WanderLearn Podcast

• Podcast

Do you miss your voice assistant when you travel? Do you find yourself in a hotel room and saying, "OK Google, set my alarm for 6 a.m." Or "Alexa, what's the weather forecast?" Or "Siri, tell housekeeping to come here."

Soon, you won't miss your voice assistant anymore, at least, if Volara has its way.

Volara CEO David Berger shares his vision for context-driven, identity-optional, voice-first experiences across the travel journey.

Dave answers questions, such as:

• How does Volara work?
• How is Volara different than your voice assistant at home?
• Is voice better suited to shop and book or serve and assist?
• Is guest privacy and proprietary hotel data at risk?
• What are the biggest barriers to the widespread use of voice travel?
• Where can you find Volara today?
• Why does Amazon's Alexa lead in hotels?
• What digital voice assistant does David recommend for the home?
• What's Volara's 2020 vision?

Volara is the only hotel-focused solution to achieve the Alexa for Business Solution Service Delivery Designation and be named a launch partner for Alexa for Hospitality.

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• Backpacking
• Podcast

Glen Van Peski is a civil engineer who used his skills to engineer the lightest backpacking gear in the Solar System. Glen is the founder of Gossamer Gear.

In 2024, he released Take Less, Do More: Surprising Life Lessons in Generosity, Gratitude, and Curiosity from an Ultralight Backpacker.

In this interview series, Glen shares snippets of his book. The final episode is a flashback episode of Glen and Francis recording themselves chatting while hiking up San Francisco's historic Sweeney Ridge.

#1 How To Frame Our Life Story

We introduce Glen using two filters: the negative story vs. the positive story.

Using different lenses, we can radically transform how we view macro- and micro-moments throughout our lives.

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#2 The Power of Generosity

Glen Van Peski reveals one of his favorite annual backpacking trips, how to stop a snorer, and lessons about generosity. 

00:00 Arizona's Buckskin Gulch

03:33 How to stop someone snoring

4:30 Lessons from a disabled son

6:45 Chopsticks as tent stakes - Chopstakes

9:30 Accepting generosity

14:30 Subtract Toward Happiness 

16:40 The Generous Debit Card

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#3 Reframing & Recalibrating Your Self-Assessment Changes Everything

In this episode, Glen Van Peski shares the story of an American worker who visited India to see where his outsourced job went. The lesson was surprising.

Do you think you're not in the top 1%? Think again.

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#4 The 5 Best Backpacking Gear Tips from Gossamer Gear's Founder

In the first 10 seconds of this episode, you'll hear Glen Van Peski's top five tips on lightening your backpacking load. He shares several other brilliant tips on improving your backpacking skills and gear in less than five minutes.

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#5 Surviving a Plane Crash That Killed the Pilot

Glen Van Peski sat in the co-pilot seat of a tiny plane that crashed, killing the pilot next to him. What happened? How did Glen and all the other passengers survive with minor or moderate injuries?

We talk a lot about death in this episode, including how Glen's mom and son died.

We end on a positive note. 

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BONUS: Glen and Francis Chat While Hiking California's Sweeney Ridge 

In the 31st WanderLearn episode, Glen and I chat while hiking to Sweeney Ridge in the San Francisco Bay Area's Peninsula. On the ridge, there's a National Historic Landmark commemorating the historic Gaspar de Portola Expedition. The Spanish Portola was the first European to see the Bay Area in 1769.

In this podcast, you'll learn:

• What's the lightest backpack that Glen has ever had?
• Why Gossamer Gear has introduced heavier gear options.
• What are some fabulous fabrics on the horizon?
• How to get sponsored.
• Some helpful metric conversion tips.
• What's Glen's favorite backpack?
• What was unexpectedly hard about making a backpacking gear company?
• The time Glen nearly died because he went stupid light.
• How Gossamer Gear's Crotch Pot makes tasty food.

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I interviewed Fred Wehrey for this podcast and for my review of his book, Burning Shores, which I wrote on Forbes. I've copied the article below for those who are too lazy to go to Forbes.

Review of The Burning Shores

Barack Obama called Libya a “shit show” and that it was the “worst mistake” of his presidency.

This tidbit is just one of the many facts you'll read about in The Burning Shores: Inside the Battle for the New Libya, which hit the shores of bookstores last year.

One of the few Americans who has an excellent grasp of this headache-producing country is Frederic Wehrey. He's a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace focused on the Middle East and North Africa. He's testified before the Senate regarding Libya, he speaks Arabic and he's visited the troubled nation many times in the past few years. His book is solidly objective and nonpartisan. 

Wehrey writes that the book “tries to find the turning points and missteps that caused the splintering of Libya—which I believe was not preordained after the death of its dictator. Ultimately, I want to understand what it was that caused revolutionaries . . . to turn against one another.”

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• Podcast

Bahman Keramati is an Iranian who has lived a decade in Africa. He's mostly lived in Nigeria and Tanzania. He's also visited many other countries in Africa. I asked him:

• What attracted him to Nigeria?
• What are the differences between Nigeria and Tanzania (or West vs. East Africa)?
• What shocked him when he first moved to Nigeria?
• What does he love most about Nigeria?
• How is it raising a child in Africa?
• Are there myths that he would like to dispel about Nigeria?
• How is the pace of life in Tanzania different than Nigeria's pace?
• What keeps him coming back to Africa?
• What are the skills that you need to have to live in Africa?

This 29th episode of the WanderLearn podcast is just 30 minutes long.

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I review $1 million 5-bedroom, 4-bath home from Vacasa.com.

This Arizona home could cost $2,000 to rent for 3 nights. But sometimes you can get it for half that price.

I interviewed a Vacasa rep in an earlier episode.

In this episode, I see how Vacasa does in practice.

Often, watching the YouTube video doesn't give you that much more information than just listening to the audio. However, this time, because I give a tour of a Vacasa home, you should really see the video.

If you prefer to read over watching videos, read my review of Vacasa. 

Have you tried Vacasa? 

How was your experience?