Questions of Travel

What happens to us when we travel? How do we get beyond the brochure (and should we)? Poets, a professor of ecology, an observer of the Malaysian meat market, and a researcher who studies sense of place work toward answers and share stories of discovery on the road.

Host: Elizabeth Bradfield

Producers: Elizabeth Bradfield, Daniel Hirsch

Featuring: Joshua Rivkin, John Evans, Laura McKee, Peter Vitousek, Nicole Ardoin, Samantha Wai, Michelle Traub, Selena Simmons-Duffin, Daniel MacDougall

Music: Volunteer Pioneer, Johnny Hwin, Natalie Dawn, Eli Herwitz, The Reiterators, and Midawe

URLs: Peter M. Vitousek, Nicole Ardoin

Release Date: 5 February 2009

Listen to the Full Show:

Story 1: Where Men Dance Wildly

We hear from three Stegner Fellows in Poetry who have lived and taught abroad. They share poems written from afar, and wrestle with how to see a foreign world without making oneself its center.

Story 2: Who’s a Tourist?

Peter Vitousek talks about bringing Stanford Students to Hawaii, and makes a compelling argument that tourism, the cheesy stuff, isn’t so bad.
image via flickr

Story 3: What’s Normal Becomes Strange

Samantha Wei guides us into the chaos of malaysia’s Pasar Pagi, and then returns to California with new eyes.
image via flickr

Story 4: Priceless People

Nicole Ardoin shares stories from her research on sense of place, and from her work as an educator on the Galapagos and the Grand Canyon.
image via flickr