World Footprints

Uncovering Appalachia

Who are the Appalachian people? Whoever you think they are you’re probably wrong. Author and scholar Nancy Brown Diggs joins World Footprints to peel back the layers of Appalachian culture that she uncovers in her new book, In Search of Appalachia. Her book shares her years of research and it paints an honest and authentic portrait of this misunderstood culture.
Nancy shines a spotlight on Appalachian culture, history and the contributions Appalachians have made to American society. She also celebrates her own cultural roots in a region that’s often misunderstood and denigrated by many people, including mainstream media and entertainment.
As writer Ann Hagedorn said, “In an era when the truth about everything is crucially needed, author Nancy Brown Diggs unveils the true soul of Appalachia, a region commonly depicted by stereotypes of poverty, ignorance and violence. From coal mines to mountain churches to dance halls of country music, Diggs explore it all, sculpting new images as she introduced her readers to strong, creative, hardworking folks…”
“The best of America lies in its common people.” – Nancy Brown Diggs
If you’ve ever been curious about the people who dwell in the Appalachian Mountains you’ll have a fuller understanding of contemporary life in Appalachia after listening to our interview with Nancy Brown Diggs.

Traveling the world in a powered wheelchair

Cory Lee joins World Footprints hosts Tonya and Ian Fitzpatrick to talk about the joys and challenges of traveling the world in a powered wheelchair.
At the age of two, Cory was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy, a form of muscular dystrophy. Because this disease is progressive it has served as a catalyst for Cory to see as much of the world as he can.
Cory, who runs the wheelchair travel blog Curb Free with Cory Lee, began traveling internationally when he was 15 and he’s never looked back. To date, he has visited all seven continents in his powered wheelchair. In fact, he is likely the first wheelchair traveler to achieve this goal. But there are many more countries that Cory wants to check off on his travel wish list.
Traveling is a right for everyone to enjoy but, as we’ll hear from Cory Lee, the travel industry is not accommodating to every traveler.

Revisiting the Little Rock Nine experience with Ernest Green

On September 23, 1957, Ernest Green and eight other African American high school students, known as the ‘Little Rock Nine’, integrated the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. This event was the first experiment in school integration came three years after the U.S, Supreme Court’s Brown vs. Board of Education landmark ruling that segregation of public schools is unconstitutional.
One year later, in 1958, Ernest Green became the first African-American student to graduate from Central High. He was also the only one of the Little Rock Nine to graduate from the high school.
World Footprints revisits U.S. civil rights history and school segregation through the eyes of Ernest Green. Our poignant conversation uncovered things we didn’t know about that event in history.
Our interview was also personal because it came about after Mr. Green saw that Tonya mentioned him in her AAA World Magazine when she noted that Green and her late father were college friends at Michigan State University. Coincidentally, we spoke to Mr. Green on the birthday of Tonya’s dad.
This episode focuses on the social impact of Ernest Green’s life journey—a different type of travel experience--and his role in the civil rights movement. It’s powerful and inspiring.

Traveling according to your Zodiac sign

What can the stars tell you about where you should travel and what destinations you are compatible with? If you’re looking to get a jump-start on your travel planning in the coming months hear what intuitive astrologer Haley Comet has to say before you start charting your journey.
Haley combines Western astrology and positive psychology in her specialty of transpersonal astrology—believing we can use our free will and the harmony of energy that vibrates without our birth chart to co-create dream lives. She will tell us how we can align our zodiac sign and follow the stars to chart our future travels and find what World Footprints calls our “soul country”.
Tune in to World Footprints to find the best destinations to travel to according to your zodiac sign. This Astrology-driven travel episode is heavenly and it will take you out of this world.

Family RV Travel

When Monet Hambrick was pregnant with her first child many people told her that she would have to retire her wanderlust. However, Monet and her husband James knew that they could not live without travel, and they didn’t…nor have their two children.
Monet has taken her family across the globe from the time her children were infants. She created her blog, The Traveling Child, to help other families travel around the world with their children.
Today, many of her tricks and family travel tips involve RV travel and some of her recent road trips have included her parents.
Monet joined World Footprints to answer questions about RV travel and share some lessons and the joys of multigenerational family travel. She also talked about her experiences traveling to campsites as people of color.

Imagine: Reflections on Peace and the travel community’s role

How do you imagine hope in a seemingly hopeless situation? And once that hope is imagined, how do you manifest those dreams into a sustained reality? These are the questions at the heart of IMAGINE: REFLECTIONS ON PEACE (Hemeria/SparkPress, October 6, 2020) by The VII Foundation (VIIF).
Editor and VIIF co-founder, GARY KNIGHT, shares the remarkable collection of first-person testimonials and searing photographs from some of the world’s most volatile war zones.
IMAGINE focuses on six distinct countries—Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Colombia, Lebanon, Northern Ireland, and Rwanda—to illustrate the difficult work being done to break the foundational cycles of conflict and violence that has marked each country’s immediate history.
Each country is open to tourism we also discussed the role the travel community has in rebuilding societal trust as a means for creating lasting peace.

Author James Whittaker on Andrew Carnegie’s Mental Dynamite and Transformative Travel

Author James Whittaker joins World Footprints with inspiring lessons from transformational thinker Napoleon Hill that is based on his 1908 conversation with billionaire industrialist Andrew Carnegie. These conversations are annotated and edited by James Hill in his new book Andrew Carnegie’s Mental Dynamite: How to Unlock The Awesome Power of You.
James is a Napoleon Hill scholar. He uses complementary annotations throughout the epic Hill-Carnegie conversation that formed Hill’s best-selling book, Think and Grow Rich, to offer a journey of self-exploration using Carnegie’s three principles: self-discipline, learning from defeat, and the golden rule. He demonstrates that the transformation that takes place through these lessons is similar to the mindset shift that travel affords.
Learn about the genesis of fear. Understand how to excel in any circumstance including today’s challenges. Hear why the transformative power of travel is part of Andrew Carnegie’s Mental Dynamite formula.

Eric Deggans, NPR TV critic and Author of ’RACE-BAITER” on Language, Travel and Media

Eric Deggans is NPR’s TV critic, MSNBC media and culture analyst, and author of Race-Baiter: How the Media Wields Dangerous Words to Divide a Nation.
Eric joined World Footprints to talk about his book that examines the role cable news networks and social media play in inciting fears around racism, sexism and prejudice. He says that conflict sells in the media so prejudice, racism, stereotypes are advanced in order to draw viewers and revenue.
We also talked travel and Eric shared how one travel experience impacted him and caused a shift in how he travels more responsibly.
A little known fact…Eric was a professional touring drummer in the 1980s, and he continues to perform with local groups when he’s not on the air. Eric will share an interesting story about Prince and other musicians during his interview.
Join World Footprints for an engaging conversation on race-baiting, travel, media and music with NPR TV critic Eric Deggans.

Flaws in American Democracy examined and Home Exchanges for Travel

What does American democracy look like from abroad? Author Elizabeth Rusch answers that question in her newest book, You Call THIS Democracy?
Fundamentally, America’s democracy is dysfunctional at best and Elizabeth identifies where this country fails. Elizabeth also offers international comparisons and shows the simple solutions that other countries use to advance democracy that would work in the U.S.
In You Call THIS Democracy? Elizabeth calls on Americans to re-envision what a democracy that truly represents the people might look like.
Elizabeth has combined her passion for writing, traveling and enjoying cultural immersion experiences with her family. She discusses her Home Exchange experience and how travel has played an important part in her writing.
With everything going on in the U.S. and around the world, Elizabeth’s insights are as prescient as they are timely.

Global Pandemic, Climate Change, Virtual Tourism: Twenty Twenty novel predictions from 1995

In 1995, the late author Nigel Watts published his highly acclaimed fictional book, Twenty Twenty, that foretold the events the world is experiencing today in the year 2020.
Twenty Twenty was published in 1995 by Hodder and Stoughton and received rave reviews from The Times, Time Out, Sunday Times and more. After nearly 30 years, Twenty-Twenty was relaunched by Nigel’s widow, former BBC broadcaster, Sahera Chohan. Sahera said, “when COVID-19 was at its peak earlier this year, I reread Twenty Twenty and saw how Nigel had eeringly predicted the events of this year.” Sahera immediately knew she had to relaunch the powerful novel and bring it to a new audience.
Twenty Twenty is a blueprint for today’s world because it eerily and accurately predicts a global pandemic that occurs in the year 2020. The futuristic novel predicts how the world will communicate largely through virtual technology, with people wearing masks, a drastic reduction of air travel leading to ‘virtual tourism’, and nature fighting back for its survival due to mankind’s destruction of our planet.
Sahera Chohan joins World Footprints to share Nigel Watts’s words as he saw the year 2020 from the lens of 1995. Sahera shows us how her late husband secured Twenty Twenty as a futuristic treasure and a book that is relevant beyond our time.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Nigel Watts was born in Winchester in 1957. He spent two years in Japan, where he wrote his first novel, The Life Game, which won the Betty Trask Award for best first novel in 1989. His second novel, Billy Bayswater, was shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and broadcast on BBC Radio 4. We All Live In A House Called Innocence, his third novel, was followed by Twenty Twenty, written as part of his Ph.D. in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of East Anglia. In 1999, he received the British Library/Penguin Writers Fellowship grant to write his fifth and final novel, The Way of Love, the first novel to tell the story of the Sufi poet, Rumi. He also wrote the best-selling Write A Novel And Get It Published, part of the Teach Yourself Series.