The bearded man with a pipe watching the mothership land in a 1977 blockbuster was not an actor. He was J. Allen Hynek, an astrophysics professor the U.S. Air Force hired in 1948 to convince the public that flying saucers were weather balloons, meteors, and the planet Venus. This episode traces how a University of Chicago PhD who helped develop the radio proximity fuse during World War II went from relishing the role of debunker to founding the Center for UFO Studies in 1973.

The hosts explain the two frustrations that eroded his skepticism: the caliber of witnesses like military pilots and police officers, and the Air Force mandate that every sighting must have a conventional explanation. They cover the 1953 Robertson Panel's call for a debunking campaign, the 1966 Dexter, Michigan swamp gas press conference that made him a national punchl ...