Posts in Interviews
How to Tell Travel Stories People Actually Want to Hear

Most travel stories bore people — including the storytellers themselves. Why do we struggle to convey the magic we experienced on our trip? According to Matthew Dicks, author of Storyworthy, TED speaker, and five-time Moth GrandSLAM champion, travel stories usually fail because they’re just a chronological recitation of your itinerary. Here’s the right way to tell a story.

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10 Money Saving Pro-Tips to Fulfill Your Travel Dreams

Professional photographer Anna Mazurek travels the world for clients such as Travel + Leisure, Rolling Stone, and National Geographic. But don’t think they’re throwing money at her. These days, successful travel photographers earn around $30,000 a year. Despite this, Anna has figured out how to maximize this income to travel the world full time and still save for retirement. She writes about this in her new book Good With Money.

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Travel Writing: Launch Your Career with These 9 Tips

Ever dream of being a travel writer? Who hasn’t?! My guest Nardia Plumridge actually made it happen. In addition to writing for global publications, including Lonely Planet, Nardia also penned a book — Lost in Florence — that is due out this spring. On the Postcard Academy podcast, Nardia shares how she broke into the travel writing biz and offers tips on how to get your own work published. 

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How to Design Your Ideal Life: Freedom Planning with Natalie Sisson

Someday might never come, which is why this year on the Postcard Academy podcast, in addition to talking about travel and food and culture, I’ll also be interviewing lifestyle experts, authors, and others who can help us live our best lives. To start us off, I’m incredibly happy to share my conversation with Natalie Sisson, author of the bestselling book The Suitcase Entrepreneur and The Freedom Plan.

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Thanksgiving: 10 Surprising Facts to Impress Your Friends this Holiday

Did you grow up learning the Pilgrims came to the New World to flee religious persecution? That’s actually not true. On the Postcard Academy podcast, Melanie Kirkpatrick, author of Thanksgiving: The Holiday at the Heart of the American Experience, helps decipher historical fact from fiction.

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Best of Bogotá: What to Do and Where to Eat

A few years ago the Colombian government signed a historic peace deal with the FARC rebels to end decades of violence, though Andrew Dier, author of the Moon Colombia travel guide, says the country has been a safe place for tourists for years. Here’s your insider list on where to eat and what to do in Colombia’s capital city, where Andrew, an American expat, has lived with his husband for 20 years.

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Animal Lover? This Belize Animal Sanctuary Wants Volunteers Like You

Belize Zoo (really an animal sanctuary) offers a hands-on internship program that lasts from two to four weeks. Just want to visit? The money from your ticket will go to taking care of beautiful creatures like Junior Buddy, the zoo’s 11-year-old jaguar. 

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Why You Probably Shouldn’t Volunteer Abroad and What You Should Do Instead

National Geographic Traveler of the Year Shannon O’Donnell literally wrote The Volunteer Traveler’s Handbook. However, she says that, for most of us, volunteering abroad is not the best way to help the communities we visit. Here's what is. 

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#vanlife: Where to Go to the Bathroom and Other Van Life Tips and Essentials

Look up #vanlife on Instagram, and you’ll find nearly 3 million photos of perfect couples cruising through the desert or sipping beer on top of their VWs. But there are also many people who couldn't care less about Insta fame — they’re choosing to live in vans or RVs or old bread trucks because they want a simpler life. Fewer things. More experiences. Here's the beginner's guide to van life.

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Why Bridesmaid-for-Hire Jen Glantz Lives in a New City Every 30 Days

Jen Glantz, the world’s first bridesmaid-for-hire loved living in New York City, but she didn’t love the expense, and she was stuck in a rut. After she and her boyfriend Adam Kossoff both lost their jobs, they created a life in which they could work anywhere while traveling across the U.S. A few months ago, they moved out of New York and started calling a new place home every 30 days.

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10 Reasons The Depression Actually Was Great for Single Women in New York

The 1929 stock market crash devastated many Americans. But for single women, the Great Depression that followed was not all a bad story. People were putting off marriage and, for the first time, many single women went to work, lived, and even traveled independently. For guidance, they looked to their favorite guru to the single girl, Marjorie Hillis, a successful author and bachelorette living a glam life in New York. Here's how Marjorie helped a generation of women thrive in the 1930s.

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From Grape Picker to Winery Wonder Woman

As flames lashed the Napa and Sonoma Valley wine regions in October, vineyard owner Amelia Ceja was speaking up for the workers she saw cultivating smoky vineyards without protective masks. Amelia is a Mexican immigrant who built a multi-million dollar wine business, and she was once a grape picker herself.

In this episode of the Postcard Academy podcast, Amelia shares her journey from moving to America without knowing English to owning a multi-million dollar company. 

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Turkish Delight: An Interview with Artful Baker Author Cenk Sönmezsoy

If you like food porn, this week’s podcast guest will have you screaming from the rooftops. Cenk Sönmezsoy is an award-winning food blogger, photographer, and self-described shameless chocoholic from İstanbul, Turkey. He’s also author of the masterpiece, The Artful Baker: Extraordinary Desserts From an Obsessive Home Baker

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