#624: Rolf Potts — The Vagabond’s Way, Tactics for Immersive Travel, Pilgrimages and Psychogeography, Empathy Machines, Full-Throated Love, The Slow Sense of Smell, Lessons from Thích Nhất Hạnh, Falling Upward, and More

Rolf Potts — The Vagabond’s Way, Tactics for Immersive
Travel, Pilgrimages and Psychogeography, Empathy Machines,
Full-Throated Love, The Slow Sense of Smell, Lessons from Thích
Nhất Hạnh, Falling Upward, and More | Brought to you
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Greens all-in-one nutritional
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Rolf Potts (@rolfpotts) is the author of the
international bestseller Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the
Art of Long-Term World Travel. His newest book is The
Vagabond’s Way: 366 Meditations on Wanderlust, Discovery, and the
Art of Travel. He has reported from more than 60
countries for National Geographic Traveler, The New Yorker,
Outside, The New York Times Magazine, and Travel Channel. Many of
his essays have been selected as “Notable Mentions” in The Best
American Essays, The Best American Nonrequired Reading, and The
Best American Travel Writing.


He is based in north-central Kansas, where he keeps a small
farmhouse on thirty acres with his wife, Kansas-born actress
Kristen Bush. My 2014 interview with Rolf can be found at
tim.blog/rolf.


Please enjoy! 


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[08:16] Ideal travel partners, living or dead.


[11:37] Breaking the ice among screen-glued strangers abroad.


[15:41] Finding safe homestays while traveling (and why you
should).


[19:46] The Cal Fussman method of creating community on public
transport.


[21:50] Finding the focus to make your travels purposeful.


[25:55] What Rolf learned by traveling with his senior parents.


[27:44] How Rolf found the girl next door on the other side of
the world.


[32:53] Advice for anyone finding full-throated, open-hearted
love elusive.


[36:50] What Rolf means by “full-throated.”


[37:20] Nothing makes you appreciate home like traveling the
world.


[40:32] The most meaningful task for the traveler.


[45:45] Pilgrimage pointers.


[48:57] Getting lost is good for you. So is taking a break from
mobile tech.


[52:43] Uncertainty as a gift of travel — and how to cultivate it
by slowing down.


[1:00:21] Books, movies, and experiences that help slow the
perception of time.


[1:04:27] “Novels are empathy machines.”


[1:11:06] How travel can give us context for the choices we make
at home.


[1:20:10] Contemplating life’s next chapters.


[1:26:36] What compelled Rolf to write The Vagabond’s Way: 366
Meditations on Wanderlust, Discovery, and the Art of Travel?


[1:29:47] Billboards as the original attention economy device and
parting thoughts.


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