Richard Hatem's Paranormal Bookshelf

Astonishing Legends Productions
  • 4.8 (445)
  • PERSONAL JOURNALS

“Go inside the mind of one of television and movies’ wildest storytellers…”  Richard Hatem's Paranormal Bookshelf is a podcast that feels like discovering a secret diary.  Every episode unravels the mysteries of a book from Richard's bookshelf and a story from Richard’s life, weaving together the excitement of the supernatural and the warmth of personal storytelling.

  1. 3D AGO · BONUS

    SPECIAL BONUS EPISODE! Telephone Calls From The Dead with Parapsychologist Dr. Callum Cooper

    “He was seen with this guy… Two days later a neighbor said his lawn sprinkler had been running continuously. They called the police.  A lieutenant was sent out – they found the back door ajar.  So he went through and discovered Scott -- slain in a pool of blood.”  -- parapsychologist Dr. Callum Cooper on the death of D. Scott Rogo. Today I’m thrilled to be talking with Dr. Callum Cooper about his personal research into the life and tragic death of fellow parapsychologist D. Scott Rogo.  Rogo was the driving force behind one of the strangest and most fascinating books ever written – Phone Calls From The Dead.  Cooper followed up on this research and published his own book 30 years later: Telephone Calls From The Dead.In our conversation, Cooper discusses his investigation into the murder of D. Scott Rogo, his role in getting Phone Calls From The Dead republished in a new affordable volume – and his ongoing fascination with electronic communication with the dead. LINKS:Learn more about Dr. Callum Cooper and purchase his books at his personal website https://www.callumecooper.com/Buy a brand new – and affordable! – copy of D. Scott Rogo and Raymond Bayless’s classic book Phone Calls From The Dead here https://bookshop.org/p/books/phone-calls-from-the-dead-the-results-of-a-two-year-investigation-into-an-incredible-phenomenon-d-scott-rogo/27684604309b6445?ean=9781786772725&next=tWatch this amazing vintage theatrical promo trailer for the movie Poltergeist -- featuring D. Scott Rogo himself!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIQDw3mJlAg

    1h 9m

  2. 12/26/2025

    SPECIAL BONUS EPISODE! – Night Stalking with Mark Dawidziak

    “I became a journalist because of Carl Kolchak. He was my idea of what a journalist was and should be, and he remains that to this day.” -- Mark Dawidziak, author of The Night Stalker Companion Today’s episode is a Christmas gift to myself: a visit with my friend Mark Dawidziak, who just happens to be the world’s leading authority on Carl Kolchak and all things Night Stalker – the movies, the TV series, the original novel by Jeff Rice and the many sequel novels, one of which was written by Mark himself! The Night Stalker, a TV-movie starring Darren McGavin, Simon Oakland and Barry Atwater, was about an intrepid reporter named Carl Kolchak covering a series of bizarre murders in Las Vegas – murders he becomes increasingly convinced are being committed by an actual, real-life vampire.  It premiered on January 11, 1972 to blockbuster ratings and for decades was the highest rated TV-movie of all time.  It led to a sequel, The Night Strangler, and eventually to a 20-episode TV series that premiered on September 13, 1974. It’s the TV show that most people my age remember – a weekly trip into horror that at the time had no equal. Chris Carter often cites his love for The Night Stalker as the inspiration for creating his hit series The X-Files. And of course, listeners of this podcast know about my affection for the show and how formative it was for me as a young kid. Join Mark and me as we talk about Darren McGavin, Dan Curtis, David Chase, our favorite Night Stalker episodes, the history of the American vampire, the 3rd (unproduced) Night Stalker movie, how Darren McGavin finally gave up on the show (but not the character) – and the upcoming 2026 release of the all-new, definitive edition of The Night Stalker Companion! Mark Dawidziak is the author or editor of 25 books, including three acclaimed studies of landmark television series: The Columbo Phile, The Night Stalker Companion and Everything I Need to Know I Learned in The Twilight Zone. He also is an internationally recognized Mark Twain scholar, and five of his books are about the iconic American writer. His most recent book,  A Mystery of Mysteries: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe, was published by St. Martin’s Press in February 2023. Keep up with Mark Dawidziak and buy his books at his personal website here https://www.markdawidziak.com/ Buy The Night Stalker TV series on DVD here https://kinolorber.com/product/kolchak-the-night-stalker-the-complete-series-blu-ray?gad_campaignid=21604535012 Buy the novel The Night Stalker here https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=jeff%20rice&ref_=search_f_hp&sts=t&tn=night%20stalker

    1h 28m
  3. SPECIAL BONUS EPISODE! Bigfoot 101: A Sasquatch Odyssey with Brian King-Sharp

    12/12/2025

    SPECIAL BONUS EPISODE! Bigfoot 101: A Sasquatch Odyssey with Brian King-Sharp

    “It was ten feet away, slick dark-brown hair. And it’s going up this ridge. The cop in me kicks in and I decide I’m going to follow it. I just wanted to see it again. In retrospect it’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever done in my life. It was totally unsafe. I do not recommend it to anybody who’s listening.” – Bigfoot researcher Brian King-Sharp What is it like to come face-to-furry-face with Bigfoot?  Today you’ll find out.  My friend Brian King-Sharp, host of the popular Sasquatch Odyssey podcast has been on the trail of Bigfoot for forty years.  And he’s here to answer our questions -- and spill his secrets: Why haven’t we ever found a Bigfoot body?  Is the Patterson-Gimlin film a hoax?  Why do hunters never seem to shoot a Bigfoot?  What is the best evidence we have that Bigfoot exists?  And what does it feel like to finally encounter one up close?   LINKS & NOTES Support RHPB on Patreon here! https://patreon.com/RichardHatem?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink  Get RHPB merch here! https://richardhatem-shop.fourthwall.com/?  Listen to Brian King-Sharps podcast Sasquatch Odyssey here:  https://pod.link/1552990311  Buy all of Brian’s books here: https://paranormalworldproductions.com/store Find out more about Sasquatch Research at the Olympic Project here: https://www.olympicproject.com/ "Get your tickets to 'Merry Queerness' -- the cabaret show Susan's producing -- here! https://lalgbtcenter.org/event/merry-queerness-a-wildly-inappropriate-holiday-show/

    1h 9m
  4. SPECIAL PRESENTATION: Gods, Ghosts and UFOs

    12/03/2025

    SPECIAL PRESENTATION: Gods, Ghosts and UFOs

    Today I’m excited to bring you an episode of the brilliant new podcast Gods, Ghosts & UFOs – with their special guest, ME!  You’ll recognize co-host Tom Maxwell from his appearances on Astonishing Legends Episodes 291 & 292, “American Bloodfalls”.  (You might also know him as the frontman for the 90s band Squirrel Nut Zippers. He wrote their hit song “Hell”).   On Gods, Ghosts & UFOs, Tom – along with co-hosts J.E. Peterson and Mallory Everton – does a weekly round-up of weird and obscure paranormal news stories.  Their conversations are hilarious, probing, provocative – and refreshingly intelligent.  If you’re a fan of RHPB, Astonishing Legends and Scared All The Time, you’ll love this too. So enjoy this episode where they welcomed me as their guest – and we talk about haunted Las Vegas Casinos, the Fresno Night Crawlers and a YouTube UFO mystery that might already have been solved…  LINKS:  Listen to “Gods, Ghosts & UFOs” here: https://www.tommaxwell.com/gods-ghosts-ufos

    53 min

  5. 11/28/2025

    SPECIAL BONUS EPISODE: The Mammoth Mountain Poltergeist with Jenny Ashford and Tom Ross

    “I feel that it hates me sometimes. It can move objects. I heard it speak once, or try to speak. It sounded like somebody underneath the water. It’s never really touched me and I don’t want to see what it actually looks like. I was afraid it was going to look like a corpse.”  -- Tom Ross, poltergeist experiencer.  Have you ever heard someone describe what it’s really like to live with a poltergeist?  Today you will.  When Tom Ross was thirteen, he spent four terrifying days in what seemed to be a haunted condo in the Mammoth Ski Valley.  Years later, he and author Jenny Ashford met, fell in love – and ended up writing about his experiences in a book I covered in Season 2 of RHPB – The Mammoth Mountain Poltergeist.   In this fascinating interview, Tom Ross and Jenny Ashford share stories from the front lines of the boundary between this world and the next.  We talk about everything from how Tom and Jenny met, to The Shining, to Tom’s poltergeist theory, to Ed & Lorraine Warren, to The Enfield Poltergeist, to flying remote controls, to Mad Max: Fury Road, to “Case Managers from the Afterlife” and finally: what do you do with a poltergeist with unlimited strength -- that wants to kill you? Notes & Links: Go to Jenny Ashford’s website to buy The Mammoth Mountain Poltergeist and all her books: http://www.jennyashford.com/books.html  Check out Jenny’s Amazon Author Page here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jenny-Ashford/author/B003WN5M32?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true&ccs_id=537b3ef0-a46b-436d-bfa3-f61ee4bcd411  Visit Tom & Jenny’s Youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@13OClockPodcast

    1h 5m

  6. 11/14/2025

    SPECIAL BONUS EPISODE: UFOs and High Strangeness with Rob Kristoffersen

    “When I was six years old, on Christmas Eve, I had an encounter with a little gnome that walked into my bedroom. I don’t recall any fear.  But after that, I don’t remember anything.” – Rob Kristoffersen Rob Kristoffersen is not only an expert on UFOs and UFO cases and host of the Our Strange Skies podcast – he’s also one of my best friends.  In this wide-ranging interview we get progressively weirder and wilder, touching on everything from Bigfoot to elves to ghosts to crop circles to UFO cults to alien abductions – and all the way to the mysterious creature Rob saw on his neighbor’s lawn that completely changed his life. Links: Support RHPB on Patreon here! https://patreon.com/RichardHatem?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink  Get RHPB merch here! https://richardhatem-shop.fourthwall.com/?  Check out Rob’s podcast Our Strange Skies here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/our-strange-skies-ufos-throughout-history/id1546735571

    1h 38m

  7. 10/31/2025

    The Siren Call of Hungry Ghosts - Part Two

    “They’re demons.  You’re talking to demons.  And I don’t like the sound of it one bit.” -- The Siren Call of Hungry Ghosts Joe Fisher falls further into darkness as he attempts to prove the earthly existences of his spirit guides.  But once he realizes that his otherworldly lover Filipa has lied to him, all bets are off.  A late-night meeting with a friend who warns Joe about “the other side of the spirit guides” puts the communications he’s been receiving in a new -- and terrifying -- light.  The only remaining question is: can Joe get out in time to save himself? Meanwhile, Richard makes some discoveries of his own about his best friend Michael Principato.  Can a friendship survive betrayal?  And can you ever really go back to high school, reclaim the past, and fix something that seems forever broken? Something that you yourself broke?   Links:   Support RHPB on Patreon here! https://patreon.com/RichardHatem?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink  Get RHPB merch here! https://richardhatem-shop.fourthwall.com/?  Buy The Siren Call of Hungry Ghosts https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-siren-call-of-hungry-ghosts-a-riveting-investigation-into-channeling-and-spirit-guides-joe-fisher/1cb4282a7d49b9fc?ean=9781944529505&next=t

    1 hr

  8. 10/24/2025

    The Siren Call of Hungry Ghosts - Part One

    “Here, in an ordinary suburban living room in Toronto, a cynical, 42-year-old mother of three was giving voice to disembodied humans who were testifying to the fact that we do not die. And that we are never truly alone.” -- Joe Fisher, The Siren Call of Hungry Ghosts On July 20th, 1984, journalist and paranormal researcher Joe Fisher witnesses the phenomenon of channeling for the first time -- and his life changes forever.  What if spirit guides really do exist?  What if we all have people on the other side who watch us, love us and silently guide us in ways we cannot even begin to imagine?  Joe sets out to prove this very thing.  But as he embarks on this strange journey, his objectivity falters when his own personal spirit guide introduces herself: her name is Filipa -- and 300 years ago in Greece, the two of them were lovers.  But as his obsession with her grows, Joe begins to suspect she might not be exactly who -- or what -- she says she is. Richard’s life changes forever, too -- on his first day of high school.  That’s when he meets the legendary Michael Principato.  Michael is everything Richard wants to be: popular, talented, funny -- and effortlessly creative.  Richard and Michael soon become best friends and for one magical year it’s a relationship like nothing Richard’s ever experienced before.  But something happens that first summer after freshman year and suddenly Richard finds himself wondering: do I really know Michael Principato at all?  Links:   Support RHPB on Patreon here! https://patreon.com/RichardHatem?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink  Get RHPB merch here! https://richardhatem-shop.fourthwall.com/?  Buy The Siren Call of Hungry Ghosts https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-siren-call-of-hungry-ghosts-a-riveting-investigation-into-channeling-and-spirit-guides-joe-fisher/1cb4282a7d49b9fc?ean=9781944529505&next=t

    1h 5m
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4.8
out of 5
445 Ratings

About

“Go inside the mind of one of television and movies’ wildest storytellers…”  Richard Hatem's Paranormal Bookshelf is a podcast that feels like discovering a secret diary.  Every episode unravels the mysteries of a book from Richard's bookshelf and a story from Richard’s life, weaving together the excitement of the supernatural and the warmth of personal storytelling.

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