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This week we revisit one of our episodes about teachers and travel. We take a look at all the ways teachers use travel, from expanding the boundaries of the classroom and developing their own skills, to - as our guest Cheria Funches of Black Teachers Travel puts it - engaging in self care. For more on the topics we cover in this episode, check out: https://www.teachingtraveling.com https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexandratalty/2019/04/30/from-jobless-to-jetset-the-37-year-old-traveling-the-world-on-a-teachers-salary/#448c445b1875 https://www.inquirer.com/news/nj-amistad-journey-curriculum-black-history-teachers-learning-20191108.html And to learn more about Cheria's work, visit: https://www.blackteacherstravel.com

We continue with our trip down memory lane by revisiting our conversation with Alison and Don, a couple who set out on a trip around the world in their sixties. We talk about why they decided to do it, the lessons they learned on the road, and what advice they have for couples who want to travel together without drifting apart.

Now that summer travel season is kicking back into gear for the first time in years, we thought we’d dig through our archives to bring you some early, pre-pandemic podcast content to stoke your nostalgia and wanderlust. We’re calling this series “souvenirs,” as a reminder of where we’ve been and how lucky we’ve been to be able to wander the earth and share our stories with you. First up is our episode on the idea of traveling with kids. What makes it so hard to plan? What makes for a meaningful trip that still has something fun for everyone?

In this episode Shannon and Tamara talk about one of the enduring challenges when it comes to traveling to Europe -  flights that land hours (and hours) before we can check into our accomodations - and a genius workaround that helps get everyone off to a fresh start.  They also commisserate about the challenge of keeping track of all the shifting guidelines, which can make for confusing and conflicting experiences even in the space of a single airport. 

In this episode we talk about overused travel tropes. Which ones do we need to toss out (hint: it ends with "-moon")? Which ones are worth keeping, or perhaps rethinking for the way we live and travel now? For more on the topics we discuss in this episode, check out: https://www.travelpulse.com/opinions/column/its-time-to-rethink-these-overused-travel-tropes.html https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/07/15/1009911082/the-pandemic-changed-the-world-of-voluntourism-some-folks-like-the-new-way-bette  

It seems like every piece of travel advice we come across these days tells us to avoid the dreaded "tourist trap." But what's so bad about these sorts of places? And why are we so dismissive of them? In this episode, Shannon and Tamara try to get to the bottom of it, and offer up a more flexible set of rules for having the best travel experience possible. 

In this episode Shannon and Tamara tackle a pressing question: what does it mean to be well traveled? Is it about the number of stamps on your passport or a slightly more complex formula?  Also, join us as we end up dissecting the most expensive, luxurious, and downright outrageous trip offering we've ever come across: Four Seasons Private Jet Excurions (https://www.fourseasons.com/privatejet/). 

In this episode we talk about how we've started out the new year aware of the old problems related to traveling in our current reality. At the same time, that awareness has forced us to become travel and destination experts in ways we're trying to embrace. 

When we started working on this week's episode with Angela, our de facto travel correspondent, the new variant hadn't yet made the news or an impact on the travel industry. So the specifics of the experience she describes reflect a different moment than the one we're currently in. But there is something valuable in realizing that, when it comes to travel in these times, everything can - and most likely will - change in an instant.

Tamara and Shannon are back! In this episode, they talk about the roads they've been traveling, what it's like becoming a regular in new places, the joy of cooking in Sabbatical Homes, and whether they see themselves as travel experts, expert travelers, or some combination of the two. 

It has been a while since the last episode we recorded together. We’ve got a bunch of ideas of topics we want to cover this fall and winter on Why We Wander but we thought we’d ease back into things with a fun thought experiment inspired by a recent article in Conde Nast Traveler titled “Why I never travel without a white button down shirt.” Tamara and Shannon muse about the things we pack, from favorite clothing items and travel essentials to the sentimental objects we pack to remind us of home or bring home to keep our travel memories alive. In this episode: "Why I Never Travel Without a White Button-Down Shirt," Rebekah Peppler, Conde Nast Travel The classic passport belt The down-filled blazer

We had a busy summer at the podcast and at The Wandering Scholar, despite the unusual circumstances surrounding all of us right now. Normally we’d be giving you updates from our students about their trips abroad with one of our travel partners, but obviously that wasn’t possible for us this year. And so we had to get creative.  In place of our usual program, we launched a new storytelling initiative for travel-loving and travel-curious high-school and college students. Whether they had a passport already dotted with stamps or they were yet to embark on their first international flight, we asked young people to tell us “Why I Wander.” One such young person was a student named Laniyah. While working on this episode with Laniyah, we got to witness how something as intuitive as asking a set of questions can lead to a meaningful personal narrative. Whether you’re also a student, traveler, storyteller, or all of the above, it’s an important lesson in seeing what happens when we remain curious about where we come from, where we currently find ourselves, and where we feel drawn to go.