TTB 116: Autonomous Travel
Show Notes
Larry Burns advises organizations on the future of mobility, logistics, manufacturing, energy and innovation. His current clients include Waymo, Goodyear and Kitson & Partners. Larry served as General Motors Corporate Vice President of Research & Development and Planning from 1998-2009. Between 2010 and 2016, Larry was Professor of Engineering Practice at the University of Michigan, Director of the Program for Sustainable Mobility at Columbia University, and an advisor to several major companies.
Larry is the author of Autonomy: The Quest to Build The Driverless Car—And How It Will Reshape Our World (with Christopher Shulgan and published by Ecco / HarperCollins on August 28, 2018).
Inside the Episode:
- (05:02): Larry starts us off with a brief history of his upbringing and how it influenced his passion for travel.
- (12:44): We begin our discussion on autonomous technologies and how Larry began his career as a contributor to these technological advancements.
- (14:40): As Vice President of Research and Development for General Motors, Larry was met with a life changing question by GM’s CEO. As Larry explains, this question influenced Larry’s philosophical outlook on what it meant to develop and manufacture an automobile and contributed to new developments around electric vehicle design.
- (20:40): What do YOU hate about travel?! Long lines, expensive airfare, overpriced hotels, and the time you spend moving between destinations?? Well, autonomous technology appears to be the solutions to those problems. In the not too distant future, the annoying aspects of travel will likely become more enjoyable as our cars turn into autonomous hotels on wheels and humans start to opt for their autonomous transport vessels over expensive crowded airplanes and public transit.
- (35:25): Is it better to have autonomously driven vehicles instead of manually driven cars?
- 39:50: How will autonomous tech decrease the financial burden of owning a car? Similar to your Netflix subscription and how the Uber app operates, you may be ordering an autonomous travel vehicle in the very near future. So, while you’re sitting back letting the car drive itself, maybe think about what you can do with all that extra cash!
- 50:00: When will autonomous vehicles be an everyday reality?!
Learn More About Larry:
TTB 115: November Travel Bites w/ Bob and Elliot
Show Notes
In this episode we discuss some of the recent travel related news we found interesting or relevant over the month of November. We break down our favorite different news articles, including:
- (4:22): COVID-19 is surging. But Americans can still travel to these 75 countries.
- (8:30): Vaccine news and how it impacts the travel industry
- (12:13):Iceland Is Reopening to Tourists — but Only Those Who Make at Least $88,000 a Year
- (15:18): Proposed booze ban for Bali
- (18:15): Arkansas Will Give You $10,000 and a Mountain Bike to Move There
- (22:33): Digital Nomads Did Not Prepare For This
Up This Month:
Larry Burns: Advisor for Google’s autonomous vehicle tech and how its going to change travel
Nick Hines: The Great American Wine Trip
TAT: Is Social Media Killing Travel?
Photo: Julia Yellow (New York Times)
TTB 114: Traveling Misfits and Rejects
Show Notes
Chapin is the creator of Misfits and Rejects, a travel podcast about the lifestyle design of expatriates, travelers, entrepreneurs and adventures. People who take that step toward the life they’ve always dreamed.
Inside the Episode:
- (04:25): Chapin starts us off with how he fell in love with travel as a young surfer growing up in Newport Beach, CA.
- (15:00):Chapin brings us through his incredibly taxing 1 year trip traveling the world surviving on approximately $1 a day. After losing 30lbs and struggling to keep up with the nomadic lifestyle - he crashed. He struggled tremendously on this journey around the world, but as you can hear in this clip is still processing that experience.
- (53:38): Chapin has found tremendous inspiration through the personal encounters he’s experienced while traveling. His platform @misftitsandrejects brings the stories of aspiring vagabonds, backpackers, and digital nomads to the forefront. Allowing these travelers the opportunity to share their story and inspire others to break free of the western grind and find peace and happiness while seeing the world.
- (55:33): Rapid Fire Round!
TTB 113: The Art of Mindful Travel
Show Notes
Mag is the award-winning author of BOWING TO ELEPHANTS, Tales of a Travel Junkie (which hit #1 in 5 countries on the day it launched and just won Best Indie Biographies & Memoirs from Kirkus). Her book has been compared to EAT PRAY LOVE in professional reviews and has received accolades from many thought leaders in the mindfulness space, including Jack Kornfield. It's full of stories of her travels around the world, self-discovery, healing, food, and so much more.
Inside the Episode:
- (04:22): Elliot introduces Mag by providing a general synopsis on her book, Bowing to Elephants.
- (05:10): Mag brings us up to speed on why she decided to write a travel book in her 70s after a lifetime of traveling the world.
- (08:40): We discuss the importance of keeping a travel journal to track your memories and experiences throughout your life.
- (16:00): Mag discusses her early travels and the struggles she faced with her family relationships.
- (20:18): Mag embraced Buddhism and meditation explains her transition into a lifestyle of mindfulness.
- (34:13): Mag went to Bhutan with intention - To find mental clarity through meditation with Buddhist Monks. Her time in Bhutan revolved around the concept of mindfulness and as she reflected on this experience on our podcast, its significance in how it influenced the trajectory of her life was apparent.
- (56:45): “You can’t control the universe”, Mag tells us. This was in reference to the influx of tourism she’s witnessed over the several decades.
- (57:46): Respect is something travelers must be willing to practice while abroad. You need to be respectful of the culture you visit, your fellow tourists, and the environment and architecture you travel to enjoy. Mag provided stories and insight on how she practices respect abroad after a lifetime of travel!
- (1:06:20): Rapid Fire!
TTB 112: Achieving Location Independence
Show Notes
Amanda & Ryan are the hosts of The World Wanderers podcast. They are both originally from Western Canada, but fell in love with traveling on their first big backpacking trip around the world in 2011. Since then, they have traveled all over the world together! In 2016, Amanda & Ryan took their work online so that they could travel more full-time and more sustainably. They’ve been digital nomads ever since, and although Canada will always be home, they have now lived in places like Bali, Mexico, the United States, and Panama. They created The World Wanderers as a way to share their travel adventures with other people, to encourage and inspire other people to get out and see the world, and to have great conversations with like-minded people.
Inside the Episode:
- (04:50): Amanda starts us off to their first backpacking trip back in 2011 as a gap year between college and the corporate world.
- (27:50): We get into the costs associated with Vagabonding vs. living in the US and how you can sometimes save money being a Digital Nomad working in a foreign country.
- (30:22): Imagine making an average US salary of $60,000, but living in Chiang Mai, San Jose, or Oaxaca where your total monthly living expenses may only come to $2,000 USD. What would you do with the extra income? This is what is enticing more and more young people to work online - opening the doors to a more financially and location independent lifestyle.
- (49:00): Being a Digital Nomad does not mean you get to travel worry free! It’s a common misconception that those with location independence are never working (blame social media). The truth is, it can be a brutal and exhausting balance of work and travel. Digital Nomads typically spend a majority of their day sitting behind a laptop cranking out work just to enjoy a few hours in the evening abroad. So disregard those ads pretending that you can make “a gazillion dollars while traveling abroad” and realize that in order to be location independent - you're going to have to work, hard.
TTB 111: Into the Amazon
Show Notes
Scott Lite was trained as an herbalist at the Appalachia School of Holistic Herbalism in September 2011. Scott is an associate of the Botanical Preservation Corps and was on the 2010 expedition to Peru collecting seeds and information on medicinal, edible, and sacred plants throughout the Andes. In 2010 Scott opened the Ethnobotanical Conservation Organization or EthnoCO which is a company based in Peru that leads expeditions and sells cultural wares.
Inside the Episode:
- (09:03): There are certain things you need to know before you go into the Amazon. Scott breaks down the dangers for us.
- (17:08): Scott tells an incredible story of what NOT to do in the Amazon Jungle… don’t mess with the venomous snakes. Luckily this story ended with a happy ending.
- (29:04): Scott walks us through the jungle tours he provides through his guide company, Ethno Botanical Co.
- (41:05): We hear about Scott’s tours to visit local tribespeople within the Amazon Jungle.
- (54:20): Scott breaks down some of the tours he offers in the remote Andes Mountains, trying the local cuisine, staying in the local village, and learning about textiles and culture.