Digital nomadism: A history and future (from a documentary film in progress)

“Digital nomadism is still being figured out. In twenty years digital nomadism will have a concrete reality that we can’t even predict now.” – Rolf Potts

In this episode of Deviate, which is excerpted from an in-progress documentary called The Nomads, filmmaker Anne von Petersdorff asks Rolf to discuss how digital nomadism is defined, how it has emerged from earlier generations of travel and human mobility, and how it is more than just a “Western” trend (3:00); how the digital nomad movement will affect the nation-state and global citizenship, and how these notions have historically always been in flux (10:00); the importance of respecting local cultures versus treating destinations as utilitarian backdrops, and how the concept of digital nomadism is changing (24:00); and what happens to the concept of “home” when one is leading a nomadic life (32:30).

Anne von Petersdorff is a scholar, writer, filmmaker, and educator from Berlin, Germany. Wade Shepard (@vagabondjourney) is an itinerant writer and filmmaker who has been traveling the world, through ninety countries, since 1999.

Digital nomads interested in lending experiences or insights to the documentary film The Nomads can contact producer Wade Shepard at [email protected].

Notable Links:

• Digital nomadism (location-independent lifestyle)
• Nation-state (political unit)
• Social welfare (government support for individuals)
• Go Viral (media festival in Kazakhstan)
• China and Mongolia with my parents (Deviate episode)
• In Patagonia, by Bruce Chatwin (travel book)
• Epiphanies of expatriate life in Korea (Deviate episode)
• @lukeoakvt (Rolf’s nephew’s TikTok account)
• Grand Tour (upper-class 18th/19th century travel ritual)
• Thomas Cook (19th century travel entrepreneur)
• Dispatches, by Michael Herr (Vietnam War book)

The Deviate theme music comes from the title track of Cedar Van Tassel’s 2017 album Lumber.

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