The First Mile is an immersive travel podcast, bringing you untold stories from the world of adventure. It is presented by Ash Bhardwaj and Pip Stewart — two travel journalists, who are adventurers in their own right — and explores everything from the ethics of cultural tourism, to documenting your journeys and making a living from travel. Ash and Pip navigate this territory with some of the world’s greatest travellers, who reveal how they got their first break in travel writing, planned remote expeditions, or made the switch from a corporate career to a life of adventure. Alongside these in-depth interviews are travel-narrative dispatches: evocative field recordings from Ash and Pip’s adventures, which take the listener along for the ride. New episodes are released weekly, in 10-episode seasons. ****** Season one’s interview guests include: author Monisha Rajesh, explorer Levison Wood, film-maker Reza Pakravan, and travel-writer Leon McCarron. Our dispatches come from Annapurna, Nepal, and Whanganui, New Zealand, where our hosts report back on rites of passage, celestial navigation, the joys of moonshine liquor, and a whole lot more. ****** Ash Bhardwaj is an award-winning broadcaster, film-maker and Telegraph Travel columnist. He regularly reports for BBC Radio 4 and the World Service, and his films have appeared on BBC, Channel 4, Discovery and National Geographic. Pip Stewart has cycled halfway around the world and completed a world-first kayak descent of Guyana’s Essequibo River (where she picked up a flesh-eating parasite). She is the former Red Bull adventure editor, and her presenting work has appeared on BBC, Al Jazeera and The Telegraph. ****** We hope you enjoy The First Mile. Please let us know what you think of it in the comments, and give us a rating, too.
Episodes
Wednesday Dec 16, 2020
Wednesday Dec 16, 2020
Leon McCarron on Slow Travel and Misunderstood Places.
In this episode, Ash meets Leon McCarron: writer, broadcaster, and North Face explorer.
Leon has walked a 1000-mile loop of the Holy Land, crossed China from north to south, and travelled on foot in Kosovo, Armenia and on the Yemeni island of Socotra. He has also cycled 14,000 miles across three continents, walked through the Empty Quarter desert, and ridden across Patagonia on horseback. Leon’s work seeks out stories of humanity and nuance in parts of the world that are often demonised or misunderstood by Western media.
In this episode, discover:
- About Leon’s 1,000 mile walk through the Middle East (including why Leon and Pip found themselves walking along a smugglers route in Jordan!).
- Why Leon’s travels turned from journeys focused on landscapes to those focused on people and what he’s learned as a result.
- How to tell powerful stories - the power and use of journaling, and why less is more.
- How Leon created his career path.
- How Leon enjoys telling stories by travelling on foot.
- Why reading works by local authors not only aids understanding but also excitement about visiting a country.
- Leon’s experience witnessing the Arbaʽeen Pilgrimage that takes place in Iraq.
- How and why Leon has helped establish new walking trails in central China and northern Iraq.
- Why people’s careers are not always what they appear.
- Why you might want to avoid googling popular travel destinations.
Links mentioned in this episode:
- Leon website https://www.leonmccarron.com
- Leon Instagram https://www.instagram.com/leonmccarron/
- Leon Twitter https://twitter.com/leonmccarron?lang=en
- Leon’s book: The Land Beyond https://www.leonmccarron.com/writing1.html
- Rob Lillwall https://roblilwall.com
- Alastair Humprehys https://alastairhumphreys.com
- Arbaʽeen Pilgrimage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbaʽeen_Pilgrimage
- The Long Form Podcast https://longform.org/podcast
- Our Man in the Middle East https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08rmkcd
- Ramblings with Claire Balding https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006xrr2/episodes/player
- On Writing by Stephen King
- Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
- The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming by David Wallace-Wells
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We’d love to hear what you think of this week’s The First Mile and if you’ve got any suggestions of topics or people you’d like to hear interviewed. Drop us a line on Instagram @AshBhardwaj and @PipStewart or Twitter @AshBhardwaj and @PipStewart.
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Comments (1)
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Really enjoyed thanks. Not to have too many acceptance from the destination, excellent advice but I will still Google and research lol.
Wednesday Dec 16, 2020
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