Reports from my travels in quarantine: A Deviate Season Two coda

“The pandemic might be a pretext to reinvent travel writing in a way that actually reports on the nuances of a complicated world rather than just framing vacation experiences.” –Rolf Potts

In this episode of Deviate, Rolf reports solo from his quarantine to talk about the end of his second podcast season, and the misconceptions people have about his home state of Kansas (0:50); what travel might look like once we are no longer in quarantine, the ethical issues surrounding the consumer rituals of the travel industry, and the shortcomings of commercial travel media and travel writing (9:00); how vagabonding travel skills, habits, instincts can help make pandemic quarantine easier and more dynamic, including reading books (16:00); a recap of the most interesting and unique episodes of Deviate Season Two, including movie episodes (20:40); what to expect from Season Three of Deviate, including episodes about travel, travel writing, nostalgia, and racial diversity (25:10); and what life is like for Rolf in quarantine in Kansas (30:00). ​The episode also includes songs from Cedar Van Tassel’s album Lumber, including “USD 306,” “Turkey Vulture Sky,” and “Lumber.”​

Notable Links:

• Deviate theme music: Cedars in Violent Territory Lumber album
• 13 Podcasts for Wandering Souls (New York Times article)
• Van Life before #VanLife (Deviate episode 79)
• Holiday (travel magazine published from 1946-1977)
• Abroad: British Literary Traveling between the Wars, by Paul Fussell (book)
• Spanish influenza (1918-1920 flu pandemic)
• Ari Shaffir on the finer points of indie travel (Deviate episode 103)
• On keeping a travel journal (Deviate episode 71)
• My Struggle, Karl Ove Knausgård (autobiographical series of novels)
• Seneca the Younger (Stoic philosopher)
• Ari Shaffir and Rolf on doing psychedelics (Deviate episode 53)
• The power of small choices across decades (Deviate episode 96)
• Why dinosaurs matter (Deviate episode 99)
• Leonardo DiCaprio’s The Beach, 20 years later (Deviate episode 59)
• Why Do the Right Thing remains a classic (Deviate episode 76)
• Wesley Morris (journalist and critic)
• Remembering Anthony Bourdain (Deviate episode 34)
• Travel and health in the age of COVID-19 (Deviate episode series)

Rolf’s pandemic book readings and suggestions:

• The Art of Memoir, by Mary Karr
• Native Stranger, by Eddy L. Harris
• The Way of the World, by Nicholas Bouvier
• A Field Guide to Getting Lost, by Rebecca Solnit
• Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman
• Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie Dillard
• Jesus’ Son, by Denis Johnson
• Cannery Row, by John Steinbeck
• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
• Barbarian Days, by William Finnegan
• Vida, by Patricia Engel
• On the Plain of Snakes, by Paul Theroux
• Columbine, by Dave Cullen
• Why Dinosaurs Matter, by Kenneth Lacovara

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

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