Strangers Abroad

If you loved episodes one and two of my new audio adventure A Race Around the World: Based on the True Story of Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland, then head over to these feeds linked below.  New episodes are out and you can listen to the full series at these links.  Listen here -----> Apple Podcasts  Listen here -----> Spotify   Thank you so much for listening, and I hope you all are inspired to d...

Please go to A Race Around the World feed for the remaining nine episodes.  ___________________________________________________________________________ Nellie Bly isn't the only woman to leave New York on November 14th to race around the world. On the same day, the editor of the Cosmopolitan magazine, John Brisben Walker, recognized the potential for a sensational story. He dispatched ( aka bribed...

Please go to A Race Around the World feed for the remaining nine episodes.  _______________________________________________________________________________ On November 14th, 1889, Nellie Bly left Manhattan to go on a race around the world in under 80 days. In this episode, host Adrien Behn will delve into the background of this extraordinary woman. She will explore Nellie Bly's upbringing and aspi...

NEW SHOW ALERT    Hi Strangers! I have been working on a new podcast series and wanted to share the trailer here. Take a listen! ________________________________________________________________________________ On November 14th, 1889, two female writers entered a race to go around the world in under 80 days. Nellie Bly went east, and Elizabeth Bisland headed west. Nellie couldn't be more excited. W...

Adrien and Sam hear avalanches. Adrien reflects on her trip and the last year of stillness as her and Sam make their way back home. 

Adrien describes a day in Bryce Canyon with her partner Sam that tests their relationship. She then interviews Sam about their time on the road and how well they faired as travel companions. 

Adrien and Sam head out west. Adrien talks to managers of Indy Hostel in Indianapolis and Food of the Mountain Motel in Boulder to see how COVID has effected their business and how they have learned to roll with every changing mandate. We discuss post-covid travel predictions, roadside attractions, and never ending stretches of desert. 

This episode kicks of Strangers Abroad Road Trip mini-series. Listen to why Adrien had a sudden urge to go into the desert and how she started planning her trip across the country with her intrepid partner Sam. 

Although our American passports give us all equal access to the world, we don't come back with the same experiences. In light of the Black Lives Matter protests and shifts, we talk to travelers of color who share their stories about being a person of color abroad. We discuss common frustrations and how to be a good ally at home and onboard.  Featured Guests: On She Goes Podcast 

We talk to travelers to reexamine their relationships with themselves and their home as they wait through quarantine. Adrien get's used to seeing more of her family and long walks through the woods. Featured Guests: Ticket to Anywhere Podcast

Adrien escapes to upstate, and we speak to travelers who had there plans canceled due to the pandemic   Featured Guests: Full Time Travel and Delux Life Media

Thank you to all of my listeners and guests for an incredible second season! I hope you all enjoyed it and I would love to hear your thoughts and desires for the next season.  Email me at strangersabroadpodcast@gmail.com   PLEASE RATE AND REVIEW THE SHOW You can do it by going to Strangers Abroad under Apple Podcasts LASTLY, if you love what we do here and would love to support the penniless podca...

The more we travel, the more we find that home becomes more illusive. Home is a place we crave in our most harrowing moments and forget in the spontaneous bliss.  But, the farther we travel from it, the more foreign it seems. It slowly becomes but a dream to us. Our lives consist of backpacks and tickets instead of a bed and a mortgage.  Many of us left because home doesn't provide all that it cou...

Home is  hopefully a wonderful place to grow. But it can keep us stagnant. Never challenge us for bigger things in life.  Travel has ways of challenging us and forcing us to grow in ways we couldn't have anticipated. We see what we are good at and where we can improve and reveal to us what our full potential is.  But growth is not a singular moment- it is a series of moments, that build up over ti...

When we travel, many of us come back with more photos on our phones and souvenirs in our bags. We may feel a deeper shift within us. We have experienced things that we cannot unsee. We have to do better; we know we can. This could be as simple as giving more compliments to people, being kinder.   Or it could be enough to evoke a humanitarian career.  But ultimately, how can we make sure that we ar...

Sometimes we don't know we are sick until we have left our homes. New environments have ways of challenging us.  We can push our strengths to a new limit. We can see how adaptable our bodies are in new territories.  We get over the limitations our bodies and minds put on us. We see what we can and cannot do without sacrificing our joy and need to travel. Travel can help us see what pieces need to...

Travel invites us to climb mountains, internal or external. And once we leave the small backyards we were raised in and are exposed to the great landscapes of the world, something shifts within us.  Our egos crack.  Our  minds quiet. Our true selves show up.  Today on the episode, we are humbled. We talk to people who begin the transformational process that happens when we leave our comforts and d...

"What are the chances?"  is how it always starts. We bump into a middle school friend in Prague, book the same hotel as a high school friend in Argentina, or end up sitting next to someone from home on a bus in Ireland.  When we travel, we sometimes find ourselves running into people we already know but didn't expect to see.   Your brain is shocked because it is breaking your expectations.  For a...

Strangers are an inevitable part of our trip. Their presence is like oxygen: invisible but breathes life into our trips.  These random interactions  Being pointed in the right direction ( or often wrong) by someone sitting next to you on the bus.  Sharing a dessert with someone you met on a tour Having a small laugh with the barista in a cafe  Make a quick conversation with a cab driver who tells...

er, it seems that when we travel to new lands, what we are afraid of is more that we don't know our surroundings. We are unfamiliar with the customs, our surroundings, the cultural mannerisms, the speed of the city, or even how to order. Our discomfort in a new place can prick our brains to believe that mischief looms behind every door.    But that's not to say that these malevolent moments don't...

It isn't about the destination, it's about the journey is one of the most overused, cliche, eye-roll sayings around travel. But it reminds us to not take for granted what gets us from point A to point B. The buses, the planes, the cars, the trains, the conductors and all of the wonderful and weird people you met along the way.    But it is when we are on the move when we see the things we didn't e...

Travel has a way of redefining our romantic needs and helps us expand more than our horizons.  What can travel tell us about this silent connection. An eye glance or whiff of someone's pheromones can magnetize us to someone we might not normally be attracted to. We will talk to travelers who adjust their romantic needs, desire, chemistry, and commitment. Put some headphones in, this episode is not...

The whiff of challah bread or bite into roasted corn can transport you back to journeys you had long ago. Nothing like food can stir a deep hunger within us to trekk thousands of miles to find the perfect spring roll.  It not only motivates our travels but helps us understand where we are and who we are with. Invisible lines portion Moroccan tagine dishes, slurping noodles loudly is a high complem...

Now comes the time that most travelers anticipate the most: the wandering. The musing through streets for hours, the hidden staircases, the gardens behind bookstores, and random conversations with locals. All of the things we find outside of the guide book make our trip. We enjoyed these surprises more because we had no expectation to find them. And arriving with expectations can only lead you to...

Travel is the truest test of a relationship. It bonds unlikely people together and tests old relationships. It puts it to the test and finds the weak spots in a relationship like a raccoon sitting on a chicken coop, trying to find the weak spots.  But it also bonds you in ways that you couldn't have imagined. In this podcast episode, we are traveling with others. We will talk to travelers who have...