Okay, so I really barely know where we are.

Do you know, we are?

Actually, like I really barely know where we are. So this, as far as I understand it, was like a cement factory essentially.

Yeah.

There's a very special kind of hangout and it's something I've only managed to do with a handful of people, but it's an incredible way to get to know somebody.

Go explore some abandoned crumbling ruin. Go poke around some hulking factory or psychiatric institution left to rot or

Visit a fenced off cement factory. It is pretty much guaranteed bonding. You guys against the world, you know, that just creates a sense of camaraderie.

Careful.

Blake is standing on like a corrugated door that's like half over the precipice.

And it feels questionable.

That is me and Blake File. And that is exactly how we got to know each other.

On a hot day last summer we met up to go and clamor around this old cement factory.

The place is just gigantic.

It was really imposing giant buildings, towering equipment,

eight or nine stories tall.

I want to do like music recordings in here.

Yeah, yeah, these huge echoe.

Ahhah! You know?

I was pretty excited about this. Now that I am old and a dad, I don't get to do as much

poking around as I used to. But this certainly isn't new to Blake. In fact, it is how he spends a lot of his time.

Because Blake is the creator and host of a podcast called Abandoned, All American Ruins.

In each episode, Blake goes exploring some crumbling, falling apart, ruined place, and then uses that place as a jumping off point for a meditation on himself, on the state of the country, on

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