Aziz Abu Sarah is a peace builder, cultural educator, entrepreneur, author and international speaker. He’s also a Palestinian man who lost his brother to the Israeli soldiers and who is currently working with his Israeli partner, Maoz Inon, to imagine a new vision for both Palestinians and Israelis. 

If there is only one episode you will tune in to this season, let it be this one, because it will give you an idea of how to talk to people who don’t have the same views as you when it comes to Palestine - Israel, one of the most important issues and injustices of our time.

Aziz is a National Geographic Explorer and a TED Fellow who co-founded Mejdi Tours, a travel company that takes people to places like Palestine/Israel, Northern Ireland, and South Africa and presents multiple narratives about those places. His recent efforts with Maoz Inon include a Ted talk titled A Palestinian And Israeli, Face To Face, and meeting Pope Francis in time for the G7 Summit. 

What you’ll learn in this episode:

• What it's like to meet with Pope Francis
• How Aziz stays engaged in the face of pain and loss
• A Palestinian and an Israeli joining forces
• Aziz tells the story of losing his brother and becoming a peacemaker
• What it's like living under the Israeli apartheid structure
• What Aziz wants people to see when they see Palestinians
• The power of poetry in Palestinian culture
• Mejdi Tours and the Dual Narrative method
• Seeing beyond tourism stereotypes in Egypt
• The asymmetry between Palestine and Israel
• The crux of Aziz's peacemaking approach
• Moving beyond pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli labels
• Fighting fear with hope
• What the peacemaking vision in Palestine and Israel looks like
• How you can get involved in the peacemaking process
• Why Aziz thinks hope is an action

• Learn more about Aziz on his website
• Read Aziz's Ted Ideas story, How I Learned to Forgive My Brother’s Murderers
• Check out the Ted Talk by Aziz and Maoz, A Palestinian And An Israeli, Face To Face
• Read Al Jazeera op-ed by Aziz and Maoz, When It Comes to Israel-Palestine, True Naivety Is Believing in Endless War
• Learn more about Mejdi Tours
• Learn more about Land For All
• Get involved at InterAct
• Learn more about the Palestinian poet Samih al-Qasim
• Follow Aziz Abu Sarah on Instagram
• Follow Maoz Inon on Instagram
• Check out Aziz's book, Crossing Boundaries: A Traveler's Guide to World Peace

Get more information at: Going Places website

Going Places is a reader-supported platform. Get membership perks like a monthly group call with Yulia at goingplacesmedia.com!

For more BTS of this podcast follow @goingplacesmedia on Instagram and check out our videos on YouTube!

Please head over to Apple Podcasts and SUBSCRIBE to the show. If you enjoy this conversation, please share it with others on social and don’t forget to tag us @goingplacesmedia!

And show us some love, if you have a minute, by rating Going Places or leaving us a review wherever you listen. You’ll be helping us to bend the arc of algorithms towards our community — thank you!

Going Places with Yulia Denisyuk is a show that sparks a better understanding of people and places near and far by fostering a space for real conversations to occur. Each week, we sit down with travelers, journalists, creators, and people living and working in destinations around the world. Hosted by Yulia Denisyuk, an award-winning travel journalist, photographer, and writer who's worked with National Geographic, The New York Times, BBC Travel, and more. 

Learn more about our show at goingplacesmedia.com.

Beth Santos is a passionate entrepreneur and community builder who many women in the travel industry will recognize as the CEO and founder of Wanderful, an international collective of travelers and travel content creators on a mission to make travel better for all women.

Beth is the author of WANDER WOMAN: How to Reclaim Your Space, Find Your Voice, and Travel the World (2024). In this conversation, we discuss the stories that make this book so special, the challenge of not only writing , but also marketing and promoting the book, breaking through the noise, and what we can do to reclaim our space as women in travel, a true majority in the travel industry that still gets treated as a niche.

We also talk about AI and its impact to our fragile storytelling and media eco-system. I try to surprise Beth by asking my ChatGPT bot questions about Beth and her work and prompting the bot to impersonate Beth. What we learn about AI in the process is fascinating!

What you’ll learn in this episode:

• Beth reads an excerpt from Wander Woman
• The challenge of writing a book
• Rethinking the traveler versus tourist narrative and the privilege of travel
• Reclaiming our space as women in travel
• Book publicity and the fairy godmother complex
• Yulia talks to AI about Beth
• The impact of AI on travel creators
• How Wanderful plans to use AI 
• Beth responds to ChatGPT impersonating Beth
• Is there a digital space that is safe to build our businesses in?
• Celebrating 11 years of Wanderful
• Building one DEI table in travel

• Learn more about Beth on her website
• Check out Beth's book, WANDER WOMAN: How to Reclaim Your Space, Find Your Voice, and Travel the World
• Learn more about Wanderful, a community of travelers and content creators redefining travel for women worldwide
• Get your free solo travel guide from Wanderful
• Check out WITS, a conference for women in travel
• Listen to Beth's podcast, The 85 Percent
• Follow Beth on Instagram
• Follow Wanderful on Instagram
• Check out Beyond Guilt Trips: Mindful Travel in an Unequal World, a book by Dr. Anu Taranath
• Check out Black Travel Alliance
• Check out Native Women Wilderness

Get more information at: Going Places website

Going Places is a reader-supported platform. Get membership perks like a monthly group call with Yulia at goingplacesmedia.com!

For more BTS of this podcast follow @goingplacesmedia on Instagram and check out our videos on YouTube!

Please head over to Apple Podcasts and SUBSCRIBE to the show. If you enjoy this conversation, please share it with others on social and don’t forget to tag us @goingplacesmedia!

And show us some love, if you have a minute, by rating Going Places or leaving us a review wherever you listen. You’ll be helping us to bend the arc of algorithms towards our community — thank you!

Going Places with Yulia Denisyuk is a show that sparks a better understanding of people and places near and far by fostering a space for real conversations to occur. Each week, we sit down with travelers, journalists, creators, and people living and working in destinations around the world. Hosted by Yulia Denisyuk, an award-winning travel journalist, photographer, and writer who's worked with National Geographic, The New York Times, BBC Travel, and more. 

Learn more about our show at goingplacesmedia.com.

Villain hitters. Fortune tellers. Bamboo cage makers. Meet the people keeping Hong Kong's traditions alive.

Lindsay Varty is an author and former professional rugby player from Hong Kong who writes about Cantonese culture and history in an attempt to generate a greater love and understanding of her home for herself and her readers. So today on the show, we're traveling to Hong Kong with Lindsay and me.

Lindsay is the author of several books including Hong Kong Slang, Welly the Wild Boar and the local best-seller, Sunset Survivors, which features a collection of photographs and interviews with local artisans who work in some of the city's oldest, most traditional trades.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

• Meet the keepers of some of Hong Kong's disappearing traditions like villain hitters, fortune tellers, and bamboo pole noodle makers
• Why some Hong Kong artisans don't want more sales
• Is growth always good?
• What Hong Kong leaves behind when it moves forward
• Hong Kong's real estate problem
• How to avoid the cliches of Hong Kong
• Looking for identity and belonging as third-culture kids
• Hong Kong's walking tours with Lindsay
• Lindsay's upcoming book on third culture kids

• Learn more about Lindsay's work on her website
• Check out Lindsay's book, Sunset Survivors
• Follow Lindsay on Instagram
• Follow Lindsay's Sunset Survivors project on Instagram
• Check out VoiceMap
• Check out The Impossible City: A Hong Kong Memoir by Karen Cheung

Get more information at: Going Places website

Going Places is a reader-supported platform. Get membership perks like a monthly group call with Yulia at goingplacesmedia.com!

For more BTS of this podcast follow @goingplacesmedia on Instagram and check out our videos on YouTube!

Please head over to Apple Podcasts and SUBSCRIBE to the show. If you enjoy this conversation, please share it with others on social and don’t forget to tag us @goingplacesmedia!

And show us some love, if you have a minute, by rating Going Places or leaving us a review wherever you listen. You’ll be helping us to bend the arc of algorithms towards our community — thank you!

Going Places with Yulia Denisyuk is a show that sparks a better understanding of people and places near and far by fostering a space for real conversations to occur. Each week, we sit down with travelers, journalists, creators, and people living and working in destinations around the world. Hosted by Yulia Denisyuk, an award-winning travel journalist, photographer, and writer who's worked with National Geographic, The New York Times, BBC Travel, and more. 

Learn more about our show at goingplacesmedia.com.

Today on the show, I’m sharing with you an episode that first came out last September, in which the table is turned on me and I am, for once, in the guest seat, as my friend and podcast producer Noelia Sanchez interviews me about Jordan, one of my favorite places on Earth.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

• The origin story of my relationship with Jordan
• Yulia's favorite places in Jordan
• What people get wrong about Jordan and the Middle East
• What first time travelers to Jordan should see and experience
• Yulia's group trip to Jordan in Oct 2024

Original Air Date: Sep 20, 2023.

• Join me this Fall on a 10-day trip to Jordan
• Read my CN Traveler article about traveling to Jordan this year
• Check out Noelia's company, Noteworthy Lab

Get more information at: Going Places website

Going Places is a reader-supported platform. Get membership perks like a monthly group call with Yulia at goingplacesmedia.com!

For more BTS of this podcast follow @goingplacesmedia on Instagram and check out our videos on YouTube!

Please head over to Apple Podcasts and SUBSCRIBE to the show. If you enjoy this conversation, please share it with others on social and don’t forget to tag us @goingplacesmedia!

And show us some love, if you have a minute, by rating Going Places or leaving us a review wherever you listen. You’ll be helping us to bend the arc of algorithms towards our community — thank you!

Going Places with Yulia Denisyuk is a show that sparks a better understanding of people and places near and far by fostering a space for real conversations to occur. Each week, we sit down with travelers, journalists, creators, and people living and working in destinations around the world. Hosted by Yulia Denisyuk, an award-winning travel journalist, photographer, and writer who's worked with National Geographic, The New York Times, BBC Travel, and more. 

Learn more about our show at goingplacesmedia.com.

Today on the show: Part 2 of our conversation with Nada Raphael, a journalist, storyteller, and traveler based in Beirut, who, together with her partner Joelle Sfeir has co-founded Tourleb, a socially responsible tour operator that aims to promote local, women-owned and family operated businesses while changing the narrative about Lebanon.  

This is Part 2 of our two-part episode.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

• The origins of Lebanon's joie de vivre, creativity, and resilience
• How Beirut is doing after the blast of 2020
• Why making plans in Lebanon is impossible
• Must-see experiences for a first-time traveler to Lebanon
• Why Nada loves Tripoli
• Walking the Lebanon Mountain Trail
• Exploring Lebanon through dishes like kibbeh and freekeh
• Women traveling solo in Lebanon

• Check out the TourLeb website
• Nada's book, Hyphen Islam Christianity
• Joe Sacco's Gaza comic book
• Wanderful's Lebanon chapter announcement
• Follow TourLeb on Instagram

Get more information at: Going Places website

Going Places is a reader-supported platform. Get membership perks like a monthly group call with Yulia at goingplacesmedia.com!

For more BTS of this podcast follow @goingplacesmedia on Instagram and check out our videos on YouTube!

Please head over to Apple Podcasts and SUBSCRIBE to the show. If you enjoy this conversation, please share it with others on social and don’t forget to tag us @goingplacesmedia!

And show us some love, if you have a minute, by rating Going Places or leaving us a review wherever you listen. You’ll be helping us to bend the arc of algorithms towards our community — thank you!

Going Places with Yulia Denisyuk is a show that sparks a better understanding of people and places near and far by fostering a space for real conversations to occur. Each week, we sit down with travelers, journalists, creators, and people living and working in destinations around the world. Hosted by Yulia Denisyuk, an award-winning travel journalist, photographer, and writer who's worked with National Geographic, The New York Times, BBC Travel, and more. 

Learn more about our show at goingplacesmedia.com.

Nada Raphael is a Lebanese journalist, storyteller, and traveler, who, together with her partner Joelle Sfeir has co-founded Tourleb, a socially responsible tour operator that aims to promote local, women-owned and family operated businesses while changing the narrative about Lebanon.  Get ready to travel to Lebanon with Nada and me and dismantle some myths about it while we’re at it. 

This is Part 1 of our two-part episode and next week, we’ll share Part 2 of our Lebanon conversation with Nada.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

• The complex narratives and histories of Lebanon
• How Nada’s book project led to the eventual launch of Tourleb
• Starting a new kind of tourism in Lebanon
• What the west gets wrong about the Middle East
• Nada unpacks the statement "It's complicated"
• Dispelling the myths and misconceptions about traveling to Lebanon
• Is it safe to travel to Lebanon now?

• Check out the TourLeb website
• Nada's book, Hyphen Islam Christianity
• Joe Sacco's Gaza comic book
• Wanderful's Lebanon chapter announcement
• Follow TourLeb on Instagram

Get more information at: Going Places website

Going Places is a reader-supported platform. Get membership perks like a monthly group call with Yulia at goingplacesmedia.com!

For more BTS of this podcast follow @goingplacesmedia on Instagram and check out our videos on YouTube!

Please head over to Apple Podcasts and SUBSCRIBE to the show. If you enjoy this conversation, please share it with others on social and don’t forget to tag us @goingplacesmedia!

And show us some love, if you have a minute, by rating Going Places or leaving us a review wherever you listen. You’ll be helping us to bend the arc of algorithms towards our community — thank you!

Going Places with Yulia Denisyuk is a show that sparks a better understanding of people and places near and far by fostering a space for real conversations to occur. Each week, we sit down with travelers, journalists, creators, and people living and working in destinations around the world. Hosted by Yulia Denisyuk, an award-winning travel journalist, photographer, and writer who's worked with National Geographic, The New York Times, BBC Travel, and more. 

Learn more about our show at goingplacesmedia.com.

Imani Bashir is a world-traveling storyteller, mother, and advocate who's lived in five countries across four continents, including Egypt, Poland, and Malaysia. Her work focuses on culturally immersive social media content highlighting various atrocities and initiatives to support marginalized communities worldwide. Get ready to be immersed in this important topic: how do we travel in a way that is generative (to use the term on everyone’s minds right now), and not destructive?

Imani has worked with The New York Times, Cosmo, The Washington Post, Travel + Leisure, and many others. She just took on a new role as the director of communications at BEAM, which stands for Black Emotional And Mental Health collective.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

• Imani's experience of being a Black digital nomad
• How living abroad shaped Imani’s global citizenship
• Traveling with kids & mom culture in the US and abroad
• Travel as a way to gain empathy for immigrants
• Travel media industry’s handling of Gaza
• The ethics of press trips
• The history of Black Islam in America
• Misconceptions about Islam
• Did anything change since the murder of George Floyd?

• Learn more about Imani on her website
• Read Imani's story, Life As a Black “Digital Nomad” Isn’t the Same
• Read Imani's story, A Reflection on What It Means to Be a Black American Muslim
• Check out the work of BEAM
• Sign the Travel Industry For Palestine initiative
• Listen to the Upstream Podcast
• Follow Imani on TikTok
• Follow Imani on Instagram

Get more information at: Going Places website

Going Places is a reader-supported platform. Get membership perks like a monthly group call with Yulia at goingplacesmedia.com!

For more BTS of this podcast follow @goingplacesmedia on Instagram and check out our videos on YouTube!

Please head over to Apple Podcasts and SUBSCRIBE to the show. If you enjoy this conversation, please share it with others on social and don’t forget to tag us @goingplacesmedia!

And show us some love, if you have a minute, by rating Going Places or leaving us a review wherever you listen. You’ll be helping us to bend the arc of algorithms towards our community — thank you!

Going Places with Yulia Denisyuk is a show that sparks a better understanding of people and places near and far by fostering a space for real conversations to occur. Each week, we sit down with travelers, journalists, creators, and people living and working in destinations around the world. Hosted by Yulia Denisyuk, an award-winning travel journalist, photographer, and writer who's worked with National Geographic, The New York Times, BBC Travel, and more. 

Learn more about our show at goingplacesmedia.com.

Today, I’m sharing a story I wrote for Conde Nast Traveler called In Jordan, a Community Disrupted Awaits Travel’s Return. I traveled to Jordan this February amid the ongoing war on Gaza by the Israeli government. This story was the outcome of this trip. 

• Read Yulia's CN Traveler story, In Jordan, a Community Disrupted Awaits Travel’s Return
• Listen to Episode 113, Palestine, Orientalism, and Solidary Movements with Matt Bowles on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
• Subscribe to Yulia's Going Places newsletter to get notified about Yulia's October group trip to Jordan

Get more information at: Going Places website

Going Places is a reader-supported platform. Get membership perks like a monthly group call with Yulia at goingplacesmedia.com!

For more BTS of this podcast follow @goingplacesmedia on Instagram and check out our videos on YouTube!

Please head over to Apple Podcasts and SUBSCRIBE to the show. If you enjoy this conversation, please share it with others on social and don’t forget to tag us @goingplacesmedia!

And show us some love, if you have a minute, by rating Going Places or leaving us a review wherever you listen. You’ll be helping us to bend the arc of algorithms towards our community — thank you!

Going Places with Yulia Denisyuk is a show that sparks a better understanding of people and places near and far by fostering a space for real conversations to occur. Each week, we sit down with travelers, journalists, creators, and people living and working in destinations around the world. Hosted by Yulia Denisyuk, an award-winning travel journalist, photographer, and writer who's worked with National Geographic, The New York Times, BBC Travel, and more. 

Learn more about our show at goingplacesmedia.com.

If I could summarize this conversation with one phrase, it would be something Shannon said: “When people meet each other they find out that the other is not so other.”

Shannon Stowell is the CEO of the Adventure Travel Trade Association, an organization for travel industry partners that believes travel can be a powerful force for good in the world. Shannon has spent over 30 years working in adventure travel, e-commerce, outdoor retail, and environmental science. Shannon and I met in person on a trip to Jordan this February, and we immediately connected around our shared belief about what travel could be. 

In this conversation, Shannon takes us to Kurdistan, an autonomous region in Northern Iraq, where Shannon traveled with his son in 2017. You’ll learn about the meaning of the Kurdish saying “The Kurds have no friends but the mountains,” and what it feels like to visit the Yazidi sacred village of Lalish. We also discuss Shannon’s must-see places for people like me who have already traveled a lot, the Tomorrow’s Air initiative led by ATTA, why Shannon believes travel is a privilege, not a right, and what is a soft ambassador.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

• How Shannon defines adventure travel
• Shannon’s trip to Kurdistan in 2017
• What living off the grid in nature is like
• What Maslow's hierarchy of needs has to do with modern depression
• Must-see places for people who've already traveled a lot
• The impact of media on destinations
• Meeting the current moment: travelers' role in times of strife
• The story of “To kill a white person”
• What gives Shannon hope right now

• Learn more about the Adventure Travel Trade Association
• Check out Explore Mesopotamia tours in Iraqi Kurdistan
• Read The New York Times story about Kurdistan
• Check out Shannon's book, Riding The Hula Hula to the Arctic Ocean
• Learn more about the Tomorrow’s Air initiative
• Follow ATTA on Instagram

Get more information at: Going Places website

Going Places is a reader-supported platform. Get membership perks like a monthly group call with Yulia at goingplacesmedia.com!

For more BTS of this podcast follow @goingplacesmedia on Instagram and check out our videos on YouTube!

Please head over to Apple Podcasts and SUBSCRIBE to the show. If you enjoy this conversation, please share it with others on social and don’t forget to tag us @goingplacesmedia!

And show us some love, if you have a minute, by rating Going Places or leaving us a review wherever you listen. You’ll be helping us to bend the arc of algorithms towards our community — thank you!

Going Places with Yulia Denisyuk is a show that sparks a better understanding of people and places near and far by fostering a space for real conversations to occur. Each week, we sit down with travelers, journalists, creators, and people living and working in destinations around the world. Hosted by Yulia Denisyuk, an award-winning travel journalist, photographer, and writer who's worked with National Geographic, The New York Times, BBC Travel, and more. 

Learn more about our show at goingplacesmedia.com.

Welcome back to Going Places!

Matt Bowles is a veteran location-independent entrepreneur and host of The Maverick Show. I recently sat down with Matt to do a two-part series for his show. Matt has been doing activism work in solidarity with the Palestinian movement for the past 25 years, and in this conversation, we cover how he and I first became aware of the Palestinian struggle and movement, Orientalism, the asymmetry of power, the student encampments currently taking over the US and the world, what activism inside solidarity movements looks like, and more. If you like this conversation with Matt, head to the Maverick Show to listen to the full two-part interview series we did on his feed. 

• Matt's story: joining the Palestinian solidarity movement
• What Orientalism looks like
• How the asymmetry of power is related to injustices around the world
• Multiple ways to become an activist

• Listen to The Maverick Show's episodes with Yulia: Episode 282: Growing up in the Soviet Union, Traveling Through Africa, and Falling in Love with Jordan and Episode 283: The “Travel Industry for Palestine” Petition, Unpacking Orientalism, and Writing Great Travel Stories
• Visit Travel Industry For Palestine to learn more
• Follow Matt on Instagram

Get more information at: Going Places website

Going Places is a reader-supported platform. Get membership perks like a monthly group call with Yulia at goingplacesmedia.com!

For more BTS of this podcast follow @goingplacesmedia on Instagram and check out our videos on YouTube!

Please head over to Apple Podcasts and SUBSCRIBE to the show. If you enjoy this conversation, please share it with others on social and don’t forget to tag us @goingplacesmedia!

And show us some love, if you have a minute, by rating Going Places or leaving us a review wherever you listen. You’ll be helping us to bend the arc of algorithms towards our community — thank you!

Going Places with Yulia Denisyuk is a show that sparks a better understanding of people and places near and far by fostering a space for real conversations to occur. Each week, we sit down with travelers, journalists, creators, and people living and working in destinations around the world. Hosted by Yulia Denisyuk, an award-winning travel journalist, photographer, and writer who's worked with National Geographic, The New York Times, BBC Travel, and more. 

Learn more about our show at goingplacesmedia.com.