Remote Tourism

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these account," said Mark Twain, with prescient insight. He spoke in a different era, however, and as human technology has developed to the degree that virtually every spot on the globe is accessible (with the right resources), it may be time to reexamine how, and why, we travel. What are the consequences, and are there detriments to the practice that might negate the benefits to the travelers themselves? In this episode, we discuss Mt Everest, the Galapagos, the issue of auctioned hunting safaris, and the story of Flavio de Silva, the Brazilian favela resident who acquired global fame in the 1970s, thanks to Time Magazine, photographer Gordon Parks, and the trend of slum tourism.