The Trip That Changed Me Podcast Nation

Welcome to Season 4 of The Trip That Changed Me! Our first guest of the new season is Laurie Woolever, writer, editor, public speaker, a graduate of the French Culinary Institute (now the International Culinary Center) in New York, and former assistant to Anthony Bourdain, with whom she co-wrote several books. The most recent of those books, World Travel: An Irreverent Guide, Laurie sadly had to complete alone following Bourdain’s death in 2018.
In this episode, Laurie shares memories from Sri Lanka, where she joined Bourdain (or “Tony,” as she affectionately calls him) on a shoot for the TV show “Parts Unknown.” For Laurie, this trip was part business and part pleasure; an opportunity to explore the lush island nation with her friend and mentor while working on a story about Sri Lankan home cooking, but it was especially significant because she was newly sober. Navigating triggers and travel rituals that involved alcohol was challenging, but the experience shifted Laurie’s perspective. To her surprise, the world was bigger and better without the booze. This interview is full of wonderful, personal anecdotes about Anthony Bourdain the traveler, plus loads of insider tips that food-obsessives will appreciate. 
Follow Laurie on Instagram @lauriewoolever and visit her website lauriewoolever.com to find her books and more information. Learn more about Full-Time Travel by visiting https://www.fulltimetravel.co/ and follow us on Instagram @full_time_travel. Be sure to rate, review, and follow so that you don’t miss out on travel tips, inspiration, and your potential next adventure!  

Elizabeth Becker is an award-winning journalist and author who started out as a war correspondent at The Washington Post before going on to work for public radio and The New York Times. She is also the author of three books including Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism, which was an Amazon book of the year, and You Don’t Belong Here: How Three Women Rewrote the Story of War, which won the 2022 Goldsmith Award from Harvard. But long before the achievements and accolades, Elizabeth was a graduate with a dream of visiting India, a country she’d never been to but knew a lot about thanks to her degree in South Asian Studies. In this episode, Elizabeth shares the story of the eventful year she spent living and learning in India, and how that first real travel experience would go on to shape her career and views about tourism. Buckle up, because Elizabeth has got some wild anecdotes to share!  
You can learn more about Elizabeth and purchase her books by visiting https://www.elizabethbecker.com. Learn more about Full-Time Travel by visiting fulltimetravel.co and follow us on Instagram @full_time_travel. Be sure to rate, review, and follow so that you don’t miss out on travel tips, inspiration, and your potential next adventure!  

Colin O’Brady is probably best known for being one of the world’s most recognized endurance athletes and explorers. He’s a 10-time world record holder and two-time Everest summiteer, and the first person in history to cross the continent of Antarctica solo, unsupported and completely human-powered – an experience he wrote about in his best-selling memoir The Impossible First.
In this episode, Colin shares the story of a post-college, round-the-world trip that, unfortunately, ended in tragedy. In Thailand, Colin was severely burned in an accident. His injuries were so bad that doctors believed he’d have trouble ever walking normally, but Colin proved them all wrong thanks to what he calls a “possible mindset.” 
Esme and Colin also discuss rejecting comfortable complacency, the importance of goal setting, and the concept behind his latest book The 12-Hour Walk, which aims to inspire 10 million people to take a one-day transformative journey to conquer their minds and unlock their best lives.
You can learn more about Colin by visiting https://www.colinobrady.com/. Learn more about Full-Time Travel by visiting fulltimetravel.co and follow us on Instagram @full_time_travel. Be sure to rate, review, and follow so that you don’t miss out on travel tips, inspiration, and your potential next adventure!    

Gabby Beckford is the Gen Z travel opportunity expert behind Packs Light, a content brand designed to empower others to seek risks, seize opportunity, skip debt, and see the world ASAP. Although Gabby was raised in a family of travelers, it was her first solo vacation – a backpacking trip through Iceland which she took right before starting college – that solidified her aspirations to see as much of the world as possible. Gabby is now a TEDx speaker and a travel expert whose work has been published in Travel + Leisure, National Geographic, Lonely Planet, and Huffington Post. In this episode, Gabby shares with Esme the highs and lows of her experience in Iceland and how even the terrible parts were instrumental to her personal development. Plus, how she used scholarships, grants, and contests to travel the world while in college, the transformative effects of solo travel, and how to cultivate a ‘why not me?’ mindset and go after what you want in life.  
You can find Gabby on TikTok and Instagram @packslight and visit her website packslight.com. Learn more about Full-Time Travel by visiting fulltimetravel.co and follow us on Instagram @full_time_travel. Be sure to rate, review, and follow so that you don’t miss out on travel tips, inspiration, and your potential next adventure!    

Rachel Signer was an aspiring author living in Brooklyn and cobbling together a living by freelance writing and working various jobs in hospitality when she was invited on a food and wine themed press trip to Burgundy and Paris. It was a trip that would affirm her deep appreciation for the French language, culture, cuisine, and wine – specifically, natural wine. Rachel spent the next few years following her heart, first to Paris where she dreamed of opening a bar with her best friend, and then to Australia to pursue a relationship with a natural winemaker – the story she recounts in her book, You Had Me at Pét-Nat: A Natural Wine-Soaked Memoir. As she tried to figure out which life path and which place to commit to, Rachel channeled her knowledge and her passion into launching a natural wine-themed publication, Pipette Magazine, and her own label of hand-produced natural wine, Persephone. In this episode, Rachel shares with Esme how that trip to France took her deeper into the world of wine and inspired her to move to Paris, the importance of listening to her gut and making inconvenient choices, and how a relationship with a city can be its own kind of love story. 
You can find Rachel on Instagram @rachsig and her magazine at @PipetteMagazine, and purchase her memoir wherever books are sold or by visiting her website www.rachelsigner.com/book. Learn more about Full-Time Travel by visiting fulltimetravel.co and follow us on Instagram @full_time_travel. Be sure to rate, review, and follow so that you don’t miss out on travel tips, inspiration, and your potential next adventure!    

Cheryl B. Engelhardt is a composer and songwriter whose new age, ambient music has been featured in films, ads, tv shows, and on meditation apps like Insight Timer. Cheryl began music lessons as a toddler; since then, her career has taken her all over the world but it’s always been unique places and experiences that inspire her most creative work – experiences like a nine-day, cross country train trip from New York to Los Angeles and back, during which she composed and recorded her new album, The Passenger. With nothing but a laptop and a USB keyboard, Cheryl created twelve tracks while passing incredible views and roving wildlife. In this episode, Cheryl shares the highs and lows of that journey, which served as a creative experiment and an opportunity to process grief following the recent loss of a dear friend. Plus, Esme and Cheryl discuss the magic of train travel, how being physically in motion gives us the momentum to get emotionally and creatively unstuck, and the importance of relinquishing control in travel and in life.
To learn more about Cheryl and listen to her music, visit her website www.cbemusic.com and her Instagram @cbemusic. You can purchase The Passenger on Amazon at www.cbemusic.co/amazon. Learn more about Full-Time Travel by visiting fulltimetravel.co and follow us on Instagram @full_time_travel. Be sure to rate, review, and follow so that you don’t miss out on travel tips, inspiration, and your potential next adventure!