From the High Desert: A Cultural History of Art Bell

Between midnight and dawn, from a studio at the edge of the Nevada desert, one man held America's attention for over two decades. Art Bell didn't just host a radio show. He built a world.From the High Desert is the story of that world, told through forty-nine landmark broadcasts spanning 1992 to 2016. A physicist who touched an alien spacecraft in a secret military hangar. A Harvard psychiatrist who risked his career to study abduction. A retired Army colonel who claimed he gave alien technology to American corporations. A frantic caller from Area 51 who was cut off when the entire satellite system went dark. And millions of listeners, alone in the night, who tuned in because Art Bell took their questions seriously when no one else would.This is narrative nonfiction drawn directly from the broadcasts themselves. Each chapter reconstructs a single episode, placing it in historical context and bringing to life the conversations that shaped a generation of late-night radio. The result is both a cultural history of Art Bell's career across Coast to Coast AM and Midnight in the Desert, and a portrait of the ideas, fears, and mysteries that captivated his audience from the Cold War's aftermath through the dawn of the surveillance age.Featuring broadcasts with Bob Lazar, Graham Hancock, Stanton Friedman, Terence McKenna, Father Malachi Martin, George Knapp, David Paulides, Ingo Swann, John Lear, Kevin Mitnick, Erich von Daniken, David Jacobs, and dozens more.For the millions who listened, this is the book that was always waiting to be written. For everyone else, this is your invitation to the most extraordinary conversation in broadcasting history.All episodes featured in this book can be heard at ArtBellArchive.org. Read more