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The first installment of a marathon conversation with Bill Birnes, one of the stars of the History Channel's UFO Hunters, noted esoteric author, and publisher of UFO Magazine. We'll have an extended bio/background, where Bill takes us through his evolution in the world of esoterica, from discovering the Philip Corso story to how he ended up at the helm of UFO Magazine, with lots of side roads explored along the way. Plus, in this first half, we'll cover a number of areas related to UFO Hunters, like Bill's reaction to THC's vast marketing of the show centered around him, aspects of how the show gets made, how much influence the network has on the content, and Bill's response to critics who say the show is not "real Ufology." Plus, of course, tons more.
It's a tremendous edition of BoA:Audio with a guest who really fits perfectly into our long-form style, as Bill is allowed to give detailed and unfettered answers to a variety of questions.
Part Two of this interview can be found here.
Full Preview: We kick things off with an extended bio / background, where Bill gives us a thorough retrospective on his evolution in the esoteric field. He talks about his past in academia and his entry into the publishing world. We find out about his move from the East Coast to LA, his early work in the entertainment world and how this led to his meeting Col. Philip Corso. He gives some great first-hand perspective on how his original meeting with Corso was related to POWs and it turned, serendipitously, to Corso's Roswell story.
He details how Corso wasn't the first person to try and reverse-engineer Roswell technology and tells the story of what happened when the government attempted to do so in the 1940's. This leads to Bill telling us about the process of writing The Day After Roswell and the fast deadline to produce the book to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Roswell.
Next, Bill shares the story of how he ended up becoming publisher of UFO Magazine with some fascinating insight into the inner-workings of the magazine business. He tells a great story of how he ended up buying the magazine and talks about where he sees UFO Magazine going in the future.
Returning to the Corso story, Bill tells us about some of Corso's adventures in Rome from his other book The American Who Ruled Rome, which led to Corso's involvement with the Roswell debris. Bill talks about how the Corso story was thoroughly vetted, despite what some of the critics of the story claim. This segues into a truly amazing story from Bill about filming a secret government project in Las Vegas and having his cell phone monitored by the NSA.
We get Bill's perspective on having to defend the Corso story to the critics, especially since Corso has passed away since the publication of the book. He shares some great stories about the inter-personal intrigue within Ufology over the Corso book and why some of the "feuds" over the story developed. Bill talks about the problems of people pirating editions of The Day After Roswell in other countries.
Moving on to UFO Hunters, we start out by finding out how the show first came together. We get Bill's perspective on being a TV personality, especially in light of the massive advertising campaign for UFO Hunters that centers around him. We find out how extensive the network input is on the program and whether or not it belies the long-standing belief in esoteric circles that there is a media cover-up of UFO information. This leads to a side story from Bill about the biggest frustration he has with responding to critics of The Day After Roswell.
Bill talks about how the stylistic decision of "showing the process" on the show has been the source of some consternation in Ufology's circles, especially with regards to the Maury Island episode of the show. We find out about the process by which the program decides on what cases to investigate.
Wrapping up this week's installment, Bill responds to critics in Ufology who contend that UFO Hunters is not "real" Ufology and he explains why there is no such thing as "real" Ufology. Bill tells us about how much input he has on the show after it has been taped and takes us through the post-production process. We get Bill's take on the controversy from January over the UFO Hunters name.
William J. Birnes is a New York Times best-selling author, a magazine publisher, and a New York literary publishing agent who has written and edited over twenty-five books and encyclopedias in the fields of human behavior, true crime, current affairs, history, psychology, business, computing, and the paranormal.
As publisher of the nationally distributed “UFO Magazine,” editor of The UFO Encyclopedia published by Pocket Books, and co-author, with the nation’s top radio talk-show host, George Noory, of A Worker In The Light, Dr. Birnes has added to his list of publications in the UFO/Paranormal field, which include: The Day After Roswell, Unsolved UFO Mysteries, and The Haunting of the Presidents.
William Birnes received his Ph.D. from New York University in 1974 while he was an Instructor of English at Trenton State College in New Jersey where he taught structural linguistics and historical linguistics as well as literature and writing. Professor Birnes was a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow, a Lily Post Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, and a grants award judge for the National Endowment for the Arts.
His website is ufomag.com
Bill Birnes (Part 2)
Ufology The second installment of our marathon conversation with Bill Birnes centers around UFOs, as a whole, and the field of Ufology. We'll find out if Bill ever gets burned out on UFOs, his theories on what is behind the phenomena and how much the government really knows about flying saucers, plus Bill's thoughts on the disclosure movement. We talk about the present online esoteric scene, notably the emergence of the podcast genre, and the troubles of "gatekeepers" in Ufology. We also discuss staple BoA:Audio issues like women in Ufology and young people in Ufology.
It's an ultra-hot edition of BoA:Audio that is sure to generate much discussion in the online esoteric world.