When I was a teenager, I was not impervious to the charms of a sophomoreic popular

punk trio that went by the name Blink-Win-E2.

I wasn't alone.

The band's third album, Enema of the State, sold something like 15 million copies, making

them one of the biggest bands on the planet at the turn of the century.

The record came out almost 22 years ago to the day on June 1st, 1999.

It featured songs about girls, about parties, about being super immature around girls at parties,

and one song about aliens.

As a 14 year old, it didn't strike me as particularly strange to hear one of Blink's songwriters,

Tom DeLong, confirmed the existence of extraterrestrial life, but things did take a surprising turn

some years later.

Tom DeLong would leave Blink-Win-E2.

He'd eventually found an organization dedicated to studying UFOs, and that organization founded

by a guy who once wrote a song called Dissentary Gary, would become credible, so credible that

it was cited in a sort of game-changing article about UFOs that ran in the New York Times

a few years ago.

And anytime now, sort of because of that article in the New York Times, the federal government

is expected to release a trove of data on UFOs.

It'll be the first time such information will be seriously discussed in public by the United

States government in decades.

UFOs are having a real serious moment in America.

I mean, even in just the last couple of weeks, it's been just an explosion of attention

...