dovetail with how I approached McMinnville.

In 2021, amid renewed interest in U.F.O.s — following the Pentagon’s release of a report saying it couldn’t rule out the possibility of extraterrestrial visitation — Lindsey had the idea for a podcast that would blend the investigative approach of “Up and Vanished” with the odder tone of “Radio Rental.”

“I wanted to do the non-U.F.O. U.F.O. podcast,” Lindsey said. “I don’t know what’s out there — no one does — but people can hear the evidence and make up their own mind.”

Over the course of the season, the show has walked the line between the sober (scientists on the statistical likelihood of extraterrestrial life) and the eccentric (an interview with a man who says he was abducted by a flying saucer in the 1970s). Its popularity has emboldened the creators to apply their investigative lens more broadly, including with a planned series that will address a new unsolved mystery each week.