The BeX Files is back from outer space!

Thanks for tuning back into The BeX Files! Load up the boosters and start the countdown because it is time to re-launch this newsletter to weird and wonderful heights.  

To start, I want to express my gratitude to everyone who has subscribed to The BeX Files over the past year. The newsletter was initially intended to spread the word about my book—First Contact: The Story of Our Obsession with Aliens—which came out from Workman last September.

First Contact

A narrative and visual exploration of humanity’s age-old search for and fixation with extraterrestrials.First Contact explores the ancient idea—and epic…

Hachette Book GroupBecky Ferreira

To my delight, The BeX Files has evolved into a much-needed outlet to share my thoughts about aliens in all their dazzling manifestations. I’ve had a blast writing about flying saucer swindlers, the search for alien artifacts, the political dimensions of aliens, and cinematic riffs on extraterrestrials, such as Bugonia, Project Hail Mary, and Disclosure Day.  

After a much-needed break, I am excited to revamp The BeX Files—starting with a new membership option called Yub Nub at $5/month or $50/year.

Once a month, Yub Nub members will receive an exclusive edition of the newsletter exploring a topic or angle that I have been obsessed with for ages, but have never had the opportunity to delve into before.  

The newsletter will still include free biweekly installments every other Friday for all subscribers. But I’d like to build the newsletter into a more sustainable side-hustle, where I can finally dig into stories that have been percolating in my noggin for years—or decades, in some cases.

The membership is named for the jubilant Ewok phrase for “freedom” because that's my vision—to create a celebratory and liberating space to go deep on all things extraterrestrial (and perhaps, occasionally, terrestrial).

First up on this new adventure, I’m thrilled to be bringing back another tournament for spooky season!

Last October, subscribers participated in the Search for ExtraTERRORestrial Life to determine the Scariest Alien of all time. It was a tough battle, but THE BLOB emerged victorious. 

This year, I'm launching a new bracket to crown the Scariest Space Movie. The competitors must be movies set all or mostly in space. Aliens could be featured in these movies, but they are not necessary—indeed, some of the freakiest flicks in outer space don't invoke extraterrestrial life at all.

If you’d like to nominate your favorite scary space films for the 2026 tournament, send your picks to thebxfiles@gmail.com. In addition to obvious contenders (hello, Alien franchise), it would be great to include some cult classics and forgotten gems, so please do hit me up with your faves of the genre.

This year’s roster of 16 movies will be unveiled in the newsletter on Friday, October 2. Every Friday in October, winners will advance until a champion emerges on Friday, October 30. Anyone can vote on the matchups, but only Yub Nub members will get access to the final post revealing the Scariest Space Movie of 2026. Hahahah, that’s how I’m going to get you! *cackles in space horror*  

I hope you come along for this spooky space voyage—and return to Earth in time for Halloween.

Before closing up the file for today, I wanted to share some stories that came out during the newsletter’s hiatus (in addition to my weekly contributions to 404 Media).

First, I wrote a feature for MIT Technology Review about that space-age-old question: Why should humans leave Earth in the first place? What is the point of an astronaut?

The role of the astronaut is in flux

Human spaceflight has been racking up new milestones. But we’re still grappling with a fundamental question: Why go in the first place?

MIT Technology ReviewBecky Ferreira

It’s an interesting moment to reflect on this question, given the success of the Artemis II mission this spring, the rise of space tourism, budget cuts at NASA, and messianic narratives about the human destiny in space. It’s also a bit of a companion piece to a feature I wrote last year for the same section about the argument against human space exploration.  

Then, for the New York Times, I asked the question that is at the top of everyone’s minds: Why aren’t we searching for microscopic debris from ancient alien civilizations on the Moon?

This is a fun story about the possibility that advanced aliens might have built space-based structures that eroded and shed particles throughout the galaxy, some of which might be preserved on the lunar surface. You never know what junk you might find up there unless you look!  

Last, I covered a fascinating study, also for the Times, about the oldest example of drug use ever found in the human fossil record—a prehistoric forager who lived as early as 25,000 years ago in Indonesia who wore down their teeth by sucking betel nuts.

Of course, the history of human experimentation with mind-altering substances is bound to be much older than that, but this study pushes the timeline of direct evidence back by many thousands of years.

With that, it’s time to close the file for this week. I’m stoked to be back in the flow and I am looking forward to growing The BeX Files together. See you at the cosmic rest stop in October!