Travelers’ Tales has joined up with ApplauseCast and entered the world of podcasting. For those of you just tuning in, a podcast is a broadcast that you can listen to on the internet, or download on to your iPod for listening to later when you’re on the go.
To launch this new arm of TravelersTales.com, they’re featuring some of their most prized authors from the series. Tim Cahill kicks it off with a reading from Hold the Enlightenment, and then follows up with an interview with Executive Editor, Larry Habegger, and producer, Stephen Marra.
The intros are kind of wonky, and the beginnings are a tad slow, but hang in there and you’ll discover some greatness inside.
In the interview, Tim talks about the scariest trip he ever took —following Robert Pelton (Hint: did he go after Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, or hang out with the FARC guerrila faction in Columbia?), the definition of remote, explains his fascination with risk, and talks about his journey as a writer. There are also some “how to” nuggets as Tim answers how he approaches an assignment and works on his craft.
Listen to the interview here.
Hear Tim read an excerpt about doing Yoga in Jamaica.
I think that these are great for those who’ve never seen the authors in person, and probably will never get the chance to make it out to an actual bookstore event. Larry knows the writers he’s interviewing and is very familiar with his work so he knows how to get the good stories out of the writers.
Other authors in the project include Simon Winchester, and I hear Pico Iyer is up next. And, of course, if you want interviews from all the travel writing greats in one tight old fashioned book, check out Michael Shapiro’s A Sense of Place.