Sound, Light & Frequency

iHeartPodcasts
  • 4.8 (100)
  • DOCUMENTARY
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

Has the U.S. government been conducting a slow-drip UFO disclosure campaign through Hollywood movies and television for more than 70 years? The new podcast Sound, Light & Frequency tackles that mind-blowing question through an ongoing investigation hosted by two Hollywood insiders: Bryce Zabel and Brent Friedman, both successful writer/producers with hundreds of credits. Bryce and Brent publicly share, for the first time, the full account of their surreal encounter with a “Man in Black” who offered them a deal to use their primetime alien-invasion drama series, Dark Skies, to spread UFO truths. Each episode takes listeners behind the scenes of iconic films and TV series, connecting what’s been portrayed on screen to what might be happening in real life—and asking whether other creators were offered “the deal,” too.

Episodes

  1. 22H AGO

    Cover of Fiction

    In “Cover of Fiction,” Bryce Zabel and Brent Friedman explore how Hollywood sometimes tells the truth most effectively when it’s disguised as entertainment—and why that might be the only way certain ideas can travel without detonating careers, institutions, or sanity. The episode starts with a chilling secondhand message Bryce says an investigative reporter received from multiple intelligence-community sources: if you really want to understand the phenomenon, watch the German series Dark… and pay attention to its grim nuclear future. From there, Bryce and Brent connect the show’s time-loop paranoia, wormholes, and determinism to modern UAP theories about time, “other realities,” and why disclosure might be both too destabilizing and too complicated to drop in one clean press conference. Then the episode turns personal—and uncanny. Bryce revisits how his 1993 Syfy thriller Official Denial became a kind of “greatest hits” of ufology (Majestic, crash retrievals, time-travel implications), and how the “cover of fiction” idea boomeranged back into real life through the infamous John Loengard letter and the Dark Skies mythology that followed. The rabbit hole deepens with Whitley Strieber’s Communion—including director Philippe Mora’s startling account of being questioned mid-flight by a man flashing a Defense Intelligence Agency badge. And just when the implications start to feel genuinely unsettling, Bryce lands the episode with a graceful reminder that even the hardest truths can be made survivable. For more information: SoundLightFrequency.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    1h 5m

  2. MAR 26

    Staring into the Abyss

    Using James Cameron’s The Abyss as a springboard, this episode of Sound, Light & Frequency dives beneath the surface of the UFO mystery to explore the strange and increasingly serious world of USOs—Unidentified Submerged Objects. Bryce Zabel and Brent Friedman trace the connection between Hollywood’s long fascination with underwater unknowns and the growing real-world evidence that some anomalous craft may move seamlessly through oceans, lakes, and rivers as easily as they move through the sky. Along the way, they connect classic and modern screen stories—from The Abyss to Atlantis: The Lost Empire and beyond—to the deeper question of whether Non-Human Intelligence may have been hiding in Earth’s last great frontier all along.  The episode also brings the mystery closer to home with two stories that includes the host’s wives. First, Brent shares the story of seeing an unidentified object plunge into the water near Vancouver Island, with his wife as a witness, then Bryce reflects on his own creative connection to the enduring Atlantis myth when he and his wife were the original writers on Disney’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire. Smart, eerie, and highly entertaining, “Staring into the Abyss” uses movies and television as a portal into one of the most unsettling possibilities in the entire UAP conversation: that whatever is out there may not only be above us—but deep below us as well.  For more information: SoundLightFrequency.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    57 min

  3. MAR 19

    Sagan Makes Contact

    In this episode of Sound, Light & Frequency, Bryce and Brent take on Contact (1997), Carl Sagan’s beautiful, brainy, and decidedly UFO-free journey into alien possibility. But beneath the film’s awe, wonder, and cosmic longing lies a more provocative question: what did Sagan really think about the mystery of contact — and was there more going on beneath his public skepticism than most people realize? Using the film as a springboard, the hosts explore the strange space where science, belief, Hollywood, and hidden history all seem to overlap. This episode also carries an unexpected personal edge. Bryce recalls his own face-to-face encounter with Sagan after a live television appearance, and he and Brent reflect on why the famed astronomer later found his way into the mythology of Dark Skies. Along the way, they touch on the long and complicated road that brought Contact to the screen, the emotional legacy Sagan left behind, and one of the most famous quotations he never actually said. Thoughtful, surprising, and just a little subversive, “Sagan Makes Contact” looks at one of popular culture’s most revered science storytellers from a distinctly Sound, Light & Frequency point of view. For more information: SoundLightFrequency.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    48 min

  4. MAR 12

    The Man Who Cried Himself to Sleep

    For forty-four years, Brent Friedman has carried a story he has never fully told in public. A few fragments slipped out here and there, but never the names, never the full context, and never the larger implication of what it all meant. In this episode, that changes. Brent finally revisits a startling conversation from the summer of 1981, when an older family friend with extraordinary government access shared something so unsettling it stayed with Brent for the rest of his life. It was the kind of moment that sounds impossible — until you hear the details — and the kind of confidence given only because the speaker believed no one would ever believe it. That same year, the scrappy UFO thriller Hangar 18 was floating provocative ideas into the culture long before most people were ready to take them seriously. Bryce and Brent use the film as a portal into a bigger conversation about secrecy, storytelling, and the uneasy space where Hollywood and hidden history may overlap. As Brent tells his account in full for the first time, Bryce adds new pieces that don’t close the case so much as deepen it — and together they point toward the central question behind Sound, Light & Frequency: what if movies and television weren’t just reflecting the mystery, but helping us live with it? Hosted by Bryce Zabel and Brent Friedman. Find us on iHeartPodcasts or wherever you get your podcasts (just search SOUND LIGHT FREQUENCY). Visit us at SoundLightFrequency.com  Sound, Light & Frequency is produced by Stellar Productions. Executive Producers are Bryce Zabel, Brent Friedman, Nick Johnson, and Jackie Zabel.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    50 min

  5. MAR 5

    Presidents' Club

    In “Presidents' Club,” recent headlines about Obama and Trump circling the alien/UFO question become a launchpad—not for breaking-news punditry, but for what Sound, Light & Frequency does best: following the secret thread between Washington and Hollywood. Bryce and Brent start with Obama’s very movie-ready riff about aliens, Area 51, and the possibility of a conspiracy “hiding it from the president of the United States”—and then immediately ask the real question: who knows more about UFOs, the presidents, or the screenwriters?  From there, the episode dives straight into the ultimate “president meets ET” portal film: Independence Day—where President Whitmore isn’t read in at all, until his Secretary of Defense leans in with the immortal understatement: “Mr. President, that may not be entirely accurate.”  Along the way, you’ll hear how the Pentagon almost cooperated with the movie—right up until two forbidden words showed up in the script: Area 51. And yes, Bryce and Brent relive the goosebump factor of Whitmore’s speech (“we will not go quietly into that night…”)—because if Disclosure ever goes public, that’s the kind of voice you’d want at the microphone.  Then it gets delightfully weird in the best way: the guys trace “Area 51 on screen” back to Spielberg’s Raiders coda (Hangar 51!), recreate the behind-the-scenes story of Independence Day being screened at the White House (yes, that White House blowing up…while Bill Clinton watches with a bowl of popcorn), and bounce through other presidential-ET pop culture detours like Mars Attacks! and its dark punchline politics.  Finally, “Presidents' Club” widens the lens to the real-world presidential UFO hall of fame—Carter, Ford, Reagan, and more—plus the uncomfortable takeaway that the Commander-in-Chief may not be “read in” the way the public assumes.  Bryce also shares a taste of what a presidential disclosure statement might actually sound like (from his work with Richard Dolan), before Brent tees up a chilling next-episode thread: a Reagan-era insider who claimed he had a higher clearance level than the President—and what that suggests about how secrets stay secret.  For more information: SoundLightFrequency.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    48 min

  6. FEB 26

    Mr. Close Encounters

    Steven Spielberg is Mr. Close Encounters—the filmmaker who arguably made UFOs “respectable” on screen, starting with Close Encounters of the Third Kind (and its three distinct cuts: 1977, 1980, 1998). In Episode 2, hosts Bryce Zabel and Brent Friedman revisit the granddaddy of UFO cinema and explain why that movie still feels like it was beamed in from the phenomenon itself: the five-note language, the lights, the “orbs,” the stigma of reporting, and the obsessive pull that turns an ordinary guy into a human compass pointing straight at the truth.  Then the episode pivots to the question that won’t go away: Did Spielberg ever get offered “the deal”—the same kind of covert approach Bryce and Brent say they received around Dark Skies? The guys lay out the folklore, the timing, and the circumstantial breadcrumbs, including Spielberg’s overt attempts to get cooperation (and the pushback he says he got), plus the larger “two factions” idea—some parts of government discouraging UFO talk while others may be using the cover of fiction to normalize it.  And because this is Sound, Light & Frequency, it gets personal. Bryce shares what it’s like to be in Spielberg’s orbit—developing a UFO pilot for him, working on Taken, and sitting with Spielberg and Hanks on an Emmy night—yet still finding him a “man of mystery” on the UFO question. Brent brings the episode’s most hair-raising anecdote: what Dark Skies director Tobe Hooper once told him during a crop-circle scout—an offhand, no-BS story suggesting Spielberg had been approached and briefed. Hooper isn’t here to confirm it, but Brent and Bryce explain why they take the memory seriously. Finally, the guys drop the episode’s ultimate rabbit hole: Serpo—the rumored “exchange” story that sounds eerily adjacent to the film’s ending. Coincidence? Reverse-inspiration? Or something stranger, where the line between history and Hollywood gets fuzzy by design? Either way, “Mr. Close Encounters” is a smart, funny, deep dive into why Spielberg sits at the center of UFO pop culture—and why his “truth-to-fiction” ratio still haunts the conversation.  Hosted by Bryce Zabel and Brent Friedman. Find us on iHeartPodcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Visit us at SoundLightFrequency.com  Sound, Light & Frequency is produced by Stellar Productions. Executive Producers are Bryce Zabel, Brent Friedman, Nick Johnson, and Jackie Zabel.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    51 min

  7. FEB 19

    Party Crasher

    At the Hollywood premiere party for the NBC series Dark Skies in the late 90s, a stranger—“J.C.”—crashed the celebration and claimed he was sent by the Office of Naval Intelligence. He offered the series creators Bryce Zabel and Brent Friedman a chilling bargain: help “slow-roll” UFO disclosure through their NBC series, and he’d provide insider truth—then he scribbled a cryptic “formula” on a bank envelope and called it “Sound, Light & Frequency,” the “secrets of the universe.” In this debut episode, Bryce and Brent relive the night that became Ground Zero for their current active investigation into Hollywood, UAPs, and secrecy—and ask the question that still can’t be denied: who else in showbiz was offered “the deal”? Our podcast focuses on the treatment of non-human intelligence and the UAP issue in movies and TV series going back to “War of the Worlds” and looking ahead to the upcoming Spielberg film “Disclosure Day.”  Please follow us on X, and YouTube. Our website home base is SoundLightFrequency.com.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    47 min

  8. TRAILER

    Introducing: Sound, Light & Frequency

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    2 min

Trailer

4.8
out of 5
100 Ratings

About

Has the U.S. government been conducting a slow-drip UFO disclosure campaign through Hollywood movies and television for more than 70 years? The new podcast Sound, Light & Frequency tackles that mind-blowing question through an ongoing investigation hosted by two Hollywood insiders: Bryce Zabel and Brent Friedman, both successful writer/producers with hundreds of credits. Bryce and Brent publicly share, for the first time, the full account of their surreal encounter with a “Man in Black” who offered them a deal to use their primetime alien-invasion drama series, Dark Skies, to spread UFO truths. Each episode takes listeners behind the scenes of iconic films and TV series, connecting what’s been portrayed on screen to what might be happening in real life—and asking whether other creators were offered “the deal,” too.

Information

  • Creator
    iHeartPodcasts
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    8
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    2026 iHeartMedia, Inc. © Any use of this intellectual property for text and data mining or computational analysis including as training material for artificial intelligence systems is strictly prohibited without express written consent from iHeartMedia
  • Show Website
    Sound, Light & Frequency

You Might Also Like