So with the post about John reportedly covering UFOs on tonight’s episode of Last Week Tonight I decided to do a little digging. The person who first posted about it yesterday on Twitter (@mrjeffknox) posted ~30min ago about how he found out that was the topic of the show from Greg Eghigian, who apparently consulted for the show according to Knox.
I’ve never heard this name come up in the community so I did a little digging. He’s a Professor of History at Penn State who has written two papers relating to UFOs. The first I wasn’t able to find for free online with a quick search: “‘A Transatlantic Buzz’: Flying Saucers, Extraterrestrials, and America in Postwar Germany,” Journal of Transatlantic Studies, 12 (2014): 282-303.
The second, however, I was able to find: “Making UFOs Make Sense: Ufology, Science, and the History of Their Mutual Misunderstanding,” Public Understanding of Science, 26 (2017): 612-626.
I haven’t gotten through the entire thing, but the conclusion is interesting and I suggest reading it as it is difficult to summarize. But it is very definitely not anti-UFO, more a recognition that both believers and academics / scientists don’t see eye to eye and that is the fault of both sides.
This Professor being consulted for the show indicates to me that, if this indeed is the topic of tonight’s show, that John will probably provide a quite nuanced take and it likely will not be dunking on the UAP community even if it takes (presumably data-backed) shots at particular people or incidents. Perhaps examining why certain events can be disproved and curious about why others can’t.
We’ll know soon, but John and his team are meticulous about research so I suspect it will be interesting nonetheless.
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