UAP Unidentified Alien Podcast - UAP Weekly EP 1 - Nick Pope Interview

Episode Date: May 17, 2023

If you love UAP (The Unidentified Alien Podcast) with Stephen Diener, then you are really going to enjoy UAP Weekly! In this new podcast, Stephen brings all the flavor of UAP, but with a new twist as he discusses all the latest news and notes from the UFO world that you won't hear anywhere else. You'll also hear from top minds and witnesses within the UFO community in exclusive interviews. Such is the case in this inaugural episode where Stephen sits down with Ancient Aliens host and UFO expert, Nick Pope. Nick discloses some of the most amazing cases he worked on as the head of the British Ministry of Defense and how he sees the current landscape regarding government disclosure. Should we be looking out for some changes this Summer?...See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Everybody talked about it since I first moved to Oregon. The big one, the earthquake that trashed the whole West Coast, total destruction. Officially calling it the largest natural disaster in American history. I just didn't know what would help me next. So I took it all. Even the gun. It was time. Cello?

CY American Afterlife is the number one fiction and drama podcast in America. Presented by pair of thieves. Listen on Apple Podcast. Spotify or wherever you listen to your favorite shows available now welcome some new music there i know maybe that's going to take some getting used to but stephen deaner uap weekly right here as i finally get to bring to this new show this new iteration spinoff of what you're normally used to in uap but with a different twist a different flavor as i bring you the latest news and updates and interviews regarding everything in the UAP UFO alien world that is going on before our eyes every single day,

but just does not get mentioned anywhere else. So I'm so excited to bring this new show to you, to bring this information to you every single week now on UAP Weekly. And I hope you enjoyed the new music there. I thought that was something that we could switch it up a little bit, kind of separate from the traditional UAP, and give UAP weekly kind of its own flavor and everything like that. So hopefully you enjoy that one.

It took a little time to work that out. But I'm really excited today for this first episode. And what I wanted to do, which is one of the reasons why this took so long for me to get this show together. Honestly, I've had this idea for this type of spinoff for about a year now. And it's just been really tough to really find the right formula to make this work. And I think I have done that, hopefully, because the ball's in motion now. So there's no stopping it. It's either sink or swim when it comes to this new project.

But I think what I really wanted to do was start off with a bang in the first episode to start off this new project, this new iteration of UAP with UAP Weekly. And the best way I could think of doing that to start off on a really strong foot here was to bring in none other than Nick Pope. And he is the famous, if you don't know who he is, famous UFO investigative. He's all over the ancient aliens that show on History Channel, of course. It's huge. They have their ancient aliens live tour. I mean, he tours the country, does different speaking events. The former head of the British Ministry of Defense,

he's produced documentaries and different shows and movies, written books about the UFO phenomenon, UAPNs, investigating these things on a government level with the Ministry of Defense in the UK. So the guy is as legit as they come, and I'm really excited to be able to get him on here today to start off this very first episode of UAP Weekly. So without further ado, let's bring him on right now. Make him wait any longer make you wait any longer. Nick Pope joining here on UAP Weekly. Nick, thanks very much for joining here.

So excited to have you to start off this first episode of UAP Weekly. Yeah, good thanks. Good to be on the show. Just to jump into, you know, some of the things I'm sure you worked on, you're familiar with. When we talk on UAP, I go over a lot of different stories and, you know, stories that have interested in me over the years, things I've taken notes on over the years. And so one of those things that have, has always kind of gained my intrigue has been the Rendlesham Forest case. This goes back to 1980, I believe, right? Correct.

Yes, December 1980, next to two military. basis, operated by the US Air Force, but in England, Rengelsham Forest lay between them. And this really was bizarre. I mean, sightings over three consecutive nights are landing on one of those nights. Physical trace evidence at the site. Burn marks on the trees, scorch marks on the ground, radioactivity levels assessed officially by government scientists as significantly higher than average background. So it's not just hearsay and stories.

There is physical evidence. It was tracked on radar. All this is recorded in a now declassified Ministry Defense file. So there's a lot for people to get their teeth into, including the fact that the deputy base commander, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Holt, who started off as a skeptic on this, ended up as one of the witnesses. That's right. And that's the thing that I think that's always intrigued me because when you have physical evidence

mixed with military witnesses. You know, these are people, you know, who are trained to discern what they're seen. You know, is it friendly? Is it foe? Or what is happening around them? And when you hear the stories of Jim Penningston and John Burroughs where they say, you know, this thing landed

and they even when they approached it, right? There's a story that they even approached it and had some missing time in there. Yes. I mean, it's confused. And I think the situation has become a little muddied over the years. First off, of course, just the amount of time that's passed. But secondly, the fact that some of the witnesses have undergone regression hypnosis, which

sometimes can muddy the waters and jumble memories and perhaps create some false ones. So there is a little bit of confusion about that close approach point on the first night. But there's no getting away from the fact that the... the radar evidence, the radioactivity level, the declassified government documents, they speak for themselves. Right. And that's exactly it. You know, it's hard to refute something like that. Is that the most, I guess you could say as far as evidence is concerned, is that the most hard to refute case that you've ever come across in your time, or is there something that kind of supersedes that?

I think it was the best evidenced case in the British government's files. That said, had one. I mean, Wendlesham occurred a few years before I joined the Ministry of Defense. In 1993, we had a great case that I led the investigation on where there were sightings over a period of about six hours over much of the UK, huge triangular-shaped craft, lots of police and military witnesses, patrol of Air Force Police at R.A.F. Cossford. The meteorological officer at R.E.F. Shawbury saw this huge thing, just very slow speed, 30, 40 miles an hour, low frequency humming sound that he said he could feel as well as here. And then suddenly this thing, which had deployed a narrow beam of light, which was tracking backwards and forwards

as if it was looking for something, suddenly from this very slow speed, accelerated away to the horizon with no sonic boom, which is something that people like Lou Elizondo have commented on recently. Right, yeah, that instantaneous acceleration, kind of that hallmark of a true siding or an experience of UFO, UAP. I mean, how is that explained away? You know, 1993, it's, gosh, that's 30 years ago now. That's not like, you know, it was now where these things are a little bit more accepted. It's kind of more mainstream, you know, people having the conversation about it.

How is that covered? How is that explained away to people who couldn't describe what they were seen? Well, it isn't really. I mean, as you say, one has to look at these sightings in the context of current technology. And nowadays, for sure, we could look at something like that and say, well, maybe some secret prototype, aircraft, missile or drone. But when you're talking about these cases, the Cosford incident 30 years ago, Randallsham 40 years ago, these technologies, drone technologies, for example, we're in their absolute infancy, even if one accepts that, of course, there are things. going on that aren't publicly declared. Eventually the historians, the aerospace historians write all this up.

And we know, broadly speaking, what the level of technology was at any particular time. And you look back and you say, well, we just couldn't do that. Right. So is that something that just goes away? You know what I mean? Like, what was the, I guess, the instant reaction after that for the people living in the UK, did they say, well, I guess it is what it is? We don't know what we saw.

Sure. Well, the Ministry of Defense's position on this, as it had been for decades, was to really downplay the whole thing. Either try and explain it away in conventional terms or just not address it at all. And of course, back then, we didn't really have social media or the internet. And if you did kill a story like that, it really did most times go away. An extreme example of that, going back much further, of course, is Roswell, 1947. After 24 hours of hysteria about flying disks that had been recovered, the military said mistake, it's just a weather balloon. And everyone's like, okay, right. And if you pick up a UFO book written in the 50s and the 60s, and you go to the index, you will not see Roswell. So people's trust in authority was

was such and it was it was different era how is it different say for kind of segue here for a country like Zimbabwe and the reason why I bring that up is because we're talking early 90s and makes me think of 1994 the famous case there the Zimbabwe world where 60 school children you know these are like elementary school children they see this this craft come down they draw pictures of it they draw pictures of the the entity that they saw come out of the craft they you know these these kids who witnessed this event. And my thing is I always say when I talk about that story,

I have two young kids. So I know just with two kids it's impossible to get them to agree on anything. So I don't know how you would get 62 young children to agree on everything that they saw and have these same drawings of entities and this

you know, saucer shaped UFO. I guess just to speak on something like that with that famous event back in Zimbabwe in 1994. It's an extraordinary case. As you know, James Fox has covered it in one of his films. Randall Nickerson has a film about it. And the late John Matt, who was professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. I mean, people say, well, you know, kids make things up. Here was a world-renowned psychiatrist,

an expert in all sorts of things, trauma, unusually events. He went down and got boots on the ground, interviewed the teachers, the children themselves, of course, people in the local community. And he came away convinced. And it's very difficult to find a conventional explanation for something like that. I think, you know, it's one of these cases that still makes me kind of wonder. And I suspect there's part of the story that's not yet emerged, whether it will or not, I don't know. And of course, there was a similar case in Australia, the Westall School incident. And actually in the UK, in Wales, back in the 70s. That's right, yes.

Very, very difficult to come up with any conventional events that might have been misperceived or misidentified in that way. It's a genuine mystery. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and 10% of all e-commerce in the U.S. from household names like Death Wish Coffee, Brooke Linnon, and Kylie. But what if people haven't heard about your brand? Well, Shopify helps you find your customers with easy-to-run email and social media campaigns. But what if you hit that wall and you get stuck somewhere? Well, no problem because Shopify is always around to share advice with their award-winning 24-7 customer support.

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slash UAP I believe and you can correct me from wrong that's the incident in the 70s in Wales that that was a cigar shaped UFO from what I remember is that is that right? Yes I think so but again entities were reported and this this was

not just lights in the sky or shape in the sky but something landed and interacted and you know there's not much middle ground with with something like that right congress at the moment is obviously looking at some of these u.s navy videos that's fine you know there's a lot of hard evidence for people to get their teeth into reports like this are more difficult to pin down and i think it's going to be a while before anyone in congress for example looks at something like this and and yet one one can't help but

but think maybe they should. You would think so, right? Again, you're listening to Nick Pope here, right? Here on UAP, it's Stephen Deiner with Nick Pope, a UFO investigator, former Ministry of Defense with the UK, and of course, you know, I'm from ancient aliens and many documentaries and shows and movies covering these subjects. And Nick, I got to ask you about the rise of,

I guess what we refer to as the USO, right, the unidentified submerged objects. I know they kind of give the term transmitting objects and things like that, kind of the official government term. What do you make of the rise of that speaking about, you know, the USS Nimitz? Like we're talking about Congress looking into those things and has the tick-tack splashing down into the water. Is that something that you look at as a recent phenomenon or has that been going on for a while?

Well, it's an interesting question. It's not new. It has been going on for decades. But I think the connection has only just recently been made. And this is the fault of government. and I'm blaming myself here as much as anyone else. All government UFO programs previously tended to be configured around the Air Force. The feeling was let's embed those programs in the Air Force

because these things are seen in the sky. And therefore, even within official programs, there was this tendency to cut out the Army and the Navy in particular. Yet the reports were always there. So I think it's the fault of government. There's always been a connection between UFOs and water. Again, one doesn't quite know what that means. But recently, yes, the 2004 Nimitz incidents, the 2015 incidents off the East Coast, many of the other cases that have come to people's attention recently, some from the DOD releasing things,

others from the work of people like George Knapp and Jeremy Corbell who have released video footage and still photos, which the Pentagon has subsequently confirmed aren't genuine. And yeah, this connection is there. And again, it was one of these interesting things. In the 80s, there was this cliche in the UFO community, which didn't really make much sense. People would say, oh, I went to a debrief, and there was someone there in a Navy uniform. Why would the Navy be involved in this? And it was dismissed.

But now we know that for a while at least the Navy was leading on this, maybe still are to some extent. Right. And when you look at some of these things like we say the water connection with USOs or even going back to the nuclear connection, which one, I guess it's hard to say which one might mean more, which one are they focusing on more? Because you know, you just think about things like Malcham Air Force Base, right?

where everything goes dead. And you have all these different cases of UFO, seemingly UFO intervention with missile tests and nuclear missile silos. Does any of it make sense when it comes to these investigations that are going on? Can they make sense out of any of those things? Well, let me answer the question. Absolutely. When it comes to water or UFOs, water or nuclear issues,

when it comes to UFOs, it's the nuclear issue, of course, really gets people's attention. And that's because if anything brings it home that this is a defense and national security issue. It's the suggestion that there's something going on around our nuclear facilities. And Congress is looking at this. In fact, they're mandated to look at this by one of the provisions in the new defense bill, which says that the DOD, Congress has mandated the DOD and the intelligence community to answer.

this question, whether there is a connection between UFOs and nuclear facilities, or, and this is the skeptical theory, could it just be collection bias, the fact that nuclear facilities, whether they're missile bases, nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, whatever it is, these are areas that are or installations or assets that are more heavily surveilled. So the DOD and the intelligence community is looking at that right now. What I can say is that one of the other provisions in the defense bill is this so-called whistleblower provision, which says that anyone with knowledge of classified programs on this or specific incidents or conclusions drawn from any of these programs or materials that have been recovered.

but these people are released from their non-disclosure agreements and can now come forward and testify, firstly, to arrow the Pentagon's All-Domain Anomily Resolution Office and then to Congress, whether it's the House or the Senate, whether it's the Armed Services Committee, the Intelligence Committee, wherever it is. And that's happening already. And at least one, maybe two, possibly more of the witnesses who talk about this some of these nuclear incidents have come forward. So obviously, Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick testified about this in a Senate subcommittee hearing recently. And this is all ongoing at the moment.

So we're in very exciting times. Yeah, I'd say for sure. It's the most exciting I've seen as far as the mainstream conversation. And I mean, just for even us to have this conversation right now and not feel like we have to, you know, hide in a dark corner because people might think we're crazy, you know, to have this conversation out in the open now where kind of the stigma has changed. I mean, I'm sure you've seen it. I'm sure you've felt it when you go around speaking tours or what, you know, whatnot. You see that the attitude toward the UAP, the UFO discussion has really changed in the national consciousness. And really when it comes to media coverage too, right? So and then the U.S. government, you know, Senator Gillibrand coming up with the whistleblower, you know, conversation where you can come out and talk about these things now and, you know, obviously behind closed doors. What do you make of, because you've, you've seen it. You've seen the progression. What do you make of that kind of moving from the fringe to now, hey, we're talking about this and this, this is a thing? Well, that's absolutely what this is. A fringe to mainstream transition that's taking place

over the last five and a half years. Gone of the days where this subject was just the, the stuff of conspiracy theories or fringe science or sci-fi movies, whatever it is. Now, if you talk to someone about this, it'll be, oh, yeah, I saw it in the Times or the Post or Politico. I saw that Congress had another hearing the other day. And absolutely, it's come about, I think, for a number of reasons. But one of the main reasons is, of course, the sheer body of evidence that we now have from pilots, radar operators, retired intelligence community personnel who are talking about this, obviously in public, at an unclassified level, but speaking to the reality of this,

not necessarily claiming to have all the answers, but saying, look, whatever we think the true nature of the phenomenon is, it is a phenomenon. And now, as I say, it's written into the defense bill. There are hearings in Congress. NASA is doing its own study into this. And one of the great things is that it's bipartisan. You mentioned Kirsten Gillibrand. Marco Rubio's involved too, of course.

This is across the political aisle, which is great in these divided political times, to have an issue like this that's bipartisan, it's great. Yes, no, you're right. And I think you hit the nail on the head too when you say having the conversation about the reality of this. And I think that's really where we are these days. and why I find it so striking to be able to have these conversations out in the open and have the podcast

and to be able to really just, you know, not have to worry about somebody thinking you're crazy. You know, and that's that, that's a nice thing. Absolutely, yeah, mainstream media coverage, the fact that now if, I mean, we used to have this kind of cliched view of the UFO witness that it was someone on the lonely country road late at night, you know, beam of light, something like that. And now, when you think of UFO witness, you think of, you know, an F-18 pilot. And we've seen them. We've seen them. You know, David Fravor, Alex Dietrich, Ryan Graves, Chad Underwood, you know, all these sorts of people coming forward, speaking out, radar operators like Kevin Day. Yeah, no, absolutely.

And there's so much more we can get into. I really appreciate your time, Nick. And I know you've got to get going here. So we'll wrap it up now. but if I could put you on the spot, maybe we can do this again sometime soon? Absolutely. Perhaps later in the summer

when we have the NASA report published and again, later in the summer, we will have also the next round of reports, I think, from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Certainly we will almost, for sure, have further hearings in Congress. I'm hearing reliable reports about

about that. So I think there'll be a really interesting update we can have on all this to see how further down the road we are. It's exciting times and I look forward to it all. That's for sure. So thanks again, Nick Pope, of course, former Ministry of Defense from the UK and ancient aliens and all the documentaries and speaking in the movies and UFO Investigator, really appreciate you coming on UAP today. And we look forward to having you on again to talk about all the developments as they continue to happen in real time, honestly. Absolutely. I'm looking forward to it. And by the way, I should say that as well as ancient aliens, there is now ancient aliens live, which is a stage show, 90 minute live event. And amongst other cities and states, we're coming to Florida. Oh, you are. I was going to say, coming to South Florida. What's going on? Yeah, we're doing four dates in Florida in the fall. People can find the details on ancient aliens live. tour.com. I think that's the website.

You know, just ancient aliens live. It'll come up. Yeah. And we're really looking forward to coming. That's awesome. Well, I got to look it up. Maybe I can get out there and see you guys. That would be great. Yeah, come on down. I love it. Thanks, Nick very much. We'll talk to you again soon here on UAP. Okay. Thank you. All right. Thanks. Hey, guys. So before we get back into the conversation, I just want to talk about something that affects all of us. And it's scary. Starting something new, right? It's hard. and it is kind of terrifying because you think about all the work that goes into it.

Are you going to be able to succeed? What new challenges am I going to face? It's that uncertainty. But I know how that is because I can think back when I started UAP. I was just hoping for the best. And it's just like that when you're starting your own business. That's why Shopify is so great and why I'm so happy to be able to talk about them. Because despite all the fears and hesitations when starting something new,

it certainly helps to have a partner like Shopify on your side to help. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and 10% of all e-commerce in the U.S. from household names like Death Wish Coffee, Brooke Linnon, and Kylie. But what if people haven't heard about your brand? Well, Shopify helps you find your customers with easy-to-run email and social media campaigns. But what if you hit that wall and you get stuck somewhere? Well, no problem because Shopify is always around to share advice with their award-winning 24-7 customer support. Tackle all those important tasks in one place, from inventory to payments to analytics and more.

No need to save multiple websites or try to figure out what platform is hosting the tool that you need. Everything is all in one place with Shopify, making your life easier and your business operations so much smoother. So it's time to turn those what ifs into with Shopify today. Sign up for your $1 per month trial today at Shopify.com slash UAP. Go to Shopify.com slash UAP. That's Shopify.com slash UAP.

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at your seat. Let us welcome your family to our island home. Hawaii starts here. He was great there. I'm so happy that he was able to join us here on the inaugural episode of UAP Weekly. I know I was saying UAP during the interview. I guess just, you know, habits, some bad habits die hard, I suppose. So I have to remember to kind of separate the two UAP from UAP Weekly, but it's all part of the UAP family. So it's, it's all good. Nonetheless,

thank you again, Nick Pope for joining me here on UAP Weekly and just talking about everything there. it's so great to hear his perspective from someone who has, you know, really been entrenched in these things, kind of on the inside of how these investigations worked and the inner workings of all these things and the information that was found out. So, so happy and excited that he was able to join us here on UAP. So you could hear that interview. And like you heard there, definitely we'll plan on having him on again sometime soon, maybe in the summer to talk more about all these things happening in the daily goings-on of the UAP.

world. So awesome to have Nick Pope on the show. On the first inaugural episode of UAP Weekly, couldn't ask for a better way to start it. I wanted to touch on what he was saying there about the dates coming up for ancient aliens live as well. He had the site right and he second guessed himself, but it's okay. He had it right. It's ancient aliens live tour.com, just like Nick Pope said there, ancient alienslivetor.com is where you could go. And if you're interested, you can check out the Florida dates or really anywhere. I mean, they're going everywhere. around the country. So obviously, if you're not in Florida, they're going to the state of Washington,

Oregon, Kansas, Missouri, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois. And then they're coming to Florida, four different dates, four different cities. On November 16th, they'll be in Fort Lauderdale, November 17th in Daytona Beach, November 18th in Tampa, and then November 19th, they finish out their Florida dates in Jacksonville. So Fort Lauderdale, Daytona Beach, Tampa, and Jacksonville. if you're in the Florida area like I am. But you can check out all the details like Nick said, ancient aliens live tour.com. So this was awesome.

This is a lot of fun. I'm so happy that I was finally able to start this new project, this new, I guess, iteration, a spinoff, if you will, of the traditional UAP that we've all gotten used to and know and love. But this is an idea that I've had for a while now. I would say maybe about, oh, geez, probably close to a year to do a spinoff like this. So I'm happy to get this project going a lot of planning and prepping had to go into making sure that I was going to be able to be committed to this for you and to keep on this and to bring you the content that you're used to.

I don't want you to be bored at all. So I want to make sure that it's going to be the content that you have gotten used to on UAP but with just a different little bit flavor. I guess a different take, a different approach. So now that we've got it all set and going, I look forward to again next week. coming on here and talking to you on UAP weekly for all the latest in the world of UFOs, aliens, UAPs and everything happening with all the news that comes out all the time. So be sure to keep you updated. And I will speak to you again soon on UAP, episode 69.

That is in the works. I'll keep you updated on when that is going to be coming out, diving into some strange stories out of Australia. So looking forward to sharing those with you on episode 69 of the traditional UAP, as you can say. And be sure, by the way, you can still follow UAP on Twitter as far as UAP weekly is concerned. It's all going to be on the same Twitter handle. Nothing's changing there at UA Podcast 850. So until next time, Stephen Deiner here, UAP. I'll speak to you again soon. Until then, be good. And thank you very much.

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