Today we discuss the Soviet Revolutionary Leon Trotsky’s exile in Mexico, his relationship with artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, and his ultimate murder by ice pick at the hands of an agent of Stalin’s secret police.

The Transcontinental Railroad is Completed

Mar 29th, 2021 1h 15m

On today's episode, we discuss a physical connection that happened in travel history: the 1869 completion of the transcontinental railroad in the United States and, specifically, the moment that the East Coast connected with the West coast at P

Sputnik Orbits Earth

Mar 7th, 2021 34m 12s

On today’s episode, we discuss the successful launch and orbit of Sputnik, the USSR’s unmanned satellite experiment, in October of 1957. The feat achieved a first in human-powered space flight and sparked the technological and ideological compe

Fidel Castro goes to Harlem

Feb 16th, 2021 41m 51s

On today's episode we explore a moment of travel history from our own backyard—New York City. We get into the story of when Fidel Castro visited Harlem in September 1961. This was not only a big moment in travel history—few foreign leaders, if

Medellin's MetroCable

Feb 2nd, 2021 28m 6s

In this episode we jump back about 17 years into history—to 2004, when the Colombian city of Medellin unveiled a new mass transit system called the MetroCable. The network of gondolas improved accessibility to once remote hillside neighborhoods

Frederick Douglass Goes to Ireland

Jan 18th, 2021 36m 58s

In this episode, we travel to the 1840s—specifically, to when Frederick Douglass decided to leave the United States for a bit and travel to Ireland and England. “Decided” is not exactly the right word. Douglass had recently published his autobi

Nixon Goes to China

Dec 6th, 2020 30m 5s

In our final episode of the season, we discuss a trip of great historical consequence: the weeklong tour of China that President Richard Nixon took in 1972. It was the first time that a sitting U.S. president had ever visited mainland China an

Tourism and the "Spanish Miracle"

Nov 24th, 2020 33m 57s

In this episode, we go to Spain—to a moment called the “Spanish Miracle”. This decade of incredible economic growth in Spain came after years of stagnation and war. It was fueled—in part—by the opening up of the country and the impact of touris

The 1964 Tokyo Olympics

Nov 5th, 2020 29m 54s

Today we discuss Japan, one of the world’s top travel destinations—but it wasn’t always that way. For much of the 18th and 19th centuries it was sealed off from outsiders, and in the 20th century, WWII and the resulting destruction led to renew

The "Great Migration" from Puerto Rico to NYC

Oct 20th, 2020 34m 34s

On today's episode, we discuss the “Great Migration” of Puerto Ricans to New York City in the 1950s. We get into the history of Puerto Rico, the changes in U.S. law that led to this mass movement north, the motivations behind these changes, and

Kraftwerk Releases Trans Europe Express

Oct 9th, 2020 23m 49s

In 1977, the German band Kraftwerk released Trans Europ Express, an album that had a monumental affect on the course of music and conjured the beginnings of a new forward looking identity for Europe. The album embodied the idea of travel as a u

President Obama Goes to Cuba

Sep 30th, 2020 45m 15s

In March of 2016, the Obama family went on a whirlwind 3-day tour of Havana, Cuba—the first visit to the island by a sitting U.S. president since 1928. The occasion was the reestablishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries and f

George Harrison Goes to India

Sep 17th, 2020 31m 10s

Kaleena and Brian delve into the world of the Beatles around the mid 1960s and the events surrounding the trip to India that George Harrison and his wife Patti Boyd took in 1966. We look at the travel trends that led to Harrison’s fateful trip

Hurricane Iniki Hits Kauai

Sep 8th, 2020 21m 9s

Hurricane Iniki made landfall on the island of Kauai as a Category 4 storm on September 11, 1992—the strongest storm ever to hit the island. In Hawaiian, Iniki means “a strong piercing wind” and it left a wake of destruction that had lasting ef

Congress Passes the Airline Deregulation Act

Aug 31st, 2020 20m 45s

The Airline Deregulation Act completely changed almost every aspect of how the airline industry worked, and opened up the possibility for air travel to more than just the most wealthy Americans by drastically reducing the cost of a plane ticket

Trailer

Trailer: Yesterday in Travel

Aug 24th, 2020 2m 50s

Travel has a fascinating history. We discuss all the stops along the way.Each episode, travel industry veterans Brian and Kaleena discuss the big and small moments in travel history that led us to where we are today.We’ll talk about everyth