The Cryptid Factor - 37: #037 The UFO special issue

Episode Date: July 30, 2018

This episode is dedicated to the great metal crypto of the skies - UFOs! Buttons and Rhys head to the largest UFO conference in the world to make Dan super jealous by getting to interview his biggest UFO theory-hero, Erich Von Daniken! There's also Aussie UFO sightings, Octopus alien USO bases, and the best-of werewolf re-enactments from Rhys (including his confession to being a hoiking phlegm-wolf). Oh, and Buttons gets abducted... at last.

The Cryptid Factor, with Rhys Darby and Dan Shriver. Hello and welcome to The Cryptid Factor. My name's Rhys Darby and with me my cohorts Dan Shriver. Hello. And Buttons. Yay! Hello. Welcome back.

Welcome to what I believe is going to be a technically sound edition. Oh, why do you say that? Well, I've just got a good feeling. I'm in my office. The internet here is fantastic. Where are you guys? I'm at my place in London where the internet usually is fine. There's never really any problems on this side.

Of course. And I'm in my little bed city kind of thing that I'm using in New York City. Oh, your prison cell. No, it's a bed set. I like to call it a bed set. Right. It's nice that the authorities are calling it a bed set for you. You've been sentenced to 10 years in this lovely bed set.

But no matter where we are, we still try and put this thing together. And we've got a lot to get through. Shall we kick in? Well, just before we do, I love the fact that Rhys, you've got an office. What are you doing in your office? Yeah, I wanted to squeeze that in as a bit of a quote. I mean, I'm doing so well now I have an office. Right.

That's amazing. I imagine it looking like you've got a great big oak desk and a receptionist sitting outside called Gary. He's actually called Jason, but yep. No one's here at the moment. It's the weekend. So you've got to play Jason while he's not there for any calls that come through.

Hi, Jason here. Yeah, I have to play all the roles. Including the security guy and the car parking attendant in the weekends. But yeah, as you guys know, the internet at my actual house is terrible. So I've had to move out of there. You've got an office just for this podcast, haven't you? You've taken it very seriously now. We've got to.

We've got to get this happening more often, you know, that the fans need it. And this week in particular, exciting for the listeners because Buttons and I, without Dan, unfortunately, because he was pussy-footing around London. Living his busy life with his family. But we managed to escape to Contact in the Desert, which is the biggest UFO conference in the world. It's held here in California. Indian Wells, which is right out near Palm Springs in the desert in a huge hotel.

So yeah, this edition of the Cryptid Factor, just a little touch of what we experienced. Right, Buttons? Yeah, it was the best time. This is so exciting. You guys have managed to get an interview with one of my great heroes amongst the many other interviews that you've got. And also Buttons wasn't even meant to be there. This is the beautiful coincidence.

You landed in LA and just went with Reese because he said, why don't you come? It was amazing. And the really sad thing is, is that of all of us, Dan, being the only one who's made a documentary series about UFOs, should have been the one there. There was us two just sort of like bumbling along. I tell you what. We've got to get all three of us along to one of these.

Next year. And we've spoken to the organizers of Contact in the Desert, and it could be on the cards. The three of us. Wow. Yeah. Definitely go next year and possibly do some live podcasting from there with an audience. That would be amazing.

Well, that's great because I've got a few theories that I could get up and maybe do some panels about, you know, and discuss. Oh, you want to do some panels now? Yeah, just... Well, I've got a few theories I want to share. The only panels I think you should do would be you actually putting some panels together in a panel van. Why don't you...buttons, panels.

And if people queue up and there you are sitting inside a shitty old 1970s panel van, like just adjusting some of the panels. And then while people come in and they poke their head into the van, you give out a couple of theories. Oh, yeah, get on, mate. Yeah, basically, my main theory is that the aliens are us from the future returning. Can you pass me that screwdriver? Oh, you let my cat out of the bag.

Oh, that was your plan? That's my theory. I know my theory's out there. All right, let's move on. Weekly World Weird News. Crazy, freaky. Watch out. My news story, definitely, if I can jump in and take the initial...

I was going to say fall, but that's not right. I'm really used to this as my terminology this week. Take the hit. No, take the... The ball by the horns. Why don't you take the ball by the horns? That's the one. Take the ball by the horns.

Or in this case, the wolf by the ears. Because this was big news all over mainstream media. In fact, the article I'm going to read is from the BBC. And it's this wolf creature that was shot near Montana Ranch. And it is puzzling the experts. So this happened a wee while back, but still within the last two weeks. And it's still baffling everyone.

We're still waiting on the DNA results on this unless you guys know an update. But US wildlife experts are baffled by a wolf-like animal that was killed by a Montana farmer. A rancher near the town of Denton shot this creature last week when it came within several hundred metres of its livestock. So, you know, he's just looking after his animals

and as you would do, you go, oh, I better shoot that. Shot it down. And it wasn't until a later inspection of the creature that they realised this thing isn't actually a wolf. What the hell is it? Wow. Its teeth were too short. The front paws are normally small

and the claws too large. And then that's not even talking about its bizarre coat. The fur on it basically is different from wolves. So there's so many aspects to this creature that make it not a wolf that it's just baffling scientists. Bizarre theories have circulated online as to whether it could be a werewolf,

a young grizzly bear, or even a relative of Bigfoot. And this is in the BBC article. We have no idea what this thing is until we get the DNA back, says a spokesman. Basically, it was a young, non-lactating female and it's definitely a canid. So it's a member of the dog family,

which includes dogs, foxes, coyotes, wolves. But it is not a wolf. So, yeah, this wolf management specialist from Montana said several things grabbed his attention when he saw the pictures. The ears are too big, the legs look a little short, and the feet look a little small. And the coat is weird.

So he says, yeah, it's not a wolf. So what is it? And this is, you know, it's easy to find you guys, if you listeners out there, if you haven't queued into this yet, but I'm sure you have, just Google wolf-like creature shot near Montana and you'll see these wonderful pictures

that come with the stories. And, you know, some people, there's more mythical theories going around that it was a dire wolf and there's a little interview here where the spokesperson says, look, first of all, dire wolf was a song by the Grateful Dead in 1971.

Okay? And then the listener goes, yes, I know, I listened to it many times. Okay, number two, it's a prehistoric animal, like mastodons and sabertooth tigers, so it doesn't exist. Well, you know, that's, I mean, you say it doesn't, but it did at one point.

Maybe it's still there. I don't know who that guy is and where his voice comes from, but it's too far north for the Tupacabra, but it may be Dogman and I thought that'd be of interest to you, but do you like the Dogman? Yeah, no, that's really interesting

because a fan has sent through to us a story about Dogman being spotted and there's actually a whole community set up in and around trying to discover Dogman. Do you guys know much about Dogman? Is he sort of, is he like a mermaid? Is he half dog, half human? Not so much.

It's actually more like a dog walking around on its hind legs, more than anything, which kind of fits the description of this beast here, although there weren't any reports of this one walking around on its hind legs. You know what's interesting about this wolf creature

is it's so baffling to the authorities who are looking at it that there's a suggestion that it might be a prank, like a taxidermy thing, which is so interesting because that's what they thought the platypus was when scientists initially saw a platypus. They thought this can't be a real creature,

it's just made up too many different things. So I love that they're so baffled by it, they think it might even be a prank. That's how bizarre this creature is. Yeah, to see something that's, you know, possibly a hybrid, that's another theory that could be what they're calling a wolf dog or a koi wolf,

which is a koyote wolf hybrid. I mean, you know, just to say that these canids can breed with each other, resulting in something that's a bit of both, that perhaps it was even bred in captivity and then released when the owner's gone, oh god, what have I done? It's a monster!

Get out, get out! You're my gaggy! I've got the Frankenstein's monster situation here again. Just leave, I shouldn't have done it! Look at you, your paws are too short, your ears are too big! You're my gaggy! No, just go!

It's a sad story, but I think that's probably the truth. Don't look back! Terrible when you're denying what it is and it's yelling daddy at you. I've not seen that guy before. Daddy? But the werewolf theory is great because it could be mid-transformation

or just turning back into a wolf and before it was shot and therefore the appendages are of a different scale. I wonder though what the rules are with, if I picture a werewolf movie, if a werewolf is shot in non-human but werewolf eyes, when they go to find him, it's usually back into the human.

I don't know if they get caught in whatever shape they are at the time. No, from the movies, of course. They end up human. But that's Hollywood. That's the movies. We're talking reality here. We're talking real life here.

Werewolves is something close to your heart, isn't it, Rhys? Having been a werewolf and... Having been one with myself. Surely you can talk from a place of authority on this? Well, I think I have been, but it's the last few minutes. The only thing I'll say, which I'm sure the fans want me to say, is what are we?

Werewolves not swearwolves. Oh, one of your classics. Come on, guys. You know how angry you get? Stop looking at the moon. I hope your track pants are good. You know how big your legs get? Would you support this jacket? Oh, that jacket's gone. Look at the size of that.

It barely fits you now. Lock yourself to the tree. Oh, God, here they come. Here come the vamps. Quickly. It's like somebody doesn't play on a cassette deck. That's got all your plastic lines on it. It's like, there's this Best of Rhys Derby cassette. They're best of lines from various TV and movie roles,

all available now on cassette tape. That's something I could release. And I think cassette tapes the way to go. I forgot to say, just while you're pumping out the classic lines, a friend of mine, it turns out, a mucus biologist in Sweden, who is a die-hard fan of yours. He wanted me to pass that on.

That's his job. A mucus biologist. Yeah, he's a leading mucus biologist professor, who has advanced and found things of the human body that no one has before. And he listens to you all day. That's actually brilliant, because I've got to say, Dan, if you could let this person know, I do have a lot of phlegm.

I've always had a bit of a phlegm problem in the mornings. You'll hear me in the shower or in the bathroom just hoiking. A lot of hoiking. Yeah, I lost a lot of girlfriends through my hoik problems. Yeah, he's a good lover, but I tell you, he's a hoiker, is he? Yeah, I mean, he's great in bed, but in the mornings... What are you doing in there?

I'm fine, I'm fine. That's where you got your werewolf traits from, wasn't it? People are like, he's got to be morphing into some kind of lease. Yeah, he has mid-transformation in there. I was once caught in the shower, she thought, what's he hoiking? I was mid-transformation, here, everywhere, hoiking in the shower, and she's, what's happening?

Get him, if you've got a razor! So that was another relationship over. It's not the idea of a werewolf panicking and just trying to electrically shave itself as it's transforming. Yeah, she doesn't find out. I mean, she clearly didn't. He's a werewolf, but he keeps clean, I tell you, because he knows when he's going to transform.

He jumps in the shower most times. Couple of hoikes and he's through. Let's move on. What have you got, Dan? I have a story here, which is that biologists have discovered an underwater octopus city. Oh! And they're calling it Atlantis.

Oh, my God. Yeah, now this is very interesting, because it's only the second time they've ever found an octopus city. The first one they found back in 2009, it's called Octopolis. And Octopolis is a community of octopods, octopodes, I'm not sure, that collect together. Now, we think that octopus generally are a solitary creature. They don't live in families or anything like this.

Now, this new place that they found, it's got them building sort of dens made out of piles of sand and shells and bits of animal that they've eaten. And they live there together. They communicate with each other. They chase unwelcome octopuses away if they come. And they even evict other octopuses from the dens if they're too messy or just a bad tenant of Atlantis.

And what I find particularly interesting about this is that it arrives roughly at the same time as a big scientific paper has been published, which has suggested that octopuses are actually not of Earth, that they arrived on an asteroid and meteorite crashed into Earth. Because when we look at their DNA, when we look at how they've been built, they are so separate to everything else on this planet that it leads scientists to believe in the idea of panspermia,

which is that life arrived on Earth via the universe and didn't grow on the Earth. So this big paper has been signed with 33 international scientists who all say we think that this might be going on. And it shows how little we know about these octopus anyway, because we've only found two cities where they've been living together. It's very exciting octopus news time. I love this, and I know of this report you're talking about that suggests, yes, that octopuses are aliens.

It's a bizarre theory, but the fact that it's backed up by this science that, yeah, the eggs perhaps arrived via a comet from outer space. You know, it just makes so much sense because these creatures are so, so bizarre. And they're so smart. And we don't even know the full capabilities of the octopus, no matter how many tests we've put through them. And we've seen videos of them not only managing their way through mazes, but also with tricks and traps completely camouflaging themselves into,

you know, which makes them absolutely invisible. We've seen those videos. And the camouflage, the camouflage is the most interesting thing ever. It's not even the color change which they managed to completely mimic to if they're on a sand bed and there's a bit of rock and a bit of seaweed, the left arm will do seaweed, the main body will do rock, and then the other legs will do sand. They can multiple camouflage, but not only that,

they can change the physical fabric of the feeling of their skin to match those items. Oh, that is crazy. So if you touched it near its, you know, won't feel exact, but it will feel rock-like, it will feel seaweed-like, and it will feel sand-like. Oh, my God. They're extraordinary. Yeah. So yeah, it's very exciting.

I love the idea that you could extend this out to the idea that, you know, we know about USOs, which is the unidentified, submerged objects, UFOs that are coming out of the sea. Yeah. And, you know, you could link this idea that these octalantis is, you know, also a USO base, so that these things, you know, can control craft. And why wouldn't they be able to? Because we know through testing that they can pull levers and push buttons.

Actual buttons. Not you. Not you. And so, you know, the idea that they might be able to fly craft and come out of the ocean, who's to say that, you know, they are not an extraterrestrial species that is monitoring us. Yeah. And also that you've got the thing that the amount of scientists who are researching

or occupy in captivity, saying that they'll come into the laboratory where there's a huge big tank with an octopus in it. And it's almost like the thing is observing them. And they actually have reported many researchers of getting really creeped out because this thing is sort of following them around and watching them and almost seeming to mimic their movements. Yeah. Writing in its notebook.

Yeah. Trying to communicate, you know, and by holding up trying to write in the sand, you know, let me out. Daddy, you know this. Get this from the report. The genome of the octopus shows a staggering level of complexity with 33,000 protein coding genes. More than is present in Homo sapiens.

Wow. Wow. Yeah. A large brain and sophisticated nervous system, camera like eyes, flexible bodies, instantaneous camouflage via the ability to switch color and shape are just a few of the striking features that appear suddenly on the evolutionary scene. They just come out of nowhere. So there's no, they haven't evolved to that.

They've just got that from the word go of their species. I mean, yeah, it just makes sense that they've appeared from nowhere. They can do this other thing as well. I mentioned it many episodes ago, but they don't have bones octopus. They, but they have those two solid things on them. They're beak because they have a beak like a bird. That's right. Yeah.

It's the crustacean. It's what makes them a crustacean this tiny beak and they have an eye. So if you put an octopus, let's say there was an octopus as big as Reese's office. Right. Which is quite small. Quite small. A mediocre sized octopus. So imagine he's in Reese's office and he filled the hole of the office and,

but his beak and his eye were as small as the keyhole in Reese's door. Let's say that both those things could fit out. The octopus would be able to squeeze its body out of Reese's office through that keyhole and get its entire body out on the other side. That's incredible. It's insane. You have actually shared that on previous podcast, but, but yeah, I'll just, I'll, I'll, I'll still, it still blows me away.

But it's still good to get the update on the office part of it. The fact that I have an office, which I think is great. Are you guys, are you guys messaging each other and did, did, did Reese, did you say, can you, would you mind just slipping in? It's been about, it's been about 15 minutes since we've mentioned my office. I was like, well, I can, but I'm going to have to use some old material. So good. Well, funny enough, my weekly world bread news is UFOs as well.

Is it? Which is quite, yeah. Look at that. Perfect. And it's Australian UFOs, which is really good. Which is basically that in the last couple of days there has been a really great UFOs sighting, but also a filming. The guy in a suburb of Melbourne, Australia has noticed a UFO and been quick enough to

get the phone out to film it. So I'm going to play you guys the video in just a moment. But this person here, which is Julian Bitterlack, who's a 22 year old from Hastings in Melbourne. She says she was driving along. She had just dropped her mum off, which is really good of her. And she was on her way back home where she noticed a black object hovering in the sky. She pulled over to take a closer look and thank goodness got out to her cell phone to take some video.

And she said the disc, which was hovering, then started to travel very quickly and smoothly through the clear blue sky. Following this flight path of religiously, Julian's unbelievable footage captures the aircraft really clearly as it just basically just hovers quite silently above some power lines and then hides behind some trees. Now, the interesting thing with this is where Julian filmed this UFO is right next to an able military base. Yeah, there's an able military base just around the corner.

Julian says, I really do believe in aliens and extraterrestrial life. So I was quite amazed to spot what I saw. And so that's when she pulled out of phone straight away. So have a little geese at this. So see, there it is. It was just hovering. And now it's just floating very science. As a disc shaped objects, your classic UFO shape is definitely not a plane.

There's no wings. It's not a drone as far as you can tell because there's none of the classic drone type things and it's much bigger than a drone. And it just sort of you look at the movement of it and it's it is really just quite gentle and fast moving fast, isn't it? Yeah. It's hard to get an idea of how big it is, but it's definitely just a great big circle that's floating through the sky, which is quite amazing.

Now, the really remarkable thing is and this is what seemed to be the case at this UFO conference that we just went to is that people seem to have all the luck and they don't generally just see one UFO. They'll have multiple experiences like the aliens or the UFOs are choosing the people that they want to see them. Because this person, Julian or Julian, I'm probably saying that name wrong, has actually Julian Julian has seen. Having trouble pronouncing the word Julian.

No, look at the word. It's Julian. It's Julian. It's Julian. It's Julian. It's Julian. Oh, OK. Julian has seen UFOs in the past.

Julian. She says it's not the first time she has spotted a UFO. She added another time about three years ago, I was in Curram Downs, presumably in Australia, when I spotted three triangular shaped objects moving very quickly overhead, but they disappeared before she was able to film them. My dad was lucky enough to have three or four UFO sightings in his time. That's a different story. What do you reckon?

I think you're right. That does seem to be a recurring theme that if you've had an experience, you are likely to have another. Certainly with those that are actual experiences in terms of the abduction situation, those guys are definitely chosen. They think they're targeted, so as soon as they are abducted or they have a sighting, they believe that it's a thing where they've now beacons towards other UFOs that are coming through.

You occasionally get someone who's just had one, but for most people, I've seen four or five. It would make sense that those UFOs are going, right, it's time to go and check on old Julian. Let's just pop in and oh, there she is. Yeah, I think that's it. When you're chosen, if you look at it from a bird's eye view, looking down, certain people, and that's why maybe they put the little metallic tabs on you because you're one of the ones that they're monitoring in the same way that if there was an ant colony and we were looking

down and we were, if you could tag ants, which there'd be a tiny tag, but it's in the same way. Let's move to sharks. You know, when we're observing sharks, we tag the certain ones that we're monitoring in the oceans. It's the same concept. I wonder if anybody's asked June Lynn what that metal tag on her back of her neck is. Julian.

Exactly. I don't think that. It's like, what's that metal tag? I don't know. I just, I saw a UFO. It says Made in Venus. That tag, that tag's on your T-shirt. Take that T-shirt off.

Well, this is my new one. Where'd you get that? That says from a, I don't remember buying this actually. This top. I like the idea of seeing three triangular shaped UFOs. I wish there was some video of that because that's quite a common occurrence. It's like triangle shaped UFOs. It's just as common as disc shaped.

Yeah, absolutely. And then there's also the cigar shaped ones. There's various types. I mean, those are the three main ones. Triangular, your disc and your long cigar shaped ones. Yeah. I wonder, can I just throw in a, it's not a theory, but all the shapes we've just described are the shapes you'd find on a snooker table.

And I wonder if the triangles are lifting off a batch of round shaped UFOs. And then a cigar shape is spreading them with a hit. We're watching alien snooker in our atmospheric skies. Oh, God, that's ridiculous. Shribes comes up with a ridiculous pool theory or snooker, if you will, that the entire universe is really just a giant billions game. Take that, Danakin. Well, I think we should bridge from that brilliant idea of yours, Dan,

to maybe if you've got some actual audio footage from contact in the desert, that we could play some of that now. This would normally be the time where we play the crypto buzz hosting, but for this one, we get to venture into... Expert interview. Expert interview, these experts, okay. So to kick things off, we've got Eric Von Danakin here. We were lucky enough to get an interview with him.

He is the author of Chariots of the Gods, which came out, I think, over 50 years ago. This was the very first book about ancient astronaut theory. And basically, he is the godfather of this idea that extraterrestrials have been visiting us for millennia. Yeah, this guy is amazing. He's written so many books, Return of the Gods, Chariots of the Gods. He's been to...

He wrote a book called The Gold of the Gods where he put forward the idea that there were these underground golden villages where these huge tunnels... And he believes those were built by aliens as well. But yeah, this guy, 50 years ago, wrote this first book, which is one of the biggest selling books of all time. It really exploded across the planet and really opened people's eyes up to the idea that maybe the humans had help and maybe we aren't of this planet. I first read him when I was about 12 years old and loved the books

and got to meet him a few years back at the 50th anniversary of Chariots of the Gods. So he came to London specifically first time in like 30 years to do a big lecture. The tickets, I had to hide the price of the tickets from my wife because they were £150 a ticket. But I just thought I have to go. There's no way. And I got there and it was packed with people who I'd met before through making my UFO documentary. And it turns out they all got complimentary tickets. I think I was the only person...

For what I could tell, I was the only person who paid for a ticket that evening. I even bumped into a drunken lady who didn't know what she was at but got given a free ticket on LinkedIn earlier that day. She was like, this is fucking crazy. She was absolutely drunk. But it was an amazing night. They showcased all these interesting projects that they're going to do about Chariots of the Gods. So there's a few theme parks that are planned, which are ancient alien theme parks around the book.

It was delivered in a video by the late Roger Moore, which was very cool. So Bond was part of the evening. Oh, that is so cool. But I didn't get to interview him, which has been a dream of mine. And you guys did. I can't believe it. Yeah, it was great. And well, let's play the interview.

It's wonderful to have the time with you, Eric. Thank you. We've been very big fans. Big fans of your work. So we do a little podcast. We're from New Zealand. Oh, okay. We'll do four questions and then we'll actually go.

All right, so this is from my youngest son Theo. He's behind you there. He's 18. He says, did you believe in extraterrestrials when you were a kid? No, when I was a kid, we were not thinking in these lines, especially not in Switzerland. You know, Switzerland is a conservative country. We live in the mountain and we did not discuss these kind of things. Of course, soon as I was able to read, maybe with 12 or 13 years ago, I was a fan of science fiction.

But I did not occupy myself with extraterrestrials as a child. Right. Oh, that's fantastic. Our show predominantly deals with cryptozoology. So we were just going to ask you, and this is actually from my 12-year-old son, do you think cryptids exist, for example, like Bigfoot or Loch Ness Monster, those things? Cryptics? What is crypt?

Cryptid creatures. Creatures that people think they see that may or may not exist. They are unclassified by science, like Sasquatch. What's your theory? It might be that some sort of animals still exist, but the intelligent beings, in our sense, I don't believe it. Otherwise, I think we would have contact with them if they are here on the planet. Right.

It might be that all kinds of beings are around, but intelligent beings like we with the culture, they would know it. Getting back to the ruins, Easter Island with the Rapa Nui seems to stand alone as sort of an enigma amongst ancient statues. How do you rank them amongst your findings? Not directly at all. Easter Island has nothing to do with the gods. It was the natives who made these statues.

We know how they made it, etc. The old question is still, what or who do they represent? You saw the natives of Easter Island, the natives to say on the South Sea, they have soft faces, soft lips, thick lips. They are not the same statue as these Easter Island statues. They have narrow lips, they have narrow noses, so we don't know who they represent. What should they mean? And finally, they all looked outside in the direction of us, to my knowledge, of the ocean.

So what? To make them, to produce them, that was done by humans, definitely. But why? What do they represent? I have no idea. And finally, has there been or will there be any steps, do you think, to teach your findings and theories in institutions? Sooner or later, this will happen.

Maybe it takes another 10 years, but it will change. And some universities will definitely start with a course called Ancient Alien or Paleocety, which is the visitors from outer space in the past. Right. Well, that's fantastic. Well, that's all we have, really. The fact that we're massive fans and could you sign your latest book for us? Yes.

So do you have it? I can't believe Von Daniken is now on the cryptid factor. This is peak celebrity for the world of weird. And I wanted to ask, as I did, a couple of questions that my kids posed. There's quite select journalism from you and Reese. I can't think of any questions. See you, Finn. Not at all.

Not at all. It's important to get a children's perspective, you know, and also both my kids are smarter than I am. One of my questions was going to be, what are you watching on Netflix at the moment? So, you know, I'm glad I didn't go for that. Annoyingly, I'd love to know. Yeah! I actually know when Theo asked him about, if he believed in aliens as a kid,

he only started believing in UFOs properly visiting Earth two years ago. I think it was. Wow. Isn't that weird? 92 years ago, but he's been writing for 50 years about it. As in, he himself has never seen a UFO. What? And he didn't think that since the ancient aliens were here that they've been visiting

us anymore. Every single report he's been seeing, he just thinks, no, this is not true. Until two years ago, he saw a video that got released by military, which he played at this lecture that I went to see of two UFOs that were flying together and they separate from each other and then meet up again. I think that he's been writing for 50 years about aliens coming and visiting Earth and writing all these theories. And then he'd meet somebody and they'd go, yeah, I believe in aliens too.

I've seen a UFO. He'd go, no, you're a mental. You're crazy. UFOs are not real. Well, they used to be. Weirdo. I think Leon's frozen, isn't he? Oh, is he?

Yeah, look. Why is he frozen? Oh, God, what's happened? Now we've lost buttons. We're screwed. Okay. Well, what do we do? Because he's got the...

Oh, you're the host now, Dan. That's what it just told me. Dan Shriver is... Is this all an elaborate plot by you to take over the show? Oh, yeah, you might have gone to the UFO conference, but I'm going to get rid of you. So this is the first time that one of the members of our podcast has actually been abducted. He's disappeared. Buttons has gone.

Dan is now hosting this podcast. Yeah, no. And welcome back to Dan Shriver's cryptid factor. What's happened? Where are you taking this show? Oh, hang on. Oh, here I am. Buttons has returned.

Oh, he's back. He's the host again. Oh, that was a brief rule by you there, Dan. You had a quick go. Buttons has returned. I'm back and hosting. I was just saying, Buttons, this was the first time that you've actually been abducted during the interview about aliens.

You literally disappeared off our screens. Well, I've now got this really weird metal tag, which seems to be on my neck. Oh, no. And that t-shirt looks new, too, by the way. Is that a made in Venus top? It is, actually. I've got to say, it fits a bit tight. You probably find that's not cotton, too.

That'll be otherworldly, that material. You'll probably be able to have a bath in that. I'll give it a go, and I'll let you know how it comes out. Yeah. It feels kind of reptilian-ish. Oh, that's not a good sign. You're wearing an octopus, I think. Thank you for watching.