First half: This month marks the 75th anniversary of The Battle of Los Angeles, one of the most mysterious incidents of World War II — and one of the most colorful tales in all of UFO lore. Ufologist Bill Birnes will join Richard Syrett to discuss what happened on the evening of February 24th, 1942, when the city flew into a panic as what were initially believed to be Japanese enemy aircraft were spotted, touching off a massive barrage of anti-aircraft fire, with some 1400 shells shot into the skies during the frantic evening. Strangely, however, the shells hit nothing and despite the intense barrage, no aircraft wreckage was ever recovered. To this day no one knows what was flying over the city and many people believed the aircraft they saw were extraterrestrial.

Second half: Memories are our most cherished possessions. We rely on them every day of our lives. They make us who we are. And yet the truth is they are far from being the accurate record of the past we like to think they are. Dr. Julia Shaw, senior lecturer and researcher in the Department of Law and Social Sciences at London South Bank University, will discuss the astonishing variety of ways in which our brains can indeed be led astray and why we can misappropriate other people’s memories, subsequently believing them to be our own.