Zero To Travel Podcast

Can you be culturally religious without being religiously religious? What if happiness had less to do with what you believe and more to do with what you notice?

Hiroko Yoda is a Tokyo-born author, translator and folklorist who first came to the US at 17 as an exchange student in rural Indiana. She went on to earn a master's degree in international peace and conflict resolution and co-founded AltJapan, a localization company, with her husband. A former Tokyo editor for CNN Go and a certified Shinto cultural historian, she has coauthored several books on Japanese folklore and is the author of Eight Million Ways to Happiness: Wisdom for Inspiration and Healing from the Heart of Japan.

In this conversation, Hiroko and I talk about the Japanese idea of 8 million kami, how spirituality became part of everyday culture in Japan, and how travelers can visit Japan's shrines and temples with more understanding.

Most of us grew up with the idea that you either believe or you don't. Hiroko offers a different way of seeing it, where Japanese spirituality and happiness grow out of a worldview that treats the sun, the wind, and even the words we speak with quiet respect. It's a worldview that shapes everything from how people eat to how they relate to nature, and it's hiding in plain sight for anyone traveling through Japan. Hiroko is honest that none of this makes life easy, which is exactly what makes her perspective feel useful.

What's one small thing in your everyday life you could start noticing, and appreciating, a little more often? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message.

Tune In To Learn:

Resources:

Want More:

Thanks To Our Sponsors:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Norway is already known for its fjords, Northern Lights, and wide-open nature, so what makes Northern Norway an even better place to have it all to yourself?

Joël Schwalenstöcker is a Northern Norway native who grew up in Tromsø with a German father and a French mother. For about 15 years, he has worked as a music agent, booking tours and shows for artists across Norway and Scandinavia. He is also the founder of Noraventura, which designs tailor-made trips through Norway for travelers who want to see the country beyond the usual tourist stops.

Joël shares seven hidden gems in Northern Norway that most visitors miss, and why the region’s best-known spots have become so crowded. We also share Northern Norway travel tips on renting a car, packing for changing weather, and choosing when to go.

Northern Norway is bigger, emptier, and wilder than most people expect, with the midnight sun in summer and the northern lights in winter shaping the rhythm of life there. It’s also a region where a short drive can change the entire feel of a trip. If you’re planning a visit, or you like the idea of seeing Northern Norway off the beaten path, this conversation gives you plenty to think about.

Have you ever skipped the famous stop on a trip and found something you liked even better? I’d love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you’ll share by sending me an audio message.

Tune In To Learn:

Resources:

Want More?

Thanks To Our Sponsors

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What happens when the way you were taught to read stops working the moment you step outside your own culture?

Ann Morgan is a UK-based author, speaker, and editor best known for reading a book from every country in the world in a single year, a project she chronicled on her blog A Year of Reading the World and in her book Reading the World (published in the US as The World Between Two Covers). In her newest book, Relearning to Read: Adventures in Not-Knowing, she looks at what it actually takes to read well across cultural and linguistic lines.

Ann returns to walk through five techniques for relearning how to read, covering how to notice your own hidden bias, why every reader fills in a story's gaps differently, what a book's assumptions reveal about who it expects you to be, and why this should all matter to us curious travelers.

This conversation gets into something bigger than books: what it actually means to sit with not knowing, and why that discomfort might be exactly where the growth happens. Ann pushes back on the idea that understanding everything is the goal, and the reframe she offers reaches well beyond the page. If you've ever wondered what it actually looks like to get better at reading books from other cultures, this episode lays it out step by step.

What's one time you filled in a story's gaps completely differently than the writer intended? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message.

Tune In To Learn:

Resources:

Want More:

Thanks To Our Sponsors:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With centuries of layered history and some of Europe's most uncrowded natural beauty, why isn't Bosnia and Herzegovina on more travelers' radars yet? 

Nermin Numic grew up in Sarajevo and spent over a decade living and working abroad in South Africa and Europe, where he met his wife Kathrin, who is originally from Germany. In 2020, the couple returned to Bosnia and Herzegovina during the pandemic and decided to stay. They went on to found .Cheyf, a boutique travel agency built around the Bosnian concept of ćejf, showing travelers the local side of Sarajevo and the country beyond it. 

Nermin and Kathrin share seven hidden gems in Sarajevo, Bosnia, that most visitors miss, along with the history behind the city's mix of Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, and Yugoslav influences. They also talk about day trips into the surrounding mountains, must-try local food, and starting a travel business together as a couple. 

Sarajevo is a city where four major religions have lived side by side for centuries, where the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand helped ignite World War I, and where the Bosnian War left scars that are still part of daily conversation decades later. Nermin and Kathrin don't shy away from any of that history, but they also refuse to let it be the only story visitors hear. By the end of this episode, you'll understand why they believe this is exactly the right moment to experience it for yourself. 

What's a place you discovered by accident that ended up being the highlight of your trip? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message. 

Tune In To Learn: 

Resources: 

Want More? 

Thanks To Our Sponsors 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does it take to become the first person ever to complete a full source-to-sea kayaking trip down Madagascar's longest river? 

Oscar Scafidi is a history teacher, travel writer, and expedition leader who has lived and worked across more than 30 African countries since 2006. He has written guidebooks to Angola, Equatorial Guinea, and Tunisia, and holds a Guinness World Record for the first source-to-sea kayak expedition along Angola's Kwanza River. In 2022, he and a fellow expedition partner completed the first source-to-sea kayak trip along Madagascar's longest river, the Mangoky, an adventure now documented in his book and film. 

In this episode, I talk with Oscar about his years living and working across Africa, and the story behind his recent Madagascar kayaking adventure. 

This conversation moves between two very different worlds: the classroom, where Oscar spends his days teaching, and the wild, unmapped stretches of Africa where he pushes himself to the edge. There's a real thread of humility running through it, a reminder that no expedition succeeds without the people who make it possible along the way. It's also a great reminder that a regular person with a full-time job can still build a life full of big, audacious adventures. If you're drawn to stories of grit, humor under pressure, and what it feels like when a plan falls apart in real time, this one's for you. 

Have you ever pushed yourself into a situation where you genuinely weren't sure how things would turn out? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message. 

Tune In To Learn: 

Resources: 

Want More? 

Thanks To Our Sponsors: 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why would anyone choose to travel across two continents alone, with nothing but a cat and no real plan? 

Mia Kercher is a copywriter, marketing strategist, and hypnotist who traveled overland from Serbia to Vietnam as a solo female traveler. She crossed twelve countries by car, foot, bicycle, and tuktuk, all with her cat, Cleo, by her side. Prior to this trip, Mia spent two and a half years backpacking through Europe, eventually settling in Serbia, where she built her energetic copywriting business, Evoke Writing. She recently finished writing a book about her journey. 

In this episode, I talk with Mia about her journey, including the weeks she spent in Afghanistan, and how she kept her business running while living off-grid. 

This conversation is about what happens when you choose curiosity over a plan. Mia's approach to travel has never been about research or certainty, and that mindset gets tested in a big way on this journey. We talk about the discomfort of being an outsider, the surprising kindness that can meet you in the most unexpected places, and how solo travel builds a kind of trust in yourself that is hard to find any other way. It is also a conversation about intuition, and how tuning into your subconscious mind can change the way you make decisions, both on the road and in business. 

What would it take for you to say yes to an adventure with no plan and no idea how it would turn out? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message. 

Tune In To Learn: 

Resources: 

Want More? 

Thanks To Our Sponsors 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What would it take to visit every country in the world, and could a journey like that actually help you heal from unimaginable loss? 

Following the sudden loss of his wife Jackie in Botswana in 2017, Barry Hoffner set out to visit every country in the world, a journey that became the basis for his memoir, Belonging to the World. He has since traveled to 192 of the 193 UN member countries, an experience that included exploring his own heritage as an Iraqi Jew who grew up in the United States. Barry also founded Caravan to Class, a nonprofit that provides access to education for young women across West Africa through the Bourse Jackie scholarship program, named in her honor. 

In this episode, Barry shares how grief led him to a global quest to visit every country in the world, and what he learned about identity, connection, and healing along the way. 

This conversation is a reminder that grief doesn't follow a straight line, and that the way we choose to move through it can shape everything that comes after. There's a lot of honesty here about what it means to rebuild an identity from the ground up after everything familiar is gone. And there's a genuine sense of wonder in hearing how one goal, however unlikely it seemed at the start, can turn into a life fully lived. 

What might it look like for you to begin again from year zero? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message. 

Tune In To Learn: 

Resources: 

Want More? 

Thanks To Our Sponsors 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What makes Namibia feel less like a destination and more like an escape from everywhere else? 

Tuta Nangolo is the founder of Kamatjona, a coliving space and safari company based in Windhoek, Namibia. Founded in 2020, Kamatjona blends long-stay coliving for digital nomads with community-driven, self-drive safaris across the country. Tuta's approach to hospitality was shaped in part by years spent working in a backpacker hostel in London, an experience that inspired him to bring that same sense of connection back home.  

Tuta joins the show to talk about what makes Namibia's culture and landscapes so distinct, and he walks through a self-drive road trip itinerary connecting the country's desert, coastal, and wildlife regions. 

Namibia doesn't behave the way most people expect a safari destination to. This conversation captures a country defined by space, silence, and a slower pace of life, where the wild feels genuinely wild because so few people are around to interrupt it. There's a real sense of discovery running through this one, the kind that comes from a place still largely untouched by mass tourism. It's also a look at what it takes to build a sense of community in a country that's historically catered to a very different kind of traveler. 

Have you ever shown up somewhere expecting one thing and found the complete opposite? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message. 

Tune In To Learn: 

Resources: 

Want More? 

Thanks To Our Sponsors 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What happens when you plan a trip with one goal: to disappear from your phone, your inbox, and the news for as long as you can stand it? 

Tony Fletcher is a British music journalist and the author of seven books, including the bestselling Keith Moon biography Moon and the definitive R.E.M. biography Remarks Remade. He started the fanzine Jamming! as a teenager in London and has spent decades interviewing artists across the music world. He now lives in New York's Catskill Mountains, where he writes about music, travel, and running.  

Tony just got back from a solo month in Nepal, where a big part of the trip was a deliberate digital detox: two weeks completely offline, no email, no social media, no news. He joins me to talk through how he planned it, what it actually felt like to disconnect, and the unconventional route he took into the mountains. 

This is a conversation about what happens when you actually let go, not just of your phone, but of the need to always know what's going on. Tony went in with real doubts about whether he could pull it off, and those doubts followed him further into the trip than he expected. What came back out the other side surprised even him, touching habits and instincts he wasn't trying to change. There's also a quieter thread running through it about choosing the harder, lonelier path on purpose, and what that choice does to how you experience a place. 

Have you ever taken a real break from your phone or the news while traveling, and what did you notice about yourself in the quiet? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message. 

Tune In To Learn: 

Resources: 

Want More? 

Thanks To Our Sponsors 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices