Travel memoir lab: How your journeys can inspire fictional adventure stories
“That first day in Mumbai, there was the slum to the side of us, there were sports cars that would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollar...
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Society & Culture
Deviate with Rolf Potts
Rolf Potts veers off-topic in this unique series of conversations with experts, public figures, and intriguing people.
Episodes
20 of 236 episodes
Best of Travel: Paul Theroux on the necessary obstacles of meaningful journeys
"All writing is trying to destroy a stereotype, and the individual that you're writing about -- the figure in the landscape -- is actually t...
The geography of sports movies (with Chuck Klosterman and Michael Weinreb)
“"When I was in the third grade my teacher announced to our class that Ronald Reagan had been shot. When she asked if we had questions, I ra...
Designing a creative life on your own terms (with Cedar Van Tassel)
“A joke is kind of like a little life-lesson in addition to being funny. If your joke is really good, there's a little nugget of truth in it...
What movies (do and don't) show us about places before we travel there
“When we don't foster local filmmaking traditions, we end up making movies about what we think life is like in the cities we do see movies a...
Exploring the idiosyncrasies of male friendship, with Andrew McCarthy
“I asked everyone if they were lonely. All the guys my age said 'no, I'm too busy; too much going on.' When I answer that quickly I'm either...
Debunking the mythology of BEFORE SUNRISE, with co-writer Kim Krizan (in Paris)
"I think you have to pick your battles when you're collaborating with people." – Kim Krizan Kim Krizan ( @kimkrizan ) is the Oscar-nominated...
Super Bowl special: Why football kind of matters, with Chuck Klosterman (kind of)
“I wish I loved sports, and particularly football, a lot less than I do. It consumes too much of my memory and too much of my time.” – Chuck...
Time is your truest form of wealth (and travel helps you embrace your riches)
“In teaching us to appreciate rather than accumulate – to seek awe rather than outcomes – travel can be an ongoing exercise in gratitude.” –...
Kansas Never Plays Itself: How movies lie when they take us places
In this feature-length video essay that explores the role places play in storytelling, Rolf examines how Kansas -- his home state -- has bee...
Traveling as a writer, and awkward book-tour experiences, with Anthony Doerr (from 2012)
“I’m interested in writing because I don’t want to sleepwalk through life. I feel like we have an appallingly brief time on earth, and we’re...
Talking with my parents about how to handle it when your parents die (in memory of Alice Potts, 1943-2025)
Note : This encore episode is dedicated to the memory of Alice Potts, who died on August 20, 2025 , aged 81. “In America aging is often seen...
An audiobook about how (not) to write a travel book: 9 lessons from my failed van-life memoir
“No endeavor to write a travel book is ever lost, since it gives you a useful perspective on (and intensified attention to) the reality of t...
Vagabonding pioneer Ed Buryn on what indie travel was like in the 1960s and 1970s (encore)
“Realizing that you will die greatly clarifies your vision of life, and stimulates opportunities for making the vision real.” –Ed Buryn In t...
Why We Travel: Happiness, curiosity, wonder, sex, healing, and other motivations for hitting the road
"No one motivation is ‘better’ than any other. We travel with different motivations at different times, and they sometimes overlap." –Ash Bh...
Before Sunrise (redo): Screenwriter Kim Krizan on what led up to the classic travel-romance movie
"Time spent traveling on trains, just staring out the window: I don't think that's lost time. That's when we have our best ideas." –Kim Kriz...
Before Sunrise: Screenwriter Kim Krizan on what led up to the classic 1995 travel-romance movie
"Time spent traveling on trains, just staring out the window: I don't think that's lost time. That's when we have our best ideas." –Kim Kriz...
Mars on Earth: The world's driest desert, and what travelers might find when they go there
“If you're someone who's always dreamed of going to Mars but you don't have the time to become an astronaut, you can just visit the Atacama...
Why a chapter about "slum tourism" was edited out of The Vagabond's Way (with Chloe Cooper Jones)
“Travel does not require leaving your city or state or country, but it does require leaving your comfort zone. And that can happen a block o...
Long-term travel 101: Matt Kepnes on how to slow down and save money on an extended global journey
“The most difficult part about traveling the world isn’t actually the logistics of a trip—it’s finding the courage to go in the first place....