Flashes in the Sky: Science, 3I/Atlas, and the UFO Elevator

Running a business is hard enough. Don't make it harder with a dozen apps that don't talk to each other. One for sales, another for inventory, a separate one for accounting? That's software overload. Odoo is the all-in-one platform that replaces them all. CRM, accounting, inventory, e-commerce, HR. Fully integrated, easy to use, and built to grow with your business. Thousands have already made the switch. Why not you? Try Odoo for free at odoo.com. That's odoo.com. It's tax time, y'all. If you want to file free, this next one's for you. How taxes is so free. Love that jam. Up next, commercials. Into a TurboTax-free edition. See if you qualify at TurboTax.com slash free. No schedules except for earned income tax credit, child tax credit, student loan interest, and Schedule 1A. Hi, everyone, and welcome back to That UFO Podcast. My name is Andy, and this is your UFO news update for the week of, well, the end of October 2025, essentially. Lots of stuff going on. I wasn't sure whether I was going to get an update out, as I've mentioned before, and last time, I suppose, mentioning. I'm off to the Sol Symposium this weekend over in Italy. So, I'm getting a flight on Friday morning from Edinburgh, and I'm heading over to Italy via Milan Airport. Really looking forward to going. I'm not the best flyer. A little bit nervy with that. But other than that, yeah, really excited. And I've got some news on the Sol Symposium here on this update. But I think I've got to start with the news from Dr. Beatrice Villariel. So, when it comes to science, peer review is one of the most important steps before research gets published. It means that other independent scientists have checked the work. They look for errors, question the methods, and make sure the results hold up to scrutiny. It's not perfect, but it's what gives us study credibility. And that's why this story is so interesting and why I'm starting with a story amongst all the things to discuss on this update. So, these findings have been peer-reviewed and published in two respected journals. Now, the story itself, scientists led by Dr. Beatrice Villariel. Her name will be familiar with some of you. She is from the University of Stockholm and has been re-examining old astronomical photographs from the early 1950s, long before Sputnik and any human satellites existed. Well, satellites we know of, I suppose. There's lots of rumours and, you know, talk about what the Nazis may have been trying to do and so forth. But these images taken on glass plates showed brief flashes of light known as transients that appeared and disappeared in single exposures. So, for decades, those flashes were thought to be camera errors or film defects. But new analysis shows they may actually be real events in the sky. And this is where it gets interesting. So, these flashes happened far less often when the photographed region was in the Earth's shadow. That means sunlight couldn't reach it. That suggests many of the flashes came from sunlight reflecting off of flat, shiny objects orbiting high above the planet. And remember, this is years before the first satellite launch in 1957. Other parts of the research show striking patterns in the timing of the flashes. So, a couple of really interesting stats here. The day after a nuclear weapons test, the chance of seeing one of these flashes jumped by 68%. On the days when UAP or UFO reports were made, the number of flashes rose by about 8%. And when both nuclear tests and UFO reports occurred, the number of flashes more than doubled. Now, I think it's really important to say this isn't conjecture or rumour. This is science being done here. Dr. Villarreal says the results don't prove what these objects are, only that patterns are too strong to dismiss as random noise or faulty equipment. Her team believes they may be reflections from very flat, highly reflective objects in orbit during the 1950s. A time when officially nothing man-made should have been there. Because the work has gone through peer review, it adds weight to what easily could have been brushed off as coincidence or error. However, it doesn't mean the mystery is solved here, folks. We're not saying there were UFOs or flying disks sitting in orbit. But it does mean that data has been checked, tested and taken seriously. So the question still remains, what were those bright flashes of light captured years before we sent anything into space as a species? On with Ross Coulter on NewsNation. Dr. Villarreal speculated alongside Ross. Ross saying perhaps these are relics left behind from an older human civilisation. Beatrice says maybe. She offers that maybe they are non-human probes surrounding the planet. A suggestion that Patrick Jackson online has been talking about for some time if you're on social medias. Especially X as a platform. You may have heard about it as a non-human defence system. So really interesting. And it will tie in with a story I'm going to finish off with later on today as well. But yeah, that's some really interesting work. And you know, I don't think it's necessarily the sexiest or most glamorous of UFO stories. But this is real, actual science being done in a way that could be very difficult for sceptics and debunkers to easily dismiss what these objects could be. And that has already started online. But they look like very weak attempts. And I think this is the very early stages of some proper science getting done. And you would hope some of the scientific community get involved with this story. So yeah, really excellent work being done by Dr. Villarreal. Moving on, the New Paradigm Institute hosted its Global Disclosure Day, now held annually. So what is Global Disclosure Day? It's presented by the New Paradigm Institute and Citizens for Disclosure. This year it was on October 19th. Global Disclosure Day was born out of Citizens for Disclosure, a grassroots movement dedicated to promoting government transparency regarding unidentified anomalous phenomena. Now, this year, some really interesting names speaking at the event. I would encourage folks to go back and watch it. The link is in the description. However, I'll give you some of the names actually involved. We had Kirk McConnell, Danny Sheehan, Representative Eric Burleson, Ross Coulthart, Ana Brady Estevez, and others, of which many interesting conversations happened. But none more so than between Richard Dolan and Carl Nell. Carl Nell speaking at the Sol Symposium this weekend. And hopefully I can grab a couple of minutes with Mr. Nell. But yeah, so this is the one I think that really seemed to catch folks' attention and really sparked debate online. Carl Nell said, Now, Carl Nell is talking about the cycle starting in 2017 with the New York Times, with Lou Elizondo, to the stars, that whole movement that started and has really culminated to where we are now. I think all of that you can lead directly back to each other. So, according to Carl Nell, he believes the folks that have been pushing for disclosure from a political aspect or a military aspect have sort of said what they've had to say. And he doesn't feel it's advancing. The mechanism to introduce whistleblower protections, the Schumer-Rounds Amendment, the UEP Disclosure Act, has failed again. This is the third time in a row, folks. The government can't deal with this how it's wanted to without the UEP Disclosure Act being in place. Perhaps it's now time to take stock of what worked, what didn't work, and think about a new way forward. I wonder what Carl Nell will say this weekend at the Sol Symposium off the back of these comments. And I'm intrigued to see how he follows up on it. And, you know, is it a case of, I doubt this, but he is kind of tapping out of what he sees he can do to help disclosure? Or is it time for a new tact? Richard Dolan talked about there being other cycles of disclosure. You know, governments declassifying in the late 70s. The Rockefeller Initiative in the early 90s. And that these cycles have come and gone. The subject doesn't go away. He doesn't think the time between the next cycle and this could be as long as it has been between others. And Carl Nell himself said, you know, maybe it's two steps forward and one step back. You know, I've got my own thoughts on this cycle ending. I don't think it's an unfair point, to be honest. Is it a bad thing? Maybe not. Maybe, naturally, this is what happens. There are other folks leading the charge right now in the absence of that government-led disclosure, which a lot of folks have an issue with anyway. You know, the Sol Symposium, the Skywatcher, the various journalists attacking this from different angles. The Galileo Project, to name just a few. There are plenty of conversations and angles of attack going on for the UFO topic. Without, you know, Congress and co, I don't think the subject dies or goes away in the mainstream. But perhaps it is time for something, something different. And let me say this, you know, the Empire State Building doesn't have one elevator that takes you all the way from the bottom to the top. When it was built back in the 1930s, engineers realised a single lift couldn't safely travel that far. The cables would have been too heavy, the motors would strain, and the whole system would become unstable. So, they designed it in stages. One elevator takes you part of the way. Then you step out, switch elevators, and continue on higher. And that's how I think I see the UFO disclosure movement. Over the years, we've all been riding this elevator together, climbing through secrecy, denial, revelation. But not everyone started on the ground floor. Some of us got on 10 years ago, when the belief in UFOs was perhaps still whispered about, rather than being so open. Others joined later, as the conversation opened up, maybe on the 50th or 70th floor, when things started moving faster, as they have done the last couple of years. Along the way, some people get off. They saw enough, or they lost faith, that the next set of doors would even ever open. And now, a lot of folks are saying we've reached the top, and that disclosure has hit its ceiling, that's the ride over. But maybe it's not the end at all. Maybe we've just reached the transfer floor, that place where one elevator ends and another begins. We can't go any further, perhaps, with this route. And this is where we have to step off, reorient ourselves, and look for the next lift that can take us higher. One built for the next stage of the journey, a better lift, a faster lift, a more efficient lift. One that fits more people. Because the truth, whatever it is, might still be waiting above this level, beyond whatever that first elevator was ever meant to reach. So no, it's not the end of the trip. It's just where we change elevators, folks. And maybe we've gone 80 floors, and there's only five more floors to go. Maybe we've got a hell of a lot more ways to go. Maybe it's at Willy Wonka's Great Glass Elevator, and we've got to go left and right still. But yeah, enough with the elevators. But that's sort of where I am with the disclosure movement in terms of progress from government. I don't see it, perhaps, as a negative that... And I think I've said this enough over the last couple of years. With these hearings as they've gone on, have they served their purpose? Not that I would want them to stop, but I think there needs to be more of a structuring, more of a plan with them. Because we're only getting so far with the hearings. And obviously these pushes for the UEP Disclosure Act, which right now, there is still more information on, potentially. We are looking at Representative Burleson, Tim Burchett, are hoping to introduce a standalone bill as part of the kind of late NDAA push. But we'll see if that even happens. We'll see. One to keep an eye on, of course. But don't be too disheartened by that. And I look forward to seeing if Carl Nell definitely follows up on those comments. Really fascinating interview. Moving on, folks. Interesting American alchemy interview. Fascinating interview this week with Jesse Michaels and former U.S. Air Force member Dan Sherman. And if you've got a couple of hours, it's one I definitely recommend picking up and watching. Sherman is the author of the book Above Black, where he first detailed his experiences working within a secret NSA program called Project. Preserve Destiny. You may have seen that on social media mentioned over the last week or two in the book. And in this new interview, Sherman claims that during his Air Force service in the early 1990s, he was trained to telepathically decode ET transmissions through tones and light patterns on a screen. He says the story goes back even further, that his mother's medical pregnancy was actually part of an alien genetic management program designed to create people capable of psychic communication. Furthermore, Sherman describes being taken by unmarked van to a secret underground facility, given pills before each session, and taught to move sine waves on a monitor using only his thoughts. After days of repetition, he experiences what he calls the click, a moment where his mind and the machine become one. He believes that his training was co-engineered with non-human intelligences, blending human electronics with alien consciousness, science, and the ultimate purpose. Well, he was told it was all in preparation for a mysterious future global event. So whether you see it as a covert history or mythic storytelling, it's a compelling piece of what some people might call disclosure theatre. I don't know. I'd love to know your thoughts on that. I'd love to speak to Mr. Sherman. I'll reach out and see if I can get him on the podcast. I think the story certainly has some real grounded elements. And then there are elements of the story which certainly go leaps and bounds beyond where maybe some folks are comfortable with. But isn't that just a UFO topic in conversation? I'd love to know your thoughts on Dan Sherman. In terms of being, can we call him a whistleblower? That's a term that I think gets thrown about often these days that isn't always used correctly. If we use it in the terms of someone coming out to chat about really secretive stuff from the UFO world, yeah, sure, let's call Dan Sherman a whistleblower. What are your thoughts? Because, again, it really seems like an extreme from the David Grushes of the world to the Dan Shermans of the world and everything in between. So, yeah, really interesting. And the link for Jesse Michaels' interview is below, of course. The Age of Disclosure, finally, after the last news update when I said we had news coming soon. The soon is now. The soonening has happened. So, The Age of Disclosure, I'm going to play the trailer for it first, folks, just so you hear some of the clips of what it's all about. We've had repeated instances of something operating in the airspace over restricted nuclear facilities, and it's not ours. These are otherworldly things that are performing maneuvers that haven't been seen. I have seen with my own eyes non-human craft and non-human beings. This is so secret. There have been very few people in our entire government that have been allowed or provided access to it. Even presidents have been operating on a need-to-know basis, but that begins to ramp out of control. It's not acceptable to have secret parts of government that no one ever sees. People have been hurt protecting and hiding this information. Some people claim it would cost them their lives if they spoke out about these things. You had information being locked away that could change the trajectory for species. So, we have a release date for The Age of Disclosure, the 21st of November. We also have some details as to the limited theatrical release, where you can go and see it. I'll read that out in just a second. And we also have pricing. Now, the price is going to be $24.99 to buy in Ultra HD or HD. That's £18.61 on Amazon. It's also, I've just had this confirmed online when I've noticed, there will also be a rental option soon after. But the pricing is higher due to it being the price of movies when they're being streamed in theatres as well. So, yeah. So, let me read the About section from the website. The Age of Disclosure is an explosive documentary that reveals an 80-year global cover-up of non-human intelligent life and a secret war among major nations to reverse-engineer advanced technology of non-human origin. Featuring testimony from 34 US government, military and intelligence community insiders, the film exposes the profound stakes for the future of humanity. On November 21st, 2025, the film will be released theatrically at the Angelica Film Centre in New York City, Lumiere Cinema in Los Angeles and Angelica Theatre in Washington, D.C. and a worldwide premiere on Prime Video for purchase and rental. Pre-ordering is now available on Prime Video and theatrical tickets can be purchased in advance at the Angelica Film Centre website. The timely documentary arrives amid historic bipartisan congressional hearings on UAP and the proposed UAP Disclosure Act led by Senators Schumer, Rounds and Gillibrand calling for transparency about what the government knows about UAP and non-human intelligent life. The film was produced and directed by Dan Farrar. So, now that's an updated about section, given it's got release dates and locations, streaming service, etc. But that last part, talking about the proposed UAPDA, that has essentially failed and we're now hoping for a new standalone bill, like I mentioned, to potentially be passed on the floor. However, I still can't see that this film hasn't missed its window for whatever reason. And we may find that out, we may not. However, something that it does have going on in a good way is once it has been announced, a lot of major social media influencers and celebrities all share tweets about it. Now, I imagine that's PR, with many of them not actually having an interest necessarily in UFOs. But folks involved calling in big favours, etc. I saw Pat McAfee and Megyn Kelly and others, accounts with 3, 4, 5 million followers, tweeting about this. Now, that's a good thing. Hopefully, it gets traction. But the price for me, for your average Joe, is potentially prohibitive. And of course, when the rental price comes out, I personally don't have much of a call to buy a documentary or a film on streaming to keep because everything goes up eventually on Netflix or Amazon Prime for general view tends to be anyway. I'm happy just to rent. I will buy this and I will report on it for folks out there who may not have the chance to watch it or may not want to watch it necessarily, and I'll give it a real fair view. Now, from what we expect, given what I've been told from folks who have seen it, and if you've missed those shows, folks, with a couple of listeners who actually saw Age of Disclosure back in March and April at South by Southwest, go and check those out on the podcast feed. But yeah, I think it's going to be a dry documentary where it's just talking head after talking head. You know, is the general public going to fork out £24.99, £19 for a documentary about UFOs that doesn't even have any UFO clips in it? And I'm talking about the audience this is meant to be aimed at, I'm presuming. I don't know. A couple of quick polls over on X and Discord. So on the Discord, so 16% of folks said they will buy. 29% of folks said they're not going to buy. 41% said they will watch but not buy. And I'll let you look into that how you will. And yeah, and 13% was other people waiting on rental, price going down, etc. But a lot of comments around the price in there, folks. And I'll also confirm over on Twitter, I also posted a little poll over there. And there's some interesting results. Not too dissimilar, to be honest. Where are we? Yeah, so Age of Disclosure, I'd said it was going to cost what it's going to cost. 42% on X said they'll be buying. 37% won't be buying. 20% other. And again, the comments are very much along the lines of they want to see the price come down. That price is too high for what it is. But I think, folks, and I really want this to do well. You know, for me, I want this to get out to the public more and more. But this is what happens when you give it its premiere at South by Southwest. There's a big hype around it. And then a vacuum of six to seven months afterwards. I'd be really, really genuinely interested to know what the strategy was behind this or if it was something that was, you know, keeping it from coming out perhaps a few months ago when there was more of a groundswell around this. But one month to go, 21st of November, I would encourage folks, if they can, to pick it up and show that kind of support. Or at least go over onto Amazon and like the video, stuff like that. And let me know if you plan on getting a copy. I'd be intrigued to know your thoughts. And finally, I have to end on a 3i Atlas update, don't I? Because why not? Everybody else is. But Avi Loeb has just been on News Nation talking about the mysterious would-be comet slash alien spacecraft. He talked about the size of the object being a thousand times bigger than what we're used to seeing, the odd trajectory, its pathway along the planets, and of course, the anti-tail of the comet facing away, or sorry, towards the sun rather than away from it. You know, he says we're still waiting on NASA releasing images and data that they have that, of course, is driving conspiracy. But I love that Avi Loeb is happy to speculate, saying, you know, what the object does when it gets close to the sun in the coming weeks could give us a real clue as to its origin, depending on how it moves, if indeed it moves. Some important dates are that end of October for the pass near the sun, and then it'll be at its closest point to Earth in mid-December of this year. But like Avi says, we should concentrate on the data with this one. There is a lot of misinformation and dodgy thumbnails, and people, I've seen people on YouTube doing shows on this every single day. I don't understand how, and if I'm missing out on that, apologies, folks, but I don't see there's an update on this one every single day. But Avi says, and I agree, concentrate on the data with that one. There's a lot of misinformation. But it's exciting, and I really hope that comes across, not always with a Scottish accent, but this should be an exciting time for the UFO subject. Avi says it could be prosaic, but it could also be an alien mothership releasing small probes throughout the solar system. And think back, folks, to that first story I shared on this update with the work of Dr. Vareil and Transients. Are these objects in orbit out there in the solar system far more common than we know or we are led to believe? It's just that we caught this one, and we caught it early. Technology is improving. Technology is advancing. Members of the public are getting access to this kind of stuff, and the space photography is getting so much better. You know, like I've always said, once you get Kanye on an excursion to the moon, some would say he's been there already mentally. You know, really interesting times. And, folks, I will leave that update there for I am off to the Sol Symposium this weekend in Lake Maggiore in Italy. I'm going from Friday the 24th of October back home Monday the 27th. But it's a good time to join and support the podcast with a membership via YouTube, Patreon, Apple, Spotify, or even just a buy me a coffee to get me a couple of coffees while I'm off in Italy. But you support the show so well if you're listening to this already. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Go over there at the Sol Foundation and nab some interviews or some soundbites from them. While I'm there, I'm going to provide updates, and my plan to do it, folks, is each day to let you know what can happen during the day as much as I can, to give you a flavour of the conversation, the tone, you know, anything that excites me coming from it and otherwise. But you can register for the live stream to watch the event, and I'll put that link in the description. There is a cost for that, folks. Subscribe and leave a comment. It makes a huge difference to the videos and the reach and the algorithm. And as always, folks, I will speak to you all very, very soon. That's all for this episode of That UFO Podcast. Thank you so much for listening and watching. If you enjoyed the show, please follow, subscribe, and leave a rating or review wherever you get your podcasts. It really helps others find the show. If you're watching on YouTube, hit like, subscribe, and turn on notifications so you don't miss future episodes. You can also support the show directly and get early access, add free episodes and bonus content on Patreon, or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube memberships. All the links are over at thatufopodcast.com or in the show description below, along with merchandise and more. Don't forget, you can also pick up a copy of my book, Atlas of Unidentified Flying Objects, available now in all good bookstores and through online retailers, including Amazon. Big thank you again to all of you for listening and tuning in. Until next time, keep looking up. You never know what you might see.