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Print and online interviews with Rolf
Interview with Rolf Potts
By Matthew Kepnes, NomadicMatt.com — January 18, 2009
"Ideally, travel should be an act of humble curiosity, and when you start to worry about where you stand in relation to other travelers you kind of lose the point. In a sense, the tourist/traveler debate is an exercise in insecurity — a kind of comfort blanket that people cling to amid the uncertain social atmosphere they enter when they leave home... read more
Marco Polo Didn't Go There, But Rolf Potts Did
By Kimberly Murgatroyd, JetSetLife.tv — January 16, 2009
"I've always been intrigued by the idea of television, but it was never really a part of my master plan. But in early 2007 the Travel Channel began actively looking for "qualified insiders" — people with active travel expertise, not just "actors" — to host their shows... read more
The World Over: A Profile of Rolf Potts
By Frank Bures, Poets & Writers — Nov/Dec 2008
"I didn't realize that there's sometimes a stigma attached to travel writing. I started traveling around Asia in 1998 and I didn't go home for any substantial amount of time until 2003. I was just this guy sitting in cheap hotels writing stories..."read more
Travel Writing 2.0
By Stephanie Pearson, Outside — November 2008
"A generation ago travel writing was an extractive task, a one-way communication that tended to exoticize far-off places. It's harder to do that these days, since the guy you write about in, say, Ethiopia can read what you've written and disagree with you...read more
A Vagabond from Kansas tells his tales
By Peter Delevett, the San Jose Mercury-News — November 8, 2008
"Any place can be a cool place to go. Not just Paris and Cape Town, but your hometown. Down the block. Flyover country. I've always believed that the destination is less important than what you find along the way... read more
Rolf Potts Talks: New Book, Old Notes, Future Career
By Kelly Westhoff, GoNomad.com — October 21, 2008
"At the end of the day, though, we're still stuck inside the tourist matrix. One old conceit of travel writing was to make that matrix disappear, to make it seem as if you were standing alone and unique in the world encountering the exotic by yourself, when in reality, you usually do it in a crowd of people.... read more
The Stories Behind the Stories
By Carly Blatt, JohnnyJet.com — October 20, 2008
"The endnotes in Rolf's new book often include explanations about why he used specific narrative techniques or why he had to leave out certain parts of some experiences. Many of his endnotes answer questions that we as readers would ask a friend telling us travel stories over a beer.... read more
Rolf Potts on "Letting it Flow," and the Stories that Never Got Written
By Eva Holland, Matador Pulse — September 22, 2008
"Even when my writing is flowing, it's doing so in the context of a deliberately structured narrative. The passages of mine that seem to flow down the page didn't necessarily flow that way onto the page... read more
Rolf Potts: Revelations from a Postmodern Travel Writer
From World Hum — September 19, 2008
"I'd like to think that travel literature in coming decades will champion a kind of Postmodern Realism -- a measured-yet-optimistic sensibility that cuts through the fantasies of tourism and the alarmist hue of international news reporting to leave us with something essentially human and true about the rest of the world... read more
An Interview with Rolf Potts (Vagabondish)
By Mike Richard, Vagabondish.com — September 18, 2008
"I didn't travel abroad when I was a kid, nor did I have much money growing up, but I eventually wandered my way across the world just the same. In many ways, I wrote Vagabonding as a letter to my 18 year-old self, to encourage people like me about the possibilities of travel.... read more
Rolf Potts Answers Your Travel Questions
From Bootsnall.com — September 17, 2008
"I get irritated if I hear someone brag about the time he's spent on some rice farm near Vang Vieng, and then in the next breath bag on people who live in "Red States" he's certainly never visited. How can you consider hanging out with a Laotian farmer a virtue when the idea of a Kansas farmer brings a sneer to your face?... read more
Rolf Potts on the "tourist" versus "traveler" debate
By Sean O'Neill Budget Travel — September 16, 2008
"So your next-door neighbor went to Guyana and he wants to tell you all about it -- is he showing off or just channeling the excitement of his journey? Odds are it's the latter -- and if you reflexively judge him as a travel snob just because he went someplace exotic and enjoyed it, then you're the one who's being a jerk... read more
Rolf's Marco Polo "Virtual Book Tour"
Appeared in various online venues — September 15-26, 2008
Rolf marks the debut of Marco Polo Didn't Go There with a series of interviews and features in blogs and websites such as Tim Ferriss's 4-Hour Work Week and National Geographic Traveler's "Intelligent Travel"...read more
Rolf Potts: Adventures on a shoestring
From the Times Online (U.K.) — April 2, 2008
"In a time when adventure travel is equated to deep-bush walking safaris or Arctic polar bear watching, we wanted to know if it is still possible to have great, life changing adventures on a shoestring. Few are better equipped to answer this question than Rolf Potts... read more
Rolf's Very Subjective Guide to Bookstores
From the National Geographic Traveler blog — December 13, 2007
"In 15 years of near-constant global travel, I've found bookstores to be both a psychic sanctum and a destination in themselves in faraway places. I seek out bookstores not just to find more...read more
Rolf Potts: Traveling Mercies
By K. Van Tassel, The Wittenburg Door — Nov./Dec. 2007
Rolf talks travel and religion with the Christian satire magazine that published his first paying freelance story in 1992...full article
Globetrotter says wealth lies in experiences
By David Clouston, Salina Journal — August 14, 2007
"Few in Salina will recognize Potts when he returns from his travels to unwind at his rural farm home in Saline County. But the 36-year-old Wichita native's byline is familiar among readers of ...full article
Rolf Potts On The Future Of Travel Writing
By Tim Patterson, Brave New Traveler — August 9, 2007
"Rolf shares his thoughts on travel writing for the Internet, the intoxicating "hum of possibility" that travel generates and why "speeding off toward the horizon with a sack full of Benzedrine is not always the best way to approach a journey ...full interview
Vagabonding and the Joy of Journeys
Q&A with Tom Chiari of UConn — Posted August 2007
"Vacationing is a way of using travel to escape from life for a short time; vagabonding is a way of using travel to embrace life for an extended period. Vagabonding isn't necessarily better than vacationing — everyone needs ....full Q&A
Conquering your fears and living your travel dreams
Los Angeles Times blog series — July 5-10, 2007
"The most shocking thing when many people dream of taking time off for world-travel is not the audacity of the dream itself, but the fact that so many folks never get around to doing it. Many of us fantasize about ...full article
Travel Writing and Americanness
Q&A with Melanie Tortoroli of Harvard — Posted May 2007
"Even those Americans who presume to reject American culture do it in a very American way. Culture is stronger than you think — more visceral than intellectual — and you can't just will it away when you move overseas ....full Q&A
Campaign for the American Reader Page 69 Test
By Marshal Zeringue — January 5, 2007
Rolf analyzes Page 69 of Vagabonding as part of an independent online initiative encouraging people to read more books ...full article
AirTran's Go Magazine: Dream Jobs
By Catherine Arnold — May 2006
Rolf's travel-writing career is included in a roundup of "dream jobs," including film directors, whale naturalists, and professional poker players ...full article
Rolf Potts interview: Eight Diagrams
By Wayne Yang, Eight Diagrams — June 14, 2006
"At the time, I thought the USA journey would be a ritual of getting travel out of my system before I got serious and started a normal, stationary American life. As it turned out ...full interview
Rolf Potts: Travel Writer and Vagabonding Guru
By Nana Chen, eMarginalia — December 2005
"At 34, Rolf Potts, the author of Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel, has wandered through forty-five states and fifty-five countries. It all started a decade ago when ...full interview
Global Nomads and Travel Journalism
Q&A with Lea Teuscher of City University (UK) — Posted October 2005
"Recently, I think traditional travel media have been conservative, more aligned to "safe" trips and attractions close to home, or without any cultural "risk". As far as I'm aware, there are very few major travel newspaper sections or magazines that cover ...full Q&A
Rolf Potts on Long-Term Travel
By Clay Hubbs, Transitions Abroad — March 2004
"Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to Long-Term Travel is a remarkably well-written book in which the author expands on virtually all the views I have presented in Transitions Abroad over the past 27 years. Like us, he keeps all his ..."full interview
Young Pioneers interview
By Dan Eldridge, Young Pioneers — Spring 2004
"At 33 years old, travel writer and self-proclaimed 'vagabond' Rolf Potts is easily the youngest pioneer featured in our Independent Travel Icons issue. If his youth alone doesn't make you jealous enough, consider that Potts'..." full interview
Wanderlust turns writer into a career vagabond
By Janet Fullwood, Sacramento Bee — November 23, 2003
"Always wanted to bum around Asia for a year but thought you couldn't afford it? Stop making excuses, counsels travel advocate Rolf Potts in a thoughtful new book about taking a break from the rat race: Vagabonding begins the moment you stop making excuses, start saving money and ..."full interview
Rolf Potts Speaks Out
By Claire Smith, Student Traveler — October 2003
"Rolf Potts wants to tell you how to travel. To be more accurate, he wants to tell you how to think when you travel. He doesn't want to suggest a destination, or what to bring, or how to get there. He's not interested in such practical thoughts — Potts is after your ...full interview
Q&A with Vagabonding author Rolf Potts
By Jim Benning, World Hum — February 4, 2003
"Rolf Potts made a name for himself writing evocative travel stories as the Vagabonding columnist at Salon.com. His piece "Storming the Beach" became an instant classic and landed him in the pages of the 2000 Best American Travel Writing anthology. Since then, Potts' writing has appeared in publications far and wide, including National Geographic Adventure and Conde Nast Traveler ...full interview
Vagabonding with Rolf Potts
By Michael McCarthy, Intentional Traveler — February 2003
"There are two types of people: those who live to work, and those who work to live. Then there is Rolf Potts, who lives to travel and to learn. At age 32, Potts is a veteran shoestring traveler with a decade of wandering the planet under his belt. In ...full interview
Hitting the road: Author Rolf Potts travels in search of that very small moment
By Gretchen Giles, North Bay Bohemian — January 23, 2003
"When Rolf Potts was 23 years old, he'd had enough rainy weather. He had $5,000 saved, a few good friends, and the van was running OK. So on New Year's Day 1994, he and some pals took off from their Northwest college home in search of sun. Thirty-eight states and eight months later, Potts realized that he'd found a new calling ... full interview
For Rolf Potts, every day is a winding road
By Jayne Clark, USA Today — January 10, 2003
"Rolf Potts is living a life that most avid travelers only dream of. While most of us make do with a carefully orchestrated 10 days here, two weeks there, the 32-year-old from Wichita has been moving through Asia and Europe and North Africa for the past six years. He has learned a thing or two along the way ...full interview
The Significance of Salon Travel
By Jim Benning, Online Journalism Review — September 2000
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