Lost & Found with Karmen Wiid

Recorded during a monsoon evening in Delhi with chai in hand and the world quieting outside my window, I read you one of my favourite short stories - a piece I wrote when I was 22, while riding Greyhounds across the American South with an uncharged phone and a journal in my lap.

Where the Women Go is a story about grief, sisterhood, memory, and the spaces that live between dreams and forests, life and afterlife. It’s lyrical and strange and vulnerable. And it matters to me deeply.

This isn’t my usual advice session. It’s a moment of creative connection, the kind I hope reminds you that storytelling is one of the oldest, truest ways we figure ourselves out.

So wherever you are - walking through a park, stirring something on the stove, or curling up in bed - I hope this story wraps around you like a blanket. And maybe stirs something you thought was long buried.

And if you're up for it tonight: write something. Dance a little. Doodle in the margins. Let something creative move through you.

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✨ Let’s Stay Connected:

📕 Buy my book — Untethered: A Beginner’s Guide To Solo Travel

📸 Follow along on Instagram

📝 Read the blog

🌴 Join my group trip to Bali

📚 Join The Lost & Found Book Club

Tonight, I’m recording from a tiny apartment in Delhi, a little dazed after surviving what might’ve been the wildest overnight bus of my life. But also feeling grateful. Because I’m reminded, once again, that travel doesn’t have to be expensive to be extraordinary.

In this episode, I’m answering a question I get all the time: How do you actually afford to travel long-term? The answer? It’s not a trust fund. It’s curiosity, courage, and a willingness to get your hands dirty.

I share the exact tools, platforms, and stories that have helped me travel the world nearly for free. From volunteering in jungle hostels in Costa Rica, to couchsurfing with strangers and trading small skills for a warm bed and a hot meal… this is the real, unglamorous, magical side of slow, meaningful travel.

We’ll talk:

This is not just a guide to free travel. It’s an invitation to get a little lost and find the version of you that’s been waiting at the edge of comfort.

🪴 Read the full chapter (and more) in my book Untethered: A Beginner’s Guide to Solo Travel — now available on Kindle or as a PDF download.

✨ Want to join me in Bali this December for a group trip and marine conservation project? Find out more here.

➤ Get $10 off your Worldpackers membership with the code KARMEN

➤ Read the blog

➤ Check out my Instagram

📚 Join The Lost & Found Book Club

📚 Some very exciting news: my book Untethered: A Beginner’s Guide to Solo Travel is officially available for pre-order on Kindle!

It’s part handbook, part workbook, part travel memoir. Check out the preview on my website or pre-order on Amazon Kindle to be the very first to get the book when it goes live on Sunday, 29 June.

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Do you feel like you have so many ideas but never follow through?

Sick of making plans, setting goals, getting excited… and then somehow abandoning them halfway through?

Then this episode is for you.

We’re talking about how to actually finish the projects that matter, especially the personal ones no one’s holding you accountable for.

Whether it’s starting a blog, writing a book, running a marathon, or just showing up consistently for yourself, I’m sharing the mindset shifts that helped me stop quitting on my dreams.

And no, we’re not going to be talking about the self-help fluff that you find everywhere… “build tiny habits,” “find an accountability partner,” “celebrate the small wins”… blah. If that worked, you wouldn’t be clicking on this episode, would you?

🎧 If you’ve ever felt stuck, scattered, or secretly scared you’ll never finish the thing that matters most… this is your sign to start again, differently.

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Want more?

➤ Read the blog

➤ Check out my Instagram

➤ Join my group trip to Bali

➤ Pre-order my book

Our desires, our turn-ons, our ideas of sex… where do they come from? And who benefits from them?

Because sex isn’t just an act. It’s an archive of cultural conditioning.

This episode is a crash course in feminist philosophy, critical theory, and the tangled relationship between sex, power, and culture. From shitty sex ed classes to porn culture, internalized scripts to embodied autonomy, we’re asking the uncomfortable questions we’re usually too afraid to voice.

We’ll talk consent beyond the yes/no binary, porn as both a mirror and a script for the world, self-objectification, BDSM, beauty standards, and what it means to actually be empowered, not just perform it.

I weave in insights from thinkers like Amia Srinivasan, Simone de Beauvoir, Nancy Bauer, Audre Lorde, and bell hooks, and try to offer a new language for those of us who’ve felt confused, ashamed, or alone in our questions around desire.

This is for the curious. The conflicted. The ones unlearning in real time. If that’s you, then you’re in the right place.

📚 Mentioned in this episode:

💭 Three questions I leave you with:

If philosophy teaches us anything, it’s this: We have a responsibility to ask the hard questions, especially the ones without neat answers.

📚 Want more?

➤ Read the blog

📚 Join The Lost & Found Book Club

I just came out of one of the most inspiring conversations with a friend and had to hit record. So today, we're talking about the kinds of lessons that shake your worldview and leave you wondering how no one told you this sooner.

Some of what we cover:

If you're in your twenties (or feel like you're re-entering them emotionally), this episode is a love letter, a wake-up call, and a gentle shove all in one.

📚 Want more?

➤ Read the blog

What do you need more right now — to remember who you are, or to remember you're not alone?

In this episode, we dive into the real differences between solo travel and group trips — not just the logistics, but the soul of the thing. From rooftop dance parties in Udaipur to quiet solo moments that changed me, I explore how each kind of journey offers its own kind of magic.

Whether you’re craving deeper self-trust, new friendships, a break from routine, or the courage to finally book that one-way ticket… this one’s for you.

Plus: I’m officially inviting you to join me from 6 - 16 December 2025 for something extraordinary — a group trip to Bali that blends marine life conservation, meaningful adventure. You’ll leave with a diving license, a community, and a story worth telling.

🎟️ Book your spot:

📖 Curious about solo travel? You’ll get my new travel handbook Untethered: A Beginner’s Guide to Solo Travel completely free when you book the trip.

📸 Come hang out on Instagram: @karmenwiid

And if you loved this episode, share it with someone who needs to hear it.

We’ve forgotten how to rest and it’s costing us more than we think. In this episode, I dive into what it means to actually feel restored after the weekend, not just distracted, numbed, or hungover.

Let's redefine what intentional rest looks like (spoiler: it’s not just doing nothing), we talk nervous system repair, dopamine menus, and why scrolling isn’t a hobby.

This isn’t your typical productivity pep talk. It’s a reminder to treat your time off like a ceremony, not an afterthought.

Whether you’re burnt out, in need of a gentle reset, or just looking for ideas that actually make you feel alive again, this one’s for you.

💛 Share it with someone you’d plan a soft Sunday with.

We think closure is a conversation. A final text. An apology. But more often than not, it’s silence—and confusion.

In this deeply personal episode, I talk about the kind of closure I never got, what I learned from it, and why waiting for someone to explain their confusion might be the thing keeping you stuck.

From messy endings to aisle-seat breakdowns to unexpectedly falling in love again—I take you through the real, raw, unfiltered journey of trying to heal when there’s no clean goodbye.

You’ll hear:

This one’s for the person still waiting to understand. I hope it gives you what they couldn’t.

You can’t build a life that feels truly your own if you’re carrying things that don’t belong to you.

In this episode — a part two to How to Build a Life That Feels Like Yours — I explore the emotional clutter we need to let go of: resentment, guilt-tripping, over-explaining, comparison, victimhood, fear of loneliness, and more.

This one’s about radical self-responsibility. About learning to be unapologetically yourself without becoming bitter, about making choices that fill you up so your love and energy can flow outward, not get drained away.

If you’ve ever found yourself people-pleasing, stuck in jealousy, or feeling like you owe the world an explanation for your dreams — this episode is for you.

Spoiler: being “selfish” might be the most generous thing you do.

Want to know more about my travels? Check out my blog or follow me on Instagram. 

What if the version of success you’re chasing isn’t actually yours? In this episode, I talk about throwing out the blueprint, redefining your values, and choosing a life that makes you feel lit up, not burned out.

I’ll walk you through:

Signs you’re living on autopilot

How to re-evaluate your values and beliefs

My own turning point that made me question what I really wanted from work and life

Why joy is not a luxury, it’s your compass

Let’s get a little lost, so we can find something better.

🌍 Check out the Bali group trip & join the group chat for all the details

Get $10 off your Worldpackers membership using the code: KARMEN