In this episode we talk about (sane) measures people can take to to prepare for temporary interruptions in normal society due to climate-related disasters, civil unrest, power grid failures, government instability and, well, name a thing. 

Joshua Samuel Brown is the author of Spinning Karma (a Buddhist Comedy), Formosa Moon, Vignettes of Taiwan, How not to Avoid Jet Lag (and other tales of travel madness). He's also co-authored thirteen guidebooks for Lonely Planet. Visit him online at www.josambro.com.

Here are a few of the books from climate futurist Kim Stanley Robinson Joshua mentioned:

New York 2140

2312

Green Mars, Red Mars, Blue Mars trilogies

Please support this show by using the affiliate links above. Thank you.

This was an unexpectedly enlightening conversation about dating during covid (and winter). Callie had a bunch of suggestions for apps, friend set-ups, making Zoom dates less awkward and much more that had never occurred to me. I hope you learn as much as I did.

Callie McMillan is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist at the Relationship Therapy Center, a place dedicated to helping people grow in health and happiness in their important relationships. Through the integration of empirically informed couples therapy and a willingness to go beyond the normal bounds of couples therapy, Callie and her colleagues tailor their services to the needs of each individual client and relationship. Callie got her master's degree at the University of Wisconsin-Stout where she studied sex therapy in addition to systemic family and relationship therapy.

In this episode, I talk to Naomi Kritzer about the Minneapolis Department of Public Safety amendment to the city charter, AKA “defund the police,” that the people of Minneapolis will be voting on in November. We get into the history and the details of the proposed amendment (and why the Minneapolis city council currently can't share those details) and straighten out the misconceptions being paraded through the media as the country watches.

Naomi Kritzer is a science fiction writer who's also been writing about politics since sometime in the early 2000s. She started out just researching her own ballot, then sharing her notes with her LiveJournal friends, and expanded because people were interested in her opinions. She emphasizes that she has no particular qualification for this beyond strong opinions, solid skills at Internet research, and a blog. She lived in Minneapolis from 1995 through 2012, and now lives in Saint Paul. She has two children, one in high school and one in college, and currently has four cats.

Naomi's books:

Catfishing on CatNet

Chaos on CatNet

Both books are usually available from Dreamhaven and from the current mail-order-only incarnation of Uncle Hugo’s.

In this episode, we talk about the delicate world of travel media (i.e. being travel influencers) in the age of COVID. How it stated, how it's going and how they managed to keep working through most of it. 

Jenna and Micah Kvidt are photographers and videographers who travel the world in search of adventure which they feature on the travel blog Wander The Map. One of their favorite things to do is to capture stories, both visual and written, through the people, cultures and destinations they visit. They're also in the process of launching Kvidt Creative, which will focus on their commercial video and photographer work which I can say from firsthand experience is fantastic.

Wander The Map (website)

YouTube

Instagram

Twitter

Facebook

In this episode, I chat with Sheila Scarborough about her recent blog post "Will travel ever be the same?" We also discuss why social responsibility is becoming a factor for leisure travelers and how destination marketing organizations are countering over-tourism. 

Sheila Scarborough is a speaker, trainer, and writer specializing in tourism, travel, and social media. Along with Leslie McLellan, she's part of the Tourism Currents team, offering online and in-person training in social media marketing for tourism, hospitality, and economic development.

She co-founded and still writes for the award-winning Perceptive Travel blog, helps run #tourismchat on Twitter and Facebook, serves on the Advisory Board for the South by Southwest conference and also serves on both the Education Committee for the Texas Association of CVBs and the Legislative Committee for the Texas Downtown Association.

A U.S. Navy veteran and Navy Master Training Specialist, Sheila is an NHRA drag racing fan because there's one winner, one loser, and no whining.

Sheila's Social media chanels:

Twitter

Facebook

Instagram

In this episode, Jarrod and I talk about the ups and downs of van life, loneliness, helpful resources, the current van building bubble and how to get decent internet in your van.

Jarrod Tocci is a YouTube content creator, a comedian and one of those crazy people who decided to live in a self built van. He's a proud enabler for people who are not only considering van life, but also considering building their own van homes with no previous experience, myself included, which sounds like it's equal parts exciting and ripe for disaster. His YouTube channel focuses on van life, particularly walk-through tours of other people's vans and chatting about van life in general, like how to stealth camp in a city.

Jarrod's YouTube channel

In this episode, Tim and I discuss the robustness of travel blogging in the post-pandemic, incipient-climate crisis world, in addition to all the unsexy aspects of being a travel blogger. Also, is it too late to start a profitable travel blog? 

Tim Leffel is an award-winning travel writer, editor, and blogger from the USA who lives in central Mexico. He is the author of multiple books, including Travel Writing 2.0, The World's Cheapest Destinations, and A Better Life for Half the Price. He has run the Cheapest Destinations Blog since 2003 and publishes the Perceptive Travel online magazine and blog, among others. He belongs to several professional organizations and is the North America Conference Director for TBEX, the longest-running conference for travel bloggers. You can find links to has many projects from his portfolio site at TimLeffel.com.

Tim's books:

A Better Life for Half the Price: How to thrive on less money in the cheapest places to live

The World's Cheapest Destinations: 26 Countries Where Your Travel Money is Worth a Fortune

Make Your Travel Dollars Worth a Fortune: The Contrarian Traveler's Guide to Getting More for Less

The Statesider is a wonderful email newsletter that shares curated and original stories about America and Americana, including many topics you didn't know you cared about 10 seconds earlier. It's a treasure trove of great storytelling.

Doug Mack is a Minneapolis-based writer and the author of The Not-Quite States of America, published by Norton in 2017. He also wrote the super fun Europe on Five Wrong Turns a Day.

He has written for The New York Times, Slate, and Time. He also writes Snack Stack, a newsletter about snacks from around the world.

In the grand tradition of announcing major life developments on social media, I have TWO major life developments that I'd like to share with you. Now that I think about it, it's more like two-and-a-half major life developments.

Most of you will only really care about one of these developments, but when has that ever stopped social media stunts like this? Never, that's when.

OK, I'll give you a hint: Please buy my books. They have been well received (which is the least egotistical way I've come up with to say that they kick ass) and the passive revenue from the royalties is going to be more important than ever. 

Backpacking with Dracula: On the Trail of Vlad The Impaler and the Vampire He Inspired

Throwing Up: Notes from 35 Years of Juggling

The First (Failed) Travel Food Show

DISCLAIMER: The links above are affiliate links. Please use them, even if you end up buying something else on Amazon. [bursts into tears] It doesn't cost you anything and it helps me out a lot.

The pandemic means details are ever-changing, but consumer travel expert Johnny Jet and I talked about travel options for 2021. We cover domestic and international travel, the current state of flying and car rental and why going somewhere far away isn't a requirement for a vacation. 

Johnny Jet has traveled over 100,000 miles a year since starting his newsletter in 1995 and has visited over 70 countries. He has hosted a television special on The Travel Channel and was named the original Travel Influencer by Forbes. He now appears every Saturday on Leo Laporte’s The Tech Guy Show talking about travel and technology. 

Subscribe to Johnny's incredible (and free!) travel newsletter here.