Evidence of the Extraordinary: Discoveries from the Series ‘The Proof Is Out There’

Executive producer Sancho (More Than You Can Handle) adapts his Emmy-winning History Network series for a brisk, earnest survey of anomalous and mysterious occurrences. Consulting with experts in physics, archaeology, video forensics, and more, Sancho debunks frauds or offers plausible scientific explanations for unusual phenomena; he also occasionally suggests he has come up against something that truly defies logic. UFO sightings and the Pentagon’s newly dedicated task force for investigating them, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, are the subject of the book’s standout segments, presenting tantalizingly inexplicable occurrences with an uncanny veneer of official legitimacy. Other topics like cryptids and ancient aliens retain their usual unlikeliness but get strikingly updated with fresh insights into the methods and thinking of their respective seekers. Readers will be fascinated to learn, for instance, that more mainstream zoologists and paleoanthropologists than ever are willing, albeit off the record, to dabble in the hunt for Bigfoot and other “relict hominids.” Elsewhere, Sancho gives a brief, evenhanded overview of Havana syndrome, the cognitive ailment first reported among U.S. diplomats, airing out both the possibility of a real “sonic weapon” and of the phenomenon being mass psychosis. (Not long after investigating the topic, Sancho himself reports experiencing something akin to the syndrome—a debilitating “hum”—for several weeks.) It’s a diverting must-read for those who want to believe. (May)