Leslie Kean is an investigative journalist and author who is most notable for books about

UFOs An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are id ...

and the

afterlife The afterlife (also referred to as life after death) is a purported existence in which the essential part of an individual's identity or their stream of consciousness continues to live after the death of their physical body. The surviving ess ...

Background

In the late nineteen-nineties, after a visit to Burma to interview political prisoners, she stumbled into a career in investigative journalism. She took a job at KPFA, a radio station in Berkeley, as a producer and on-air host for “Flashpoints,” a left-wing drive-time news program, where she covered wrongful convictions, the death penalty, and other criminal-justice issues. Kean is the daughter of environmentalist and philanthropist Hamilton Fish Kean and the granddaughter of Congressman Robert Kean. Her uncle is former New Jersey Governor Tom Kean Sr., and her cousin is New Jersey State Senator Tom Kean Jr. She attended Spence School and

Bard College Bard College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains, and is within the Hudson River Historic ...

, and helped "to found a Zen center in upstate New York".

Career

Kean Worked as a photographer at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. After visiting Burma to interview political prisoners, in the 1990s she began working at a Berkeley radio station (

KPFA KPFA (94.1 FM) is an American listener-funded talk radio and music radio station located in Berkeley, California, broadcasting to the San Francisco Bay Area. KPFA airs public news, public affairs, talk, and music programming. The station sign ...

, the flagship station of the

Pacifica Radio Network Pacifica Foundation is an American non-profit organization that owns five independently operated, non-commercial, listener-supported radio stations known for their progressive/ liberal political orientation. Its national headquarters adjoins s ...

) as an investigative journalist, producer and on-air host for 'Flashpoints,' a left-wing drive-time news program, covering wrongful convictions, the death penalty, and other criminal-justice issues. Kean has published works relating to UFOs since 2000, and has been a guest on

Coast to Coast AM ''Coast to Coast AM'' is an American late-night radio talk show that deals with a variety of topics. Most frequently the topics relate to either the paranormal or conspiracy theories. It was hosted by creator Art Bell from its inception in 19 ...

. Her book ''UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go on the Record'', published by

Penguin Random House Penguin Random House LLC is an Anglo-American multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, from the merger of Penguin Group and Random House. On April 2, 2020, Bertels ...

, was a ''New York Times'' best seller. Kean belongs to the UFO organization UFODATA. On 16 December 2017, the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' featured an article written by

Helene Cooper Helene Cooper (born April 22, 1966) is a Liberian-born American journalist who is a Pentagon correspondent for ''The New York Times''. Before that, she was the paper's White House correspondent in Washington, D.C. She joined the ''Times'' in 2004 ...

, Ralph Blumenthal and Kean, which revealed the fact that the

US Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secu ...

had spent $22.5M on a secret program titled the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program that investigated

UFO An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are id ...

Written works

* 1994. ''

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

's Revolution of the Spirit: The Struggle for Democratic Freedom and Dignity'' – with Alan Clements. . * 2010. ''UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go on the Record'' - with a foreword by

John Podesta John David Podesta Jr. (born January 8, 1949) is an American political consultant who has served as Senior Advisor to President Joe Biden for clean energy innovation and implementation since September 2022. Podesta previously served as White ...

Harmony Books Harmony Books is an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, itself part of publisher Penguin Random House. It was founded by Bruce Harris, a Crown executive, in 1972. The imprint has been used for such books as: *Jill Freedman, ''Circus Days'' ( ...

, New York. . * 2017. ''Surviving Death: A Journalist Investigates Evidence for an Afterlife''. .

References

External links

Leslie Kean's Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kean, Leslie Living people Kean family Winthrop family Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) American investigative journalists American UFO writers