Women Who Travel | Condé Nast Traveler

Earlier this year, New Yorker writer Rebecca Mead reported on the scandals taking place within the British Museum—and its own history of cultural theft that continues to define how we approach it as a museum today. Lale joins Rebecca on the ground in London to learn more about the institution she grew up visiting—and more broadly, how to tackle some of the world’s biggest museums in a way that’s both fulfilling and, well, fun. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Ever contemplated studying abroad? Charissa Enget needed to find an engineering course she could afford and eventually found one in rural Thailand—drawn in by a scholarship and low living costs. In a listener dispatch, Charissa shares how she learned Thai in six months, made a new circle of friends, traveled around the country in her free time, and finally decided to make Thailand a permanent fixture in her life. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

If a new opportunity comes your way, are you ready to take it? When professional photographer Leslie McKellar was forced to move out of her apartment in 2020 because of toxic mold, she took it as an opportunity to reevaluate her trajectory. After realizing her calling to travel full-time, she set out a plan to make it happen and left for Europe in January 2022.Listen to Zero to Travel wherever you get your podcasts. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Our solo travel mini series has followed guests on a work trip to Cannes and a six-month backpacking odyssey across South America. But in this third and final installment, we speak to a guest who pushed themselves even further—to Antarctica. Lale chats with Preet Chandhi, an endurance athlete who’s broken records skiing alone across one of the world’s most brutal and isolated landscapes, to find out how she trained for it, combatted loneliness, and relied on her survival skills during multiple polar expeditions. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In the second installment of our solo travel series, we hear from Christie Bowers, who spent six months backpacking across South America, stopping everywhere from the Amazon to Argentina. She shares how she planned the trip, budgeted for it, and navigated both the joys and challenges of going it alone far from home. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In the first installment of our three-part solo travel series, Zakiya Gibbons, host of dating podcast Hang Up, recounts a pretty glamorous work trip to Cannes—and shares how she navigated moments of loneliness, figured out ways to prioritize downtime and actually see the destination, and even managed to squeeze in a date. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

As part of Condé Nast Traveler’s music and travel coverage this month, Lale sits down with reggae singer Lila Iké to find out about life in Kingston, the old school influences that still shape her music now, and what it was like performing live on stage for the first time. But even as she tours the world, she remains faithful to Jamaica’s reggae heritage. “I am a very Jamaican girl,” says Iké. “I grew up in the country, and it doesn't get any more Jamaican than that. I'm a very rootsy, and my music reflects a lot of that.” Eager for more once you’ve listened? Don’t miss Iké’s local’s guide to Kingston on cntraveler.com. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Freezing your eggs can be logistically challenging—and costly—here in the US, which is why some women are turning their sights overseas. Lale chats with Los Angeles-based Esther Yu McElroy about her own fertility journey, one that took her all the way to Barcelona with a stop in London along the way. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The Paris Olympics are in full swing, but far away from the main stadium, the world’s greatest surfers are taking on Tahiti’s biggest wave as part of the competition. Lale catches up with Condé Nast Traveler’s Megan Spurrell, who flew out to the French Polynesian island to witness the power of the wave firsthand—and speak to the women surfers who are riding it in the hopes of winning gold. (After listening, read her full story here.) Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Last time Lale chatted with outdoors expert and Condé Nast Traveler contributor Emily Pennington she was fresh off her book tour for Feral, a memoir chronicling her mission to visit every national park in the US. This week, Emily rejoins us in the studio to talk about what she’s been up to since then, including adventures in Patagonia, how she’s prioritizing her wellbeing while still exploring the outdoors, and her tips for getting out into the wilderness in exciting—and safe—ways. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Each year, Erin French receives 60,000 postcards from people asking if they can dine at her Maine restaurant The Lost Kitchen. “It really becomes a luck of the draw lottery. We have big post office bins that arrive and we literally reach in, we grab a postcard, we call that person immediately and say, ‘Okay, when do you want to come?’” This episode, Erin shares with Lale what it’s like to experience her beloved restaurant, now in its 11th season, and spills on her new cooking and travel show on Max, Getting Lost With Erin French, which sees the chef road trip across the US in search of new ingredients and inspiration, and sharing meals with Texas farmers, New Orleans chefs, and more. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Traveling with kids can be all manner of things—educational yet exhausting, transformative yet taxing, magical yet maddening. In this week’s episode, three listeners share dispatches about the joys and challenges of seeing the world alongside children of all ages, from chasing a total eclipse in Dallas to seeking out new adventures in Japan. Plus, look out for more stories on the topic on the Condé Nast Traveler site later this year.Reporting by Ashlea Halpern Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

We travel for all sorts of reasons: self-discovery, something new, a chance to break out of our routines. But how often is it truly restorative? In a rerun of an episode from last year, Lale talks to activist, educator, entrepreneur, and ardent solo traveler Rachel Cargle about creating calm in every step of a journey—and her new memoir and manifesto, A Renaissance of Our Own Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Ever dreamed of swapping your current life for a brand new one in Paris? That’s what Jane Bertch did, who chronicles her own journey, and the French cooking school she subsequently opened, in her new memoir The French Ingredient. Lale chats with Jane about the lessons she’s learned (culinary and otherwise) from her years spent in Paris, her tips for shopping the city’s many boulangeries and fromageries, and all the characters she’s met along the way. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In her book Beyond the Shores: A History of African Americans Abroad, Dr. Tamara J. Walker recounts stories of 20th-century African-Americans who chose to build their lives outside of the United States—everywhere from Paris to Nairobi. Lale chats with Tamara about the romantic notions of 20th-century Paris and the creatives who made it their home, like James Baldwin and Florence Mills, as well as her own travel experiences around the world and what it means to be a global citizen. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Mumtaz Mustafa and Laura Klynstra are best friends who love to cook—and host—together. Lale chats with them about how their respective childhoods in Pakistan and Michigan helped shape their passion for food, travels in Guatemala, and memories of Karachi street snacks and Dutch potlucks. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

There’s nothing quite like the magic of a Scandinavian summer, where daylight is near endless and hundreds of islands come to life for locals to explore and retreat to. Author Dorthe Nors—and repeat guest on this show—joins us to share stories of life on the Danish island of Fano, fascinating folklore, and tips on creating your own island hopping journey this summer. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Gabe and her husband have befriended an American couple in Treviso, Italy, where they all live. In order to give them a taste of home, Gabe would love to cook her new friends an American meal. But what typifies American food? And how can she source the right ingredients in the Veneto? Host of Dinner SOS Chris Morocco enlists the help of Bon Appetit's resident Aussie, Adam Moussa, and sommelier André Mack of BA's World of Wine series, to figure out what Gabe should make.Listen to and follow Dinner SOS here: https://listen.bonappetit.com/badinnersos Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

It’s summer, which means we're grabbing every chance there is to hit the beach or dive into a hotel swimming pool. But some travelers are a little more intrepid, plunging into wild, frigid waters for all manner of reasons. To find out why, Lale chats with writer and wild swimmer Freya Bromley about her recent memoir The Tidal Year and catches up with friend of the podcast and author Dorthe Nors, who lives on a remote part of Denmark’s west coast. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

What is it like growing up in one of the most storied and iconic hotels in Italy? Ask Valentina de Santis, who was raised in the kitchens and ballrooms of Lake Como's Grand Hotel Tremezzo and now runs the charismatic Passalacqua along with her parents nearby. Lale chats with the hotelier to hear stories of life on Lake Como, get tips on traveling in both summer and the off-season, and what it really means to live La Dolce Vita. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

What does it take to eat well—and simply? To find out, Lale chats with Yasmin Fahr, author of the new book Cook Simply Live Fully (and former undercover restaurant critic), for advice on shopping at local markets, how to make use of an Airbnb kitchen, and the joy of cooking far from home. Plus, she shares stories of island life on her home of Menorca. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

This week, Lale speaks with women who risk their lives to document conflict and catastrophe around the world—and who are all recipients of a Courage in Photojournalism Award from the International Women's Media Foundation. Listen to hear Cairo-based Nariman El-Mofty, who has been traveling through Yemen and Sudan, and Anastasia Taylor-Lind, whose work is focused on Ukraine, share stories of the human side of war, as well as a message from Samar Abu Elouf, a photojournalist from Gaza City. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Tiffany Mathias, a self-confessed baseball stadium chaser (and, incidentally, Lale’s sister-in-law), recounts her quest to visit every ballpark in the US, touring the stadiums, chatting to ushers and fans, and sampling the often eccentric local concessions—often as a solo traveler. To watch a game in a new stadium, says Tiffany, is “to be in her happy place.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Life begins again in spring, and as the air (and your nostrils) fill with pollen it might be a good time to learn something new about the plants with which we share the earth. To do so, Lale talks to nature writer Jessica J. Lee about how, as she's lived around the world, learning about non-native plants has given her a sense of belonging. From cherry blossoms to seaweed to tea, plants cross borders by themselves, or because we move them for very different reasons. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

With summer travels on the horizon, Lale taps professional astrologer—and Women Who Travel columnist—Steph Koyfman to read her chart and guide her through the season and the rest of the year. Plus, we hear from three listeners who are thinking about relocating, getting citizenship in a new place, and undertaking a life changing trek, and turn to Steph for clarity. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Traveling everywhere from the savannahs of Tanzania to the mountains of Montana, Dr. Rae Wynn Grant is on a mission to save the world’s most endangered species. Lale chats with the wildlife ecologist, podcaster, author and co-host of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom to hear stories from her new memoir, WILD LIFE: Finding My Purpose in an Untamed World (including a dicey near death experience), how she’s advocating for better representation in the environmental science space, and why everyone should have access to the outdoors. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

As Women's History Month comes to a close, we dive into the stories of two pioneering pilots: Amelia Earhart and Bessie Coleman. Yet while the legend of Earhart’s aviation feats and mysterious disappearance has long gripped the public imagination, Coleman’s equally impressive career as the first African-American woman to hold a pilot license is a story that still largely goes untold. Lale chats with Dorothy Cochrane, a curator at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, to find out more about both pilots record-breaking flights, the risks they took, the individual challenges they faced, and the ingenious ways they advocated for themselves. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

This week Lale chats with author Chantha Nguon—along with her daughter Clara and co-author Kim Green—about her new memoir Slow Noodles: A Cambodian Memoir of Love, Loss, and Family Recipes. Listen to hear the trio share stories of their travels across Cambodia and collaborations in the kitchen, while Chantha reflects on life as a Cambodian refugee, life in 1960s Battambang, and the dishes that have always kept her connected to home. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Following the release of Condé Nast Traveler's annual Women Who Travel Power List, spotlighting 15 leaders like activist Quannah ChasingHorse, TV host Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant, and content creator Charlotte Simpson, Lale and fellow editor Megan Spurrell get together in the studio to chat about how they shaped the list, the ways it's guiding their travel decisions, and ask the question: How should we use our power, once we have it? Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In honor of International Women's Day, Lale chats with award-winning director Lulu Wang, who is featured on Condé Nast Traveler's 2024 Women Who Travel Power List, about creating the worlds of Expats and The Farewell, the importance of using filmmaking to highlight untold stories, and her journey to becoming an award-winning director—without making compromises. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

It's an election year, and already journalists are traveling all over the country to tell voters the most important stories from the trail. But what is it like to cover the US presidential race as a foreign reporter? Lale chats with three correspondents from Canada and Europe as they share tales of blizzards, campfires in Tennessee, and late-night eats after long days of breaking news. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In her upcoming book Enchanted Islands: Travels Through Myth and Magic, Love & Loss, author Laura Coffey charts a real-life journey she took inspired by one of the most epic travel stories ever told: The Odyssey. Lale catches up with Coffey to find out how the famous poem informed where she went, the unforgettable meals she ate, and the cast of characters she met along the way. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In 2019, friend of the podcast Jessica Nabongo became the first Black woman to visit every country in the world—and document it all along the way. We check back in with her to find out how and where she’s traveling in 2024, and revisit a conversation about solo travel from an earlier episode. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Love doesn’t sleep just because you’re traveling. This episode, in honor of Valentine’s Day, we’re dedicating an episode to our listeners’ stories, from tales of a windswept singles resort, to a fling in a Toronto hotel, to a surprising encounter in China. Whether you love or hate this holiday, or love to hate it, we promise this episode will be a fun one. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

This week, we chat with journalist Laura Trethewey, author of The Deepest Map: The High-Stakes Race to Chart the World's Oceans, about traveling to the deepest parts of the ocean, sailing on research boats across some of the most remote and roughest seas in the world, and the intrepid deep sea divers and scientists who are racing to map the ocean floors. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Twenty one countries make up Latin America—and within those countries lies myriad food cultures, recipes, and histories. This week, Lale chats with guest Sandra A. Gutierrez about her latest cookbook Latinísimo: Home Recipes from the Twenty-One Countries of Latin America, an encyclopedic exploration of the region through its dishes and the home cooks who make them. Plus, her travels in countries like Peru and Colombia, and insider tips for tracking down the best eats in a new city. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Slow travel is a buzzy term these days, but what does it actually mean? Over the coming months, we'll explore what it takes to travel slowly and more intentionally, starting with this week's episode: A conversation with travel writer and adventurer Alice Morrison, who spent seven months walking across Morocco alongside a group of nomads. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

It's a new year, which means it's time to stop daydreaming and start planning your travels for the next 12 months. Can't decide where to visit? Start listening to find out the best places to go in 2024—from Santa Fe, New Mexico to Accra, Ghana—according to Condé Nast Traveler editors Arati Menon and Sarah James. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In a special episode from The New Yorker's Critics At Large, the celebrity memoir has long been a place for public figures to set the record straight on the story of their lives. By any measure, Britney Spears’s life, as detailed in her new book, “The Woman in Me,” is rich material. The pop star rose to fame in the early two-thousands, and, after enduring a series of mental-health crises, was placed in a conservatorship through which her father controlled almost every aspect of her day-to-day existence. On this episode of Critics at Large, the staff writers Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz discuss the “horror story” that emerges in the memoir as the teen-aged Spears is betrayed by everyone around her: a family intent on profiting off her talent; a young Justin Timberlake, who used his romance with Spears as a stepping stone for his own career; a ravenous media that both sexualized and shamed her. The hosts consider how “The Woman in Me” fits within the broader canon of celebrity memoirs, citing the producer Julia Phillips’s “burn-it-all-down” best-seller, “You’ll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again,” and the late Matthew Perry’s 2022 meditation on his struggles with addiction, “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.” Ultimately, these stories are just one facet of a broader narrative—and a kind of performance in their own right. “Once you submit to being a celebrity, your music, and how you appear in magazines, and what you produce as a memoir all contribute to this one big text,” Cunningham says. “It’s this grand synthesis, and, in the end, the text is Britney herself.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

For our last episode of the year, we’re diving into something we’re all doing a lot of around the holiday season: partying. And in Ukraine, where our two guests are based, rave culture has become a necessary vehicle for letting off steam, distraction, and finding joy. Back in November, Lale caught up with Kyiv-based journalist Anastacia Galouchka, who recently penned a story on the capital’s rave scene for Stranger’s Guide, and novelist Haska Shyyan, who lives in Lviv, about what raving means to them and the power of community and safe spaces during unimaginable turbulence and uncertainty. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

We dive into the thorny issue of passport privilege thanks to this week’s guest, Shahnaz Habib, author of the new book Airplane Mode: An Irreverent History of Travel. Why do some travelers gain more visa-free access than others? Who determines how a place is seen through the lens of its guidebooks? And what does the word "wanderlust" mean, exactly? Shahnaz seeks to answer all that and more, and shares some of her own travel stories. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Is there a more universally used beauty product than eyeliner? Not according to author Zahra Hankir, who chats with Lale about her new book Eyeliner: A Cultural History, which looks at the meaning and symbolism of kohl around the world, from Kyoto to Chad, as well as throughout the Middle East—and dives into her own personal history with the enduring piece of makeup. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In 1938 two women botanists broke with convention and set off on an expedition trip along the Colorado River that would see them risk their lives over rapids in the name of research. Two years ago, science journalist Melissa Sevigny retraced their adventure, whitewater rafting the same rapids and sleeping under the stars to learn more about who these women were—and why their work still influences the scientific landscape of America today. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

It can be hard to escape the frenzy of Valentine’s Day and all its forced expectations. But here on this podcast, we’re avoiding the cliches in favor of a conversation with Dr. Orna Guralnik, host of Showtime’s hit documentary series Couples Therapy, which is about to enter into its fourth season. Lale chats with Orna about everything from how to balance both of your needs on a trip to expectation setting on the road. The good news? She believes travel is beneficial to a relationship. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Lale chats with journalist and author Louisa Lim about her recent book, Indelible City, which dives deep into the untold stories of Hong Kong, both past and present, through a cast of calligraphers, street artists, and more, while also reflecting on her own personal connection with a place she long-called home. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Should I check my luggage or carry-on? Fold or roll? Bring one pair of shoes or...seven? Packing for a trip, when done well, can feel like an art form—yet one that few of us seem to have figured out. This week, Chloe Malle, the new Editor of Vogue.com and the co-host of Vogue’s podcast The Run-Through with Vogue, joins Lale in the studio to dish her packing wisdom—and answer listeners' burning questions. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Whether its embedding herself with orchid hunters in Florida or chasing surfers in Maui, Susan Orlean is never afraid to throw herself into the story. A longtime writer for the New Yorker, and author of beloved titles like Saturday Night, The Library Book, and On Animals, she's traveled the world—and calls into the studio to share stories from Iceland, Bhutan, and more. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Salem, Massachusetts has long lived in our public consciousness as both the site of the infamous witch trials of 1692 and 1693 and as a Halloween tourist destination depicted in myriad pieces of literature, pop culture, and art. But what is it actually like to spend time there? Lale chats with Dr. Helen Berger from the Women’s Studies Center at Brandeis University, whose written multiple books about witch communities in Salem and elsewhere to find out. Plus, we dive into WitchTok content from around the world. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

New York City's Chinatown is arguably one of the most famous neighborhoods in the world—and perhaps one of the most storied, too. Ava Chin, whose memoir, Mott Street: A Chinese American Family’s Story of Exclusion and Homecoming, came out this spring, chats with Lale about the apartment building that housed four generations of her family, and the journey a look into her heritage took her on. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

When Tamsin Calidas left London to live on a croft in the Scottish Hebrides, she was idealistic and totally ignorant about farming. Years later and after facing and overcoming significant struggles, she feels in harmony with nature, wildlife, and the beauty of her island. Calidas sits down with host Lale Arikoglu to chat about working the rugged landscape. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices