It's Episode 210, a nice round number so it's time for a special edition of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast. As some of you may know, I've spent a fair bit of time working on my first book about thoughtful travel, and in this episode, I decided to tell you some stories from a particular section of my book that talks about how travel really helps us to understand the world better - in a way that no textbook, movie or book can ever do.

The first tale I share is one of many situations I've been in where travelling helped me understand world history more deeply. It's simultaneously one of my least favourite but most impactful travel days, visiting the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps in southern Poland.

Next, I move on to another less-than-cheery (but important!) topic, with a story about how a small incident on my travels got me thinking more deeply about racism.

To lighten the tone, I then have a story to share about what travelling has taught me about religion - it's a story involving a car and a shrine in Japan ...

Finally, my last tale about travel helping me to understand the world is one about how getting to know local people can help you learn what's beyond the simple textbooks - in this case, it's about communism/socialism and what I learnt from visiting Slovakia.

Links:

• Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers
• Show notes: https://notaballerina.com/210