Bring Out the Alien, Neil deGrasse Tyson Challenges Govt on UFO Files | Pentagon UFO News | N18G

Added: 2026-05-18

[00:00:00]Last week, the Pentagon began releasing government files documenting years of unidentified flying objects, UFOs, as well as concerns by previous administrations that we as a human race are not ready for the possibility of encountering alien life. My next guest is out with a new book about just that, and it's full of advice like the following. If an alien approaches you with multiple appendages, one of which looks like an extended hand, resist grabbing and shaking it. You don't know in advance what part of alien's anatomy you just touched, and you probably don't want to find out. Here with me now is astrophysicist Neil Degrasse Tyson.

[00:00:42]Thank you so much uh for being here. You are the author of Take Me to Your Leader and you do write that your child, since you were a child, you have wanted to be abducted by aliens. I just want to go on record, sir, and tell you that I do not share that desire. Uh, but I'm glad that you feel that way because as you said, the real question is not are we alone, it's are we ready.

[00:01:04]>> Are we? Yeah, I I think we are actually because given the testimonies that we've heard given in uh uh that we heard delivered in front of Congress in 2023, 2024, 2025 from whistleblowers and insiders and military officials, ex-military, ex uh intelligence officers. It's uh, you know, it's no longer just the farmer in the back 40, right, commenting on what hovered over their crops or the the revelers coming out of the bar at 2:00 a.m. So, these are people of high rank uh, and all sincere. And so not only have they sort of said that they've got alien body parts and reverse engineered technologies, um that's sort of consistent with the files that were released that. So I I'm fine. Fine.

[00:01:59][snorts] Uh if that's where we are, all I'm going to ask is uh where's the alien?

[00:02:07]>> So that's my question. Is it too much to ask that if you've got him in the back shed, just bring out the alien? Then we would all transition from asking one another, "Do you believe in aliens?" to, "Well, yeah, of course, the alien's there."

[00:02:24]>> Well, you you wrote the book.

[00:02:25]>> People don't say, "Do you wrote you're an astro astrophysicist?" What do you think? Are they here or have they been among us?

[00:02:37]Whatever are the claims, I'm saying let's assume they're all true.

[00:02:42]>> But just start with that assumption. If it's all true, they ought to be able to bring out the alien, and that hasn't happened yet. So, I'm just sitting I'm sitting on the couch waiting patiently for that. And I'm it's it's we're long past having to require that aliens are something you believe in based on testimony or fuzzy videos. uh let's just bring out the alien and get it over with.

[00:03:06]>> Yeah. I mean I that's one of the points that you make in your book is that you are a scientist. You are uh somebody who is evidence-based. So show show the evidence. On that note, the Pentagon, you mentioned this, did um release some documents, never before seen is what they call it, UFO files. Uh and this is a big part of what you write about. You said you were quote saddened to report that smooth rotating flying saucers are not a thing. The physics just don't work.

[00:03:37]>> Yeah. Not for smooth flying saucers. I mean I I there are other issues for me with rotating flying saucers. Anytime we show the view out the front window of a flying saucer, the view isn't whizzing by. So how do you have a stationary view looking out the front in a spinning crap? Never made any sense to me. So it doesn't mean the movies couldn't exist.

[00:03:59]>> Yeah. [laughter] >> Well, this is our this is our our our reference framing, right? But laws of physics matter. We test laws of physics on Earth and they apply across the universe and across time. If an alien is of this universe, it'll be subject to the same laws of physics.

[00:04:16]>> One of the things that you write about that really got me thinking is that humans share 98 plus% identical DNA with chimpanzees.

[00:04:26]And then you ask us to entertain the idea. Imagine if aliens have 5% or 10% or even 25% uh more intelligence. Uh along that same vector places us 2% above chimps. Just how advanced could aliens be?

[00:04:46]>> Yeah. The hubris of us to say let's look in the universe for other intelligent life.

[00:04:52]>> Who said we're intelligent? We did.

[00:04:55]>> [laughter] >> So on a on a cosmic scale, it may be we are to the aliens as chimps are to us.

[00:05:02]So for these reasons, I'm happy to grant um aliens all manner of advanced technology. But the laws of physics still matter, but the technology I'll give them wormholes. I'll give them any of that. But one thing that's odd, what would surprise [clears throat] me most is if they bring out the alien and it's humanoid.

[00:05:23]Okay, that [clears throat] most alien renderings we've seen, it's got a head, two eyes, nose, mouth, shoulders, arms, fingers, maybe four fingers instead of five, right? Legs, and they're walking.

[00:05:36]Okay, most life on Earth doesn't do that, but they're from another planet.

[00:05:39]So, [clears throat] the the I I think of the book as a love letter to our fascination with aliens manifested in our movies, our culture, our TV. And this is uh and let's use we can start there and say how realistic is this?

[00:05:58]What can we expect given our imagination and the laws of physics combined. So yeah, plus it's also a primer on what to say and not to say in your first encounter. You're representing all of humans. You want that to be, you know, the best impression you can leave on them.

[00:06:15]>> We have 30 seconds left. Given this thought experiment that you put in this book, what do you think the meaning of life is?

[00:06:24]>> Oh, I think people search for meaning of life as though it's under a rock or behind a tree. But we have the power to create meaning in life. And for me, I want to learn something today that I didn't know it yesterday and spend each day lessing lessening the suffering of others. That's something that we all have the power to do. And maybe aliens want to do that, too. We always make them evil. And I think it's because we're projecting our own evil ways onto them, knowing that's how we behaved when we encountered cultures of lower civiliz lesser technology than ourselves. So [clears throat] yeah, I I meaning we can find it. And if we find aliens and they help us get more meaning out of the universe, more power to us. Neil deGrasse Tyson, thank you so much for coming on. Uh, it's a wild book, that is for sure.

[00:07:18][laughter] >> Thanks for having me.

[00:07:20]>> We had this historic release of UFO files finally, something you've been pushing for for a long time. What What was your big takeaway from that?

[00:07:31]>> Yeah, 500 million visits in the first 24 hours. So, that's not curiosity, that's a mandate. You know, the public is finally >> 500 million. So, so they posted this online and there were 500 million visits to the government's website to look at this information.

[00:07:50]>> Absolutely. And it it just shows how the the public is ready for the truth.

[00:07:55]They're hungry. They have an appetite for the truth on whatever UAP represent.

[00:08:00]>> Um and and there was one thing in particular that you wanted to point out.

[00:08:04]Um and this is in some of your evidence which is featured in your documentary.

[00:08:09]This was a UOP over Syria back in 2021 and we we see the motion of it. Describe what we're looking at here.

[00:08:20]Sure. So, this is footage that George Knapp and I obtained and we put out to the public. We're able to verify the source and authenticity and it is our duty as journalists to put that out responsibly. So, we did. This was actually not in the government releases, but what it shows is astounding. It shows, in our own government's words, instantaneous acceleration, something that should be impossible. There's no visible sign of propulsion. And what you're seeing is actually a government investigation, their examination, and they're authenticating this and labeling it UAP with instantaneous acceleration.

[00:09:00]There's nothing in our hardware that can do this. This outperforms anything in our inventory and that should concern every American.

[00:09:10]So, we know that the government is going to be releasing more information likely in the next 30 days. Um, what do you expect to see from them and and what kind of pressure campaign are you going to put on them to make sure that they release it?

[00:09:24]>> Right. Well, I think it's the court of public opinion. Everybody sees how popular this is that people are ready for the truth that they want the truth.

[00:09:32]They've been hungry for this. We It is now obvious our government has been lying to us about their own study of UAP. They've admitted they exist, but we've had people hand up swearing in under oath in Congress that not only are there craft, but there were pilots bodies there there are beings associated with these craft. And if these people are to be be believed who are standing up in front of Congress, we have that evidence. We also have evidence of exploitation programs. So reverse engineering of these craft. So what we're getting is a very slow beginning to what I hope is going to be a much more robust process of informing the American public about the the UFO reality and presence.