Tag: Audio

Audio Story: Tagish Elvis and Me

elvis! Photo by kevindooley, via Flickr (Creative Commons)

In Skagway, Alaska, Pam Mandel finds an unlikely way to salvage a bad trip

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Growing Up on the Grand Trunk Road

NPR has a compelling series about the young Pakistani and Indian men and women who live alongside one of Asia’s most famous roads. The stories are supported by a great multimedia package—interactive maps, graphics, slideshows and more. It’s worth a good browse.

Frequent World Hum contributor Jeffrey Tayler cycled the Grand Trunk Road last year; here’s his five-part series about the experience.


World Hum Writers on the Air

A few World Hum contributors made radio and podcast appearances this week: Tom Swick and Jeff Greenwald talked travel writing past, present and future on NPR’s KQED Radio, while Doug Mack showed up on CBC Radio’s Q to talk about his Europe on Five Bad Ideas a Day project. Good stuff all around.


Audio Story: Ukulele Diplomacy

Audio Story: Ukulele Diplomacy Photo by UJ Sommer

Nothing makes Pam Mandel feel less like a lonely traveler than her four-stringed diplomatic tool

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Two Days in the Life of a Rest Stop on the New York State Thruway

This American Life did it again this weekend with a superb program chronicling the happenings at a highway rest stop in Wallkill, New York. Some accompanying photos can be found on Flickr.


Here’s Why a Truffle-Slathered Bomb Will Never Make it Through Airport Security

The Onion says we can count on Mr. Snout.


Rick Steves and David Sedaris, Redux

This weekend on his radio show, Rick Steves re-played an entertaining interview with David Sedaris on his time as an expat in Paris and Tokyo. In case you missed it when it first aired last fall, here it is in full.


Site to Watch: Open Sound New Orleans

It’s a soundmap of New Orleans. The directors of the project, Heather Booth and Jacob Brancasi, aim “to make more accessible the authentic, unedited sounds and voices of New Orleans. Sharing the sounds of our city as we hear them, move through them, and create them, is an act of celebration.”

Booth and Brancasi spoke about their project and shared a few sounds yesterday on NPR’s Weekend Edition.


The Sounds of London

Giles Turnbull carried his audio recorder to 10 spots around London to capture its audio portrait. The Morning News features 10 snippets, including the sound of Waterloo Station and outside Royal Festival Hall.


R.I.P. Paul Harvey

The radio legend joined me on many a road trip, filling the wide-open spaces of the U.S. with what the Washington Post calls his “authoritative baritone voice.” I rarely took a long drive without tuning in a crackling A.M. station and hearing Harvey deliver “the rest of the story.” Among the noteworthy achievements of his broadcasting career: He apparently invented the word “skyjacker.” He was 90.


Touring Tokyo’s Underbelly

I’ve been a fan of MP3 audio tours since I discovered the transporting Soundwalk series several years ago. In fact, Soundwalk’s moody MP3 tour of New York’s Chinatown still reverberates in my ears every time I walk down Mott or Bayard Street in lower Manhattan. So I wish Tokyo Realtime’s new audio tour of Kabukicho, Tokyo’s red light district, had been available when I visited the city in 2007. From the preview posted on their site, the tour mixes just the right amount of music, political commentary and local history to make at least one corner of the overwhelming metropolis accessible. And god knows, anything that helps tourists cut Tokyo down to bite-size portions is helpful.

Those looking for the peep shows and brothels documented in the tour may be disappointed, however. The Guardian reports efforts are under way to clean up Kabukicho in line with the city’s short-listed bid to host the 2016 Olympics.


World Hum’s Top 40 Travel Songs of All Time

World Hum’s Top 40 Travel Songs of All Time Photo by John Tino

We traveled. We listened. We voted. These are the tunes that best capture the spirit of the road.

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Video: ‘Airplane!’ vs. ‘Zero Hour’

“Airplane!,” a comedy classic and one of the greatest travel movies ever made, was famously inspired by the 1957 B-movie Zero Hour. How inspired? YouTuber icecoldkatie has meticulously spliced together scenes from each movie, demonstrating Picasso’s maxim, “Bad artists copy. Great artists steal.” See for yourself after the jump.

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The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: The Road to Adventure

This week travelers were drawn to roads in California, Vietnam and danger zones throughout the world. Italy, France, Hong Kong and a discount startup airline were also top of mind. Here’s the Zeitgeist.

Most E-Mailed Travel Story
USA Today (current)
Puglia: Italy’s Heel Has It All, Except Tourists

Most E-mailed Travel Story
New York Times (current)
Practical Traveler: As Hotel Prices Rise, a Villa May Be a Bargain

Most Popular Travel Story
Netscape (this week)
Top 5 Most Dangerous Roads of the World
* The photos will make your stomach churn.

Most Viewed Travel Story
Los Angeles Times (current)
U.S. Highway 395: California’s ‘Mother Road’
* Here’s the accompanying photo gallery.

Most Read Weblog Post
World Hum (this week)
‘American Shaolin’: Interview with Matthew Polly

Top Travel and Adventure Audiobook
iTunes (current)
Fodor’s French for Travelers

Best Selling Travel Book
Amazon.com (current)
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert

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