Travel Writing Podcast

It's been a while since I've published a solo episode of the Travel Writing Podcast, so what better time than now? In a year that has seen huge growth and recognition for Intrepid Times and our writers, we've also witnessed yet more attacks on the importance and validity of both travel and writing. So let's take this time, when normal life seems to suspend itself in so much of the world, and ask o...

It's one thing to move to a foreign country, learn something of the language, and challenge your own understanding of how life should be. It's quite another to write about it. The "expat in Japan" memoir is such a common trope that it's rare for a book to break out. But Sam's did, emphatically. Replete with witty banter about the overlooked rural Japanese experience, For Fukui Sake sold over 11,00...

When a volunteering offer took Jonty Crane and his wife to Timor-Leste, one of the least visited countries in the world, they had no idea what to expect. What they found was a country, largely undiscovered, still crawling its way out of a traumatic history, that offered friendly locals, beautiful scenery, and hikes through untouched landscapes. They also were confronted by chaos, multiple bouts of...

Simply trying to get your head around Natascha Scott-Stokes' incredible biography can make your head spin. In 1989, she became the first woman to navigate the length of the Amazon alone. Legendary Irish travel writer Dervla Murphy called the resulting book, An Amazon and a Donkey, "a genuine adventure story," - if anyone would know one, it would be Dervla. Just a few years later, Scott-Stokes cycl...

Tim van Es's story of a humble tea seller who changes three lives in Mumbai became an Amazon bestseller and has won praise for its depiction of everyday life in India and the characters who pass through its pages. In the second and final part of our interview series with Tim, we explore how we went about writing the novel, the inspiration behind the characters, and we complete the story of his jou...

Many sit in cubicles every day and dream of abandoning the office, the politics, the metrics, and the madness and embarking on a life of creative freedom and fulfilment. Few actually make the transition. Once you're in the corporate world, it's hard to leave. The paycheck leads to a lifestyle that is not easy to walk away from, and your whole identity and sense of self get enmeshed with everything...

What happens when the mainstream publishing community isn't putting out the kind of sincere, literary travel stories you crave? For Mike Robertson, the answer was simple: Start your own publishing house. Sun Rider Press has published books on pilgrimages in Tibet, bike rides across India, wayward adventures, and self-discovery along the English Channel, and more besides. Their print runs are small...

If you travel when you're young and fall in love with the thrill and freedom of the road, a choice eventually arises. Do you abandon the traditional milestones of success and accomplishment and let the road be your life? Or do you do the 'grown-up' thing, move home, get a good corporate job, climb the ladder, and 'achieve'? Matt Wilson looked this choice squarely in the eye and said, "Why Not Both...

Sixty-five years ago, overseas travel was a rare thing even for relatively well-off people in Britain. Currency controls meant it was illegal to take more than £50 abroad. Strict pricing controls on European airlines kept fares stubbornly high. The role of a travel writer was to persuade people to overcome these obstacles, brave the “metal tubes in the sky,” and set out to places where no one they...

The three words are scrawled everywhere; on walls, banners, and even on the side of Barcelona's rubbish bins. It's easy to dismiss them as the word of isolated cranks. But it isn't. The message increasingly reflects popular sentiment, and not just in the tourist hotspots in Spain. And with short-term rentals like Airbnb driving locals out of their apartments, while the digital nomad ghettos as dis...

When the entire world shut down in early 2020, Brad Fox was not at home in New York. He was instead in the high jungles of Peru, embedded with a family of Quechua-speaking traditional healers, known as curanderos. "I have never felt so sober in my life," Brad said of his many months stranded there, which involved getting to know the local pharmacopoeia, some of which had profound psychedelic effec...

One day, the writer and professor Kurt Caswell received a cryptic mission from an editor. Laika, the Russian dog who would become the first living creature sent into orbit, had a window in her spacecraft. "I want you to think on this," the editor said, "and write a book about it." The resulting book, Laika's Window, won a Foreword Indie Silver Medal for science writing. Kurt's connection with Intr...

"See the mice in their million hordes," Bowie sings, "From Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads." For most, these lines, from Bowie's culture-bending 1971 track "Life on Mars?" are intriguing, amusing, or perhaps just baffling in Bowie's inimitable yet irresistible way. Yet for James Briggs, they were a route map. He set out to make real the journey Bowie merely obliquely sketched, cycling for over 100 day...

Eighteen months after his daughter was born, Dom and his wife still hadn't had a full night's sleep. An ambitious family trip to Colombia loomed, but they knew their little one just wasn't ready for the trip. Everything was booked, and the trip tied in with work commitments for Dom's university job, so a tough call was made: Dom would travel alone. What followed was a series of lonely nights in ho...

Over the course of 15 years, Shafik Meghji traveled repeatedly to South America, falling in love with the continent and in particular with Buenos Aires, which he came to feel was his second home. Traveling from London, Shafik noticed that Britain came up a lot on his travels; the eerie hulk of a Harrods branch in central Buenos Aires, the rusting shells of British buses on the salt flats of Bolivi...

When Jamie Edwards was a mother of a two-year-old and expecting a second child, her husband was offered a job in Tokyo. They left all that was familiar and headed overseas. What followed was a life rich in adventure, more often than not, with the kids in tow. Through over 50 countries, Jamie gained confidence not only in the art of parenting on the move but also in crafting a compelling story that...

A man walks calmly through a crowd, a BMX bike handle thrust through his cheek. Two fighters leap over a catholic cross, ready to engage in hand-to-hand combat with anyone who interrupts their ritual. A group of adherents whirl and spin, appearing intoxicated, yet no drugs have been taken. These are just some of the many otherworldly festivals Daniel Stables witnessed, understood, and reported on...

When Reid Mitenbuler was denied travel during the long days of lockdown, he sought out the distillation of travel in human form. Peter Freuchen (1886-1957), the legendary Danish explorer, brought stories of remotest Greenland to the world. He married an Inuit woman, learned the language, fathered children, and ventured to its most extreme locations, risking life and (literally) limb in the process...

It's no coincidence that we are releasing this special episode of the Travel Writing Podcast on Friday the 13th. La Carmina is a multi-talented author, influencer, blogger, food writer, television personality, and expert in the mysterious fringe communities that most tourists never even catch a glimpse of. She has authored a highly acclaimed treatise on Satanism (The Little Book of Satanism), befr...

When your mental health is fragile, the temptation may be to stay home and take things slow. Not so for Mark Agnew. When dealing with internal challenges, he took the fight externally, pitting himself against the elements. His ultimate quest? To be among the first to conquer the Northwest passage, the infamous route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, which has defeated numerous explorers for...

For people like travel writer Ash Bhardwaj, travel is the "driving force" that inspires and defines his life. But how do you balance the challenges and complexities of travel with the joys and demands of parenthood? This is a subject I am particularly interested in, having recently become a father myself! Ash and I sat down for a deep conversation about travel, parenthood in general, and fatherhoo...

There are plenty of guidebooks about Venice and Edinburgh, but have you ever wondered about Chelmsford or Sunderland? Ben Aitken has. In this episode of The Travel Writing Podcast, we sit down with Ben, author of Shitty Breaks: A Celebration of Unsung Cities. He discusses his fun, irreverent approach to travel that seeks joy in the most under-visited destinations. From working in a Poznan chippy t...

What drives someone to keep exploring the world — not for clicks or clout, but for something deeper? In this episode of the Travel Writing Podcast, we sit down with Shebs Alom — award-winning writer, broadcaster, and host of the Take a Wander with Shebs podcast — for an authentic chat about his journey as a travel writer. Shebs opens up about mental health, finding purpose, and rediscovering joy w...

Content Warning: This episode contains discussions of real-life violence. Listener discretion is advised, and this content definitely isn't suitable for children. We approach travel from a new angle in this episode of the Travel Writing Podcast. Dawn Barclay — suspense author, award-winning travel journalist, and true crime enthusiast — joins us to discuss her latest book, Vacations Can Be Murder:...

What is Eastern Europe, and does it still exist? Jacob Mikanowski set out to answer these questions and more in his book "Goodbye Eastern Europe: An Intimate History of a Divided Land". In this episode of the Travel Writing Podcast, he shares how his Polish heritage, academic background, and personal travels shape his work. Staying in Warsaw at the tail end of communism, Jacob lived through Poland...