May 6, 2026 6:00 PM | PROSHANSKY AUDITORIUM, GRADUATE CENTER CUNY. 365 FIFTH AVE. NEW YORK, NY 10016

A presentation by journalist Leslie Kean who has been investigating and reporting on the subject for over 25 years. Q&A moderated by RBI Acting Director, Eli Karetny. Talk followed by a snack reception.

Leslie Kean is an investigative journalist and author of the 2010 New York Times bestseller UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record. She has been covering UFOs/UAP for the mainstream since 2000. Kean and reporter Ralph Blumenthal have contributed articles to The New York Times on UFOs/UAPs for eight years, beginning with a game-changing front page story about a secret Pentagon UFO program in 2017, written with Helene Cooper. Kean’s over two decades of reporting on UFOs was profiled in The New Yorker in 2021. Kean and Blumenthal broke the story of whistleblower David Grusch in The Debrief in 2023, which led to an open Congressional hearing. Kean also helped produce two seasons of the NatGeo documentary series “UFOs: Investigating the Unknown” (2025) streaming on Hulu.

Kean is one of the authors of Glowing Auras and ‘Black Money’: The Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O. Program and Film About Unidentified Phenomena Gets a Congressional Audience. She also co-authored ‘Wow, What Is That?’ Navy Pilots Report Unexplained Flying Objects, all published by The New York Times.

Kean was a guest on Ezra Klein’s New York Times podcast episode What the Heck Is Going On With These U.F.O. Stories?

Check out the profile of Kean’s work in The New Yorker.

For more information, go to https://www.lesliekean.com/