Travel for Your Mind: Radio Lab

by Erik Olsen on

I think that travelers are naturally curious people. After all, what’s the point of going through all the agony of making plans, slogging to the airport, enduring a 5 or 12 hour flight, and arriving in a completely foreign place where you know no one, if the whole experience didn’t somehow stimulate some high-level cortex?

Well, this isn’t exactly a travel-related post, not in the sense that I am offering you insight into some far off distant land…it is not a travel post geographically-speaking. But it is a travel piece in the sense that I am offering a trip for your mind, a place your head can go when you are caught in the throes of tedium, boredom or perhaps just in traffic.

I have long been a big fan of the work of journalist Robert Krulwich. He is, in my opinion, one of the most thoughtful, relevant and creative journalists out there today. Never mind that he typically covers one of my favorite topics — science — and so that makes it easier to appeal to my sensibilities. Even if he farm subsidies or the Fed, I’m sure he’d find a way to make the subject interesting (I actually think he did cover these topics in the early years). Krulwich has got a relatively new gig on the radio now over at public radio called Radio Lab, and if you have not heard it, you should drop everything now (wait, not you…not the guy holding the precious Ming Dynasty vase….oh damn) and go listen. Radio Lab is a feast for both hemispheres of the brain. Your logical cortex will dine on delicious explanations of complex topics like emergence and identity, while your creative cortex will savor the funny, off-beat and unusual way that the pieces are architected and edited. This is fulfilling science journalism, and right now, nothing I’ve experienced on radio or TV touches it.

I also have to mention and give equal billing to the show’s producer and co-host, Jad Abumrad, who brings style, intelligence and obviously an immense amount of creative energy to the work here.

Excellent. You’d have a hard time finding better stuff to put on your iPod.

Pauline Frommer Podcast

by Erik Olsen on

The name says it all. Those of you interested in learning how to be a better travel writer, or who just want to hear an interview with one of the big names in the business (she is Arthur Frommer’s daughter…and a very fine person, I will tell you) should catch this podcast with travel guru Pauline Frommer.

She provides an inside look at how her guides are produced and also offers expert advice for traveling “outside the box“. That means going in search of “alternative accommodations” and discovering those unique experiences that, well, when you think about it, you may NOT find in guidebooks.

Road Trip USA Podcasts

by Erik Olsen on

It is summer and across the country families and couples and poor lonely dudes with a car are taking to the open roads. Travel to Europe (as I learned recently) is expensive and even though gas prices are ridiculously high, it is still far cheaper to hit the road with the kids than to fly over the pond. And so the word on many lips this summer is Road Trip. OK, that’s two words, but it is a single concept. The concept of being free on the open road, hands on the wheel, moving along beneath the gaping sky. I’m getting kind of teary eyed just thinking about it.

There are so many road trip possibilities in the United States that you can get downright confused about what to do. A book out there that I recommended a ways back is here to help, Called Road Trip USA. Written by Jamie Jensen, the book is a beast. A travel tome with more tidbits about what to see and do along the American highway system than has likely ever existed. And now (this is the point of the post) he is offering free podcasts for you to download and listen to while on the road. They’re a diverse lot. The Podcast Themes include: US Music Festivals and the American Sound, Regional American Food, Weekend Road Trips, Quirky Culture and more.

 

Photo of the Day (6/18/2006)

by Erik Olsen on

This photo easily won today’s Photo of the Day. The shot blew me away when I saw it. Sure, I was tempted to do something for Father’s Day, a nice picture of a father and son on some grand travel adventure. But I thought this shot of Mother Nature was better. The shot if of the Cleveland Volcano in the Aleutian Islands.

Have iPod Will Travel

by Erik Olsen on

Man, we’re so ahead of the times here. I mean, it was like years
ago that we were extolling the virtues of the iPod as a carry-along travel companion, a device that can help uplift
your spirits as you plug into the new Pearl Jam album, or, perhaps better yet, provide you with audio walking tours of
places you visit. I’ve sampled many different audio products since I got my fourth generation iPod about a year ago
(this, after handing over my bulky first generation iPod to my wife). And I have to say, the results are mixed. First
of all, as a subscriber to audible.com since the early days, I still download my monthly book and keep up my
subscription to the audio version of Charlie Rose. But I have also tried products like Soundwalk, who sells audio tours
of neighborhoods in Manhattan as well as other cities like Paris and, if you can believe it, Varanasi, India. So I’m a
big fan of these audio tours, and as I mentioned yesterday, looks like Rick Steves is getting into the game as well.

Everyone is
dong it. In fact, you should take a look at our podcasts, and
download a few for your listening pleasure. And if you want to learn even more than we just told you, go and check out
this article over at
National Geographic Traveler that Neil mentioned a while back, and that provides a quick rundown of ways travelers
can use their iPods or other MP3 players while on the road.