Trick of the Light

On today’s podcast, San Diego-based journalist and essayist Annelise Jolley is here to speak with co-hosts (and Hidden Compass co-founders) Sivani Babu and Sabine K. Bergmann about challenging victim narratives, surreal clubbing, and the meaning of choice. But first, journey with us, as Annelise takes us to Pattaya, Thailand, and gets closer to figures long obscured by the “Trick of the Light.”

Storyteller: Annelise Jolley is a journalist and essayist based in San Diego who writes about food, travel, ecology, borders, and faith. She’s reported on the state of refugees in Greece and from rural villages in Mexico, and backpacked from traditional Turkish baths to a remote farm in Romania. Read more of Annelise’s work at her website, www.annelisejolley.com/, and check out her Hidden Compass profile page, https://hiddencompass.net/journalist/annelise-jolley/.

To support Annelise, you can sign up for her newsletter at www.annelisejolley.com. Find her piece, “One Hundred Thousand Flames,” at https://nationsmedia.org/one-hundred-thousand-flames/; her story “Outrunning Death with the Monarchs” at https://sundaylongread.com/2020/10/28/outrunning-death-with-the-monarchs/; and her piece, “In Mexico’s vibrant forests, locals adapt to a year without tourists,” at https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/mexico-forests-adapts-to-a-coronavirus-year-without-tourists.

Story: “Trick of the Light” first appeared in the Chasing Demons department of Hidden Compass, The Magazine in our autumn 2018 issue. It was a “Notable Mention” in the 2019 edition of The Best American Travel Writing. Read the full piece — and see the accompanying photos — at www.hiddencompass.net/story/trick-of-the-light.

Hidden Compass, The Magazine: If you like the stories you hear on this podcast, you’ll love our magazine, which brings you more stories, alongside stunning photography and bespoke artwork. And you get to be a part of it! See the faces and hear the voices of the people behind our stories, and help us forge an alliance to turn storytellers and explorers into heroes and champion a new age of discovery. Our spring 2021 issue is now live. Learn more at hiddencompass.net, and sign up for our newsletter at https://mailchi.mp/8539a03c8c0c/hclanding2020-explorers.

See you next week, when we’ll go with storyteller Martha Ezell to the sacred fir forests of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt to be awed by the “Journey of a Golden Soul.”