Charleston with Lisette Austin: DNA travel, family reunions, and the challenges of tracing Black genealogy in America

This week Esme is speaking with Lisette Austin, host of the award-winning podcast, The Globetrotter Lounge, which features diverse women sharing their most creative ways to travel. Lisette is best known for her travel hacking expertise – skills she shares in her online course, "Jetset 101: Becoming a Travel Hacker" – but it's her personal passion for DNA travel that she is sharing with us today. Lisette is an adoptee from Seattle, who, with the help of consumer DNA testing, managed to track down her birth parents. The experience of delving into her roots inspired Lisette to explore her family geography, traveling to the places her biological ancestors lived hundreds of years ago. In this episode, Lisette tells the story of a family reunion in Charleston, South Carolina, an experience that stirred complex emotions as she grappled with family stories, Black history, the immigrant experience, and the integration of her own identity in light of everything she was learning and experiencing. Check out Lisette's website https://jetsetlisette.com and visit travelingmyroots.com to learn about her current DNA project and sign up for the substack email newsletter. Learn more about Full-Time Travel by visiting https://www.fulltimetravel.co/ and follow us on Instagram @full_time_travel. Be sure to rate, review, and follow so that you don’t miss out on travel tips, inspiration, and your potential next adventure! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.