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The world is more mysterious than most people are comfortable imagining. We cross paths with the mystical from time to time and may not even notice it. If we do,...
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The world is more mysterious than most people are comfortable imagining. We cross paths with the mystical from time to time and may not even notice it. If we do, we quickly return to our usually mundane daily existence. But what if we not only acknowledged the unknown, we investigated it and spoke with those in the know? That's what co-hosts Scott Philbrook & Forrest Burgess, and co-executive producer Tess Pfeifle do at Astonishing Legends. Over 100 million downloads and hundreds of thousands of listeners have discovered the thrill of exploring the mysteries of our world, showing that the unknown can be both captivating and intriguing. Welcome to Astonishing Legends!
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Episodes & Posts
Episodes
Posts
28 OCT 2026 · In tonight's dead letter, Keith takes us back to the spring of 1997, when he was a freshman at Rutgers living on the third floor of Clothier Hall, a brick dorm in downtown New Brunswick, New Jersey. Early one Saturday morning, with the first light coming in around the curtain, he opened his eyes and someone was sitting on the floor against his roommate's bed, six feet away, in a room he had locked the night before. Someone, or some…thing…that shouldn’t have been there.
Relevant Prior Episodes
Ep 26: Shadow People
https://astonishinglegends.com/al-podcasts/2017/2/6/ep-026-shadow-people · https://open.spotify.com/episode/7wNUanfRFXoQ0QOhy5l58L · https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shadow-people/id923527373?i=1000355594797
Ep 338: Your True Halloween Stories IV, Part 3
https://astonishinglegends.com/al-podcasts/2026/10/24/ep-338-your-true-halloween-stories-iv-part3 · https://open.spotify.com/episode/0V4o0hd5ZWQw7t4pL7UN3z · https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/your-true-halloween-stories-iv-part-3/id923527373?i=1000797975812
Ep 87: Black Eyed Kids Part 1
https://astonishinglegends.com/al-podcasts/2017/10/22/ep-87-black-eyed-kids-part-1 · https://open.spotify.com/episode/1WeXzbjFl1azd7xjpEOc5o · https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/astonishing-legends/id923527373?i=1000393874073
Links and Further Reading
https://ruoncampus.rutgers.edu/node/230
https://weirdnj.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_person
Note: We call Benadryl's active ingredient pseudoephedrine in the episode. It's diphenhydramine.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnagogia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnic_jerk
https://jimharold.com/category/jim-harolds-campfire/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miyamoto_Musashi
https://sacred-texts.com/fort/wild/index.htm
We're looking for more stories! Send your Dead Letter to deadletteroffice@astonishinglegends.com!
25 OCT 2026 · Our Halloween tradition continues with three more listeners sharing encounters they still can’t explain.And this time we’re lucky enough to have paranormal investigator, researcher and author Michelle Belanger join us to help answer the question connecting these stories: does this phenomenon have a name?At a Southern California shopping mall, Amy gets in line for food when two young women behind her suddenly fill her with an intense feeling of dread.In Los Angeles, Zee picks up two young women from an unlikely spot near a freeway overpass, and before long, an ordinary ride begins to feel anything but.Lastly, Mike takes us back to a Chicago suburb in 1988, where a routine walk near a cemetery leads to a passing encounter with two women he has never forgotten.Turn down the lights and join us for the final set of this year’s true Halloween mysteries.Visit our https://astonishinglegends.com/al-podcasts/2026/10/24/ep-338-your-true-halloween-stories-iv-part3 for a lot more information on this episode.
20 OCT 2026 · In tonight's dead letter, we're in Cluj-Napoca, Transylvania in the 1990s, a few years after the revolution, where our listener Nadina, six at the time, had the run of a Soviet-era apartment block with her older sister and their best friend while their nanny visited a friend upstairs. They climbed past the last floor of apartments to the metal door at the top, and before anyone could touch it, something huge, aggressive and feral sounding on the other side began attacking it so hard they fled. Nadina still doesn't know what was up there.
Relevant Prior Episodes
Ep 49: Monsters Among Us
https://astonishinglegends.com/al-podcasts/2017/2/7/ep-049-monsters-among-us · https://open.spotify.com/episode/2il0qVGYdmvyV7MBLWtQ28 · https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/monsters-among-us/id923527373?i=1000376271976
Ep 116: Small Town Monsters
https://astonishinglegends.com/al-podcasts/2018/8/25/ep-116-small-town-monsters · https://open.spotify.com/episode/2R6U64cV98pANVHIzHDIOa · https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/small-town-monsters/id923527373?i=1000418508545
Ep 183: Sam the Sandown Clown
https://astonishinglegends.com/al-podcasts/2020/7/25/ep-183-sam-the-sandown-clown · https://open.spotify.com/episode/4AYUfURRV0JnpEDwzFKrRi · https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sam-the-sandown-clown/id923527373?i=1000486127116
Ep 203: The Beast of Gévaudan
https://astonishinglegends.com/al-podcasts/2021/02/28/ep-203-the-beast-of-gevaudan · https://open.spotify.com/episode/5mq9Gg4Xk3cEmZzyf4pRWV · https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-beast-of-gevaudan/id923527373?i=1000511045159
Links and Further Reading
https://astonishinglegends.com/astonishing-legends/2024/10/12/hoia-baciu-forest
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Cluj-Napoca
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systematization_(Romania)
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/52165
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pricolici
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strigoi
https://astonishinglegends.com/astonishing-legends/2023/10/5/tracing-the-roots-of-lycanthropy
https://astonishinglegends.com/astonishing-legends/2022/10/6/z0qo7hqmykoet5qmtnjn5knceo0cod
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blonde_Venus
https://www.museumoftheweird.com/2014/07/03/classic-sideshow-acts-the-girl-into-the-gorilla/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepper%27s_ghost
We're looking for more stories! Send your Dead Letter to deadletteroffice@astonishinglegends.com!
18 OCT 2026 · Our Halloween tradition continues with three more listeners sharing encounters they still can’t explain.At a church summer camp in the mountains above Southern California, Ray and two fellow counselors spot a girl standing alone in the parking lot after lights-out. She silently returns to the bunkhouse when they call to her… but that won’t be the last time they see her.In San Luis Obispo, Brian and his wife move into a guest house with a long history and a curious warning from their elderly landlady: most tenants don’t stay very long. Soon they begin to understand why.And Terry takes us back to the night shift of a hospital coronary care unit, where a dying patient starts asking every nurse the same unsettling question: “Who’s that behind you?”Turn down the lights and settle in for Part Two of our Halloween listener stories.Visit our https://astonishinglegends.com/al-podcasts/2026/10/17/ep-337-your-true-halloween-stories-iv-part2 for a lot more information on this episode.
13 OCT 2026 · In tonight's dead letter, our listener TM was the office manager at a Catholic parish in the upper Mississippi river area, and part of her job was digitizing the cemetery's paper records, so she'd walk the rows with a camera, say hello to everyone, and tell them what she was there to do. One marker sat outside the cemetery’s plot map entirely: a boy who drowned in the river in 1936, with fresh flowers by his stone and no file in the office. One July afternoon, someone or something unseen let her know it was there.
Relevant Prior Episodes
Ep 247: Massacre at Duffy's Cut Part 1
https://astonishinglegends.com/al-podcasts/2022/11/26/ep-247-massacre-at-duffys-cut-part-1 · https://open.spotify.com/episode/75kmmcRQ3GXOMIH93Jrfzj · https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/massacre-at-duffys-cut-part-1/id923527373?i=1000587582014
Ep 317: The Screaming Skulls
https://astonishinglegends.com/al-podcasts/2025/09/27/ep-317-the-screaming-skulls · https://open.spotify.com/episode/2oIyqFO39dtH43e9aVrsSD · https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-screaming-skulls/id923527373?i=1000728744673
Ep 85: The Bell Witch Part 1
https://astonishinglegends.com/al-podcasts/2017/10/08/ep-85-the-bell-witch-part-1 · https://open.spotify.com/episode/3vs8HMK0RYkaKramySxzkR · https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/astonishing-legends/id923527373?i=1000393231415
Ep 123: The Sallie House: Ghost in the Machine Part 1
https://astonishinglegends.com/al-podcasts/2018/10/28/ep-123-the-sallie-house-ghost-in-the-machine-part-1 · https://open.spotify.com/episode/20PwwC2p9Kq97H7yX370kO · https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/astonishing-legends/id923527373?i=1000422764496
Ep 4: Amelia Earhart Vanishes Part 1
https://astonishinglegends.com/al-podcasts/2016/12/10/ep-004-amelia-earhart-vanishes-part-1 · https://open.spotify.com/episode/5qzdOH7LKC31cKFuK5GHTu · https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/astonishing-legends/id923527373?i=1000352822386
Links and Further Reading
https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P2N.HTM
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-John-Chrysostom
https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01315b.htm
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/columbarium
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duffy%27s_Cut
https://www.bellwitchcave.com/
https://astonishinglegends.com/astonishing-legends/2019/10/31/electronic-voice-phenomena-an-overview
https://www.laconservancy.org/learn/historic-places/stahl-house-case-study-house-22/
https://open.spotify.com/show/5mH0DewGZuJpIL3NYDjxCv
We're looking for more stories! Send your Dead Letter to deadletteroffice@astonishinglegends.com!
11 OCT 2026 · In 1933, a Scottish botanist watched a seemingly abandoned steamship drift past the Alaskan coast on an ice floe. It appeared upside down in a strange mirage, with no crew and no one at the wheel. This ship was the Baychimo, which was abandoned two years earlier, but refused to disappear. Having repeatedly resurfaced across the Arctic, it earning a reputation as one of history’s great ghost ships.In this episode, we explore the strange history of ghost ships from the the Baychimo, to the frozen Octavius, and the Ourang Medan, whose crew was reportedly found mysteriously dead shortly before the ship itself exploded and sank. Three ships, three enduring legends, and at least one vessel whose final resting place remains unknown.Visit our https://astonishinglegends.com/al-podcasts/2026/10/10/ep-336-your-true-halloween-stories-iv-part1 for a lot more information on this episode.
6 OCT 2026 · In tonight's dead letter, Corey takes us back to Omaha, Nebraska in the year 2000, when he was the overnight host on a Top 40 station and a call-in topic about haunted places kept circling back to one private family cemetery. He sent a carload of listeners out there on a Friday night to report back live on the air. A few days later his boss got a phone call from the cemetery's caretakers. And, to paraphrase a Dateline episode…things got weirder from there.We mentioned a TON of old eps in this one!
Relevant Prior Episodes
Ep 48: Choose Your Own Adventure
https://astonishinglegends.com/al-podcasts/2017/2/7/ep-048-choose-your-own-adventure · https://open.spotify.com/episode/1lnNCsAMwTevw1YJDx6EUo · https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/astonishing-legends/id923527373?i=1000375949489
Ep 71: Pere Cheney: The Town that Disappeared
https://astonishinglegends.com/al-podcasts/2017/5/18/ep-71-pere-cheney-the-town-that-disappeared · https://open.spotify.com/episode/26PaVXdKtddyt6CUnLPP5j · https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/astonishing-legends/id923527373?i=1000385629208
Ep 87: Black Eyed Kids Part 1
https://astonishinglegends.com/al-podcasts/2017/10/22/ep-87-black-eyed-kids-part-1 · https://open.spotify.com/episode/1WeXzbjFl1azd7xjpEOc5o · https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/astonishing-legends/id923527373?i=1000393874073
Ep 50: Mothman Part 1
https://astonishinglegends.com/al-podcasts/2017/2/7/ep-050-mothman-part-1 · https://open.spotify.com/episode/5OcbRt8FoncRPJiFyot9px · https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mothman-part-1/id923527373?i=1000376902986
Ep 14: What's Gotten Into You?
https://astonishinglegends.com/al-podcasts/2017/2/6/ep-014-whats-gotten-into-you · https://open.spotify.com/episode/5PCBDsKEn8GfhBXwnACx8p · https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/astonishing-legends/id923527373?i=1000352822383
Ep 209: The Phantom Horse of Greensboro
https://astonishinglegends.com/al-podcasts/2021/5/22/ep-209-the-phantom-horse-of-greensboro · https://open.spotify.com/episode/5GNDWxBESev1TQ4wWrRDFZ · https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/astonishing-legends/id923527373?i=1000522787086
Ep 120: The Grim Reaper
https://astonishinglegends.com/al-podcasts/2018/10/06/ep-120-the-grim-reaper · https://open.spotify.com/episode/4ZAOONce6e4f85n8RQY8Sb · https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/astonishing-legends/id923527373?i=1000421246113
Ep 154: Lockdown at the Waverly Hills Sanatorium
https://astonishinglegends.com/al-podcasts/2019/9/22/ep-154-lockdown-at-the-waverly-sanatorium · https://open.spotify.com/episode/2Vg6JyYCPnretRMtlTGM1f · https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/astonishing-legends/id923527373?i=1000450794269
Ep 156: The Ax Murder House in Villisca Part 1
https://astonishinglegends.com/al-podcasts/2019/10/20/ep-156-the-ax-murder-house-in-villisca-part-1 · https://open.spotify.com/episode/6HD8u2Q3MuCXlf4Jzg22mP · https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/astonishing-legends/id923527373?i=1000454256189
Ep 49: Monsters Among Us
https://astonishinglegends.com/al-podcasts/2017/2/7/ep-049-monsters-among-us · https://open.spotify.com/episode/2il0qVGYdmvyV7MBLWtQ28 · https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/monsters-among-us/id923527373?i=1000376271976
Ep 310: The Rhine Research Center: Extraordinary Evidence
https://astonishinglegends.com/al-podcasts/2025/05/10/ep-310-the-rhine-institute-extraordinary-evidence · https://open.spotify.com/episode/0mXFCcNjUmMR9G42Z0WOLL · https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-rhine-institute-extraordinary-evidence/id923527373?i=1000707918686
Links and Further Reading
https://astonishinglegends.com/astonishing-legends/2018/10/17/church-grims
https://www.abebooks.com/Strange-Intruders-David-Weatherly-Leprechaun-Press/20268639536/bd
https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/gnm-tyrrell
https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/ghosts-and-apparitions-psi-research-overview
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.99141
https://archive.org/details/phantasmsoflivin02gurniala
https://jimharold.com/category/jim-harolds-campfire/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mothman_of_Point_Pleasant
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ankou
https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-case-against-reality-why-evolution-hid-the-truth-from-our-eyes-donald-hoffman/a68dde20f993121e?ean=9780393254709
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Game_of_Pool_(The_Twilight_Zone,_1959)
https://bookshop.org/p/books/on-a-pale-horse-piers-anthony/637201e59f3cbafa?ean=9780345338587
https://murderhouse.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_and_Let_Die_(film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin_Peaks:_The_Return
We're looking for more stories! Send your Dead Letter to deadletteroffice@astonishinglegends.com!
27 SEP 2026 · In 1933, a Scottish botanist watched a seemingly abandoned steamship drift past the Alaskan coast on an ice floe. It appeared upside down in a strange mirage, with no crew and no one at the wheel. This ship was the Baychimo, which was abandoned two years earlier, but refused to disappear. Having repeatedly resurfaced across the Arctic, it earning a reputation as one of history’s great ghost ships.In this episode, we explore the strange history of ghost ships from the the Baychimo, to the frozen Octavius, and the Ourang Medan, whose crew was reportedly found mysteriously dead shortly before the ship itself exploded and sank. Three ships, three enduring legends, and at least one vessel whose final resting place remains unknown.Visit our https://astonishinglegends.com/al-podcasts/2026/09/26/ep-335-a-tale-of-ghost-ships-three for a lot more information on this episode.
22 SEP 2026 · In tonight's dead letter, our listener Ed and his wife are newlyweds, sharing the apartment he's lived in for about two years in Clay Center, Nebraska. One morning in early 2020, he hits snooze on his alarm and sees a figure walking out of their bedroom, silhouetted by the living room lights he'd set on a timer, and it looks just like his wife, but it’s not.
Relevant Prior Episodes
Ep 26: Shadow People
https://astonishinglegends.com/al-podcasts/2017/2/6/ep-026-shadow-people · https://open.spotify.com/episode/7wNUanfRFXoQ0QOhy5l58L · https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shadow-people/id923527373?i=1000355594797
Ep 64: Electronic Fog
https://astonishinglegends.com/al-podcasts/2017/3/10/ep-64-electronic-fog · https://open.spotify.com/episode/4d5bqZBCnuQagpltkWLSgM · https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/electronic-fog/id923527373?i=1000382474949
Ep 226: Boundless Remote Viewing with Lori Williams Part 1
https://astonishinglegends.com/al-podcasts/2022/02/29/ep-226-boundless-remote-viewing-with-lori-williams-part-1 · https://open.spotify.com/episode/2KkGx8tMK53i6NbkVtfqHz · https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/boundless-remote-viewing-with-lori-williams-part-1/id923527373?i=1000549399235
Links and Further Reading
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OclxyoUdwcsmAEVuaqENSCsaVWbfpdeE/view
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clay_Center,_Nebraska
https://www.travelks.com/listing/worlds-largest-ball-of-twine/2344/
Note: We call it the world's biggest ball of yarn in the episode. It's actually a ball of sisal twine. I always mess that up! (Scott)
https://www.britannica.com/art/doppelganger
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/23234-hypnagogic-hallucinations
https://matthewmeyer.net/blog/2013/10/30/a-yokai-a-day-ikiryo/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Cannon_(psychiatrist)
https://irp.fas.org/program/collect/stargate.htm
https://stevegjones.com/buy/hypnosis-mp3s/astral-projection-platinum-mp3/
https://bookshop.org/books/journeys-out-of-the-body-the-classic-work-on-out-of-body-experience-updated/9780385008617
https://www.richardhatemsparanormalbookshelf.com/
https://bookshop.org/p/books/beyond-the-bermuda-triangle-true-encounters-with-electronic-fog-missing-aircraft-and-time-warps-bruce-gernon/ad57710a4e5fdac7?ean=9781632651013
We're looking for more stories! Send your Dead Letter to deadletteroffice@astonishinglegends.com!
15 SEP 2026 · In tonight's dead letter, our listener named Mark is driving through western Michigan at two in the morning in 1978, working off a paper map and handwritten directions to a house he's never been to. He comes up a hill and into a curve on US 131, and there are four people standing in his lane. Two of them are waving him over to the right, and the other two have their arms raised above their heads in an X. Had they not been there he may have had a fatal collision, and when he went to find them shortly after, they had vanished.
Relevant Prior Episodes
Ep 102: Resurrection Mary Part 1
https://astonishinglegends.com/al-podcasts/2018/03/25/ep-102-resurrection-mary-part-1 · https://open.spotify.com/episode/3Zbe5BAn5goLxPIfPVsknV · https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/resurrection-mary-part-1/id923527373?i=1000407468733
Ep 116: Small Town Monsters
https://astonishinglegends.com/al-podcasts/2018/8/25/ep-116-small-town-monsters · https://open.spotify.com/episode/2R6U64cV98pANVHIzHDIOa · https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/astonishing-legends/id923527373?i=1000418508545
Links and Further Reading
https://www.ncpedia.org/lydia-ghost-jamestown-bridge
https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/modernlanguages/applying/undergraduate/crossschool/ln305/biblio/beardsley__hankey_a_history_of_the_vanishing_hitchhiker.pdf
https://www.smalltownmonsters.com/shop/thebrayroadbeastdvd
https://jimharold.com/campfirebooks/
Note: We call it the National Highway Transportation Safety Association in the episode. The ‘A’ is actually for Administration.
We're looking for more stories! Send your Dead Letter to deadletteroffice@astonishinglegends.com!
The world is more mysterious than most people are comfortable imagining. We cross paths with the mystical from time to time and may not even notice it. If we do,...
show more
The world is more mysterious than most people are comfortable imagining. We cross paths with the mystical from time to time and may not even notice it. If we do, we quickly return to our usually mundane daily existence. But what if we not only acknowledged the unknown, we investigated it and spoke with those in the know? That's what co-hosts Scott Philbrook & Forrest Burgess, and co-executive producer Tess Pfeifle do at Astonishing Legends. Over 100 million downloads and hundreds of thousands of listeners have discovered the thrill of exploring the mysteries of our world, showing that the unknown can be both captivating and intriguing. Welcome to Astonishing Legends!
show less
Information
| Author | BN |
| Organization | BN |
| Categories | Society & Culture , History |
| Website | www.spreaker.com |
| noquezarry@gmail.com |
Copyright 2026 - Spreaker Inc. an iHeartMedia Company
