Astonishing Legends

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Rating
4.6
from
9424 reviews
This podcast has
439 episodes
Language
Explicit
No
Date created
2014/09/26
Latest episode
2026/04/21
Average duration
69 min.
Release period
5 days

Description

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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Podcast episodes

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The Fog, The Man, and The Golden Gate Bridge
2026/04/21
In tonight’s dead letter, listener Jeannette shares a deeply atmospheric story from a bike commute across one of the most famous bridges in the world. Enveloped in the freezing, thick San Francisco fog, what starts as a quiet ride she’s done a million times turns into an inexplicable encounter with a solitary figure standing near the edge. After a strangely profound exchange of words, she looks back to find the massive walkway entirely empty. She is convinced that he couldn’t have had time to have taken his life in that brief moment. It opens up a conversation about crisis apparitions, liminal spaces, and the heavy emotional toll anchored to such a monumental location. REFERENCE LINKSSFGate: Japanese Taxi Drivers Claim Ghost Passengers Hail Cabs at Site of 2011 Tsunami: https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Japanese-taxi-drivers-claim-ghost-passengers-6806980.php Golden Gate Bridge Suicide Deterrent Net Project: https://www.goldengate.org/district/district-projects/suicide-deterrent-net/ Bridge Rail Foundation: http://www.bridgerail.net/ "Unsolved Mysteries"- Tsunami Spirits: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11107472/ KCRW Unfictional Podcast: https://www.kcrw.com/shows/unfictional/latest Ghosts of the Tsunami by Richard Lloyd Parry: https://bookshop.org/p/books/ghosts-of-the-tsunami-death-and-life-in-japan-s-disaster-zone-richard-lloyd-parry/4c115c39e1094566?ean=9781250192813&next=t We're looking for more stories! Send your Dead Letter to [email protected]!
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The Lead Masks of Vintem Hill Part 2
2026/04/19
What if the infamous Lead Masks Case wasn’t a one-off tragedy, but the final step in a years-long chain of dangerous experiments? In part 2, we pull back from the image of two dead electronics technicians on Vintém Hill to uncover a much bigger world of underground spiritist circles, secret ham radio messages, strange explosions near the beach, homemade electrical devices, and an earlier death that seems to mirror the case almost exactly. As the pattern widens, the story becomes far darker and more unsettling: not just a mystery about what happened that night in 1966, but whether the clues that could have explained everything were ruined by the investigation itself. Visit our website for a lot more information on this episode.
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The Elephant Slides of Sofia
2026/04/14
In tonight’s dead letter, we’ll take you through the brutalist monuments and ancient layers of Sofia, Bulgaria looking for what may have been the scene of a localized timeslip. After giving up the search for a playground that made a pronounced childhood impression, our listener Vili, stumbles right into a beautifully preserved version of it. We’ll discuss the folklore of missing time, and how our own memories might just be powerful enough to physically manifest things we wish to recover that don’t exist anymore. REFERENCE LINKSNational Palace of Culture (NDK) in SofiaSamodiva - Bulgarian Woodland SpiritsThe Moberly–Jourdain Incident (Versailles Time Slip)Ed Debevic's Retro DinerAlpine Gardens (Alpinarium)The Ghosts of Versailles Part 1 (Astonishing Legends)We're looking for more stories! Send your Dead Letter to [email protected]!
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The Lead Masks of Vintém Hill Part 1
2026/04/12
In one of Brazil’s strangest unsolved mysteries, two electronics technicians travel to Niterói in 1966, buy matching raincoats, hike up a remote hill with cash, water, towels, and a handwritten set of bizarre instructions, then turn up dead days later lying side by side on palm leaves, wearing homemade lead eye masks and showing no clear cause of death. What follows is a case that spirals far beyond a simple true-crime puzzle, with every answer leading to a bigger question: were these men victims of a bizarre accident, participants in something occult, or did they believe they were about to witness something not of this world? Visit our website for a lot more information on this episode.
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No Human Could Throw Books Like This
2026/04/08
In tonight’s dead letter, we hear from a librarian who works the desk at a fairly new building down in the Southeast. But the ground it sits on has a much heavier history: the library was built right over the exact footprint of four demolished hospitals, with the old medical cornerstones still cemented into the walkway outside. When a freshly upgraded security system triggers overnight and catches something moving in the dark, the staff is forced to wonder if the property's busy past is finally bleeding into the present. REFERENCE LINKS The Bray Road Beast Documentary on Prime VideoA Haunting at the Hoyt Library on Prime VideoSmall Town Monsters Official WebsiteER70 EVP Recorder on the App StoreWaverly Hills SanatoriumWe're looking for more stories! Send your Dead Letter to [email protected]!
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The Carousel in the Ravine (Reposted)
2026/04/01
In tonight’s dead letter, we hear a story from a listener who along with her husband encountered something bizarre hovering low near their land down in the southernmost part of the Australian mainland. They struggle to understand what they’re looking at and how it could even exist. Somehow it seems to control the outcome of their day in ways that they can’t quite remember. The guys branch out to explore similar phenomena throughout the episode, touching on the famous Frederick Valentich disappearance over the nearby Bass Strait, the mechanics of space-time warp bubbles, and the strange nature of screen memories. NOTE: File needed a revision so this is the 2nd posting to replace the first deleted one. REFERENCE LINKSWilsons Promontory National ParkAstonishing Legends: The Disappearance of Frederic Valentich Part 1Astonishing Legends: Abduction at Devil's Den (Terry Lovelace)Astonishing Legends: Devil’s Den the Reckoning Part 1Remote Viewing (TransDimensional Mapping) the Calvine UFO Part 1 We're looking for more stories! Send your Dead Letter to [email protected]!
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The Nightshift Protocol
2026/03/24
In tonight’s dead letter, a routine room cleaning following a patient's passing turns into a puzzling technological glitch. A sensor alarm designed to protect patients from hurting themselves keeps going off. The solution to silencing the machine isn't found in a manual, but in a centuries-old tradition regarding the departure of the human soul. REFERENCE LINKS Appalachian Superstitions About DeathThe Custom of the Soul Window (Seelenfenster)  (Requires translation) Why Do Nurses Hear Phantom Call Bells?We're looking for more stories! Send your Dead Letter to [email protected]
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The Disappearance of Jim Sullivan
2026/03/22
In the lonely New Mexico desert, police discover an abandoned Volkswagen Beetle containing a 12-string guitar, a wallet, clothes, and a box of unsold records. Things a working musician would never willingly leave behind. The car belongs to Jim Sullivan, a talented singer-songwriter who had just made a strange call to his wife saying he’d been pulled over and that she “wouldn’t believe” what happened, before promising to call again from Nashville. He never did. What makes the story unforgettable is that those unsold records were his album called U.F.O., filled with songs about driving into the desert, leaving his life behind, and encountering something in the sky. In this episode, we dive into the eerie disappearance of a man who may have unknowingly written the soundtrack to his own vanishing. Visit our website for a lot more information on this episode.
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Stranger Danger
2026/03/17
In tonight’s Dead Letter, Forrest and Scott read a submission from Stacey, which delves into the "Uncanny Valley" phenomenon in a true-life scenario. In a coastal town already known for its dark past and unusual coastal events, a silent, out-of-place stranger pays an unexpected visit to a college apartment. Sometimes the most chilling stories are those where the door remains locked and whatever was on the other side…is still out there somewhere. REFERENCE LINKS History of Bellingham, WashingtonThe Salish Sea Severed Feet PhenomenonKenneth Bianchi and Western Washington UniversityThe Uncanny Valley in PsychologyWe're looking for more stories! Send your Dead Letter to [email protected]!
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Live Junk Drawer Tonight on Patreon!
2026/03/15
Tonight, Forrest and I are sitting down with Jeremiah Byron for an exclusive live video interview about the unprecedented, real-time flap of Bigfoot sightings currently moving through Northeast Ohio. This special broadcast is completely private and only available to Astonishing Legends Patreon members and Bigfoot Society Supercast subscribers. Grab your drinks and join us in the chat tonight at 9:30 PM Eastern, 8:30 PM Central, and 6:30 PM Pacific for all the breaking updates!
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Another Bunny
2026/03/10
In tonight’s dead letter from listener Amanda, the boundary between an adorable trusted holiday icon and nocturnal terror is tested in the deep woods near the Allegheny National Forest. A massive silhouette of something that shouldn’t exist peering over the hood of a car sparks a lifelong mystery. Amanda may have been a child when she saw this, but her mom and grandmother were both also eyewitnesses. References and Links:The History of Warren, PennsylvaniaThe Folklore of the Celtic PúcaFlemish Giant Rabbits: Facts and SizeThe Psychology of Childhood Memory and Trauma We're looking for more stories! Send your Dead Letter to [email protected]!
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Through a Laser Darkly
2026/03/08
This episode dives into one of the strangest modern consciousness experiments ever proposed. Starting with cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman’s provocative idea that reality may function like a computer desktop interface — an evolutionary illusion designed for survival rather than truth. We’ll explore a bizarre experiment popularized by Danny Goler in which participants under the influence of DMT have claimed that lasers can help random patterns resolve into stable, angular symbols under the right conditions — as if making the hidden code behind reality visible. Are these visions simply the brain’s hyper-connected visual cortex generating patterns, or could they represent the possibility that our everyday reality may be a carefully rendered illusion? Visit our website for a lot more information on this episode.
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The Camden High Street Haunting
2026/03/03
In tonight’s dead letter… we travel back to 2010 to a hotel in the heart of Camden in the UK. Two brothers looking to soak up some local punk history find themselves sharing a room with something entirely unexpected. Sometimes the most mundane late-night activities—like eating pizza and watching TV—are the perfect backdrop for the impossible to slip through. Reference Links:  Historical Hauntings of North LondonCamden's history We're looking for more stories! Send your Dead Letter to [email protected]!
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Mind Invasion
2026/02/25
In tonight’s dead letter, we dive into a bizarre encounter that proves the unexplained doesn't always wait for a dark and stormy night on boot hill. Sometimes just an ordinary walk home from a university class can transform into an unforgettable and unsettling experience. Could a seemingly mundane moment on a city sidewalk be the cover for a highly advanced technological test, or is it something far more supernatural? Join us as we explore the invisible boundaries of our own minds and discuss what happens when an unseen force aggressively demands to cross them. Göbekli Tepe - BritannicaNoveto Systems 'SoundBeaming' - AP NewsHavana Syndrome - WikipediaNina Kulagina - WikipediaWeird or What? with William Shatner: Mind Control (Season 3, Episode 10) - IMDb We're looking for more stories! Send your Dead Letter to [email protected]
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The Scole Experiment Part 3: Endgame
2026/02/22
In the final chapter of our Scole series, the story stops looking like a séance and starts feeling like science fiction. What began with classic Spiritualist phenomena — messages from the dead and movement in the dark—escalates into self-developing film, unexplained voices on sealed recorders, and a crystal device built for two-way contact. Then a black-eyed, Grey-like figure appears on video, and the entities claim to be inter-dimensional beings and time travelers. With ominous warnings and a sudden end to the experiment, we’re left with the question: did they prove life after death… or open something they couldn’t control? Visit our website for a lot more information on this episode.
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Podcast reviews

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4.6 out of 5
9424 reviews
guy19.38 2026/04/18
clearly the best
The best. Nothing better than this.
TGNx 2026/04/13
The best
The best there is. The best there will ever be.
thermosprotection1 2026/01/17
Welcome back!
Fantastic and topical episode for 2026! Grateful you are back! Continues well wishes for you two and yours
apsiuk 2026/03/23
Objectification of women
I had to stop listening when they blatantly objectified the secretary for Edgar Cayce. That’s not nice.
Fakeinfoskip 2026/02/19
Ads
Too many long ads
Ddfairy 2026/01/12
One of paranormal podcasting’s best
Scott and Forrest do the deep dive into your favorite paranormal topics, allowing you to go along for a spooky, sometimes funny, sometimes heart-felt ...
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GEFtheMongoose 2025/12/31
Amazing
I just listened to your deep dive on the Patterson Gimlin film. All I can say is it was simply great.
Allen Garrow 2026/01/12
They do the research
Each show is well done in production and research! Deep dives are the most comprehensive episodes! Great example is the Patterson & Gimlin film, 3 par...
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ldnq 2025/11/20
Great rapport
I love this show and all of the variations.
How fun the game is 2025/11/06
How do you make this so good?
I’m a ten year old boy and when my dad found this podcast, I loved every second of this podcast. Also sorry for your loss. I also lost someone, my ste...
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