Somewhere in the Skies - The 2021 International UFO Congress

Episode Date: August 27, 2021

On episode 228 of SOMEWHERE IN THE SKIES, Ryan is welcomed by Karen Brard, President of the International UFO Congress and Alejandro Rojas, Master of Ceremonies. They give us the inside scoop on this year's virtual event and who will be speaking, including such names as journalists, Bryan Bender, Ross Coulthart, and Lee Spiegel. Harvard Professor and Astrophysicist, Avi Loeb, and astronomer, Marc D'Antonio, will also be speaking from a scientific perspective on UFOs. Experiencer researchers, NK Kranda, Yvonne Smith, and Kathleen Marden will be speaking about the traumatic effects of unexplained experiences. We discuss the additional lineup and then debrief on all the latest UFO news and where we may be heading when it comes to UFOs in 2021. For tickets and information to the International UFO Congress, visit: https://ufocongress.com/ Patreon: www.patreon.com/somewhereskies Website: www.somewhereintheskies.com YouTube Channel: CLICK HERE Official Store: CLICK HERE Somewhere in the Skies Coffee! https://bit.ly/3mIAq2o Order Ryan’s book in paperback, ebook, or audiobook by CLICKING HERE Twitter: @SomewhereSkies Instagram: @SomewhereSkiesPod Somewhere in the Skies Subreddit: www.reddit.com/r/SomewhereSkiesPod/ Watch Mysteries Decoded for free at www.CWseed.com Episode edited by Jane Palomera Moore Opening Theme Song, "Ephemeral Reign" by Per Kiilstofte SOMEWHERE IN THE SKIES is part of the eOne podcast network. To learn more, CLICK HERE Copyright © 2020 Ryan Sprague. All rights reserved. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/somewhere-in-the-skies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Terms apply. Hey guys, Ryan dropping in to share some awesome news. Somewhere in the Skies was recently nominated for the 2021 Paranormal Podcast Awards, presented by Paranormality Magazine. I'm so honored to be among many other fantastic podcasts in the categories of Best Alien UFO podcast and Paranormal Podcasts of the year. So it would mean the world to me if you'd head on over to play to paranormalitymag.com and click on the vote for your favorite podcast link. And I hope you'll consider

voting for somewhere in the skies in the two categories we're nominated for. Voting closes at midnight EST on September 30th. So again, head on over to paranormalitemag.com and consider voting for somewhere in the skies. Thank you for your support. And keep looking up. This is somewhere in This skies with Brian's bread. Welcome everyone to Somewhere in the Skies, and we have a very special episode to get you ready for the 2021 International UFO Congress, which is going completely virtual this year. We're going to talk all about the speakers, the panels, and everything they have going on over there at the IUFOC. So with us today is the president of the Congress, Karen Brard, and the master of ceremony, Alejandro. Rojas. So without further

do, let's bring them in. Guys, welcome to somewhere in the skies. Hello. Thanks for having us. Good to be back. Of course. Of course. I wish, I wish, wish, wish this thing was in person. But like most conferences,

I completely understand why this is virtual. But I can't lie, I do miss coming to volunteer for the Congress. We miss you too. We're going to really miss being in person, especially because this is the second one in a row that we have to do this. But hopefully next year we can all be back together again

and this whole nightmare of COVID will be gone. Hopefully, I know. And hey, look, this is the way a lot of things are going nowadays. Conferences, school. You know, I even read somewhere earlier that say goodbye to snow days. I remember growing up on the East Coast growing up, you know. Right. And you have that magical snow day where you didn't have school.

Growing up in Colorado, snow days, We're the best. Weren't they? And it was like God was on your side that day. But now they'll just do it virtually. You know. Oh, my gosh. I know.

I know. Glories of the internet. But let's not waste time, guys. Let's get into what is going to be going on at the Congress this year. But before we get to the speakers and everything like that, Karen, would you mind sort of running us through? How do you do this? How does one go from such a big?

you know, in-person conference to something virtual. I know this was last year was the first time trying it. So what is in store for us this year for the virtual conference? All right. Well, I'll let you know. We're going to use a platform called Hubea and they've been winning a lot of awards because they're doing tons of different virtual conferences from, you know, big, huge conferences for corporations and whatnot. So that's a really dependable and, you know, jam-packed apps that you can do a lot of things. One of the things you can do in there is see all the other attendees. So if an attendee chooses to, they can upload their picture, put information about them. And then everybody can see who's there. And you can also chat with people. You can

introduce yourself and talk. You can say, you can go to the virtual meetup room and say, I'm going to have a meetup for whatever kind of group that you want and put invites out there. And then people join the room and they're just like in a Zoom room, just like this. So you can have these virtual parties within the app while during an after and any time during the conference actually that's really cool right now the tickets are just 119 and that gives you five days

that's Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday all five days of lectures and panels and we're going to have 23 and it starts on September 8th and it goes through the 12th so registered for the conference what you're going to do in about a week you're going to

a week before the conference so that's coming up, the conference is just two weeks away now, you're going to get an email. And the app is called H-W-O-V-A. But don't try and find it on the line and try to, you know, go in because you won't be able to access the conference unless you buy a ticket and put the invite code in. So I'm going to share my screen so you kind of see what it's like. Oh, perfect. Yeah, I was going to say, I know I loved using this thing when you guys were trying it out last

year. I got to like interact with the people while the talks are going on. It is a really great program. And I've done a couple other virtual conferences this past year. And all I can say is it was not as smooth as an experience as I'm sure you guys will hopefully have. Yeah. The app works great. It's really reliable. It's pretty simple. You know, our crowd is older and they can't always figure everything out, but we really didn't have a problem with people figuring this out. And it just went so smoothly last year. It worked really well. Yeah. And I'm going to, when you get the email, I post tutorials on there. There's guides and stuff that even before the conference, you can go and read up on it and see if you think you're going to have any trouble.

But once you get the invite code and you go in, you can either watch it on a computer or you can watch it on a mobile device, like a tablet or your phone. And you can hook up your computer to your television if you can get someone to do that, if you don't know how to get someone to do that. And you can sit and watch it just like television. So this would be the main screen. Can you see it? Yep. Okay.

So this is just your main screen. And then if you want to go to the sessions, you can go here and see everything that that's day. So we went to Wednesday. And you can see all the different speakers. Like Wednesday night is when we're going to have Lou Elizando and our cocktail party and give out prizes. And so every day you can go through the schedule and see what's going on there. Here, when you go to the attendees, and you'd see all the different attendees right now, like Steve Bassett has uploaded his, Brian Bender.

That's awesome. So once people upload their picture, you can even see who's there. The community tab, you can see they can ask me anything that they want, virtual meetups, announcements, ice breakers, which is a chat room. You can share articles. There's just a ton of things. You can send messages to each other. And you can upload photos because we have a photo contest during the conference.

I remember that from last year. The photo contest was so much fun. Yeah, we have a contest that, like, for the best caption, I believe it is. And then the leaderboard, there's a bunch of different things you can go do. Go check out the exhibitors. There's also a virtual hall. Let me put that up there. Sure.

The exhibitor hall. So right now here's my booth here. And here's Site 251. So you can go in and see what people have. Some of the stuff that we sell there. Oh, cool. Famous, levitating UFO speaker lands. I love it.

And you can shop right from here. Exactly. Yeah, you can go and contact the vendors, whichever way they want to be contacted. They might even, they're allowed to also live stream from their booth. So you could come to this and people might be just standing there talking and doing a demonstration of their product. Just like the vendor room. I love that. So there's a lot of fun things that you can do with that. I love it. Again, it's so easy. And I think, you know, once you get the

hang of it by like, you know, the first or second talk, it just becomes kind of second nature. That's so cool. Well, let's, I guess let's jump into who we have this year. You guys, have quite a lineup so far. So yeah, Karen, if you want, you can pull up the website there and we'll show them on there. But let's just start. Let's dive writing with Mr. Ben Hansen returning for the uptie the time to the international UFO Congress. So what's Ben going to be talking about this year? Alej, do you want to take that? I don't think he actually knows. Yeah, I don't know. I'm sorry, I know yet. It is good.

You start with Ben in that he's one of the rare we always, we don't usually have the speakers twice, you know, and we don't have him twice a year. But Ben usually comes and shows his, his night vision goggles every year. So he's always been there as part of the conference. And so it's great to have him every year. Actually, I meant that Alejandro doesn't know, but I know.

Oh, yeah, I don't know what Ben's talking about. Yeah, Ben is actually going to be doing a panel. with Mark Gantoneo, and they're going to talk about their new show that just came out on Discovery Plus. Oh, awesome. Okay. The UFO Witness, right? Is that, yeah. Who knows nowadays? Yeah, the newest one. Wasn't there already a UFO Witness show? I don't know, but I guess you'll have to buy a ticket and tune in to find out. Yeah, that's why she's the president. I love that. Well, okay. So here's the one I'm really excited about. And wow, you guys couldn't have got him at a better time.

Avi Lope, you know, the guy who has become pretty big in the mainstream media in the past year or so with his new book that came out, extraterrestrial, and his new project, which I'm sure he'll be talking about. So yeah, do you guys want to give us a little information about what Avi Lope will be doing with you guys? Go ahead, Alejandro. Use an Arabidab. Okay, yeah. Avi Loeb is, you know what's fun about Avi Loeb is, of course, he made headlines and has been making headlines because, you know, he's a Harvard astronomer. And he came out, you know, very strongly saying, hey, not only is this Amuamua object, this thing that came through the solar system, you know, first interstellar object. weird, it's probably aliens. And of course, a lot of people came down on him, a lot of his colleagues and

scientists, but he really stuck to his gun saying, no, it's not just possible. It's probable. I mean, he's really convinced this is a possibility. That's super exciting because what I think it's been exciting is that even the first paper that came out about Omoa Muamua speculated that this object could be extraterrestrial. That alone, I think, is really exciting that people, astronomy students, the people doing these research papers are feeling comfortable enough to make that suggestion. But now to have this Harvard astronomer, one of the people in a leadership position at Harvard coming out and very strongly supporting the idea, it's really exciting. I think some of the things that he talks about, those of us who have been in this field and who have read books from scientists, you know, like Peter Sturrock or Dr. J. Alan Heinek. He's hitting on a lot of the same themes, which is interesting because he hasn't read these books, but he's having the same experiences they are and people having their minds closed. And really, when it comes to science, that's not good science. You need to be open to possibilities until you can disprove them. So all of that is really exciting. At the beginning of

the media cycle when he came out, he was kind of hesitant to talk about UFOs, I think. And and to kind of getting attached with that kind of idea. But luckily, I got to talk to him, you know, I had problems getting to him earlier on, more towards the end of that media cycle, when he was really open to the idea. Now he's really open to working with others. Now he's, you know, putting forward that,

which has been growing, the idea of techno signatures. So we've talked about Xeno archaeology. We've had people come to talk to the conference. conference about that sort of thing, the idea of looking for potential artifacts from, you know, extraterrestrial civilizations on other planets or even here. But now this is really gaining momentum. And they're using the term techno signatures. And that's something that he's really tackled to start a group to look into. And that's what he's going to talk more about. So really exciting times. And to have this guy coming to a UFO conference is pretty incredible, I think.

At first, I didn't think it was real. I woke up to this blinding light, and I was transported to another place. Pluto TV! Then I heard a voice. Come with me if you want to live. There were thousands of movies and shows, and they were all free. The truth is our scene. It's just so beautiful.

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how they're not willing to change their ways. And again, I think this is perfect. Yeah, until the government starts allowing universities, giving grants to universities and allowing them to study this as a science, we're not going to go anywhere. So the university themselves have to be open to it, and the government has to start giving grants because this is a legitimate science. There's something happening.

And we're never going to figure it out just by trying to guess. I mean, we have to have our best people working on it. And that's the people who, you know, the scholars, the people of scientists. So hopefully this is, you know, paving the way. And I think, you know, it has. I think Harvard actually has classes now that you can study, you know, whatever these things are. Yeah. And we're hearing that more and more in the collegiate level of, you know,

courses being taught on UFOs, whether it's from a historical context or scientific or archaeological, archaeological with like Michael Masters. Exactly. He thought that maybe these are just us and we learn how to time travel and they come back to check on us and the alien's my favorite theory, Karen. That is my favorite theory. I hope more people. Yeah, yeah.

Well, talking about PhDs, you have. Beverly Rubik, who's going to be talking as well about from the president, she's the president of the Institute for Frontier Science, the human energy field. Yeah. Do either of you want to comment on Dr. Rubik and what she's going to be talking about during the conference? Yeah, I'll tell you a little bit about it. She does do research into the human energy field. And sorry, I've messed up.

No, no, no, no, take your time. That's what an editing is for. got her PhD from Berkeley. She's a really smart person. And she's just trying to see, like, you know, the energy fields and people are more affected by things than we know. And one of the things, unfortunately, that she was going to try to do is on,

at the conference, she was going to do this with experiencers just to see if she could gather any data that would, you know, put anything together that would show a difference in the energy field of these people. But that being said, she is, you know, working on radiation to see how that affects us.

And she's just really trying to find out how our bodies and our energy fields are affected by the different things in the atmosphere and in hopes of progressing that science along and having it interact with ETs. We'll see. We'll see. Yeah. I'm looking forward to that one for sure. Well, let's move to kind of one of the big names again, someone who you guys just saw,

or Alej, I believe you just saw. speak recently is Brian Bender from Politico. He's going to be doing a special presentation with you guys as well. Would you mind going through this one a little bit? Tease us. Yeah. I mean, what's really exciting is to me, is that, you know, for me, it's been all about the mainstream, bringing this information to mainstream media, getting mainstream buy-in, that this is a legit topic. And it's really exciting that that has happened. finally after all of these years. And Brian Bender is an example of what the mainstream, the power of a mainstream, for instance, with him, journalists. He's already embedded in Washington, D.C. He already

goes to people to talk about technologies, whether it's defense or space technologies. He's got people that are at Washington, D.C., people at all the big corporations. So when a topic like this comes around, he's a perfect type of person to be able to go and say, hey, what do you think of this stuff? What do you think of that stuff? And he's been able to, by doing that, break a lot of really important stories about politicians getting briefed, you know, the various politicians, getting comments from politicians, also being able to talk to other leadership in the defense industry. You know, I had mentioned, and we actually are going to post for free on the UFO Congress website this week.

that lecture that he gave, because he kind of talked about his experience getting into this and talking to all of these type of people and what they told him. And one of the things I asked him about was really, he was one of the first, when the New York Times article came out in 2017, that kind of broke the story and got everybody scratching their heads. He was the first to actually ask politicians, these are politicians who were associated with the Space Council, so, you know, coming up with space policy for the United States, what do you think of this? And surprisingly, a lot of them said, we think a lot of it. This is really interesting.

We should be looking into UAPs. We should be trying to figure out what these things are. And so now people are feeling more empowered to be able to do that. And so that's what's really exciting about Brian. He'll be interviewing Fife Symington, who is the governor of Arizona during the Phoenix Lights, who first kind of pooed and made fun of the whole thing. But years later, thanks to James Fox, James Fox took a bunch of witness testimony and said, listen to what the witnesses wanted to say to you.

Fifeeimington got teary-eyed and said, well, you know what? I got to admit I saw that thing too. And I regret what I said. And here's what I saw. And I don't think that that thing is from this planet. He said, as someone who is in the Air Force for many years, I don't think what I saw is of this world. So that's going to be amazing to have both of these very mainstream people,

you know, talking about this topic. Right here at this table. Yeah, right there is sitting right now. In studio. Yeah. That's awesome. I love that, Karen. Well, let's move to another one of the women that's going to be speaking at the event. And that's Katie Grabowski. Now, this is pretty interesting. We all know about Skinwalker Ranch, you know, whether you watch the History Channel television show or you've read the book by George Knapp, such a mysterious place out in Utah. But we're now learning that decades prior there was a ranch that is just as mysterious in Colorado. And I, believe that's what Katie's going to be talking about. So yeah, if either one of you want to tease us a little bit about what Katie's going to be talking about, I love to hear about this. Well, I just know that she does a lot of research with Mupon and interviewing experiences and

whatnot in Colorado. And she holds a Bachelor of Science degree, so she is science oriented. Other than that, I haven't, I'm looking forward to hearing her too because I haven't even heard her. But I heard about her. I heard she was incredible. The information she has to share is very interesting. So that's why I wanted to have a part of this conference. Because from what I hear, she's got a lot of great stuff to share. I'm sure.

Yeah, Colorado has a lot of secrets buried deep in those mountains. So I'm sure she'll have some cool stuff to talk about. Well, let's talk about two other guys who are known to look into some really weird stuff. And that is the paranormal rangers. We've got, let me make sure I get their names right, Jonathan Dover and Stanley Milford. Yeah, these guys are like heroes of mine out there, you know, not only fighting crime, but fighting the paranormal and investigating. So, yeah, if either one of you want to hop in, tell us a little about what they'll be talking about.

I just want to put in here that they're actually going to be here also right here in person. So that'll be good because I get to sit here and talk to each other and with Alejandro. So I'll let Alejandro take it from here. Cool. Yeah, we just get updates from them. I mean, their start, for those who don't know, they were Navajo Rangers who are akin to federal police, but in the Navajo, you know. Reservations. Yeah, I couldn't think of the word for a second.

And, you know, but what was different about them is when they got calls about paranormal things going on, they rolled. They got in their trucks. They went out and checked it out. and they experienced a lot of paranormal themselves. A lot of you who are interested have heard a lot of their great stories. If you're not familiar, then you want to start hearing what they're talking about. So they continue to do some investigations, so they're going to talk. And I even had a sighting with them.

Want to hear that story? Yeah, if you don't mind sharing. Yeah. So they came to talk at the Arizona Phoenix Mufon. And, you know, when the weather's good enough, it's not too crazy hot in Arizona. They'll go into a skywatch at night. And Stacey Wright organizes that and we go out there and have fun. And one time, you know, they brought their night vision goggles.

So we're skywatching, we're passing around the goggles. I finally got my chance. And I was looking up and I saw these five lights that looked like they were grouped together. And they were all slowly, steadily moving in opposite direction. which is like, what the heck is that? You know, I couldn't tell they seemed real high up there. I mean, they moved like satellites, but, you know, grouped and moving apart from each other. So I was like, hey, is anybody else seeing these?

And sure enough, John Dover had the other parent, he was watching them also. So that was really crazy. That was one of the wildest things I've seen. That's cool. Apparently, I was there too, and I said that I saw them, but I have no recollection. Yeah. Like, I think I said, maybe, maybe I see him, but I didn't have the goggles, you know. I need glasses, so I'm pretty sure I couldn't see that.

He's probably just flirting with me. That could be it. I was going to say. A couple years before we started going out. Yeah, I think it was. I don't know. I love it. I love it.

I love it. Awesome. Well, let's move to, oh, here's a good one. Mr. Lee Spiegel. If you don't know who Lee Spiegel is, you should if you're into UFOs. And he's going to be talking about one of my favorite moments in UFO history when it comes to kind of the government, but the UN, the first time the UN got involved with the UN. So yeah, Karen, would you mind telling us a little about this one? Yeah, they were trying to get a bill passed to investigate UFOs in the UN.

and he managed to get help me out Alejandro. It eventually became, they were trying to get a resolution, but they've got a decision. Oh, Sir Eric Gary, he was helping. Yes. And what country was he again? He was the Prime Minister of Granada. Granada, right?

Okay. Yes, they had this hearing. They had, Heinek was there. Who, Lee was there. Jop ballet. Haleigh. I mean, these big things earlier, Lee had made an album

where he went around the country interviewing UFOologists or uphologists. Right, I always say it right. And had this on an album, a record album, all these different interviews. And he used that to persuade people, you know, about this issue of UFOs. But this footage was lost.

I mean, they didn't know where it was. And it turns out that Lee started doing, actually it was James Fox's sister was doing some research and she said, I found the footage. But it was actually the footage of a TV station and they tried to charge Lee for it. Well, Lee contacted the UN and said, nope, they don't have the rights to it. We have the rights to it and we're going to give them to you. So Lee has the rights to, or, you know, the rights to use this video and produce anything he wants to. So for the first time, he's going to show clips of this footage and no one's

ever seen this before. So, yeah, then there's a tiny bit in the James Fox is his latest documentary, but there's hours of it. And Lee's got it. And, you know, Lee got it because he was the one who, it was his idea and he organized the whole UN presentation. And so now he's got this amazing footage. So it's going to be great to see it. I mean, like you said, Ryan, it's one of your favorite events. It's one of my favorite events. Very few people know about it. Even with all the fervor on this topic, really no mainstream has really picked up this story to tell this story. I hope that happens at some point. And not only is it an incredible thing, Lee Spiegel by himself really made this all happen. I mean, it was his idea. He sold it to him

and then enlisted the help of Valet and Heinek and Spilberg. We've got a video at Open Minds where he talks about how Spielberg even helped a little bit. Right. You know what's funny. I actually, I watched the episode of The X Files recently where they talk about this U.S. meeting with the ambassador of Granada. And I'm like freaking out. Oh my God, that's Lee. Yeah, I turned to Jane, my girlfriend. And I was like, Jane, Lee Spiegel.

What they're talking about right now is done like Lee Spiegel. We thought that was so great. I sure he'll be seen it. I'm sure he has. Oh, that was the last season, wasn't it? It was. Now I remember. Yeah.

Yeah. The first episode, I think. Yeah. Yeah. It was, it was, it's, It's so cool. It's so cool. It's crazy to think that, you know, these people we've known for years have, their work has been put into pop culture. You know, again, you look at people like Heinek who ultimately became a part of Close Encounters of the Third Guide and then had a TV show about it. It's just, it's amazing how many people whose lives have been touched by these people, you know, and the hard work they've done. And that could be said for a couple of the other people you guys have. Let's group them together here. We've got, we have, pardon me, Steve Bassett and Nick Pope,

who are also going to be talking about the government and disclosure, as the two are very apt to do. But I know Nick is going to be actually talking a little bit more about what comes next. We had this Pentagon UFO report come out, and whether you liked it or not, it was a big deal. So, yeah, if you don't mind, one of you guys? You want to talk a little about what Nick and possibly Stephen Bassett will be talking about as well? Yeah, I can make just one quick comment.

And then it's just that, you know, both of these guys deserve a lot of credit as well in that, you know, a lot of what's going on right now is related to what they've been working on for years. Of course, Steve Bassett in Washington, D.C., lobbying to get information out. And then Nick Pope, I think, you know, when it comes to some of the government people that have real government work experience like, let's say, John Alexander, who was a colonel in the Army looking into this paranormal stuff, or Nick Pope, Nick Pope guys has been right on the money. The things that Nick Pope has talked about, what is probably going on in the government, how they may do this or that, he's been right.

He's got great experience. And he was the Lou Elizondo. He was our Lou Elizondo for many, many years. Of course, he came out of the British government, so Americans don't get as excited. but that's what's really important about having these guys right now and having Nick talk about what's next because he's got, you know, he's one of the most educated on the topic to be able to discuss such things. Yep, absolutely. And then, you know, Steve Bassett, obviously, one of the most passionate speakers out there on disclosure. Fight in the Good Fight is always,

I assume this is what he'll be talking about. Yeah. Yeah, good old Steve with his passionate speeches, I'm looking forward to another one. Yep. It's just like having, you know, Leonard Skinner play Freebird for the one-millionth time. He knows how to get your emotions going and get the crowd on his side for sure. Oh, yeah. He gets my blood pumping every time.

Well, I guess let's move a little to the more human side of the conference. And that's the experiencers, you know, something I'm very obviously, in tune with. That's basically my work is with experiencers. And I interviewed one of actually all three of the people talking about experiencers in your conference here.

But NK. Krenda, she's kind of new on the scene. A younger person in the UFO field who I again had the pleasure of interviewing in my most recent book and really kind of taking the torch out and working with these people. So

yeah, do either of you guys want to chat a little bit about what Yvonne Smith, NKKranda, and of course, Kathleen Martin will be speaking about. Sure. Yeah. I mean, we have Yvonne and Kathleen and NK. I'll work with experiences. So they have that, you know, more humans by reporting other people's experiences and helping them through that trauma. So there's a lot of talk about how, you know, what the experiences are feeling, what they report, how this affects their life, and, you know, ways of coping with. this. So we're really happy to have them. And we also have a couple other experiencers, Eric Mitchell, who also works with experiencers, Matthew Roberts, and Chris Pittman was a UFO,

I'm sorry, a Mufon investigator. And he'd been on ancient aliens. He wrote a book about the Bridgewater Triangle. Well, he kind of pulled back out of the field for a while because he himself was becoming an experiencer of some really strange phenomena that kind of scared. him actually. So it was a, he was a little bit wary and hesitant about coming back into the field, but he agreed that he wanted to do it. So he's going to share what his experiences are, going from an investigator to an experiencer. I, I happen, but it did. I applaud anyone who's willing to do that, because again, the more you get into this field, the more, you know, the more apt it is to happen, you know, in some way,

perform. I mean, it kind of just bridges. I mean, it kind of proves that there's some kind of bridge between uphology and consciousness. We don't know what it is yet, but and all these things kind of overlap, like the Skinwalker Ranch. Those people were having weird paranormal experience, even when they weren't there. So this thing can follow you and attach and like, it's just, you know, hopefully having a conference and having people together. Maybe, you know, it kind of can put these things together, at least it can relate things to, you know, from one to the other, and people can start seeing it as one big phenomena instead of separate phenomenon. Absolutely. And you did mention Matthew Roberts. This is a, this is a get. I mean, this guy has just recently

come forward. And, you know, we all know about the people involved with the TikTok UFO event now. You know, Kevin Day, Gary Borges, obviously David Fravers. but you have the guy who was on the Theodore Roosevelt during the gimbal event and the GoFast event. And I know that wasn't it for him. His story continued. So yeah. Are you excited about that one? Oh, yeah.

I mean, like once he investigated it, then things started happening to him. And he started having these consciousness episodes where he would, I'm not exactly sure what he experienced, but it was a very strange experience. and he really wants to share it with us so we can understand it a little bit. Because, I mean, it was something he was completely, you know, was not expecting. Yeah, exactly. And I know, you know, even after being involved with those events, he went on to work for the Office of Naval Intelligence,

which we all know is like in charge of all the UFO stuff going on right now. I mean, maybe they know he's up there. Maybe the message they wanted to send or whatever, you know, information they wanted to transmit. Maybe they're using him as some kind of conduit. Yeah. He's an interesting guy. I had the pleasure of speaking with him.

And some of the stuff he said really, really blew my mind. So I'm looking forward to that. Well, let's talk about one of the most recent announcements you guys have made. He is all over the headlines here in America and also in his homeland, I would say, of Australia. And that's Ross Coldheart. So yeah, tell us a little bit about Ross and maybe about what he's going to be talking about at the conference. Yeah, well, he's sort of a rock star back in Australia. He produces films.

He's an author. He's on the 60 Minutes show there. He does different kind of special broadcasts of different things. And he just had a – his new book is called In Plain Sight and it's going to be released next month. So we got him right at the right time before everything breaks through. But he decided he wanted to do a book after he did his film, the UFO. I want to say it right, the phenomenon. Phenomenon.

Yep. I messed it up the other day. But he wanted to follow up with his book. So he went and he interviewed witnesses, experiences, military, supposedly intelligence, people in intelligence anonymously. So he's got a lot of really neat and interviews and from people that no one's gotten so far. So it's sort of like, you know,

it's really neat to be able to have someone in a different country and these stories that we wouldn't normally be able to get. He's going to bring him to us. And he got some really top secret stuff, supposedly. Yeah, I know there's some stuff that he hasn't really talked about in interviews, which I'm sure will be, you know, sort of a special thing for those attending. the Congress as well. And off the record, some of the things he's told me were pretty intense. So I'm sure, you know, your attendees are going to get a little piece of that at the conference as well.

And I know one of those people he interviewed for his documentary and book was the man of the decade, it seems, Mr. Luis Elizondo. Hey, guys, Ryan Spreck here. When I'm not making podcasts, I am listening to them. Seriously, I'm obsessed. And if there's one person and one show I turn to every week to hear stories of the strange, the weird, and the unexplained, it's of course got to be Jim Harold's Campfire. With over 500 episodes, Den of Geek called Jim Harold's Campfire, the best tool we have currently in existence to hear real-life scary stories from other human beings since the actual campfire was. invented. The concept is pretty simple. Jim talks to other regular folks and strange stuff that's happened to them. And yes, that includes UFOs and UAPs, along with cryptids, ghosts, and true head-scratching mysteries. One of my all-time favorite stories is one where a woman almost ended up

being absorbed by a painting in a mysterious bar that seemed like something straight out of the twilight zone. Or, there's this story of a young man who, encountered a spider-like creature with baby hands. Then, there's the story of a woman in England who encountered what she thought was a banshee, only to suffer a horrible tragedy only moments later. Now, not all of the stories in Jim Herald's campfire are horrified. Some are actually pretty heartwarming, like a visit from a past loved one, or a peaceful near-death experience.

Regardless, there are true and fascinating. fascinating stories told by ordinary people who've had extraordinary experiences. So pull up a virtual log, get cozy, and tune in to Jim Harold's campfire. Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to someone in the skies. And I know he's not so much doing a, you know, like a lecture, but he's going to be doing a special, what is it, Karen? He's doing something with you, right, a dinner? dinner cocktail party?

Yeah, we usually have our Wednesday night banquet to know the speakers kind of thing. So this year we were going to have Lou. But even though we're not going to be able to be in person, we're still going to have a cocktail hour and he's still going to be, let's talk about what he's doing, catch us up on the most recent things he's doing, and then open it up to questions and answers. So if you get your ticket, you can get on the app and ask all these questions that you've been wanting to ask for all this time to Lou.

Yeah, and I know people have them because he is a former intelligence guy. He knows how to work his way around a question. But I know he's always so open and willing to talk to people at the Congress, which is awesome. You know, I think he shares what he can. Yeah. Especially now, it's great that, you know, we now have Elizondo unleashed because it took a lot of effort to get that. I think we had one of the very first interviews at the Congress with him after everything went down. And it was so much work to make that happen and negotiate that with to the stars and everybody.

Luckily, we had a relationship with them already. But it's nice now that he's kind of Elizando unleashed. He's out there doing his own thing. And he's really, you know, embrace this community. So it's nice. Yeah, and I guess he'll probably update us on what's going on with his lawsuit. I guess you would call the lawsuit against the government about he feels like he was, his name was kind of dragged through the mud. And it was, you know, the way this filled was.

I was attacked, you know, Ryan, you know, you're right in the mix of how heated it got. And if you supported Elizondo and some of those guys or if you just, and it wasn't, I didn't feel I was supporting him. I felt I was reporting. And the evidence showed he was who he said he was, despite what the government was saying, or the Pentagon was saying about him. And during that time, he didn't have a lot of people on the inside to talk to. And Karen and I, you know, Karen, we made friends with him and his wife and visited occasionally. It really took a toll on him.

It was really difficult, you know, to have his kids seeing this stuff. and seeing mainstream media doubting and thinking he's lying because the Pentagon was putting out wrong information. And I don't think they were doing that innocently. So I think he definitely has a case in the public mind, if not legally, that they, you know, did a lot of damage to his reputation and his well-being by doing that. And I think it was totally, I don't see any other way to see it except for retaliation for him sharing information they didn't want him to share. Yeah, because they would not, none of this would have come out without Lou Elizando. He decided that this is what he wanted to do. And because he didn't, he thought, you know, there's these things.

We don't know what they are. I've talked to the Navy people. They don't know what they are. They outmaneuver us. And that is something that we need to study. I mean, why wouldn't you? You know, I think it's just fear. We've been so afraid of trying to delve into the subject when they know we are so far behind.

that we don't even know what it is. Of course, it's probably technology that is beyond us, but still, we need to know that there is something out there. And so it's all because of Lou. Yeah. And again, what I think is really good about a lot of the people you have speaking this year is these are the people who are holding the government accountable. You know, this first assessment that they came out with with the Pentagon,

it was an assessment. And, you know, frankly, it let down a lot of, lot of people, which I think was to be expected. But, you know, they're not going to just let this go. Elizondo, Chris Mellon, Brian Bender. Their work in their reporting continues after that because that's how we got what we got were these tenacious journalists like Ross Colthard, like Brian Bender, you know, putting them in the corner and saying, we're not going to, we're not going to let you go that easy. So, yeah. And now the Congress is tasked with they have to start, you know, They said we want more investigations done.

So that's what's supposed to happen. Yeah. And you know, to your point, I think what's really exciting about, and I think as you guys can see, you know, because a lot of people come to me, I want to do this with the Congress. I want to do that with the Congress. And I tell them, talk to Karen. Karen does this. Karen puts us together. People don't believe me.

They're like, no, you're still the guy. No, Karen's a boss. Karen puts us together. She's the one who's put together this amazing list this year, last year, year before. or, you know, I get to make some suggestions. But I think that my point being that, you know, first of all, like, as you can see, Karen knows the topic because she's the one who puts this together. But I think what's exciting about this time and these speakers also is that we're seeing kind of this unfurling,

this blooming going on, where, you know, when I interviewed Chris Mellon, and this is why I really feel this story is important that I wrote about how these intelligence agencies all made this happen. Chris Mellon had a grand plan. He couldn't have done it without Lou and all these other steps coming to fruition. But I felt he really wanted me to understand that there was a game plan. And to break those floodgates, what he needed to do was to get it official on the record. What we all, as researchers, knew that the military did take UAP seriously. And they did investigate them.

So we needed Lou to come out and say this. but then he needed the government or to kind of take hold also. And though and behold, way quicker than they expected, the Navy said, okay, we got to fess up. We do look at these things. We do take them seriously. That legally opened up the flag gates legally and kind of mentally also in that, you know, now Chris Mellon could go to the people he worked with in the Senate and say,

look, guys, Navy has admitted this now. They have come forth and said this publicly. You all now have to do your job as far as oversight on this to figure out what's going on. And that kind of allowed the legal framework. But it also created another framework. And that was for all of mainstream, mainstream science and otherwise to now start to tip their toes into this field. And that's what we're seeing. We're seeing more and more people coming forward.

Abby Loeb, these other PhDs that we've been talking about, Brian Bender. You know, now they're starting to slowly get involved. And that's what I think is exciting that we're going to continue to watch is these people get involved and start to share. Last year we had Kevin Canuth. I know you've interviewed him and other physicists who's, I think, shared some amazing stuff. And this is what's getting really exciting as more of this starts to continue to. happen. And that's what I'm really excited about with this conference to have these people who have been starting to get involved, share what they've discovered or what they think. Yeah. And again,

I think the conversation within, you know, the mainstream has opened up so much. And I think it is making, like you said, Alejandro, not only Congress members or people in government, but the mainstream scientific community more open and willing to talk about this, which is, awesome. You know, Kevin and everyone over there at Expedition X, UAPX, or you've got the Scientific Coalition for UAP studies with over 50 scientists and, you know, people who are ready to say, like, use us, government, use us. If you really want to do science with this topic, we're here and we're willing to work with you. So I love to see this convergence of the scientific community finally getting involved. And, hey, I think that's one part of the Congress. And then you've got this other part with the experiencers and those who have had paranormal phenomena, which is what we will hopefully get to eventually within government. Now we're dealing with very nuts and bolts, craft being monitored by our military. And that's a huge step that they're willing to acknowledge that. And as the years go

on, all we can hope for is finally, abductions will be a part of that conversation. Right. Those encounters, you know, this evolution in acknowledgement, I hope at least. Right, right. Yeah, I mean, there's such a huge unknown factor out there. When we went to AlienCon in Baltimore and in L.A., there was huge amounts of numbers of people that came that showed up, that watched that show, that are into the subject. but they've never voiced that this is something that they're interested. They came to our table and they were like,

I've never been to anything like this before. I don't even tell anybody I watch ancient aliens. There's a ton of people that are interested in this subject. So I think, you know, the people are going to push it and they're going to want to expose. Yeah. Yeah. And I, you know, what your comment makes me think of is this documentary series coming out by Dean Alioto.

We were hoping that he would have an episode ready for the conference, but he's not yet. But he's working on something that is right up the alley of what you're talking about. It's the evolution of, okay, we're talking about all of these topics, but what about this stuff going on? And he just brilliantly, excellently brings people there in a very credible way. And I can't wait for people to see it because it's just incredible. Yeah. And I can make that conversation going. Yeah, exactly.

Well, you did mention Dean. Let's talk about the film festival, if you don't mind, Karen. I know submissions are still occurring and whatnot with that. Yeah. We need more submissions. Mission, submissions. Bring them in. You can go to the website, www.

UFOCongress.com. Go to the film festival tab at the top of the page and the directions and where to send your films and how to do that right there on that page. So we're still accepting submissions. So if you have any, send them in. And also that's where you would get your tickets. www.

www.uofoconvers.com. You can buy a ticket to the conference. You can also buy your virtual booth ticket there if you're a vendor. And you want to get your booth up there. Did I show that already? The exhibitors, yeah, I think I did. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll be on there.

If you get a booth, you'll be on our website. and you'll also be up there for six months. So it's six months of advertising, basically, and that's just a million dollars. And I do want to add that we are going to have some panels. We're going to have an experience your panel like we usually do. So that'll have the experiences on there. We're also going to have, like I said, Ben and Mark talking about their new show.

We're going to have the debrief guys. That's Tim McMillan, M.J. Benayas, and Micahanks. They're going to have a panel and update us on what they've been uncovering. They have a website and they have all sorts of different articles about space and UFOs. So you'll want to catch that. And there was another one. Well, there's going to be more panels. So we like to combine all the people, the speakers together in different ways to come up with really neat panels and have people interact with each other.

Yeah, it's like the all-stars. I love those panels. They can get heated sometimes, which is what you want. Nothing like some big trouble. want. I love it. And I think that's a fun. I mean, whenever I host them, that's my goal, is to

bring up the controversial topics, hopefully in a way that we could talk civilly about these things. But you know, to talk about, hey, you believe this and you believe that. And as people that are professionals who are looking into this topic,

let's talk about that. Why do you believe something differently and where is the common ground? And there often is common ground. And I think that's fun. And it makes it, you know, more of a cohesive kind of community, I think when we can start to do this. Because that's what kind of creates bonds. When you're on stage and you have an experience, especially at the experience that emot some emotion, you know, then you're like, wow, you know, we've really shared an experience together. So, yeah, that is a lot of fun. Absolutely. And some of my greatest memories have always come from the con.

Congress and some of the, you know, the most enlightening information I've learned in this field has come from the Congress. So I can't wait for it. I wish I could be backstage with you guys, but I will be backstage in spirit and I will definitely be attending. But one more time, can you guys give us the website? And yeah, any last words you want to get before we wrap things up? I just want to say that 10 years ago at the 2011 UFO conference was my first conference ever, and I didn't know a single soul. So you can see where how my evolution went. Wow. I'll have to share that story someday, but there's a lot of these synchronities and these things that just happened that got me to this place.

I don't know why, but it happened. So it's kind of I feel like I was meant to be here and to do this and present this information to people. I want to make a comment and then I want Karen to wrap it up because Karen can share all the where to go and everything. Absolutely. The last word in there. But she's worked so hard on making all of this happen. But, you know, what's great about the conference and I think, you know, to remind people is that the Congress, and I think, you know, you can agree, Ryan, it's always been kind of a pace setter for the year. what the topics are going to be, what people are going to be talking about, because we do bring them in,

and we try to get them to talk about their most exciting stuff and get those controversies going, but to discuss in a more civil manner. And also to bring people who you may not have heard of, but have great information to share, like we've gone over some of these people. So it definitely is a community thing. It is a community feel. So some people think, oh, you have to be there physically. Not necessarily.

when you're getting there together, the excitement's there, the excitement in the chat rooms and everything. So I just implore people to join us because it is a lot of fun when people are real time. And you can attest to this too, Ryan, you know, doing these live streams and everything. There's something to it. It's exciting when something's live and you're there alive and you can ask your questions real time and interact real time. So, you know, I hope people do join us. It's totally worth it and it'll be a lot of fun. Yeah, and I should add, this was my first conference I ever spoke at. You guys gave me a chance, and I was a nobody. I didn't, you know, I had, I had my book out.

You were already a bad mofo, and I had no doubt you were going to be awesome, and you were. Well, thank you. It was, you guys really gave me my start. Like I said, I worked backstage for five years, and I finally somehow tumbled onto the stage. And I have to thank you for that. But yes, Karen, please give us all of the details one more time in any last words you'd like to give. Okay, one more time. So the people are all by the full conference, and that includes Exhibitor Halls, Experian, groups. You forgot to mention that, Yvonne and Kathleen, and we'll be hosting the experiencer groups where you can check into the room.

And just like a regular experiencer group, you talk about your experiences, other people talk about theirs, you listen. We're going to have those. We're going to have the film festival. We're going to have the meetups. the award ceremony, all that stuff, just like normal. And you can get that all for $119 at www.UFOConcress.com. And I'm working on it right now, but you can also buy individual sessions.

So if you only want to buy one or two here and there, you're going to be able to do that too as well. So if you've been to the site and there was only one ticket, go back later, and there's going to be the different sessions that you can buy. So you don't have to buy the full thing if you don't want to. So that'll be up for you. and very shortly. And it's just two weeks to the conference.

So don't wait because as soon as I send out the invite code, you'll be able to log on to Hube and start investigating things and setting up chat rooms and answering questions and getting those points for prizes. I love it. Awesome. Well, again, I know I will be there. I know a lot of other people will be there. I'm so happy to hear the debrief is going to be a part of it as well.

You guys have built a community that is so just welcoming and open-minded, and that's what we need in this field always. So once again, I will see you at the Congress. Please go get your tickets, guys. That is a steal. If you've been to any of these conferences, this is the biggest one in North America, and it is by far the best. So Alejandro, Karen, thank you so much for joining me once again on somewhere in the skies. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Always great to see you. Somewhere in the Skies is produced by Third Kind Productions, in association with the Entertainment One Podcast Network.