abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast
abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast guides listeners through immersive audio fantasies, recreating host Blake Pfeil’s experiences exploring abandoned spaces across the United States and around the world. Along the way, the show asks critical questions about American history and culture, community, economics, the environment, and mental health while encouraging folks to activate their imaginations as a tool for healing. Winner: Ambie Award (2025 - Best DIY Podcast), Signal Awards (2024 - Best Experimental Podcast, Best Indie Podcast, Most Innovative Listening Experience, Best Writing of an Individual Episode), Melbourne WebFest (Best Nonfiction Podcast) Nominee: UK Press Gazette Future of Media Awards (2024, 2025 - Regional Podcast of the Year), Ambie Awards (2024 - Best Indie Podcast) To learn more, visit www.allamericanruins.com.
Episodes
September 4, 2025 • 16 mins
On the one-year anniversary of his best friend Julie’s death, Blake makes his way to the ruins of the Schrade Cutlery Factory in Ellenville, NY. The only remaining structure is a crumbling security gatehouse which Julie and Blake always talked about getting to but never did. Covered in vines, Blake reminisces on his friendship with Julie and asks her ghost if it’s time to let her go.
(Note: For the best immersive experience, we st...
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June 12, 2025 • 30 mins
Wander through fantastical realm of a real giant beige house (at the end of a very long driveway), abandoned and hidden on the banks of a famous river in New York-- where you’ll meet the ghost of the old woman and connect the dots between this story and “The People Who Used to Live Here, Part 1” from Season 1.
This episode features:
Margarita Meyendorff
(Note: For the best immersive experience, we strongly suggest you ...
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June 5, 2025 • 17 mins
In preparation for the season 3 finale, “The People Who Used to Live Here, Part II: The Giant Beige House at the End of a Very Long Driveway,” we’re diving back into the archives for this special re-release of “The People Who Used to Live Here, Part I.” You know; for context. This episode originally aired on December 29, 2022.
Original episode description: In the season one finale of abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast, foll...
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May 29, 2025 • 30 mins
Feeling trapped in their Covid bubble, Blake and his pandemic pod-mate Isabel explore an abandoned Hudson Valley farmhouse where Isabel discovers the Borden family’s influence on the country’s dairy industry and reconciles with childhood ghosts. In an All-American Ruins first, join Blake as he passes the storytelling reins to his sister-from-another mother who you may recognize from previous episodes in season 2, "Isabel and the Al...
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May 22, 2025 • 74 mins
What does it look like to revitalize an abandoned space - that’s situated inside an active and excessively large shopping mall - in 2005? On this special bonus episode of abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast, you’ll meet Michael Townsend, one of the eight artists who, from 2005-2008, did just that: built a secret apartment inside the Providence Place Mall. Michael is one of the subjects of the smash documentary Secret Mall Apa...
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May 1, 2025 • 22 mins
While exploring the ruins of a once-popular drive-in movie theater, Blake thinks about his complicated relationship with his father, reimagining a screening of Star Wars that they attended together the year John was diagnosed with stage IV mesothelioma.
May the 4th be with you.
This episode features:
John Pfeil
Tiernan Pfeil
(Note: For the best immersive experience, we strongly suggest you wear headphones 🎧 for every episode...
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April 24, 2025 • 19 mins
Deep in the woods of the Finnish countryside sits a quaint house, red, and completely abandoned. In this international episode of abandoned, follow Blake inside where he has a run-in with a ghost-- and not an imaginary one.
(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...
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April 10, 2025 • 20 mins
“Abandoned” doesn’t always mean “empty,” and in one particular vacant mini-mansion in Merida, Mexico, that is precisely the case. Continuing on his international circuit, join Blake as he spins an imaginary folk tale about the people who used to live in this house, while wandering its halls and reflecting on family, poetry, and gun violence.
This episode features:
Perla Ayora
Joseph Darnell
Dorian Darnell
Elsa Darnell
(Note...
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March 27, 2025 • 21 mins
Formerly a curtain shop in Niagara Falls, NY, a strange abandoned commercial space overlooking the St. Lawrence Seaway draws Blake in as he ruminates on fear, in all of its unknowable power and mystery.
(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...
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March 13, 2025 • 17 mins
An accidental pitstop at the ruins of a motorsports track becomes a silent meditation on spirits, open carry laws, and the function of fear as an explorer of the past. Walk with Blake through a history full of the distant sounds of race cars burning rubber around and around the track, surrounded on all sides by the sunny plains of Colorado in autumn.
(Note: For the best immersive experience, we strongly suggest you wear headphones ...
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March 6, 2025 • 21 mins
Join Blake in conversation with Garden State Film Festival executive director Lauren Concar Sheehy as the pair discuss the festival’s groundbreaking accessibility program “Cinema for the Ears,” which will feature season 2, episode 8 of abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast in Asbury Park, NJ on March 29, 2025. For tickets and more information, visit GSFF.org.
(Note: For the best immersive experience, we strongly suggest you wea...
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February 27, 2025 • 18 mins
All-aboard as Blake guides you to an abandoned double-decker passenger train in the middle of the California desert. While wandering the ruins of the great American railway industry, join Blake as he reflects the evolution of transportation, the unraveling of corporate greed, and his lifelong love of trains, deserts, and making music.
This episode features:
Omen Sade
“American Train” written and performed by Macabre Americana:
Wi...
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February 13, 2025 • 21 mins
A last-minute decision to peek into the abandoned Irish Centre of Pittsburgh transforms into a daydream of a haunted heads-up penny and the assassination of JFK. Nestled among the City of Steel’s rolling hills, join Blake as he guides you through a forgotten cinder block sanctuary of the past, where he reflects on the death of his first love and how the grief from the loss helped him survive.
This episode features:
Nicholas John C...
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January 30, 2025 • 20 mins
What do Blake’s sister, a giant, and a very bad dream have in common? Find out as Blake guides you through the abandoned Tillson Elementary School where he ponders his relationship with his sister and a recurring nightmare he had as a child.
This episode features:
Megan Pfeil
Ryan Pfeil
(Note: For the best immersive experience, we strongly suggest you wear headphones 🎧 for every episode of abandoned: The All-American Ruins Pod...
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January 16, 2025 • 18 mins
Once upon a time, there was an active Nazi compound situated in a Los Angeles canyon. After it was emptied of its filth in 1948, Murphy Ranch sat abandoned for years before the city transformed it into a public park, where, over time, the architectural remnants of evil slowly faded away, reclaimed by the dirt and stone of the canyon.
(Note: For the best immersive experience, we strongly suggest you wear headphones 🎧 for every epis...
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January 2, 2025 • 21 mins
The art of urban exploration often includes evading the authorities, but every once in a while, an adventurer gets caught. In the season 3 premiere, join Blake as he wanders the abandoned summer camp at the Delmar Inn, hidden away off a Catskill Mountain highway in New York.
This episode features:
Julie Novak
The Caretaker
(Note: For the best immersive experience, we strongly suggest you wear headphones 🎧 for every episode of ...
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December 5, 2024 • 4 mins
Welcome to season 3 of the Ambie-nominated 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 and around the world. Along the way, abandoned asks critical questions about American history, culture, community, economics, the environment, and collective mental health while encouraging ...
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September 6, 2024 • 27 mins
On Saturday, August 31, 2024, All-American Ruins lost its biggest fan, and host Blake Pfeil lost his greatest urbex buddy: Julie Novak. In this special re-release of season 2, episode 4, “Julie is a Homo[wack],” join Blake for this audio memorial of a beloved community leader, queer mentor, and dear friend.
(Note: For the best immersive experience, we strongly suggest you wear headphones 🎧 for every episode of abandoned: The All-A...
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July 18, 2024 • 15 mins
In this special bonus episode, Blake returns to the abandoned Nevele Grande Hotel where he says goodbye to one of his All-American Ruins muses, Shelley Duvall.
To read the transcript of this episode, click here: https://www.blakepfeil.com/aar-podcast.html
To learn more, visit: http://www.allamericanruins.com
You can join the All-American Ruins Expedition Club now: https://plus.acast.com/s/abandoned-the-all-american-ruins-p...
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June 27, 2024 • 6 mins
Sometimes, it’s not possible to get inside an abandoned space, but the ghosts that may still linger among the ruins of George’s Music in Orlando, FL activate Blake’s imagination just the same. Join him for this special bonus episode as he daydreams the insides of the abandoned music store, surrounded on all sides by the echoes of America’s Disney-stained future.
(Note: For the best immersive experience, we strongly suggest you wear...
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