Astonishing Legends

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As we wrap up our 100th episode celebration with "ARCapalooza! Part 2" we'd like to thank the terrific people who have come together to form the Astonishing Research Corps for their efforts, friendship, and sharing their personal stories, demonstrating their generosity and a fair amount of bravery. We'd also like to thank another crucial member of this project, and that is you, our listeners. We'r...

Since it's no mystery that we can blather and prattle on for hours upon hours, it should come as no surprise that we ran long on Part One of our ARCapalooza 100th Episode Celebration!  The result is this commercial-free, Bonus Episode, where lead A.R.C. researcher Tess Pfeifle poses questions to us submitted by listeners.  We hope you enjoy this candid discussion where we talk about everything fro...

This podcast wouldn't be as complete or as much fun to work on if it wasn't for the help of a special group of volunteer contributors, collectively known as the Astonishing Research Corps, or ARC for short, who have now become good friends as well as valued collaborators. So we figured it would be fitting to salute their efforts on our celebratory 100th episode by having some of the ARC's founding...

So, what have we learned about giants? Our current understanding of human biology finds limits as to how tall a person can grow and can still be relatively healthy while enjoying an advanced age. This knowledge then places limits as to what the majority are willing to believe about the tallest humans throughout all history, that no one could have existed beyond 8 to 10 feet tall at the most. In th...

What constitutes a "giant" in your mind? Certainly, people who are 6 to 7 feet tall are commonplace nowadays, unlike the Middle Ages, or even a hundred years ago. But what about someone who's seven feet tall or more? We may call them "giants" in jest, but it's not the same as when we think of the giants in our legends. A measurement of more than seven feet is rare, but there are plenty of healthy...

Please join us for a special, commercial-free BONUS episode featuring an interview with senior Astonishing Legends Research Corps member, Chemical Engineer and newly appointed Director of Research for MUFON, the Mutual UFO Network, Dr. Chris Cogswell, Ph. D. We originally interviewed Chris for our of Imminent Disclosure? Part 2 episode, but felt this congratulatory announcement and interesting dis...

It's easy to imagine a version of ourselves that's gargantuan, magical, a hero that often plays the villain, a giant among the ordinary. Legends of giants doing as they please have been with us since the beginning and continue to fascinate us in cinema and sport. The idea of a giant is easy to entertain because either through genetics or rare disorders, extra-large humans have naturally lived thro...

How "credible" does an eye-witness have to be before their account of an Unidentified Flying Object is taken seriously?  Whom would you think is the most credible sort of witness for this type of impossible craft, aside from the beings or forces that made them?  How about an elite jet fighter pilot from the US Navy, highly trained to identify every known aerial threat – known to a conventional mil...

The term "Disclosure" in the UFO community generally refers to the long-awaited event when the government, specifically the U.S. Government, finally tells the world that UFOs exist, along with everything they know about extraterrestrials, or so enthusiasts of the topic would hope. While we wouldn't suggest holding your breath until "Full Disclosure" happens, there has been an interesting, recent d...

Like so many cryptid mysteries, what one realizes is that the deeper you search for the answer of what the creature might be, you find what it represents is so much more than just a singular beast. Such was the discovery of tonight's guest, Professor Daniel C. Taylor, PhD., author of Yeti: The Ecology of a Mystery. Dr. Taylor has spent 60 years of his life on a quest to solve the mystery of the Ye...

You've heard the eye-witness accounts of encounters with the Yeti, but can you believe them? The DNA of supposed Yeti "evidence" has been tested, and it's hard to argue those results, but how do we know those bits were really from a Yeti as locals know it? And speaking of what the locals know, the western world likes to take one answer and apply it to many questions, while the eastern world knows...

On November 8, 1951, noted mountaineer and adventurer Eric Shipton and Dr. Michael Ward were on an expedition to find an alternate route to ascend Mount Everest.  At approximately 17,500 feet and exploring a glacier near an Everest basecamp they came across a set of massive footprints that shouldn't have been there.  The only possible known creatures that they thought could have left such crisp fo...

Join us tonight as we sit down with Chris Williamson, the project creator of Chasing Earhart. Chris, along with his wife Vanessa and their dedicated team of researchers and producers, has created a podcast and are working on a documentary all about legendary aviatrix Amelia Earhart: her life, her persona, her fateful last flight and the controversy that surrounds her legacy. The result is that Cha...

Whether you choose to think of Black Eyed Kids as demonic entities or just unaccompanied children out by themselves late at night with full-sclera Contacts trying to scare people, one thing our research and the research of those who have written extensively on the subject has concluded, this is not just an internet hoax, no matter what you keep telling yourself.  Perhaps the only proof of their au...

The accounts of encounters with Black Eyed Kids vary with their observable details, except for two main factors: their dead, black eyes which you see and can never forget and the feeling of utter horror and doom which you will continue to feel every time you think about them. If the eyes truly are "windows to the soul" then these entities have no soul, or that soul resides in hell. Remember that t...

First, there's a knock. A very persistent knock, at your door, at your car window. Or maybe they stop you on a walk, on your way somewhere, when you're alone. They're just kids, right? And who doesn't want to help out kids in need? Except that these aren't like any kids you've met before. They're not like any humans you've ever met before, because what humans have you seen that have completely all...

Folklore can simply be described as beliefs, customs or legends handed down and preserved among a people. Some believe they are merely made up tales designed to entertain, while others believe folklore may be based on truths that have been gilded over the years by the oral tradition, yet their truth survives as valuable instruction or even a warning. Whether the legend of the Bell Witch was based...

Every family has their stories passed down from generation to generation, but most aren't as fantastical or have made as much of an impact on regional history as the legend of the Bell Witch. From about 1817 to 1821 in the Red River Community, now known as Adams, Tennessee, some sort of supernatural entity known as the "Bell Witch" was claimed to have terrorized the family of John Bell. The activi...

There are two connected, yet distinct traditions of weirdness concerning Houska Castle: its mysterious, violent and spotty history of purpose and ownership, and the reported sightings of horrific creatures and terrifying specters since its founding. Regarding the castle's originally intended design; whether it was really built to keep something from escaping rather than defense from outside forces...

The descriptor "Hell Hole" can currently describe anything from your first apartment to the workplace you dread, but where do we get that term? Ages ago, could there have been a hole that people believed led straight to the depths of hell itself? There are several sites in our world that could lay claim to that title, where the "veil" to the underworld seems a little "thin," but a historically sol...

Tonight's show is... well... we don't know what it is, frankly.  What we can tell you is that friend and screenwriter Richard Hatem stopped by the Astonishing Legends studio, we ordered pizzas, made more than a few "Dirty Martinis" (at Rich's resolute insistence, which he then sent back several times to the bar until they met with his exacting and cruel satisfaction) and talked with great ardor an...

It's easy to dismiss the entire Kelly-Hopkinsville Encounter as the booze-fueled fantasy of a bunch of backward hicks who can't tell the difference between a goblin and an owl, or maybe you think it was an outrageous hoax perpetrated for cash. But before you begin telling people what they saw, or make assumptions based on character or class, just remember: unless you were there, you weren't there....

In Part Two of our series on the Kelly-Hopkinsville Encounter, we analyze the elements of the Sutton and Taylor families' story. Is the tale that ended up in the media what actually happened or were certain descriptions exaggerated to make the story more sensational in order to sell newspapers? Perhaps some details were misreported due to anxiety, faulty memories and the phenomenon of the "Telepho...

The 1950s was awash with incredible UFO sightings and purported alien encounters, but the Kelly-Hopkinsville Incident remains a highlight for the field of Ufology.  The report was significant not only because of the long duration of the event and a large number of witnesses but also because the frightening contact sparked a one-sided gun battle.  On the evening of Sunday, August 21, 1955, one of t...