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Editor’s Foreword |
About the Leslie Kean Interview by John Horgan
On the next page, you will find a genuinely fascinating interview with accomplished journalist and author, Leslie Kean, conducted by the award-winning science journalist Joe Horgan for Scientific American. I am a very big fan of Ms. Kean’s work — and of Mr. Horgan’s!
Leslie Kean is an independent investigative journalist and the New York Times best-selling author of UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record — with a foreword by John Podesta, whose work involving the UFO phenomenon has been the catalyst for a sea change in the public’s perception of the UFO phenomenon. In my view, Leslie Kean deserves as much or perhaps more credit for this than most. Her work has been transformative in the matter. Public perception of the UFO phenomenon is evolving significantly through her efforts. Her journalism exploring this topic is factual, extensively researched, and substantive — the sensationalistic, conspiratorial, and flimsy, New-Agey approach is left to the those with unproductive agendas, to the quacksalvers, and to the just plain misinformed who haven’t done their due diligence in the matter. I have long been impressed with Leslie’s robust work on this topic. Upon my introduction to that work, I remember clearly that my first thought was Oh, at long last, someone who can truly do this thing justice so that it can be taken seriously and at scale once and for all!
As detailed in the Editor’s Introduction, I had contacted Leslie, hoping that she would be interested in contributing to this literary magazine and I am truly honored that she has. I think that it speaks volumes about Leslie’s dedication to educating people and raising public awareness about the UFO phenomenon through her work that she so graciously gave of her time in corresponding with me, and then kindly put me in touch with John Horgan, who in turn, very generously granted reprint permission of his interview with Leslie. Such class acts both! I genuinely appreciate their spirit of collegiality.
I also chose this interview because a school of thought exists — one that I don’t particularly subscribe to — that the UFO phenomenon is itself some sort of paranormal manifestation. I thought that this interview’s discussion of the supernatural dovetailed nicely with that conceptual realm, which I briefly treated in the introduction to the debut issue of The Flying Saucer Poetry Review — thus providing a sense of continuum in this matter to readers of these magazines.
It is an exciting time we live in, and this remarkable interview is proof of that. Enjoy!
— The Editor