Unpacked by Afar
Unpacked by Afar tackles one tricky topic in travel each week. Whether you want to hack your points and miles, figure out where to travel next, or need advice on an ethical dilemma, we're your expert travel guides. Because the travel world is complicated. We're here to help you unpack it.
Episodes
April 28, 2026 • 18 mins
Welcome to Unpacked, Five Questions, a podcast that takes you behind the scenes of one great travel story. In this episode, executive editor Katherine LaGrave sits down with documentary photographer Nathalie Mohadjer, whose images of the desert oasis of Siwa appear in Afar's winter 2026 issue.
For four weeks in Siwa, an ancient town some 450 miles from Cairo, Nathalie traded the typical three-day shoot for a slower kind of immersi...
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April 16, 2026 • 42 mins
Jennifer Hope Choi plans every trip the same way: open a Google doc, start with food, and build outward from there. As a former Bon Appétit editor, 13-year restaurant industry veteran, and author of a travel memoir, she has strong opinions about Michelin guides (skip ‘em), low-rated restaurants (sometimes worth it), and why you should always follow your optician's food recs.
She also edited Afar’s debut Travel to Eat series, whic...
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April 14, 2026 • 18 mins
It started as an abandoned ukulele on a wall. Afar’s Aislyn Greene hadn’t touched it in two years — but that idle instrument sent her down a rabbit hole into one of the most joyful origin stories in music. The ukulele arrived in Hawai'i on a Portuguese immigrant ship in 1878, got a royal endorsement from a king and queen, fell into obscurity, and then took over the world. Along the way, a family of master craftsmen has been hand-fi...
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April 9, 2026 • 44 mins
What if the secret to a great trip was leaving your phone in airplane mode — forever? Journalist Lisa Abend has been doing exactly that, arriving in cities she's never researched, GPS turned off, without a hotel reservation or itinerary of any kind. The result isn't chaos; it's the kind of travel that actually surprises you. In this episode, Lisa makes a compelling case for leaving the phone out of the travel process.
Meet this w...
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April 2, 2026 • 38 mins
You've got more booking tools than ever — so why would you hire a travel advisor? In this episode, Afar editorial director Billie Cohen sits down with travel journalist and matchmaker Wendy Perrin, founder of wendyperrin.com, to answer the questions travelers actually have: What can an advisor do that you can't do yourself? When does it make sense — and when doesn't it? How do you find a good one, interview them, and understand wha...
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March 27, 2026 • 43 mins
This is a very special episode of Unpacked by Afar. This week, we hosted Unpacked Live — a live version of the podcast — in partnership with Visit California in Dallas, Texas. The event celebrated California's extraordinary creative landscape, and today's guest has been shaping the way Californians live, work, and gather for three decades.
Barbara Bestor is the founder of Bestor Architecture, a Los Angeles studio she's led since 1...
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March 26, 2026 • 44 mins
This is a very special episode of Unpacked by Afar. This week, we hosted Unpacked Live — a live version of the podcast — in partnership with Visit California in Dallas, Texas. The event celebrated California's extraordinary creative landscape, and today's guest has literally shaped the ground beneath many Californian's feet.
Roderick Wyllie is an award-winning landscape architect and founding partner of Surfacedesign Inc. A rare S...
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March 26, 2026 • 48 mins
This is a very special episode of Unpacked by Afar. This week, we hosted Unpacked Live — a live version of the podcast — in partnership with Visit California in Dallas, Texas. The event celebrated California's extraordinary creative landscape, and today's guest is one of its most original voices.
Obi Kaufmann is a naturalist, writer, and illustrator whose California Field Atlas series has redefined what a nature book can be. His b...
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March 19, 2026 • 41 mins
Show Notes
The World Cup is more than a soccer tournament — it's a mirror for geopolitics, national identity, and the power of global fandom. In this episode of Unpacked, host Aislyn Greene sits down with British journalist Jonathan Wilson, author of The Power and the Glory: The History of the World Cup, to explore the drama, corruption, and beauty that have defined the tournament across a century.
In this episode, you'll learn:...
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March 17, 2026 • 19 mins
She’s 104 years old, newly renovated, and she’s ready for her close-up.
On this episode of Unpacked: America 250, host Aislyn Greene talks about the newly renovated Castro Theatre in San Francisco, a $41 million transformation of one of America’s most beloved LGBTQ+ landmarks.
Aislyn sits down with Mary Conde, SVP at Another Planet Entertainment, the independent concert promoter behind the renovation, to explore what it took ...
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March 12, 2026 • 34 mins
Before you board an international flight, before you cross a border, you need a passport. But how much do you really know about the little book that controls where you can and cannot go in this world?
On this episode of Unpacked, host Aislyn Greene sits down with Patrick Bixby, an English professor at Arizona State University and author of the book License to Travel: A Cultural History of the Passport, which explores how a bureauc...
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March 5, 2026 • 25 mins
Jet lag doesn't have to ruin your trip. On this episode of Unpacked, host Aislyn Greene shares her game-changing experience using a jet lag protocol originally developed for Navy SEALs—and digs into the fascinating science of why it works. She speaks with Dr. Jamie Zeitzer, one of Stanford's leading circadian rhythm researchers, and Andrew Herr, the founder of Flykitt, who transformed military sleep science into a practical travel ...
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February 27, 2026 • 58 mins
Amsterdam is one of Europe’s most overtouristed cities—but it’s also so much more than the crowds in the city center suggest. On this episode of Unpacked—part of Afar’s ongoing Off the Tourist Trail series—host Aislyn Greene is joined by journalist Blane Bachelor, who moved to Amsterdam during the pandemic and has spent years navigating life as a resident. She shares how to experience the real Amsterdam—the neighborhoods, restauran...
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February 20, 2026 • 67 mins
Is it okay to watch a violent movie next to a stranger's kid on a plane? Should you abandon your airline loyalty card? And wait—is March actually the real start of the new year?
On this episode of Unpacked, host Aislyn Greene is joined by Afar editorial director Billy Cohen and deputy editor Michelle Baron for a wide-ranging conversation tied to Afar's annual Plan Your Travel Year package on afar.com. Together they break down what...
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February 17, 2026 • 30 mins
Welcome to Unpacked, Five Questions, a podcast that takes you behind the scenes of one great travel story.
In this episode, host and Afar executive editor Katherine LaGrave sits down with contributing writer Lisa Abend, a Copenhagen‑based journalist known for her deep reporting on food, culture, and the ways travel shapes communities. For her latest Afar feature, Lisa embarked on an ambitious road trip across northern Spain to vis...
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January 16, 2026 • 21 mins
It's a shiny new year, so this month on Unpacked, we're diving into Afar's Where to Go list: 24 emerging regions and overlooked locales to explore this year.
Places like Saba, a tiny Dutch Caribbean island with no beaches, no cruise ports, and the world's shortest commercial runway—just 400 meters long. What it does have: lush volcanic landscapes, 20 hand-built hiking trails, and a population of just over 2,000.
In this...
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January 15, 2026 • 23 mins
It's a shiny new year, so this month on Unpacked, we're diving into Afar's Where to Go list: 24 emerging regions and overlooked locales to explore this year.
Like East London, where a billion-pound investment has transformed the 2012 Olympic Park into a creative powerhouse.
In this episode, host Aislyn Greene talks with Nick DeRenzo, Afar's editorial director of newsletters (sign up here!) and a self-described Londoner ...
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January 14, 2026 • 29 mins
It's a shiny new year, so this month on Unpacked, we're diving into Afar's Where to Go list. And in 2026, we want to lessen the burden on overtouristed destinations and expand visitation to other parts of the world. So our editors carefully selected 24 emerging regions and overlooked locales that will inspire your next great adventure.
Places like Adelaide, Australia, a city within a park that punches above its weight with...
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It's a shiny new year, so this month on Unpacked, we're diving into Afar's Where to Go list—24 emerging regions and overlooked locales to explore this year.
Like Fort Worth, Texas, a city that blends its cowboy heritage with world-class museums, a thriving food scene, and major developments on the horizon.
In this episode, host Aislyn Greene talks with Nora Walsh, a travel writer and podcast host who fell hard for the "...
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January 12, 2026 • 32 mins
It's a shiny new year, so this month on Unpacked, we're diving into Afar's Where to Go list. In 2026, we want to lessen the burden on overtouristed destinations and expand visitation to other parts of the world. So our editors carefully selected 24 emerging regions and overlooked locales that will inspire your next great adventure.
Places like Penang, Malaysia, a small island with one of Southeast Asia's most fascinating...
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