Does travel actually broaden the mind? episode artwork

EPISODE · Jun 13, 2026 · 44 MIN

Does travel actually broaden the mind?

from The New Statesman Podcast, Subscriber Only Edition

"The traveller sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see."   Andrea Wulf joins us to discuss her new book The Traveller, about George Forster - the forgotten naturalist who sailed with Captain James Cook at seventeen and came back convinced of something radical: that all human beings are equal.   We ask why that idea was so scandalous in the Enlightenment, why Forster has been largely written out of history, and whether travel really does broaden the mind - or whether, as G.K. Chesterton suggested, it might do the opposite.

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Does travel actually broaden the mind?

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This episode is 44 minutes long.

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This episode was published on June 13, 2026.

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"The traveller sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see."   Andrea Wulf joins us to discuss her new book The Traveller, about George Forster - the forgotten naturalist who sailed with Captain James Cook at seventeen and came back...

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