Speaker.
Rolf Potts
Author of ‘Vagabonding’
Profile:
Rolf Potts has reported from more than fifty countries for the likes of National Geographic Traveler, the New York Times Magazine, Slate.com, Conde Nast Traveler, Outside, The Believer, The Guardian (U.K.), National Public Radio, and the Travel Channel. A veteran travel columnist for the likes of Salon.com and World Hum, his adventures have taken him across six continents, and include piloting a fishing boat 900 miles down the Laotian Mekong, hitchhiking across Eastern Europe, traversing Israel on foot, bicycling across Burma, and driving a Land Rover from Sunnyvale, California to Ushuaia, Argentina.
Potts is perhaps best known for promoting the ethic of independent travel, and his book on the subject, Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel (Random House, 2003), has been through ten printings and translated into several foreign languages. His newest book is Marco Polo Didn't Go There: Stories and Revelations From One Decade as a Postmodern Travel Writer (Travelers' Tales, 2008).
Rolf's essays have appeared in over twenty literary anthologies, and sixteen of his stories have been short-listed for The Best American Travel Writing, including "Storming 'The Beach,'" which Bill Bryson chose as a main selection in 2000, and "Tantric Sex for Dilettantes," which Tim Cahill selected in 2006. His writing for National Geographic Traveler, Slate.com, Lonely Planet, and Outside garnered him Lowell Thomas Awards in 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007; and he's been cited as an expert on independent travel by publications around the world, from National Geographic Adventure, to TIME Asia, to Italy's La Stampa daily, to the Australian Financial Review, to the Russian edition of Newsweek.
Though he rarely stays in one place for more than a few weeks or months, Potts feels somewhat at home in Bangkok, Cairo, Pusan, New Orleans, and north-central Kansas, where he keeps a small farmhouse on 30 acres near his family. Each July he can be found in France, where he is the summer writer-in-residence at the Paris American Academy.
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My Brainfood
Websites
- World Hum
- A great website for travel stories and opinion.
- Transitions Abroad
- A great website for independent travel resources.
- Arts & Letters Daily
- A great website for political and intellectual readings.
- The Blog of Tim Ferriss
- A great website for lifestyle design.
- BoingBoing
- A great website that celebrates counterintuitive creativity.
Books
- Leaves of Grass
- Author:
Description: An optimistic, inclusive, spirit-expanding life-gospel poetry collection.
ISBN: 0140421998 - The Bible: Ecclesiastes and the Book of Luke
- Author:
Description: Biblical existentialism, and the key teachings of Jesus.
ISBN: 1565633253 - Video Night in Kathmandu
- Author:
Description: The first travel book that truly took into account the complexities of the globalization era.
ISBN: 0747551200 - The Things They Carried
- Author:
Description: A peek into the dark heart of storytelling.
ISBN: 0006543944 - Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel
- Author:
Description: This book is about taking time off from your normal life—from six weeks to four months to two years—to discover and experience the world on your own terms
ISBN: 0812992180
Organisations
- Kiva.org
- Loans that change lives.
- The Land Institute
- Reinventing sustainable agriculture on the Kansas prairie.
- Charity Navigator
- Evaluate where your donations are best invested.
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Yes! Yay! This is what being an expat is all about for me. Great stuff. Rebecca in Switzerland XpatAdventures.com
Rolf, well put ,do not wait till you want to retire to travel. I was 23 and driving and training race horses and was very fortunate to travel and live throughout North America. Now in my fifties I would not have it any other way. Thank you
"time = wealth" - well put!
This is a truly inspiring video for me. I'm going to be graduating university this summer and have been building up a business over the past 2.5 years. I've known that what I'm planning to accomplish is going to be huge but I haven't really taken the time to step back and enjoy myself as much as I need to. I'm going to try to take a mini-retirement for a few months when I graduate and automate everything I can in my business :) Thank you! -Chris Hughes