Unusual Love Stories Week: Getting Lost with Susan Orlean

The Atlas Obscura Podcast

SiriusXM Podcasts & Atlas Obscura

Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.6 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 13 February 2025

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, we’re featuring unusual love stories – from couples who were introduced by a mule, to the world’s most loyal dog, to a post office sustained by the kindness of strangers. In today’s episode, Dylan talks with travel writer Susan Orlean, who is an admitted terrible tourist. But she’s an expert at getting lost – with a purpose. Today, she takes us to some of the places that have shaped her life. And she talks about throwing out the guidebook, opening herself up to these experiences, and the art of getting lost.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	So my guest today, you could describe her as a travel writer.
0:08.1	She's certainly not one in the conventional sense.
0:10.5	Her books do not contain any restaurant recommendations, no cafes in Paris or walking tours of New York.
0:16.7	But if you do want to know about the vet clinic treating donkeys in Fez or the origami lab where a professional paper folder creates elaborate little creatures, writer Susan Orlean is a pretty good travel guy.
0:33.4	I'm a terrible tourist. You know, I get somewhere if I'm a tourist and I feel like, well,
0:38.5	what am I supposed to be doing? I don't get it. When I'm traveling for a story, I'm on a mission.
0:45.4	I'm looking for something. I'm pursuing something. And it makes the trip so much more interesting.
0:55.0	I'm Dylan Thuris, and this is Outless of Skira. A celebration of the trip so much more interesting. I'm Dylan Thuris, and this is Atlas of Skira, a celebration of the world's strange,
0:59.8	incredible, and wondrous places.
1:02.2	And Susan Orlean has an eye for strange, wonderful, and incredible places.
1:07.3	She has this way of digging and digging until she finds a detail that makes you see a place in a totally new way.
1:14.9	She's also sort of answering the question about why we live the way we do.
1:19.7	Susan has traveled all over the world, searching for stories, and today she is taking us to a few of the places that help shape her work and her life.
1:27.7	She talks about throwing out the guidebook, letting herself find whatever it is that is waiting out there for her.
1:34.4	You did not grow up gallivanting around the world.
1:48.8	I think we both share Midwestern roots.
1:51.3	What was your sort of life like as a kid?
1:54.1	Where were you growing up?
1:55.6	My parents didn't put us in the back of a van and move to Morocco and travel with us through Africa.
2:02.2	We did a lot of more traditional, conventional family vacations to warm places, to the Caribbean,
2:12.0	to Florida, to Hawaii, not so much adventuring around the world. Then I began traveling both for my own curiosity,
2:26.4	but then really traveling a lot for stories. Today, we are talking about a couple of places
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from SiriusXM Podcasts & Atlas Obscura, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of SiriusXM Podcasts & Atlas Obscura and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.