This one is all about travel. Without question, travel is awesome. We can and should explore this amazing world and all that it has to offer. However, we need to travel safely and intelligently. And, for certain types of travel, we need to build some foundations so we can push the envelope.
That’s what we get into today with Lloyd Figgins. Lloyd is a travel risk expert, adventurer, author and speaker. He is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a respected authority on travel risk and crisis management. He makes regular appearances on the BBC, ITV and Sky News.
He has also led many expeditions to some of the most interesting yet hostile parts of the world, including the jungles of Colombia during that country’s civil war, helped evacuate clients during a coup in Madagascar, and as you will hear, face a direct threat to his own life in Syria a few years ago. Lloyd is also an adventurer, having rowed across the Atlantic Ocean in a plywood boat!
This episode however focuses on Lloyd’s recent book The Travel Survival Guide: Get Smart, Stay Safe. This is a great handbook, which draws on Lloyd’s direct experiences, for anyone planning an overseas trip. It is loaded with practical advice on everything from aircraft safety, accommodation, medical emergencies, natural disasters, crime and much more.
We get into all of that and as you will hear, Lloyd believes in taking the measures he recommends not to detract from travel experiences, but to push the boundaries and enhance them. If you need any confirmation of that, the foreword to the book was written by Sir Ranulph Fiennes, the world’s greatest living explorer.
This was a very interesting conversation that I am sure you will enjoy.
Show notes:
The Travel Survival Guide: Get Smart, Stay Safe;
Lloyd’s company LFL Risk Mitigation;
The Royal Geographical Society;
How burglars use social media to commit crimes;
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Get your free audio book and 30 day free trial at Audible:
US listeners: get your free trial and audio book at Audible
UK listeners: get your free trial and audio book at Audible
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _
Like what you heard?
Subscribe and/or leave a rating and review on iTunes: http://apple.co/1PjLmK
Subscribe on Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/all-things-risk/the-all-things-risk-podcast
Subscribe on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/ben-cattaneo
Follow the podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RiskThings
Drop us a note: allthingsrisk@gmail.com
Some thoughts on what it means, and how, to make decisions “like a human being”.
Show notes:
Bruce Lee’s 1971 interview with Pierre Berton;
Ruth Chang’s TED talk on how to make hard choices;
The microbiome its links to neurobehaviours;
Cardiovascular exercise and the brain;
Our podcast episode with Adam Connors on networking;
Our podcast episode with Tom Hardin, AKA “Tipper X”
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Get your free audio book and 30 day free trial at Audible:
US listeners: get your free trial and audio book at Audible
UK listeners: get your free trial and audio book at Audible
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _
Like what you heard?
Subscribe and/or leave a rating and review on iTunes: http://apple.co/1PjLmK
Subscribe on Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/all-things-risk/the-all-things-risk-podcast
Subscribe on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/ben-cattaneo
Follow the podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RiskThings
Drop us a note: allthingsrisk@gmail.com
This conversation is absolutely fascinating. In fact, it blew me away. My guest for this episode is science, nature, and travel writer David Quammen. David’s books have included The Song of the Dodo, The Reluctant Mr. Darwin which chronicles’ Charles Darwin’s reluctance to publish his On the Origin of Species, Spillover which later informed shorter books Ebola and The Chimp and the River: How AIDS emerged from the African Forest. David has also written hundreds of articles for the likes of National Geographic, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and The Atlantic, amongst others.
The bulk of this episode however relates to David’s latest book The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life, which explores the dramatic revisions in our understanding of life’s history on this planet caused by recent discoveries of genome sequencing and the story of a scientist called Carl Woese. You will also hear about the concept of ‘horizontal gene transfer’ amongst others which revolutionises our understanding of the human genome, how we think about all species of life on earth and other profound and radical implications.
David has a wonderful knack in his writing and speaking for making science understandable and pleasurable to absorb. We get into all of that and much more including:
- David’s background in writing and how he got into writing about science and nature;
- Pandemics and what we know and don’t know about them, drawing heavily on David’s recent writing on the Ebola outbreak in West and Central Africa;
- The various themes of The Tangled Tree;
- The role of personalities in science – to quote David “science itself, however precise and objective is a human activity”;
- The risks and implications of some of the findings described in The Tangled Tree;
- Much, much more
Show notes:
The Tangled Tree: A Radical History of Life on Earth;
Review of the Tangled Tree in the New York Times
The Chimp and the River: How AIDS Emerged From the African Forest;
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Get your free audio book and 30 day free trial at Audible:
US listeners: get your free trial and audio book at Audible
UK listeners: get your free trial and audio book at Audible
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _
Have you made a big decision lately? We’d love to hear how you did it – take this short anonymous survey.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Like what you heard?
Subscribe and/or leave a rating and review on iTunes: http://apple.co/1PjLmK
Subscribe on Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/all-things-risk/the-all-things-risk-podcast
Subscribe on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/ben-cattaneo
Follow the podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RiskThings
Drop us a note: allthingsrisk@gmail.com