we launched travellers of the year to
celebrate intrepid individuals who
inspires all the take on the world
travel is our opportunity to put a stamp
on the world and to have the world put
his stamp on us our travelers of the
year people could did just that within
every traveler beats the heart of an
explorer hello and welcome thank you all
for being with us here tonight my name
is George stone and I’m a National
Geographic Traveler editor at large it’s
a real honor to have the opportunity to
introduce to you four of our travelers
of the year these are amazing
individuals who travel with passion and
purpose and they’re here tonight to tell
us their story the four people we’re
about to meet our boundary breaking
change making individuals who remind us
that we all have the power to reach
beyond the bubble of our daily lives to
learn from locals and far-flung places
and to create new opportunities to
improve our planet and ourselves so now
fellow explorers let’s meet a few
travelers of the year I’m going to this
is my prices right moment so I’m going
to walk over our first traveler of the
year is Paula Busey and Paula hello
paula is a librarian of Thunder Ridge
High School in highlands park colorado
while on a safari trip in tanzania a few
years ago she befriended the University
educated Messiah his safari guide named
Sam well malawi langa dermal L they’re
really connected they kept in touch
Paula eventually formed a partnership
with Sam well to get his Messiah owned
and operated safari business off the
ground she and her school held bake
sales to raise microcredit loans to
support his new business and then she
invited him back to her school in
colorado to teach the students there
about other lands cultures and ways of
life so this cross-cultural exchange
has now been ongoing for three years and
we’re very happy to have Paula here
Thank You Paula how did your friendship
with Sam welcome about well it was
pretty much instantaneous he met us
right off the plane in arusha and he was
our safari guide and just going from the
airport in arusha the Kilimanjaro
airport to the hotel we found out he was
Maasai and my eyes were just wow I
couldn’t believe it and he was just the
most eloquent person I’ve met and within
just you know a 30 minute drive we’d
learned so much about the culture the
challenges that his tribe was facing and
it was just the beginning then we got to
spend you know full week with him and it
really felt like I had taken you know a
year-long course in Maasai culture and
ethnobotany and oh so is so rich for me
and our school is in its Highlands Ranch
Colorado the kids there it’s an affluent
suburb south of Denver the kids
themselves refer to it as the Highlands
Ranch bubble when they think of Africa
they thought of Darfur or maybe some of
the problems in South Africa but here i
just knew Sam wells so in love with with
Tanzania with the Serengeti within girl
girl critter and he’s just so brilliant
fluent in five languages I knew that if
they could meet him they would have a
very different idea of Tanzania of
Africa of Africans that this is actually
you know a paradise so we actually sold
jewelry today to raise money for no
sorry’s not big sale well I’m not good
at that okay well I’m not there either
jewelry’s better that’s higher and also
he just connects with kids I mean he’s
phenomenal so just a charismatic person
in an amazing educator so so what were
some of the activities that Samwell did
with the students to help share a bit
about his world he actually was able to
really tailor of the various
presentations based on actually the
subject area of the classes that came in
so when the science classes came in he
was able to talk a lot about some of the
big challenges the Maasai are facing
with some of the diseases that are pests
born or what’s happening with water and
climate change is can be incredibly
devastating to the Messiah with the art
classes he was teaching them how to do
Masai face painting but always teaching
them at the same time about that
cultural for instance he would not face
paint with any of the girls because uh
that’s just out in almost a taboo but
then teaching them how to dance the
Masai dances taught the boys a lot of
that the chanting songs and you could
just see these these young men who are
you know a little spoiled I don’t know
what that’s the right word but they’re
hard to impress and they were just
captivated oh here there’s a picture of
him creating fire in the library and you
know these are kids who are so connected
and wired to every device known to man
but to see this man create fire out of
two sticks was about the most amazing
thing they’d ever seen could could the
students in your school imagine what it
was like before Sam well to grow up yeah
he did a wonderful job talking about
that and that was interesting my school
is rather affluent but we also went to
some inner-city schools in Aurora
Colorado another suburb that has a lot
of refugees and in all cases they heard
about the age sets of the Masai and how
a teenage boy goes through some very
intense rites of passage the sm well
also talked about for fun he and his
friends would go out chasing hyenas
until they turned around and started
chasing them and then they run back but
that was so captivating to them some of
the boys said why don’t we have any
rights of passage that’s right after
hearing about samwell’s circumcision at
age 17 but you know it spoke to them and
that he just connected with them on such
a primal archetypal basis that you could
just see all of the boys whether
affluent or incredibly poor they just
they connected on a very visceral level
I think so it was amazing I think the
boys want to find there
inner Messiah and that is a very
protective place like warriors in their
teens they become the protectors of the
villages they are masters of their
environment and they have such an
important purpose to the tribe but our
our boys not so much you know their
purpose is to get that good a CT or s80
score you know it and they want that
inner Masai yeah they want that life we
need it our kids are our kids are kind
of turned into numbers when you look at
all the scores they have to compete for
and they want something very different
something more primal and what does Sam
well tell you he brings back to Tanzania
well he he brought back a lot of love I
felt like I was like a roadie for you
know a rock star it was so loved every
school he went to um you know he was
shocked the Colorado had so many wide
open spaces but I think he was kind of
just amazed at the outpouring of love
and and of course he was giving it back
right away I mean but i think he was
surprised he just would say to my school
that he didn’t understand that we really
are all one family and because he
treated us like we were his family you
know it just it was really a priceless
gift for for me and for all of the kids
of my family Thank You Paula very much
so our next traveler of the year is a
fearless mother a tireless traveler and
in a way that I think Washingtonians
will understand a recovering lawyer
let’s welcome Heather Greenwood Davis to
the stage
uh a little more than a year ago Heather
and her husband ish yanked their two
young sons Ethan and Cameron out of
school for a year on an around-the-world
adventure since her family faithfully
follows mom wherever she goes they’re
here with us tonight all three of them
so please stand ish Ethan and Cameron
from their home in Toronto the family
attract bears and british columbia blue
footed boobies in the galapagos pandas
in china and zebras and namibia they
watched World Cup rugby in New Zealand
they played checkers in Tanzania all
told the family spent 12 months on the
road that they visited 29 countries and
you can read about the entire trip on
globe-trotting mamma.com there’s a site
blog and and and report of the journey
so thank you for being with us thank you
s’okay your friends think you’re crazy
yes hey are you crazy um probably a
little bit you know like I think it it
probably took a little bit of crazy to
get up and get out there um but I think
it made us sane doing it so there’s that
too where do you get the idea how did
you how did you approach this idea of
taking the kids away from school of
putting your careers on hiatus to tackle
the world yeah it was that important to
us we really wanted to show these kids
that you know the world was their
neighborhood that they could have access
to more than was right beside them and
my husband and I both having grown up in
different parts of the city but in the
same sort of sheltered kind of
upbringing knew from our own travels
that we wanted for our kids something
bigger and so we did it we it really
wasn’t there wasn’t a whole lot of
planning didn’t do it there probably
should have been planning that went into
it um but it really it really has
transformed our families and it sounds
so cliche but really has transformed our
family and and how how do when you
returned what was different how did you
feel transfer Wow the return has been a
difficult when the kids actually
it was great because no matter where we
went it was a new normal for them and
they they jumped into every situation as
if it was perfectly natural you know and
it was for us as parents to sort of pull
back from constantly saying do you see
those children who have no shoes or do
you see that their house is made of mud
or cow dung or whatever and how
different that is from home we tried not
to do that because we quickly realized
that they were seeing the world with
fresh eyes they had no preconceived
ideas of what it meant to be any person
or of any nationality and actually
standing back and watching them go
really helped to change the way we saw
the world yeah and what did you learn
about your kids what what super secret
skills yeah it discovered that they have
apart from being able to sleep anywhere
anyway did you discover um well we
discovered that we left home with a
picky eater oh so we left home with a
child who that would be yeah you think
we left him with a child who didn’t like
food to touch only like things of
certain colors was very particular about
textures and who went out on the road
came back with a child who will eat
almost any kind of seafood loves all
foods is in love with Indian curries and
thai foods and he really he really
transformed in cameron who was very shy
when we left home has found his voice
leschi now um you know because you’re
out there and they realized very quickly
that we were only in spots for a certain
amount of time and that if they were
gonna make friends they had to make
friends fast and so you know they’d land
in a spot and literally take off running
for the other kids as hi I’m Cameron
nice to meet you wanna play let’s go my
parents could be here any moment we got
to get this thing on the road you know
so they they they really blossomed out
there which was fun for us to watch we
got to stand back and watch that happen
Thailand was memorable it’s not every
day you get to wash an elephant but it
was really memorable also because they
although this is part of the elephant
hills tend to camp program and you go
out and you get to know the elephant a
little bit in wash it and what have you
and we did that with others as a group
but near the end of the day as we were
all packing up Tilly
ethan hung back and we turned around and
we saw Ethan had standing in front of
this massive elephant had both hands
placed like this his eyes shut right up
close to the elephant on the elephant’s
forehead um and we were just all sort of
taken aback I thought this thing could
crush but he felt such a connection with
that elephant and was so at peace and I
thought this is this is why we’re doing
this this is what we want we want them
to realize how important everything on
this planet is and so we’ve walked in
the streets of Cairo and we went into a
mud bath in Columbia and you know
stripped down to the skivvies and got
into this volcanic mud you know and and
stood really bear out there and learn so
much about ourselves and about these
countries and what did you tell their
teachers they were doing well business
actually their teachers were very
supportive I have to say I keep
describing them as my greatest
experiment because already we’re seeing
that things that they’ve learned on the
trip are filtering into their education
at home for example Cameron was learning
about Egypt this year and he stood in
front of King Tut’s tomb so he’s it all
sort of came full circle for him and I
really feel like that’s just gonna
continue as years go it’s our
globe-trotting mamma.com
so I’m kind of hoping our next traveler
is going to ride a skateboard up here
but he’s not going to because he’s being
polite this is Booker Mitchell everyone
so Booker is a Manhattan high schoolers
15 years old and he teamed up with his
filmmaker mom to write film and produce
a travel web series that presents the
world from the perspective of a teenager
for a teenage audience his parents
including his mom Tonya cipriano and his
father Curtis are here right now and I
hope they stand so Booker uses his
skateboard as a cultural tool for
meeting new people he explores foreign
places on four wheels along the way
Booker meets kids from Spain Nicaragua
and the Brazilian Amazon and he learns
firsthand about food music geography and
local cultures his show booker travels
is viewable online at booker travels
calm so thanks for being here Booker so
your show has a motto and what is that
motto live life outside because it’s
just really like besides it being a show
it didn’t really start as us wanting to
make a show for everybody like it
started off as so my moms like a
documentary filmmaker and wherever we go
she’d take a camera with her and she’d
like film me traveling and both my
parents come from like very exotic
backgrounds we visit my dad’s family in
Hawaii even though he’s from Long Island
good good geography and then we’d visit
my mom’s family in San Francisco and
California and Brazil and like going to
all those places from a very young age I
got to see the world and she does bring
a camera with her and I think that it
slowly turned into something where since
she had the footage like she just edit
it to show her family and friends like
about like what we did kind of any other
family does I guess haven’t
yeah you tell ya but uh but we can
decide we’ve got a little video clip
yeah it turned into like where we
realized we had something special where
it wasn’t like every other travel show
going to a museum and like just doing
what everybody does it was more showing
the world through like a kid dies and
what was really like why we want it like
why those places were like special and
what there was to do like that an adult
or anybody else like didn’t really see
and I think that yeah it’s something
that there really isn’t at all in the
world like for teenagers to see well
let’s check out a video
my dream for several years has been to
go to Spain and watch my favorite soccer
team play I love Barcelona Football Club
my first trip with poker travels is to
Barcelona a place I really wanted to go
because of FC Barcelona because of the
city’s great music and food because it’s
a popular city for skateboarding one of
my passions
my skateboarding in Barcelona did is the
idea to include sports in my episodes it
worked out great taking something you
love on your trip helps you connect with
the places you visit and the locals how
am I spotting here my little bitch in my
room and I just open my door I’ll do
what I have
as of today Booker travels has taken
audiences to the American Southwest
Barcelona Brazilian Amazon and nicaragua
in 2013 we’re starting the new year by
exploring Montauk in San Francisco we
keep going in audience evolving as a
show alright my friend like that can tie
it behind your back as thin as you can
okay like making a pizza
neyo can be graffiti or it’s basically
just art on this play so where are we
right now we are standing on the two and
half acre living roof on top of the
California Academy of Sciences I think
traveling makes people think and change
for the better I really just want to
encourage people to get out the house
you do things they wouldn’t normally do
my goal is to keep traveling and
hopefully inspire some kids to get off
the computer and live life outside well
done good thank you I don’t know you
might be the next celebrity after all
what’s the difference between a traveler
and a tourist and how do you become more
of the former and less of the latter um
being a traveler is putting yourself in
like positions that you don’t normally
find yourself in and that’s why I think
like a lot of people say that you can’t
really be like a traveler within like
you like oh like i’ll have the money out
of the time like you can be a traveler
like within your own like city even just
like trying things that you don’t that
you can’t do like on an everyday basis
and putting yourself in positions that
like like going to Columbia or something
that people might say like don’t do that
that’s dangerous but when you do it
you’ll be able to come home and like
tell stories that will make people say
like wow that’s quick like even before i
went to san francisco in december we
went out to eat like before i left my
dad because he can go i went to this
restaurant and like in New York I like
that was like one of the craziest
experiences we had again one meal we had
sea urchin like ross sea urchin razor
clams and octopus and i was like the
entire meal and just that within itself
even though i was like two blocks away
from our house is like what makes a
traveler traveler and Lee yeah thank you
very much Booker thank you’re a super
traveler
so now as Monty Python might say for
something completely different we’ve got
there on Humphrey so if Iran is a man of
adventure and he’s a traveler’s traveler
he’s originally from coastal north
carolina and it was there that it got a
wild idea he did an audio interview with
his grandfather to capture some family
stories that might otherwise get
forgotten after he did this he thought
to himself wow you know this is this
everyone has a story to tell and so he
turned to Kickstarter online and he
raised $15,000 to take his show on the
road he set off for a year where he met
photographed and recorded the life story
of a new person every single day and he
did this always with his dog Maddie at
his side so over 365 days he visited
every US state he traveled 66,000 miles
he took 90 thousand photographs and then
he published these stories online at his
website this wild idea calm and then he
also managed at the same time to write a
book with Maddie’s help so thank you
there I’m for being here at you so what
inspired this is this wild idea and how
did you how did you go from idea to the
road right you hit on one of the points
but three things were going on my life
one was burned out on corporate life I
went to school for photography but I got
to this place where I was working 60
hours a week in the photo studio
shooting handbags from China like that I
just didn’t feel like need to exist
another handbag to I travel back to
North Carolina I did photograph my
granddad and when I returned to Idaho
where I was living he passed away so
literally in a heartbeat all those
images I took of him became more
valuable so now one day when I have kids
I’ll be able to show them be like hey
this is your granddad this is his story
and the third thing was a really bad
relationship ended and the greatest
catalyst in human history is a broken
heart to go do something new
and the idea was like so simple like
what if i just go meet and photograph
and celebrate people’s lives everyday
folks like my granddad with the idea of
creating work that would become more
valuable over time to give them that
same slice of a gift that I got now that
I have images of him because you can’t
go photograph my granddad again right
like I I photographed him like you can’t
like he’s left us so what if what if I
extended that a bunch of people around
the country that I you know hope to meet
and so this is a snap of your homepage
and this is a grid of people just a few
of the 365 people you met last year tell
me a memorable story or someone you
really thought you learned a lot from
yeah this so about half the people I
photographed I just walked up to and
shook their hand which for me makes me
really uncomfortable I don’t know about
y’all if you’re a photographer an image
maker but for me like my inside of my
stomach churns and that’s a key to me
these days I’m doing something right so
if i don’t like i can take now that i’m
a great landscape photographer but
shooting the sunset doesn’t make me feel
uncomfortable right so walking up to
people are asking them to hey like i
love you you exist tell me your story
makes me uncomfortable the other half of
the people that have photographed signed
up on my website so they like raised
their hand so i want to create this
photo project that was less boyer istic
people could actually follow it they
could be a part of it they can change
this direction because like the website
was updated every single day over this
past year and the one story that really
sticks with me it’s gino he was 101 101
years old he was a gay man that actually
fled Nazi Germany to avoid persecution
and you know how does like a white kid
from like a small farm like meet this
guy and it’s like the amazing thing
about the Internet is this really nice
girl around my same age actually lives
next to him in the apartment complex and
she’s like hey when you come through
seattle you gotta go knock on Gina’s
door so I show up is my camera I’m like
hey Gina like I heard you’re amazing
he’s like come on in
he doesn’t he doesn’t speak like that
whatever dog we like voices hey it’s
theater yeah so what have you learned
what are some of your takeaway lessons
right yeah um one that you can survive
on very little so you know what I was
shooting product photography I was
making a fair living this is funny thing
like when you’re like in that world of a
job in the corporate world like for me
like I can never never saved anything
and just like you know had an apartment
and builds um but I lived this year all
fifteen thousand dollars so like I was
well below the poverty level but man I
was so fulfilled my soul as I sit here
right now is so full because I point my
camera at what I love and that is like
the biggest payment in life to get a
create what I think is valuable because
that this project it existed outside the
commercial market look you’re not going
to this is me photographing a surfboard
maker in Hawaii you’re not going to see
these like photographs is advertising
they speak a totally different language
and you know I think this were like a
really just fell in love with life this
past year it’s amazing travelers of the
year is an ongoing initiative and I hope
that you all visit us online spend time
there think of travelers that you admire
or think of yourself send us your
nominations because we can’t wait to
have you up on stage next year so thank
you
Oh
celebrate intrepid individuals who
inspires all the take on the world
travel is our opportunity to put a stamp
on the world and to have the world put
his stamp on us our travelers of the
year people could did just that within
every traveler beats the heart of an
explorer hello and welcome thank you all
for being with us here tonight my name
is George stone and I’m a National
Geographic Traveler editor at large it’s
a real honor to have the opportunity to
introduce to you four of our travelers
of the year these are amazing
individuals who travel with passion and
purpose and they’re here tonight to tell
us their story the four people we’re
about to meet our boundary breaking
change making individuals who remind us
that we all have the power to reach
beyond the bubble of our daily lives to
learn from locals and far-flung places
and to create new opportunities to
improve our planet and ourselves so now
fellow explorers let’s meet a few
travelers of the year I’m going to this
is my prices right moment so I’m going
to walk over our first traveler of the
year is Paula Busey and Paula hello
paula is a librarian of Thunder Ridge
High School in highlands park colorado
while on a safari trip in tanzania a few
years ago she befriended the University
educated Messiah his safari guide named
Sam well malawi langa dermal L they’re
really connected they kept in touch
Paula eventually formed a partnership
with Sam well to get his Messiah owned
and operated safari business off the
ground she and her school held bake
sales to raise microcredit loans to
support his new business and then she
invited him back to her school in
colorado to teach the students there
about other lands cultures and ways of
life so this cross-cultural exchange
has now been ongoing for three years and
we’re very happy to have Paula here
Thank You Paula how did your friendship
with Sam welcome about well it was
pretty much instantaneous he met us
right off the plane in arusha and he was
our safari guide and just going from the
airport in arusha the Kilimanjaro
airport to the hotel we found out he was
Maasai and my eyes were just wow I
couldn’t believe it and he was just the
most eloquent person I’ve met and within
just you know a 30 minute drive we’d
learned so much about the culture the
challenges that his tribe was facing and
it was just the beginning then we got to
spend you know full week with him and it
really felt like I had taken you know a
year-long course in Maasai culture and
ethnobotany and oh so is so rich for me
and our school is in its Highlands Ranch
Colorado the kids there it’s an affluent
suburb south of Denver the kids
themselves refer to it as the Highlands
Ranch bubble when they think of Africa
they thought of Darfur or maybe some of
the problems in South Africa but here i
just knew Sam wells so in love with with
Tanzania with the Serengeti within girl
girl critter and he’s just so brilliant
fluent in five languages I knew that if
they could meet him they would have a
very different idea of Tanzania of
Africa of Africans that this is actually
you know a paradise so we actually sold
jewelry today to raise money for no
sorry’s not big sale well I’m not good
at that okay well I’m not there either
jewelry’s better that’s higher and also
he just connects with kids I mean he’s
phenomenal so just a charismatic person
in an amazing educator so so what were
some of the activities that Samwell did
with the students to help share a bit
about his world he actually was able to
really tailor of the various
presentations based on actually the
subject area of the classes that came in
so when the science classes came in he
was able to talk a lot about some of the
big challenges the Maasai are facing
with some of the diseases that are pests
born or what’s happening with water and
climate change is can be incredibly
devastating to the Messiah with the art
classes he was teaching them how to do
Masai face painting but always teaching
them at the same time about that
cultural for instance he would not face
paint with any of the girls because uh
that’s just out in almost a taboo but
then teaching them how to dance the
Masai dances taught the boys a lot of
that the chanting songs and you could
just see these these young men who are
you know a little spoiled I don’t know
what that’s the right word but they’re
hard to impress and they were just
captivated oh here there’s a picture of
him creating fire in the library and you
know these are kids who are so connected
and wired to every device known to man
but to see this man create fire out of
two sticks was about the most amazing
thing they’d ever seen could could the
students in your school imagine what it
was like before Sam well to grow up yeah
he did a wonderful job talking about
that and that was interesting my school
is rather affluent but we also went to
some inner-city schools in Aurora
Colorado another suburb that has a lot
of refugees and in all cases they heard
about the age sets of the Masai and how
a teenage boy goes through some very
intense rites of passage the sm well
also talked about for fun he and his
friends would go out chasing hyenas
until they turned around and started
chasing them and then they run back but
that was so captivating to them some of
the boys said why don’t we have any
rights of passage that’s right after
hearing about samwell’s circumcision at
age 17 but you know it spoke to them and
that he just connected with them on such
a primal archetypal basis that you could
just see all of the boys whether
affluent or incredibly poor they just
they connected on a very visceral level
I think so it was amazing I think the
boys want to find there
inner Messiah and that is a very
protective place like warriors in their
teens they become the protectors of the
villages they are masters of their
environment and they have such an
important purpose to the tribe but our
our boys not so much you know their
purpose is to get that good a CT or s80
score you know it and they want that
inner Masai yeah they want that life we
need it our kids are our kids are kind
of turned into numbers when you look at
all the scores they have to compete for
and they want something very different
something more primal and what does Sam
well tell you he brings back to Tanzania
well he he brought back a lot of love I
felt like I was like a roadie for you
know a rock star it was so loved every
school he went to um you know he was
shocked the Colorado had so many wide
open spaces but I think he was kind of
just amazed at the outpouring of love
and and of course he was giving it back
right away I mean but i think he was
surprised he just would say to my school
that he didn’t understand that we really
are all one family and because he
treated us like we were his family you
know it just it was really a priceless
gift for for me and for all of the kids
of my family Thank You Paula very much
so our next traveler of the year is a
fearless mother a tireless traveler and
in a way that I think Washingtonians
will understand a recovering lawyer
let’s welcome Heather Greenwood Davis to
the stage
uh a little more than a year ago Heather
and her husband ish yanked their two
young sons Ethan and Cameron out of
school for a year on an around-the-world
adventure since her family faithfully
follows mom wherever she goes they’re
here with us tonight all three of them
so please stand ish Ethan and Cameron
from their home in Toronto the family
attract bears and british columbia blue
footed boobies in the galapagos pandas
in china and zebras and namibia they
watched World Cup rugby in New Zealand
they played checkers in Tanzania all
told the family spent 12 months on the
road that they visited 29 countries and
you can read about the entire trip on
globe-trotting mamma.com there’s a site
blog and and and report of the journey
so thank you for being with us thank you
s’okay your friends think you’re crazy
yes hey are you crazy um probably a
little bit you know like I think it it
probably took a little bit of crazy to
get up and get out there um but I think
it made us sane doing it so there’s that
too where do you get the idea how did
you how did you approach this idea of
taking the kids away from school of
putting your careers on hiatus to tackle
the world yeah it was that important to
us we really wanted to show these kids
that you know the world was their
neighborhood that they could have access
to more than was right beside them and
my husband and I both having grown up in
different parts of the city but in the
same sort of sheltered kind of
upbringing knew from our own travels
that we wanted for our kids something
bigger and so we did it we it really
wasn’t there wasn’t a whole lot of
planning didn’t do it there probably
should have been planning that went into
it um but it really it really has
transformed our families and it sounds
so cliche but really has transformed our
family and and how how do when you
returned what was different how did you
feel transfer Wow the return has been a
difficult when the kids actually
it was great because no matter where we
went it was a new normal for them and
they they jumped into every situation as
if it was perfectly natural you know and
it was for us as parents to sort of pull
back from constantly saying do you see
those children who have no shoes or do
you see that their house is made of mud
or cow dung or whatever and how
different that is from home we tried not
to do that because we quickly realized
that they were seeing the world with
fresh eyes they had no preconceived
ideas of what it meant to be any person
or of any nationality and actually
standing back and watching them go
really helped to change the way we saw
the world yeah and what did you learn
about your kids what what super secret
skills yeah it discovered that they have
apart from being able to sleep anywhere
anyway did you discover um well we
discovered that we left home with a
picky eater oh so we left home with a
child who that would be yeah you think
we left him with a child who didn’t like
food to touch only like things of
certain colors was very particular about
textures and who went out on the road
came back with a child who will eat
almost any kind of seafood loves all
foods is in love with Indian curries and
thai foods and he really he really
transformed in cameron who was very shy
when we left home has found his voice
leschi now um you know because you’re
out there and they realized very quickly
that we were only in spots for a certain
amount of time and that if they were
gonna make friends they had to make
friends fast and so you know they’d land
in a spot and literally take off running
for the other kids as hi I’m Cameron
nice to meet you wanna play let’s go my
parents could be here any moment we got
to get this thing on the road you know
so they they they really blossomed out
there which was fun for us to watch we
got to stand back and watch that happen
Thailand was memorable it’s not every
day you get to wash an elephant but it
was really memorable also because they
although this is part of the elephant
hills tend to camp program and you go
out and you get to know the elephant a
little bit in wash it and what have you
and we did that with others as a group
but near the end of the day as we were
all packing up Tilly
ethan hung back and we turned around and
we saw Ethan had standing in front of
this massive elephant had both hands
placed like this his eyes shut right up
close to the elephant on the elephant’s
forehead um and we were just all sort of
taken aback I thought this thing could
crush but he felt such a connection with
that elephant and was so at peace and I
thought this is this is why we’re doing
this this is what we want we want them
to realize how important everything on
this planet is and so we’ve walked in
the streets of Cairo and we went into a
mud bath in Columbia and you know
stripped down to the skivvies and got
into this volcanic mud you know and and
stood really bear out there and learn so
much about ourselves and about these
countries and what did you tell their
teachers they were doing well business
actually their teachers were very
supportive I have to say I keep
describing them as my greatest
experiment because already we’re seeing
that things that they’ve learned on the
trip are filtering into their education
at home for example Cameron was learning
about Egypt this year and he stood in
front of King Tut’s tomb so he’s it all
sort of came full circle for him and I
really feel like that’s just gonna
continue as years go it’s our
globe-trotting mamma.com
so I’m kind of hoping our next traveler
is going to ride a skateboard up here
but he’s not going to because he’s being
polite this is Booker Mitchell everyone
so Booker is a Manhattan high schoolers
15 years old and he teamed up with his
filmmaker mom to write film and produce
a travel web series that presents the
world from the perspective of a teenager
for a teenage audience his parents
including his mom Tonya cipriano and his
father Curtis are here right now and I
hope they stand so Booker uses his
skateboard as a cultural tool for
meeting new people he explores foreign
places on four wheels along the way
Booker meets kids from Spain Nicaragua
and the Brazilian Amazon and he learns
firsthand about food music geography and
local cultures his show booker travels
is viewable online at booker travels
calm so thanks for being here Booker so
your show has a motto and what is that
motto live life outside because it’s
just really like besides it being a show
it didn’t really start as us wanting to
make a show for everybody like it
started off as so my moms like a
documentary filmmaker and wherever we go
she’d take a camera with her and she’d
like film me traveling and both my
parents come from like very exotic
backgrounds we visit my dad’s family in
Hawaii even though he’s from Long Island
good good geography and then we’d visit
my mom’s family in San Francisco and
California and Brazil and like going to
all those places from a very young age I
got to see the world and she does bring
a camera with her and I think that it
slowly turned into something where since
she had the footage like she just edit
it to show her family and friends like
about like what we did kind of any other
family does I guess haven’t
yeah you tell ya but uh but we can
decide we’ve got a little video clip
yeah it turned into like where we
realized we had something special where
it wasn’t like every other travel show
going to a museum and like just doing
what everybody does it was more showing
the world through like a kid dies and
what was really like why we want it like
why those places were like special and
what there was to do like that an adult
or anybody else like didn’t really see
and I think that yeah it’s something
that there really isn’t at all in the
world like for teenagers to see well
let’s check out a video
my dream for several years has been to
go to Spain and watch my favorite soccer
team play I love Barcelona Football Club
my first trip with poker travels is to
Barcelona a place I really wanted to go
because of FC Barcelona because of the
city’s great music and food because it’s
a popular city for skateboarding one of
my passions
my skateboarding in Barcelona did is the
idea to include sports in my episodes it
worked out great taking something you
love on your trip helps you connect with
the places you visit and the locals how
am I spotting here my little bitch in my
room and I just open my door I’ll do
what I have
as of today Booker travels has taken
audiences to the American Southwest
Barcelona Brazilian Amazon and nicaragua
in 2013 we’re starting the new year by
exploring Montauk in San Francisco we
keep going in audience evolving as a
show alright my friend like that can tie
it behind your back as thin as you can
okay like making a pizza
neyo can be graffiti or it’s basically
just art on this play so where are we
right now we are standing on the two and
half acre living roof on top of the
California Academy of Sciences I think
traveling makes people think and change
for the better I really just want to
encourage people to get out the house
you do things they wouldn’t normally do
my goal is to keep traveling and
hopefully inspire some kids to get off
the computer and live life outside well
done good thank you I don’t know you
might be the next celebrity after all
what’s the difference between a traveler
and a tourist and how do you become more
of the former and less of the latter um
being a traveler is putting yourself in
like positions that you don’t normally
find yourself in and that’s why I think
like a lot of people say that you can’t
really be like a traveler within like
you like oh like i’ll have the money out
of the time like you can be a traveler
like within your own like city even just
like trying things that you don’t that
you can’t do like on an everyday basis
and putting yourself in positions that
like like going to Columbia or something
that people might say like don’t do that
that’s dangerous but when you do it
you’ll be able to come home and like
tell stories that will make people say
like wow that’s quick like even before i
went to san francisco in december we
went out to eat like before i left my
dad because he can go i went to this
restaurant and like in New York I like
that was like one of the craziest
experiences we had again one meal we had
sea urchin like ross sea urchin razor
clams and octopus and i was like the
entire meal and just that within itself
even though i was like two blocks away
from our house is like what makes a
traveler traveler and Lee yeah thank you
very much Booker thank you’re a super
traveler
so now as Monty Python might say for
something completely different we’ve got
there on Humphrey so if Iran is a man of
adventure and he’s a traveler’s traveler
he’s originally from coastal north
carolina and it was there that it got a
wild idea he did an audio interview with
his grandfather to capture some family
stories that might otherwise get
forgotten after he did this he thought
to himself wow you know this is this
everyone has a story to tell and so he
turned to Kickstarter online and he
raised $15,000 to take his show on the
road he set off for a year where he met
photographed and recorded the life story
of a new person every single day and he
did this always with his dog Maddie at
his side so over 365 days he visited
every US state he traveled 66,000 miles
he took 90 thousand photographs and then
he published these stories online at his
website this wild idea calm and then he
also managed at the same time to write a
book with Maddie’s help so thank you
there I’m for being here at you so what
inspired this is this wild idea and how
did you how did you go from idea to the
road right you hit on one of the points
but three things were going on my life
one was burned out on corporate life I
went to school for photography but I got
to this place where I was working 60
hours a week in the photo studio
shooting handbags from China like that I
just didn’t feel like need to exist
another handbag to I travel back to
North Carolina I did photograph my
granddad and when I returned to Idaho
where I was living he passed away so
literally in a heartbeat all those
images I took of him became more
valuable so now one day when I have kids
I’ll be able to show them be like hey
this is your granddad this is his story
and the third thing was a really bad
relationship ended and the greatest
catalyst in human history is a broken
heart to go do something new
and the idea was like so simple like
what if i just go meet and photograph
and celebrate people’s lives everyday
folks like my granddad with the idea of
creating work that would become more
valuable over time to give them that
same slice of a gift that I got now that
I have images of him because you can’t
go photograph my granddad again right
like I I photographed him like you can’t
like he’s left us so what if what if I
extended that a bunch of people around
the country that I you know hope to meet
and so this is a snap of your homepage
and this is a grid of people just a few
of the 365 people you met last year tell
me a memorable story or someone you
really thought you learned a lot from
yeah this so about half the people I
photographed I just walked up to and
shook their hand which for me makes me
really uncomfortable I don’t know about
y’all if you’re a photographer an image
maker but for me like my inside of my
stomach churns and that’s a key to me
these days I’m doing something right so
if i don’t like i can take now that i’m
a great landscape photographer but
shooting the sunset doesn’t make me feel
uncomfortable right so walking up to
people are asking them to hey like i
love you you exist tell me your story
makes me uncomfortable the other half of
the people that have photographed signed
up on my website so they like raised
their hand so i want to create this
photo project that was less boyer istic
people could actually follow it they
could be a part of it they can change
this direction because like the website
was updated every single day over this
past year and the one story that really
sticks with me it’s gino he was 101 101
years old he was a gay man that actually
fled Nazi Germany to avoid persecution
and you know how does like a white kid
from like a small farm like meet this
guy and it’s like the amazing thing
about the Internet is this really nice
girl around my same age actually lives
next to him in the apartment complex and
she’s like hey when you come through
seattle you gotta go knock on Gina’s
door so I show up is my camera I’m like
hey Gina like I heard you’re amazing
he’s like come on in
he doesn’t he doesn’t speak like that
whatever dog we like voices hey it’s
theater yeah so what have you learned
what are some of your takeaway lessons
right yeah um one that you can survive
on very little so you know what I was
shooting product photography I was
making a fair living this is funny thing
like when you’re like in that world of a
job in the corporate world like for me
like I can never never saved anything
and just like you know had an apartment
and builds um but I lived this year all
fifteen thousand dollars so like I was
well below the poverty level but man I
was so fulfilled my soul as I sit here
right now is so full because I point my
camera at what I love and that is like
the biggest payment in life to get a
create what I think is valuable because
that this project it existed outside the
commercial market look you’re not going
to this is me photographing a surfboard
maker in Hawaii you’re not going to see
these like photographs is advertising
they speak a totally different language
and you know I think this were like a
really just fell in love with life this
past year it’s amazing travelers of the
year is an ongoing initiative and I hope
that you all visit us online spend time
there think of travelers that you admire
or think of yourself send us your
nominations because we can’t wait to
have you up on stage next year so thank
you
Oh
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