What do you find in a place once you stop relying on the news to explain it? And are you more receptive to that story because you're alone? Nayeema Raza, host of "Smart Girl Dumb Questions", visited Libya, North Korea, Palestine and other places that many others would deem off limits. She shares her motivation, how she approaches conflict zones, and the tactics she's pickup up along the way: how to ask the questions everyone else is too polite to ask, the "gaze-through" trick for walking safely past strangers, how to get a "backup number" before you need one. Nayeema makes the case for looking beyond what we see on the news to explore places for ourselves, and why showing up and bearing witness matters.

Follow the brilliant @nayeemaraza and watch/listen to new episodes of her podcast "Smart Girl Dumb Questions" each week.

Follow @solita_travels for bonus content and subscribe on Substack for Julie's big 3 takeaways from each episode. 

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Can you find 'home' in a place that you've only ever visited as someone's kid? Devika Parmar grew up Gujarathi American, her whole relationship to India mediated through her parents and grandparents - never quite her own. After she lost both grandparents in the same year, she booked three weeks in India alone. Then, the fear she'd prepared for - being a woman alone - found her anyway, and she had to decide whether to go home early or stay and finish what she came to do. 

Follow Devika on Instagram at @devikaparmar and see her art at www.devikaparmar.com

Follow @solita_travels for bonus content and subscribe on Substack for Julie's big 3 takeaways from each episode.

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What's the biggest risk you'd take to see the world? Ria Xi will be the first person to run the length of the Silk Road across Asia and Europe, and she'll run it alone. Ria believes travel should happen at the pace of a single footstep - slow enough to savor everything between point A and B. Julie catches Ria from her nomadic training route, but stick around to the end of the episode to hear an update from Ria along her record-breaking run!

To support Ria's run, check out her GoFundMe and follow along on Instagram @whereisriax for occasional chances to join her crew.

Check out Ria's podcast, Planetary Run Club, where she interviewed Julie for her debut episode!

Follow @solita_travels for bonus content and subscribe on Substack for Julie's big 3 takeaways from each episode.

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Are flights really cheapest on a Tuesday? How do you find a great homestay? Can you travel with just a purse? Gillian Morris built the cheap-flight app Hit List and she's perfected the art of budget solo travel. She's living proof that the less you spend, the more open you are to help from strangers, vibrant detours, and truly connecting to a place -- if you do it right! This episode is packed with tips for how to save on flights, stays and luggage, plus strategies like "playovers" that let you squeeze a whole trip out of a layover.

Follow Gillian on her Substack "Supernuclear: A Guide to Living With and Near Friends"

Follow @solita_travels for bonus content and subscribe on Substack for Julie's big 3 takeaways from each episode.

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How do you cope when everything falls apart at home, and you're 8,000 miles away? Between jobs and craving a reset, TV producer Sam Schles books a solo trip to Thailand. Then, from a beach half a world away, she watches the LA wildfires close in on her home. With the help of some Buddhist monks, Sam gets a crash course in non-attachment and savoring the things that are actually worth saving. 

Follow @solita_travels for bonus content and subscribe on Substack for Julie's big 3 takeaways from each episode.

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How far can "yes" take you before it stops feeling like freedom? Comedian Kenice Mobley grew up on rom-coms where a woman flies to Europe, accepts an invitation from a man with high cheekbones, and gets a whole new life. So when a flirt in Paris turns into an invitation, Kenice follows it... straight into an underground world that asks her to keep saying "yes". She does, right up until she hits the edge of it: the line between freedom and fantasy.

Follow Kenice at @kenicemobley and get tickets to her show, "Hot Guy Draft" on August 23rd, 2026 at Littlefield in Brooklyn.

Follow @solita_travels for bonus content and subscribe on Substack for Julie's big 3 takeaways from each episode. 

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Solita host Julie Piñero has four nights in Galway on one mission: become a 'regular' at pub in Ireland. With advice from locals in her ear, 15 years of solo travel under her belt, and only 4 nights to make it happen, she's racing the clock to answer: how do you connect to a place when you're only just passing through, alone? 

Special thanks to all of the Ireland impromptu-guests who agreed to Julie's interviews.

If you're in Galway, be sure to take a tour with Ana at Tribes Tours or follow her at @anabnas. If you take a trip to the Aran Islands, go to Inisheer and visit Máirtín at the Aran Currach Experience or follow them at @aran_currach_experience.

Follow @solita_travels on Instagram and Tik Tok to watch video of Julie's Ireland mission, along with extra reflections on solo female travel.

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