Travel as listening, memory, and moral attention.
Going Places is a warm, interview-led travel show where destinations become entry points into memory, politics, and human connection. Its conversations linger with historians, journalists, tour makers, and travelers who challenge the easy stories mainstream travel often repeats.
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Going Places is a travel show built around attention. Its center is not the checklist or the postcard view, but the person who lives inside the place being described. The conversations are interview-driven and patient, often beginning with a destination before opening into history, identity, media, and power. Recent episodes trace the neglected presence of Islam in Europe, the civic promise of tourism in Jordan, the limits of mainstream travel journalism, and the work of tour makers challenging stereotypes in places such as Pakistan, Jordan, Armenia, Georgia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina. The show has a clear moral vocabulary. It talks about coexistence, erasure, visa equity, human rights, genocide, refugees, and belonging without flattening those subjects into slogans. It also leaves room for pleasure. A conversation about injustice can still make space for Wadi Rum sunsets, local food, slow walking, and small moments of sweetness. That balance gives the show its shape. It believes travel can be transformative, but only when travelers are willing to question what they have been taught. Guests often carry the long explanatory arcs, and the host's role is to frame, clarify, and ask questions that keep the stakes visible. Jordan is one of the show's recurring touchstones, appearing through community tourism, first-time travel, Bedouin desert encounters, Petra, and the emotional pull of returning to a place many times. The Middle East, Europe, and the wider travel industry are treated as connected stories rather than separate beats. Going Places is best for listeners who want travel media to be more honest, more historically literate, and more accountable to the people whose homes become destinations. It is warm, serious, and openly engaged with the ethics of movement. The show does not sell travel as escape. It presents it as a practice of listening, solidarity, and changed perspective.
Made for: For travelers, writers, creators, and globally curious listeners who want more than tips and scenery. It suits people drawn to history, justice, identity, and the human consequences of how places are represented.
What sets it apart: Going Places stands apart by treating travel media itself as part of the story. Its strongest episodes connect destination storytelling with decolonial critique, local memory, border politics, and community-led alternatives.
Stories of people and places near and far hosted by Yulia Denisyuk, an award-winning travel journalist, photographer, and writer who’s worked with National Geographic, The New York Times, BBC Travel, and more. Each week, we sit down with travelers, journalists, creators, and people living and working in destinations around the world. Guided by Yulia’s years of working in the travel media industry, we meet the people living in the Middle Eastern deserts, culture writers in Hong Kong, street artists in Chicago, and more.
Based on 4 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Going Places turns travel conversation toward history, power, and the practical ethics of moving through other people's communities.
Going Places treats travel as a way into questions of power, memory, and responsibility. Yulia Denisyuk leads interview-driven conversations that move from a guest's experience of place toward the histories and political choices shaping it.
From Pakistan's Ishkoman Valley to Europe's overlooked Muslim history, your guidebook may owe you an apology.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A measured, forceful conversation about Muslim Europe, erased plural history, and why it still matters now.
A travel show opens into a history lesson about Muslim Europe, with Yulia Denisyuk and Tarek Hussain widening the frame on 1,400 years of overlooked history.
A measured correction to a European history that has long been left at the margins.
Europe's Muslim history gets treated here as something pushed to the edge, even though it has been part of the continent for 1,400 years. Tariq Hussain and Yulia Denisyuk frame the subject as a fight over memory and identity, with Hussain tracing the first Muslims to arrive on…
Tourism is framed as recognition, memory, and local value, not just revenue.
Muna Haddad argues for tourism as more than money. The episode gives Baraka Destinations a clear purpose in Jordan's secondary forgotten locations, where local narratives matter as much as visitor spend.
A travel conversation that treats Palestine as a moral and political responsibility, not a backdrop.
Matt Bowles comes across as a longtime Palestinian human rights activist whose path runs from Irish-American hip-hop DJing to entrepreneurship, minimalism, world travel, and podcasting.
A travel story about responsibility, influence, and trying to make one small corner better.
Alex Reynolds' story treats travel as a question of responsibility, not just reach, and that gives the Going Places conversation its strongest edge.
Weekly multi-segment travel interviews pairing European destinations with historians and explorers.
Deep Disney parks talk, right down to the signage.
Real family routes, practical travel stories.
Everyday curiosities, explained with a sideways grin.
Yulia Denisyuk returns for part two of her conversation with Tarek Hussain.
Yulia Denisyuk speaks with Tariq Hussain about Europe’s long Muslim history.
Muna Haddad makes the case that tourism can do real good.
This episode explores how travel journalism is evolving to include more diverse voices and perspectives, featuring an interview with Condé Nast Traveller's Lale Arikoglu about her Women Who Travel podcast and issues like visa equity.
Host Yulia Denisyuk introduces the new season of Going Places, reflecting on her decade-long career in travel journalism and her evolving perspective on travel as a tool for human connection, planetary empathy, and addressing global crises.
Host Yulia Denisyuk interviews Dr.
An interview with the founders of The Hybrid Tours about using travel to challenge stereotypes and foster connections with activists, refugees, and children in places like Pakistan and Jordan.
Host Yulia Denisyuk interviews travel advisor Vanessa Abe about her experience on a group trip to Jordan, discussing the country's highlights and practical travel tips.
Host Yulia Denisyuk interviews a Bedouin man about life in the Wadi Rum desert, exploring travel, culture, and human connection.
Yulia interviews Megan Ryder Burbage about her feminist travel company Sororo and advocacy to end violence against women.
An interview with Hadar Cohen, an Arab Jewish scholar and mystic, discussing spirituality, fear, and her perspective on Jewish identity and Palestinian rights.
A preview of a monthly group call for paid members discussing the book writing process, imposter syndrome, and creative expression within a travel-focused community.
Host Yulia Denisyuk shares a personal story of a transformative trip to Morocco and introduces a conversation with a Palestinian activist on another podcast.
A travel journalist discusses the importance of direct human encounters to overcome media biases and cultural misunderstandings.
Yulia Denisyuk opens the show with Matt Bowles.
A conversation with Vinci Ho about decolonizing travel and creating tools for critical tourism.
Host Yulia Denisyuk interviews travel writer Joe Bauer about his experiences traveling to conflict zones and the hope he finds in meeting people.
An interview with Marie from the Stockholm Archipelago Trail about the trail's connection to nature and well-being.
Yulia Denisyuk speaks with travel photographer, writer, and solo traveler Alex Reynolds about travel, responsibility, and doing it carefully.
Host Yulia Denisyuk previews a new season and replays an archive episode about Jordan, featuring a conversation with Janine Jervis on challenging stereotypes through travel.
Host Yulia Denisyuk interviews travel writer Nikki Vargas about her new memoir and journey of self-discovery through travel.
Host Yulia Denisyuk interviews Feri El Tamar about her journey from data analyst to language coach and the importance of embracing change.
A travel podcast featuring interviews with travelers, journalists, and locals about their experiences and insights from around the world.
Host Yulia Denisyuk interviews travel journalist Kartika Gupta about her experiences in Mumbai, Jordan, and California, exploring culture and diversity.
Host Yulia Denisyuk interviews journalist Sarah Munir about coming into one's own, strong women, pandemic realizations, body image, home, and sex.
Host Yulia Denisyuk interviews travel storyteller Lola Akinmeid-Akerström about her journey as a multi-potentialite creator and the launch of her novel.
Host Yulia Denisyuk interviews travel journalist Emi Rodriguez about his mission to become the first Puerto Rican to dive at the most remote scuba location.
This episode features a conversation with travel advisor Vanessa Abbe about her experiences and insights from a trip to Jordan, including personal reflections and practical travel information.
This episode continues a conversation with Justine Abigail Yu about using imagination and creativity to build new worlds, exploring cultural identity as a hyphenated Canadian, and connecting local and global activism.
This episode features an interview with Justine Abigail Yu, founder of Living Hyphen, exploring what it means to live between cultures as a hyphenated Canadian and discussing concepts like radical imagination and storytelling for social change.
This episode features an interview with avid traveler Ric Gazarian, discussing his quest to visit every country in the world, his experiences in lesser-known places, and his perspectives on borders and humanity.
This episode features an interview with Kazakh journalist and activist Aisana Ashim, discussing women's rights, Kazakhstan's history under Russian colonization, and the role of journalism in activism.