Culture and science
Podcasts, YouTube shows and online outlets that broke or spread UAP stories. 15 events, newest first.
Select any year above to see what happened that year.
Open Podcasts and online reporting as a timeline
Government6 Aug 2025
On the New York Post podcast 'Pod Force One', Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard answered yes when asked if extraterrestrial life is possible, said her office would be open with the public when the time comes, and said she still had questions about the 2024 drone sightings.
Photo: Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Public domain
Whistleblowers18 Jan 2025
In a NewsNation special built on a Ross Coulthart interview, former Air Force helicopter pilot Jake Barber said he flew as a contractor recovering downed craft, including an egg-shaped object he believes was non-human. A Pentagon spokesperson said no verifiable information supports such claims.
Photo: Mosman Library, CC BY 2.0
GovernmentDec 2024
For the second year running, the Schumer-Rounds UAP Disclosure Act, including its independent review board, failed to make it into the final National Defense Authorization Act, reported The Debrief in December 2024.
Photo: The White House, Public domain
Government3 Sep 2024
Asked on the Lex Fridman Podcast whether he would help push the Pentagon to release more UFO footage, presidential candidate Donald Trump said he would and would love to, then turned to the pressure he faced over the JFK files.
Photo: lexfridman, CC0
Whistleblowers26 Jun 2023
Sen. Marco Rubio, vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told NewsNation that current and former officials with high clearances had brought UAP-related claims to the committee. He did not say whether he found the claims credible.
Photo: United States Senate, Public domain
Media5 Jun 2023
Leslie Kean and Ralph Blumenthal reported in The Debrief that ex-intelligence officer David Grusch told Congress and the Intelligence Community Inspector General that the U.S. holds craft of non-human origin. His statements were cleared for release by the Pentagon's prepublication review office.
Photo: U.S. House Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs, Public domain
MediaJun 2023
NewsNation aired Ross Coulthart's interview with former intelligence officer David Grusch, who alleged a secret U.S. program had recovered craft of non-human origin. The claims were unverified; Grusch repeated several under oath before a House panel in July 2023.
Photo: U.S. House Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs (screenshot from..., Public domain
GovernmentJun 2023
After David Grusch alleged a hidden craft-retrieval program, Defense Department spokesperson Sue Gough told NewsNation that AARO had found no verifiable information that programs to hold or reverse-engineer extraterrestrial materials ever existed.
Photo: U.S. House Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs, Public domain
Whistleblowers7 Apr 2023
Former intelligence officer David Grusch, who had represented the NRO and NGA on UAP task force work, left government service on April 7, 2023. About two months later The Debrief published his claims that the U.S. holds craft of non-human origin.
Photo: U.S. House Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs, Public domain
Government6 Dec 2021
After the Pentagon set up the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's office told The Debrief it did not go nearly far enough. Days later her own UAP office amendment was included in the final FY2022 defense bill.
Photo: US Senate Photography, Public domain
Government16 Dec 2020
On the Conversations with Tyler podcast, former CIA director John Brennan called the Navy pilot videos eyebrow-raising and said some phenomena might reflect something not yet understood, possibly another form of life. He framed it as keeping an open mind, not as a conclusion.
Photo: CIA photo, Public domain
Media8 Sep 2020
Retired Navy Cmdr. David Fravor gave a nearly four-hour interview on the Lex Fridman Podcast, retelling his 2004 encounter with a white 'Tic Tac' object off California and discussing fighter flying and UFO reports. The episode added to his widely viewed first-hand accounts.
Photo: U.S. House Committee On Oversight and Accountability, Public domain
Media26 May 2019
The Black Vault posted Dave Beaty's documentary The Nimitz Encounters in full on YouTube with his permission. The film retells the November 2004 Tic Tac events off southern California through CGI re-creations based on accounts from sailors and naval aviators.
Photo: United States Navy, Public domain
Media2018
Filmmaker Jeremy Corbell's feature revisited Bob Lazar's 1989 claim of working on alien craft near Area 51. The Orchard acquired it in 2018 for release that year; it later reached Netflix in 2019, and Lazar then appeared on Joe Rogan's podcast. Lazar's education claims have long been disputed.
MediaApr 2007
Videos posted to YouTube in April 2007 claimed to show a secret 'Apollo 20' mission finding an alien craft and a body on the Moon. No Apollo 20 ever flew (the mission was canceled), and French artist Thierry Speth later said he made the videos as fiction.
