Open Lines & Callers
Caller-driven episodes where Art opened the phone lines for time travelers, prediction lines, final-show stories, inhuman encounters, Ghost to Ghost calls, and anything-goes nights that made listeners part of the archive.
Jump to episodesShowing 36 selected episodes
On the air
36 shows, 1996–2016
- High Desert Origins1992–96 · 4
- UFO / Y2K Boom1997–99 · 6
- Post-Millennium Coast2000–09 · 14
- Return and Midnight Era2010–16 · 12
Related Collections
Selected episodes
Open Lines - Art's Final Show
Mar 11, 2016 · 2h 25m
Art Bell returns to the microphone one last time, filling in for Heather Wade on a Friday night for what would become his final broadcast. He opens with reflections on the discovery of gravity waves, the Apple encryption battle, and his love of drone technology before diving into the 2016 presidential race.Callers f...Open Lines - Inhuman Encounter Line
Dec 4, 2015 · 2h 20m
Art Bell opens Friday night with the latest news on the San Bernardino shooting, now confirmed as ISIS-inspired after the FBI reveals that Tashfeen Malik pledged allegiance to the Islamic State on Facebook moments before the attack. He also notes that Germany has voted to join the bombing campaign in Syria and that...Open Lines - Anything Goes
Nov 27, 2015 · 2h 21m
Art Bell opens with breaking news about fast radio bursts detected at the Parkes Radio Telescope in Australia, including an unprecedented double signal that astronomers compare to the famous Wow signal. He discusses the potential for extraterrestrial origins and notes this is the second major discovery within a mont...Amazing Open Lines
Feb 6, 2005 · 2h 54m
Art Bell opens the phone lines for a wide-ranging evening that produces some of the most memorable caller stories in the program's history. He reserves one line for anyone who has made a pact with the devil, inspired by the late Father Malachi Martin's discussions on the subject. A caller describes making such a pac...Open Lines | The Prophet Show
Jul 4, 2004 · 2h 52m
Art Bell opens the phone lines on Independence Day for a special edition dedicated to listener prophecy. Rather than the usual end-of-year predictions, Art issues a challenge to the genuinely gifted among his audience, seeking short-term visions of events about to unfold. The callers respond with striking specificit...Open Lines | Time Travel
Aug 22, 2004 · 2h 52m
Art Bell opens the lines for an anything-goes night, dedicating the first-time caller line to anyone claiming to have traveled through time. He begins with a vivid account of a terrifying electrical storm in Pahrump, Nevada, where lightning bombarded the area around his antenna towers for nearly five hours while the...Open Lines - Anything Goes & I'm Losing My Mind Line
Sep 25, 2015 · 2h 21m
Art Bell opens the phone lines for an anything-goes Friday night, introducing a special segment he calls the "I'm Losing My Mind" line for listeners who feel pushed to the edge by modern life. Callers share their frustrations with society, from anxiety attacks to political absurdity, while others recount deeply pers...Ghost to Ghost | Open Lines
Jun 10, 1999 · 2h 41m
Art Bell opens the phone lines for his beloved Ghost to Ghost edition, inviting listeners to share their most chilling encounters with the unexplained. A Navy veteran from World War II recounts waking aboard his ship near Okinawa at 3 a.m. to the unmistakable scent of his Aunt Melanie's floral bathing powder, only t...Open Lines - Anything Goes
Feb 28, 1996 · 2h 45m
Art Bell turns another anything-goes night over to callers for an unpredictable mix of national news, paranormal claims, politics, and personal stories.Without a single guest or theme, the conversation develops through listener challenges and Art’s reactions in real time. The episode captures the breadth of the mid-...Open Lines - Future 30 Year Prediction Line
Oct 23, 2015 · 2h 21m
Art Bell opens Friday night open lines with a major announcement about KABC Los Angeles joining the network. He dedicates a special phone line to callers willing to predict what the world will look like 30 years from now, inspired by Back to the Future Day. Listeners share visions ranging from space elevators and se...Time Traveler Line - Open Lines
May 30, 2003 · 2h 48m
Art Bell hosts a Friday night open lines show and dedicates one phone line exclusively to callers who claim to have traveled in time. He opens with sharp commentary on the Iraq war, noting that a top Marine general has publicly declared U.S. intelligence was "simply wrong" about chemical weapons, and that no weapons...Ghost to Ghost | Open Lines
Apr 25, 2000 · 3h 10m
Art Bell opens with Peter Davenport of the National UFO Reporting Center, who presents two witnesses from Clearfield, Utah, who observed five separate clusters of luminous objects streaking across the sky in tight V-formations on April 20, 2000. The witnesses describe silent, glowing formations traveling from horizo...Open Lines with Area 51 Employees Call-in
Sep 11, 1997 · 3h 14m
Art Bell opens a special phone line for current and former Area 51 employees willing to share their secrets. The evening begins with a heartfelt hospital room interview with Dannion Brinkley, who describes his battle with three brain aneurysms and the healing power of prayer and love he received from listeners durin...Open Lines - Anything Goes & the Buried Alien Body
Apr 24, 1997 · 2h 39m
An anything-goes open-lines night turns toward a caller’s claim that an alien body was buried and the evidence that might support or disprove the story.Art Bell asks for locations, witnesses, records, and a chain of custody while other callers weigh the risks and credibility of recovering physical remains. The progr...Open Lines - Anything Goes
Oct 9, 1996 · 2h 40m
Art Bell hosts a free-form open-lines broadcast driven by callers’ questions, current events, paranormal reports, and disagreements with the host.The conversation moves without a scheduled guest or single subject, allowing news, politics, technology, and strange experiences to compete for attention. Art’s skeptical...Open Lines - Anything Goes
Sep 30, 1996 · 2h 46m
An anything-goes edition lets callers set the agenda across breaking news, politics, unexplained experiences, science, and the culture of late-night radio.Art Bell follows strong claims with questions, shifts quickly when new stories emerge, and gives listeners space for both serious argument and odd personal testim...Open Lines - Anything Goes
Feb 1, 1996 · 2h 40m
An anything-goes open-lines night gives Art Bell’s audience room to steer the program through politics, unexplained events, technology, and personal experiences.Art challenges callers, follows breaking threads across the country, and lets the conversation move between serious public issues and the strange reports th...Open Lines - Men in Black, Time Travelers
Aug 8, 1997 · 2h 42m
Art Bell opens the phone lines on a Friday night with a twist, designating his first-time caller line exclusively for men in black, time travelers, and anyone claiming to possess a time machine. Several callers rise to the occasion, beginning with a self-described "auditor" who claims men in black are outdated biolo...Open Lines - San Bernardino Shooting
Dec 2, 2015 · 2h 23m
Art Bell cancels his scheduled guest to open the phone lines following the mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, where 14 people were killed at the Inland Regional Center. As details emerge identifying suspect Syed Farouk and linking the attack to possible Islamic extremism, Art reads the latest reporting and...Open Lines - Paris Attacks
Nov 13, 2015 · 2h 23m
Art Bell opens the broadcast with breaking coverage of the devastating terrorist attacks in Paris, where six sites were targeted and over 150 people were reported dead. He is joined by retired FBI agent Rick Hahn, a counterterrorism specialist, who discusses the likely involvement of ISIS, the vulnerability of Weste...Open Lines - Past Lives Line
Nov 6, 2015 · 2h 21m
Art Bell opens the Friday night phone lines, dedicating a special line to callers who believe they recall their past lives. Inspired by the previous evening's past life regression episode with Gregory Paxson, Art invites listeners to share their own experiences of prior incarnations. Callers describe vivid memories...Open Lines - Super Power Line
Oct 16, 2015 · 2h 23m
Art Bell opens the phone lines for a Friday night open lines session with a special superpower line reserved for callers who possess extraordinary abilities. The evening begins with a recap of the week's biggest story, the mysterious star KIC 8462852 and its possible alien megastructures, along with a chilling coded...Open Lines - Scott Free Line
Oct 9, 2015 · 2h 23m
Art Bell opens the phone lines for a freewheeling Friday night, featuring a special "Scott Free Line" where callers confess things they got away with. He begins with a provocative story about George H.W. Bush allegedly telling a crowd that Americans "can't handle the truth" about UFOs, and asks callers throughout th...Open Lines
Jul 24, 2015 · 2h 38m
Art Bell launches a dedicated time traveler phone line routed through Roswell, New Mexico on the fifth night of Midnight in the Desert, producing one of the most memorable open lines broadcasts of his career. Before the calls begin, an Anonymous contact describes the collective as "an emergent phenomenon of the firs...Open Lines
Oct 10, 2013 · 3h 3m
Art Bell opens the phone lines for a freewheeling Thursday night covering time travel, Bigfoot sightings, and mysterious implants. With the U.S. government still closed and the debt ceiling deadline approaching, Art shares an alarming email from an FDIC employee claiming the agency projects 20 bank failures per week...Open Lines - Worst Days
Dec 22, 2006 · 2h 38m
Art Bell opens the phone lines for a special Christmas edition of Open Lines, asking callers to share the best and worst days of their lives, inspired by Dean Koontz's novel Life Expectancy. Broadcasting from Manila, Art shares his own story of a military doctor who falsely told him he had six months to live before...Open Lines - Invisibility | Global Climate Change - Dr. Roy Spencer
Oct 20, 2006 · 2h 37m
Art Bell welcomes climate scientist Dr. Roy Spencer for a first-hour discussion on global warming, then opens the phone lines with a playful challenge: what would you do if you could become invisible? Broadcasting from Manila and filling in for George Noory, Art covers a recent earthquake he felt on the 19th floor o...Slipping into Other Dimensions - Dr. Rick Strassman | Open Lines
Aug 26, 2006 · 2h 36m
Art Bell opens with a brief interview with Dr. Rick Strassman, author of DMT: The Spirit Molecule, who discusses dimethyltryptamine as a naturally occurring compound that may mediate mystical experiences. Strassman describes his government-approved clinical research with DMT, noting that intravenous doses peak withi...Open Lines - Monsters and Disturbing Entities
May 24, 2002 · 2h 45m
Art Bell opens the phone lines for a themed Friday night session built around three listener-suggested topics. Callers share short-term predictions for the next six weeks, first-person encounters with monsters and unknown creatures, and accounts of sexual encounters with unseen entities or forces. A truck driver des...Open Lines
Apr 19, 2002 · 2h 48m
Art Bell opens the Friday night phone lines to explore three unusual topics: spontaneous human invisibility, mysterious mirror experiences, and underground encounters. He reads from researcher Donna Good Higbee's investigation into people who report becoming spontaneously invisible in public spaces, unable to be see...Open Lines
Apr 12, 2002 · 2h 46m
Art Bell opens the phone lines on a Friday night packed with eclectic topics and listener suggestions. Callers propose themed lines for time travelers, extraterrestrials, inventors, and alien implant recipients, while Art covers breaking news including the Venezuelan government overthrow, Secretary Powell's troubled...Open Lines - Clinically Dead Line
Dec 21, 2001 · 2h 46m
Art Bell opens the phone lines on a Friday night before the holiday weekend, sharing a remarkable email from a homicide detective whose investigation was guided by the apparition of a murder victim's deceased grandson. The ghost of the young boy, killed by a car two years earlier, led the detective to both the murde...Open Lines - To War or Not
Sep 25, 2001 · 2h 35m
Art Bell opens the phone lines two weeks after the September 11th attacks to gauge a growing undercurrent of anti-war sentiment he has detected in his email. He reads provocative listener messages arguing against military retaliation, then fields calls from across the country representing sharply divided opinions on...Open Lines
Jun 1, 2001 · 2h 55m
Art Bell opens the phone lines for a Friday night edition of Truth or Trash, a game where callers tell outrageous stories and a jury of fellow listeners votes on whether each tale is true or fabricated. Callers are encouraged to lie convincingly or tell true stories so unbelievable they sound fake.The evening produc...Open Lines - Y2K
Dec 15, 1999 · 2h 51m
Art Bell opens the phone lines with Y2K just sixteen days away, fielding calls from across North America as anxiety builds toward the millennium rollover. He reports that a Nebraska bank posted signs limiting cash withdrawals to three thousand dollars, sparking the very panic officials hoped to avoid. Massachusetts...Open Lines - Secret Societies Hotline
Oct 20, 1999 · 3h 17m
Art Bell opens the phone lines with a special challenge, dedicating one line exclusively to members of secret societies willing to share something about their organizations. The evening draws multiple callers claiming Masonic membership, including a self-described Master Mason who insists all Masonic secrets are pub...