JASON COLAVITO

In Brief: James Fox Holds UFO News Conference in DC to Promote New Film

1/20/2026

Filmmaker James Fox picked the wrong time to hold a “major” UFO press conference at the National Press Club in Washington to promote his new documentary. The 11 AM event was quickly overshadowed by Pres. Trump’s rambling afternoon White House briefing room news conference, which at least had the virtue of being current. Fox’s event promised “first-hand witnesses, medical experts, government officials, and U.S. insiders to present new evidence related to alleged non-human encounters and crash-retrieval programs.” Unfortunately, the “new” material was just a rehash of the supposed 1996 UFO crash in Varginha, Brazil, the subject of Fox’s new film (his second on the incident). Brazilian media thoroughly debunked the Varginha encounter in a three-episode documentary that aired recently on TV Globo, one of the country’s biggest networks. According to the program, the ufologist who initially promoted the story now admits the alien encounter never happened. UFO-obsessed Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) was also in attendance to give the movie promotion the borrowed air of officialdom.

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Graham Hancock Claims Ancient Secret Society “Is Involved in Making Civilizations”

1/19/2026

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In a new interview with Randall Carlson, Graham Hancock claimed that “secret societies” survived the Great Flood, maintain the traditions of the antediluvian world, and continue to influence civilization today. “The mysteries in our past that remain to be exposed do concern secret societies,” Hancock said. “They do concern a behind-the-scenes organization that is somehow involved in making civilizations.” Carlson and Hancock agree that “someone” had “foreknowledge” of the Flood and therefore took precautions to save knowledge.

Graham Hancock reveals that a secret society of elites knows the truth about an ancient flood that wiped out civilization.

But they don’t just know the truth.

They survived the flood.

They’ve controlled civilization for thousands of years.

And they’re preparing to control… pic.twitter.com/KDDxzRlxQt
— Holden Culotta (@Holden_Culotta) January 19, 2026

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Review of The UnXplained S08E01 “Impossible Ancient Structures”

1/17/2026

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It’s hard to believe that William Shatner is 94 years old, or that he is currently the oldest person hosting a cable TV series, but the eternally young Star Trek star is both things—and launching a news season of The UnXplained, its eighth, the same week that Trump advisor Stephen Miller appealed to the actor to “save” Star Trek from “wokeness,” fundamentally misunderstanding the humanist nature of Star Trek. Back on cable TV, The UnXplained, sister program to Ancient Aliens, with whom it shares both a network and a production company, opened its new season with an episode about archaeology, so I figured it was a good time to check in. Shatner, after all, has been promoting pseudohistory about aliens and ancient lost civilizations since the 1970s, so I was curious how his show would treat “impossible” ancient structures supposedly too large or too perfect for humans to have built without modern technology.

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Review of Ancient Aliens S22E01 “Skulls of the Gods”

1/16/2026

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After a break of more than two months, Ancient Aliens returned Thursday night, as it has each January, for the start of a new season, its twenty-second over seventeen calendar years, counting from the 2009 pilot episode. I suppose that it is only appropriate that Ancient Aliens returns the same week that its guiding spirit, Erich von Däniken, died at the age of ninety. As long as the series, which was originally an adaptation of Chariots of the Gods, remains on the air, it’s almost like von Däniken is still with us, lying and fabricating shamelessly. Unlike the past two seasons, this one opens with an “original” episode rather than a “Top Ten” clip show. I suppose that is something like progress. On the other hand, the series began its new season with a rehash of familiar material about elongated skulls that the show has repeated for a decade and a half. In a week where Giorgio Tsoukalos was actively posting on X that the supposed “alien” mummies of Peru were nothing but desecrated human bodies made into “dolls,” it is a bit ironic that he is also appearing here to declare some skulls from Peru are in fact extraterrestrial. But that’s where we stand.

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Remembering Erich von Däniken, 1935 – 2026

1/12/2026

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When Erich von Däniken died in Interlaken, Switzerland, at the age of 90 on January 10, I was offline for the weekend. My parents had come to visit their grandson after a major snowstorm had delayed their usual Christmas trip, and we were busy celebrating a somewhat belated holiday. I did not find out about the ancient astronaut theorist’s death until twelve hours after his daughter announced it in conjunction with his disciple, Giorgio Tsoukalos.

It was, perhaps, appropriate that my parents were in town when Erich von Däniken died since it was due to my father that I had any idea who von Däniken was in the first place.

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Erich von Däniken Dead at 90

1/11/2026

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Ancient astronaut theorist Erich von Däniken has died in Switzerland at age 90. The author of Chariots of the Gods (1968) and dozens of other bestselling books died of natural causes in a Swiss hospital, according to his daughter Cornelia. In reporting the controversial author's death and the 70 million copies he sold, the Associated Press credited him with "spawning a literary niche in which fact and fantasy were mixed together against all historical and scientific evidence," In addition to his books and his failed ancient astronaut theme park, von Däniken's legacy includes the adaptation of Chariots of the Gods in 1973 that launched the In Search of... franchise and the adaptation of Chariots of the Gods in 2009 that launched the Ancient Aliens franchise.

I will have a longer write-up about von Däniken and his dubious influence on history and pop culture later in the week.

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In Brief: Pentagon Report Notes Pattern of Grusch Misconduct, Behavior Issues

1/9/2026

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John Greenewald of The Black Vault obtained a highly redacted copy of the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General’s 2025 report on the whistleblower reprisal claim made by UFO advocate David Grusch. The report, which redacts Grusch’s name but aligns with the timeframe and content of Grusch’s allegations and the subsequent investigation, examined Grusch’s 2022 accusation that he was denied access to classified material and lost his security clearance because of his involvement in ufology.

The DOD IG concluded that Grusch’s UFO claims and reporting of supposed UFO-related wrongdoing did not contribute to the revocation of his security clearances, which instead occurred because of a “pattern” of redacted “misconduct” and “behavior issues” outside of his UFO claims. Of especial note, as Greenewald points out, is the Pentagon’s reaction to Grusch’s supposed UFO whistleblower activity: “On what grounds does [the Complainant] have for a whistleblower case. He didn’t blow any whistle or bring to light any info. What’s his grounds?” You can read Greenewald’s extensive writeup about the report and what it means, as well as the full document release, here.

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Human Sacrifice and the Death of Antinous

1/8/2026

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In Ancient World Magazine, British researcher Andrew Michael Chugg has a new piece about the death of Hadrian’s lover Antinous and his subsequent promotion to a constellation in Ptolemy’s Almagest. Most of the article concerns the early modern history of the now-forgotten constellation of Antinous, which is beyond my interest or scope. But Chugg promoted his piece on social media as the “unexpurgated” story of Antinous, so it is worth giving a bit of consideration to the evidence for Antinous’s life and death.

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Object Claiming to Be So-Called "London Artifact" Sold in Online Auction

1/7/2026

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An object claiming to be one of the most famous “out of place artifacts,” or OOPARTS, in the ancient mysteries genre went up for sale on January 5 at an online auction and brought a surprisingly low $330. However, the object is almost certainly a fake.

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Canadian Documentary Series Searches for Viking Explorers in Minnesota, Elsewhere

1/6/2026

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On Sunday, Super Channel in Canada launched a new history-themed reality TV show called Quest for the Lost Vikings in which David Collette and Johann Sigurdson of the Explorer’s Club and the Fara Heim team travel across Canada and the United States in search of evidence that the Norse explored the interior of North America far beyond the settlements in Vinland credited to them. The eight-part series, which is airing in 70 countries (but not the U.S.) sees the two men visit the Kensington Runestone in Minnesota and other hoax stones in the hope of proving they are monuments to what publicity materials call the men’s “Viking roots.”