Best Art Bell episodes?

July 17, 2013 10:51 AM

I grew up listening to late-night spooky radio like Art Bell and George Noory. Recently on a road trip I burned a few CDs sort of at random to keep me company. Now I'm interested in digging through the archives to find the best episodes ever. Do any stand out to you? Please share!
posted by blandcamp to Media & Arts (14 answers total)

I remember a very sweet one in which Willie Nelson came on at about four in the morning, and stayed for a couple hours--longer than he'd been booked for. A woman called up and said her dream was to sing Amazing Grace with him, and (with the dawn coming up around me) they sang a duet over the phone & radio. It was really touching and lovely.
posted by tapir-whorf at 10:59 AM on July 17, 2013 [6 favorites]

I think the ones with the lizard people are always highly entertaining.
posted by dawkins_7 at 11:00 AM on July 17, 2013

Anything with Richard C. Hoagland, the "Face on Mars" guy.

Also, episodes about ghosts.
posted by Sunburnt at 11:08 AM on July 17, 2013 [1 favorite]

I remember some time in the mid/late 1990s there was a guest on Art Bell named Ed Dames who claimed to run a team of "Remote Viewers" who could not only perceive things happening in far away places, but could also look into the future. He claimed that they were pretty good at seeing things that were happening for about the next decade, but after that there was nothing. He called a "discontinuity." They had several theories for what was going on, and while he wasn't sure, they were leaning towards the idea that a solar event basically fried the earth. It was pretty scary stuff at the time, but it would be fun to go back and listen to those episodes.
posted by BobbyVan at 11:43 AM on July 17, 2013 [1 favorite]

Yes! The "Ghost to Ghost" episodes are always a treat. It's sort of my highlight for Halloween. I also have a fondness for the George Noory episodes where he goes into mafia conspiracies, if for nothing else than his disclaimer that people should care even though it's not the Illuminati.
posted by kendrak at 11:43 AM on July 17, 2013 [1 favorite]

The Halloween episodes were always fun. Seconding the Hoagland episodes. I'd skip the rods.
posted by Room 641-A at 11:58 AM on July 17, 2013

Oh I always loved the episode focused on the supposed time traveler John Titor. Looks like that whole show is on youtube.
posted by Bohemia Mountain at 12:08 PM on July 17, 2013 [3 favorites]

There was this one with a guest named David Race Bannon who talked about his time working for Interpol in an elite assassin group that targeted child traffickers. I listened to it one night driving across Texas and it was really entertaining!


[SPOILER ALERT:
Okay, not really a spoiler for the episode, but in case it's not obvious from the description, the guy is a complete fraud and was later convicted of criminal impersonation.]
posted by janerica at 12:30 PM on July 17, 2013 [1 favorite]

I don't know the date but there was that one with the pilot who flew into Area 51 live on air.

Oh, and the one where we all had a long moment of silence for all his listeners to simultaneously try to mentally summon down the aliens. That was bizarre in that the show voluntarily went to dead air for so long.
posted by Jacqueline at 1:00 PM on July 17, 2013

Best answer: Mel's Hole! Two episodes: listen to this one first and then this one.
posted by cardamom at 1:05 PM on July 17, 2013 [6 favorites]

Any interview with Dr. Michio Kaku and Art rocks. His other science-y guests have been great too, like Brian Greene and Chris Impey. Art's interviews with these "hard" science guys are always amazing and often funny. He's one of the best interviewers of any kind out there.
posted by cartoonella at 1:17 PM on July 17, 2013 [2 favorites]

The most moving episode for me was when they were talking about bigfoot and people called from all over telling their stories and they all seemed so sane and ordinary - farmers and rural police officers. It really sent a chill down my spine. Because they weren't typical UFO nuts.
posted by cda at 2:05 PM on July 17, 2013 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Guys, this is awesome! (Also I realized it might be kind of chatfiler, sorry about that!)
posted by blandcamp at 2:44 PM on July 17, 2013

Terrence McKenna was on Art Bell twice, could you die from taking this DMT? perhaps of astonishment!
posted by hortense at 7:28 PM on July 17, 2013