Blue Planet Stories – Détails, épisodes et analyse

We have a returning guest who is publishing a hilarious and insightful book Misbehaving in Maine: Thirty-half Learned Lessons.

Dan Williams is a humor writer with a huge on-line following. We wanted to bring him back to chat about his stories and the writing process.

And to chat about family and how growing up shapes our lives as adults. Join us for a conversation where we learn, we laugh, and we drop a few f-bombs.

We interview Dan and read a chapter from his new book: Lesson 11: You Never Forget Your First F-Bomb.

You can subscribe for free. If you choose to support us, we donate 15% of our net proceeds to World Literacy Foundation. Help children read.

Today we speak with Lawrence Bransby, an award winning author, motorcycle adventurer, and a retired teacher. He emigrated from South Africa to the UK, and rode a motorcycle there across Africa with his 17-year-old son.

Lawrence wrote twenty books, including novels, novels for young adults, and many travelogues chronicling his numerous motorcycle journeys across Africa, Europe, Central Asia, and North America.

You can subscribe for free. If you choose to support us, we donate 15% of our net proceeds to World Literacy Foundation. Help children read.

His favorite of his books is Two Fingers On The Jugular: A Motorcycle Journey Across Russia, an intimate account of a 20,000 km track on the Road of Bones.

We interview Lawrence and read his story A Short-Cut Across the Kazakh Steppe Becomes An Endurance Test For Riders And Bikes. (the story is abridged to fit the podcast length limitations).

From the show:

“… Q: You rode to the UK across Africa with your then 17-year-old son.

A: Yeah, Trans-Africa with a 17-year-old who didn't have a driving license.

Q: Was it your first long trip together? How did it go?

A: No, no. Well, it was the first really long trip. But we did another trip when he just finished primary school at the age of 12. We did a motorbike ride around the mountain kingdom of Lesotho together. And that was, you know, he'd been riding motorbikes since he was about eight years. And he was a very good rider…”

“… I was thinking to myself, you know what? I, at that stage, what was I? I was probably close to 70 years old. And my son was maybe 38. And I thought to myself, you know what? I'm a father and I'm riding with my son. And we're riding together, not as father and son, but as mates. And it was just the most incredible experience. And I was thinking to myself, I wonder how long this can last. Because we'd been riding each year. We'd been going on a long trip each year for the past four years. And we'd rode together for five years together. And I'm experiencing it now. And it was just so exciting…”

Today we have a special from Cuba. It is a difficult episode for us to make. Emotional in ways. We are on the island for a few weeks, visiting distant family, making friends and exploring remote and beautiful places.

You can subscribe for free. If you choose to support us, we donate 15% of our net proceeds to World Literacy Foundation. Help children read.

We will talk about what we see and read from the narrative logs of our journey. Cuba is complex and our trip here is life changing. It flipped many notions upside down.

From the show:

“…the amount of people on the street. They're moving, they're walking all around, and they talk, and they shout at each other, not in an angry way. It's just a way to communicate across the traffic and across other people talking. So this activity was definitely something that I don't know. I imagine this reserved for Middle Eastern bazaars from a previous century. And it was a little like that. I definitely noticed it. …”

“…And the friends we have here, they're not naive. They don't think that their lives are great. They understand that there are easier ways of living and easier ways to procure goods and food and not have your electricity and power cut out every other day. But they just choose to fit fun and enjoyment and joy in between those moments. And that was a powerful reminder that circumstances, whatever they are, do not have to determine your inner state…”

Debra Harman is a writer, editor and a publisher. She launched a number of successful Medium publications, Narrative Arc, Wind Phone, and Imogene's Notebook.

You can subscribe for free. If you choose to support us, we donate 15% of our net proceeds to World Literacy Foundation. Help children read.

Debra is an avid hiker exploring the Cascades and Pacific Crest trail in her native Oregon, USA. She likes to venture around the world as well, and has hiked the storied Camino de Santiago trail in Europe.

She is also a musician, playing with a band and bringing joy to all who listen.

Debra lived as an expat in Cambodia and wrote a memoir of her time there Love and Loss in Cambodia

Today, we interview Debra and read her story from one of her travels across Spain. It is a touching story about loss and adventure. (Read the essay)

From the show:

“… If you really want to write well, you have to read a lot. I would say that as an editor, I've got a lot of experience in examining craft and how an essay is structured and how a story is paced. I have a really good eye for what a writer is doing with her pacing of a story. For example, you want to speed up the narrative, use shorter sentences. You want to pause the narrative, isolate a sentence. You want to slow the reader down, add in some exposition and some description, and then build the story. That's why it's called an arc …”

“… Q: What do you think we all need more of in our lives?

A: Oh, I would have to say kindness to other people. Kindness, absolutely. Not tolerance. Tolerance implies that there's something wrong with the other people. I think that it's important to be kind and to listen to other people and to share food, share nature, and show appreciation. …”

Today, we speak with KiKi Walter . She is a writer, storyteller, and champion of personal narratives. She loves transforming everyday moments into deeply resonant stories.

Kiki is a publisher of Memoirist Quarterly and a founder of The Memoirist on Substack. She curates and edits for three thriving Medium publications: The Memoirist, Age of Empathy, and Black Bear. she also co-hosts The Unfocused Writer podcast.

She has been recognized as a BlogHer Voice of the Year and featured on stage with Listen to Your Mother. Whether through the written word or spoken conversations, KiKi brings warmth, depth, and a keen eye for the extraordinary hidden in the everyday.

Please don’t forget to like and rate the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

From the show:

“…Oh, I just love him [David Sedaris]. I'd marry him if I could, but I don't think he'd marry me. But what I love about him is his humor is so self-deprecating. You know, in his memoirs and his essays, there's something about the beauty of things that are flawed in life. And that's what I love …”

“… Q: And what do you look for as an editor and a publisher?

A: I think that the number one thing that you will hear any editor say is a good narrative arc. You know, it has to have a strong beginning, strong middle, strong end. But it's all in how you capture, I think, your audience from the very beginning, really bringing them into the story. And how you creatively spin your story …”

Today we speak with Steph Dyson. She is a bilingual travel journalist and blogger, who has spent the last decade reporting on adventure travel and sustainability in Latin America.

She reported for CNN, National Geographic Traveller, Lonely Planet and The Telegraph. 

She's covered everything from how tourism is being used to heal the scars of civil war in Colombia to investigating why pumas are being protected by the ranchers that formerly hunted them in Chile's Torres del Paine National Park. 

Steph is the author of the Moon Chile guidebook, to be published in June 2025. 

Her website, Worldly Adventurer, has over one million annual readers. The website helps travelers plan sustainable adventures to Latin America.

From the show:

“…And I think this story reflects so many trips that we took together because they all basically ended up with us riding in the back of trucks because that's such a typical form of transport. In fact, I was just back in Peru for Lonely Planet and I rode in the back of a truck there, you know, things don't change…”

“…A black fedora obscured his eyes, yet the angle of his head suggested him to be peering fixedly at the ground to the right of his rubber sandals, spellbound by nothingness. Theirs was a confident, practiced weight. Hours could be spent staring into the mid-distance, eyes squinting into the fierce Andean sun.…”

Alex and Egor here from Blue Planet Stories. We hope you are well.

We are preparing our sailboat for a long ocean passage across the Caribbean to Panama, and we had two very busy weeks at a boatyard. With the time constraint, we had to focus on preparation.

But, we are excited to replay our very first podcast for you, which is also one of our favorites, with Ryan Frawley.

Also, Because we are resuming our travel, we will be posting weekly or more on Travel Banter, our channel about sailing, traveling to new places, and meeting the locals. Please stop by there to check in. You can find it on blueplanetstories.com under Travel Banter. If you like what you hear , please hit like and subscribe. We love you.

Raised in Coventry, UK and transplanted to Vancouver, BC, writer Ryan Frawley has won various Canadian literary awards. His debut novel, Scar, was published in 2011.

In 2016, he moved to Italy with his wife and cat and spent the next two years traveling around the continent. Towers Temples Palaces is the story of his time there.

He now lives in the south of France.

Today, we read his beautiful essay on authenticity, mass tourism, and what defines a place. In our interview, Ryan shares his philosophy of travel.

From the show:

“… I think in some ways writers, or at least I, need novelty, a certain amount of novelty in your life. You need something to kind of spark your brain and get you thinking about things in a new way. And I find travel is absolutely fantastic for that…”

“… Lisbon may be Europe's last major city to be shattered by tourism. Then again, it was always a shattered city anyway. This is a city of crooked alleys, sloping streets, and tiny neighborhoods that have almost nothing to do with one another, except for the spectacular views from the miradores, or viewpoints, where the tourists who outnumber the locals nine to one can wave at each other while they enjoy a drink…”

“…because there are too many tourists, Hallstatt doesn't feel like Austria. It doesn't feel like anywhere. It feels like a total theme park. In fact, it kind of is. They built a full-scale replica of Hallstatt in China because it was so popular with Chinese tourists that they built a fake version of the city in China for people to go to. So that brings in all kinds of interesting questions of what's authentic?…”

Today we speak with Daniel Williams. He is an author-illustrator and English professor living in Western Pennsylvania.

Dan has a special talent for humor writing, among other things, and you can find his stories and essays on Medium and on his Spotify podcast, "Misbehaving in Maine."

His fully illustrated memoir, "Misbehaving in Maine: 30 Half-Learned Lessons," will be published this spring by Falls City Press.

Today we interview Dan and read his story "You Put the End in Friendship"

From the show:

“…So when you illustrate this story, for example, how much of Brian and you are in those particular characters in a cartoon? …So for Brian, I remember his hair was very short and aggressive. It was this eternal buzz cut. And so you could always see this kid's skull. And he was very careless with his skull…”

“…Self esteem…When I post a story and then I'm waiting to see what people think, sometimes I'll check it way too often and there will be no feedback whatsoever. And then immediately everything that was a good idea becomes a bad idea and it was a terrible title and I didn't pull off the ending. I was sloppy. I was really lazy this time around and it just starts…”

“…if you look at a transcription of kids talking, they sound like they hate each other, but they're just buddies. So in a way, I miss the ability to say to somebody, you're a moron and then still be their friend. But yeah, it still exists today.…”

Today we speak with Tara B. She is a writer based in Connecticut. She has been writing privately for the last two years, but began publishing creative nonfiction and memoir works on Medium in November 2024.

Tara writes about mental health, race, identity and relationships with family and friends - the good, the bad, and the ridiculous.

Tara is a scientist by training and a full time project manager in her work life. When she is not working, she loves traveling, reading, and long-distance running.

Today, we interview Tara B and read her story “Happiness is That Thing Over There”.

From the show:

“…probably because I read so much, the lens I use to look at the world is really framed by stories. And I'll be in the middle of a discussion with someone. I'll just have to pull out my phone to jot down notes about the story and in what they're telling me, or just a funny line that they used, and I want to unpack that. It makes me a really horrible party guest, but again, it's not a choice.…”

“…And there have been times in the past where I've tried to divulge components of my mental health struggles to him, things like my depression or my eating disorders. And it's not so much that he didn't take it well when I told him, but he did close off and he didn't want to discuss it any further. So looking at it from his perspective, I think there's a part of him that might have felt hurt when I shared those dark moments of my life because he's worked his entire life to provide the absolute best for his family…”

Today we speak with Joe Guay. He is a voiceover actor from Palm Desert, California. His voice is in commercials, e-learning and web videos for clients all over the globe. 

Joe began writing publicly in 2021. His articles and essays have been featured on Katie Couric Media, YourTango.com and Medium. 

A self-described "recovering people-pleaser with a snarky side,” Joe writes on topics such as mental health, surviving the world of showbiz, self-awareness and authenticity. He also covers LGBTQ issues, world travel, books, and more. 

Today we interview Joe and read his story “My Quirky Respect for Seniors, Thanks to Mom’s ‘Awful’ Meals on Wheels Route.”

From the show:

“… why weren't you more authentic when you were 23? Well, the entire church environment I was raised in, it wasn't even an option, is what I'm trying to say. 15 years ago, I would not have guessed that I would one day be writing on a globally readable platform about these things because I was so afraid to even be identified as that for so many years. So to just be talking about it openly now is wonderful…”

“…I like showbiz. I love people that have showbiz stories. They don't all want to talk about it. Some of them had a bad experience with showbiz, but some were actors, some were composers, some were makeup artists or camera people. I find it really fascinating to connect with them. And I guess that does come a little bit with the empathy of knowing how to talk to them as humans and not just be, how are you doing today?…”