Strange Trips, Big Laughs S:02E:04
Manage episode 516154293 series 3587176
Ever had a wild destination vacation? A buffet line on a rocking ship is no one’s idea of fun—especially after a notorious cruise documentary sears a certain plumbing image into your brain. We ditch the decks and steer into the strange: mirror-flat salt deserts that swallow the horizon, a Soviet-era gas crater that’s still burning, and a cat sanctuary island where the purrs outnumber people. We also set our “lottery list” in stone—CERN’s Large Hadron Collider and the Chernobyl exclusion zone—because curiosity and caution can share the same suitcase.
Our adventure maps keep bending toward the uncanny. We talk Paris’s bone-lined catacombs, abandoned coal towns that still smolder, geothermal hellscapes in New Zealand, and the stark halls of Port Arthur’s penal colony in Tasmania. Along the way, we chase experiences that teach—ninja training in Japan, a day cooking with a chef in Paris—and weigh the ethics of dark tourism with a bold idea: a serial killer route designed like a ghost tour, grounded in public records and survivor-respect, meant to illuminate patterns rather than sensationalize harm.
We close by untangling voodoo and hoodoo with care—religion versus folk magic, ritual versus practice—and what real cultural immersion should look like in places like Benin, New Orleans, and Savannah. If your bucket list is ready for more than beaches and bars, this conversation offers a compass for travel that rearranges your thinking without losing your sense of humor. Hit play, subscribe for new episodes, and tell us the weirdest destination you’d add to the map—we’re building the next route with you.
email: [email protected]
Chapters
1. Strange Trips, Big Laughs S:02E:04 (00:00:00)
2. Banter, Background Noise, and Family Lore (00:00:16)
3. Cruises, Control, and That Netflix Nightmare (00:02:26)
4. Lottery List: CERN and Chernobyl (00:05:20)
5. Weird Wonders: Salt Mirrors and Fiery Craters (00:07:18)
6. Cat Island, Catacombs, and Haunted Grounds (00:10:06)
7. Serial Killer Tour: The Big Idea (00:13:58)
8. Experience Travel: Ninjas, Chefs, and Geothermal Hells (00:21:15)
9. Penal Colonies, Hidden Histories, and Dark Tourism (00:23:28)
10. Voodoo vs Hoodoo and Cultural Immersion (00:27:35)
11. Wrap-Up, Follow, and Email Us (00:28:54)
58 episodes

 
 
 
