Happy New Year!

Today, we're speaking with Dr. Anu Taranath, a speaker, facilitator, and faculty member at the University of Washington in Seattle, where she teaches about global literature, race, and equity, and directs study abroad programs on human rights.

Anu is the author of Beyond Guilt Trips: Mindful Travel in an Unequal World, a book that puts our movement across the world in a larger context of systems of power. She also writes a column for AFAR Magazine.

We're closing the year with a conversation that's full of lightness, joy, and delight. I hope you enjoy it!

Reminder:

We are running a 10-day trip to Jordan from June 5-14, 2026. We'll visit the Dead Sea, Petra, Wadi Rum, Amman, and many off-beaten spots in between. We'll meet a renowned artist who designed the country's newest currency, spend time with the Bedouins in the desert, and more.

Go to https://goingplacesmedia.com/jordan for details on early-bird booking, which ends on Jan 4, 2026.

Going Places is an audience-supported platform. You can become a member for as little as $6 a month. Visit us at goingplacesmedia.com to learn more.

Thanks to our Founding Members:

1. RISE Travel Institute, a nonprofit with a mission to create a more just and equitable world through travel education
2. Radostina Boseva, a film wedding photographer with an editorial flair based in San Francisco

Today is the last episode of the season! Thank you so much for listening. We’re taking a break and will be back with new episodes this Spring.

1. The origins of Anu's justice work: too foreign to be an American
2. Growing up in a South Asian family in Texas
3. How Anu creates spaces of belonging from New York to New Delhi
4. What the hyper-individualistic U.S. culture teaches us about community
5. The politics of travel: how power structures shape the way we travel
6. Anu reads an excerpt from her book
7. Helmet-to-cheek: looking for sweetness, lightness, and joy wherever we go

1. Follow Anu on Instagram: @dr.anutaranath
2. Read Anu's book, Beyond Guilt Trips: Mindful Travel In an Unequal World
3. Check out Anu's column at AFAR Magazine
4. Watch our panel with Anu: Travel, Power, and the Role of Creators in a World on Fire

How do a nomadic Costa Rican-Polish-American and a British-Pakistani raised in Saudi Arabia start a travel company together?

Today, we're going to find out.

We're speaking with Sibu Szymanowska and Hira Aftab, co-founders of The Hybrid Tours, a travel company that uses the power of travel and storytelling to challenge stereotypes and foster connections with activists, refugees, and changemakers worldwide.

Use code GOINGPLACES to receive $100 off any of The Hybrid Tours' upcoming trips.

Reminder:

We are running a 10-day trip to Jordan from June 5-14, 2026. We'll visit the Dead Sea, Petra, Wadi Rum, Amman, and many off-beaten spots in between. We'll meet a renowned artist who designed the country's newest currency, spend time with the Bedouins in the desert, and more.

Go to https://goingplacesmedia.com/jordan for details on early-bird booking, which ends on Jan 4, 2026.

Going Places is an audience-supported platform. You can become a member for as little as $6 a month. Visit us at goingplacesmedia.com to learn more.

Thanks to our Founding Members:

• RISE Travel Institute, a nonprofit with a mission to create a more just and equitable world through travel education
• Radostina Boseva, a film wedding photographer with an editorial flair based in San Francisco

• Hira and Sibu’s origins in the human rights work
• How a trip to the Azraq refugee camp in Jordan started it all
• Traveling as a visibly Muslim woman
• Meeting survivors of partition in Pakistan
• What decolonizing travel really is
• Creating travel content with a human rights lens
• Sibu's lessons from 5+ years of full-time travel
• Traveling overland from the West to North Africa
• Hira and Sibu dream of starting the world from scratch

• Follow The Hybrid Tours on Instagram: @thehybridtours
• Check out upcoming trips with The Hybrid Tours
• Join The Hybrid Tours newsletter
• Watch Sibu's Instagram series on traveling from West to North Africa overland
• Check out Hira's Instagram post on misconceptions about Muslim women
• Check out Hira's organization, Our World Too, and listen to their podcast
• Check out Baraka Destinations
• Read about U.S. wheat flooding Jordan's markets
• Join me in Jordan next June

Going Places is a reader-supported platform. Get membership perks like a monthly group call with Yulia at

Today, we're speaking with Vanessa Abbe, a travel advisor who joined me on my last group trip to Jordan.

Travel to Jordan has dropped 90% in some cases in the last two years.

In this conversation, I wanted to hear Vanessa's take on what it’s like to travel to Jordan for someone who’s never been, as we experienced the country largely empty of tourists together.

We are running a 10-day trip to Jordan from June 5-14, 2026. We'll visit the Dead Sea, Petra, Wadi Rum, Amman, and many off-beaten spots in between. We'll meet a renowned artist who designed the country's newest currency, spend time with the Bedouins in the desert, and more.

Go to https://goingplacesmedia.com/jordan for details on early-bird booking, which ends on Jan 4, 2026.

Going Places is an audience-supported platform. You can become a member for as little as $6 a month. Visit us at goingplacesmedia.com to learn more.

Thanks to our Founding Members:

• RISE Travel Institute, a nonprofit with a mission to create a more just and equitable world through travel education
• Radostina Boseva, a film wedding photographer with an editorial flair based in San Francisco

• Is it safe to travel to Jordan?
• The impact of tourism cancellations on Jordan's tourism community
• What it was like for Vanessa to travel in proximity to Palestine
• Meeting the people of Jordan: an Ammani photographer, a sustainable farmer in Madaba, the Bedouins of Wadi Rum
• Vanessa's top experiences in Jordan
• Considering going to Jordan? Vanessa has this to say

• Join me in Jordan next June
• Follow Vanessa on Instagram: @adventures_vkabbe

Original Air Date: Feb 25, 2025.

Going Places is a reader-supported platform. Get membership perks like a monthly group call with Yulia at goingplacesmedia.com!

For more BTS of this podcast follow @goingplacesmedia on Instagram and check out our videos on YouTube!

Please head over to Apple Podcasts and SUBSCRIBE to the show. If you enjoy this conversation, please share it with others on social and don’t forget to tag us @goingplacesmedia!

And show us some love, if you have a minute, by rating Going Places or leaving us a review wherever you listen. You’ll be helping us to bend the arc of algorithms towards our community — thank you!

Going Places with Yulia Denisyuk is a show that sparks a better understanding of people and places near and far by fostering a space for real conversations to occur. Each week, we sit down with travelers, journalists, creators, and people living and working in destinations around the world. Hosted by Yulia Denisyuk, an award-winning travel journalist, photographer, and...

Today, we travel to my favorite place on the planet: the desert of Wadi Rum in southern Jordan, to meet Ahmad Mara'yeh, a Bedouin man and co-founder of Rum Planet Camp.

We are returning to Jordan next June!

Join us June 5-14, 2026 on a 10-day trip to this country we love so much. We'll visit the Dead Sea, Petra, Wadi Rum, Amman, and many off-beaten spots in between. And yes, we will also stay with Ahmad at Rum Planet Camp in the desert.

Go to https://goingplacesmedia.com/jordan for details on early-bird booking, which ends on Jan 4, 2026.

Going Places is an audience-supported platform. You can become a member for as little as $6 a month. Visit us at goingplacesmedia.com to learn more.

Thanks to our Founding Members:

• RISE Travel Institute, a nonprofit with a mission to create a more just and equitable world through travel education
• Radostina Boseva, a film wedding photographer with an editorial flair based in San Francisco

• What it's like growing up in the desert
• What is Bedouin culture?
• What Bedouin hospitality looks like
• How tourism impacted Bedouin communities
• The disappearance of traditional Bedouin lifestyle
• What it was like for Ahmad to meet Matt Damon during the actor's "Martian" filming
• How Ahmad thinks about some of the stereotypes about Arabs and Muslims
• Women in Bedouin culture
• What Ahmad is doing to make his eco-camp truly sustainable
• Rum Panet Camp’s efforts to showcase the real Bedouin identity

• Join me in Jordan next June
• Follow Rum Planet Camp on Instagram @rum.planet.camp
• Read my article in AFAR Magazine, Heading to Jordan? Skip the Bubble Tent and Stay Here Instead.

Original Air Date: Oct 3, 2023.

Going Places is a reader-supported platform. Get membership perks like a monthly group call with Yulia at goingplacesmedia.com!

For more BTS of this podcast follow @goingplacesmedia on Instagram and check out our videos on YouTube!

Please head over to Apple Podcasts and SUBSCRIBE to the show. If you enjoy this conversation, please share it with others on social and don’t forget to tag us @goingplacesmedia!

And show us some love, if you have a minute, by rating Going Places or leaving us a review wherever you listen. You’ll be helping us to bend the arc of algorithms towards our community — thank you!

Going Places with Yulia Denisyuk is a show that sparks a better understanding of people and places near and far by fostering a space for real conversations to occur. Each week, we sit down with travelers, journalists, creators, and people living and working in destinations around the world. Hosted by Yulia...

One in three women worldwide has experienced physical or sexual violence (that’s according to UN Women). Yet, this rarely gets discussed outside of specialized circles. Today, we’re going to fix that.

We're speaking with Megan Ryder-Burbidge, a global advocate for women’s equality and the co-founder and CEO of Sororal, a feminist travel company and advocacy brand reshaping how women experience the world.

Megan's company is addressing violence against women by partnering with anti-violence organizations in the places they take travelers to, such as India, Morocco, and Kenya.

Book your 2026 trips with Sororal and use code GOINGPLACES to receive $250 CAD off your booking (~$175 USD).

Going Places is an audience-supported platform. You can become our member for as little as $6 a month. Visit us at goingplacesmedia.com to learn more.

Thanks to our Founding Members:

• RISE Travel Institute, a nonprofit with a mission to create a more just and equitable world through travel education
• Radostina Boseva, a film wedding photographer with an editorial flair based in San Francisco

• Megan’s childhood in the Middle East and North Africa
• Why we don't talk about the widespread issue of violence against women
• What Sororal is doing to contribute to the anti-violence campaign
• What it's like being a woman in the modern world
• Sororal trips to India, Morocco, and Kenya
• Performative advocacy in the travel space
• Are women traveling solo safe?
• How Megan is raising a feminist daughter
• What if women ruled the world?

• Follow @sororal on Instagram and TikTok
• Read Megan's Substack
• Connect with Megan on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Sororal on its website
• Read Sororal's Motherhood & Travel post

Going Places is a reader-supported platform. Get membership perks like a monthly group call with Yulia at goingplacesmedia.com!

For more BTS of this podcast follow @goingplacesmedia on Instagram and check out our videos on YouTube!

Please head over to Apple Podcasts and SUBSCRIBE to the show. If you enjoy this conversation, please share it with others on social and don’t forget to tag us @goingplacesmedia!

And show us some love, if you have a minute, by rating Going Places or leaving us a review wherever you listen. You’ll be helping us to bend the arc of algorithms towards our community — thank you!

Going Places with Yulia Denisyuk is a show that...

If there is one episode you listen to this season, let it be this one. It revolves around these questions: how do we heal the world? How do we practice love?

Today, we're speaking with Hadar Cohen, an Arab Jewish scholar, mystic, and artist whose work focuses on multi-religious spirituality, politics, social issues, and community building. Hadar comes from a 10th-generation Jerusalem family with lineage roots in Syria, Kurdistan, Iraq, and Iran.

Hadar's story is one that we don’t often hear in the mainstream conversations in the Global North, because she comes from the Sephardic Jewish lineage: the branch of Judaism that originated in Spain at the time of Moorish Al Andalus, more closely related to the traditions of the Near East, rather than Europe.

Going Places is an audience-supported platform. You can become our member for as little as $6 a month. Visit us at goingplacesmedia.com to learn more.

Thanks to our Founding Members:

• RISE Travel Institute, a nonprofit with a mission to create a more just and equitable world through travel education
• Radostina Boseva, a film wedding photographer with an editorial flair based in San Francisco

• The Jewish mystical concept of tikkun olam, repairing the world
• How Judaism is rooted in social justice
• What it means to be an Arab Jew
• How spirituality gives us the courage to face injustice
• What Sephardic Jews have in common with their Muslim peers
• Differences between Ashkenazi, Sephardic, and Mizrahi Jews
• The erasure of Arab Jews from the region's history
• What is Jewish anti-Zionism
• Debunking the myth of 'Arabs versus Jews'
• How Hadar uses her platform to heal the world
• Hadar's research in Andalusia and Morocco
• What it was like growing up Syrian Arab Jew in Jerusalem

• Follow @hadarcohen32 on Instagram
• Listen to Hadar's podcast, Hadar's Web
• Learn more about Hadar's work on her website
• Read Hadar's writing on Substack
• Check out the Tikkun Olam episode on the On Being show
• Watch Edward Said's 1991 interview

Going Places is a reader-supported platform. Get membership perks like a monthly group call with Yulia at goingplacesmedia.com!

For more BTS of this podcast follow @goingplacesmedia on Instagram and check out our videos on YouTube!

Please head over to Apple Podcasts and SUBSCRIBE to the show. If you enjoy this conversation, please share it with others on social and don’t forget to tag us @goingplacesmedia!

And...

Today, we're sharing a preview of the kinds of conversations we have during our monthly First Fridays group calls inside our paid Going Places members' community.

You’ll hear from our paid members Dr. Anu Taranath, a University of Washington professor and lecturer on human rights, who wrote a book called Beyond Guilt Trips: Mindful Travel in an Unequal World, and Dee Flower, a former park ranger and author of Where the Wind Wills, an adventure-driven travel memoir.

Our paid members come from all walks of life, but what unites them is a shared passion for travel, equality, and moving through the world as aware and engaged citizens of it. At the beginning of every month, we get together to discuss the projects we’re working on, get support with personal or professional challenges, and simply be in community with one another, an act we do not take lightly in our increasingly isolated world.

Going Places is an audience-supported platform.

Become a member for as little as $6 a month and get the perks like getting on a group call with Yulia every month to ask questions, get advice, and be in community with each other.

Visit us at goingplacesmedia.com to learn more.

Thanks to our Founding Members:

• RISE Travel Institute, a nonprofit with a mission to create a more just and equitable world through travel education
• Radostina Boseva, a film wedding photographer with an editorial flair based in San Francisco

• How we support each other during our monthly calls
• The joys and challenges of the book-writing process
• How to manage impostor syndrome at the start of a big creative project

• Become a Going Places member here
• Learn more about Dr. Anu Taranath on her website
• Learn more about Dee Flower and her upcoming writing retreat in Kenya

Going Places is a reader-supported platform. Get membership perks like a monthly group call with Yulia at goingplacesmedia.com!

For more BTS of this podcast follow @goingplacesmedia on Instagram and check out our videos on YouTube!

Please head over to Apple Podcasts and SUBSCRIBE to the show. If you enjoy this conversation, please share it with others on social and don’t forget to tag us @goingplacesmedia!

And show us some love, if you have a minute, by rating Going Places or leaving us a review wherever you listen. You’ll be helping us to bend the arc of algorithms towards our community — thank you!

Going Places with Yulia Denisyuk is a show that sparks a better understanding of people and places near and far by fostering a space for real conversations to occur. Each week, we sit down with travelers, journalists, creators, and people living and working in destinations around the world. Hosted by

Today, we’re flipping the script and bringing you a conversation I recorded with a dear friend of mine, a longtime Palestinian activist Matt Bowles, for his podcast, The Maverick Show.

On his podcast, Matt interviews people who work at the intersection of travel and activist spaces. On it, you’ll find interviews with people like Imani Bashir, a Black Muslim American who advocates for more Black people in the us to travel with her Passport initiative, and Mari Monsalve, who visited occupied Palestine and uses her platform for Palestinian solidarity.

Become a Going Places member for as little as $6 a month. Visit our reimagined platform at goingplacesmedia.com to learn more.

Going Places is an audience-supported platform. Become a member for as little as $6 a month and get the perks like getting on a group call with Yulia every month to ask questions, get advice, and be in community with each other.

Visit us at goingplacesmedia.com to learn more.

Thanks to our Founding Members:

• RISE Travel Institute, a nonprofit with a mission to create a more just and equitable world through travel education
• Radostina Boseva, a film wedding photographer with an editorial flair based in San Francisco

• Growing up in Soviet Kazakhstan and Estonia
• A culture shock of moving to the U.S. at age 16
• Yulia explains her decision to join the U.S. Navy
• How serving in Iraq and Afghanistan impacted Yulia's politics
• How a trip to Morocco took Yulia off a corporate career path
• Yulia's stories set in Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Botswana, and Jordan
• Yulia explains why Jordan is so close to her heart

• Check out The Maverick Show with Matt Bowles
• Follow @maverickshowpod on Instagram
• Listen to Part 2 of the interview, in which we unpack Orientalism and activism for Palestine

Going Places is a reader-supported platform. Get membership perks like a monthly group call with Yulia at goingplacesmedia.com!

For more BTS of this podcast follow @goingplacesmedia on Instagram and check out our videos on YouTube!

Please head over to Apple Podcasts and SUBSCRIBE to the show. If you enjoy this conversation, please share it with others on social and don’t forget to tag us @goingplacesmedia!

And show us some love, if you have a minute, by rating Going Places or leaving us a review wherever you listen. You’ll be helping us to bend the arc of algorithms towards our community — thank you!

Going Places with Yulia Denisyuk is a show that sparks a better understanding of...