The Thoughtful Travel Podcast

It's a round-numbered episode so time for something different: this time I'm the one getting interviewed, and I answer questions about what happens behind the scenes of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast, gathered from listeners through the Thoughtful Travellers Facebook group and other social media sites. It's three years since I did the first Behind the Scenes episode and so much has changed. This time round, travel writer Catherine Marshall interviews me with discussions about the ideas I have for podcast topics, what makes a good interviewee, any disasters I've had and an overview of the technical aspects of how The Thoughtful Travel Podcast comes together. It was fun to chat about these topics and I hope listeners will find the result interesting, too. Links: Episode 100 - the first Behind the Scenes - https://notaballerina.com/100 Catherine Marshall’s Time to Wander site - https://www.timetowander.com.au  Cait Flanders’ new podcast Opting Out - https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/opting-out-with-cait-fla

Wandering the world with your eyes wide open means you'll inevitably encounter some incredible street art and murals. My favourites (to date) have been in Penang, Malaysia, but after exploring the topic more while making this episode I can't wait to see more in many other parts of the world.  My first guest in this episode is Jenny Herbert, who speaks about discovering the street art in a city very familiar to her, Melbourne, Australia. She grew up there and still visits regularly, but learnt so much about it from a self-guided street art walking tour. I then chat with Kayla Wyszynski who is an artist and has completed many large murals already. It was so great to be able to quiz her with all my thoughts and questions about how it's possible to create such huge art!  Finally, I chat with listener Anuj about his memorable experience viewing a mural in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It's one of those tales where things don't quite go according to plan and that makes his experience all the more memorable. Links: Th

Travelling to participate in a sporting event is a niche reason to travel that a surprisingly large number of travel lovers have experienced during their loves, and I love the unique benefits and fun of trips for sport. In Episode 238 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast I speak with three people who've travelled for a wide variety of sporting reasons. First up, I chat with Tim Tricker who has had many short trips to interesting destinations across Europe to take part in darts tournaments. I love that he gets to see out of the way places and congregate with a bunch of like-minded people. Eugene Devereux has travelled for a much more physical sport - adventure races. He's been able to combine this physical experience with exploring some particularly beautiful parts of Ireland. Finally, I speak to Emma Lovell who was lucky enough to experience the joy of travelling in a sporting team as a teenager when she toured New Zealand playing water polo. The change to meet local people and then attempt to beat them at wa

You know I'm all about travelling more thoughtfully and purposefully - and you might find it strange that I'm talking in Episode 237 with the author of a book about *not* travelling! Jenny Herbert's book "The Art of Being a Tourist at Home" is, as the title suggests, about how to get that travel feeling, and many of the benefits of travel, without straying far from your home turf, and certainly without hopping on a plane or landing on the doorstep of a community overcrowded by other tourists. I agree with her premises for not travelling, although I do think there is still an important role for thoughtful travel even in a world fighting climate change and pandemics. In this interview with Jenny, we talk about some of her tips for gaining the benefits of travel in your hometown, when it might be okay to travel, how wonderful walking can be for getting some of the "travel feeling", whether you need to immerse yourself in a foreign culture to grow and how to carve out time for staycation-style travel. Links: J

It's nearly a year since I recorded an episode about how Covid-19 was affecting us here in Western Australia, and what I thought about travel then and for the future: so it's time for another one.  In this special solo episode of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast - inspired by a visit to the airport! - I talk about the Covid experience in Perth, Australia, over the past twelve months, and also share my thoughts and feelings about travel in the near future. You might want to listen back to Episode 190 first and then follow on with this, so you can see what's changed over the past year. Links: Episode 190 - Covid-19 Thoughts from Perth, Australia - https://notaballerina.com/190 Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers Show notes: https://notaballerina.com/236   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This special episode is the audio of the Facebook Livestream of the April 2021 meeting of the Thoughtful Travellers Book Club, talking about Wild by Cheryl Strayed. If you'd like to join the Thoughtful Travellers Book Club, all the info is at https://notaballerina.com/bookclub, and you can keep up with all the thoughts about our current books in the Thoughtful Travellers Facebook Group at https://facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Things inevitably go wrong when we travel and I know from experience that listeners of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast quite enjoy hearing these tales! In Episode 235 I have three guests sharing some travel slip ups - some of their own making and some quite out of their control. My first guest is Bob DiMenna who was travelling in Peru with two friends when they had an issue with, well, punctuality - but not what you might expect! I then chat with Kayla Ridley who has a sorry luggage tale to tell from a cruise ship trip she took as a high school student.  Finally, Patti Buff shares her story of a mishap when she and her cousin were exploring the coast of one of the Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland. Their excursion doesn't end how she would have liked it to! Links: Bob DiMenna from The Travelers Blueprint podcast - https://thetravelersblueprint.com Kayla Ridley of Kayski Creations - https://kayskicreations.com/  Patti Buff - https://pattibuff.wordpress.com  Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Trav

Much of the fun of travelling is about bumping up against other cultures and habits - and these days as thoughtful travellers, we usually try to be prepared for this and learn what we can before we arrive. But cultural faux pas or "gross moments" happen to the best of us and there are some great examples to be found in Episode 234 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast. First up, I chat with Bev Malzard who tells me a series of fabulous tales about her own unfortunate cultural moments during the course of many years of travels. Some hilarious, some serious - all things that Bev would do differently the second time around! I then speak with Pam Mandel about a common cultural blunder - dressing inappropriately. Some years back Pam ended up unintentionally in Pakistan - unprepared and ill-informed - and made a cultural blunder she didn't intend to. Links: Bev’s blog TravelGal on the Move - https://travelgaltravels.com/  Pam Mandel’s website - https://www.nerdseyeview.com Pam’s book The Same River Twice - https://am

Opportunities for university or college students to study abroad - during non-Covid times, of course - are very special. While I didn't get an opportunity to study abroad for any part of my university education, it's something I definitely want to encourage my son to do and putting together Episode 233 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast reminded me of many reasons why. First up, I chat with Jennifer Johnston who spent time in the United States studying abroad as part of her Australia-based university degree. She speaks of many of the advantages of study abroad programs and the huge changes they can make in the students who take them. I then speak with Tinsley Rios about her shorter study abroad experience in Peru - a reminder that it doesn't need to be a long program to have a lasting impact. Finally, Patti Buff tells me about her experiences as a college exchange student in Dublin, Ireland - and we chat about some of the many extra-curricular parts of being on a study abroad program which are just as valuab

It's party time!! The Thoughtful Travel Podcast, in the past week, has both turned five years old (ready to start school now!!) and download numbers have hit half a million. It's been a very exciting week in our household! In this special celebration episode, I start off with a quick chat about podcast statistics and where The Thoughtful Travel Podcast fits into download numbers in general (remember, I like statistics - I love maths!). But then I digress to chat about how I've reached this stage, and reference psychologist Angela Duckworth's book Grit, which I'm currently re-reading - it's an interesting thing to consider how passion and persistence can work hand in hand and then suddenly, I have a five-year-old podcast and a much clearer vision of what else I want to do with it (and thoughtful travel in general) in the future. Finally, I give in to a directive from my son who, on listening to some older episodes, instructed me to tell more of my own travel stories. I've linked them to this fifth annivers

We all have some kind of unconscious bias - or a few! - some stereotypes or misconceptions that we think deep down, even if in our conscious minds we don't think we do. It's human nature, but yet another marvellous part of travelling is it often helps us identify and confront these unconscious biases, and the examples from the guests in Episode 231 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast demonstrate this perfectly. First up, I chat with Tonya Fitzpatrick who first tells me one of her own experiences in recognising and confronting an unconscious bias, and then explains another example from a traveller she'd interviewed on her own podcast. I then speak with Pam Mandel, who's travelled more than usual within her home country of the United States in the past few years, and found she also needed to confront and overcome some unconscious biases about her homeland. Links: Tonya Fitzpatrick of World Footprints - https://WorldFootprints.com  Pam Mandel’s website - https://www.nerdseyeview.com Pam’s book The Same River Twi

This special episode is the audio of the Facebook Livestream of the March 2021 meeting of the Thoughtful Travellers Book Club, talking about Turn Right at Machu Picchu by Mark Adams. If you'd like to join the Thoughtful Travellers Book Club, all the info is at https://notaballerina.com/bookclub, and you can keep up with all the thoughts about our current books in the Thoughtful Travellers Facebook Group at https://facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For this special round-numbered episode I wanted to muse on just one of the important lessons the 2020 pandemic has taught me about travel. In this episode I talk about issues like taking relaxing holidays (I'm bad at it; and most of the Thoughtful Travellers community agreed it's not their style); travelling close to home and staycationing, and some of the reasons I really miss the ability to travel further afield, to different cultures, languages and countries. Links: Support the podcast on Patreon - https://www.notaballerina.com/support Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers Show notes: https://notaballerina.com/230 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Travelling abroad is an amazing experience but living abroad takes this to an entirely new level. It's not for everyone but if you've been fortunate enough to call new countries home or you're wondering whether you'd like to, Episode 229 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast is for you. I chat first with Flip Byrnes, a bit of a serial ex-pat who has plenty to say about how living abroad compares to travelling; we decide that "living" somewhere equates to twelve months or more (it's our arbitrary ruling!) and then Flip turns the tables and asks me a few pertinent questions about my experience of living abroad. Following that I speak with Seana Smith, another serial ex-pat who decides perhaps she's not actually a very good traveller, but she's more suited to living abroad for extended periods. Finally, Penny Walker talks to me about some of the main differences she's identified from living abroad in France as compared to simply visiting, and also has some great tips for anyone planning to make such a move. Links

Volunteering abroad is an experience lots of thoughtful travellers contemplate - who doesn't want to give back when we can. But of course, we know that not all volunteering opportunities are created equal. In Episode 228 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast, I chat with three women who have had fairly in-depth volunteer experiences in Uganda, Zimbabwe and Nepal, and their stories might help you reflect on what does make a good volunteer experience. First, I chat with Lindy Alexander who spent eight months volunteering in a remote part of Uganda. She's very frank with me about how, on reflection some years later, she's not sure that everything they did had a positive impact - although lots did. I then speak with Julia Salnicki, a zoologist who has spent many years either volunteering or managing volunteers on animal research projects in Africa. Her stories are amazing and apart from her tales on this episode, I've added another one about her three years in a painted dog research project onto Patreon - if you're

Travelling to see the sights is one thing; travelling when you get to know some of the local people is a whole other level of wonderful experiences. Finding ways to have meaningful interaction with locals is something really important to me when I travel, and the three guests in Episode 227 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast illustrate some wonderful ways to do so. First up I chat with Tasha Goldberg who describes how a friend of a friend in Kenya became an inspiring local she met on Lamu Island. She also mentions the bonus part of making close connections when you travel - the chance to make return visits! I then speak with Lindy Alexander about her experience of a cooking class with the Courageous Kitchen in Thailand. This is a really interesting example of meeting not just any locals, but marginalised ones who you might not ordinarily even know about, let alone have the chance to meet and learn from. Finally, Penny Walker speaks of the value of tapping into local knowledge and uses her example of the Pyre

If nothing goes wrong, were you even travelling? Episode 226 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast centres on my firm belief that many of the best travel memories derive from when things go wrong on our trips. First I chat with Travis King, and he introduces a concept that I will carry with me on every trip from now on: "Level 3 fun". You'll have to listen to learn what "Level 3 fun" he had with his brother on their cycling trip across Canada. I also talk with Tracey Croke, an adventurous soul who never shies away from a challenge and she certainly found plenty of them in a mountain biking expedition over the Talas Mountains in Kyrgyzstan. Links: Travis King's website and book - http://www.traviswking.com/ Tracey Croke's website - http://www.traceycroke.com  Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers Show notes: https://notaballerina.com/226 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Whether you follow a vegetarian or vegan diet or not, the stories in Episode 225 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast will still fascinate you, I'm sure! I start off chatting with Lindy Alexander, a social worker turned freelance writer who spent eight months living in rural Uganda in her mid-twenties. As a vegetarian, she was a bit concerned about what she could expect there in terms of food and what she actually found is very interesting! I then chat with Tasha Goldberg who, like me, was raised vegetarian and tends to follow that diet on the whole, but can be flexible at times when travelling, and she tells me about her experience with this, starting out with a special invitation in Senegal. Finally, I speak with Brighde Reed who has been vegan for the past decade and has lots of useful tips and resources for anyone looking to research their trip and wanting to eat a plant-based diet along the way. Links: Lindy Alexander - The Freelancer’s Year http://thefreelancersyear.com/  is all about giving practical ad

Usually the souvenirs we purchase on our travels are relatively small - we want to be able to fit them in our baggage to bring home, after all. I say usually: because Episode 224 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast proves that there are times when people make rather large purchases when they travel! Curiously, none of these three guests had any plan to make these big purchases on their trips - which makes these stories even more fun, I think. First up, I chat with podcast listener Tim Tricker. He has a fun tale of something quite unusual he and his friends bought entirely by accident on a trip to Spain. Then I speak with Nan Caple who was holiday with family and friends on Kangaroo Island when they suddenly decided to buy something quite large. Finally, I talk to Karen Emanuel who was travelling in Nicaragua when a sign caught her attention and she made an even bigger purchase - but one she's very glad of. Links: Nan Caple of Snellings View on Kangaroo Island https://snellingsview.com.au/  Karen Emanuel of

This special episode is the audio of the Facebook Livestream of the January 2021 meeting of the Thoughtful Travellers Book Club, talking about Bewildered by Laura Waters. If you'd like to join the Thoughtful Travellers Book Club, all the info is at https://notaballerina.com/bookclub, and you can keep up with all the thoughts about our current books in the Thoughtful Travellers Facebook Group at https://facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.