Tim Marchman: What about you, Makena?
Makena Kelly: I feel like I have this folk story in my head, and maybe it’s real, I need to check, but of Jimmy Carter upon entering office, he saw some UFO files and wept, and he never said anything about it again.
Tim Marchman: I believe I’ve heard this too.
Makena Kelly: Yeah, and I don’t know if it’s real. I just tried to do some searching. And thinking about Trump finding these things out, I don’t know if he would release them. I wouldn’t be optimistic.
Tim Marchman: I don’t believe they’re going to release anything because he was already president and did not release the material in question. I believe that what the secret files would show if declassified is that the US engaged in a cover-up of Lee Harvey Oswald and his relationship to the Soviet Union in fears that if it were made public, it would lead to a nuclear war. And that much of the subsequent cover-up has been a cover-up of the cover-up. And I believe that the UFO files would show that extraterrestrial biological entities crashed in New Mexico in the 1940s and led the US government on a voyage of discovery about the nature of the universe, that includes aliens having created well-known religious figures throughout human history as guides to give humans instructions on how not to damage their bodies which are containers for souls that aliens are harvesting for energy. This has been the theory, at least that many UFO proponents have been putting out there since the 1980s, and I of course firmly believe it’s true, maybe Donald Trump will confirm that. Makena and David, thank you so much for being here. When we come back, it’s time for our last ever Conspiracy of the Week.
Tim Marchman: Welcome back to WIRED Politics Lab. This is Conspiracy of the Week, that part of the show where our guests bring their favorite conspiracy theories and I will be judging in Leah’s place. The winner this week gets to brag about it forever, so I hope both of you brought something good. Makena, let’s start with you.
Makena Kelly: Yeah, I’m glad that you brought up aliens and the JFK assassination because I’m going to complete the trifecta with this. One of the conspiracy theories that I think has gotten its time in the sky, shall we say, this year, has been chemtrails. These are the trails that planes leave as they fly in the sky, apparently spreading all of these chemicals and ruining and poisoning us, when really it is just water vapor. Just earlier this year with the hurricane in North Carolina there were conspiracies about chemtrails taking place there. Lawmakers in Tennessee passed a bill having to do with something and regulating chemtrails, crazy stuff. But this week, oh my gosh, I lost it when I saw this. There was what appeared to be a satirical joke online about a Lufthansa pilot denying to spray chemtrails on his son while piloting a plane. He took a grandstand apparently and said, “I will not do it.” And the chemtrail, I guess we can call it the chemtrail community, was really thrilled with it. And it’s not true, it was a joke. Yeah.