Decay - A Podcast about Urban Exploration and Abandoned Places

Fort Dade was an Endicott Period fortification which guarded the entry to Tampa Bay. Accessible only by boat, it has been abandoned for nearly a century. What’s left of Fort Dade today lies in ruins along the northwest shore of Egmont Key, crumbling in the debilitating heat and humidity of the Gulf Coast. 

Thomas Kenning’s latest book – from which this story is adapted – is Abandoned Florida: Sunshine Sentinels.

Abandoned Florida: Sunshine Sentinels is a stunning visual survey of Florida’s historic coastal defenses – those sun-faded outposts of empire, crumbling now on shifting sands near the end of the beach. It is a guided tour in book form, perfect for these stay-close-to-home kind of times! Seven thrilling tales, supplemented by 140 original images reproduced at the highest quality, providing a view of the Sunshine State that rarely makes the postcard.

Here’s a preview of some of my favorite images from the book. Read an excerpt from the book.

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Katherine Anderson is the award-winning author of two historic mysteries, Hospital Hill and Shadows in the Ward. She was born in 1980 in Western Massachusetts and is a special education teacher. For many years Kate has worked to painstakingly research and document the insane asylums and state schools in New England, publishing nonfiction works and lecturing on the history of mental illness.

Katherine’s latest book is Images of America: Belchertown State School. You can find her other books, including her YA urbex books here.

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Jay Farrell is a prolific urbex photographer and author. In this exclusive interview, he talks about his recipe for the successful documentation of abandoned places.

Jay Farrell’s latest book is Abandoned Memphis.

You can find more of her photos online at https://www.jayfarrellauthor.com/.

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So often when we’re talking urbex, when we’re not creeping with caution down some stretch of storm drain or other municipal infrastructure, we’re talking about the long gone, the abandoned, the glory days that have faded, the slow decay – it’s right there in the show’s title. But what about when the ruins are fresh?  Because, a week ago, Mexico Beach was a fully-functioning beach town on Florida’s Gulf Coast – and this week – it’s a federal disaster area.

What would you do if your town had been flattened in the largest storm to hit the Florida panhandle in recorded history?  Well, Kim Hill grabbed her camera….

Kim Hill is author of Abandoned After the Storm: Hurricane Michael.

You can find more of her photos online at www.abandonedgulfcoast.com/.

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Picher, Oklahoma, for those you who don’t know, is one of the world’s most notorious ghost towns. It’s a name uttered in the same breath as Centralia, Pennsylvania or Pripyat, Ukraine.  It is a mining town, carved out by its principle industry – a superfund cleanup site with a population approaching zero, as of 2020.

Regina Daniel is an author, a photographer, and an urban explorer based in and around Kansas City. I’m a huge fan of her daring and inventive work. And I think the thing that I find most appealing about it is how she uses her photos as a window into a story.  These aren’t just isolated images – Regina’s not just doing it for the likes.  Especially in Abandoned Picher: The Most Toxic Town in America, her book on Picher, Oklahoma – she’s telling a story of a slow motion environmental catastrophe through her photography.

Regina is the author of:

Abandoned Picher: The Most Toxic Town in America
Abandoned Kansas City
Abandoned Kansas City: Forgotten Brought to Light

You can find more of her photos online on Instagram and on Facebook.

For more on the environmental disaster unfolding in Picher, check out the fine 2007 documentary Tar Creek – featuring interviews and plenty of raw footage of disaster and ruin.

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In this episode, we go inside the notorious Forest Haven Mental Health Center with host Thomas Kenning. Closed by court order in 1991 – after numerous documented cases of negligence – this shuttered facility in the woods of Maryland, just outside of Washington, DC is a popular spot for urbex enthusiasts. Kenning reflects on a close call while exploring with some friends – and the deeper human themes that often get left out of the more sensational YouTube videos filmed at this tragic location…

You can find a version of this story in Kenning’s 2018 book Abandoned Washington, DC.

The Trouble They’ve Seen: The Forest Haven Story by Noor Tagouri is a must-see film for anyone wanting to know more about the human toll exacted at this facility.

See more of Kenning’s Forest Haven photos at DCinruins.wordpress.com.

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Ladies, gentlemen, boys, girls, anyone identifying otherwise, urban ghosts, and forgotten sons, home for the first time in years… Old friends and new – welcome to Decay, a Podcast about Urban Exploration and Abandoned Places. Stories behind the photos from society’s crumbling edges. I’m your host, Thomas Kenning. In this series, we talk to the folks doing the most interesting work in the field of urban exploration. We hear what inspires them.  What moves them.  We go deep into the darkest corners of urbex, and we come back as changed people.

First episode drops in late August 2020.

Subscribe to Decay wherever you get your podcasts.

Follow the show on Instagram for show updates and lots of urbex imagery.

Visit the show’s website decaypodcast.wordpress.com for episodes, stories, and all kinds of other urbex content.