Anomaly Academy 2025-10 – Oct – EFR’s Erica Lukes and Jack Brewer

Expanding Frontiers Research’s Erica Lukes & Jack Brewer Present…

“The Cold War and UFOs”

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2025

The UFO contactee movement of the 1950s was heavily aligned with political activism, riddled with implications of fraud, and monitored by willing FBI informants. Then, in 1956, State Department and CIA assets incorporated the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena.

Join Erica Lukes and Jack Brewer of Expanding Frontiers Research as they rely on such sources as FBI records released through the Freedom of Information Act to explore the people of the mid-20th century flying saucer chase. Lukes and Brewer argue that awareness of deception in the UFO genre is important in developing a thorough understanding of the topic, regardless of what genuinely yet to be better understood phenomena may exist. What’s more, events of yesteryear stand to tell us a great deal about circumstances today.

Erica Lukes is an experienced podcaster and longtime popular video show host. As executive director of Expanding Frontiers Research, she conducts engaging interviews with journalists, researchers and experts on a variety of social and technical issues. She also facilitates the Expanding Frontiers Archive, an online group of special collections inspired by a physical archive Erica maintains that includes the life work of select pioneers of UFO research. As a result of the organization’s effective use of public records requests and subsequent reporting, Expanding Frontiers Research was the recipient of an annual state-wide award from the Utah Investigative Journalism Project. Erica studied music and voice at the University of Utah and is a longtime successful Salt Lake City business owner in the health and wellness industry.

Jack Brewer is a researcher, writer, and member of the EFR Board of Directors. His work relies primarily on authenticated documents and verified source material to reconstruct historical chains of events. In addition to producing well-received investigative blogposts and two nonfiction books, he is a successful entrepreneur and business consultant. His activities include substantial participation in grassroots nonprofit movements.

Learn more about Expanding Frontiers Research, a Salt Lake City-based nonprofit organization dedicated to providing the public reliable information through proven research methods: ExpandingFrontiersResearch.org