Today we’re examining a type of travel activity that you won't yet find on a tour or a cruise shore excursion list yet. Nearly two years ago, reporter Robert Silk fulfilled a personal project: Called the desert sit, or competitive sitting, or extreme sitting, he went to the desert and sat in one spot. For an entire day.

The activity combines travel with some of the trends that became paramount during the pandemic: Being outdoors and distant, mindfulness, disconnecting from devices and the pursuit of longtime goals. And then he wrote about it for Travel Weekly. Lately, the interest in extreme sitting has been renewed via an article written by Laura Kiniry for Atlas Obscura, and so host Rebecca Tobin brought the two of them together again, to talk about the philosophy and practicalities of traveling in order to just sit.

Episode sponsor:

This episode is sponsored by Windstar Cruises.

Related reports:

How to explain a day desert sitting: Social distancing as an endurance sport

Atlas Obscura: Meet the man who wants to make sitting an extreme sport

Travel Weekly Dispatch, Antarctica: Surrounded by humpback whales