Zero To Travel Podcast

Why does a tiny Nordic nation with just 5.5 million people feel impossible to summarize in a single sentence? 

Lorelou Desjardins has been writing about Norwegian culture since 2013 at her blog and publishing house, A Frog in the Fjord. She has published six books in Norway and internationally, along with 250 articles in mainstream media including Norway's largest newspaper. Her latest book, How to Be Norwegian, offers a crash course into 55 essential Norwegian cultural quirks. She lives in Oslo and is now a Norwegian citizen. 

In this episode, Lorelou and I dig into Norwegian culture and what makes this country so unique, covering the surprising scale of Norway's geography, the country's cabin culture, social dynamics among Norwegians, food and drink customs, the quirks of Norwegian English, and a Norwegian concept worth stealing for your own life. 

Norway can feel like a country of contradictions: vast and remote in parts, intensely social in others, shaped by long winters and short summers that flip the whole rhythm of daily life. This conversation moves between practical travel insight and a more personal look at what it is actually like to live here long-term, even after becoming a citizen. Whether you are planning a trip, exploring your own Norwegian roots, or just drawn to borrowing a little wisdom from another culture, there is something here for you. 

What is one custom or tradition from somewhere else in the world that you have brought into your own life? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message. 

Tune In To Learn: 

How long Norway actually is, and which European capital it would touch if you spun it on its southern tip 

Why a growing wave of travelers are choosing Norway over traditionally hot summer destinations 

What Norway's "freedom to roam" law actually allows you to do 

How cabin culture works, and how travelers can access cabins most visitors never think to look for 

Why Norwegians have a reputation for being emotionally cold, and the bus ride that put that reputation to the test for me 

Why Norwegians are so eager to talk about their own cultural identity with outsiders 

The surprising history behind Norway's strict modern alcohol laws 

Why frozen pizza and Friday tacos became beloved national traditions 

The Norwegian concept that's similar to hygge, but with its own colder, deeper edge 

And so much more 

Resources: 

Sign up for our FREE newsletter 

A Frog in the Fjord 

Lorelou's website 

How to Be Norwegian 

The Norwegian Trekking Association (DNT) 

Want More? 

Cracking the Cultural Code, Ethical Travel To Indigenous Areas, & Life in Norway With Lorelou Desjardins 

Hidden Norway: 7 Off The Beaten Path Gems You'll Love, Popular Norwegian Concepts Worth Stealing, Trekking In Bhutan, & Living At The Crossroads of Magic & Science w/ Torunn Tronsvang from Up Norway 

Top 7 Hidden Gems in Oslo, Norway with Curtis Rojak of Viking Biking 

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Experience intelligent trip planning for calmer travel with the TripWaffle app  

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What would it look like to build a life that reflects exactly who you are and where you want to go? 

Heath Armstrong is an entrepreneur, author, and co-founder of Rage Create, a company known for its unconventional affirmation and oracle card decks that have raised over $200,000 through crowdfunding. He spent years living and working nomadically, including a period traveling full-time in a self-built van across the United States. He now runs Deck Creators, a community for people who want to create and launch their own card decks, from his farmhouse in the mountains of North Carolina. 

In this episode, Heath and I catch up on his journey from the early days of location independence to the businesses he's building now. We get into his approach to freedom lifestyle design, what it actually means to take inspired versus forced action, and the daily practices he's used to move from vision to reality. 

This is one of those conversations that works on multiple levels. On the surface, it's about entrepreneurship and building a life around your values. But underneath that is something more personal: how to recognize when you're operating from fear versus genuine alignment, and what it takes to keep moving in the right direction even when things get hard.  

Heath's been through real darkness, real financial uncertainty, and real pivots, and he's thought deeply about all of it. Whether you're designing a lifestyle business, mapping out your next travel chapter, or just trying to figure out what you actually want, there's something in here for you. 

What's one thing you could do this week to move closer to the version of your life you actually want to be living? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message. 

Tune In To Learn: 

Why Heath draws a sharp line between inspired action and forced action, and why that distinction changed everything for him 

How the note card practice he started years ago still shapes his daily routine today 

Why visualizing your goals in the present tense only works if you actually believe them, and what to do if you don't 

How to tell the difference between resistance and intuition when they can feel nearly identical 

What Heath's "totem pole" framework looks like in practice, and why it brings long-term vision and daily action into alignment 

Why your environment and the people around you matter more than most productivity advice will tell you 

Lessons from van life that Heath still carries with him, including why nature and isolation sharpened his business instincts 

What Heath did when a tariff crisis threatened to sink a shipment, and why he frames problems like video game bosses 

Why Heath thinks moving toward the life you want and being happy in the present moment are actually the same thing 

Hidden gem destinations that left a real mark on Heath, including a spot in Oregon most people have never heard of 

And so much more 

Resources: 

Sign up for our FREE newsletter 

Interested in the Being Box? Email Jason 

Heath's website 

Rage Create 

Deck Creators Community 

Heath on Instagram 

The Game of Life and How to Play It by Florence Scovel Shinn 

The Strangest Secret by Earl Nightingale 

Love Money, Money Loves You by Sarah McCrum  

Want More? 

Digital Detox: Downsizing Your Digital Life to Create Freedom + Reboot Your Lifestyle Business with Corbett Barr 

Building, Growing, and Enjoying a Successful 7-Figure Lifestyle Business with Dan Andrews from Tropical MBA 

How to Pivot to a Life With More Freedom (And Travel), Get More Free Time, and Unlock Your Intuition With Jenny Blake 

Thanks To Our Sponsors 

Become a Fora Advisor today at foratravel.com/zerototravel 

Experience intelligent trip planning for calmer travel with the TripWaffle app 

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What if one of Africa's most diverse and rewarding destinations has been hiding in plain sight — and most travelers only ever see a fraction of what it has to offer? 

Lynett Nakamanya is a tourism professional and Kampala native who has worked across the East African travel industry for over a decade. She holds a master's degree in management science with a focus on project monitoring and evaluation in tourism, and is affiliated with the Uganda Tourism Board. She also runs her own trip-planning platform focused on sustainable and meaningful experiences across the region. 

In this episode, Lynett shares her list of Uganda hidden gems and travel recommendations, the state of tourism in Uganda today, and the real impact that responsible travel can have on local communities. 

Lynett brings a perspective that's hard to find — someone who grew up in Uganda, has spent her career inside the tourism industry there, and thinks seriously about what travel can and should do for local communities. She makes a compelling case for doing a little research before you arrive, because the gap between a standard itinerary and a genuinely memorable one often comes down to simply knowing what to ask for. She also shares a Ugandan saying about travel at the end of this one that's worth sticking around for. 

What experience from this episode most surprised you, and has it changed how you think about where you want to go next? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message. 

Tune In To Learn: 

Why a beautiful crater lake just 20 minutes from Uganda's most famous attraction is almost never visited — and why it's worth the detour 

How one of East Africa's most rewarding mountaineering experiences sits in Uganda, largely off the radar of international visitors 

Why Uganda's 56 tribes make cultural immersion more rewarding when you focus on just one or two 

What one of Uganda's most historically significant religious sites reveals about the country's layered cultural past 

How a massive collection of islands right next to the airport offers everything from white sand beaches to wildlife encounters that most visitors drive straight past 

Why one eastern Uganda destination pairs three waterfalls with some of the world's highest-graded Arabica coffee 

Why doing your own research before a trip is the single best way to unlock experiences that never make the standard itinerary 

How responsible travel creates a ripple effect through local families and communities that most visitors never see 

What cultural mistake tourists commonly make in Uganda that creates more harm than help 

And so much more 

Resources: 

Sign up for our FREE newsletter 

Uganda Tourism Board 

Uganda Wildlife Authority 

Explore Uganda 

Want More? 

Top 10 Hidden Gems: East Africa (Beyond the Safari) and Transitioning to Travel With Sasha and Megnote Lezhnev 

5 Surprising Experiences in Africa, How to Transition to a New Career After Travel, and Exploring the African Diaspora With Jay Cameron 

Safari 101: How To Plan A World-Class African Safari (Without Going Broke) 

Thanks To Our Sponsors 

Become a Fora Advisor today at foratravel.com/zerototravel 

Experience intelligent trip planning for calmer travel with the TripWaffle app 

Earn points on rent and mortgage payments. Apply at joinbilt.com/zerototravel 

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What if the travel mindset you bring to far-off places is exactly what's needed right where you live? 

Alastair Humphreys is a British adventurer, bestselling author, and speaker named National Geographic Adventurer of the Year. He spent four years cycling 46,000 miles around the world and has since canoed 500 miles down the Yukon River, rowed across the Atlantic, walked the length of India's Kaveri River, and crossed Iceland on foot and pack raft. In recent years he has become one of the most well-known advocates for microadventures and local exploration, and his newest book is Unwilded: Finding Our Way Back to Nature. 

Alastair joins me to unpack the ideas in his book, including why our growing disconnection from nature matters personally and planetarily, and how a travel mindset and nature connection can be tools for changing both. 

Alastair has made this case before on the show, but Unwilded takes it somewhere new. This isn't just a conversation about microadventures or getting outside more. It's about a specific kind of blindness that builds slowly across generations, and what it costs us without anyone quite noticing. Alastair brings the same practical, adventure-first framing he always does, but this time it's in service of something bigger: a way to take the traveler's curiosity you feel on the road and put it to work where you actually live. The episode ends with a surprisingly simple exercise that can help you turn the world's overwhelming problems into something personal, actionable, and genuinely fun to pursue. 

What's one small thing in your immediate environment that you've stopped really noticing? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message. 

Tune In To Learn: 

Why the traveler's curious, enthusiastic mindset is exactly what's needed at home, and why most of us leave it at the border 

What "shifting baseline syndrome" is and why understanding it changes the way you see the world around you 

How two apps transformed Alastair's relationship with his daily run, and how to try the same thing 

Why spending 15 minutes in nature daily is harder than it sounds, and why that's actually the problem 

How connecting with even a tiny patch of local nature can deliver the same buzz as a far-off adventure 

What the Overton window has to do with how we approach climate change, travel, and everyday behavior 

Why Alastair stopped flying and moved to a vegan diet, and the surprisingly positive effect it had on his life 

What the 5-25 exercise is, and how it can help you identify the issues closest to your heart and take action without burning out 

How the Netherlands transformed its streets in a generation, and what that says about what's actually possible 

The vision Alastair wrote for the world 25 years from now, and why it's closer to reality than it might seem 

And so much more 

Resources: 

Sign up for our FREE newsletter 

Alastair Humphreys' website 

Unwilded: Finding Our Way Back to Nature 

Adventure + Purpose newsletter by Alastair Humphreys 

Follow Alastair on Instagram 

Merlin Bird ID app 

Seek app by iNaturalist 

4,000 Weeks by Oliver Burkeman 

Want More? 

How To Have An Adventure On Any Budget With Alastair Humphreys 

Exploring A Single Map: A Travel Adventure For Everyone With Alastair Humphreys 

Is Your Summer Vacation Destroying The Planet? w/ Seth Kugel 

Thanks To Our Sponsors 

Become a Fora Advisor today at foratravel.com/zerototravel 

Experience intelligent trip planning for calmer travel with the TripWaffle app 

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Molly McDonald is a London-based YouTube producer and founder of Blue Door Productions, a YouTube-first content agency that brings broadcast-level production to digital storytelling. She studied journalism at Boston University and later earned a master's in Irish studies from NYU before building her career in television production in New York City. Her client list includes Red Bull, BBC, and National Geographic, and her films have accumulated over 200 million views on YouTube. 

This episode covers Molly's journey from Irish-American New Yorker to YouTube travel documentary producer, including her work on some of the most extreme human endurance expeditions ever filmed and what she learned along the way. 

Travel has a funny way of dismantling the stories we tell ourselves about the world, and Molly McDonald has lived that firsthand, from the pubs her family built in Manhattan to the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan. She grew up straddling two cultures, and that dual identity turns out to be the exact foundation for the kind of storytelling she now does for a living: finding the human truth inside extreme, unpredictable adventures. There's a real conversation in here about what it means to travel to places that scare you, why the media often gets destinations wrong, and how following a story you can't fully control is actually what makes it worth watching. 

What place have you avoided visiting because of how it's been portrayed in the media, and has anything ever changed your mind? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message. 

Tune In To Learn: 

Why growing up Irish-American in New York shaped Molly's approach to storytelling and travel 

How Blue Door Productions brings TV-level production quality to the "wild west" of YouTube 

What it was actually like to cross into Iraq during a live expedition, and what happened to all the fear 

Why Kurdistan challenged everything Molly thought she knew about the region 

How to capture authentic moments on camera when you can't predict what's coming next 

Advice for aspiring YouTubers on what to cut, what to keep, and why most people share too much 

Why the title and thumbnail of a YouTube video matter more than people realize 

How to think about storytelling structure even when the story is still unfolding in front of you 

What the concept of "soul places" reveals about how travel changes you over time 

Why starting from zero on YouTube is actually an advantage, and what consistency really means 

And so much more 

Resources: 

Sign up for our FREE newsletter 

Learn more about Molly's work at Blue Door Productions 

Follow Molly on Instagram at @mollybmcd 

Watch Mitch Hutchcraft's expedition on YouTube 

Want More? 

100 Documentaries Project: Traveling the Globe to Find Extraordinary Humans + Changing the World One Story at a Time with Robin Danehav 

Transition to Travel: West Africa + Canoeing the River Gambia with Will Hunt 

Independent Travel as a Female in Afghanistan, Hitchhiking Iraq, and Ex-Pat Life in Sudan with Jacquelyn Kunz 

Thanks To Our Sponsors 

Become a Fora Advisor today at foratravel.com/zerototravel 

Check out Morning Brew Daily for business news that's actually fun. 

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This week, I'm sharing a bonus episode from a brand new podcast called Y We Travel, co-hosted by my friend Eric Weiner, who has joined me on the show a few times over the years. Eric is a New York Times bestselling author and former foreign correspondent, and his co-host Erica Vella is an award-winning podcaster and former broadcast journalist. 

There's no shortage of travel advice out there — who can save us a buck, what to do, when's the best time to go, where to go. But one fundamental question often gets left behind: why? 

Born from an award-winning magazine series of the same name, Y We Travel explores the deeper motivations behind our journeys. The show unpacks the emotions, discoveries, and purpose that give travel its meaning. 

In this episode, Eric and Erica discuss the origins of the series and their own motivations for travelling. Eric interviews author and Y We Travel essayist Pico Iyer, trading travel anecdotes from Japan to California to North Korea and discussing themes from Pico's piece in The Walrus magazine, which argued that we should travel to meet our neighbours. Erica continues the conversation with a selection of Toronto Pearson passengers, asking: "Why are you travelling today?" 

Resources: 

Sign up for the Zero to Travel FREE newsletter 

Listen to Y We Travel on Apple, Spotify 

Read the companion essays at ywetravelmag.ca 

Contact Y We Travel: [email protected] 

Learn more about Pico Iyer 

Want More?: 

The Geography of Bliss With Eric Weiner 

How To Live a Long and Useful Life (The Wisdom of Ben Franklin) With Eric Weiner 

Rick Steves On the Hippie Trail (The Making of a Travel Writer) with Special Guest Host Eric Weiner 

Thanks To Our Sponsors: 

Become a Fora Advisor today at foratravel.com/zerototravel 

Check out Morning Brew Daily for business news that's actually fun. 

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Matt Gray is the founder and CEO of Pangea, a free social travel app built to help people coordinate travel plans, share recommendations, and connect with their network around the world. After a decade in product development and corporate M&A at a global fintech company, he left the corporate world in 2023 to become a full-time digital nomad and build Pangea full-time. He is on a personal mission to visit every country in the world.

In this episode, we get into seven travel tech trends shaping how people plan, book, and experience travel, including why most travel apps fail, the rise of social travel, and what AI can and can't do for travelers right now. We also dig into destination recommendations, advice for running a remote business on the road, and what it means to bridge the nomad bubble.

These are genuinely fascinating times to be a traveler and a builder in the travel space, and Matt sits at the center of both worlds. He's thinking seriously about why travel tech has such a high failure rate, and what it would actually take to crack the code, and he brings a perspective that is grounded in years of on-the-ground experience across dozens of countries and travel styles. There is a real conversation here about the gap between wanting to travel and actually doing it, and I think it will stick with you. The travel tech trends for digital nomads piece is insightful, but the human thread running through it all is what makes this one worth your time.

Have you ever had a piece of technology genuinely change how you travel or connect with people on the road? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message.

Resources:

Want More?

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What would it mean to stop measuring your life by the conventional yardstick and start building one that actually fits? 

Blake Boles is a writer, experiential educator, and the founder of Unschool Adventures, a travel company for self-directed teenagers, which he has run since 2008. He is the author of several books on alternative education and self-directed learning, and his newest book, Dirtbag Rich: High Freedom, Low Income, Deep Purpose, was released in March 2026.  

In this episode, Blake and I get into the philosophy behind "dirtbag rich" living, including what it really means to pursue a high-freedom, low-income lifestyle while still navigating the demands of modern capitalism. We also dig into the practical side of how to make a non-traditional financial model actually work, and talk about purpose, downward mobility, unschooling, outdoor adventure, and so much more. 

If you've ever wondered whether there's a middle path between grinding toward a distant retirement and going full dirtbag with no financial safety net, this conversation is going to give you a lot to think about. Blake shares a lot of real practical substance in this one, alongside some genuinely fresh thinking about how to measure wealth, what freedom actually requires, and what gets in the way of most people finding their version of a dirtbag-rich unconventional life. 

What does "enough" look like for you, whether that's money, time, adventure, or something else? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I hope you'll share by sending me an audio message. 

Tune In To Learn: 

Why the original dirtbag culture offers a useful framework, even if you'll never live in Yosemite full-time 

How Blake figured out a way to earn good money in short bursts and stay free the rest of the year 

Why "how do you know when you're wealthy?" is a more useful question than you might expect 

What the FIRE movement often gets wrong about making a clean break from work 

How to think about "downward mobility" as a feature rather than a failure 

Why having freedom from something isn't enough without also knowing what you're free to do 

What the real risks of a dirtbag rich lifestyle actually are, and how to go in with clear eyes 

How purpose shows up differently for different people, and why measuring it in "I get to" days works 

Advice for attracting the ideal clients and building work that doesn't eat your life 

Why getting your ideal client to feel genuinely excited to work with you is the job before the job 

And so much more 

Resources: 

Sign up for our FREE newsletter 

Blake’s website 

Dirtbag Rich book 

Unschool Adventures 

Want More? 

The Vagabond's Way: Meditations on Wanderlust, Discovery, and the Art of Travel w/ Rolf Potts  

The 5 Best Hacks of “All the Hacks”: Travel, Money & Life Optimization with Chris Hutchins 

Digital Detox: Downsizing Your Digital Life to Create Freedom + Reboot Your Lifestyle Business with Corbett Barr 

Thanks To Our Sponsors 

Become a Fora Advisor today at foratravel.com/zerototravel 

Check out Morning Brew Daily for business news that's actually fun. 

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