Dawn of Mantis: True Crime, Mysteries and More · Dawn of Mantis Podcast

DOM Ep351 - Art Bell and "Coast to Coast AM"

October 31, 2025·1 hr 18 min·5 clips

Ivan, Joe, and Sam open by leaning into the weird. They describe the show as mostly paranormal stuff, UFO stuff, and mysteries, and they point out that the Halloween release was accidental, even if it suits the theme. Art Bell sits at the center of the episode. The conversation moves through his life, the origin of Coast to Coast AM, the show's evolution over the years, and where it is today. None of it is neat, and the hosts treat it like a strange, ambitious radio experiment that grew larger than anyone would have expected. The pacing stays loose, which leaves room for banter, jokes, corrections, and the side comments that come from three people working through a bizarre archive together. The episode also leans into Bell's taste for strange callers and stranger guests. One stretch focuses on a Missouri man who tried to build a time machine on his back porch. The hosts dig into the newspaper coverage, the nickname, and the fact that Bell eventually tracked the man down for an interview. That interview gets played back. From there, the show keeps circling the same idea: Coast to Coast AM worked because it treated absurdity as something worth asking about rather than something to hide. One of the show's most infamous guests gets a mention too. The episode then moves into a string of wilder clips from the program's history. Those clips do most of the heavy lifting. They show how Bell could turn a question-and-answer exchange into a live display of curiosity, disbelief, and late-night theater. By the end, Dawn of Mantis makes a case for Coast to Coast AM as a cultural oddity with real staying power. It lands as radio history, fandom, and a tour through the kind of material that still feels better at night.

As heard by us

A conversational tour of Art Bell's Coast to Coast AM, from its origin story to its stranger interviews.

This episode takes a focused look at Art Bell's Coast to Coast AM, tracing Bell's life, the show's origin, its evolution, and where it stands today before landing on one of its more infamous guests and a string of stranger interviews.

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Why you'd press play

You want a weird-radio origin story with real mystery and a little myth.

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