The Man Who Cried Himself to Sleep
From Sound, Light & Frequency by iHeartPodcasts
March 12, 2026 · 50 min · Season 1 · Episode 4
About this episode
Brent Friedman shares a long-held secret about a conversation with a family friend regarding government access and UFOs, while exploring the intersection of Hollywood and hidden history.
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…
People in this episode
Host: Bryce Zabel
Guest: Brent Friedman
Topics covered
- UFOs
- government secrecy
- storytelling
- Hollywood
- hidden history
Keywords
- Brent Friedman
- Bryce Zabel
- UFO
- government secrecy
- Hangar 18
- storytelling
- Hollywood
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: iHeartPodcasts
Books & works: Hangar 18
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