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Astonishing Legends

Astonishing Legends

By: Astonishing Legends Productions
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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!Astonishing Legends Productions, LLC Social Sciences World
Episodes
  • S2 Ep39: Above the Top Floor

    S2 Ep39: Above the Top Floor
    Oct 20 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
    Astonishing Legends · Spotify · Apple Podcasts
    Ep 116: Small Town Monsters
    Astonishing Legends · Spotify · Apple Podcasts
    Ep 183: Sam the Sandown Clown
    Astonishing Legends · Spotify · Apple Podcasts
    Ep 203: The Beast of Gévaudan
    Astonishing Legends · Spotify · Apple Podcasts
    Links and Further Reading
    Hoia Baciu Forest (Astonishing Legends)
    History of Cluj-Napoca
    Systematization in Romania
    Transylvanian Superstitions, Emily Gerard, 1885 (Project Gutenberg)
    Pricolici
    Strigoi
    Tracing the Roots of Lycanthropy (Astonishing Legends)
    The Beast of Bray Road (Astonishing Legends)
    Blonde Venus (1932)
    Classic Sideshow Acts: The Girl into the Gorilla (Museum of the Weird)
    Pepper's Ghost
    We're looking for more stories! Send your Dead Letter to deadletteroffice@astonishinglegends.com!
    Show More Show Less
    43 mins
  • Your True Halloween Stories IV Part 2

    Your True Halloween Stories IV Part 2
    Oct 18 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 website for a lot more information on this episode.
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    2 hrs and 9 mins
  • 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
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