abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast

We're kickstarting the second season of abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast with a mafia hideout, a milk factory full of phantoms, and a curious, ghostly plant manager named Victor. Alongside his sister-from-another-mother, join Blake as he embarks on a mysterious trip to the abandoned Lehigh Valley Dairy where he ponders friendship, FDR’s New Deal, and the dark side of the imagination. This...

Coming September 28, 2023… Welcome to season 2 of the award-winning abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast. Join host Blake Pfeil as he guides listeners through immersive audio fantasies, recreating his experiences exploring abandoned spaces across the United States. Along the way, abandoned asks critical questions about American history and culture, community, capitalism and economics, the env...

Charles Ferri spent years searching for something, but it wasn’t until he stumbled upon an empty monastery overlooking the Hudson River that he realized he’d found it. Join Blake as he explores the story behind the accidental preservationist of the once-abandoned Christian Brothers Monastery & School in West Park, NY. Read the transcript of this episode here: https://www.blakepfeil.com/aar-podcast...

On July 20, 2023, North Carolina Museum of History hosted All-American Ruins as part of their History + Highballs virtual series. The program, entitled All-American Ruins: Reawakening the Healing Power of Imagination in Abandoned Spaces, started with a question: “Can the human imagination serve as a space of healing and serenity as much as it serves as a space of creativity and wonderment?” From N...

“What would I leave behind?” In this special bonus episode, join Blake on an existential quest to an abandoned cabin in the middle of the woods where he reflects on legacy, death, and imagines what his own home might look if it was abandoned. **Content warning: This episode contains what some may consider a gay slur. While referenced as a term of endearment - or, a reinvention of the word - some l...

Dylan Thuras is the cofounder of Atlas Obscura, but he’s more than a fancy title. Join Blake on this special bonus episode of abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast as he explores Dylan’s journey to becoming a part of the urbex community, from his humble beginnings as a road trip kid, to a burgeoning graffiti artist who started to find his creative POV at the abandoned Gold Medal Flour Factory...

On June 18, 2023, The Pines Hotel (South Fallsburg, NY), one of the many abandoned Borscht Belt hotels, burned down. The two alarm fire that ravaged the property leaves behind an impactful cultural legacy for the decades of guests who created memories inside-- and a powerful personal legacy for abandoned host Blake Pfeil, who created different kinds of memories behind its shuttered windows and loc...

Join Blake for this special episode profiling Marisa Scheinfeld, the preeminent photographer, historian, and preservationist of America’s nearly forgotten Borscht Belt. Follow Scheinfeld’s unique and deeply personal journey as she preserves the legacy of the “Jewish Alps,” from publishing The Borscht Belt: Revisiting the Remains of America's Jewish Vacationland to spearheading the Borscht Belt His...

Join Blake for this special conversation with Maxime Gerbe, the founder of Abandoned World, a tech platform that puts crowdsourced, mapped locations for abandoned spaces across the world at your fingertips. This conversation originally aired on The Pfeil File, a weekly program on Radio Kingston/WKNY (AM 1490/FM 107.9 in Kingston, NY). Learn more: www.itsabandoned.com www.allamericanruins.com Pleas...

In partnership with History Colorado, join Blake for this special, award-winning bonus episode of abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast where he takes a deeper dive into the history of the original All-American Ruins location from his childhood: the abandoned dairy farm at the Modern Woodmen of America Tuberculosis Sanatorium in Colorado Springs, CO. Read the companion article "All-American Ru...

In the season one finale of abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast, follow Blake into his imagination as he recounts his experience exploring an abandoned mansion off a county highway in Ulster County, NY where he reflects on capitalism, exile, and chosen family. (Note: For the best immersive experience, we strongly suggest you wear headphones 🎧 for every episode of abandoned: The All-American...

PANIC LiKe the houƨe iƨ on fiRe Join Blake on his expedition to an abandoned house at the foot of the Catskill Mountains that has been transformed into a makeshift artistic monument honoring climate activist Greta Thunberg--and Mother Nature herself. (Note: For the best immersive experience, we strongly suggest you wear headphones 🎧 for every episode of abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast.)...

Join host Blake Pfeil for this special episode of abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast as he chats with Radio Kingston/WKNY Executive Director Jimmy Buff about his personal experiences at the notorious abandoned psychiatric hospital on Long Island, NY. (Note: For the best immersive experience, we strongly suggest you wear headphones 🎧 for every episode of abandoned: The All-American Ruins Po...

It's 1972, and Geraldo Rivera is on a mission to expose the horrific conditions inside psychiatric hospitals across New York. Fly back in time with Blake where he meets a curious, new imaginary friend named Carl who shows him around the abandoned, infamous psychiatric facility Letchworth Village in Thiells, NY. (Note: For the best immersive experience, we strongly suggest you wear headphones 🎧 fo...

In 1960, the world was introduced to the fictional voyeur and motel owner Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's revolutionary horror film Psycho; and in 2016, the world was introduced to the nonfictional voyeur and motel owner Gerald Foos in Gay Talese’s book The Voyeur’s Motel. In this episode of abandoned, host Blake Pfeil is introduced to both (in his imagination) as he wanders the abandoned Sawye...

Fall into part two of Blake’s Erin Brockovich fantasy thriller as he explores the second of two abandoned industrial spaces, infamous for former EPA violations: C&D Technologies in Huguenot, NY. (Listen to "Sometimes I Pretend I'm Erin Brockovich, Part I here.) (Note: For the best immersive experience, we strongly suggest you wear headphones 🎧 for every episode of abandoned: The All-American Ruin...

In the first of a two-part episode, fall into Blake’s Erin Brockovich fantasy thriller as he explores two abandoned industrial spaces infamous for former EPA violations. First up: the Al Tech Specialty Steel Corporation, a Superfund site just outside of Albany, NY. (Note: For the best immersive experience, we strongly suggest you wear headphones 🎧 for every episode of abandoned: The All-American...

The Marin Headlands is an enormous chunk of Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Hillside, cliffside, and waterside all-in-one, the unique geography is dotted by several abandoned military sites. It is also the location of this deeply personal episode of abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast, where host Blake Pfeil reflects on divorce, codependency, self-forgiveness, and a surprise encounter...

Four days before the January 6th insurrection at the United States Capitol, Blake wanders the Penn Hills Honeymoon Resort in the Poconos, unaware of what's about to happen to the country. On this episode of abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast, time travel to a homogeneous couples resort with a history wrought with tax evasion, swingers parties, and good-ol'-fashioned heart-shaped tubs. Note:...

From a young age, Blake had an obsession with Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining and fantasized about time traveling back to 1979 to explore the film set. Since that proves to be impossible, the next best thing is an adventure to The Nevele Grande Hotel, an abandoned ski resort near the Catskill Mountains. Join Blake as he wanders the halls of the Borscht Belt hotel with Shelley Duvall while the ghosts...

Blake grew up next to the United States Air Force Academy, so it's fitting that his first venture to an abandoned space during the pandemic is an abandoned air force base near Saratoga Springs, NY on Memorial Day 2020. Join Blake as he time-travels to the Cold War-- when the paranoid threat of nuclear war with Russia incited the US government to produce a public awareness campaign (propaganda) sta...

Setting the scene for abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast, host Blake Pfeil travels back in time to his childhood in the mountains of Colorado where he reveals the genesis for his imaginative obsession with American ruins: an abandoned dairy farm. (Note: For the best immersive experience, we strongly suggest you wear headphones 🎧 for every episode of abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcas...

Welcome to abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast, a bi-weekly episodic audio series. abandoned takes listeners through sonic fantasies, recreating host Blake Pfeil’s experiences exploring abandoned spaces across the United States. Along the way, abandoned asks critical questions about American history and culture, community, capitalism and economics, the environment, and mental health while en...