Summer Travel Podcasts by Evan Stern at Vanishing Postcards

It’s been said that “if you want to get your finger on the pulse of the nation, take a cruise down
America’s Main Street.” Last fall I did just that when I grabbed a microphone and drove Route 66 from Oklahoma to Santa Monica. End to end, that’s a distance of roughly 1,500 miles, but I ultimately logged, 6,845 and spoke with over 100 people along the way. This odyssey resulted in the new season of my show Vanishing Postcards, which invites listeners to join me on a road trip exploring the hidden dives and histories discovered by exiting the interstates.

This journey has, no doubt, proven a grand adventure that’s taken me to eating contests, dances, ghost towns, and even the Grand Canyon. Yet, if I’ve learned anything through these travels, it’s that culture is everywhere and one rarely needs to venture far to encounter richness.

Towards that matter, I hope this summer will find you embarking on some back road excursions of
your own, if you don’t have the luxury of jumping in the car, or are simply in need of a momentary
retreat, here are a few podcasts I’ve found that consistently transport me elsewhere through the magic of audio.

The Atlas Obscura Podcast

The Atlas Oscure Podcast from Josephine Baker’s French Chateau, to Harlem’s Hotel Theresa, the streets of La Paz, and Smithfield, Virginia which is home to the “world’s oldest edible ham,” the beautifully produced Atlas Obscura Podcast bills itself as “a short, daily, celebration of the world’s strange and wondrous places.”

Not Lost

Each episode of this intoxicatingly charming listen finds host Brendan Francis Newnam wandering the streets of a new city with a friend as they attempt to get invited to a stranger’s house for dinner.
Refreshingly casual, whether dancing in Mexico City or tracing Leonard Cohen’s footsteps in Montreal, Not Lost is a delightful escape that reveals the joys and edification one finds through travel’s unplanned moments.

Out There

Described as “a nature podcast for people who like to think big,” Out There showcases tightly woven narratives about everyday people whose lives or perspectives have changed as a result of experiences they’ve had outdoors.

Gravy

A mouth-watering docu-series from The Southern Foodways Alliance, Gravy uses food as a means to explore the evolving face of the American South by giving voice to the unsung folk of the region who grow, cook and serve our daily meals.

Our American Stories

A welcome break from the talking heads that consistently divide us, Our American Stories shares positive tales gathered from all corners of our nation that are ultimately about everyday citizens doing extraordinary things. Fun places visited include a museum dedicated to bad art, small town theaters, and The Wrigley Mansion.

The Kitchen Sisters Present

Lauded NPR fixtures Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson share some of the oral histories and lush interviews
they’ve gathered against a backdrop of hypnotic sound design and music. Whether getting to know a
Lebanese pit master in the Mississippi Delta, or walking through a garden in Oaxaca with cook Pati
Jinich, each segment excels at storytelling and history while taking you on an outing that is bountiful in
sensory detail.

Greetings from Somewhere

Hip, thoughtful and exquisite on the ear, Greetings from Somewhere is a travel narrative from
Brooklynite Zach Mack that he says “focuses not just on how travel affects us, but also on how our
presence affects the places we go and the people who live there. It’s about what’s happening
underneath the surface of these places we go to on road trips and don’t usually have time to dive into.”
Featuring visits to Marfa, TX, Mount Rushmore and even The Magic Kingdom, it provides a fantastic
counterpoint to the glossiness of vacation brochures.

The Lonely Palette

Open a guidebook in a new city and a museum of some sort is almost always ranked near the top of
“must see attractions.” In The Lonely Palette, Tamar Avishai picks a painting, and interviews
unsuspecting museum visitors in front of it before providing a deep dive on the work’s history and social
context. Far from stuffy, it’s a reflective listen that uses art as a means to explore our world as a whole.

Rumble Strip

Recently lauded with a much deserved Peabody Award, Rumble Strip is the brainchild of Erica Hellman
who travels Vermont’s back country speaking with everyone from taxidermists, to soccer moms,
criminals and waitresses. The stories she elicits brim with a grace and empathy that consistently honors
the binds that unite us.

Coastal Stories

Need an escape from the summer heat? Hearing UK based author Charlie Connelly share brine
encrusted anecdotes in his podcast Coastal Stories will make you feel as if you’re strolling the cool
shores of Cornwall. Read with Charlie’s expert narration over the sounds of waves recorded on British
beaches, its accounts of lighthouses, pleasure piers, cockle gatherers and sailors celebrate the joys,
follies and tiny acts of heroism and kindness that illuminate the human experience in an altogether
soothing listen.


The podcasts I’ve listed here are all unique in their own ways. Yet they’re also created by travelers- not
tourists.

Before motoring west, I spoke with the author Michael Wallis who said, “Tourists are in a hurry, willing
to fit in as much of the ordinary and predictable as possible as long as it is safe, cheap, and by all means comfortable. Travelers on the other hand hanker for the hidden places. They are flexible, curious, and
ready to discover new things and in so doing perhaps discover something new about themselves.”

While I’m not above the occasional comforts of a chain hotel, these are words I tried to keep in mind in
developing Vanishing Postcards, and hope you’ll ride along with me as we’ll explore how the past,
present and future of Route 66 are revealed through the people and places found in driving it today.

Follow Vanishing Postcards on your favorite podcast app, and for more info visit
www.vanishingpostcards.com