Why Everyone Is Talking About UAPs
What should you think about the government’s new disclosures on alien encounters?
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For most of American history, UFOs were relegated to the fringes of public discourse—the domain of conspiracy theorists, tabloid headlines, and late-night radio hosts. Journalists, politicians, and other “serious” people treated the topic with skepticism, if not outright derision. Even asking questions about UFOs, extraterrestrial life, or non-human intelligence would invite ridicule.
That is beginning to change.
In recent weeks, the federal government has released hundreds of pages of previously classified records related to Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, or UAPs—the term government agencies now use instead of UFOs. The disclosures include military reports, intelligence assessments, witness accounts, videos, photographs, and historical records documenting decades of government interest in unexplained aerial encounters. The Pentagon has described the effort as an unprecedented transparency initiative, with additional materials expected to be released on a rolling basis.
Critics have questioned the timing of the disclosures, arguing that the UAP releases serve as a distraction from more pressing issues, including inflation, the rising cost of living, ongoing conflicts abroad, and the continuing fallout from the Epstein files. For advocates of disclosure, however, the document dump represents something very different: long-awaited confirmation that the government has taken the subject far more seriously than it has publicly acknowledged.
Despite the sheer volume of material, the releases so far have offered more intrigue than answers. The documents contain unexplained incidents, unusual witness accounts, and glimpses into how government agencies have approached the phenomenon over the years. They do not provide definitive proof of extraterrestrial life, nor have they resolved the debate surrounding UAPs.
But there are undoubtedly examples of phenomena that cannot be explained. For example, a newly released report details a 2022 sighting over Colorado in which military personnel observed what witnesses described as a massive, stationary object resembling an irregularly shaped potato hovering above Cheyenne Mountain before disappearing. Government analysts later proposed possible optical explanations for the sighting, but ultimately concluded they had “low confidence” in those theories.
The significance of the disclosures may not lie in any particular document, but in the way the conversation has shifted. What was once confined to internet forums and fringe conventions is now being debated in congressional hearings, discussed by intelligence officials, and addressed by sitting and former presidents. The question is no longer whether UAPs deserve investigation. It is just how much the government knows, and President Trump is willing to share.
That shift was at the center of Shane Smith’s recent conversation with filmmaker Dan Farah, director of The Age of Disclosure, a documentary that follows those pushing to uncover exactly what the government knows. Farah agrees that the changing conversation has less to do with new evidence than with who is discussing it. His goal with The Age of Disclosure was to create what he describes as the most credible documentary yet made on the subject by focusing exclusively on military officials, intelligence personnel, lawmakers, and government insiders with direct knowledge of the issue. That credibility has helped push the topic further into the mainstream.
Farah describes the current moment not as a single revelation but as part of a significant historical process. Disclosure, he argues, is unlikely to arrive in one dramatic announcement. Instead, it is unfolding gradually through ongoing congressional investigations, whistleblower testimony, hearings, official reports, documentaries, and public conversations. “That’s why I call the movie The Age of Disclosure,” Farah said. “It wasn’t the moment of disclosure. It’s this age, this process.”
The government says additional records will continue to be released. But regardless of what future disclosures reveal, the most significant change may already have occurred.
The age of disclosure is here.
Most of the recent releases where neither new nor particularly revealing. None provided an avenue of investigation that would take any of these case beyond the point of being "a good story." The 47 regime cannot demonstrate competence in any area of governance and needs these sorts of smoke and mirrors events to deflect attention from its wars, failures, and corruption.