Nancy Pearl recommends more of her favorite books for armchair adventures.

Travel writer Paul Theroux discusses his trip to Africa, 40 years after serving there as a Peace Corps volunteer.

Travel writer Paul Theroux talks about his experiences as an early Peace Corps volunteer in Africa in the 1960s and shares his perspective on when foreign aid does and does not work.

Travel writer Paul Theroux talks about his book, The Tao of Travel, and offers advice for other travelers gleaned from his own fifty years of adventure.

After living for years with a death threat from Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini, Salman Rushdie is in a unique position to suggest how to confront the cultural clash between "East and West." Sir Salman Rushdie explains the motivation for his novel, "The Enchantress of Florence," which revolves around the earliest contacts between Europeans and 16th-century moghul India.

Author Simon Winchester talks about his book "Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories."

NPR's Steve Inskeep assesses international news coverage in the U.S. media and why it's important for us to keep up with what's going on around the world.

Photographer Annie Leibovitz took a road trip across the United States on a pilgrimage to the homes of famous people she admires. She tells Rick what it meant.

Rick chats with Tony Wheeler, the head of Lonely Planet publications. Tony Wheeler's company writes guidebooks for practically every country on the planet — including some that get very few visitors. Tony Wheeler tells us what he found in Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Libya, Burma, North Korea, Cuba, and Albania.

Rick compares notes with Tony Wheeler, the founder of what has become the world's largest travel empire, Lonely Planet.