Episode 138 - Samantha Runkel, Heyterra
Traveling as a family is an unmatched opportunity to bring topics of sustainability, climate change, personal responsibility, and personal growth into conversations with children of all ages.
This week’s guest on the Soul of Travel Podcast Presented by JourneyWoman is Samantha Runkel, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Heyterra, a sustainable travel platform and digital publication for families.
Heyterra shares sustainable travel tips as well as stories of trailblazing travel families, leading changemakers and purpose-driven organizations to help families use travel as a tool to educate, inspire, and improve the world.
A former recording artist and musician, Samantha has translated her career of touring and making records into the sustainable tourism sector through a decade of documentary travel with her husband (a travel photographer and photojournalist) and their two small children.
Samantha is also a sustainability advocate across different spaces, from working with plastic initiatives in Europe to producing music with communities living on the front lines of climate change.
Meet Heyterra
Heyterra is a groundbreaking digital platform for traveling families to connect. Stories of travel families, responsible travel tips, and interviews with changemakers from communities around the world are all curated into powerful and easy reads. Heyterra aims to connect and facilitate organizations with individuals who are each making a positive impact in the world through global travel. Heyterra also shares environmental education that parents and families can tke out on the road and also implement at home.
Stepping Into Travel
Samantha was a musician by trade until her early thirties, going from city to city and getting to know different communities around the world through her music. But when she met her travel photographer husband about twelve years ago, Samantha’s world was flipped upside-down as she began to travel around the world through his lens.
This type of travel became world schooling for Samantha, and she found inspiration through her experiences while traveling. She now lives in Germany, and has translated that trajectory of creativity and discovery through music into traveling with her children.
As an activist and environmentalist, Samantha has always imbued a layer of sustainability into her work as a musician – and now brings that expertise into her travels and how she raises her children.
Gender Equity in Tourism Through Local Support
When investing in women throughout the supply chain in the travel and tourism industry, Casey urges tour operators and business owners to start as locally as possible. Look for restaurants, hoteliers, and tour operators led by women in host communities. This effort, Casey shares, will have a more significant local impact on families and the local community and environment. Translating this to businesses works as well; carrying sustainability into the future requires considering the future of a place.
She encourages travel companies to continue educating travelers about the best practices for making a positive social impact while traveling; this education has the potential to change the very way people travel, amplifying the effect of this more mindful approach.
Music and Travel
Just as Anthony Bourdain was breaking down barriers between people through food as he traveled, Samantha found that music was her way to transcend and experience connection with different cultures. Samantha also has enjoyed learning about the history of music, instruments, and the movement of music throughout the world and through time as a way to connect with the history of people and storytelling.
Traveling More Sustainably With Children
On the podcast, Samantha shares both simple tricks and deeper knowledge. For example? You don’t need to pack everything. Minimizing our single-use plastic and traveling light are a few easy ways to decrease your impact while traveling. Considering alternate modes of transportation or visiting communities away from the city center are also great ways to make the trip more fun, more exciting, and more positively impactful in smaller communities as you travel.
Even more importantly, both Christine and Samantha share engaging in conversations with children to explain and explore how our actions while we travel – and while we’re home – make an impact on the world.
Samantha’s experiences traveling to UNESCO World Heritage sites with her family offer some of the most powerful she’s had with her family, as they often create opportunities to learn more about history and community.
“If you can piece together climate change, pollution, overpopulation, maybe to start that conversation so they can also be empowered and be in the solutions mind as they get older. That’s what we want for our kids – to be full of hope and also be solutions-based.”
Soul of Travel Episode 138 At a Glance
In this conversation, Christine and Samantha discuss:
How to use music as a way to connect with and explore the world
Traveling sustainably as a family
How travel can be a catalyst for challenging conversations
How to support children as they move through the discomfort and growth associated with travel
Join Christine now for this soulful conversation with Samantha Runkel.
LOVE these soulful conversations? We rely on listener support to produce our podcast! Make a difference by making a donation on PayPal.
Related UN Sustainable Development Goals
Sustainable Development Goal #11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
Sustainable Development Goal #13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.
Sustainable Development Goal #14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.
Sustainable Development Goal #15: Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.
Sustainable Development Goal #16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.
Resources & Links Mentioned in the Episode
To learn more about Heyterra, visit the website!
Explore Citizen Science for Beginners with Heyterra.
Visit your local bookstore to find your copy of the All We Can Save anthology.
Follow Samantha and Heyterra on your favorite social media network!
Connect with Samantha on LinkedIn, or follow Heyterra on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter!
About the Soul Of Travel Podcast
Soul of Travel honors the passion and dedication of people making a positive impact in the tourism industry. In each episode, you’ll hear the stories of women who are industry professionals, seasoned travelers, and community leaders. Our expert guests represent social impact organizations, adventure-based community organizations, travel photography and videography, and entrepreneurs who know that travel is an opportunity for personal awareness and a vehicle for global change.
Join us to become a more educated and intentional traveler as you learn about new destinations, sustainable and regenerative travel, and community-based tourism. Industry professionals and those curious about a career in travel will also find value and purpose in our conversations.
We are thought leaders, action-takers, and heart-centered change-makers who inspire and create community. Join host Christine Winebrenner Irick for these soulful conversations with our global community of travelers exploring the heart, the mind, and the globe.
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Credits. Christine Winebrenner Irick (Host, creator, editor). Carla Campos (Guest). Original music by Clark Adams. Editing, production, and content writing by Carly Oduardo.
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WE WON A BESSIE AWARD! The Bessie Awards recognize the achievements of women and gender-diverse people making an impact in the travel industry. To view the complete list of 2022’s winners, visit bessieawards.org.
Soul of Travel Episode 138 Transcript
Women’s travel, transformational travel, sustainable travel, women leaders in travel, social entrepreneurship
Christine: Samantha Runkel is the founder and editor-in-chief of He, a sustainable travel platform and digital publication for families. Hera shares sustainable travel tips, as well as stories of trail blazing travel, families leading change makers and purpose-driven organizations to help families use travel as a tool to educate, inspire, and improve the world.
A former recording artist and musician, she has translated her career of touring and making records into the sustainable tourism sector through a decade of documentary travel with her husband, who is a travel photographer and photojournalist and their two small children. She is also a sustainability advocate across different spaces from working with plastic initiatives in Europe to producing music with communities, living on the front lines of climate change. In our conversation, Samantha and I discuss how she uses music as a way of connecting with and exploring the world traveling sustainably as a family, and how travel can be a great catalyst for conversations with our children around difficult topics like climate change and how we can support our children as they move through some of the discomfort and growth associated with travel. Love these soulful conversations. We rely on listener support to produce our podcast. You can support me in amplifying the voices of women by making a donation on PayPal. The link is in the show notes. Join me now for my soulful conversation with Samantha Ronel.
Christine: Welcome to Soul of Travel podcast. I am really excited for this conversation today. Um, I am joined by Samantha Runkel from Heyterra, which is a sustainable travel platform for families. Um, many of my listeners will know that I am just like, I think we're at about eight weeks now from setting off on a year long journey with my three daughters. And obviously sustainability and family travel are things that are on my mind right now. So I'm super excited to connect with you and learn more about your journey and the work that you're doing. So welcome to the podcast.
Samantha: Thank you so much for having me. And I can't believe you're eight weeks out. That's so exciting.
Christine: So just right around the corner, like I've actually started booking a f few of the first things, and it's starting to feel really real. And my daughters are now starting to talk about it just in the car yesterday actually. They were like, you know, we've been talking about it for so long, it felt so far away, and now like it's happening now I'm starting to get nervous and excited and all of these things. So we'll see how that evolves as we, as we go on. But, um, to begin our conversation, Samantha, I'd love to just turn it over to you and let you tell, um, my listeners a little bit more about who you are about he and the work that you're doing right now.
Samantha: Okay, thank you. Yeah. My name is Samantha Runkel. I'm the founder of, um, as Christine said, he, which is an online publication and blog and platform that really seeks to engage and empower families to travel a travel and get out there, but also do it in a more thoughtful and responsible and sustainable way. We're still building all the content on the site right now, and I'm kind of in perpetual startup mode, but we do include the stories of travel families. We give responsible travel tips. We feature interviews with change makers who are voices out in, you know, from communities around the world that we link travelers up with as they're on the road, as well as, uh, organizations that are making a positive ripple effect. And we also give environmental education that you can take out on the road with you, but also do back home and I implement into your own community. So it's been a really wonderful project and I've personally learned so much in this last year.
Christine: Yeah, thank you for sharing. I was just looking on there as I was preparing for this conversation and exploring more on the, the site and finding some articles that I think will be really valuable for me in preparing, but also in thinking about how to educate my kids along the way. Not in the terms of like school education, but like how to create conversations with them and get them more engaged in the travel experience. And I know that'll be some things that we're gonna talk about. So, um, I look forward to getting to that. But before we get there, I would love to hear a little bit more about your background, um, about when you started traveling and really the experiences that you had that set you on your current path to, to Hera, so kind of your journey through travel.
Samantha: Absolutely. Well, I, I love to say I wasn't a traditional traveler from the beginning. I was actually a musician by trade, and so up until my early thirties I was a professional musician, which is actually was a great way to also kind of travel. If you really look at it, going from city to city and going and setting up for soundcheck and then going to have dinner in the local breweries or so, and talking to people on the ground, that was kind of a way of traveling and experiencing the world. But it wasn't until I met my husband, uh, about 12 years ago and he's a travel photographer, so that really just completely flipped my world upside down where I was able to shadow him around the world and basically jump on his round the world trip with him and travel as a travel photographer does, and, uh, see the world through his lens in a way, which was an absolutely beautiful lens to see the world.
And so this is how, um, I sort of became a traveler myself. And it was, it was a great education and kind of deep dive, almost world schooling for me who, a person who has been kind of in the entertainment industry for the majority of my life, um, to open up and find this new section and phase of my life, um, which was beautiful. I mean, it was just a new discovery. I was actually inspired musically through, uh, so much of our experiences. And since then, uh, we have tra we've continued to travel and we're together and we have two children now. We live in Germany. And, um, I've kind of just tr translated that trajectory of creativity and discovery through music to traveling with our children. And that's what it really has become. And I think my, you know, passion or maybe as a, as a environmentalist or an activist, I was always pr afraid to kind of speak up as a musician because I was writing pop songs and I didn't think that I deserved to speak about it.
But I was looking back on some of my songs recently, I said, oh my gosh, I'm talking about all of these environmental issues in from a pop frame. I said, I really did care about this. I just didn't have the knowledge or the insight back then. And I've been able to kind of put a, you know, an a realistic kind of a layer on top of it to discover that this is something that I can speak about and now I have the expertise and with my children who are gonna be carrying on it on into the future.
Christine: Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I love, um, you know, you know, part of the thing of getting older is the, the ability to reflect upon who you were and on your journey and, um, seeing kind of how things were already laid down for you. Um, I'm gonna pause just a second cuz I can't tell if we'd lost. Hi there. There she is. Okay, thanks.
Samantha: She is too.
Christine: Um,
Samantha: No, it's great.
Christine: Yeah, so I, what I was just gonna say, um, the, the process of reflecting and looking back over, you know, some of our choices or the way we showed up, I love that you saw that, you know, you didn't think you were expressing some of those values through your music, but really realized you were doing it and maybe in a more subtle way or in a way that felt maybe, uh, curated for that moment that you're in, but now you're able to kind of take that message and amplify it and honor the truth of that a little bit more in yourself. Uh, I just think it's so powerful to be able to see that in our own journeys and, and witness like, oh, I thought this was a new part of me, but actually it's always just been like, yeah, whispering the same message and until we pick up on it. Um, yeah. You mentioned, you know, as you traveled that you initially were really seeing, you know, travel through your husband's literal lens, but then, you know, music started to find its way and that you really has have used music as sort of a through line to explore the world once you kind of stepped into your own travel experiences. Can you share a little bit more about, about how travel has helped you connect to music or music has helped you to connect to the world?
Samantha: Absolutely. Well, it was, I, I I really was doing music as my career before I met my husband and it's, it's always been my way of communicating and that's, that's, I've, I have had a guitar since I was a, a 13 year old playing in cafes and writing songs. So it was just always my way of connecting with people. And I feel as I started to travel with Michael, just like how Anthony Bourdain was connecting with people through food and kind of breaking the rhetorical bread with people in different cultures and communities and having that different conversation, I feel like music also allows us to connect, uh, to something greater than sometimes just words or conversation is. Um, and music has always, for me been a way to transcend, but also I think for even just sitting and enjoying a concert, it's a way to experience something and applying that when you are in different cultures that have their own traditional ways of expressing music, uh, was absolutely profound.
And further than that, that I had noticed is, you know, kind of learning about our humanity and history through the evolution of instruments and said, you know, why is the accordion, you know, how did the accordion get from, you know, Germany over to Columbia? Or how did it get down to South Africa? You know, you more research into that and seeing how it came down on merchant ships and how the instrument kind of evolved as it landed on different continents. This to me was fascinating and it's kind of a way to connect our history as people and music has always been a connective between cultures and storytelling. And so I was really lit up by traveling that way with Michael. And music is always, will always be in my life. It always is. I don't do it professionally anymore, but I always take a minute and think about and listen for what kind of music is happening in the streets whenever we travel.
Christine: Yeah. Um, I think it's so interesting for people to take a moment and do and really examine how they connect to other cultures. Cuz I think, again, this is something that maybe is always happening but we're not present to. And then really using that as a way to, to form like a deeper connection. Um, again, talking with my daughters, my oldest is a dancer and um mm-hmm <affirmative>, she was thinking about like different dance styles in some of the countries that were going to and she was thinking, well, maybe I could learn this here and this year. And then my middle daughter's a writer and she's really interested in like mythology and folk tales. So her idea is to explore that in the different countries that were traveling and like put her own spin on it. So I think, um, you know, I don't people necessarily think about bringing those hobbies or passions or professions or those curiosities into their travel experience, but I think, like you said, it's just such a, a cool way to connect really deeply or differently in a way that you're traveling because you're not just kind of observing, but you're actually becoming like integrated into the exchange.
Yeah. So I think it's really powerful in, in bringing our travel a little bit more depth.
Samantha: That's great. Your girls are doing that. I wanna come along, I wanna see them doing it. That's so great.
Christine: Yeah. Well, we'll we'll be sharing and definitely looking at your, your website as a, a model of, you know, how to, to tell stories and share things that are personally valuable but also valuable to others. Cuz I think that is something we could definitely talk about in the world of content creation. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But what I, I did wanna talk about too is really traveling more sustainably with our children and I'm wondering if there are things that you've learned as you've curated information for the website or things that you've learned on your own travels about ways to like, travel more sustainably and create a more positive impact as you're traveling mm-hmm. With family.
Samantha: Yeah, definitely. Um, well both and just by doing the research too, uh, I have learned so much. I mean, there's a wealth of it and also from your podcast, hello. I mean the, the wealth of information from your guests have led me to so many different places and I, you know, I've just become a sponge for all of this information cuz it is really new to me as well. Generally, I mean, I saw it from the ground from our travels, but, but actually applying it into kind of a kind of a resource hub for people to check out, especially families who we know. I mean, most families, even though they are a large sub-sector in the travel industry, most families are just trying to take that two week break and decompress and get themselves from A to B un understandably. I mean, raising children, having a full-time job, not having tons of parental leave and support.
Uh, you just wanna decompress probably on a beach. It sounds pretty great. But taking the next step in the look, uh, at what the possibilities are within crafting a trip as you know very well as being a traveler and also planning a big round the world trip with your, with your girls right now. Um, you know that there's a lot of easy tips and tricks we can do to keep things sustainable as far as, um, you know, in our direct environment, but also the deeper levels of how we can approach travel. So a couple of the first things that you and I both know and many people know is that we don't have to really pack and bring all of this stuff. You can take a different look at what kind of gear you're bringing. There's a way of reframing that. Also, of course our minimizing all of our single use plastic.
There's all these things that are just easy ways to keep everything light, simple tricks that any family can really apply. But then we would talk about, uh, you know, maybe considering alternative modes of transportation once we got to our destination or maybe checking out a different alternative city that wasn't the main ho or the main capital. These kinds of things that it's so easy to say, I'm gonna go to Paris and stay in Paris, or I'm going to Barcelona and just checking out Barcelona and not really thinking about getting outside into the other regions, which, that makes so much fun, so much fun for, I mean, it's more fun for the kids, it's more fun for us. You have more freedom and you're kind of by default supporting the communities outside that normally don't get, uh, the, um, redistribution from, from travelers. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So it's a lot of, there's a lot of little chips. I'm, I know you're really well versed in it, but I think the Fairweather family traveler doesn't know and they would be welcome to take some of these, this information.
Christine: Yeah, no, and, and I, I have found, it's really interesting for me because as a family traveler and as like mom planning travel, my brain is still r really wired in a different way of traveling. Yeah. It's very easy for me as a solo traveler or as a business traveler or designing the trips that I travel, but I, I find that I, my my muscle memory Yeah. Is weirdly not there for family travel and it, and even like you were saying, like needing to have everything, making sure everyone's needs are met, everyone's comfortable, like that's kind of the mom brain Yes. Trying to wrap itself around the travel experience. And then that is very contrasting with some of the, you know, the ideas that I would like to, to bring forward with sustainable family travel. So it's, it's so interesting even as, as like entrenched as I am in this realm, how hard it is to think about it in terms of traveling with the family.
And then, you know, like some of the things we've recently been examining, like we just booked like our first transatlantic flight. So, you know, that's gonna be one of the big ones to consider for carbon offsetting or Yeah. You know, where our emissions are and trying to do a nonstop flight and then, you know mm-hmm. To look at other factors, which are a lot easier now when you look on booking platforms that tell you like your carbon emissions and things. Um, yeah, just, and and more importantly even with that is then having the conversation with my kids about that and then talking about, you know, when we're getting from this place to this place and if we want to fly or take a train and then like the, they would say, okay, well the train will definitely be better, right. Or the bus will definitely be better.
And then in some cases you find that actually maybe the flight is because of all these other reasons. And so, yeah, I think for people listening to know, like unfortunately there isn't one easy answer and also fortunately there's just like no one answer. So we, we get to play with it a little bit and see how, how our style of travel, how we can make those different choices. And like you said, one of the easiest ways is just to get off of the tourist track so that our team is really going and supporting local economies and local people. And like you said too, the, our kids often get overwhelmed and overstimulated just like we do in the waiting in lines and Yeah. Hustle and bustle and to like go and just be on a farm or be in the wilderness. Like those things are inherently more sustainable but also more Right. Pleasurable and I guess even more sustainable from the, the aspect of being able to travel longer cuz you're not burning out as you're doing mm-hmm. <affirmative> these more intense, uh, and stimulating experiences.
Samantha: Yeah, absolutely. Should we just piggyback on that? We just did a, a little road trip in northern Spain, uh, for Easter and we went and saw all the UNESCO sites and UNESCO sites are a really good way to get you, of course you have some u UNESCO sites in the metropolitan areas, but there's also a lot, if you look on the unesco, uh, world Heritage Site website, there's so many in the world and they take you really off the grid and these are small little places and you will find yourself in a little village somewhere and they have an amazing museum or some sort of, you know, attune or some archeological site that really nobody's visiting and you get to be the one to visit it. And this is by default, you have this incredible, some of my best experiences traveling have been just this surprise UNESCO site in the middle of nowhere and we overnight and we just have the best time there. Mm-hmm.
Christine: <affirmative>. Yeah. And I think what I have loved too with my kids sometimes I think, oh, they, they'll, they wouldn't be interested in that, but they love seeing, like, they always ask is there any kind of ruins or buildings,
Samantha: Castles,
Christine: You know, they feel very much like they're discovering things and Yeah. Uh, like a, a short hike to seeing one of those things that's like their very favorite type of travel experience. That's what I've learned, you know, so far with them. And so I think it's a really good way as a parent to kind of be curious about what they love and what they get excited about. And, um, while it might feel really important to see the Eiffel Tower, it also might be a really great experience to take them and see this other thing that's not on somebody's bucket list but is gonna be Right. Some much more, uh, enjoyable and pleasurable experience. And I think that's the other thing that's been, for me, going back and forth between being like a slow traveler and that pull of like, you, but you're not gonna, you can't to this place not see this.
It's right there. And again, like I I will tell you all day long from like this position, you'll be fine. But then there's some part of me, like when I'm taking my kids that I feel opposite of that. And it's such an interesting dynamic for me to just be witnessing in myself and then knowing full well, like once it's happened, I'm gonna be fine. That we didn't do whatever Yeah. Was expected of us because we had this other great experience. But maybe for people listening, you know, they might be navigating a similar challenge and, and trying to figure out what to choose and, and how to choose and move through a destination. Um mm-hmm. <affirmative>, one of the things that I also really wanted to talk with you about is, um, the ways that travel helps us to understand the environmental circumstances that we're facing and provide more context and how we can use this to help facilitate conversations with our children. And, you know, even in in our own selves, we start to be able to see things more. But how have you seen that happen in your own family or in, in any of the travelers that you've talked to? How have they used travel to help facilitate that type of conversation with their kids?
Samantha: Yeah, that's such a good question. Well, obviously we know that, you know, by seeing things with our own eyes, um, it puts things into great context about the real, the real reality that, um, of that the environmental challenges that humanity is facing from the plastic on the beach to you, rising temperatures, which kids wouldn't really notice, but I mean, any child can see a picture of a sea turtle with a straw in his nose and feel sad. I mean, my, my kids at starting at age four were, were feeling this. I mean, they understand that kind of contextual situation. Um, for instance, this we work, we partnered with a beach cleanup, which they, they're here in Germany and they just went down to Morocco last week and they did, they, they were with surf rider down there, which is a great organization for ocean lovers and helping protect the ocean.
They did a beach cleanup down there. And when you think of Morocco, you know, you're wanting to go surf and hang out on the beach, but they, they actually have the 10th most plastic pollution of any, of any country on the African continent. And I think it's coming from, we think it's coming from the Mediterranean and kind of flowing down, but it was incredible how much trash trash they all collected. And they had all sorts of people that came, kids, families, everybody was helping with this beach cleanup and it was amazing. But these, this is also a way of looking at the reality we want. We don't want to see that when we're traveling. You just wanna see what's beautiful. But these, this really is, is, is perpetual and it will happen more and more. Um, and so just starting the conversation about that, obviously our kids understand that through line and it's gonna be a lifelong conversation for them as well because they're gonna have to deal with it.
So that's just one example, um, of, I mean, my kids come to the beach, cleans with me, they don't really love to do it, but they understand they'll go and they'll do it and make a game out of it. Um, but yeah, and I, I'm sure your girls who are a bit older will be able to understand if you can piece together climate change, pollution, overpopulation, things that are, you know, in the right way maybe to start that conversation so they can also be empowered and, you know, be in the solutions mind as they get older. I mean, that's what we want for our kids to be full of hope and also solutions based.
Christine: Yeah. And I think they, they do that so instinctively, like they have an emotional response when we're talking about Yeah. The subject, but then they really quickly get to a solution, even if it's just a far Yeah. Crazy solution. Like they're really quickly thinking about what is that solution. And when you mentioned the sea turtle image, which I know is one that really stuck with my children because, you know, we started carrying straws, I don't know, several years ago with us everywhere and yeah, I remember, you know, going somewhere and getting a, a drink and they're like, oh, did you want a straw with that? And one of my kids was like, don't you think my mom loves sea turtles? Or something like that, <laugh>. Um, it was just so funny because she just, uh, was like, you know, really already committed to that choice and that action because that thing resonated with her.
And I'm really hoping we travel, like, again, like we were talking about our own way of connecting. Like they'll find the thing, you know, that is kind of the thing that will be the thing that they'll be passionate about in the future. Yeah. Because of this experience. And, and they'll likely all be very different. Um, and at activities that we can do. I was interviewing, um, a woman who said that she went to this trash treatment plant, um, cl you know, like waste sorting facility in, um, I'm trying to think of now, which island it is off the coast of Spain. But regardless, she, she was trying to convey to investors about why we should limit, uh, single use plastics and tourism. And so she mm-hmm. <affirmative>, this was like where they chose to have the meeting because mm-hmm. <affirmative> people weren't really understanding the amount of waste that was being produced on this island.
And so sh they went and they kind of showed them what was going on and she said, you know, how, how long do you think it took to accumulate this trash that's being sort sorted right now? You know, a month, you know, two months, a year. And they, you know, they were like, oh yeah, definitely like two months, one month. And she was, I, I can't remember now if it was like a week or less than a week. A week. Yeah. And it was just a huge amount and it such an impression upon them that as then owners of hotels and businesses, yeah. They were like, oh, it's very important. But they had no way to have the context for, you know, if you're taking five shampoo bottles out of your boutique hotel every week, maybe that doesn't feel like a lot of trash that you're creating.
But when you look at the larger picture across the entire industry in a small area like that, and then you begin to like take that out across the whole country and things like that, then I, I think those types of experiences, like you said, of picking up the trash, it's really important. And, um, I remember traveling in Bali, um, right after the rainy season and there was plastic pollution everywhere, everywhere. And my heart was just broken because I'd been drinking, coming to this destination for so long and, you know, frustrated I wasn't giving this experience that I wanted to have. But then realizing, you know, these people that live here, this is really the, the problem that they have to endure. Always, you know, I'm left now, I'll go home and, and leave this behind me. Um, but again, I just think those are those experiences that are so important and can really be a catalyst for conversation and for change and for action. Um, it's why I think traveling is so important. Um, and then being honest and having those hard conversations with our kids at their level. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, yeah.
Samantha: Okay. There's also a couple of, um, if you that we just did a couple of articles that I would find really cool, maybe well for a burgeoning scientists and if you have one of the girls is into science, there's um, citizen science that they can jump on, which is, I haven't really explored that yet cuz my kids are still young, but I'm starting to, there's apps and there's all sorts of ways that they can actually be scientists in the world. And there was a quote saying that kids actually make better scientists than scientists themselves because they're thinking more creatively about solutions and what better way is to travel and kind of, you know, take data and of biodiversity and you know, different wildlife species and you're uploading it to the cloud and you're actually helping the greater movement. That's just one of the things that you can do.
Or if someone's trying to kind of give back and be part of the conversation while they're traveling. Also there's coral restoration, um, coral gardening a lot more that are happening on coastal, you know, you know, coastal resorts and so forth. They're trying to teach their visitors about coral gardening and of course beach cleanups, you can probably Google to see if there was one, if you're going to a beach destination. And, uh, and also Rewilding, which I, we just wrote about, um, which they're doing this, these amazing projects here in Europe with Rewilding travel so you can go out and like track bison in Romania and what, I mean, I can't wait to do that with my kids when they're old enough. That's just sounds amazing cuz you're actually contributing to, you know, watching the Rewilding populations and watching the biodiversity grow back and it's such a good educational experience for them as well. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So there's, I mean there's so much and I think it'll just grow and grow as we get more tapped into it.
Christine: Yeah. And I do think kids love that. Like I do think they totally love science. I mean, that's all you watch children play, they're always out there digging and building, exploring and they're on their hands and knees and they're paying attention to things. And I have even myself when I'm trying to be more present in, in travel, my youngest daughter, we call her jojo. And so like I'll be in a situation and I, if I notice I'm kind of distracted or whatever, I'm like, what would jojo do? And I was like, oh, she would go pick up that rock or she would notice that flower, you know. Um, so it's a great way as a parent too to reframe your own travel experience to like yeah. Embody their curiosity. But I do think they love that kind of experience and then they also love knowing that what they're doing is valuable, just like I would. And so for them to be able to contribute, we're looking at a few volunteer, um, programs or like going to some different, uh, through animal, oh my gosh, I don't know why I can't remember the names of anything today, which is less helpful for my listeners, but <laugh> I'll, I'll tag it happens
Samantha: To me every day, all day
Christine: In the show notes. Yeah. This is really the result of mom brain. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, but uh, we're gonna be looking at one in Costa Rica going and uh, helping to tag turtles and then mm-hmm. <affirmative> doing some mangrove projects to help preserve mangroves. And so there's all these different activities in that region that the kids can be involved in. And, um, I just think it's, that's great. A fun way for them to learn and you know, as people travel long term with their children, and this is one of the questions I had all the time is like, how am I gonna educate them as I'm going? We kind of talked about this in the beginning, but mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, like realizing we don't need to formalize that, but so much learning is going to happen. Just being out there and exploring and creating kind of these world schooling educational opportunities mm-hmm. For them as we move.
Samantha: Yeah. Yeah. It's gonna be great.
Christine: Um, well this was, uh, another thing that really resonated from our previous conversation mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, and we alluded to it a little bit before when I was talking about how instinctive it is for me to keep my kids like comfortable and safe as we travel. And you had some said something about getting away from traveling for our children's level of comfort and gearing travel towards their level of growth, which I thought was mm-hmm. <affirmative> just incredibly profound. Um, how do we navigate that? How do you think we can find that balance between caring for our children and keeping them safe, but also supporting their growth and like pushing them a little bit outside of their comfort zone?
Samantha: Yeah, that's great. I mean, well every child is different. Every child has their needs and their sensibilities for sure. Um, but I know, I mean, from my experience, first of all traveling with little ones babies, um, you know, they really only need you. They know that they're safe when they're here. I mean, we dragged our little <laugh>, we've dragged our babies when they were infants through, you know, three and a half weeks through Namibia and uh, camp Van Truck or Myanmar, you know, right before Covid. I mean kind of intrepid stuff. But never once was there a situation where I felt like we were unsafe and my husband felt like we were unsafe. And I know that the kids never felt like they were unsafe. I mean, there was nothing where they felt they were smaller. Of course there was moments when it was a little intense with maybe people trying to come to my daughter when she was a four year old.
Um, and we were moving around through Asia and that with the, you know, kind of a little bit with touching and stuff. That was the only time where I said, okay, now I feel like she needs to be more protected with me. But other than that, and we have had the most incredible time, you know, trusting them with their adaptation, especially as they get older. Cuz my daughter's seven now learning how to communicate, um, letting them be free and kind of like communicate on playgrounds in different languages and kind of grow into these amazing, amazing really world travelers but also international human beings and really global citizens just naturally by allowing them the space to roam and trust that I think kids are adaptive, they are malleable. And just as we were speaking about this, I just tapped into me because we live in Germany and I come from the states and there's a big emphasis on self-management and trust here.
So their playgrounds here are insane. They're so big. There's like a zip line going down, going onto this thing. And when I first moved here, I was like, there's no way. Like my kids can't climb on that thing. There needs to be like the rubber mat and everything, but nobody was giving a second look. These little four year olds just dangling by themselves across the zip lines, like that would never fly in the States. But by trusting and allowing them to kind of make their own decisions, they, no one has ever gotten hurt or really fallen down from that zip line. And that's been the case for the most part with us with travel. And so I think if we are encouraging flexibility and kind of pushing them to try new things, also little things like food and, you know, the easy things, experiencing that adventure, I think by incremental change, by incremental steps, they're gonna grow faster than we ever even imagined.
Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and they just, I mean they blow my mind. So I'm, I know that that is because I have a lot of friends and people who come and they wanna know this exact question like they're feeling like they wanna be on a routine when they're traveling or keep it how it is at home. But you have to let go of those routines in order to grow. And I think through that you really shift the vibration of your family. Cuz we are, we are, when we're together, we just vibrate when we're traveling together. We are like a, like a well-oiled machine and there might not be the nap that at the time that my, my son usually takes his nap, but we know he's gonna get a nap sometime in the day and it's, you know, it's been fine if someone, if it's, if it shifts a little bit, we've always been managed to make it happen or you know, combating jet lag or any of any of the stuff that can be hard. You just stick together and you know, I have really good jet lag tips by the way. You probably you would have 'em as well since you've been through so much <laugh>.
Christine: Yeah. I don't know about for my kids, but we'll see. I, I honestly feel like, I don't know, I guess we'll see. I feel like they won't really suffer from it as much because I think so much of it is really in our head and, and noticing Yeah. We are on a different time zone and uh, yeah. Like our number one rule ha has always been like we are where we are. So as soon as you get there Yeah. Be going like, yesterday it was 8:00 PM and today it's 2:00 AM or whatever, like
Samantha: Also 8:00 PM Yeah,
Christine: No, not helpful because then you, you get really disoriented, um, quickly. But I know in communicating back and forth to home, obviously you'll be aware of those differences, but yeah, that's one of the things that we, we have always tried to do and then to try to travel over a night so that when you wake up you just are where you are as well. Yeah. Like you be tired but at at least you know, you you just feel like you've hit the restart button as soon as you Yeah. Wake up and you're there. And, uh, those are just a few of the things that we have done, but I, I definitely think it will be more interesting for this longer type of travel, but mm-hmm. I, I think the other thing that you said was interesting about like how to keep on schedule and how to again, like almost like recreate home where you're traveling feels like the, this instinct to do and Yeah. Doing that or really kind of, uh, doing a disservice to the travel experience. Yeah.
And uh, that, that's one thing too that I've really had to try to com overthinking about traveling for a year and knowing like we are going to do some kind of, not traditional but some education, um, online. And I'm like, okay, but we'll just do that for like two days this week and then we'll play for a week and then three days a week or you know, like not a every day Monday through Friday for this many hours or anything. Yeah. Definitely letting go of the idea that that would exist. I don't even want it to exist. Like, my kids are like two weeks until we don't have to wake up on time for a whole year. <laugh> this is what travel
Samantha: Yeah. That's their incentive.
Christine: Yeah.
Samantha: That sounds like my kids like, yes, we gotta watch a movie on the plane <laugh>.
Christine: Yeah. Yeah. Um, so I think all all of those things are, are so fun about how you, you start to, to travel with children and, and, and play with the ideas of of kind of getting the most out of travel with them. Um, are there any other things that you have experienced traveling with kids that have really kind of amplified the depth and the meaning of travel for you? Really witnessing an experience through their eyes or you know, how they have opened something up to you that maybe you would've missed if you hadn't been traveling with them?
Samantha: Oh yeah, so many of them, I mean I'm just writing an article right now for this German magazine about how ki why kids are door openers and traveler and travel, why they're such door openers. Because when we first traveled with my daughter when she was an infant, we did six months, um, around the world trip with her from, she was, sorry I think seven months. And then we did, we went all around and I think she was about 10 months and we ended up in Namibia and we were driving all around and we, we drove up to approval where there's a beautiful community of semi nomadic pastoralists and it's matriarchal. And so they're women who are basically running the show there. And we went and I had her, you know, I was had her in the baby carrot on my hip or something and she was kind of, she looks like a disgruntled little coconut, like always a furrowed brow with this red hair.
But she always, we know she was having a good time in between all of it. So, but I had to nurse her when we were there cuz we were, we met these women and it was so great because they were all laughing because I looked like a grandmother. I was 37 and to them they had babies and they were much younger and we just sat in a circle together, <laugh>, and we were breastfeeding and they were just making so much fun because, you know, I was the mo the grandmother in this situation. But my point is, is that I really feel like I learned almost how to mother in a way through the travel experience and meeting women from around the world. Whereas if I didn't have my kid around, especially a baby, we might have exchanged words but it never, we would never had that maternal bond.
And that is really, really informed A how I'm a parent B, how I view the world and what the world is worth fighting for. Um, and see even take a deeper dive into some of these communities we've visited and really what they're doing for the planet and how important they are. And I don't think I would've had, I would've noticed that had I had just been flying through with Michael, if he was, you know, shooting them or he was on an assignment, I am, I don't think I would've had that connection with them. But having the children really bonds you that way. So I just think, and that's just, I think kids of any age, you know, they can be teenagers, I think they're just, it just, it's an automatic icebreaker cuz children exist everywhere and we all have that funny, you know, kind of common bond that shares all the stories of what it's like to be a parent. Um, and you can apply that while you're traveling and find so many new things. So
Christine: Yeah. Yeah, I think it is, um, between women, I think too it such a great connecting point because like you said, it really transcends, you know, cultural barriers and, you know, any ways of living and being is that it's so instinctive, especially when you're thinking about breastfeeding. Like obviously that is something that's so easily translated women around the world. Yeah. Like we all know that what that journey is like, and it might be different, you know, depending on where you are, but at its core it's just so like human and true and mm-hmm. <affirmative> that's always powerful for me anyway. But like you said, you throw children in the mix and like they'll, they'll like start to play with each other. Mm-hmm. And then that opened the door for us to communicate perhaps with the other adults or to slow down and pause because otherwise we might've just walked by right past.
But now they've connected and we're taking time for that. And um, the other thing that you mentioned that your, your child had the furrowed brow and red hair. So I don't think we talked about this before, but two of my children are redheads and Oh great. In traveling in the past actually that has been something that has been very interesting cuz it's not in a lot of places especially mm-hmm. <affirmative>, we took my oldest to Costa Rica when she was five and it just, there were so many people that just followed her around because they were so curious about mm-hmm. <affirmative> air and also she's like just super pale. So she just really hands out in that space and, um, I felt like there were a few times I felt like I needed to be a little defensive and protective mm-hmm. Because that curiosity was pretty intense.
Um, yeah. But I'm, I'm very interested to see what that experience will be like too, cuz it's very different than my own, even traveling somewhere and being someone who's almost six feet tall with blonde hair and blue eyes. Like that gets some curiosity happening in certain places, but then to add these little red heads that I can't even take to the grocery store here without somebody making a comment. So I think that's, that's another just, I don't know that just that that cultural difference is such a interesting thing to take into consideration when you're moving through places.
Samantha: Absolutely. And there's three, you have three girls, right? And it's all, all females. I'm really interested to hear how that's going to play with you as a whole traveling around the world because these are, these are young women, it's gonna be fantastic. I'm so excited for you.
Christine: Yeah, I I think that'll be very interesting too cuz like you said, and you know, you landed in a, a culture where that's more matriarchal, so there's a different way, you know, of, of the way that women are perceived and the way women move through spaces, but obviously that's not the same every place that'll go mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, what my oldest daughter's like, I can't wait to go to Scotland where like maybe no one will notice my red hair. Maybe they'll be like, oh, look at that blonde girl, like to her sister. Um, oh, that's great. Just like witnessing the, the, the ways that they see the world I think is really important as well. Um, well before we end our conversation, Samantha, I just wanted to kind of open it up if there's any, anything else that we've missed that you would love to share, um, about this or, or any other, you know, kind of powerful, uh, experiences you've had traveling with your children that would be resonant for our audience.
Samantha: Oh, I, I just, I love every moment of it and it's, and you know, we really, we really honor having our life and our community and our home here. So when we do travel together, it's an amazing, you know, adventure together. Um, but every trip we take is just filled with wonder and education and this is really what I wanna share on our platform because travel stories are one, but we are also sharing the stories of other travel families who are traveling in a completely different way, which is, I mean, mind blowing, we are just featured, we're going to feature a family that just cycled all the way down, um, the length of Chile or it was like 250 kilometers with their toddlers with little wagons. I mean, camping out and just absolutely stunning photography and stunning writing. And I said, we have to get you, this is such a cool way to reframe like, like sustainable travel. I mean, what about biking London, just taking this adventure? So I mean, I'm learning every day from other families as well and I feel like there's only gonna be more of this and put it in opportunities and the potential to visit and explore and discover the world, um, in more tradit days where we can kind of give back to the planet and be a little bit deeper just traveling where there's is gonna that take the first step.
Christine: Yeah. I'm gonna pause just for a second because again, I can't tell if it's my connection or your connection. Oh, there we go. I think you're back, but we'll wait just a few more seconds. If anybody's watching the live feed, you'll endure and the podcast will get the edits. So <laugh>. Um, yeah, I, I think, um, learning from other people and their travel experiences is so powerful. Obviously that's part of why this podcast I think is so important as well. But, um, I think a a lot of us might feel like when we have young children or children in general that we can't travel and it's just so powerful to see all the ways that we can, and like you said, how adaptable our children are, how much they add to value, value of our travel experience. I think especially coming from a western culture, we're told how difficult it will be or how hard it is for them or for us or, you know, that there's just, it's not worth the hassle or the time or also that they should be in school.
Like there's all these things Yeah. That we talk about the way that we can't actually travel with our children. And, and I think especially over the past two or three years, people have prioritized that and we're seeing even more mm-hmm. <affirmative> more of a commitment to creating global citizens with our children and and allowing them to like build that into who they are in order to create humans that will kind of create the next way of being from a deeper understanding of what it means to be out in the world. And I think for me mm-hmm. <affirmative>, that's what I'm just so excited about and, and what I think is so important for other people Yeah. Who are considering traveling with their children. I, I remember early in my travel cl career being in Kenya and I was visiting, um, some of the slums and Nairobi and we were visiting a school and one of our work colleagues who we didn't know were in the, was also traveling in the area, had brought his children to the same school and watching his kids play with those kids and they did a, a, they, their choir did a performance and then they tho these kids hopped right up and started singing.
And like, it was so powerful because for me I was like processing about 20 different layers of mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, understanding and misconceptions or perceptions and all these things and these kids just played in saying, and I just yeah. Remember thinking like, man, if I ever have kids someday, like I want them to have this experience because whatever's happening right here is the thing that needs to happen in order for us to grow as like into healthier civilizations with healthier Yeah. Global relationships. And I'm sure that that's something that you've seen or felt in your children as you've traveled.
Samantha: Yeah. I mean, and it, you really see, I mean, how relaxed they are and at ease in the world. It's just amazing and they all, they have their little character issues as well. It's not like my daughter is the easiest iest in the world, as I said, furrowed brow, wild red hair, disgruntled, disgruntled coconut, doesn't like to get photos taken of her very often, but with that sensibility she's still able to communicate. I'm so, I just watched her when we were up in, uh, in, up in the Basque country cuz we did that road trip and there's kids in three different languages and she has no problem if she doesn't speak the language, she still plays and is using hand signals or trying to come up with the word and just the adaptability and flexibility and empathy. I think that that is what we need to give to our kids now so they can have this as character traits as they get older and turn into adults.
Christine: Yeah. Well thank you so much for this time and conversation. Thank you. Before we Wonderful, before we end, I just have a few rapid fire questions, which I know you listen to the podcast so these you're familiar with. But, uh, we'll jump into those before we wrap up. Okay. The first one is, what are you reading right now?
Samantha: That's funny. I was just, because we, I was reviewing and reading the book that inspired a large portion of this website called All We Can Save. It's an anthology of climate essays by women and these are climate activists and scientists and marine biologists. It's a super profound collection of books. It's one of my favorite in the whole world and it really kind of like, is like a bit of a travel book because you're hearing about stories of women from around the world, but how they are managing climate resilience or the, the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and the descriptions of these places and what's happening now. Um, but I love the way that these women are centering on our climate future but with hope and just beautiful. There's poetry involved and there's, you know, funny essays. There's comedy and it's kind of centers around all of the different facets of how we can come together from a female perspective. Um, so I highly suggest that, especially to listeners of this podcast cuz it's extremely empowering. So it's called All, all We Can Save.
Christine: Excellent. I just wrote it down and I feel like that needs to go into my reading for the next year. Yeah. Um, and I also loved, this just reminded me of an interview I had had, um, with Sophia at Tour Radar. She was talking about, um, we often talk about our footprint when we travel, which feels kind of negative, but she said that they like to talk about your hand print, which is really like, oh yeah. This positive way that you can think about. And you were talking about, you know, kind of these stories as a barometer for hope and um, that's something that's just been sitting with me to think about how we can kind of create storytelling from that space especially.
Samantha: Yeah. Sustainability. Oh yeah. You're you're gonna love this book. I, I know it. I know. Bring it on your trip with you <laugh>.
Christine: Yeah, I think that sounds like the right, the right trip. The
Samantha: Audiobook is really good cuz there's a lot of really great voices on the audiobook. I suggest the audiobook as
Christine: Well. Excellent. Um, what is always in your suitcase or backpack when you travel?
Samantha: Oh, one thing I always have to bring are, they're called stature bags. I'm sure you have them are, they're silicon little, um, carry-on reusable bags. But I, when I don't have those, I'm, I feel like I'm at a loss of everything at this point in time because well they hold snacks and everything, but they really, I mean, if you're going on a road trip or you're traveling through countries where maybe you're not gonna have lunch later that day and you can pack up, you know, your, especially for kids who are needing to snack all the time. We were in Kenya, uh, last January and I was so thankful for them because I would just put their extra little breads that they weren't eating and they would eat that through the rest of the day. And any sort of silicon or a compartment where you can bring your food along, um, is a total game changer. Not just as a parent, but I think just as a, as a traveler.
Christine: Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah. I love that. And the other thing that came with me from Cloth diapering my children were the waterproof bags. Oh, the we bags. Yeah. Yeah. That you would put their diapers in. But now I take that is always in my travel.
Samantha: Everything,
Christine: Yes. <laugh> for swimsuits or who knows what's gonna happen. Yeah. You need to like,
Samantha: That's another one <laugh>.
Christine: Yeah,
Samantha: Totally.
Christine: Um, to Sojourn is to travel somewhere as if you live there for a short while. Where is a place that you would still love to Sojourn?
Samantha: I would love, I've never been to Bolivia. I would love to go to Bolivia. I would love to venture around in South America. I started taking Spanish lessons recently, so I'm, I think I'm intentionally or unintentionally putting my efforts into traveling some more Spanish speaking countries and to be, I actually be able to communicate. So I, I just started lessons, uh, about a week and a half ago. So, but I would love to see Bolivia and also move around that the entire continent of South a South America.
Christine: Yeah. Uh, that is kind of the language that we're, we're focusing the most on learning during travels. We're gonna do an immersion when we're in Mexico. Um,
Samantha: Oh, that's great. That's great. That's another way. Good thing for your kids. Yeah. Yeah.
Christine: Um, what do you eat that immediately connects you to a place you've been?
Samantha: Well, it's so funny that you asked that because, well, I've been living in Germany for the last 12 years, and so even I've, even though I've been living here, it's always just so funny to see German food pop up when we are traveling around. Or even I go back home to San Diego, it's California, which actually has kind of a strong German culture there with the brow houses and so forth. But anytime I'm, I'm out of Germany, and then you find a semi canoodle or some even pretzels with, you know, Al or Bravo. Um, it brings me back to my current home, which I think I'm always feeling like a, a traveler here because this isn't where I was raised. And there's just so many cultural and nendos and differences, of course, when we choose to live in a place we weren't raised. Um, but I always kind of make that connection with wherever I'm at or like a large, you know, pilsner. So I know <laugh>, we live not far from Munich, so <laugh> October Fest is plenty here. <laugh>.
Christine: Yeah. Well my, my German roots, even though I've not been to Germany, all resonate with all of those things as well, so, oh, yeah. Relate. Um, who was a person that inspired or encouraged you to set out and explore the world?
Samantha: Well, I guess unintentionally I would say it was my dad because my parents, um, they divorced at an early age and he moved to San Francisco and my mom, we were in San Diego and we used to get on an airplane in the eighties. I was thinking about about this every other weekend to get on a plane and go see my dad. And I can't, I mean, I was like an eight year old and my sister was a six year old and it was like, okay, good luck. You know, and I think through that it was sad, but it was also kind of, you know, we grew into different ways and I have a different relationship with my father because of that. Going to San Francisco on the weekends, um, and just being a person in a different city as an eight year old, it was a totally different type of formative relationship or, uh, grow, um, grow growth.
And I think that also kind of informed me being, you know, fearless enough to tr attempt music as a career when I had not studied it in school and probably also meet my husband and decide to follow him around the world. I think that instilled a sense of adventure or maybe confidence at an early age to get out and explore. And he always said, he's like, Sam, you know, get out of California. Go see other parts of the states, go to college in, you know, the middle or the, or the east coast. And I think that kind of always ran with me. So I, I give, I tip my hat to my dad for that <laugh>.
Christine: Thank you. If you could take an adventure with one person, fictional or real alive or past, who would it be?
Samantha: Well, I just was speaking about it's, she's real and she's my sister, but we, I I, I was just up in northern Spain like I spoke about, and there's the Santiago to Compostela is there, so there's the Camino to Santiago is this beautiful, the UBS Jacob's way, which is the pilgrimage trail. And as a parent, as you know, like I am dying to do a trip for me <laugh>, where it's like I wanna backpack and I wanna just walk in silence. And my sister also wants to do that. And we are extremely close. So I would love to do a kind of a pilgrimage trek with my sister, um, you know, starting up in bass country and kind of weaving down for a couple of weeks. I think that would be tremendously healing for me. It would bring us together. We, our children are older now, we, we can do it. Um, that's something that I think I would love to do in the next couple of years.
Christine: Yeah, that sounds amazing. And I keep telling my sister I would love to travel with her cuz as an adult, like we have such a different relationship and to be able to spend that time
Samantha: Yeah.
Christine: At space there and travel and learn about each other in a different way, I feel like it would be a really powerful experience. So I hope that
Samantha: You and
Christine: Are able to manifest that into reality soon. <laugh>.
Samantha: Me too. The
Christine: Last question, um, is really, uh, a soul of travel is for honoring women in this industry, as you know. Uh, who is one woman that you admire and would love to recognize in this space?
Samantha: Oh, that's easy. I, cuz I just listened to them in the last week on your podcast, but there's two of them. Um, one is Hilary Matson from Yugen Earth side, and the other is Christina Beckman from Tomorrow's Air. And these were two women that I met very early on. We became Instagram friends, but they, we became immediate friends and we've collaborated since then. But I really, uh, am giving them a thank you of gratitude for taking the time to connect with me as a total newbie in this space and just share and collaborate with an open heart and have the same, you know, intention and goals in mind and both for different reasons. Um, I love Hilary because she's so smart and she's so funny. If you ever see her TikTok, I absolutely love her, but the platform that she's c creating, um, is genius.
And we did a really cool one with her about family travel trips that, that they were promoting and it was so fun collaborating with her about that. And I wish her all the best and cuz I think she's gonna do fantastic. And, um, Christina, of course with tomorrow's air, I mean amazing, amazing forward thinking solutions, which I think we need to bring that to the travel space and which is why I immediately gravitated to connecting with them. And we've done a couple of collaborations as well, but just thinking of our future and what, what can we come up with that hasn't been created yet, hasn't been invented yet to kind of curb our, our, our future. And I think that Christina's super tapped into that and I'm so excited to see what they do. And I'm, we're a part of tomorrow's era, we're subscribers and so I'm just, I'm lucky to be part of their ecosystem and their world as well.
Christine: Yeah. Thank you so much for, for mentioning, um, both of them and sharing a little bit more about the work that they do. Um, listeners, you can definitely go back and check out their episodes, but two people who I really admire. Um, I've known Chris for a really long time and seeing her evolution in the industry, like she's one of those people that I'm like, whatever she's doing or whatever she's curious about, I'm just like, I will immediately check that out because I know it's something I should already be thinking about as well. Um, yeah. Well, such a great way to end our conversation, Samantha. I really appreciate it. I appreci appreciate all the support that you have shown the podcast prior to being on it and I'm so glad that we were able to chat here today.
Samantha: Me too. Thank you so much. This was a pleasure and I look forward to all of your other guests. I've had such a great time learning about all of them and becoming friends with a lot of them, so thank you.
Christine: Thank you.
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