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Society & Culture

Travel That Made Me

Indio Media

How has travel shaped your life? BBC broadcaster Rajan Datar asks the world's most fascinating people how travel made them who they are.

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  • 7 episodes
  • Updated Thursday

Episodes7

Newest first
  • Thursday · 34 min

    He Took the World's First Selfie With Jesus to Save His Business: Lee Thompson

    With £500 left in the bank and a failing business, Lee Thompson flew to Brazil, doorstepped a church, and convinced the archdiocese to hand over the keys to Christ the Redeemer. Then he climbed inside the statue and took a selfie from the top of Jesus’s head. That photo got 100 million views and rocket launched Flash Pack, the group travel company Lee built with his wife Radha. Before that, he spent years as a photojournalist covering natural disasters, conflicts, and revolutions in over 100 countries. But the real story in this episode isn’t how Lee became successful, it’s why a boy who erased most of his childhood memories from years of school bullying became someone restless in a way that never really goes away, and what he’s still trying to prove, and to whom. Check out more from Lee: https://www.flashpack.com/ https://www.instagram.com/flashpacklee/ https://x.com/flashpacklee https://www.facebook.com/theflashpack https://x.com/flashpack https://www.instagram.com/flashpack/ #travel #ChristTheRedeemer #Flashpack This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit travelthatmademe.substack.com

  • July 18 · 40 min

    Sweden to the Sahara By Kayak - with Johan Ernst Nilson

    He got the lowest possible grade in gymnastics. Then he cycled to Africa. Swedish explorer Johan Ernst Nilson joins Rajan Datar on Travel That Made Me to trace a 30-year odyssey sparked not with ambition, but with a schoolboy bet: could someone with the lowest grade in gymnastics cycle all the way to Africa? Three decades on, that bet has become 196 countries, 80-plus expeditions, and 3,000 nights in a tent crossing jungles, glaciers, and polar regions from North to South Pole by ski, sled, dog sled, bicycle, and kite. He’s climbed the highest point on every continent. He’s survived hurricanes, frostbitten toes, and serious injury. And yet, after all of it, he felt empty. So what was the moment that finally changed that? The answer has nothing to do with the mountain peaks or extreme conditions and everything to do with learning to believe in the boy he once was, when no one else would. Check out more from Johan: https://johanernst.com/ https://www.facebook.com/johanernstnilson/ https://www.instagram.com/johanernst/ https://x.com/ExplorerJEN This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit travelthatmademe.substack.com

  • July 11 · 51 min

    Can Travel Heal Grief? - with Jessica Nabongo

    She visited every country on earth, becoming the first Black woman to do so. But the real reason she did it only became clear years later. Jessica Nabongo joins Rajan Datar on Travel That Made Me to trace a journey that started not with a passport but with a murder: her father, killed two days after her 19th birthday. From quitting a six-figure pharmaceutical job over a three-figure bonus, to rerouting through the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights when Syria denied her visa, Jessica reveals the disconnect that drove her to 195 countries. She explains how traveling solo through 100 of them taught her that most people are good, and that her scariest moment wasn’t in the countries she was warned about, but in Miami, staring down the barrel of a police officer’s gun. This is a woman who has seen everything, and is still working out what she was running toward. Check out more from Jessica: https://www.jessicanabongo.com/ https://thecatchmeifyoucan.com/ https://www.instagram.com/jessicanabongo/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicanabongo/ https://www.tiktok.com/@thecatchmeifyoucan https://www.facebook.com/thecatchmeifyoucan/ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit travelthatmademe.substack.com

  • July 4 · 55 min

    Palestinian Activist: Making Peace with Israel - with Aziz Abu-Sarah

    He grew up without citizenship, without a passport, and with a burning rage after his brother died after being tortured in a military cell. Then, at eighteen, Aziz Abu-Sarah did something almost nobody in his position would do: he walked twenty minutes to the other side of Jerusalem and started learning Hebrew. His world opened up. That one decision, to embrace what he had been taught to fear, runs through everything Aziz has done since. He guided tourists through the Old City at nine years old with no English. He’s been hospitalised for panic attacks after his experiences in war zones. His way of looking at the world brought him a reception with two popes and a commendation for the Nobel Peace Prize. On Travel That Made Me, Aziz tells Rajan Datar how he turned some of his darkest places into a way of seeing the world, one where curiosity beats fear, and crossing uncrossable borders is a practice, not a leap. It’s a lesson in how peace gets built: one step at a time, starting from the moment you leave home. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit travelthatmademe.substack.com

  • June 27 · 45 min

    Paul Simonon (The Clash): Have Bass, Will Travel

    Some people are just made differently. Paul Simonon certainly is. From smashing his bass on stage, which would become the most famous album cover in punk to cooking spaghetti for inmates in a Greenland jail - Paul Simonon has lived many lives. For fifty years he has roamed the planet, from a Brixton boyhood to “cowboy land” in 1960s Italy, touring the world with Joe Strummer to busking unrecognised in a Mallorcan fishing village. So why, when Rajan Datar asks what he loves most about travel, does this restless wanderer answer with a single word: coming back? A punk legend, a secret home bird, and stories you will not see coming. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit travelthatmademe.substack.com

  • June 19 · 57 min

    From a Missed Flight to the Front Line - with Lyse Doucet

    What's it like to be a high-profile journalist, travelling around the world, seeing international events and wars from a first-hand perspective? This conversation is with Lyse Doucet, the BBC's Chief International Correspondent. Lyse has been a journalist for over 40 years, and has reported from almost everywhere - from Afghanistan to Côte d'Ivoire. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit travelthatmademe.substack.com

  • June 11 · 1 min

    Introducing... Travel That Made Me

    How has travel shaped your life? Travel That Made Me is a weekly podcast about how travel made some of the world’s most fascinating and incredible people who they are. From musicians to Nobel Prize winners, explorers to war correspondents, Travel That Made Me delves into all of life’s stories, all through the lens of travel. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit travelthatmademe.substack.com