“If you're someone who's always dreamed of going to Mars but you don't have the time to become an astronaut, you can just visit the Atacama Desert.” –Mark Johanson

In this episode of Deviate, Rolf and Mark talk about how Mark became interested in the Atacama Desert, and his experience in other world deserts (1:45); what Mark sought when he traveled through the region (16:00); what it's like to experience the area, and why it's known as "Mars on Earth" (26:00); what travelers can do there, and what it's like for Mark to live in Chile (36:30).

Mark Johanson (@markonthemap) is an American journalist and travel writer based in Santiago, Chile. His first book is Mars on Earth: Wanderings in the World’s Driest Desert.

Notable Links:

• Atacama Desert (desert plateau located in Chile)
• Coober Pedy (town in the Australian Outback)
• Desert Solitaire, by Edward Abbey (book)
• The English Patient, by Michael Ondaatje (book)
• The Songlines, by Bruce Chatwin (book)
• Man in the Landscape, by Paul Shepard (book)
• Chinchorro mummies (ancient remains in the Atacama Desert)
• Qhapaq Ñan (Inca road system)
• Arica (province in Chile)
• Altiplano (Andean Plateau)
• Lands of Lost Borders, by Kate Harris (book)
• Pan-American Highway (road network)
• Cusco (city in Peru)
• San Pedro de Atacama (town in Chile)
• Elqui Valley (wine and astronomy region in Chile)
• Gabriela Mistral (Nobel Prize-winning poet)
• Pisco (fermented spirit made from grapes)
• Pisco sour (cocktail)

The Deviate theme music comes from the title track of Cedar Van Tassel’s 2017 album Lumber.

Note: We don’t host a “comments” section, but we’re happy to hear your questions and insights via email, at deviate@rolfpotts.com.

“Travel does not require leaving your city or state or country, but it does require leaving your comfort zone. And that can happen a block or two away from where you live.” –Chloe Cooper Jones

In this episode of Deviate, Rolf and Chloe talk about why a section about “slum tourism” was cut out of Rolf’s newest book The Vagabond’s Way (2:30); how so much of what we talk about when we talk about travel has industrialized middle-class presumptions (7:30); the motivations and ethical considerations that underpin seeking out disadvantaged neighborhoods as a traveler (15:00); how preconceived narratives and “cultural extraction” often motivates people’s experience in a city, in ways that do not always benefit the city (25:00); what “dark tourism” and “voluntourism” are, and what the ethical ramifications are for travelers (32:00); and the difference between articulating ideals, and the work of acting on those ideals (45:00).

Chloe Cooper Jones (@CCooperJones) is the author of Easy Beauty: A Memoir. She has been a Pulitzer Prize finalist in Feature Writing, and was the recipient of a Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant, as well as a Howard Foundation Grant from Brown University.

Notable Links:

• Integrating love of travel & love of home (Deviate episode 210)
• The Vagabond’s Way, by Rolf Potts (book)
• The Most Beautiful Walk in the World, by John Baxter (book)
• Slum tourism (tours to poor areas of a city)
• Poetics, by Aristotle (dramatic theory)
• Republic, by Plato (Socratic dialogue)
• Immanuel Kant (philosopher)
• Slumdog Millionaire (2008 movie)
• Apartheid (system of institutionalized racial segregation)
• Favela (slum in Brazil)
• Yelp (crowd-sourced business review app)
• Dark tourism (tourism to places associated with tragedy)
• 1990 Hesston tornado outbreak (Kansas weather event)
• Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (tourism attraction in Cambodia)
• Saw (movie franchise)
• Voluntourism (volunteering-themed travel)
• Hurricane Katrina (2005 Gulf Coast weather event)
• Lower Ninth Ward (New Orleans neighborhood)

The Deviate theme music comes from the title track of Cedar Van Tassel’s 2017 album Lumber.

Note: We don’t host a “comments” section, but we’re happy to hear your questions and insights via email, at deviate@rolfpotts.com.