Welcome to Episode 25 of my “Travel Tales From Beyond The Brochure” podcast.
This week’s podcast episode, which is a week late but that’s because I wanted to make sure it was as good as I could get it, is all about Travel Privilege. That is to say, the advantages that people have that they may not realise, which are accrued by virtue of their background rather than anything they’ve worked at to obtain.
This covers subjects such as passport privilege – how holding certain nationalities makes travelling much easier – and of course skin colour, and how it’s far easier for middle-class ‘Westerners’ to travel than anyone else.
As someone with a flush of privilege (not a Royal Flush but I’ll admit it’s not too far off), it’s something people especially like me need to keep deep in mind. Privilege itself isn’t necessarily a bad thing; it’s recognising you have it and making sure you use it appropriately that matters.
Topics discussed in this episode then include:
- Political Podcasting in general
- Asexual Awareness Day
- Why I didn’t apply for a job at MI5/MI6
- Travelling barefoot – 15 hours of fame
- Travelling barefoot is a privilege in itself
- Travel itself is a privilege
- Victoria’s contribution: How it feels not to have a passport
- Kristina’s contribution: Passport privilege
- Matthew’s contribution: Passport privilege
- The difficulty westerners have getting into Nigeria
- Pinky’s contribution: See how difficult it is to get into Nigeria? That’s my life for almost every country
- Why everyone should want to go to Democratic Republic of Congo
- Tayo’s contribution: The privilege of dual nationality (especially for getting into Nigeria)
- Matthew’s contribution: stateless people & refugees
- Matthew’s contribution: “Fitting In”
- The unbearable whiteness of being privileged
- Katchie’s contributions: Travelling Africa as an African
- Kristina’s contribution: Travellers realise their privilege once they travel a bit
- Tayo’s contribution: Privilege as a Black traveller in Africa
- Kristina’s contribution: The privilege of being multi-lingual
- Roo’s contribution: The privilege of having a travel companion
- Tayo’s contribution: The privilege of being healthy
- Future podcasts will be on disability and plus-size travel
- Alexei’s contribution: Basically a summary
You can listen via the feed above, or via Spotify, or on your podcast app of choice 🙂 Let me know if it isn’t, by the way, and I’ll see what I can do. In addition, a PDF transcript of this episode is available by clicking here.
As always, if you have anything to say about the topic, or indeed about my podcasting in general, leave a comment or let me know. There is a Facebook group for my podcast that you’re free to join: Click here!
I also now have a Patreon! If you like what you hear, and want to access exclusive content (or just to show your appreciation), then head on over to my page and donate to me!
Contributions this time, either spoken or via Twitter, are from: