Rolf Potts discusses the joys of spontaneous travel, delightful surprises in Sumatra and the Mentawai Islands, the importance of time over possessions, his monthlong boat journey down the Mekong River, and how travel teaches us to pay attention to life itself.

Monisha Rajesh, a travel journalist and train travel enthusiast, discusses her experiences journeying around India and taking the Trans-Mongolian train across Russia. She also shares insights on train travel in North Korea, China, Southeast Asia, Canada, and the United States. Monisha highlights the unique dynamics and trust among passengers on trains and the contrasting experiences on European and Asian trains. The podcast explores the impact of traveling with a companion, the influence of technology on travel, and the potential future of train travel in a post-COVID world.

Topics discussed include: the benefits of slow travel and immersive experiences, the challenges of crossing land borders, the art of capturing meaningful photos and savoring local cuisine, the psychology of bargaining and haggling while traveling, personal experiences with travel scams, insights into the writing process and themes, and the concept of walking until your day becomes interesting.

“Domestic travel to rural places can be as important as international travel that is more obviously cross-cultural.”  –Rolf Potts In this episode of Deviate, Rolf and Marci talk about how the best trips are guided by curiosity about eight key things, rather than checklists (2:00); what Marci has learned from several decades of writing guidebooks to rural and small-town Kansas, and how these places are worth fighting for (10:30); how urban people can better experience rural places (17:00); using your five senses as a traveler, and other strategies for exploring the nuances of new places (26:30); and seeing places as “mysteries to be solved” (37:30). Marci Penner (@GetRuralKansas) is the executive director of the Kansas Sampler Foundation, which preserves and sustains rural culture by educating Kansans about Kansas and networking and supporting rural communities. She is involved with the PowerUp Movement (empowerment of those 21-39 who are rural by choice), the Big Rural Brainstorm, and the We Kan! Conference. Notable Links: Kansas Guidebook for Explorers, by Marci Penner and Wendee Rowe (guidebook) Physiographic Regions of Kansas (map) 8 Wonders of Kansas (travel destinations) Skeleton Coast (coast area of Namibia) Sterling (town in Kansas) Microaggressions (accidental verbal slights) Big Kansas Road Trip (rural tourism event) Daniel Boone (American frontiersman) New Almelo, Kansas (community in Norton County) Nicodemus, Kansas (town founded in 1871 by formerly enslaved Americans) Damar, Kansas (town founded in 1888 by French Canadians) Exodusters (movement of African-Americans to Kansas in 19th century) Boot Hill (cemetery in Dodge City, Kansas) Fencepost limestone (stone bed in the Great Plains) Cuba, Kansas (Czech-American rural community) 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.

“A souvenir can be anything from a travel experience that honors a certain moment in your life, certifies the journey that took you there, and celebrates the confluence of people and places and actions that made it possible.”  – Rolf Potts In this episode of Deviate, Rolf and Suzanne talk about the ways souvenirs help narrate our travel experiences (2:00); the five different historical categories of travel souvenirs (7:30); the old trend of collecting hair and bones from famous people (15:00); what kinds of souvenirs are popular with travelers (20:00); which souvenirs Rolf sought when he visited Australia, and how some souvenirs make less sense when you get them home (24:30); then Rolf and Gina talk about childhood travel souvenirs (30:00); how photographs are a kind of souvenir, and how they create different memories than objects (36:00); and how the notion of “authenticity” in regard to souvenirs can be complicated (40:00). Suzanne Hill is the presenter of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s “Weekend Nightlife.” Gina Kaufmann is an essayist and radio journalist, most recently at KCUR, the NPR affiliate in Kansas City. Notable Links: Souvenir, by Rolf Potts (book) One Month on the Mekong, by Rolf Potts (essay) Grand Tour (17th- to 19th-century European travel rite) British Museum (public museum in London) Elgin Marbles (ancient Greek sculptures) Boxer Rebellion (anti-colonial uprising in China) Henry Crabb Robinson (19th century English diarist) John Keats (English Romantic poet) John Milton (English poet and intellectual) On Seeing a Lock of Milton’s Hair (Keats poem) Rue Mouffetard (street in Paris) Las Vegas Souvenir & Resort Gift Show (convention) World’s Columbian Exposition (world’s fair in Chicago) Omiyage (Japanese souvenir rite) Día de los Muertos (Mexican holiday) Père Lachaise (cemetery in Paris) Neil Armstrong (astronaut) Auschwitz (Nazi concentration camp in Poland) 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.

Join the podcast host and guests as they discuss the joy of exploring new places, the challenges of culture shock, and travel's ability to bring out a sense of childlike wonder. They also talk about the importance of keeping a travel journal, the frustrations of familiar chains abroad, and the value of wandering off the tourist track.

This podcast episode explores the museum experience for travelers and the appeal of Presidential Libraries. It delves into the concept of museums as surrogates for travel, their nostalgic aspect, and the relationship between private collections and public museums. The hosts also discuss unexpected objects in museums, the importance of community engagement, and the joy of curating unique museums.

“Quietly use travel to deepen your life, and to build stronger relationships – not only with other cultures, but with your home. Figure out ways to give back.”  –Rolf Potts In this episode of Deviate, Rolf and David talk about how travel allows you to “waste your twenties” in a good way, and how Rolf has come to define “adventure” (2:00); how to plan travels in such a way as to leave room for spontaneity, and how to meet people on the road (8:00); how to communicate in a place where you don’t speak the local language, and how to be daring in trying new foods as you travel (15:30); Rolf’s travel experiences on the Laotian Mekong, on foot in the Libyan Desert, and by van in North America (25:00); how to balance the desire to see lots of places with the desire to get to know a few places well, and what it means to find “authentic” places (32:30); why slow journeys create richer experiences than hurried ones, and how to honor gestures of hospitality (42:30); how the experience of travel changes as you get older, and why making time is more important in life than making money (48:00). David Martinez is an Associate Professor of Spanish and the director of the Center for Study Abroad at George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon. Notable Links: The Vagabond’s Way, by Rolf Potts (book) Marco Polo Didn’t Go There, by Rolf Potts (book) Bosintang (Korean dog-meat soup) Fried spider (Cambodian snack food) Beondegi (Korean silkworm street food) Doritos (American snack food) Snails as food Merengue (Dominican music and dance) Asturian gaita (Spanish bagpipe) One Month on the Mekong, by Rolf Potts (essay) Van Life before #VanLife (Deviate episode) Elderhostel (educational travel for older adults) “The Loss of the Creature,” by Walker Percy (essay) Heraclitus (ancient Greek philosopher) Wall Street (1987 movie) Gap year (student sabbatical period) Wanderjahr (journeyman year for tradespeople) China and Mongolia with my parents (Deviate 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.

“Not every fearful decision I’ve made has been bad, but most of my bad decisions have been based in fear.”  –Andrew McCarthy In this episode of Deviate, Rolf and Andrew talk about the two halves of Andrew’s professional life – acting and travel writing – and his transformative first journey on the Camino de Santiago in 1994 (2:00); Andrew’s decision to return to the Camino after the pandemic with his 19-year-old son Sam, what it was like to walk for days at a time with Sam, and how being in the 1980s “Brat Pack” affected Andrew’s sense of self (11:30); how Sam’s attitude toward the walk changed over the course of the journey, and how Andrew knew he might be able to write a book about the experience (22:00); audience questions, including writing advice, what Sam thought of the book, and how travel can expand your view of the world (28:00). Andrew McCarthy (@AndrewTMcCarthy), who rose to fame as a teen actor during the John Hughes 80’s era, is a television director and writer of such books as The Long Way Home and Brat. His newest book is Walking with Sam: A Father, a Son, and Five Hundred Miles Across Spain. Notable Links: Andrew McCarthy on travel (Deviate episode) Andrew McCarthy Proust questionnaire (Deviate episode) Pretty in Pink (1986 teen romantic comedy-drama) Lowell Thomas Awards (travel writing competition) John Hughes (American filmmaker) Molly Ringwald (American actress) Camino de Santaigo (pilgrimage route in Spain) Off the Road, by Jack Hitt (book about the Camino)) St. James the Great (Christian apostle) Oliver! (coming-of-age musical) Souvenir, by Rolf Potts (book) Brat Pack (cohort of 1980s teen actors) “Hollywood’s Brat Pack” (1985 New York article) Kansas (1988 film) 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 truth is that our travel anticipations, and our memories, have a way of holding only the most striking parts of an experience—the parts that don’t cause burnout.” —Matt Kepnes In this episode of Deviate, Rolf and Matt talk about travel journaling, and a journal Matt has designed for travelers (1:15); why travel burnout happens, and how Matt first experienced it on the road (4:30); why rest days are important to a journey, and why one shouldn’t over-plan one’s days on the road (10:00); how lingering in places allows you to develop a deeper relationship to those places, and how digital nomads can balance work and fun on the road (16:00); and how to create balance in your social-media habits as you travel (23:30). Matt Kepnes (@nomadicmatt), commonly known as “Nomadic Matt,” is a travel blogger and the New York Times bestselling author of Travel the World on $50 a Day and Ten Years a Nomad. Notable Links: The Vagabond’s Way, by Rolf Potts (book) Keeping a travel journal (Deviate episode) RememberYourTravels.com (travel journal) Experiencing Norway by hammock (dispatch) Paris Writing Workshops (Rolf’s class in France) Digital nomadism (location-independent lifestyle) 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.