didn't want to live like that.
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But it seemed to me that was just a
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man-I-hate-how-this-is-going kind of thing.
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A comment like that would naturally raise concerns about self-harm.
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But whether that was a real risk,
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or just a throwaway comment on an off day,
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we don't actually know.
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When the police asked about the weapons,
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she said that her husband had a gun safe,
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with multiple pistols and rifles.
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But at that moment,
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couldn't tell whether anything was actually missing.
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Although now we know that one of his .38 calibers was in fact gone.
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The next day,
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a silver alert goes out.
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This is the kind of statewide alert issued
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when authorities think a missing person might be disoriented
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or cognitively impaired.
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New Mexico state statute doesn't require any kind of formal diagnosis.
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Given what Susan had already told the police,
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that was enough to trigger it.
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But even with those reported issues,
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McCaslin still doesn't fit the profile of a man who just wandered into a canyon.
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Investigators say he's still highly intelligent and capable.
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Friends say that the week before he disappeared,
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McCaslin cycled 60 miles.
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He hiked those very foothills.
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He biked them.
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He knew every trail.
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This wasn't a man losing his bearings,
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but the kind of guy who could out-ski most millennials.
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This was also a town he knew by heart.
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McCaslin once commanded the Phillips Research Site at Kirtland,
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an Air Force base notorious for hosting advanced weapons research right nearby.
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He wasn't a stranger to this place.
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It was basically his backyard.
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His wife would also issue another statement,
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saying McCaslin had some risk, but not from dementia.
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He was not confused and disoriented.
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But a clear head didn't make him any easier to find.
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The Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office said that they had surveillance footage
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from both ends of his street
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and still couldn't confirm his direction of travel.
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They made public appeals for doorbell cameras,
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dash cams, GoPros, anything.
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If you have any information where McCaslin may be,
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contact BCSO's Missing Persons Unit.
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Within the span of a week,
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the search expanded from the Sheriff's Office
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to the FBI's Albuquerque Field Office
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to the Air Force Office of Special Investigations,
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New Mexico State Search and Rescue,
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Albuquerque Mountain Rescue,
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horseback teams,
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three types of search dogs,
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drones,
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helicopters,
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and neighborhood canvassing.
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And despite living in an era with enough cameras
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to catch almost every delivery on the block in which he lived,
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no footage of him ever surfaced.
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Police accessed his electronic devices
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and searched his usual hiking spots,
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like the Elena Gallegos area into the Domingo Baca Canyon.
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But there was still no trace of him.
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After weeks, all they could find
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was a gray Air Force sweatshirt
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a mile east of his house.
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And even after testing it,
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they couldn't confirm it was McCaslin's.
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So we're talking about a regimented,
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physically active military vet
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who vanished from his house
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without leaving a single digital
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or physical fingerprint behind.
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That alone is strange.
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But it gets stranger
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once you understand who McCaslin actually was
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and the world he came out of.
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General McCaslin,
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his disappearance was discussed.
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UAPs were discussed.
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So I don't think this story is going away, Jesse.
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This was a man who spent his career
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deep in the black world of American defense.
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When you read his official Air Force biography,
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you realize he had access to things
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that the rest of us
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aren't even supposed to know exist.
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The foundation for that kind of clearance
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started when he graduated from the Air Force Academy,
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earned a PhD in astronautical engineering
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from MIT on a Hertz Foundation fellowship
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and later studied at Harvard's Kennedy School.
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He went on to lead
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the Space-Based Laser Project office,
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served as vice commander
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of the Space and Missile Systems Center,
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was the Materiel Wing Director
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at the Air Force Research Lab's
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Space Vehicles Directorate at Kirtland
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and spent part of his career
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in the National Reconnaissance Office,
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the world of black, off-the-record satellites.
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His career spanned everything from directed energy
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to space weapons to nuclear oversight.
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You probably get the point.
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This was a man who could out-credential
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most presidents
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and probably had more access than them, too.
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And there are two jobs on his resume
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that matter more than the rest.
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From June 2009 to May 2011,
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McCaslin served as Director of Special Programs
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at the Pentagon
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in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense
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for Acquisitions, Technology, and Logistics.
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The title is a mouthful,
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but according to the official
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Pentagon training documentation,
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that office oversees acquisition
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special access programs.
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These programs are the ultimate category
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of secret black projects.
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In fact, they account for about 75 to 80%
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of all special access programs
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in the Department of War.
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These are the programs built
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to protect the crown jewels.
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Extremely sensitive research
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in the process of building something,
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like a next-generation weapons system
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or a craft that doesn't officially exist.
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This is where sensitive technology
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moves from theory to prototype
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to something that the military
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can actually fly.
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And if you're wondering
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where UFO reverse engineering programs
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would possibly hide,
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this is the place.
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In the classified world,
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McCaslin's office was the motherlode.
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His Wikipedia page goes a step further,
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claiming that the role made him
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Executive Secretary
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of the Special Access Program Oversight Committee,
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the body that reviews and approves
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every single special access program
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in the Pentagon.
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But that's not even the most interesting job
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on his resume.
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From 2011 to 2013,
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McCaslin commanded the Air Force Research Lab,
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AFRL, at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base,
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overseeing a $2.2 billion science
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and technology portfolio,
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one of the largest research operations
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in the entire Pentagon.
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Advanced Material Science,
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Future Weapons,
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and of course,
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Exotic Propulsion.
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And if you're familiar with UFO lore,
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you also know that Wright-Patterson
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isn't just famous for Project Blue Book.
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It's the alleged home
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of the Roswell crash debris.
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I called Curtis LeMay
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and I said,
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General,
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I know we have a room
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at Wright-Patterson
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where you put all this secret stuff.
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Can I go in there?
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I've never heard him get mad,
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but he got madder than hell of me.
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Depending on who you believe,
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this place houses
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some of the most exotic materials
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in the history of the U.S. government.
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It's the place where they get studied,
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stored,
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reverse-engineered,
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and obsessively hidden from public view.
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That's not even a conspiracy.
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This is the place during World War II
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where the U.S. would reverse-engineer
[0:13:36 - 0:13:38] ▶
advanced Nazi tech.
[0:13:38 - 0:13:40] ▶
And General Neil McCasland
[0:13:40 - 0:13:42] ▶
ran the entire thing.
[0:13:42 - 0:13:43] ▶
But what really put him
[0:13:49 - 0:13:51] ▶
on the radar of UFO world
[0:13:51 - 0:13:52] ▶
is that his name showed up
[0:13:52 - 0:13:54] ▶
somewhere no one expected.
[0:13:54 - 0:13:56] ▶
In 2016,
[0:13:56 - 0:13:57] ▶
WikiLeaks published
[0:13:58 - 0:13:59] ▶
the hacked emails
[0:13:59 - 0:14:00] ▶
of John Podesta,
[0:14:00 - 0:14:01] ▶
Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman,
[0:14:01 - 0:14:03] ▶
and one of the most powerful
[0:14:03 - 0:14:05] ▶
political operatives
[0:14:05 - 0:14:06] ▶
in Washington.
[0:14:06 - 0:14:07] ▶
Buried in that email dump
[0:14:08 - 0:14:09] ▶
is an email from Tom DeLonge
[0:14:09 - 0:14:11] ▶
to Podesta.
[0:14:11 - 0:14:12] ▶
The subject line,
[0:14:13 - 0:14:14] ▶
General McCasland.
[0:14:14 - 0:14:15] ▶
DeLonge writes,
[0:14:15 - 0:14:16] ▶
He mentioned he's a skeptic.
[0:14:17 - 0:14:19] ▶
He's not.
[0:14:19 - 0:14:19] ▶
I've been working with him
[0:14:20 - 0:14:21] ▶
for four months.
[0:14:21 - 0:14:22] ▶
I've just got done
[0:14:22 - 0:14:23] ▶
giving him a four-hour presentation
[0:14:23 - 0:14:25] ▶
on the entire project
[0:14:25 - 0:14:26] ▶
a few weeks ago.
[0:14:26 - 0:14:27] ▶
He tells Podesta
[0:14:27 - 0:14:28] ▶
that McCasland
[0:14:28 - 0:14:29] ▶
just has to say that out loud.
[0:14:29 - 0:14:32] ▶
Because he is very, very aware.
[0:14:32 - 0:14:34] ▶
Because he was the man
[0:14:34 - 0:14:35] ▶
in charge of all this stuff.
[0:14:35 - 0:14:37] ▶
When Roswell crashed,
[0:14:37 - 0:14:38] ▶
they shipped it to the laboratory
[0:14:39 - 0:14:40] ▶
at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
[0:14:40 - 0:14:42] ▶
General McCasland
[0:14:42 - 0:14:43] ▶
was in charge
[0:14:43 - 0:14:44] ▶
of that exact laboratory
[0:14:44 - 0:14:46] ▶
up to a couple years ago.
[0:14:46 - 0:14:47] ▶
He not only knows
[0:14:47 - 0:14:48] ▶
what I'm trying to achieve,
[0:14:48 - 0:14:50] ▶
he helped assemble
[0:14:50 - 0:14:51] ▶
my advisory team.
[0:14:51 - 0:14:52] ▶
He's a very important man.
[0:14:52 - 0:14:54] ▶
DeLonge was after UFO disclosure
[0:14:55 - 0:14:57] ▶
for the American people.
[0:14:57 - 0:14:58] ▶
That's the whole point
[0:14:58 - 0:14:59] ▶
of To the Stars Academy.
[0:14:59 - 0:15:01] ▶
General McCasland
[0:15:01 - 0:15:02] ▶
being involved
[0:15:02 - 0:15:03] ▶
in those early efforts
[0:15:03 - 0:15:04] ▶
is a big deal.
[0:15:04 - 0:15:05] ▶
Some people try
[0:15:06 - 0:15:06] ▶
to dismiss Tom DeLonge
[0:15:06 - 0:15:08] ▶
and say that he was never
[0:15:08 - 0:15:09] ▶
in touch with Neil McCasland.
[0:15:09 - 0:15:10] ▶
After all,
[0:15:11 - 0:15:11] ▶
these leaked emails
[0:15:11 - 0:15:12] ▶
were never publicly confirmed.
[0:15:12 - 0:15:14] ▶
But even his wife,
[0:15:15 - 0:15:16] ▶
Susan,
[0:15:16 - 0:15:16] ▶
would come to acknowledge
[0:15:16 - 0:15:17] ▶
that McCasland
[0:15:17 - 0:15:18] ▶
was caught up
[0:15:18 - 0:15:19] ▶
in the Russian hack
[0:15:19 - 0:15:20] ▶
and had less contact
[0:15:20 - 0:15:22] ▶
with Tom
[0:15:22 - 0:15:23] ▶
after the emails
[0:15:23 - 0:15:24] ▶
were released.
[0:15:24 - 0:15:24] ▶
Key word here,
[0:15:25 - 0:15:26] ▶
less,
[0:15:26 - 0:15:26] ▶
not zero.
[0:15:27 - 0:15:27] ▶
And she's implicitly admitting
[0:15:27 - 0:15:32] ▶
that they were
[0:15:32 - 0:15:32] ▶
in close contact
[0:15:32 - 0:15:33] ▶
previously.
[0:15:33 - 0:15:34] ▶
In fact,
[0:15:35 - 0:15:35] ▶
in that same email batch
[0:15:36 - 0:15:37] ▶
that leaked,
[0:15:37 - 0:15:38] ▶
a calendar notification
[0:15:38 - 0:15:39] ▶
shows that
[0:15:39 - 0:15:40] ▶
Susan herself
[0:15:40 - 0:15:41] ▶
accepted a Google Calendar
[0:15:41 - 0:15:43] ▶
invite
[0:15:43 - 0:15:44] ▶
for something called
[0:15:44 - 0:15:45] ▶
a DeLonge-Podesta meeting.
[0:15:45 - 0:15:46] ▶
So at minimum,
[0:15:47 - 0:15:48] ▶
McCasland and his wife
[0:15:48 - 0:15:49] ▶
were in the room
[0:15:49 - 0:15:50] ▶
for conversations
[0:15:50 - 0:15:51] ▶
about UFO disclosure.
[0:15:51 - 0:15:52] ▶
We're not talking
[0:15:52 - 0:15:53] ▶
about a 4chan thread here.
[0:15:53 - 0:15:55] ▶
We're talking about
[0:15:55 - 0:15:56] ▶
Podesta's actual inbox.
[0:15:56 - 0:15:58] ▶
And as for Susan McCasland,
[0:15:58 - 0:16:00] ▶
she has a quite
[0:16:00 - 0:16:01] ▶
impressive background herself.
[0:16:01 - 0:16:02] ▶
She's a PhD astrophysicist,
[0:16:03 - 0:16:05] ▶
a colonel
[0:16:05 - 0:16:06] ▶
in the Air Force Reserve.
[0:16:06 - 0:16:07] ▶
She was a NASA
[0:16:08 - 0:16:08] ▶
astronaut semifinalist
[0:16:08 - 0:16:10] ▶
and had stints
[0:16:10 - 0:16:11] ▶
at both Boeing
[0:16:11 - 0:16:12] ▶
and Raytheon.
[0:16:12 - 0:16:13] ▶
She might even have
[0:16:14 - 0:16:15] ▶
her own clearance history.
[0:16:15 - 0:16:17] ▶
After McCasland disappeared,
[0:16:18 - 0:16:20] ▶
she told the press
[0:16:21 - 0:16:22] ▶
that he only held
[0:16:22 - 0:16:23] ▶
commonly held clearances
[0:16:23 - 0:16:24] ▶
since retirement.
[0:16:24 - 0:16:25] ▶
Maybe.
[0:16:26 - 0:16:26] ▶
But a man who spent
[0:16:27 - 0:16:28] ▶
his career this deep
[0:16:28 - 0:16:29] ▶
in the black world
[0:16:29 - 0:16:30] ▶
likely saw the full portfolio.
[0:16:30 - 0:16:33] ▶
And you don't really
[0:16:33 - 0:16:34] ▶
unsee that.
[0:16:34 - 0:16:35] ▶
Susan later made
[0:16:35 - 0:16:36] ▶
a statement on Facebook.
[0:16:36 - 0:16:37] ▶
She wrote,
[0:16:38 - 0:16:38] ▶
Neil does not have
[0:16:38 - 0:16:39] ▶
any special knowledge
[0:16:39 - 0:16:40] ▶
about the ET bodies
[0:16:40 - 0:16:42] ▶
and debris
[0:16:42 - 0:16:42] ▶
from the Roswell crash
[0:16:42 - 0:16:44] ▶
stored at Wright-Patt.
[0:16:44 - 0:16:45] ▶
Though at this point,
[0:16:45 - 0:16:46] ▶
with absolutely no sign of him,
[0:16:46 - 0:16:48] ▶
maybe the best hypothesis
[0:16:48 - 0:16:49] ▶
is that aliens
[0:16:49 - 0:16:51] ▶
beamed him up
[0:16:51 - 0:16:51] ▶
to the mothership.
[0:16:51 - 0:16:52] ▶
However,
[0:16:52 - 0:16:53] ▶
no sightings
[0:16:53 - 0:16:54] ▶
of a mothership
[0:16:54 - 0:16:55] ▶
hovering above
[0:16:55 - 0:16:55] ▶
the Sandia Mountains
[0:16:55 - 0:16:56] ▶
have been reported.
[0:16:56 - 0:16:57] ▶
Maybe this is just
[0:16:58 - 0:16:58] ▶
a woman holding it together
[0:16:58 - 0:17:00] ▶
with dark humor
[0:17:00 - 0:17:01] ▶
while the internet
[0:17:01 - 0:17:02] ▶
tears her life apart.
[0:17:02 - 0:17:03] ▶
But it's undeniable
[0:17:03 - 0:17:04] ▶
that the phrasing is odd.
[0:17:04 - 0:17:06] ▶
She doesn't say
[0:17:06 - 0:17:07] ▶
Roswell material
[0:17:07 - 0:17:08] ▶
doesn't exist
[0:17:08 - 0:17:09] ▶
at Wright-Patterson.
[0:17:09 - 0:17:10] ▶
She just says
[0:17:11 - 0:17:12] ▶
McCasland doesn't have
[0:17:12 - 0:17:13] ▶
any special knowledge
[0:17:13 - 0:17:14] ▶
about it.
[0:17:14 - 0:17:14] ▶
An event that,
[0:17:15 - 0:17:15] ▶
mind you,
[0:17:16 - 0:17:16] ▶
has been reported
[0:17:16 - 0:17:17] ▶
on ad nauseum
[0:17:17 - 0:17:18] ▶
in the open source world.
[0:17:18 - 0:17:20] ▶
So she might just be saying
[0:17:20 - 0:17:21] ▶
there's nothing
[0:17:21 - 0:17:22] ▶
that Neil McCasland
[0:17:22 - 0:17:23] ▶
knows about Roswell
[0:17:23 - 0:17:24] ▶
that you,
[0:17:24 - 0:17:25] ▶
the public,
[0:17:25 - 0:17:26] ▶
don't already know.
[0:17:26 - 0:17:27] ▶
Now look,
[0:17:28 - 0:17:28] ▶
any reasonable person
[0:17:29 - 0:17:30] ▶
should be hesitant
[0:17:30 - 0:17:31] ▶
to parse
[0:17:31 - 0:17:32] ▶
or speculate
[0:17:32 - 0:17:32] ▶
on the words
[0:17:32 - 0:17:33] ▶
of a grieving wife.
[0:17:33 - 0:17:34] ▶
And Susan and Neil
[0:17:35 - 0:17:36] ▶
deserve all of our
[0:17:36 - 0:17:37] ▶
thoughts and prayers.
[0:17:37 - 0:17:38] ▶
But also,
[0:17:38 - 0:17:39] ▶
to any reasonable person,
[0:17:39 - 0:17:41] ▶
these words
[0:17:41 - 0:17:42] ▶
almost feel
[0:17:42 - 0:17:43] ▶
like a cipher
[0:17:43 - 0:17:44] ▶
to decode,
[0:17:44 - 0:17:45] ▶
an invitation
[0:17:45 - 0:17:46] ▶
to speculate,
[0:17:46 - 0:17:46] ▶
just a little bit.
[0:17:47 - 0:17:48] ▶
And the statement
[0:17:48 - 0:17:50] ▶
ended up provoking
[0:17:50 - 0:17:51] ▶
just that.
[0:17:51 - 0:17:52] ▶
They spurred
[0:17:52 - 0:17:53] ▶
a lot of public speculation.
[0:17:53 - 0:17:55] ▶
If anything,
[0:17:55 - 0:17:55] ▶
the internet theorizing
[0:17:56 - 0:17:57] ▶
went into overdrive.
[0:17:57 - 0:17:58] ▶
I do think
[0:17:58 - 0:17:59] ▶
that there are secrets
[0:17:59 - 0:18:00] ▶
that obviously
[0:18:00 - 0:18:01] ▶
will not be released
[0:18:01 - 0:18:05] ▶
because we have technologies
[0:18:05 - 0:18:07] ▶
that other nations don't
[0:18:07 - 0:18:08] ▶
and just see the superiority
[0:18:08 - 0:18:09] ▶
of our forces
[0:18:09 - 0:18:10] ▶
right now
[0:18:10 - 0:18:11] ▶
with Iran.
[0:18:11 - 0:18:13] ▶
Had McCasland
[0:18:13 - 0:18:14] ▶
been quietly folded
[0:18:14 - 0:18:15] ▶
into some continuity
[0:18:15 - 0:18:17] ▶
of government program?
[0:18:17 - 0:18:18] ▶
or taken into
[0:18:18 - 0:18:19] ▶
protective custody
[0:18:19 - 0:18:20] ▶
in preparation
[0:18:20 - 0:18:21] ▶
for the war with Iran?
[0:18:21 - 0:18:22] ▶
Had he been taken
[0:18:23 - 0:18:24] ▶
by a foreign adversary
[0:18:24 - 0:18:25] ▶
that understood
[0:18:25 - 0:18:26] ▶
exactly how valuable
[0:18:26 - 0:18:27] ▶
he was?
[0:18:27 - 0:18:28] ▶
People in UFO world
[0:18:28 - 0:18:30] ▶
associate McCasland
[0:18:30 - 0:18:31] ▶
with the Majestic 12,
[0:18:31 - 0:18:32] ▶
an elite and top secret
[0:18:33 - 0:18:34] ▶
presidential advisory panel
[0:18:34 - 0:18:36] ▶
dating back to Truman
[0:18:36 - 0:18:38] ▶
and Eisenhower
[0:18:38 - 0:18:39] ▶
that deals with
[0:18:39 - 0:18:40] ▶
the UFO topic.
[0:18:40 - 0:18:41] ▶
There are a lot
[0:18:41 - 0:18:42] ▶
of reasonable questions
[0:18:42 - 0:18:43] ▶
as to whether
[0:18:43 - 0:18:44] ▶
this Majestic 12 committee
[0:18:44 - 0:18:45] ▶
ever really existed.
[0:18:45 - 0:18:47] ▶
But perhaps
[0:18:47 - 0:18:48] ▶
the person deepest
[0:18:48 - 0:18:48] ▶
on the UFO truth,
[0:18:48 - 0:18:50] ▶
at least from the
[0:18:50 - 0:18:51] ▶
government perspective
[0:18:51 - 0:18:52] ▶
that we know about
[0:18:52 - 0:18:53] ▶
over the last 70 years,
[0:18:53 - 0:18:55] ▶
is a guy named
[0:18:55 - 0:18:56] ▶
Colonel John Alexander.
[0:18:56 - 0:18:58] ▶
And at one point,
[0:18:58 - 0:18:59] ▶
he admitted
[0:18:59 - 0:18:59] ▶
that the Majestic 12
[0:18:59 - 0:19:00] ▶
was basically just
[0:19:00 - 0:19:02] ▶
a cover
[0:19:02 - 0:19:02] ▶
for continuity
[0:19:02 - 0:19:03] ▶
of government programs.
[0:19:03 - 0:19:05] ▶
People in the
[0:19:05 - 0:19:06] ▶
military-industrial complex
[0:19:06 - 0:19:07] ▶
where if the president
[0:19:07 - 0:19:08] ▶
and his direct cabinet
[0:19:08 - 0:19:10] ▶
were incapacitated,
[0:19:10 - 0:19:11] ▶
they would take over.
[0:19:11 - 0:19:12] ▶
To be honest,
[0:19:13 - 0:19:13] ▶
McCasland sounds like
[0:19:13 - 0:19:15] ▶
he squarely fits
[0:19:15 - 0:19:16] ▶
that profile.
[0:19:16 - 0:19:17] ▶
Theories around
[0:19:17 - 0:19:18] ▶
his disappearance
[0:19:18 - 0:19:19] ▶
kept multiplying.
[0:19:19 - 0:19:20] ▶
And the timing
[0:19:20 - 0:19:21] ▶
of all of this
[0:19:21 - 0:19:22] ▶
didn't help either.
[0:19:22 - 0:19:23] ▶
Are aliens real?
[0:19:23 - 0:19:24] ▶
Uh, they're real,
[0:19:25 - 0:19:26] ▶
but I haven't seen them.
[0:19:27 - 0:19:28] ▶
In the summer of 2025,
[0:19:28 - 0:19:29] ▶
the mainstream
[0:19:30 - 0:19:31] ▶
Italian magazine
[0:19:31 - 0:19:32] ▶
Let Espresso
[0:19:32 - 0:19:33] ▶
published an article
[0:19:33 - 0:19:34] ▶
from a confidential source.
[0:19:34 - 0:19:36] ▶
It claimed that
[0:19:36 - 0:19:38] ▶
President Trump
[0:19:38 - 0:19:39] ▶
was wrestling control
[0:19:39 - 0:19:40] ▶
of special access programs
[0:19:40 - 0:19:42] ▶
away from the Pentagon
[0:19:42 - 0:19:43] ▶
and under the command
[0:19:43 - 0:19:44] ▶
of the White House,
[0:19:44 - 0:19:45] ▶
a move that supposedly
[0:19:46 - 0:19:47] ▶
sparked tensions
[0:19:47 - 0:19:48] ▶
between military leaders
[0:19:48 - 0:19:49] ▶
and some of the
[0:19:49 - 0:19:50] ▶
president's advisors.
[0:19:50 - 0:19:51] ▶
The article goes on
[0:19:52 - 0:19:53] ▶
to mention
[0:19:53 - 0:19:53] ▶
Project Preserve Destiny,
[0:19:53 - 0:19:55] ▶
a program involving
[0:19:56 - 0:19:57] ▶
communications
[0:19:57 - 0:19:57] ▶
with non-human intelligence
[0:19:57 - 0:19:59] ▶
housed under
[0:19:59 - 0:20:00] ▶
the National Security Agency,
[0:20:00 - 0:20:02] ▶
or NSA.
[0:20:02 - 0:20:03] ▶
The program involves
[0:20:03 - 0:20:04] ▶
some of the most
[0:20:04 - 0:20:05] ▶
bizarre protocols
[0:20:05 - 0:20:06] ▶
and has some of
[0:20:06 - 0:20:07] ▶
the most profound
[0:20:07 - 0:20:08] ▶
implications of anything
[0:20:08 - 0:20:10] ▶
we've ever covered
[0:20:10 - 0:20:11] ▶
on this show.
[0:20:11 - 0:20:12] ▶
Just listen to the experience
[0:20:12 - 0:20:13] ▶
of Air Force Sergeant
[0:20:13 - 0:20:15] ▶
Dan Sherman.
[0:20:15 - 0:20:15] ▶
This is what he was told
[0:20:16 - 0:20:17] ▶
the program was about.
[0:20:17 - 0:20:18] ▶
The genesis of it
[0:20:18 - 0:20:19] ▶
was in 1947,
[0:20:19 - 0:20:20] ▶
we came in contact
[0:20:20 - 0:20:21] ▶
with an alien species,
[0:20:21 - 0:20:22] ▶
and in 1960,
[0:20:23 - 0:20:25] ▶
they started a project,
[0:20:26 - 0:20:28] ▶
it was called
[0:20:28 - 0:20:29] ▶
Project Preserve Destiny,
[0:20:29 - 0:20:30] ▶
and it was designed
[0:20:30 - 0:20:32] ▶
to genetically manage
[0:20:32 - 0:20:35] ▶
fetuses,
[0:20:35 - 0:20:36] ▶
human fetuses,
[0:20:36 - 0:20:37] ▶
so that they would have
[0:20:37 - 0:20:38] ▶
the heightened ability
[0:20:38 - 0:20:39] ▶
to do this particular thing
[0:20:39 - 0:20:41] ▶
that I was going
[0:20:41 - 0:20:42] ▶
to school for.
[0:20:42 - 0:20:42] ▶
My mother was one
[0:20:43 - 0:20:44] ▶
of the selected targets,
[0:20:44 - 0:20:47] ▶
or whatever you want
[0:20:47 - 0:20:47] ▶
to call it.
[0:20:47 - 0:20:48] ▶
And on the night
[0:20:48 - 0:20:49] ▶
of February 19,
[0:20:49 - 0:20:50] ▶
2026,
[0:20:51 - 0:20:52] ▶
Trump announced
[0:20:52 - 0:20:53] ▶
on Truth Social
[0:20:53 - 0:20:54] ▶
that he was directing
[0:20:54 - 0:20:56] ▶
the Pentagon
[0:20:56 - 0:20:56] ▶
and other agencies
[0:20:56 - 0:20:57] ▶
to begin identifying
[0:20:57 - 0:20:59] ▶
and releasing government files
[0:20:59 - 0:21:01] ▶
related to aliens
[0:21:01 - 0:21:03] ▶
and the UAP phenomena.
[0:21:03 - 0:21:04] ▶
Trump is always
[0:21:05 - 0:21:06] ▶
shooting from the hip.
[0:21:06 - 0:21:07] ▶
You don't really get
[0:21:07 - 0:21:08] ▶
the sense that
[0:21:08 - 0:21:08] ▶
that post was planned.
[0:21:08 - 0:21:10] ▶
And you have to think,
[0:21:10 - 0:21:11] ▶
if a UFO legacy program
[0:21:11 - 0:21:13] ▶
does in fact exist,
[0:21:13 - 0:21:14] ▶
they were thinking deeply
[0:21:15 - 0:21:16] ▶
about their most
[0:21:16 - 0:21:17] ▶
important personnel.
[0:21:17 - 0:21:18] ▶
Eight days
[0:21:19 - 0:21:20] ▶
after that announcement,
[0:21:20 - 0:21:21] ▶
McCaslin vanished
[0:21:21 - 0:21:22] ▶
from his neighborhood.
[0:21:22 - 0:21:23] ▶
I'm not going to pretend
[0:21:23 - 0:21:26] ▶
I know what this means,
[0:21:26 - 0:21:27] ▶
and I'm not saying
[0:21:27 - 0:21:28] ▶
that Trump's announcement
[0:21:28 - 0:21:29] ▶
is the reason he disappeared.
[0:21:29 - 0:21:31] ▶
But the timing
[0:21:31 - 0:21:32] ▶
is a data point.
[0:21:32 - 0:21:33] ▶
There could be a few reasons
[0:21:33 - 0:21:34] ▶
why that timing is important.
[0:21:34 - 0:21:36] ▶
Neil McCaslin,
[0:21:36 - 0:21:37] ▶
I mean,
[0:21:37 - 0:21:37] ▶
you have to wonder
[0:21:37 - 0:21:38] ▶
the timing.
[0:21:38 - 0:21:39] ▶
President Trump saying,
[0:21:40 - 0:21:41] ▶
you know,
[0:21:41 - 0:21:41] ▶
I'm going to release
[0:21:41 - 0:21:42] ▶
these files,
[0:21:42 - 0:21:42] ▶
and then six days later,
[0:21:42 - 0:21:44] ▶
Neil McCaslin goes missing.
[0:21:44 - 0:21:45] ▶
If McCaslin was involved
[0:21:45 - 0:21:47] ▶
in these programs
[0:21:47 - 0:21:48] ▶
and felt he could be
[0:21:48 - 0:21:49] ▶
implicated in any way,
[0:21:49 - 0:21:51] ▶
the release of these UFO files
[0:21:51 - 0:21:53] ▶
could have been a pressure point,
[0:21:53 - 0:21:54] ▶
maybe enough to make him crack
[0:21:54 - 0:21:56] ▶
and disappear
[0:21:56 - 0:21:57] ▶
into the wilderness.
[0:21:57 - 0:21:58] ▶
This also could have explained
[0:21:59 - 0:22:01] ▶
the deep anxiety
[0:22:01 - 0:22:02] ▶
leading up to that moment.
[0:22:02 - 0:22:03] ▶
Maybe the intense hiking
[0:22:04 - 0:22:05] ▶
and biking
[0:22:05 - 0:22:05] ▶
was to relieve stress.
[0:22:05 - 0:22:07] ▶
What many online
[0:22:08 - 0:22:09] ▶
are saying
[0:22:09 - 0:22:09] ▶
is the most simple explanation
[0:22:09 - 0:22:11] ▶
for McCaslin's disappearance
[0:22:11 - 0:22:12] ▶
is that he walked
[0:22:12 - 0:22:14] ▶
into the Sandia foothills
[0:22:14 - 0:22:15] ▶
with his gun,
[0:22:15 - 0:22:16] ▶
and that whatever was in his head
[0:22:16 - 0:22:18] ▶
after a lifetime
[0:22:18 - 0:22:19] ▶
near the most secretive programs
[0:22:19 - 0:22:21] ▶
in the country
[0:22:21 - 0:22:22] ▶
simply became
[0:22:22 - 0:22:23] ▶
too much to carry,
[0:22:23 - 0:22:24] ▶
a burden too great to bear.
[0:22:25 - 0:22:26] ▶
The fact that he changed
[0:22:27 - 0:22:28] ▶
his clothes before leaving,
[0:22:28 - 0:22:29] ▶
making it harder
[0:22:30 - 0:22:31] ▶
to identify
[0:22:31 - 0:22:31] ▶
what he was wearing,
[0:22:31 - 0:22:32] ▶
adds to that theory.
[0:22:33 - 0:22:34] ▶
But after weeks
[0:22:34 - 0:22:35] ▶
of searching terrain
[0:22:35 - 0:22:36] ▶
that experienced teams
[0:22:36 - 0:22:38] ▶
covered repeatedly,
[0:22:38 - 0:22:39] ▶
they haven't found a body.
[0:22:39 - 0:22:41] ▶
So the opposite
[0:22:41 - 0:22:42] ▶
could also be true.
[0:22:42 - 0:22:43] ▶
This was a man
[0:22:45 - 0:22:46] ▶
who was already involved
[0:22:46 - 0:22:47] ▶
with early disclosure efforts.
[0:22:47 - 0:22:49] ▶
McCaslin wasn't hiding
[0:22:49 - 0:22:51] ▶
from transparency.
[0:22:51 - 0:22:52] ▶
If anything,
[0:22:52 - 0:22:53] ▶
he was working toward it.
[0:22:53 - 0:22:54] ▶
And that makes him
[0:22:55 - 0:22:56] ▶
quite dangerous
[0:22:56 - 0:22:57] ▶
and a liability
[0:22:57 - 0:22:58] ▶
to the people
[0:22:58 - 0:22:59] ▶
who don't want disclosure.
[0:22:59 - 0:23:00] ▶
To them,
[0:23:02 - 0:23:03] ▶
this is the last person
[0:23:03 - 0:23:05] ▶
you'd ever want to put
[0:23:05 - 0:23:06] ▶
on the witness stand.
[0:23:06 - 0:23:07] ▶
He was a man
[0:23:07 - 0:23:08] ▶
who saw behind the curtain
[0:23:08 - 0:23:09] ▶
and knew exactly
[0:23:09 - 0:23:10] ▶
what was hanging there.
[0:23:10 - 0:23:11] ▶
Harvard lawyer
[0:23:11 - 0:23:12] ▶
and civil rights activist
[0:23:12 - 0:23:13] ▶
Danny Sheehan,
[0:23:13 - 0:23:14] ▶
the constitutional lawyer
[0:23:14 - 0:23:16] ▶
behind the Pentagon Papers,
[0:23:16 - 0:23:17] ▶
recently went on
[0:23:18 - 0:23:19] ▶
the Third Eye Drops podcast
[0:23:19 - 0:23:20] ▶
with my buddy Michael Phillip
[0:23:20 - 0:23:21] ▶
and described what he calls
[0:23:21 - 0:23:24] ▶
the association.
[0:23:24 - 0:23:25] ▶
There has arisen
[0:23:25 - 0:23:26] ▶
an insurgency group
[0:23:26 - 0:23:29] ▶
that have occupied
[0:23:29 - 0:23:30] ▶
extremely high positions
[0:23:30 - 0:23:32] ▶
in the Defense Department,
[0:23:32 - 0:23:34] ▶
inside the Central Intelligence Agency,
[0:23:35 - 0:23:37] ▶
inside some of the
[0:23:38 - 0:23:38] ▶
private aerospace corporations,
[0:23:38 - 0:23:40] ▶
and inside the military services.
[0:23:41 - 0:23:44] ▶
Okay, and I happen to know
[0:23:44 - 0:23:45] ▶
who they are.
[0:23:45 - 0:23:46] ▶
Okay, and what they've done
[0:23:46 - 0:23:48] ▶
is they've formed
[0:23:48 - 0:23:48] ▶
an association.
[0:23:48 - 0:23:49] ▶
And they're working
[0:23:50 - 0:23:52] ▶
to try to drag the program
[0:23:52 - 0:23:55] ▶
back into the government.
[0:23:55 - 0:23:57] ▶
This is a covert circle
[0:23:58 - 0:23:59] ▶
of 24 retired,
[0:23:59 - 0:24:01] ▶
high-ranking officials
[0:24:01 - 0:24:02] ▶
from the DoD, CIA,
[0:24:02 - 0:24:04] ▶
and private aerospace.
[0:24:05 - 0:24:06] ▶
A secret brain trust
[0:24:06 - 0:24:08] ▶
quietly working
[0:24:08 - 0:24:09] ▶
to drag classified UAP programs
[0:24:09 - 0:24:11] ▶
back into the light
[0:24:11 - 0:24:12] ▶
of government oversight
[0:24:12 - 0:24:14] ▶
and towards transparency.
[0:24:14 - 0:24:15] ▶
They're all retired,
[0:24:15 - 0:24:16] ▶
and they all took
[0:24:17 - 0:24:17] ▶
their Rolodexes
[0:24:17 - 0:24:18] ▶
and credibility with them.
[0:24:18 - 0:24:20] ▶
So did McCasland
[0:24:20 - 0:24:21] ▶
have his own little black book?
[0:24:21 - 0:24:23] ▶
Was he one of those 24?
[0:24:23 - 0:24:25] ▶
We don't actually know,
[0:24:26 - 0:24:27] ▶
but he does fit the profile.
[0:24:28 - 0:24:29] ▶
Retired, credentialed,
[0:24:30 - 0:24:31] ▶
connected,
[0:24:32 - 0:24:32] ▶
and sympathetic to disclosure.
[0:24:33 - 0:24:34] ▶
And I've got their names, too, here.
[0:24:34 - 0:24:37] ▶
Wow.
[0:24:37 - 0:24:37] ▶
Right here.
[0:24:37 - 0:24:38] ▶
Are those names private,
[0:24:38 - 0:24:40] ▶
or can those names be...
[0:24:40 - 0:24:41] ▶
They're not public at all.
[0:24:41 - 0:24:42] ▶
Okay, okay.
[0:24:42 - 0:24:42] ▶
They're not public at all,
[0:24:42 - 0:24:43] ▶
but there's 24 of them.
[0:24:43 - 0:24:44] ▶
After McCasland
[0:24:44 - 0:24:45] ▶
hung up his uniform in 2013,
[0:24:45 - 0:24:47] ▶
his wife described him
[0:24:47 - 0:24:49] ▶
as a man winding down,
[0:24:49 - 0:24:50] ▶
hiking the foothills,
[0:24:51 - 0:24:52] ▶
enjoying a quiet life
[0:24:52 - 0:24:53] ▶
in the desert.
[0:24:53 - 0:24:53] ▶
Technically, that's all true.
[0:24:54 - 0:24:55] ▶
Dialbud power
[0:24:56 - 0:24:57] ▶
for 24 hours.
[0:24:57 - 0:24:59] ▶
End of day
[0:25:00 - 0:25:01] ▶
comes our shower.
[0:25:01 - 0:25:02] ▶
But that's not the full story.
[0:25:02 - 0:25:05] ▶
In fact,
[0:25:05 - 0:25:06] ▶
after leaving his post in government,
[0:25:06 - 0:25:08] ▶
he's listed as a founder
[0:25:08 - 0:25:09] ▶
of DBE Consulting,
[0:25:09 - 0:25:12] ▶
a New Mexico national security
[0:25:12 - 0:25:15] ▶
consulting firm
[0:25:15 - 0:25:16] ▶
tied to James Tegnalia,
[0:25:16 - 0:25:18] ▶
the former deputy director of DARPA,
[0:25:18 - 0:25:20] ▶
and the director
[0:25:20 - 0:25:21] ▶
of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.
[0:25:21 - 0:25:23] ▶
This agency,
[0:25:24 - 0:25:24] ▶
also known as DITRA for short,
[0:25:25 - 0:25:26] ▶
is the Pentagon's agency
[0:25:27 - 0:25:28] ▶
for countering weapons
[0:25:28 - 0:25:29] ▶
of mass destruction.
[0:25:29 - 0:25:30] ▶
But it also might have a thing
[0:25:31 - 0:25:32] ▶
or two to do with UFOs.
[0:25:32 - 0:25:34] ▶
The person in charge
[0:25:34 - 0:25:35] ▶
of collecting
[0:25:35 - 0:25:36] ▶
all of the information
[0:25:36 - 0:25:37] ▶
from DITRA
[0:25:37 - 0:25:38] ▶
dealing with extraterrestrials
[0:25:38 - 0:25:40] ▶
and, as he put it,
[0:25:40 - 0:25:41] ▶
quote-unquote,
[0:25:41 - 0:25:42] ▶
little green men
[0:25:42 - 0:25:43] ▶
happened to sit next to me
[0:25:43 - 0:25:44] ▶
at my computer terminal
[0:25:44 - 0:25:46] ▶
and began pulling
[0:25:46 - 0:25:47] ▶
all of the documents
[0:25:47 - 0:25:48] ▶
on my system
[0:25:48 - 0:25:49] ▶
and the systems in our SCIF.
[0:25:49 - 0:25:51] ▶
This consulting firm
[0:25:51 - 0:25:52] ▶
wasn't just two old colleagues
[0:25:52 - 0:25:53] ▶
starting a fishing club.
[0:25:53 - 0:25:55] ▶
It represents
[0:25:55 - 0:25:56] ▶
two aerospace graybeards
[0:25:56 - 0:25:57] ▶
with connections
[0:25:57 - 0:25:58] ▶
way too deep
[0:25:58 - 0:25:59] ▶
to ever really walk away,
[0:25:59 - 0:26:01] ▶
advising clients
[0:26:02 - 0:26:03] ▶
across the Pentagon
[0:26:03 - 0:26:04] ▶
and Department of Energy.
[0:26:04 - 0:26:05] ▶
Make of that what you will.
[0:26:06 - 0:26:07] ▶
In 2019,
[0:26:07 - 0:26:08] ▶
he joined the board of trustees
[0:26:08 - 0:26:10] ▶
at Riverside Research,
[0:26:10 - 0:26:11] ▶
a nonprofit
[0:26:12 - 0:26:12] ▶
with hundreds of millions
[0:26:12 - 0:26:14] ▶
of dollars
[0:26:14 - 0:26:14] ▶
in defense
[0:26:14 - 0:26:15] ▶
and intelligence work
[0:26:15 - 0:26:16] ▶
on the books.
[0:26:16 - 0:26:17] ▶
He was also the director
[0:26:17 - 0:26:18] ▶
of technology
[0:26:18 - 0:26:19] ▶
at ATA,
[0:26:19 - 0:26:20] ▶
Applied Technology Associates,
[0:26:21 - 0:26:23] ▶
one of those aerospace firms
[0:26:23 - 0:26:25] ▶
with a deliberately vague name
[0:26:25 - 0:26:27] ▶
working in sensitive areas
[0:26:27 - 0:26:29] ▶
in space systems
[0:26:29 - 0:26:30] ▶
and directed energy.
[0:26:30 - 0:26:31] ▶
That doesn't sound
[0:26:32 - 0:26:33] ▶
like a quiet retirement to me,
[0:26:33 - 0:26:34] ▶
but that's exactly
[0:26:35 - 0:26:36] ▶
the kind of person
[0:26:36 - 0:26:37] ▶
who makes a very specific
[0:26:37 - 0:26:38] ▶
set of people
[0:26:38 - 0:26:39] ▶
very nervous,
[0:26:39 - 0:26:40] ▶
a potential whistleblower,
[0:26:41 - 0:26:42] ▶
operating in the dangerous margin
[0:26:42 - 0:26:45] ▶
between intelligence agencies
[0:26:45 - 0:26:47] ▶
and private contractors,
[0:26:47 - 0:26:48] ▶
two groups
[0:26:49 - 0:26:49] ▶
with their own distinct methods
[0:26:49 - 0:26:51] ▶
of making problems disappear.
[0:26:51 - 0:26:53] ▶
And if you're in the business
[0:26:53 - 0:26:54] ▶
of making problems disappear,
[0:26:54 - 0:26:56] ▶
you make sure you give the public
[0:26:56 - 0:26:58] ▶
a story they can wrap
[0:26:58 - 0:26:59] ▶
their heads around.
[0:26:59 - 0:27:00] ▶
This is the Fixer Handbook 101,
[0:27:00 - 0:27:02] ▶
which brings us back
[0:27:03 - 0:27:04] ▶
to a detail
[0:27:04 - 0:27:04] ▶
that doesn't get enough attention.
[0:27:04 - 0:27:06] ▶
Just because McCaslin's gun
[0:27:07 - 0:27:08] ▶
is missing
[0:27:08 - 0:27:09] ▶
doesn't mean he was
[0:27:09 - 0:27:10] ▶
the one who took it.
[0:27:10 - 0:27:11] ▶
Think about it.
[0:27:12 - 0:27:12] ▶
If you wanted to stage
[0:27:12 - 0:27:13] ▶
someone's disappearance
[0:27:13 - 0:27:14] ▶
to read like a probable suicide,
[0:27:14 - 0:27:16] ▶
what would you take?
[0:27:17 - 0:27:18] ▶
You'd take a gun.
[0:27:18 - 0:27:19] ▶
Not their phone or smartwatch.
[0:27:20 - 0:27:22] ▶
You'd leave everything trackable
[0:27:22 - 0:27:24] ▶
with a GPS chip,
[0:27:24 - 0:27:25] ▶
but take the one item
[0:27:25 - 0:27:27] ▶
with an obvious narrative
[0:27:27 - 0:27:28] ▶
attached to it.
[0:27:28 - 0:27:29] ▶
Ultimately,
[0:27:30 - 0:27:30] ▶
who knows what happened
[0:27:30 - 0:27:31] ▶
to McCaslin?
[0:27:31 - 0:27:32] ▶
What we do know
[0:27:32 - 0:27:33] ▶
is that a man
[0:27:33 - 0:27:34] ▶
who knew more about
[0:27:34 - 0:27:35] ▶
America's most classified
[0:27:35 - 0:27:37] ▶
science programs
[0:27:37 - 0:27:38] ▶
than about 99.9999%
[0:27:38 - 0:27:41] ▶
of our population
[0:27:41 - 0:27:43] ▶
vanished from his house
[0:27:43 - 0:27:44] ▶
without tripping
[0:27:44 - 0:27:45] ▶
a single camera.
[0:27:45 - 0:27:46] ▶
And as of today,
[0:27:49 - 0:27:50] ▶
despite 700 homeowners
[0:27:50 - 0:27:52] ▶
canvassed,
[0:27:52 - 0:27:53] ▶
search parties,
[0:27:54 - 0:27:54] ▶
drones,
[0:27:55 - 0:27:55] ▶
helicopters,
[0:27:55 - 0:27:56] ▶
FLIR sweeps,
[0:27:56 - 0:27:57] ▶
K-9 units,
[0:27:57 - 0:27:58] ▶
and the FBI,
[0:27:58 - 0:27:59] ▶
we have next to nothing.
[0:28:00 - 0:28:01] ▶
No confirmed sightings,
[0:28:01 - 0:28:03] ▶
no scent trail.
[0:28:03 - 0:28:04] ▶
He's just gone,
[0:28:04 - 0:28:05] ▶
like a ghost.
[0:28:05 - 0:28:06] ▶
For one of the most
[0:28:07 - 0:28:08] ▶
intensive searches
[0:28:08 - 0:28:09] ▶
in recent New Mexico history,
[0:28:09 - 0:28:11] ▶
the absence of evidence
[0:28:11 - 0:28:12] ▶
is bizarre.
[0:28:12 - 0:28:13] ▶
But it might be
[0:28:13 - 0:28:14] ▶
a data point unto itself
[0:28:14 - 0:28:16] ▶
that points to someone
[0:28:16 - 0:28:17] ▶
who's sophisticated,
[0:28:17 - 0:28:18] ▶
who knows how to work
[0:28:19 - 0:28:19] ▶
the blind spots.
[0:28:19 - 0:28:20] ▶
And McCaslin isn't
[0:28:21 - 0:28:22] ▶
the first to vanish.
[0:28:22 - 0:28:23] ▶
Congressman from Tennessee,
[0:28:23 - 0:28:24] ▶
Tim Burchette,
[0:28:25 - 0:28:25] ▶
has been trying
[0:28:25 - 0:28:26] ▶
to get answers himself,
[0:28:26 - 0:28:27] ▶
but claims that
[0:28:28 - 0:28:28] ▶
some of our intelligence agencies
[0:28:28 - 0:28:30] ▶
are actively stonewalling
[0:28:30 - 0:28:32] ▶
his attempts to investigate
[0:28:32 - 0:28:33] ▶
why our top researchers
[0:28:33 - 0:28:35] ▶
are disappearing
[0:28:35 - 0:28:36] ▶
at such a high rate.
[0:28:36 - 0:28:38] ▶
He told the Daily Mail
[0:28:38 - 0:28:39] ▶
that the numbers
[0:28:39 - 0:28:40] ▶
seem very high
[0:28:40 - 0:28:41] ▶
in these certain areas
[0:28:41 - 0:28:42] ▶
of research.
[0:28:42 - 0:28:43] ▶
I think we'd better
[0:28:43 - 0:28:44] ▶
be paying attention,
[0:28:44 - 0:28:45] ▶
and I don't think
[0:28:45 - 0:28:46] ▶
we should trust our government.
[0:28:46 - 0:28:47] ▶
I had a t-shirt
[0:28:48 - 0:28:49] ▶
on my
[0:28:49 - 0:28:49] ▶
BirchitforCongress.com website
[0:28:49 - 0:28:51] ▶
that said more people
[0:28:51 - 0:28:52] ▶
believe in UFOs
[0:28:52 - 0:28:54] ▶
than believe in Congress,
[0:28:54 - 0:28:55] ▶
and it sold out.
[0:28:55 - 0:28:56] ▶
So, I mean,
[0:28:56 - 0:28:57] ▶
there's something going on
[0:28:57 - 0:28:58] ▶
out there, brother.
[0:28:58 - 0:28:58] ▶
But while Burchette
[0:28:59 - 0:29:01] ▶
was looking for answers
[0:29:01 - 0:29:02] ▶
in Washington,
[0:29:02 - 0:29:03] ▶
the internet was doing
[0:29:03 - 0:29:04] ▶
its own digging.
[0:29:04 - 0:29:05] ▶
After his story broke,
[0:29:07 - 0:29:09] ▶
an online manhunt
[0:29:09 - 0:29:10] ▶
zeroed in
[0:29:10 - 0:29:11] ▶
on a potential smoking gun.
[0:29:11 - 0:29:13] ▶
An ex-account
[0:29:13 - 0:29:14] ▶
called TMB Spaceships.
[0:29:14 - 0:29:16] ▶
The account posts
[0:29:17 - 0:29:18] ▶
about plasma propulsion
[0:29:18 - 0:29:19] ▶
and spacecraft systems,
[0:29:19 - 0:29:21] ▶
but hasn't posted
[0:29:21 - 0:29:22] ▶
since February 27th,
[0:29:22 - 0:29:24] ▶
the day McCasland disappeared.
[0:29:24 - 0:29:26] ▶
I looked into it.
[0:29:26 - 0:29:27] ▶
Its account claims
[0:29:27 - 0:29:28] ▶
that in 1991,
[0:29:28 - 0:29:29] ▶
its owner was attending
[0:29:30 - 0:29:31] ▶
the University of Texas
[0:29:31 - 0:29:32] ▶
as a U.S. Air Force
[0:29:32 - 0:29:34] ▶
Butter Bar electrical engineer,
[0:29:34 - 0:29:36] ▶
which is slaying for
[0:29:36 - 0:29:37] ▶
a newly commissioned
[0:29:37 - 0:29:38] ▶
second lieutenant.
[0:29:38 - 0:29:39] ▶
Except McCasland
[0:29:40 - 0:29:41] ▶
reached second lieutenant
[0:29:41 - 0:29:42] ▶
on May 30th, 1979.
[0:29:42 - 0:29:44] ▶
And by April 1991,
[0:29:44 - 0:29:45] ▶
he had reached
[0:29:46 - 0:29:47] ▶
lieutenant colonel.
[0:29:47 - 0:29:48] ▶
His official Air Force
[0:29:48 - 0:29:49] ▶
biography also puts him
[0:29:49 - 0:29:51] ▶
in Los Angeles
[0:29:51 - 0:29:52] ▶
from 1988 to 1992,
[0:29:52 - 0:29:54] ▶
not Texas.
[0:29:54 - 0:29:55] ▶
The account also mentions
[0:29:55 - 0:29:57] ▶
a brother-in-law
[0:29:57 - 0:29:58] ▶
who spent 40 years
[0:29:58 - 0:29:59] ▶
in navigation
[0:29:59 - 0:30:00] ▶
and started working
[0:30:00 - 0:30:01] ▶
for Texas Instruments
[0:30:01 - 0:30:02] ▶
in the 1950s.
[0:30:02 - 0:30:03] ▶
But the only McCasland
[0:30:03 - 0:30:05] ▶
brother-in-law
[0:30:05 - 0:30:05] ▶
we could actually verify
[0:30:05 - 0:30:07] ▶
doesn't fit that profile.
[0:30:07 - 0:30:08] ▶
Based on these posts,
[0:30:08 - 0:30:09] ▶
the user behind the account
[0:30:10 - 0:30:11] ▶
doesn't appear
[0:30:11 - 0:30:12] ▶
to be McCasland.
[0:30:12 - 0:30:13] ▶
While the internet
[0:30:13 - 0:30:14] ▶
was busy trying
[0:30:14 - 0:30:14] ▶
to unmask this X account,
[0:30:14 - 0:30:16] ▶
the real story
[0:30:17 - 0:30:17] ▶
was hiding in plain sight.
[0:30:17 - 0:30:19] ▶
Today's episode
[0:30:20 - 0:30:21] ▶
is sponsored by Incogni.
[0:30:21 - 0:30:23] ▶
Something that comes up a lot
[0:30:23 - 0:30:25] ▶
when I talk to UFO whistleblowers,
[0:30:25 - 0:30:27] ▶
physicists,
[0:30:27 - 0:30:27] ▶
and researchers
[0:30:28 - 0:30:29] ▶
who work on sensitive projects
[0:30:29 - 0:30:31] ▶
is how carefully
[0:30:31 - 0:30:32] ▶
they have to manage
[0:30:32 - 0:30:33] ▶
their digital footprint.
[0:30:33 - 0:30:34] ▶
Most people have no idea
[0:30:35 - 0:30:36] ▶
how much of their personal information
[0:30:36 - 0:30:38] ▶
is sitting on sites
[0:30:38 - 0:30:40] ▶
they've never heard of.
[0:30:40 - 0:30:41] ▶
Personal phone numbers,
[0:30:42 - 0:30:43] ▶
addresses,
[0:30:43 - 0:30:44] ▶
family members' names,
[0:30:44 - 0:30:45] ▶
all collected
[0:30:46 - 0:30:47] ▶
without your knowledge
[0:30:47 - 0:30:48] ▶
and sold to anyone
[0:30:48 - 0:30:49] ▶
willing to pay for it.
[0:30:49 - 0:30:51] ▶
That's what got me
[0:30:51 - 0:30:52] ▶
first using Incogni
[0:30:52 - 0:30:53] ▶
about a year ago.
[0:30:53 - 0:30:54] ▶
They go after
[0:30:54 - 0:30:55] ▶
data brokers directly
[0:30:55 - 0:30:56] ▶
and get your information
[0:30:56 - 0:30:58] ▶
removed immediately.
[0:30:58 - 0:30:59] ▶
Not just buried,
[0:31:00 - 0:31:01] ▶
actually deleted.
[0:31:01 - 0:31:02] ▶
And they keep following up
[0:31:02 - 0:31:04] ▶
until it's confirmed.
[0:31:04 - 0:31:05] ▶
The feature I find most useful
[0:31:05 - 0:31:07] ▶
is custom removals.
[0:31:07 - 0:31:08] ▶
If you find your information
[0:31:09 - 0:31:10] ▶
on some random
[0:31:10 - 0:31:11] ▶
PeopleFinder site,
[0:31:11 - 0:31:12] ▶
you paste the link
[0:31:13 - 0:31:13] ▶
into your dashboard
[0:31:13 - 0:31:14] ▶
and their privacy experts
[0:31:14 - 0:31:16] ▶
immediately handle the takedown.
[0:31:16 - 0:31:18] ▶
You get unlimited submissions
[0:31:18 - 0:31:20] ▶
and they completely eliminate
[0:31:20 - 0:31:22] ▶
the back and forth
[0:31:22 - 0:31:23] ▶
you'd usually have to deal with
[0:31:23 - 0:31:24] ▶
to get your information removed
[0:31:24 - 0:31:26] ▶
from these sketchy websites.
[0:31:26 - 0:31:28] ▶
Take your personal data back
[0:31:28 - 0:31:29] ▶
now with Incogni.
[0:31:29 - 0:31:31] ▶
Use code AmericanAlchemy
[0:31:31 - 0:31:33] ▶
at incogni.com
[0:31:33 - 0:31:34] ▶
slash AmericanAlchemy
[0:31:34 - 0:31:36] ▶
for 60% off
[0:31:36 - 0:31:38] ▶
an annual plan.
[0:31:38 - 0:31:39] ▶
Again, that's 60% off
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if you sign up
[0:31:41 - 0:31:42] ▶
with our code today.
[0:31:42 - 0:31:43] ▶
I'm also including
[0:31:44 - 0:31:45] ▶
a link in the description.
[0:31:45 - 0:31:46] ▶
When you dig into
[0:31:46 - 0:31:50] ▶
the $2.2 billion
[0:31:50 - 0:31:51] ▶
science and technology
[0:31:51 - 0:31:53] ▶
portfolio
[0:31:53 - 0:31:54] ▶
McCasland oversaw
[0:31:54 - 0:31:55] ▶
at the Air Force Research Lab,
[0:31:55 - 0:31:57] ▶
you'll find a thread
[0:31:57 - 0:31:58] ▶
that leads somewhere specific.
[0:31:58 - 0:32:00] ▶
And that thread is metal.
[0:32:00 - 0:32:01] ▶
A super alloy of metal
[0:32:02 - 0:32:03] ▶
co-invented
[0:32:03 - 0:32:04] ▶
by another missing scientist.
[0:32:04 - 0:32:06] ▶
Monica Jacinto Reza.
[0:32:07 - 0:32:09] ▶
Monica worked
[0:32:10 - 0:32:10] ▶
in one of the most brutal corners
[0:32:10 - 0:32:12] ▶
of propulsion science.
[0:32:12 - 0:32:14] ▶
An age-old limitation
[0:32:14 - 0:32:15] ▶
had kept advanced
[0:32:15 - 0:32:17] ▶
rocket propulsion
[0:32:17 - 0:32:18] ▶
pinned down
[0:32:18 - 0:32:18] ▶
by the same ugly problem.
[0:32:18 - 0:32:20] ▶
If you want to get
[0:32:20 - 0:32:21] ▶
heavy satellites into orbit,
[0:32:21 - 0:32:23] ▶
you need a high-pressure,
[0:32:23 - 0:32:25] ▶
oxygen-rich environment.
[0:32:25 - 0:32:27] ▶
The metallic alloys
[0:32:27 - 0:32:28] ▶
strong enough
[0:32:28 - 0:32:29] ▶
to hold the engine together
[0:32:29 - 0:32:30] ▶
in these situations
[0:32:30 - 0:32:31] ▶
would go up in flames.
[0:32:31 - 0:32:33] ▶
And the alloys
[0:32:33 - 0:32:34] ▶
that didn't catch on fire
[0:32:34 - 0:32:35] ▶
were too weak to trust
[0:32:35 - 0:32:37] ▶
with the guts of an engine.
[0:32:37 - 0:32:38] ▶
So the U.S. military
[0:32:39 - 0:32:40] ▶
needed to find a sweet spot,
[0:32:40 - 0:32:42] ▶
but nobody could find one.
[0:32:42 - 0:32:43] ▶
So we were forced to rely
[0:32:44 - 0:32:45] ▶
on the Russian RD-180 engine
[0:32:45 - 0:32:47] ▶
for sensitive national security
[0:32:47 - 0:32:49] ▶
space launches.
[0:32:49 - 0:32:50] ▶
This meant that
[0:32:50 - 0:32:51] ▶
during the Cold War,
[0:32:51 - 0:32:52] ▶
we were literally stuck
[0:32:52 - 0:32:53] ▶
buying defense hardware
[0:32:53 - 0:32:55] ▶
for the most sensitive missions
[0:32:55 - 0:32:56] ▶
from our biggest
[0:32:56 - 0:32:58] ▶
geopolitical rival.
[0:32:58 - 0:32:59] ▶
The stalemate finally shattered
[0:33:04 - 0:33:06] ▶
in the 1990s
[0:33:06 - 0:33:07] ▶
thanks to the hard work
[0:33:07 - 0:33:08] ▶
of Dallas Hardwick
[0:33:08 - 0:33:09] ▶
and Monica Reza
[0:33:09 - 0:33:10] ▶
at the Rockwell Science Center.
[0:33:10 - 0:33:12] ▶
They engineered
[0:33:12 - 0:33:13] ▶
a nickel-based alloy
[0:33:13 - 0:33:14] ▶
tough enough
[0:33:14 - 0:33:15] ▶
to survive
[0:33:15 - 0:33:16] ▶
the crushing pressure,
[0:33:16 - 0:33:17] ▶
but stable enough
[0:33:17 - 0:33:18] ▶
to not go up in flames
[0:33:18 - 0:33:20] ▶
or fracture
[0:33:20 - 0:33:20] ▶
in an oxygen-rich hellscape.
[0:33:20 - 0:33:22] ▶
They named
[0:33:23 - 0:33:23] ▶
this supermetal
[0:33:23 - 0:33:25] ▶
Mondaloid.
[0:33:25 - 0:33:26] ▶
The first three letters
[0:33:26 - 0:33:27] ▶
of each of their names
[0:33:27 - 0:33:28] ▶
fused into one.
[0:33:28 - 0:33:29] ▶
By 1999,
[0:33:30 - 0:33:31] ▶
the Air Force Research Laboratory,
[0:33:31 - 0:33:33] ▶
or AFRL,
[0:33:33 - 0:33:33] ▶
began co-funding their work,
[0:33:34 - 0:33:36] ▶
the same Air Force Research Laboratory
[0:33:36 - 0:33:38] ▶
that was later headed up
[0:33:38 - 0:33:40] ▶
by Neil McCaslin.
[0:33:40 - 0:33:41] ▶
Monica told Space News
[0:33:41 - 0:33:43] ▶
that over the next two decades
[0:33:43 - 0:33:44] ▶
and after multiple Air Force
[0:33:44 - 0:33:46] ▶
and NASA contracts,
[0:33:46 - 0:33:47] ▶
the metal she created
[0:33:48 - 0:33:49] ▶
was eventually scaled
[0:33:49 - 0:33:50] ▶
into a family of super-alloys,
[0:33:50 - 0:33:52] ▶
Mondaloid 100 and 200,
[0:33:52 - 0:33:54] ▶
each engineered
[0:33:55 - 0:33:56] ▶
for different temperature
[0:33:56 - 0:33:57] ▶
and pressure conditions.
[0:33:57 - 0:33:59] ▶
This was the vital
[0:34:02 - 0:34:04] ▶
national security hardware
[0:34:04 - 0:34:05] ▶
that would allow us
[0:34:05 - 0:34:06] ▶
to stop relying on Russia.
[0:34:06 - 0:34:08] ▶
Fast forward,
[0:34:08 - 0:34:09] ▶
and Mondaloid ends up
[0:34:09 - 0:34:11] ▶
in kerosene-fueled
[0:34:11 - 0:34:12] ▶
AR-1 engines,
[0:34:12 - 0:34:13] ▶
Rocketdyne's U.S.-built replacement
[0:34:14 - 0:34:16] ▶
for the Russian RD-180.
[0:34:16 - 0:34:17] ▶
Then, in May of 2011,
[0:34:18 - 0:34:20] ▶
none other than
[0:34:20 - 0:34:21] ▶
Neil McCaslin
[0:34:21 - 0:34:22] ▶
came to Wright-Patterson
[0:34:22 - 0:34:24] ▶
as the new commander
[0:34:24 - 0:34:25] ▶
of the Air Force Research Laboratory
[0:34:25 - 0:34:27] ▶
while the Mondaloid program
[0:34:27 - 0:34:29] ▶
was still active.
[0:34:29 - 0:34:30] ▶
And Monica's co-inventor,
[0:34:31 - 0:34:32] ▶
Dallas Hardwick,
[0:34:32 - 0:34:33] ▶
who had been at Wright-Patterson
[0:34:33 - 0:34:35] ▶
since the year 2000,
[0:34:35 - 0:34:36] ▶
was right there alongside him,
[0:34:37 - 0:34:39] ▶
embedded in the lab's
[0:34:39 - 0:34:40] ▶
materials directorate
[0:34:40 - 0:34:42] ▶
until her retirement in 2012.
[0:34:42 - 0:34:44] ▶
This was the exact place
[0:34:44 - 0:34:46] ▶
where Mondaloid 200
[0:34:46 - 0:34:47] ▶
was co-developed.
[0:34:47 - 0:34:49] ▶
In fact,
[0:34:49 - 0:34:50] ▶
a National Academies report
[0:34:50 - 0:34:51] ▶
shows the Mondaloid partnership
[0:34:51 - 0:34:53] ▶
was shared between
[0:34:53 - 0:34:55] ▶
the Air Force Research Laboratory
[0:34:55 - 0:34:57] ▶
and Monica's team
[0:34:57 - 0:34:58] ▶
at Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne,
[0:34:58 - 0:35:00] ▶
which later became
[0:35:00 - 0:35:02] ▶
Aerojet Rocketdyne.
[0:35:02 - 0:35:03] ▶
The Air Force knew
[0:35:03 - 0:35:05] ▶
that mastering materials
[0:35:05 - 0:35:06] ▶
like Mondaloid
[0:35:06 - 0:35:07] ▶
could shape the future.
[0:35:07 - 0:35:08] ▶
And at Wright-Patterson,
[0:35:09 - 0:35:10] ▶
cutting-edge science
[0:35:10 - 0:35:11] ▶
has long been rumored
[0:35:11 - 0:35:12] ▶
to blur into the unexplained.
[0:35:12 - 0:35:14] ▶
But there's a long
[0:35:14 - 0:35:15] ▶
and much weirder history
[0:35:15 - 0:35:17] ▶
of exotic metallurgy
[0:35:17 - 0:35:18] ▶
coming out of Wright-Patterson.
[0:35:18 - 0:35:20] ▶
And this is where the story
[0:35:20 - 0:35:22] ▶
goes somewhere familiar.
[0:35:22 - 0:35:23] ▶
Some researchers connect
[0:35:23 - 0:35:25] ▶
Mondaloid to a specific lineage
[0:35:25 - 0:35:27] ▶
of exotic metal
[0:35:27 - 0:35:28] ▶
that goes all the way back
[0:35:28 - 0:35:29] ▶
to the alleged Roswell crash
[0:35:29 - 0:35:31] ▶
of 1947.
[0:35:31 - 0:35:32] ▶
In an interview
[0:35:32 - 0:35:33] ▶
with journalist Bob Pratt,
[0:35:33 - 0:35:35] ▶
Jesse Marcel Jr.,
[0:35:35 - 0:35:37] ▶
the Army Air Force
[0:35:37 - 0:35:38] ▶
intelligence officer
[0:35:38 - 0:35:39] ▶
at the Roswell crash site,
[0:35:39 - 0:35:40] ▶
described some of the debris
[0:35:41 - 0:35:42] ▶
as thin and foil-like.
[0:35:42 - 0:35:44] ▶
And when he held
[0:35:45 - 0:35:45] ▶
a lighter to it,
[0:35:45 - 0:35:46] ▶
it didn't burn.
[0:35:46 - 0:35:47] ▶
The theory goes
[0:35:48 - 0:35:49] ▶
that whatever was recovered
[0:35:49 - 0:35:50] ▶
at Roswell
[0:35:50 - 0:35:51] ▶
eventually became
[0:35:51 - 0:35:52] ▶
a classified R&D seed program
[0:35:52 - 0:35:55] ▶
at Wright-Patterson's
[0:35:55 - 0:35:56] ▶
Air Force Research Lab.
[0:35:56 - 0:35:57] ▶
And over decades,
[0:35:57 - 0:35:58] ▶
that seed inspired families
[0:35:58 - 0:36:00] ▶
of advanced alloys
[0:36:00 - 0:36:02] ▶
designed to mimic
[0:36:02 - 0:36:03] ▶
or exploit the same
[0:36:03 - 0:36:04] ▶
impossible properties.
[0:36:04 - 0:36:05] ▶
Shape recovery,
[0:36:06 - 0:36:06] ▶
extreme strength-to-weight ratios,
[0:36:07 - 0:36:09] ▶
burn resistance.
[0:36:09 - 0:36:10] ▶
Not chemical clones
[0:36:11 - 0:36:12] ▶
of the Roswell metal,
[0:36:12 - 0:36:13] ▶
but descendants
[0:36:13 - 0:36:14] ▶
of the same research tree.
[0:36:14 - 0:36:16] ▶
You have to admit,
[0:36:16 - 0:36:17] ▶
it's a bit bizarre
[0:36:17 - 0:36:18] ▶
that Wright-Patterson
[0:36:18 - 0:36:19] ▶
had a contract
[0:36:19 - 0:36:20] ▶
with Battelle Memorial Institute
[0:36:20 - 0:36:22] ▶
in 1949
[0:36:22 - 0:36:23] ▶
studying nickel-titanium alloys,
[0:36:23 - 0:36:26] ▶
long before the material
[0:36:26 - 0:36:28] ▶
became associated
[0:36:28 - 0:36:29] ▶
with memory metal.
[0:36:29 - 0:36:30] ▶
Memory metal
[0:36:39 - 0:36:40] ▶
extremely similar
[0:36:40 - 0:36:41] ▶
to what Jesse Marcel described,
[0:36:41 - 0:36:43] ▶
just two years
[0:36:43 - 0:36:44] ▶
after he reportedly handled it.
[0:36:44 - 0:36:46] ▶
Then, fast forward
[0:36:46 - 0:36:47] ▶
to the 1960s
[0:36:47 - 0:36:48] ▶
at the Naval Ordnance Laboratory,
[0:36:48 - 0:36:50] ▶
and the world
[0:36:50 - 0:36:51] ▶
was introduced
[0:36:51 - 0:36:52] ▶
to nitinol,
[0:36:52 - 0:36:53] ▶
an alloy
[0:36:53 - 0:36:54] ▶
that remembers its shape.
[0:36:54 - 0:36:55] ▶
It was seen
[0:36:55 - 0:36:57] ▶
as a breakthrough
[0:36:57 - 0:36:57] ▶
in modern metallurgy,
[0:36:57 - 0:36:59] ▶
but for anyone
[0:36:59 - 0:37:00] ▶
steeped in Roswell lore,
[0:37:00 - 0:37:01] ▶
it looked eerily familiar.
[0:37:01 - 0:37:03] ▶
Now,
[0:37:03 - 0:37:04] ▶
Mondeloy lives
[0:37:04 - 0:37:05] ▶
in a very different
[0:37:05 - 0:37:06] ▶
metallurgical neighborhood.
[0:37:06 - 0:37:07] ▶
Nitinol is about
[0:37:07 - 0:37:08] ▶
45% titanium,
[0:37:08 - 0:37:10] ▶
while Mondeloy
[0:37:10 - 0:37:11] ▶
has only small amounts
[0:37:11 - 0:37:12] ▶
of titanium,
[0:37:12 - 0:37:13] ▶
about 1-4%.
[0:37:14 - 0:37:14] ▶
And if you look
[0:37:15 - 0:37:16] ▶
at the actual science
[0:37:16 - 0:37:17] ▶
behind Mondeloy,
[0:37:17 - 0:37:18] ▶
the exotic metal theory
[0:37:19 - 0:37:20] ▶
hits a wall.
[0:37:20 - 0:37:21] ▶
Monica's Patents for Mondeloy
[0:37:21 - 0:37:23] ▶
mentions
[0:37:23 - 0:37:23] ▶
Hanes-214,
[0:37:23 - 0:37:25] ▶
and Monel
[0:37:25 - 0:37:26] ▶
alloy K500.
[0:37:26 - 0:37:27] ▶
So is Monica's superalloy
[0:37:28 - 0:37:29] ▶
some kind of
[0:37:29 - 0:37:30] ▶
Roswell starship derivative?
[0:37:30 - 0:37:31] ▶
Maybe not.
[0:37:32 - 0:37:33] ▶
But who's to say
[0:37:33 - 0:37:34] ▶
these exotic metal lineages
[0:37:34 - 0:37:35] ▶
didn't have a little
[0:37:35 - 0:37:36] ▶
outside inspiration
[0:37:36 - 0:37:38] ▶
along the way?
[0:37:38 - 0:37:39] ▶
You have to admit,
[0:37:43 - 0:37:44] ▶
the optics are bizarre.
[0:37:44 - 0:37:46] ▶
A scientist
[0:37:46 - 0:37:47] ▶
co-invents
[0:37:47 - 0:37:48] ▶
a superalloy
[0:37:48 - 0:37:48] ▶
inside the same
[0:37:48 - 0:37:49] ▶
research portfolio
[0:37:49 - 0:37:51] ▶
McCasland oversaw,
[0:37:51 - 0:37:52] ▶
and now they've both
[0:37:52 - 0:37:53] ▶
vanished?
[0:37:53 - 0:37:54] ▶
If you look at the world
[0:37:54 - 0:37:55] ▶
they came out of,
[0:37:55 - 0:37:56] ▶
intelligence agencies
[0:37:57 - 0:37:58] ▶
have warned for decades
[0:37:58 - 0:37:59] ▶
that foreign agents
[0:37:59 - 0:38:01] ▶
target America's
[0:38:01 - 0:38:02] ▶
space and defense world.
[0:38:02 - 0:38:03] ▶
McCasland was practically
[0:38:03 - 0:38:05] ▶
a walking hard drive,
[0:38:05 - 0:38:06] ▶
not for a single
[0:38:07 - 0:38:08] ▶
piece of knowledge,
[0:38:08 - 0:38:08] ▶
but for the vault
[0:38:09 - 0:38:09] ▶
in his head.
[0:38:09 - 0:38:10] ▶
The same way
[0:38:10 - 0:38:11] ▶
Monica's value
[0:38:11 - 0:38:12] ▶
wasn't just Mondeloy,
[0:38:12 - 0:38:13] ▶
it was the person
[0:38:13 - 0:38:14] ▶
behind it.
[0:38:14 - 0:38:15] ▶
A mind capable
[0:38:15 - 0:38:16] ▶
of solving one of
[0:38:16 - 0:38:17] ▶
the toughest problems
[0:38:17 - 0:38:18] ▶
in American rocketry
[0:38:18 - 0:38:19] ▶
is capable of solving
[0:38:19 - 0:38:20] ▶
the next one too.
[0:38:20 - 0:38:22] ▶
So let's go back
[0:38:22 - 0:38:23] ▶
to June 22nd, 2025,
[0:38:23 - 0:38:25] ▶
when the woman
[0:38:25 - 0:38:26] ▶
who taught us
[0:38:26 - 0:38:27] ▶
how to tame fire
[0:38:27 - 0:38:28] ▶
vanished.
[0:38:28 - 0:38:29] ▶
The search is on
[0:38:33 - 0:38:35] ▶
for a 60-year-old woman
[0:38:35 - 0:38:36] ▶
missing in the
[0:38:36 - 0:38:37] ▶
Angeles National Forest.
[0:38:37 - 0:38:38] ▶
Monica Reza
[0:38:38 - 0:38:39] ▶
was last seen
[0:38:39 - 0:38:40] ▶
near Mount Waterman
[0:38:40 - 0:38:41] ▶
yesterday at about 9 a.m.
[0:38:41 - 0:38:42] ▶
The L.A. County
[0:38:42 - 0:38:43] ▶
Sheriff Department's
[0:38:43 - 0:38:44] ▶
Crescenta Valley Station
[0:38:44 - 0:38:45] ▶
and Montrose Search and Rescue
[0:38:45 - 0:38:47] ▶
have been working
[0:38:47 - 0:38:48] ▶
around the clock
[0:38:48 - 0:38:48] ▶
on this one.
[0:38:48 - 0:38:49] ▶
Search and Rescue
[0:38:49 - 0:38:50] ▶
scoured the area
[0:38:50 - 0:38:51] ▶
for eight days
[0:38:51 - 0:38:52] ▶
by land and by air,
[0:38:52 - 0:38:53] ▶
but found nothing
[0:38:53 - 0:38:54] ▶
other than Monica's beanie,
[0:38:54 - 0:38:56] ▶
which photographs
[0:38:56 - 0:38:57] ▶
from the day
[0:38:57 - 0:38:57] ▶
show was tucked
[0:38:57 - 0:38:58] ▶
into the hip belt
[0:38:58 - 0:38:59] ▶
of her pack.
[0:38:59 - 0:39:00] ▶
The visor was recovered
[0:39:00 - 0:39:01] ▶
about 400 yards
[0:39:01 - 0:39:03] ▶
off the trail
[0:39:03 - 0:39:04] ▶
the day after
[0:39:04 - 0:39:05] ▶
her disappearance.
[0:39:05 - 0:39:05] ▶
When no other
[0:39:06 - 0:39:07] ▶
evidence surfaced
[0:39:07 - 0:39:07] ▶
as is protocol,
[0:39:07 - 0:39:09] ▶
the synthetic aperture
[0:39:09 - 0:39:10] ▶
radar mission
[0:39:10 - 0:39:11] ▶
was concluded
[0:39:11 - 0:39:11] ▶
and the investigation
[0:39:11 - 0:39:13] ▶
was handed off
[0:39:13 - 0:39:14] ▶
to the Homicide Bureau,
[0:39:14 - 0:39:15] ▶
the missing persons unit.
[0:39:15 - 0:39:16] ▶
But Monica's community
[0:39:16 - 0:39:18] ▶
had already mobilized,
[0:39:18 - 0:39:20] ▶
organizing volunteer groups,
[0:39:20 - 0:39:22] ▶
including expert
[0:39:22 - 0:39:23] ▶
mountain rescue teams
[0:39:23 - 0:39:24] ▶
who began searching
[0:39:24 - 0:39:25] ▶
the areas outside
[0:39:25 - 0:39:27] ▶
the search and rescue
[0:39:27 - 0:39:28] ▶
perimeter
[0:39:28 - 0:39:28] ▶
and would continue
[0:39:28 - 0:39:30] ▶
to search by land
[0:39:30 - 0:39:31] ▶
and by drone
[0:39:31 - 0:39:32] ▶
when the official
[0:39:32 - 0:39:33] ▶
search and rescue mission
[0:39:33 - 0:39:34] ▶
was called off.
[0:39:34 - 0:39:35] ▶
Hikers have been known
[0:39:35 - 0:39:36] ▶
to survive for two to three weeks
[0:39:36 - 0:39:38] ▶
in the wilderness
[0:39:38 - 0:39:38] ▶
at times,
[0:39:38 - 0:39:39] ▶
but the weeks wore on
[0:39:40 - 0:39:41] ▶
and the volunteer exhibitions
[0:39:41 - 0:39:43] ▶
kept going out
[0:39:43 - 0:39:44] ▶
every few days.
[0:39:44 - 0:39:45] ▶
Hope of rescue dimmed,
[0:39:45 - 0:39:47] ▶
but the goal was
[0:39:47 - 0:39:48] ▶
to at least recover
[0:39:48 - 0:39:49] ▶
Monica's body.
[0:39:49 - 0:39:50] ▶
The organizers begged
[0:39:50 - 0:39:51] ▶
for volunteers
[0:39:51 - 0:39:52] ▶
to keep deploying
[0:39:52 - 0:39:53] ▶
until Monica's birthday
[0:39:53 - 0:39:55] ▶
in December,
[0:39:55 - 0:39:56] ▶
six whole months
[0:39:56 - 0:39:57] ▶
after her disappearance.
[0:39:57 - 0:39:58] ▶
The weeks turned
[0:39:59 - 0:40:00] ▶
into months
[0:40:00 - 0:40:00] ▶
and still
[0:40:00 - 0:40:01] ▶
no sign of Monica.
[0:40:01 - 0:40:03] ▶
She had vanished
[0:40:03 - 0:40:04] ▶
without a trace.
[0:40:04 - 0:40:05] ▶
That fateful June morning,
[0:40:05 - 0:40:07] ▶
Monica was well equipped
[0:40:07 - 0:40:08] ▶
with a backpack,
[0:40:08 - 0:40:09] ▶
hiking boots,
[0:40:10 - 0:40:11] ▶
hiking pants,
[0:40:11 - 0:40:12] ▶
and plenty of water.
[0:40:12 - 0:40:13] ▶
It's still unclear
[0:40:13 - 0:40:14] ▶
if she had her cell phone
[0:40:14 - 0:40:15] ▶
on her.
[0:40:15 - 0:40:16] ▶
Some theorized
[0:40:16 - 0:40:17] ▶
she could have been attacked
[0:40:17 - 0:40:18] ▶
by a mountain lion
[0:40:18 - 0:40:19] ▶
or bear,
[0:40:19 - 0:40:20] ▶
but no dens were found
[0:40:20 - 0:40:21] ▶
in the area.
[0:40:21 - 0:40:22] ▶
No remains.
[0:40:22 - 0:40:23] ▶
The San Gabriels
[0:40:23 - 0:40:24] ▶
are mountain lion country.
[0:40:24 - 0:40:25] ▶
The terrain
[0:40:26 - 0:40:26] ▶
is extremely rugged.
[0:40:26 - 0:40:27] ▶
There are many
[0:40:28 - 0:40:29] ▶
giant boulders
[0:40:29 - 0:40:29] ▶
and cave-like shelters
[0:40:29 - 0:40:31] ▶
that could obscure
[0:40:31 - 0:40:32] ▶
Monica from the view
[0:40:32 - 0:40:33] ▶
of rescuers.
[0:40:33 - 0:40:34] ▶
Still,
[0:40:34 - 0:40:35] ▶
multiple civilian searchers
[0:40:35 - 0:40:37] ▶
who descended the ravine
[0:40:37 - 0:40:38] ▶
nearest to Monica's
[0:40:38 - 0:40:39] ▶
last reported location
[0:40:39 - 0:40:40] ▶
described the terrain
[0:40:40 - 0:40:42] ▶
as steep,
[0:40:42 - 0:40:43] ▶
but not steep enough
[0:40:43 - 0:40:44] ▶
to be fatal
[0:40:44 - 0:40:45] ▶
if someone fell.
[0:40:45 - 0:40:46] ▶
Something about
[0:40:46 - 0:40:47] ▶
her disappearance
[0:40:47 - 0:40:48] ▶
feels off.
[0:40:48 - 0:40:49] ▶
If someone had wanted
[0:40:49 - 0:40:50] ▶
to kidnap Monica,
[0:40:50 - 0:40:51] ▶
it's conceivable
[0:40:51 - 0:40:52] ▶
they could have intercepted
[0:40:52 - 0:40:54] ▶
her on the trail
[0:40:54 - 0:40:55] ▶
and led her to a car
[0:40:55 - 0:40:56] ▶
parked along
[0:40:56 - 0:40:57] ▶
a different section
[0:40:57 - 0:40:58] ▶
of the highway.
[0:40:58 - 0:40:59] ▶
We may never know
[0:40:59 - 0:41:00] ▶
if her disappearance
[0:41:00 - 0:41:01] ▶
was just a tragic
[0:41:01 - 0:41:03] ▶
twist of fate,
[0:41:03 - 0:41:03] ▶
a crime of opportunity,
[0:41:04 - 0:41:05] ▶
or something
[0:41:05 - 0:41:06] ▶
much more nefarious.
[0:41:06 - 0:41:07] ▶
beyond her invention
[0:41:07 - 0:41:12] ▶
of the Mondoloi,
[0:41:12 - 0:41:13] ▶
the heat-resistant coating
[0:41:13 - 0:41:14] ▶
for interiors
[0:41:14 - 0:41:15] ▶
of rockets and satellites
[0:41:15 - 0:41:17] ▶
that allow for entry
[0:41:17 - 0:41:18] ▶
and re-entry
[0:41:18 - 0:41:19] ▶
into our atmosphere.
[0:41:19 - 0:41:20] ▶
Most importantly,
[0:41:20 - 0:41:21] ▶
we want to honor
[0:41:21 - 0:41:22] ▶
Monica's life.
[0:41:22 - 0:41:23] ▶
The outpouring
[0:41:23 - 0:41:24] ▶
of prayer,
[0:41:24 - 0:41:24] ▶
support,
[0:41:25 - 0:41:25] ▶
and resources
[0:41:25 - 0:41:26] ▶
from her family,
[0:41:26 - 0:41:27] ▶
friends,
[0:41:27 - 0:41:27] ▶
and colleagues
[0:41:27 - 0:41:28] ▶
demonstrates how deeply
[0:41:28 - 0:41:29] ▶
she is and will
[0:41:29 - 0:41:31] ▶
continue to be missed.
[0:41:31 - 0:41:32] ▶
The last entry
[0:41:32 - 0:41:33] ▶
on the volunteer
[0:41:33 - 0:41:34] ▶
Facebook group
[0:41:34 - 0:41:35] ▶
for Monica's
[0:41:35 - 0:41:36] ▶
search and rescue efforts
[0:41:36 - 0:41:37] ▶
was on November 18,
[0:41:37 - 0:41:38] ▶
2025.
[0:41:39 - 0:41:39] ▶
150 days
[0:41:40 - 0:41:41] ▶
after her disappearance,
[0:41:41 - 0:41:42] ▶
the group was still
[0:41:43 - 0:41:44] ▶
planning a recovery
[0:41:44 - 0:41:45] ▶
expedition that week.
[0:41:45 - 0:41:46] ▶
As disturbing
[0:41:46 - 0:41:47] ▶
as Monica's disappearance
[0:41:47 - 0:41:49] ▶
is,
[0:41:49 - 0:41:49] ▶
four days later,
[0:41:50 - 0:41:51] ▶
another woman disappeared.
[0:41:51 - 0:41:52] ▶
Back in the day,
[0:41:54 - 0:41:55] ▶
I used to chug coffee
[0:41:55 - 0:41:57] ▶
like I was prepping
[0:41:57 - 0:41:58] ▶
for a quantum jump,
[0:41:58 - 0:41:59] ▶
but then I'd crash
[0:42:00 - 0:42:00] ▶
like my nervous system
[0:42:00 - 0:42:02] ▶
got slingshotted
[0:42:02 - 0:42:03] ▶
through a kaleidoscope.
[0:42:03 - 0:42:04] ▶
Anxiety spiking,
[0:42:04 - 0:42:05] ▶
aura flickering,
[0:42:06 - 0:42:07] ▶
and REM sleep
[0:42:07 - 0:42:08] ▶
never met her.
[0:42:08 - 0:42:09] ▶
It was like drinking
[0:42:09 - 0:42:10] ▶
battery acid
[0:42:10 - 0:42:11] ▶
on an empty stomach.
[0:42:11 - 0:42:12] ▶
Then I found
[0:42:13 - 0:42:13] ▶
Mudwater.
[0:42:13 - 0:42:14] ▶
It doesn't fry
[0:42:14 - 0:42:15] ▶
my circuits
[0:42:15 - 0:42:16] ▶
or my synapses.
[0:42:16 - 0:42:17] ▶
I use Mudwater's
[0:42:18 - 0:42:19] ▶
original blend
[0:42:19 - 0:42:20] ▶
over ice.
[0:42:20 - 0:42:21] ▶
It still has
[0:42:21 - 0:42:21] ▶
a little bit of caffeine,
[0:42:21 - 0:42:22] ▶
but it's stacked
[0:42:23 - 0:42:23] ▶
with adaptogens
[0:42:23 - 0:42:24] ▶
and nootropics
[0:42:24 - 0:42:25] ▶
like L-theanine,
[0:42:25 - 0:42:26] ▶
chaga,
[0:42:27 - 0:42:27] ▶
lion's mane,
[0:42:28 - 0:42:28] ▶
cacao,
[0:42:28 - 0:42:29] ▶
the whole earth squad
[0:42:29 - 0:42:31] ▶
to keep you
[0:42:31 - 0:42:31] ▶
naturally energized
[0:42:31 - 0:42:32] ▶
and to ensure
[0:42:32 - 0:42:33] ▶
that you don't wake up
[0:42:33 - 0:42:35] ▶
with the morning scaries.
[0:42:35 - 0:42:36] ▶
One sip of Mudwater
[0:42:36 - 0:42:37] ▶
and my cells report
[0:42:37 - 0:42:38] ▶
for duty.
[0:42:38 - 0:42:39] ▶
Two sips and boom,
[0:42:39 - 0:42:40] ▶
I'm plugged into
[0:42:41 - 0:42:41] ▶
the fungal starfleet.
[0:42:41 - 0:42:42] ▶
All systems go.
[0:42:43 - 0:42:44] ▶
So,
[0:42:44 - 0:42:44] ▶
are you ready
[0:42:44 - 0:42:45] ▶
to make the switch
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to cleaner energy?
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Head to mudwater.com,
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that's M-U-D-W-T-R
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and grab your starter kit
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today.
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That's M-U-D-W-T-R dot com.
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After your purchase,
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and let them know
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It's been nearly a month
[0:43:28 - 0:43:35] ▶
since anyone
[0:43:35 - 0:43:36] ▶
has seen Melissa Casillas.
[0:43:36 - 0:43:38] ▶
Her stepdaughter says
[0:43:38 - 0:43:39] ▶
a doorbell camera
[0:43:39 - 0:43:40] ▶
showed Casillas walking
[0:43:40 - 0:43:41] ▶
a couple miles away
[0:43:41 - 0:43:42] ▶
with a backpack,
[0:43:42 - 0:43:43] ▶
and she was last seen
[0:43:44 - 0:43:45] ▶
walking on a highway
[0:43:45 - 0:43:46] ▶
in Taos County
[0:43:46 - 0:43:47] ▶
about a month ago.
[0:43:47 - 0:43:48] ▶
It was June 26th.
[0:43:48 - 0:43:49] ▶
A family friend
[0:43:49 - 0:43:50] ▶
even saw her walking
[0:43:50 - 0:43:51] ▶
along the highway.
[0:43:51 - 0:43:52] ▶
He turned around
[0:43:52 - 0:43:53] ▶
to see if she needed help,
[0:43:53 - 0:43:54] ▶
but then all he saw
[0:43:55 - 0:43:56] ▶
was a blue truck
[0:43:56 - 0:43:56] ▶
driving by.
[0:43:56 - 0:43:57] ▶
No Casillas.
[0:43:57 - 0:43:58] ▶
Her family thinks
[0:43:59 - 0:43:59] ▶
she got into that truck.
[0:43:59 - 0:44:01] ▶
Her family says
[0:44:01 - 0:44:02] ▶
her personal belongings
[0:44:02 - 0:44:03] ▶
are all still at home,
[0:44:03 - 0:44:04] ▶
including her phone,
[0:44:04 - 0:44:05] ▶
which had been factory reset.
[0:44:05 - 0:44:07] ▶
This time,
[0:44:07 - 0:44:08] ▶
an hour from
[0:44:08 - 0:44:09] ▶
Los Alamos National Laboratory
[0:44:09 - 0:44:11] ▶
in Ranchos de Teos.
[0:44:11 - 0:44:13] ▶
Melissa Casillas
[0:44:13 - 0:44:14] ▶
is a 53-year-old
[0:44:14 - 0:44:16] ▶
administrative assistant
[0:44:16 - 0:44:17] ▶
at Los Alamos
[0:44:17 - 0:44:18] ▶
National Laboratory,
[0:44:18 - 0:44:19] ▶
one of the most secretive
[0:44:19 - 0:44:21] ▶
research sites on Earth.
[0:44:21 - 0:44:22] ▶
and, of course,
[0:44:22 - 0:44:23] ▶
the original home
[0:44:23 - 0:44:24] ▶
to the Manhattan Project,
[0:44:24 - 0:44:25] ▶
where the first atomic bomb
[0:44:25 - 0:44:26] ▶
was developed
[0:44:26 - 0:44:27] ▶
under Oppenheimer.
[0:44:27 - 0:44:28] ▶
On the morning
[0:44:29 - 0:44:30] ▶
of June 26th, 2025,
[0:44:30 - 0:44:32] ▶
around 6.15 a.m.,
[0:44:32 - 0:44:34] ▶
Melissa dropped
[0:44:34 - 0:44:35] ▶
her husband, Mark,
[0:44:35 - 0:44:36] ▶
off at the campus.
[0:44:36 - 0:44:37] ▶
He worked at the lab
[0:44:38 - 0:44:39] ▶
as a superintendent
[0:44:39 - 0:44:40] ▶
and said he watched
[0:44:40 - 0:44:41] ▶
Melissa swipe her badge
[0:44:41 - 0:44:42] ▶
at the gate.
[0:44:42 - 0:44:43] ▶
But instead of heading to work,
[0:44:43 - 0:44:45] ▶
Melissa drove an hour
[0:44:45 - 0:44:46] ▶
back home,
[0:44:46 - 0:44:47] ▶
telling her daughter,
[0:44:47 - 0:44:48] ▶
Sierra,
[0:44:48 - 0:44:48] ▶
she'd forgotten her badge
[0:44:49 - 0:44:50] ▶
and was going to work
[0:44:50 - 0:44:51] ▶
from home instead.
[0:44:51 - 0:44:52] ▶
Sierra didn't think
[0:44:52 - 0:44:53] ▶
anything of it
[0:44:53 - 0:44:54] ▶
and left for her own job.
[0:44:54 - 0:44:56] ▶
Around 12.30,
[0:44:56 - 0:44:57] ▶
Melissa dropped off lunch
[0:44:57 - 0:44:58] ▶
for her daughter
[0:44:58 - 0:44:59] ▶
at her work.
[0:44:59 - 0:45:00] ▶
Everything seemed normal,
[0:45:00 - 0:45:01] ▶
but around 1.30,
[0:45:02 - 0:45:03] ▶
Mark got a call
[0:45:03 - 0:45:04] ▶
from Melissa's boss.
[0:45:04 - 0:45:05] ▶
She never showed up
[0:45:05 - 0:45:06] ▶
at work.
[0:45:06 - 0:45:07] ▶
He texted Sierra,
[0:45:07 - 0:45:08] ▶
who sent a text
[0:45:08 - 0:45:09] ▶
to her mom,
[0:45:09 - 0:45:09] ▶
and it was quickly
[0:45:10 - 0:45:10] ▶
marked as read.
[0:45:10 - 0:45:11] ▶
But by 2.30,
[0:45:12 - 0:45:13] ▶
her second text
[0:45:13 - 0:45:14] ▶
wouldn't deliver at all.
[0:45:14 - 0:45:15] ▶
Around 2.15,
[0:45:16 - 0:45:17] ▶
doorbell cameras
[0:45:17 - 0:45:18] ▶
caught Melissa
[0:45:18 - 0:45:19] ▶
walking along
[0:45:19 - 0:45:19] ▶
State Road 518
[0:45:19 - 0:45:21] ▶
in a turquoise shirt,
[0:45:21 - 0:45:23] ▶
blue jeans,
[0:45:23 - 0:45:24] ▶
and a maroon sweatshirt
[0:45:24 - 0:45:26] ▶
around her waist,
[0:45:26 - 0:45:27] ▶
heading in the direction
[0:45:27 - 0:45:28] ▶
of Carson National Forest,
[0:45:28 - 0:45:30] ▶
about three miles
[0:45:30 - 0:45:31] ▶
from her house.
[0:45:31 - 0:45:32] ▶
Back at the house,
[0:45:33 - 0:45:34] ▶
her daughter came home
[0:45:34 - 0:45:35] ▶
to a locked door
[0:45:35 - 0:45:36] ▶
and Melissa's car
[0:45:36 - 0:45:37] ▶
in the driveway.
[0:45:37 - 0:45:38] ▶
Inside,
[0:45:39 - 0:45:39] ▶
she found her mom's purse,
[0:45:39 - 0:45:41] ▶
wallet, keys,
[0:45:41 - 0:45:42] ▶
and both her work
[0:45:42 - 0:45:43] ▶
and personal phones.
[0:45:43 - 0:45:45] ▶
When she picked
[0:45:45 - 0:45:45] ▶
one of the phones up,
[0:45:45 - 0:45:46] ▶
she realized
[0:45:47 - 0:45:47] ▶
it had been factory reset.
[0:45:47 - 0:45:49] ▶
A check she was supposed
[0:45:49 - 0:45:50] ▶
to cash was sitting there,
[0:45:50 - 0:45:52] ▶
too,
[0:45:52 - 0:45:52] ▶
next to a few dollar bills.
[0:45:53 - 0:45:54] ▶
Her daughter searched
[0:45:54 - 0:45:55] ▶
through her things
[0:45:55 - 0:45:56] ▶
and realized
[0:45:56 - 0:45:57] ▶
she might have taken
[0:45:57 - 0:45:58] ▶
a toothbrush,
[0:45:58 - 0:45:58] ▶
a hair iron,
[0:45:59 - 0:46:00] ▶
and other personal items.
[0:46:00 - 0:46:01] ▶
A witness later reported
[0:46:02 - 0:46:03] ▶
that around the same time
[0:46:03 - 0:46:04] ▶
Melissa was seen
[0:46:04 - 0:46:05] ▶
on surveillance footage,
[0:46:05 - 0:46:07] ▶
they saw a blue Dodge truck
[0:46:07 - 0:46:09] ▶
following her.
[0:46:09 - 0:46:10] ▶
They also said
[0:46:10 - 0:46:11] ▶
she was walking
[0:46:11 - 0:46:12] ▶
like she was hurt
[0:46:12 - 0:46:13] ▶
or intoxicated.
[0:46:13 - 0:46:14] ▶
The family later disputed it,
[0:46:14 - 0:46:16] ▶
saying that the witness
[0:46:16 - 0:46:17] ▶
described a woman
[0:46:17 - 0:46:18] ▶
in a white shirt,
[0:46:18 - 0:46:19] ▶
not turquoise,
[0:46:19 - 0:46:20] ▶
which was what
[0:46:20 - 0:46:21] ▶
Melissa was wearing.
[0:46:21 - 0:46:22] ▶
Either way,
[0:46:22 - 0:46:22] ▶
Melissa was gone.
[0:46:23 - 0:46:24] ▶
When her family,
[0:46:24 - 0:46:25] ▶
Sierra and Mark,
[0:46:25 - 0:46:26] ▶
compared notes,
[0:46:26 - 0:46:27] ▶
the stories didn't match up.
[0:46:27 - 0:46:29] ▶
Melissa told her daughter
[0:46:29 - 0:46:30] ▶
she came home
[0:46:30 - 0:46:31] ▶
because she forgot her badge,
[0:46:31 - 0:46:32] ▶
but Mark said
[0:46:32 - 0:46:33] ▶
he watched her swipe in with it.
[0:46:33 - 0:46:35] ▶
Either one of them was wrong
[0:46:35 - 0:46:37] ▶
or Melissa wasn't
[0:46:37 - 0:46:38] ▶
telling the truth.
[0:46:38 - 0:46:39] ▶
After going through her things,
[0:46:39 - 0:46:41] ▶
Sierra realized
[0:46:41 - 0:46:42] ▶
that her mother
[0:46:42 - 0:46:43] ▶
was under enormous pressure.
[0:46:43 - 0:46:44] ▶
On an interview with Dateline,
[0:46:44 - 0:46:46] ▶
she said that there was
[0:46:46 - 0:46:47] ▶
a lot crumbling down on her
[0:46:47 - 0:46:49] ▶
that we didn't know about.
[0:46:49 - 0:46:50] ▶
Melissa was also feeling
[0:46:50 - 0:46:52] ▶
financial stress.
[0:46:52 - 0:46:53] ▶
Her husband said
[0:46:53 - 0:46:54] ▶
that after their daughter,
[0:46:54 - 0:46:55] ▶
Sierra,
[0:46:55 - 0:46:55] ▶
was in a bad car accident,
[0:46:56 - 0:46:57] ▶
there was supposed
[0:46:57 - 0:46:58] ▶
to be a settlement,
[0:46:58 - 0:46:59] ▶
but it fell through.
[0:46:59 - 0:47:00] ▶
Her 2022 GoFundMe
[0:47:01 - 0:47:02] ▶
mentions that the accident
[0:47:02 - 0:47:04] ▶
left her family
[0:47:04 - 0:47:05] ▶
with medical costs
[0:47:05 - 0:47:06] ▶
most could never fathom.
[0:47:06 - 0:47:08] ▶
As Sierra and her father
[0:47:08 - 0:47:09] ▶
started piecing things together,
[0:47:09 - 0:47:11] ▶
they began suspecting
[0:47:11 - 0:47:12] ▶
Melissa might have left
[0:47:12 - 0:47:14] ▶
on her own.
[0:47:14 - 0:47:14] ▶
And when you look
[0:47:15 - 0:47:15] ▶
at the items she took,
[0:47:15 - 0:47:17] ▶
like a toothbrush
[0:47:17 - 0:47:18] ▶
and hair straightener,
[0:47:18 - 0:47:19] ▶
it tells us a few things.
[0:47:19 - 0:47:21] ▶
Abductees don't usually
[0:47:21 - 0:47:23] ▶
take their hair straighteners,
[0:47:23 - 0:47:24] ▶
and a suicidal person
[0:47:25 - 0:47:26] ▶
doesn't care about frizzy hair.
[0:47:26 - 0:47:28] ▶
This behavior describes
[0:47:28 - 0:47:30] ▶
someone who might be expecting
[0:47:30 - 0:47:31] ▶
to go somewhere
[0:47:31 - 0:47:32] ▶
with running electricity,
[0:47:32 - 0:47:33] ▶
a mirror,
[0:47:34 - 0:47:34] ▶
and maybe even someone to see.
[0:47:35 - 0:47:36] ▶
The factory reset phones
[0:47:36 - 0:47:38] ▶
left at home
[0:47:38 - 0:47:39] ▶
are another clue.
[0:47:39 - 0:47:40] ▶
If she had left voluntarily,
[0:47:40 - 0:47:42] ▶
she might have wanted
[0:47:42 - 0:47:43] ▶
to wipe her message history
[0:47:43 - 0:47:44] ▶
and make herself
[0:47:44 - 0:47:45] ▶
harder to track down.
[0:47:45 - 0:47:47] ▶
The Los Alamos connection,
[0:47:47 - 0:47:48] ▶
of course,
[0:47:48 - 0:47:49] ▶
put Melissa on everyone's radar.
[0:47:49 - 0:47:51] ▶
And even though
[0:47:52 - 0:47:52] ▶
administrative roles
[0:47:52 - 0:47:53] ▶
can overlap
[0:47:53 - 0:47:54] ▶
with classified material,
[0:47:54 - 0:47:55] ▶
we don't know
[0:47:56 - 0:47:56] ▶
what her position entailed.
[0:47:56 - 0:47:58] ▶
And when you add in
[0:47:58 - 0:47:59] ▶
the confusion about the badge,
[0:47:59 - 0:48:01] ▶
the factory reset phones,
[0:48:01 - 0:48:02] ▶
the personal items she took,
[0:48:02 - 0:48:04] ▶
and the financial stress,
[0:48:04 - 0:48:05] ▶
this starts to look like
[0:48:06 - 0:48:07] ▶
someone who made a decision
[0:48:07 - 0:48:08] ▶
to disappear on her own terms.
[0:48:08 - 0:48:10] ▶
Maybe she saw something
[0:48:10 - 0:48:12] ▶
she wasn't supposed to
[0:48:12 - 0:48:13] ▶
at the lab.
[0:48:13 - 0:48:14] ▶
And her phone and hair appliance
[0:48:14 - 0:48:16] ▶
were a neat cover story
[0:48:16 - 0:48:17] ▶
for somebody
[0:48:17 - 0:48:18] ▶
who didn't want her to speak out.
[0:48:18 - 0:48:19] ▶
Whatever happened,
[0:48:19 - 0:48:20] ▶
Melissa's still missing,
[0:48:20 - 0:48:22] ▶
and her family is still looking.
[0:48:22 - 0:48:24] ▶
Her parents have set up
[0:48:24 - 0:48:25] ▶
a GoFundMe,
[0:48:25 - 0:48:26] ▶
offering a $5,000 reward
[0:48:26 - 0:48:28] ▶
for any information
[0:48:28 - 0:48:29] ▶
that brings her home.
[0:48:29 - 0:48:31] ▶
But not every disappearance
[0:48:31 - 0:48:32] ▶
near a sensitive facility
[0:48:32 - 0:48:33] ▶
is foul play.
[0:48:33 - 0:48:34] ▶
The evidence looks like
[0:48:35 - 0:48:36] ▶
it points somewhere
[0:48:36 - 0:48:36] ▶
more tragic and personal
[0:48:36 - 0:48:38] ▶
than a sinister conspiracy.
[0:48:38 - 0:48:39] ▶
We're including her
[0:48:39 - 0:48:41] ▶
because she deserves
[0:48:41 - 0:48:42] ▶
to be found,
[0:48:42 - 0:48:42] ▶
but we're not including her
[0:48:43 - 0:48:44] ▶
as evidence of something darker.
[0:48:44 - 0:48:46] ▶
For that,
[0:48:47 - 0:48:47] ▶
we have to look 700 miles west
[0:48:47 - 0:48:50] ▶
at what was happening
[0:48:50 - 0:48:51] ▶
under the stars
[0:48:51 - 0:48:52] ▶
just outside Los Angeles.
[0:48:52 - 0:48:54] ▶
A man shot and killed
[0:48:54 - 0:48:55] ▶
three days ago
[0:48:55 - 0:48:56] ▶
at his home
[0:48:56 - 0:48:57] ▶
in the Antelope Valley
[0:48:57 - 0:48:58] ▶
community of Lano
[0:48:58 - 0:48:59] ▶
has been identified
[0:48:59 - 0:49:00] ▶
as Carl Grillmayer.
[0:49:00 - 0:49:02] ▶
He was a Caltech scientist.
[0:49:03 - 0:49:04] ▶
Colleagues say
[0:49:05 - 0:49:05] ▶
the 67-year-old
[0:49:05 - 0:49:06] ▶
made groundbreaking discoveries
[0:49:06 - 0:49:07] ▶
in astronomy
[0:49:07 - 0:49:09] ▶
and will be greatly missed.
[0:49:09 - 0:49:11] ▶
On February 16, 2026,
[0:49:11 - 0:49:14] ▶
about 30 miles northeast
[0:49:14 - 0:49:15] ▶
of Waterman Mountain,
[0:49:15 - 0:49:16] ▶
where Monica Reza disappeared,
[0:49:17 - 0:49:18] ▶
another colleague
[0:49:19 - 0:49:19] ▶
from Caltech and JPL
[0:49:19 - 0:49:21] ▶
would meet an equally tragic
[0:49:21 - 0:49:23] ▶
and suspicious end.
[0:49:23 - 0:49:24] ▶
The great astronomer,
[0:49:25 - 0:49:26] ▶
Carl Grillmayer.
[0:49:26 - 0:49:27] ▶
In the small,
[0:49:27 - 0:49:30] ▶
unincorporated community
[0:49:30 - 0:49:31] ▶
of Lano,
[0:49:31 - 0:49:32] ▶
tucked away near the Los Angeles
[0:49:32 - 0:49:34] ▶
and San Bernardino County line,
[0:49:34 - 0:49:36] ▶
a world-class astronomer
[0:49:36 - 0:49:38] ▶
had built his own observatory
[0:49:38 - 0:49:40] ▶
on a remote stretch of land.
[0:49:40 - 0:49:42] ▶
He chose to set up shop
[0:49:42 - 0:49:43] ▶
in the secluded Antelope Valley,
[0:49:43 - 0:49:45] ▶
20 miles east of Palmdale,
[0:49:45 - 0:49:47] ▶
precisely because of
[0:49:47 - 0:49:48] ▶
how thinly populated it was.
[0:49:48 - 0:49:50] ▶
Carl Grillmayer
[0:49:51 - 0:49:52] ▶
wanted the darkest night skies possible
[0:49:52 - 0:49:54] ▶
with the least amount
[0:49:54 - 0:49:55] ▶
of light pollution.
[0:49:55 - 0:49:56] ▶
Carl Johann Grillmayer,
[0:49:57 - 0:49:58] ▶
born in Calgary, Alberta,
[0:49:58 - 0:50:00] ▶
in 1959,
[0:50:00 - 0:50:01] ▶
dedicated his life
[0:50:02 - 0:50:03] ▶
to studying galactic astronomy
[0:50:03 - 0:50:05] ▶
in distant planets.
[0:50:05 - 0:50:06] ▶
His work focused on mapping
[0:50:07 - 0:50:08] ▶
the structure of the Milky Way,
[0:50:08 - 0:50:10] ▶
identifying stellar streams,
[0:50:10 - 0:50:12] ▶
remnants of smaller galaxies,
[0:50:12 - 0:50:14] ▶
or clusters torn apart
[0:50:14 - 0:50:16] ▶
by gravitational forces.
[0:50:16 - 0:50:17] ▶
These incredibly faint,
[0:50:18 - 0:50:19] ▶
stretched out ribbons of stars,
[0:50:19 - 0:50:21] ▶
drift through our Milky Way,
[0:50:22 - 0:50:23] ▶
and tell the story
[0:50:23 - 0:50:25] ▶
of what was left behind.
[0:50:25 - 0:50:26] ▶
Modern science sometimes suffers
[0:50:27 - 0:50:28] ▶
from hyper-specialization,
[0:50:28 - 0:50:30] ▶
but Carl Grillmayer did not.
[0:50:30 - 0:50:32] ▶
Within astrophysics,
[0:50:32 - 0:50:33] ▶
he was a renaissance man,
[0:50:33 - 0:50:35] ▶
a polymath,
[0:50:35 - 0:50:35] ▶
with research interests
[0:50:36 - 0:50:37] ▶
at every scale,
[0:50:37 - 0:50:38] ▶
from the research
[0:50:38 - 0:50:39] ▶
of our own solar system,
[0:50:39 - 0:50:40] ▶
to giant galaxy clusters,
[0:50:40 - 0:50:42] ▶
to the search
[0:50:42 - 0:50:43] ▶
for extraterrestrial life.
[0:50:43 - 0:50:45] ▶
Grillmayer discovered
[0:50:45 - 0:50:46] ▶
the Lethe Stream,
[0:50:46 - 0:50:47] ▶
a vast river of stars,
[0:50:47 - 0:50:49] ▶
yanked into the Milky Way
[0:50:49 - 0:50:50] ▶
from nearby globular clusters.
[0:50:50 - 0:50:52] ▶
Using the Sloan Digital Survey,
[0:50:53 - 0:50:54] ▶
or SDSS,
[0:50:55 - 0:50:56] ▶
Grillmayer tracked
[0:50:56 - 0:50:57] ▶
subtle disturbances
[0:50:57 - 0:50:58] ▶
in the paths
[0:50:58 - 0:50:59] ▶
of these stellar streams,
[0:50:59 - 0:51:01] ▶
leading to key insights
[0:51:01 - 0:51:03] ▶
into dark matter,
[0:51:03 - 0:51:04] ▶
a mysterious missing mass,
[0:51:04 - 0:51:06] ▶
which forms a cosmic glue
[0:51:06 - 0:51:07] ▶
that holds galaxies
[0:51:07 - 0:51:09] ▶
and their clusters together.
[0:51:09 - 0:51:10] ▶
Stars, galaxies, planets,
[0:51:10 - 0:51:12] ▶
and matter as we know it
[0:51:13 - 0:51:14] ▶
are only 5%
[0:51:14 - 0:51:16] ▶
of the observable universe.
[0:51:16 - 0:51:17] ▶
Think of them as the foam
[0:51:17 - 0:51:19] ▶
on an incoming wave
[0:51:19 - 0:51:20] ▶
crashing on the beach.
[0:51:20 - 0:51:21] ▶
Dark matter forms
[0:51:22 - 0:51:23] ▶
much of the rest of the ocean.
[0:51:23 - 0:51:24] ▶
A vast halo of dark matter
[0:51:25 - 0:51:26] ▶
envelops the Milky Way.
[0:51:26 - 0:51:28] ▶
Its immense gravity
[0:51:28 - 0:51:29] ▶
would disturb the path
[0:51:29 - 0:51:30] ▶
of incoming stellar streams
[0:51:30 - 0:51:32] ▶
by tugging on them
[0:51:32 - 0:51:33] ▶
and changing their paths.
[0:51:33 - 0:51:35] ▶
And by tracking these changes,
[0:51:35 - 0:51:37] ▶
Grillmayer was able
[0:51:37 - 0:51:38] ▶
to make profound insights
[0:51:38 - 0:51:39] ▶
into one of the universe's
[0:51:39 - 0:51:41] ▶
biggest mysteries,
[0:51:41 - 0:51:42] ▶
what is most of it made out of?
[0:51:42 - 0:51:44] ▶
Through his comprehensive study
[0:51:44 - 0:51:46] ▶
of stellar streams,
[0:51:46 - 0:51:47] ▶
Grillmayer helped
[0:51:47 - 0:51:48] ▶
reshape our understanding
[0:51:48 - 0:51:50] ▶
of how galaxies evolve.
[0:51:50 - 0:51:51] ▶
And his work with exoplanets
[0:51:52 - 0:51:53] ▶
was arguably even more profound.
[0:51:53 - 0:51:55] ▶
Using the Spitzer Space Telescope,
[0:51:56 - 0:51:58] ▶
Grillmayer did pioneering work
[0:51:58 - 0:52:00] ▶
studying the atmospheres
[0:52:00 - 0:52:01] ▶
of exoplanets,
[0:52:01 - 0:52:02] ▶
breaking down light,
[0:52:02 - 0:52:03] ▶
passing through distant worlds
[0:52:03 - 0:52:05] ▶
to search for molecular fingerprints
[0:52:05 - 0:52:07] ▶
that tell us
[0:52:07 - 0:52:08] ▶
what they're made of.
[0:52:08 - 0:52:09] ▶
In 2007,
[0:52:09 - 0:52:10] ▶
Grillmayer was part of the team
[0:52:10 - 0:52:12] ▶
that discovered
[0:52:12 - 0:52:12] ▶
the first ever instance
[0:52:12 - 0:52:14] ▶
of water vapor
[0:52:14 - 0:52:15] ▶
in an exoplanet's atmosphere.
[0:52:15 - 0:52:17] ▶
Today, the techniques
[0:52:17 - 0:52:18] ▶
he pioneered
[0:52:18 - 0:52:19] ▶
are proving pivotal
[0:52:19 - 0:52:20] ▶
in the scientific search
[0:52:20 - 0:52:21] ▶
for alien life,
[0:52:21 - 0:52:22] ▶
as the same capabilities
[0:52:23 - 0:52:24] ▶
can now probe
[0:52:24 - 0:52:25] ▶
the atmospheres
[0:52:25 - 0:52:26] ▶
of habitable planets
[0:52:26 - 0:52:27] ▶
for biosignatures,
[0:52:27 - 0:52:29] ▶
footprints of living ecology
[0:52:29 - 0:52:31] ▶
altering the planet's
[0:52:31 - 0:52:32] ▶
chemical balance.
[0:52:32 - 0:52:33] ▶
His colleague at Caltech,
[0:52:34 - 0:52:35] ▶
Sergio Fajardo Acosta,
[0:52:36 - 0:52:37] ▶
described his approach
[0:52:38 - 0:52:39] ▶
to exoplanets
[0:52:39 - 0:52:40] ▶
and galactic structures
[0:52:40 - 0:52:41] ▶
as truly detective work.
[0:52:41 - 0:52:43] ▶
Carl Grillmayer
[0:52:43 - 0:52:44] ▶
is an extremely,
[0:52:44 - 0:52:45] ▶
was an extremely
[0:52:45 - 0:52:46] ▶
renowned scientist,
[0:52:46 - 0:52:48] ▶
and I would say
[0:52:48 - 0:52:49] ▶
he still is
[0:52:49 - 0:52:50] ▶
because his legacy
[0:52:50 - 0:52:51] ▶
will keep on.
[0:52:51 - 0:52:51] ▶
And it becomes
[0:52:52 - 0:52:52] ▶
the consensus reality
[0:52:52 - 0:52:54] ▶
in conventional astronomy
[0:52:54 - 0:52:55] ▶
that we're not alone
[0:52:55 - 0:52:56] ▶
will owe a lot
[0:52:56 - 0:52:57] ▶
of that paradigm-shattering
[0:52:57 - 0:52:59] ▶
insight
[0:52:59 - 0:52:59] ▶
to Dr. Grillmayer's groundwork.
[0:52:59 - 0:53:01] ▶
But Grillmayer
[0:53:02 - 0:53:02] ▶
also studied celestial bodies
[0:53:02 - 0:53:04] ▶
much closer to home.
[0:53:04 - 0:53:05] ▶
He worked closely
[0:53:06 - 0:53:07] ▶
with Neowise,
[0:53:07 - 0:53:08] ▶
an instrument
[0:53:08 - 0:53:09] ▶
which serves
[0:53:09 - 0:53:09] ▶
as planetary defense.
[0:53:09 - 0:53:11] ▶
You heard me right.
[0:53:11 - 0:53:12] ▶
Neowise could be
[0:53:12 - 0:53:13] ▶
the first line of defense
[0:53:13 - 0:53:15] ▶
against humans
[0:53:15 - 0:53:16] ▶
going the way
[0:53:16 - 0:53:16] ▶
of the dinosaurs.
[0:53:16 - 0:53:17] ▶
So Grillmayer
[0:53:18 - 0:53:19] ▶
had as front-line
[0:53:19 - 0:53:20] ▶
of view as you can get
[0:53:20 - 0:53:21] ▶
when it came to the potential
[0:53:21 - 0:53:23] ▶
for Earth's extinction.
[0:53:23 - 0:53:24] ▶
He's published extensively,
[0:53:25 - 0:53:26] ▶
and his research
[0:53:27 - 0:53:27] ▶
has earned him
[0:53:27 - 0:53:28] ▶
a number of accolades,
[0:53:28 - 0:53:29] ▶
including NASA's
[0:53:30 - 0:53:31] ▶
Exceptional Scientific Achievement
[0:53:31 - 0:53:32] ▶
Medal in 2011.
[0:53:32 - 0:53:34] ▶
Recently, Grillmayer
[0:53:34 - 0:53:35] ▶
had begun work
[0:53:35 - 0:53:36] ▶
on a new project,
[0:53:36 - 0:53:37] ▶
testing new instrumentation
[0:53:37 - 0:53:39] ▶
at Caltech's Palomar Observatory
[0:53:39 - 0:53:42] ▶
to monitor for meteor impacts
[0:53:42 - 0:53:43] ▶
on the moon's surface
[0:53:43 - 0:53:44] ▶
during an upcoming lunar eclipse.
[0:53:44 - 0:53:46] ▶
Another colleague,
[0:53:47 - 0:53:48] ▶
collaborator,
[0:53:48 - 0:53:48] ▶
and lead scientist,
[0:53:49 - 0:53:50] ▶
Joe Maciero,
[0:53:50 - 0:53:51] ▶
said,
[0:53:51 - 0:53:52] ▶
It is a really exciting project,
[0:53:52 - 0:53:54] ▶
and I know Carl
[0:53:54 - 0:53:55] ▶
was looking forward
[0:53:55 - 0:53:56] ▶
to seeing what we could learn
[0:53:56 - 0:53:57] ▶
about the near-space environment
[0:53:57 - 0:53:59] ▶
from that.
[0:53:59 - 0:53:59] ▶
It made perfect sense
[0:54:00 - 0:54:01] ▶
that someone so passionate
[0:54:01 - 0:54:02] ▶
about the night skies
[0:54:02 - 0:54:04] ▶
would build a home
[0:54:04 - 0:54:05] ▶
outfitted with his own observatory.
[0:54:05 - 0:54:07] ▶
And what makes no sense
[0:54:07 - 0:54:09] ▶
is why a neighbor
[0:54:09 - 0:54:09] ▶
would seemingly stalk him
[0:54:09 - 0:54:11] ▶
on his property
[0:54:11 - 0:54:12] ▶
in December
[0:54:12 - 0:54:13] ▶
and return to kill him
[0:54:13 - 0:54:14] ▶
in February.
[0:54:14 - 0:54:15] ▶
On December 20, 2025,
[0:54:15 - 0:54:17] ▶
according to sheriff officials
[0:54:18 - 0:54:19] ▶
in court records,
[0:54:19 - 0:54:20] ▶
Carl Grillmayer
[0:54:21 - 0:54:22] ▶
called the police
[0:54:22 - 0:54:23] ▶
to report someone trespassing
[0:54:23 - 0:54:24] ▶
on his sprawling lot
[0:54:24 - 0:54:26] ▶
in Lano.
[0:54:26 - 0:54:26] ▶
Deputies were dispatched,
[0:54:27 - 0:54:28] ▶
and when they arrived,
[0:54:28 - 0:54:29] ▶
they found 29-year-old
[0:54:29 - 0:54:31] ▶
Lano resident
[0:54:31 - 0:54:32] ▶
Freddy Snyder
[0:54:32 - 0:54:33] ▶
wandering the rugged landscape
[0:54:33 - 0:54:34] ▶
nearby,
[0:54:34 - 0:54:35] ▶
carrying a loaded,
[0:54:36 - 0:54:37] ▶
unregistered rifle.
[0:54:37 - 0:54:38] ▶
Snyder claimed
[0:54:38 - 0:54:39] ▶
he was just headed
[0:54:39 - 0:54:40] ▶
to the post office
[0:54:40 - 0:54:41] ▶
and carried the weapon
[0:54:41 - 0:54:42] ▶
for self-defense
[0:54:42 - 0:54:43] ▶
against wild animals.
[0:54:43 - 0:54:45] ▶
But the LA Times
[0:54:45 - 0:54:46] ▶
uncovered Snyder's
[0:54:46 - 0:54:47] ▶
property records,
[0:54:47 - 0:54:48] ▶
indicating the post office
[0:54:48 - 0:54:50] ▶
was in the opposite direction
[0:54:50 - 0:54:52] ▶
of his and Grillmayer's home.
[0:54:52 - 0:54:53] ▶
The sheriffs arrested Snyder
[0:54:54 - 0:54:55] ▶
on a felony weapons charge
[0:54:55 - 0:54:57] ▶
and booked him
[0:54:57 - 0:54:58] ▶
at the Palmdale Station Jail,
[0:54:58 - 0:54:59] ▶
where he was accused
[0:55:00 - 0:55:01] ▶
of attempting to escape
[0:55:01 - 0:55:02] ▶
before his court appearance.
[0:55:02 - 0:55:03] ▶
When Snyder showed up at court,
[0:55:04 - 0:55:05] ▶
the judge told him
[0:55:06 - 0:55:07] ▶
to complete a gun safety course,
[0:55:07 - 0:55:09] ▶
citing his lack
[0:55:09 - 0:55:10] ▶
of past criminal record
[0:55:10 - 0:55:11] ▶
and an unnecessary
[0:55:11 - 0:55:12] ▶
prosecution's law
[0:55:12 - 0:55:14] ▶
as the reason for his leniency.
[0:55:14 - 0:55:16] ▶
Snyder was released from jail
[0:55:16 - 0:55:18] ▶
on his own recognizance.
[0:55:18 - 0:55:19] ▶
Things calmed in the new year,
[0:55:20 - 0:55:21] ▶
at least temporarily,
[0:55:21 - 0:55:22] ▶
until another 911 call
[0:55:23 - 0:55:25] ▶
came in on February 16th.
[0:55:25 - 0:55:27] ▶
At 6.10 a.m.,
[0:55:27 - 0:55:28] ▶
deputies responded
[0:55:28 - 0:55:29] ▶
to a 911 call
[0:55:29 - 0:55:31] ▶
for assault
[0:55:31 - 0:55:31] ▶
with a deadly weapon.
[0:55:31 - 0:55:33] ▶
Carl Grillmayer
[0:55:33 - 0:55:34] ▶
had been shot on his porch.
[0:55:34 - 0:55:36] ▶
Paramedics pronounced him
[0:55:36 - 0:55:38] ▶
dead at the scene.
[0:55:38 - 0:55:39] ▶
While the deputies
[0:55:39 - 0:55:40] ▶
responded to the 911 call
[0:55:40 - 0:55:42] ▶
at the Grillmayer residence,
[0:55:42 - 0:55:43] ▶
another call came in.
[0:55:43 - 0:55:44] ▶
A carjacking had occurred
[0:55:45 - 0:55:47] ▶
just down the road.
[0:55:47 - 0:55:48] ▶
Freddy Snyder
[0:55:49 - 0:55:49] ▶
was arrested
[0:55:49 - 0:55:50] ▶
for the carjacking
[0:55:50 - 0:55:51] ▶
and was subsequently linked
[0:55:51 - 0:55:53] ▶
to Grillmayer's shooting.
[0:55:53 - 0:55:54] ▶
Snyder,
[0:55:54 - 0:55:55] ▶
the man who was released
[0:55:55 - 0:55:56] ▶
from custody
[0:55:56 - 0:55:57] ▶
for lacking a criminal record,
[0:55:57 - 0:55:58] ▶
was now charged
[0:55:59 - 0:56:00] ▶
with several felonies,
[0:56:00 - 0:56:01] ▶
including burglary,
[0:56:01 - 0:56:02] ▶
carjacking,
[0:56:03 - 0:56:04] ▶
and murder.
[0:56:04 - 0:56:04] ▶
This time,
[0:56:05 - 0:56:05] ▶
his bail was set
[0:56:05 - 0:56:06] ▶
at just above $3 million.
[0:56:06 - 0:56:08] ▶
Investigators have yet
[0:56:09 - 0:56:10] ▶
to uncover a motive,
[0:56:10 - 0:56:11] ▶
and they've found no evidence
[0:56:12 - 0:56:13] ▶
that Snyder and Grillmayer
[0:56:13 - 0:56:15] ▶
were acquainted.
[0:56:15 - 0:56:15] ▶
No one has an explanation
[0:56:16 - 0:56:17] ▶
for why this man
[0:56:17 - 0:56:18] ▶
suddenly went on a crime spree
[0:56:18 - 0:56:20] ▶
that began and ended
[0:56:20 - 0:56:22] ▶
with Carl Grillmayer.
[0:56:22 - 0:56:23] ▶
And Freddy Snyder's arraignment
[0:56:23 - 0:56:25] ▶
was postponed
[0:56:25 - 0:56:26] ▶
from March 26th
[0:56:26 - 0:56:27] ▶
to April 29th,
[0:56:27 - 0:56:29] ▶
so it may take many months
[0:56:29 - 0:56:31] ▶
to uncover
[0:56:31 - 0:56:31] ▶
just what happened here.
[0:56:31 - 0:56:33] ▶
Could Grillmayer
[0:56:33 - 0:56:34] ▶
have stumbled upon
[0:56:34 - 0:56:35] ▶
something he wasn't supposed to?
[0:56:35 - 0:56:37] ▶
Was Snyder being controlled
[0:56:37 - 0:56:38] ▶
by darker forces?
[0:56:38 - 0:56:40] ▶
Was he just a patsy
[0:56:40 - 0:56:41] ▶
or an extension
[0:56:41 - 0:56:42] ▶
of something deeper?
[0:56:42 - 0:56:43] ▶
Recently,
[0:56:44 - 0:56:44] ▶
Dr. Grillmayer
[0:56:44 - 0:56:45] ▶
had been working
[0:56:45 - 0:56:46] ▶
on the revolutionary
[0:56:46 - 0:56:47] ▶
Vera Rubin Observatory,
[0:56:47 - 0:56:49] ▶
an observatory
[0:56:49 - 0:56:50] ▶
which saw its first light
[0:56:50 - 0:56:51] ▶
mere months
[0:56:51 - 0:56:52] ▶
before his untimely death.
[0:56:52 - 0:56:54] ▶
The Vera Rubin Observatory
[0:56:54 - 0:56:56] ▶
is one of the largest
[0:56:56 - 0:56:57] ▶
scale surveys
[0:56:57 - 0:56:58] ▶
of the sky
[0:56:58 - 0:56:58] ▶
ever undertaken.
[0:56:58 - 0:57:00] ▶
It produces
[0:57:00 - 0:57:00] ▶
over a thousand images
[0:57:00 - 0:57:02] ▶
every night,
[0:57:02 - 0:57:03] ▶
covering the entire
[0:57:03 - 0:57:04] ▶
southern hemisphere
[0:57:04 - 0:57:05] ▶
from horizon to horizon.
[0:57:05 - 0:57:07] ▶
And it promises
[0:57:07 - 0:57:08] ▶
to revolutionize
[0:57:08 - 0:57:09] ▶
the search
[0:57:09 - 0:57:09] ▶
for interstellar objects.
[0:57:09 - 0:57:11] ▶
Currently,
[0:57:11 - 0:57:12] ▶
we've only ever detected
[0:57:12 - 0:57:13] ▶
three objects
[0:57:13 - 0:57:14] ▶
confirmed to be entering
[0:57:14 - 0:57:15] ▶
the solar system
[0:57:15 - 0:57:16] ▶
from beyond.
[0:57:16 - 0:57:17] ▶
But astronomers
[0:57:18 - 0:57:18] ▶
estimate Vera Rubin
[0:57:18 - 0:57:20] ▶
will discover 50
[0:57:20 - 0:57:21] ▶
by the time
[0:57:21 - 0:57:22] ▶
its run is over.
[0:57:22 - 0:57:23] ▶
It will show us
[0:57:23 - 0:57:24] ▶
our own solar system
[0:57:24 - 0:57:25] ▶
in unprecedented detail.
[0:57:25 - 0:57:27] ▶
On its first
[0:57:28 - 0:57:28] ▶
active night,
[0:57:28 - 0:57:29] ▶
it revealed
[0:57:29 - 0:57:30] ▶
over 2,000
[0:57:30 - 0:57:31] ▶
previously undiscovered
[0:57:31 - 0:57:33] ▶
asteroids.
[0:57:33 - 0:57:33] ▶
Here's where things
[0:57:34 - 0:57:35] ▶
take an interesting,
[0:57:35 - 0:57:36] ▶
albeit very speculative,
[0:57:36 - 0:57:37] ▶
turn.
[0:57:37 - 0:57:38] ▶
In 2017,
[0:57:38 - 0:57:39] ▶
we discovered
[0:57:39 - 0:57:40] ▶
Oumuamua,
[0:57:40 - 0:57:40] ▶
the first ever
[0:57:41 - 0:57:42] ▶
interstellar object
[0:57:42 - 0:57:43] ▶
to visit
[0:57:43 - 0:57:44] ▶
our solar system.
[0:57:44 - 0:57:45] ▶
It had some
[0:57:45 - 0:57:46] ▶
very strange properties,
[0:57:46 - 0:57:47] ▶
especially the way
[0:57:47 - 0:57:48] ▶
it accelerated
[0:57:48 - 0:57:49] ▶
without any visible
[0:57:49 - 0:57:50] ▶
cometary tail,
[0:57:50 - 0:57:51] ▶
leading past
[0:57:52 - 0:57:52] ▶
American alchemy guest
[0:57:52 - 0:57:54] ▶
and Harvard astrophysicist
[0:57:54 - 0:57:55] ▶
Avi Loeb
[0:57:55 - 0:57:56] ▶
to speculate
[0:57:56 - 0:57:57] ▶
that it may be
[0:57:57 - 0:57:58] ▶
a spacecraft
[0:57:58 - 0:57:59] ▶
or alien artifact.
[0:57:59 - 0:58:00] ▶
It was given
[0:58:00 - 0:58:01] ▶
the name
[0:58:01 - 0:58:01] ▶
Oumuamua
[0:58:01 - 0:58:02] ▶
because it means
[0:58:02 - 0:58:03] ▶
in the Hawaiian language
[0:58:03 - 0:58:04] ▶
a scout,
[0:58:04 - 0:58:05] ▶
a messenger
[0:58:06 - 0:58:07] ▶
from far away.
[0:58:07 - 0:58:08] ▶
All the proposals
[0:58:08 - 0:58:09] ▶
that were put
[0:58:09 - 0:58:10] ▶
on the table
[0:58:10 - 0:58:10] ▶
to explain
[0:58:10 - 0:58:11] ▶
the anomalies
[0:58:11 - 0:58:12] ▶
of Oumuamua
[0:58:12 - 0:58:13] ▶
invoked
[0:58:13 - 0:58:14] ▶
a rock of a type
[0:58:14 - 0:58:16] ▶
that we've never
[0:58:16 - 0:58:17] ▶
seen before.
[0:58:17 - 0:58:18] ▶
With Rubin
[0:58:18 - 0:58:19] ▶
now online,
[0:58:19 - 0:58:20] ▶
we're poised
[0:58:20 - 0:58:21] ▶
to discover
[0:58:21 - 0:58:21] ▶
many more
[0:58:21 - 0:58:22] ▶
Oumuamuas,
[0:58:22 - 0:58:23] ▶
which is why
[0:58:23 - 0:58:24] ▶
Vera Rubin
[0:58:24 - 0:58:25] ▶
is now motivating
[0:58:25 - 0:58:26] ▶
mainstream SETI researchers
[0:58:26 - 0:58:28] ▶
to start scanning
[0:58:28 - 0:58:29] ▶
our solar system
[0:58:29 - 0:58:30] ▶
for more anomalies,
[0:58:30 - 0:58:31] ▶
which could be
[0:58:32 - 0:58:32] ▶
alien spacecraft
[0:58:32 - 0:58:33] ▶
or probes.
[0:58:33 - 0:58:34] ▶
If our solar system
[0:58:35 - 0:58:36] ▶
is in fact
[0:58:36 - 0:58:37] ▶
filled in extraterrestrial
[0:58:37 - 0:58:38] ▶
spacecrafts
[0:58:38 - 0:58:39] ▶
and artifacts
[0:58:39 - 0:58:40] ▶
from visiting civilizations,
[0:58:40 - 0:58:41] ▶
Rubin
[0:58:42 - 0:58:43] ▶
is perfectly poised
[0:58:43 - 0:58:44] ▶
to pick them up.
[0:58:44 - 0:58:45] ▶
But there's also
[0:58:45 - 0:58:46] ▶
a big limitation.
[0:58:46 - 0:58:47] ▶
All of Rubin's imagery
[0:58:48 - 0:58:49] ▶
has to be approved
[0:58:49 - 0:58:51] ▶
by the Pentagon.
[0:58:51 - 0:58:51] ▶
This is not
[0:58:52 - 0:58:53] ▶
a conspiracy theory.
[0:58:53 - 0:58:54] ▶
It's a publicly
[0:58:54 - 0:58:55] ▶
known fact
[0:58:55 - 0:58:56] ▶
as reported
[0:58:56 - 0:58:57] ▶
in this article
[0:58:57 - 0:58:57] ▶
from The Atlantic.
[0:58:57 - 0:58:58] ▶
Every image
[0:58:59 - 0:58:59] ▶
gets reviewed
[0:58:59 - 0:59:00] ▶
by the intelligence
[0:59:00 - 0:59:01] ▶
agencies
[0:59:01 - 0:59:01] ▶
before the scientific
[0:59:01 - 0:59:02] ▶
community
[0:59:02 - 0:59:03] ▶
is allowed
[0:59:03 - 0:59:04] ▶
to see it.
[0:59:04 - 0:59:05] ▶
As The Atlantic
[0:59:05 - 0:59:05] ▶
article reports,
[0:59:05 - 0:59:07] ▶
a government agency
[0:59:07 - 0:59:08] ▶
would chip in
[0:59:08 - 0:59:09] ▶
$5 million
[0:59:09 - 0:59:09] ▶
for the construction
[0:59:09 - 0:59:11] ▶
of a dedicated
[0:59:11 - 0:59:12] ▶
network
[0:59:12 - 0:59:12] ▶
for moving
[0:59:12 - 0:59:13] ▶
sensitive data.
[0:59:13 - 0:59:14] ▶
Each time
[0:59:14 - 0:59:15] ▶
the telescope
[0:59:15 - 0:59:15] ▶
were to take
[0:59:15 - 0:59:16] ▶
one of its
[0:59:16 - 0:59:16] ▶
30-second tile
[0:59:16 - 0:59:18] ▶
images of the sky,
[0:59:18 - 0:59:19] ▶
the file would be
[0:59:19 - 0:59:20] ▶
immediately encrypted
[0:59:20 - 0:59:21] ▶
without anyone
[0:59:21 - 0:59:23] ▶
looking at it first
[0:59:23 - 0:59:24] ▶
and then sent
[0:59:24 - 0:59:25] ▶
to a secure facility
[0:59:25 - 0:59:26] ▶
in California.
[0:59:26 - 0:59:27] ▶
Next,
[0:59:27 - 0:59:28] ▶
an automated system
[0:59:28 - 0:59:29] ▶
would compare
[0:59:29 - 0:59:30] ▶
the image
[0:59:30 - 0:59:30] ▶
with previous images
[0:59:30 - 0:59:32] ▶
of the same tile.
[0:59:32 - 0:59:33] ▶
It would cut out
[0:59:33 - 0:59:34] ▶
small postage stamp
[0:59:34 - 0:59:36] ▶
pictures of any
[0:59:36 - 0:59:37] ▶
new object it finds,
[0:59:37 - 0:59:39] ▶
be they asteroids,
[0:59:39 - 0:59:40] ▶
exploding stars,
[0:59:40 - 0:59:41] ▶
or spy satellite.
[0:59:42 - 0:59:43] ▶
It would filter out
[0:59:43 - 0:59:44] ▶
the postage stamps
[0:59:44 - 0:59:45] ▶
that might depict
[0:59:45 - 0:59:46] ▶
secret U.S. assets
[0:59:46 - 0:59:48] ▶
and one minute later
[0:59:48 - 0:59:49] ▶
send all the rest
[0:59:49 - 0:59:51] ▶
together with their coordinates
[0:59:51 - 0:59:52] ▶
to an alert service
[0:59:52 - 0:59:54] ▶
available to astronomers
[0:59:54 - 0:59:55] ▶
worldwide.
[0:59:55 - 0:59:56] ▶
This level of intense
[0:59:56 - 0:59:58] ▶
intelligence community
[0:59:58 - 0:59:59] ▶
oversight over what
[0:59:59 - 1:00:00] ▶
you might expect
[1:00:00 - 1:00:01] ▶
to be a conventional
[1:00:01 - 1:00:02] ▶
astronomical tool
[1:00:02 - 1:00:04] ▶
is not unprecedented.
[1:00:04 - 1:00:05] ▶
A much smaller
[1:00:05 - 1:00:07] ▶
all-sky survey
[1:00:07 - 1:00:08] ▶
called PanSTARS,
[1:00:08 - 1:00:09] ▶
the same one
[1:00:09 - 1:00:10] ▶
which discovered
[1:00:10 - 1:00:11] ▶
Oumuamua,
[1:00:11 - 1:00:12] ▶
underwent massive censorship
[1:00:12 - 1:00:14] ▶
from the Air Force
[1:00:14 - 1:00:15] ▶
with swaths of imagery
[1:00:15 - 1:00:16] ▶
redacted or blacked out.
[1:00:16 - 1:00:18] ▶
Astronomers complained
[1:00:18 - 1:00:20] ▶
that these redactions
[1:00:20 - 1:00:20] ▶
often got in the way
[1:00:20 - 1:00:22] ▶
of their work.
[1:00:22 - 1:00:22] ▶
Now, what if you were
[1:00:23 - 1:00:23] ▶
to spot a UFO
[1:00:23 - 1:00:24] ▶
on one of these things?
[1:00:24 - 1:00:26] ▶
Of course,
[1:00:26 - 1:00:27] ▶
the publicly stated
[1:00:27 - 1:00:28] ▶
reason for this
[1:00:28 - 1:00:29] ▶
has nothing to do
[1:00:29 - 1:00:30] ▶
with UFOs
[1:00:30 - 1:00:31] ▶
and everything to do
[1:00:31 - 1:00:32] ▶
with classified spy satellites
[1:00:32 - 1:00:33] ▶
and military space assets.
[1:00:33 - 1:00:35] ▶
Most of the time,
[1:00:35 - 1:00:36] ▶
this is probably true,
[1:00:36 - 1:00:37] ▶
but it does have
[1:00:38 - 1:00:38] ▶
other implications.
[1:00:38 - 1:00:40] ▶
Past American alchemist,
[1:00:40 - 1:00:42] ▶
Dr. Beatrice Villarreal,
[1:00:42 - 1:00:44] ▶
discovered a possibly
[1:00:44 - 1:00:45] ▶
vast population
[1:00:45 - 1:00:47] ▶
of unknown objects
[1:00:47 - 1:00:48] ▶
orbiting the Earth.
[1:00:48 - 1:00:49] ▶
She found tens of thousands
[1:00:50 - 1:00:52] ▶
of transients,
[1:00:52 - 1:00:53] ▶
light-reflecting,
[1:00:53 - 1:00:54] ▶
mirror-like objects
[1:00:55 - 1:00:56] ▶
orbiting the Earth.
[1:00:56 - 1:00:57] ▶
And she found them
[1:00:58 - 1:00:59] ▶
on astronomical plates
[1:00:59 - 1:01:00] ▶
from 1949 to 1957,
[1:01:00 - 1:01:03] ▶
before Sputnik
[1:01:04 - 1:01:05] ▶
or any American satellites
[1:01:05 - 1:01:07] ▶
were up in space.
[1:01:07 - 1:01:08] ▶
She also found them
[1:01:09 - 1:01:10] ▶
on astronomical plates
[1:01:10 - 1:01:11] ▶
from the Palomar Observatory.
[1:01:11 - 1:01:13] ▶
The same place
[1:01:13 - 1:01:14] ▶
associated with
[1:01:14 - 1:01:15] ▶
Carl Grillmair.
[1:01:15 - 1:01:16] ▶
Villarreal is currently
[1:01:16 - 1:01:17] ▶
working on replicating
[1:01:17 - 1:01:19] ▶
her results.
[1:01:19 - 1:01:20] ▶
And if I had to guess,
[1:01:20 - 1:01:21] ▶
I think we're going to find
[1:01:21 - 1:01:22] ▶
some interesting
[1:01:22 - 1:01:23] ▶
corroboration for them.
[1:01:23 - 1:01:24] ▶
I've been working
[1:01:24 - 1:01:25] ▶
with transients for a while.
[1:01:25 - 1:01:26] ▶
I think a lot of people
[1:01:26 - 1:01:27] ▶
know about this transient work.
[1:01:27 - 1:01:28] ▶
We have been looking
[1:01:29 - 1:01:30] ▶
for like multiple
[1:01:30 - 1:01:31] ▶
transients and images.
[1:01:31 - 1:01:32] ▶
Sometimes you can see
[1:01:32 - 1:01:33] ▶
multiple of them
[1:01:33 - 1:01:34] ▶
appearing and vanishing
[1:01:34 - 1:01:36] ▶
within half an hour.
[1:01:36 - 1:01:37] ▶
So if there truly is
[1:01:37 - 1:01:38] ▶
a population of UFOs
[1:01:38 - 1:01:40] ▶
surrounding the Earth,
[1:01:40 - 1:01:41] ▶
the Rubin telescope,
[1:01:41 - 1:01:43] ▶
Grillmair's pet project
[1:01:43 - 1:01:45] ▶
at the end of his life,
[1:01:45 - 1:01:46] ▶
would certainly catch them.
[1:01:47 - 1:01:48] ▶
But again,
[1:01:48 - 1:01:49] ▶
anything it sees
[1:01:49 - 1:01:50] ▶
would have to get
[1:01:50 - 1:01:51] ▶
a Pentagon stamp
[1:01:51 - 1:01:52] ▶
of approval
[1:01:52 - 1:01:53] ▶
before ever reaching
[1:01:53 - 1:01:54] ▶
the general public
[1:01:54 - 1:01:55] ▶
and scientific community.
[1:01:55 - 1:01:57] ▶
Now, this is
[1:01:57 - 1:01:57] ▶
definite speculation,
[1:01:57 - 1:01:58] ▶
and I want to make
[1:01:59 - 1:01:59] ▶
the disclaimer
[1:01:59 - 1:02:00] ▶
that there's no direct
[1:02:00 - 1:02:01] ▶
evidence suggesting this.
[1:02:01 - 1:02:03] ▶
But the question
[1:02:03 - 1:02:04] ▶
has to be asked.
[1:02:04 - 1:02:05] ▶
Did Grillmair
[1:02:06 - 1:02:06] ▶
potentially see something
[1:02:06 - 1:02:08] ▶
in the Rubin data
[1:02:08 - 1:02:09] ▶
that wasn't meant
[1:02:09 - 1:02:10] ▶
for public release?
[1:02:10 - 1:02:11] ▶
He might have seen
[1:02:12 - 1:02:12] ▶
something classified,
[1:02:12 - 1:02:13] ▶
but why would he want
[1:02:14 - 1:02:15] ▶
to report on that?
[1:02:15 - 1:02:16] ▶
If he saw something
[1:02:16 - 1:02:17] ▶
more anomalous,
[1:02:17 - 1:02:17] ▶
it would be hard
[1:02:18 - 1:02:18] ▶
to tell him in good faith
[1:02:18 - 1:02:20] ▶
as a scientist
[1:02:20 - 1:02:21] ▶
to not tell the public.
[1:02:21 - 1:02:23] ▶
We may never know,
[1:02:23 - 1:02:24] ▶
but Dr. Grillmair's
[1:02:24 - 1:02:25] ▶
targeted killing
[1:02:25 - 1:02:26] ▶
leaves many questions
[1:02:26 - 1:02:27] ▶
unanswered.
[1:02:27 - 1:02:28] ▶
Snyder's bizarre
[1:02:28 - 1:02:29] ▶
lenient treatment,
[1:02:29 - 1:02:30] ▶
the disappearances
[1:02:30 - 1:02:31] ▶
of General McCaslett,
[1:02:31 - 1:02:32] ▶
Monica Reza,
[1:02:33 - 1:02:33] ▶
and Melissa Cassice
[1:02:34 - 1:02:35] ▶
are all notable
[1:02:35 - 1:02:36] ▶
because of the access
[1:02:36 - 1:02:37] ▶
they had to top-secret
[1:02:37 - 1:02:39] ▶
intelligence and technology
[1:02:39 - 1:02:41] ▶
produced at our nation's
[1:02:41 - 1:02:42] ▶
premier space,
[1:02:42 - 1:02:43] ▶
science, and defense
[1:02:43 - 1:02:44] ▶
facilities.
[1:02:44 - 1:02:45] ▶
The murder of Carl Grillmair,
[1:02:45 - 1:02:47] ▶
if premeditated
[1:02:47 - 1:02:48] ▶
and intentional,
[1:02:48 - 1:02:49] ▶
would represent
[1:02:50 - 1:02:50] ▶
a terrifying escalation
[1:02:50 - 1:02:52] ▶
in this attack on science.
[1:02:52 - 1:02:54] ▶
A mind like Grillmair's
[1:02:54 - 1:02:55] ▶
doesn't come along
[1:02:55 - 1:02:56] ▶
very often.
[1:02:56 - 1:02:57] ▶
A senseless act of violence
[1:02:57 - 1:02:59] ▶
is always a tragedy,
[1:02:59 - 1:03:00] ▶
but when the expertise
[1:03:01 - 1:03:02] ▶
of an astronomer
[1:03:02 - 1:03:03] ▶
like Carl
[1:03:03 - 1:03:04] ▶
is wiped off the planet,
[1:03:04 - 1:03:05] ▶
we can leave no stone
[1:03:05 - 1:03:06] ▶
left unturned.
[1:03:06 - 1:03:07] ▶
Which brings us
[1:03:08 - 1:03:08] ▶
to another shocking
[1:03:08 - 1:03:09] ▶
and senseless act
[1:03:09 - 1:03:11] ▶
of violence
[1:03:11 - 1:03:11] ▶
that took out another
[1:03:11 - 1:03:13] ▶
of the world's
[1:03:13 - 1:03:14] ▶
preeminent scientific minds.
[1:03:14 - 1:03:16] ▶
This time,
[1:03:16 - 1:03:17] ▶
an expert on nuclear fusion.
[1:03:17 - 1:03:19] ▶
Nuno Felipe Gómez Lurero
[1:03:25 - 1:03:28] ▶
was born in 1977
[1:03:28 - 1:03:29] ▶
in Visu,
[1:03:29 - 1:03:31] ▶
a city in central Portugal.
[1:03:31 - 1:03:33] ▶
Even as a little boy,
[1:03:33 - 1:03:34] ▶
he always knew
[1:03:34 - 1:03:35] ▶
he wanted to be a scientist.
[1:03:35 - 1:03:36] ▶
In a 2018 MIT profile,
[1:03:37 - 1:03:39] ▶
Nuno recalled
[1:03:40 - 1:03:40] ▶
how everyone else
[1:03:40 - 1:03:41] ▶
wanted to be a policeman
[1:03:41 - 1:03:43] ▶
or a fireman.
[1:03:43 - 1:03:44] ▶
He couldn't quite place
[1:03:44 - 1:03:45] ▶
the origin
[1:03:45 - 1:03:46] ▶
of his scientific interest.
[1:03:46 - 1:03:48] ▶
He followed that passion
[1:03:49 - 1:03:50] ▶
to Lisbon,
[1:03:50 - 1:03:51] ▶
where he received
[1:03:51 - 1:03:52] ▶
his undergraduate
[1:03:52 - 1:03:52] ▶
and master's degree
[1:03:52 - 1:03:54] ▶
at the Instituto
[1:03:54 - 1:03:55] ▶
Superior Technico
[1:03:55 - 1:03:57] ▶
in Lisbon.
[1:03:57 - 1:03:57] ▶
Nuno then went on
[1:03:58 - 1:03:59] ▶
to attend Imperial College
[1:03:59 - 1:04:00] ▶
in London,
[1:04:00 - 1:04:01] ▶
earning a doctorate
[1:04:01 - 1:04:02] ▶
in physics in 2005
[1:04:02 - 1:04:04] ▶
with a dissertation
[1:04:04 - 1:04:05] ▶
on tearing modes
[1:04:05 - 1:04:07] ▶
in plasma.
[1:04:07 - 1:04:08] ▶
After graduating,
[1:04:08 - 1:04:09] ▶
Nuno arrived
[1:04:09 - 1:04:10] ▶
in the United States
[1:04:10 - 1:04:11] ▶
to join Princeton University
[1:04:11 - 1:04:13] ▶
as a post-doctoral researcher
[1:04:13 - 1:04:15] ▶
at the Plasma Physics Lab
[1:04:15 - 1:04:17] ▶
in 2005.
[1:04:17 - 1:04:18] ▶
From 2007 to 2016,
[1:04:19 - 1:04:21] ▶
Nuno worked in a laboratory
[1:04:22 - 1:04:23] ▶
for the UK Atomic Energy Authority
[1:04:23 - 1:04:25] ▶
and as a researcher
[1:04:25 - 1:04:27] ▶
at the Plasma
[1:04:27 - 1:04:28] ▶
and Nuclear Fusion Institute
[1:04:28 - 1:04:30] ▶
in Portugal.
[1:04:30 - 1:04:30] ▶
In 2016,
[1:04:31 - 1:04:31] ▶
Loureiro returned
[1:04:32 - 1:04:33] ▶
to the United States,
[1:04:33 - 1:04:34] ▶
joining the faculty
[1:04:34 - 1:04:35] ▶
at MIT
[1:04:35 - 1:04:36] ▶
as a professor
[1:04:36 - 1:04:37] ▶
and fusion scientist.
[1:04:37 - 1:04:39] ▶
I'm Nuno Loureiro.
[1:04:39 - 1:04:40] ▶
I'm a professor at MIT.
[1:04:40 - 1:04:42] ▶
My main appointment
[1:04:43 - 1:04:43] ▶
is in nuclear science
[1:04:43 - 1:04:44] ▶
and engineering.
[1:04:44 - 1:04:45] ▶
He flourished at MIT
[1:04:45 - 1:04:47] ▶
and by 2022
[1:04:47 - 1:04:48] ▶
became deputy director
[1:04:48 - 1:04:50] ▶
of MIT's largest lab,
[1:04:50 - 1:04:52] ▶
the Plasma Science
[1:04:52 - 1:04:53] ▶
and Fusion Center,
[1:04:53 - 1:04:54] ▶
which is an umbrella
[1:04:54 - 1:04:56] ▶
research center at MIT
[1:04:56 - 1:04:57] ▶
for all the plasma
[1:04:57 - 1:05:00] ▶
and fusion-related activities
[1:05:00 - 1:05:01] ▶
that we do on campus.
[1:05:01 - 1:05:02] ▶
And in January 2025,
[1:05:05 - 1:05:07] ▶
President Joe Biden
[1:05:08 - 1:05:09] ▶
presented him
[1:05:09 - 1:05:10] ▶
with the Presidential
[1:05:10 - 1:05:11] ▶
Early Career Award,
[1:05:11 - 1:05:12] ▶
the highest U.S. government
[1:05:13 - 1:05:14] ▶
honor for young scientists.
[1:05:14 - 1:05:16] ▶
To say Nuno
[1:05:17 - 1:05:18] ▶
was a renowned physicist
[1:05:18 - 1:05:19] ▶
would be a massive
[1:05:19 - 1:05:21] ▶
understatement.
[1:05:21 - 1:05:22] ▶
He was a leading expert
[1:05:22 - 1:05:23] ▶
in plasma physics.
[1:05:23 - 1:05:24] ▶
The work Nuno
[1:05:25 - 1:05:25] ▶
was conducting at MIT
[1:05:25 - 1:05:27] ▶
was attempting
[1:05:27 - 1:05:28] ▶
to solve
[1:05:28 - 1:05:29] ▶
the hardest problems
[1:05:29 - 1:05:30] ▶
in nuclear fusion.
[1:05:30 - 1:05:31] ▶
Problems that would unlock
[1:05:34 - 1:05:35] ▶
our capabilities
[1:05:35 - 1:05:36] ▶
in clean fusion power,
[1:05:36 - 1:05:38] ▶
potentially solving
[1:05:38 - 1:05:39] ▶
the world's energy crisis
[1:05:39 - 1:05:41] ▶
forever.
[1:05:41 - 1:05:42] ▶
For those unaware,
[1:05:42 - 1:05:44] ▶
nuclear fusion
[1:05:44 - 1:05:45] ▶
would be the ultimate
[1:05:45 - 1:05:46] ▶
clean energy dream,
[1:05:46 - 1:05:47] ▶
bringing the sun to the earth
[1:05:47 - 1:05:49] ▶
and powering
[1:05:49 - 1:05:50] ▶
our whole society.
[1:05:50 - 1:05:51] ▶
no fossil fuel pollution
[1:05:51 - 1:05:52] ▶
or Chernobyl-style
[1:05:52 - 1:05:54] ▶
meltdown necessary.
[1:05:54 - 1:05:55] ▶
Wielding fusion power
[1:05:55 - 1:05:56] ▶
would dramatically reduce
[1:05:56 - 1:05:58] ▶
the human need
[1:05:58 - 1:05:59] ▶
for fossil fuels.
[1:05:59 - 1:06:00] ▶
And with that,
[1:06:00 - 1:06:01] ▶
we might be able to avoid
[1:06:01 - 1:06:02] ▶
a lot of the geopolitical
[1:06:02 - 1:06:04] ▶
escapades
[1:06:04 - 1:06:05] ▶
we're seeing happening today.
[1:06:05 - 1:06:06] ▶
But there's one
[1:06:07 - 1:06:09] ▶
great challenge.
[1:06:09 - 1:06:09] ▶
Plasma is a chaotic soup
[1:06:10 - 1:06:11] ▶
of charged, ionized gas
[1:06:11 - 1:06:13] ▶
which behaves
[1:06:13 - 1:06:14] ▶
in wildly unpredictable ways.
[1:06:14 - 1:06:16] ▶
To contain it
[1:06:16 - 1:06:18] ▶
and to force the atoms
[1:06:18 - 1:06:19] ▶
to fuse
[1:06:19 - 1:06:20] ▶
demands a special
[1:06:20 - 1:06:21] ▶
magnetic field,
[1:06:21 - 1:06:22] ▶
one which binds
[1:06:23 - 1:06:23] ▶
the plasma up
[1:06:23 - 1:06:24] ▶
into just the right geometry
[1:06:24 - 1:06:26] ▶
and under just enough pressure
[1:06:26 - 1:06:28] ▶
to force the atoms
[1:06:28 - 1:06:30] ▶
to merge,
[1:06:30 - 1:06:30] ▶
despite the immense
[1:06:31 - 1:06:32] ▶
repulsive force
[1:06:32 - 1:06:33] ▶
between them.
[1:06:33 - 1:06:33] ▶
There are many challenges
[1:06:34 - 1:06:35] ▶
to nuclear fusion,
[1:06:35 - 1:06:36] ▶
but perhaps the greatest
[1:06:36 - 1:06:37] ▶
is the problem
[1:06:37 - 1:06:39] ▶
of the containment field.
[1:06:39 - 1:06:40] ▶
It is no simple task,
[1:06:40 - 1:06:42] ▶
but it's where
[1:06:42 - 1:06:43] ▶
Nuno Lurero excelled.
[1:06:43 - 1:06:44] ▶
His research was especially focused
[1:06:44 - 1:06:47] ▶
on one of the greatest challenges
[1:06:47 - 1:06:48] ▶
in plasma containment fields,
[1:06:48 - 1:06:50] ▶
magnetic reconnection.
[1:06:51 - 1:06:52] ▶
Consider the loops of plasma
[1:06:53 - 1:06:55] ▶
we see on the sun.
[1:06:55 - 1:06:57] ▶
Plasma gets trapped
[1:06:57 - 1:06:58] ▶
in arcs of opposite
[1:06:58 - 1:07:00] ▶
magnetic force.
[1:07:00 - 1:07:01] ▶
It usually gets trapped
[1:07:01 - 1:07:03] ▶
in tubes of electromagnetic energy,
[1:07:03 - 1:07:05] ▶
hot particles
[1:07:05 - 1:07:06] ▶
rising out of the sun's surface
[1:07:06 - 1:07:08] ▶
and falling back in.
[1:07:08 - 1:07:10] ▶
Sometimes,
[1:07:10 - 1:07:11] ▶
like a rubber band
[1:07:11 - 1:07:12] ▶
that's been stretched too much,
[1:07:12 - 1:07:14] ▶
it snaps.
[1:07:14 - 1:07:15] ▶
The field lines break.
[1:07:15 - 1:07:16] ▶
All the energy stored
[1:07:17 - 1:07:18] ▶
in the field bursts out
[1:07:18 - 1:07:19] ▶
as the particles heat up
[1:07:19 - 1:07:21] ▶
and accelerate out.
[1:07:21 - 1:07:22] ▶
Then the field reconnects.
[1:07:22 - 1:07:24] ▶
This process causes solar flares
[1:07:24 - 1:07:26] ▶
and coronal mass ejections,
[1:07:26 - 1:07:28] ▶
the kind of events
[1:07:29 - 1:07:30] ▶
that could one day
[1:07:30 - 1:07:31] ▶
fry our entire grid
[1:07:31 - 1:07:32] ▶
with an electromagnetic pulse,
[1:07:32 - 1:07:34] ▶
or EMP.
[1:07:35 - 1:07:35] ▶
Nuno was a real blue sky researcher
[1:07:36 - 1:07:38] ▶
studying the phenomenon
[1:07:38 - 1:07:40] ▶
of magnetic reconnection itself.
[1:07:40 - 1:07:42] ▶
But his work had extremely practical applications
[1:07:44 - 1:07:47] ▶
because just as reconnection causes flares from the sun,
[1:07:47 - 1:07:52] ▶
it's also a major factor
[1:07:52 - 1:07:54] ▶
in our attempts to bring the sun's power down to earth
[1:07:54 - 1:07:57] ▶
and do so in the form of real nuclear fusion.
[1:07:57 - 1:08:00] ▶
Giant donut-shaped tokamak reactors
[1:08:00 - 1:08:03] ▶
use powerful magnets
[1:08:03 - 1:08:05] ▶
to contain superheated plasma,
[1:08:05 - 1:08:07] ▶
and magnetic reconnection
[1:08:07 - 1:08:08] ▶
is one of the greatest obstacles
[1:08:08 - 1:08:10] ▶
to sustained nuclear fusion.
[1:08:10 - 1:08:12] ▶
Just like plasma ejections from the sun,
[1:08:12 - 1:08:15] ▶
often with fusion,
[1:08:15 - 1:08:16] ▶
a leak gets created,
[1:08:17 - 1:08:18] ▶
leading to rapid cooling and pressure loss.
[1:08:18 - 1:08:20] ▶
This effectively stops the fusion process
[1:08:21 - 1:08:23] ▶
dead in its tracks.
[1:08:23 - 1:08:24] ▶
Nuno Lurero
[1:08:25 - 1:08:26] ▶
was one of the world's experts
[1:08:26 - 1:08:27] ▶
in understanding the intricacies
[1:08:27 - 1:08:29] ▶
of exactly how and why
[1:08:29 - 1:08:31] ▶
these magnetic reconnection leaks happen.
[1:08:31 - 1:08:34] ▶
We don't know if Nuno came close
[1:08:34 - 1:08:36] ▶
to solving the problem
[1:08:36 - 1:08:37] ▶
of magnetic field line breaks,
[1:08:37 - 1:08:39] ▶
but we do know
[1:08:40 - 1:08:41] ▶
he was probably as close as anybody.
[1:08:41 - 1:08:43] ▶
And at 47 years old,
[1:08:44 - 1:08:45] ▶
it's safe to say
[1:08:45 - 1:08:46] ▶
he had many impressive decades
[1:08:46 - 1:08:48] ▶
of discovery and invention ahead of him.
[1:08:48 - 1:08:50] ▶
Except on December 15th,
[1:08:51 - 1:08:52] ▶
Dr. Nuno Lurero
[1:08:53 - 1:08:54] ▶
was gunned down
[1:08:54 - 1:08:55] ▶
inside his Brookline, Massachusetts home.
[1:08:55 - 1:08:57] ▶
Nuno Lurero
[1:08:57 - 1:09:02] ▶
was a husband,
[1:09:02 - 1:09:03] ▶
a father,
[1:09:03 - 1:09:03] ▶
an award-winning scientist,
[1:09:04 - 1:09:05] ▶
an expert in his field.
[1:09:05 - 1:09:07] ▶
He was shot in the foyer
[1:09:07 - 1:09:08] ▶
of his apartment
[1:09:08 - 1:09:09] ▶
while his wife,
[1:09:09 - 1:09:10] ▶
mother,
[1:09:10 - 1:09:11] ▶
and daughters
[1:09:11 - 1:09:11] ▶
played a card game inside.
[1:09:11 - 1:09:13] ▶
The only other person
[1:09:14 - 1:09:15] ▶
who saw his killer
[1:09:15 - 1:09:16] ▶
was his 12-year-old daughter,
[1:09:16 - 1:09:17] ▶
who first answered the door
[1:09:18 - 1:09:19] ▶
for what she thought
[1:09:19 - 1:09:20] ▶
was a delivery man.
[1:09:20 - 1:09:21] ▶
Later,
[1:09:22 - 1:09:22] ▶
authorities would report
[1:09:22 - 1:09:24] ▶
that Claudio Manuel Neves Valente,
[1:09:24 - 1:09:26] ▶
the Portuguese national
[1:09:26 - 1:09:28] ▶
and top suspect
[1:09:28 - 1:09:29] ▶
in the shooting
[1:09:29 - 1:09:30] ▶
at Brown University
[1:09:30 - 1:09:31] ▶
that had occurred
[1:09:31 - 1:09:32] ▶
just two days prior,
[1:09:32 - 1:09:33] ▶
was likely also Nuno's killer.
[1:09:33 - 1:09:36] ▶
In some ways,
[1:09:36 - 1:09:37] ▶
this seemed very plausible.
[1:09:37 - 1:09:38] ▶
Nuno and Claudio
[1:09:39 - 1:09:40] ▶
had both studied physics together
[1:09:40 - 1:09:42] ▶
20 years ago
[1:09:42 - 1:09:43] ▶
at Portugal's
[1:09:43 - 1:09:44] ▶
Instituto Superior Tecnico.
[1:09:44 - 1:09:46] ▶
Physics programs
[1:09:46 - 1:09:47] ▶
are tight-knit.
[1:09:47 - 1:09:48] ▶
They're also highly competitive.
[1:09:48 - 1:09:50] ▶
The men certainly knew each other
[1:09:50 - 1:09:52] ▶
and were part
[1:09:52 - 1:09:52] ▶
of the same graduating class.
[1:09:52 - 1:09:54] ▶
But Nuno
[1:09:54 - 1:09:55] ▶
was actually an average student
[1:09:55 - 1:09:57] ▶
in undergrad,
[1:09:57 - 1:09:57] ▶
whereas Claudio
[1:09:58 - 1:09:59] ▶
was tied with another student
[1:09:59 - 1:10:00] ▶
for top of his class.
[1:10:00 - 1:10:01] ▶
Claudio had his heart
[1:10:02 - 1:10:03] ▶
set on MIT
[1:10:03 - 1:10:04] ▶
for graduate school,
[1:10:04 - 1:10:05] ▶
but as a surprise to everyone,
[1:10:05 - 1:10:07] ▶
he didn't score very well
[1:10:07 - 1:10:09] ▶
on his graduate school
[1:10:09 - 1:10:10] ▶
admissions test,
[1:10:10 - 1:10:11] ▶
making MIT a reach.
[1:10:11 - 1:10:13] ▶
He ultimately didn't get in.
[1:10:13 - 1:10:14] ▶
Claudio Valente
[1:10:15 - 1:10:16] ▶
was accepted
[1:10:16 - 1:10:16] ▶
to Brown University instead,
[1:10:16 - 1:10:18] ▶
but felt let down
[1:10:18 - 1:10:20] ▶
by a lack of academic rigor
[1:10:20 - 1:10:21] ▶
in their physics program,
[1:10:21 - 1:10:23] ▶
insisting his classes
[1:10:23 - 1:10:24] ▶
were too easy,
[1:10:24 - 1:10:25] ▶
covering material
[1:10:26 - 1:10:26] ▶
he'd already learned
[1:10:26 - 1:10:27] ▶
in undergrad.
[1:10:27 - 1:10:28] ▶
Claudio was described
[1:10:29 - 1:10:30] ▶
as egotistical
[1:10:30 - 1:10:31] ▶
and combative
[1:10:31 - 1:10:31] ▶
by his classmates at Brown.
[1:10:31 - 1:10:33] ▶
He only made it
[1:10:33 - 1:10:34] ▶
a year into the program
[1:10:34 - 1:10:35] ▶
before taking
[1:10:35 - 1:10:36] ▶
a leave of absence.
[1:10:36 - 1:10:37] ▶
Eventually,
[1:10:38 - 1:10:38] ▶
he dropped out
[1:10:38 - 1:10:39] ▶
of the program entirely
[1:10:39 - 1:10:40] ▶
and returned to Portugal.
[1:10:40 - 1:10:42] ▶
That year,
[1:10:42 - 1:10:43] ▶
he posted
[1:10:43 - 1:10:43] ▶
a disgruntled note online.
[1:10:43 - 1:10:45] ▶
Happy now?
[1:10:45 - 1:10:46] ▶
And some now believe
[1:10:46 - 1:10:47] ▶
Valente harbored
[1:10:47 - 1:10:48] ▶
deep resentment
[1:10:48 - 1:10:49] ▶
for his former classmate,
[1:10:49 - 1:10:51] ▶
Nuno Lerero,
[1:10:51 - 1:10:52] ▶
whose massive success
[1:10:52 - 1:10:53] ▶
would have been
[1:10:53 - 1:10:54] ▶
assault in the wound.
[1:10:54 - 1:10:55] ▶
Back in Portugal,
[1:10:58 - 1:11:00] ▶
tail between his legs,
[1:11:00 - 1:11:01] ▶
Valente worked
[1:11:02 - 1:11:02] ▶
at an internet company
[1:11:02 - 1:11:03] ▶
called Sapo,
[1:11:03 - 1:11:04] ▶
or S-A-P-O.
[1:11:05 - 1:11:06] ▶
His colleagues
[1:11:06 - 1:11:07] ▶
described him
[1:11:07 - 1:11:07] ▶
as highly competent
[1:11:07 - 1:11:09] ▶
and rigorous,
[1:11:09 - 1:11:09] ▶
polite,
[1:11:10 - 1:11:10] ▶
but aloof.
[1:11:10 - 1:11:11] ▶
His closest friend
[1:11:11 - 1:11:12] ▶
at work,
[1:11:12 - 1:11:13] ▶
Sergio Bastos,
[1:11:13 - 1:11:14] ▶
who worked with him
[1:11:14 - 1:11:15] ▶
for seven years,
[1:11:15 - 1:11:16] ▶
insisted Valente
[1:11:16 - 1:11:17] ▶
was an extraordinary professional.
[1:11:17 - 1:11:19] ▶
He did things
[1:11:20 - 1:11:20] ▶
that few people
[1:11:20 - 1:11:21] ▶
were capable of doing,
[1:11:21 - 1:11:22] ▶
but admitted
[1:11:23 - 1:11:23] ▶
that he was very lonely.
[1:11:23 - 1:11:25] ▶
I think one of the
[1:11:25 - 1:11:26] ▶
great regrets he had
[1:11:26 - 1:11:27] ▶
was that he couldn't
[1:11:27 - 1:11:28] ▶
create his own family,
[1:11:28 - 1:11:29] ▶
Mr. Bastos said.
[1:11:30 - 1:11:31] ▶
He had few social skills,
[1:11:31 - 1:11:33] ▶
and I don't think
[1:11:33 - 1:11:34] ▶
he had any girlfriends
[1:11:34 - 1:11:35] ▶
in the years
[1:11:35 - 1:11:36] ▶
we worked together.
[1:11:36 - 1:11:36] ▶
One day,
[1:11:37 - 1:11:38] ▶
in 2013,
[1:11:38 - 1:11:39] ▶
Valente reported to work.
[1:11:40 - 1:11:41] ▶
He declared
[1:11:42 - 1:11:42] ▶
it would be his last day.
[1:11:42 - 1:11:44] ▶
He turned in his laptop,
[1:11:44 - 1:11:45] ▶
and he was never seen again.
[1:11:46 - 1:11:47] ▶
Bastos tried in vain
[1:11:51 - 1:11:52] ▶
to reach out,
[1:11:52 - 1:11:53] ▶
but at this point,
[1:11:53 - 1:11:54] ▶
no one from Valente's
[1:11:54 - 1:11:55] ▶
former life
[1:11:55 - 1:11:56] ▶
could make contact,
[1:11:56 - 1:11:57] ▶
including his own family.
[1:11:57 - 1:11:59] ▶
In 2017,
[1:11:59 - 1:12:00] ▶
Valente applied for
[1:12:00 - 1:12:02] ▶
and was awarded
[1:12:02 - 1:12:02] ▶
a visa to the United States.
[1:12:02 - 1:12:04] ▶
He settled in Miami, Florida,
[1:12:05 - 1:12:07] ▶
where authorities
[1:12:07 - 1:12:08] ▶
are still trying
[1:12:08 - 1:12:09] ▶
to piece together
[1:12:09 - 1:12:10] ▶
how exactly
[1:12:10 - 1:12:11] ▶
he spent his time.
[1:12:11 - 1:12:12] ▶
What we do know
[1:12:12 - 1:12:13] ▶
is that for the past
[1:12:13 - 1:12:14] ▶
three years,
[1:12:14 - 1:12:15] ▶
Valente rented
[1:12:15 - 1:12:16] ▶
a storage unit
[1:12:16 - 1:12:17] ▶
in Salem, New Hampshire,
[1:12:17 - 1:12:18] ▶
and returned to Providence
[1:12:18 - 1:12:20] ▶
numerous times
[1:12:20 - 1:12:21] ▶
to conduct surveillance
[1:12:21 - 1:12:22] ▶
on the Brown campus.
[1:12:22 - 1:12:24] ▶
Investigators
[1:12:25 - 1:12:26] ▶
eventually traced
[1:12:26 - 1:12:27] ▶
Valente to Boston
[1:12:27 - 1:12:28] ▶
as early as
[1:12:28 - 1:12:29] ▶
November 17, 2025.
[1:12:29 - 1:12:31] ▶
By late November,
[1:12:32 - 1:12:33] ▶
he had checked
[1:12:33 - 1:12:34] ▶
into a Boston hotel
[1:12:34 - 1:12:35] ▶
and began making
[1:12:35 - 1:12:36] ▶
repeated trips
[1:12:36 - 1:12:37] ▶
to Providence.
[1:12:37 - 1:12:38] ▶
A janitor at Brown
[1:12:38 - 1:12:41] ▶
saw a masked man
[1:12:41 - 1:12:42] ▶
matching Valente's
[1:12:42 - 1:12:43] ▶
description inside
[1:12:43 - 1:12:44] ▶
the Barris and Hawley
[1:12:44 - 1:12:45] ▶
Engineering Building
[1:12:45 - 1:12:46] ▶
on November 28th
[1:12:46 - 1:12:48] ▶
and again
[1:12:48 - 1:12:49] ▶
on December 1st.
[1:12:49 - 1:12:50] ▶
On December 1st,
[1:12:51 - 1:12:52] ▶
Valente rented
[1:12:52 - 1:12:52] ▶
a blue-gray Nissan Sentra
[1:12:52 - 1:12:54] ▶
with Florida plates.
[1:12:54 - 1:12:55] ▶
That car was seen
[1:12:56 - 1:12:57] ▶
repeatedly around Brown
[1:12:57 - 1:12:58] ▶
between December 1st
[1:12:58 - 1:13:00] ▶
and December 12th.
[1:13:00 - 1:13:00] ▶
The picture was clear.
[1:13:01 - 1:13:02] ▶
This was pre-operational
[1:13:02 - 1:13:04] ▶
reconnaissance.
[1:13:04 - 1:13:05] ▶
Valente executed his plan
[1:13:05 - 1:13:08] ▶
on Saturday,
[1:13:08 - 1:13:09] ▶
December 13th, 2025.
[1:13:09 - 1:13:11] ▶
He barged into
[1:13:12 - 1:13:13] ▶
an open lecture hall
[1:13:13 - 1:13:14] ▶
in the Barris and Hawley Building,
[1:13:14 - 1:13:15] ▶
the home of the physics department
[1:13:16 - 1:13:17] ▶
where students were taking
[1:13:17 - 1:13:19] ▶
final exams
[1:13:19 - 1:13:20] ▶
before their winter holiday.
[1:13:20 - 1:13:21] ▶
Around 4 p.m.,
[1:13:22 - 1:13:23] ▶
Valente opened fire
[1:13:23 - 1:13:24] ▶
with a 9mm pistol,
[1:13:24 - 1:13:26] ▶
killing two students
[1:13:27 - 1:13:28] ▶
and injuring nine others.
[1:13:28 - 1:13:30] ▶
Valente would leave
[1:13:31 - 1:13:32] ▶
a confessional video behind.
[1:13:32 - 1:13:34] ▶
It was filmed
[1:13:34 - 1:13:35] ▶
in his storage unit
[1:13:35 - 1:13:36] ▶
as a massive
[1:13:36 - 1:13:37] ▶
federal and state manhunt
[1:13:37 - 1:13:39] ▶
was still underway.
[1:13:39 - 1:13:40] ▶
He confessed
[1:13:41 - 1:13:41] ▶
that he had spent
[1:13:41 - 1:13:42] ▶
six semesters
[1:13:42 - 1:13:43] ▶
planning his attack
[1:13:43 - 1:13:44] ▶
at Brown.
[1:13:44 - 1:13:45] ▶
After the shooting
[1:13:45 - 1:13:46] ▶
on December 13th,
[1:13:46 - 1:13:48] ▶
Valente successfully
[1:13:48 - 1:13:49] ▶
evaded law enforcement
[1:13:49 - 1:13:50] ▶
for two full days.
[1:13:50 - 1:13:51] ▶
Using a burner phone
[1:13:52 - 1:13:53] ▶
with a European SIM card
[1:13:53 - 1:13:54] ▶
as well as swapping out
[1:13:54 - 1:13:56] ▶
credit cards
[1:13:56 - 1:13:56] ▶
and the license plate
[1:13:56 - 1:13:57] ▶
on his rental car,
[1:13:57 - 1:13:58] ▶
his identity
[1:13:59 - 1:13:59] ▶
remained a mystery.
[1:13:59 - 1:14:01] ▶
Valente might have
[1:14:01 - 1:14:02] ▶
gotten away
[1:14:02 - 1:14:02] ▶
with his crimes,
[1:14:02 - 1:14:03] ▶
except for the fact
[1:14:04 - 1:14:05] ▶
that he had one more
[1:14:05 - 1:14:06] ▶
act of violence planned.
[1:14:06 - 1:14:07] ▶
At some point
[1:14:08 - 1:14:08] ▶
between Saturday
[1:14:08 - 1:14:09] ▶
and Sunday,
[1:14:09 - 1:14:10] ▶
Valente drove back
[1:14:10 - 1:14:11] ▶
to Boston.
[1:14:11 - 1:14:12] ▶
And on Monday,
[1:14:12 - 1:14:13] ▶
December 15th,
[1:14:13 - 1:14:14] ▶
Valente spent the day
[1:14:14 - 1:14:16] ▶
pacing around
[1:14:16 - 1:14:17] ▶
Commonwealth Avenue.
[1:14:17 - 1:14:18] ▶
Maybe Valente saw
[1:14:19 - 1:14:20] ▶
Lurero as a representation
[1:14:20 - 1:14:21] ▶
of everything
[1:14:21 - 1:14:22] ▶
he couldn't amount to.
[1:14:22 - 1:14:23] ▶
A successful academic,
[1:14:24 - 1:14:25] ▶
a family man,
[1:14:26 - 1:14:27] ▶
a leader in his field
[1:14:27 - 1:14:28] ▶
of physics,
[1:14:28 - 1:14:29] ▶
a successful emigrant
[1:14:29 - 1:14:31] ▶
to America.
[1:14:31 - 1:14:32] ▶
This may have just been
[1:14:32 - 1:14:33] ▶
a modern physics-based
[1:14:33 - 1:14:35] ▶
rendition
[1:14:35 - 1:14:36] ▶
of an age-old
[1:14:36 - 1:14:37] ▶
Shakespearean play.
[1:14:37 - 1:14:38] ▶
But still,
[1:14:39 - 1:14:39] ▶
there's something
[1:14:39 - 1:14:40] ▶
both strangely calculated
[1:14:40 - 1:14:41] ▶
and apprehensive
[1:14:41 - 1:14:43] ▶
about Claudio Valente's
[1:14:43 - 1:14:44] ▶
actions leading up
[1:14:44 - 1:14:45] ▶
to his confrontation
[1:14:45 - 1:14:46] ▶
with Lurero.
[1:14:46 - 1:14:47] ▶
Authorities have
[1:14:50 - 1:14:51] ▶
much more information
[1:14:51 - 1:14:53] ▶
about Valente's
[1:14:53 - 1:14:54] ▶
whereabouts in Providence
[1:14:54 - 1:14:55] ▶
prior to his Brown shooting.
[1:14:55 - 1:14:57] ▶
After that,
[1:14:57 - 1:14:58] ▶
he kind of goes dark.
[1:14:58 - 1:14:59] ▶
And for the rest
[1:15:00 - 1:15:00] ▶
of Saturday
[1:15:00 - 1:15:01] ▶
and all of Sunday,
[1:15:01 - 1:15:02] ▶
Valente seems
[1:15:03 - 1:15:04] ▶
to drop off the map.
[1:15:04 - 1:15:05] ▶
On Monday,
[1:15:06 - 1:15:06] ▶
December 15th,
[1:15:07 - 1:15:08] ▶
Providence police
[1:15:08 - 1:15:09] ▶
were still circulating
[1:15:09 - 1:15:10] ▶
surveillance clips
[1:15:10 - 1:15:11] ▶
from Brown.
[1:15:11 - 1:15:12] ▶
They were also
[1:15:12 - 1:15:13] ▶
still interviewing survivors.
[1:15:13 - 1:15:14] ▶
The shooter
[1:15:15 - 1:15:15] ▶
had not been identified.
[1:15:15 - 1:15:17] ▶
That same evening,
[1:15:18 - 1:15:19] ▶
at about 8.30 p.m.,
[1:15:19 - 1:15:21] ▶
Lurero was shot
[1:15:21 - 1:15:22] ▶
at his home
[1:15:22 - 1:15:23] ▶
on Gibbs Street
[1:15:23 - 1:15:24] ▶
in Brookline, Massachusetts.
[1:15:24 - 1:15:25] ▶
Earlier that day,
[1:15:26 - 1:15:27] ▶
the familiar Nissan
[1:15:27 - 1:15:28] ▶
made its first appearance
[1:15:28 - 1:15:30] ▶
parked on Babcock Street
[1:15:30 - 1:15:32] ▶
around 8 a.m.,
[1:15:32 - 1:15:33] ▶
five or six blocks
[1:15:33 - 1:15:35] ▶
from Lurero's home.
[1:15:35 - 1:15:36] ▶
Then,
[1:15:36 - 1:15:37] ▶
starting around 1.20 p.m.,
[1:15:37 - 1:15:39] ▶
police say
[1:15:39 - 1:15:40] ▶
security cameras
[1:15:40 - 1:15:41] ▶
recorded a masked person
[1:15:41 - 1:15:42] ▶
at different points
[1:15:42 - 1:15:44] ▶
along Commonwealth Avenue.
[1:15:44 - 1:15:45] ▶
Nuno reportedly
[1:15:46 - 1:15:47] ▶
got home
[1:15:47 - 1:15:48] ▶
from overseeing
[1:15:48 - 1:15:49] ▶
Ph.D. qualifying exams
[1:15:49 - 1:15:51] ▶
at MIT that day
[1:15:51 - 1:15:52] ▶
around 6 p.m.
[1:15:52 - 1:15:53] ▶
At 8.23 p.m.,
[1:15:53 - 1:15:55] ▶
a camera records
[1:15:55 - 1:15:56] ▶
the suspect,
[1:15:56 - 1:15:56] ▶
now masked
[1:15:57 - 1:15:58] ▶
and wearing a vest
[1:15:58 - 1:15:59] ▶
over his darker clothing.
[1:15:59 - 1:16:00] ▶
At 8.30 p.m.,
[1:16:01 - 1:16:02] ▶
the doorbell
[1:16:02 - 1:16:03] ▶
to Lurero's apartment
[1:16:03 - 1:16:04] ▶
rings repeatedly.
[1:16:04 - 1:16:05] ▶
His youngest daughter
[1:16:05 - 1:16:06] ▶
opens the front door
[1:16:06 - 1:16:07] ▶
and peeks into the foyer.
[1:16:07 - 1:16:09] ▶
She sees through the glass
[1:16:11 - 1:16:13] ▶
a man standing
[1:16:13 - 1:16:14] ▶
inside of the building,
[1:16:14 - 1:16:15] ▶
but on the other side
[1:16:16 - 1:16:17] ▶
of the foyer door.
[1:16:17 - 1:16:18] ▶
Her description
[1:16:18 - 1:16:19] ▶
of the man's clothing
[1:16:19 - 1:16:20] ▶
is mostly in line
[1:16:20 - 1:16:21] ▶
with the footage revealed,
[1:16:21 - 1:16:22] ▶
but she adds
[1:16:23 - 1:16:23] ▶
that the yellow vest
[1:16:23 - 1:16:24] ▶
he wore
[1:16:24 - 1:16:25] ▶
had some gray stripes.
[1:16:25 - 1:16:26] ▶
There are a few discrepancies
[1:16:27 - 1:16:28] ▶
in her observations
[1:16:28 - 1:16:29] ▶
compared to the footage
[1:16:29 - 1:16:31] ▶
seen of the suspect
[1:16:31 - 1:16:32] ▶
that day.
[1:16:32 - 1:16:32] ▶
She even describes
[1:16:32 - 1:16:34] ▶
the shooter
[1:16:34 - 1:16:34] ▶
as having short facial hair,
[1:16:34 - 1:16:36] ▶
which suggests
[1:16:36 - 1:16:37] ▶
that he's not
[1:16:37 - 1:16:38] ▶
wearing a mask.
[1:16:38 - 1:16:39] ▶
And according to her,
[1:16:40 - 1:16:41] ▶
he's also wearing
[1:16:41 - 1:16:42] ▶
a winter hat
[1:16:42 - 1:16:43] ▶
and carrying
[1:16:43 - 1:16:44] ▶
a cardboard package
[1:16:44 - 1:16:45] ▶
about the size
[1:16:45 - 1:16:46] ▶
of a dictionary.
[1:16:46 - 1:16:47] ▶
She thinks he's
[1:16:47 - 1:16:48] ▶
a delivery man
[1:16:48 - 1:16:49] ▶
because the package
[1:16:49 - 1:16:50] ▶
has a barcode on it.
[1:16:50 - 1:16:51] ▶
Lurero's daughter
[1:16:51 - 1:16:52] ▶
returns to the living room
[1:16:52 - 1:16:54] ▶
as Nuno replaces her
[1:16:54 - 1:16:55] ▶
at the front door
[1:16:55 - 1:16:56] ▶
to deal with the visitor.
[1:16:56 - 1:16:57] ▶
The whole family
[1:16:59 - 1:17:00] ▶
hears gunshots
[1:17:00 - 1:17:01] ▶
and rushes to Lurero,
[1:17:01 - 1:17:02] ▶
who is wounded
[1:17:03 - 1:17:03] ▶
in the upper left chest,
[1:17:03 - 1:17:05] ▶
upper abdomen,
[1:17:05 - 1:17:06] ▶
right thigh,
[1:17:07 - 1:17:07] ▶
and has a graze wound
[1:17:08 - 1:17:09] ▶
through his left thigh.
[1:17:09 - 1:17:10] ▶
The daughter sees
[1:17:10 - 1:17:11] ▶
the shooter run
[1:17:11 - 1:17:12] ▶
to a blue or gray car
[1:17:12 - 1:17:13] ▶
parked across the street.
[1:17:13 - 1:17:15] ▶
At 8.35 p.m.,
[1:17:15 - 1:17:17] ▶
the cameras outside
[1:17:17 - 1:17:18] ▶
a Boston University
[1:17:18 - 1:17:19] ▶
police department
[1:17:19 - 1:17:20] ▶
record a Nissan
[1:17:20 - 1:17:22] ▶
operated by someone
[1:17:22 - 1:17:23] ▶
wearing a HiVise vest.
[1:17:23 - 1:17:25] ▶
Minutes later,
[1:17:25 - 1:17:26] ▶
another camera
[1:17:26 - 1:17:27] ▶
records the vehicle
[1:17:27 - 1:17:28] ▶
heading out of the city.
[1:17:28 - 1:17:29] ▶
If we're to believe
[1:17:29 - 1:17:30] ▶
that the shooter
[1:17:30 - 1:17:31] ▶
was Valente,
[1:17:31 - 1:17:32] ▶
it seems clear
[1:17:32 - 1:17:33] ▶
that once Lurero was shot,
[1:17:33 - 1:17:35] ▶
he immediately
[1:17:35 - 1:17:36] ▶
went into hiding.
[1:17:36 - 1:17:37] ▶
He switched
[1:17:37 - 1:17:38] ▶
the rental car's plates
[1:17:38 - 1:17:39] ▶
to an unregistered
[1:17:39 - 1:17:40] ▶
plate from Maine,
[1:17:40 - 1:17:41] ▶
then drove to his
[1:17:41 - 1:17:43] ▶
storage facility
[1:17:43 - 1:17:44] ▶
in New Hampshire.
[1:17:44 - 1:17:44] ▶
Investigators said
[1:17:45 - 1:17:46] ▶
Valente entered
[1:17:46 - 1:17:47] ▶
that facility
[1:17:47 - 1:17:48] ▶
about an hour
[1:17:48 - 1:17:48] ▶
after the Brookline shooting.
[1:17:48 - 1:17:50] ▶
The Department of Justice
[1:17:50 - 1:17:51] ▶
transcript of the videos
[1:17:51 - 1:17:53] ▶
that Valente later
[1:17:53 - 1:17:54] ▶
recorded in that
[1:17:54 - 1:17:55] ▶
storage unit
[1:17:55 - 1:17:56] ▶
adds a very grim
[1:17:56 - 1:17:57] ▶
layer to the story.
[1:17:57 - 1:17:59] ▶
In these recordings,
[1:17:59 - 1:18:00] ▶
Valente said he had
[1:18:00 - 1:18:01] ▶
planned the Brown attack
[1:18:01 - 1:18:02] ▶
for a long time.
[1:18:02 - 1:18:04] ▶
The language
[1:18:04 - 1:18:05] ▶
Valente uses
[1:18:05 - 1:18:06] ▶
implies that both
[1:18:06 - 1:18:07] ▶
of the attacks
[1:18:07 - 1:18:08] ▶
were intentional,
[1:18:08 - 1:18:08] ▶
but it still leaves
[1:18:09 - 1:18:10] ▶
the reason for targeting
[1:18:10 - 1:18:11] ▶
Lurero
[1:18:11 - 1:18:12] ▶
maddeningly vague.
[1:18:12 - 1:18:13] ▶
Yes, the two men
[1:18:13 - 1:18:14] ▶
had studied
[1:18:14 - 1:18:15] ▶
in the same university
[1:18:15 - 1:18:16] ▶
in the 1990s,
[1:18:16 - 1:18:18] ▶
but there's no evidence
[1:18:18 - 1:18:19] ▶
of a recent dispute,
[1:18:19 - 1:18:20] ▶
direct contact,
[1:18:21 - 1:18:22] ▶
or a concrete grievance
[1:18:22 - 1:18:23] ▶
tied to the Brookline attack.
[1:18:23 - 1:18:25] ▶
A second anomaly
[1:18:25 - 1:18:27] ▶
is the mismatch
[1:18:27 - 1:18:28] ▶
between planning
[1:18:28 - 1:18:29] ▶
and execution.
[1:18:29 - 1:18:30] ▶
Valente seems to have
[1:18:30 - 1:18:32] ▶
surveilled Brown repeatedly.
[1:18:32 - 1:18:33] ▶
He would return
[1:18:33 - 1:18:34] ▶
constantly
[1:18:34 - 1:18:35] ▶
to the same building.
[1:18:35 - 1:18:36] ▶
He rented both a car
[1:18:36 - 1:18:37] ▶
and storage unit
[1:18:37 - 1:18:38] ▶
in advance.
[1:18:38 - 1:18:39] ▶
Yet his own
[1:18:39 - 1:18:40] ▶
post-crime confession
[1:18:40 - 1:18:41] ▶
depicts the actual
[1:18:41 - 1:18:42] ▶
Brown shooting
[1:18:42 - 1:18:43] ▶
as totally botched.
[1:18:43 - 1:18:45] ▶
He said he never
[1:18:45 - 1:18:46] ▶
wanted to do it
[1:18:46 - 1:18:46] ▶
in an auditorium.
[1:18:46 - 1:18:47] ▶
He even suggested
[1:18:48 - 1:18:49] ▶
that people could
[1:18:49 - 1:18:50] ▶
have escaped
[1:18:50 - 1:18:50] ▶
via an emergency exit.
[1:18:50 - 1:18:52] ▶
He also complained
[1:18:52 - 1:18:53] ▶
about his eye injury
[1:18:53 - 1:18:55] ▶
and described the whole
[1:18:55 - 1:18:56] ▶
thing as,
[1:18:56 - 1:18:57] ▶
quote,
[1:18:57 - 1:18:57] ▶
a little incompetent.
[1:18:57 - 1:18:58] ▶
A third anomaly
[1:18:59 - 1:19:00] ▶
is the timeline gap
[1:19:00 - 1:19:01] ▶
between the two attacks.
[1:19:01 - 1:19:02] ▶
Where exactly
[1:19:03 - 1:19:04] ▶
was Valente
[1:19:04 - 1:19:04] ▶
in the roughly
[1:19:04 - 1:19:05] ▶
48 hours
[1:19:05 - 1:19:06] ▶
before Lurero
[1:19:06 - 1:19:07] ▶
was shot?
[1:19:07 - 1:19:08] ▶
Where was he staying?
[1:19:08 - 1:19:09] ▶
How did he locate
[1:19:09 - 1:19:10] ▶
Lurero?
[1:19:10 - 1:19:11] ▶
How could he even
[1:19:11 - 1:19:12] ▶
be sure Lurero
[1:19:12 - 1:19:13] ▶
was home?
[1:19:13 - 1:19:14] ▶
Nuno had only
[1:19:14 - 1:19:15] ▶
just returned
[1:19:15 - 1:19:16] ▶
from a trip to D.C.
[1:19:16 - 1:19:17] ▶
Was he being
[1:19:17 - 1:19:18] ▶
tracked somehow?
[1:19:18 - 1:19:19] ▶
Valente's videos
[1:19:20 - 1:19:21] ▶
hint that the second
[1:19:21 - 1:19:22] ▶
slaying was also
[1:19:22 - 1:19:23] ▶
intentional,
[1:19:23 - 1:19:24] ▶
but not how far back
[1:19:24 - 1:19:25] ▶
the planning went.
[1:19:25 - 1:19:26] ▶
Detectives arrived
[1:19:27 - 1:19:28] ▶
on the scene
[1:19:28 - 1:19:28] ▶
to find Lurero
[1:19:28 - 1:19:29] ▶
distressed
[1:19:29 - 1:19:30] ▶
but consciously alert.
[1:19:30 - 1:19:31] ▶
As he's transported
[1:19:32 - 1:19:33] ▶
to the hospital,
[1:19:33 - 1:19:34] ▶
one paramedic
[1:19:34 - 1:19:35] ▶
says he doesn't
[1:19:35 - 1:19:36] ▶
say anything.
[1:19:36 - 1:19:36] ▶
She believes
[1:19:37 - 1:19:37] ▶
he was in shock.
[1:19:37 - 1:19:38] ▶
He answers questions
[1:19:39 - 1:19:40] ▶
by shaking his head,
[1:19:40 - 1:19:41] ▶
but at the hospital,
[1:19:41 - 1:19:42] ▶
he was able to provide
[1:19:43 - 1:19:44] ▶
his name and information.
[1:19:44 - 1:19:45] ▶
If Lurero
[1:19:46 - 1:19:46] ▶
had recognized
[1:19:46 - 1:19:47] ▶
his possibly
[1:19:47 - 1:19:48] ▶
unmasked killer
[1:19:48 - 1:19:50] ▶
as his former classmate,
[1:19:50 - 1:19:51] ▶
would he have said anything?
[1:19:52 - 1:19:53] ▶
Tragically,
[1:19:53 - 1:19:54] ▶
Nuno Lurero
[1:19:54 - 1:19:55] ▶
went into surgery
[1:19:55 - 1:19:56] ▶
that evening,
[1:19:56 - 1:19:57] ▶
but did not survive.
[1:19:57 - 1:19:58] ▶
He was pronounced dead
[1:19:59 - 1:20:00] ▶
the following morning.
[1:20:00 - 1:20:01] ▶
In the days that followed,
[1:20:01 - 1:20:03] ▶
they spoke to the MIT professor's
[1:20:03 - 1:20:04] ▶
family and colleagues
[1:20:04 - 1:20:05] ▶
and they said
[1:20:05 - 1:20:06] ▶
that there was no threat present
[1:20:06 - 1:20:08] ▶
and they still have no motive.
[1:20:08 - 1:20:10] ▶
Everything about this case
[1:20:10 - 1:20:12] ▶
is shocking,
[1:20:12 - 1:20:12] ▶
but particularly
[1:20:13 - 1:20:14] ▶
Valente's combination
[1:20:14 - 1:20:15] ▶
of caution and sloppiness.
[1:20:15 - 1:20:17] ▶
He went to great efforts
[1:20:17 - 1:20:18] ▶
and lengths in Providence
[1:20:18 - 1:20:20] ▶
to wipe any trace
[1:20:20 - 1:20:21] ▶
of his movements,
[1:20:21 - 1:20:22] ▶
keep his identity hidden.
[1:20:22 - 1:20:23] ▶
But then he arrives in Boston
[1:20:24 - 1:20:25] ▶
and paces back and forth
[1:20:25 - 1:20:27] ▶
in public locations
[1:20:27 - 1:20:28] ▶
that would obviously
[1:20:28 - 1:20:29] ▶
have security cameras.
[1:20:29 - 1:20:31] ▶
It almost seems
[1:20:31 - 1:20:32] ▶
as if he was having cold feet
[1:20:32 - 1:20:33] ▶
or maybe he was awaiting instruction,
[1:20:33 - 1:20:36] ▶
subliminal or conscious instruction.
[1:20:36 - 1:20:39] ▶
As we've covered on this show,
[1:20:41 - 1:20:43] ▶
the horrifying ability
[1:20:43 - 1:20:45] ▶
to program assassins
[1:20:45 - 1:20:46] ▶
is remarkably easy
[1:20:46 - 1:20:48] ▶
and it's been demonstrated
[1:20:48 - 1:20:49] ▶
by governments globally
[1:20:49 - 1:20:51] ▶
and employed to take out targets
[1:20:51 - 1:20:53] ▶
at the highest level.
[1:20:53 - 1:20:54] ▶
What remains unresolved
[1:20:54 - 1:20:56] ▶
is why Lurero was chosen.
[1:20:56 - 1:20:57] ▶
What exactly happened
[1:20:58 - 1:20:59] ▶
in the two days
[1:20:59 - 1:21:00] ▶
between the Brown massacre
[1:21:00 - 1:21:01] ▶
and the Brookline attack
[1:21:01 - 1:21:02] ▶
and whether Lurero
[1:21:02 - 1:21:03] ▶
had been a longstanding target
[1:21:03 - 1:21:05] ▶
or simply became one
[1:21:05 - 1:21:07] ▶
after the Brown shooting
[1:21:07 - 1:21:08] ▶
was already underway.
[1:21:08 - 1:21:09] ▶
What we do know
[1:21:09 - 1:21:10] ▶
is that Nuno Lurero's loss
[1:21:10 - 1:21:12] ▶
is devastating.
[1:21:12 - 1:21:13] ▶
He wasn't just the head
[1:21:13 - 1:21:14] ▶
of MIT's Plasma Science
[1:21:14 - 1:21:16] ▶
and Fusion Center.
[1:21:16 - 1:21:17] ▶
Nuno was still
[1:21:17 - 1:21:18] ▶
an active professor
[1:21:18 - 1:21:19] ▶
training the next generation
[1:21:19 - 1:21:21] ▶
of top scientific minds
[1:21:21 - 1:21:23] ▶
to push us farther
[1:21:23 - 1:21:24] ▶
in harnessing the power
[1:21:24 - 1:21:26] ▶
of our sun
[1:21:26 - 1:21:27] ▶
and creating clean energy
[1:21:27 - 1:21:28] ▶
on Earth.
[1:21:28 - 1:21:29] ▶
He was twice awarded
[1:21:29 - 1:21:31] ▶
the MIT Department
[1:21:31 - 1:21:32] ▶
of Nuclear Science
[1:21:32 - 1:21:33] ▶
and Engineering
[1:21:33 - 1:21:34] ▶
Outstanding Professor Award.
[1:21:34 - 1:21:35] ▶
He was given this
[1:21:36 - 1:21:37] ▶
for the beloved courses
[1:21:37 - 1:21:38] ▶
that he taught,
[1:21:38 - 1:21:39] ▶
both Intro to Plasma Physics
[1:21:39 - 1:21:41] ▶
and MHD Theory
[1:21:41 - 1:21:42] ▶
of Fusion Systems.
[1:21:42 - 1:21:44] ▶
MHD, or magnetohydrodynamics,
[1:21:44 - 1:21:46] ▶
also could have
[1:21:47 - 1:21:48] ▶
just as sensitive implications
[1:21:48 - 1:21:50] ▶
as nuclear fusion.
[1:21:50 - 1:21:51] ▶
It's the less focused on
[1:21:51 - 1:21:53] ▶
aspect of Lurero's work.
[1:21:53 - 1:21:54] ▶
And these are called
[1:21:55 - 1:21:55] ▶
the magnetohydrodynamic equations.
[1:21:55 - 1:21:57] ▶
They're hydrodynamics,
[1:21:57 - 1:21:59] ▶
but now there's a magnetic field,
[1:21:59 - 1:22:00] ▶
so you refer to this
[1:22:01 - 1:22:02] ▶
as magnetohydrodynamics.
[1:22:02 - 1:22:04] ▶
Some believe that it could lead
[1:22:04 - 1:22:05] ▶
to a whole new paradigm
[1:22:05 - 1:22:06] ▶
in flight and propulsion.
[1:22:06 - 1:22:08] ▶
The point is,
[1:22:09 - 1:22:09] ▶
an attack on Nuno
[1:22:09 - 1:22:10] ▶
was an attack
[1:22:10 - 1:22:11] ▶
on the future of science.
[1:22:11 - 1:22:13] ▶
There's no other way to say it.
[1:22:13 - 1:22:15] ▶
To put it simply,
[1:22:15 - 1:22:16] ▶
Nuno was the tip of the spear
[1:22:16 - 1:22:17] ▶
on sustained, clean,
[1:22:17 - 1:22:19] ▶
widespread nuclear fusion energy.
[1:22:19 - 1:22:21] ▶
Could that be why
[1:22:22 - 1:22:23] ▶
someone wanted him dead?
[1:22:23 - 1:22:24] ▶
This brings us
[1:22:28 - 1:22:29] ▶
to a strange coincidence
[1:22:29 - 1:22:30] ▶
we have to bring up
[1:22:30 - 1:22:32] ▶
when discussing
[1:22:32 - 1:22:32] ▶
Nuno Lurero's murder.
[1:22:32 - 1:22:34] ▶
Breaking news out of Brookline,
[1:22:34 - 1:22:35] ▶
an MIT professor shot and killed.
[1:22:35 - 1:22:37] ▶
He was shot several times
[1:22:37 - 1:22:38] ▶
in the foyer
[1:22:38 - 1:22:39] ▶
of his Brookline home.
[1:22:39 - 1:22:40] ▶
Just two days
[1:22:40 - 1:22:41] ▶
after Nuno's death,
[1:22:41 - 1:22:42] ▶
one of the top
[1:22:42 - 1:22:43] ▶
privately funded fusion companies,
[1:22:43 - 1:22:45] ▶
TAE Technologies,
[1:22:45 - 1:22:47] ▶
announced a massive merger
[1:22:47 - 1:22:49] ▶
with a surprising
[1:22:49 - 1:22:50] ▶
publicly traded company.
[1:22:50 - 1:22:51] ▶
TAE would merge
[1:22:51 - 1:22:53] ▶
with none other
[1:22:53 - 1:22:54] ▶
than Trump Media
[1:22:54 - 1:22:55] ▶
and Technology Group,
[1:22:55 - 1:22:56] ▶
the company behind
[1:22:56 - 1:22:57] ▶
Trump's social media platform,
[1:22:57 - 1:22:59] ▶
Truth Social.
[1:22:59 - 1:23:00] ▶
The deal was announced
[1:23:01 - 1:23:02] ▶
on December 18th, 2025.
[1:23:02 - 1:23:04] ▶
Lurero died on December 16th.
[1:23:04 - 1:23:06] ▶
The announcement didn't coincide
[1:23:06 - 1:23:08] ▶
with any decisive
[1:23:08 - 1:23:09] ▶
technical breakthroughs.
[1:23:09 - 1:23:10] ▶
Nonetheless,
[1:23:11 - 1:23:11] ▶
this combined entity
[1:23:11 - 1:23:12] ▶
was suddenly valued
[1:23:12 - 1:23:14] ▶
at around $6 billion.
[1:23:14 - 1:23:15] ▶
TAE is a private,
[1:23:15 - 1:23:17] ▶
long-running,
[1:23:17 - 1:23:18] ▶
experimental company.
[1:23:18 - 1:23:19] ▶
Their mission
[1:23:19 - 1:23:20] ▶
is to build
[1:23:20 - 1:23:21] ▶
anutronic fusion reactors
[1:23:21 - 1:23:22] ▶
using hydrogen boron fuel
[1:23:22 - 1:23:24] ▶
to make commercial
[1:23:24 - 1:23:25] ▶
nuclear energy.
[1:23:25 - 1:23:26] ▶
But just like
[1:23:27 - 1:23:27] ▶
all fusion enterprises
[1:23:27 - 1:23:28] ▶
so far,
[1:23:28 - 1:23:29] ▶
they have yet to produce
[1:23:29 - 1:23:30] ▶
net energy
[1:23:30 - 1:23:31] ▶
or commercial power.
[1:23:31 - 1:23:32] ▶
TAE is still pre-revenue
[1:23:33 - 1:23:34] ▶
and pre-product
[1:23:34 - 1:23:35] ▶
in its core mission.
[1:23:35 - 1:23:36] ▶
So why is any of this relevant?
[1:23:37 - 1:23:38] ▶
Well, there are a few
[1:23:39 - 1:23:40] ▶
key competitors
[1:23:40 - 1:23:40] ▶
in the race with TAE
[1:23:40 - 1:23:42] ▶
to produce commercial
[1:23:42 - 1:23:43] ▶
nuclear power.
[1:23:43 - 1:23:44] ▶
One of their biggest competitors
[1:23:44 - 1:23:45] ▶
is a company called
[1:23:45 - 1:23:46] ▶
Commonwealth Fusion Systems.
[1:23:46 - 1:23:48] ▶
Commonwealth Fusion Systems
[1:23:49 - 1:23:50] ▶
is a company
[1:23:50 - 1:23:51] ▶
that emerged directly
[1:23:51 - 1:23:52] ▶
from the Massachusetts
[1:23:52 - 1:23:53] ▶
Institute of Technology.
[1:23:53 - 1:23:55] ▶
Its founders
[1:23:55 - 1:23:56] ▶
built their work
[1:23:56 - 1:23:57] ▶
on decades
[1:23:57 - 1:23:58] ▶
of MIT's institutional research.
[1:23:58 - 1:24:00] ▶
The MIT Plasma Science
[1:24:01 - 1:24:02] ▶
Infusion Center
[1:24:02 - 1:24:03] ▶
collaborates closely
[1:24:03 - 1:24:04] ▶
with the company
[1:24:04 - 1:24:05] ▶
and contributes
[1:24:05 - 1:24:06] ▶
fundamental plasma physics
[1:24:06 - 1:24:08] ▶
essential to
[1:24:08 - 1:24:09] ▶
its reactor design.
[1:24:09 - 1:24:10] ▶
And Nuno Lurero
[1:24:10 - 1:24:11] ▶
was the director
[1:24:11 - 1:24:12] ▶
of the Plasma Science
[1:24:12 - 1:24:13] ▶
Infusion Center
[1:24:13 - 1:24:14] ▶
at the time
[1:24:14 - 1:24:15] ▶
of his death.
[1:24:15 - 1:24:16] ▶
So the head of research
[1:24:17 - 1:24:18] ▶
that directly supports
[1:24:18 - 1:24:19] ▶
Commonwealth's aim
[1:24:19 - 1:24:21] ▶
of stable nuclear energy
[1:24:21 - 1:24:22] ▶
was assassinated
[1:24:22 - 1:24:24] ▶
on his doorstep.
[1:24:24 - 1:24:25] ▶
We want to give you
[1:24:25 - 1:24:25] ▶
some context
[1:24:25 - 1:24:26] ▶
on exactly where this happened.
[1:24:26 - 1:24:28] ▶
The shooting was on
[1:24:28 - 1:24:29] ▶
Gibbs Street
[1:24:29 - 1:24:29] ▶
in Brooklyn.
[1:24:29 - 1:24:30] ▶
Shot and killed
[1:24:30 - 1:24:31] ▶
at his Brooklyn Hall.
[1:24:31 - 1:24:32] ▶
I'm walking around.
[1:24:32 - 1:24:33] ▶
I got children
[1:24:33 - 1:24:33] ▶
in the playground
[1:24:33 - 1:24:34] ▶
right around the corner.
[1:24:34 - 1:24:35] ▶
Authorities say
[1:24:35 - 1:24:36] ▶
the Portuguese professor
[1:24:36 - 1:24:37] ▶
died at a hospital
[1:24:37 - 1:24:38] ▶
this morning.
[1:24:38 - 1:24:39] ▶
In two days later,
[1:24:39 - 1:24:40] ▶
one of Commonwealth's
[1:24:40 - 1:24:41] ▶
biggest competitors
[1:24:41 - 1:24:43] ▶
announces a merger
[1:24:43 - 1:24:44] ▶
with a sitting president's
[1:24:44 - 1:24:46] ▶
publicly traded company.
[1:24:46 - 1:24:47] ▶
Does that mean anything?
[1:24:48 - 1:24:50] ▶
I'm not entirely sure.
[1:24:50 - 1:24:51] ▶
And I genuinely
[1:24:51 - 1:24:52] ▶
don't want to insinuate anything.
[1:24:52 - 1:24:54] ▶
But I also think
[1:24:54 - 1:24:55] ▶
it's dogmatic
[1:24:55 - 1:24:56] ▶
and unreasonable
[1:24:56 - 1:24:56] ▶
to say that the timing
[1:24:56 - 1:24:58] ▶
isn't odd.
[1:24:58 - 1:24:59] ▶
Again, there are
[1:24:59 - 1:25:00] ▶
reasonable explanations
[1:25:00 - 1:25:01] ▶
for this merger.
[1:25:01 - 1:25:02] ▶
Most analysts
[1:25:02 - 1:25:03] ▶
say that any fusion company
[1:25:03 - 1:25:05] ▶
will need the support
[1:25:05 - 1:25:06] ▶
of the federal government
[1:25:06 - 1:25:07] ▶
to bring this nascent,
[1:25:07 - 1:25:08] ▶
unproven,
[1:25:08 - 1:25:09] ▶
and extremely costly
[1:25:09 - 1:25:10] ▶
technology
[1:25:10 - 1:25:11] ▶
out of the laboratories
[1:25:11 - 1:25:12] ▶
and onto the power grid.
[1:25:12 - 1:25:14] ▶
It's simply too
[1:25:14 - 1:25:15] ▶
cost and infrastructure
[1:25:15 - 1:25:16] ▶
intensive
[1:25:16 - 1:25:17] ▶
and would involve
[1:25:17 - 1:25:18] ▶
a complete overhaul
[1:25:18 - 1:25:19] ▶
of our current grid system.
[1:25:19 - 1:25:21] ▶
There are other power players
[1:25:21 - 1:25:22] ▶
in oil and gas
[1:25:22 - 1:25:23] ▶
who have an interest
[1:25:23 - 1:25:24] ▶
in TAE.
[1:25:24 - 1:25:25] ▶
A great example
[1:25:25 - 1:25:26] ▶
is Chevron.
[1:25:26 - 1:25:27] ▶
Ultimately,
[1:25:27 - 1:25:28] ▶
the question remains,
[1:25:28 - 1:25:29] ▶
what lengths
[1:25:30 - 1:25:30] ▶
would the power players
[1:25:30 - 1:25:31] ▶
in energy
[1:25:31 - 1:25:32] ▶
go to shore up
[1:25:32 - 1:25:33] ▶
their survival
[1:25:33 - 1:25:34] ▶
and dominance?
[1:25:34 - 1:25:35] ▶
There's clearly
[1:25:35 - 1:25:37] ▶
a race to control
[1:25:37 - 1:25:38] ▶
the technology
[1:25:38 - 1:25:38] ▶
that could determine
[1:25:38 - 1:25:39] ▶
the future
[1:25:39 - 1:25:40] ▶
of energy,
[1:25:40 - 1:25:41] ▶
aerospace,
[1:25:41 - 1:25:41] ▶
and intelligence
[1:25:42 - 1:25:42] ▶
in our modern world.
[1:25:42 - 1:25:44] ▶
And Nuno Lurero's research
[1:25:44 - 1:25:45] ▶
was at the heart of it.
[1:25:45 - 1:25:46] ▶
I think on any given day,
[1:25:46 - 1:25:47] ▶
it's tempting
[1:25:48 - 1:25:48] ▶
to go for the low-hanging fruit,
[1:25:48 - 1:25:50] ▶
be a little more ambitious,
[1:25:50 - 1:25:51] ▶
and tackle
[1:25:51 - 1:25:52] ▶
the really hard problems.
[1:25:52 - 1:25:53] ▶
It would hardly be
[1:25:55 - 1:25:56] ▶
the first time
[1:25:56 - 1:25:57] ▶
scientific talent
[1:25:57 - 1:25:58] ▶
tied to strategic technology
[1:25:58 - 1:26:00] ▶
seemed to attract
[1:26:00 - 1:26:02] ▶
a shadow of danger.
[1:26:02 - 1:26:03] ▶
In the heart
[1:26:03 - 1:26:04] ▶
of the Cold War,
[1:26:04 - 1:26:05] ▶
as America raced
[1:26:05 - 1:26:06] ▶
to build Reagan's
[1:26:06 - 1:26:08] ▶
Star Wars missile shield,
[1:26:08 - 1:26:09] ▶
something deeply sinister
[1:26:10 - 1:26:11] ▶
began happening
[1:26:11 - 1:26:12] ▶
to the scientists
[1:26:12 - 1:26:13] ▶
building it.
[1:26:13 - 1:26:14] ▶
It's a story
[1:26:14 - 1:26:15] ▶
so rich and intriguing
[1:26:15 - 1:26:16] ▶
that if it were fiction,
[1:26:16 - 1:26:17] ▶
it would likely
[1:26:17 - 1:26:18] ▶
be a bestseller
[1:26:18 - 1:26:18] ▶
because all of the dead,
[1:26:18 - 1:26:20] ▶
almost two dozen to date,
[1:26:20 - 1:26:21] ▶
worked in Western Europe's
[1:26:21 - 1:26:23] ▶
defense industry.
[1:26:23 - 1:26:24] ▶
You might not know
[1:26:24 - 1:26:27] ▶
that Star Wars,
[1:26:27 - 1:26:28] ▶
also known as
[1:26:28 - 1:26:29] ▶
the Strategic Defense Initiative,
[1:26:29 - 1:26:30] ▶
was actually a joint effort
[1:26:31 - 1:26:32] ▶
between the United States
[1:26:32 - 1:26:34] ▶
and some of its key allies,
[1:26:34 - 1:26:36] ▶
like Great Britain.
[1:26:36 - 1:26:37] ▶
Between 1982 and 1990,
[1:26:37 - 1:26:39] ▶
25 engineers
[1:26:40 - 1:26:41] ▶
and computer scientists,
[1:26:41 - 1:26:42] ▶
all working for GEC Marconi,
[1:26:43 - 1:26:45] ▶
on some of Britain's
[1:26:45 - 1:26:47] ▶
most classified defense projects,
[1:26:47 - 1:26:49] ▶
all died,
[1:26:49 - 1:26:50] ▶
one after another.
[1:26:50 - 1:26:51] ▶
I call upon
[1:26:51 - 1:26:53] ▶
the scientific community
[1:26:53 - 1:26:54] ▶
in our country,
[1:26:54 - 1:26:55] ▶
those who gave us
[1:26:56 - 1:26:57] ▶
nuclear weapons
[1:26:57 - 1:26:58] ▶
to turn their great talents
[1:26:58 - 1:26:59] ▶
now to the cause
[1:26:59 - 1:27:00] ▶
of mankind
[1:27:00 - 1:27:01] ▶
and world peace.
[1:27:01 - 1:27:02] ▶
And each case
[1:27:04 - 1:27:05] ▶
was so bizarre.
[1:27:05 - 1:27:06] ▶
They consistently defied
[1:27:07 - 1:27:08] ▶
rational explanation.
[1:27:08 - 1:27:10] ▶
A 24-year-old
[1:27:10 - 1:27:11] ▶
jumped from
[1:27:11 - 1:27:12] ▶
a suspension bridge.
[1:27:12 - 1:27:13] ▶
His body was then found
[1:27:14 - 1:27:15] ▶
with mysterious
[1:27:15 - 1:27:16] ▶
needle puncture wounds
[1:27:16 - 1:27:17] ▶
in it.
[1:27:17 - 1:27:18] ▶
A 26-year-old
[1:27:19 - 1:27:20] ▶
allegedly drove his car
[1:27:20 - 1:27:21] ▶
away from a tree
[1:27:21 - 1:27:23] ▶
with a rope
[1:27:23 - 1:27:24] ▶
tied between his neck
[1:27:24 - 1:27:26] ▶
and its trunk,
[1:27:26 - 1:27:27] ▶
decapitating himself.
[1:27:27 - 1:27:29] ▶
And the coroner
[1:27:29 - 1:27:30] ▶
called it suicide.
[1:27:30 - 1:27:31] ▶
A Ministry of Defense
[1:27:31 - 1:27:32] ▶
consultant
[1:27:32 - 1:27:33] ▶
was found in his flat
[1:27:33 - 1:27:34] ▶
with his feet bound,
[1:27:34 - 1:27:35] ▶
a plastic bag
[1:27:36 - 1:27:37] ▶
over his head,
[1:27:37 - 1:27:38] ▶
and a rope coiled
[1:27:38 - 1:27:39] ▶
four times
[1:27:39 - 1:27:40] ▶
around his body.
[1:27:40 - 1:27:41] ▶
This was ruled
[1:27:41 - 1:27:42] ▶
an accident
[1:27:42 - 1:27:42] ▶
due to
[1:27:42 - 1:27:43] ▶
quote-unquote
[1:27:43 - 1:27:44] ▶
sexual misadventure.
[1:27:44 - 1:27:45] ▶
A senior radar scientist
[1:27:46 - 1:27:47] ▶
loaded his car
[1:27:47 - 1:27:48] ▶
with extra petrol cans
[1:27:48 - 1:27:50] ▶
and drove it
[1:27:50 - 1:27:51] ▶
at full speed
[1:27:51 - 1:27:52] ▶
into an abandoned cafe.
[1:27:52 - 1:27:53] ▶
Another was found
[1:27:54 - 1:27:56] ▶
electrocuted
[1:27:56 - 1:27:56] ▶
in his garden shed,
[1:27:56 - 1:27:58] ▶
wires attached
[1:27:58 - 1:27:59] ▶
to his body,
[1:27:59 - 1:28:00] ▶
a handkerchief
[1:28:00 - 1:28:01] ▶
stuffed in his mouth.
[1:28:01 - 1:28:02] ▶
Open verdict.
[1:28:03 - 1:28:04] ▶
One man
[1:28:05 - 1:28:05] ▶
simply disappeared
[1:28:05 - 1:28:06] ▶
during a research experiment
[1:28:06 - 1:28:08] ▶
at a reservoir
[1:28:08 - 1:28:09] ▶
and turned up
[1:28:09 - 1:28:10] ▶
months later
[1:28:10 - 1:28:11] ▶
in Paris
[1:28:11 - 1:28:11] ▶
with no memory
[1:28:11 - 1:28:13] ▶
of how he got there.
[1:28:13 - 1:28:14] ▶
The British government
[1:28:14 - 1:28:17] ▶
investigated nothing,
[1:28:17 - 1:28:18] ▶
held no inquiry,
[1:28:18 - 1:28:19] ▶
classified the files,
[1:28:20 - 1:28:21] ▶
and to this day,
[1:28:21 - 1:28:23] ▶
not a single person
[1:28:23 - 1:28:24] ▶
has ever been charged.
[1:28:24 - 1:28:26] ▶
Was it the KGB,
[1:28:27 - 1:28:28] ▶
MI5,
[1:28:29 - 1:28:30] ▶
or something else entirely?
[1:28:30 - 1:28:31] ▶
Nobody knows.
[1:28:32 - 1:28:33] ▶
The case is officially closed,
[1:28:33 - 1:28:35] ▶
yet also unsolved.
[1:28:35 - 1:28:36] ▶
This is just one
[1:28:37 - 1:28:38] ▶
anomalously condensed example.
[1:28:38 - 1:28:40] ▶
Time and again,
[1:28:40 - 1:28:41] ▶
when scientific minds
[1:28:41 - 1:28:42] ▶
get closer to unlocking
[1:28:42 - 1:28:44] ▶
new facets of our reality
[1:28:44 - 1:28:46] ▶
or get too close
[1:28:46 - 1:28:47] ▶
to the crown jewels
[1:28:47 - 1:28:48] ▶
of defense,
[1:28:48 - 1:28:49] ▶
they seem to be removed
[1:28:50 - 1:28:51] ▶
from the conversation.
[1:28:51 - 1:28:52] ▶
Take the disappearance
[1:28:52 - 1:28:53] ▶
of Mexican neurophysiologist
[1:28:53 - 1:28:55] ▶
and psychologist
[1:28:55 - 1:28:56] ▶
Jacobo Grinberg,
[1:28:56 - 1:28:58] ▶
who vanished in 1994
[1:28:58 - 1:29:00] ▶
just after his biggest discovery.
[1:29:00 - 1:29:02] ▶
That space wasn't empty,
[1:29:03 - 1:29:04] ▶
but rather filled
[1:29:05 - 1:29:05] ▶
with a massive energy matrix
[1:29:05 - 1:29:07] ▶
he dubbed the lattice.
[1:29:07 - 1:29:09] ▶
How we see the world
[1:29:09 - 1:29:10] ▶
was based on our tether
[1:29:10 - 1:29:12] ▶
to this matrix,
[1:29:12 - 1:29:13] ▶
and those with the honed ability
[1:29:13 - 1:29:15] ▶
to synchronize their cognition
[1:29:15 - 1:29:17] ▶
with the lattice
[1:29:17 - 1:29:18] ▶
would be able to bend the hologram
[1:29:18 - 1:29:20] ▶
to their own designs,
[1:29:20 - 1:29:22] ▶
just like Neo in the matrix.
[1:29:22 - 1:29:24] ▶
Grinberg had seemingly stumbled
[1:29:25 - 1:29:26] ▶
upon something foundational,
[1:29:26 - 1:29:28] ▶
and then he was never seen again.
[1:29:28 - 1:29:31] ▶
After convening with some top scientific minds
[1:29:31 - 1:29:38] ▶
in the year prior,
[1:29:38 - 1:29:39] ▶
his lab was cleared out
[1:29:39 - 1:29:41] ▶
and his records were erased.
[1:29:41 - 1:29:42] ▶
The only thing left behind
[1:29:43 - 1:29:45] ▶
was a single chilling note.
[1:29:45 - 1:29:47] ▶
If you understand the system,
[1:29:47 - 1:29:49] ▶
you disappear.
[1:29:49 - 1:29:50] ▶
Speaking of disappearances,
[1:29:54 - 1:29:56] ▶
we'd be remiss
[1:29:56 - 1:29:57] ▶
if we didn't mention
[1:29:57 - 1:29:58] ▶
one of the most famous disappearances
[1:29:58 - 1:30:00] ▶
in modern aviation
[1:30:00 - 1:30:01] ▶
tied to the scientific realm.
[1:30:01 - 1:30:03] ▶
On March 8, 2014,
[1:30:04 - 1:30:05] ▶
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370
[1:30:06 - 1:30:08] ▶
took off from Kuala Lumpur
[1:30:08 - 1:30:10] ▶
with 239 people aboard.
[1:30:10 - 1:30:13] ▶
Somewhere over the South China Sea,
[1:30:16 - 1:30:18] ▶
its transponders stopped transmitting.
[1:30:18 - 1:30:20] ▶
Malaysian military radar
[1:30:21 - 1:30:22] ▶
later showed that after going dark,
[1:30:22 - 1:30:24] ▶
the plane made an unexplained U-turn,
[1:30:24 - 1:30:27] ▶
flew for another several hours
[1:30:27 - 1:30:29] ▶
in the wrong direction,
[1:30:29 - 1:30:30] ▶
then vanished from the Earth
[1:30:31 - 1:30:32] ▶
so completely
[1:30:32 - 1:30:33] ▶
that despite the most expensive
[1:30:33 - 1:30:35] ▶
search in aviation history,
[1:30:35 - 1:30:37] ▶
only a small number of debris fragments
[1:30:37 - 1:30:39] ▶
believed to be from the MH370 crash
[1:30:39 - 1:30:42] ▶
have turned up alongside
[1:30:42 - 1:30:43] ▶
the coasts of Africa
[1:30:43 - 1:30:45] ▶
and a handful of Indian Ocean islands.
[1:30:45 - 1:30:47] ▶
And around that disappearance,
[1:30:48 - 1:30:49] ▶
a wild theory took shape.
[1:30:49 - 1:30:51] ▶
It's centered on alleged drone footage
[1:30:51 - 1:30:54] ▶
and a companion infrared video.
[1:30:54 - 1:30:56] ▶
Researcher Ashton Forbes
[1:30:56 - 1:30:58] ▶
claims that these videos
[1:30:58 - 1:30:59] ▶
show MH370 over the Nicobar Islands
[1:30:59 - 1:31:02] ▶
being encircled by three
[1:31:02 - 1:31:04] ▶
fusion-powered plasma orbs
[1:31:04 - 1:31:06] ▶
that generate a spinning wormhole
[1:31:06 - 1:31:08] ▶
teleporting the plane westward,
[1:31:08 - 1:31:10] ▶
likely toward the Maldives
[1:31:11 - 1:31:12] ▶
or Diego Garcia,
[1:31:12 - 1:31:13] ▶
as part of a covert
[1:31:14 - 1:31:15] ▶
military black program operation
[1:31:15 - 1:31:17] ▶
targeting high-value engineers.
[1:31:17 - 1:31:19] ▶
Now, I want to be super clear.
[1:31:19 - 1:31:24] ▶
I don't know what to make of these videos.
[1:31:24 - 1:31:27] ▶
Impressive people from the intelligence
[1:31:27 - 1:31:29] ▶
and military world
[1:31:29 - 1:31:30] ▶
have told me they are very fake
[1:31:30 - 1:31:32] ▶
and that, for example,
[1:31:32 - 1:31:33] ▶
they've never seen thermal infrared imaging
[1:31:33 - 1:31:35] ▶
on these sorts of systems
[1:31:35 - 1:31:37] ▶
in full color.
[1:31:37 - 1:31:38] ▶
But there's another narrative
[1:31:38 - 1:31:39] ▶
that gets slept on
[1:31:39 - 1:31:41] ▶
and doesn't require any belief
[1:31:41 - 1:31:43] ▶
in UFOs zapping an airplane
[1:31:43 - 1:31:45] ▶
out of the sky.
[1:31:45 - 1:31:46] ▶
Among the documented passengers
[1:31:47 - 1:31:49] ▶
on the MH370 flight
[1:31:49 - 1:31:51] ▶
were 20 engineers
[1:31:51 - 1:31:52] ▶
from Free Scale Semiconductor,
[1:31:52 - 1:31:55] ▶
an American semiconductor company
[1:31:55 - 1:31:57] ▶
that had just announced
[1:31:57 - 1:31:59] ▶
new products,
[1:31:59 - 1:32:00] ▶
including devices relevant to radar
[1:32:00 - 1:32:02] ▶
and electronic warfare
[1:32:02 - 1:32:04] ▶
for defense market applications.
[1:32:04 - 1:32:06] ▶
The employees included
[1:32:06 - 1:32:08] ▶
mostly Chinese
[1:32:08 - 1:32:09] ▶
and Malaysian specialists
[1:32:09 - 1:32:11] ▶
whose work involved
[1:32:11 - 1:32:12] ▶
the kind of microchip technology
[1:32:12 - 1:32:14] ▶
that sits at the intersection
[1:32:14 - 1:32:16] ▶
of civilian computing
[1:32:16 - 1:32:18] ▶
and military applications.
[1:32:18 - 1:32:19] ▶
Some researchers believe
[1:32:20 - 1:32:21] ▶
that this is what made
[1:32:21 - 1:32:23] ▶
the group valuable,
[1:32:23 - 1:32:24] ▶
not just as passengers
[1:32:24 - 1:32:25] ▶
on a missing plane,
[1:32:25 - 1:32:26] ▶
but as carriers
[1:32:27 - 1:32:28] ▶
of highly specialized
[1:32:28 - 1:32:30] ▶
scientific expertise.
[1:32:30 - 1:32:31] ▶
If those engineers
[1:32:32 - 1:32:33] ▶
were in fact tied
[1:32:33 - 1:32:34] ▶
to the future
[1:32:34 - 1:32:35] ▶
of military microelectronics,
[1:32:35 - 1:32:37] ▶
then they represented
[1:32:37 - 1:32:38] ▶
a goldmine of technical knowledge
[1:32:38 - 1:32:40] ▶
for the next generation
[1:32:40 - 1:32:41] ▶
of defense technology.
[1:32:41 - 1:32:43] ▶
In any case,
[1:32:43 - 1:32:44] ▶
it's not the first instance
[1:32:44 - 1:32:45] ▶
of a mysterious aircraft malfunction
[1:32:45 - 1:32:47] ▶
claiming the life
[1:32:47 - 1:32:49] ▶
of a top scientist.
[1:32:49 - 1:32:50] ▶
Yitzhak Bentov
[1:32:52 - 1:32:53] ▶
was a self-taught inventor
[1:32:53 - 1:32:55] ▶
and scientist.
[1:32:55 - 1:32:56] ▶
Born in Czechoslovakia
[1:32:56 - 1:32:58] ▶
during World War II,
[1:32:58 - 1:32:59] ▶
he escaped Nazi Germany
[1:32:59 - 1:33:01] ▶
to Israel.
[1:33:01 - 1:33:02] ▶
Once there,
[1:33:02 - 1:33:03] ▶
he helped invent
[1:33:03 - 1:33:04] ▶
the country's first rocket.
[1:33:04 - 1:33:05] ▶
despite lacking
[1:33:05 - 1:33:06] ▶
formal science training.
[1:33:06 - 1:33:07] ▶
But his true passion
[1:33:08 - 1:33:09] ▶
lay in unpacking
[1:33:09 - 1:33:10] ▶
the mysteries of consciousness,
[1:33:10 - 1:33:11] ▶
which he believed
[1:33:12 - 1:33:13] ▶
was made up
[1:33:13 - 1:33:14] ▶
of vibrating,
[1:33:14 - 1:33:15] ▶
harmonious atoms.
[1:33:15 - 1:33:16] ▶
His theories helped
[1:33:16 - 1:33:17] ▶
shape the foundation
[1:33:17 - 1:33:18] ▶
of the CIA's
[1:33:18 - 1:33:20] ▶
Gateway Process,
[1:33:20 - 1:33:21] ▶
a protocol developed
[1:33:21 - 1:33:23] ▶
by consciousness researcher
[1:33:23 - 1:33:24] ▶
Robert Monroe
[1:33:24 - 1:33:25] ▶
in Virginia
[1:33:25 - 1:33:26] ▶
to achieve ascended states
[1:33:26 - 1:33:28] ▶
in consciousness
[1:33:28 - 1:33:29] ▶
and possibly even
[1:33:29 - 1:33:31] ▶
astrally project.
[1:33:31 - 1:33:32] ▶
Bentov also consulted
[1:33:32 - 1:33:33] ▶
with the Stanford Research Institute
[1:33:33 - 1:33:35] ▶
and worked closely
[1:33:35 - 1:33:37] ▶
with many of the people
[1:33:37 - 1:33:38] ▶
in the U.S.,
[1:33:38 - 1:33:39] ▶
forming the CIA's
[1:33:39 - 1:33:40] ▶
psychic spy program,
[1:33:40 - 1:33:42] ▶
Stargate.
[1:33:42 - 1:33:43] ▶
Bentov's life
[1:33:44 - 1:33:45] ▶
was tragically cut short
[1:33:45 - 1:33:47] ▶
at 55 years old,
[1:33:47 - 1:33:48] ▶
when American Airlines
[1:33:48 - 1:33:51] ▶
Flight 191
[1:33:51 - 1:33:52] ▶
crashed shortly
[1:33:52 - 1:33:54] ▶
after taking off
[1:33:54 - 1:33:55] ▶
from Chicago O'Hare Airport,
[1:33:55 - 1:33:57] ▶
claiming the lives
[1:33:57 - 1:33:58] ▶
of all crew
[1:33:58 - 1:33:59] ▶
and passengers
[1:33:59 - 1:34:00] ▶
on board.
[1:34:00 - 1:34:01] ▶
Many researchers
[1:34:03 - 1:34:05] ▶
in parapsychology
[1:34:05 - 1:34:06] ▶
and consciousness
[1:34:06 - 1:34:07] ▶
say that Bentov
[1:34:07 - 1:34:08] ▶
was as close
[1:34:08 - 1:34:09] ▶
to the truth
[1:34:09 - 1:34:10] ▶
or a theory
[1:34:10 - 1:34:11] ▶
of everything
[1:34:11 - 1:34:12] ▶
in consciousness
[1:34:12 - 1:34:12] ▶
that you could get.
[1:34:12 - 1:34:13] ▶
He also had deep ties
[1:34:13 - 1:34:15] ▶
with American
[1:34:15 - 1:34:16] ▶
and Israeli intelligence.
[1:34:16 - 1:34:18] ▶
He was even
[1:34:18 - 1:34:18] ▶
a close associate
[1:34:18 - 1:34:19] ▶
of Andrei Puharich,
[1:34:19 - 1:34:21] ▶
who was one
[1:34:21 - 1:34:22] ▶
of the earliest architects
[1:34:22 - 1:34:23] ▶
of MKUltra,
[1:34:23 - 1:34:24] ▶
the CIA's
[1:34:25 - 1:34:26] ▶
mind control program.
[1:34:26 - 1:34:27] ▶
Bentov's extremely dense
[1:34:27 - 1:34:29] ▶
and almost indecipherable
[1:34:29 - 1:34:31] ▶
book about consciousness,
[1:34:31 - 1:34:32] ▶
Stalking the Wild Pendulum,
[1:34:33 - 1:34:34] ▶
has become a cult classic,
[1:34:34 - 1:34:36] ▶
and many people
[1:34:36 - 1:34:37] ▶
who research him
[1:34:37 - 1:34:38] ▶
say the same things
[1:34:38 - 1:34:39] ▶
about him
[1:34:39 - 1:34:39] ▶
that they do Grinberg.
[1:34:39 - 1:34:41] ▶
If there is a Matrix,
[1:34:42 - 1:34:43] ▶
this guy might have found out
[1:34:43 - 1:34:44] ▶
how to control it
[1:34:44 - 1:34:45] ▶
and how to get out.
[1:34:45 - 1:34:46] ▶
But not every scientist
[1:34:47 - 1:34:48] ▶
on this list
[1:34:48 - 1:34:49] ▶
was lost
[1:34:49 - 1:34:49] ▶
in a single
[1:34:49 - 1:34:50] ▶
catastrophic moment.
[1:34:50 - 1:34:51] ▶
Some seemed to fade
[1:34:52 - 1:34:53] ▶
from view
[1:34:53 - 1:34:53] ▶
and get marginalized
[1:34:53 - 1:34:54] ▶
as their work
[1:34:54 - 1:34:56] ▶
moved deeper
[1:34:56 - 1:34:57] ▶
into the classified world.
[1:34:57 - 1:34:59] ▶
Take Ning Li,
[1:35:02 - 1:35:03] ▶
a Chinese-American physicist
[1:35:03 - 1:35:05] ▶
in Huntsville, Alabama,
[1:35:05 - 1:35:06] ▶
known for her radical work
[1:35:07 - 1:35:08] ▶
on superconductors
[1:35:08 - 1:35:10] ▶
and gravity control.
[1:35:10 - 1:35:11] ▶
Working with her
[1:35:12 - 1:35:13] ▶
colleague,
[1:35:13 - 1:35:13] ▶
Douglas Torr,
[1:35:13 - 1:35:14] ▶
she proposed
[1:35:14 - 1:35:15] ▶
that cooled type 2
[1:35:15 - 1:35:17] ▶
YBCO superconductors
[1:35:17 - 1:35:19] ▶
might produce
[1:35:19 - 1:35:20] ▶
tiny gravito-magnetic effects,
[1:35:20 - 1:35:23] ▶
a theory that pointed
[1:35:23 - 1:35:24] ▶
towards a possible path
[1:35:24 - 1:35:26] ▶
to gravity control technology.
[1:35:26 - 1:35:28] ▶
After leaving
[1:35:29 - 1:35:29] ▶
the University of Alabama
[1:35:29 - 1:35:31] ▶
and receiving
[1:35:31 - 1:35:32] ▶
Defense Department funding,
[1:35:32 - 1:35:33] ▶
she largely vanished
[1:35:33 - 1:35:35] ▶
from public view,
[1:35:35 - 1:35:36] ▶
with rumors
[1:35:36 - 1:35:37] ▶
that her work
[1:35:37 - 1:35:37] ▶
had disappeared
[1:35:37 - 1:35:38] ▶
into the classified
[1:35:38 - 1:35:39] ▶
defense world.
[1:35:39 - 1:35:40] ▶
Her story took an even
[1:35:40 - 1:35:42] ▶
darker turn in 2014
[1:35:42 - 1:35:44] ▶
when she was struck
[1:35:44 - 1:35:45] ▶
by a car
[1:35:45 - 1:35:46] ▶
on the University
[1:35:46 - 1:35:47] ▶
of Alabama campus
[1:35:47 - 1:35:48] ▶
and suffered
[1:35:48 - 1:35:49] ▶
permanent brain damage.
[1:35:49 - 1:35:50] ▶
She later developed
[1:35:51 - 1:35:52] ▶
Alzheimer's disease
[1:35:52 - 1:35:53] ▶
and died
[1:35:53 - 1:35:54] ▶
on July 27, 2021,
[1:35:54 - 1:35:56] ▶
leaving behind
[1:35:57 - 1:35:58] ▶
one of the more haunting
[1:35:58 - 1:35:59] ▶
stories in gravity research.
[1:35:59 - 1:36:01] ▶
A physicist
[1:36:01 - 1:36:02] ▶
who chased gravity,
[1:36:02 - 1:36:03] ▶
vanished into secrecy,
[1:36:04 - 1:36:05] ▶
and never really came back.
[1:36:05 - 1:36:07] ▶
And then there's the story
[1:36:09 - 1:36:10] ▶
of John Norseen,
[1:36:10 - 1:36:11] ▶
a former Navy pilot,
[1:36:12 - 1:36:13] ▶
weapons designer,
[1:36:14 - 1:36:14] ▶
and neuroengineer
[1:36:15 - 1:36:16] ▶
at Lockheed Martin,
[1:36:16 - 1:36:17] ▶
who is known for his work
[1:36:18 - 1:36:19] ▶
in biofusion,
[1:36:19 - 1:36:20] ▶
biometrics,
[1:36:21 - 1:36:21] ▶
neuroweaponry,
[1:36:22 - 1:36:23] ▶
and information security
[1:36:23 - 1:36:25] ▶
concepts
[1:36:25 - 1:36:25] ▶
tied to neural pattern
[1:36:25 - 1:36:27] ▶
recognition
[1:36:27 - 1:36:28] ▶
and human-machine
[1:36:28 - 1:36:29] ▶
integration.
[1:36:29 - 1:36:30] ▶
He talks about
[1:36:30 - 1:36:31] ▶
brain prints,
[1:36:31 - 1:36:32] ▶
the idea that we have
[1:36:32 - 1:36:33] ▶
fingerprints,
[1:36:33 - 1:36:34] ▶
but you might also have
[1:36:34 - 1:36:35] ▶
a unique kind of,
[1:36:35 - 1:36:37] ▶
you know,
[1:36:37 - 1:36:37] ▶
electromagnetic signature.
[1:36:37 - 1:36:39] ▶
Just like iris
[1:36:39 - 1:36:41] ▶
or whatever.
[1:36:41 - 1:36:41] ▶
Iris, yeah.
[1:36:41 - 1:36:42] ▶
One close friend
[1:36:42 - 1:36:43] ▶
described his work
[1:36:43 - 1:36:44] ▶
in even darker terms,
[1:36:44 - 1:36:45] ▶
saying the weapons
[1:36:46 - 1:36:47] ▶
he designed
[1:36:47 - 1:36:48] ▶
involved manipulation
[1:36:48 - 1:36:49] ▶
of the mind,
[1:36:49 - 1:36:50] ▶
ideas that pushed
[1:36:50 - 1:36:51] ▶
into territory
[1:36:51 - 1:36:52] ▶
we'd never now categorize
[1:36:52 - 1:36:54] ▶
as cognitive warfare.
[1:36:54 - 1:36:56] ▶
You said that
[1:36:56 - 1:36:57] ▶
John Norseen,
[1:36:57 - 1:36:58] ▶
you spoke to
[1:36:58 - 1:36:59] ▶
John Norseen,
[1:36:59 - 1:36:59] ▶
and he was
[1:36:59 - 1:37:00] ▶
et allagash
[1:37:00 - 1:37:02] ▶
in the 19...
[1:37:02 - 1:37:03] ▶
in 1976,
[1:37:03 - 1:37:04] ▶
in August,
[1:37:04 - 1:37:05] ▶
when you guys
[1:37:05 - 1:37:06] ▶
were there
[1:37:06 - 1:37:06] ▶
and experienced
[1:37:06 - 1:37:07] ▶
your abduction.
[1:37:07 - 1:37:08] ▶
That's what he said.
[1:37:08 - 1:37:09] ▶
He read our report
[1:37:09 - 1:37:10] ▶
to the ranger
[1:37:10 - 1:37:11] ▶
that same day.
[1:37:11 - 1:37:12] ▶
And what did he say
[1:37:12 - 1:37:14] ▶
he was doing there?
[1:37:14 - 1:37:15] ▶
He said he was doing
[1:37:15 - 1:37:16] ▶
a TTR,
[1:37:16 - 1:37:17] ▶
tag,
[1:37:17 - 1:37:18] ▶
trace,
[1:37:18 - 1:37:19] ▶
retrieve,
[1:37:19 - 1:37:20] ▶
exercise
[1:37:20 - 1:37:20] ▶
with a subcutaneous
[1:37:20 - 1:37:22] ▶
device that they were
[1:37:22 - 1:37:24] ▶
testing that they could
[1:37:24 - 1:37:25] ▶
monitor,
[1:37:25 - 1:37:26] ▶
sort of like GPS.
[1:37:26 - 1:37:28] ▶
field agents.
[1:37:28 - 1:37:29] ▶
You know,
[1:37:30 - 1:37:30] ▶
we'd tell them like
[1:37:30 - 1:37:31] ▶
blood pressure,
[1:37:31 - 1:37:31] ▶
heart rate,
[1:37:32 - 1:37:32] ▶
that sort of stuff.
[1:37:32 - 1:37:33] ▶
Norseen died
[1:37:34 - 1:37:35] ▶
while on business
[1:37:35 - 1:37:36] ▶
for concurrent technologies
[1:37:36 - 1:37:38] ▶
on September 27, 2007.
[1:37:38 - 1:37:41] ▶
Exactly what happened
[1:37:41 - 1:37:42] ▶
remains unclear.
[1:37:42 - 1:37:43] ▶
Norseen's story
[1:37:45 - 1:37:46] ▶
brings us back
[1:37:46 - 1:37:47] ▶
to the larger pattern,
[1:37:47 - 1:37:48] ▶
because this is bigger
[1:37:49 - 1:37:50] ▶
than just one man
[1:37:50 - 1:37:51] ▶
or one strange death.
[1:37:51 - 1:37:53] ▶
Again and again,
[1:37:53 - 1:37:54] ▶
the people working closest
[1:37:55 - 1:37:56] ▶
to powerful,
[1:37:56 - 1:37:57] ▶
secret,
[1:37:58 - 1:37:58] ▶
scientific knowledge
[1:37:58 - 1:37:59] ▶
are the ones
[1:37:59 - 1:38:00] ▶
who seem to become
[1:38:00 - 1:38:01] ▶
the most vulnerable.
[1:38:01 - 1:38:02] ▶
So where does this leave us?
[1:38:13 - 1:38:14] ▶
With the realization
[1:38:15 - 1:38:15] ▶
that even our own government,
[1:38:15 - 1:38:17] ▶
the most powerful entity
[1:38:17 - 1:38:19] ▶
on Earth,
[1:38:19 - 1:38:19] ▶
seems unable
[1:38:20 - 1:38:20] ▶
or unwilling
[1:38:20 - 1:38:21] ▶
to fully protect
[1:38:21 - 1:38:23] ▶
the very people
[1:38:23 - 1:38:24] ▶
building its future.
[1:38:24 - 1:38:25] ▶
Or because every case
[1:38:26 - 1:38:27] ▶
points to the same explanation.
[1:38:27 - 1:38:29] ▶
For example,
[1:38:29 - 1:38:30] ▶
General Neil McCaslin's case
[1:38:30 - 1:38:32] ▶
seems eerily,
[1:38:32 - 1:38:33] ▶
possibly connected
[1:38:33 - 1:38:35] ▶
to Monica Reza's.
[1:38:35 - 1:38:36] ▶
The killing of Carl Grillmair
[1:38:37 - 1:38:38] ▶
seems possibly
[1:38:38 - 1:38:39] ▶
of the same variety
[1:38:39 - 1:38:40] ▶
as what happened
[1:38:40 - 1:38:41] ▶
to Nuno Lurero.
[1:38:41 - 1:38:42] ▶
But ultimately,
[1:38:43 - 1:38:45] ▶
all of these cases
[1:38:45 - 1:38:46] ▶
could be isolated.
[1:38:46 - 1:38:47] ▶
Sometimes,
[1:38:49 - 1:38:50] ▶
the explanations
[1:38:50 - 1:38:51] ▶
for these things
[1:38:51 - 1:38:52] ▶
involve extreme
[1:38:52 - 1:38:53] ▶
human irrational emotion.
[1:38:53 - 1:38:55] ▶
But sometimes,
[1:38:57 - 1:38:58] ▶
they involve foul play.
[1:38:59 - 1:39:00] ▶
Whether it's
[1:39:00 - 1:39:01] ▶
homegrown black budget
[1:39:01 - 1:39:02] ▶
cleanup crews
[1:39:02 - 1:39:03] ▶
willing to kill anyone
[1:39:03 - 1:39:04] ▶
who gets too close
[1:39:04 - 1:39:05] ▶
to their proprietary technology,
[1:39:05 - 1:39:07] ▶
or foreign adversaries
[1:39:07 - 1:39:08] ▶
taking out experts
[1:39:08 - 1:39:09] ▶
to hollow out
[1:39:09 - 1:39:10] ▶
American brainpower
[1:39:10 - 1:39:11] ▶
before the next big war,
[1:39:11 - 1:39:13] ▶
the real crown jewels
[1:39:13 - 1:39:14] ▶
aren't the weapons
[1:39:14 - 1:39:15] ▶
or the hard drives,
[1:39:15 - 1:39:16] ▶
but the minds,
[1:39:17 - 1:39:17] ▶
the judgment,
[1:39:17 - 1:39:18] ▶
the intuition,
[1:39:19 - 1:39:20] ▶
and the years
[1:39:20 - 1:39:21] ▶
of trial and error
[1:39:21 - 1:39:22] ▶
that most people never see.
[1:39:22 - 1:39:24] ▶
You can steal documents
[1:39:24 - 1:39:25] ▶
or hack a server,
[1:39:25 - 1:39:26] ▶
but if you really want
[1:39:26 - 1:39:27] ▶
to shortcut the future,
[1:39:27 - 1:39:28] ▶
you steal the person
[1:39:29 - 1:39:30] ▶
who already solved the problem.
[1:39:30 - 1:39:31] ▶
We like to imagine
[1:39:33 - 1:39:35] ▶
the black world
[1:39:35 - 1:39:35] ▶
as restricted hangers
[1:39:35 - 1:39:37] ▶
and test sites,
[1:39:37 - 1:39:38] ▶
but the most valuable assets
[1:39:38 - 1:39:39] ▶
in the world
[1:39:39 - 1:39:40] ▶
still get up in the morning
[1:39:40 - 1:39:41] ▶
and drive to work.
[1:39:41 - 1:39:42] ▶
Maybe there's an even
[1:39:42 - 1:39:56] ▶
stranger possibility
[1:39:56 - 1:39:57] ▶
hovering over all of this,
[1:39:57 - 1:39:59] ▶
one that moves
[1:39:59 - 1:40:00] ▶
beyond terrestrial politics
[1:40:00 - 1:40:01] ▶
and into the highly
[1:40:01 - 1:40:03] ▶
speculative realm
[1:40:03 - 1:40:04] ▶
of exopolitics,
[1:40:04 - 1:40:06] ▶
relations between Earth
[1:40:06 - 1:40:08] ▶
and other intelligences
[1:40:08 - 1:40:09] ▶
that average citizens
[1:40:09 - 1:40:11] ▶
might not even know exists.
[1:40:11 - 1:40:13] ▶
During the Bush administration,
[1:40:14 - 1:40:15] ▶
key players
[1:40:15 - 1:40:16] ▶
in the federal government
[1:40:16 - 1:40:17] ▶
were urged to read
[1:40:17 - 1:40:19] ▶
the Chinese science fiction novel
[1:40:19 - 1:40:21] ▶
The Three-Body Problem,
[1:40:21 - 1:40:22] ▶
written by a power plant engineer,
[1:40:23 - 1:40:24] ▶
Xi Jinping.
[1:40:25 - 1:40:25] ▶
It's about
[1:40:25 - 1:40:26] ▶
trisolarian extraterrestrials
[1:40:26 - 1:40:28] ▶
forced out of their own
[1:40:28 - 1:40:30] ▶
unstable solar system
[1:40:30 - 1:40:31] ▶
and headed for Earth.
[1:40:31 - 1:40:32] ▶
The trisolarians
[1:40:33 - 1:40:34] ▶
systematically monitor,
[1:40:34 - 1:40:35] ▶
mess with,
[1:40:36 - 1:40:36] ▶
and sometimes even kill
[1:40:37 - 1:40:38] ▶
human scientists
[1:40:38 - 1:40:39] ▶
at the frontier
[1:40:39 - 1:40:40] ▶
of human ingenuity.
[1:40:40 - 1:40:42] ▶
These are usually people
[1:40:42 - 1:40:43] ▶
working on nuclear,
[1:40:43 - 1:40:45] ▶
plasma,
[1:40:45 - 1:40:45] ▶
and particle accelerator physics.
[1:40:46 - 1:40:47] ▶
Sounds kind of familiar.
[1:40:48 - 1:40:49] ▶
Basically,
[1:40:50 - 1:40:50] ▶
the scientists
[1:40:50 - 1:40:51] ▶
that control
[1:40:51 - 1:40:52] ▶
the rules of reality itself.
[1:40:52 - 1:40:54] ▶
So why was the upper echelon
[1:40:55 - 1:40:57] ▶
of the American government
[1:40:57 - 1:40:58] ▶
reading this book?
[1:40:58 - 1:40:59] ▶
Why did a presidential advisor
[1:41:01 - 1:41:04] ▶
named Harold Malmgren,
[1:41:04 - 1:41:05] ▶
who worked directly
[1:41:05 - 1:41:06] ▶
with JFK,
[1:41:06 - 1:41:07] ▶
LBJ,
[1:41:08 - 1:41:08] ▶
Nixon,
[1:41:09 - 1:41:09] ▶
and Ford,
[1:41:09 - 1:41:10] ▶
and who was briefed
[1:41:10 - 1:41:11] ▶
on UFOs?
[1:41:11 - 1:41:12] ▶
Why did he tell me
[1:41:12 - 1:41:13] ▶
that this is how
[1:41:13 - 1:41:14] ▶
the non-human intelligences
[1:41:14 - 1:41:16] ▶
operate?
[1:41:16 - 1:41:16] ▶
By tracking the frontier
[1:41:17 - 1:41:18] ▶
of human innovation.
[1:41:18 - 1:41:19] ▶
They were opposed
[1:41:19 - 1:41:21] ▶
to anything
[1:41:21 - 1:41:21] ▶
which threatened
[1:41:21 - 1:41:22] ▶
their control.
[1:41:22 - 1:41:24] ▶
So it's almost like
[1:41:25 - 1:41:26] ▶
the UFOs are more,
[1:41:26 - 1:41:27] ▶
it's not just
[1:41:27 - 1:41:28] ▶
the atomic connection,
[1:41:28 - 1:41:29] ▶
they're generically attracted
[1:41:29 - 1:41:31] ▶
to the tip of the spear
[1:41:31 - 1:41:32] ▶
as far as
[1:41:32 - 1:41:32] ▶
tech development.
[1:41:32 - 1:41:33] ▶
That's at the heart of it.
[1:41:34 - 1:41:35] ▶
Why was Harold's daughter,
[1:41:35 - 1:41:37] ▶
Pippa,
[1:41:37 - 1:41:37] ▶
who was on George W. Bush's
[1:41:38 - 1:41:39] ▶
National Economic Council,
[1:41:39 - 1:41:41] ▶
tasked with reading
[1:41:41 - 1:41:42] ▶
the three-body problem?
[1:41:42 - 1:41:43] ▶
And if connecting
[1:41:44 - 1:41:44] ▶
missing and dead scientists
[1:41:44 - 1:41:46] ▶
with aliens
[1:41:46 - 1:41:47] ▶
sounds super far-fetched,
[1:41:47 - 1:41:49] ▶
I get it.
[1:41:49 - 1:41:50] ▶
But it's worthy
[1:41:50 - 1:41:51] ▶
asking yourself
[1:41:51 - 1:41:52] ▶
why UFOs
[1:41:52 - 1:41:53] ▶
so very often
[1:41:53 - 1:41:54] ▶
seem to cluster
[1:41:54 - 1:41:55] ▶
around the very technologies
[1:41:55 - 1:41:56] ▶
that define strategic power.
[1:41:56 - 1:41:58] ▶
They show up
[1:42:01 - 1:42:03] ▶
at nuclear sites
[1:42:03 - 1:42:04] ▶
across the United States
[1:42:04 - 1:42:05] ▶
and the world.
[1:42:05 - 1:42:06] ▶
I've personally
[1:42:07 - 1:42:08] ▶
interviewed
[1:42:08 - 1:42:08] ▶
many whistleblowers
[1:42:08 - 1:42:09] ▶
who've worked
[1:42:09 - 1:42:10] ▶
at these bases
[1:42:10 - 1:42:11] ▶
who claim this.
[1:42:11 - 1:42:12] ▶
Robert Hastings,
[1:42:12 - 1:42:13] ▶
the author
[1:42:13 - 1:42:13] ▶
of the great book
[1:42:13 - 1:42:14] ▶
UFOs and Nukes,
[1:42:14 - 1:42:16] ▶
has talked
[1:42:16 - 1:42:16] ▶
to almost
[1:42:16 - 1:42:17] ▶
170 of these people.
[1:42:17 - 1:42:19] ▶
There was even
[1:42:20 - 1:42:21] ▶
a UFO crash
[1:42:21 - 1:42:22] ▶
right next
[1:42:22 - 1:42:23] ▶
to Brookhaven
[1:42:23 - 1:42:23] ▶
National Labs.
[1:42:23 - 1:42:25] ▶
In case you're not aware,
[1:42:25 - 1:42:26] ▶
Brookhaven houses
[1:42:26 - 1:42:27] ▶
a very powerful
[1:42:27 - 1:42:28] ▶
particle accelerator
[1:42:28 - 1:42:29] ▶
called Cosmotron.
[1:42:29 - 1:42:30] ▶
Witnesses of the UFO crash
[1:42:30 - 1:42:33] ▶
claimed that the wreckage
[1:42:33 - 1:42:34] ▶
was cleaned up
[1:42:34 - 1:42:35] ▶
and taken to the lab.
[1:42:35 - 1:42:36] ▶
This isn't just
[1:42:37 - 1:42:38] ▶
an American phenomena.
[1:42:38 - 1:42:39] ▶
Russian General
[1:42:39 - 1:42:40] ▶
Vasily Alekseev
[1:42:40 - 1:42:42] ▶
said that UFOs
[1:42:42 - 1:42:43] ▶
would show up
[1:42:43 - 1:42:44] ▶
when they transported
[1:42:44 - 1:42:45] ▶
sensitive scientific technology.
[1:42:45 - 1:42:47] ▶
The Soviets
[1:42:47 - 1:42:48] ▶
have records
[1:42:48 - 1:42:49] ▶
around UFOs
[1:42:49 - 1:42:49] ▶
showing up
[1:42:49 - 1:42:50] ▶
around their
[1:42:50 - 1:42:51] ▶
national labs
[1:42:51 - 1:42:52] ▶
and nuclear sites.
[1:42:52 - 1:42:53] ▶
Which brings us
[1:42:53 - 1:42:54] ▶
back to the strange
[1:42:54 - 1:42:55] ▶
question of why
[1:42:55 - 1:42:56] ▶
so many government
[1:42:56 - 1:42:57] ▶
officials were framing
[1:42:57 - 1:42:58] ▶
all of this problem.
[1:42:58 - 1:42:59] ▶
Maybe the three-body problem
[1:42:59 - 1:43:01] ▶
was hiding
[1:43:01 - 1:43:02] ▶
truth in fiction.
[1:43:02 - 1:43:03] ▶
There's an apocryphal story
[1:43:06 - 1:43:07] ▶
and truthfully
[1:43:07 - 1:43:08] ▶
I don't know
[1:43:08 - 1:43:09] ▶
how much weight
[1:43:09 - 1:43:09] ▶
to put in it.
[1:43:09 - 1:43:10] ▶
But it's absolutely wild.
[1:43:10 - 1:43:12] ▶
It involves
[1:43:12 - 1:43:13] ▶
former President
[1:43:13 - 1:43:14] ▶
Barack Obama
[1:43:14 - 1:43:15] ▶
and Pearl Jam
[1:43:15 - 1:43:16] ▶
lead singer
[1:43:16 - 1:43:16] ▶
Eddie Vedder
[1:43:16 - 1:43:17] ▶
drunk around
[1:43:17 - 1:43:18] ▶
a campfire.
[1:43:18 - 1:43:19] ▶
Eddie presses Obama
[1:43:20 - 1:43:22] ▶
on the true nature
[1:43:22 - 1:43:23] ▶
of reality.
[1:43:23 - 1:43:23] ▶
He wants to know
[1:43:24 - 1:43:24] ▶
how the world
[1:43:24 - 1:43:25] ▶
really works
[1:43:25 - 1:43:26] ▶
at the highest level.
[1:43:26 - 1:43:27] ▶
He senses that
[1:43:27 - 1:43:28] ▶
there are things
[1:43:28 - 1:43:29] ▶
going on
[1:43:29 - 1:43:29] ▶
above his head.
[1:43:29 - 1:43:30] ▶
Obama's answer?
[1:43:30 - 1:43:31] ▶
Read the three-body problem.
[1:43:32 - 1:43:33] ▶
I've had a lot
[1:43:37 - 1:43:38] ▶
of conversations
[1:43:38 - 1:43:39] ▶
where people have
[1:43:39 - 1:43:39] ▶
asked me to do
[1:43:39 - 1:43:40] ▶
a video essay
[1:43:40 - 1:43:41] ▶
commenting on
[1:43:41 - 1:43:42] ▶
these missing scientists.
[1:43:42 - 1:43:43] ▶
I went into
[1:43:43 - 1:43:44] ▶
this investigation
[1:43:44 - 1:43:45] ▶
unsure of whether
[1:43:45 - 1:43:47] ▶
any of these cases
[1:43:47 - 1:43:48] ▶
were linked at all.
[1:43:48 - 1:43:49] ▶
And honestly,
[1:43:49 - 1:43:50] ▶
I came out
[1:43:50 - 1:43:51] ▶
feeling like
[1:43:51 - 1:43:51] ▶
on a human level,
[1:43:51 - 1:43:52] ▶
they're mostly not.
[1:43:53 - 1:43:54] ▶
Perhaps with the
[1:43:54 - 1:43:55] ▶
exception of
[1:43:55 - 1:43:56] ▶
Monica Reza
[1:43:56 - 1:43:56] ▶
and McCaslin,
[1:43:56 - 1:43:57] ▶
maybe it represents
[1:43:57 - 1:43:58] ▶
forces operating
[1:43:58 - 1:44:00] ▶
on levels
[1:44:00 - 1:44:00] ▶
higher than
[1:44:00 - 1:44:01] ▶
human clearance systems.
[1:44:01 - 1:44:02] ▶
Many people forget
[1:44:02 - 1:44:04] ▶
that science itself
[1:44:04 - 1:44:05] ▶
is weird.
[1:44:05 - 1:44:06] ▶
There's a long history
[1:44:06 - 1:44:07] ▶
of quote-unquote
[1:44:07 - 1:44:08] ▶
demons in science,
[1:44:08 - 1:44:10] ▶
written about
[1:44:10 - 1:44:11] ▶
extensively and eloquently
[1:44:11 - 1:44:12] ▶
by former Harvard
[1:44:12 - 1:44:14] ▶
professor
[1:44:14 - 1:44:14] ▶
Jimena Canales.
[1:44:14 - 1:44:16] ▶
Whether it's
[1:44:16 - 1:44:16] ▶
Heisenberg downloading
[1:44:16 - 1:44:18] ▶
matrix multiplication
[1:44:18 - 1:44:19] ▶
at Elgoland,
[1:44:19 - 1:44:20] ▶
Dirac staring at
[1:44:20 - 1:44:21] ▶
the fire at Cambridge
[1:44:21 - 1:44:23] ▶
and downloading
[1:44:23 - 1:44:23] ▶
the Dirac equation,
[1:44:23 - 1:44:24] ▶
Pauli dreaming up
[1:44:24 - 1:44:26] ▶
the architecture
[1:44:26 - 1:44:27] ▶
of the hydrogen atom,
[1:44:27 - 1:44:28] ▶
or Descartes
[1:44:29 - 1:44:29] ▶
having a series
[1:44:29 - 1:44:30] ▶
of his own
[1:44:30 - 1:44:31] ▶
prophetic dreams.
[1:44:31 - 1:44:32] ▶
If we were to
[1:44:33 - 1:44:33] ▶
apply scientific
[1:44:33 - 1:44:35] ▶
scrutiny to the
[1:44:35 - 1:44:36] ▶
process of
[1:44:36 - 1:44:36] ▶
scientific discovery
[1:44:36 - 1:44:38] ▶
itself,
[1:44:38 - 1:44:38] ▶
it might begin
[1:44:39 - 1:44:39] ▶
to look less
[1:44:39 - 1:44:40] ▶
like conventional
[1:44:40 - 1:44:41] ▶
science and
[1:44:41 - 1:44:42] ▶
inductive logic
[1:44:42 - 1:44:43] ▶
and more like
[1:44:43 - 1:44:44] ▶
revelation
[1:44:44 - 1:44:44] ▶
or something
[1:44:44 - 1:44:45] ▶
received.
[1:44:45 - 1:44:46] ▶
Maybe entities
[1:44:47 - 1:44:49] ▶
higher than humans
[1:44:49 - 1:44:50] ▶
on the food chain
[1:44:50 - 1:44:51] ▶
are both inspiring
[1:44:51 - 1:44:52] ▶
and at times
[1:44:52 - 1:44:53] ▶
stagnating
[1:44:53 - 1:44:54] ▶
science.
[1:44:54 - 1:44:55] ▶
What we do know
[1:44:55 - 1:44:56] ▶
for sure
[1:44:56 - 1:44:56] ▶
is that where
[1:44:56 - 1:44:57] ▶
there's truth,
[1:44:57 - 1:44:58] ▶
there's violence.
[1:44:58 - 1:44:59] ▶
This goes back
[1:44:59 - 1:45:00] ▶
to Socrates
[1:45:00 - 1:45:01] ▶
and it's historically
[1:45:01 - 1:45:02] ▶
been the case
[1:45:02 - 1:45:03] ▶
with religious mystics.
[1:45:03 - 1:45:04] ▶
And if you think
[1:45:04 - 1:45:05] ▶
religious truths
[1:45:05 - 1:45:06] ▶
are worth dying for
[1:45:06 - 1:45:07] ▶
and that science
[1:45:07 - 1:45:08] ▶
and religion
[1:45:08 - 1:45:09] ▶
meet at some
[1:45:09 - 1:45:10] ▶
omega point,
[1:45:10 - 1:45:10] ▶
then maybe this is
[1:45:11 - 1:45:11] ▶
all true for science
[1:45:11 - 1:45:13] ▶
too.
[1:45:13 - 1:45:13] ▶
Because if science
[1:45:13 - 1:45:14] ▶
really is brushing
[1:45:14 - 1:45:15] ▶
up against something
[1:45:15 - 1:45:16] ▶
deeper,
[1:45:16 - 1:45:17] ▶
the questions
[1:45:17 - 1:45:18] ▶
underneath this
[1:45:18 - 1:45:19] ▶
pattern start to
[1:45:19 - 1:45:20] ▶
get very dark.
[1:45:20 - 1:45:21] ▶
But whether the
[1:45:22 - 1:45:23] ▶
forces at work
[1:45:23 - 1:45:24] ▶
deleting these
[1:45:24 - 1:45:25] ▶
scientists are human
[1:45:25 - 1:45:26] ▶
or something stranger,
[1:45:26 - 1:45:27] ▶
the cost is the same.
[1:45:27 - 1:45:29] ▶
The people closest
[1:45:29 - 1:45:30] ▶
to the edges
[1:45:30 - 1:45:31] ▶
of what we know,
[1:45:31 - 1:45:32] ▶
the ones rewriting
[1:45:33 - 1:45:34] ▶
the rules of physics,
[1:45:34 - 1:45:35] ▶
scanning the sky
[1:45:35 - 1:45:36] ▶
for threats
[1:45:36 - 1:45:37] ▶
we can't see yet,
[1:45:37 - 1:45:38] ▶
and unlocking the
[1:45:38 - 1:45:39] ▶
science that shapes
[1:45:39 - 1:45:40] ▶
the next century,
[1:45:40 - 1:45:41] ▶
these are the ones
[1:45:41 - 1:45:42] ▶
we keep losing.
[1:45:42 - 1:45:43] ▶
Their minds
[1:45:43 - 1:45:44] ▶
were the prize.
[1:45:44 - 1:45:45] ▶
They were the ones
[1:45:45 - 1:45:46] ▶
taking us into the
[1:45:46 - 1:45:47] ▶
future and they
[1:45:47 - 1:45:48] ▶
are now disappearing.
[1:45:48 - 1:45:49] ▶
The search continues
[1:45:50 - 1:45:51] ▶
and the list is growing.
[1:45:51 - 1:45:52] ▶
One of them is
[1:45:53 - 1:45:54] ▶
Alabama-based scientist
[1:45:54 - 1:45:55] ▶
Amy Eskridge.
[1:45:55 - 1:45:56] ▶
She was openly
[1:45:57 - 1:45:57] ▶
studying anti-gravity
[1:45:57 - 1:45:59] ▶
technology when she
[1:45:59 - 1:46:00] ▶
died in 2022.
[1:46:00 - 1:46:01] ▶
Her death was deemed
[1:46:02 - 1:46:03] ▶
a suicide by a
[1:46:03 - 1:46:04] ▶
self-inflicted gunshot
[1:46:04 - 1:46:05] ▶
wound, but she warned
[1:46:05 - 1:46:07] ▶
friends ahead of time
[1:46:07 - 1:46:08] ▶
that her life could be
[1:46:08 - 1:46:09] ▶
in danger.
[1:46:09 - 1:46:10] ▶
I don't believe that she
[1:46:10 - 1:46:11] ▶
killed a self.
[1:46:11 - 1:46:11] ▶
I just can't,
[1:46:12 - 1:46:12] ▶
because I spoke to her
[1:46:12 - 1:46:13] ▶
four hours before
[1:46:13 - 1:46:14] ▶
and she told me
[1:46:14 - 1:46:15] ▶
time and time again,
[1:46:15 - 1:46:16] ▶
I'm not going to
[1:46:16 - 1:46:16] ▶
commit suicide,
[1:46:16 - 1:46:17] ▶
I am not going to
[1:46:17 - 1:46:18] ▶
have an accident.
[1:46:18 - 1:46:19] ▶
If there's something
[1:46:19 - 1:46:21] ▶
suspicious about my
[1:46:21 - 1:46:21] ▶
death, it's because it is.
[1:46:21 - 1:46:22] ▶
If you're still watching,
[1:46:22 - 1:46:32] ▶
you're one of the first
[1:46:32 - 1:46:33] ▶
to hear about this.
[1:46:33 - 1:46:34] ▶
We just dropped a new
[1:46:34 - 1:46:36] ▶
limited merch collection.
[1:46:36 - 1:46:37] ▶
Two tees, one off-white,
[1:46:38 - 1:46:39] ▶
one vintage black, plus hat.
[1:46:40 - 1:46:42] ▶
The design has a timeless
[1:46:42 - 1:46:43] ▶
retro future feel.
[1:46:43 - 1:46:45] ▶
You can wear it every day.
[1:46:45 - 1:46:46] ▶
If you've been watching
[1:46:47 - 1:46:48] ▶
the show lately, you've
[1:46:48 - 1:46:49] ▶
probably already seen me
[1:46:49 - 1:46:50] ▶
wearing it.
[1:46:50 - 1:46:51] ▶
This is a limited run,
[1:46:51 - 1:46:52] ▶
so when it's gone, it's gone.
[1:46:52 - 1:46:54] ▶
Head to AmericanAlchemyMerch.com
[1:46:54 - 1:46:56] ▶
to grab the Believe drop
[1:46:56 - 1:46:58] ▶
today.
[1:46:58 - 1:46:58] ▶
And while you're there,
[1:46:59 - 1:47:00] ▶
the Cowboy UFO T is a fan
[1:47:00 - 1:47:02] ▶
favorite we always keep in
[1:47:02 - 1:47:03] ▶
stock, along with the
[1:47:03 - 1:47:05] ▶
Atomic Age design.
[1:47:05 - 1:47:06] ▶
Thank you all so much for
[1:47:07 - 1:47:08] ▶
following and supporting
[1:47:08 - 1:47:09] ▶
the show.
[1:47:09 - 1:47:09] ▶
Time tutorial.
[1:47:21 - 1:47:21] ▶
All seguir outro.
[1:47:21 - 1:47:21] ▶
All評-not seguiments,
[1:47:21 - 1:47:22] ▶
which are shipping którzy
[1:47:22 - 1:47:23] ▶
are, there are threads a
[1:47:23 - 1:47:36] ▶
time for a puzzle day from
[1:47:36 - 1:47:37] ▶
to go to hacer Mort собир
[1:47:38 - 1:47:39] ▶
and項目.
[1:47:39 - 1:47:40] ▶
Key contempor'sestyle.
[1:47:40 - 1:47:40] ▶
That's what it we could
[1:47:40 - 1:47:41] ▶
wash SARS.
[1:47:41 - 1:47:41] ▶
along with the
[1:47:41 - 1:47:48] ▶