The travel writing career has captivated many with the dream of scrawling notes on exotic train rides, sending off your narratives to venerable magazines, and collecting enough in fees and royalties to keep the journey going. But is that really what the life of a professional travel writer looks like today? Tim Leffel has been a full-time, professional travel writer since 2006 and literally wrote the book on the travel writing career, Travel Writing 2.0. In our conversation, he describes his own journey and gives an honest, no-nonsense overview of how today's travel writers actually go about earning money, growing their income, and paying the bills.

When Ryan Murdock moved to Malta in 2011, he intended to write a "breezy island novel" replete with quirky characters and sun-soaked tranquility. He would go on to write a book, but it was not the one he imagined. In a book that is part thriller, but anthropological examination, and part tribute to the pioneering Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, Ryan told a gripping tale that all serious readers of travel writing need to have on their shelves.

In 2015, having recently left her job at the International Bar Association, Rebecca Lowe was transitioning to freelance journalism. Aiming to collect stories from the Middle East to help build her new career path, she set out on an 11,000km, 20-country solo cycle ride from London to Tehran, via Europe, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, Oman, the UAE, and Iran. The journey lasted a year, and collect stories she did. While she didn't originally intend for the journey to lead to a book, when the opportunity arose, she took on the project and wrote The Slow Road to Tehran: A Revelatory Bike Ride through Europe and the Middle East, which was shortlisted for the 2023 Edward Stanford Travel Book of the Year. This podcast episode focuses on both her incredible journey through the Middle East and the book that came out of it.

During the episode, Rebecca talks about how she approached the idea of risk vs. recklessness as a solo female traveler, what traveling through the Middle East as a woman was really like, the highs and lows of her journey, how she balanced out the seriousness of the problems facing the Middle East with a healthy sense of humor, and more.

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Travel tends to offer rewarding, enlightening, and overall joyful experiences. We come out of them with fresh perspectives, new friends, and an increased understanding of our place in the world. But sometimes, travel is hard. It walks us into experiences that are frustrating, saddening, disappointing, or even dangerous. Once we've gone through these experiences, we may feel compelled to get them down on paper, to share them. Is there a good reason to do that? And if so, how do we cut through the emotional turmoil of the experience to get at the real story? These are the questions we tried to tackle on this week's episode of The Travel Writing Podcast.

During the episode, we talk about why waiting a while after an experience can benefit the emotional process that needs to take place before writing, the reason negative travel experiences beg to be written, how we can imagine the experiences in a new light, how one can go about editing a story based on a negative travel experience, and more.

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Inspired by a new translation of The Odyssey by Emily Wilson, Laura Coffey set off for an Italian island in order to find a renewed sense of freedom and clarity in the midst of extreme loneliness. What was supposed to be a short break turned into a six-month journey across towns and islands in Italy, Croatia, and Spain as she chased the myth of The Odyssey. Her attempt to live between myth and reality allowed her to cope with her father's worsening health, and the journey turned into her first travel memoir, Enchanted Islands: Travels Through Myth & Magic, Love & Loss.

In this episode of The Travel Writing Podcast, I spoke with Laura about her island journey and the resulting memoir. During the interview, we talk about how Laura developed her writing while working her day job in tech start ups, why myths and legends can so easily help us escape when the world feels strange and unreal, how Laura brought the joy of travel into a book that touches on some very sad moments, and more. For anyone who has struggled with grief and sadness, this episode offers a nuanced look at how we can learn to trust ourselves in the face of life's hardest moments.

Over the years, Mike Richards has been to over 150 countries, has written global political and economic research for renowned global research houses, and has become a meditation teacher. During his years of traveling, he's come to a simple conclusion: most people are good.

In this episode of The Travel Writing Podcast, Nathan spoke with Mike about his new book, how traveling with his young daughter has helped him rediscover a sense of wanderlust, how a trip to Iraqi Kurdistan opened his eyes to people’s true natures, how his work as a risk analyst shapes his travel experiences, what he’s learning about connection and community through his travels to unlikely places, and much more.

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JT Genter didn't set out to become a digital nomad. He was working as a tax accountant when he and his wife decided they wanted to do some traveling. Looking for a way to reduce the cost of a trip to China, he discovered that signing up for one credit card could get them enough miles to fly round-trip for almost nothing out-of-pocket. As luck would have it, points and awards was a growing area of interest in the travel space, aligning perfectly with JT's experience in accounting and his love of travel. This intersection found him contributing as a freelance writer for The Points Guy, eventually earning a position as a full time writer for the publication and later as the editor-in-chief of AwardWallet, which has allowed him and his wife to travel full time.

In this episode of The Travel Writing Podcast, Nathan and JT talk about how JT found his unique niche, why flying economy allowed him to get his foot in the door, how he keeps himself organized with a travel schedule that has him moving every few days, his approach to the boom in AI as the editor-in-chief of a growing publication, and more.

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Years ago, while hiking the Camino de Santiago in Spain, Tim Mathis became fascinated by the idea of the pilgrimage. It was spiritual but didn't have to be religious, and it was, it seemed, always transformative for those who made the journey. The experience stuck with him and led him to write a unique guidebook for those interested in tapping into the power of the Camino's long walk. The guidebook is called The Camino for the Rest of Us: A Comprehensive Guide to a Life-Changing Journey on the World's Most Approachable Pilgrimage and was the focus of this episode of The Travel Writing Podcast.

During the episode, Nathan and Tim discuss why Tim decided to write a physical guidebook in the age of the internet, how "sacred texts" of all sorts can be guiding lights for us all, the idea of the “gap month” and how it can open space for change, the highs and lows of self-publishing, and much more.

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In this episode of The Travel Writing Podcast, Jennifer speaks with travel journalist Paige McClanahan about her new book, The New Tourist. From Hawaii to Saudi Arabia, Amsterdam to Angkor Wat, Paige has been witness to various approaches to tourism, which led her to question not only how governments are approaching tourism, but also her own actions and insights as a tourist. Her new book seeks to help those who love to travel become better and more conscientious tourists wherever they go.

During the conversation, Paige discusses how the shift from the old to new tourist translates to travel writing; how social media has helped democratize the travel writing space; how the empathy we gain through travel may help us confront the challenges we’ll face as a species in the coming decades; why questioning our motivations for traveling can be the first step toward becoming a better tourist; and much more. This is a great listen for anyone who loves to travel and wants to have a positive impact on the places they visit.

Many of the most well-known authors in history have struggled with their dark side, a struggle that so often provided the energy for great writing. This dark side is what Brad Kelly and his co-host Kevin Kautzman explore on their podcast Art of Darkness. In this episode of The Travel Writing Podcast, Nathan invited Brad on to talk about some of the authors that Art of Darkness has covered and how travel specifically played a role in the development of their creativity and writing. Brad also offered insight into how researching other authors has both helped and haunted his own writing.