Shawn Ryan Show
The Shawn Ryan Show is an American podcast hosted by former U.S. Navy SEAL and CIA contractor Shawn Ryan, launched in 2021, focused on long-form interviews with military veterans, special operations personnel, intelligence community officers, and whistleblowers — growing into one of the most significant platforms for UAP disclosure testimony from active and recently separated military personnel, with over 200 episodes and a documented audience in the tens of millions across YouTube and Spotify.
Host background
Shawn Ryan served approximately 15 years in the U.S. Navy as a SEAL before transitioning to work as a contractor for the Central Intelligence Agency. His CIA contractor role is described in his own accounts as involving direct action and intelligence support in active conflict zones. After leaving the agency — a departure he has described as abrupt and under circumstances he cannot discuss publicly — Ryan attempted to build a private security consulting business before pivoting to content creation: "When I left the agency, I really, I didn't have a plan. I kind of left abruptly... So I decided I know I'll start a business and my business was going to be helping wealthy people come up with a plan of action in case of a crisis."
Ryan's CIA background — specifically his familiarity with how compartmented programs operate, how intelligence personnel think, and how they assess threats — gave him credibility with active-duty and veteran audiences that mainstream podcast hosts lack. When interviewing military witnesses to UAP events or intelligence officials describing classified programs, Ryan's own operational experience allows him to ask technically specific questions and to recognize when sources are withholding information or describing events in ways that suggest first-hand knowledge. Fellow operators trusted Ryan in ways they did not trust civilian interviewers: "Like I told you, I'm not talking to media about this," Marine Corps veteran Michael Herrera told Ryan before agreeing to appear. "Well, you're all about the truth these days, just as much as I am."
The show's stated mission encompasses four goals Ryan has articulated repeatedly: documenting military history from those who lived it, bringing truth that mainstream media suppresses, uncovering corruption, and bringing hope to veterans struggling with service-related trauma. Ryan introduced the Herrera interview: "The things that I really try to do is document history from our military heroes because nobody else is doing it. Bring truth. Uncover corruption. And bring hope."
Ryan appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience in September 2024 — episode #2207 — one of the most widely shared single-episode appearances by a podcaster on the JRE in 2024, reaching an estimated 10–20 million listeners and substantially expanding the Shawn Ryan Show's audience base.
Format
The Shawn Ryan Show follows a long-form interview format with minimal production intervention — single camera, studio setting, conversations typically running two to four hours. Ryan conducts interviews without pre-screening questions with guests, preferring to let conversations develop organically. Episodes are released on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts, with YouTube versions frequently exceeding one million views on significant disclosure-related episodes.
The show runs multiple series and recurring formats: a "UFO Whistleblower Marathon" series grouped disclosure-related testimony from Congressional witnesses, and standalone deep-dive episodes with individual intelligence or military figures. A defined editorial policy distinguishes the show from entertainment-focused platforms: "We try to document history from our military heroes because nobody else is doing it. Bring truth, uncover corruption, and bring hope."
UAP and disclosure content
The Shawn Ryan Show has become one of the primary venues for disclosure-relevant interview content in the 2021–2026 period, with over 36 documented episodes featuring UAP witnesses, whistleblowers, and Congressional figures engaged in oversight of the UAP issue.
David Grusch
David Grusch, the former Air Force intelligence officer and NGA/NRO representative whose 2023 Congressional testimony formally alleged the existence of classified non-human intelligence programs and crash retrieval operations, appeared on the Shawn Ryan Show in an extended interview that provided substantially more operational detail than his Congressional testimony. The Grusch interview is one of the most cited primary sources in the contemporary disclosure literature.
Lue Elizondo — X-15 and UAP cover-ups
Luis Elizondo, former director of the Pentagon's AATIP program, appeared in episode #168 (February 7, 2025), discussing a reported UAP encounter involving an X-15 rocket plane, systemic UFO cover-up mechanisms within the Department of Defense, and what Elizondo described as a "mind-blowing Google search" that produced evidence of UAP documentation in publicly accessible but heavily obscured government records.
Michael Herrera — US Marine and UAP black ops
Michael Herrera, a US Marine Corps veteran who testified under oath before Congress, appeared in episode #66 describing a 2009 deployment to Indonesia during which his unit allegedly encountered a massive, partially concealed craft of non-human manufacture operating in conjunction with what appeared to be a human trafficking operation involving unknown military personnel. Herrera testified under oath about this encounter to Congressional investigators. Ryan introduced the segment as part of a "UFO Whistleblower Marathon": "This is a three part series. Each one of these three men have testified under oath in front of Congress. Our first guest is Michael Herrera, who witnessed a human trafficking operation in Indonesia where UFOs were involved."
Tim Burchett — Congressional oversight
Tennessee Congressman Tim Burchett appeared in multiple episodes — including episode #78 (Part 1: "Inside UFO/UAP Government Programs") and a YouTube episode (October 11, 2023) discussing "Non-human Biologics, UFO Encounters, and Mexico's Alien Bodies" — providing Congressional perspective on UAP oversight, the 2023 Congressional hearings, and his frustration with institutional obstruction. Burchett discussed the testimony of witnesses describing "dark gray or black cubes inside of a clear sphere" and complained that agencies were "lying to us": "Since 1947 at least, our government's been lying to us. Now all of a sudden they want money to study the issue."
Steven Greer — Black budget and Stargate
Steven Greer appeared in episode #48 (February 20, 2023) and episode #65 (July 10, 2023). The #65 episode focused specifically on "Black Budget, Stargate, Raytheon, Lockheed Skunk Works, UAP/UFO Secrets" — Greer's testimony about classified deep black programs operating outside Congressional oversight, the role of defense contractors (particularly Lockheed Skunk Works and Raytheon) in reverse-engineering recovered non-human craft, and the Stargate Project's connection to the broader non-human intelligence program.
Brandon Fugal — Skinwalker Ranch
Brandon Fugal, the real estate developer and owner of Skinwalker Ranch in Utah, appeared in episode #70 (August 14, 2023) to discuss UAP and anomalous phenomena documented at the Ranch and the scientific investigation programs Fugal has funded there. The episode is one of the most-viewed Shawn Ryan Show segments on YouTube.
Chris Bledsoe — Religious dimensions
Chris Bledsoe, a North Carolina businessman and UAP contact experiencer, appeared in episode #165 (February 3, 2025) — subtitled "The Episode We Never Censored" — discussing the intersection of his UAP contact experiences with his Christian faith and the suppression of previous episodes of his interview.
Angela Ford — Army remote viewer
Angela Ford, a former U.S. Army remote viewing psychic who operated within the Army's classified remote viewing program, appeared in episode #145 (November 18, 2024), discussing her work tracking spies, hostages, and fugitives using psychic intelligence methods — providing direct evidence for the operational use of remote viewing within the U.S. military intelligence apparatus.
DC Long — Underground military base encounter
DC Long, a decorated Army combat veteran, appeared in episode #66 (Part 2) describing a UAP encounter in an underground military base — testimony placing UAP phenomena in the context of classified domestic military infrastructure and corroborating accounts from other veterans about UFO sightings at or within military installations.
Non-UAP military and political content
The Shawn Ryan Show covers a wider political and security landscape beyond UAP: episodes have featured Erik Prince (Blackwater founder), Kash Patel (former DIA/NSC official), Mike Benz (former State Department official turned First Amendment critic), Pete Hegseth (Secretary of Defense), and Congressman Tim Burchett on topics ranging from U.S.-China relations to censorship infrastructure. This breadth positions the show as a platform for the military–intelligence community's dissident wing rather than a narrowly focused UFO channel — which accounts for its unusual credibility with active military personnel.
Ryan's appearance on Tucker Carlson's show in 2025 discussed CIA attempts to infiltrate and influence podcasts — a topic directly relevant to the show's own security posture: "Biden's Cancer, Kash & Bongino on Epstein, & CIA Attempts to Infiltrate Podcasts."
Audience and influence
The Shawn Ryan Show targets a primary demographic of veterans, active military, and law enforcement — an audience underserved by mainstream UAP media, which has historically skewed toward academic and civilian audiences. This demographic is also precisely the population most likely to have direct knowledge of classified programs, UAP encounters, and deep-state corruption — making the show a natural magnet for testimony that would not surface in mainstream venues. The show had, as of 2024–2025, accumulated tens of millions of total views across its YouTube and Spotify presence, with individual episodes on UAP subjects regularly exceeding one million views.
Comparison with peer platforms
The Shawn Ryan Show occupies a distinct niche from comparable veteran-hosted or military-adjacent podcasts: it is more UAP-focused than the Jocko Podcast or similar special operations platforms, more operationally credible than civilian UAP-focused shows, and more politically conservative in audience orientation than the Joe Rogan Experience despite overlapping guest lists. The show's focus on active and recently separated military witnesses — rather than civilian researchers or academics — fills a gap that Fade to Black, Coast to Coast AM, and other UAP-focused platforms do not address.