Meet Karen Urosevich, founder of Well Placed Travel, where she helps people discover the places that bring them purpose, peace, and joy. After a 20+ year career leading global design and development projects, Karen followed her calling, and her own wanderlust, to help others explore the world in ways that transform, restore, and inspire.

With nearly 40 countries explored and certifications in yoga and Reiki, she blends culture, wellness, and thoughtful planning into journeys that protect your time, your investment, and your sense of wonder.

In this episode of Speaking of Travel, Karen gets real about shedding old identities, navigating grief and reinvention, and how travel became a mirror for self-discovery. She shares the birth of Well Placed Travel, the challenges and rewards of helping people find their place, and the deeper truths behind what we think we want from travel versus what we truly crave.

Whether you’re chasing restoration, adventure, or clarity, Karen’s insights will make you see travel, and yourself, in a whole new way.

Thanks for listening to Speaking of Travel! Visit speakingoftravel.net for travel tips, travel stories, and ways you can become a more savvy traveler.

Step into the world of David Belmont and you’ll find yourself somewhere between a jazz riff, a poetry line, and a road trip that definitely skipped the exit ramp. David is a lifelong musician, writer, mixed-media artist, and a certified original, the kind of counter-culture cool you don’t try to manufacture. He’s effortlessly hip, wildly curious, and just mischievous enough to make life more interesting.

On this episode of Speaking of Travel, David takes us on a joyride through a life lived off-script. From seeing America for the first time through a car window to accidentally landing in a secret Mardi Gras parade, from a double rainbow over a Scottish loch to jamming on a Trinidad beach, sharing songs with strangers in Jamaica, joining a Balinese funeral, or trading musical conversations on the Yangtze River, this is a life powered by curiosity, connection, and a refusal to stay in one lane.

The conversation is funny, soulful, and delightfully unpredictable, just like David himself. It’s about listening closely to the world, riffing with it, marching to its weird little rhythms, and trusting that the best moments usually happen when plans fall apart. This is travel as improvisation. In other words equal parts art, rebellion, and heart.

By the end, you’ll feel like you’ve wandered alongside him, laughing at the beautiful chaos of it all, catching glimpses of hidden magic, and feeling the itch to shake things up in your own life.

David quietly reminds us that the coolest way to move through the world is with curiosity, compassion, and a little funk, weaving music, kindness, and community into every space, and proving that real change starts by listening and showing up as your most authentic self.

Only on Speaking of Travel! Stay tuned!

Thanks for listening to Speaking of Travel! Visit speakingoftravel.net for travel tips, travel stories, and ways you can become a more savvy traveler.

This episode of Speaking of Travel opens the door to a new year with intention, warmth, and deep joy as we welcome the extraordinary David LaMotte, songwriter, speaker, peace builder, author, and quiet force for good in the world.

Being with David feels like stepping onto a peaceful back porch at sunrise, shoulders soften, the air feels clearer, and you’re reminded that kindness still has a strong pulse in the world. His life’s work spans five continents and more than three decades of music, storytelling, and peace building, yet he carries his experiences with humility, humor, and an easy grace that makes our conversation feel personal and alive.

David shares how early international travel shaped his sense of belonging, from church youth trips to Mexico and Haiti, to a transformative semester abroad in Paris, where busking and backpacking helped him discover who he was when everything familiar fell away.

Throughout the conversation, David reflects on what travel teaches us about ourselves, how music and silence both carry wisdom, and why peace is not a distant ideal but a daily practice rooted in listening, presence, and love. He speaks how meaningful connection, between people, cultures, and landscapes, can gently change the way we live.

This is an episode about becoming more fully human. About curiosity instead of certainty. About growing in ways that don’t demand perfection but invite awareness. David reminds us that healing can be subtle, that gentleness is powerful, and that joy often arrives quietly when we’re paying attention.

Settle in, breathe a little deeper, and allow this conversation to meet you where you are. This is Speaking of Travel at its most intimate and an invitation to listen, reflect, and step into the year ahead with an open heart.

Thanks for listening to Speaking of Travel! Visit speakingoftravel.net for travel tips, travel stories, and ways you can become a more savvy traveler.

Travel is often pictured as excitement, new sights, and adventure. But for many, it can feel overwhelming, exhausting, or even impossible before a trip begins. For individuals navigating ADHD, anxiety, autism, or learning differences, the unfamiliar sounds, routines, and expectations of travel can make even the simplest journey feel heavy.

And yet, these truths are rarely spoken with honesty, empathy, or care. In this deeply moving episode of Speaking of Travel, we sit down with Dr. Andrew Kahn, licensed psychologist, Associate Director at Understood.org, and a national voice on mental health and neurodiversity. Dr. Kahn brings more than 25 years of professional experience, along with his own lived experience as someone with learning and thinking differences.

The result is a conversation that is both profoundly human and deeply practical, full of insight, compassion, and wisdom for travelers of all kinds. Dr. Kahn reminds us that preparation is an act of love for ourselves and for those we care about. He shares stories of patience and understanding that ripple outward, turning moments of stress into experiences of connection, growth, and joy.

This conversation is an invitation to travel differently, not faster, not farther, but more gently. It’s about creating space for empathy, for self-compassion, and for recognizing the courage it takes to step into the world when it feels unpredictable or challenging.

Only on Speaking of Travel! Tune in.

Thanks for listening to Speaking of Travel! Visit speakingoftravel.net for travel tips, travel stories, and ways you can become a more savvy traveler.

On this powerful episode of Speaking of Travel, we welcome Christopher Hill, founder of Hands Up Holidays and Impact Destinations, two visionary luxury travel companies transforming the way we explore the world and our place within it. This conversation goes beyond destinations and indulgence, shining a light on what’s possible when travel is rooted in purpose, connection, and responsibility.

Joining us from his home in New Zealand, Chris reflects on a single, spontaneous volunteer experience that forever changed his life. What began as an unexpected moment of service became a profound awakening, revealing how deeply human connection, cultural respect, and intentional action can reshape not only communities, but the traveler as well.

That defining experience sparked a mission to reimagine travel as a platform for positive change. Through thoughtfully designed eco-luxury volunteer journeys, Christopher’s work empowers travelers to engage meaningfully with local communities, support sustainable initiatives, and experience the world in a way that honors people, place, and planet.

These are journeys that go beyond sightseeing, inviting travelers to listen, learn, and contribute in ways that are ethical, impactful, and deeply personal.

If you believe travel should enrich lives, protect cultures, and leave a positive legacy behind, this episode will resonate deeply.

Tune in and discover how travel, when done with intention, has the power to transform the world, one journey at a time. Only on Speaking of Travel.

Thanks for listening to Speaking of Travel! Visit speakingoftravel.net for travel tips, travel stories, and ways you can become a more savvy traveler.

Elizabeth Birkelund is not just a novelist and journalist. She’s a traveler of landscapes, both worldly and emotional, and a gifted listener to the human heart. Her newest book, A Northern Light in Provence, sweeps us from the crystalline silence of Greenland’s ice fields to the golden, lavender-scented slopes of Provence.

With her unmistakable tenderness and immersive storytelling, she reminds us how profoundly place can shape our imaginations, our choices, and our inner lives. Drawing on her own adventures, from the raw, rugged beauty of the Arctic Circle to the quiet, contemplative corners of rural France, Elizabeth writes with the authenticity of someone who has breathed these worlds in.

In this episode, she invites us behind the scenes of her creative life: what it’s like to research remote settlements at the edge of the map, how she absorbs the slow, sunlit rhythms of Provence, and why stepping outside familiar boundaries can spark the most unexpected insights.

With wit, wonder, and a generosity of spirit, Elizabeth reflects on how landscapes mirror our private truths, how displacement can open doors we didn’t know were locked, and how surrendering control in the creative process can make a story sing with honesty.

For anyone who loves travel, transformation, and the quiet magic of being reshaped by the world, this conversation with Elizabeth Birkelund is a luminous journey and one you won’t want to miss.

Only on Speaking of Travel!

Thanks for listening to Speaking of Travel! Visit speakingoftravel.net for travel tips, travel stories, and ways you can become a more savvy traveler.

Jonny Wright isn’t your typical wanderer. He didn’t torch his old life or sprint toward the horizon in a fit of cinematic rebellion. No doors were slammed. No bridges were burned. Just one quiet, existential moment staring at the ceiling thinking, “Is this it? Seriously? This… can’t be it.”

That tiny question sparked a very un-tiny adventure. Jonny packed a bag, stuck out a thumb, and stepped into the wild with more questions than socks and more curiosity than common sense. He wasn’t running away from life; he was running into it, unfiltered, unplanned, occasionally unshowered, and always wide awake.

In this episode, Jonny shares what unfolds when you trade certainty for serendipity and safety for strangeness. His stories are a reminder that the world gets a lot bigger, and your life gets a lot richer, when you stop trying to control every turn and let the road teach you something new.

A writer, musician, and audio storyteller with a background in music and cinema studies, Jonny follows questions more faithfully than career paths. And be sure to check out his podcast, Go And Find Out.

If you’ve ever felt the tug to break the script, color outside the lines, or simply see what happens when you stop knowing what happens next, this conversation will nudge you toward a little more courage, curiosity, and wonder, one step, one story, and one hitchhiked ride at a time.

Tune in. Only on Speaking of Travel!

Thanks for listening to Speaking of Travel! Visit speakingoftravel.net for travel tips, travel stories, and ways you can become a more savvy traveler.

In a special return episode, we explore a journey of resilience, reinvention, and rediscovering joy.

Abigail Carter, a gifted writer and artist, faced unimaginable loss when she lost her husband in the 9/11 tragedy. For years, grief shaped her days but eventually a quiet inner voice whispered: It’s time to go.

Following that calling, Abigail left the familiar behind and settled in a charming château in the serene southwest of France. Amid rolling fields, sunflowers, and the gentle rhythm of rural life, she found space to heal and dream again.

This conversation is about moving forward, embracing fresh beginnings, and finding beauty in unexpected places.

Whether you’re longing for adventure, seeking healing, or simply craving inspiration, her story is a gentle reminder that life can bloom again, just sometimes in the most unexpected corners of the world.

Only on Speaking of Travel!

Thanks for listening to Speaking of Travel! Visit speakingoftravel.net for travel tips, travel stories, and ways you can become a more savvy traveler.