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Wild Chats with Ben Southall
Join host Ben Southall for Wild Chats, a series that dives deep into the world of adventure. We bring you trail runners, hikers, travelers, and explorers sharing their most inspiring and wildest stories from around the globe.
Whether you're chasing ultra-running dreams, planning your next big trek, or simply looking for a spark of adventure, Wild Chats delivers firsthand insights from those who live and breathe the outdoors.
🎙 New episodes every other Friday!
Presented by Best Life Adventures & Wild Earth Australia
Wild Chats with Ben Southall
Travel That Changes You: Sophy Roberts on Curiosity, Fear, and Meaning
In this episode of Wild Chats, Ben Southall sits down with award-winning travel writer and journalist Sophy Roberts to explore the kind of storytelling that begins with a “lump in the throat” and ends in places most people never think to look.
Sophy unpacks the strange, irresistible ideas behind her books, from The Lost Pianos of Siberia to A Training School for Elephants, and why she is drawn to places with difficult reputations, not to romanticise them, but to find the human counter-narrative inside them.
They talk about “xenophilia” (a love of the stranger), the hunt for the un-Google-able, and the real fieldwork behind great travel writing: moving slowly, earning trust, taking handwritten notes, working with the right interpreter, and letting the story decide where you sleep next.
Listen if you love big landscapes, sharp ideas, and travel that is less about consumption and more about feeling your way back to the world.
🌍 Follow Sophy’s work
Website: https://sophieroberts.com/
Podcast: https://gonetotimbuck2.com/
🎙️ Hosted by Ben Southall from:
Best Life Adventures: https://bestlifeadventures.com/
Wild Earth Australia: https://www.wildearth.com.au/