The Aaron Schlein Story

This is part one of my chat with Patricia Monahan. Part two is available here.

Patricia is a mom, a traveler, an adventurer and the founder of Our Whole Village, a travel company that curates meaningful family adventures.

RESOURCES

Book: Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

Blog post: Parent Like a Traveler

HIGHLIGHTS

([2:25]) Changing two families at a time

([3:18]) Meaningful family adventures

([4:50]) Terrifying but exciting at the same time

([5:35]) Growing up in São Paolo

([9:40]) Overcoming the fear of potentially unsafe places

([10:42]) Almost falling off a cliff

([13:00]) Triple-checking everything and keeping families safe

([13:57]) Don’t wait too long to travel with your kids.

([15:58]) Making sense of the excess of family travel information

([17:05]) Talk to your baby. Travel with your kids.

([18:25]) Tibet and the transformational power of travel

([20:09]) “One of the hardest things is re-entry.”

([21:38]) The day-to-day struggle that follows a transformational experience.

([22:55]) From lawyer to inspirational traveler

([25:20]) Bringing in the dollars

([27:09]) Overcoming self doubt

([28:56]) A trilingual woman writes a note on a Post-It. What language does she write it in?

(30:02) Culturally immersive experiences with Our Whole Village

([32:45]) What parents plan trips with nothing for themselves?

([33:34]) Don’t underestimate your kids.

([35:32]) Kids need to be challenged just as much as adults do.

What’s the hardest thing about consuming 13 hot dogs in one sitting? It’s not what you think…

In this bonus episode, Scott Keyes of Scott’s Cheap Flights reveals the secret to obtaining and consuming 13 hot dogs at a baseball game.

This is part two of my chat with Scott Keyes. Part one is available here.

Scott is the founder of Scott’s Cheap Flights, which you can find at ScottsCheapFlights.com.

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Online community: Scott’s Cheap Flights Facebook group

Website: Atlas Obscura

YouTube Channel: Where the hell is Matt?

HIGHLIGHTS

([2:05]) 1.5 million subscribers and the name that just stuck

([3:25]) The international team

([4:55]) The customer’s best interests

([6:55]) Nobody really knows what a flight is supposed to cost

([8:07]) Buying one flight over the next 12 years pays for your subscription to Scott’s Cheap Flights.

([9:07]) Eye-popping cheap flights

([9:35]) Family travelers get the most value.

([11:45]) Dreaming of Socotra

([12:43]) Scott’s Cheap Flights Facebook group – 65,000 strong

(16:25) Discover off the beaten path places at AtlasObscura.com.

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Dramatic Travels is an inspirational family travel podcast hosted by Aaron Schlein. Aaron chats with the world’s most passionate and influential travelers who share emotionally-charged memories of the people and places that inspired them to travel and changed their lives forever.

This is part one of my chat with Scott Keyes. Part two is available here.

Scott is the founder of Scott’s Cheap Flights, which you can find at ScottsCheapFlights.com.

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Online community: Scott’s Cheap Flights Facebook group

Website: Atlas Obscura

YouTube Channel: Where the hell is Matt?

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

([4:55]) Helping people all day everyday

([5:30]) 12-14 hours a day searching for flights

([7:05]) Too much sunshine?

([7:40]) Be home when you want. Be gone when you want. Find a new home when you want.

([8:15]) It all started on a road trip for the Flight Searcher in-Chief

([10:00]) The realm of the possible

([11:50]) Nobody regrets traveling.

([13:25]) Where the hell is Matt?

([17:13]) Sleeping with one eye open under a street light in Portugal

([22:00]) Calvin & Hobbes and building character

([24:00]) Inspirational biking in The Netherlands

([26:20]) If Scott could be king for a day

([32:10]) The best things countries do

([33:00]) Scott’s Cheap Flights is born in a Denver coffee shop.

———-

Dramatic Travels is an inspirational family travel podcast hosted by Aaron Schlein. Aaron chats with the world’s most passionate and influential travelers who share emotionally-charged memories of the people and places that inspired them to travel and changed their lives forever.

This is part two of my chat with Emily Gaudreau. Part one is available here.

Emily is the mother of four and the wife of one. Emily is the host of How To Raise a Maverick, a podcast where she explores the challenges of raising kids with work ethic, grit, and empathy–so they become adults with a strong moral core and lust for life.

RESOURCES

Book: Free-Range Kids, How to Raise Safe, Self-Reliant Children (Without Going Nuts with Worry) by Lenore Skenazy

HIGHLIGHTS   (2:55) Emily’s online course: Young, Wild, and Safe (available at HowToRaiseAMaverick.com)   ([3:35]) Educate your kids about the right things, not about the boogey man.   ([4:00]) Your kids have to learn how to talk to strangers.   ([6:40]) Facts and statistics don’t win arguments.   ([10:00]) Expose your kids to other kids in different cultures.   ([10:30]) Emily is not a fan of education between four walls.   ([11:28]) Robes and special soaps   ([12:30]) Micro-retirements   ([14:00]) Use technology to keep your life intact during long-term travel.   ([15:20]) “The less you have completely structured, the more magic can happen.”   ([15:28]) The camper compromise   ([17:30]) If you’re married to an inexperienced traveler, you have to take it at their speed.   ([18:40]) Automate your garden.   ([20:50]) Traveling with kids with opens doors.   ([22:00]) Involve your kids in planning the trip.   ([23:45]) Hello Kitty or Iceland?   ([25:05]) “Why have we not been going to Greece?

This is part one of my chat with Emily Gaudreau. Part two is available here.

Emily is the mother of four and the wife of one. Emily is the host of How To Raise a Maverick, a podcast where she explores the challenges of raising kids with work ethic, grit, and empathy–so they become adults with a strong moral core and lust for life.

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Book: Free-Range Kids, How to Raise Safe, Self-Reliant Children (Without Going Nuts with Worry) by Lenore Skenazy

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

([3:02]) What is a maverick?

([5:15]) “Free-range parenting” defined

([8:15]) Calculated parenting decisions

([8:40]) A real world version of “Home Alone”

([9:35]) 99.9% of parents have their kids’ best interests at heart.

([10:20]) This is the safest time in the U.S. since the 1960s, according to the FBI.

([11:25]) It’s all about preparing your kids.

([11:50]) Close your eyes and let your child get you across the street safely.

([12:45]) Teach your kids to navigate an airport

([13:40]) When talking to your kids, change your statements to questions.

([13:53]) Emily is a hard (bleep) parent.

([15:40]) Clam bakes in Mazatlan make great memories.

([17:15]) Dogs dig when they’re bored. Children do too.

([17:28]) Beaches are not Emily’s jam.

([29:50]) Medical care advice for traveling parents

This is part three of my three-part chat with Dan Louzonis. Part one is available here. Part two is available here. 

Dan is a child acceleration specialist and homeschooling coach from New York City.

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Book: The New Global Student by Maya Frost

Book: The Underground History of American Education

Blog post: “How to HEAR your travel memories“

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

(0:00) Visit AaronSchlein.com/FLYTE to learn more about this episode’s non-profit partner.  (2:20) Dan broke down and got an iPhone strictly because of the “amazing camera.”   (3:00) Book recommendation: The New Global Student by Maya Frost. ([3:40]) Recommendation: TSA pre-check   ([4:10]) Advice: start your kids traveling early!   ([4:45]) “Force yourself to go somewhere new at all times!”

This is part two of my three-part chat with Dan Louzonis. Part one is available here. Part three is available here.

Dan is a child acceleration specialist and homeschooling coach from New York City.

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Book: The New Global Student by Maya Frost

Book: The Underground History of American Education

Blog post: “How to HEAR your travel memories“

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

([1:10]) Daniel found Istanbul scary. He never got comfortable there with his wife and kids.   ([5:30]) “The most fearless travelers all started somewhere.”   ([6:15]) Involve your kids in the process of planning travel.   ([8:05]) What is the opportunity cost of going to Disney?   ([8:35]) “Start pre-natal with education.”   ([10:15]) Use hop-on, hop-off bus tours to get an idea of the landscape in a new city.   ([11:10]) Use audio tours as a powerful way to capture travel memories.   ([12:20]) Dan’s son has a blog at HomeschoolSon.com. His daughter has a blog at HomeSchoolGlobe.com.   ([14:00]) Dan recommends Mexico City as an inexpensive alternative to Florida (and Cancun!)   ([15:00]) The Einstein Blueprint offers parents the opportunity to replicate Dan’s success in educating his children.   ([17:35]) “There is a formula for success in life…it’s been codified by Napoleon Hill…Tim Ferriss, and Tony Robbins.”   ([18:25]) The Einstein Blueprint is based on the idea that “all children have infinite potential”.   ([18:40]) “I’ve never once met a child that didn’t have vastly more untapped potential than they’re displaying at the moment. And that goes for me as well.”   ([18:50]) “The whole world is actually out there … unintentionally or intentionally conspiring to suffocate your child’s potential.”   ([19:40]) “Only parents can unlock the full potential in their kids … Parents have way more power to shape their kids’ outcomes than they’re aware of.”   ([20:15]) “Home is 10 times more important than school.” ([24:45]) “School was not designed to unleash children’s’ potential … It was designed to constrain it.”   ([27:04]) “School … is the opposite of a mastermind. Children … pool their ignorance and actually drag each other down.”   ([30:25]) “I can not imagine my life if I wasn’t actively involved in the design, the education, and the travel of my children … I spend more time with my son in a week than my father spend with me in 18 years.”   ([31:04]) Aaron related the mastermind principle to learning racquetball from his dad.   ([33:55]) Dan recommends hiring a talkative nanny.

This is part one of my three-part chat with Dan Louzonis. Part two is available here. Part three is available here.

Dan is a child acceleration specialist and homeschooling coach from New York City.

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Book: The New Global Student by Maya Frost

Book: The Underground History of American Education

Blog post: “How to HEAR your travel memories“

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

([4:15]) Dan didn’t travel much as a kid.

([4:35]) Dan grew up in New England, where people “don’t travel very much”. As a kid, Dan’s idea of travel was going 40 miles into Boston.

([6:20]) “People get trapped in their routines” and do the same trips over and over.

([7:20]) Dan went to college in Philadelphia, which he described as “like being on another planet.”

([8:10]) Dan was almost 40 when he fell in love with travel

(8:20) Dan was inspired by the book The New Global Student by Maya Frost. In 2005, Maya, her husband, and their four daughters left their suburban American to have an adventure abroad.

([11:45]) Dan and his family moved to London for a year in 2014. This is when Dan began to experience a “higher level of travel”.

([13:05]) Dan and his family used London “as a launchpad” to see Europe. They ended up visiting 11 countries.

([16:00]) When Dan travels, his mind is “on fire.”

([16:20]) “There is a massive link between travel and intellectual development.”

([16:30]) Eric Demaine and John Quincy Adams are two examples of the powerful impact travel has on intellectual development.

([17:55]) “Moving and traveling are components of the ideal education.”

([22:00]) Dan considers living in Manhattan to be “pure bliss”.

([24:20]) Dan credits his coaching as a reason his decision-making skills have become well-developed.

([27:55]) Dan’s homeschooling journey began when he started doing Kumon workbooks with his son.

([31:00]) “Once you’re liberated from the attendance obligations of a school…the whole world opens up to you.”

([32:55]) One of the privileges of of homeschooling is that Dan and his family get to spend a month in Florida during the winter.

Aaron Schlein chats with Melody Schreiber. Melody is a freelance journalist who has reported from nearly every continent. Now she’s exploring her hometown of Washington, DC with her family.

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

Maui Revealed: The Ultimate Guidebook

Hawaii Revealed Guidebooks

Blog post: “Your memories are in the mail“

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:

([2:40]) Melody ran a non-profit journalism fellowship where she took journalists around the world

([2:55]) Melody become a mom about a year ago. Her “little guy” goes pretty much everywhere with her.

([3:45]) Melody’s earliest memory involves roaming around a strange house early in the morning.

([6:00]) Melody’s husband (with the help of a map book) showed her that travel doesn’t have to be just a daydream.

([7:30]) “If you want to travel, don’t keep it to yourself. Shout if from the mountain top!”

([9:10]) Melody described a dramatic food poisoning incident while traveling solo in Tanzania.

([11:45]) Melody was on a reporting trip in Nepal when a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit Kathmandu. She described her experience reporting on the tragic aftermath and the lasting bonds she formed with fellow journalists with whom she shared the experience.

([15:25]) Melody’s coverage of the Nepal earthquake appeared in The Washington Post, The Guardian, and USA Today

([16:00]) Melody described a humorous and inspirational story about the incredible care she received from her husband when she an allergy attack on a plane in Argentina.

([16:50]) “Hold on the the people you travel well with. Marry them if you can.”

([20:30]) Melody reported from both the Arctic and the tropics while pregnant.

([21:45]) Melody is launching a podcast about exploring your own backyard with a baby in tow.

Dramatic Travels is the first season of The Aaron Schlein Story.