September 3, 2025 • 53 mins
Travel is something many of us in our 20s aspire to do well and to do more of. Whether it’s the quintessential Europe summer, road trips to the next city or town over, or exploring forgotten trails and paths, travel impacts us deeply and of course, psychologically.
But it can also have physical and emotional effects as well and it turns out, there is a way to fly and travel better. Today we are joined by Dr. Henry Ting, world renowned cardiologist and Chief Health & Wellness Officer at Delta Air Lines to discuss all the ways the airline is making transit a better part of our trip and some essential tips he has for people in their 20s who want to get the most out of their travel opportunities!
Listen now and check out the Fly and Live Better Youtube Series!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Psychology of Your Twenties,
the podcast where we talk through some of the big
life changes and transitions of our twenties and what they
mean for our psychology.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hello everybody, Welcome back to the show. Welcome back to
the podcast. New listeners, old listeners, Wherever you are in
the world, it is just a delight to have you
back here for another episode, for a special episode as
we break down the psychology of our twenties. So today
we're talking about a subject that I get asked about
(00:47):
a whole lot, and that I think actually is one
of those core experiences that really defines our twenties, especially
for a lot of people who listen to this podcast.
It's travel, traveling the world, gap years, semesters, abroad, road trips,
your summers, sight seeing, solo traveling. These are all things
(01:07):
that are on I would say a lot of our
bucket list for those of us in our twenties, because
I think a real theme for this decade for many
of us is exploration and expansion and growth and having
as many experiences as possible, and travel just fits so
neatly into that. Travel just has such a magnetic pull
(01:28):
during this chapter of our life. You know, psychologists often
call our twenties like a developmental suite, spot for new
experiences and for experiences that are going to disrupt our
routine and expand our worldview. They say that this period
is when those opportunities are most formative. So if you
have the opportunity to travel and to see the world
(01:50):
or just to go to the next town over during
this decade, you should absolutely take it because you're going
to see so much benefit from something that is also
just probably very very enjoyable. You know, during this time
when we are trying to figure out who we are,
we're trying to figure out our career, we're trying to
figure out what kind of life we want to leave.
(02:12):
Travel really helps us in this process because it pulls
us out of familiar contexts, and it makes us see
the world differently, and it makes us, you know, at
times uncomfortable, and it challenges us, and it makes us
see that the world is large and expansive, and that's
really what we need to believe in our twenties in
order to I guess open doors for ourselves, in order
(02:35):
to explore all the different possibilities, you know, in everyday life,
we're surrounded by all the same things, the same cultural norms,
the same routines, the same people. When we travel, whether
you know we're moving to a new city or we're
visiting a foreign country or whatever it is, we strip
away all of that normalcy, and in the absence of
(02:55):
those familiar cues, we're really being forced to look inward
and and kind of decide for ourselves that we are
capable and decide for ourselves how we want to think,
and how we want to act, and how we want
to connect. I think on top of that, the reason
people love travel during this decade is, of course it's fun,
but it also just makes for really great and iconic
(03:17):
stories that we're going to pass down to our kids
and our grandkids or to our friends at a nursing
home or wherever it is. They become like fibers that
kind of create our life. Really, they like become the
fibers of this tapestry and of this thing that we're creating.
So let's talk about the psychology of travel and why
(03:41):
traveling actually is one of the best things we can
do for our development during this decade. Firstly, travel brings
about a profound sense of cognitive flexibility. Cognitive flexibility is
basically our ability to experience new things, new circumstances, new situations,
and problem solved despite never being exposed to them before.
(04:05):
It's basically our ability to adapt to new ways of
thinking and new challenges that we've never encountered. This is
one of the most essential skills that our brain develops
an early adulthood. You cannot really get anywhere without it,
and it is heightened, in fact, through exposure to novel
environments like those we find abroad or like those we
(04:29):
find traveling. There is actually a science to back this up.
A twenty ten study found that people who lived abroad
for a semester demonstrated when they returned higher levels of
cognitive flexibility and also higher levels of creativity, which is
related to cognitive flexibility because when they were within this
(04:51):
new culture, they had to adapt and they saw new things.
They had to find solutions to unfamiliar problems, they had
to negotiate a new kind of way of understanding, and
a new meaning. You know, travel doesn't just show us
new places, and it isn't just about the joy of
the experience. It actually rewires our thinking very deeply. We
(05:12):
become more comfortable with ambiguity, more willing to embrace complexity,
and more able to really hold multiple perspectives in our
mind at once. It's just such an invaluable skill that
I think people don't really appreciate when you know, they're
having drinks on a beach in Bali, or they're at
a hotel in the city over like, they don't realize
(05:33):
what they're doing for their brain. It's incredibly powerful. There's
also a deeply personal element to this as well. Many
of us grow up in environments that are very very controlled.
We have our school schedule, we have our family routine,
we have cultural expectations. During this decade is the first
time that we really want to deliberately step away from
(05:55):
these boundaries, or push back against these boundaries, and find
out who we are without them. It's a period of individuation,
and travel is such a tangible way for us to
actually test this newfound independence, in this new sense of self.
It does this by challenging what the psychologist Albert Bundura
called our self efficacy. I wish we talked about self
(06:19):
efficacy more. It is just such a powerful concept. Basically,
it's our ability to trust that we can handle challenges. Basically,
how much do we believe that we are capable of
dealing with things that are difficult or that we can't
necessarily yeah predict for example. You know, with travel, self
(06:42):
efficacy is tested in the sense that we have to
ask ourselves, do I trust myself to be able to
navigate this new city? Do I trust myself to be
okay if things go wrong? Because with travel something will
always go wrong? Do I trust myself to be able
to plan and make good decis decisions? Whether you think
you can or not, travel is going to force you
(07:04):
to do it anyway, and that is essentially a kind
of baptism by fire, whereby we are forced to see
and forced to be made aware of how truly capable
we are that in a way that we can't always
do in everyday, normal environments, and that really leads to
an important part of travel in our twenties. It's not
(07:25):
always glamorous. It can be messy, it can be exhausting,
it can be uncomfortable, you know, language barriers and long
bus rides and lost luggage and uncomfortable plane rides. But
those less than perfect moments actually serve a really important
psychological purpose in that they teach us resilience. They show
us that discomfort isn't something to fear, but something to
(07:48):
move through. This is what we call inoculation by stress
or stress inoculations. Essentially, when we experience challenges and when
we experience and stress, actually that makes us, I guess,
less likely to be stressed in the future. It's inoculating
(08:10):
us or protecting us against future spikes and stress levels
because we have this evidence within us that we can
handle it. We have these experiences to look back on
and say, oh, Okay, I've been here before, I've done
this before, I've survived, I've had positive experiences out of
negative experiences, so I'm going to be okay, I'm going
(08:31):
to be just fine. There is another beautiful outcome of
travel beyond just cute pictures and souvenirs and fun memories
and beverages and what else whatever else there is. It
also broadens our sense of empathy. Social psychologists have for
a long long time known that exposure to diverse perspectives
(08:54):
reduces prejudice. It increases understanding. The more time you spend
in another culture around people that you've never met before,
you may not understand the more you begin to see
that the things you thought were universal are not, and
there is more than one way to be human, and
you learn to respect that your way is not the
(09:14):
best way. That is such a fundamental shift, and it's
one that I think we could all obviously be enduring more,
experiencing more. The world feels so polarized. That ability, though,
to see the common humanity beneath all, beneath what the
surface level differences, is a very quiet but radical skill
(09:37):
and one that I think we could all agree more
people need. Maybe travel is actually the solution to that.
Getting out into the world is a way to bring
people into this understanding. Also, you know, you build relationships.
We know that incidental intimacy and having joint experiences with
(09:57):
people that are tough or really deep or emotional, incredible, profound,
they make the bond between you and another person even
more deep. You know, there's something about being away from
home that really encourages a new level of openness. When
you don't have the baggage of other people's expectations, or
you don't have your usual role or your usual routine,
(10:20):
you often feel a lot more freer to be vulnerable
and to share things and to be like, you know,
I've never told anyone this, but this is you know,
I'm processing this like in the moment whilst I'm experiencing
these new things with this new person, and that intimacy.
It's just like incredibly profound, and it's like no wonder
(10:40):
that people come back from trips and they just have
a new lease on life and they see the world
clearer and they feel like they know themselves better because
they're going through all of these deep psychological changes that
they don't even recognize. I also think that there is
a pragmatic reason why our twenties are often the best
(11:01):
time to travel. We have very few responsibilities, well fewer
than what we may have later in life, and travel
is becoming more accessible. We've got budget airlines, we've got
work exchange programs, remote work as well as becoming a
lot more popular. There are all these new platforms that
(11:21):
offer affordable accommodation, and it's just like opened the world
up to us in a way that previous generations didn't
have the same privileges as us. It definitely is still
a privilege and it is still something that is just
like incredibly we are incredibly blessed and lucky to be
able to do, but it's no longer solely reserved for
(11:42):
people who are incredibly wealthy. And this accessibility matters because
it means more people are seeing the developmental benefits and
the mindset benefits and the empathy benefits and all the
benefits of seeing the world and of going out there
and having experiences that make them feel more in touch
(12:03):
with your human side and that make you feel more
aligned with who you are and what you want from
the world and what you want from humanity and what
you want from your life. I know, it's so crazy
when you talk about travel, people just like, oh, yes,
my fun like spring break trip, and it's like, no,
there is a there are deep psychological principles, and there
(12:25):
is a narrative that is being that you have about
your life that is being shaped by these experiences. No
wonder people who are older always want to recount the
travel stories or always have some brilliant life changing story
that happened when they were flying or on a boat
or in a foreign place, because these are high points
(12:47):
in our life. They are anchor points for our sense
of self and reminders of the times when we were
bold and we were curious, and we were alive in
the world and we felt like ourselves. I want to
say this, perhaps one of the most beautiful things about
traveling in our twenties is that it does not have
to be grand and elaborate and expensive. There is undeniable
(13:15):
magic and you know, I don't know walking the walking
the Pacific Crush Trail, or seeing the Eiffel Tower or
going on your dream trip, but actually some of the
most impactful experiences do come from smaller moments, like the
trip that was only in our car ride away or
a weekend in an airbnb. We place a lot of
(13:36):
emphasis on big destinations, but it turns out you can
receive the wonder and joy of travel from just about
any new environment you haven't been in before. In the end,
I think it really all comes down to are you
witnessing things you have never witnessed before in your life?
Are you experiencing the novelty of this moment? Are you
(13:58):
growing in and are you challenging yourself in ways that
perhaps you wouldn't have Are you just seeing the world differently?
That is really where the power of this comes from.
With that in mind, though, traveling can also kind of
take a toll on us emotionally and physically and mentally,
which is something we don't talk about all the time.
(14:19):
But it turns out there are a lot of people
out there interested in and researching how to travel better
so that we can get the most out of our trips,
get the most out of this experience, starting with the flight,
starting with the moment we leave our house. And I
got the privilege of being able to interview one of
those very people. So stay tuned, stick around for more.
(14:43):
We're going to dive even deeper into this topic after
this short break. So now that we've discussed the psychology
and the emotional importance of travel in our twenties, I
want to get a little bit further into the physicality
of it, the biology of it, the science of kind
(15:06):
of travel and well being. And like I said, this
is not my area of expertise. Yes, I jump on
an airplane every now and again, but I wanted to
talk to someone who really understood all the other sides
of this better than me, and who better than doctor
Henry Ting, who was a world renowned cardiologist. He also
(15:26):
joined Delta Airlines in twenty twenty one as the Global
Airlines Chief Health and Wellness officer. There is quite literally
no better person I think to talk to about this
than him.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Welcome, doctor Ting, pleasure to be here with you, Gemma.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
I'm very very excited for this. Before we jump into
the questions that I have for you about your research
and Telta's research, can you we just know a little
bit more about you and your background as a doctor.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Yeah, thanks, Shema. First, please call me Henry. I'm not
your doctor, but I'm a cardiologist by train. I trained
in Boston and worked for over twenty years at the
Male Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and I joined Delta Airlines
in twenty twenty one, as you said, as the airlines
first chief health and Wellness officer.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Which is honestly such a cool concept because I had
never thought about the fact that spending time in the
air is such a weird thing for humans to be doing,
and it obviously like does sometimes affect us like mentally
and physically in terms of jet lag and in terms
of well being. So the fact that you've joined in
(16:34):
that capacity is super cool. I also want to talk
more specifically about a recent experiment that you guys kind
of conducted. So you guys have launched a new campaign
in a new series that really explores the connection between
travel and well being. But as part of that, you
did some really cool research. And you guys know on
(16:56):
this podcast, we love our science. We love our research.
It's tasty. Can you dive into the premise of this
for me?
Speaker 3 (17:04):
So, Gemma, I'm a foodie like you, So things that
taste good I'm really excited about. But I think, you know,
we take a step back. Travel has made the world smaller, right,
particularly airline travel. It's opened up possibilities that many of
us imagine we're not possible. And now you get on
a flight for three, six or ten hours, you can
(17:26):
be in the other side of the world, meeting people, places,
experiences that you couldn't have imagined. And I think that's
a remarkable, fantastic thing for all of us. And you know,
I think most of us probably couldn't live without it
in terms of the possibilities opens up. But specific to
your question, Yeah, we conducted an experiment with some gen
(17:50):
Z creators about the impact of travel and the experiment
was called Fly and Live Better. One Delta wants to
create a seamless, premium experience for all of our customers
in flight but we feel like the flight experience can
also help you live better. And when we talk about
(18:10):
the flight experience, it starts with your idea that you
want to go somewhere, and that you plan the trip,
and that you get to the airport and you check in,
and the in flight experience and arriving at your destination
refreshed and ready to enjoy whatever it is that's on
your mind, whether that's business or pleasure.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
And so you kind of wanted to see how we
could do this better, right, and how we could kind
of elevate the experience. Talk me through what happened in
this kind of research. I know you guys set some
people on some flights, you gathered some data. Yeah, tell
(18:50):
me about how that went. Goes in depth on the
procedures you want, because I feel like we love to know, Yeah,
exactly what the data was and all of the changes.
And you had four people, right, Can you talk a
bit more about their experiences?
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Yeah, So we had four content creators or social media influencers.
Their names were Gabe and Luan, as well as Sophie
and Semi. There were two pairs and we wanted to
see the effects of travel on their health and well
being and all of them were given AURA ring to
(19:27):
where to measure their physiologic parameters, so including their ready
to score, their sleep score, their activity score during travel
and at the destination as well as they were given
a survey to assess their emotional and social wellbeing during
the trip and when they returned. And part of the
(19:48):
research was to send these two pairs of people to
different destinations. One was a premium bucket list location in
Copenhagen where they sent you flew Delta one stayed at
a five star hotel and had premium experiences in Copenhagen.
(20:09):
And the second was a more local, closer trip which
we felt was also very much more accessible and fun
but didn't require the long flight or the change in
time zones, and that was the Seattle Washington and they
flew Delta comfort, they had access to our sky clubs
and they also had curated Delta experiences in Seattle, and
(20:31):
during the trip we had the oral ring on them,
so we were able to get metrics of their readiness score,
their sleep score, their activity score, as well as surveys
of their emotional social well being on the trip.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
And I have to ask was it different between the
long haul flight and the short domestic flight because as
someone who I feel like, I fly overseas not all
the time, but quite a bit, and when I fly overseas,
it kind of takes it out of me. Did you
see a difference between those two groups.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
Oh, yeah, very much so.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
I think what was good about both is their emotional
or mental well being and social wellbeing went through the
roof on boat trips. Both trips were eye opening, including
the trip to Seattle which was more local and accessible,
as well as the bucket list trip to Copenhagen. On
boat trips, their emotional well being and social wellbeing escalated.
(21:27):
And really because of I think the people and the
experiences and different cultures you were able to see. The
differences we saw were more on physical well being, activity
and sleep. Obviously, you know, when you have this longer
flight to Copenhagen in Europe and it's a six to
eight hour flight, it does take a lot out of you,
(21:48):
whereas a shorter three hour flight to Seattle it was
much easier for them to acclimate adjust to.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
But you know what I love about what you're saying
is that the long haul flight, the short domestic travel,
or the dream trip to Copenhagen versus you know, the
around the corner trip for these participants to Seattle both
had very similar mental and social perks and benefits. And
you know why I think that that is such a
(22:15):
cool finding from this is because obviously, like we talk
about people in their twenties, right, and there's this huge
emphasis on doing your eurogap year or traveling to as
many countries as possible or you know, bucket list travel items,
and definitely online we see people doing these amazing trips,
and I love that what you're saying is just traveling
(22:37):
in general, even if it's like to the town next
door or to the city like over the way, is
still going to give you that kind of social and
cultural and psychological and emotional expansion, which I think actually
we need to talk about a little bit more because again,
it's not just these overseas amazing trips that are going
to give that to you. It's these like small moments
(22:59):
of intention.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
Right absolutely.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
I think after they came back, we did a couple
of interviews with them, and it was interesting when I
asked them, did you get more from a shorter trip
that was closer or did you get more from a
longer trip that was further away, and it wasn't a
simple answer. The answers were different, and I think as
the whole, the fact of traveling and seeing different places
(23:27):
and of itself was rewarding. And you know, at Delta
and we'd like to say, no one better connects the world.
And for us, that's connecting not just people to places
and destinations, it's connecting people to other people, other cultures,
and ultimately experiences that can't really be replicated by you know,
(23:47):
oculus or a pair of goggles and virtual reality. You know,
being able to smell the flowers or go on the
bike ride and feel the wind blowing your hair. Those
are things that you can only experience in person. And
it was pretty fun to hear from these content creators
that some of these views, be in Seattle, on Copenhagen
(24:08):
or dinners or experiences were so fantastic they had to
quickly create their content and then put that aside so
they can actually enjoy the experience.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Okay, this is this is also a cool finding that
you're telling me, is that when we are like in
these spaces, travel actually allows us to disconnect further from
you know, social media, and yeah, for them their work,
which is something that I also find when I'm traveling.
I'm like, it just like unlocks a whole new side
of creativity for me as well, because you get out
(24:40):
of the space that is known, and you get out
of you know your responsibilities, and you're able to just
be present as kind of as humans were intended to be,
Like they were intended to be curious and they were
we are intended to be to explore and to witness
nature and witness beauty. Yeah, it's actually quite poetic, but
(25:00):
I want to talk about something less poetic but just
as important to our humanness, which is the physical impacts
of flying and also how we can better fly for
our health. I feel like this generation is so health
conscious and I know I am as well, and so
(25:22):
any way that I can like elevate and experience so
that my body endures less or so that I feel
better is so important to me. What did you find
with that? What does flying kind of do from a
physical perspective, and how can we manage those things?
Speaker 3 (25:39):
Yeah, let's start with some of the findings we had,
you know, for the shorter trip, the four to five
hour flight the Seattle.
Speaker 4 (25:46):
You know, our people arrived ready.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Their ready to score was high and remained high. Their
sleep score actually improved, so even though there were time
zone three hours apart, score on average improved eight points,
and their activity score was much higher because they got
out and about and they walked and they biked and
(26:09):
they were physically active. And that's what we saw in Seattle,
that there wasn't much of a physical toll from the
travel or a sleep perspective. They arrived ready, refreshed and
able to enjoy the location. Now the bucket list or
dream trip to Copenhagen obviously a longer trip six hour
time zone difference. You know, they flew Delta one first class,
(26:32):
and they were in the Delta one club before flight,
and they loved the flight, including the beverages and the
food and the premium service. But when you look at
when they arrived, their ready score was lower. Their sleep
score dropped by nearly twenty points on their or ring.
I like to say by top sleep score ever in
(26:53):
my orro ring was on ninety four, so dropping to
seventy four would be pretty dramatic for me.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
YEA.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
Their activity score was high, so even though they were
sleep deprived, tired, they still got out and did a
lot of physical activities that was on average as high
or not higher than what they were doing at their home.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
And here's the thing. I feel like when you're in
your twenties and thirties and when you're younger, it's like,
I want to get every single little thing out of
this experience. Like if I've flown first class, which that's
like a I would yeah bucket LIS's item. If I've
flown first class and I'm in this beautiful city, who
cares if I'm jet lacked, Like, I'm going to go
and have pastries, and I'm going to go shopping, and
(27:38):
I'm going to go see the museums like you bet.
And then it's like day two and you're like, I
need to sleep for the next twenty four hours or
I'm not going to hear a zombie. And you were
talking to me earlier, like we were talking the other
day about how you can kind of have the best
of both worlds. Yeah, some of the stratag gs that
(28:00):
we can kind of adopt to land to have our
readiness score higher, maybe our sleep score a little bit lower,
but not as low as as it has to be.
Particularly I remember you talking about the importance of understanding
your circadian rhythm. Can you expand on that a little bit?
Speaker 3 (28:18):
Yeah, I mean the circadian rhythm is your own biological
clock for a twenty four hour day night cycle. And
if you think back in time before we had electricity
and lights, that circadian rhythm was driven by daylight or sunlight,
and everybody was on the same circadian rhythm.
Speaker 4 (28:36):
No one flew anywhere, but.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Everybody was on the same day night cycle or circadian rhythm.
But as you think about the advances in our society
and community, No, we invented electricity, we invented lights, we
invented computers, we invented windows or rooms without windows that
completely disrupted our circadian rhythms. And if you think about
(29:00):
or travel, does you and I, although you live in
Australia and I live in Atlanta, we have our own
circadian rhythms of day night, when we're supposed to be awake,
when we sleep and get all activities done. And when
you travel to a different times on this six hours apart.
You may be physically in Copenhagen, but physiologically your body's
(29:22):
function and your brain function is not at the same
time that your body physically is there. So there's a
separation between your physical person in Copenhagen and your physiologic person.
Everything that you know and you do and how you
think and how much energy you have and how much
(29:44):
focus you have is still in Atlanta. But there are
things you can do to accelerate that conversion to a
times on this six hours different and the things that
you can do that make it worse. And those are
the things I think we can talk about that are
science based that would help a traveler arrive refreshed and
(30:05):
convert to that time zone faster.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
Yeah, so this is what I need to know because
I've got to say, You're going to be mad at me, Henry.
But when I get on a plane, I I'm I'm
having my melotone and gummies and I'm also having a
glass of wine. That's probably not the right thing to do,
can you, Because I know, like the biggest one is
like avoid set of lives, avoid alcohol. Why is that
(30:30):
so important to do? Because I feel like a lot
of us are like, well, I want to adjust. So
I'm going to, you know, try and push myself to
sleep faster on the plane or delay sleep when I
get there. What's wrong with it with the set of
lives and the alcohol in this situation.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Yeah, well you said it right. The sedatives, the gummies,
the alcohol. They may actually make you tired and have
you fall asleep, but it's not restorative RESTful sleep. We
know that the restorative RESTful sleep is your REM sleep,
rapid eye boom a sleep, as well as your deep sleep.
(31:07):
And believe it or not, sedatives and hypnotics like melatonin,
ambient valium, or the gummies, they actually cause sleep, but
not the right sleep. They don't adduce the deep sleep
and the REM sleep. So even though you've been asleep
for five hours eight hours, you're not rested because your
(31:28):
body gets restorative RESTful sleep with the deep sleep and
REM sleep. And that's why the ambient, the valuum, the alcohol,
those are actually bad for you, you know. And some people,
I'll take it to the next level. Some people arrive
on scene and get their ivy fluid infusions. And the
(31:50):
fluids could be yellow, blue, and green. That might rehydrate
you and make you feel temporarily better. What I worry
about why the fluid is green, blue, and yellow and
what additives are in there? But two, it doesn't really
restore the body. It makes you feel temporarily better, so
you can do that activity, but it doesn't really restore
your body physically, just to get a leader of IV fluid.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
So what you're saying is we're doing all these things
thinking and helping, but what we should really be doing
is what should we be doing in terms of resinking
our circadian rhythm?
Speaker 4 (32:23):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Yeah, so those give you a short term benefit, but
there's probably a long term cost your pain, right because
you'll probably arrive home needing a vacation from your vacation
and to get more rest before you can re enter
your work life. So let's get back to this circadian rhythm.
Light is important. We know that blue wavelength light is
(32:47):
what stimulates your brain and the receptors in your retina
to be alert and active for your daytime activities. We
know that it's not just any blue cutter light. There's
a specific wavelength of blue light that particularly informs your
brain that says, hey, it's daytime, it's time to be
awake and stimulate you to be alert and active and
(33:10):
have energy. And there's an opposite spectrum of light that's
a red orange wavelength that starts telling your brain and
the receptition red. Now to relax, to decrease your energy
level on your alertness, and to prepare for sleep. And
that's what you get if all you're exposed to was
sunlight without computers, iPads, iPhones and light bulbs. And how
(33:35):
do we then convert that time using light as a
key component. So one technology or product I like to
talk about that we've used is something called skyview lighting.
This is not just colored lighting. Skyview lighting actually is
a specific light that transmits a color that's blue wavelength specifically.
Speaker 4 (33:58):
For alertness the day.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
And you can actually program it on your app to
time it for the day in Copenhagen, Seattle, or Atlanta
or Australia. But then it automatically realizes the twenty four
hour cycle and changes the color to red and orange
tore pare you for sleep. So that it's something you
can do to almost tell your brain when it's daylight
(34:21):
and when it's nighttime and do it with light as
opposed to sunlight. Now, the science behind this is quite fascinating.
I'm sure you'd be interested in it. This company was
started by scientists that used to work at NASA physicists
and they realize that in the International Space Station, which
(34:43):
orbits the Earth, the day night cycle of sunrise and
sunset is ninety minutes, and their windows on the space
station which can't be closed, so you're experiencing day and
night every ninety minutes. And there's a crew of ten
astronauts who are expected to work in harmony and synchrony
to maintain the space station and do the research they're doing,
(35:06):
and they have to be on the same circadian rhythm.
One person can't be asleep while the other person is
ready to do the experiments or the research. What they
found is, without any intervention, the astronauts were becoming one
to two hours per day separated in their circadian rhythm
as every day went by. And what they also found
was seventy eighty percent of the astronauts were taking medications
(35:29):
for sleep because they were trying to get sleep at
the same time. But what they did was they put
the skyview light in the space station, and with thirty
minutes of exposure to that light every single day, they
can keep the ten astronauts on the same circadian rhythm
day and night, so they can be functional, alert and active,
(35:51):
working as a team, if you will, working as a
fully functional team. This kind of lighting has also been
useful for submarines in the military, right because if you're
in the submarine and you're actually deployed underneath the water
for two months with no daylight or sunlight, this at
least tells your brain this is daytime and now this
(36:12):
is nighttime, and keeps the entire crew of three hundred
submriners to be working as a team, as a functional
single team. And the last group where this has been
shown to be particularly effective is in places like Alaska
where in the winter you have twenty three hours of
night and we know that prolonged nighttime or prolonged darkness
(36:36):
can lead to seasonal effective disorders, that people can get
mental health issues. So having this light be exposed to
it and have the exposure to an artificial sunlight was very,
very useful. I can tell you that those are the
scientific basis of how this skyview light has been used. Today,
we've got sports teams like the New York Mets having
(36:58):
this in their locker room so that all their players
can be fresh and learn ready when the game starts.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
Yeah, so what you're saying to me is like, if
you want to fly better, you need to start really
understanding the power of light, right Yeah.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
So, uh, you know, we are working with Skyview right now,
Delta's partner with Skyview to try to get a miniaturized
version of this light because the current lights are large,
they are overhead lights, they are large set slamps. But
we're working on a miniaturized version that's no bigger than
a small iPad that you can take with you as
carry on and you can put into your hotel room
(37:33):
or put into wherever you are, so you have exposure
to blue light and red orange light depending on circadian rhythm.
We're really excited about it because this can help you
convert your time and the different time zones faster. So
that hopefully will be ready for testing, and we're going
to test it with our crew and the next couple
(37:55):
of months and see if that works. I would like
to pivot actually to another company we've worn with, which
is called fount and fly Kit.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
Have it.
Speaker 4 (38:04):
You have one right here?
Speaker 3 (38:05):
It's this and this is the product they sell, Fountain
fly k It. Again, this is interventions you can do
to try to convert your circadian rhythm faster. Right, So
if we do nothing, we'll probably convert to that six
to eight hour time zone difference over a matter of
two to four days, depending on how quickly you acclimate
(38:28):
and adjust. If you do the valume melatonin ambient and
gummies actually may delay it and take longer. This again,
like Skyview, is meant to try to decrease that conversion
to a matter of one or two days. So this
company was founded by some Navy Seals. You know, as
you think about the Navy Seals and our military, they
(38:51):
may need to deploy and they need that crew ready
to carry out their mission. And using supplements, they actually
look at your time zone. They have an app depending
on where you're flying, your specific fly, what time you're flying,
the time zone difference. When you arrive, their app tells
(39:12):
you when you take these supplements, which includes a mixture
of magnesium, vitamin C, vitamin B six, vitamin B twelve,
as well as omega three fatty acids, really to help
your body adjust to that local time zone faster, and
they can actually show you how much you shifted. Within
the app. It also recommends when you should eat, what
(39:36):
you should eat, how much you should eat, and when
you should go to bed. Again, trying to help your body,
make that time zone conversion faster so you arrive ready,
refresh to enjoy your trip. And lastly, what they provide
in the kit is my favorite, which is these blue
blocker glasses. These blue blocker glasses essentially will block out
(40:00):
ninety nine percent of that blue light we talked about,
so if you put it down, everything looks like a
shade of orange. You've seen these being sold by other makers,
but these are well made. They block out ninety nine
percent of that blue wavelength light, so that when it's
nighttime and you're still on your iPad, your iPhone or
in your computer like you're now, you can put this
(40:22):
on and you can do your activity, but you're not
getting the blue wavelength light that's keeping you awake, alert
as of it's daytime. So with that combination, you're able
to convert your time so much faster. And the most
exciting thing that I think flight Kit are working on
is trying to create what we call a digital twin,
So creating a digital twin of Gemma so that we
(40:44):
know that this what is this digital twin's physiologic circadian
rhythm in Copenhagen, and how far is she deviated from
the actual time in Copenhagen versus the time in Australia.
Speaker 4 (40:57):
Depending on where you want to be right, you can
set your time.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
To I'm going to Australia tomorrow, I want to be
ready for Australia, or I'm Copenhagen for a week and
I want to be in the time zone of Copenhagen.
So that digital twin can tell you based on measurables
biometrics as well as if you've taken the supplements, if
you've done the exercises, if you've done the eating and sleeping,
(41:20):
where are you in terms of your conversion.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
That is honestly amazing, And the fact that people haven't
done this sooner is shocking to me because I would
be I'm signing up for all of these things. I
like the light idea, like if I could pack that
in my carry on and that's going to save me
like a day of explore time, Like I'm doing that
in a heartbeat. And also the fact that you're saying
to me, like what we eat and when we choose
(41:47):
to sleep, even if it's like fifteen minutes earlier, can
make such profound shifts. I feel like it's going to
prevent us from going into travel and being like okay, cool,
So I've just lost two days when it's probably been
really expensive for me to get here, and this is
like a once in a lifetime trip, like you want
all of that time maximized. And I think it sorry
(42:09):
to make one final point because I'm kind of just
blown away by this. I think it also emphasizes that
we think of travel as like purely, I don't really
know how we think of it. We just think of
it as like a form of transport. But it is
so mental, and it is so emotional and emotional and physical,
and there is like a deeper meaning to it. So
(42:31):
talk about how Delta specifically can personalize and it is
thinking about wellness more as part of someone's journey to
their destination.
Speaker 3 (42:43):
Yeah, we know that travel can be hard, right.
Speaker 4 (42:47):
You know there are delays.
Speaker 3 (42:49):
You know, there are times when it's very crowded in
every seat, and a lot of people, like you said,
think of air travel as how do I get from
point A to point B with the most least amount
of burden or trauma to be But at Delta, we're
trying to reimagine that. We're thinking about your whole curb
(43:10):
to claim experience as a holistic experience, and how can
we make that travel experience as seamless and as delightful
as possible. So it starts with our flight Delta app right,
because this is where you plan a trip and you
book your flights, you check in for your boarding pass,
and you know when you're supposed to arrive, and you
(43:33):
board the plane. But I think every step along the way,
we're trying to make that experience as personalized to you
as possible. Understanding you are a traveler with Delta, that
you're not just traveling with us. Once we know that
if Gemma is one of our sky Mouse members and
has travel with us multiple times, we know what she prefers,
(43:55):
we know what she likes, we know what she's looking for.
Using that information to cater or create your future travel
experiences is what we're aiming for. So to that end,
for example, we now have a sky Mouse members free
Wi Fi high speed Wi Fi for every single person
on board, to the point where if you're a sky
(44:17):
Mouse member, you're any of our planes, whether it's within
the United States or international, you can link up to
our Wi Fi and stream Netflix. You can look at
YouTube TV, who's an exclusive partner of Delta with their
content that's coming. We're also partnered with Uber so that
if you arrive and we know that you want an
(44:38):
Uber you could book that in flight with the Wi
Fi and schedule it, or you can book it as
soon as you're ready the plane. All those are personalized
experiences and a seamless experience for our travelers, and I
think that's one of the benefits of actually considering not
choosing just the lowest cost flight you can get from
(44:59):
a land to to Australia, that you consider becoming a
loyalty member like a Skypow member with Delta or other airlines,
where this opens up a world of experiences and curated
experiences for you, including I think one of the things
I love the most is we recently added Shakeshack Burgers
(45:19):
on our flights, which can order in advance.
Speaker 2 (45:22):
Oh, I saw this.
Speaker 4 (45:24):
It's a great on TikTok.
Speaker 2 (45:26):
Yeah, that's so cool.
Speaker 3 (45:28):
I just had it on my trip from Salt Lake
City to New York and I gotta say it was
as good as a Shakesheck burger.
Speaker 4 (45:36):
At the restaurant.
Speaker 3 (45:37):
The burger was smashed crispy on the outside. They separated
the buns so it didn't get soggy. The lettuce, tomatoes
and onions were in a separate bowl, and they gave
you their shakesheck brownie and.
Speaker 4 (45:49):
The potato chips.
Speaker 3 (45:50):
It was delicious, and to know that you can order
that before the flight was fantastic and knowing that it
was ready for you. The other thing we've had a
few years ago is you know, if you're checking in
a bag, we now tell you when it's been loaded,
so you know that your bag has been loaded on
a plane, and then when it's coming off the plane
and when it's at the claim, so you never have
(46:11):
to worry that my bag make it with me, is
it still left in Australia and I'm flying to New York.
So those are the things that are just so fantastic,
and hopefully we're hoping that you know, given it's twenty
twenty five and everybody's digital in AI enhanced, that you
can do all these things within the flight out the app,
(46:32):
and that you never have to call someone or go
in line, and even in the setting of an irap
or irregular operations where whether or something else is interrupting
the flight, that you can change a flight or rebook
another flight, or have something done for you right within
the app.
Speaker 2 (46:50):
The fact I don't know who your product team is,
but they are working over time, because that is every
single thing and every single frustration I have ever had
with flying gone like is my bag missing?
Speaker 1 (47:02):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (47:02):
How am I going to get to my hotel the airport?
Do I have to pack my own snacks? Because the
airplane food is like not very tasty? Like am I
gonna have? Am I gonna be able to like work
on the fly? All done, all minimized, which is like
I love when companies are just like, yeah, we recognize
that's a problem, and we're not just gonna be like
deal with it. We're going to actually do something about it.
(47:23):
I'm a big I'm a big fan. And also I
will say advice to my twenty something listeners, which is
probably all of you, please sign up for sky Miles,
or please sign up for a loyalty program with your airline.
Obviously we're hoping that it's Delta for for Henry, but
it's like this thing that I wish I'd started doing earlier.
(47:44):
And I was actually at my run club the other
day and my friend was showing me all the air
miles that she had accumulated over like years of travel,
and we did the math and this was just like
incidental travel, like she's going home for a funeral or
she had to fly for work. You know, she went
to Europe last year and we were looking at all
(48:05):
the miles and it was like she could go to
New York for free. It's like an investment. It's like investing,
and it's you literally aren't doing anything other than just
doing the normal travel that you would do. But if
you I always think it's worth paying more to travel
with the same airline because you get these perks and
(48:25):
because you get this thing at the end of the day,
like it's worth the fifty dollars more of the seventy
five dollars more because you literally get free flights out
of it. So I'm glad you brought that up. I
do have one final question for you, because we've been
chatting away for a while, maybe two final questions, but
I'm going to start with this one, which is from
(48:47):
your experience, from your experience when you were younger to
where you are now. What is one thing you wish
people in their twenties knew about travel or did differently
about air travel. What's a piece of advice for us?
Speaker 3 (49:02):
One of the things I think, you know, what I've
realized is very few people get on a plane to
get miles.
Speaker 4 (49:12):
Right. When people get on a plane to travel somewhere.
Speaker 3 (49:15):
No one's doing it just to get their sky miles
or loyalty perks. People get on a plane for a reason,
and that reason could be business, that reason could be
for pleasure, that reason could be a funeral. Right, everybody's
got a purpose when they get on the plane. And
I think travel in twenty twenty five has become so
(49:37):
ubiquitous and different now. The thing that's made the most
difference for me is self care. And whether you're flying
premium in first class or you're in the back of
the plane in the middle row, there are things you
can do to make that experience better for yourself in
terms of self care. Right, Delta's going to do everything
possible to personalize to enhance your experience. But things that
(50:02):
I do now that I don't travel without are I
love my imask that's memory foam and goes over my face.
I love my sleep hello that you know prevents me
from having a creek on my neck if I fall asleep,
and I remind myself to drink a lot of water
and drink a lot of hydration, and that is, you know,
(50:25):
sort of foundational change if we can all remember that.
Speaker 2 (50:29):
M also to add to your list noise canceling headphones.
Speaker 4 (50:33):
Guys. Yeah, you've got to invest in I got that.
Speaker 3 (50:36):
Yeah, it's a new world, right, it's like way it's quiet.
Speaker 1 (50:40):
I know.
Speaker 2 (50:41):
The first time I ever bought noise canceling headphones was
like when because I actually don't we haven't talked about
this at all, but I used to have a really
big fear of flying, and which is I don't know
how this hasn't come up, but other listeners are.
Speaker 3 (50:53):
Jim, I would tell you, and I want to reassure you.
Commercial airline flying is probably of the safest activities you
can do. It's safer than driving, and it's safer than
walking on the streets of New York. In terms of accidents,
we really don't see them. Despite some of the things
you see, it is still absolutely very safe. And I
(51:16):
can tell you that the airlines across the world compete
on everything except safety. You know, whether you're air Frants, KLM, Delta,
we all share safety protocols and we strive to be
the safest form of travel period, full stop.
Speaker 4 (51:36):
And I think you're in good hands.
Speaker 3 (51:37):
I hope you feel safer and better about flying.
Speaker 2 (51:40):
I do look at that little industry secret, guys, that
is actually I did not know that. That makes me
feel a lot better. I think this is all we
have time for. I want to thank you so much
for joining me and with all your knowledge and all
your insight and sharing like the latest and greatest developments.
I think the real takeaway from this episode is just
(52:03):
to be intentional about your trip and to be intentional
about self care on your trip.
Speaker 3 (52:07):
Would you agree, absolutely, it's absolutely to be intentional, and
you know from our creators on their trips, the last
thing I would advise your listeners is find out what
makes you feel better and brings you joy. And for
Gabe it was playing his guitar. For Luan, it was journaling.
(52:29):
Send Me also enjoyed journaling. For Sophie it was getting
a massage. But each of us has something that brings
us joy and helps us restore ourselves and that self
care component. So thank you for the supportation and I
really appreciated talking with you.
Speaker 2 (52:44):
Yeah, don't neglect it just because you're traveling. Guys, you
don't want to come back and need another vacation from
your vacation. Thank you again to everyone who has listened
and who has joined us for this episode. I want
to invite you to watch the Fly and Live Better
series on YouTube. It is very, very cool, and I
love when companies do their own research and bring like
(53:06):
an experimental perspective to an everyday experience. I'm going to
leave a link in the description and also join sky
Miles for access to more experiences. That's my biggest tip
for people in their twenties. Join a loyalty program, join
sky Miles. Even if you literally only travel once a year,
you have no idea how much it adds up. But again,
(53:26):
thank you to Henry and as always, be safe, be kind,
to be gentle to yourself. We will talk very very soon.
Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Psychology of Your Twenties,
the podcast where we talk through some of the big
life changes and transitions of our twenties and what they
mean for our psychology.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hello everybody, Welcome back to the show. Welcome back to
the podcast. New listeners, old listeners, Wherever you are in
the world, it is just a delight to have you
back here for another episode, for a special episode as
we break down the psychology of our twenties. So today
we're talking about a subject that I get asked about
(00:47):
a whole lot, and that I think actually is one
of those core experiences that really defines our twenties, especially
for a lot of people who listen to this podcast.
It's travel, traveling the world, gap years, semesters, abroad, road trips,
your summers, sight seeing, solo traveling. These are all things
(01:07):
that are on I would say a lot of our
bucket list for those of us in our twenties, because
I think a real theme for this decade for many
of us is exploration and expansion and growth and having
as many experiences as possible, and travel just fits so
neatly into that. Travel just has such a magnetic pull
(01:28):
during this chapter of our life. You know, psychologists often
call our twenties like a developmental suite, spot for new
experiences and for experiences that are going to disrupt our
routine and expand our worldview. They say that this period
is when those opportunities are most formative. So if you
have the opportunity to travel and to see the world
(01:50):
or just to go to the next town over during
this decade, you should absolutely take it because you're going
to see so much benefit from something that is also
just probably very very enjoyable. You know, during this time
when we are trying to figure out who we are,
we're trying to figure out our career, we're trying to
figure out what kind of life we want to leave.
(02:12):
Travel really helps us in this process because it pulls
us out of familiar contexts, and it makes us see
the world differently, and it makes us, you know, at
times uncomfortable, and it challenges us, and it makes us
see that the world is large and expansive, and that's
really what we need to believe in our twenties in
order to I guess open doors for ourselves, in order
(02:35):
to explore all the different possibilities, you know, in everyday life,
we're surrounded by all the same things, the same cultural norms,
the same routines, the same people. When we travel, whether
you know we're moving to a new city or we're
visiting a foreign country or whatever it is, we strip
away all of that normalcy, and in the absence of
(02:55):
those familiar cues, we're really being forced to look inward
and and kind of decide for ourselves that we are
capable and decide for ourselves how we want to think,
and how we want to act, and how we want
to connect. I think on top of that, the reason
people love travel during this decade is, of course it's fun,
but it also just makes for really great and iconic
(03:17):
stories that we're going to pass down to our kids
and our grandkids or to our friends at a nursing
home or wherever it is. They become like fibers that
kind of create our life. Really, they like become the
fibers of this tapestry and of this thing that we're creating.
So let's talk about the psychology of travel and why
(03:41):
traveling actually is one of the best things we can
do for our development during this decade. Firstly, travel brings
about a profound sense of cognitive flexibility. Cognitive flexibility is
basically our ability to experience new things, new circumstances, new situations,
and problem solved despite never being exposed to them before.
(04:05):
It's basically our ability to adapt to new ways of
thinking and new challenges that we've never encountered. This is
one of the most essential skills that our brain develops
an early adulthood. You cannot really get anywhere without it,
and it is heightened, in fact, through exposure to novel
environments like those we find abroad or like those we
(04:29):
find traveling. There is actually a science to back this up.
A twenty ten study found that people who lived abroad
for a semester demonstrated when they returned higher levels of
cognitive flexibility and also higher levels of creativity, which is
related to cognitive flexibility because when they were within this
(04:51):
new culture, they had to adapt and they saw new things.
They had to find solutions to unfamiliar problems, they had
to negotiate a new kind of way of understanding, and
a new meaning. You know, travel doesn't just show us
new places, and it isn't just about the joy of
the experience. It actually rewires our thinking very deeply. We
(05:12):
become more comfortable with ambiguity, more willing to embrace complexity,
and more able to really hold multiple perspectives in our
mind at once. It's just such an invaluable skill that
I think people don't really appreciate when you know, they're
having drinks on a beach in Bali, or they're at
a hotel in the city over like, they don't realize
(05:33):
what they're doing for their brain. It's incredibly powerful. There's
also a deeply personal element to this as well. Many
of us grow up in environments that are very very controlled.
We have our school schedule, we have our family routine,
we have cultural expectations. During this decade is the first
time that we really want to deliberately step away from
(05:55):
these boundaries, or push back against these boundaries, and find
out who we are without them. It's a period of individuation,
and travel is such a tangible way for us to
actually test this newfound independence, in this new sense of self.
It does this by challenging what the psychologist Albert Bundura
called our self efficacy. I wish we talked about self
(06:19):
efficacy more. It is just such a powerful concept. Basically,
it's our ability to trust that we can handle challenges. Basically,
how much do we believe that we are capable of
dealing with things that are difficult or that we can't
necessarily yeah predict for example. You know, with travel, self
(06:42):
efficacy is tested in the sense that we have to
ask ourselves, do I trust myself to be able to
navigate this new city? Do I trust myself to be
okay if things go wrong? Because with travel something will
always go wrong? Do I trust myself to be able
to plan and make good decis decisions? Whether you think
you can or not, travel is going to force you
(07:04):
to do it anyway, and that is essentially a kind
of baptism by fire, whereby we are forced to see
and forced to be made aware of how truly capable
we are that in a way that we can't always
do in everyday, normal environments, and that really leads to
an important part of travel in our twenties. It's not
(07:25):
always glamorous. It can be messy, it can be exhausting,
it can be uncomfortable, you know, language barriers and long
bus rides and lost luggage and uncomfortable plane rides. But
those less than perfect moments actually serve a really important
psychological purpose in that they teach us resilience. They show
us that discomfort isn't something to fear, but something to
(07:48):
move through. This is what we call inoculation by stress
or stress inoculations. Essentially, when we experience challenges and when
we experience and stress, actually that makes us, I guess,
less likely to be stressed in the future. It's inoculating
(08:10):
us or protecting us against future spikes and stress levels
because we have this evidence within us that we can
handle it. We have these experiences to look back on
and say, oh, Okay, I've been here before, I've done
this before, I've survived, I've had positive experiences out of
negative experiences, so I'm going to be okay, I'm going
(08:31):
to be just fine. There is another beautiful outcome of
travel beyond just cute pictures and souvenirs and fun memories
and beverages and what else whatever else there is. It
also broadens our sense of empathy. Social psychologists have for
a long long time known that exposure to diverse perspectives
(08:54):
reduces prejudice. It increases understanding. The more time you spend
in another culture around people that you've never met before,
you may not understand the more you begin to see
that the things you thought were universal are not, and
there is more than one way to be human, and
you learn to respect that your way is not the
(09:14):
best way. That is such a fundamental shift, and it's
one that I think we could all obviously be enduring more,
experiencing more. The world feels so polarized. That ability, though,
to see the common humanity beneath all, beneath what the
surface level differences, is a very quiet but radical skill
(09:37):
and one that I think we could all agree more
people need. Maybe travel is actually the solution to that.
Getting out into the world is a way to bring
people into this understanding. Also, you know, you build relationships.
We know that incidental intimacy and having joint experiences with
(09:57):
people that are tough or really deep or emotional, incredible, profound,
they make the bond between you and another person even
more deep. You know, there's something about being away from
home that really encourages a new level of openness. When
you don't have the baggage of other people's expectations, or
you don't have your usual role or your usual routine,
(10:20):
you often feel a lot more freer to be vulnerable
and to share things and to be like, you know,
I've never told anyone this, but this is you know,
I'm processing this like in the moment whilst I'm experiencing
these new things with this new person, and that intimacy.
It's just like incredibly profound, and it's like no wonder
(10:40):
that people come back from trips and they just have
a new lease on life and they see the world
clearer and they feel like they know themselves better because
they're going through all of these deep psychological changes that
they don't even recognize. I also think that there is
a pragmatic reason why our twenties are often the best
(11:01):
time to travel. We have very few responsibilities, well fewer
than what we may have later in life, and travel
is becoming more accessible. We've got budget airlines, we've got
work exchange programs, remote work as well as becoming a
lot more popular. There are all these new platforms that
(11:21):
offer affordable accommodation, and it's just like opened the world
up to us in a way that previous generations didn't
have the same privileges as us. It definitely is still
a privilege and it is still something that is just
like incredibly we are incredibly blessed and lucky to be
able to do, but it's no longer solely reserved for
(11:42):
people who are incredibly wealthy. And this accessibility matters because
it means more people are seeing the developmental benefits and
the mindset benefits and the empathy benefits and all the
benefits of seeing the world and of going out there
and having experiences that make them feel more in touch
(12:03):
with your human side and that make you feel more
aligned with who you are and what you want from
the world and what you want from humanity and what
you want from your life. I know, it's so crazy
when you talk about travel, people just like, oh, yes,
my fun like spring break trip, and it's like, no,
there is a there are deep psychological principles, and there
(12:25):
is a narrative that is being that you have about
your life that is being shaped by these experiences. No
wonder people who are older always want to recount the
travel stories or always have some brilliant life changing story
that happened when they were flying or on a boat
or in a foreign place, because these are high points
(12:47):
in our life. They are anchor points for our sense
of self and reminders of the times when we were
bold and we were curious, and we were alive in
the world and we felt like ourselves. I want to
say this, perhaps one of the most beautiful things about
traveling in our twenties is that it does not have
to be grand and elaborate and expensive. There is undeniable
(13:15):
magic and you know, I don't know walking the walking
the Pacific Crush Trail, or seeing the Eiffel Tower or
going on your dream trip, but actually some of the
most impactful experiences do come from smaller moments, like the
trip that was only in our car ride away or
a weekend in an airbnb. We place a lot of
(13:36):
emphasis on big destinations, but it turns out you can
receive the wonder and joy of travel from just about
any new environment you haven't been in before. In the end,
I think it really all comes down to are you
witnessing things you have never witnessed before in your life?
Are you experiencing the novelty of this moment? Are you
(13:58):
growing in and are you challenging yourself in ways that
perhaps you wouldn't have Are you just seeing the world differently?
That is really where the power of this comes from.
With that in mind, though, traveling can also kind of
take a toll on us emotionally and physically and mentally,
which is something we don't talk about all the time.
(14:19):
But it turns out there are a lot of people
out there interested in and researching how to travel better
so that we can get the most out of our trips,
get the most out of this experience, starting with the flight,
starting with the moment we leave our house. And I
got the privilege of being able to interview one of
those very people. So stay tuned, stick around for more.
(14:43):
We're going to dive even deeper into this topic after
this short break. So now that we've discussed the psychology
and the emotional importance of travel in our twenties, I
want to get a little bit further into the physicality
of it, the biology of it, the science of kind
(15:06):
of travel and well being. And like I said, this
is not my area of expertise. Yes, I jump on
an airplane every now and again, but I wanted to
talk to someone who really understood all the other sides
of this better than me, and who better than doctor
Henry Ting, who was a world renowned cardiologist. He also
(15:26):
joined Delta Airlines in twenty twenty one as the Global
Airlines Chief Health and Wellness officer. There is quite literally
no better person I think to talk to about this
than him.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Welcome, doctor Ting, pleasure to be here with you, Gemma.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
I'm very very excited for this. Before we jump into
the questions that I have for you about your research
and Telta's research, can you we just know a little
bit more about you and your background as a doctor.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Yeah, thanks, Shema. First, please call me Henry. I'm not
your doctor, but I'm a cardiologist by train. I trained
in Boston and worked for over twenty years at the
Male Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and I joined Delta Airlines
in twenty twenty one, as you said, as the airlines
first chief health and Wellness officer.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Which is honestly such a cool concept because I had
never thought about the fact that spending time in the
air is such a weird thing for humans to be doing,
and it obviously like does sometimes affect us like mentally
and physically in terms of jet lag and in terms
of well being. So the fact that you've joined in
(16:34):
that capacity is super cool. I also want to talk
more specifically about a recent experiment that you guys kind
of conducted. So you guys have launched a new campaign
in a new series that really explores the connection between
travel and well being. But as part of that, you
did some really cool research. And you guys know on
(16:56):
this podcast, we love our science. We love our research.
It's tasty. Can you dive into the premise of this
for me?
Speaker 3 (17:04):
So, Gemma, I'm a foodie like you, So things that
taste good I'm really excited about. But I think, you know,
we take a step back. Travel has made the world smaller, right,
particularly airline travel. It's opened up possibilities that many of
us imagine we're not possible. And now you get on
a flight for three, six or ten hours, you can
(17:26):
be in the other side of the world, meeting people, places,
experiences that you couldn't have imagined. And I think that's
a remarkable, fantastic thing for all of us. And you know,
I think most of us probably couldn't live without it
in terms of the possibilities opens up. But specific to
your question, Yeah, we conducted an experiment with some gen
(17:50):
Z creators about the impact of travel and the experiment
was called Fly and Live Better. One Delta wants to
create a seamless, premium experience for all of our customers
in flight but we feel like the flight experience can
also help you live better. And when we talk about
(18:10):
the flight experience, it starts with your idea that you
want to go somewhere, and that you plan the trip,
and that you get to the airport and you check in,
and the in flight experience and arriving at your destination
refreshed and ready to enjoy whatever it is that's on
your mind, whether that's business or pleasure.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
And so you kind of wanted to see how we
could do this better, right, and how we could kind
of elevate the experience. Talk me through what happened in
this kind of research. I know you guys set some
people on some flights, you gathered some data. Yeah, tell
(18:50):
me about how that went. Goes in depth on the
procedures you want, because I feel like we love to know, Yeah,
exactly what the data was and all of the changes.
And you had four people, right, Can you talk a
bit more about their experiences?
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Yeah, So we had four content creators or social media influencers.
Their names were Gabe and Luan, as well as Sophie
and Semi. There were two pairs and we wanted to
see the effects of travel on their health and well
being and all of them were given AURA ring to
(19:27):
where to measure their physiologic parameters, so including their ready
to score, their sleep score, their activity score during travel
and at the destination as well as they were given
a survey to assess their emotional and social wellbeing during
the trip and when they returned. And part of the
(19:48):
research was to send these two pairs of people to
different destinations. One was a premium bucket list location in
Copenhagen where they sent you flew Delta one stayed at
a five star hotel and had premium experiences in Copenhagen.
(20:09):
And the second was a more local, closer trip which
we felt was also very much more accessible and fun
but didn't require the long flight or the change in
time zones, and that was the Seattle Washington and they
flew Delta comfort, they had access to our sky clubs
and they also had curated Delta experiences in Seattle, and
(20:31):
during the trip we had the oral ring on them,
so we were able to get metrics of their readiness score,
their sleep score, their activity score, as well as surveys
of their emotional social well being on the trip.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
And I have to ask was it different between the
long haul flight and the short domestic flight because as
someone who I feel like, I fly overseas not all
the time, but quite a bit, and when I fly overseas,
it kind of takes it out of me. Did you
see a difference between those two groups.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
Oh, yeah, very much so.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
I think what was good about both is their emotional
or mental well being and social wellbeing went through the
roof on boat trips. Both trips were eye opening, including
the trip to Seattle which was more local and accessible,
as well as the bucket list trip to Copenhagen. On
boat trips, their emotional well being and social wellbeing escalated.
(21:27):
And really because of I think the people and the
experiences and different cultures you were able to see. The
differences we saw were more on physical well being, activity
and sleep. Obviously, you know, when you have this longer
flight to Copenhagen in Europe and it's a six to
eight hour flight, it does take a lot out of you,
(21:48):
whereas a shorter three hour flight to Seattle it was
much easier for them to acclimate adjust to.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
But you know what I love about what you're saying
is that the long haul flight, the short domestic travel,
or the dream trip to Copenhagen versus you know, the
around the corner trip for these participants to Seattle both
had very similar mental and social perks and benefits. And
you know why I think that that is such a
(22:15):
cool finding from this is because obviously, like we talk
about people in their twenties, right, and there's this huge
emphasis on doing your eurogap year or traveling to as
many countries as possible or you know, bucket list travel items,
and definitely online we see people doing these amazing trips,
and I love that what you're saying is just traveling
(22:37):
in general, even if it's like to the town next
door or to the city like over the way, is
still going to give you that kind of social and
cultural and psychological and emotional expansion, which I think actually
we need to talk about a little bit more because again,
it's not just these overseas amazing trips that are going
to give that to you. It's these like small moments
(22:59):
of intention.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
Right absolutely.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
I think after they came back, we did a couple
of interviews with them, and it was interesting when I
asked them, did you get more from a shorter trip
that was closer or did you get more from a
longer trip that was further away, and it wasn't a
simple answer. The answers were different, and I think as
the whole, the fact of traveling and seeing different places
(23:27):
and of itself was rewarding. And you know, at Delta
and we'd like to say, no one better connects the world.
And for us, that's connecting not just people to places
and destinations, it's connecting people to other people, other cultures,
and ultimately experiences that can't really be replicated by you know,
(23:47):
oculus or a pair of goggles and virtual reality. You know,
being able to smell the flowers or go on the
bike ride and feel the wind blowing your hair. Those
are things that you can only experience in person. And
it was pretty fun to hear from these content creators
that some of these views, be in Seattle, on Copenhagen
(24:08):
or dinners or experiences were so fantastic they had to
quickly create their content and then put that aside so
they can actually enjoy the experience.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Okay, this is this is also a cool finding that
you're telling me, is that when we are like in
these spaces, travel actually allows us to disconnect further from
you know, social media, and yeah, for them their work,
which is something that I also find when I'm traveling.
I'm like, it just like unlocks a whole new side
of creativity for me as well, because you get out
(24:40):
of the space that is known, and you get out
of you know your responsibilities, and you're able to just
be present as kind of as humans were intended to be,
Like they were intended to be curious and they were
we are intended to be to explore and to witness
nature and witness beauty. Yeah, it's actually quite poetic, but
(25:00):
I want to talk about something less poetic but just
as important to our humanness, which is the physical impacts
of flying and also how we can better fly for
our health. I feel like this generation is so health
conscious and I know I am as well, and so
(25:22):
any way that I can like elevate and experience so
that my body endures less or so that I feel
better is so important to me. What did you find
with that? What does flying kind of do from a
physical perspective, and how can we manage those things?
Speaker 3 (25:39):
Yeah, let's start with some of the findings we had,
you know, for the shorter trip, the four to five
hour flight the Seattle.
Speaker 4 (25:46):
You know, our people arrived ready.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Their ready to score was high and remained high. Their
sleep score actually improved, so even though there were time
zone three hours apart, score on average improved eight points,
and their activity score was much higher because they got
out and about and they walked and they biked and
(26:09):
they were physically active. And that's what we saw in Seattle,
that there wasn't much of a physical toll from the
travel or a sleep perspective. They arrived ready, refreshed and
able to enjoy the location. Now the bucket list or
dream trip to Copenhagen obviously a longer trip six hour
time zone difference. You know, they flew Delta one first class,
(26:32):
and they were in the Delta one club before flight,
and they loved the flight, including the beverages and the
food and the premium service. But when you look at
when they arrived, their ready score was lower. Their sleep
score dropped by nearly twenty points on their or ring.
I like to say by top sleep score ever in
(26:53):
my orro ring was on ninety four, so dropping to
seventy four would be pretty dramatic for me.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
YEA.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
Their activity score was high, so even though they were
sleep deprived, tired, they still got out and did a
lot of physical activities that was on average as high
or not higher than what they were doing at their home.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
And here's the thing. I feel like when you're in
your twenties and thirties and when you're younger, it's like,
I want to get every single little thing out of
this experience. Like if I've flown first class, which that's
like a I would yeah bucket LIS's item. If I've
flown first class and I'm in this beautiful city, who
cares if I'm jet lacked, Like, I'm going to go
and have pastries, and I'm going to go shopping, and
(27:38):
I'm going to go see the museums like you bet.
And then it's like day two and you're like, I
need to sleep for the next twenty four hours or
I'm not going to hear a zombie. And you were
talking to me earlier, like we were talking the other
day about how you can kind of have the best
of both worlds. Yeah, some of the stratag gs that
(28:00):
we can kind of adopt to land to have our
readiness score higher, maybe our sleep score a little bit lower,
but not as low as as it has to be.
Particularly I remember you talking about the importance of understanding
your circadian rhythm. Can you expand on that a little bit?
Speaker 3 (28:18):
Yeah, I mean the circadian rhythm is your own biological
clock for a twenty four hour day night cycle. And
if you think back in time before we had electricity
and lights, that circadian rhythm was driven by daylight or sunlight,
and everybody was on the same circadian rhythm.
Speaker 4 (28:36):
No one flew anywhere, but.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Everybody was on the same day night cycle or circadian rhythm.
But as you think about the advances in our society
and community, No, we invented electricity, we invented lights, we
invented computers, we invented windows or rooms without windows that
completely disrupted our circadian rhythms. And if you think about
(29:00):
or travel, does you and I, although you live in
Australia and I live in Atlanta, we have our own
circadian rhythms of day night, when we're supposed to be awake,
when we sleep and get all activities done. And when
you travel to a different times on this six hours apart.
You may be physically in Copenhagen, but physiologically your body's
(29:22):
function and your brain function is not at the same
time that your body physically is there. So there's a
separation between your physical person in Copenhagen and your physiologic person.
Everything that you know and you do and how you
think and how much energy you have and how much
(29:44):
focus you have is still in Atlanta. But there are
things you can do to accelerate that conversion to a
times on this six hours different and the things that
you can do that make it worse. And those are
the things I think we can talk about that are
science based that would help a traveler arrive refreshed and
(30:05):
convert to that time zone faster.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
Yeah, so this is what I need to know because
I've got to say, You're going to be mad at me, Henry.
But when I get on a plane, I I'm I'm
having my melotone and gummies and I'm also having a
glass of wine. That's probably not the right thing to do,
can you, Because I know, like the biggest one is
like avoid set of lives, avoid alcohol. Why is that
(30:30):
so important to do? Because I feel like a lot
of us are like, well, I want to adjust. So
I'm going to, you know, try and push myself to
sleep faster on the plane or delay sleep when I
get there. What's wrong with it with the set of
lives and the alcohol in this situation.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Yeah, well you said it right. The sedatives, the gummies,
the alcohol. They may actually make you tired and have
you fall asleep, but it's not restorative RESTful sleep. We
know that the restorative RESTful sleep is your REM sleep,
rapid eye boom a sleep, as well as your deep sleep.
(31:07):
And believe it or not, sedatives and hypnotics like melatonin,
ambient valium, or the gummies, they actually cause sleep, but
not the right sleep. They don't adduce the deep sleep
and the REM sleep. So even though you've been asleep
for five hours eight hours, you're not rested because your
(31:28):
body gets restorative RESTful sleep with the deep sleep and
REM sleep. And that's why the ambient, the valuum, the alcohol,
those are actually bad for you, you know. And some people,
I'll take it to the next level. Some people arrive
on scene and get their ivy fluid infusions. And the
(31:50):
fluids could be yellow, blue, and green. That might rehydrate
you and make you feel temporarily better. What I worry
about why the fluid is green, blue, and yellow and
what additives are in there? But two, it doesn't really
restore the body. It makes you feel temporarily better, so
you can do that activity, but it doesn't really restore
your body physically, just to get a leader of IV fluid.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
So what you're saying is we're doing all these things
thinking and helping, but what we should really be doing
is what should we be doing in terms of resinking
our circadian rhythm?
Speaker 4 (32:23):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Yeah, so those give you a short term benefit, but
there's probably a long term cost your pain, right because
you'll probably arrive home needing a vacation from your vacation
and to get more rest before you can re enter
your work life. So let's get back to this circadian rhythm.
Light is important. We know that blue wavelength light is
(32:47):
what stimulates your brain and the receptors in your retina
to be alert and active for your daytime activities. We
know that it's not just any blue cutter light. There's
a specific wavelength of blue light that particularly informs your
brain that says, hey, it's daytime, it's time to be
awake and stimulate you to be alert and active and
(33:10):
have energy. And there's an opposite spectrum of light that's
a red orange wavelength that starts telling your brain and
the receptition red. Now to relax, to decrease your energy
level on your alertness, and to prepare for sleep. And
that's what you get if all you're exposed to was
sunlight without computers, iPads, iPhones and light bulbs. And how
(33:35):
do we then convert that time using light as a
key component. So one technology or product I like to
talk about that we've used is something called skyview lighting.
This is not just colored lighting. Skyview lighting actually is
a specific light that transmits a color that's blue wavelength specifically.
Speaker 4 (33:58):
For alertness the day.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
And you can actually program it on your app to
time it for the day in Copenhagen, Seattle, or Atlanta
or Australia. But then it automatically realizes the twenty four
hour cycle and changes the color to red and orange
tore pare you for sleep. So that it's something you
can do to almost tell your brain when it's daylight
(34:21):
and when it's nighttime and do it with light as
opposed to sunlight. Now, the science behind this is quite fascinating.
I'm sure you'd be interested in it. This company was
started by scientists that used to work at NASA physicists
and they realize that in the International Space Station, which
(34:43):
orbits the Earth, the day night cycle of sunrise and
sunset is ninety minutes, and their windows on the space
station which can't be closed, so you're experiencing day and
night every ninety minutes. And there's a crew of ten
astronauts who are expected to work in harmony and synchrony
to maintain the space station and do the research they're doing,
(35:06):
and they have to be on the same circadian rhythm.
One person can't be asleep while the other person is
ready to do the experiments or the research. What they
found is, without any intervention, the astronauts were becoming one
to two hours per day separated in their circadian rhythm
as every day went by. And what they also found
was seventy eighty percent of the astronauts were taking medications
(35:29):
for sleep because they were trying to get sleep at
the same time. But what they did was they put
the skyview light in the space station, and with thirty
minutes of exposure to that light every single day, they
can keep the ten astronauts on the same circadian rhythm
day and night, so they can be functional, alert and active,
(35:51):
working as a team, if you will, working as a
fully functional team. This kind of lighting has also been
useful for submarines in the military, right because if you're
in the submarine and you're actually deployed underneath the water
for two months with no daylight or sunlight, this at
least tells your brain this is daytime and now this
(36:12):
is nighttime, and keeps the entire crew of three hundred
submriners to be working as a team, as a functional
single team. And the last group where this has been
shown to be particularly effective is in places like Alaska
where in the winter you have twenty three hours of
night and we know that prolonged nighttime or prolonged darkness
(36:36):
can lead to seasonal effective disorders, that people can get
mental health issues. So having this light be exposed to
it and have the exposure to an artificial sunlight was very,
very useful. I can tell you that those are the
scientific basis of how this skyview light has been used. Today,
we've got sports teams like the New York Mets having
(36:58):
this in their locker room so that all their players
can be fresh and learn ready when the game starts.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
Yeah, so what you're saying to me is like, if
you want to fly better, you need to start really
understanding the power of light, right Yeah.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
So, uh, you know, we are working with Skyview right now,
Delta's partner with Skyview to try to get a miniaturized
version of this light because the current lights are large,
they are overhead lights, they are large set slamps. But
we're working on a miniaturized version that's no bigger than
a small iPad that you can take with you as
carry on and you can put into your hotel room
(37:33):
or put into wherever you are, so you have exposure
to blue light and red orange light depending on circadian rhythm.
We're really excited about it because this can help you
convert your time and the different time zones faster. So
that hopefully will be ready for testing, and we're going
to test it with our crew and the next couple
(37:55):
of months and see if that works. I would like
to pivot actually to another company we've worn with, which
is called fount and fly Kit.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
Have it.
Speaker 4 (38:04):
You have one right here?
Speaker 3 (38:05):
It's this and this is the product they sell, Fountain
fly k It. Again, this is interventions you can do
to try to convert your circadian rhythm faster. Right, So
if we do nothing, we'll probably convert to that six
to eight hour time zone difference over a matter of
two to four days, depending on how quickly you acclimate
(38:28):
and adjust. If you do the valume melatonin ambient and
gummies actually may delay it and take longer. This again,
like Skyview, is meant to try to decrease that conversion
to a matter of one or two days. So this
company was founded by some Navy Seals. You know, as
you think about the Navy Seals and our military, they
(38:51):
may need to deploy and they need that crew ready
to carry out their mission. And using supplements, they actually
look at your time zone. They have an app depending
on where you're flying, your specific fly, what time you're flying,
the time zone difference. When you arrive, their app tells
(39:12):
you when you take these supplements, which includes a mixture
of magnesium, vitamin C, vitamin B six, vitamin B twelve,
as well as omega three fatty acids, really to help
your body adjust to that local time zone faster, and
they can actually show you how much you shifted. Within
the app. It also recommends when you should eat, what
(39:36):
you should eat, how much you should eat, and when
you should go to bed. Again, trying to help your body,
make that time zone conversion faster so you arrive ready,
refresh to enjoy your trip. And lastly, what they provide
in the kit is my favorite, which is these blue
blocker glasses. These blue blocker glasses essentially will block out
(40:00):
ninety nine percent of that blue light we talked about,
so if you put it down, everything looks like a
shade of orange. You've seen these being sold by other makers,
but these are well made. They block out ninety nine
percent of that blue wavelength light, so that when it's
nighttime and you're still on your iPad, your iPhone or
in your computer like you're now, you can put this
(40:22):
on and you can do your activity, but you're not
getting the blue wavelength light that's keeping you awake, alert
as of it's daytime. So with that combination, you're able
to convert your time so much faster. And the most
exciting thing that I think flight Kit are working on
is trying to create what we call a digital twin,
So creating a digital twin of Gemma so that we
(40:44):
know that this what is this digital twin's physiologic circadian
rhythm in Copenhagen, and how far is she deviated from
the actual time in Copenhagen versus the time in Australia.
Speaker 4 (40:57):
Depending on where you want to be right, you can
set your time.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
To I'm going to Australia tomorrow, I want to be
ready for Australia, or I'm Copenhagen for a week and
I want to be in the time zone of Copenhagen.
So that digital twin can tell you based on measurables
biometrics as well as if you've taken the supplements, if
you've done the exercises, if you've done the eating and sleeping,
(41:20):
where are you in terms of your conversion.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
That is honestly amazing, And the fact that people haven't
done this sooner is shocking to me because I would
be I'm signing up for all of these things. I
like the light idea, like if I could pack that
in my carry on and that's going to save me
like a day of explore time, Like I'm doing that
in a heartbeat. And also the fact that you're saying
to me, like what we eat and when we choose
(41:47):
to sleep, even if it's like fifteen minutes earlier, can
make such profound shifts. I feel like it's going to
prevent us from going into travel and being like okay, cool,
So I've just lost two days when it's probably been
really expensive for me to get here, and this is
like a once in a lifetime trip, like you want
all of that time maximized. And I think it sorry
(42:09):
to make one final point because I'm kind of just
blown away by this. I think it also emphasizes that
we think of travel as like purely, I don't really
know how we think of it. We just think of
it as like a form of transport. But it is
so mental, and it is so emotional and emotional and physical,
and there is like a deeper meaning to it. So
(42:31):
talk about how Delta specifically can personalize and it is
thinking about wellness more as part of someone's journey to
their destination.
Speaker 3 (42:43):
Yeah, we know that travel can be hard, right.
Speaker 4 (42:47):
You know there are delays.
Speaker 3 (42:49):
You know, there are times when it's very crowded in
every seat, and a lot of people, like you said,
think of air travel as how do I get from
point A to point B with the most least amount
of burden or trauma to be But at Delta, we're
trying to reimagine that. We're thinking about your whole curb
(43:10):
to claim experience as a holistic experience, and how can
we make that travel experience as seamless and as delightful
as possible. So it starts with our flight Delta app right,
because this is where you plan a trip and you
book your flights, you check in for your boarding pass,
and you know when you're supposed to arrive, and you
(43:33):
board the plane. But I think every step along the way,
we're trying to make that experience as personalized to you
as possible. Understanding you are a traveler with Delta, that
you're not just traveling with us. Once we know that
if Gemma is one of our sky Mouse members and
has travel with us multiple times, we know what she prefers,
(43:55):
we know what she likes, we know what she's looking for.
Using that information to cater or create your future travel
experiences is what we're aiming for. So to that end,
for example, we now have a sky Mouse members free
Wi Fi high speed Wi Fi for every single person
on board, to the point where if you're a sky
(44:17):
Mouse member, you're any of our planes, whether it's within
the United States or international, you can link up to
our Wi Fi and stream Netflix. You can look at
YouTube TV, who's an exclusive partner of Delta with their
content that's coming. We're also partnered with Uber so that
if you arrive and we know that you want an
(44:38):
Uber you could book that in flight with the Wi
Fi and schedule it, or you can book it as
soon as you're ready the plane. All those are personalized
experiences and a seamless experience for our travelers, and I
think that's one of the benefits of actually considering not
choosing just the lowest cost flight you can get from
(44:59):
a land to to Australia, that you consider becoming a
loyalty member like a Skypow member with Delta or other airlines,
where this opens up a world of experiences and curated
experiences for you, including I think one of the things
I love the most is we recently added Shakeshack Burgers
(45:19):
on our flights, which can order in advance.
Speaker 2 (45:22):
Oh, I saw this.
Speaker 4 (45:24):
It's a great on TikTok.
Speaker 2 (45:26):
Yeah, that's so cool.
Speaker 3 (45:28):
I just had it on my trip from Salt Lake
City to New York and I gotta say it was
as good as a Shakesheck burger.
Speaker 4 (45:36):
At the restaurant.
Speaker 3 (45:37):
The burger was smashed crispy on the outside. They separated
the buns so it didn't get soggy. The lettuce, tomatoes
and onions were in a separate bowl, and they gave
you their shakesheck brownie and.
Speaker 4 (45:49):
The potato chips.
Speaker 3 (45:50):
It was delicious, and to know that you can order
that before the flight was fantastic and knowing that it
was ready for you. The other thing we've had a
few years ago is you know, if you're checking in
a bag, we now tell you when it's been loaded,
so you know that your bag has been loaded on
a plane, and then when it's coming off the plane
and when it's at the claim, so you never have
(46:11):
to worry that my bag make it with me, is
it still left in Australia and I'm flying to New York.
So those are the things that are just so fantastic,
and hopefully we're hoping that you know, given it's twenty
twenty five and everybody's digital in AI enhanced, that you
can do all these things within the flight out the app,
(46:32):
and that you never have to call someone or go
in line, and even in the setting of an irap
or irregular operations where whether or something else is interrupting
the flight, that you can change a flight or rebook
another flight, or have something done for you right within
the app.
Speaker 2 (46:50):
The fact I don't know who your product team is,
but they are working over time, because that is every
single thing and every single frustration I have ever had
with flying gone like is my bag missing?
Speaker 1 (47:02):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (47:02):
How am I going to get to my hotel the airport?
Do I have to pack my own snacks? Because the
airplane food is like not very tasty? Like am I
gonna have? Am I gonna be able to like work
on the fly? All done, all minimized, which is like
I love when companies are just like, yeah, we recognize
that's a problem, and we're not just gonna be like
deal with it. We're going to actually do something about it.
(47:23):
I'm a big I'm a big fan. And also I
will say advice to my twenty something listeners, which is
probably all of you, please sign up for sky Miles,
or please sign up for a loyalty program with your airline.
Obviously we're hoping that it's Delta for for Henry, but
it's like this thing that I wish I'd started doing earlier.
(47:44):
And I was actually at my run club the other
day and my friend was showing me all the air
miles that she had accumulated over like years of travel,
and we did the math and this was just like
incidental travel, like she's going home for a funeral or
she had to fly for work. You know, she went
to Europe last year and we were looking at all
(48:05):
the miles and it was like she could go to
New York for free. It's like an investment. It's like investing,
and it's you literally aren't doing anything other than just
doing the normal travel that you would do. But if
you I always think it's worth paying more to travel
with the same airline because you get these perks and
(48:25):
because you get this thing at the end of the day,
like it's worth the fifty dollars more of the seventy
five dollars more because you literally get free flights out
of it. So I'm glad you brought that up. I
do have one final question for you, because we've been
chatting away for a while, maybe two final questions, but
I'm going to start with this one, which is from
(48:47):
your experience, from your experience when you were younger to
where you are now. What is one thing you wish
people in their twenties knew about travel or did differently
about air travel. What's a piece of advice for us?
Speaker 3 (49:02):
One of the things I think, you know, what I've
realized is very few people get on a plane to
get miles.
Speaker 4 (49:12):
Right. When people get on a plane to travel somewhere.
Speaker 3 (49:15):
No one's doing it just to get their sky miles
or loyalty perks. People get on a plane for a reason,
and that reason could be business, that reason could be
for pleasure, that reason could be a funeral. Right, everybody's
got a purpose when they get on the plane. And
I think travel in twenty twenty five has become so
(49:37):
ubiquitous and different now. The thing that's made the most
difference for me is self care. And whether you're flying
premium in first class or you're in the back of
the plane in the middle row, there are things you
can do to make that experience better for yourself in
terms of self care. Right, Delta's going to do everything
possible to personalize to enhance your experience. But things that
(50:02):
I do now that I don't travel without are I
love my imask that's memory foam and goes over my face.
I love my sleep hello that you know prevents me
from having a creek on my neck if I fall asleep,
and I remind myself to drink a lot of water
and drink a lot of hydration, and that is, you know,
(50:25):
sort of foundational change if we can all remember that.
Speaker 2 (50:29):
M also to add to your list noise canceling headphones.
Speaker 4 (50:33):
Guys. Yeah, you've got to invest in I got that.
Speaker 3 (50:36):
Yeah, it's a new world, right, it's like way it's quiet.
Speaker 1 (50:40):
I know.
Speaker 2 (50:41):
The first time I ever bought noise canceling headphones was
like when because I actually don't we haven't talked about
this at all, but I used to have a really
big fear of flying, and which is I don't know
how this hasn't come up, but other listeners are.
Speaker 3 (50:53):
Jim, I would tell you, and I want to reassure you.
Commercial airline flying is probably of the safest activities you
can do. It's safer than driving, and it's safer than
walking on the streets of New York. In terms of accidents,
we really don't see them. Despite some of the things
you see, it is still absolutely very safe. And I
(51:16):
can tell you that the airlines across the world compete
on everything except safety. You know, whether you're air Frants, KLM, Delta,
we all share safety protocols and we strive to be
the safest form of travel period, full stop.
Speaker 4 (51:36):
And I think you're in good hands.
Speaker 3 (51:37):
I hope you feel safer and better about flying.
Speaker 2 (51:40):
I do look at that little industry secret, guys, that
is actually I did not know that. That makes me
feel a lot better. I think this is all we
have time for. I want to thank you so much
for joining me and with all your knowledge and all
your insight and sharing like the latest and greatest developments.
I think the real takeaway from this episode is just
(52:03):
to be intentional about your trip and to be intentional
about self care on your trip.
Speaker 3 (52:07):
Would you agree, absolutely, it's absolutely to be intentional, and
you know from our creators on their trips, the last
thing I would advise your listeners is find out what
makes you feel better and brings you joy. And for
Gabe it was playing his guitar. For Luan, it was journaling.
(52:29):
Send Me also enjoyed journaling. For Sophie it was getting
a massage. But each of us has something that brings
us joy and helps us restore ourselves and that self
care component. So thank you for the supportation and I
really appreciated talking with you.
Speaker 2 (52:44):
Yeah, don't neglect it just because you're traveling. Guys, you
don't want to come back and need another vacation from
your vacation. Thank you again to everyone who has listened
and who has joined us for this episode. I want
to invite you to watch the Fly and Live Better
series on YouTube. It is very, very cool, and I
love when companies do their own research and bring like
(53:06):
an experimental perspective to an everyday experience. I'm going to
leave a link in the description and also join sky
Miles for access to more experiences. That's my biggest tip
for people in their twenties. Join a loyalty program, join
sky Miles. Even if you literally only travel once a year,
you have no idea how much it adds up. But again,
(53:26):
thank you to Henry and as always, be safe, be kind,
to be gentle to yourself. We will talk very very soon.
Host
Jemma Sbeghen
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