This is The Guardian.

A former US president saying the words aliens are real is going to raise a lot of eyebrows.

Are aliens real?

They're real, but I haven't seen them and they're not being

kept in Area 51. 81. 86% of astrobiologists agree or strongly agree that there is life out there.

It's just that there haven't been any signs yet. A former US president says aliens are real.

So could Barack Obama be right from the

Guardians today in Focus? This is the latest with me, Lucy Hoff. I'm joined by Madeline Finley, who is the

host and producer of our sister podcast Science Weekly. Maddie, it's so nice to have you in the studio.

And it's safe to say, I was not expecting to talk about whether aliens are real on a Monday.

But here we are.

Former US President Barack Obama has been on a podcast, the podcast of a man called

Brian Tyler Cohen, who seems to have got this mad scoop that Obama thinks aliens are real.

The power of a lightning round questions. I mean,

quite incredible. So, yeah, so he was asked during this quick fire round, are aliens real? And Obama responds. And then he goes on to say, they're not in area 51. There's no underground

facility.

And I haven't seen any evidence of them.

And so, you know, if they are real, there was a conspiracy to keep them from the US president.

Yeah.

And Area 51 is this very secretive kind of military site in the middle of the desert, right,

for which there's this very

rich history of conspiracy theories? Yeah, Area 51 is really fascinating because it's this top

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