The Human Side of Travel

Rani travels to the rugged landscape of Southeastern Turkiye, where a quest for the "world's best kebab" leads her into a profound confrontation with her own inherited fears and a wardrobe malfunction that leaves her physically and metaphorically exposed. When New Yorker Rani decides to visit the 12,000-year-old city of Hasankeyf before it is lost to a government dam, she enters a r...

In this episode, we travel to the sun-drenched coast of Spain, where the promise of a "Second Berlin" art scene in Malaga leads one Dutch artist into a complex web of spiritual and psychological control. When Dutch artist Els meets Rodolfo, a brilliant and charismatic Cuban printmaker, she is drawn into a world of ancient tradition and avant-garde creativity. As a self-proclaimed Hijo de...

In this quick bonus update, Denise peels back the curtain to show you the side of her story that exists when the microphone is off. While this podcast is a space for human stories where travel is just a character in the room, Denise’s daily reality is working with the characters that make travel possible. Currently deep in the logistics of planning a milestone anniversary trip to Italy, Denise sha...

What happens to a woman's sense of self when she has spent years building her identity around being "Mom"? Lydia was two weeks away from opening her dream coffee shop when circumstances ruined it. Suddenly, she was a chef without a kitchen and a mother to teenagers outgrowing their need for her. She found herself in the gaps of "mom world," recognizing her role was evolvin...

Sarah’s family of six are all autistic, which means every trip is a high-sensory experience governed by routines and spreadsheets. When they arrived at Disney World in Florida for their family vacation, they expected the usual "magic" of character meets and theme park rides. And just a few days in, they were met with the impending landfall of Hurricane Irma, a Category 5 storm that sent...

What happens when a childhood field trip turns into a lifelong obsession? For Taha, who grew up in the shadow of the Pyramids, a single visit to the Egyptian Museum sparked a fire that not even skeptical siblings could extinguish. In this episode, follow Taha’s journey from a determined student studying Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs on the marble steps of Cairo, to becoming a master Egyptologist an...

Val was young, newly married, and in her first trimester when she headed to Switzerland, Germany, and Belgium for a three-week dream vacation. Her husband was the "perfect" guide - a meticulous planner, fluent German speaker, and former Swiss resident. Val felt safe letting him take the reins on their European rail trip. But between a "biblical" amount of spiders at a German tr...

When 19-year-old Matt left small-town Australia for a summer camp counselor job in the USA, he was just looking for a way to fund a trip to Europe. He didn't expect that a terrifying first night in New York City and a summer of leading kids in camp songs would spark a lifetime of international travel and community building. From the nerves of leading his first campfire to greeting strangers a...

Can a single postage stamp change the trajectory of a child’s life? For Pat, a childhood spent in her grandfather’s den spinning a globe and collecting gaudy tea sets from China was the start of a lifelong obsession with the world. From sleeping on a WWII army cot to inheriting a massive collection of international postage stamps, Pat’s story explores how the hobbies of our elders become the passp...

Amanda traveled from Detroit, Michigan, to Egypt to see the Pyramids of Giza and the Valley of the Kings. But as her trip moved from the history of Cairo to the beaches of Hurghada, she found herself weighing a lifelong fear of the ocean against the chance to see the Red Sea coral reefs. Despite a challenging language barrier and a series of travel mishaps - including lost luggage and makeshift cl...