

Postcards From Nowhere with Utsav Mamoria
Utsav Mamoria
Postcards from Nowhere is a travel podcast that takes you on journeys exploring culture, history, food and people in the form of stories. With over a decade of travel stories in his kitty, Utsav Mamoria narrates the stories of the strange, obscure and fascinating things about the world, often interspersed with practical tips and deep realizations, which would shape the way you travel.
Tune in to the new episode every Thursday.
Tune in to the new episode every Thursday.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Nov 26, 2020 • 7min
Fighting Climate Change: Why we Su*k!
We've all heard the story - Put a frog in boiling water and it will jump out. Put it in cold water, bring it to a boil and the frog will be toasted to death. In times where the impact and advancement of climate change are not disputable, why are we acting like frogs? Why are we so terrible at fighting climate change? Taking you from the port cities of Surat, Cochin and Malacca to our prediction for sweets, this week, in the last episode of Our Changing World: Stories of Climate Change, Utsav addresses one of the most pressing questions of our times. And even though this entire series may have been disheartening, there is hope. Tune in to understand how our ability to be toilet trained (Yes, we are serious) may give us hope in what seems like a battle we are destined to lose. 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.

Nov 19, 2020 • 8min
Beginning of the end: World's most beautiful Migration
For a declining Native American tribe, it's a symbol of future abundance and health. For a whole host of scientists and conservationists, it's a horror story unfolding over the last few decades. Their annual migration is known to be one of the most beautiful in the world. But it's under significant threat. In the penultimate episode of Our Changing World: Stories of Climate Change, Utsav takes you to the world of Monarch Butterflies spanning the US, Canada and Mexico, and talks about one of the most fundamental principles of the world we all need to know to navigate 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.

Nov 12, 2020 • 8min
The Chernobyl you did not see on TV
What does an Icelandic composer, a Belarusian author and a Nobel Laureate have in common to do with the Chernobyl disaster? And why are we talking about Chernobyl 34 years after the disaster, and over a year after the world was swept up in the frenzy of the HBO show? In the sixth episode of Our Changing World: Stories of Climate Change, Utsav takes you to the exclusion zone of Chernobyl, beyond where Dark tourists linger, to bring to the fore a story of hope and healing, of how Chernobyl is doing after all these years. Tune in, to understand how a place once habited by humans and deserted today, looks after 34 years of isolation. 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.

Nov 5, 2020 • 6min
Indonesia to Italy: Art unravels climate change - Part 2
10th April 1815: On a remote Indonesian island, a volcano, Mt Tambora, erupted. It was no ordinary eruption - largest in recorded human history and the largest of the Holocene (10,000 years ago to present). It ended up having an enormous impact on the climate of the world. But it also impacted writers, artists and painters in a multitude of ways. One of which is now helping us understand how the future is going to look. In the fourth episode of Our Changing World: Stories of Climate Change, Utsav crisscrosses from Mt. Ijen in Indonesia to Athens in Greece, to uncover a phenomenon which could change how our world actually looks in the future. To understand more about the intersection of art and travel, check out the following Ep 5: Art does not have to be boring (https://bit.ly/3mOPVVu) Ep 13: Beauty of Uzbekistan and the geometry box (https://bit.ly/3ovrcqS) Ep 15: Vincent Van Gogh and Uzbekistan (https://bit.ly/2TtkCTB) Ep 56: Indonesia to Italy: Art unravels climate change (https://bit.ly/32cakM6) 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.

Oct 29, 2020 • 7min
Indonesia to Italy: Art unravels climate change
In 1993, Dario Camuffo and Giovanni Sturaro started looking at the paintings of two 18th century landscape artists from Italy. However, Camuffo and Sturaro weren't art critics or artists themselves, they were climate scientists. And their interest was purely scientific. But what exactly was it that interested them in the paintings of Venice? In the fourth episode of Our Changing World: Stories of Climate Change, Utsav takes you to a museum in Venice, the labs of scientists and how the use of an ancient lighting technique is helping them map the trajectory of climate change, answering a very real question: How quickly is Venice sinking? To understand more about the intersection of art and travel, check out the following Ep 5: Art does not have to be boring (https://bit.ly/2Jeq22U) Ep 13: Beauty of Uzbekistan and the geometry box (https://bit.ly/3ovrcqS) Ep 15: Vincent Van Gogh and Uzbekistan (https://bit.ly/2TtkCTB) 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.

Oct 22, 2020 • 7min
Paneveggio, Northern Italy: Disapperaring Violins and a Silent City
In January 2019, the city of Cremona in Italy went silent for 5 weeks, for a rather unique reason. But for that, we need to go back over 300 years, to follow the work of a man who created some of the most prized violins in human history - The Stradivarius, the most expensive one being sold for 20 Million dollars. In the third episode of Our Changing World: Stories of Climate Change, Utsav takes you to the forests of Peneveggio in Northern Italy, and how climate change is impacting classical music, and why did the town of Cremona go silent. Join him as he shows us an unlikely and unimagined side of climate change. 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.

Oct 15, 2020 • 7min
Kiribati, Oceania: Weightlifting, Refugees and a Vanishing Country
In the 2016 Rio Olympics, a wrestler from Kiribati celebrated his performance. But he had not won a medal. In the same year, another man from Kiribati filed a case against the New Zealand government at the UN Human rights council. What do these two men, from the tiny island nation of Kiribati have in common? In the second episode of Our Changing World: Stories of Climate Change, Utsav takes you to Kiribati and asks a pertinent question: How does climate change impact poorer nations? Join him as he busts myths about climate change, against the backdrop of a vanishing nation. 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.

Oct 8, 2020 • 8min
Aral Sea, Karakalpakstan: Surviving the Armageddon
What happens when an action from 100 years ago has a profound, unimaginable impact today? How does a sea the size of Himachal Pradesh or the entirety of Croatia simply disappear? If this sounds like science fiction, this week, Utsav takes you to Karakalpakastan, an autonomous republic within Uzbekistan, which is a glimpse of the world ravaged by climate change. This kicks off a new series: Our Changing World: Stories of Climate Change, where we travel to the remote and not so remote parts of the world, understanding how climate change is impacting us in ways we have not imagined. Find more travel stories on #PostcardsFromNowhere with Utsav Mamoria. Check out the entire series of Uzbekistan episodes: Ep. 13: Beauty Of Uzbekistan & The Geometry Box (https://bit.ly/36DthdS) Ep. 14: Melons of Samarkand (https://bit.ly/34C0t2C) Ep. 15: Vincent van Gogh and Uzbekistan (https://bit.ly/3nnI3v7) Ep. 16: Secrets of Doors (https://bit.ly/2SDazus) Ep. 17: Train Journeys and Humanity - Part 1 (https://bit.ly/34Ek0zM) Ep. 18: Train Journeys and Humanity - Part 2 (https://bit.ly/3lngfoQ) Ep. 19: World's Most Popular Snack (https://bit.ly/30H8pyJ) 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.

Oct 1, 2020 • 7min
What's in a name - Ask Africa
In 1840, a Scottish man, David Livingstone arrived in Africa at the age of 27, and went on to become the greatest explorers of the continent, discovering the Victoria falls in current day Zimbabwe. However, his naming of the Victoria falls was only a precursor to what the continent had to see in the coming century. This week, Utsav takes you on a rapid history of names in Africa, and helps you decode the reasons why renaming places is a complicated, slippery issue. Tune in, as we sweep through Nigeria in the West, Sierra Leone in the east to Bombay and Allahabad in India and understand the politics of renaming places. 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.

Sep 24, 2020 • 7min
North Sikkim - The Trip that Wasn't?
How often have you waited to take a trip, and it does not happen? For the last 5 years, Utsav had been wanting to see Gurudongmar lake in North Sikkim. Just before the pandemic hit, he made his second attempt - but was he successful. This week, tune in, as Utsav documents his struggle to reach a place where the water does not freeze even at -30 degrees, and along the way stumbles upon a legend like no other. 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.