Astonishing Legends cover art

Astonishing Legends

Astonishing Legends

By: Astonishing Legends Productions
Listen for free

Season's Savings | $0.99/mo for 3 months

Auto-renews at $8.99/mo. after 3 months - terms apply.
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!Astonishing Legends Productions, LLC Social Sciences World
Episodes
  • S2 Ep38: Hello, James.

    S2 Ep38: Hello, James.
    Oct 13 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
    Astonishing Legends · Spotify · Apple Podcasts
    Ep 317: The Screaming Skulls
    Astonishing Legends · Spotify · Apple Podcasts
    Ep 85: The Bell Witch Part 1
    Astonishing Legends · Spotify · Apple Podcasts
    Ep 123: The Sallie House: Ghost in the Machine Part 1
    Astonishing Legends · Spotify · Apple Podcasts
    Ep 4: Amelia Earhart Vanishes Part 1
    Astonishing Legends · Spotify · Apple Podcasts
    Links and Further Reading
    Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1032 (Vatican.va)
    St. John Chrysostom (Britannica)
    All Souls' Day (Catholic Encyclopedia, New Advent)
    Columbarium (Merriam-Webster)
    Duffy's Cut (Wikipedia)
    Historic Bell Witch Cave, Adams, Tennessee
    Electronic Voice Phenomena: An Overview (Astonishing Legends blog)
    Stahl House, Case Study House #22 (LA Conservancy)
    Scared All The Time (podcast)

    We're looking for more stories! Send your Dead Letter to deadletteroffice@astonishinglegends.com!
    Show More Show Less
    51 mins
  • Your True Halloween Stories IV Part 1

    Your True Halloween Stories IV Part 1
    Oct 11 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 website for a lot more information on this episode.
    Show More Show Less
    3 hrs and 5 mins
  • S2 Ep37: The Old Man on the Gravestone

    S2 Ep37: The Old Man on the Gravestone
    Oct 6 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 EpisodesEp 48: Choose Your Own AdventureAstonishing Legends · Spotify · Apple Podcasts Ep 71: Pere Cheney: The Town that DisappearedAstonishing Legends · Spotify · Apple Podcasts Ep 87: Black Eyed Kids Part 1Astonishing Legends · Spotify · Apple Podcasts Ep 50: Mothman Part 1Astonishing Legends · Spotify · Apple Podcasts Ep 14: What's Gotten Into You?Astonishing Legends · Spotify · Apple Podcasts Ep 209: The Phantom Horse of GreensboroAstonishing Legends · Spotify · Apple Podcasts Ep 120: The Grim ReaperAstonishing Legends · Spotify · Apple Podcasts Ep 154: Lockdown at the Waverly Hills SanatoriumAstonishing Legends · Spotify · Apple Podcasts Ep 156: The Ax Murder House in Villisca Part 1Astonishing Legends · Spotify · Apple Podcasts Ep 49: Monsters Among UsAstonishing Legends · Spotify · Apple Podcasts Ep 310: The Rhine Research Center: Extraordinary EvidenceAstonishing Legends · Spotify · Apple Podcasts Links and Further ReadingChurch Grims, by Tess Pfeifle (Astonishing Legends blog) Strange Intruders, by David WeatherlyG.N.M. Tyrrell (Psi Encyclopedia, Society for Psychical Research)Ghosts and Apparitions in Psi Research (Psi Encyclopedia)Phantasms of the Living, Volume 1 (1886), free at the Internet ArchivePhantasms of the Living, Volume 2 (1886), free at the Internet ArchiveJim Harold's CampfireThe Mothman of Point Pleasant (Small Town Monsters, 2017)The AnkouThe Case Against Reality, by Donald HoffmanA Game of Pool, The Twilight Zone (1961)On a Pale Horse, by Piers AnthonyThe Villisca Axe Murder HouseLive and Let Die (1973)Twin Peaks: The Return (2017)We're looking for more stories! Send your Dead Letter to deadletteroffice@astonishinglegends.com!
    Show More Show Less
    52 mins
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1
No reviews yet
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.