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From the High Desert, Second Edition book cover

Second edition

A Cultural History of Art Bell

56 chapters · 7 new

From the High Desert

A Cultural History of Art Bell

Scientists, experiencers, skeptics, and strangers joined Art Bell for conversations that could become unsettling, funny, moving, or difficult to explain. This edition follows fifty-six of those broadcasts, with seven new chapters and extensively revised accounts of all forty-nine original episodes.

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Reading the original edition? Use the first-edition listening guide to match its 49-chapter order.

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Cold to the Touch

Chapter 1 · December 12, 1992 · Bob Lazar & John Lear

Bob Lazar said he’d worked on an alien spacecraft. Art Bell wanted to know what it was made of.

Lazar wasn’t sure.

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“I say it’s metal just because I felt it,” he said. “It felt cold. It had the appearance of metal.”

Even its grain looked metallic. But Lazar couldn’t tell Art what the substance was. Information at the facility, he explained, had been compartmentalized. His work concerned the propulsion system.

Art asked whether Lazar had been inside the craft.

He had. There were two seats, a reactor, and what he called consoles, though there was nothing on top of them. Some equipment had already been removed. Art tried to picture a place from which someone could fly the thing. Were there windows? Buttons, switches, gauges?

There weren’t even wires, Lazar said.

The free listening companion

The Broadcasts

All 56 broadcasts in second-edition chapter order. The seven added chapters are marked New. Open an episode to listen, read its transcript, or explore further. Surviving recordings vary in completeness.

Chapter 2:

The Intruders Among Us

April 3, 1994: Budd Hopkins

Hopkins's abduction investigations and Art's questions about encounters, memory and evidence.

Chapter 3:

The Debris Field

June 24, 1994: Kevin Randle

Witness accounts, disputed recollections and the search for evidence from Roswell.

Chapter 4:

The Stone That Speaks

July 24, 1994: John Zajac

Zajac's interpretation of the Great Pyramid's measurements and purpose.

Chapter 5:

The Harvard Heretic

August 14, 1994: John Mack

Mack's work with people reporting alien encounters and the controversy surrounding his approach.

Chapter 6:

The Man Who Would Give the World Free Power

March 5, 1995: J.W. McGinnis

McGinnis's account of Tesla's work, seized papers and the possibility of wireless power.

Chapter 8:

The Watchers at the Gate

June 11, 1995: George Knapp

Knapp's Russian reporting, questions about government records and Art's own sighting.

Chapter 10:

The Questions He Kept Open

New
November 19, 1995: Whitley Strieber

Strieber describes his encounters and explains why greater familiarity hadn't removed every doubt.

Chapter 11:

A Species with Amnesia

June 18, 1996: Graham Hancock

Hancock's lost-civilization argument, the barriers at Giza and an object he would rather leave unopened.

Chapter 13:

A Man Who Was There

New
October 10, 1996: Dr. Edgar Mitchell

Mitchell recalls Apollo 14, explores consciousness and distinguishes his UFO interests from claims about what he saw.

Chapter 15:

The Investigator's Burden

June 11, 1997: Jim Marrs

Marrs makes his case for an alien presence while Art and a caller question how it can be established.

Chapter 17:

With Justification

New
July 16, 1997: Dr. Evelyn Paglini

Paglini explains her rules for magical practice, and Art asks how they apply to a private threat.

Chapter 18:

The Shadow Agents

July 24, 1997: Jim Keith

Keith and callers describe intimidating visitors, while Art questions which accounts belong together.

Chapter 21:

Death by Astonishment

March 19, 1998: Terence McKenna

McKenna's ideas about consciousness, accelerating change and the future of human experience.

Chapter 23:

The Red Planet's Secret

April 8, 1998: Graham Hancock

Hancock assesses the Mars images, considers impact hazards and describes a tentative truce at Giza.

Chapter 24:

The Shadows on the Moon

April 20, 1998: Wayne Green

Green challenges the moon landings, and Art presses him on the implications of that claim.

Chapter 25:

The Thousand-Pound Gorilla

May 25, 1998: Gary North

North predicts computer failures and social disruption as the year 2000 approaches.

Chapter 29:

The Web That Binds the World

November 11, 1998: David Icke

Icke's account of hidden power meets Art's questions about the program and what constitutes truth.

Chapter 30:

Doctor, I Want One

New
July 13, 1999: Dr. Paul Moller

Moller describes the Skycar he hopes to deliver, while Art and callers test its promises against everyday travel.

Chapter 31:

The Father of Remote Viewing

March 30, 2000: Ingo Swann

Swann recalls research, colleagues and disagreements, while resisting the title Art wants to give him.

Chapter 32:

A Thin White Line

New
March 19, 2001: Dr. Seth Shostak

Shostak explains the search for extraterrestrial signals and disputes Art's expectations of government secrecy.

Chapter 33:

Something Wrong at the Bottom of the World

April 24, 2001: Richard C. Hoagland

Two Antarctic evacuations become the subject of speculation as Art and Hoagland seek an explanation.

Chapter 36:

Absolutely Me

New
December 6, 2001: Pam Reynolds

Reynolds recounts her experience during brain surgery and answers Art's questions about perception, identity and what followed.

Chapter 37:

Armed With a Keyboard

December 19, 2001: Kevin Mitnick

Mitnick describes hacking, demonstrates a telephone vulnerability and discusses life under supervised release.

Chapter 38:

The Five O's of Collapse

July 9, 2002: Gerald Celente

Celente's economic forecasts meet Art's objections and callers' concerns about making ends meet.

Chapter 39:

The Story of the Claw

October 5, 2003: Dr. Roger Leir

An unusual object, premature interpretations and the identification that changed its story.

Chapter 40:

The Lear Test

November 2, 2003: John Lear

Lear delivers an imagined briefing and asks Art whether its disturbing contents should be made public.

Chapter 41:

The UFO Guy

December 6, 2003: Bob Lazar

Lazar returns to discuss the costs of his story, his limits and his disagreements with Lear.

Chapter 42:

The Shadow Republic

December 14, 2003: Harry Helms

Helms and Art debate emergency government, secrecy and participation in civilian communications networks.

Chapter 43:

The Collector’s Lament

January 17, 2004: Peter Davenport

Davenport discusses sighting reports, the limits of identification and the difficulty of getting witnesses to report.

Chapter 45:

The Vacuum Cleaner

October 1, 2006: Roger Tolces

Tolces and Art disagree about surveillance, privacy and the protections that oversight can provide.

Chapter 46:

The Surgeon and the Scalpel

November 4, 2006: Dr. Roger Leir

Leir reports implant findings, and Art asks about a receiver test that hasn't been performed.

Chapter 47:

Alien Boot Camp

December 9, 2006: Jim Sparks

Sparks describes forced lessons and encounters while Art questions the evidence and the choices he says he faced.

Chapter 49:

Extraterrestrial Radio

New
September 16, 2013: Dr. Michio Kaku

Art returns with Dark Matter, asking Kaku about quantum physics, cosmic dangers and what remains unknown.

Chapter 50:

One Assembly at a Time

October 29, 2013: Paul Gunter

Gunter discusses Fukushima's damaged Unit 4 building and the approaching operation to remove its fuel.

Chapter 51:

The Most Classified Secret

July 27, 2015: Grant Cameron

Cameron moves from government records to experiencer accounts as Art asks how the claims connect.

Chapter 53:

Without a Trace

September 7, 2015: David Paulides

Paulides describes missing-person cases and disputes over records, while Art asks how unusual the pattern is.

Chapter 54:

Walking Among Us

September 24, 2015: David Jacobs

Jacobs describes alleged integration into ordinary life, with Art asking about memory, hypnosis and corroboration.

Chapter 56:

Good Night

March 11, 2016: Open Lines

An open-lines evening of family, politics, cars and callers becomes Art's final full program.