Deviate

“So much of what is wrong with America today began with the Civil War and Reconstruction” – Jason Cochran In this episode of Deviate, Rolf and Jason discuss the monuments at Gettysburg, and the concept of a Civil War “hero” (2:00); the revisionist post-war memorial efforts by Southern organizations (13:00); the concept of memorials, and how they shape memory (26:00); and our relationship with deceased celebrities, and how to interpret America through its monuments (40:00).  Jason Cochran (@JasCochran), the award-winning author of Here Lies America, has been a travel authority and consumer expert for over 20 years. His work has appeared in such publications as Travel + Leisure, the New York Post, USA Today, and The New York Times. He is currently Editor-in-Chief of Frommers.com and co-host with Pauline Frommer of the weekly Travel Show on WABC. For more about Jason, check out https://jasoncochran.com/.  Notable Links: Battle of Gettysburg Andersonville Historical Site Reconstruction Era Robert E. Lee (Commander of the Confederate Army) United Daughters of the Confederacy (association) Ladies Memorial Associations (Southern monument effort) Ford’ Theatre (site of Lincoln assassination) Ken Burns (filmmaker) Jim Crow Laws National Lynching Memorial The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer (book) Negro Leagues Baseball Museum USS Maine National Monument Grant’s Tomb Prison Ship Martyrs’ Monument (Revolutionary War memorial) National September 11 Memorial & Museum Forest Lawn Memorial Park Hollywood Forever Cemetery Père Lachaise Cemetery (Paris) Tulsa race riot (1921 massacre) Haymarket affair (1886 Chicago incident) Johnstown Flood 1906 San Francisco earthquake Vietnam Veterans Memorial Battle of Antietam Stonewall Jackson (Civil War general) Souvenir, by Rolf Potts (book) This episode is brought to you by AirTreks, an industry leader in multi-stop international travel. If you’ve ever planned a trip with multiple stops, you know that finding the right flights can be difficult. Between balancing travel logistics and cost, it often becomes impossible to build an itinerary that matches your travel goals.  AirTreks is a distributed travel company with employees working from all corners of the world to help with your flight planning, specializing in complex routes with up to 25 stops. The AirTreks website offers suggested pre-planned travel itineraries to help you get started, but can customize to fit your journey. The Deviate theme music comes from the title track of Cedar Van Tassel’s 2017 album Lumber. Note: We don’t host a “comments” section, but we’re happy to hear your questions and insights via email, at deviate@rolfpotts.com.

“You cannot change your reality until you see your reality.” – Alex Banayan In this episode of Deviate, Rolf and Alex discuss mentorship (3:00); the genesis of Alex’s book The Third Door (10:00); “opportunity hurdles” (30:00); structural storytelling, and the art of learning (54:00); and the importance of thinking differently (1:11:00). Alex Banayan (@AlexBanayan) is the bestselling business author of The Third Door, which chronicles his five-year quest to track down Bill Gates, Lady Gaga, Warren Buffett, Maya Angelou, Steven Spielberg, and dozens more of the world’s most successful people to uncover how they broke through and launched their careers. Alex has been named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list, Business Insider’s Most Powerful People Under 30, and been featured in major media including Fortune, Forbes, and Businessweek. For more about Alex, check out https://thirddoorbook.com/. Notable Links: Tim Ferriss (entrepreneur) Bill Gates (businessman) Lady Gaga (singer) Maya Angelou (poet) Warren Buffett (businessman) Steven Spielberg (filmmaker) Elliott Bisnow (investor) Cal Fussman (journalist) Tools of Titans, by Tim Ferriss (book) Tribe of Mentors, by Tim Ferriss (book) The Odyssey, by Homer (epic poem) Aaron Sorkin (screenwriter / director) Elon Musk (entrepreneur) Kurt Vonnegut (author) Steve Jobs (businessman) “Think Different” internal meeting (video) Jerry Seinfeld (comedian) Jane Goodall (anthropologist) Macbeth (Shakespeare tragedy) Hero’s journey (narrative template) Pitbull (rapper) Jessica Alba (actress) Quincy Jones (producer) Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand (book) Jiro Dreams of Sushi (movie) This episode of Deviate is brought to you by the Paris Writing Workshop, which features a one-week Big Idea Book Bootcamp, which teaches people with expertise in a specific professional field — business, medicine, science, sports, finance, etc — to channel that expertise into a book-length narrative that inspires, enlightens, and transforms readers’ perspectives of the world, and of life.  This episode of Deviate is also brought to you by Tortuga Backpacks, which set the standard for the best, most durable, organized, and comfortable travel backpacks, and AirTreks, an industry leader in multi-stop international travel. The AirTreks website offers suggested pre-planned travel itineraries to help you get started, and can customize the route to fit your journey. The Deviate theme music comes from the title track of Cedar Van Tassel’s 2017 album Lumber. Note: We don’t host a “comments” section, but we’re happy to hear your questions and insights via email, at deviate@rolfpotts.com.

“It’s good as you travel to take the time to do nothing, and have nothing planned.” –Tim Leffel In this episode of Deviate, Rolf and Tim discuss the advantages of traveling to cheaper parts of the world (3:00); how living overseas can actually be cheaper than your life at home (13:00); strategies to save money on the road (23:00); setting a budget, and counterintuitive sightseeing (34:00); and breaking the myth of expensive European travel (51:00). Tim Leffel (@timleffel) is an award-winning travel writer and author of The World’s Cheapest Destinations and A Better Life for Half the Price. He is the editor of the narrative web publication Perceptive Travel. For more about Tim, check out https://timleffel.com. This episode of Deviate is brought to you by Tortuga Backpacks, which set the standard for the best, most durable, organized, and comfortable travel backpacks. Tortuga products also include daypacks, duffels, and other travel accessories, which are all made with the traveler in mind and have been featured by Wirecutter, The New York Times, Travel + Leisure, Business Insider, Carryology, and many other industry outlets. This episode is also brought to you by AirTreks, an industry leader in multi-stop international travel. If you’ve ever planned a trip with multiple stops, you know that finding the right flights can be difficult. Between balancing travel logistics and cost, it often becomes impossible to build an itinerary that matches your travel goals.  AirTreks is a distributed travel company with employees working from all corners of the world to help with your flight planning, specializing in complex routes with up to 25 stops. The AirTreks website offers suggested pre-planned travel itineraries to help you get started, but can customize to fit your journey. The Deviate theme music comes from the title track of Cedar Van Tassel’s 2017 album Lumber. Note: We don’t host a “comments” section, but we’re happy to hear your questions and insights via email, at deviate@rolfpotts.com.

“The challenge is that we have to become philosophers ourselves, in a way. We have to learn to ask better questions and more questions than we had to before.” – Monica McCarthy Monica McCarthy (@MissMMcCarthy) is an actress, writer, and host of The Happier Hour podcast and live show, which aims to make philosophy useful and accessible. For more about Monica, you can check our her website or watch her TedX talk, Philosophy: The Life Hack of the Future. In this episode of Deviate, Rolf speaks with Monica about the “definition” of philosophy (3:00); where people should start when seeking to embrace philosophy (16:00); travel as a metaphor for discussing philosophy (22:00); Western philosophy and common assumptions about it (32:00); and key takeaways from Monica’s podcast (50:00). Notable Links: Tim Ferriss (author / entrepreneur) Ryan Holiday (author) Alain de Botton (author / philosopher) Socrates (philosopher) Søren Kierkegaard (philosopher) Ludwig Wittgenstein (philosopher) Simone de Beauvoir (philosopher) Jean-Paul Sartre (philosopher) Friedrich Nietzsche (philosopher) Albert Camus (philosopher) David Hume (philosopher) Epicurus (philosopher) Avicenna (philosopher) Stoicism (school of philosophy) Existentialism (school of philosophy) Nero (Roman emperor) Massimo Pigliucci (professor of Philosophy at CUNY-City College) At the Existentialist Café, by Sarah Bakewell (book) The Good Place (television show) Trolley Problem (thought experiment) The School of Life (educational company) The Deviate theme music comes from the title track of Cedar Van Tassel’s 2017 album Lumber. Note: We don’t host a “comments” section, but we’re happy to hear your questions and insights via email, at deviate@rolfpotts.com.

“The hashtag level of social media discourse can be really frustrating. It tends to bend narratives toward the hashtag slogan. But when we start sweeping everything into the same category, we begin to trivialize the core issue.” – Rolf Potts Ari Shaffir (@AriShaffir) is a comedian, writer, podcaster, and actor. He is the current host of the podcast Skeptic Tank. In the Season 1 Finale of Deviate, Rolf and Ari resume their conversation about magic mushrooms (7:00); discuss Ari’s strange bets and the experience of panhandling for money (17:00); reflect on lessons learned from the past year of podcasting (32:00); discuss the shortcomings of travel television (55:00); and explore self-mythology and society’s over-simplification of complex topics (1:07:00). This episode of Deviate is brought to you by AirTreks, an industry leader in multi-stop international travel. If you’ve ever planned a trip with multiple stops, you know that finding the right flights can be difficult. Airtreks can help with your international flight planning, specializing in complex routes with up to 25 stops. The Airtreks website offers suggested pre-planned travel itineraries to help you get started, and can customize to fit your journey. Visit https://www.airtreks.com/deviate/ and get a signed copy of Vagabonding when you book your first trip with Airtreks. Deviate episodes mentioned Bestselling author Tim Ferriss on how to create a successful podcast Comedian Ari Shaffir on ‘shrooms, hugging, and quitting smartphones Ari Shaffir on travel, memory, and the odd psychology of souvenirs Satanic backward masking changed 1980s rock (but not in the way you think) What it’s like to be a black police officer in America What it’s like to be a Latino police officer in America The weird and complicated history of America’s national anthem Punk icon Ian MacKaye on why we should question the official history of rock music Celebrating the best places to live (and the quest for home) in America Kink Doctor Dulcinea Pitagora on sex therapy, BDSM, and dominatrix work The way we grow food has been broken for 10,000 years (but we can fix it) Deviate Live in New York City: Travel Stories and Souvenirs White Zombie guitarist J. Yuenger on music, expat life, and long-term travel Kevin Kelly on the lost world of 1970s Asia (and why you should travel now) Andrew McCarthy on storytelling, celebrity, and how travel changed his life Paul Theroux on the art of listening, and the necessary obstacles of deep travel Other links 20,000 Days On Earth (Nick Cave documentary) The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand (book) Museum of Jurassic Technology Scientology Center Joe Rogan podcast Henry Rollins Travel Slideshow Punch Drunk Sports (podcast) Cal Fussman podcast How Mushrooms Can Save You (Tim Ferriss podcast episode) Lok lak (Cambodian beef dish) Osprey (backpack brand) Tortuga (backpack brand) Blundstone (footwear company) Evan Williams (bourbon brand) The Deviate theme music comes from the title track of Cedar Van Tassel’s 2017 album Lumber. Note: We don’t host a “comments” section, but we’re happy to hear your questions and insights via email, at deviate@rolfpotts.com.

“To me the term Beat was like, “Hey man I’m beat,” after all night on Benzedrine. I never considered myself a Beat. But my first book was published by Ferlinghetti and they all arrived at my doorstep when I lived at Gough Street, so I guess I became a Beat by osmosis.” —Charles Plymell Charles Plymell is a poet, novelist, and small press publisher. Plymell has collaborated with and published many poets, writers, and artists, including principals of the Beat Generation. Benzedrine Highway, published in 2013, is an anthology of his best-known poetry and prose, including excerpts from his 1971 City Lights novel The Last of the Moccasins. In this episode of Deviate, Charles and his wife Pamela Beach Plymell discuss their memories of (and interactions with) Jack Kerouac (4:55); Charley’s upbringing in Dust Bowl-era Kansas, and his early road-trips to California (11:05); life as a young hood and hipster in Wichita (14:40); meeting and interacting with the Beats in San Francisco (19:20); rooming with Neal Cassady and Allen Ginsberg when Cassady was trying to write his own book (23:55); hosting Ginsberg during the poet’s Wichita Vortex Sutra journey to Kansas in 1966 (30:50); publishing the first issue of R. Crumb’s Zap Comix just before the Summer of Love (35:35); working at a teamster on the San Francisco docks, and getting his own novel published (39:50); and interacting with William S. Burroughs in the later years of the author’s life (46:00). For more information on Charley, check out his fan page at http://hipsterfansite.blogspot.com/. Notable Links: Beat Generation (literary movement) Jack Kerouac (Beat author and poet) William F. Buckley Jr. (conservative intellectual) Firing Line (public affairs TV show) Truman Capote (author and critic) Hand on the Doorknob, by Charles Plymell (book) Benzedrine and Dexedrine (amphetamine pills) Neal Cassady (Beat Generation personality) Allen Ginsberg (Beat poet) The First Third, by Neal Cassady (book) Lawrence Ferlinghetti (poet and publisher) City Lights (independent bookstore) Wichita Vortex Sutra, by Allen Ginsberg (poem) “The Last Anti-War Poem,” by Rolf Potts (essay) Wichita Vortex (PBS documentary about the poem) Robert Crumb (underground cartoonist) Zap Comix (counterculture comic book series) Summer of Love (1967 hippie event in San Francisco) Human Be-in (Summer of Love event) Featherbedding (hiring practice) Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars (creative writing program) William S. Burroughs (writer and artist) The death of Joan Vollmer (Burroughs’ wife) Macbeth (Shakespeare play) “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” (Macbeth soliloquy) Sonnet 65 (Shakespeare poem) “The “Priest” They Called Him” (Burroughs/Kurt Cobain collaboration) “Nobody Rides For Free” by Grant Hart (music video) The Deviate theme music comes from the title track of Cedar Van Tassel’s 2017 album Lumber. Note: We don’t host a “comments” section, but we’re happy to hear your questions and insights via email, at deviate@rolfpotts.com.

“How do we become who we are in the world? We ask the world to teach us.” – Pam Houston Pam Houston (@pam_houston) is an author and professor of English at the University of California, Davis. Her books include Cowboys Are My Weakness and Contents May Have Shifted, with her latest, Deep Creek, set for release in January 2019. In this episode of Deviate, Pam discusses her interactions with writing students (2:30); living an non-traditional life (16:30); developing a notion of home (25:00); and how Pam’s life on the ranch affects her writing (34:00). The episode concludes with Rolf reading his short essay “Creating a new sense of home is part of the travel process.” For more information on Pam, check out her website at https://pamhouston.wordpress.com/ Notable Links: Santa Fe Writers Workshop “Some Kind of Calling,” by Pam Houston (essay) “Pam Houston on (Finally) Finding True Love” (essay) Desert Solitaire, by Edward Abbey (book) Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie Dillard (book) My Antonia, by Willa Cather (novel) Alice Munro (author) Terry Tempest Williams (author) The Meadow, by James Galvan (book) West Fork Complex (2013 wildfire) The Deviate theme music comes from the title track of Cedar Van Tassel’s 2017 album Lumber. Note: We don’t host a “comments” section, but we’re happy to hear your questions and insights via email, at deviate@rolfpotts.com.

“The act of creating is a way of stopping time.” – Major Jackson Major Jackson (@Poet_Major) is an American poet, professor, and author of four collections of poetry: Roll Deep, Holding Company, Hoops, and Leaving Saturn. He currently serves as the Poetry Editor of the Harvard Review. In this episode of Deviate, Rolf and Major discuss the changing perception of time and how creation leads to a deeper experience of time (2:00); poetry and the lessons it teaches us about life (23:00); and time as prison, the way we claim our freedom, and art as a means toward transcendence (39:00). For more information on Major, check out his website at http://www.majorjackson.com/ Poems and books mentioned: The Gutenberg Elegies, by Sven Birkerts (book) “The World Is Too Much With Us” (poem by William Wordsworth) “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” (poem by Robert Herrick) “Ode: Intimations of Immortality” (Wordsworth poem) “On Disappearing” (poem by Major Jackson) “Stations” (poem by Stanley Moss) Into the Mecca by Gwendolyn Brooks (book) Jerusalem (poem by James Fenton) Jerusalem, by Peter Cole (essay) The Snow Leopard, by Peter Matthiessen (book) “Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota” (poem by James Wright) Notable Links: Paris Writing Workshop (summer creative writing course) Dead Poets Society (film) Carpe Diem (Latin aphorism) Walt Whitman (poet) Eastern State Penitentiary (former prison in Philadelphia) Michel Foucault (philosopher) True Detective (HBO TV series) John Muir (naturalist) Jack Kerouac (author) Croesus (wealthy king from ancient times) Seneca (philosopher) Dazed and Confused (film) Richard Linklater (writer and director) Ingmar Bergman (director) Cinéma vérité (documentary filmmaking style) Film composer Rolfe Kent on Deviate (podcast episode) The Deviate theme music comes from the title track of Cedar Van Tassel’s 2017 album Lumber. Note: We don’t host a “comments” section, but we’re happy to hear your questions and insights via email, at deviate@rolfpotts.com.

“Travel feels like a generational signifier the way rock music was when I was a kid. The whole idea of having experiences as opposed to accumulating stuff feels like this planetary alignment, the way rock was in the ’70s.” – Jay Yuenger Jay Yuenger (@JYuenger) is a rock guitarist best known for his work with the Grammy-nominated heavy metal band White Zombie. In this episode of Deviate, Rolf and Jay discuss Cuba and access to technology (3:00); J’s White Zombie backstory, and his travels with the band (13:30); the rise in popularity of White Zombie and the evolution of travel (40:00); the breakup of the band and Jay’s post-band years spent traveling (50:00); and souvenirs (1:01:00) For more information on Jay, check out his website or his Instagram account. Notable Links: Vagabonding, by Rolf Potts (book) Taxi Driver (film) Thunder Kiss ’65 (song, by White Zombie) Anthony Bourdain (chef and travel documentarian) The Practical Nomad, by Edward Hasbrouk (book) Hardcore Punk (music genre) Minor Threat (band) Metallica (band) Misfits (band) Ramones (band) Slayer (band) Cro-Mags (band) Suicidal Tendencies (band) Danzig (band) Headbangers Ball (television program) 120 Minutes (television program) Butthole Surfers (band) Faith No More (band) Get in the Van, by Henry Rollins (book) The Smashing Pumpkins (band) Fugazi (band) Jane’s Addiction (band) Walt Whitman (poet) Kurt Vonnegut (author) The Deviate theme music comes from the title track of Cedar Van Tassel’s 2017 album Lumber. Note: We don’t host a “comments” section, but we’re happy to hear your questions and insights via email, at deviate@rolfpotts.com.

“I can’t imagine what the Trans-Siberian train would be like if you knew what time it was. That was the ongoing fun of the experience — never really having any clue what time it was.” – Jonathan Arlan Jonathan Arlan (@JonathanArlan) is the author of the book Mountain Lines: A Journey through the French Alps and a recent Tablet essay titled Off the Rails in Birobidzhan. In this episode of Deviate, Rolf and Jonathan discuss travel bucket lists (2:30); the Trans-Siberian experience, including being an American on the train (12:30); the passing of time on the railway (28:00); and a final evaluation of the journey (38:00). For more information on Jonathan Arlan, check out his website at http://jonathanarlan.com/ Notable Links: Trans-Siberian Handbook, by Bryn Thomas (guidebook) Lonely Planet Trans-Siberian Railway (guidebook) Real Russia (travel agency) Monkeyshrine (Trans-Siberian travel agency) The Man in Seat 61 (train-travel website) The Deviate theme music comes from the title track of Cedar Van Tassel’s 2017 album Lumber. Note: We don’t host a “comments” section, but we’re happy to hear your questions and insights via email, at deviate@rolfpotts.com.