It‘s Probably (not) Aliens!

The Clearest UFO Photo of 2026 Costs $12 at Party City

Tristan flies solo while Scott's on paternity leave to bring you an emergency episode about the "clearest UFO photograph of 2026"; a viral image of a sharp, metallic object over Acapulco that got AI-enhanced, scored 97% authentic by some unnamed tool, and landed in a news cycle where the President had just promised the alien files were coming. It's a $12 Party City balloon bouquet shaped like a movie clapperboard. But the balloon is the easy part. The harder question is what happens when AI upscaling can turn any blurry nothing into convincing 4K evidence, when detector scores give your brain permission to stop thinking, and when the platforms pushing this stuff can't tell the difference between wonder and truth, and don't need to, because both generate clicks. Tristan breaks down the optics, the AI, and the disclosure hype that sent a foil balloon around the world, walks through a practical framework for evaluating viral images, and talks about why the real Acapulco, still dealing with earthquakes, hurricanes, and cartel violence, deserves more of the attention that went to whatever was floating above it. Get new episodes early and support the show on Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/probsnotaliens] and Nebula! [https://nebula.tv/probablynotaliens] Subscribe to It's Probably (not) Aliens for weekly episodes about cool ancient history! And give us a 5-star review if you have the time. It really helps us out! Tristan Johnson Bluesky [https://bsky.app/profile/stepback.nebula.tv] | Twitter [https://twitter.com/TristanPEJ] | YouTube [http://www.stepbackhistory.com/] Scott Niswander Bluesky [https://bsky.app/profile/scottniswander.bsky.social] | Twitter [https://twitter.com/scottniswander] | YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/user/NerdSyncProductions] Follow the show on Bluesky [https://bsky.app/profile/probsnotaliens.bsky.social] or Twitter [https://twitter.com/ProbsNotAliens] for more updates! Ask us questions and send us topics to talk about at ProbsNotAliens.com [https://probsnotaliens.com/] Music by Rod Kim [https://rodkim.com/] | Cover art by Skutch [https://twitter.com/Skutchdraws] See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy [https://art19.com/privacy] and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info [https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info].

Magnets: How Do They (Not) Work?

Ancient Aliens claims the 3,000 standing stones at Carnac in Brittany are quartz-rich geomagnetic batteries that beam GPS signals to extraterrestrials. In this episode, Tristan takes us deeper into the actual physics of magnetism than this podcast has possibly ever gone, and it turns out the Earth's magnetic field is so weak your fridge magnets are millions of times more powerful, quartz can't hold a charge any more than your aluminum can, and granite is about as conductive as a floor tile. We also untangle why a Pythagorean triangle at a site with 3,000 rocks is statistically inevitable, and why the real question isn't "what did Carnac do" but why Ancient Aliens can't accept that sometimes people just build things to feel something. Plus: the MRI machine that can never be turned off, the case for a really long cable to space, and a branded non-alcoholic IPA we desperately need someone to make for us. Get new episodes early and support the show on Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/probsnotaliens] and Nebula! [https://nebula.tv/probablynotaliens] Subscribe to It's Probably (not) Aliens for weekly episodes about cool ancient history! And give us a 5-star review if you have the time. It really helps us out! Tristan Johnson Bluesky [https://bsky.app/profile/stepback.nebula.tv] | Twitter [https://twitter.com/TristanPEJ] | YouTube [http://www.stepbackhistory.com/] Scott Niswander Bluesky [https://bsky.app/profile/scottniswander.bsky.social] | Twitter [https://twitter.com/scottniswander] | YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/user/NerdSyncProductions] Follow the show on Bluesky [https://bsky.app/profile/probsnotaliens.bsky.social] or Twitter [https://twitter.com/ProbsNotAliens] for more updates! Ask us questions and send us topics to talk about at ProbsNotAliens.com [https://probsnotaliens.com/] Music by Rod Kim [https://rodkim.com/] | Cover art by Skutch [https://twitter.com/Skutchdraws] | Edited by Stanford [http://podcls.com/] See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy [https://art19.com/privacy] and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info [https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info].

Coral Castle: Women Always Be Wanting You To Make Megaliths

A Latvian immigrant, barely five feet tall, builds one of the strangest tourist attractions in North America out of coral stone, and Ancient Aliens can only think to credit aliens with it. In this role-reversed birthday episode, Scott takes the research chair to investigate Coral Castle, the sprawling stone garden in Homestead, Florida that features astronomical alignments, stone rocking chairs, and a nine-ton gate a child can push open. Ancient Aliens made seven claims about it in seven minutes. Only one of them is true. Along the way, we discover that the show's romantic "jilted lover" narrative was invented by a jeweler in the 1950s, that the "mysterious black box" was just the top of a tripod, that there's literal video footage of Ed using pulleys (which Ancient Aliens apparently didn't watch), and that Ed's own book contains some of the most unhinged things we've ever read on this podcast; and we've read Chariots of the Gods. We close by examining the "lone genius" myth, why romanticizing isolation is dangerous, and why community is, dare we say it, communing-ism. Get new episodes early and support the show on Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/probsnotaliens] and Nebula! [https://nebula.tv/probablynotaliens] Subscribe to It's Probably (not) Aliens for weekly episodes about cool ancient history! And give us a 5-star review if you have the time. It really helps us out! Tristan Johnson Bluesky [https://bsky.app/profile/stepback.nebula.tv] | Twitter [https://twitter.com/TristanPEJ] | YouTube [http://www.stepbackhistory.com/] Scott Niswander Bluesky [https://bsky.app/profile/scottniswander.bsky.social] | Twitter [https://twitter.com/scottniswander] | YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/user/NerdSyncProductions] Follow the show on Bluesky [https://bsky.app/profile/probsnotaliens.bsky.social] or Twitter [https://twitter.com/ProbsNotAliens] for more updates! Ask us questions and send us topics to talk about at ProbsNotAliens.com [https://probsnotaliens.com/] Music by Rod Kim [https://rodkim.com/] | Cover art by Skutch [https://twitter.com/Skutchdraws] | Edited by Stanford [https://www.youtube.com/@CaptainsLogSupplemental] See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy [https://art19.com/privacy] and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info [https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info].

Scott Is Tired So His Pregnant Wife Is The Host Now

Scott's down for the count, so his nearly-third-trimester wife Emily Pilat steps up to the mic. (This episode actually is coming out on the due date.) Together with Tristan, they travel to the Armenian highlands to investigate Karahunj, a site of 223 standing stones that conspiracy theorists call "Armenian Stonehenge." The claim? The 80 holes drilled into these stones are precisely aligned with the constellation Cygnus as it appeared 12,000 years ago, suggesting either alien contact or a lost ice-age civilization that taught Bronze Age Armenians impossible astronomy. The reality involves a graveyard, some goats, and a guy with a Geocities website endorsed by Graham Hancock. Along the way, they unpack the Texas Sharpshooter fallacy, talk about why a Nobel Prize–winning physicist promoting archaeology doesn't automatically make him right, visit the worst website on the modern internet not owned by Elon Musk, and grapple with the uncomfortable question of what happens when legitimate failures in institutional science create vacuums that grifters are all too happy to fill. Plus: Canadian parliamentary drama, Pontius Pilate's descendant works at a Christian nonprofit, and why ancient people drew so many penises on walls. Content Warning: Discussion of radicalization, political violence, January 6th insurrection, and the exploitation of vulnerable populations. Get new episodes early and support the show on Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/probsnotaliens] and Nebula! [https://nebula.tv/probablynotaliens] Subscribe to It's Probably (not) Aliens for weekly episodes about cool ancient history! And give us a 5-star review if you have the time. It really helps us out! Tristan Johnson Bluesky [https://bsky.app/profile/stepback.nebula.tv] | Twitter [https://twitter.com/TristanPEJ] | YouTube [http://www.stepbackhistory.com/] Scott Niswander Bluesky [https://bsky.app/profile/scottniswander.bsky.social] | Twitter [https://twitter.com/scottniswander] | YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/user/NerdSyncProductions] Follow the show on Bluesky [https://bsky.app/profile/probsnotaliens.bsky.social] or Twitter [https://twitter.com/ProbsNotAliens] for more updates! Ask us questions and send us topics to talk about at ProbsNotAliens.com [https://probsnotaliens.com/] Music by Rod Kim [https://rodkim.com/] | Cover art by Skutch [https://twitter.com/Skutchdraws] | Edited by Stanford [https://www.youtube.com/@CaptainsLogSupplemental] See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy [https://art19.com/privacy] and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info [https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info].

Sacsayhuamán: The One Where We Solve the Male Loneliness Epidemic

Ancient Aliens claims the megalithic stonework at Sacsayhuamán in Peru is so precise it must have been built with alien laser technology or by a lost advanced civilization, because obviously the Inca couldn't possibly have figured out how to move big rocks on their own. They absolutely could, and they did it through sophisticated engineering, organized labour systems, and generations of accumulated knowledge. We explain the actual construction techniques (leverage, controlled fracturing, the mit'a labour system), debunk claims of "impossible" precision, and discuss how ancient astronaut theories systematically erase indigenous achievement while sanitizing the very real human cost of empire-building. Also, we spend an unreasonable amount of time obsessed with pronunciation guides, we invent "Pull lotees" as an ancient workout routine, and we learn that Julian Michael is the hero we need but don't deserve. We prove beyond a shadow of a doubt in this one that, despite both being in our 30s, we are still 12. Get new episodes early and support the show on Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/probsnotaliens] and Nebula! [https://nebula.tv/probablynotaliens] Subscribe to It's Probably (not) Aliens for weekly episodes about cool ancient history! And give us a 5-star review if you have the time. It really helps us out! Tristan Johnson Bluesky [https://bsky.app/profile/stepback.nebula.tv] | Twitter [https://twitter.com/TristanPEJ] | YouTube [http://www.stepbackhistory.com/] Scott Niswander Bluesky [https://bsky.app/profile/scottniswander.bsky.social] | Twitter [https://twitter.com/scottniswander] | YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/user/NerdSyncProductions] Follow the show on Bluesky [https://bsky.app/profile/probsnotaliens.bsky.social] or Twitter [https://twitter.com/ProbsNotAliens] for more updates! Ask us questions and send us topics to talk about at ProbsNotAliens.com [http://probsnotaliens.com/] Music by Rod Kim [https://rodkim.com/] | Cover art by Skutch [https://twitter.com/Skutchdraws] | Edited by Stanford [https://www.youtube.com/@CaptainsLogSupplemental] See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy [https://art19.com/privacy] and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info [https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info].