Merida, Uxmal, Kabah, Hormiguero, Chicanna, Began, Xpujil, Calakmul, and Campeche. For a transcript, see https://www.buzzsprout.com/1970784

Vijayawada, Amaravati, Ghantasala, Machilipatnam, Guntupalli, Undavalli, Nagarjunakonda, Panigiri, Jaggaiahpet, Chennai government museum, and Hyderabad. For a transcript, see https://www.buzzsprout.com/1970784

A visit to the Comstock mines.

For a transcript, seehttps://www.buzzsprout.com/1970784

For photos see greatmirror.comFor a transcript, see buzzsprout.com1970784

For photos, see greatmirror.comFor a transcript, see Buzzsprout.com/1970784

For photos, see greatmirror.comFor a transcript, see Buzsprout.com/1970784

For photos, see greatmirror.comFor a transcript, see Buzzsprout.com/1970784

For photos, see greatmirror.comFor a transcript, see Buzzsprout.com/1970784

For photos, see greatmirror.comFor a transcript, see buzzsprout.com/1970784

For photos, see greatmirror.comFor a transcript, see buzzsprout.com/1970784

For a transcript, see https://www.buzzsprout.com/1970784For pictures, see greatmirror.com

 For photos taken on this trip, go to greatmirror.com and click on Sri Lanka, then Jaffna.

This is the first of 14 episodes starting in Australia and continuing through Zimbabwe, the UK, Romania, Israel, and the West  Bank.  It ends in India, like all sensible global tours.  Throughout, the theme is the loss of the cultural habitats where human beings are most at home.  This first episode is mostly devoted to laying out the argument, but at least it begins and ends with its feet on the ground.

Road trip!  We start in the suburbs of metropolitan Adelaide and then drive north to Riverton, a town that ought to make Americans wonder where they went wrong.  We continue north through Burra to Yunta, Mannahill, and Silverton, three ghost towns. For accompanying pictures, go to greatmirror.com and from there to Australia, then Long Way to Broken Hill.

Hinting at one of the world's leading mining companies, now called BHP Group, the name Broken Hill originated in a physical hill and then became the name of the town built around that hill, eventually reduced to a tailings pile.  The town is not a touristic hotspot, but that's a point in its favor, along with brute honesty. For accompanying pictures, go to greatmirror.com and from there to Australia, then Broken Hill.

For some visitors, Uluru might as well be a digital billboard, but at least  for now its big enough to repel commercial abuse.  For visitors smart enough to travel alone, the mountain offers the sensation of feeling that you've found a place where you belong.   Call it freedom by another name.   For pictures, go to greatmirror.com and from there to Australia, then Uluru.

Another road trip: this time from the Harare airport south to Chivhu and Masvingo.  Never heard of them?   It's time to fix that.      For pictures, go to greatmirror.com and from there to Zimbabwe, then Harare and/or From Harare to Great Zimbabwe.

Great Zimbabwe is too precious to be joked about.  Or shared.   So call me conflicted. For pictures, go to greatmirror.com and from there to Zimbabwe,  then Great Zimbabwe.  A subsequent visit to Zimbabwe is in a separate episode called:  "Zimbabwe: Happier than Leona Could Imagine"

I look around Glasgow to see how, for better and for worse,  we have detached ourselves from the natural world.   For pictures, go to greatmirror.com and from there to UK and Glasgow Core and/or Glasgow Periphery.

Looking for Europe before industrialization, I head to Romania's Saxon villages. For pictures, go to greatmirror.com and from there to Romania, then Transylvania.

UNESCO's World Heritage Program might seem an unlikely scene for furious disagreements, but think again.  I score the intensity of the debate over Jerusalem's listing as maybe 5 out of 10.    For pictures, go to greatmirror.com and from there to  Israel, then Israel and the West Bank, 2019.

The debate over Battir's "inscription" on the World Heritage List was maybe a 6 or 7. For pictures, go to greatmirror.com and from there to Israel, then Israel and the West Bank 2019.  Photos from the 1990s can be found on the Great Mirror, then West Bank and, from there,  both Bethlehem and Battir.