Most travel magazines focus on destinations, offering tips on where to go, where to stay, what to do. We started World Hum in May 2001 because we wanted to focus not on destinations but on the journey, on travel in the broadest sense of the word.

We don’t see travel only as a way to spend a couple weeks’ vacation every year. For us, travel is a way to see the world when we’re abroad, but also a way to see the world when we’re at home. Travel is a state of mind.

The truth is, one needn’t cross the globe to travel these days (though crossing the globe never hurts). Parts of Los Angeles are now as foreign to many Southern Californians as parts of Tokyo or Lima. Technology may be shrinking the world, but the world is far more complex and interesting than ever before. And despite our worst fears, globalization hasn’t made travel any less compelling. A visit to a McDonald’s in Shanghai is still nothing like a visit to a McDonald’s in Durban or Auckland or Newark. Every journey, no matter how near or far, has the potential for a life-changing moment.

World Hum is dedicated to exploring travel in all its facets: how it changes us, how it changes the way we see the world, and finally, how travel itself is changing the world.

As for the name, “World Hum” is a phrase from Don DeLillo’s novel “The Names,” and it describes the rush we feel when we travel: a surge of adrenaline, electricity, glee and, sometimes, on this ever-shrinking planet, connection.

Enjoy the site, and let us know what you think.

The editors,
Jim and Mike

has written for National Geographic Adventure, National Geographic Traveler, Outside, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times Magazine and Men’s Journal. He’s a former reporter at the Los Angeles Times and Orange County Register. He lives in San Diego, where he teaches travel writing and makes frequent trips across the Mexican border to his favorite carnitas and mariachi joint. More: JimBenning.net.

has worked as an editor at Men’s Fitness, Men’s Journal and Journey magazines, and as the Destinations Editor at USATODAY.com. His stories have appeared in Salon, Sunset, Via, Playboy, Westways, E!Online, Outdoor Explorer and many other publications. He lives in the Washington D.C. area. Follow him on Twitter, or see MichaelYessis.net.

Senior Editor

has written for The Boston Globe, Philadelphia Inquirer, Baltimore Sun, States News Service and Amarillo Globe News, and worked as an editor and writer for Frommer’s Travel Guides. She has written and produced online content for the Travel Channel and Discovery Channel, and taught travel writing in Italy through Loyola College. She now lives in Philadelphia where she can be found ogling colonial reenactors and eating her way across the city.

Contributing Editors

Frank Bures writes for many publications, including Harper’s, Esquire, Outside, Mother Jones and Tin House. His essay for World Hum, Test Day, was featured in “The Best American Travel Writing 2004” and his story How to Use a Squat Toilet won a 2007 Lowell Thomas Award. He has attended high school in Italy, picked apples in New Zealand, taught English in Tanzania and freelanced in Thailand. He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

David Farley’s work appears in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Conde Nast Traveler, Playboy, New York magazine and Slate.com. He’s the co-editor of Travelers’ Tales Prague and the Czech Republic: True Stories; in Spring 2009 Penguin/Gotham Books will release “An Irreverent Curiosity,” his travel memoir/narrative history about his time living in a bizarre medieval hilltown near Rome while searching for an even more bizarre religious relic: the Holy Foreskin. He teaches travel writing at New York University. 

Joanna Kakissis contributes regularly to The New York Times and her work has also appeared in The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, The International Herald Tribune and The News & Observer, where she was a staff writer for several years. She has also written for Fodor’s and Time Out travel guides and has contributed to U.S. public radio. Born in Greece, raised in the American Midwest and enamored of Scotland, she is a devoted foodie, mountain hiker and Duran Duran fan.

Eva Holland has written for the National Post, the Ottawa Citizen, the Montreal Gazette, the Edmonton Journal and the Victoria Times-Colonist. She is based in Ottawa, Canada, and writes about travel, music, movies and sometimes even pro sports.

Julia Ross has written for Time, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, Plenty and other publications, often on China and Chinese culture.  Raised just outside Washington, D.C., she has also lived in Shanghai and Taipei, and is waging a years-long battle to learn Mandarin.

An acquiring editor in the reference department at Oxford University Press, Ben Keene manages their range of world atlases and has appeared on National Public Radio to discuss his work. He lives in Brooklyn, New York and puts his map knowledge to good use on frequent trips abroad, where, like it or not, he usually ends up as the navigator.

Columnist is the author of “Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel.” His stories have appeared in National Geographic Traveler, National Geographic Adventure and Conde Nast Traveler, as well as on Salon, where he wrote the “Vagabonding” column. His writing has been featured in many anthologies, including “The Best American Travel Writing.”

Terry Ward has written for The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times Magazine, Frommer’s Budget Travel, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and the Orlando Sentinel. She has lived in New Zealand and France and confesses an addiction to Morocco, which explains the tiles in her photo. She’s based in Florida.

E-mail Michael or Jim if you’d like to send press releases, books or other media via snail mail.

Advertising

Interested in advertising on World Hum? Please contact the Travel Channel sales team.

Praise for World Hum:

“Superb writing and stylish layout make visiting the site like cracking open a high-quality travel magazine.” - The Wall Street Journal

“The best darn travel writing Web site, period.” - South Florida Sun-Sentinel

The “ultimate Weblog (or ‘blog’) for travel-related content that is devoted to the journey rather than the destination.” - Chicago Tribune

Gold Award, Best Travel Site, 2006 Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Awards

Bronze Award, Best Travel Site, 2003 Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Awards

Silver Award, Best Travel Site, 2002 Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Awards

Nominee, Best Travel Site, 2002 Webby Awards

“The essays on World Hum are beautifully written. But better than that, each bears the specific stamp of the traveler, quirky, curious and very human.” - Newsweek International

“The people behind worldhum.com ... offer a refreshing take on going abroad.” - Times of London

“A good example of a travel site working as a global information network.” - BBC World

“[T]his evocative site offers original dispatches and an extensive list of well-chosen links.” - USA Today

One of the 100 best Web sites for guys - Men’s Journal

“Poignant, informative and entertaining ... With all the swill that passes itself off as travel literature on the Web these days, it’s a nice change of pace to discover a site that truly grants readers a little vicarious adventure.” - Toronto Globe and Mail

One of the Net’s top literary travel sites - San Francisco Chronicle

“The quality of writing is first class” - New Sunday Express (India)

World Hum “provides a high-energy, in-your-face look at travel today” - Chicago Sun-Times

“A great place to go to read travel tales beyond the typical. It’s full of wonderful stories” - Seattle Post-Intelligencer

“An entertainment fix for travel junkies, with engaging writing, an archive of stories, a weblog and links to travel Web site” - San Diego Union-Tribune

“Solid, entertaining content, a great travel writing weblog and quick-loading design.” - Lonely Planet

A “massive, ever-growing ... tell-it-like-it-is ... portal” featuring “tales of love, life, beauty and horror.” - Independent (UK)

“Fresh online travel writing.” - Travelers’ Tales

“Vicarious travelers can find plenty of interesting stories at this site ... content excels.” - Detroit Free Press

“For a less corporate-sponsored environment, deeper submissions and more thought-provoking prose, try World Hum.” - Buffalo News

“A literary travel magazine high on links and wit” - Compass

“Young, fresh and stylish.” - Expatriate Cafe

“Ha textos interessantes” - Brasil Online

“Av og for intellektuelle vagabonder” - NettGuide

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