When Maged first told me that he would be cycling and hitch-hiking across Africa I thought to myself this is a weird way to punish oneself considering he could at minimum do the trip using a car. However, having spoken to him during this podcast there are clearly some important lessons one learns on such an excursion.

Maged Ahmed Korga is an Egyptian ex-Google software engineer who decided, in between switching jobs from Google in San Francisco to a startup that develops technology for self-driving vehicles, to take a 90-day trip across Africa on a bicycle. In this podcast, he shares some of his observations on this trip including experiencing racism in South Africa, the kindness of strangers, how the technology won't necessarily lift most Africans out of poverty and more.

Interestingly, Maged also makes a case for how it is better to travel away from the typical tourist areas in any country if you really want to learn about a country and its people.