Ninjas Are Butterflies 180 - Payne Lindsey on Real UFO Encounters, Evidence of Aliens, & Truth
Feb 6, 2026
Payne Lindsey, creator of High Strange and Up and Vanished, is an investigative storyteller of unexplained phenomena. He teases new seasons, recounts eerie firsthand sightings and cattle mutilations, and reflects on interviewing legends like Jacques Vallée and Whitley Strieber. Conversations sweep from credibility and memory to government secrecy, production choices, and the strange intersections of belief and perception.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
UFOs As Serious Investigations
- Payne frames UFOs as one of the largest unsolved mysteries and aims to treat cases like true crime investigations.
- He deliberately avoided tinfoil approaches to reach skeptics and present credible evidence.
Meeting Travis Walton In Person
- Payne recounts meeting Travis Walton and sensing Walton's reluctance and sincerity about his five-day disappearance.
- Payne believed Walton's distress and thinks something unexplainable occurred to him.
Cattle Mutilation Encounters
- Payne describes investigating cattle mutilations and speaking with ranchers who reported surgical-precision removals and drained blood.
- Ranchers suspected cults but admitted they didn't know the why or who.
