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Society & Culture

You should have been there

Mick Webb and Simon Calder

Simon Calder, travel correspondent of The Independent and former BBC producer, Mick Webb, discuss the world of travel and delight in travellers' tales.

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  • 257 episodes
  • Updated July 5

Episodes257

Newest first
  • Apr 18, 2020 · 27 min

    Poetry in motion

    Travel and journeys have inspired some great lines and uplifting verses. But, how many of our chosen poems do you know ?

  • Apr 13, 2020 · 27 min

    The World's Top Travel Icon

    Which famous site has come out top in our twitter poll? Will it be a wonder of nature or an attraction created by us humans? We also discuss Robert Louis Stevenson's book: Travels with a donkey in the Cévennes The musical fanfare, The Curtain Rises, was composed by Kevin Macleod (incompetcech.com)

  • Apr 6, 2020 · 30 min

    Armchair Travel

    Simon and I exchange ways of keeping the flame of travel alive, without going anywhere. Expect entertaining books, silly games and a brief appearance from the president of The AA, Edmund King. The book "Journey round my room" is available, free, at gutenberg.org.

  • Mar 9, 2020 · 29 min

    Faking it

    Simon and Mick make a few personal confessions and reveal some of travel's great fakes and fakers. They award the title of the greatest travel impostor to Georges Psalmanazar (not his real name), native of Formosa (well, not exactly) who hoodwinked London society in the eighteenth century.

  • Feb 20, 2020 · 30 min

    BAYWATCH

    All about the world's bays: the most beautiful, the saddest and those that have left their mark on history. Some, like Montenegro's Bay of Kotor even have their own islands.

  • Feb 17, 2020 · 34 min

    Getting to know the Stans

    Discover the five mysterious and intriguing countries of Central Asia with names that all end in ........ stan.

  • Jan 17, 2020 · 29 min

    Travel in the 2020's

    The Great Green Wall, electric planes, vacuum trains.... Simon Calder and Mick Webb look forward to the next decade of travel and what it might bring. Electronic music is from the track "Hallon" by Christian Bjoerklund on the album Skapmat.

  • Jan 14, 2020 · 30 min

    Tales from the A23

    Every road, like every picture, has a story to tell. The A23, on its route between London and Brighton, has seen some of the best and worst of travel. Mick Webb and Simon Calder uncover tales of highwaymen, princely misdemeanours and old crocks (cars not them). They are joined by Rachel Birch and Beverley Keech

  • Nov 28, 2019 · 28 min

    Places glimpsed

    Simon Calder and Mick Webb create an alternative bucket list of places they've glimpsed from cars, planes and buses, and which they would love to return to one day. Like this Greek village in the Peloponnese.

  • Nov 27, 2019 · 28 min

    Travelling hopefully.......

    ...............Is it better than arriving? SImon Calder and Mick Webb discuss Robert Louis Stevenson's famous quotation. And they trek hopefully through the vast expanses of the World Travel Market, playing Crazy Golf, Abu Dhabi style, and collecting freebies, daft marketing slogans and inspirational ideas about tourism.

  • Nov 6, 2019 · 27 min

    When in Rome........

    ........ should you do as the Romans or behave like a tourist? And how about in places like Dohar, Dubai or Australia's Ayres Rock?

  • Oct 24, 2019 · 29 min

    Lost

    Simon and Mick have made getting lost into an art form. They recall their most memorable experiences and discuss various ways to avoid losing the plot. Do send us your own stories via the audio link

  • Oct 18, 2019 · 28 min

    Borders

    Crossing frontiers is a crucial part of the travelling experience. It can be time-consuming,worrying, frightening, often fascinating and sometimes downright entertaining . In this Podcast, travel journalists, Simon Calder and Mick Webb, who have travelled far and wide, reflect on the borders they have crossed. Like the unforgettable night spent trying to convince the Panamanian soldiers on the frontier between Colombia and Panama that they were bona fide tourists. Far from any road, in the thick rainforest of the Darien Gap, where most travellers were smugglers, Colombian guerrillas or paramilitaries, it took some doing. The photo shows a border marker ( and Simon). Some remote border crossings seem to have very little serious connection with monitoring comings and goings, others, ironically, have become tourist attractions in their own right: Simon discusses the origins of the name and his own experience of crossing during the Cold War. And sometimes you get the feeling that it’s the border-crossing travellers who are providing the entertainment for the frontier officials. Do send us your own tales of frontier experiences- the good, the bad and the ugly.