Why Travel? Find joy when you leave (or stay) home
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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This is Life Kit from NPR. We start in Hawaii just before sunrise on a Hawaiian volcano, Haleakala. It's a volcano 2 million years old. To get there, you have to drive for hours in the dark.
Because the sun hasn't come up. To the top of this volcano, to take a photo of the sunrise, which always looks really amazing because it kind of comes up over these clouds.
Jenny O'Dell, an artist from California, trekked there with her parents to catch this famous sunrise.
But it wasn't so picture perfect. It's really cold and windy up there. Everyone's just like shivering and like waiting for the sun to come up. And they were like using their selfie sticks to get their cameras over other people's cameras so that there wouldn't be people in the photo. And then as soon as the bottom of the sun was above the clouds, so it's no longer a sunrise. Everyone got back in their cars and drove down the volcano. Like, it's a national park. You could, like, look at other things there. But it was just like, you know, OK, no, I have consumed this image now.
What is the significance of travel beyond just reaching a destination?
So there is no longer a reason for me to be here and I will leave.
Surely we don't just travel to capture an image and leave. But it seems like that's happening. You can't open up a browser tab this summer without seeing stories about swarms of tourists crowding once serene places. So during this age when everything is relentlessly mediated through social media, we wanted to step back for a moment. What is traveling away from home really for? How can it be more meaningful? This is NPR's Life Kit guide on travel. We have episodes on planning and packing, and on social dynamics when you travel together. This one is a little different. This is about why we wander in the first place. What's the point? How do we make our trips more fulfilling? I'm Elise Hugh, an NPR West-based correspondent who does a lot of travel for work and pleasure with friends and family.
Which got me thinking, what do we mean by travel for pleasure? Is it really pleasurable? How do we make it better for our souls and selves?
It doesn't have to be anything apart from what you make it.
Travel writer Tori DeRoche and artist Jenny O'Dell on making the most of leaving home, maybe without leaving home at all.
You don't have to go to the other side of the world to be transformed.
It's coming up in this NPR Life Kit after the break.
This is Ira Glass. On This American Life, one thing we like is a good mystery. Sometimes about really big things, but most times, the little mysteries are the best. Our lost and found is currently filled with pants. I don't know, I've never seen this happen.
Wait, this is true?
This is true. Mysteries of every size, each week. This American Life, wherever you get your podcasts.
Meaningful experiences are...
aren't a good time or a bad time. You can go away and spend 30 days crying and that can be meaningful to you. It can be meaningful to your life.
Tori DeRoche is an Australian travel writer who began her life as an adventurer when she left her job as a graphic designer and set sail on a rinky-dink boat for more than two years with the man she was dating.
It was a 1979 sailboat that was covered in these blisters because it had an aesthetic problem that made it half price. My ex, he had been saving for years and years to do this dream of his and it's not terribly costly and it leaked and it had all kinds of issues so it was anything but luxury.
Before this point, DeRoche never went on vacations longer than a few weeks. And she was terrified of deep water. But she faced her fears.
We spent two years and we sailed from Los Angeles down to Cabo San Lucas in Mexico. And that was hell. It was a hellish journey.
Our high hopes for a great time can easily be dashed by the hassles or hellish experiences. But DeRoche says even those can be transformative because they force you to stretch yourself.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–1:17
2
What is the significance of travel beyond just reaching a destination?
1:17–7:13
3
How can we find meaning in our travel experiences?
7:13–8:38
4
What are the common misconceptions about travel for pleasure?
8:38–10:08
5
How can we make our travel experiences more fulfilling?
10:08–22:03
Speakers
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