To wrap up 2024, executive producer Stephanie Kariuki joins Lale in the studio to look back at some of their favorite episodes over the past twelve months—from actor Emma Roberts on her love of train travel and Normal Gossip’s Kelsey McKinney on the perils of group travel, to three photojournalists on documenting life during war in Ukraine, Yemen, and Gaza.

We’re diving into something we’re all doing a lot of around the holiday season: partying. In Ukraine, where our two guests are based, rave culture has become a necessary vehicle for letting off steam, distraction, and finding joy. Lale talks to Kyiv-based journalist Anastacia Galouchka, and novelist Haska Shyyan, who lives in Lviv, about what raving means to them and the power of community and safe spaces during unimaginable turbulence and uncertainty. This episode is a rerun. It recently won a Society of American Travel Writers Foundation Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award.

Selassie Atadika is a chef, food innovator, and the founder of Midunu, a nomadic private dining experience based out of Accra, Ghana. She’s also happened to have visited 40 African countries. Lale chats with Atadika about the rich bounty of diverse cuisine to be found across Africa, some of her most memorable travel experiences, making artisanal chocolate, and the enduring intersection of food and politics.

We revisit our conversation with Gabrielle Union about her BET docuseries, in which she celebrates her 50th birthday on a trip across Africa with her husband, Dwyane Wade, their children, and friends.

This episode, we join Ashley C. Ford, a writer, educator, and host of the podcast Monumental, and move around the country to find out more about statues, monuments, memorials, and landmarks. Who gets to choose to put them up? And how are our ideas about them changing? Plus, Ashley shares her own personal stories about the monuments that changed her ways of thinking.

Comedian Cat Cohen returns to the podcast with stories of the Edinburgh Festival, a long-awaited trip to Australia after a challenging year, and nights spent on the world’s various comedy stages. Plus, she teases her first album, and looks back on her award-winning standup show The Twist…? She's Gorgeous, which has now landed on Netflix.

In this episode of Travel That Matters, Bruce speaks with Divia, the Global Editorial Director of Condé Nast Traveler, about her home country of India, inclusive of the bustling scene in Goa, the best time of year to visit, where to find the best jewelry, and the thrills of a tiger safari (and how it’s different than the safari experience in African countries).

Divia gives useful tips like how to see India without falling into a tourist trap, if you should see the Taj Mahal or skip it, where to go if you have particular hobbies such as hiking or skiing, and how to find authentic food in India.

Divia also tells us about her favorite Indian dish, mentions a few specific restaurants in India that you'll want to try, and talks about Indian cuisine in London, where she lives today.

Listen to Travel That Matters wherever you get your podcasts. 

Women make up just 7% of truckers in the United States—a number that shows no sign of increasing, even while the industry suffers from a huge shortage of workers. We hear from trucker Desiree Wood, whose job has taken her to 48 states, about the freedom of life on the road, the dangers that herself and women colleagues face, and the joys that come with the occassional return trip home.

Kelsey McKinney has received more than her fair share of salacious tips during her tenure as the host of Normal Gossip. One theme that crops up time and time again? Group travel. This week, Lale chats with the podcaster and author of the upcoming book, You Didn’t Hear This From Me, to find out about her own memorable travel escapades, the places she loves for eavesdropping and connecting with strangers, and why she’ll never, ever, go on another bachelorette.

Emma Roberts has acted in TV thrillers like American Horror Story and Scream Queens, as well as movies including We Are the Millers, Valentines Day, and Hotel for Dogs. She also happens to be both an avid traveler and the founder of online reading community Belletrist. Lale chats with the actor about the books she likes to travel with (and where she likes to buy them), her love of train travel, and one of her all-time favorite cities: New Orleans.