welcome to part 3 of a series all about modern day colonialism (aka neocolonialism) within travel!
on this episode you’ll learn:
* how we objectify cultures if we are unaware
* cultural appropriation vs. appreciation
* cultural commodification and examples in travel
find the full article here
thank you entering this conversation with an open-mind to becoming a better traveler :)
━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━
connect with me here :)
Instagram:
✨ @lydiaschultzz
https://www.instagram.com/lydiaschultzz/
✨ @gottacaseofwanderust
https://www.instagram.com/gottacaseofwanderlust?igsh=MTJjZ2p6bWZpdXBrYw%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
✨Travel Blog:
gottacaseofwanderlust.com
Aishola was born and raised in Kyrgyzstan, specifically the northern part of Kyrgyzstan in a town called Karakol. She currently lives in Bishkek, which is the capital of Kyrgyz Republic.
Aishola is also the founder of Travel Atelier & Production 4274°, in which she leads conscious-oriented tours and assists with documentary filming in Central Asia.
on this episode, we chat about:
* what it’s like to live and grow up in Kyrgyzstan
* Aishola’s solo travel adventures on her bike
* Travel advice and recommendations to know before visiting Kyrgyzstan
featured questions:
1. What makes Kyrgyzstan distinct from other parts of Central Asia?
2. What was it like growing up in Karakol?
3. What recommendations/advice do you have for people traveling to Kyrgyzstan? Specifically, solo female travelers?
4. Can you talk more about solo bikepacking and completing the Silk Road Mountain Race?
5. What’s your take on responsible tourism in Kyrgyzstan?
━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━
connect with Aishola here!
✨ Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/aishoolaaisaeva?igsh=dGZ0bzgxNXczbjlw
━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━
connect with me here :)
Instagram:
✨ @lydiaschultzz
https://www.instagram.com/lydiaschultzz/
✨ @gottacaseofwanderust
https://www.instagram.com/gottacaseofwanderlust?igsh=MTJjZ2p6bWZpdXBrYw%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
✨Travel Blog:
gottacaseofwanderlust.com
✨Travel Guides:
https://www.thatch.co/@gottacaseofwanderlust
━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━
welcome to part 2 of a series all about modern day colonialism (aka neocolonialism) within travel!
on this episode you’ll learn:
* the “bucket-list mentality”
* an intro to unequal power dynamics and why you should be aware of your privileges
* the dark side of voluntourism… are you unintentionally guilty of the “savior complex”?
find the full article here
thank you entering this conversation with an open-mind to becoming a better traveler :)
━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━
connect with me here :)
Instagram:
✨ @lydiaschultzz
https://www.instagram.com/lydiaschultzz/
✨ @gottacaseofwanderust
https://www.instagram.com/gottacaseofwanderlust?igsh=MTJjZ2p6bWZpdXBrYw%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
✨Travel Blog:
gottacaseofwanderlust.com
welcome to part 1 of a series all about modern day colonialism (aka neocolonialism) within travel!
on this episode you’ll learn:
* what is neocolonialism?
* how does it affect traveling?
* what’s the importance of supporting local anyway?
* the issue of gentrification
find the full article here
thank you entering this conversation with an open-mind to becoming a better traveler :)
━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━
connect with me here :)
Instagram:
✨ @lydiaschultzz
https://www.instagram.com/lydiaschultzz/
✨ @gottacaseofwanderust
https://www.instagram.com/gottacaseofwanderlust?igsh=MTJjZ2p6bWZpdXBrYw%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
✨Travel Blog:
gottacaseofwanderlust.com
interviewing random people in the iconic Washington Square Park on 4th of July… here’s what they think would make the world better :)
Karen and I are back with part 2 of our conversation from last episode where we discussed Karen’s experience growing up in Nigeria, living abroad Ukraine, Germany and now Portugal, and we are continuing our discussion about hot travel takes today.
on this episode, we chat about:
- the dark side of travel — racism and colonialism*
- cultural exoticism/fetishization
- voluntourism and how it’s problematic
*disclaimer: Karen and I are NOT experts on this topic, and our intention isn’t to “school” anyone, blame, or shame — but rather start a dialogue about travel topics that aren’t really talked about.
*this is PART 1 of a 2-part conversation with Karen :)
featured questions:
1. What is implicit racism and how have you experienced it?
2. How does racism start, and how does it manifest in the travel industry?
3. Why are things such as cultural appropriation and exoticism/fetishization such big problems and how can you avoid them yourself?
━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━
connect with Karen here!
✨ Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/kirukayaking?igsh=MXU3Z3R1eDh5ejFweA==
━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━
connect with me here :)
Instagram:
✨ @lydiaschultzz
https://www.instagram.com/lydiaschultzz/
✨ @gottacaseofwanderust
https://www.instagram.com/gottacaseofwanderlust?igsh=MTJjZ2p6bWZpdXBrYw%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
✨Travel Blog:
gottacaseofwanderlust.com
✨Travel Guides:
https://www.thatch.co/@gottacaseofwanderlust
━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━
please welcome our FIRST SEASON 5 GUEST: Karen Amadi !!
Karen was born and raised in Nigeria, and has lived abroad in different European cities since 2020 to pursue higher education.
Karen is now in Porto studying as a medical student where she has found a second home.
*this is PART 1 of a 2 part conversation with Karen :)
on this episode, we chat about:
- the multifaceted vibrancy of Nigeria’s culture
- Karen’s unfiltered experience of living abroad in different cities in Europe
- the best advice about moving abroad and finding community that EVERYONE needs to hear
- and much more!!
stay tuned for PART 2… 👀
featured questions:
━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━
connect with Karen here!
✨ Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/kirukayaking?igsh=MXU3Z3R1eDh5ejFweA==
━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━
connect with me here :)
Instagram:
✨ @lydiaschultzz
https://www.instagram.com/lydiaschultzz/
✨ @gottacaseofwanderust
https://www.instagram.com/gottacaseofwanderlust?igsh=MTJjZ2p6bWZpdXBrYw%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
✨Travel Blog:
gottacaseofwanderlust.com
✨Travel Guides:
https://www.thatch.co/@gottacaseofwanderlust
━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━
listen to how my travel opinions have changed since I first began solo traveling :)
*this is PART TWO of two episodes
read the full article version here:
https://gottacaseofwanderlust.com/2025/05/02/how-my-mindsets-about-travel-have-shifted-since-the-beginning/
welcome back and let’s kick off SEASON FIVE !!
I re-listened to my older podcast episodes and realized I don’t hold entirely the same opinions as I used to… so I’m calling out my past self and sharing what I think about travel now.
let me know your thoughts and I’m so excited to share this new podcast season with you !
mentioned:
* TripBFF
* NomadHer
━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━
connect with me here :)
Instagram:
✨ @lydiaschultzz
https://www.instagram.com/lydiaschultzz/
✨ @gottacaseofwanderust
https://www.instagram.com/gottacaseofwanderlust?igsh=MTJjZ2p6bWZpdXBrYw%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
✨Travel Blog:
gottacaseofwanderlust.com
✨Travel Guides:
https://www.thatch.co/@gottacaseofwanderlust
listen to how my travel opinions have changed since I first began solo traveling :)
*this is PART ONE of two episodes
read the full article version here:
https://gottacaseofwanderlust.com/2025/05/02/how-my-mindsets-about-travel-have-shifted-since-the-beginning/
welcome back and let’s kick off SEASON FIVE !!
I re-listened to my older podcast episodes and realized I don’t hold entirely the same opinions as I used to… so I’m calling out my past self and sharing what I think about travel now.
let me know your thoughts and I’m so excited to share this new podcast season with you !
mentioned:
* TripBFF
* NomadHer
━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━
connect with me here :)
Instagram:
✨ @lydiaschultzz
https://www.instagram.com/lydiaschultzz/
✨ @gottacaseofwanderust
https://www.instagram.com/gottacaseofwanderlust?igsh=MTJjZ2p6bWZpdXBrYw%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
✨Travel Blog:
gottacaseofwanderlust.com
✨Travel Guides:
https://www.thatch.co/@gottacaseofwanderlust
joy is your birthright !!
it’s NOT cringey to express your happiness — let’s feel every emotion to the fullest <3
Gi Shieh is a travel content creator known for her travel brand “The Sensible Fay” online.
Gi is a Taiwanese American passionate about mindful living, slow travel, outdoor adventures, and sustainable fashion, who is alternates between New York City and Taiwan for her home base.
on this episode, we chat about:
- Gi’s favorite places in Vietnam, Thailand, Taiwan and Italy
- benefits of slow travel
- how can we ensure we are shopping sustainably?
- and much more!!
featured questions:
1. On your blog, you feature 4 countries with jam-packed insider information for travelers — which are Vietnam, Taiwan, Thailand and Italy. Which country left the biggest impact on you?
2. Is there anything you wish you would’ve done differently on your trips?
3. Of the places you visited, where were the best beaches?
4. How has your traveling style and mindset changed since your first trips until now?
5. Why and how do you practice slow living in your travels?
6. Why is sustainable fashion such a huge passion for you and how does it leak into your travel experiences?
7. Do you think traveling is subversive or supportive to capitalism?
━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━
sustainable fashion database name:
https://directory.goodonyou.eco
connect with Gi here!
✨ Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/thesensiblefay?igsh=d2hkOXBzeDJsNG41
✨ Travel blog:
https://thesensiblefay.com/destinations
━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━
connect with me here :)
Instagram:
✨ @lydiaschultzz
https://www.instagram.com/lydiaschultzz/
✨ @gottacaseofwanderust
https://www.instagram.com/gottacaseofwanderlust?igsh=MTJjZ2p6bWZpdXBrYw%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
✨Travel Blog:
gottacaseofwanderlust.com
✨Travel Guides:
https://www.thatch.co/@gottacaseofwanderlust
━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━
Sequoia Armstrong is a conscious travel consultant and entrepreneur who is the founder of the travel planning organization Puebla York, and host of the Soul Wanderer podcast.
Puebla York designs custom travel experiences in Japan and Mexico centered around the principles of cultural connection, environmental sustainability, and conscious travel.
on this episode, we chat about:
- what is “conscious travel” and how do we implement it into our traveling?
- the true value of traveling solo, especially for women!
featured questions:
1. When did you become more intentional about “conscious travel,” and what exactly is it?
2. Have you always wanted to become a travel consultant? What was the inspiration behind “Puebla York” and can you share a little bit about the process of creating it?
3. What about Mexico and Japan specifically makes you want to devote your company around only these 2 countries?
4. How do we fight the feeling of FOMO when traveling?
5. Do you have any advice for “getting off the beaten path” in popular destinations?
6. If there’s 1 piece of actionable advice you’d like all travelers to implement into their experiences to make their trips more “conscious”, what would it be?
━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━
connect with Sequoia here!
✨ Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/pueblayorkinc?igsh=MWd4ODQ5eG45cGd6dQ==
✨ Puebla York:
https://www.pueblayorkinc.com
✨Soul Wanderer podcast
https://www.pueblayorkinc.com/podcast
━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━
connect with me here :)
Instagram:
✨ @lydiaschultzz
https://www.instagram.com/lydiaschultzz/
✨ @gottacaseofwanderust
https://www.instagram.com/gottacaseofwanderlust?igsh=MTJjZ2p6bWZpdXBrYw%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
✨Travel Blog:
gottacaseofwanderlust.com
✨Travel Guides:
https://www.thatch.co/@gottacaseofwanderlust
━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━
Shania Stewart, who also goes by Kya, who was born in South Africa but raised in Switzerland.
Kya started backpacking when she was 18 after deciding to take a gap year before university.
Since then, she has solo traveled to dozens of countries — Scotland being one of her favorites.
on this episode, we chat about:
- the value of taking a gap year
- travel tips before visiting to Scotland
- meeting people while solo traveling
featured questions:
1. What would you say to those hesitant about taking a gap year?
2. How did you spend your gap years and what were some of your favorite involvements?
3. For first time travelers to Scotland, where are the best places to visit and what should they know beforehand?
━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━
name of hostels mentioned:
connect with Kya here!
✨ Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/shaniatstewart?igsh=MWF6bXEwY3QxMW5keA==
✨ Travel guides:
https://www.thatch.co/@shaniastewart
━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━
connect with me here :)
Instagram:
✨ @lydiaschultzz
https://www.instagram.com/lydiaschultzz/
✨ @gottacaseofwanderust
https://www.instagram.com/gottacaseofwanderlust?igsh=MTJjZ2p6bWZpdXBrYw%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
✨Travel Blog:
gottacaseofwanderlust.com
✨Travel Guides:
https://www.thatch.co/@gottacaseofwanderlust
━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━
Ola is a solo female traveler from Poland but has been living abroad for the past 6 years in places like Germany and Denmark.
Ola has solo backpacked on the continents of South America, Europe and Asia and prioritizes off-the-beaten track places that sometimes Google Maps can’t even find.
on this episode, we chat about:
- hiking advice and safety tips for solo female travelers
- what to know before traveling to Patagonia
- Ola’s personal favorite hikes
- and much more!
featured questions:
1. You’ve hiked one of the most sought after hiking spots in the world — Patagonia, which I know is a dream for many. Can you share to other interested travelers any advice they should know beforehand?
2. What are some general safety tips for hiking off-the-beaten-path?
3. Do you have any advice specifically for solo female hikers?
4. Rapid fire round- hiking addition
━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━
name of one of Ola’s favorite hiking trails as mentioned:
Huayhuash, Perú
other trails mentioned:
- The highest mountain in Germany - Zugspitze
- Famous trek in Patagonia - W-trek in the National Park of Torres del Paine
- Patagonia logo mountain - Fitz Roy
connect with Ola here!
✨ Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/olaexploradora?igsh=dmp6MWo3OWlja2p5
✨ Travel guides:
https://www.thatch.co/@olaexploradora
━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━
connect with me here :)
Instagram:
✨ @lydiaschultzz
https://www.instagram.com/lydiaschultzz/
✨ @gottacaseofwanderust
https://www.instagram.com/gottacaseofwanderlust?igsh=MTJjZ2p6bWZpdXBrYw%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
✨Travel Blog:
gottacaseofwanderlust.com
✨Travel Guides:
https://www.thatch.co/@gottacaseofwanderlust
━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━
Ems is from the Philippines who is currently an international student in Estonia.
Ems is also a travel content creator with expertise in Southeast Asia, solo travel, and remote work.
on this episode, we chat about:
- shocks from living abroad in Estonia
- Estonian culture compared to other European countries
- Ems’ favorite countries in Asia
- and much more!
featured questions:
━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━
connect with Ems here!
✨ Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/emselsewhere?igsh=NXlobWczcDY5Nzlp
✨ Travel blog:
https://emselsewhere.my.canva.site/ugc#about
goneelsewhere.substack.com
✨ Travel guides
https://www.thatch.co/@emselsewhere
━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━
connect with me here :)
Instagram:
✨ @lydiaschultzz
https://www.instagram.com/lydiaschultzz/
✨ @gottacaseofwanderust
https://www.instagram.com/gottacaseofwanderlust?igsh=MTJjZ2p6bWZpdXBrYw%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
✨Travel Blog:
gottacaseofwanderlust.com
✨Travel Guides:
https://www.thatch.co/@gottacaseofwanderlust
━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━
Taylor Alissa spontaneously moved from the U.S. to Japan and is here to talk about her experience living abroad and solo traveling to other countries in Asia.
on this episode, we chat about:
- living abroad in Japan
- solo traveling to other Asian countries
- the surprising relation between Jamaica and Japan
featured questions:
1. Did you experience any cultural shocks in Japan?
2. How did you adjust to life in Japan?
3. Favorite foods in Japan?
4. Did your identity as a Jamaican American affect your experience?
━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━
connect with Taylor here!
✨ Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/theworldxtay?igsh=MXd4dmdoanZlbmE0bA==
✨ Travel guides:
https://www.thatch.co/@tayyalissa
━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━
connect with me here :)
Instagram:
✨ @lydiaschultzz
https://www.instagram.com/lydiaschultzz/
✨TikTok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@lydiaschultzz
✨Travel Blog:
gottacaseofwanderlust.com
✨Travel Guides:
https://www.thatch.co/@gottacaseofwanderlust
━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━
Kiran was raised in Kolkata, located on the Eastern side of India, and completed her MBA in Mumbai, one of India’s largest cities, on the west coast. Kiran is now living and working in Bengaluru, in southern India.
on this episode, we chat about:
- Kiran’s advice for solo travelers in India
- Cultural norms to be aware of in India
- India’s gastronomy: from the must-try dishes, street food, and regional differences
- and much more!
featured questions:
━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━
connect with Kiran here!
✨ Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/kiranroy18?igsh=d2t2cTRnOGZnbXhp
✨ Travel guides:
https://www.thatch.co/@travelwthki
━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━
connect with me here :)
Instagram:
✨ @lydiaschultzz
https://www.instagram.com/lydiaschultzz/
✨TikTok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@lydiaschultzz
✨Travel Blog:
gottacaseofwanderlust.com
✨Travel Guides:
https://www.thatch.co/@gottacaseofwanderlust
━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━
the day of love on all forms… most importantly self-love <3
Carolyn and I chat about our first year doing NALCAP (North American Language and Culture Assistant Program) in Madrid.
“Do it for the plot — but know your Spanish phrases.”
- Carolyn Parmer, English language aux 24-25 🙏
featured questions:
━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━
listen to the episode we recorded for Carolyn’s podcast here:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6JfWdZIDIUUWGIrnVqqDtV?si=lgzcTb96QbeiXnbA_TJINw
NALCAP:
https://www.educacionyfp.gob.es/eeuu/convocatorias-programas/convocatorias-eeuu/nalcap.html
connect with Carolyn here:
✨ Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/_carolynp?igsh=MXJrN2NkY2s5NGQyOQ==
✨ podcast:
https://open.spotify.com/show/529w7qVlascQY6baju4TCF?si=yZB7IAxTRa6H5TzidcEwqg
━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━
connect with me! :)
Instagram:
✨ @lydiaschultzz
https://www.instagram.com/lydiaschultzz/
✨TikTok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@lydiaschultzz
✨ Travel Blog:
gottacaseofwanderlust.com
✨ Thatch Travel Guides:
https://www.thatch.co/@gottacaseofwanderlust
Margherita Cara is a solo female traveler and also psychologist from Milan, Italy.
Margherita prioritizes slow, cultural based travel and has backpacked through Latin America, Southeast Asia and Europe.
on this episode, we chat about:
- Margherita’s solo travels in Latin America
- solo female travel safety advice
- traveling responsibly and ethically
- and much more!!
featured questions:
1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using the term “solo female travel”?
2. How do you balance protecting your safety with being open in a new destination?
3. How can we step out of a consumerist/colonialist mindset when traveling?
━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━
connect with Margherita here!
✨ Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/duamima_?igsh=dWp4ZWEzM2VtOWoy
✨ Travel guides:
https://www.thatch.co/@margheritacara
━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━
connect with me here :)
Instagram:
✨ @lydiaschultzz
https://www.instagram.com/lydiaschultzz/
✨Travel Blog:
gottacaseofwanderlust.com
✨Travel Guides:
https://www.thatch.co/@gottacaseofwanderlust
━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━
