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What does it mean to be a travel writer when the place you're exploring is also your (adopted) home? In 1982, British journalist Tim Bird arrived in Finland to teach English, expecting to stay for a year. More than four decades later, he's still there. In this episode of the Travel Writing Podcast, Tim joins us to discuss his new book, Happy Land: Finding My Inner Finn. We talk about what Finnish happiness really means, the peculiar experience of becoming an insider in a foreign country, and the opportunities and challenges of writing about a place you have (gradually) come to know intimately. We also talk about what a Victorian travel writer can teach us about seeing familiar places with fresh eyes. Happy Land is available from Eye Books at https://www.eyebooksgroup.com/products/happy-land

Michael Venutolo-Mantovani is a writer and musician who writes about a variety of things, most of all, travel and bicycling. His writing has been featured in National Geographic, the New York Times, GQ, Wired, Condé Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure, and many others. Michael joined the Travel Writing Podcast to take readers behind the scenes on his Intrepid Times story on Frank Zappa, how he teaches students about the business of being a freelance writer, his thoughts about the right to tell other people's stories, and how creatives survive in today's expensive and competitive world. Michael recently started publishing The Itinérance (https://theitinerance.substack.com/), a newsletter where he writes about his travels and interviews travelers he knows and admires, always asking the same question: "Tell me about the best day you ever had traveling." Though he was raised in New Jersey and called New York City home for many years, Michael now lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina with his wife and their children. Learn more about Michael at https://www.therealmichaelvm.com/ Read Why is Frank Zappa Watching Over Vilnius, Lithuania? https://intrepidtimes.com/2026/09/why-is-frank-zappa-watching-over-vilnius-lithuania/

Imogen Lepere has been named Sustainability Travel Writer of the Year three years running, winning at the Travel Media Awards in 2024 and 2025 and the TravMedia Awards in 2026. Making a valiant effort to balance her love of travel with her passion for sustainability, she authored The Ethical Traveller (2022), followed by Viva Mexico! (2024). Behind the books and the articles in prestigious publications, however, challenges were mounting. Following a dangerous incident in Mexico and while managing a persistent, energy-draining illness, Imogen made the decision to return to the United Kingdom, establish a home in Devon, and step back from life on the road. On the Travel Writing Podcast, Imogen joins us for a frank conversation about the realities of ethical and sustainable travel today, the growing appeal of memoir writing as a way for people, especially women, to make sense of their lives, the difference between writing about a place and connecting with its community, and the book she is now working on. Follow Imogen's newsletter, Hi Horizon, at https://hi-horizon.ghost.io/

A few months ago, Intrepid Times opened its first round of Professional Submissions, inviting experienced travel writers to contribute narrative travel writing they genuinely believed in. Rather than chasing trends or keywords, we wanted to create space for celebrated writers to follow their curiosity and tell the stories they most wanted to tell. One of the first pieces we published through the series was Katie Dancey-Downs’ I Chased Legends Across Two Baltic Cities. In this episode, we go behind the scenes of that story, tracing how it developed from an initial idea and pitch into the finished article. We also talk about Katie’s fantastically varied writing career, her recent work as deputy editor of Index on Censorship, and her experience writing for outlets including the BBC, National Geographic Traveller and Smithsonian, covering everything from the gloriously chaotic world of Eurovision to more serious issues such as refugee communities and the ongoing crisis of book banning. Learn more about Katie at her website: https://www.katiedancey.co.uk/

Why do Maltese Christians speak a language descended from Arabic? Why were some of medieval Spain’s Muslim rulers red-haired and blue-eyed? And how did Viking-descended Christians in Sicily become thoroughly Arabised? By looking at Europe through an Islamic lens, travel writer Tharik Hussain uncovers a whole world of history that other travellers might just brush past. Tharik is the author of Minarets in the Mountains and Muslim Europe: A Journey in Search of a Fourteen Hundred Year History, and has written for outlets including BBC Travel, National Geographic Traveller, Lonely Planet and Geographical.

Across 24 books (and counting), Peter Naldrett has explored Britain’s coast, its islands, underground worlds, film locations, cities and stranger corners. His latest book, Spooky Britain, takes readers to 100 of the UK’s most eerie and mysterious places. On the Travel Writing Podcast, Peter discusses his career as an author, why books have become his preferred way to make a living as a writer, his journey from starting out to being repeatedly commissioned by major publishers including Conway (Bloomsbury), and how he balances writing and travel with family life and fatherhood. Learn more about Peter at peter-naldrett.co.uk. Find Spooky Britain:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Spooky-Britain-Eerie-Mysterious-Places/dp/1844867609

Behind the travel coverage you see in most major publications is an intense and complicated web of publicists, PR firms, tour companies and press trips that help make it all happen. With AI now in the mix, and the content ecosystem being disrupted more than at any point since the advent of the internet, what opportunities still exist for travel writers? And how can human content creators stand out, stay relevant, and get hired? Brianne Miers is a leading travel public relations strategist and successful travel blogger who knows how things really work behind the scenes. In this forthright conversation, she explains what travel PRs really want from writers, and what travel writers need to know (and do!) to keep getting opportunities. Follow Brianne's travels at https://www.atravelinglife.com/

Most travel advice is meant to be one-size-fits-all. But what if your mind doesn't quite work the way everyone else's seems to? Rebecca Hallett's life suddenly made a lot more sense when, as an adult, she was diagnosed with ADHD. A prolific traveller and travel writer whose work has appeared in publications including The Times and Wanderlust, she had long thought that traits such as restlessness, struggles with deadlines and time blindness were simply character flaws. She didn't realise they were symptoms. In this week's episode of the Travel Writing Podcast, Rebecca talks about her new Rough Guides book, Travelling with ADHD, and how neurodiversity influences the experience of travel at every stage of the journey. We talk about her work as a Japan travel specialist, writing guides for major travel publishers such as DK and Rough Guides, and making a freelance writing life work. Listeners can use the code AUTHOR0026 for 30% off the standard price of books in the Rough Guides bookshop, including Travelling with ADHD and the new Rough Guide to Japan, to which Rebecca once again contributed. https://shop.roughguides.com/book/rough-guides-travel-edit-travelling-with-adhd/9781835295243 https://shop.roughguides.com/book/rough-guide-japan/9781835295328

A traveller on the Hippy Trail in the 1970s, Alex McKay became bewitched by mysterious tales of Tibet’s holiest mountain, Mount Kailash. What began as a backpacker’s fixation eventually became an academic vocation. After studying Tibetan history and culture at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, Alex earned a PhD in South Asian History and went on to publish four academic monographs and around forty scholarly articles, peeling back the layers of history and mythology surrounding a mountain revered by Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and followers of Bön. But there were things academic writing couldn’t capture. As Alex writes in his latest book, In Search of Mount Kailash: “An academic monograph can cite a century-old Tibetan letter but cannot show its author warming ink over a candle in a Himalayan winter; nor convey the historian unfolding it and watching Tibetan dust fall onto a polished library table.” For that, Alex turned to travel writing. In Search of Mount Kailash retraces both his journeys through Tibet and the Himalayas and the decades-long intellectual journey that followed, exploring how the legends surrounding Kailash developed and what happens when scholarship collides with lived experience. The book won the 2025 Kekoo Naoroji Book Award for Himalayan Literature. On today’s episode of the Travel Writing Podcast, Alex discusses what travel writing can reveal that scholarship cannot, the reaction to some of his more controversial discoveries about Kailash, the writers who inspired his own travels, and a lifetime of adventures in the Himalayas — including what it’s like to take LSD on a holy mountain.

When spinal degeneration left Debbie North using a wheelchair, cut off from the British outdoors she loved, she channelled her rage and frustration into writing. A 2011 blog post gained attention and showed Debbie that travel writing could become a force for change. In 2015, she and her husband Andy traversed England from St Bees to Robin Hood’s Bay, creating their own accessible version of legendary guidebook author Alan Wainwright’s Coast to Coast route, with Debbie travelling in a TerrainHopper all-terrain wheelchair. The journey resulted in her first book, In the Spirit of Wainwright, published by Sigma Press. Since then, Debbie has co-written Walks Without Stiles, written North Yorkshire Accessible Walks for All and, most recently, Access Adventure for Bloomsbury. She has written regularly for BBC Countryfile Magazine and reported on accessible travel much further afield, including wheelchair adventures in Berlin, Norway and Sri Lanka. On today's episode of the Travel Writing Podcast, Debbie shares the realities of travel as a wheelchair user, the power of travel writing to effect change, and gives an honest read on where the world is at right now on its journey to make travel accessible. Learn more about Debbie at https://www.debbienorth.org, and her charity Access the Dales at https://access-the-dales.com

The economics of being a full-time travel writer are tough. Even the biggest publications seldom pay their writers enough to cover all the expenses of a thoroughly researched trip. To make ends meet, therefore, many professional travel writers rely on press trips (sometimes called hosted trips) that partially or completely cover the cost of their travels. This brings a whole host of complications, of course; how do you write authentically and originally when you rely on someone with a PR agenda? Sucheta Rawal is a highly experienced and prolific travel writer with bylines in the likes of Travel + Leisure, National Geographic, TIME, Condé Nast Traveler, AFAR, CNN, Fodor’s and Food & Wine. Across a 20+ year career, she has visited or reported from well over 100 countries. In today's episode of the Travel Writing Podcast, she takes us behind the scenes of the life of a full-time travel writer. Learn more about Sucheta at her website, https://suchetarawal.com. Discover her children's book series, Beato Goes To, at https://beatogoesto.com/

In 2021, a budding travel writer called Anna Richards submitted a couple of stories to Intrepid Times; she wrote about penguins in Chile, and as well as a frightening mugging. This was around the time Anna had moved to Lyon, France, fulfilling a generational family dream. Building her travel writing career from the ground up, one clipping at a time, she eventually landed the role as the Telegraph's official Corsica travel expert; a coveted job that lets her travel France in pursuit of stories ranging from French beach towns to undiscovered fine dining. On this week's episode of the Travel Writing Podcast, Anna talks about how she established herself as a travel writer, the pros and cons of being a 'domestic' travel writer i.e one who is based permanently in the place they write about, her recent highly praised piece for The Guardian on how resident's in an unusual building have endured Europe's heatwave, and much more beside. Learn more about Anna at her website: https://www.annahrichards.com/ And follow her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annahrichards_/?hl=en

Writer's block is the demon writers point to as the reason they can't get words on a page. But what if writer's block doesn't actually exist? What if the reason you're not writing isn't the fear, the doubt, the mess, but simply the way you relate to these emotions? Dr Vincent Fogliati is a psychologist with a speciality in ACT (Acceptance & Commitment Therapy). Alongside veteran writer Roger Joyce, they have put together a new book Your Writer's Block is Bullsh*t which may finally be the answer that gets you back to the desk, and allows that blank page to finally fill up with the words you have always been meaning to write. Today, they share the truth about writer's block, and practical strategies you can use today to stop fighting it, and start writing it. Your Writer's Block is Bullsh*t is published by Exisle Publishing in September 2026. I worked closely on this book with my publisher's hat on, and am so excited to see it finally enter the world.  Pre-order your copy and unlock access to a private online workshop with the authors:  https://exislepublishing.com/your-writers-block-is-bullsht-pre-order-campaign/

Every day when submissions are open, dozens of travel stories or pitches land in the Intrepid Times inbox. While the quality of course varies, most of these submissions are from sincere, legitimate writers who have a story to get across. However, an increasing number are entirely or partially AI-generated. Early on, it was quite easy to tell what was AI and what wasn't. Now, as AI tools become more sophisticated and people become increasingly dependent on them, it gets harder and harder to parse the human from the artificial. We are determined at Intrepid Times that not one sentence of AI-confabulated prose will ever be published on this platform, but holding the line has never been harder. Today, Thom Brown, associate editor at Intrepid Times and an award-winning travel writer, takes listeners behind the scenes on our war against AI in travel writing. Learn more about Thom Brown: https://www.thombrown.co.uk/ And read his articles at Intrepid Times: https://intrepidtimes.com/author/thombrown/ Read Intrepid Times's AI travel writing policy: https://intrepidtimes.com/ai/

Paul Theroux called Thomas Swick 'the ideal travel writer,' but he's the first to admit he hasn't always been the ideal traveler. He moved to Poland in the late 1970s as a young aspiring travel writer in love with a local woman, whom he would eventually marry. As he learned the (formidably challenging - I should know!) Polish language and gained his first published clippings, he also spent much of his travels in a state of high, anxious alert. Shouldn't a travel writer be cooler and less fazed by the ordeals of a journey? As Thomas would come to realize, no, one shouldn't. In fact, it's this very hyper-alertness that causes the travel writer to notice and be sensitive to things more relaxed travelers may miss. Thomas Swick joined the travel writing podcast to talk about his extraordinary career, sharing his top tips for travel writers, and discussing his immensely readable and instructive memoir, Falling Into Place - A story of love, Poland, and the making of a travel writer, which features a foreword by Pico Iyer.