The Trip

Here, to ring in this new year, is an ode to what should be the next great culinary star from the country of Georgia, the perfect vessel of unadorned cholesterol, the cosmic collision of flour, butter, egg and cheese: Khachapuri. Links: R&K weeklong culinary journeys: The League of Travelers Georgian market tours: Meet Me Here Tbilisi Mexico City Market Tours: Eat Like a Local Market Tours everywhere else: Culinary Backstreets Taste of Persia: A Cook's Travels Through Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, and Kurdistan Black Sea: Dispatches and Recipes, Through Darkness and Light Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Now that it's cold and flu (and COVID) season, it's time for Georgia's Dayquil of the gods: the pomace brandy called Chacha. Host of The Trip Nathan Thornburgh explains its appeal. Seize the chacha by Ansel Mullins Nikalas Marani on IG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Trip from Roads & Kingdoms and host Nathan Thornburgh is back, with a tight new format, plus lots of distilled alcohol and Soviet helicopters in Georgia's Caucasus Mountains. The Light of the Caucasus: Photographs by Yuri Kozyrev Georgia: Q&A with Photographer Natela Grigalashvili Abkhazia: Paradise Lost Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Roads & Kingdoms online R&K Instagram Return to Catalunya video series with Bourdain and Goulding Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Holding a diverse community together in a time of gathering threats is no easy act. Barcelona's Chief Rabbi thinks he's up to the task. Prior Chief Rabbi of Barcelona “Europe is Lost” The Hidden Stories of Barcelona's Jews Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

21st generation winemaker Pepe Raventós talks about his family's 500 or so years of Catalan winemaking. Raventós i Blanc's Sparkling Wines Rudolf Steiner lecture trashing wine Penedés tourism site   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Drinking Scotch and talking to a man who is really, really excited about Big Tech. Zoltan Istvan homepage Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Drinking coffee with Eva Castillo, New Hampshire immigrant rights activist Mira Coalition homepage Rincón Zacatecano Puerto Vallarta restaurant Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gary Hirshberg was a key early supporter of Barack Obama in New Hampshire, and as chairman of Stonyfield Farm, is an icon of the business of organic food. The Trip met up with him just before the 2020 primary to do shots of probiotics and talk politics. Stonyfield Farm Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Drinking baijiu with Tom Tillotson, whose family has presided over the midnight vote in Dixville Notch, NH for six decades. Show notes: Mitch Moxley's Baijiu piece for California Sunday magazine Tom Tillotson's China Ski Tours website Balsams homepage Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lebanese wine expert and podcast host Farrah Berrou takes The Trip Into the Beqaa Valley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

L'Orient-Le Jour columnist Gilles Khoury has a keen eye for the lives and aspirations of Beirut's citizens. He took The Trip to The Egg, the heart of Beirut's popular uprising and anti-corruption campaign. Show notes: Tripoli Ka’akeh bread--a favorite dish of the revolution L’Orient Le Jour The Assassination of Malcom Kerr Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Drinking Aged Negronis with Jade George: Publisher, Gourmand, Revolutionary Show notes: The Carton store in Hamra Bar Ferdinand, Beirut Kalei Coffee House Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Drinking with Chyno, the MC who brought battle rap to Beirut. Get Mamluk, his latest album, here. Show notes: Mamluk, Chyno’s new album from Warner Music Middle East Chyno Instagram account The Arena Battle Rap League IG account Roads & Kingdoms story on the Arena Battle Rap highlights: Supernatural versus Juice Blaze Battle 2000: Eyedeaz v Shells Scribble Jam: Eminem 1997 Lebanese-American MC Dizaster versus Canibus More revolution music: Age of the Pimp, Egyptian revolution anthem from Ramy Essam Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Anissa Helou is the author of nine books, and a leading voice of culinary sophistication for the Middle East and beyond. Host Nathan Thornburgh and Anissa shared strong, cloudy Arak in Beirut and talked about Syria, Lebanon, food and feminism. Show notes: Anissa’s blog Anissa’s Instagram account Feast: Food of the Islamic World Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A conversation, over some very dank weed, with Tijuana- and San Diego-based muralist Panca. Show notes: Klover dispensary homepage Panca homepage @aypanca on Instagram Panca's upcoming installation at the New Childrens Museum Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A conversation in Tijuana with Gera Gámez, deportee and coworker at the legal advocacy group Al Otro Lado, before Gera's untimely death. The work he was doing continues, however, and please donate to Al Otro Lado if you can: Show notes: Al Otro Lado homepage How to volunteer for Al Otro Lado How to donate to Al Otro Lado Police reporter Margarito 4-4’s Facebook page Tijuana Esta Alerta, Jesús Aguilar's News Site on FB Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Journalist Jorge Nieto invites The Trip to his home at the Otay Mesa to talk about being a fixer and journalist in one of the world's most dangerous countries. Show notes:  Gustavo Solis on Tijuana fixers Piper French’s interview with Jorge Nieto on Roads & Kingdoms R&K's Unbylined series featuring Q&As with fixers around the world Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Drinking mezcal old fashioneds with Ruffo Ibarra, a chef at the vanguard of Tijuana's remarkable reinvention. Show notes: Oryx Capital, Ruffo’s flagship restaurant Cengrow organic farm Gustavo Arellano on the legend of the Donkey Show San Diego Union-Tribune on refugees and chefs aid Ruffo Ibarra IG account Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Drinking cactus-laced "green juice" with iconic cross-border designer Edoardo Chavarín. Our lovely sponsor this episode: Palate Club Show notes: Edoardo Chavarín site Edoardo Chavarín Instagram Article about Chavarín’s coffee shop Rodrigo Roji, tattoo artist and collaborator Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What happens when a celebrated travel writer finds herself suddenly, inextricably homebound? This is not a COVID story. Jodi Ettenberg's health struggles pre-date the pandemic, but her philosophical approach to frailty and flightlessness has lessons for us all. Show notes: LegalNomads.com 12 Years of Legal Nomads post Jodi Ettenberg’s Instagram The story of her cerebrospinal fluid leak Why We Get Jet Lag… and 5 Tips for Making it Less Painful 2012 Q&A with Jodi Ettenberg on Roads & Kingdoms Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mohawk recipes, resistance and more good medicine with Tiffany Deer in Kahnawake, Quebec. Show notes:  Kahnawake Visitors Center Skywalker exhibit at the 9/11 museum Mohawk Girls trailer Article about Beans, the movie that Tiffany Deer participated in Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Drinking vodka soda and talking growing up Anglophone in Quebec with one of the world’s top Freddie Mercury cover singers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Drinking coffee with Nakuset and talking about her childhood as an native adoptee in the dark chapter of Canadian history called the Sixties Scoop. Show notes: If you or someone you know is in distress, please reach out for help or just a conversation: National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Stolen From Our Embrace, a book about the Sixties scoop, forced assimilation, and the indigenous children who survived it. By Suzanne J. Fournier and Ernie Crey CBC mini-documentary Becoming Nakuset Talkback session about the film with Nakuset and fellow Sixties Scoop survivor Daniel Milner Christopher Curtis’ stories for the Montreal Gazette Donate to the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You want to figure out a place you really don't know? Bring a journalist some beer, and press record. Our first of five episodes in Montreal starts right there, with Patrick Lagacé. Show notes: Le Quebec Maintenant show Patrick Lagacé’s columns at La Presse News report on police surveillance of Patrick Lagacé Patrick Lagacé’s (doctored) Wikipedia page Globe and Mail column by Patrick Lagacé Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Architect-turned-artist Ana Aragão is known for riffing on the skyline of her city or on the Tower of Babel or other astonishments of architecture, then infusing them with a bit of magical realism—earthquakes, apocalypses, worlds without gravity. In this episode of The Trip, she drinks port wine with host Nathan Thornburgh and talks about Porto and the power of imagining. Ana Aragão Instagram Real Editors Ship by Paul Ford Ana Aragão at TEDxPorto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Drinking sugary island punch in Porto with a pioneer in food tourism, Culinary Backstreets' Ansel Mullins. Show notes: Culinary Backstreets home page News report of the Istanbul 2003 bombing Culinary Backstreets Porto food tour Paul Rimple on Giorgi Iosava Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Photojournalist Eduardo Leal drinks vinho verde with host Nathan Thornburgh and talks tourism, gentrification, and those mounds of meat and cheese called Francesinha. Show notes: Forcados “The Bull Wrestlers of Portugal” photoessay Eduardo Leal stories on Roads & Kingdoms Eduardo Leal website Festival de Cinema de Aventura in Matosinhos Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Muthoni Drummer Queen on creativity, colonialism, and Kenya's place in the world of music. Show notes: Muthoni on IG Muthoni’s music on Spotify Muthoni’s official site Blankets & Wine Concert Series Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Talking African stories, LGBTQ rights in Kenya, and surviving cancer with Kevin Mwachiro. Show notes: Nipe Story, podcast hosted by Kevin Mwachiro Java House, Kenyan coffee chain Video interview from Berlin with Kevin Mwachiro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nairobi-based food obsessive Joshua Obaga chews khat with host Nathan Thonburgh and talks about the roots and culture of Kenyan cuisine. Show notes:  Joshua Obaga’s Instagram Chewing Betel Nut in Myanmar from Roads & Kingdoms Article on Joshua Obaga’s art Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A conversation in Havana with singer/songwriter/promoter—and daughter of Cuban rock royalty—Eme Alfonso. Show notes: Havana World Music Festival Eme Alfonso video project: Para Mestizar Eme Alfonso on Instagram Eme’s album Voy on BandCamp Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Filmmaker and journalist Shravan Vidyarthi drinks with The Trip in Nairobi and talks about Kenya's 44th official tribe—Kenyans of South Asian descent—and about his project on the martyred photojournalist, his uncle Priya Ramrakha. Paul Theroux on Priya Ramrakha (New Yorker) Priya Ramrakha: The Recovered Archive (Book) Intersect, a global production company founded by Shravan Vidyarthi Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new generation of Cuban activists is questioning everything, including the heavy, meat-laden Cuban diet. Nancy Cepero, vegan chef, queer anti-racist activist and artist, is proud to be counted among them. Nancy Cepero artwork for sale Nancy Cepero on Instagram Nancy Cepero on Tik-Tok       Grados Restaurant Havana Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Trip's five episodes from the heroic city of Nairobi start strong with a rum dawa and a conversation with iconic Kenyan director Wanuri Kahiu. Show notes: Announcement of Wanuri Kahiu’s upcoming feature adaption of The Hate U Give Rafiki trailer  TEDx Wanuri Kahiu talk Kenya Supreme Court Anti-Homosexuality Ruling Hajooj Kuka’s documentary Beats of the Antonov  Afrobubblegum Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Food writer, podcaster and producer Chris Ying explains why he doesn't mourn the Mission's good old days Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mónica Baró is an independent journalist, a difficult thing to be in a country where the authorities patrol public information like sharks on the reef. She and The Trip's host, foreign correspondent Nathan Thornburgh, talk about their respective arrests in Cuba, and about why she does what she does, despite all the risks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

La Cocina is a heroic San Francisco non-profit that helps women—mostly immigrants and women of color—start and sustain their own businesses in food. La Cocina's Emiliana Puyana is ideally suited to help them realize their dreams. So we drank negronis in 2019 and talked about it all. Links: La Cocina’s website We Are La Cocina: Recipes in Pursuit of the American Dream Por Una Cabeza by Carlos Gardel La Cocina Gift Boxes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The artist behind the Remember Los Siete project talks about the resilience of her native Mission District. Remember Los Siete video Rememberlos7.com Brava! For Women in the Arts Bio Page Vero Majano on Instagram Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ailed Duarte is co-founder of La Marca studio, which has helped bring tattoo art, once illegal throughout Cuba, into the mainstream. She and host Nathan Thornburgh talked at the first-ever international tattoo convention in Havana, about the robust art and precarious commerce of Cuban tattooing. Links: La Marca Instagram La Marca Homepage Huck Magazine feature on Mike Magers’ tattoo photography Mike Mager’s bookstore Doctor Lakra tattoo artist IG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My final Iraq episode is a necessarily intense conversation with Ahmed Najm, whose life changed when ISIS kidnapped his brother Kamaran Najm, co-founder of Iraq's Metrography Photo Agency, in 2014, Kamaran still hasn't been found, but his brother has become an invaluable guardian of his brother's life work and legacy. Links: Episode excerpt on R&K Metrography IG Metrography Website Rough Translation: The Search, a two-part series on Kamaran and Ahmed Roads & Kingdoms IG, Metrography Takeover Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Behind almost every great piece of war reporting is a local fixer. In Mosul, that fixer was Sangar Khaleel, whose LandRover and endless contacts kept him and the journalists he worked with safe through Iraq's darkest days. Show notes: Sangar Khaleel Instagram West Mosul Music in the Ruins Sangar and Jane Arraf’s NPR report on Syrian ISIS nostalgia NPR’s Rough Translation podcast with Sangar: DIY Mosul Kurt Schork Award page Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Telmary Díaz is one of the most innovative Cuban artists of the last two decades. She's also a really good person to drink rum with in Havana to talk about music, migration and more. Show notes: Telmary: Libre (music video) Telmary & HabanaSana YouTube channel Annia Linares: A Mi Manera Santiago de Cuba Rum Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Drinking tea and talking about long-term thinking in Kurdistan's capital city with civil engineer and sustainability expert Basima Abdulrahman. Show links: Basima Abdulrahman’s KESK Green Building Consultancy Basima Abdulrahman profile on Auburn Website City of Erbil website Basima Abdulrahman’s TEDx Nishtiman speech Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cengiz Yar is an acclaimed American photojournalist and photo editor, He is also a longtime colleague and, for this podcast, our guide to northern Iraq, during Ramadan in 2019. He mixed us some excellent Old Fashioneds with Black Jack Jordanian whiskey and talked about war, peace and growing up Jersey. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Drinking deeply in Berlin with Anton Newcombe, talking about growing up in Newport Beach, making his way to San Francisco, and everything in music from contracts to creativity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chef Katie Button and her husband run an Asheville, NC restaurant group that includes Cúrate, one of America’s finest Spanish restaurants. In this interview recorded in 2019, she talks about making bagels in biscuit country, and how restaurants can be better workplaces for women. Show notes: Cúrate Restaurant Katie Button’s Announcement about the Closure of Button & Co. Bagels Vegetables Unleashed El Bulli Foundation Asheville’s Downtown Welcome Table Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A deep conversation about moonshine and life in Appalachia between host Nathan Thornburgh and his longtime Appalachia-whisperer Kevin Forrester outside of Damascus, Virginia Show notes: Abingdon Vineyards Channels State Forest Damascus, VA Kings County Distillery “Moonshine” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Moscow-born foreign correspondent Simon Shuster came to California as a child and returned to Russia as an adult to start his career in journalism. But it was Berlin that gave him a family and became a home base while doing some of his most impactful reporting, from the Trumpworld dealings in Ukraine to the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean. He and host Nathan Thornburgh talk about all that, and about their similar life paths, from the nostalgic center of Berlin. Show notes: Meine Bar Berlin Simon’s recent investigation into Rick Perry’s oil dealings in Ukraine The podcast version of that investigation Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Writer, podcaster and Appalachian culinary evangelist Mike Costello drinks with host Nathan Thornburgh at the Lost Creek Farm in West Virginia. Show notes: Lost Creek Farm Pickle Shelf Radio Hour Hawk Knob Appalachian Hard Cider Victuals: An Appalachian Journey, with Recipes, by Ronni Lundy Mike Costello on Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeffery Lindenmuth and host Nathan Thornburgh sit down for a before-noon blind bourbon tasting at the Pennsylvania offices of Whisky Advocate. Among the topics of conversation: good value whisky, why "burning hospital" can be a desirable tasting note, and why Billy Joel did Allentown so dirty. Show notes: Whisky Advocate Jeffery Lindenmuth on IG Episode excerpt on Roads & Kingdoms Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices