How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization
Author: Franklin Foer
Who knew you could learn so much about globalization, economics and politics from soccer? Great read.
Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity
Author: Julia Cameron
One possible path to re-discovering the creativity you never knew you had.
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, New Edition
Author: Jared Diamond
An admirable crack at explaining why the world is the way it is by way of an anthropological macro-history. This book probably comes up the most in conversation as we travel.
The Cathedral Within: Transforming Your Life by Giving Something Back
Author: Bill Shore
Inspiring profiles of social entrepreneurs and projects we all can learn from and hopefully replicate to give back to community.
Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation
Author: John Carlin
Although the storyline is built around the South African rugby team and the 1995 World Cup, this book is more about Nelson Mandela and how he was able to unite a divided country. Inspiring.
Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Capetown
Author: Paul Theroux
The author re-visits Africa and re-assesses the place he once knew... and judges it once and for all. Well written, poignant observations of the thumbprints left by career politicians, aid workers, and everyday people.
Outliers: The Story of Success
Author: Malcolm Gladwell
A look at the internal and external factors of how extraordinary people got to be, well, extraordinary. One of those books that challenges assumptions and makes you think differently.
Shantaram: A Novel
Author: Gregory David Roberts
Administering first aid in a Bombay slum, selling fake passports and running guns to the Mujahideen in Afghanistan. Technically a novel, but closely linked to the Author's own experiences. Fantastic read.
Some say our story is written for us when in fact it is ours to write. What is your “What if?” that will lead you to write your next chapter?
This was the message we recently brought to TEDxWarsaw, the 4th largest TEDx in the world. Continue Reading »
Filed Under: Personal Growth, Videos by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
No Comments | 21 May 2013
What is marriage, if not a leap of faith?
Fourteen years ago, on or around our second date, Audrey and I went skydiving together. It was, as you might imagine, both terrifying and fantastic. And as much as you also might also imagine that it wiped away my fear of heights, it did not. Perhaps it chiseled away at that wall, but it certainly didn’t tear it down. I still swoon thinking about that airplane canopy above 16,000 feet. I still get wobbly above 10 stories.
So here we are 14 years later in Berlin, celebrating our 11th wedding anniversary. What better way to recognize the occasion than to jump (base fly) from the top of a 37-story building?
Filed Under: Europe, Germany, Travel, Videos by: Daniel Noll
30 Comments | 7 October 2011
Oh, Thai cuisine: complexity in flavor, simplicity in process. The flavors are so vast and so varied that the thought of cooking something so rich, so in-the-mouth dazzling is daunting, to some insurmountable.
It doesn’t need to be. Continue Reading »
Filed Under: Food, Southeast Asia, Thailand, Travel, Videos by: Daniel Noll
25 Comments | 3 February 2011
During our most recent visit to Bangkok, tanks full of flesh-eating fish hungry for dead skin were all the rage.
Sound like fun? We thought so.
Watch the video below to find out. Continue Reading »
Filed Under: Southeast Asia, Thailand, Travel, Videos by: Daniel Noll
24 Comments | 11 December 2010
Sunday was one of those days when misfortunes were set aloft and misdeeds adrift.
That is, in Bangkok at least.
It was Loi Krathong, a Thai holiday where young and old come out in force. They send their wrongdoings afloat on colorfully adorned lotus leaf rafts down the Chao Praya River and they fire up paper lanterns to carry their misfortunes into the sky.
Then they party like it’s 1999. Continue Reading »
Filed Under: Southeast Asia, Thailand, Travel, Videos by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
12 Comments | 23 November 2010
As we look out the window of our sublet in Berlin today, leaves are changing colors, temperatures are dropping, and intermittent rain storms are battling with a sun that struggles to peek through the clouds. No doubt about it: summer is fading away in the northern hemisphere.
So we offer a suggestion on how to hold on to the taste and freshness of summer: Vietnamese summer rolls. Good thing is, they’re easier to make than you think.
Filed Under: Food, Videos by: Audrey Scott
20 Comments | 1 September 2010
As our rental car began to drift atop a layer of windblown sand, I grabbed hold, down-shifted and noticed the hills around me were swirled in a peppermint twist. All those Ruta 40 signs in Argentina finally delivered on an implied promise: you’ll be impressed, and what once captured your imagination will now claim your full attention. But it wasn’t the fabled Route 40 of Patagonia that would provide the exclamation point on our time in Argentina. It was a week-long road trip across the quebradas of Northwest Argentina, where chilies dry in the midday sun, llama comes served with wine pressed just down the road, and gauchos hold harvest festivals in the hills.
Continue Reading »
Filed Under: Argentina, South America, Travel, Videos by: Daniel Noll
18 Comments | 21 July 2010
I believe penguins are the answer to world peace.
– Heidi Krajewsky, resident ornithologist (bird gal) aboard the MS Expedition to Antarctica
Our challenge to you: read this, watch the slideshow, check out the video — and maintain a straight face. Continue Reading »
Filed Under: Antarctica, Travel, Videos by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
26 Comments | 18 March 2010
I’ve been out of the dating game for exactly 12 years, so maybe I’m not the best person to write about how to snag a man. However, during our recent trip to the Galapagos Islands, I observed the behaviors of various birds and something struck me: their mating habits reminded me of those dating advice columns I used to read in Cosmo.
If memory serves, it’s a cruel dating world out there. For those of you still in the game, take comfort that the animal kingdom knows no more forgiveness than our human one.
Were Charles Darwin to lead a voyage into the realm of dating advice, perhaps this is where he’d take us: Continue Reading »
Filed Under: Ecuador, Humor, South America, Travel, Videos by: Audrey Scott
21 Comments | 24 August 2009
The weight of my backpack at 5:00 AM was brutal: 9 liters of water, 1 sleeping bag, and sundry other camping bits and bobs. And I was one of the lucky ones. Dan carried all that plus an old school (read: heavy) four-person tent.
Even at this hour, it was steamy. Under the weight of my pack, I was glazed in sweat before we reached the crossroads for the chicken bus to the trail head. I looked around at the young, energetic faces – mostly in their early 20s – and wondered, “Am I too old to be doing this?” Continue Reading »
Filed Under: Central America, Nicaragua, Panorama, Travel, Videos by: Audrey Scott
20 Comments | 3 July 2009
