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The Travel Writing Podcast by Intrepid Times is the go-to podcast for wanderers, writers, and passionate travelers. Every other Friday, we share new episodes that include everything from in-depth interviews with renowned travel writers, conversations centered on sharing tips and tricks for your own travel writing, and behind-the-scenes insight into our most popular travel stories. Make sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode!
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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 ourselves a few tough questions.
A huge thank you to all our wonderful podcast guests, and I'm so sorry that just a couple of names rattled off my tongue as I blitzed through that segment. And thank you to everyone who is here, listening, reading, and writing. What you are doing matters, even when it doesn't feel like it.
References in this episode:
What's the Point of Travel, Anyway? https://intrepidtimes.com/2023/07/whats-the-point-of-travel-anyway/
Letters to Yesenin by Jim Harrison https://www.coppercanyonpress.org/books/letters-to-yesenin-by-jim-harrison/
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 11,000 copies and has garnered more than 1,000 reviews on Amazon, most of them emphatically positive. Sam followed this up with Dormice & Moonshine about this time in Slovenia, and has launched the Travel Memoir Review to celebrate the achievements of his fellow travel writers and help readers make more informed choices.
Sam joined the travel writing podcast to talk about what makes a good (and marketable) travel memoir, why he chose to self-publish his first book, the enduring relevance of travel writing in the time of AI, and how to get involved with the Travel Memoir Review.
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 severe illness (including typhoid), and the reality of life in a land where the black flag of death seems to stalk every street.
Joining us from his new home in Fiji, where is engaged in another volunteering project arranged by Volunteer Service Abroad - which can be thought of as a New Zealand equivalent to the Peace Corps or the UK's Volunteer Service Overseas (VSO), Jonty talked about his time in Timor-Leste (formerly known as East Timor) and how he came to write several guide books about the country including Exploring Timor-Leste: A comprehensive travel guide to one of the least visited countries in the world. He also shared how volunteering can unlock authentic, real world travel in places tourists seldom get to see.
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 cycled across Eastern Europe as the collapse of the Berlin Wall was still echoing in the fields of Poland. She wrote about that in her book The Amber Trail: A journey of discovery by bicycle, from the Baltic Sea to the Aegean. She also wrote a book about Guatemala and a biography of Margaret Fountaine.
More recently, Natascha Scott-Stokes authored a conflicted love-letter to Chile, Tales from the Sharp End, published by the University of New Mexico Press. Part history, part travelogue, part memoir, the stories invite you into the lives of those who inhabit Chile's cities and its hinterland, rich, evocative, and full of that intimate access only the best travel writing brings.
Hear Natascha Scott-Stokes talk about her extraordinary life and captivating work on the Travel Writing Podcast.
![Tim van Es Discusses "The Chaiwallah" and His Journey from Corporate Burnout to Amazon Bestselling Novelist [Part 2/2]](https://s3.castbox.fm/1d/9f/39/a2684fc2344e48f68f737d4d215444d911_scaled_v1_400.jpg "Tim van Es Discusses \"The Chaiwallah\" and His Journey from Corporate Burnout to Amazon Bestselling Novelist [Part 2/2]")
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 journey from corporate burnout to bestselling novelist. Quite a lifestyle change indeed!
![Tim van Es shares The Story Behind "The Chaiwallah" and his Journey from Corporate Executive to Full-Time Novelist [Part 1/2]](https://s3.castbox.fm/4a/41/24/ca8c25ff3af520c8d3be6ec67c09def67e_scaled_v1_400.jpg "Tim van Es shares The Story Behind \"The Chaiwallah\" and his Journey from Corporate Executive to Full-Time Novelist [Part 1/2]")
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 that comes with it.
Tim van Es was riding high as an executive at Unilever - at least on paper. He was traveling the world and getting promotion after promotion. But under the surface, things were less than idyllic. In a special two-part series on the Travel Writing Podcast, Tim shares how he made the leap out of the corporate world and reinvented himself as a full-time writer. In part one, published today, he talks about his life, his travels, and the series of events which led to the moment of definitive change. In part two, coming next week, he talks in depth about the resulting book, The Chaiwallah, an Amazon bestseller promoted by Bookbub this week.
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; their distribution channels simple. No Amazon. No chain retailers. Just a signed copy of the book mailed to you personally by the publishers themselves.
In the midst of a publishing identity crisis fueled by collapsing margins, bullying online retailers, and the perils of AI, could this example of passionate micro-publishing be the answer? Mike Robertson joins the Travel Writing Podcast to speak about his journey.
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?" From a successful career as the founder of 'Under 30 CEO' in New York, he embraced the digital nomad freedom with a base in Puerto Rico. Years of travel followed, but business was not left behind. Matt fused his passion for travel with his entrepreneurial skills to create 'Under 30 Experiences,' a Millennial-oriented travel company. He authored the Millennial Travel Guidebook and made the Financial Times 1000 list of America's Fastest-Growing Companies.
Matt is now a father, and we spoke about how fatherhood changed his approach to travel, business, and work-life balance. (And, although she was so well-behaved you won't hear on the audio, my baby daughter joined us for the last 10 or so minutes of the episode, and you'll hear Matt's reaction as she enters the screen).
Listen to Matt speak about success, business, travel, and parenthood on the Travel Writing Podcast here or find us on Spotify or iTunes.
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 knew had ever been before.
Travel has changed a lot over the past seven decades, and travel writing has changed with it. Charting and championing the evolution of this art form has been the British Guild of Travel Writers (BGTW). I became a member earlier this year, and have been impressed by the energy and supportiveness of this venerable institution. As the Guild looks back, they have anthologised the contributions of their members over the years. Giants of the industry reflect on their long careers, such as John Carter and Hilary Bradt, while contemporary writers – many familiar guests on the Travel Writing Podcast such as Ash Bhardwaj and Daniel Stables – bring fresh contributions.
Daniel James Clarke is a British travel writer based in Portugal who has authored numerous guidebooks and articles on the country. He is also Vice President and Head of Sustainability at the BGTW. Daniel joins the Travel Writing Podcast to talk about the changing purpose and enduring value of travel writing, and to discuss their new anthology in which he played a role, Around the World in 65 Years: 101 Stories & Experiences from the Road Less Travelled, edited by Mary Anne Evans, published by Bradt Travel Guides and available from November 4, 2025. Listen here or find the Travel Writing Podcast on Spotify or iTunes.
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 distant as Chiang Mai and Medellin, cause skyrocketing prices out of the reach of residents, it's impossible for a sincere traveler not to ask the question: Are we part of the problem?
Daniel Maurer wrestles with the big questions, such as this, in his new book The Future of Travel, part of an intriguing 'Futures' series by Melville House. Daniel is an award-winning food, culture, and travel journalist who has written for outlets such as The New York Times, New York magazine, Thrillist, The Art Newspaper, Eater, The Daily Beast, Atlas Obscura, and others. He won two James Beard Media Awards while chief editor of Grub Street.
Daniel joined the Travel Writing Podcast to speak about overtourism and traveler's guilt, and how we can keep traveling without causing harm to the places we visit.
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 effects.
During his time of isolation, Brad Fox wrote "The Bathysphere Book", which was named Winner of the 2024 National Book Foundation's Science + Literature Award and A Washington Post top 10 best book of 2023. The book shimmers with a logic-bending mystique, and it's hardly surprising why. For his next book, Brad returned, literally and in theme, to the Peruvian jungle and told the story of his time there. The resulting book is "Another Bone-Swapping Event," it's out in November through Astral Press in the US and Icon Books in the UK.
In our episode of the Travel Writing Podcast, Brad Fox talks about his time in Peru. He traces the journey of his two most recent non-fiction books, and brings us into the strange yet piercingly clear world of tradition, ayahuasca, and healing, he inhabited far from the high rises and emails of modern life. We also talk about Brad Fox's earlier travels, including years spent as an aid contractor in Serbia, and a mysterious diving expedition in central Budapest. L
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 Intrepid Times began with the story, Driving the Dalton Highway, a fascinating meditation on the experience of driving and being driven, which we discuss in the podcast. We also talk about Kurt's work as a professor of creative writing at Texas Tech University, and his life in travel and writing across Iceland, Russia, the United States, and far beyond.
Kurt's most recent book is Iceland Summer: Travels along the Ring Road (2023), the first in a series about travel on islands. You can learn more about Kurt and his books at his website, kurtcaswell.com
"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 days from the Spanish island of Ibiza to the English network of rivers and lakes known as the Norfolk Broads. Along the way, he meets Bowie fans of all ages and explores the many and varied cultural influences that informed the iconic English musician's journey.
Taking the journey was one thing; getting the story published was another. As James shared in our interview, over eight years passed between the initial trip and the eventual publication of the resulting story: From Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads, a Bowie Odyssey.
James Briggs joined the Travel Writing Podcast to talk about the journey, the book, and everything in between.
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 hotel rooms; the cribs they had arranged in each destination stood empty. And yet, the silver lining: This was something to write about. With as yet no clippings or travel writing publications to his name, Dom took a chance. The resulting piece, 'My Daughter's Laugh' won the 2016 Bradt New Travel Writer of the Year award and catapulted Dom into the world of publication. Since then, he has been featured in The Times, The National Geographic, The Independent, and elsewhere, often writing about traveling as a father. Dom's appearance on the Travel Writing Podcast forms an instalment of our Traveling While Dad series.
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 Bolivia, and the surnames of the descendants of settlers hanging out in Patagonia. The result is Small Earthquakes: A Journey Through Lost British History in South America - Published last month by Hurst Publishers, to wide acclaim.
Shafik joins the Travel Writing Podcast to talk about how the book came to be, to geek out on his influences such as Bruce Chatwin, and to bring writers behind the scenes on his publishing journey.
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 did justice to her travel experiences. She founded a popular blog, I am Lost and Found, to share her recommendations, and used her networking skills to help her break into some of travel writing's most prestigious publications.
In the latest episode of the Travel Writing Podcast, which also forms an instalment in our 'Traveling While Dad' series, Jamie talks about sharing real travel experiences with children and describes how she polished her storytelling skills and became a contributor to the upcoming National Geographic Traveler's Atlas of the World.
Luke Waterson was a prolific travel writer who wrote guidebooks for the likes of Moon Guides and Lonely Planet about destinations that ring exotic in the minds of most readers, like Cuba, Machu Picchu, or the Amazon rainforest. And then he became a father. Basing himself in rural Wales and largely confining his travels to regional Britain, he found that he was not only able to discover joy in unexpected pockets of his homeland, but his travel writing career reached new heights as well.
Luke joined the Travel Writing Podcast to talk about the life and craft of travel writing today. In a deeply personal and candid interview, he shares the challenges of fatherhood amidst separation, the joys and constraints of the solitary writer's life, and how his background as a novelist and short story writer informs his approach to his work. Listen here or on Spotify or iTunes.
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 for his new book, Fiesta: A Journey Through Festivity, out next month through Icon Books.
Daniel joined the Travel Writing Podcast to talk about traveling to festivals in Britain, Turkey, Thailand, Spain, and beyond, witnessing jealously guarded rituals and getting to the deeper questions about the rituals that bind us together and transcend the ordinariness of everyday life.
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. Later, he became wealthy by winning a game show, and found himself an unlikely Hollywood celebrity.
Reid Mitenbuler shared his story in his book, Wanderlust - An Eccentric Explorer, an Epic Journey, a Lost Age. The New York Times called it "An absolute joy… a compelling introduction to one of the most charismatic explorers to ever cross the ice." Reid joined the Travel Writing Podcast to talk about how he came across Freuchen's story and why he knew it had to be told, his process for choosing topics and writing successful non-fiction books, and some Hollywood insider wisdom about the impact of AI on professional writers.
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), befriended author-phenomenon of Prozac Nation fame, Elizabeth Wurtzel, and brought readers into the worlds of fringe and underground subcultures, sincerely understanding and cherishing these communities while interpreting them for the uninformed.
In this episode, we trace La Carmina's unusual (or, as she clarifies, perhaps not so unusual) path from Yale Law School to travel writing. We talk about how she carved a distinct niche in a crowded field, and she shares tips for new writers on how to do the same. We also talk about fringe cultures, making meaningful connections while traveling, and of course, we bust myths of Satanism. Listen below or find the Travel Writing Podcast on Spotify or iTunes.
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