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 & 2025 - Best Experimental Podcast), CineHealth Media Festival (Best Podcast), Sydney Web Fest Michael Ajakwe Award for Innovation (2025) 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.
Lurana, You Were on My Mind (Nopeming Sanitorium - Duluth, MN)
Inside the abandoned Nopeming Sanatorium, Blake talks to his grandmother (Grammie), Lurana — whose dementia carried her away before she passed. Like an insistent phantom moving through its rooms and hallways, signals reverberating inside the walls of Nopeming’s medical past radiate against Blake’s cherished memories, turning the adventure into a ghostly conversation across time about forgiveness, sobriety, and the confounding kinship between grief and love. 🏆 The Ambies — Winner, Best DIY Podcast (2025) 📡 The Signal Awards — Best Experimental Podcast (2024 & 2025) 📰 Press Gazette Future of Media Awards — Nominee (2024, 2025, & 2026) *** 🎧 Note: For the best immersive experience, find a quiet place and wear headphones when listening to “abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast.” 🎧 *** Further Exploration 📜 Transcripts: https://abandonedpod.com 🗺️ Continue exploring: http://www.allamericanruins.com ✉️ Advertising inquiries: advertising@airwavemedia.com ℹ️ Learn more about your ad choices: megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
I Remember You Well (Taney Motel - Branson, MO)
Blake finds sanctuary on the grounds of the abandoned Taney Motel in Branson, Missouri — a refuge tucked inside a world of risk. Wandering around the vacant property, Blake reflects on growing up queer, the quiet negotiations of safety, and the fragile, hallowed spaces that marginalized communities create when the outside world doesn't have room for them. 🏆 The Ambies — Winner, Best DIY Podcast (2025) 📡 The Signal Awards — Best Experimental Podcast (2024 & 2025) 📰 Press Gazette Future of Media Awards — Nominee (2024 & 2025) *** 🎧 Note: For the best immersive experience, find a quiet place and wear headphones when listening to “abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast.” 🎧 *** Further Exploration 📜 Transcripts: https://abandonedpod.com 🗺️ Continue exploring: http://www.allamericanruins.com ✉️ Advertising inquiries: advertising@airwavemedia.com ℹ️ Learn more about your ad choices: megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dylan & Blake on a Friendship, Cemented (A.J. Snyder Cement - Rosendale, NY)
In the ruins of an upstate New York cement factory, Blake and New York Times best-selling author Dylan Thuras wander toward a mysterious “document storage house,” discovering they’re not just exploring a place but each other’s relationship to creativity and the myths we build to live inside it. Among empty boxes, industrial ghosts, and imagined histories, the duo considers what it means to construct something out of nothing, outgrow it, and still carry its faded transmissions — like a friendship — once it becomes memory. 🏆 The Ambies — Winner, Best DIY Podcast (2025) 📡 The Signal Awards — Best Experimental Podcast (2024 & 2025) 📰 Press Gazette Future of Media Awards — Nominee (2024 & 2025) *** 🎧 Note: For the best immersive experience, find a quiet place and wear headphones when listening to “abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast.” 🎧 *** Further Exploration 📜 Transcripts: https://abandonedpod.com 🗺️ Continue exploring: http://www.allamericanruins.com ✉️ Advertising inquiries: advertising@airwavemedia.com ℹ️ Learn more about your ad choices: megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Fading Transmissions from a Gas Station Altar of Shoes (Wonderland Ranch/Mojave Shoe Station - Mojave, CA)
Deep in the Mojave Desert, a defunct gas station has become a roadside altar of shoes, each pair carrying stories and secrets that transform a place for transients into a monument for return pilgrimages. Standing among the relics and artifacts of lives past, Blake considers eulogies, elegies, and effigies — and what it means to be remembered by strangers. Note: Episodes 1–4 of Season 4 form “Fading Transmissions from a Republic of Ruins,” a four-part series embedded within the season. 🏆 The Ambies — Winner, Best DIY Podcast (2025) 📡 The Signal Awards — Best Experimental Podcast (2024 & 2025) 📰 Press Gazette Future of Media Awards — Nominee (2024 & 2025) *** 🎧 Note: For the best immersive experience, find a quiet place and wear headphones when listening to “abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast.” 🎧 *** Further Exploration 📜 Transcripts: https://abandonedpod.com 🗺️ Continue exploring: http://www.allamericanruins.com ✉️ Advertising inquiries: advertising@airwavemedia.com ℹ️ Learn more about your ad choices: megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Fading Transmissions: Glenrio Was Here (Glenrio, NM)
On the border of Texas and New Mexico, a town divided by a state line faces an identity crisis — and demands to be remembered. Wandering the empty fields and crumbling pavement of what, at one time, was a glamorous rest-stop town, Blake imagines a conversation with Glenrio itself as it bears witness to what once was, and wonders whether a forgotten ghost town might outlast us all. Note: Episodes 1–4 of Season 4 form “Fading Transmissions from a Republic of Ruins,” a four-part series embedded within the season.🏆 The Ambies — Winner, Best DIY Podcast (2025) 📡 The Signal Awards — Best Experimental Podcast (2024 & 2025) 📰 Press Gazette Future of Media Awards — Nominee (2024 & 2025) *** 🎧 Note: For the best immersive experience, find a quiet place and wear headphones when listening to “abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast.” 🎧 *** Further Exploration 📜 Transcripts: https://abandonedpod.com 🗺️ Continue exploring: http://www.allamericanruins.com ✉️ Advertising inquiries: advertising@airwavemedia.com ℹ️ Learn more about your ad choices: megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Fading Transmissions from the Shamrock Ghost House (Shamrock, TX)
When Blake stumbles into a forgotten house in the Texas Panhandle, imagined legends and headlines begin unfolding in his mind — stories of addiction, homelessness, and loss, but above all, the power of family rising from the wreckage. Note: Episodes 1–4 of Season 4 form “Fading Transmissions from a Republic of Ruins,” a four-part series embedded within the season. 🏆 The Ambies — Winner, Best DIY Podcast (2025) 📡 The Signal Awards — Best Experimental Podcast (2024 & 2025) 📰 Press Gazette Future of Media Awards — Nominee (2024 & 2025) *** 🎧 Note: For the best immersive experience, find a quiet place and wear headphones when listening to “abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast.” 🎧 *** Further Exploration 📜 Transcripts: https://abandonedpod.com 🗺️ Continue exploring: http://www.allamericanruins.com ✉️ Advertising inquiries: advertising@airwavemedia.com ℹ️ Learn more about your ad choices: megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Fading Transmissions from The Sumner School (Topeka, KS) - LIVE EPISODE
An unexpected—and ironic—detour to an infamous abandoned school in Kansas sparks the kickoff of season 4. When Blake accidentally stumbles into the legacy of Brown v. Board of Education at the Sumner School in Topeka, he finds himself confronting the moment his childhood imagination collides with historical transmissions the country once tried to erase. Note: Episodes 1–4 of Season 4 form “Fading Transmissions from a Republic of Ruins,” a four-part series embedded within the season. This Season 4 premiere was recorded in front of a live audience at Green Box Arts in Green Mountain Falls, Colorado. 🏆 The Ambies — Winner, Best DIY Podcast (2025) 📡 The Signal Awards — Best Experimental Podcast (2024 & 2025) 📰 Press Gazette Future of Media Awards — Nominee (2024 & 2025) *** 🎧 Note: For the best immersive experience, find a quiet place and wear headphones when listening to "abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast." 🎧 *** Further Exploration 📜 Transcripts: https://abandonedpod.com 🗺️ Continue exploring: http://www.allamericanruins.com ✉️ Advertising inquiries: advertising@airwavemedia.com ℹ️ Learn more about your ad choices: megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S4 - Extended Trailer | abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast
Welcome to season 4 of the Ambie-winning “abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast.” Through the immersive power of sonic storytelling, host Blake Pfeil guides you as he follows transmissions reverberating across forgotten spaces throughout the United States. This season, the signal grows stronger: guest hosts step behind the microphone to lead listeners through their own encounters with ruins. Along the way, “abandoned” asks critical questions about American history, culture, community, the environment, technology, and collective mental health, inviting listeners to use imagination as a tool for healing and connection. New episodes every other Thursday starting April 16, 2026. 🏆 The Ambies — Winner, Best DIY Podcast (2025) 📡 The Signal Awards — Best Experimental Podcast (2024 & 2025) 📰 Press Gazette Future of Media Awards — Nominee (2024 & 2025) *** 🎧 Note: For the best immersive experience, find a quiet place and wear headphones when listening to abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast. 🎧 *** Further Exploration 📜 Transcripts: https://abandonedpod.com 🗺️ Continue exploring: http://www.allamericanruins.com ✉️ Advertising inquiries: advertising@airwavemedia.com ℹ️ Learn more about your ad choices: megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
All-American Ruins: Live at the Ulster County Historical Society
On October 12, 2025, Blake was joined by All-American Ruins guest host and writer Isabel Wilder at the Ulster County Historical Society in Kingston, NY for a 90-minute program. Participants explored how ruins reflect America’s past, present, and future—while doubling as playgrounds for creativity, imagination, and healing. To learn more, visit: http://www.allamericanruins.com Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com if you would like to advertise with All-American Ruins. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In Which I Let You Go at an Abandoned Security Gatehouse (Schrade Cutlery Factory - Ellenville, NY)
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 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 read the original story this episode is based on, click here: https://allamericanruins.medium.com/chapter-48-in-which-i-let-you-go-at-an-abandoned-security-gatehouse-15ace3dac05f To learn more, visit: http://www.allamericanruins.com Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com if you would like to advertise with All-American Ruins. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The People Who Used to Live Here, Part II
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 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 read the original story this episode is based on, click here: https://allamericanruins.medium.com/chapter-42-the-people-who-used-to-live-here-part-ii-39a5dc0072eb To learn more, visit: http://www.allamericanruins.com Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com if you would like to advertise with All-American Ruins. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The People Who Used to Live Here, Part I (A Season 1 Re-Release)
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, 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/aar-podcast.html To read the original story this episode is based on, click here: https://allamericanruins.medium.com/chapter-11-the-people-who-used-to-live-here-a20a581bae8c To learn more, visit: http://www.allamericanruins.com Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com if you would like to advertise with All-American Ruins. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Frozen in Time (Borden Farmhouse - Wallkill, NY)
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 Allentown Mafia" and "Sober." This episode features: Isabel Wilder Learn more about Isabel’s work at https://5thhousepottery.com/ (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 learn more, visit: http://www.allamericanruins.com Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com if you would like to advertise with All-American Ruins. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Anti-Ruin: Michael Townsend and the Secret Mall Apartment
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 Apartment, from director Jeremy Workman and executive producer Jesse Eisenberg, which follows the story of a motley crew of Gen-X urbex artists who did the unthinkable and brought national attention to the intricacies and devastation of urbanization and gentrification... simply by occupying “underutilized space.” This bonus episode was repurposed from a live interview on abandoned host Blake Pfeil and his creative partner Jeremiah Wenutu’s show Cinema Kingston!, a weekly late-night program that explores the film industry in Hudson Valley, NY. The show airs every Wednesday night from 9-11 PM EST on Radio Kingston, WKNY, AM 1490 FM 107.9, in Kingston, NY. To learn more, visit RadioKingston.org. To learn more about Secret Mall Apartment, visit secretmallapartment.com To learn more about Tape Art, visit tapeart.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Star Wars Dad (Mountain Drive-In - South Fallsburg, NY)
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 of abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast.) To read the transcript of this episode, click here: https://www.blakepfeil.com/aar-podcast.html To read the original story this episode is based on, click here: https://medium.com/@allamericanruins/chapter-28-dad-5a8c8ebd8631 To learn more, visit: http://www.allamericanruins.com Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com if you would like to advertise with All-American Ruins. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A Finnish Ghost Story (Unknown Cabin - Pohjola, Finland)
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://www.blakepfeil.com/aar-podcast.html To read the original story this episode is based on, click here: https://medium.com/@allamericanruins/chapter-32-a-finnish-ghost-story-55c76aef24f To learn more, visit: http://www.allamericanruins.com Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com if you would like to advertise with All-American Ruins. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Someone Lives Here (Unknown Casa - Merida, Mexico)
“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: 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 read the original story this episode is based on, click here: https://allamericanruins.medium.com/chapter-26-someone-lives-here-5a1762102524 To learn more, visit: http://www.allamericanruins.com Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com if you would like to advertise with All-American Ruins. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Fear (Homemakers Custom Draperies - Niagara Falls, NY)
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/aar-podcast.html To read the original story this episode is based on, click here: https://allamericanruins.medium.com/chapter-37-fear-3ee608eecbe0 To learn more, visit: http://www.allamericanruins.com Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com if you would like to advertise with All-American Ruins. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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 🎧 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 read the original story this episode is based on, click here: https://allamericanruins.medium.com/chapter-34-a-detour-ad4d92aa5e80 To learn more, visit: http://www.allamericanruins.com Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com if you would like to advertise with All-American Ruins. You can join the All-American Ruins Expedition Club now: https://plus.acast.com/s/abandoned-the-all-american-ruins-podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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 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 learn more, visit: http://www.allamericanruins.com Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com if you would like to advertise with All-American Ruins. You can join the All-American Ruins Expedition Club now: https://plus.acast.com/s/abandoned-the-all-american-ruins-podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
