Episode 01 : John Gimlette
Exploring this big wide world on your own.
Award-winning travel writer John Gimlette joins us to discuss travel writing, his perspective on travel, and his many adventures in places such as Madagascar, Sri Lanka, and Guyana.
We focus on several of his books, including Wild Coast, about his travels in Guyana, Elephant Complex, about Sri Lanka, and his latest, The Garden of Mars, featuring many wonderful tales of his travels in Madagascar. John brings lesser-known destinations to life, and his witty and erudite style is accessible and inspiring and will ignite your wanderlust.
John Gimlette is the author of six books: At the Tomb of the Inflatable Pig, Theatre of Fish, Panther Soup, Wild Coast, Elephant Complex and The Gardens of Mars. In 1997, he won the Shiva Naipaul Prize for travel writing, and, since then has also contributed articles and photographs to a wide range of magazines and broadsheet newspapers. His first two books were nominated by The New York Times as being among the '100 Notable Books of the Year', and Wild Coast won the Dolman Travel Book Prize for 2012. It was also named by The Daily Telegraph as one on the ‘Twenty Best Travel Books of all Time’. John Gimlette’s travels have taken him to places as diverse as Eritrea and Laos, through most of South America, and to over eighty countries in between. He is married and lives in London.
Episode 02 : Joanna Natasegara
Joanna Natasegera
Oscar-winning producer and director Joanna Natesgara joins us to discuss her work and its relationship to travel.
Her work, including films such as Virunga, the White Helmets, and The Edge of Democracy, has a strong sense of place. Joanna also talks about her experience travelling as part of her work, the challenges it brings, the process and approach, and the places she loves.
Joanna Natasegara is the Academy Award®-winning filmmaker behind Violet Films, a London-based production company. Violet Films’ work finds the political in the personal, tackling global stories with an intimate lens. Joanna’s work includes the Oscar®️-winning Netflix Original The White Helmets; BAFTA and Oscar®️-nominated Virunga, Executive Produced by Leonardo DiCaprio; the Oscar®️-nominated The Edge of Democracy; The Heart of Invictus docu-series for Netflix in association with Archewell Productions; We Dare to Dream, the second film from Academy Award®️-nominated director Waad al-Kateab and Executive Produced by Angelina Jolie and John Legend; and Disney's Oscar®️ Nominated Documentary Short, Nǎi Nai And Wài Pó. Upcoming projects include the scripted adaption of Virunga for Netflix, written by Academy Award®-winner Barry Jenkins and Shoot The People for Paramount Plus and The Dating Game, premiering at this year’s Sundance..
Episode 03: Tharik Hussain
Travel writer Tharik Hussien joins us to discuss his journey, following in the footsteps of Evliya Celebi, an Ottoman traveller who wrote about his journey through the Balkans in the seventeenth century.
Tharik's book, Minarets in the Mountains, challenges perceptions about European views of the Balkans, its relationship to and connection with Islam, and general Western exoticism and ‘othering’. He shows how Islam has been largely written out of the historical European story. He also brings an often overlooked destination to life and introduces his family and the perspectives of his daughters, in particular, to the journey.
Tharik Hussain is an author, travel writer and journalist specialising in Muslim heritage and culture. His debut narrative book, Minarets in the Mountains; A Journey into Muslim Europe, was longlisted for the UK’s biggest award in non-fiction, Baillie Gifford Prize in nonfiction, shortlisted for the Edward Stanford Travel Book of the Year and won the British Guild of Travel Writers' Adele Evans Award.
Tharik has also written Lonely Planet guides to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Thailand, London and Britain; developed Britain’s first Muslim heritage trails; produced award-winning radio for the BBC World Service on Islam in America, and been published by the likes of the BBC, National Geographic Traveller and The Guardian.
He is a fellow at the Centre for Religion and Heritage at the University of Groningen, Netherlands and an advisor to heritage and cultural institutes across the globe.
Tharik has three titles due for release in 2025, a non-fiction title on the beginnings of Muslim Europe, a travelogue called Muslim Venice; Wanderings through the Gateway to the Orient and a pioneering new guidebook called, Muslim Britain & Ireland; a Travel Guide to Sites of Islamic Heritage and Culture.