When a pandemic hits… who you gonna call? In my case, I called travel experts.
12 of most interesting I could find. Here’s what they said.
Season 1 of Adventure Calls has now come to an end. The date is arbitrary, of course, when it’s your show. I am the host, producer, editor, sound mixer and promoter and everything-elser of the podcast, but here’s how I know the season is over:
The first wave of the pandemic is over. We all cracked open our doors to peek out and ask if the danger was gone.
Turns out, the monster was indeed lurking and we’re all either headed into a Phase 2 of lockdowns (Europe) or just massive spikes (US).
And yet, travelers got out there and traveled, and will continue to do so as long as they are allowed. We saw that travel did not die, but it has become forever altered.
The Backstory of a 2020 podcast launch
I’m not sure how many responded to crippling fear by launching a podcast, but I did.
Back in April of 2020 (one million years ago now), I was terrified that the Coronavirus would mute or even kill our collective desire to travel. Back then, I was still based in Brooklyn (we’ve since moved to New Jersey like so many others), and from one day to the next, there were no more loud teenagers or honking cars, no more squeals of kids or late-night stoop conversations wafting up through our windows into the window of our brownstone. Instead, it was silent, except for the ambulances. I wore rubber gloves and a big N95 mask to walk the dog, and even cried once while washing my groceries because I didn’t know if I got it all off. We were in the epicenter, in the eye of a storm.
I felt like travel could never survive this level of global panic, my motto in life is Go Find Out For Yourself. So I launched a podcast filled with phone calls to travel experts about the #futureoftravel in a #postpandemic world. I didn’t talk to industry types, but rather travel entrepreneurs, tour guides, travel media and publishers and others whose lives depend on travel to survive.
I am so proud of how the podcast turned out.
Interview highlights from some of our guests:
Take Gregory Burns, a record-shattering Paralympic gold-medaling swimmer turned world-renowned artist and traveler based in Singapore who talked about rallying together as a global community to fight this disease.
From the wide open spaces of Connecticut, the ever-inspiring @gearisup, pilot Melanie Folcik Barillaro, talked about the private-jet boom since Covid, and what is has taken to get through various stages of interviews to become a NASA astronaut (she’s well on her way!).
From her Manhattan home, Fathom magazine founder Pavia Rosati talked about the pandemic as an opportunity to become more conscientious travelers as a result of the pandemic, but how government regulations should and will shape the industry as we know it.
And what about Lamar Shambley, the founder of Teens of Color Abroad, or @tocainternational. Locked in his Brooklyn apartment just like me, he talked about having to halt the first-ever cohort of students heading for Spain during the pandemic.
Travel PR expert Tess Longfield called from the UK to talk about the pandemic’s impact, plus her life as an expat in Kenya, Jordan and, most recently Lebanon, and her run from the Dead Sea to the Red Sea.
From Copenhagen, Jannik Laewitz, founder of Luggagehero, talked about the vulnerability of travel startups even before the Pandemic, and how Covid will change the entire travel startup space.
After the most horrifying 8 minutes and 49 seconds of 2020 ignited the nation into protests and the Black Lives Matter movement came out ahead of Covid for our attention, I shifted the focus on the podcast to lend my voice and honor the movement.
From Oakland, CA, the unrivaled Marty Lewis, talked about the founding of the Black Travel Alliance @theblacktravelalliance by leading black content creators who now aim to hold the travel industry accountable and make sure the travel industry follows through on their promises to black staff, influencers and travelers.
Gen Z travel superstar Gabby Beckford, aka @packslight, called from Virginia to talk about taking chances and risks as travel entrepreneurs but also in life in general. Her term, Delusional Confidence, describes the fact that you should go for whatever you want, and you are no more likely to fail than succeed if you put in the work, so just go for it. Why not chase your dreams, she says. What else have you got!
Wandering Earl founder Derek Baron (and his rescue kitten) called all the way from Bali, Indonesia to talk about the future of the cruise industry, group tours and adapting tours to a new environment. Derek’s 7,000+ straight days (20 years) of nomadic life provide expertise and insight like no other.
Last, but absolutely never least, we ended Season 1 with a phone call from Boston with the one and only Beth Santos, the founder and CEO of Wanderful, the world’s largest travel community for women. We talked about equity in the travel industry, Black Lives Matter and inclusion, and Beth gave a quote that I will design and hang from my wall in my office, as she so succinctly defined travel in three parts.
While we recorded and published, people started traveling more.
Road trips and staycations became popular, just as predicted by my 12 experts, but slowly trips by plane picked up as well.
As we clearly enter Phase 2 of this pandemic, we see that it is up to use to decide whether we will travel or not, but that if we do, the travel industry will be there to receive us with open arms.
So what now?
The pandemic awoke something even deeper inside many of us. The feeling that it’s now or never. What are we waiting for to do the things we always wanted to do - it could all be taken away from us in an instant. I published my book: How To Move Abroad And Why It’s The Best Thing You’ll Do, to help any and everyone who finally wants to take the leap that changed the course of my own life 20 years ago.
Season 2 of Adventure Calls will dig deep into the minds of those who, like me, left everything behind for life abroad. Those who followed the call to Adventure, and decided to pursue the life they dreamt of. You’ll meet guests living in Japan, Mongolia, Germany, Spain and more. They found success abroad and we’ll break down how they not only made it work, but have created a life filled with adventure.
The world is going to keep on turning. Your dream is going to keep on burning. And in Season 2 we’ll get into the how and the why people follow their own call to adventure.
Subscribe now to binge all of last season and get ready for Season Two!