By Their Own Compass

David Livingstone spent thirty years wandering across Africa. In our main episode we spent forty minutes talking about him. We may have missed a few spots. Dan Kobayashi, a writer and longtime Africa analyst, helps us fill in the blank spaces on the map. Dan spent 13 years as an expert on Southern and Central Africa for the U.S State Department, and most recently analyzed global power competition...

In 1871, Scottish missionary and explorer David Livingstone (1813-1873) was hanging out in the village of Ujiji, in what is today Tanzania. He wasn’t exactly lost, but the last few years had been rough, full of heartbreak and disappointment. Livingstone had spent three decades exploring and mapping territory that is now part of the modern countries of Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. But after cros...

In this bonus episode of By Their Own Compass, we go behind the scenes of our Sacagawea episode to unpack one of the most misunderstood figures in American history — and the creative choices involved in telling her story today. We pull back the curtain on podcasting and creative production, including a candid discussion about AI in creativity. From AI-generated music (yes, including a Sacagawea K-...

In this episode of By Their Own Compass, we explore the extraordinary journey of Sacagawea, a nursing teenager travelling across North America with the Lewis and Clark expedition and the Corps of Discovery from 1804–1806. Looking beyond the legend, we examine her role as a traveller, cultural mediator, and Native American woman navigating survival, motherhood, and agency in a rapidly changing Amer...

Pour yourself something strong (we suggest a nice scotch for reasons that will become clear a few minutes into the episode) and settle in for a festive tour through history's most spectacular travel disasters. Whilst the rest of the world is busy booking flights and packing bags for the holidays, we thought we'd offer a public service: a cautionary tale (or four) about what happens when travelers...

If you enjoyed our deep dive into the life of the New Yorker correspondent, Emily Hahn wild times in China, you won’t want to miss this special bonus episode. Sarah sits down with Tina Kanagarathnam of Historic Shanghai to answer the burning question: What is actually left of Emily’s world? Every week, we transport you to a different time and place. Subscribe to get full show notes, reading lists,...

We’re back and in our second episode, we’re following the travels of Emily “Mickey” Hahn in 1930s China. Mickey Hahn was a writer, an adventurer, and a professional rule breaker whose wanderlust took her from the American Midwest to Europe and Africa and finally to China, all before she turned 30. By the time she got to China, she had already established herself as an up-and-coming literary voice...

After months of planning, scripting, and the sort of meticulous historical fact-checking that would make Ibn Battuta himself say, “Mate, it’s just a travel story,” we’re thrilled to announce the launch of By Their Own Compass. Our inaugural episode features Ibn Battuta, one of history’s most spectacular travel overachievers, on his journey from modern-day Turkey, across Central Asia, to India, hop...