The accidental discovery of a curious abandoned space leads Blake to a chance encounter -- with a man named Steez. Join Blake as he explores the ruins of Pass Creek Market in Curtin, OR, a casualty of the 2008 housing crisis. And meet Steez, an off-the-grid hippy with an unusual appetite for deep conversation about capitalism, imagination and ghosts. This episode features: Jeremiah Wenutu (Note: For the best immersive experience, we strongly suggest you wear headphones 🎧 for every episode of ab...
Feb 01, 2024•21 min•Season 2Ep. 10
Welcome to Painter, Virginia, home of the abandoned Central Middle-High School. Wander its ghostly hallways with Blake as he reflects on the American education system, explores class warfare, and has a brief encounter with death... and possibly Elizabeth Warren. (Note: For the best immersive experience, we strongly suggest you wear headphones 🎧 for every episode of abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast. ) To read the transcript of this episode, click here: https://www.blakepfeil.com/aar-pod...
Jan 18, 2024•20 min•Season 2Ep. 9
Sometimes, an abandoned space can summon a ghost - or maybe it’s just a figment of the imagination. Either way, join Blake as he accompanies you to the ruins of a seaside shanty, standing proudly on the edge of a graveyard overlooking the mighty Atlantic Ocean in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. (And don’t be surprised if you both run into a ghost named Mrs. Dalby.) This episode features: Elisabeth Henry Nik Magill (Note: For the best immersive experience, we strongly suggest you wear headphon...
Jan 04, 2024•19 min•Season 2Ep. 8
Follow Blake to the ruins of Rodanthe, on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, where he guides you through the abandoned Waterfall Park and reflects on his childhood dreams, being single again, and a long-awaited one-night stand. This episode features: Tiernan Pfeil (Note: For the best immersive experience, we strongly suggest you wear headphones 🎧 for every episode of abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast. ) To read the transcript of this episode, click here: https://www.blakepfeil.com/aar-p...
Dec 21, 2023•17 min•Season 2Ep. 7
On the banks of the Hudson River near Catskill, NY sits the abandoned Universal Atlas Cement Plant. Shut down between 1976-77, Blake wanders among the smokestacks and echoes of days gone by, reflecting on the end of a relationship, telling the truth, and ultimately, the act of forgiving oneself. (Note: For the best immersive experience, we strongly suggest you wear headphones 🎧 for every episode of abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast. ) To read the transcript of this episode, click here: ...
Dec 13, 2023•14 min
Cleveland’s Hough Bakery was once the largest multiple-unit bakery with locations across Ohio-- but in 1992, the company filed for bankruptcy and closed all 32 locations. Join Blake as he guides you through the ruins of the Hough Bakery on Lakeview Road, alongside one of his favorite humans on the planet. This episode features: Jacob Yarian (Note: For the best immersive experience, we strongly suggest you wear headphones 🎧 for every episode of abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast. ) To rea...
Dec 07, 2023•19 min•Season 2Ep. 6
On our first venture to an international location, join Blake atop a hill overlooking the vibrant city of Lisbon, Portugal, as he guides you through an abandoned restaurant while daydreaming of his Ukrainian friend and brother, artist Daniel Skripnik. This episode features: Daniel Skripnik This episode features the song “Freedom” by Oleg Fedak. Music Info: Freedom - by SoulProdMusic. Music Link: https://bit.ly/3CkncRh (Note: For the best immersive experience, we strongly suggest you wear headpho...
Nov 21, 2023•18 min•Season 2Ep. 5
Julie navigates the ruins of America in the same way she faces stage IV breast cancer: with a rambunctious and determined heart. At least, on the surface. Join Blake as he explores the architectural remains of the Homowack Lodge, alongside his fierce compatriot Julie, a compassionate and sensitive queer community leader in Hudson Valley, NY. While they wander through the abandoned Catskillian resort with its curious name, Julie reflects openly on cancer, America, and the unmitigated medicine of ...
Nov 09, 2023•21 min•Season 2Ep. 4
While reflecting on what makes an ideal friendship with his pal Shannon, Blake pokes about the ruins of an abandoned gas station in the California desert. Join him as he time warps back to 1979, when gas lines were long, Coca Cola was 45 cents a bottle, and President Jimmy Carter warned Americans about the Crisis of Confidence. This episode features: Shannon Borden Lacey Keane Nik Magill (Note: For the best immersive experience, we strongly suggest you wear headphones 🎧 for every episode of aba...
Oct 26, 2023•18 min•Season 2Ep. 3
Featuring its cornerstone horse race track and grandstand, the Great Barrington Fairgrounds has sat abandoned since 1998. Join Blake as he wanders among the ghosts of fairs-gone-by while reflecting the hidden truth of his relationship with his lover Eric. This episode features: Jeremiah Wenutu Krista Buccellato Adam Machart (Note: For the best immersive experience, we strongly suggest you wear headphones 🎧 for every episode of abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast. ) To read the transcript ...
Oct 12, 2023•18 min•Season 2Ep. 2
Just over an hour east of Denver is a small ghost town called Last Chance. Upon first glance, it might look like just a clump of tiny abandoned houses. But look closer with Blake as he guides you through the ruins of Last Chance, Colorado, and together, uncover the mystery of why the remains of this widely unknown, defunct American geographical icon have continued to haunt passersby for decades after its demise. (Note: For the best immersive experience, we strongly suggest you wear headphones 🎧...
Oct 05, 2023•18 min
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 episode features: Isabel Wilder Nik Magill (Note: For the best immersive experience, we strongly su...
Sep 28, 2023•20 min•Season 2Ep. 1
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 environment, and mental health while encouraging folks to activate their imaginations as a tool for hea...
Sep 14, 2023•6 min
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.html Learn more about Hudson House & Distillery here: https://www.thehudsonhouseny.com Lear...
Sep 07, 2023•36 min•Season 1Ep. 21
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 North Carolina Museum of History: “Join multidisciplinary artist Blake Pfeil (creator of All-America...
Aug 14, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 20
“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 listeners may find it to be offensive. Please take care of your ears. Learn more about Artist Sharone...
Aug 03, 2023•17 min•Season 1Ep. 19
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 in Minneapolis, MN. Learn more about Atlas Obscura: https://www.atlasobscura.com Learn more about Al...
Jun 22, 2023•34 min•Season 1Ep. 18
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 locked doors, far after it was left to ruin in 1998. http://www.allamericanruins.com Please contact adv...
Jun 19, 2023•13 min•Season 1Ep. 17
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 Historical Marker Project. Learn more about Marisa: https://www.marisascheinfeld.com Learn more about t...
May 03, 2023•30 min•Season 1Ep. 16
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 Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com if you would like to advertise with All-American Ruins. You c...
Apr 20, 2023•20 min•Season 1Ep. 15
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 Ruins" in History Colorado's The Colorado Magazine: https://www.historycolorado.org/story/2023/01/27/a...
Jan 31, 2023•33 min•Season 1Ep. 13
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 Ruins Podcast. ) To read the transcript of this episode, click here: https://www.blakepfeil.com/aa...
Dec 29, 2022•19 min•Season 1Ep. 12
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 .) To read the transcript of this episode, click here: https://www.blakepfeil.com/aar-podcast.html To...
Dec 15, 2022•20 min•Season 1Ep. 11
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 Podcast. ) Learn more: http://www.allamericanruins.com Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com if ...
Dec 08, 2022•27 min•Season 1Ep. 10
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 🎧 for every episode of abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast. ) This episode features Sam Simahk. Le...
Oct 27, 2022•30 min•Season 1Ep. 9
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 Sawyerkill Motel just off the New York State Thruway in Saugerties, NY. (Note: For the best immersive ex...
Sep 29, 2022•30 min•Season 1Ep. 8
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 Ruins Podcast. ) This episode features: Wilder Loving Learn more: https://www.allamericanruins.com ...
Aug 25, 2022•25 min•Season 1Ep. 7
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 Ruins Podcast .) This episode features: Wilder Loving Learn more: https://www.allamericanruins.com P...
Aug 11, 2022•21 min•Season 1Ep. 6
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 with a coyote. (Note: For the best immersive experience, we strongly suggest you wear headphones 🎧...
Jul 21, 2022•23 min•Season 1Ep. 5
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: For the best immersive experience, we strongly suggest you wear headphones 🎧 for every episode of...
Jun 29, 2022•20 min•Season 1Ep. 4
