We’re Back! Travel Tales by AFAR Podcast Returns for Season 4

Looking for travel inspiration? Each week, in season four of our podcast, launching October 5, we’ll bring you tales of transformational travel.

Baratunde Thurston canoes in the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia for his show, "America Outdoors."

In season two of America Outdoors, host Baratunde Thurston canoes in Geogria’s Okefenokee Swamp, the headwaters for the Suwannee River.

Photo by Part2 Pictures for Twin Cities PBS

This summer was a busy one for me, travel-wise. I was out there—maybe you were too?—"enjoying” all the summer travel chaos. (I had one of those flightmares that for, like, 24 hours made me want to swear off flying.) The busyness also made me appreciate my calmer fall days, which I’m busy filling with travel plans for next year: Scandinavia, Japan, New Mexico . . .

Perhaps you, too, are starting to plan for your next big trip. Or maybe you’re just looking for your next big travel dream. Wherever you’re at, we have plenty of inspiration for you in season four of Travel Tales by AFAR.

Get ready for stories, every Thursday, from some of our favorite contributors. Comedians, polar experts, chefs, novelists—they’ll each share a trip that changed their life. This season, we’ll hear from a plus-size TV show host who wants to make other plus-size travelers feel more comfortable. We’ll hear from a blind amateur surfer who learns to ride new waves in Hawai‘i. And we’ll even hear from the queen of country herself, Dolly Parton.

Episode 1: Baratunde Thurston Wants to Tell a Better Story of Us

Listen to episode 1 now| Subscribe to the podcast

Each week on his PBS show, America Outdoors, Baratunde Thurston explores the ways our relationships with nature tell a story about this country—one that is much more positive than we are often led to believe. Baratunde is a comedian (you might know him from his work on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah), a podcast host, an activist, and author of the best-selling comedic memoir How to Be Black. In his new show, he spends time traveling around the country, visiting the deserts of New Mexico and the swamps of Georgia. And in this episode, he shares moments from these trips, as well as his thoughts on climate change, healing, and more. Plus, he tells his own travel tale about how a cross-country Amtrak trip as a kid changed the way he saw the world.

Listen and subscribe to Travel Tales by AFAR

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Aislyn Greene is the associate director of podacsts at AFAR, where she produces the Unpacked by AFAR podcast and hosts AFAR’s Travel Tales podcast. She lives on a houseboat in Sausalito.