This episode, we join Ashley C. Ford, a writer, educator, and host of the podcast Monumental, and move around the country to find out more about statues, monuments, memorials, and landmarks. Who gets to choose to put them up? And how are our ideas about them changing? Plus, Ashley shares her own personal stories about the monuments that changed her ways of thinking.

Comedian Cat Cohen returns to the podcast with stories of the Edinburgh Festival, a long-awaited trip to Australia after a challenging year, and nights spent on the world’s various comedy stages. Plus, she teases her first album, and looks back on her award-winning standup show The Twist…? She's Gorgeous, which has now landed on Netflix.

In this episode of Travel That Matters, Bruce speaks with Divia, the Global Editorial Director of Condé Nast Traveler, about her home country of India, inclusive of the bustling scene in Goa, the best time of year to visit, where to find the best jewelry, and the thrills of a tiger safari (and how it’s different than the safari experience in African countries). Divia gives useful tips like how to see India without falling into a tourist trap, if you should see the Taj Mahal or skip it, where...

Women make up just 7% of truckers in the United States—a number that shows no sign of increasing, even while the industry suffers from a huge shortage of workers. We hear from trucker Desiree Wood, whose job has taken her to 48 states, about the freedom of life on the road, the dangers that herself and women colleagues face, and the joys that come with the occassional return trip home.

Kelsey McKinney has received more than her fair share of salacious tips during her tenure as the host of Normal Gossip. One theme that crops up time and time again? Group travel. This week, Lale chats with the podcaster and author of the upcoming book, You Didn’t Hear This From Me, to find out about her own memorable travel escapades, the places she loves for eavesdropping and connecting with strangers, and why she’ll never, ever, go on another bachelorette.

Emma Roberts has acted in TV thrillers like American Horror Story and Scream Queens, as well as movies including We Are the Millers, Valentines Day, and Hotel for Dogs. She also happens to be both an avid traveler and the founder of online reading community Belletrist. Lale chats with the actor about the books she likes to travel with (and where she likes to buy them), her love of train travel, and one of her all-time favorite cities: New Orleans.

With the US election looming, this week’s episode is a dispatch from Cristina Tzintzun Ramirez, who is in the midst of touring 114 college campuses and hosting  parties to mobilize newly eligible voters. She shares stories from the road, what she’s hearing from young voters, and how her own heritage influenced her career as a youth vote organizer.

Food has the power to forge connections, and for Palestinian American chef Reem Assil that means using the flavors, aromas, and hospitality of Arab cooking to strengthen and grow her community in Oakland. Reem chats with Lale about her visionary bakery Reems, her family’s Palestinian and Syrian legacies, the surreal experience of winning a James Beard award, and her own personal ties with Gaza.

Earlier this year, New Yorker writer Rebecca Mead reported on the scandals taking place within the British Museum—and its own history of cultural theft that continues to define how we approach it as a museum today. Lale joins Rebecca on the ground in London to learn more about the institution she grew up visiting—and more broadly, how to tackle some of the world’s biggest museums in a way that’s both fulfilling and, well, fun. 

Ever contemplated studying abroad? Charissa Enget needed to find an engineering course she could afford and eventually found one in rural Thailand—drawn in by a scholarship and low living costs. In a listener dispatch, Charissa shares how she learned Thai in six months, made a new circle of friends, traveled around the country in her free time, and finally decided to make Thailand a permanent fixture in her life.

If a new opportunity comes your way, are you ready to take it? When professional photographer Leslie McKellar was forced to move out of her apartment in 2020 because of toxic mold, she took it as an opportunity to reevaluate her trajectory. After realizing her calling to travel full-time, she set out a plan to make it happen and left for Europe in January 2022. Listen to Zero to Travel wherever you get your podcasts.

Our solo travel mini series has followed guests on a work trip to Cannes and a six-month backpacking odyssey across South America. But in this third and final installment, we speak to a guest who pushed themselves even further—to Antarctica. Lale chats with Preet Chandhi, an endurance athlete who’s broken records skiing alone across one of the world’s most brutal and isolated landscapes, to find out how she trained for it, combatted loneliness, and relied on her survival skills during...

In the second installment of our solo travel series, we hear from Christie Bowers, who spent six months backpacking across South America, stopping everywhere from the Amazon to Argentina. She shares how she planned the trip, budgeted for it, and navigated both the joys and challenges of going it alone far from home.

In the first installment of our three-part solo travel series, Zakiya Gibbons, host of dating podcast Hang Up, recounts a pretty glamorous work trip to Cannes—and shares how she navigated moments of loneliness, figured out ways to prioritize downtime and actually see the destination, and even managed to squeeze in a date.

As part of Condé Nast Traveler’s music and travel coverage this month, Lale sits down with reggae singer Lila Iké to find out about life in Kingston, the old school influences that still shape her music now, and what it was like performing live on stage for the first time. But even as she tours the world, she remains faithful to Jamaica’s reggae heritage. “I am a very Jamaican girl,” says Iké. “I grew up in the country, and it doesn't get any more Jamaican than that. I'm a very rootsy, and my...

Freezing your eggs can be logistically challenging—and costly—here in the US, which is why some women are turning their sights overseas. Lale chats with Los Angeles-based Esther Yu McElroy about her own fertility journey, one that took her all the way to Barcelona with a stop in London along the way.

The Paris Olympics are in full swing, but far away from the main stadium, the world’s greatest surfers are taking on Tahiti’s biggest wave as part of the competition. Lale catches up with Condé Nast Traveler’s Megan Spurrell, who flew out to the French Polynesian island to witness the power of the wave firsthand—and speak to the women surfers who are riding it in the hopes of winning gold. (After listening, read her full story here.)

Last time Lale chatted with outdoors expert and Condé Nast Traveler contributor Emily Pennington she was fresh off her book tour for Feral, a memoir chronicling her mission to visit every national park in the US. This week, Emily rejoins us in the studio to talk about what she’s been up to since then, including adventures in Patagonia, how she’s prioritizing her wellbeing while still exploring the outdoors, and her tips for getting out into the wilderness in exciting—and safe—ways.

Each year, Erin French receives 60,000 postcards from people asking if they can dine at her Maine restaurant The Lost Kitchen. “It really becomes a luck of the draw lottery. We have big post office bins that arrive and we literally reach in, we grab a postcard, we call that person immediately and say, ‘Okay, when do you want to come?’” This episode, Erin shares with Lale what it’s like to experience her beloved restaurant, now in its 11th season, and spills on her new cooking and travel show...

Traveling with kids can be all manner of things—educational yet exhausting, transformative yet taxing, magical yet maddening. In this week’s episode, three listeners share dispatches about the joys and challenges of seeing the world alongside children of all ages, from chasing a total eclipse in Dallas to seeking out new adventures in Japan. Plus, look out for more stories on the topic on the Condé Nast Traveler site next month.

We travel for all sorts of reasons: self-discovery, something new, a chance to break out of our routines. But how often is it truly restorative? In a rerun of an episode from last year, Lale talks to activist, educator, entrepreneur, and ardent solo traveler Rachel Cargle about creating calm in every step of a journey—and her new memoir and manifesto, A Renaissance of Our Own

Ever dreamed of swapping your current life for a brand new one in Paris? That’s what Jane Bertch did, who chronicles her own journey, and the French cooking school she subsequently opened, in her new memoir The French Ingredient. Lale chats with Jane about the lessons she’s learned (culinary and otherwise) from her years spent in Paris, her tips for shopping the city’s many boulangeries and fromageries, and all the characters she’s met along the way.

In her book Beyond the Shores: A History of African Americans Abroad, Dr. Tamara J. Walker recounts stories of 20th-century African-Americans who chose to build their lives outside of the United States—everywhere from Paris to Nairobi. Lale chats with Tamara about the romantic notions of 20th-century Paris and the creatives who made it their home, like James Baldwin and Florence Mills, as well as her own travel experiences around the world and what it means to be a global citizen.

Mumtaz Mustafa and Laura Klynstra are best friends who love to cook—and host—together. Lale chats with them about how their respective childhoods in Pakistan and Michigan helped shape their passion for food, travels in Guatemala, and memories of Karachi street snacks and Dutch potlucks.