Blog - Rolf Potts

HoneyTrek: A case study in making a full-time living as travel influencers and content creators 26.11.2024 ↓

Mike and Anne Howard of Honey Trek talk about working as travel influencers and content creators

Live from Bali: How tourists, influencers, and nomads transform destinations (for good and for bad) 12.11.2024 ↓

How tourists, influencers, and nomads transform destinations

A new film, shot in Kansas, aims to show what is possible for women’s artistic voices in rural America 08.11.2024 ↓

Jenny Inzerillo of High Plains Public Radio’s “High Plains Morning” chats with actress/writer Kristen Bush about her film THE GAME CAMERA, the Rural Women Films initiative, and its artistic mission to uplift female voices in rural America.   CONDENSED TRANSCRIPT Jenny Inzerillo: Folks, you are tuned to High Plains Public Radio. I am so excited to…

Vagabonding audio companion: Obnoxious travelers (and how to avoid being one) 22.10.2024 ↓

Ugly Americans (and non-Americans) on the road, and how to avoid being one

What you discover when you walk down every single street in New York City (encore) 17.09.2024 ↓

Matt Green walked across America, then walked down every street in NYC. This is his story.

A history and future of digital and biological technology, with Jane Metcalfe 08.08.2024 ↓

“We need positive visions of how all this technology gets deployed, because what we visualize is what we build.” –Jane Metcalfe In this episode of Deviate, Rolf and Jane talk about the pioneering work she did with Wired during the dawn of the “digital revolution” (3:00); how and why Jane’s professional focus shifted away from digital…

Bicycling across the USA (with no money or food) looking for human connection 16.07.2024 ↓

Filmmaker Daniel Troia talks about his experience of biking across the USA with no food or money

Wonder Year: The Art of Long-Term Family Travel and Worldschooling 11.06.2024 ↓

Insider tips for family vagabonding and worldschooling

How Rolf Ruined the 1990s: A personal history of my grunge-bandwagon band 14.05.2024 ↓

Rolf reflects on the music of Elliott Smith, Nirvana, and his own Pacific NW grunge band, Swizzlefish

Walk and Talk: Notes from a peripatetic salon across northern Thailand 16.04.2024 ↓

An ambulatory field report from a "Walk and Talk" moving salon across northern Thailand

Essential tips and strategies for telling travel stories, with Andrew McCarthy 12.03.2024 ↓

Essential tips and strategies for telling travel stories, with Andrew McCarthy

What it’s like to spend a full year traveling within a day’s radius of your home 13.02.2024 ↓

What it's like to spend a full year traveling within a day's radius of your home, with Alastair Humphreys

Sports, superstitions, and sacraments: A Deviate Super Bowl Special (2024 remix) 04.02.2024 ↓

Deviate Super Bowl Special: Superstitions, sacraments, and the weird emotional power of sports

Tim Ferriss and Rolf discuss travel, time wealth, and “success management” 09.01.2024 ↓

Bestselling author Tim Ferriss and Rolf discuss travel, time wealth and "success management"

The best journeys explore mindscapes as well as landscapes (book club remix) 28.11.2023 ↓

Road rituals, imagination, and bringing the mindset of travel back home (Vagabond's Way book club remix)

Going abroad for love, and travel writing that says something new about a place 14.11.2023 ↓

Author Thomas Swick's on coming of age overseas in Poland, and becoming a travel writer

Seek places where your very presence makes you interesting (book club redo) 31.10.2023 ↓

Authenticity, the wisdom of place, and how to act off the beaten path (Vagabond's Way online book club, redo of e229)

Travel memoir lab: Truth, luck, & multi-genre storytelling (with Tom Bissell) 17.10.2023 ↓

Travel memoir lab: Truth, luck, & multi-genre storytelling (with Tom Bissell)

Seek places where your very presence makes you interesting (book club remix) 03.10.2023 ↓

Authenticity, the wisdom of place, and how to act off the beaten path (Vagabond's Way online book club)

Vagabonding audio companion: A life in (and philosophy of) long-term travel 19.09.2023 ↓

Vagabonding audio companion: The story behind Rolf's travel career and philosophy

A train isn’t just a vehicle; it’s a place (a remix encore, with Monisha Rajesh) 05.09.2023 ↓

Around the World in 80 Trains author Monisha Rajesh on the joys of rail travel (encore).

Travelers experience more when they slow down and ask lots of questions 22.08.2023 ↓

Tourist zones, scams, slow travel, and the ethics of taking photos (Vagabond's Way online book club)

“Dare to do Dirt”: Seeking rural places (and how to best experience them) 08.08.2023 ↓

"Dare to do Dirt": Seeking rural places (and how to best experience them)

Vagabonding audio companion: Why (and how) travel souvenirs matter 25.07.2023 ↓

Vagabonding audio companion: Why (and how) travel souvenirs matter

Travel can return you to a kind of childhood (online book club remix) 11.07.2023 ↓

Everything feels new at the outset of a journey (online book club remix)