It's a very strange time at the moment, for all manner of reasons, and it's an especially odd time to be running a travel podcast. So ... I'm not. This is the first of a two-part episode all about protest and direct action. Next week I'll be going to back to "Storytime" with tales of times when direct action in the UK has successfully changed society, culture, or the government. This episode, however, is all about the act of protest itself - the bulk of which is a 'Guide To Your First Protest' p...
Jun 11, 2020•29 min•Season 2Ep. 27
This week's podcast episode is all about the history of Apartheid in South Africa, from Cecil Rhodes' rule in Cape Colony in the 1890s all the way to Nelson Mandela's presidency a century later. I would at this point talk a bit more about the pod, but there are more important things to talk about right now, which are unfortunately related. While Apartheid itself might be history, racist feelings are alive and well, across much of the world. Some resources to bear in mind: Teen Vogue - How to tak...
May 30, 2020•36 min•Season 2Ep. 26
This week's podcast episode is all about Travel Privilege. That is to say, the advantages that people have that they may not realise, which are accrued by virtue of their background rather than anything they've worked at to obtain. This covers subjects such as passport privilege - how holding certain nationalities makes travelling much easier - and of course skin colour, and how it's far easier for middle-class 'Westerners' to travel than anyone else. As someone with a flush of privilege (not a ...
May 15, 2020•39 min•Season 2Ep. 25
This week's podcast episode, brought to you from a slightly damp Sheffield, is all about whether travel changes depending on how old you are - if the way you travel at the age of 20 is the same as the way you travel at, say, 40, in terms of travel style, accommodation, food, destinations, etc. I don't talk a lot about travelling at ages older than I am, but you get the drift. Most of it is comparing how my travel has(n't) changed over time. I'll probably do a follow-up episode about this at some...
May 01, 2020•32 min•Season 2Ep. 24
Spring is in the air, and the weather's getting better. Unfortunately we're all stuck at home, unable to do anything but the merest bits of very local travel. For that reason, maybe you should come away with me on a virtual exploration of all things Scotland. The scenery, the food, the wildlife, the history, and almost no mention of midges or rain at all. I promise. Contributions this time are from: Becky The Traveller Leanna from 'Lost Lass' Ruth of 'Roo Loves Travel' Fran, who runs the 'Sieze ...
Apr 24, 2020•39 min•Season 2Ep. 23
Hello from lockdown! This episode gives an overview of what I found when I visited the Outer Hebrides of Scotland last summer for a couple of weeks. It's the first in another two-parter; next week will look more at Scotland in general, including a couple of contributions from Tweeps about the Hebrides. This episode is another one of those which is purely my voice. I go over some of the highlights of the island group, including the weather, the scenery, part of the vast history, religion, and a f...
Apr 19, 2020•34 min•Season 2Ep. 22
So, it's April 2020, and all those plans you had for this year, all those places you were going to travel to, all those experiences ... but yeh, we still have hope, right? This episode takes a look at travel hopes, at what we think the future of travel will be, and where we hope to go once all this is over. [I also have a slight rant about yoga, but humour me!] I make a reference to Jess (The Crown Wings) blog post about travel writing during the virus during the pod, so there's your link. Contr...
Apr 09, 2020•37 min•Season 2Ep. 21
Bonus content! As you may recall, a few episodes ago I had a long chat with Alexei, from Travelexx about, well, primarily luggage, but we ventured onto many different subjects, one of which was sport - hence my previous regular episode. However, that episode ended up being more about travelling for sport, rather than about sports in general, so none of the content crossed over. I thought it might be cool to publish the sport content of our chat in a special bonus episode anyway, as it provides a...
Apr 02, 2020•15 min•Season 2Ep. 20
While virus protection is keeping a large proportion of the world's population indoors and isolated, I thought it would be good to have an episode looking at a subject noted for community, good vibes, and exercise - sport. I talk about a recent run I had where I got queried by police (but not for being outside!), then about places I've gone to to watch sports around the world, including football/soccer, ice-hockey, AFL, and Buzkashi. Contributions are provided by Txiki Stu , Jason Likes To Trave...
Mar 29, 2020•42 min•Season 2Ep. 20
I wasn't sure quite what to record for this episode of the podcast, due to the changing situation in the world, so I pretty much sat in front of a blank screen and did a brain-dump, taking a couple of Twitter conversations I've had this week as an initial basis, and then expanding it with a few thoughts as I've gone on. I talk about three things really - the city of Sheffield, my mother, and my privilege in the face of a global pandemic. I'm hopeful that my next episode will; be a bit more cheer...
Mar 22, 2020•26 min•Season 2Ep. 19
Following on from my previous episode on my own experiences of social anxiety and mental health, in this episode I let some of my Twitter followers and online friends talk about their experiences of mental health while travelling - how they mitigate for it, what helps them cope better, etc. I hope it helps you in some way, to know that if you have similar issues, you're not alone, far from it.
Mar 12, 2020•27 min•Season 2Ep. 18
In a change from the previously advertised programme ... I was having a bit of a wobble in the previous week so I felt it would be a great time to discuss a couple of aspects of mental health, and how they affect me when I'm travelling. In this podcast episode then, I talk a bit about how I seem to have a form of social anxiety, what that means when I'm abroad, and what, if anything, I can do about it. I also go into some detail about other flavours of mental health, including a fear of failure,...
Mar 05, 2020•27 min•Season 2Ep. 17
I've been acutely aware for a while that most of my podcast is me talking, despite my inclusion of contributions as vox-pops, so I've always fancied doing a bit of an experiment. Many other podcasts are either interview-based or are two or three people chatting amongst each other, and I wondered if I ought to try out the same style for an episode to see if it worked. The opportunity arose in casual conversation with my friend Alexei, from https://travelexx.com, so here we go. Following on from m...
Feb 19, 2020•37 min•Season 2Ep. 16
What you take with you when you travel? Do you take just a carry-on bag? Or do you haul yourself through an airport with luggage galore? In this episode I talk about the fact I usually only ever travel with carry-on/hand luggage, and the advantages and disadvantages (or, rather, 'compromises') I face by doing so. There are, of course, some contributions from my friends who may or may not share my travel style ... :p
Feb 13, 2020•32 min•Season 2Ep. 15
As per my previous episode, this is the second of two broadcasts about West Africa. This one is more about you though - the bulk of the episode is three contributions from some of my Twitter friends who have also been around the region, and they've given me their observations and thoughts. Their experiences were also generally different from mine - one person studied there for a year, while another drove through the whole region in a highly-unsuitable car.
Feb 06, 2020•25 min•Season 2Ep. 14
West Africa. It's not a region that is high on the list of many backpackers, and I think that's a real shame as there's so much here of interest. I've recently been posting blog posts and written a travelogue about the adventures I had in the region a few years back, so it made perfect sense to do a podcast on it too. This is the first of two episodes about the region though, as when I was writing it I realised I had so much to talk about, plus of course contributions from other travellers to th...
Jan 30, 2020•30 min•Season 2Ep. 13
This is the second of a two-part discussion on borders; the first, in the previous episode, centred on experiences of crossing borders, whereas this pod talks more about borders in general, about how some borders don't really exist, and about what borders mean to the people on the wrong side of them. It's quite a political, opinionated, and forthright episode with not as much of the humour as previous episodes, but the subject matter is a bit too important to pass over lightly. There is an exten...
Jan 16, 2020•37 min•Season 2Ep. 12
If you travel, the chances are you'll cross a border at some point, even if it's just as simple as going from one local authority area to another. Yet borders are important and significant lines on the map, and even the smallest can be notable. Borders have always fascinated me, as they're at 'the edge', so everything beyond them can be seen as 'new', and 'shiny'. In this podcast, I talk about my experiences of crossing borders, along with a few of my online friends, and how each border is diffe...
Dec 29, 2019•30 min•Season 2Ep. 1
As you may know, I've been away much of the summer, walking across Great Britain with my hiking buddy Becky the Traveller. This episode of my podcast gives an overview of the hike, including: * preparations * gear * routing * how the hike went * things that went wrong * the countryside we passed through * feelings after I finished, the 'what now's. It's an unusual episode, as there's no input from other people, but if you have any comments or questions, let me know and I can put them in the next...
Aug 22, 2019•39 min•Season 1Ep. 10
Most of the travel I do is solo, and this episode looks at why; from my own personal preferences to travelling alone, to the logistical advantages and problems of doing so. I do talk about my experiences of travelling with others, both in group environments and travelling with friends. The pod comes off the back of a recent two week trip around Philippines (a country I said in Episode 003 that I'd probably never go to!) with my good friend Laura, from Tumbleweed Chronicles, so I talk a bit about...
Mar 25, 2019•35 min•Season 1Ep. 9
Another of my destination-specific podcasts this week - although it starts with a quick 7min overview of Lebanon as that's where I was when I wrote most of it ... This episode looks at Uzbekistan; mainly around the practicalities of the country - food, transport, accommodation etc, rather than specific details of tourist attractions. I visited in 2014, and found it really interesting, but I also have input from three other people who've been there more recently than I have (Amy from The Non Back...
Feb 03, 2019•56 min•Season 1Ep. 8
The first "Special Episode" of my podcast, where I read one of my travel-related fiction short stories, based on the topic of "Inheritance".
Jan 11, 2019•25 min
Sexuality is a broad spectrum, but not every country in the world appreciates or accepts this. In this episode I talk about my own sexuality (or indeed, lack of it), and how it affects me when I travel. You'll also hear from a few other people on their experiences on travelling as an alternative sexuality.
Dec 24, 2018•38 min•Season 1Ep. 7
Exploring "The Great Outdoors" is a wonderful experience for me, especially hiking through the countryside. In this episode I'll discuss what it means to me, and how "Saying Yes More" to my inner feelings has inspired me to take on a pretty intense hiking challenge.
Dec 10, 2018•41 min•Season 1Ep. 6
While on my recent trip around the Southern Hemisphere, I spent almost four weeks travelling around the islands of Vanuatu. It's not a country that many people outside Oceania know much about, so I wanted to give an overview and flavour of the country and relate my experiences there. It's definitely a country 'beyond the brochure'.
Nov 15, 2018•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 5
I've just had an 11-week trip around Oceania & Sri Lanka, and arriving back in the UK has sent my mood a little low. I guess it's a form of Reverse Culture Shock, where being back in your everyday life comes as a jarring jolt after being used to the travel lifestyle. I've used my pod this week to talk about these feelings, how they affect me, and what I'm doing to mitigate them. Timely, perhaps, for #WorldMentalHealthDay.
Oct 11, 2018•33 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Many travellers talk about having a "Bucket List", a list of places to see and things to do before they die. In this pod I talk a bit about the concept, then go into some details about my version - the 'anti-bucket list' of places I actively don't see myself visiting. I must stress this is my own opinion, and of course your mileage will vary.
Jul 05, 2018•31 min•Season 1Ep. 3
"Everywhere is Interesting": a mantra that makes you take a different look at the places you visit, making even those areas close to your home that you may not have given a second thought ripe for exploration and discovery. In this pod I encourage you to step outside your house and see what's around your local town, and do the same myself, giving you some information about the places I live near.
Jun 28, 2018•32 min•Season 1Ep. 2
Ever wondered about the meaning and concept behind my name of "The Barefoot Backpacker"? In this pod I go into detail about why I'll often travel barefoot, how it feels, why it doesn't hurt as much as you'd imagine (even while taking the roads less travelled), and admit why I don't do it all the time. Note this is the very first podcast I've recorded. Included too is an introduction to who I am and my background of travel, plus a small overview of the city of Vilnius, in Lithuania.
Jun 20, 2018•32 min•Season 1Ep. 1
