Deviate

“Gun owners love their children too and don’t like this situation either.” – Dave Cullen

Dave Cullen (@DaveCullen) is a journalist and the New York Times best-selling author of Columbine and Parkland. Dave has written for such publications as Vanity Fair, the New York Times, and Buzzfeed, and is known for his journalism on school shootings.

In this episode of Deviate, Rolf and Dave talk about the myths surrounding school shootings and common misconceptions within journalism (2:00); the response to Parkland and how Dave became a professionalized public-shooting expert (14:00); and gun control in America (30:00).

Notable Links:

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 [email protected].

“Some of the most character-building and hilarious stories come from situations that did not necessarily work out according to plan.” – Sarah Von Bargen

Sarah Von Bargen (@yesandyesblog) is a writer, teacher, social media consultant, and course-creator. For more about Sarah, check out https://yesandyes.org/, where she is editor-in-chief, or her Instagram. 

In this episode of Deviate, Rolf and Sarah talk about personality types and aligning of values (3:00); why traveling light is important (9:00); Sarah’s most commonly received travel-related questions, and navigating the fear of travel (28:00); advice for female travelers (41:00); and taking the experience of travel back home with you (56:00).

Notable Links:

This episode of Deviate is brought to you by Tortuga Backpacks, which set the standard for the best, most durable, organized, and comfortable travel backpacks. Tortuga products also include daypacks, duffels, and other travel accessories, which are all made with the traveler in mind and have been featured by Wirecutter, The New York Times, Travel + Leisure, Business Insider, Carryology, and many other industry outlets.

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 [email protected].

“Enjoy reallocating your energy into the experience [when you travel with no bags], because experience is the medium of our lives.” – Jonathan Yevin

Jonathan Yevin is a travel writer known for his minimalist approach to traveling. He is recognized as a pioneer of “no-baggage” travel, having embarked on many voyages around the world with only a passport, money, phone, and toothbrush. He has written for Rough Guides, Fodor’s, Frommer’s, Conde Nast Traveler, Outside, Matador Travel, and been profiled by Lonely Planet, Financial Times, U.S. News & World Report, Travel & Leisure, Details and Maxim. 

In this episode of Deviate, Rolf starts by speaking with show producer Justin Glow about their experiences together in traveling with no luggage in 2010 (3:00) before interviewing Jonathan Yevin about his first trip without baggage and the difficulties he faced (12:00); his basic no-baggage “kit” and what not to bring (21:00); the philosophical underpinning of his minimalist travel approach (43:00); and strategies and tips for people getting started with travel minimalism (48:00).

Notable Links:

This episode of Deviate is brought to you by Tortuga Backpacks, which set the standard for the best, most durable, organized, and comfortable travel backpacks. Tortuga products also include daypacks, duffels, and other travel accessories, which are all made with the traveler in mind and have been featured by Wirecutter, The New York Times, Travel + Leisure, Business Insider, Carryology, and many other industry outlets.

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 [email protected].

“The secret of the bucket list is that what’s on it doesn’t matter, because the doors that will open up once you’re out looking for your bucket list item will be more amazing than anything you could have dreamt up at home.” – Rolf Potts

Sean Keener (@SEKeener) is the Cofounder and CEO of the BootsnAll Travel Network, a travel media network focused on planning complex, multi-stop, round-the-world travel. He is also the Chairman of Airtreks, a travel network specializing in multi-stop international travel. 

In this episode of Deviate, Rolf reads his essay “5 ways indie travel has changed (and stayed the same) since 1999” (8:00) before speaking with Sean about how travel has changed over the past 20 years and the impact of technology (24:00); the benefits of travel and the importance of failure (48:00); and photography and the selfie generation (54:00).

Notable Links:

This episode of Deviate is brought to you by Tortuga Backpacks, which set the standard for the best, most durable, organized, and comfortable travel backpacks. Tortuga products also include daypacks, duffels, and other travel accessories, which are all made with the traveler in mind and have been featured by Wirecutter, The New York Times, Travel + Leisure, Business Insider, Carryology, and many other industry outlets.

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 [email protected].

“The challenge is that we have to become philosophers ourselves, in a way. We have to learn to ask better questions and more questions than we had to before.” – Monica McCarthy

Monica McCarthy (@MissMMcCarthy) is an actress, writer, and host of The Happier Hour podcast and live show, which aims to make philosophy useful and accessible. For more about Monica, you can check our her website or watch her TedX talk, Philosophy: The Life Hack of the Future.

In this episode of Deviate, Rolf speaks with Monica about the “definition” of philosophy (3:00); where people should start when seeking to embrace philosophy (16:00); travel as a metaphor for discussing philosophy (22:00); Western philosophy and common assumptions about it (32:00); and key takeaways from Monica’s podcast (50:00).

Notable Links:

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 [email protected].

“In the end, you’ll have this [psychedelic] experience that people paint about, people write about, and musicians compose songs about.” – Ari Shaffir

Ari Shaffir (@AriShaffir) is a comedian, writer, podcaster, and actor. He is the current host of the Skeptic Tank podcast. For more information on Ari, visit his website, where you can read the Shroomfest Primer discussed in this episode.

In the Season Two premiere of Deviate, Rolf reflects on his first psilocybin mushroom experience with Ari (13:00); his view on how mushrooms enhance appreciation of travel and living in the moment (59:00); the reaction to one’s surroundings on psychedelics, and how setting matters (1:19:00); the language of psychedelics and journaling (1:30:00); and the idea of performance, along with final reflections (2:06:00).

Notable Links:

This episode of Deviate is brought to you by Tortuga Backpacks, which set the standard for the best, most durable, organized, and comfortable travel backpacks. Tortuga products also include daypacks, duffels, and other travel accessories, which are all made with the traveler in mind and have been featured by Wirecutter, The New York Times, Travel + Leisure, Business Insider, Carryology, and many other industry outlets.

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 [email protected].

“The hashtag level of social media discourse can be really frustrating. It tends to bend narratives toward the hashtag slogan. But when we start sweeping everything into the same category, we begin to trivialize the core issue.” – Rolf Potts

Ari Shaffir (@AriShaffir) is a comedian, writer, podcaster, and actor. He is the current host of the podcast Skeptic Tank.

In the Season 1 Finale of Deviate, Rolf and Ari resume their conversation about magic mushrooms (7:00); discuss Ari’s strange bets and the experience of panhandling for money (17:00); reflect on lessons learned from the past year of podcasting (32:00); discuss the shortcomings of travel television (55:00); and explore self-mythology and society’s over-simplification of complex topics (1:07:00).

This episode of Deviate is brought to you by AirTreks, an industry leader in multi-stop international travel. If you’ve ever planned a trip with multiple stops, you know that finding the right flights can be difficult. Airtreks can help with your international flight planning, specializing in complex routes with up to 25 stops. The Airtreks website offers suggested pre-planned travel itineraries to help you get started, and can customize to fit your journey.

Visit https://www.airtreks.com/deviate/ and get a signed copy of Vagabonding when you book your first trip with Airtreks.

Deviate episodes mentioned

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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 [email protected].

“To me the term Beat was like, “Hey man I’m beat,” after all night on Benzedrine. I never considered myself a Beat. But my first book was published by Ferlinghetti and they all arrived at my doorstep when I lived at Gough Street, so I guess I became a Beat by osmosis.” —Charles Plymell

Charles Plymell is a poet, novelist, and small press publisher. Plymell has collaborated with and published many poets, writers, and artists, including principals of the Beat Generation. Benzedrine Highway, published in 2013, is an anthology of his best-known poetry and prose, including excerpts from his 1971 City Lights novel The Last of the Moccasins.

In this episode of Deviate, Charles and his wife Pamela Beach Plymell discuss their memories of (and interactions with) Jack Kerouac (4:55); Charley’s upbringing in Dust Bowl-era Kansas, and his early road-trips to California (11:05); life as a young hood and hipster in Wichita (14:40); meeting and interacting with the Beats in San Francisco (19:20); rooming with Neal Cassady and Allen Ginsberg when Cassady was trying to write his own book (23:55); hosting Ginsberg during the poet’s Wichita Vortex Sutra journey to Kansas in 1966 (30:50); publishing the first issue of R. Crumb’s Zap Comix just before the Summer of Love (35:35); working at a teamster on the San Francisco docks, and getting his own novel published (39:50); and interacting with William S. Burroughs in the later years of the author’s life (46:00).

For more information on Charley, check out his fan page at http://hipsterfansite.blogspot.com/.

Notable Links:

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 [email protected].

“How do we become who we are in the world? We ask the world to teach us.” – Pam Houston

Pam Houston (@pam_houston) is an author and professor of English at the University of California, Davis. Her books include Cowboys Are My Weakness and Contents May Have Shifted, with her latest, Deep Creek, set for release in January 2019.

In this episode of Deviate, Pam discusses her interactions with writing students (2:30); living an non-traditional life (16:30); developing a notion of home (25:00); and how Pam’s life on the ranch affects her writing (34:00). The episode concludes with Rolf reading his short essay “Creating a new sense of home is part of the travel process.”

For more information on Pam, check out her website at https://pamhouston.wordpress.com/

Notable Links:

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 [email protected].

“I was unaware of my fear’s existence until the moment of its first absence.” – Andrew McCarthy

Andrew McCarthy (@AndrewTMcCarthy), who rose to fame as an actor during the 1980s John Hughes teen-movie era, is a television director, travel writer, and author of such books as The Longest Way Home and Just Fly Away.

In this episode of Deviate, Andrew discusses his transition into travel writing (3:00); his journey on the Camino de Santiago and his relationship with fear (10:30); finding his voice as a writer, and the importance of asking for help on the road (21:00); balancing his career in entertainment business with his career as a writer (41:00); and how travel has changed through the years (50:00).

Notable Links:

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 [email protected].