The Thoughtful Travel Podcas‪t‬ Amanda Kendle

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://amzn.to/319lwbq 
Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers
Show notes: https://notaballerina.com/234

 

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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 valuable as any time in the lecture hall.

Links:
Jennifer Johnston - Travel Bug Within - https://travelbugwithin.com.au/ 
Tinsley - Travel with Tinsley - https://travelwithtinsley.com/ 
Patti Buff - https://pattibuff.wordpress.com
Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers
Show notes: https://notaballerina.com/233

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 anniversary in a typically quirky fashion but just bear with me and enjoy the tales!

 

Links:

Average podcast stats - https://www.thepodcasthost.com/planning/whats-a-good-number-of-downloads-for-a-podcast/

Grit - Angela Duckworth - https://amzn.to/3fneKr3 

Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers

Show notes: https://notaballerina.com/232

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 Twice - https://amzn.to/319lwbq
Pam’s project The Statesider - https://statesider.us/ 
Harvard’s Implicit Association Test - https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/
Article critiquing the IAT - https://www.thecut.com/2017/01/psychologys-racism-measuring-tool-isnt-up-to-the-job.html 
Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers
Show notes: https://notaballerina.com/231

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.