WanderLearn: Travel to Transform Your Mind & Life

It's a perverse question, but what's an acceptable number of unarmed people that the police may accidentally shoot every year? Of course, many people's knee-jerk answer will be, "Zero!" If you answered that way, it's time to take a deep breath and relax. We're going to embark on a cold-hearted exercise that requires rationality, logic, and a heavy dose of realism. The implications are profound and...

WanderLearn promises to explore travel and technology. So let's travel through our solar system with two NASA astrophysicists!  About six months ago, Underknown's What If channel  hired me to interview two prominent NASA astrophysicists. They wanted to find out what would happen if Earth became one of Jupiter's moons. I'm unsure why they wanted to know that since Underknown had already produced a...

To celebrate the 100th WanderLearn episode, I'm thrilled to announce that we are close to passing 100,000 cumulative downloads!  This 100th episode is dedicated to  my Patrons !  Watch it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/DdJN3xQ-Mz8 Ask Me Anything! I answer your questions, such as: Tamy, who wrote: "I had no idea Swaziland had changed its name to eSwatini. Do you have a point of reference as to why o...

Today, we passed a grim milestone: 650,000 COVID-19 deaths worldwide.   I advise you to watch this on YouTube so you can see the graphs and other visuals. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7TSueZPF_I   I predicted 1.5 million deaths. You can get the latest Coronavirus data at John Hopkins .   I compare the 650,000 coronavirus deaths with  annual worldwide influenza (flu) deaths .   I also compare i...

Traveling Mitch  is, a bit unexpectedly, really called Christopher Mitchell. He's lived in the center of the world: Istanbul. For centuries, Istanbul was the world's biggest city. It was the center of the Old World. Today, it's still the 3rd most populous city and straddles two continents. Traveling Mitch and I also discuss: Ataturk - The Modern Founder of Turkey Traveling Mitch's travel style, wh...

Last year, I interviewed  Brittany Hosmer Longoria about the leopard she shot in Nambia . In 2020, I met her again to discuss: Does she still get heat for her leopard photo? What impact does banning trophy hunting have? What are the biggest myths people have about hunters that she would like to dispel? What was she doing in Pakistan? You can follow her on  Instagram . More info You can post commen...

Want more money to travel or hike? Although being a frugal traveler is half the battle, the other half is making money.   There are three ways to make money: Getting paid to do a job Investing it Stealing it Since we're all boy scouts, we'll skip the third option.  Most people focus on option #1 (e.g., your salary). We often ignore the second option: investing it wisely. After traveling for 3 year...

I interviewed three men regarding  South Africa's Greater Balepye Nature Reserve : Prince Dipati Benjamin Maenetja of the Greater Balepye Nature Reserve. Louis B. Ebersöhn, CEO of  African Wildlife Services . Dr. T. Wayne Schwertner of Tarleton State University. Louis started guiding safaris in 1994. Freelancing at first but soon started his own Outfitting company called Footsoo Safaris which was...

Ladan Jiracek  and I talk about: Our world's future. Will the USA be screwed or on top? What about the rest of the world?  Our brain's future. Will we get neural implants?  Ladan is getting his Ph. D. to help develop technology that augments our brains. He's also traveled to over 100 countries. He hosts the  Travel Wisdom podcast  and the  Neuro Implant Podcast . More info You can post comments, a...

Do aliens exist? Have they visited (or are they visiting) our planet? Are all crop circles manmade? In this civil debate,  Derek Loudermilk  and I discuss these topics. Derek argues that these metaphysical things are real. I am extremely skeptical. Listen to both sides and comment on what you think. The one thing I forgot to mention was string theory, which argues that we don't live in a 4-dimensi...

Around 2010, Forrest Fenn hid a multimillion-dollar treasure in the Rocky Mountains. Gold, gems, and other precious items are packed in a portable 12th-century bronze chest. Nearly half a million people have searched for it in vain.  A couple of weeks ago, I spoke two hours with one of the foremost experts on Forrest Fenn's treasure,  Dal Nietzel . It was a fascinating and fun conversation.  Right...

On Facebook, I wrote regarding the George Floyd riots, " I understand why people are angry, but does anyone think that widespread destruction and theft is justified ? To my surprise, most people answered "Yes." Perhaps I was unclear, so Rejoice and I made this video/podcast to clarify my question. It's best to see the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obwDt5s6WLo However, the audio-only versi...

Gary Arndt , a famous world-traveler, has been to chaotic places, but this week, chaos came to his hometown, Minneapolis. We talked last night while we heard rioting outside his window. On this recording, you'll hear sirens, honking horns, and helicopters. George Floyd's death sparked riots throughout the USA, but the epicenter is in Gary's backyard. In the second half of the interview, we switch...

Flying to the South Pole and then to the North Pole in a small plane is extremely dangerous.  Robert DeLaurentis, who is known as the  Zen Pilot , is on the brink of pulling this off. I caught up with him when he was grounded in Spain during the Coronapocolypse.  By the time this airs, he should be in Sweden.  He plans to fly over 3 key places around the North Pole in July 2020. Track his journey...

Every four years, there's a US election, the World Cup, and the Olympics. They don't all happen in the same year, but they each have a 4-year cycle. In a few minutes, there's another event that happens once every for years that few talk about: the bitcoin halving. To celebrate, I'll give a simplified explanation of what the halving is and why it's significant. Afterward, I will turn to a more fund...

As of today (May 11, 2020), 80,000 Americans have died from COVID-19. In 2018, 80,000 Americans died of the flu. It was a bad flu year. You can watch this on YouTube too. It's fascinating how we look at death. The Infection Fatality Rate of COVID-19 is about 10 times worse than influenza.  Therefore, if we didn't shelter in place, perhaps we would have lost 10x more Americans than the 2018 flu sea...

Read the article or watch the video about this podcast. It's helpful to see the graphs.  I copied the article and graphs below, but use this link if the images don't pop up in your podcast player. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3k4CTL6fowA 8 Flaws in Bitcoin's Stock-to-Flow Model Will Doom It I love Bitcoin. Nothing would make me happier than to see one of  Plan B's optimistic stock-to-flow (S2F/...

When I travel, I love to observe common ground in a sea of diversity. The planet has over 100 currencies, but there's one thing that everyone agrees is money: gold. So far, COVID-19 has killed 200,000, which has added to the 5 million deaths that we suffer from communicable diseases every year. COVID-19 has also killed the global economy. The travel industry has shut down. The stock market is in t...

Last week, I got this email from  Robert Hahn , whom I interviewed a couple of months ago on this podcast. He wrote: Hey Francis! I listened to your most recent podcast with Rejoice. Afterwards I looked into investment in crypto a bit. I was wondering what your thoughts are on platforms for buying and storing the virtual currency. I was also interested in Nano (for its more environmentally conscio...

How do you think we should solve the Coronapocolypse?  Should we keep sheltering in place for another month or two? What metrics would you look at to decide when enough is enough? Rejoice and I debate my solution to the Corona crisis. Rejoice also shares a few stories from Africa during this bizarre time.  Leave your comments and solutions at WanderLearn.com . More info You can post comments, ask...

Is the Coronavirus is overly hyped? Rejoice and I discuss that. I explain why you shouldn't hike your own hike in 2020. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't hike in 2020. I explain how and where to go hiking in 2020. Rejoice shares how COVID-19 is impacting Africa. More info You can post comments, ask questions, and sign up for my newsletter at  http://wanderlearn.com . If you like this podcast, su...

Thru-hiking can take social distancing to an extreme. Unless you camp close to random people or you spend lots of time in town when you resupply, you will be safely away from any contagion.  That's why 2020 is the best year ever to thru-hike, especially if you recently lost your job.  Put your stuff in storage (or sell it all). Stop paying rent. And hike for the next 6 months. By the time you fini...

On March 20, 2020, Rejoice and I spontaneously went Live on Facebook to share our thoughts about the Coronavirus pandemic. (Don't worry. The photo of us hugging was taken months before the Coronapocolypse.) In 2014, when the Ebola contagion was raging across West Africa, I was traveling in West Africa. The world was panicking. Some worried that it would kill hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions...

Liz Warner is going to run  30 marathons  before she turns 30 years old in June 2020. However, her real accomplishment is raising nearly $30,000 for 20 charities in the process!   In this podcast, we discuss some of the highlights and lowlights of her first 27 marathons and her Run To Reach experience. She's going to finish on Mt. Everest in late May 2020. Go to her  donation page  and follow her...

On March 14, 2020,  Dan Grec's Kickstarter  will end. If you're listening to this before that date, buy Dan's book on Kickstarter. His book (and website) are called  The Road Chose Me . If you're listening to this after March 14th, buy  Dan Grec's book on Amazon . Why buy his book?  Because for 999 days  Dan Grec  drove through 35 of the 54 African countries. His book recounts his 3-year adventure...