0:03

Have you ever thought, get me out

0:05

of here. You

0:08

take a look at your situation and think there's

0:11

got to be something better than this garbage.

0:15

Was this what my daughter Ruby was thinking when

0:17

she skipped town to have chains. It's

0:19

just absurd that we live in a country with so much

0:21

wealth and privilege, and young people choose to

0:24

live in poverty and explore

0:26

the country that way. It's fascinating, But

0:29

the rails are dangerous and

0:32

unforgiving. Do you want

0:34

to play with the devil? You're gonna find them their

0:37

art, That's where they catch their prey.

0:39

Like I have to go where I'm just stuck on this train.

0:41

God knows where I'm gonna end up, and I jump.

0:44

What drew Ruby to this life where

0:46

everything was at risk? You

0:48

force yourself to be stuck on this massive

0:51

freight train going through the elements? What

0:53

aways be like? Why are you doing this? Oh?

0:56

My so I don't have to do what you do. I

0:59

thought my daddy was rejecting me and the life

1:01

I held out for her. But Reyby wasn't

1:03

running away. She was running towards something.

1:06

Hello. That's what I found when I followed

1:08

her into the city of the rail. This is

1:10

what it sounds like inside the box car.

1:14

It's kind of like walking into an early

1:16

dimension, another world. Reclined,

1:20

the ladder up on top of the grainer, and

1:22

it's just miles and miles and miles of sunflowers.

1:25

You couldn't see anything but sunflowers.

1:28

I'm Denil Morton. I've been a foreign correspondent,

1:31

written bestsellers, and was a Hollywood reporter

1:33

for People Magazine in the nineties.

1:36

In all those years, I've never seen a story

1:38

like the City of the Rails. Jumping

1:40

a freight trains, like it's like

1:43

riding a dragon or something. As

1:45

I was drawn deeper into this world,

1:47

I began to learn how the railroads created

1:49

modern life and shaped our country.

1:52

I think the railroad kind of symbolizes

1:54

a long term history of the It's

1:57

just such a hero. So railroads

1:59

show you how it's done, to show you how to raise

2:02

capital, operate things on a very

2:04

very large scale, and also they

2:06

show you how to cheat. Once

2:10

you touch the rails, they change you. But

2:12

started out as a search for my daughter led me

2:14

into a world that made me rethink everything

2:17

I thought I knew about motherhood,

2:19

about our history, and about that thing we

2:21

call the American dream.

2:29

Come with me as I find out what waits

2:31

for us in the City of the Rails.

2:42

Listen to City of the Rails starting January

2:45

on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast,

2:47

or wherever you get your podcasts.