Astonishing Legends

By Astonishing Legends ProductionsSociety & Culture History

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Astonishing Legends episodes

October 11 Your True Halloween Stories IV Part 1
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.
3 hr 5 min
October 06 S2 Ep37: The Old Man on the Gravestone
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
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Ep 71: Pere Cheney: The Town that Disappeared
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Ep 87: Black Eyed Kids Part 1
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Ep 50: Mothman Part 1
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Ep 14: What's Gotten Into You?
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Ep 209: The Phantom Horse of Greensboro
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Ep 120: The Grim Reaper
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Ep 154: Lockdown at the Waverly Hills Sanatorium
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Ep 156: The Ax Murder House in Villisca Part 1
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Ep 49: Monsters Among Us
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Ep 310: The Rhine Research Center: Extraordinary Evidence
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Links and Further Reading
Church Grims, by Tess Pfeifle (Astonishing Legends blog)

Strange Intruders, by David Weatherly
G.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 Archive
Phantasms of the Living, Volume 2 (1886), free at the Internet Archive
Jim Harold's Campfire
The Mothman of Point Pleasant (Small Town Monsters, 2017)
The Ankou
The Case Against Reality, by Donald Hoffman
A Game of Pool, The Twilight Zone (1961)
On a Pale Horse, by Piers Anthony
The Villisca Axe Murder House
Live and Let Die (1973)
Twin Peaks: The Return (2017)
We're looking for more stories! Send your Dead Letter to [email protected]!
52 min
September 27 A Tale of Ghost Ships Three!
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.
2 hr 17 min
September 22 S2 Ep36: The Mimic
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
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Ep 64: Electronic Fog
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Ep 226: Boundless Remote Viewing with Lori Williams Part 1
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Links and Further Reading
Ed's Floor Plan of the Apartment
Clay Center, Nebraska, Wikipedia
World's Largest Ball of Twine, Kansas Tourism
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)

Doppelganger, Britannica
Hypnagogic Hallucinations, Cleveland Clinic
A-Yokai-A-Day: Ikiryo, Matthew Meyer
Alexander Cannon (psychiatrist), Wikipedia
STAR GATE [Controlled Remote Viewing], Federation of American Scientists
Astral Projection Hypnosis by Dr. Steve G. Jones
Journeys Out of the Body by Robert A. Monroe
Richard Hatem's Paranormal Bookshelf
Beyond the Bermuda Triangle by Bruce Gernon and Rob MacGregor
We're looking for more stories! Send your Dead Letter to [email protected]!
33 min
September 15 S2 Ep35: The Benevolent Warning
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
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Ep 116: Small Town Monsters
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Links and Further Reading
Lydia: The Ghost of Jamestown Bridge, NCpedia
A History of the Vanishing Hitchhiker, Beardsley and Hankey, 1943
The Bray Road Beast, Small Town Monsters
Jim Harold's Campfire: True Ghost Stories, Books 1 through 6
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 [email protected]!
41 min
September 08 S2 Ep34: The Lady in the Rocking Chair
In tonight's dead letter, listener Mothmaiden remembers a time when she was four years old and an only child in a neighborhood with no other kids, and she had an imaginary friend named Cindy Cora who looked exactly like Betty Rubble from The Flintstones. Then on a sunny afternoon, in her own bedroom with the light coming through the window, she saw an elderly woman with white and gray hair piled high on her head, sitting in a rocking chair, calm and gentle and completely solid. Were these things connected?
Relevant Prior Episodes
Abduction at Devil's Den
Devil's Den: The Reckoning Part 1
Chris McKinnell and the Warren Legacy
Dan, Susan, Micah Hanks and Missing Time
Links and Further Reading
Two-thirds of school-age children have an imaginary companion by age 7, University of Washington
Note: We say about one in three for the invisible-only friends. In the study, about two thirds of kids have had an imaginary companion by age seven, and about one in three have one at the time they are asked.

The psychological significance of play with imaginary companions in early childhood, Learning & Behavior
Childhood amnesia, Wikipedia
Ghosts and Apparitions in Psi Research, the Society for Psychical Research's Psi Encyclopedia
Phantasms of the Living (1886) by Gurney, Myers and Podmore, Internet Archive
Strange Intruders by David Weatherly
Devils Den: The Reckoning by Terry Lovelace
Contact (1997), Wikipedia
Note: We say David Morse was one of the doctors on ER. He played Dr. Jack Morrison on St. Elsewhere.

Sesame Street debuts, November 10, 1969, HISTORY
Wall Street crash of 1929, Wikipedia
The History of Bettys in Pop Culture, Refinery29
Natalie and Tara on YouTube
We're looking for more stories! Send your Dead Letter to [email protected]!
47 min
September 04 Special: Richard Hatem's Light in the Dark Tour 2026
Hey folks! We're gearing up to go to the Wet Hot Bad Magic Summercamp next week but after that we're back on our regular schedule! In the meanwhile here's a chat Scott and Richard had just a week ago about his new tour which is also CLOSE ABOARD!
>>>>>>>>>>
A special episode from our friend Richard Hatem. Richard is the screenwriter behind The Mothman Prophecies and a longtime friend of the show, and he hosts Richard Hatem's Paranormal Bookshelf. He invited Scott onto his podcast to talk about his upcoming Light in the Dark Tour 2026, a 10-day, six-city run of live shows in September that wraps up at the Mothman Festival in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. We liked the conversation enough that we're sharing it here on the main feed.
Along the way, Scott and Richard get to such never-before-asked questions as: What scares our dogs? Where will Scott and Forrest be appearing live in September? Did Abbott and Costello get along? Can anyone find Scott's legendary "lost" appearance on Portlandia? Did Richard schedule too many shows on this tour, and will Susan ever forgive him? Find out the answers to these and many more questions on this episode.
If you can make it to one of the tour stops, go. Tickets and dates are at the link below.
Links

Get tickets to Richard Hatem's Light in the Dark Tour 2026 LIVE: https://www.richardhatemsparanormalbookshelf.com/events
Listen to Richard Hatem's Paranormal Bookshelf: https://www.richardhatemsparanormalbookshelf.com/
Support RHPB on Patreon: https://patreon.com/RichardHatem
Celebrate 2026 with 26% off all RHPB merch with offer code RHPB26. The discount is pre-applied at this link: https://richardhatem-shop.fourthwall.com/promo/RHPB26
Need help with your personal writing projects? Richard is here to help. Get 20% off when you mention RHPB: https://www.richardhatem.com/

Notes

Get the answer to ALL of your Abbott and Costello questions here: Abbott and Costello Meet the Podcast
Is your dog afraid of hiccups, just like Luna? Learn about your dog's weird fears here: Understanding Your Dog's Fear
53 min
September 01 S2 Ep33: The Inn at Folck's Mill
In tonight's dead letter, listener Chris takes us back to the early 2000s, when he was the head brewer at a restaurant on the east side of Cumberland, Maryland, in a building so old it served as a Civil War field hospital. One night after close, he and three coworkers were having a beer in the basement bar when the loudest sound he'd ever heard slammed into the floorboards right above their heads, shaking dust from the ceiling and rattling every bottle behind the bar.
Relevant Prior Episodes
Nightmarchers of Hawaii
Links and Further Reading
The Battle of Folck's Mill: Maryland Historical Trust Battlefield Documentation (PDF)
Battle of Folck's Mill, Wikipedia
Folck's Mill (National Register of Historic Places site), Wikipedia
The Battle of Folck's Mill, Western Maryland's Historical Library
The Invasion, Aug 1864: The Cumberland Alleganian's Original Account, Western Maryland's Historical Library
Folck's Mill Marker, Historical Marker Database
The History of Puccini Restaurant, Cumberland, Maryland
The Phantom Battle of Edgehill, Historic UK
The Spectral Army of Souther Fell, Mysterious Britain and Ireland
The Dieppe Raid Case, Mysterious Britain and Ireland
The Drummer of Tedworth, Wikipedia
Phantom Armies of the Night by Claude Lecouteux
The Rosenheim Poltergeist, by Tess Pfeifle at Astonishing Legends
We're looking for more stories! Send your Dead Letter to [email protected]!
54 min
August 29 Richard Hatem's Light in the Dark Tour 2026!
Our friend Richard Hatem is taking his Paranormal Bookshelf on the road! The Light in the Dark Tour 2026 is an all new live show playing six cities in seven days, September 13th through 19th, and it winds up at the Mothman Festival in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. Richard and Susan Lambert will be at the festival both days selling Mothman and podcast merch, and on Saturday night, September 19th, he's performing an episode of the podcast picked especially for Point Pleasant.
Hear Scott and Rich talk about the tour in his most recent post on the RHPB feed:
Spotify
Apple Podcasts

Tour Dates and Tickets
Sunday, September 13: Storm Crow Manor, Toronto, ON
Monday, September 14: Padraigs Brewing, Minneapolis, MN
Tuesday, September 15: The Red Lion Pub, Chicago, IL
Wednesday, September 16: B Side Lounge, Cleveland Heights, OH
Thursday, September 17: Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA (FREE SHOW!)
Saturday, September 19: Trinity UMC Community Center, Point Pleasant, WV (The Mothman Festival)
More from Richard
All Tour Dates and Tickets
Richard Hatem's Paranormal Bookshelf on Apple Podcasts
Richard Hatem's Paranormal Bookshelf on Spotify
Paranormal Bookshelf Merch
The Mothman Festival
Tickets for every show but Carnegie Mellon (which MAY not require them, TBD) are at richardhatemsparanormalbookshelf.com/events, or search Richard Hatem on Eventbrite. Come out and see Richard do his thing!
3 min
August 25 S2 Ep32: But We didn't Break the Glass
In tonight's dead letter, a teenager in rural Arkansas in the late 2000s goes poking around an abandoned schoolhouse and comes home with a mirror she likes the look of. Years later it's hanging in her first Los Angeles apartment, and one evening while she's in the bath she catches the towel on the back of the door swinging wildly but the moment she turns to look, it stops dead. But that’s only part of the story.
Relevant Prior Episodes
The Bell Witch Part 1
The Scrying Game
Mel's Hole Part 1
Abduction at Devil's Den
Nightmarchers of Hawaii
The Ghosts of Flight 401

Links and Further Reading
American Hauntings — Troy Taylor's books, podcast, and live events
Reunions: Visionary Encounters with Departed Loved Ones by Raymond Moody
Note: We say 1933 in the episode — Reunions was published in 1993.
Oculus (2013), dir. Mike Flanagan
What is a "dybbuk" in the prologue of the Coen brothers' A Serious Man?
Ghosts On A Plane? The Story Of Eastern Air Lines Flight 401

We're looking for more stories! Send your Dead Letter to [email protected]!
53 min

About Astonishing Legends

From the publisher's feed

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…