Have recently discovered objects like SMBHs and exoplanets shed new light on the Fermi paradox? The last 30 years has seen the discovery of new astronomical objects, most notable exoplanets and supermassive black holes.   Do any of these shed new light on the Fermi Paradox?  How?
 A: There is a simple - admittedly a little strange - possibility that supermassive black holes provide.  It's a possibility with a precise location: 
   a circular orbit around the SMBH at a distance ${r}$ given by

$ r = R_{ph} + \frac{R_{ph}}{(1-\gamma^2)}$ where $R_{ph}$ is the
  photon sphere radius and $\lambda$ is the time dilation factor.

But let me start with a thought experiment to show where this comes from. Suppose an extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) could slow their 'home clock' by a factor of 1,000 .  Assume for now it's by magic, we'll worry about how in a moment.   It's strange to imagine at first, but indulge it for a moment : Every one of them lives in a place where 3 years on Earth is seen to go by in just 24 hours local time.  
To this civilization, the whole cosmos had drawn in 1,000 times closer.    Let's give them a location, say - near the center of the milky way.   
From Earth's perspective, they are 50,000 light years away.   But to them, Earth is just 50 light years away.    That is, if they were to bounce a laser-beam off a mirror on Earth, they would measure the time for the round-trip to be just 100 years.
The same effect applies for physical exploration at near light speed.    The explorer could reach Earth in 50 years his time, then return to his home world in another 50 years, where the civilization is just 100 years older.
There are lots of ways General Relativity provides for doing this.    Moving very, very close to C in any direction would do the trick.  But this backfires as the civilization exits the very galaxy they were trying to explore.
Here's where supermassive black holes come in.  I did the calculations and wrote them up in this paper, Falling Forward : The Fermi paradox, supermassive black holes, and the likely flight of extraterrestrial intelligence toward extreme time dilation.  An SMBH has strong enough gravity to hold a megastructure in orbit, even though that megastructure is moving so close to C that time is dilated by orders of magnitude.  (Gravitational time dilation only accounts for 1% or so of the effect, it's good old fashioned speed that does the trick.)
Don't get me wrong, it wouldn't be easy.  You've got all that radiation from the event horizon and matter flying in from the accretion disk.    But these are advanced creatures we're talking about, and the calculations (again see paper, Falling Forward) turn up some glimmers of hope : 


*

*The orbit is located in calmer region of space, between the photon sphere and Innermost Stable Circular Orbit (ISCO), where no natural object can hold a nearby stable orbit.

*The orbit can be angled with respect to the galactic plane, minimizing interaction with matter inbound from the accretion disk.

*Recent observations from NASA suggest that the Milky Way's SMBH - Sagittarius A* - has a strong rotating magnetic field which keeps incoming mass from falling into the black hole.


So this (again, admittedly out-there) theory would offer an explanation for the Fermi Paradox.  Once extraterrestrial intelligence is advanced enough for interstellar exploration or communication, the speed of light presents an intolerable obstacle.  So they migrate to a near orbit around their galaxy's SMBH in order to dilate their home-time.
This suggests why the stars are so quiet, and where instead we should look (Sgr A*).   The bad news is that SMBHs are incredibly radio-bright objects.
The good news is that the exotic orbit - at near light speed between the photon sphere and Innermost Stable Circular Orbit(ISCO), would give rise to a very peculiar doppler shift.  The paper calculates that shift, and finds it to be similar to an FM signal that could be lifted from the very crowded AM noise.
Do I really think there are aliens there?  Probably not.  But it would explain alot, and it does have the benefit of being easy to check.  We know where and roughly how to look.
