Postcards From Nowhere with Utsav Mamoria

Deep into South America, lies a place which is considered barren and inhospitable. And for good reason - how can life flourish in a place which has less than 15 mm of rainfall every year. But its barrenness is its advantage, for it houses some of the most elite and far ranging scientific pursuits known to man. In the fourth episode of the series, Alien Landscapes, we travel to the Atacama desert in Chile, where both above our heads and beneath our feet, science is breaking new ground everyday and what has Mars got to do with it. Tune in, and understand what have we lost with our civilisational pursuits, and how we are insignificant in the larger scheme of things. Find more travel stories on #PostcardsFromNowhere with Utsav Mamoria. You can reach out to our host Utsav on Instagram: @whywetravel42 (https://www.instagram.com/whywetravel42) You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app. You can check out our website at http://www.ivmpodcasts.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Extreme temperatures, check. The harsh desert climate, check. One place is an arctic desert in the northernmost part on our planet, the other a hot desert country plagued by a brutal, seemingly unending civil war. Svalbard is a unique lonely place - you cannot be born, die or be buried there. Less than 10% of the place has any vegetation. Outside its capital city, you are more likely to encounter a polar bear rather than a human. However, it has a unique claim to fame, one which rescued a battered and depleted Syria. In the third episode of the series, Alien Landscapes, Utsav takes you to two unlikely places, Svalbard and Syria, and how they have found a unique way in being lonely together. Tune in, and discover an ambitious project, which one day could save all our lives. Find more travel stories on #PostcardsFromNowhere with Utsav Mamoria. You can reach out to our host Utsav on Instagram: @whywetravel42 (https://www.instagram.com/whywetravel42) You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app. You can check out our website at http://www.ivmpodcasts.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What do the father of the nuclear age, the Italian American physicist Enrico Fermi and a young European traveller by the name of Mubarak Bin London have in common? And why would it lead you to one of the most inhospitable and inaccessible places on earth, a place which Fermi hadn't ever set foot in? In the second episode of the series, Alien Landscapes, Utsav takes you to the Danakil Depression in Ethiopia and tells you why it has become a hotbed for an emerging science which could hold the secrets of the cosmos. Tune in, and discover that sometimes you don't need to go to space to understand what's really out there. Find more travel stories on #PostcardsFromNowhere with Utsav Mamoria. You can reach out to our host Utsav on Instagram: @whywetravel42 (https://www.instagram.com/whywetravel42) You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app. You can check out our website at http://www.ivmpodcasts.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

58 degree celsius, 100% humidity and pitch dark. This is not Mars, but somewhere on our very own planet. While 2020 killed all our travel plans, I am sure even that would not make you go here. But there was a Spanish man who was waiting for the moment he could visit this place. A place where you would not survive for more than a couple of minutes. This week, starting a new series, Alien Landscapes, it take you deep into the Naica mines in Mexico, and bring to the fore the idea of Deep Time. Tune in, to discover what scientific and life secrets hide in these mines which today are not accessible to anyone. Find more travel stories on #PostcardsFromNowhere with Utsav Mamoria. You can reach out to our host Utsav on Instagram: @whywetravel42 (https://www.instagram.com/whywetravel42) You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app. You can check out our website at http://www.ivmpodcasts.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the 1928 and 1968 Olympics, Mexico participated in the marathon and failed to get a podium finish. The runners, who came in with a great reputation and a mystic halo around them felt that the 26-mile race was too short. In fact, in 1928, they had to be stopped to tell them that the race was already over. In the last episode of People Unlike Us, Utsav takes you up close to the Raramuri people, who are known to be the ultimate ultramarathoners, running upto 200 miles (!) at a stretch of over 48 hours. Tune in, to discover the life lesson the Raramuri hold for us, something which I wish all of us is able to find in 2021. Find more travel stories on #PostcardsFromNowhere with Utsav Mamoria. You can reach out to our host Utsav on Instagram: @whywetravel42 (https://www.instagram.com/whywetravel42) You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app. You can check out our website at http://www.ivmpodcasts.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Black Holes - Those enigmas of the universe we all have conceptually heard of but don't really understand. Taking a break from regular episodes, here comes a 2020 year-ender reflecting on a strange year gone by. This week, join Utsav as he asks us to relook at 2020 in a completely new light, much like the way we need to rethink what black holes are. Straddling the work of Albert Einstein and his failed plans of traveling to Tajikistan, tune in to discover how 2020 can help us reimagine the way we have traveled till now. Find more travel stories on #PostcardsFromNowhere with Utsav Mamoria. You can reach out to our host Utsav on Instagram: @whywetravel42 (https://www.instagram.com/whywetravel42) You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app. You can check out our website at http://www.ivmpodcasts.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 2016, deep into the heartland of Ethiopia, a herder by the name of Ali Bereino, chanced upon a bone in the goat pen in his backyard. It took an archeologist to determine the significance of Ali's find. In many ways, it was literally the bone the world was waiting for. In the fourth episode of the series, People Unlike Us, Utsav takes you to the vast expanse of the Kalahari desert, to peek into the lives of the San people, the closest descendants of our ancient ancestors. As we look to say goodbye to 2020, tune in to understand what lessons do the San people hold for us, and how we need to think about the watershed year that 2020 has been. Find more travel stories on #PostcardsFromNowhere with Utsav Mamoria. You can reach out to our host Utsav on Instagram: @whywetravel42 (https://www.instagram.com/whywetravel42) You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app. You can check out our website at http://www.ivmpodcasts.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What if I put a bunch of children from varied countries, from Mexico to Vietnam, in a room. What if I told you that they may eventually develop a common language to communicate? Across the world, there are societies which have independently developed a whistling language: they chat, flirt and hunt through whistling! In the third episode of the series, People Unilke Us, Utsav takes you to a village in Turkey with a 'bird language', a village in Mexico with a strange reason to whistle, and to the Canary islands where whistling is still a part of everyday life. Tune in to uncover what unites these places in evolving a whistling language. Bonus: If you wish to learn a whistling language, download the Islık Dili Sözlüğü app from Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ec.self.whistlelang&hl=en_IN&gl=US Find more travel stories on #PostcardsFromNowhere with Utsav Mamoria. You can reach out to our host Utsav on Instagram: @whywetravel42 (https://www.instagram.com/whywetravel42) You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app. You can check out our website at http://www.ivmpodcasts.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What does the 80's blockbuster film - The Karate Kid, a 17th century poem by an English poet have in common with the people who live for over a 100 years? And what if there are multiple communities of people, right from North America to Asia who live for a century? In the second episode of the series, People Unilke Us, Utsav takes you to Okinawa in Japan, where you are considered 'Young' at the age of 80. Tune in to find their secrets - We already may have one of them in our lives, but we may just be oblivious to it. Find more travel stories on #PostcardsFromNowhere with Utsav Mamoria. You can reach out to our host Utsav on Instagram: @whywetravel42 (https://www.instagram.com/whywetravel42) You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app. You can check out our website at http://www.ivmpodcasts.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In a letter dated 14 May 1728, a Dutch East India company official writes to the Governor-General about a group of people camping out in the ocean off the coast of Indonesia. Two hundred years later, marine biologist suggests a theory of our evolution which gets dismissed by the scientific fraternity. So what do these two incidents have in common? In the first episode of a new series, People Unlike Us, Utsav takes you up close to the life of a people who have lived on the sea for over a thousand years - The Bajau Laut, more popularly known as the Sea Nomads. Tune in to see up close a way of life most of us could not imagine, and how their existence could have clued into the future of our own. Find more travel stories on #PostcardsFromNowhere with Utsav Mamoria. You can reach out to our host Utsav on Instagram: @whywetravel42 (https://www.instagram.com/whywetravel42) You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app. You can check out our website at http://www.ivmpodcasts.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.