I love The X-Files.

It is one of my favorite TV shows of all time.

As of this recording, it debuted 31 years ago, which, God, makes me feel old.

But here's the thing about The X-Files.

As a TV show, just like the writing, the plotting, it's pretty hit or miss, to be

honest. But as a concept, as a thing that entered my brain, as an 11-year-old, it is near perfection.

It ticks every possible box. It's got rogue FBI agents, black goo, swamp monsters. It's got government conspiracies about

alien abduction, CIA disinformation. It has a group of hackers called the lone gunmen trying to help

them. There's the shadowy cigarette smoking man trying to stop them. It is just, it is everything you could want.

But most importantly, for our

story today, it

had a healthy focus on the

world's most iconic secret

base, Area 51.

So I want you to picture

this as an X-Files

cold open.

No. So I want you to picture this as an X-Files cold open. We see a lone researcher sleeping fitfully.

It's a man in his 60s, he's got a long beard and a ponytail.

He's in a small desert home, way out there, the middle of nowhere, the edge of nothing.

But inside the home, it's filled with radio scanners, computers, and photo equipment.

The scanners are active, listening to this radio chatter from a secret Air Force base, just a few dozen miles away.

...