The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Hour 1: Ryan Graves + Dreaming In Color

Episode Date: August 2, 2023

The show asks if you dream in color or in black and white - around 12% of people dream without color. Former Naval pilot Ryan Graves joins to discuss his congressional testimony and seeing UFO's during multiple flights. Plus, splitting the Powerball with your friends. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to Giraffe King's Network. This is the Don Levertor Show with his two-gots podcast. Brad Williams has been pulled from the game. You can see him at the Miami improv. His seat has been occupied by Charlotte Wilder who does oddball with Amino Hassan. It is a daily show. It is quirky. It is on usual. A daily except for Monday. Thank you, Amin, for that clarification. We are going to talk aliens here in a little bit with someone who is an expert on having told us publicly

in a way that seems super credible that there has been, the United States government, has indeed found life that is not human. What are you looking at me like that for? We're talking to Tony. Finally. I said credible. I said someone who has credibility on these matters. Why are you sipping vigorously from a glass of water while broadcasting. What are you doing? Are you not supposed to drink water while broadcasting this out? A glass is, and I don't often see in broadcast settings a glass that I would find in my kitchen. Usually it's a mug. We have a kitchen. I know, but I have, usually, am I wrong about this? I have not watched a lot of television

where I see someone drinking on a sports broadcast from a glass. You've been hanging out with David Samson too long. Now you want mugs with our show logo on it. I don't want mugs, I just am surprised. I'm surprised by a glass that you would find at a dinner table with the fine cutlery and the good China I'm surprised that there's a glass out here as opposed to a paper cup or

Really honestly you could be drinking out of a football helmet and I would find it less unusual Then then the glass that you're drinking out of you're're lucky I didn't bring the congressional Senate hearing mug, I'll give you a glass with the little picture too. Should have the picture in the glass go, shhh, portal. Am I lucky? Am I indeed lucky that that's not what you did? When Charlotte got here though, it made me think,

and I do not know why it is that it made me think this, but my wife, Apropos, of nothing, the other day said to me, this sentence, out of nowhere, we were not talking about anything. 12% of people dream in black and white. And I thought that sounded high. And for some reason, I thought Charlotte would be unusual enough for perhaps,

that perhaps she was dreaming in black and white. Is there anyone here who dreams in black and white? Dan, that is, I'm not sure if that's a compliment, but I'm going to take it as one. I like thinking that I'm here like dreaming in Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer, you know, like everything's very serious, but in reality, it,

I think that's a joke. No, he made it yesterday. It's from yesterday that you both share that a mean andster got both share the agent Lou Oppenheimer, who no one would make a movie about and is an agent straight out of the 1950s. Sweet Lou. Does anyone in our audience listening to this dream in black and white, I thought that that was an unusually high number, that more than one out of ten people are dreaming

in black and white seemed impossible to me. Can I ask Valerie Lebertard, who's doing the math on that? How are we doing the math on that? Here's a thing though, now that you say it, I'm like, have I ever seen color? Like, have I ever dreamt in blue or have I ever seen purple in my dream? I think I might actually dream in black and white, Dan.

Because you've never given it any thought before this moment? And now, oh my god, or SEPIA. What's a percentage on SEPIA? It's a sepia or a sepia. Well, sepia. Okay, no, but I look as someone who routinely dreams and writes down and you know, documents is dream log. I do.

Oh, wait a minute. Oh, yeah, do this again. What's the latest? You can't do this again, please. The, oh, the latest, the, what was the latest one I had? The latest one I had was about going to K-Mart, which is the blast in the past. And trying to buy. Can you Martin? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha than red dead redemption. I don't really go hunting or anything like that. But the point is, my dreams are all in color, baby.

Full technical color, like the Wizard of Oz, after she lands, right on the wicket, which of the east, everything blues and greens and golds easily, man. What is the present state of K-Mart? There are a few somewhere. I know there are one. I think we talked at one point of doing a Moss Miami at an abandoned

K-Mart here in Miami or the last of the K-Mart a big big story out of New York City This will amuse I think a mean in Charlotte the famous K-Mart that was underground in the Astor place subway station in East Village is turning into the city's first Wegmans later this fall Whoa Wegmans from the Midwest Wegmans like the Midwest? Wegmans, like the place where they cut up all the vegetable, you can't buy a whole vegetable,

you have to buy them like prepackaged. I don't think Wegmans is Wegmans Midwest. I thought Wegmans was like Northeast. Yeah, it's like North of Delta. Yeah, I thought like I think of like New York when I think of Wegmans. Tancy your question Dan, there's one on 137th and Kendall, a Kmart, and there's one on 8th Street. Those are Kendall, a K-Mart, and there's one on eight-street.

Those are the only two in Miami that I can remember. But they're active. So those are Miami K-Mart that are still active. If I had to get a number of K-Mart stores that still exist in the United States, because Walmart has in golf, I mean, I know Amazon is in golf to all of this stuff, but in terms of being associated with, I'm gonna go get something cheaply i'm gonna go to a place and it's not gonna cost very much came art is the uh... the store from my youth that has now been replaced by walmart or the dollar store okay that's aggressive the the state with the most number of came art locations according to google dot com is the u.s. virgin islands which has four k-marts which is

about 20% of all k-marts stores in the us. Oh wow. Which feels high? Hi. Like there should be like 20% shouldn't be four stores. That means there's 16 stores left. 16 k-marts and two of them are in Miami. One of them for sure one might be a front for something else.

But now it says, that's the case. DVD, I don't know. I'll go and investigate. Did you just call the the the US Virgin Islands estate? Yes, because Google did and then I realized it's a territory. Don't trust the internet.

So everything you've said now is called the the car. There are also 20 came art stores according to this thing that called the US Virgin Islands estate. So I trust nothing that i've just contributed to this fine program you uh... you cannot trust the internet the internet told us earlier in the show that ron say is five ten and that is not something but what waiting him has something on the subject well according to this

website that has twenty came art locations left eight of them are on territories u.s. Virgin Islands is four port Puerto Rico is three, and Guam has one. I see the news. 12 in the contiguous United States. There needs to be like a Juneteenth for Kmart though. Liberation. And the way Kmart has done, like what? Stugats mentioned earlier in the show.

He mentioned when we were talking about the broadcast team of Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson and Mike Brain being broken apart. He mentioned the phrase outrage as it came to the way people react to their familiar things being broken apart. And it made me think of something that's skated under the radar here in the news recently that made me think of how meaningless most sports outrage is. It's being reported that Fox is about to make a giant offer for the exclusivity of Alex Rodriguez on its broadcasts. And when I think of Alex Rodriguez,

I think of how meaningless sports outrage actually is if you can be someone who we yelled at about lying and cheating. And now there would be a bidding war for your exclusivity because you're so valuable that you work at ESPN and Fox and this is the part, this is the part to me that makes your outrage all the more meaningless. He's only getting these parts because he's famous. He's not particularly good at broadcasting. He's good at smiling on television.

He's good at looking good and being famous on television, but as a broadcaster, he says next to nothing that is illuminating, interesting, funny, or even charismatic. Just like Urban Meyer. Let me just say right now, do you want to know the power of Alex Rodriguez, popularity and fame, actually rather than popularity?

I last sat it, I went to a debax game with my kids, it was Star Wars night, so that's why I went. And they were playing the man. I was wondering, thank you for explaining. They were playing the Mariners and I saw a bunch of people wearing Mariners Rodriguez jerseys and they're like, wow, those A-Rod jerseys are really flying off the shelves. And then I discovered like the right fielders name is Rodriguez. Oh, never mind.

That's how famous Rodriguez is. He's so famous that my ass thought that all these people were wearing A-Rod jerseys. Does the outrage mean anything? It doesn't. But it sounds nice in the moment. The reality is none of this matters. None of it matters. Why isn't Barry Bond's on television? Because he's not good this matters none of it matters the white and buried bonds on television because he's not good at it

well maybe he doesn't want to be on television oh wait a minute i just said that a rod's not good at night or for you that buried bonds would say more interesting things than a rod if he were if he were because buried bonds would care less what people think buried bonds would be less careful i i spent a lot of time with buried bondsonds at the Westminster Dog Show a few years ago. Hold on, say that's where we brought him. That's what we signed on, guys. Yep, yep.

Hold on. I'm. Yeah, I think it's more like a mealy for being able to go to the dog show. But Barry Bonds and his sister co-own a dog that was showing at the dog show and so I'm And his people like really didn't want me to talk to him But I was talking to him and and he just kept talking and he was telling me about his home gym

That he was that he was like I spent $4,000 on this and I was like for Barry bonds He seemed sort of low. I'm into it and he was like it's all magnetic and's all magnetic. And you can work out with other people through my system of video. He was like, we could work out together. And I was like, I don't think I'm that ever. I can't have a $4,000 gym, Barry. And he kept talking to me to the point that his people were like, you have to go. And he would not stop talking about his gym. So I think he might be amazing on television.

Let me just say right now, then you pour an instant foolish man. You're like, I just said, A-Rod isn't good at it. There's two types of not good at it. There's a not good at it where it's like, I'm not saying anything, but I'm just sitting there and looking like A-Rod.

And then there's a not good at it where I don't follow the basic principles and rules of this thing. And Barry Bond strikes me as a kind of guy who not follow the basic principles and rules of doing a TV show. Namely, I talk and then you talk. You'd be like, no, it's a hell with this. I'm going to talk anyway. And like, and that they can't abide by that. Bonds is a bigger ego.

You're saying. Yeah. Yeah. A-Rod and Barry Bonds, we have proof. Neither of them are good at following rules. Don Lebertard. The alley has a bad reputation in general, right? It does. Brought American history.

But on South Beach, someone's always just sitting somewhere, smoking a cigarette. You can't go down an alley around here and not see someone sitting there smoking a cigarette. It retains a pulsating heat from the night before. You walk by some liquid that your like is that water. It's rain last night, that's definitely not water. Avoid the liquid, always avoid the liquid in an alley. Still gots.

I venture to guess that if you were to rake your tongue on the asphalt of an alley, you would die immediately. I don't think it would be immediately though. First, you'd contract very quickly right before death, several sexual diseases, and then you would die. This is the Don Lebatar Show with this 2 Gats! Is anybody drafting sportsbook? What are America's top rated sportsbook apps?

Drackings is all kind of ways to get in on the action, including same-game parlay's props, live bedding, and so much more. Use code Dan when you sign up for the DRAKINGS sports book app to check it out. So Stu got the mega millions, crossed a billion dollar threshold? Yeah, you feeling lucky?

Well, I spent about $50 on tickets last night, did not when I keep doing it, because once it gets up to around a billion dollars, it's hard to not go buy some tickets, you know, I won't pay for more than just one slip Was that ten bucks for the the full sheet? Yeah, yeah, dude if I don't auto pick I do auto pick on four of them Isn't it like they're five different ones on the sheet? Yeah, so I do auto pick on four of them and on the fifth one I pick my own numbers and that's it That's I don't need to do.

People are paying $100 worth for tickets. I don't understand that at all. I have a question. Forgive my ignorance. Yes. Why does it seem like the mega millions in the power ball are hitting a billion like every couple months now?

I feel like that never used to happen. Is it that so many more people are playing it? I have no idea, but I'll tell you what I do. When one of them hits a billion dollars, everyone forgets about the other one. So I go to the other one because I think your odds are better and what's wrong with winning 90 million dollars. No, that's a great point. I believe your odds don't stay exactly the same no matter the price.

I'm sure it does. But it just seems like a smarter play. It seems like we used to not politically stupid a billion as often as we are now. So all of these a lot of the mega millions and powerball their multi-state lottery right and up until I want to say 25 years ago there were only state lottery so then they they came up they were kind of competing and slowly but surely more and more states became members and I think now you can buy a mega millions or a power ball ticket in every single state.

And because of that, there are more people with access to buy them. So the jackpots are bigger. The other thing they realize is the big jackpots bring out bigger crowds trying to buy. You got people like to go out, who don't usually pay the lottery, but will pay $50 now.

Or people like you. And power ball packed. I do it it to i also just learned as you were speaking that mega millions and powerball are two separate things what they have different names i thought it was interchangeable i thought it was interchangeable wait so if you win the mega you think you can cash it in for powerball i thought i thought there was only one amount of money at every given time and you could either call it Powerball or Mega Millions depending on how you were feeling.

She thought it's last name was Millions, first name is Mega, but then it's nickname was Powerball. Yes, I did. When you see the billboards and there's two different numbers on them, what do you think that the numbers mean? I don't know that I've realized that I got your ass. You were so pleased, dude. That's my letter.

Oh, man. It's a neither or thing number. You're like, oh, maybe it's 40 million. Maybe it's 500 million. I thought you added them together, Jess. I thought you added them together. Or it's like a range. This one is the low end. The other's end the others that I between 90 and a billion. I've never played the lottery ever. I'm never

Not one time you should play it now because then if you win everyone's gonna be real pissed you have a one and 292.2 million dollar or million chance. I don't know why I said I was thinking million dollars because of mega millions I want to show you guys something I want to throw something on the screen. Jason who works in video with us bought a powerball ticket that was off by one digit. This is for the billion prize, correct? From the wedding numbers. Yeah. So the first number he got right, second number 24, ooh, he went 25.

The third winning number was 30, he went 31. The fourth winning number is 45, he went 25. The third winning number was 30, he went 31. The fourth winning number is 45, he went 46. The fifth winning number was 61, he went 60, and then the powerball number, he was off by two, which 12, he got 14. It seems like the ticket before his was the winner. Yeah, exactly. Did he choose those numbers or was that a?

I think it's quick pick, quick pick. Quick pick on the, Pala no, that's heartbreaking man. No, that like, I think it's quick, quick, quick, quick, quick. Quick, quick on the, uh, Panna. That's heartbreaking, man. That, that, that, like, that. What if I, I'd rather look just like, be completely off than do that. Which is, which is like the,

the two times that I played the lottery for these billion dollar prizes, I, you don't even get near ad number. And you, you'd rather be there. Oh, yeah. A number off for all of them. No, that, that right there, that's God laughing at you, Jason.

That's it. Yeah. Oh, you thought you were gonna quit? You thought this, this would be it? You done? I feel like Jason should win something though. It was so close. I mean, he was the mega millions. That was for powerball. Now we win it like a million. See how it makes sense. Now it makes sense. It's the smaller amount. Wait, do you guys consistently play these games or does it need to reach a certain amount for you? It has to be in the news for me to buy a ticket. Great show. My friend, my friend Priya plays religiously like all the time on her phone. She goes gets tickets. You can, there's like an app on

the phone. New York apparently. Yeah, there's a phone. Yes, there should be because it's ridiculous that in 2023, I have to go to the counter with cash. Let me be Greg Cody. The something nice about going to the counter and scratching out to get that little, 100% you gotta pick the number, you gotta, it's almost like you're doing the SATs again, you gotta bubble it in, like old QP over there, and then you give them cold, hard greenbacks,

and then they give you a slip and that's your proof. I think that's why I've never played, because I don't have cash on me, so anytime I'm there, I'm like, oh, you guys only take cash, huh your proof. I think that's why I've never played because I don't have cash on me. So anytime I'm there, I'm like, oh, you guys only take cash, huh? Okay. I think the first time I went to go play, there's a convenience store in my apartment building.

So I walk over there and I handed in my credit card and so, and they're like, sorry, no can do. It was like, really? So I had to walk back to my apartment, get cash and then go back. That's like the dispensaries. Also, they only take debit and cash.

At least in Illinois, I'm not sure about anywhere else, but the first time I went, I was like, this is so cool. I can just go to the dispensary and get some weed and I went to check out and they were like, oh, we only take debit or cash. And I was like, shit, I don't have either on me. So I had to call my dad to go pick up my new house because I knew he had cash on him.

I was like, I have a debit card. I do, well, I think I have a debit card. I haven't seen it in a while now that you mention it. Oh, you're about to cancel it. Oh man. Wait, did your dad pick up the weed? I mean, he did? Did he do the tax?

Did he tax you? He did not, no, but I will mention, the taxes on dispensary weed and Illinois are crazy high. If you spend like 50 bucks on whatever, like a pre roll or gummies, they'll tax you like 30 or 40 bucks. That taxes is normal. That's everywhere because that's how they got me.

Right. I get that. That's how they make me. But it's crazy. The other kind of. I know. Did he take some? The dad's certainly not. You dad tax dad tax your kids right like on food and stuff like that right? Yeah, so all the time like that seal a few fries. I saw a clip someone sent me a clip of chat and they're weed

Did I say that? I saw a clip of someone Shown a daughter is a college athlete. I met Emma. Yeah, there you go. Okay, save interviews Pays out twins Take up bigger issues No, it's last So yes, you're in a you're in a power ball pat. Yes with your friend Prado you throw under the bus consistently. Yeah, she yes, she snores, she tapes her mouth shut, and she plays the power ball.

Nothing wrong with TABY and mouth shut. We'll catch. Possible. Possible. Possible. Possible. Possible. Possible.

Possible. Possible. Possible. Possible. Possible. Possible. Possible. Possible. Possible.

Possible. Possible. Possible. P You were so proud you knew that. I know who he is. I know you do. Shout out to everyone who's at NABJ right now. Yes. Yes, absolutely. I want to ask a question though, because you told a story.

Don't shout out. Look, it's not a not shout out. It's NABJ week this week. I got it. I got it. Relax. Relax on this. Harry's black.

I carry about you. Yeah, there you go. So Stu gots. You told a story before we went on air about getting, like, Frankie was making a run. Frankie hour security going, Frankie, our security guard said, I'm making a run. Do you need anything? You said, yeah, give me a pack of smokes. Yeah. And then he took the change and he bought powerball tickets with it. Yes.

Or mega millions, whatever that he's in possession of. He's in possession of, but he says, but I got the cigarettes. No, but he says that if it wins, he'll split. And I want to ask this very serious question to everybody who goes in on lottery tickets. So without asking me, just quickly, uh, Frankie, who he did, he went, he's the best. I love him. He went and got me cigarettes. He took the change and he bought some mega millions and some power ball because Charlotte, they are different.

Okay, so he did that. Okay, I know that now. Now I'm not in possession of the ticket, so I just have to trust Frankie. So here comes my question. If we never see Frankie again, I will hunt him down. Exactly, that's my question. If you are in a group play for this, but you're the person who did the legwork to buy the tickets, are you actually splitting it?

I've thought about this. I've thought about this. I think if you go in with the way that I would feel best about being the one who does a leg work is taking cash from people before. So, I'm like, this is your money that you're giving to me, because if it's my money and I put it down and then I get Ven mode, I'm still like, well, is my cash to begin with? You know, I'm like, starts to, but I would absolutely split it with the people I went in on a packed list. What if you borrowed money from someone and part of that money was used to buy a what ended up being a winning ticket?

Do you then owe that person more than what you borrowed off of them? I borrowed five bucks off Chris winning ham. I used two of them to play Powerball. I won Powerball. Does Chris winning ham is he owed his five dollars back or is he owed more? I think he should collect interest on that.

Interest. But what percentage, right? Paying back the next day. Well, there's no interest. You gotta go 50 here. No, but I mean like lottery. 50, 50, 50. You gotta go, my cash, my dove, come on now.

No way. Stop that. No way. If I give you five bucks, you win the power ball, you're not gonna give me shit. I'm gonna give you your money back. He's five bucks for a billion dollars. Wait Tony, how do you handle my situation?

Where I gave Frankie money for cigarettes, not lottery tickets He decided to buy the lottery tickets with my money. I'm okay that he did it He did the walking so if we win how do we split it and Frankie's mind he's it's 100% his way not to me But how should I approach your money though? My money I didn't ask the choice right his choice your money. Yeah, you deserve at least maybe a hundred million out of a billion But it's probably 10% but after taxes that way more than 10% okay, so 10% of whatever

Let's go let's go pre-tax. Let's just assume flat right flat numbers 10% of whatever the post-tax earnings are Nah, that's too much. That's my money. I don't care. What you're gonna do about it? T-Shay. Like, you know what I'm saying? That's it to come back. You're gonna have to go to the streets. We're gonna have to do this. The streets.

Oh, Jesus. We're gonna have to fight. Take it to the survey. I'm gonna have an army of Frankie's by then, man. I'm gonna have Frankie clone. Also, by the way, if it's Frankie, actually wins it, yeah. Good luck. Take it to the streets of him.

That's my boy, I would never do that. That's what I'm saying. But if you had to. With you though, all day. Oh, wow, okay. Now let me ask you this, because now if we won, and Frankie realizes, hey, I'm not gonna see still till Monday, I can get out of Dodge.

What do you do? We're not gonna see him for weeks. He's gonna go on the lamb. Well, if Frankie wins, what would you do? Like, just leave, right? If I were Frankie? Yes. I would never going to go on the lamb. Well, if Frankie wins, what would you do? Like, just leave, right? If I were Frankie, yes, I would never talk to any of us again, including me. Absolutely not. Especially not used to. It's my money. That's why he would especially not.

The only way you'd ever see me again is if I bought the Elser and then evicted all of us. Hello, boys. Can we park on our floor now? Oh yeah. Yes please. That's what you would do with your earnings, with your winnings. Just to make sure we got parking spots. Life is all about a good parking spot of me. You park outside of the office too, guys. Exactly. Don Lebertard. Again, getting started on the breakfast line? Oh man, I've been singing a song to myself one morning long breakfast. Long. Do no no no.

Stoo gots. You never heard the breakfast line song? No. Hit me with it. Okay. I wish I had some breakfast. Long. Do no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no What can I find out, breakfast like that? This is the Don Limita Show with its two cats.

Presented by Draft King Sportsbook, one of America's top rated sports book apps. Draft King's has all kinds of ways to get in on the action, including same game parlays, props, live bedding, and so much more. Use code Dan when you sign up on the DraftKings Sports Book app to check it out. Our next guest is a former Navy F-18 pilot who claims to have witnessed multiple unidentified aerial phenomena, aka UFOs. I don't know when we change the terminology on that. I grew up, it was always UFOs.

Now it's unidentified aerial phenomena, but he's not a random person. He is a, he's works on R&D programs for DARPA, for the Office of Naval Research. This is a legit person. And you know how I know you're legit Ryan? You're legit pilot, because you got a cool nickname, fobs.

Fobs. How did you get that nickname? I got it the same way as everyone else at a call sign review board. How does, how do I know I'm not answering your question. I'm doing it, I'm answering clearly, but it actually stands for a full of Boston spirit. Oh, you're from Boston, fobs?

That's right. Hey, me too. Thanks for having me. Not Boston proper, but Massachusetts. Yeah, well, same thing for Charlotte over there. Yeah, all right. There's a review board for this. Oh, it's very official.

We don't want to slip anything in that might offend someone's grandmother on the side of the jet. What did you do to earn the nickname full of Boston spirit? Well, I don't want to get too, too far down the rabbit. Hopefully let's, let's just say that there were other options on the table, but they did not meet the qualification of being something you could tell to your grandmother. I just, I have them showing up just talking red socks all the damn time. Won't shut up about how Larry Bird is the best player ever.

Uh, Tom Brady, Tom Brady, Tom Brady, a little bit more Tom Brady. Am I in the ballpark? I was watching, I was watching when Bledso blew out his knee and Brady went in and I had the best high school years of my life watching football and watching them go all the way. It was just an incredible time and never mind the red stock so yeah i've been i grew up enjoying at the local sports so so ryan you're you're in the news right now because of your congressional testimony about you know what you saw uh... when you were flying and if we could for the video department could we throw up

that clip of ryan talking to congress these objects were saying completely stationary in category for hurricane winds talking to congress these objects were saying completely stationary in category for hurricane winds he's saying objects within accelerate to supersonic speeds one point one point two mark and they would do so in very erratic and quick behaviors that we don't i don't have an explanation for so ryan i guess my first question you would be when you saw this

what was the reaction of all the people you were talking to you on radio when you landed later? Yeah, when we first saw these objects, we didn't jump to any conclusion that it was something bizarre. When we first actually detected them, we detected them on our radar systems, and we thought they were radar-air, and then we got close enough to see them with our cameras. And that's when we were certain there was something physical there and we really had to respect it. But again, we didn't go to, you know, UFOs, UAP or anything too wacky. We just thought perhaps it was some type of drone program, something classified that we

weren't aware of. But over time up to then, we started to kind of gather more information as a squadron and start to see these more exotic behaviors. And when we left, you know, we essentially just stopped talking about it. We didn't really have an answer and we weren't going to sit around talking about UFOs all day. So we really didn't have an answer for what they were. And frankly, we still don't know what they are. We call them UAPs. We sometimes call them UFOs, but we don't know what those objects are still. Ryan, why were you guys able to now find these unidentified flying phenomenon or whatever? Was it an upgrade in machinery?

Did you guys get something new that was, all right, this is going to show us different things. What was that? Yeah, that's exactly right. So we have our primary tools, our radar system, and we were using the APG 73 radar, which is a pretty decent radar, but it's an older technology. Our particular jets in my squadron, not my squadron, but in the squadron I was in VFA 11. We happened to have a particular lot off the line of F18s that were

plumbed essentially to upgrade the radar, not all of them were. And so when we came back from our deployment, they took out the older radars and put in the newer APG 79, which require different cooling and other mechanisms. And when we did that, it took about six months or so to upgrade every jet we had, but we'd fly on one day with the newer radar and we would see all these objects and we didn't know what they were. And then we might fly with a different jet later that day that did not have the radar. We wouldn't see them anymore and it was that simple.

You picked it up on radar. Could you see it with your naked eye? So no, my personally was not able to see it with my naked eye. What we would do essentially to try to ID these is we would come to what we call a merge, which is a point where our radar points merge into one contact. That's where the term comes from. And so we do this often. We come to merges when we train to dog fight, typically we'll come with almost 1200 miles of closure, zipping by each other. And when we do that, we get a very good look at each other. We'll look at how we're condensing the air around the wings to see if they're going in a certain

direction to see if their energy state is low, see if they're their flaps or their alirons are moving around, see if their weapon loadout, see what their weapon loadout is, all sorts of things we're looking at in this very small window of time. And we do this all the time every day for periods of time sometime. And so when that's the same tactics we would use to go visually ID one of these, except we would slow down to try to close that, or to make that close your rate smaller and smaller so we could see more information. And so we would go about 200 miles an hour, at least this was my experience. We'd have it on our radar, we'd see it information. And so we would go about 200 miles an hour, at least this was my experience. We'd have it on our radar.

We'd see it on our camera system. Our weapons would lock on to the objects. Our missiles would lock on and give us what we call a screaming tone in our headset. And then all that information is being pumped into our visor. And on my visor is a little display, which puts a little box around the object, the space, and the sky where I should look to be able to see the object

that all of my sensors are telling you is there. And as we would go within 500 feet of these objects, looking up at it, trying to see it, I can see it. I turn back around, and we'd see the objects still there, perhaps at a different altitude, perhaps offset somewhat, but they would still be there. And that was that. It wasn't until we almost hit one of the objects when we first actually visually IDed it. And that was a strange incident, because the air crew never had the object on their radar, which was a slightly different scenario than my experience up to that point. And the object was also completely stationary

at the, essentially the doorway to our working areas at a very specific point in altitude. And it went right between two jets, two F-18s, and they canceled the flight, the the lead of the pilot saw it and he said, hey, I saw I saw one of those damn things. It looked like a dark gray or a black cube inside of a clear sphere. How many time did you guys see them? So we were loosely, you know, having conversations about this in the in the squadron. As far as people that like visually could idea as that particular shape at the time I knew of maybe 15 or 20 people We weren't necessarily going out and surveying all the various squadrons, but that was our squadron's experience Since then I've learned that this was a problem that all squadrons that upgraded their radars as one would expect we're seeing these objects And not only did it happen within the period of 2014 to 2015, I left in 2015, I thought the

problem ended, but since then, I've come to learn that not only did it continue to happen, but it is still happening today, I had former students reach out to me that I instructed as a pilot in the Navy, essentially the next generation of pilots that went out there and said, hey, I saw dark, dark cube inside of us for years, well, call me back. And that was in 2020, I believe. After you see an object like this, do any of your higher ups come up with any other explanations to you? Are they offering anything that can explain what you just saw?

My experience at time was no. There was no explanation. It just, it was just no one knew. There was not an answer provided. It was essentially, you know, get back to work. Ryan, when you talk about category four wins and it's standing still going at one point, one to one point to mock, can you put that into like, layman's terms for people that don't really understand the technology that you were watching and witnessing

that we really don't have access to. Absolutely. So think about sticking your hand out the window. Not that easy to keep it very still at 50 miles an hour when you're in the car. Now take that 50 miles an hour and add that up to about 330 miles an hour. Put your hand out the window and try to leave it absolutely perfectly stationary in those winds. That's what these objects were doing. And they're doing it at high altitudes. We have a term when we're flying around the area, if it's very windy, we'll say we're fighting to stay in the area. And that's the literal terminology that this particular pilot report used

to describe their effort to remain in the area. If you take a big turn in a jet and there's a very strong win this way, if you don't time your turn well, it could push you four, five, six miles during that turn and actually push you out of the area. And so this F-18 is, quote, and I quote, fighting to stay in the area

to try to get close to observe this object that is somehow stationary at high altitudes and high winds. And he doesn't know, you can't identify what it is. Is there any chance that this is, I mean, when you are watching this happen, were you thinking like, oh, these are aliens, like these are alien life forms? Because I feel like people quickly jump there. But have you, are there other explanations? Could it be some like crazy technology

from other humans somewhere? Like, I feel like the leap from here, these objects, to where being invaded by aliens gets made very quickly. And I wondered what your thoughts on that were. Yeah, I agree. It does get made quickly. and I would say too quickly. It's uncomfortable to live in that area of uncertainty, especially on this topic. But frankly, that's where we need to live right now.

We can't make that jump because if we do, we're either going to ignore the topic, people are going to shut down to it, or you're going to start investigating in ways that don't make sense for the problem itself. And so you really have to approach it from a first principle to approach and not add all that cultural baggage onto it. And it's a challenge, it's hard, and people do it, you know, they do it within a split second having a conversation. It's a defensive reaction, it seems.

Ryan, under a minute here, you had your testimony in Congress What did you not get to say to Congress that you would have liked to say? Yeah, that's a great question Honestly, I felt pretty satisfied being able to share what I shared I Think there are a lot of individual stories. I could have sat down and shared with them and they would have loved to hear one after another stories i could have sat down and shared with them and they would have loved to hear one after another uh... but they just wasn't time for it but that's part of effort we're doing

a safe aerospace dot org and people can sign up there and show their support to congress his name is ryan graves he's the executive director of the non-profit americans for safe aerospace check out the merge podcast with ryan graves ryan thanks a lot for joining us thanks for having me Ryan Graves, Ryan, thanks a lot for joining us. Thanks for having me.