Speaker 1: Hey, if you like me and you get in the
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r r oe dot Net. Enjoy your exploration. How are
you doing today?
Speaker 2: Excellent? Tell you so well.
Speaker 1: I'm very excited to share a conversation with you because
you're getting to do what so many of us would
like to do. But for some reason, we keep hitting
these walls, and I don't understand why we can't just
let go and just go on a wayfair kind of
a journey.
Speaker 2: Well, I tell you what it is besides the financial components,
so let's leave that out for a second. But I
think people feel like it's daunting because it needs all
this planning. But I have been trying to encourage people
to just start traveling in their own city, in their
own state, in their own whatever small region, and then
it starts to feel less daunting, and then you can
expand it out of state, out of country, and perhaps intergalactic.
I mean that's possible now too. So I think people
worry that there's there's these unknowns. People worry about the unknown,
right they think, what if this happens? But if you
change your mind and just says, and you can tell yourself,
what if this magical adventure happens, then little by little
something wayfindery will find you.
Speaker 1: But see, I'm so inspired by this wayfinder attitude and journey.
And the reason why is because I've sat with many
medicine men who always tell me how they use mile markers. It's,
you know, kind of show them what the path is.
They didn't have a map, they only had these places
of discovery and that's where and they would document, you know,
how they would make their way into a brand new day.
Speaker 2: Wow. You know. I was in Kenya a week ago
spending time with the Samburu people, so tribe in the
northern part of Kenya, and one night we were sitting
under the stars and there was a sort of distant thunderstorm,
so some lightning coming through the clouds and the stars
that opened up in the Milky Way, and the elder
tribal member started to talk to me about how they
had been navigating by the stars and how even today
they know exactly where everything is. It was magical, like
because I'm so used to going on my phone and
using it to navigate, and it reminded me to just
trust a sort of something more primal in me, something more,
something less digital, something more analogue, to just kind of
navigate your world. Well.
Speaker 1: See, that's what I love about traveling and being in
r veer is the fact that I document everything in journals,
and I'll go into these journals and I'll see what
we did the last time, what did we learn from this?
But when you talk about, you know, looking up at
that sky and stuff, maybe it's because I'm from Montana,
but looking up into the sky to find out where
you are, guy, Oh my god, there's just something up
there that is constantly speaking to every one of us.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're totally right. We forget. I think it's because
we're so we live such digital lives because everything is
on the phone, and there's a part of my travel
inspiration that I try and hand to people. And I'm
working on a book at the moment, and this is
what the book will be about, and it's put the
phone down. It's okay to get lost. Look, there's a
moment where you get lost in. It's dangerous. For the
most part. You're getting lost in it magical if you
have the right attitude. But if you follow your phone
the entire time, we lose the ability to navigate. Right
Like we become android androids, we become robotic. And I
know for myself, I'm going to Korea this week. I
know that there are a couple of places I really
want to see and soul, but for the most part,
I'm just going to walk. You know. I pack comfortable shoes,
I pack some sunglasses, and I'm off. I don't I
sort of try and get off the map and off
the phone, and then that is when the adventure happens.
But I understand that for most people this is hard
because we're so used to the support of well now
it's Ai right, like Lord, it's there all the time. No,
it is helping us. But at the same time, you
need to know when to put that down. You need
to know that the adventure is not on the phone,
because you can do that at home. The adventure is
right in front of good.
Speaker 1: One thing that I'm very much afraid of is the
Google Calendar, because that is a map that really because
for me to put today together, I actually start almost
a week and a half ago. And that's just the
way that it is. And so when you speak of
this open land free, I can go out and look
at the stars and stuff I'm going, But how would
my Google calendar handle this? I'm not the only one.
Speaker 2: I Am going to come and take your phone away
from you and just challenge you and come ride with
you in an R and V and see where we
end up. That's my challenge to you.
Speaker 1: Well, it's usually in a place where there's gonna be
wild animals, because I am an animal activist in the
way that I don't know if you've ever read Ted Andrews,
but I believe animals speak to every one of us
every day, and if we are not listening, we are
missing out on a major page in history.
Speaker 2: I love that, you know, my dog talks to me
all the time. I love it so I can relate.
You know, when I was in Safari in Kenya last week,
I did see a lot of animal it was that's
saw the Big Five and it was magical. But I
also saw animals I've never seen before. There's a small
cat to settled like it sort of looks like a
large house cat, a very large, very lean, very mean
house cat. And I sort of communicated with this cat
in a weird way. We spent time together. I was
on the game drive vehicle, but I was just sort
of quietly sitting there and then my guide said to me,
you know, it's very rare to see those. There are
two of them in the MASSI Maha, and I saw
them both and it was interesting. Like I when I
go to Africa, I was born in South Africa, there
is a sort of homecoming and a part of us
that wants to commune with animals, that wants to understand
that's something primal in us, and we lose touch with that,
not just because we live in the city, but also
just the way we live our lives. Right, Like, there's
something so magical to sit at a watering hole watching
the elephants play and communicate with each other, and you know,
spread have them mocked bath and spray water, and there's
something that we're missing in our day to day life
where we're not doing enough of this.
Speaker 1: But you know what's really interesting about this, Daniel, is
that your podcast has given us the opportunity to live
vicariously through you and so and as we listen to
each episode, we're kind of soothing that little itch that
we've got to be with animals and stories and traveling
and things like that. But at the same time, you
also challenge us get your little thinking noggin in order
here and start planning your own journey.
Speaker 2: I don't think so. There is a Safari episode coming
in season two. I think people will appreciate, especially you
if you're an activist. It's coming from someone very smart
and interesting to talk about conservation and new ways of
understanding conservation. Conservation is such a complicated topic, especially in Africa.
But the episode's going to be great. But yeah, I
do feel like I most people cannot travel for various reasons,
but I encourage people to just try and start small.
Just try and travel in your own town and then
in your own state. But it is magic to be
able to go somewhere and to lose yourself in order
to find yourself. That's the goal, right, Like we want
to grow and travel is a travel is like a
it's a magical way of doing it, like it offers
it to you so on a silver platter. It's like
ready for the taking. You know, people go to Morocco,
they've never been to this, to this, it's zote, as
Americans would say, exotic place. The smells, the howked air
balloon rides, the you know.
Speaker 3: Snowball sandboarding, and the dunes going into the soup, and
suddenly you're changed as a person, like you cannot remain
the same version of yourself if you go to these
places and open yourself.
Speaker 1: Up, please do not move. There's more with Daniel Scheffler
coming up next. The name of his podcast is Wayfinder.
We're back with Daniel Scheffler. You know what, I'm so
jealous of something that you said earlier about having this
relationship with your dog and that your dog speaks to
you and stuff, because and then you're talking about traveling
and storytelling and the scent of the air. I wish
that I could have the what a dog does inside
their nose, because we are missing out on so much
history by not smelling the ground that we walk on.
And I know that sounds gross, but I think that
we're missing out on so much stuff. When you talk
about the scent in the air of Morocco, you're totally ride.
Speaker 2: You know, my dog I live in Madrid now and
she's she goes to the park every day with her
friends and on the way she smells. And my husband
and I were talking about this the other day. We
were like, she's smelling more intensely here. It's longer history. Here,
She's like smelling back to where the Arabs founded this town,
and then to the Spanish. She smells the Inquisition. It
is magical. She knows that I'm coming home. She can
smell me before I arrive. There is something kind of
crazy about that. Although she does travel with me a lot,
she's a travel dog. On dog is like, isn't that
the most sacred, sacred thing. I'm like, I love my husband,
but my god, the dog.
Speaker 1: My wife and I are convinced that you are a
modern daytime traveler. Do you feel like you're wearing those slippers?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, why not the ruby slippers? Yeah? I do.
I do feel that way. I I'm forever on the road,
and there is something that does feel sort of crazy
and chrontimistic. Antagonists oh no, what's the world and chronistic
anachronistic to me that I sometimes go back to places
that have never seen a white person, Like I've spent
some time in Benning recently to go see the voodoo,
and these people had never seen a white person. And
then I go to places like Japan and I feel
like I am in the future, right, like you see
how things operate there, and then you're like, am I
in the future. I'm going to soul this I told
you this weekend, and it's like, you know, these these
countries have a very futuristic perspective, so it does feel
like that. And then like you know, I go to
Africa and you're in a tribal village in rural Kenya
and it does feel like something thousands of years old.
So yeah, I guess, I guess I haven't thought about
time travel in that way, but it just feels like it.
Speaker 1: Well, one of the things that your podcast offers us,
and this this is just strange old me, mister Powa
guy who's been writing all these years, is that I
believe that you're going to show me the needle in
the haystack because you go to places that I know
where that needle probably is, but I'm never going to
make it there, but I'm going to rely on you
to take me there.
Speaker 2: Well, that is years and years of practice finding the needle,
or perhaps I put the needle then in the first place, right,
you know, I, you know, I think it's a As
a professional traveler, it is my It is my gift
to people to make it easier for them, because like
I get to go and I never go to a
place once. I can go as many times as I want.
It's literally my job. But a lot of people they like,
this is my one time. I'm going to whatever London
and I want to give you the best of London,
not necessarily the touristic things that you will find by yourself.
Walk the streets of London. You'll have an adventure. But
trust me, I've spent enough time in London to take
you and to show you where to go where that
needle is going to prick you in a way that
you will love, love, love, And that's the role of
the show. This is the method that we're sort of employing,
is that this way find way of seeing the world
is like, yeah, listen to us, will help you find
the things that you're not necessarily expecting.
Speaker 1: But you know what, though, Daniel, is the fact that
in listening to the podcast or the one thing that
in my heart is I feel like that you could
predict a weather storm before it gets here, because you're
so experienced with the atmosphere of all things in the
universe that you're able to hear it, watch it, study it,
and go. You know, I think it's going to ring
in about an hour and a half. I just feel
something that I felt maybe in Kenya. I think it's
gonna happen here again.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, you're so you're showing the money. I
was in Kenya and I said too. I was spending
time at the mess I Warriors, some of the elders,
and they literally can tell you exactly when it's going
to rain. And I did ask. I asked the man.
There were some big rains in Kenya when I was
there last week. And I did ask this gentleman. I
was like, can you just impart this onto me? Can
you just paint this onto me so that I also
have this Still, I think the thing that I can foretell,
perhaps I cannot foretell the weather, but I can foretell
that when there's about to be a good time. That
is a skill that I've had, Like I know which
when the party's good and the party's not, So perhaps
that is is truth telling.
Speaker 1: So then how are you going into each podcast? Because
I'm a podcast writer as well as producer, and that's
one of the things, you know, building that storyline, the
consistency of you moving us forward. What is that like
for you to go from actually living it now you
got to tell the story? Oh my god?
Speaker 2: Right, that is that is the skill. I mean, I
have been doing this for two decades. You know, I
write for the New York Times. I have a little
I have a little experience. But no, I think it's
like people are interested. If you are interesting and interested,
off the battle is won, you know. I think that
that's the rule. I also make sure that I'm friends
with people that are both interesting and interested. So I
think the north star we have for this show and
my producers are wonderful, is that we're curious. Right, We're
adding curiosity and we're moving the narrative forward by by
also being curious. So we invite guests that are telling
you things that perhaps you wouldn't know. Like I just
had this wonderful author on She's had a she has
a great book that just published last year, and she
has spent her sort of last few decades in the
stans so Kazakhstan to Kumanistan and she Opekistan. And the
episode is on Ospekistan in summer cont and she talks
about it in a way that gives you a little history,
so you have a little context, but it also allows
you to start uncovering in your own mind the sort
of did I have prejudice about the Silk Roads? What
do I really know? What do I want to understand?
And how can I go there? And I think that's
the goal we've got with the show, right, So perhaps
the Silk Roads is a hard trip. It's far, there
are no direct flights from America. But if you want
to do something really special, you can travel with your
mind ye with Joanna, Who's what the interviewee. And then
perhaps when you're thinking about a trip and you're trying
to be really adventurous, this is the one you'll pick.
You know. Mexico's great. I love it. I go all
the time, and I think it's one of the best
countries in the planet, especially the food and the humans.
They're wonderful, but there's also thank you stand waiting for you,
you know so I think that's what I'm trying to
do with the show. That what's we're trying to do
with the show is kind of get people out of
a comfort zone and push them to sort of open
themselves up in order to feel something. Travels should feel something,
other ones. It's a holiday.
Speaker 1: You got to come back to this show anytime in
the future. Twenty minutes is never going to be enough.
With you, Daniel, please come back.
Speaker 2: Thank you for having a minute.
Speaker 1: You be brilliant. Any day you be brilliant.
Speaker 2: Thank you so, thank you so