The journalist and biographer Lance Richardson takes on a titan of American literature, Peter Matthiessen — novelist, naturalist, Zen teacher, one-time CIA agent, and author of one of the classic travel books of the 20th century, The Snow Leopard.

The South African author, explorer and conservationist takes us on a magnetic river journey through the great spine of Africa. His storytelling leads us into the dreamscape of 'Ghost Elephants' — Werner Herzog's new film following Steve in Angola.

The Nigerian author talks about two books: one a journey across his homeland reaching for fragments of history from his nation's civil war, the other a powerful dreamscape evoking the cities of the Sahel, from N'Djamena to Khartoum.

In Greyhound, the Canadian-Irish author Joanna Pocock takes us on a journey across America by bus, in a truly modern blend of memoir, reportage, and the literary imagination.

The American master of biography talks about the subject of his most recent obsession: the Scottish traveller, South Seas adventurer and prose genius, Robert Louis Stevenson. To the likes of Henry James and Italo Calvino, Stevenson's 'kinetic' energy makes him one of the great storytellers of all time.

On a far-reaching journey from Savannah to the Arctic Circle, we experience the joys (and fears) of night travel as told by one of the great contemporary travel writers on railways. This time, the focus is on sleeper trains, which are the stars of Monisha's latest book, Moonlight Express.

Lyse Doucet, the BBC's Chief International Correspondent, discusses her first major book, The Finest Hotel in Kabul. An instant Sunday Times bestseller, it tells the story of the last 50 years of Afghan history through the everyday lives of people working in the same hotel Lyse has callled home during four decades of frontline conflict reporting.

On journeys through Central Asia, Turkey, Ukraine, the South Caucasus, Russia, the Baltics and Poland, Caroline Eden reveals the kitchen's unique ability to tell intimate human stories. This episode — discussing her memoir, Cold Kitchen, as well as her trilogy of award-winning recipe books, Black Sea, Red Sands and Green Mountains — make for a mouthwatering exploration of place and people.