Aliens, Leprechauns, and Congress

“Has the government investigated leprechauns 25 times? I don’t think so.”

Kent Heckenlively isn’t a UFO hobbyist. He’s a lawyer. Not someone who lives on Reddit at 3 AM deciphering blurry lights above Montana.

In my latest podcast, we talk about his new book, Catastrophic Disclosure: The Deep State, Aliens, and the Truth.

Kent’s written around 20 books, and all of them have been “normal” topics—corruption in science, medicine, Big Tech, the CIA, federal agencies.

This book is different.

It’s not a UFO hype book. It’s not “I saw lights in the sky.”

It’s more like: Here’s what Congress was told, here’s what pilots saw, here’s what whistleblowers say, and here’s why the government’s explanations make no sense whatsoever.

The book’s core idea: The cover-ups are stranger than the UFOs.

Here’s what I learned:

Everyone Has a Friend Who’s Seen Something

I start the conversation with the obvious: “What do you believe?”

Kent says he’s never seen anything. No missing time, no abductions, no mysterious probes.

But then he says something you can maybe relate to: “Every fifth or sixth person will tell you a story they’ve never told before.”

Try this:

Say “UFOs” at a dinner party. Someone there will pull you aside and whisper about a triangle-shaped thing that followed their car in 1998.

Does Kent claim to know what these things are? No.

In the book, Kent shows how much effort has gone into nobody figuring it out.

He documents 80 years of bad explanations, blocked testimony, missing files, terrified whistleblowers, and Congress getting stonewalled by the agencies they’re supposed to oversee.

So Bad It Made Him Write a Book

Here’s what made him decide to write the book…

He read the 2024 AARO historical UFO report—the official government summary—and he basically said, "This is garbage."

My favorite example: They list 26 explanations for why normal people think they saw UFOs. #1 explanation: “The Manhattan Project.”

“I’m not a trained observer,” he said, “but I can tell the difference between a mushroom cloud and a flying saucer.”

And then the weirdest part: The report says the government has investigated UFOs 25 different times.

“Has the government investigated leprechauns 25 times? No.”

If UFOs were nonsense, the government wouldn’t keep revisiting them for 80 years. So what’s actually happening?

Were There Any First-Hand Witnesses?

Kent points me to Dylan Burchett—a military police officer who did claim he saw things himself.

Large, triangular craft lifting off near a NASA hangar. Multiple sightings. Multiple personnel confirming.

NASA, by the way, hasn’t built rockets in decades.

So… what craft?

Kent doesn’t say “alien.” He just says: a lot of people saw something, and the explanations suck.

My Takeaway

I still don’t know what to think.

Kent’s not a sensationalist. He’s careful. I keep a “85/15 rule”: 85% open-minded, 15% skeptical.

I like that approach.

There’s clearly something going on:

 — pilots see things,

 — Congress is frustrated,

 — whistleblowers risk careers,

 — and the government publishes reports so bad they’re insulting.

But I still stand in that middle place:

There’s something going on—something the government can’t or won’t explain—but the truth is harder, stranger, and more complicated than either side wants to admit.

Click here for the full conversation. No matter what you think about UFOs, it’s worth a listen.