Type 2 Travel

Nikki turned 40 last September, and she hadn't traveled internationally in almost half that time. So she decided to give herself the gift of getting back out there by joining a group trip to Cuba with her best friend of 28 years and one of my frequent travelers, Danielle. In this episode, we talk about being intentional with how you define yourself when the old labels start falling away, the fear...

Most of us have grabbed a bottle of SPF 50 at the airport without reading a single ingredient. And most of us have stood at the edge of the water thinking we're doing the right thing because the label says "reef safe." Christina Kuklinski would like a word. She quit a career that was killing her, spent two years diving the world's most protected reef systems, watched her hair break off from daily...

Katie Holden didn't come to the points and miles game because she wanted a hobby. She came because she needed to make travel work on a real budget. Like funding a nine-month family gap year on $50 a day budget. Once she did, she realized there wasn't a lot of good information out there for people in her exact situation. So she built it herself. Katie is the founder of Katie's Travel Tricks, and he...

There are friends who come to your city and let you take them wherever, and then there are friends who have a whole system . Alec Johnson is that guy, and New York City is his city. In this episode, we cover the Instagram problem that broke the "trust the line" rule, why Times Square restaurants don't have to even try to be good, the tourist spots that are actually worth it (I was wrong for years-...

What happens when you stop avoiding discomfort and start chasing it? Tom Williams — founder of Desert Island Survival and winner of Alone UK Season 1 — has built his entire life around that question. In this episode, Tom shares how a childhood defined by failure, bullying, and being written off by his own teacher led to one of the most remarkable reinvention stories you'll hear. We talk about his...

Sahara Rose DeVore is someone I've been connected to in the travel industry for over four years, but we've never met in person. She's a fellow Wisconsinite, founder of the Travel Coach Network, and the creator of the world's first ICF-accredited certification program for travel coaches. She's traveled solo to 84 countries--and not from privilege, but from sheer determination, working five jobs whi...

What happens when everything goes catastrophically wrong while traveling abroad? You get the best stories of your life. In this episode, I sit down with Jenna Farber, a travel industry professional who represents luxury safari operators across Africa, but whose real education in travel came from years of beautifully messy cultural exchange programs in Latin America. From living with host families...

Emmanuel LaRoche is the kind of person who makes you look at a vanilla bean, a jar of honey, or a tincan of caviar completely differently. He's a flavor industry insider, a podcaster, and now a two-time author, and this conversation genuinely changed how I think about the ingredients in my kitchen. We talk about Emmanuel's fascinating journey from growing up in France, learning to cook quiche Lorr...

When I had eight hours to decide whether to send someone to scout Ecuador as a potential group trip destination (while I was in the middle of a move, prepping for several weeks of back to back Cuba trips, and basically in the midst of total chaos), Krista Parks was the first person who came to mind. Not because I had a formal plan, but because I knew she'd say yes without blinking — and she did. W...

If you know me at all, you know that my six-year-old self would have absolutely lost her mind knowing that one day I'd get to interview the Rick Steves of cat travel. Jeff Bogle is a freelance travel writer and award-winning photographer whose work has appeared in the Washington Post, BBC Travel, Good Housekeeping, Fodor's, and more — but the reason I had to get him on the podcast before I left fo...

If you've ever looked at business class prices and immediately closed the browser tab, this episode is for you. I sat down with Ashley, founder of Ashley Gets Around — the only woman-owned, premium-only flight deal service out there. Ashley has visited over 90 countries on seven continents, and she built her entire business by obsessively solving her own problem: how do you fly business class with...

Emily Paulsen is one of those rare humans who makes you think differently about life choices - not in a preachy way, but in a "wait, I never thought about it like that" kind of way. She's the host of Curious Life of a Childfree Woman , a podcast she started because she was tired of feeling invisible. Whether she was tuning into shows about marketing, fitness, or travel, parenthood somehow wove its...

I've been hinting at big life changes for months across episodes, emails, and social media, and I kept telling myself I'd explain it all eventually, but time never slows down for me. Well, eventually is now. This is my first solo episode — and probably my last for a while — but it felt like the only way to finally put it all in one place. I'm sharing what's been happening behind the scenes over th...

Andrés Asevis is someone I genuinely cannot stop rooting for — and if you've ever traveled to Cuba with me, you already know exactly why. If you haven't listened to our first episode together, listen here —I can't recommend it enough. It remains one of our most listened-to episodes on this podcast, and it's the kind of conversation that stays with you. Andrés spent his entire life in Cuba — all 38...

I'm always fascinated by people who've turned their own travel frustrations into solutions that help millions of others. That's exactly what Sara Margulis did with Honeyfund . Sara is the co-founder and CEO of Honeyfund, and her story started with a simple problem: she and her then-husband wanted to honeymoon in Fiji but didn't need another toaster. So they created a way for friends and family to...

Hannan Zary is someone who's been quietly changing the way I think about food, travel, and what it means to truly connect with people. If you attended Camp Lola Whiskey last year, you already know exactly who I'm talking about - she's the chef behind Tamoont Dining and Gathering who created those incredible meals that had everyone losing their minds. But here's what you don't know about Hannan: Sh...

Justin Emanuel is one of those people who makes you believe in the power of hustle and passion over traditional credentials. I first met Justin when I was scouting Kenya for our group trips, and within a day I knew he was exactly the kind of person I wanted around my travelers. He's got this infectious enthusiasm for Kenya's wildlife combined with real practical knowledge about what makes a safari...

Iris Serbanescu is one of those rare people in travel who's not just talking about ethical tourism for the Instagram likes - she's actually built her entire business around it, and I'm 100% here for it. I first met Iris at an Adventure Travel Trade Association conference in Denver back in May, and within about five minutes I knew she was someone I wanted in my corner. She's genuine, down-to-earth,...

Have you ever felt inexplicably drawn to a place? That pull might be your soul telling you exactly where you need to be. In this episode, I sit down with Sonia Cruz Oro, certified travel coach and astrocartography expert, to explore how geography and astrology intersect to influence our experiences. I share the stories behind my biggest life decisions—like deciding to end my marriage while in Barc...

What happens when you stop waiting for perfect timing and start saying yes to everything? Teresa Kalina shares her story of rebuilding life after divorce at 44—from signing up for BumbleBFF to traveling to five countries, taking singing lessons, learning to paint, and working toward her goal of visiting all 50 states before turning 50. We talk about the dangers of waiting, the power of group trave...

You know what's coming. The resolutions. The broken promises. The "new year, new me" energy that usually fizzles out by February. But what if this year was actually different? I'm sitting down with my friend Rachel Trapani, an elementary school teacher from Michigan who went from taking one trip in 2019 that she couldn't afford to five international trips per year by 2023. She's been on five of my...

I'm sitting down with Stacey, Betsy, and Megan - three incredible humans who survived what turned out to be my final Day of the Dead trip to Mexico City (at least for now). We're getting into all of it: the hot air balloon ride where Megan had to stare at her feet for 45 minutes before finally looking up, the shaman cleansing that somehow knew about everyone's uterus situations, the cooking class...

Five years ago, Lindsey Tague bought a one-way ticket to Mexico and never looked back. Now she's built a content marketing business while living as a full-time digital nomad across seven countries - and she's here to tell us the truth about what that actually looks like. This conversation goes places I didn't expect. We're talking about living on a Colombian island with no electricity or running w...

Remember that I Love Lucy episode where Lucy stomps grapes and it turns into absolute chaos? We basically lived that in Georgia - except our version included shotgunning wine from roof tiles, topless sulfur bath bonding on day one, and enough khachapuri to put us all in a cheese coma. In this episode, I'm sitting down with Mea, Melissa, and Erik to relive our recent Georgia trip - a country most A...

Dawn Mullarney—also known as the Unique Connector—is a fellow Wisconsinite from Madison who brought 14 women to Cuba with me this past January, and she's doing it all over again next month. Dawn spent over two decades in corporate leadership before nearly burning herself out. At 35, doctors thought she'd had a stroke. These days, she works as a business strategist and fractional advisor, helping l...