What happens to the human story if we get conclusive proof we’re not alone?
This week, we’re joined by comedian, actor, writer, and podcaster Michael Ian Black (Wet Hot American Summer, Have I Got News For Your Ears) for a wide-ranging, deeply human conversation about UFOs/UAP, consciousness, and the strange edges of reality.
Michael shares a high school “orb/fireball” sighting that still haunts him.. made even stranger by the fact that the other witnesses don’t remember it. From there, we go big: why the “nuts and bolts” don’t interest him as much as what the phenomenon means for humanity, how testimony (especially near-death experiences) shifted his worldview, and why the most “prosaic” explanations can be just as mind-blowing as the exotic ones.
We also get into: John Keel, missing time and memory gaps, creativity as a kind of receiver, the collective unconscious, and Michael’s growing discomfort with the politics and personalities orbiting “official disclosure.”
If you like your UFO conversations skeptical, curious, and existential—this one’s for you.
Chapters
00:00 – What UFOs would change about humanity
03:03 – Michael’s origin story + the dream he had twice
05:54 – A real sighting in New Jersey… and why nobody else remembers
10:15 – Why he doesn’t care about propulsion or “nuts & bolts”
13:55 – “I don’t know” + what the phenomenon suggests about reality
25:15 – Creativity, the muse, and an “information field”
46:28 – Disclosure feels like a shell game (and why)
57:30 – Schumer/Rubio, the Senate side, and what’s actually interesting
01:00:50 – Peter Thiel / Palantir and the darker incentives
01:16:35 – Religion, history, and rewriting what we think we are
01:17:02 – AI, consciousness, and whether it’s replicable
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Remember to be curious – the universe is bigger than we know!
Episode notes: www.tobehumanshow.com
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Music:
Thunderbird
Culver Drive
Hayden Calnin
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