NPR on Exploration

by Erik Olsen on

Why do we explore? What do we travel at all? Wouldn’t it just be easier to sit at home on our butts and watch TV all day? I mean, travel requires all that planning, all that exertion. Yuck.

Well, face it. We travel because it stirs our spirits, because there is something in us that wants to know, that demands we see things for ourselves. Exploration is a part of us, it is what makes us human.

So listen to some of these great NPR stories about explorers and exploration. I have listened to all of them, and some are better than others, but all of them are worthwhile. Listen and enjoy, and if you don’t some away fired up to get out there, well, something is wrong with you.

Nuclear Museum is da Bomb

by Erik Olsen on

The Wall
Street journal pays a visit to the all-new Atomic Testing Museum, which lies not far from the Las Vegas Strip. It
is a place that both celebrates and ruminates over the difficult, but damn fascinating history of nuclear testing in
the United States.

The 8,000-square-foot museum opened in March, and is the work of the Nevada Test Site Historical Foundation. It sounds
cool and kitschy, if such a thing can be said about a place that celebrates a technology that could wipe life off the
planet. The ticket booth resembles the site’s guard station; the movie theater looks like a bunker. “Countdown to next
show,” flashes an ominous red clock. A roar and a blast of air greet visitors in the concrete theater…I assume it’s not
radioactive.

The museum sketches the history of the nuclear age, which started with the first atomic bomb test in the New Mexico
desert in 1945. The first true shot heard round the world.

In the New Yorker!

by Erik Olsen on

Like Jim Benning over at
Worldhum, I am a New Yorker fan. Wait, this is an understatement. I live for the New Yorker. It is, IMHO, the best
magazine in the world. In fact, I’m not sure what I would do with myself if it ever went defunct, not that I expect it
to, of course. It’s just that in the wide wacky world of publishing, you never know what’s going to happen. The
emergence of all the LCD/ADD lad mags once worried me that long-form journalism was on the way out.

Anyway.

So as a travel writer, I was downright giddy to learn that this
week’s issue is dedicated to travel…or journeys to be more precise. For some reason, my issue, which almost always
arrives on Monday, was not in yesterday’s mailbox. I almost wept, but will rush home today to see if it’s there. But I
did check out the Web today and found several of the peices online (btw: someone PLEASE tell the folks over there that
their site SUCKS. I would LOVE to help them with it, if they need advice.).

There are peices by Jonathan Franzen, Jane Smiley, and a story on back country skiiing (something
we’ve posted about at length) by Nick
Paumgarten. There is also a profile of Brazilian photographer Sebastian Salgado, whose photo essay on whales in a
recent Rolling Stone took my breath away. One of the main pieces is
a wonderful look at Lonely Planet and its
founders Tony and Maureen Wheeler.

Speaking of which, I should also mention that within a day or two, we will post our next
podcast which features an in-depth interview with LP’s Don George. It was
such a treat to talk to Don, who is one of my travel writing heroes. We discussed all sorts of things, including his
new book

Travel Writing, and, in a similar vein to the New Yorker piece, the “Lonely Planet” effect (you’ll see). Anyway, I
know you’ll enjoy it, so tune in again soon when the podcast is up.

Moken: Nomads of the Sea

by Adrienne Wilson on

Every time you click into Nat Geo you’re going to be guaranteed something special and their
feature this month on the
Moken Sea Gypsies surpasses that. 
Gypsies have always been an intriguing figure for me, but this article on the nomadic sea culture of Austronesian
people or Moken for short is just unbelievable.  Spending most of their time in hand-built boats called
kabang they live only with what they need. Drifting from island to island in the Mergui
Archipelago, some 800 islands scattered throughout the Andaman Sea their world is beyond belief or any simple
description given here.  If you love water cultures then you MUST check out the
sights & sounds multimedia
clip on the Moken at National Geographic.  Incredible.

Adventurer George Bass

by Erik Olsen on

Give a listen to this fantastic NPR story about
underwater scientist and explorer George Bass. Bass is widely acknowledged as the father of modern nautical
archaeology. He came up with the concept of applying techniques of dry-land archaeology to the underwater environment,
which led to the discovery of the world’s oldest shipwreck. Give a listen, a real cool story.