The Government Released UFO Files. But Here’s the Bigger Question.

Added: 2026-05-18

[00:00:00]as we continue to watch the news uh here on planet Earth because so far so far guys that's been my beat, okay?

[00:00:06]It's been Earth-based. I know we did a little bit with the Artemis 2 mission. I could extend our our reporting area to the moon and back, but you know, it the universe is a big place. In fact, it's uh I'm going to give you a couple data points about how big it is. And late on Friday, we got an announcement that the White House was going to make good on a promise of releasing files to the American public that have to do with unidentified anomalous phenomenon. I always have to look down to read that.

[00:00:38]Unidentified anomalous phenomenon because you we probably know this as UFOs. Unidentified flying objects.

[00:00:45]Apparently, that's not we're not going to use that word anymore.

[00:00:48]But this is what we're talking about.

[00:00:50]There's been questions over the years about is there life out there?

[00:00:54]Are there aliens among us?

[00:00:56]And in the grand scheme of all the questions that we've been asking across the news landscape, we're just going to throw those in as well cuz you never know what you're going to learn.

[00:01:04]And I have said to you on the record that on a Friday if suddenly we learn about the existence of aliens, I'm going to need the weekend, okay? And so I I I we did not learn about the existence of aliens.

[00:01:16]That's That's what the big takeaway from this is the following.

[00:01:21]The US government set up a website.

[00:01:22]We'll make sure to link to that in the show notes.

[00:01:25]That is going to release rolling files.

[00:01:29]These are files that could be a PDF, they could be a video, they could be a photograph. These are sometimes files that were previously classified that no one has ever seen. Some cases you may or may not have come across some of these images before whether it's you know, through congressional testimony or otherwise. And what the US government said is that and I'm quoting here from the website, the materials archived here on this website are unresolved cases.

[00:01:54]Meaning the government is unable to make a definitive determination on the nature of the observed phenomena. This can occur for a variety of reasons, including a lack of sufficient data, and the Department of War welcomes the application of private sector analysis, information, and expertise. So, the White House is saying, "Listen, this has been talked about for years. We're not going to gatekeep here. We're going to show you different things, and if we can figure out what they are, then why not?"

[00:02:19]So, let me show you a video that was one of the videos that came up here.

[00:02:23]Apparently, this was a a radar infrared radar of some sort from a US platform, military platform. We don't know which kind.

[00:02:34]There's no notes from the person that observed this. This video goes for about a minute or so, and this is a good example of what we're seeing because it's something that you can kind of see in the video, sort of, and you don't really know what it is, and apparently the government doesn't really know what it is, either, which is why it's actually here. So, the website war.gov/ufo, see, there's the UFO, okay? So, I'm not the only one that's using it. Let me just read about this video a little bit more. The Department of Army submitted a report of an unidentified anomalous phenomenon to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, consisting of 1 minute and 49 seconds of video from an infrared sensor aboard a US military platform this year. We don't have any oral or written description of the observation, but it basically gives you a little bit of what what you're looking at on the screen. So, now at this point, someone wants to take a closer look at this and figure out exactly what it is.

[00:03:23]It's there for the public to see.

[00:03:26]So, there's a lot of this, and we expect more. So, 160-plus files released as of Friday, more files to come. One of the questions that I'm asking now as a journalist that's reporting under this administration, whether we're talking about the Epstein files, UAP files, or any other files, there's been often a question asked about about quantity versus quality. So, you can release a ton of files and say this is our effort in transparency, but if you're not really saying what those files are or what they mean, then there's a question there about how helpful it is to the public. Certainly, as a journalist, I want access to more information than less, but simply the release of files is often not enough to understand exactly what they mean and why they matter. So, this matters because we've never seen this before from the US government. In some cases, these are previously released. We've never seen them before. And it gives access to the public to material that the public didn't have access to before.

[00:04:21]What it all means, we don't really know.

[00:04:24]But now we have this website and we expect more and then of course there's a question of when does something get released and how it gets released and what if there is that one item where suddenly it does change everything forever, that one piece of information that changes how we feel about our place in the world. And that's what I was really thinking about as I saw this news this weekend and I'm curious your thoughts about it as well.

[00:04:47]Which is what is that question really all about? You know, whether or not we're the only life out there. Like what is Why are people so fascinated with it?

[00:04:55]It sounds obvious in some cases like I'd like to know if there's aliens walking around. That would be good information. I'm curious about that. It seems unknown. We can't confirm one way or the other.

[00:05:08]But is there something deeper going on?

[00:05:09]Is it because it would change the way that we view ourselves or the way we view Earth or all of the stories that I just mentioned to you, whether it's the hantavirus, jobs, conflict, does all Do all of those stories change if we establish life elsewhere?

[00:05:26]Is that why this really matters or does it matter for another reason entirely?

[00:05:30]I'm curious your thoughts on that.

[00:05:32]I think there's probably a question that has to do with faith, too. If you're someone that uh is someone that likes to explore your faith, does that change the way that you're thinking about the world or your faith if if suddenly life is identified elsewhere? Does it change the way you just think about yourself, period?

[00:05:48]Because there's others out there that may not look or sound like you. How would that Why does this matter Why does this really really matter?

[00:05:57]I'm curious, your thoughts. Let me just give you a little bit of a context here, though, because I was having a conversation about this topic this weekend, and you often get people kind of shrug off and say, "Well, you know, like the universe is big. Like the chances of there being life, you know, probable, right? We would think. We would I we mathematically, like I guess we're thinking a process, you know, there's so much possibility out there, how could there not be?

[00:06:23]But But we actually don't know. And what's interesting is you look into NASA's the way that NASA tries to explain the universe, these numbers are so big, guys.

[00:06:34]It's hard even wrap your You can't even wrap your brain around it because they're so big. Okay, how about this?

[00:06:38]One light-year is 6 trillion miles. One light-year.

[00:06:44]The observable universe, according to NASA, is 92 billion light-years across. Every light-year is 6 trillion miles. It is 92 billion light-years across. That's the observable universe. And guess what?

[00:06:59]NASA cannot confirm for us, again, sounds obvious, but when you say it out loud, it hits different, whether or not the universe is infinite or finite. We actually have no idea.

[00:07:12]The amount of unknown is actually overwhelming.

[00:07:16]And in a lot of ways should encourage our curiosity and maybe add a little humility to what we think we know now, because clearly there's a lot to discover. But just think about that. One light-year is 6 trillion miles. The observable universe is 92 billion light-years across, and we have no idea of whether or not this universe is finite or infinite.

[00:07:39]And these are our numbers. These are our metrics that we're trying to use to understand the vastness of what lies beyond.

[00:07:48]So, thank you for your support of Quick and Simple non-partisan Smarter News.

[00:07:52]We'll be here with all the developments on smarter news.com and across social media as well. So, find us there.

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