To Carolita:
If you are not saying that there is no truth in any of it and not saying that it is ALL modern day "monsters", then I am not sure what your point is. Yes, some
people desperately want to be rescued if not by GOD, then, an ALIEN will do but I disagree with your assessment that most of what is going on reflects this low level of maturity.

Obviously, no one is saying that every single report is true and, for the ones that are not true, there are numerous reasons why the people involved think they are true ... like seeing a weather balloon and not realizing what they are seeing.

One thing they have known for a while is that some areas which, not coincidentally, are also places both traditional cultures have considered sacred and have had UFO sightings are area of powerful magnetic energy that can both interfere with the functioning of radios and cars and cause "wierd" physical perceptions that could easily be misinterpreted in the absence of any explanation known to the observer. This does not explain all observations but may explain some.

It just seems very obvious that with a cosmos as large as what we have, it is impossible that there would not be intelligent life somewhere else.

Thank you Brian for broaching this topic. I'm glad that I was able to catch this portion of your show. I want to address some of the assertions which were made in your interview with Leslie Kean. You said that the topic of UFOs has been clouded by poor research, conspiracy theories and hoaxes. I agree with you in part but I think that we ascribe different meanings to the overarching ideas of your summary introductory statement. However, you failed to acknowledge the extraordinary reportage and investigation of this topic by many very highly credentialed people over the last 60 years. I also want to mention the extraordinary amount of hard evidence as Leslie has said but in the context of your interview it comes across as; really? There's evidence? Its nice that Leslie stumbled upon this topic and it piqued her interest sufficiently so that she chose to write about it. Nice that she has done work on PBS. I guess that gives her some credibility in your eyes. It's nice that Leslie has rediscovered the wheel. Now why don't you start having some of the real seminal investigative journalists and researchers in this field as guests? Oh yeah! It sounds like Leslie referred to the French Cometa Report and the famous "Belgium Triangle" sightings as well as the "Phoenix Lights". You know this is old news. I also want to address your idea that the topic is very polarizing. Consider that people are not as dumb as you may think they are. I have never seen a UFO, however, I can think for myself and I base my conclusions on the available evidence. It is not necessary to believe and I am willing to adjust my conclusions when the evidence suggests I do so. I applaud Leslie's book but you must realize that you, Mr. Brian Lehrer have missed the boat and you are doing your listeners a grave injustice. Consider that instead of being a journalist/interviewer, you are in fact a gatekeeper and a censor. When I began this comment I said that I was glad that I happened to catch this segment on UFOs. That's because I don't listen to you anymore. If I want news or good interviews with real thoughtful people, I listen to "Democracy Now", "Left Right and Center" and I listen to "Coast to Coast", that late night show which I admit doesn't always have the best guests but many are very interesting and the topics are thought provoking. I am I also aware that the media and "free press" are in big trouble and I know why. I think that reporting on this topic which implies educating yourself as well, would greatly improve your ratings and positively affect the community. Please don't hear this as a personal attack. I now that you are committed to making a difference. I would like to offer my assistance in introducing you to the key players in this field and get you up to speed. I am at your service.

@ Yvonne -- I don't mind if there's truth in it, but if there were UFO's that, because of their "understanding of the universe", were believed to be Gods and demons during the Middle Ages (or whenever), what's to stop our fellow humans of the future saying that the UFO's being seen during our times now were actually something else, too? Maybe they're Gods and demons. Or maybe it's just hysteria.

I think I heard somewhere that that the prehistoric creature who possibly could ignite its breath wasn't actually as huge and dangerous as described in fairy tales.
So, maybe the UFO's aren't what we make of them either.

I'm saying we're reacting to things we don't know about the same way as back then -- we're not that different from our ancestors when it comes to perception and interpretation of the Unknown.

To Carolita -Of course,there is no European mention of UFO's in the Middle Ages! There was not our current understanding of the universe.

Gods lived in the tops of mountains or in the near-sky, people were placed on earth, everything else was a light show and just declaring the earth was round could get you burned without the sauce. Anything that came from the sky would have been a god or a demon. If anything was spotted the interpretation given would be in line with what was then known/believed.

We are now beginning to realize that some of the "monsters" to which you refer were possibly legends of ACTUAL prehistoric creatures. For example, there is now some evidence that what became known as a fire-breathing dragon was actually a prehistoric creature that could ignite its breath.

I am an atheist and am not given to believing every damn thing but I find it truly amusing how, given what we NOW know of the universe, so many seem afraid to acknowledge obvious possibilities.

"Unidentified" flying objects...clearly there enough sitings that are unidentified to warrant such research. No one knows what they are, of Earth or not, something is amiss.

Could you, Brian, have been a little more open-minded about this? Why does the subject of the existence of UFOs not deserve serious attention and investigation? After all, with thousands of other galaxies and universes in existence, how can humans be so arrogant as to believe we are the only intelligent life? I mean, are we as good as it gets? What a joke!

<<Sorry...those "documentaries" on the History Channel on this subject are hardly what anyone could call credible in any way.>>

Really? So, anything they'd broadcast regarding a subject with which you're more comfortable, or which has more mainstream acceptance, should be dismissed? For example any of the number of programs on American or world history, Egyptology, military history, etc...

The only thing I find incredible is the dismissive attitude that skeptics such as yourself put forward.

Additionally, science has always worked along the premise that theories are put forth, then either proven or disproven through experimentation, observation, and the like. However when it comes to the subject of extraterrestrial civilizations and whether they are or have visited our planet, mainstream science does an abrupt about-face and says "when there's concrete proof we'll investigate it." Why the disconnect?

Sorry...those "documentaries" on the History Channel on this subject are hardly what anyone could call credible in any way.

Actually, there are plenty of instances of what we would today call UFO's throughout recorded history, going back to biblical times. There have been a number of documentaries televised on The History Channel which focus entirely on the subject.

Furthermore, anyone even slightly interested can find plenty of references which illustrate that sightings have and continue to take place all over the globe, and are not predominantly confined to the Western and/or Northern hemispheres. The fact is that much of the West has a higher population density, along with relatively more sophisticated technology and information-sharing capability than much of the rest of the world.

While the question of "Why would they be visiting Earth?" is a valid one, it's the height of arrogance to believe that our species is the most advanced form of life in the entire universe...

As the UFO's clearly are beyond our present technology, they would have been built using alien technology; EITHER by aliens, or by humans employing alien technology.

serioiusly not even a gumwrapper?

some shows spend 20 years... some shows spend six minutes

Is this woman Fox Moulder's sister?

The aircrews are always cited as the most credible stories. But are these pilots medically examined after these sightings? It has always occurred to me that these pilots are under a lot of pressure, dependent on not always fully functional equipment, and all sorts of environmental anomalies may be occuring around them. They are hightly prone to hypoxia, which can cause altered perceptions and hallucinations. So there are all sorts of reasons to suspect the "evidence" of aircrews. Remember John Glenn thinking his pee were space fireflies?

life on other planets makes more sense that an after life, but why would they come here??

I heard that Barry Goldwater was a UFO believer...

Oy Vey! What next? A serious discussion about whether the earth is flat or the sun revolves around the earth? Crop circles anyone? And then there's the alien runway at Machu Pichu. On second thought there are people who probably believe all this. News Flash: there are real world explanations for all of these!

life on other planets makes more sense that an after life, but why would they come here??

klaatu barada nikto

Although he worked with the subject of UFO abduction, which is not what your guest is speaking on, could your guest comment on the work of John Mack, the psychiatrist, Harvard professor and Pulitzer prize winner? His research into the phenomenology of UFOs is rich, serious and, in my opinion, important.

*long yawwwwwwwwwwwwwn*

i saw a rat driving a giant bed bug ship

bhow abougt 2 mins on the nyc guy and 20 mins on the ufos?

I saw Elvis in a Spaceship visiting a KFC.

as long as he is not an illegal alien. how do you know he even exists you can't even prove he was born

In 1983, or so, my wife and I were in our co-op courtyard in Westchester. We looked directly up into the night sky and saw lights in a triangular pattern moving silently from south to north. They glided slowly and were, as far as we could guess, quite low in altitude -- 1000 feet or so. Our local newspaper re-reported the incident about 8 months or so ago. No explanation was given.

I would like to know if there is validity to what Ben says.

UFO Witness Drawings Released
The British Government has released a series of hand-drawn images that witnesses claim are genuine UFO sighting
http://www.newslook.com/videos/237046-ufo-witness-drawings-released?autoplay=true
95 % of sightings can be explained. 5% well.....???

Wasn't President Obama elected by the huge fan base of the "Coast to Coast" overnight radio program since he "hinted" that he might open the files about what our goverment is hiding about all things UFO-related.

btw - Obama is not a Muslim - he's an alien.

The best and most credible story is the sighting in Phoenix, AZ. Pilots, cops, doctors air traffic controllers and many other folks who are trained to observe came forward to say they saw something! Strangely when the local city council wanted to really find out what happened, the governor at the time made light of it...

UFOs are merely unidentified. The problem lies with the automatic assumption that if it is unidentified, it must be alien!
It is very interesting how the vast majority of alien technology sightings are in the western hemisphere, especially the USA and Mexico.

ever notice there's no mention of UFO's in the Middle Ages? Just monsters and demons. I don't mean to be a total skeptic, because I'd love to see a UFO (Close Encounters of the Third Kind always makes me cry, makes me wish I could be taken away by a benevolent Martian), but don't you think a civilisation so advanced as to be able to create UFO's would have already been flying around while we still had fleas, and were emptying our chamberpots out our windows?

The monsters sighted in each era uncannily reflect our own deep-seated fears. In the past we feared sinking into the mire, fearing we were at heart bestial and damned, so we saw demons and werewolves and made sea monsters of sea-horses and octopi. Now our culture and esthetics of constant technological and biological advancement are taken to an extreme merge into images of hairless, super-thin, huge-eyed (like cartoons and models), creatures whose technology is such that they don't even need cell phones to communicate, they just use brain-waves. Their vehicles look like what all our gadgets tend toward: smooth, shiny, powerful.

Martians and UFOs are us!