Moving Along

Fabian Cousley, author of How Traveling Saved My Life and host of Surviving the Yellow Brick Road, discusses using travel to heal after his 30-year marriage dissolved during COVID. Fabian explains the “yellow brick road” as life’s challenging journey, fueling exploration and curiosity. Travel, he says, provides a necessary reset. Removing yourself from the environment where trauma occurred allows you to recalibrate, shifting from asking “why” to “what now.” A New York City native, he recounts solo trips from his home in Toronto—starting with Cabo, later Dubai, and a pivotal healing experience at Machu Picchu in Peru—plus advice to on how to research safety and connect with supportive people. We end talking about meeting other men who are also traveling to heal, and moving from surviving to thriving.

Contact and find links to the book and podcast:

www.sybr-book.com or https://survivingtheyellowbrickroad.com/ 

Free download sample from Fabian: https://survivingtheyellowbrickroad.com/#Download

00:00 Introduction to Fabian Cousley

01:31 Growing Up in Queens and Surviving the Yellow Brick Road

04:18 Youth Is Curiosity

07:21 Deciding to Travel After the Breakup of the Marriage

09:38 You Cannot Heal in the Environment That Broke You

11:06 Are You Running Away?

12:21 Travel Forces You to Recalibrate and Reset

15:49 Solo Trips: Reset Happens Alone

17:42 Moving from Why Me to What Now

19:07 Deciding Where to Go

22:11 Beginning the Journey of Healing in Cabo

22:50 Finding Peace

25:18 The Map as Mirror

28:09 Dubai

34:29 Traveling While Black

35:53 Safety and Due Diligence as a Traveler

38:43 Peru: A Healing Experience

42:18 Men and Masculinity

47:57 Contact Fabian

CREDITS

Host and creator: Christi Cassidy

Contact: [email protected]

Artwork by Phyllis Busell

Music by Eve’s Blue.

Post-production help from Auphonic.com.

Show notes written with assistance from Descript and Claude.ai.

LINKS:

More information and to listen to past episodes: https://movingalongpodcast.com

Past episodes are here too: https://moving-along.simplecast.com/

Tag and like Moving Along episodes on Facebook and Instagram

Slow Travel, Worldschooling, and Money Planning with Suzy May

Certified financial educator and money coach Suzy May—host of the Wander Worldschool podcast—shares how she and her family live between Seville, Denver, and an upcoming multi-month stay near Tokyo while working remotely and prioritizing “slow travel.” She explains worldschooling options like Boundless Life’s three-month cohorts with an education center for kids and coworking for parents, describes settling into Seville via a German school to build language immersion, and outlines how slow travel supports culture, routines, and budgeting. Suzy also dives into planning styles, housing strategies such as TrustedHousesitters and HomeExchange, transportation choices, ways to fund extended travel by renting or subletting a home, and key visa considerations like the Schengen rules, digital nomad visas, and country-specific stays.

Timestamps:

00:00 Moving Along - ep. 43 - Suzy May

00:36 Introduction to Suzy May, Host of Wander Worldschool

02:09 Headed to Japan

03:56 Boundless Life - An Organization for Worldschooling Opportunities

07:47 Where Suzy Started: Growing Up in Loveland, Colorado

11:01 Moving to Spain with the Family

16:02 The Benefits of Slow Travel

19:53 Travel Planning for Families vs. Just Showing Up

21:37 Renting, Home Exchange and Housesitting While Traveling

24:37 Getting Around - Rent a Car?

25:44 Affording the Slow Travel Lifestyle

29:47 Visas, Dual Citizenship, the Schengen Shuffle

32:51 Digital Nomad World Schooler

34:54 Making Friends in a New Home Country

35:58 School Culture in Spain

39:31 Water Pistolas in the Plaza

41:39 Adapting to the Seasons in Southern Spain

43:38 Certified Financial Educator, Money Coach and Travel Mom

45:45 Endless Opportunities for Slow Travel

49:05 Resources

52:59 Waiting for the Bus

Contact Information

Suzy’s email: [email protected]

Wander Worldschool Podcast: https://www.wanderworldschool.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/suzymay.wander/

Boundless Life: https://boundless.life

Servas International: Connecting for Peace (short-term stays) - https://servas.org/

TrustedHouseSitters: https://www.trustedhousesitters.com/

Furnished Finder: https://www.furnishedfinder.com/

CREDITS

Host and creator: Christi Cassidy

Contact: [email protected]

Artwork by Phyllis Busell

Music by Eve’s Blue.

Post-production help from Auphonic.com.

Show notes written with assistance from Descript and Claude.ai.

LINKS:

More information and to listen to past episodes: https://movingalongpodcast.com

Past episodes are here too: https://moving-along.simplecast.com/

Tag and like Moving Along episodes on Facebook and Instagram

Moving Along talks with podcaster/blogger Craig Constantine during the final week of his and wife Tracy’s five-week Ford Transit van (“Panda”) trip across Newfoundland. Craig shares how childhood camping and Caribbean sailing—with heavy navigation and planning—shaped his approach to travel, watching his mom plan trips with paper and pencil, and why Newfoundland appealed as a place to “depressurize,” despite being more developed than expected. He explains balancing “non-negotiables” (especially prebooked ferry dates) with flexibility, using Crown land, campgrounds and the iOverlander app for overnight spots, and coping with variable terrain and weather. 

Craig describes year-long preparation after buying the van, outfitting it with fold-down bed/table systems, organized crates, Starlink and a cellular booster for remote work, and on-trip improvements built from a local hardware store run. To avoid constant status updates, he built a microblog with AI that became travelog.place, and reflects on tight-space communication, driving too much and planning next year’s journey to Tuolumne Meadows near Yosemite. 

00:00 Introduction to Craig Constantine

02:21 No Lighthouse

03:59 Growing Up in the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania

09:59 Boondocking in Newfoundland

11:39 It's a Big Van But...

12:55 Finding the Nuts

13:25 Finding Places to Sleep

15:57 Not Much Grows Here

17:09 Planning the Trip

19:50 This Is Like a Sabbatical

20:54 The Van Named Panda

21:49 Jerry-rigging the Van 

25:14 Clever Solutions: Crafting a Wall of Storage

28:20 Make It Better, Have Fun, That's the Whole Point

29:59 Pecking Order at the Campground

32:09 What You Do Defines Who You Are

34:14 You Have to Make the Ferry

35:58 Type A List Maker

39:03 From the Paper Tablet to the Travel Microblog

41:58 Builder

43:05 You Can Do This

44:38 Newfoundland Is an Hour and a Half...

45:07 Where to Next?

47:14 Any Oops?

48:31 Planning All the Problems Out of the Trip

49:06 It's Birds

50:57 Shorthand: A Different Kind of Mindfulness

53:02 Books I Didn't Touch

53:52 That's Not How the Id Works

Links

https://constantine.name

https://travelog.place

https://temenos.place/

https://ioverlander.com/

CREDITS

Host and creator: Christi Cassidy

Contact: [email protected]

Artwork by Phyllis Busell

Music by Eve’s Blue.

Post-production help from Auphonic.com.

Show notes written with assistance from Descript and Claude.ai.

LINKS:

More information and to listen to past episodes: https://movingalongpodcast.com

Past episodes are here too: https://moving-along.simplecast.com/

Tag and like Moving Along episodes on Facebook and Instagram

Wouter Mayeur, founder of Property Invest Blog, has lived in Berlin, Hamburg and Barcelona, and he now resides in London with his family. He shares his experiences investing in real estate in London and Montenegro, costs to move abroad, moving with children, and his plans for purchasing a condo in Thailand. Wouter and his wife, a Canadian-Hong Kong native, travel annually to Hong Kong with their two children, and Wouter has his eye on Shenzhen, China. In addition to Montenegro and Chiang Mai, Thailand, he recommends hidden gems and “underinvested” places to investigate in Europe, Asia and South America. His practical advice includes the nitty-gritty of assessing properties from afar, renting short-term or living in your home abroad, and the logistics of property transfer taxes, purchase and moving. 

Blog:

Property Invest Blog

https://propertyinvestblog.com/

Facebook Group:

Buying & Living Abroad – Property Tips, Honest Insights

https://www.facebook.com/groups/propertyabroadtips/

CREDITS

Host and creator: Christi Cassidy

Contact: [email protected]

Artwork by Phyllis Busell

Music by Eve’s Blue.

Post-production help from Auphonic.com.

Show notes written with assistance from Descript and Claude.ai.

LINKS:

More information and to listen to past episodes: https://movingalongpodcast.com

Past episodes are here too: https://moving-along.simplecast.com/

Tag and like Moving Along episodes on Facebook and Instagram

Belfast rider and author Chris Donaldson weaves the tale of his decades-long attempt to reach Australia on his 1979 Moto Guzzi Le Mans. Leaving Belfast at 21 amid the Troubles, he planned to ride to Australia but was diverted by the Iranian Revolution, traveling instead through Africa (including apartheid South Africa), the Americas, and Argentina, later recounting it in his memoir Going the Wrong Way. Chris reflects on traveling for the journey, the kindness of strangers, and how writing the book 40 years later drew on diaries and photos. After his first adventure, Chris joined the family furniture shop in Belfast, which over the years he expanded into London and Dublin. In 2021, encouraged by a friend, he resumed his quest after COVID, faced border issues (including being denied entry to Jordan), continued alone after his friend quit the trip in Athens, and finally reached Australia, forming the basis of his next book, Adventure Before Dementia (May 2026). He discusses travel changes due to phones and the internet, Moto Guzzi community, other rides including Russia and U.S. trips, and how a Parkinson’s diagnosis motivates him to keep pursuing adventures.

Pictures of Chris, His Moto Guzzi and His Travels

Don’t miss the gallery on Chris’s website: https://chrisdonaldson.world/gallery-2/

Instagram: @chrisdonaldson.author

Timestamps

00:00 Introduction to Chris Donaldson

02:43 From London to South Africa

04:02 With a Motorbike, You're Bonded to the Landscape

04:22 From the U.S. Down to Argentina

06:53 Another Go at Australia

08:30 What's Changed in 40 Years, What's Stayed the Same

11:38 Going Back to the Family Business in Belfast

14:14 A Pensioner Riding a Motorbike Around the World

16:42 Pilgrimage to Australia - Arriving at Last

17:54 The Moto Guzzi Le Mans

19:23 Crossing the Sahara on the Motorbike

20:23 The Biggest Problem at Age 21

22:52 Every Corner Is a Danger

23:59 Traveling Light

27:10 Teo Lamers Cathedral of Moto Guzzi Festival

27:57 Texas

29:30 It Keeps You Young 

31:00 Meeting Up With Old Friends on New Journeys

32:20 Russia

34:42 Spark of Recognition

38:06 Adventures Before Dementia and Going the Wrong Way

Chris’s Books

Going the Wrong Way

Adventures Before Dementia

Both books are available on his website: https://chrisdonaldson.world

Or use Amazon (not an affiliate link) if ordering from the U.S. or Canada: 

Going the Wrong Way - https://www.amazon.com/Going-Wrong-Way-Australia-possibly/dp/1838012761

CREDITS

Host and creator: Christi Cassidy

Contact: [email protected]

Artwork by Phyllis Busell

Music by Eve’s Blue.

Post-production help from Auphonic.com.

Show notes written with assistance from Descript and Claude.ai.

LINKS:

More information and to listen to past episodes: https://movingalongpodcast.com

Past episodes are here too: https://moving-along.simplecast.com/

Tag and like Moving Along episodes on Facebook and Instagram

Landscape photographer Tom Reed discusses his influences (Ansel Adams, Edgar Payne, the Hudson River School, and Japanese martial arts/aesthetics) and his books of photography—The Granite Avatars of Patagonia, Moved by a Mountain, and Summers in the Sierras. 

Tom Reed delves into the ideas from his TEDx talk “Natural Beauty and Aesthetic Arrest,” describing aesthetic arrest—borrowed via Joseph Campbell from James Joyce—as being stunned by beauty to the point of losing the usual sense of self. He explores why eroded mountains can feel majestic, drawing on physicist Thomas Campbell’s ideas about organization versus entropy and linking organization to love. Reed connects his photography composition to Japanese tea ceremony and ikebana’s dominant/subdominant/subordinate principle, recounts quitting film photography after his camera was crushed, years of intense looking, wide travels (Caribbean, Belize, Alaska, Hawaii, California), near-drowning surfing in Oahu and how he finally returned to photography. 

Tom lives in Fort Bragg on the rugged Mendocino Coast of Northern California, travels to wild places and spends five weeks each summer at a cabin he built in Alaska. 

00:00 Introduction to Tom Reed, Landscape Photographer

01:53 Aesthetic Arrest

06:11 Inspiration from an Alpine View

08:19 Why Erosion Can Be Majestic

11:00 Japanese Aesthetics:  Ikebana and Chabana

12:23 Creating the Composition

13:46 Putting Yourself in the Right Position for the Composition

14:35 Principles of Flower Arranging as Applied to Photography

16:15 The Majesty of What Stands

16:35 What's Standing Is Still Organized

19:14 On Photography: The Cameras Got Heavy

21:54 In Belize with Birdie

28:24 The Artist's Impulse

29:36 Near-Death Experience Surfing the North Shore of Oahu

33:23 Raw Beauty That Inspires Awe

35:51 A Masculine Sense of Beauty

37:57 Leaving Hawaii

38:32 A Hobo Life with the Fall Colors in New England 

40:44 Building a Cabin in Alaska

42:57 The Japanese Aesthetic

43:38 Aikido and Athletics

45:25 An Aikido Bum for 10 Years

47:01 Learning Tea Ceremony

47:43 Tea Ceremony and the Concept of Wabi-Sabi

49:46 Going to Japan

51:56 How to Contact Tom Reed

Tom’s Books

The Granite Avatars of Patagonia

Moved by a Mountain, Inspiration from an Alpine View in Alaska (also an audiobook, featured in Alaska Magazine and Cirque)

The Other Side, On the Road in South America

Summers in the Sierras (limited edition)

Find these at https://TomReedBooks.com

(not an affiliate link)

Tom’s TEDx Talk 

"Natural Beauty and Aesthetic Arrest" (TEDxHomer, 2011)

https://youtu.be/aB8L5a-P6NM?si=3-LmcdGe2EPJScBr

Contact Tom Reed

https://tomreed.com

https://tomreedbooks.com

CREDITS

Host and creator: Christi Cassidy

Contact: [email protected]

Artwork by Phyllis Busell

Music by Eve’s Blue.

Post-production help from Auphonic.com.

Show notes written with assistance from Descript and Claude.ai.

LINKS:

More information and to listen to past episodes: https://movingalongpodcast.com

Past episodes are here too: https://moving-along.simplecast.com/

Tag and like Moving Along episodes on Facebook and Instagram

Donna Barwald, an LA-based professional organizer and educator with 20 years’ experience, shares how she has helped families, seniors and businesses organize, declutter, and downsize. 

Donna explains how organizing helped her regulate her own ADHD, discusses supporting neurodivergent clients by creating systems that match how they use space (including entry “drop zones”), and describes how visual clutter increases stress and decision fatigue. She contrasts fight/flight/freeze responses to mess, describes body doubling, and connects decluttering to feng shui-style energy flow and a calmer home. 

Donna addresses downsizing for current and future life needs—including preparing for assisted living or moving in with a child. She talks candidly about handling guilt, “might need it” objects, what to do with gifts, keepsakes and collections, and why hoarding is a separate mental illness. 

She offers practical tactics like one-in/one-out, favorites-first packing, labeled storage, drawer-based organization, and planning moves by infrastructure and layout. 

Note that the audio on Christi's part is a little faded, but Donna's audio is fine. 

Contact Donna Barwald

Website: https://neatlyarranged.com

Email: [email protected]

Contact Donna for a free consultation!

Donna’s Books

This Mess Is Making Me Stress

Improve Your Move: How to Downsize with Ease and Move On to Your Next Adventure

Timestamps

00:00 Donna Barwald Introduction

01:16 The Impulse to Organize

04:21 Donna's Mission

04:56 Creating the Environment in Which to Succeed

05:39 Drop Zones

07:53 Growing Up in San Jose, California

10:20 Finding Peace by Creating Space

11:33 Fight, Flight or Freeze

14:32 Body-Doubling

16:29 The Value of Decluttering

18:58 With Clutter, People Feel Bad About Themselves

21:53 Keeping the Judgment at Bay

27:37 Downsizing

32:25 "But I might need it"

34:40 You Don't Need a Presidential Library

35:42 Inner Peace Is More Important

35:54 Resistance, or 100 Pairs of Socks

37:05 Saving Things for the Future You...And Here You Are

37:40 Hoarders Are Not the Same as Collectors

40:11 Sticking with Your Favorites

41:11 Little Known Secrets of Downsizing

45:06 Crap Equilibrium

47:07 Dealing with Gifts - Wanted and Unwanted

49:04 Dealing with Keepsakes - Wanted and Unwanted

50:03 How to Handle Children's Keepsakes from School

55:36 Garages: The Home of Old Dreams

56:47 Cut Your Losses

01:02:27 Organization Is 90% Infrastructure

01:04:54 Drawers Are Key

01:07:05 Get in Touch with Donna Barwald

CREDITS

Host and creator: Christi Cassidy

Contact: [email protected]

Artwork by Phyllis Busell

Music by Eve’s Blue.

Post-production help from Auphonic.com.

Show notes written with assistance from Descript and Claude.ai.

LINKS:

More information and to listen to past episodes: https://movingalongpodcast.com

Past episodes are here too: https://moving-along.simplecast.com/

Tag and like Moving Along episodes on Facebook and Instagram

Leadership strategist Edna White, creator of the Keeping It Real On Purpose podcast and Wounded to Wonderful newsletter, discusses the culture shock of moving from Alabama to Long Island as a child, her nervous breakdown in her 40s, and her decision to teach English in China. Living in China, she climbed the Great Wall and sampled tarantula and scorpion, returning to New York a changed woman ready to help others. She is the founder of Second Chance, Inc. and lives on Long Island in New York. 

00:00 Moving Along Introduction to Edna White

03:34 Black Girl Growing Up in Alabama and Long Island

07:31 Leadership

10:19 Finding Your Original Identity

12:10 Embracing Your Emotions

13:40 Meshing Emotions and Leadership

18:07 Edna's Gift of Clairsentience and for Helping Others

19:42 Making the Wrong Mistakes

20:12 The Solitude of Home and Canoeing

21:06 Learning to Meditate

22:23 Teaching and Traveling in China

24:16 Walking the Great Wall of China

27:16 Zip Line Down the Mountain

28:13 Arriving in China

30:17 Culture Shock in China

30:58 Real Chinese Food

33:58 A New Leaf, Writing and Coaching Back in New York

34:10 Eye-Opening Lessons About Communism and Religion in China

36:53 Learning Different Kinds of Meditation in China

37:27 Can We All Be Leaders?

39:51 How to Contact Edna

Contact Edna:

https://ednawhite.com

At Edna's website, you can sign up to get more information about her projects:

Podcast: Keeping It Real on Purpose

Newsletter: Wounded to Wonderful

Book (not an affiliate link): The You Project: Uncover the Real You and Create a Better Life

CREDITS

Host and creator: Christi Cassidy

Contact: [email protected]

Artwork by Phyllis Busell

Music by Eve’s Blue.

Post-production help from Auphonic.com.

Show notes written with assistance from Descript and Claude.ai.

LINKS:

More information and to listen to past episodes: https://movingalongpodcast.com

Past episodes are here too: https://moving-along.simplecast.com/

Tag and like Moving Along episodes on Facebook and Instagram

Belinda Coker (SoulTreader.com), a New Zealand-born Australian currently based in the UK, redefined her life through hiking and travel. Her mission is to get women over 50 outdoors and into the wilderness. 

Belinda recounts early solo overland travel through Southeast Asia and India, volunteering on a solar power project in Ladakh, later working in Japan, and eventually entering corporate life and raising three children. 

During the 2020 pandemic she realized she’d lost her adventurous self, bought hiking boots, joined a Meetup hike with very fit older hikers, and committed to maintaining health and adventure while advocating for trail safety, proper gear, and group hiking. 

She describes a recent near-hypothermia incident on the Canary Islands GR131 when unexpected cold rain and cloud cover forced an emergency exit. She also discusses Europe’s hut-to-hut culture versus wild camping, New Zealand’s extensive trails and huts, and her post-corporate house-sitting work via The House Sitting Collective, including a listener discount code HSTRAVEL.

00:00 Moving Along - ep. 36 - Belinda Coker

00:21 Introduction to Belinda Coker

03:08 The Big OE - Overseas Experience - from Tauranga, New Zealand

06:07 India and Volunteering on the Solar Power Project in Ladakh

06:50 From India Home to Australia

08:04 Look in the Mirror

09:37 One Hike Was All It Took

11:25 Hiking: Where to Start 

13:24 Buying Your First Pair of Hiking Boots

14:46 Near-Death Experience in the Canary Islands

21:10 Free Resource about Safety for Hikers

22:05 Hut-to-Hut, Inn-to-Inn Hiking

23:43 Hut Culture

25:06 Getting into the Wilderness for Women

27:13  House-Sitting

31:56 Benefits of House-Sitting

34:36 The House Sitting Collective - Special Promo Code for Listeners

Contact Belinda Coker:

Soul Treader – Belinda’s website

https://soultreader.com/

https://soultreader.com/hike-it-right/

(Hike It Right. - Free Resource  - 78 Pages of Health, Safety & Hygiene on the Trail)

The House Sitting Collective

https://housesittingcollective.com/

Discount Code for 10% off all House Sitting Courses  - HSTRAVEL

CREDITS

Host and creator: Christi Cassidy

Contact: [email protected]

Artwork by Phyllis Busell

Music by Eve’s Blue.

Post-production help from Auphonic.com.

Show notes written with assistance from Descript and Claude.ai.

LINKS:

More information and to listen to past episodes: https://movingalongpodcast.com

Past episodes are here too: https://moving-along.simplecast.com/

Tag and like Moving Along episodes on Facebook and Instagram

Artist David Deighton was born in Paris and began traveling Europe and the world at age 14. After years of nomadic exploration, he and his wife decided to settle down in Santa Fe in the Southwest United States. 

He installs his unconventional “art experiment,” called Triptych Dialogue, in national parks across the United States and beyond. It is part of his mission to rekindle social connections face-to-face, to seek civility and to resist the digital echo chamber. 

In fact, he first tried the experiment of bridging the political divide using social media. Not only was it an uncivil arena, he was “shadow banned” and even received death threats from across the boundaries he was trying to cross. 

That’s when he knew the only way to find common ground was through words, and in person, by asking three questions and listening. He admits that even starting the conversations is not easy, even with the tool of a microphone in hand. 

Each conversation ends with a question about “one word” that represents and encapsulates the participant’s thoughts in the interview. It is these words that form a kind of lyrical underpinning to the videos and to the project itself. 

David posts videos on YouTube of his interactions with strangers at the Triptych Dialogue art installations. At the national parks, David asks his three questions of Americans visiting and tourists from around the world, who are drawn to the beauty of the national parks, particularly the Grand Canyon.

Fans of the New Mexico landscape will appreciate David’s ventures to Pecos National Historical Park, White Sands National Park, Carlsbad Caverns and even the Roswell Courthouse. 

David also substitute teaches in the Santa Fe public school system and discusses his successful use of the same technique--three questions followed by the "one word" capper--with his students. 

When we spoke, David was on his way to Colombia to take the Triptych Dialogue art experiment to another continent and see what civility he could find there. 

To see the yearlong social media experiment David ran, check out Triptych Dialogue on Instagram:

instagram.com/triptych_dialogue

To see the ongoing Triptych Dialogue videos, check out YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@triptych-dialogue

More about Servas: https://servas.org/

Contact David Deighton

YouTube: 

https://www.youtube.com/@triptych-dialogue

CREDITS

Host and creator: Christi Cassidy

Contact: [email protected]

Artwork by Phyllis Busell

Music by Eve’s Blue.

Post-production help from Auphonic.com.

Show notes written with assistance from Descript and Claude.ai.

LINKS:

More information and to listen to past episodes: https://movingalongpodcast.com

Past episodes are here too: https://moving-along.simplecast.com/

Tag and like Moving Along episodes on Facebook and Instagram