American Alchemy is an independent media project created and hosted by Jesse Michels. Built around a YouTube channel and podcast, it publishes long-form interviews and produced documentaries about UAPs, frontier science, intelligence history, unconventional technology, consciousness, and other ideas outside mainstream consensus. Despite the name, its catalog is not primarily about historical alchemy.

The series combines extended guest conversations with research-driven narrative episodes. Michels and his production team use archival footage, public records, historical material, graphics, and on-location interviews to connect contemporary subjects with earlier scientific programs, political debates, and cultural movements. Guests have included scientists, public officials, historians, journalists, skeptics, engineers, military and intelligence witnesses, authors, and people reporting anomalous experiences.

UAPs and government disclosure have become a major part of American Alchemy’s identity. The project gained wider visibility with its September 2023 film featuring former intelligence official David Grusch, written and produced by Michels in collaboration with Yes Theory. Later programs have covered alleged crash-retrieval efforts, aerospace research, congressional interest in UAPs, historical intelligence programs, parapsychology, artificial intelligence, alternative archaeology, and competing explanations for anomalous phenomena.

American Alchemy has expanded beyond its main channel into podcast distribution, social accounts, a clips channel, memberships, and American Alchemy Magazine. The magazine serves as the written counterpart to the videos, publishing essays, research, and longer treatments of subjects introduced on screen. Across those outlets, the project uses polished production and cross-platform excerpts to move long-form conversations into a broader online audience.

Today, American Alchemy sits at the intersection of alternative-science media, technology culture, and the UAP disclosure movement. Its identity is defined by Michels’s guest access, lengthy interview format, polished visual production, and emphasis on tracing unconventional ideas through historical people, documents, and institutions.