Sentient Planet showcases the animals with whom we share the Earth and the humans dedicated to their urgent defense and preservation. Join host-creator Susan Woodward to explore species and examine the concept of sentience and what it means for our collective future. Guest interviews and long-form stories from the field are included every season. And we always provide campaign actions you can contribute towards a more just and harmonious planet for all living beings in this time of climate c ...
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Do you like to travel? Do you like to listen to travel tales from well off the beaten path? "e-travels with e.trules" is a new, personal, idiosyncratic, and literary podcast created by Eric Trules. A longtime Huffington Post blogger and theater Professor at USC in Los Angeles, Trules has traveled our beautiful and problematic planet for decades, staying in Bedouin huts on the Red Sea, riding the rails to "Nose of the Devil" in Southern Ecuador, and meeting his future Indonesian wife on the m ...
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Trules travels across the Israeli-Egyptian border in 1999 to the Sinai Desert, where he takes a 3-day overnight "camel safari" with Bedouin guides into the Biblical past. No connection to the modern technological world. He highly recommends it for "Peace in the Middle East"!!By Eric Trules
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S3 Kangaroo Massacres: Australia's Dirty Secret
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Guests Kate McIntyre Clere and Mick McIntyre come on the show to discuss a difficult topic – the commercial killing of wild kangaroos and their joeys. Kate and Mick are an Aussie filmmaking duo with Second Nature Films. Back in 2018, they released a shocking and damning expose about Australia's secretive kangaroo killings – the largest land slaught…
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If you've ever thought about rescuing and providing sanctuary to an animal in need, this episode is for you! Guests Kate Tsyrklevich and Hope Hilman run Heartwood Haven, a popular microsanctuary for farmed animals in Gig Harbor, Washington, USA. Pigs and roosters are their preferred rescues. Many of the hundreds they've saved come from appalling co…
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S3 The Land Stand of the Mountain Caribou with David Moskowitz
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In British Columbia, Canada, an elusive animal has been adapting to co-exist with the world's largest remaining inland temperate rainforest since the last ice age. They're the gentle and beautiful mountain caribou, and our guest this week is perhaps their loudest defender. David Moskowitz, renowned nature photographer, wildlife biologist and tracke…
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S3 A New Global Vision for Whales and Dolphins with Sue Fisher
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From grassroots to policy, we want to follow up on last week's popular podcast by introducing listeners to another amazing ambassador for the oceans – Sue Fisher, of Portland, Oregon. Sue is interim marine policy director (international) for the Animal Welfare Institute. She's been advocating for greater protections for cetaceans through the Intern…
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S3 Ocean Love and Activism with Peggy Oki
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Environmental artist, activist and teacher. Free-spirited surfer and voice for her beloved whales and dolphins, whom she's dubbed The Cetacean Nation. Oh, and skateboarding sensation on the famous Zephr ("Z-Boys") competition team from the mid-1970s in California. She's the one and only Peggy Oki, and we're thrilled to have her on the show in this …
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S3 Ratifying Animal Sentience with Claire Bass
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In November 2021, the United Kingdom recognized crabs, lobsters, octopus and other decapod crustaceans and cephalopod invertebrates as sentient beings. The animals were added to the UK's new Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill, which will protect them for the first time when the bill becomes law in early 2022. Expanding our awareness to more species is…
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S3 The Weight of Empathy with Lucas Spiegel
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We're so happy to release the first episode of Sentient Planet – Season 3! Today’s guest is the vegan writer, photographer and lover of all creatures – Lucas Spiegel. Lucas quit his job as an architect in North America to spend nearly two years traveling the world, working on animal sanctuaries as he explored cultures and what it would take to live…
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S2 What is Sentience with Roshi Susan Murphy
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What is sentience? If we're to ask the question directly, perhaps a good place to seek an answer is with a great teacher. This week, it's our honor to welcome and share the Earth wisdom of the joyful Dr. Susan Murphy. Susan is a Roshi, a learned teacher in the tradition of Zen Buddhism. She is the founding and resident teacher of the Zen Open Circl…
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S2 For the Love of Moon Bears with Jill Robinson
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Jill Robinson first encountered a captive Moon Bear in 1993. The experience, which she recounts in our interview, changed her life. It also sparked the beginning of the end of the horrific bear bile industry. Moon Bears are Asian Black Bears. They are called Moon Bears in reference to the trademark white fur crescent that appears across their necks…
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S2 An Icon for Our Sentient Planet with Mark Stoop
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What a treat to introduce the Dutch nature photographer and our far-flung team member, Mark Stoop. Mark lives in Singapore, where he works as a marketing director and indulges his passion for photographing the biodiverse animals who live around him. Birds and reptiles hold a special place in Mark's heart. Indeed, it was his beautiful photo of a cur…
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S2 Bonus Episode: "The Face" with Dany Celermajer
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This bonus episode, exclusive to Sentient Planet listeners, accompanies our Season 2 episode, "Living Through Fire with Danielle Celermajer." Dany reads "The Face," a short chapter from Summertime: Reflections on a Vanishing Future (Penguin Books Australia 2021). Her brave and unflinching account of animal sentience beseeches us to wake up and face…
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S2 Living Through Fire with Danielle Celermajer
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This week's guest is the profound Australian author, Professor Danielle Celermajer. Dany is a philosopher, the director of the Multispecies Justice Project at the University of Sydney, and the author of Summertime: Reflections on a Vanishing Future (Penguin Books Australia 2021). Dany started writing Summertime in situ during the peak of the Black …
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S2 Communicating Animal Sentience with Carl Safina
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On the topic of non-human animal sentience, Carl Safina is one of the most experienced observers and gifted communicators in the world. The renowned ecologist turned bestselling author has penned 10 books about our human relationship to nature and her myriad species. For example, in Becoming Wild: How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, …
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S2 Bonus Episode: A Prayer for All Beings with Jo McArthur
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This bonus episode, exclusive to Sentient Planet listeners, accompanies our Season 2 episode "The Long Road to Liberation with Jo-Anne McArthur." Jo talks about the award-winning photo collection, "HIDDEN: Animals in the Anthropocene," and she reads a short and ancient Buddhist prayer for the liberation of all animals, including we humans. Photo co…
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S2 The Long Road to Liberation with Jo-Anne McArthur
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We're honored to launch Season 2 with this guest, the acclaimed animal photojournalist, author, humane educator and founder of We Animals Media, Jo-Anne McArthur. Perhaps no human has done more to bring the suffering of our animal kin into the light. For more than 20 years, across more than 60 countries, Jo has documented the truth of what happens …
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In our last episode for Season 1, Amy Souers Kober, of American Rivers, talks about the rising global movement to restore free-flowing river ecosystems, upon which so much sentient life depends. We discuss the benefits of removing the thousands of dams that still crisscross North America. Right now, there is a groundswell of support to breach four …
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How are koalas faring after the great climate fires that bore down on Australia in 2019-20? One of the best people to ask is Cate Faehrmann, Member of Parliament for the New South Wales Greens Party. Also an environmental activist, Cate chaired a recent parliamentary inquiry into the status of koalas in New South Wales, where the population is quic…
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The Custodians of Creation with Tyson Yunkaporta
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This week, we switch hemispheres and head Down Under for an out-of-the-ordinary conversation with the Australian indigenous writer, academic and traditional wood carver Tyson Yunkaporta. Tyson reflects on the dominant global order behind our current crises and the havoc it's wreaking upon animals and all life. We're caught up in an unstoppable race…
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Bonus Episode: Researcher Ken Balcomb Talks Orca
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For those who can't get enough of "podfather" Ken Balcomb – and those new to his lifetime of dedication to the Southern Resident Orca (SRO) – here's the additional interview we promised. Listen to Ken describe the staggering natural beauty that drew him to North America's Pacific Northwest, his first orca sighting 45 years ago, and what it's been l…
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Mapping the Salish Sea with Stefan Freelan
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This week, we step back from the Southern Resident Orca to discover more about their watery home through the eyes of a mapmaker. Stefan Freelan is the cartographer from Western Washington University who created the Salish Sea & Surrounding Basin map, aiding a decades-long campaign to bring an official name (and purpose) to an entire ecosystem. To d…
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Podfather: One Man's Journey to Save the Southern Resident Orca
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This week's episode is from the field! Susan interviews whale researcher Ken Balcomb. The interview takes place at Ken's Big Salmon Ranch property on the beautiful Elwha River, acquired to preserve a key salmon-spawning habitat that is vital to feeding J, K and L pods. Calls to Action: For more stories, photos and videos about the individual whales…
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A Writer's Connection to the Salish Sea with Rena Priest
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Rena Priest is an award-winning poet and writer, a National Geographic Explorer and a member of the Lummi Nation. In April, she was named Washington State Poet Laureate - the first time Washington has awarded this role to an indigenous poet. Today, we discuss Rena’s calling to write about the Southern Resident Orca, whom the Lummi consider their "r…
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Bonus Episode: Poet Rena Priest Reads "Words of Encouragement"
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Congratulations to Rena Priest, named Washington's Poet Laureate in April 2021. She is the first indigenous poet to hold this prestigious position in Washington state. "Words of Encouragement" appears in For Love of Orcas: An Anthology, published in 2019 by Wandering Aengus Press. Photo: The Whale Sanctuary Project.…
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Bringing Her Home: The Lummi Claim to a Captive Orca
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In honor of Earth Day, we dedicate the first ever Sentient Planet audio documentary to Sk'aliCh'elh-tenaut (also known as Tokitae and Lolita) – a wild Southern Resident orca confined to a tank in the Miami Seaquarium for the past 50 years – and to her indigenous relatives, who are working tirelessly to bring her home. This is their story. May human…
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Understanding Environmental Grief with Dr. Kriss Kevorkian
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Witnessing the decline of species and habitat in this time of mass extinction is deeply painful. In 2001, thanatologist Dr. Kriss Kevorkian gave a name to what many of us are feeling – environmental (and ecological) grief. In our first Sentient Planet guest interview, Kriss talks about her journey from a love of whales to working in death and dying…
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A short conversation with the creators of Sentient Planet about the podcast's intention and what to expect in Season 1. Music (with great thanks): "Galaxies" by Stellardrone.By Susan Woodward
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Hello! First Episodes Land On Earth Day 2021
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A new podcast about our kinship with animals. Our first episodes land on Earth Day, April 22. Music: "The Spaces Between" by Scott Buckley.By Susan Woodward
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ET043 - Bonus: Interview with Outlier, Matt Dartnell
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http://erictrules.com/episode43
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ET042 - Bonus Episode -Trules Guests on Podcast Junkies
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Today’s Bonus interview on “Podcast Junkies” is called: “Rebelling Against Conformity and Finding Freedom Through the Arts”, and in it, Harry Duran and I cover my journey from pre-med college student to professional clown and recent podcaster. Along the way, Harry calls my work the “predecessor of flash mobs”. I’m not exactly sure that’s true, but …
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ET041 - Behind the Scenes with Travel Writer, Linda Ballou
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My guest, Linda Ballou, is an accomplished travel and adventure writer - about whom world-wide explorer, Jim Dorsey, says: "Ballou takes the reader out of their armchair into the vast world as few travel writers can. Her eye for detail, combined with intimate knowledge of her surroundings, sets Ms. Ballou heads above most of the travel writing pack…
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ET040 - The Ghosts of Edinburgh, Scotland
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Today we’ll be time traveling again - a long ways back… to 1988, when I ventured to Edinburgh, Scotland to perform for the first time in the Edinburgh Fringe, the largest arts festival, if not on the planet, then at least in the Western world. I was 41 years old, living in Santa Monica, and I was invited to perform my one man show as part of a thea…
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ET039 - Behind the Scenes with Travel Wisdom Podcast Host, Ladan Jiracek
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Ladan Jiracek, host of the Travel Wisdom Podcast, is my Behind the Scenes guest today because… I just love the question that his podcast poses: “Can travel be more than just a fun thing to do? Can it also provide a learning experiences for later in life?” Ladan believes it can be, and that’s why he’s traveled to over 100 countries... hoping to plan…
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ET038 - The Seedy & Glamorous Hotel Woodward, NYC Back in the Day
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New York City — 1977 — “back in the day” — when Studio 54 was all the rage and the new TKTS half-price tickets booth on 47th Street and Broadway was still bright-eyed and bushy tailed. When my rent at the infamous and sometimes dangerous, Hotel Woodward was $55 a week, and I had to figure out a way to pay it. As you’ll hear, I was ingenious, and pe…
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ET037 - Behind the Scenes with Travel Hacker, Jen Ruiz
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Jen Ruiz is the author of “The Affordable Flight Guide”, has been featured in the Washington Post and on ABC news, and she documents her travel-hacking adventures on her website, jenonajetplane.com. She believes that too many people put off seeing the world until they retire, save up a small fortune, or find the perfect travel partner. She thinks t…
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ET036 - Susan, Tim, and Me - Hollywood Comes to Bali
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Today I find myself at a cremation ceremony in Ubud, Indonesia, the cultural capital of the magical island of Bali. Thousands of locals and tourists are watching a Hindu-Bali ceremony… where the bones of Balinese men, women, and children, who have never received a proper burial, have been dug up, placed in giant coffin-boxes topped with carved wood…
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ET035 - Behind the Scenes with Reggae Aficionado, Roger Steffens
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Roger Steffens is a reggae expert and collector extraordinaire. Also a poet, photographer, raconteur, and personal friend of Bob Marley. Which means… Roger’s been to Jamaica many times, mon. If you know anything about reggae, you probably know that Roger co-hosted “The Reggae Beat” on KCRW radio beginning in 1979, the first and only reggae show in …
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If you remember, I last left you at the end of Part 1 getting off a hot, crowded bus which took me from Tetouen, Morocco to… Chechaouen, Morocco. It turns out that not all “ouens” are the same. I’m getting off the bus when I see a seated Islamic man dressed in all white, staring intently at me. He has a computer in his lap, and it’s not too long af…
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ET033 - Behind the Scenes with Ethno-Musicologist, Chuck Jonkey
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Chuck Jonkey is an adventurer, composer, and musician who transforms his off the beaten track travel experiences into sound, music and film. Chuck’s exotic adventures have taken him to the furthest reaches of the planet where he seeks out some of the world’s most isolated tribal groups, embeds himself in their cultures, and records their music. His…
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This adventure — is about my trip to Morocco, after I finish my travels in Andalucia. I take a boat from the southeastern tip of Spain’s port, Algeciras, across the Strait of Gibralta, to the northern-most tip of Africa, Ceuta, still Spanish territory… until I cross the Spanish-Moroccan border – by foot – and end up in Tetouan…. Morocco… at the bas…
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ET031-Behind the Scenes with Adventurer Jim Dorsey
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Greetings from the Outback, Maties! Today I’ll be talking with James Michael Dorsey, explorer, photographer, lecturer, and award-winning author, who has traveled to over 47 countries in the last 15 years. “Jim” has been called a “combination of swashbuckling adventurer and spiritual seeker” because he visits and documents disappearing indigenous tr…
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It was a crazy idea. Loco. No, a good one. Bueno. Driving thousands of miles in my white Toyota Celica, which stood out like an automotive sore thumb… all the way from LA to… Ciudad Juarez… to Chihuahua… to Real de Catorce, an old silver mining town in the sacred hills of the Huichol Indians. Along the way, Miguel and I discovered many things… the …
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ET029 - Behind the Scenes with Kate Erickson from EoFire
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Kate Erickson emanates all the sunshine and positivity of Southern California. She is passionate about helping entrepreneurs create freedom in their businesses and in their lives – through developing systems and processes that can help their business scale and grow. I wasn’t exactly sure what that meant, but Kate explains it all in this episode…. a…
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We’re back in Deadwood, South Dakota…. where you last left me in Episode 26…. in jail. It’s September, 1970 and I’ve been arrested for reckless driving,,,, by Sheriff Deadwood Dick McGraff. I’m in Wild Bill Hickok’s jail cell, on the day after Jimi Hendrix died of a drug overdose. I have long Jewfro hair just like Jimi, and my jail mates have taken…
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ET027 - Behind the Scenes with Mike Siegel from the Travel Tales Podcast
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Mike Siegel is a professional stand-up comedian, fellow travel podcaster, and TV host based in Los Angeles, California. Plus… he’s an overall good guy. Mike created the Travel Tales Podcast in 2011 – which he sees as a lighthearted conversation highlighting the best, and worst, experiences that travel has to offer. I think Mike and I are both tryin…
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ET026 - The Wild West of Deadwood, South Dakota
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I was doing one of the most patriotic things I’ve ever done in my life – going to Mt. Rushmore - to see George, Tom, Abe, and Teddy… whose Presidential images were all cracked and decayed… just like our country. I end up making a little detour – to the old cowboy and mining town of Deadwood, South Dakota… long before David Milch, Al Swearingen, and…
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ET025 - Behind the Scenes with Shannon Moore Martin from Podbean
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“I’ve always wanted to be an ‘ex-pat’, an American living outside of the United States. Never more so than in this tenuous time of Trump!” So at Podcast Movement 17 in Anaheim, I do a live interview with Shannon Moore Martin of Podbean, who lives in Shanghai. We talk of many things – like living internationally, and working for one of the biggest p…
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ET024 - Welcome Season 2 with A Cock Tale From Borneo
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This season, I’d like to start thinking about travel in a new way.Time and place, Maties. Because I think there’s something profound and universal about a good travel story, connecting us more deeply to a unique place at a specific time, to ourselves, and to the other people we meet along the way. At the end of this episode, I'll recall a tribal ta…
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ET023 - Bonus - Trules Guests on the Creative Studio Podcast
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Ho! Ho! Ho! And Happy New Year! Having just passed the 1 YEAR ANNIVERSAY of my podcast, I am announcing GOOD NEWS — the release of “e-travels with e. trules” on SPOTIFY! To celebrate, I’m releasing the 4th and final BONUS EPISODE – between Season 1 and Season 2. It’s my interview from this past Fall with Joshua Rivers, also known as “The Podcast Gu…
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ET022 - Bonus Episode, Trules Guests on Podcasts We Listen To
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It's the 1 Year Anniversary of the Podcast, so today to celebrate and to tickle your travel podcast fancy, I'm releasing a BONUS episode, my guest interview with Jeremy Collins, host of "Podcasts We Listen To". Jeremy contacted me from Capser, Wyoming, where is a UPS driver, as well as the creator of "Podcasts We Listen To", a popular podcast and t…
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