Women Who Travel | Condé Nast Traveler

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What It Actually Takes to Become a Van Lifer May 13, 2021

Show notes

If, after over a year at home, you're thinking that the best salve for your sanity this summer is to pack up, get out of your house or apartment, and hit the road in a van to explore America's great outdoors, this episode is for you. With advice on what to pack, how to route your trip, and how to avoid the mistakes they made, our guests—van lifers Erin McGrady, an Asheville-based writer and photographer, and Noami Grevemberg, founder of Diversify Vanlife and one half of the @IrietoAurora Instagram account—can help you get started. But while this episode is in part a van life for dummies guide, it also gets at the no-filter realities of living in your van, the privilege that comes with choosing a voluntary nomadic lifestyle, and the responsibility travelers have to respect and understand the public lands they visit. It truly hits all the bases.

Listen to "Why We Should Consider Whose Land We're On When We're Outdoors" with Jaylyn Gough: https://www.cntraveler.com/story/why-we-should-consider-whose-land-were-on-when-were-outdoors-women-who-travel-podcast

Find a full transcription of the episode here: https://www.cntraveler.com/story/what-it-actually-takes-to-become-a-van-lifer-women-who-travel-podcast

Follow Erin: @e.mcgrady

Follow Noami: @IrietoAurora

Follow Meredith: @ohheytheremere

Follow Lale: @lalehannah

Follow Women Who Travel: @womenwhotravel

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Your Summer Travel Questions, Answered May 05, 2021

Show notes

In January, our frequently asked questions episode saw us edging back into the world of travel—and with this week's episode, we're actually starting to plan those trips we've been dreaming about for this summer and into 2022. Joined by associate editor Megan Spurrell and transportation editor, Jessica Puckett, we're answering your questions about the outdoorsy domestic destinations to visit right now, the countries open to vaccinated travelers this summer, and where to reunite with your extended family after what has been more than a year apart for many. Plus, we chat about navigating the visa process for traveling long-term as a digital nomad.

Read a full transcription of the episode here: https://www.cntraveler.com/story/your-summer-travel-questions-answered-women-who-travel-podcast

Links mentioned:

"These National Parks Will Require Reservations This Summer," https://www.cntraveler.com/story/these-national-parks-will-require-reservations-this-summer

"The Best State Park in Every Single State," https://www.cntraveler.com/gallery/the-best-state-parks-in-the-us

"These Countries Are Open to Fully Vaccinated Travelers," https://www.cntraveler.com/story/these-countries-are-open-to-fully-vaccinated-travelers

"7 Countries Where You Can Get a Passport Through Ancestry," https://www.cntraveler.com/story/countries-where-you-can-get-a-passport-through-ancestry

Follow Lale: @lalehannah

Follow Meredith: @ohheytheremere

Follow Jessica: @jesspuck

Follow Megan: @spurrelly

Follow Women Who Travel: @womenwhotravel

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The Books We Can’t Stop Talking About Right Now Apr 28, 2021

Show notes

As temperatures begin to warm up and we start picturing the lazy park hangs and beach days in store for us this summer, our minds have already started whirring at the reading possibilities. Over the past year, we've turned to reading as both an escape from our current world and a way to explore without leaving home. While we'll be a bit more mobile this summer, our love for books hasn't changed, so we've once again tapped Jynne Dilling Martin associate publisher at Riverhead Books, and Lisa Lucas, senior vice president and publisher of Pantheon and Schocken Books, to help craft the ultimate summer reading list of books written by women. Whether you're itching for a Greek myth retelling, a workplace thriller, a deep dive into the natural world, or a novel about a cannibalistic food writer, we've got you covered.

Here's a full list of what we talked about:

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard
The Hard Crowd by Rachel Kushner
A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G. Summers
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Salvation City, by Sigrid Nunez
Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter by Ali Smith
Sisters by Daisy Johnson
Circe and Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
The Copenhagen Trilogy by Tove Ditlevsen
The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris
Matrix by Lauren Groff
Seek You by Kristen Radtke
Intimacies by Katie Kitamura
No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood

Find a full transcription of the episode here: https://www.cntraveler.com/story/the-books-we-cant-stop-talking-about-right-now-women-who-travel-podcast

Follow Jynne: @jynnne

Follow Lisa: @likaluca

Follow Lale: @lalehannah

Follow Meredith: @ohheytheremere

Follow Women Who Travel: @womenwhotravel

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Musician Michelle Zauner on Childhood Trips to Korea and the Food That Shaped Her Apr 21, 2021

Show notes

This week on the podcast, we're joined by Michelle Zauner, most known as indie pop musician Japanese Breakfast, and whose memoir, Crying in H Mart, was released April 20. Michelle, who is Korean on her mother's side, centers her the book around her relationship with her mother—describing the foods that brought them together, their rituals on mother-daughter trips to Korea every other summer, and how she experienced the grief that came with her mother's cancer diagnosis. Listen in to hear her recount those summertime trips from her home in Oregon to visit her aunts and grandmother in Seoul and how she developed love for Korean cooking. Plus, she tells us about her love for Maangchi cooking videos on Youtube, the first dishes she'll eat when she gets back to Korea post-pandemic, and what she misses most about touring with Japanese Breakfast. (The short answer? All of it.)

Read a transcription of the episode here: www.cntraveler.com/story/michelle-zauner-women-who-travel-podcast

Follow Michelle: @jbrekkie

Order Crying in H Mart: www.bookshop.org/books/crying-in-h-mart-a-memoir/9780525657743

Follow Meredith: @ohheytheremere

Follow Lale: @lalehannah

Follow Women Who Travel: @womenwhotravel

Subscribe to our newsletter: www.cntraveler.com/newsletter/subscribe

All products featured on Condé Nast Traveler are independently selected by our editors. If you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

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How to Shop for Meaningful Souvenirs Apr 14, 2021

Show notes

As travel begins to open up for vaccinated Americans and we start making the trips we’ve been dreaming about a reality, Lale and I wanted to reshare an episode we recorded last July. Joined by the recently engaged Kiyanna Stewart and Jannah Handy of BLK MKT Vintage, we chatted all things souvenirs and home decor. In this episode, learn how they shop for and curate their store, which maps the Black diaspora through vintage wares and collectibles. (Plus, how they style their own souvenirs and vintage finds at home.) Their biggest tips? Have patience: Whether you're shopping in your own town or have to travel halfway around the world, be prepared to leave a shop or flea market empty handed should nothing speak to you. And think about function and purpose before spending on something that won't fit in your home, let alone your suitcase.

Follow BLK MKT Vintage: @blkmktvintage

Follow Lale: @lalehannah

Follow Meredith: @ohheytheremere

Follow Women Who Travel: @womenwhotravel

Find a transcription of the episode and links here: https://www.cntraveler.com/story/how-to-shop-for-meaningful-souvenirs-women-who-travel-podcast

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How Travel Has Helped Us Process Our Grief Apr 07, 2021

Show notes

In the past year, we've all dealt with various levels of grief, both personal and collective, centered around the pandemic. For many, it has also resurfaced familiar emotions and struggles experienced over previous losses of friends and family. To process that grief, Traveler contributors Jordi Lippe-McGraw, who lost her father in a plane crash in 2010, and Nneka M. Okona, who lost her best friend four years ago, have usually turned to travel, a coping mechanism that COVID-19 has challenged. This week, we're talking about how they've used travel to work through the complicated emotions of grief, why they want us to talk about those feelings more publicly, and what advice they'd give to those feeling adrift with grief right now. Know that the episode isn't all sad, however. As Nneka says, “[you've] got to spice up grief and make it less gloomy sometimes.”

Find a full transcription of the episode here: www.cntraveler.com/story/how-travel-has-helped-us-process-our-grief-women-who-travel-podcast

Pre-order Nneka's book: https://fave.co/3sXwEom

Follow Nneka: @afrosypaella

Read Jordi's piece: www.cntraveler.com/story/i-was-scared-to-fly-after-my-dads-plane-crash-but-travel-helped-me-overcome-my-grief

Follow Jordi: @jordilippe

Follow Meredith: @ohheytheremere

Follow Lale: @lalehannah

Follow Women Who Travel: @womenwhotravel

Subscribe to our newsletter: www.cntraveler.com/newsletter/subscribe

All products featured here are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How Padma Lakshmi Cooked Her Way Through the Pandemic Mar 31, 2021

Show notes

Padma Lakshmi has had a busy 12 months. She spent the early stages of lockdown alphabetizing her spices—and then reorganizing them by region—and cooking an incredible amount of food at home. Then her new show, Taste the Nation, which dives into the immigrant roots of America's favorite cuisines, premiered in June, and she spent the fall filming a new season of Top Chef in Portland, under a number of new COVID-19 restrictions.

This week, she's talking about all of that and more with us, from the transportive meals she's cooked while grounded to the places she's itching to visit when this is all over. Most importantly, we chat about the strength and influence of immigrants in the U.S., how food media has changed in the last year, and what may be in store for Taste the Nation's second season.

Read a transcription of the episode here: https://www.cntraveler.com/story/padma-lakshmi-women-who-travel-podcast

Read Lale's conversation with Padma from March 2020: https://www.cntraveler.com/story/padma-lakshmi-on-the-immigrant-cuisines-that-make-america

Pick up a copy of Padma's reprinted Tangy, Tart, Hot and Sweetat bookshop.org or your local bookstore

Follow Padma: @padmalakshmi

Follow Lale: @lalehannah

Follow Meredith: @ohheytheremere

Follow Women Who Travel: @womenwhotravel

All products featured in here are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

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How Has the Travel Industry Supported the Black Community Since Last Summer? Mar 24, 2021

Show notes

This week, Evita Robinson, founder of the Nomadness Travel Tribe and Audacity Fest, and Jessica Nabongo, the first black woman to visit every country in the world, are back on the podcast, joined by Martinique Lewis, author of the ABC Travel Green Book and a Condé Nast Traveler advisory board member. Throughout the episode, they chat about how some parts of the industry have turned a moment into a long-term commitment to the Black community—and how others haven't moved beyond a black Instagram square. Along the way, they shout out organizations like the Black Travel Alliance, of which Martinique is the president, that have formed to support Black travelers and Black content creators, and talk through all of the voices that are still being left out of the conversation. (To that point, Nomadness Travel Tribe recently release data from its BIPOC Diversity in Travel survey, which features insights on existing and emerging travel trends among Nomadness's diverse community. You can check out the report here.)

Listen to Jessica, Evita, and Whembley Sewell's conversation from June 2020 here: https://www.cntraveler.com/story/how-the-travel-industry-should-support-black-women-women-who-travel-podcast

Follow Evita: @evierobbie

Follow Jessica: @thecatchmeifyoucan

Follow Martinique: @martysandiego

- - - - - - - - - -

We stand firmly in solidarity with the Asian American and Pacific Islander community and mourn the lives lost in the horrific mass shooting by a white gunman in Atlanta on Tuesday, March 16, which killed 8 people, six of whom were Asian women. We encourage everyone in our community to spend time reading about the ongoing impact of racism on the AAPI community, and if you can, donate to any number of these organizations working to end this violence and provide support for their communities.

AAPI Women Lead: imreadymovement.org

National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum: napawf.org

Heart of Dinner: heartofdinner.org

Asian Immigrant Women's Advocates: aiwa.org

Red Canary Song: redcanarysong.net

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What We Wish We Knew Before Moving Abroad Mar 17, 2021

Show notes

As vaccinations increase and the world begins to slowly open up, the idea of becoming a digital nomad—working remotely while traveling every few months to a new destinations—sounds more and more appealing. But what if you want to stick around a little longer? This week, we're speaking to Rachel Coleman, a social media strategist now based in Berlin, and Katalina Mayorga, the founder of El Camino Travel who lives in Bogotá, about what pushed them to move abroad more permanently, how they make it work, and what they wish they had known beforehand. Along the way, we talk through making friends as an adult, how moving away from the U.S. has impacted their travel habits, and how the pandemic has played out in their new homes.

Read a full transcription of the episode: https://www.cntraveler.com/story/what-we-wish-we-knew-before-moving-abroad-women-who-travel-podcast

Follow Katalina: @theyoufinder

Follow Rachel: @rachelecoleman

Follow Lale: @lalehannah

Follow Meredith: @ohheytheremere

Follow Women Who Travel: @womenwhotravel

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How Ceremonia's Babba Rivera Finds Joy in Challenging Times Mar 10, 2021

Show notes

Just over a year ago, we launched I Deserve This, a series all about the different ways we should be prioritizing ourselves, whether that's with time, travel, or money. A few days after launch, the U.S. went into lockdown and the idea of spending copious amounts on any of those things felt like a pipe dream as we all stayed home. But, over the summer, we quietly started the series back up, chatting with the likes of free diver Kimi Werner about finding time for herself at the bottom of the ocean and photojournalist Malin Fezehai on planning trips to fuel her creativity.

This week, we're back in full force, speaking with Babba Rivera, the Swedish-Chilean founder of Ceremonia, a haircare line inspired by the Latinx community. Despite its horrors, 2020 was a big year for Babba: she bought a house, had a baby, and launched a brand. We chat with her about finding ways to celebrate those moments amid the pandemic, navigating identity and representation, taking trips close to home just for the hell of it, and feeling homesick through it all.

Read a full transcription of the episode here: https://www.cntraveler.com/story/how-ceremonias-babba-rivera-finds-joy-in-challenging-times-women-who-travel-podcast

Read our conversation with Babba from November: https://www.cntraveler.com/story/clean-hair-care-brand-ceremonia-is-inspired-by-latinx-beauty-rituals

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