The End of Tourism

My guest on this episode is Dean MacCannell, a social analyst and critic whose writings on contemporary cultural arrangements have been translated worldwide. He is best known for his path-breaking book, The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class. His most recent book is 18 & Out a memoir of his childhood and youth. 

In this interview we discuss Dean's pioneering book The Tourist and how it rooted the entire area of critical tourism studies. We look back into mass tourism's emergence in the 1970s and 1980s, what has changed in that time, how tourists' own homes have become destinations, the loss of human connection, hyperculture, the rise of anti-tourism social movements, how we can understand ourselves and the foreigner as radically other and how that might hold they key for interculturality in our times.

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My guest on this episode is Bani Amor, a genderqueer travel writer who explores the relationships between race, place, and power. They’re a four-time Voices of Our Nation Arts Foundation fellow with work in CNN Travel, Fodor’s, and AFAR, among others, and in the anthology Outside the XY: Queer Black and Brown Masculinity. 

In our discussion we look to travel writing as a narrative that underpins colonialism and the identity crisis that it desperately needs. We consider contemporary social media travelogues, the limits to decoloniality and tourism greenwashing, spiritual or psychedelic tourism, what subversive travel writing looks like and what travel writing looks like at home.

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My guest on this episode is Andrew McLuhan, an author and educator living in Bloomfield, Ontario. He writes and delivers speeches, classes, workshops on McLuhan methods and work, consults with individuals and companies on understanding McLuhan work in culture and technology and applying that work today to bring insight and new perception and understanding.

Andrew McLuhan is a grandson of Marshall McLuhan, noted Canadian professor from the University of Toronto who was a pioneer in the field of Media/Communications studies. Andrew is director of The McLuhan Institute, founded in 2017 to continue the work begun by Marshall McLuhan and carried on by Eric McLuhan in exploring and understanding culture and technology. The McLuhan Institute preserves their family archive and collections, and focuses on bringing forward and making accessible the practical tools for exploring and understanding the nature and effects of human innovation so that we might be more conscious agents of change.

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In this mini-episode, I offer up a little introduction into these extremely important themes, ones so often neglected in our time: responsibility, repair and radical hospitality. As locals and foreigners alike, depending on where we are at any given moment, the questions posed in the episode arise as necessary in order to understand where we actually are at any given moment, how we are in those places and with the people that surround us. These themes are the foundation for why the podcast was created in the first place. If given their proper place on the throne of our days, we might begin to dream the world anew, slowly coaxing it into reality. That is my hope. That is the work.

Hosted by Chris Christou

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My guest on this episode is Murray Cox, a multidisciplinary Australian-American artist and activist based in Newburgh NY, who uses visual, audio, spatial and data storytelling to explore themes of economic and racial equity and to fight for housing justice and the right to our cities.

He is also the data activist founder of Inside Airbnb, a mission driven project which provides free data on Airbnb’s impact on residential communities, and advocates for regulations that protect our neighbourhoods.

Murray and I gathered to discuss his project Inside Airbnb, how it began, where Airbnb fits in the housing crisis, how Airbnb intentionally misleads the public, as well as racial discrimination evident on Airbnb's model. We talk about the various reports that Inside Airbnb has released over the years, digital nomadism, housing for all, the host-guest relationship, and the need to organize the neighbourhood.

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On this episode, I'm honoured to host and welcome back to the pod, my dear friend, Stephen Jenkinson, MTS, MSW. Stephen is a worker, author, storyteller, musician and culture activist. In 2010, he founded Orphan Wisdom, a house for learning skills of deep living and making human culture that are mandatory in endangered, endangering times. It is a redemptive project that comes from where he comes from. It is rooted in knowing history, being claimed by ancestry, working for a time he won’t live to see. When not on the road, he makes books, succumbs to interviews, tends to labours on a small farm, mends broken handles and fences, and bends towards lifeways dictated by the seasons of the boreal borderlands.

We discuss winter(ing) and going without, the ominous Old Country, being more European than the Europeans, what it means to love a place, the Axes of the world and the local numinous, the towering order of staying home. In the second half I propose a different route than we usually take, towards the living and the dead and time, towards justice and freedom. I have to say, Stephen was incredibly generous with his time and we're blessed to hear from him. Enjoy!

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On this episode, I speak to Cecilia Morgan, a professor in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning at the University of Toronto. Her work focuses on nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century Canada as part of the British Empire and transnational worlds. She has been researching the history of English-Canadians’ and Indigenous peoples’ travel, tourism, and transnational mobility for over twenty-five years, and is particularly interested in the way that gender and empire have been part of those processes. Her publications in these areas include Sweet Canadian Girls Abroad: English-Canadian Actresses on Transnational Stages, Travellers Through Empire: Indigenous Voyages From Early Canada, and ‘A Happy Holiday’: English-Canadians and Transatlantic Tourism.

Professor Morgan lives in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, a destination for cultural and wine tourism. As well as witnessing the many changes the town has undergone since the early 1980s with the expansion of tourism, she has written about its history in her book, Creating Colonial Pasts: History, Memory, and Commemoration in Southern Ontario.

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On this episode, my guest is Fiore Longo, a Research and Advocacy Officer at Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples. She is the director of Survival International France and Survival International Spain. Fiore coordinates Survival’s conservation campaign, and has visited many communities in Africa and Asia that face human rights abuses in the name of conservation.

Months ago, Survival International reached out to let me know what was happening in Tanzania regarding the brutal and illegal evictions of the Maasai from their territories. Finally, we managed to record what is a deeply nuanced and important conversation regarding those very evictions and their history. We discuss the western imaginary of nature, the enclosure of the commons & the creation of national parks, the second industrial revolution in Africa, the contradictions and criminality of conservation NGOs, how eco-reserves are created to make room for tourism and the costs that come along with it.

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On this, the first episode of Season 3: Invocations, my guest is Dougald Hine, a social thinker, writer and speaker. After an early career as a BBC journalist, he co-founded organisations including the Dark Mountain Project and a school called HOME. He has collaborated with scientists, artists and activists, serving as a leader of artistic development at Riksteatern (Sweden’s national theatre) and as an associate of the Centre for Environment and Development Studies at Uppsala University. His latest book is At Work in the Ruins: Finding Our Place in the Time of Science, Climate Change, Pandemics & All the Other Emergencies (2023). He co-hosts The Great Humbling podcast and publishes a Substack called “Writing Home.”

Here, we discuss Dougald’s travels (from Oaxaca to Sweden), his new book At Work in the Ruins, the missing links in the climate change discussion, flightshaming or flygskam, the quality of culture, Gustavo Esteva’s "turnings" and hospitality, money and 500 years of abuse, becoming an immigrant in a Swedish pandemic, the Uzbek Storyteller and A School Called Home. Enjoy!

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This is the last episode of Season 2: Mexico, entitled "Barbarians of Oaxaca: Get Out". In honor of our late, dear friend and mentor, Gustavo Esteva, along with myself and fellow Unitierra Oaxaca Wendy Juarez, we have put together a series of reflections on this season, the episodes, and everything we have learned as a result. We want to thank you very much for listening to us, and we hope that the conversations we've had over the last six months have brought some clarity to the complexity surrounding the issues of tourism, exile, and radical hospitality in Mexico. The pod, as always, is a lot of work. This season we have had the help of friends: Adair from OjoViajero, Mim from MitamineLab, Patricia from Oaxaca and Human from Brazil.

Season 2 is dedicated to our late friend and mentor Gustavo Esteva, grandfather, sage, and co-founder of Universidad de la Tierra in Oaxaca, Mexico. These episodes have been planned and organized in collaboration with our colleagues from Unitierra Oaxaca.

They are dispatches of the resistance.

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Esto es el ultimo episodio de la Temporada 2: México: Fuera los Barbaros de Oaxaca. En honor a nuestro difunto, querido amigo y mentor, Gustavo Esteva, junto conmigo y la compañera Wendy Juarez de la Unitierra Oaxaca, hemos reunido una serie de reflexiones sobre esta temporada, los episodios y todo lo que hemos aprendido como un resultado.

Queremos agradecerles profundamente por escucharnos y esperamos que las conversaciones que hemos tenido durante los últimos seis meses hayan aportado algo de claridad a la complejidad que rodea los temas del turismo, el exilio y la hospitalidad radical en México.

El pod, como siempre, es un montón de trabajo. Esta temporada hemos tenido ayuda de amigos: Adair de OjoViajero, Mim de MitamineLab, Patricia de Oaxaca y Human de Brasil.

La temporada 2 está dedicada a nuestro difunto amigo y mentor Gustavo Esteva, abuelo, sabio y cofundador de la Universidad de la Tierra en Oaxaca, México. Estos episodios han sido planeados y organizados en colaboración con nuestros compañeros y compañeras de la Unitierra Oaxaca.

Son despachos de la resistencia.

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En este episodio, nuestra invitada es Yásnaya Aguilar, una escritora, lingüista, traductora, investigadora y  activista originaria de Ayutla Mixe, Oaxaca. Ella estudió la licenciatura en  Lengua y Literatura Hispánica, así como la Maestría en Lingüística en  la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Su trabajo se encuentra  fuertemente enfocado a proyectos sobre divulgación y estudio de  diversidad lingüística y lenguas originarias en riesgo de desaparición  en México, es muy destacable su participación en proyectos en el  desarrollo de contenidos gramaticales para materiales educativos en  lenguas indígenas. Ha colaborado en publicaciones como Letras Libres y  Nexos. Es parte del colectivo COLMIX, una agrupación que realiza  actividades de investigación, y difusión de la cultura mixe, colabora  con la biblioteca de investigación Juan Córdoba en Oaxaca y escribe el  blog #Ayuujk.

Se pueden encontrar su libro Ää: manifiestos sobre la diversidad lingüística en linea por Ediciones Almadia.

En nuestra conversación, hablamos de la doctrina de descubrimiento y el descubrimiento auténtico y construido de la industria turística. Seguimos con temas de autenticidad y la construcción de identidad nacional y regional con los eventos de la Guelaguetza y Dia de los Muertos en Oaxaca como ejemplos. Yasnaya va compartiendo con nosotrxs sus viajes y peregrinajes. Además, confrontamos la nueva invasión de extranjería en México y como eso y su crítica va profundizando identidades imaginadas, nacionalistas, y de raza. Finalmente, hablamos de la hospitalidad y sus límites y cómo ellos pueden ofrecer una clave a los dilemas de nuestros tiempos.

La temporada 2 está dedicada a nuestro difunto amigo y mentor Gustavo Esteva, abuelo, sabio y cofundador de la Universidad de la Tierra en Oaxaca, México. Estos episodios han sido planeados y organizados en colaboración con nuestros compañeros y compañeras de la Unitierra Oaxaca.

Son despachos de la resistencia.

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In this episode, we are joined by friends in Oaxaca, Maria Itaka and Sergio "Yeyo" Beltran.

Born  and raised in Oaxaca, María has a major in English Language and  Literature from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM),  with a specialization in translation. After many years of working for  tourism-based projects, she now works independently, providing  specialized content production services that create authentic, soulful  material that aims to benefit the places where the work is being done.

Sergio Beltrán Arruti -better known as Yeyo- was born and raised in Mexico City. He moved to Oaxaca in 1997 to support and learn from indigenous communities. Sergio is the co-founder of the Universidad de la Tierra in Oaxaca (Unitierra) and of Herramientas Para Buen Vivir, AC. In 2010, he was part of the pioneering team of the Art of Hosting Meaningful Conversations in Spanish, and has organized multiple intercultural meetings around the world using these tools for dialogue.

Together, we discuss about the invasion of post-pandemic tourists/expatriates in Mexico, the consequences of gentrification in Oaxaca, the drought here, the idea of

travelers versus tourists, the eco-washing of the tourism industry, and the McDonaldization of tourism. We then continued with themes of "cultivating versus consuming culture," worker solidarity in the tourism industry, the notion that charity is not solidarity, and bringing a foundation of philosophy to the tourism industry.

Season 2 is dedicated to our late friend and mentor Gustavo Esteva, grandfather, sage, and co-founder of Universidad de la Tierra in Oaxaca, Mexico. These episodes have been planned and organized in collaboration with our colleagues from Unitierra Oaxaca.

They are dispatches of the resistance.

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En este episodio, nos acompanamos unos compas de Oaxaca, Maria Itaka y Sergio "Yeyo" Beltran.

María nació y creció en Oaxaca. Es licenciada en Letras y Literatura Inglesa por la UNAM y cuenta con una especialidad en Traducción. Tras varios años de haber trabajado en proyectos turísticos, actualmente trabaja de manera independiente y ofrece servicios especializados de investigación, consultoría y traducción a investigadores y profesionales de diversas áreas, con el fin de darles una visión auténtica y respetuosa de las culturas y los lugares a los que se aproximan. 

Sergio Beltrán Arruti -mejor conocido como Yeyo- nació y se crió en  la Ciudad de México. Se mudó a Oaxaca en 1997 para apoyar y aprender  de las comunidades indígenas. Sergio es cofundador de la Universidad de  la Tierra en Oaxaca (Unitierra) y de Herramientas para el Buen Vivir,  AC. En 2010 formó parte del equipo pionero del Arte de Organizar Conversaciones Significativas en Español (Art of Hosting), y ha  organizado múltiples encuentros interculturales en todo el mundo utilizando estas herramientas para el diálogo.

Juntxs, platicamos del invasion de turistas/expatriados pospandemia, las consecuencias de la gentrificación en Oaxaca, la sequía aca, la idea de viajeros o turistas, el lavado ecológico de la industria turística/Posturas de autenticidad, y el Mcdonalización del turismo. Luego seguimos con temas de "cultivar versus consumir cultura," la solidaridad obrera en la industria turística de Oaxaca, que caridad no es solidaridad, y trayendo una base de filosofía a traves de la industria de turismo.

La temporada 2 está dedicada a nuestro difunto amigo y mentor Gustavo Esteva, abuelo, sabio y cofundador de la Universidad de la Tierra en Oaxaca, México. Estos episodios han sido planeados y organizados en colaboración con nuestros compañeros y compañeras de la Unitierra Oaxaca.

Son despachos de la resistencia.

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On this episode, I am accompanied by a dear philosopher, writer, and friend, Elías González Gómez. Elias focuses on interreligious dialogue and the bridge between mysticism and the struggle to build a new world. He has collaborated with different interreligious groups, as well as indigenous and spiritual communities. He is currently a professor at ITESO and at Ibero León. He collaborates with the Universidad de la Tierra Oaxaca and is a member of the Center for Studies of Religion and Society of the University of Guadalajara.

He is a spiritual guide, Zen practitioner and creator of study and dialogue groups around mysticism. Elias coordinates the blog Amanecer. He is the author of the following books: Encuentro, Re-ligación y Diálogo: Reflexiones hacia un diálogo Inter-Re-ligioso; Impotente Ternura: Descubrirte en lo pequeño; and Convivencialidad y resistencia política desde abajo: La herencia de Iván Illich en México.

Here we talk about the new wave of tourists and migrants in Mexico and the resentment and hatred that has come out as a result. We talk about spiritual tourism, plurality and radical hospitality, and what it means to know the other or the other in our times.

Season 2 is dedicated to our late friend and mentor Gustavo Esteva, grandfather, sage, and co-founder of Universidad de la Tierra in Oaxaca, Mexico. These episodes have been planned and organized in collaboration with our colleagues from Unitierra Oaxaca.

They are dispatches of the resistance.

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En este episodio, me acompaña un querido amigo filósofo y escritor, Elías González Gómez. Elias enfoca en el diálogo interreligioso y en el puente entre la mística y las luchas por construir un mundo nuevo. Ha colaborado con distintos colectivos interreligiosos, comunidades indígenas y espirituales. Actualmente es profesor de asignatura en el ITESO y en la Ibero León. Colabora con la Universidad de la Tierra Oaxaca y es miembro del Centro de Estudios de Religión y Sociedad de la Universidad de Guadalajara. 

Es acompañante espiritual, practicante zen y creador de grupos de estudio y de diálogo alrededor de la mística. Elias coordina el blog Amanecer. El es autor de los siguientes libros: Encuentro, Re-ligación y Diálogo: Reflexiones hacia un diálogo Inter-Re-ligioso; Impotente Ternura: Descubrirte en lo pequeño; y Convivencialidad y resistencia política desde abajo: La herencia de Iván Illich en México.

Aqui platicamos de la nueva ola de turistas y migrantes en Mexico y el resintimiento y odio que ha salido como resultado. Hablamos del turismo espiritual, del pluralidad y de la hospitalidad radical, y que significa de conocer el otro o la otra en nuestros tiempos.

La temporada 2 está dedicada a nuestro difunto amigo y mentor Gustavo Esteva, abuelo, sabio y cofundador de la Universidad de la Tierra en Oaxaca, México. Estos episodios han sido planeados y organizados en colaboración con nuestros compañeros y compañeras de la Unitierra Oaxaca.

Son despachos de la resistencia.

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En este episodio, nuestro invitado es Pedro Regalado Uc Be, un escritor mexicano en lengua maya, poeta, narrador, traductor y activista. El es profesor en la Escuela de Creación Literaria del Centro Estatal de Bellas Artes (CEBA), plantel donde también realizó estudios.

Pedro es Integrante de la Asamblea de Defensores del Territorio Maya Múuch’ Xíinbal, esta organización tiene como objetivo defender su territorio del despojo que aplican las megaempresas de energía renovable en la Península de Yucatán.

Con Pedro y Wendy Juarez de la Unitierra Oaxaca, conversamos de los temas que rodeada del megaproyecto "el Tren Maya:" el contexto de lo que esta pasando en el Yucatan, la creacion de la Asamblea Múuch’ Xíinbal, la logica y epistemologia occidental y indigena, el lugar del turismo, la apropriacion de la cultura Maya, los limites a la hospitalidad y la hospitalidad local/indigena, la mascara de turismo, y la posibilidad de encuentros interculturales.

La temporada 2 está dedicada a nuestro difunto amigo y mentorGustavo Esteva, abuelo, sabio y cofundador de la Universidad de la Tierra en Oaxaca, México. Estos episodios han sido planeados yorganizados en colaboración con nuestros compañeros y compañerasde la Unitierra Oaxaca.

Son despachos de la resistencia.

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Links de la Asamblea:

The Wirikuta Preservation Project is an internationally-run endeavour to protect 500 acres of land for the Wixarika Nation in Estacion de Catorce in the state of San Luis Potosi, Mexico. Their mission is to preserve Wixarika sacred lands & cultural heritage while supporting future generations to continue living their traditional way of life by purchasing threatened land in Estacion de Catorce.

Our guests today are Maria Guadalupe Valazquez, Santiago Alonso, and Kristen Alyra Hughes from the Wirikuta Preservation Project. For our English language interview, we’re speaking with Kristen Alyra Hughes.

Kristen Alyra Hughes has lived and worked in Indigenous communities throughout the Guatemala, Peru, Mexico and Indonesia for the past decade, building bridges between the transient spiritual communities and native peoples of the land. Currently, Alyra is the Secretary and Project Coordinator for the Wirikuta Preservation Project team of For Goodness Sake. It is one of her greatest passions and dreams in life to see First Nations People receiving their land and creating a future for their generations to comes which fosters sustainability of their culture and way of life.

In this episode, we discuss land and institutional betrayal, heritage as intangible, the impacts on Wirikuta territory, lack of respect from foreigners, cultural appropriation, land privatization, the invasion of tourists, and how to support the project.

Season 2 is dedicated to our late friend and mentor Gustavo Esteva, grandfather, sage, and co-founder of the University of the Earth in Oaxaca, Mexico. These episodes have been planned and organized in collaboration with our colleagues from the Unitierra Oaxaca.

They are dispatches from the resistance.

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El Proyecto de Preservación de Wirikuta es un proyecto internacional para proteger 500 acres de tierra para la Nación Wixarika en la Estación de Catorce en el estado de San Luis Potosí, México. Su misión es preservar las tierras sagradas y el patrimonio cultural Wixarika mientras apoya a las generaciones futuras para que continúen viviendo su estilo de vida tradicional mediante la compra de tierras amenazadas en la Estación de Catorce.

Nuestros invitados de hoy son María Guadalupe Valázquez, Santiago Alonso y Kristen Alyra Hughes del Wirikuta Preservation Project. Para nuestra entrevista en español, estamos hablando con María Guadalupe y Santiago.

María Guadalupe, también conocida como 'Lupita', es una curandera, nació con el poder de curar y ahora tiene el papel de gobernadora de su tribu. Lupita ha sido la capitana del centro ceremonial Marananawe durante los últimos 5 años dentro de la comunidad Wixarika.

Santiago Alonso es traductor y director de relaciones intertribales de For Goodness Sake Foundation y Wirikuta Preservation Project.

Santiago nació y se crió en la Ciudad de México y ha estado sirviendo a las comunidades Wixarika durante más de 10 años a través del trabajo social, la filantropía y el apoyo a sus peregrinaciones anuales a los lugares sagrados. Con el tiempo se ha ganado la confianza y el respeto de la comunidad para poder viajar y apoyar su forma de vida.

En este episodio, discutimos sobre la tierra y la traicion institucional, el patrimonio como algo intangible, el impacto en la region, la falta de respeto de extranjeros, apropriacion cultural, la compra de tierras, la invasion de turistas, y como apoyar el proyecto.

La temporada 2 está dedicada a nuestro difunto amigo y mentorGustavo Esteva, abuelo, sabio y cofundador de la Universidad de la Tierra en Oaxaca, México. Estos episodios han sido planeados yorganizados en colaboración con nuestros compañeros y compañerasde la Unitierra Oaxaca.

Son despachos de la resistencia.

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En este episodio, me acompaña Marcos Esmar. Maros nació en el año de 1996 en Cosoltepec, Oaxaca. Es estudiante autodidactica, se dedica a hacer rap y a la escritura, participa en el colectivo Espiral de Pensamiento Crítico, proyecto en el que ha colaborado con diversos textos sobre teoría crítica y poesía.

El proyecto Espiral de Pensamiento Crítico es un espacio dónde convergen jóvenes de diferentes lugares de Oaxaca que desde conversatorios, círculos de estudio y ejercicios de escritura colectiva tratan de aportar a las luchas que se libran en sus territorios.

Nos platicamos de la historia del turismo en Oaxaca desde las luchas de 2006, la gentrificacion y hipsterizacion de Oaxaca, el imagen y simbolo de magia y la exotica que la industria del turismo pone en los lugares. Discutimos tambien de la tecnologia y como falta la investigacion de entender como los redes sociales estan apoyando, y a la vez funcionando en contra de las luchas sociales.

La temporada 2 está dedicada a nuestro difunto amigo y mentorGustavo Esteva, abuelo, sabio y cofundador de la Universidad de la Tierra en Oaxaca, México. Estos episodios han sido planeados yorganizados en colaboración con nuestros compañeros y compañerasde la Unitierra Oaxaca.

Son despachos de la resistencia.

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On this episode I’m joined by Christopher Riendeau, a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from the University of North Carolina Wilmington where he learned first hand what it means to live in a tourist town. Chris’ research focuses on applied ethics in tourism and more specifically around existentialism and bad faith in the search for "authentic" tourism, and the subject/object problems inherent to the industry. In the midst of the COVID pandemic, he published an incredible essay entitled “Tourism, Colonialism and Disease,” which we talk about at length in this episode.

Christopher joins me from his home in Portland, Oregon to dialogue about the revenge of tourism in a post-pandemic world, tourism as neocolonialism, existentialist philosophy and the search for the authentic, the master-servant relationship, labor-washing, and finally a slow, bicycle-driven form of travel. We end Season 1 almost a year later, where it began, approaching the dire consequences of travel and tourism in our times.

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On this episode, our guest is Bayo Akomolafe, a speaker, author, fugitive neo-materialist com-post-activist public intellectual and Yoruba poet. But when he takes himself less seriously, he is a father to Alethea and Kyah, and the grateful life-partner to Ej as well as the sworn washer of nightly archives of dishes.

The convener of the concepts of ‘postactivism’, ‘transraciality’ and ‘ontofugitivity’, Bayo is a widely celebrated international speaker, teacher, public intellectual, essayist and author of two books, These Wilds Beyond our Fences: Letters to My Daughter on Humanity’s Search for Home (North Atlantic Books) and We Will Tell our Own Story: The Lions of Africa Speak. He is also the Executive Director and Chief Curator for The Emergence Network and host of the online postactivist course, ‘We Will dance with Mountains’.

Bayo joins me to speak about lostness as a relationship, his unique take on escape and exile, migrant bodies in the tourist wake, the place of decoloniality and post-activism in a tourist world, making sanctuary from fugitivity, and the monster as the face of hospitality. Enjoy!

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Ep 0.4 | Your Host, My Story

In this mini-episode, I offer you a little bit about what brought me to court and conjure The End of Tourism Podcast. I speak to the dilemmas that touched me as a young person, about how a long lineage and period as a travelling tourist fed the ideas that you hear in these episodes, and how we might, together, come to subvert what's been and being done to our world, mostly unbeknownst. This is my story.

Hosted by Chris Christou

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On this episode, our guest is Dr. Anu Taranath, a speaker, educator, and racial equity consultant who partners with a range of people to deepen conversations on history, harm and healing. A professor at the University of Washington for the past 20+ years, Dr. Anu knows that the most compelling conversations on race, identity and belonging take place when people feel valued and heard. 

Her book Beyond Guilt Trips: Mindful Travel in an Unequal World was shortlisted for the Washington State Book Award, selected as a Winner of Newsweek's "Future of Travel Awards in Storytelling," and named one of Oprah Magazine’s “26 Best Travel Books of All Times.”

Dr. Anu joins me to discuss her book Beyond Guilt Trips, the modern crisis of identity, heritage travel and homeland journeys, the power of whiteness, guilt and shame in tourism, privilege as a four-letter word, and finally, holding space at home and abroad. Enjoy!

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On this episode, our guest is Ian MacKenzie, a filmmaker and writer who lives on the Salish Sea with his partner and young son. 

For over 13 years, he’s been tracking the global emergence of new culture. From the desert of Burning Man to the heart of Occupy Wall St, he has sought and amplified the voices of visionaries, artists and activists who have been working toward planetary system change. Ian is best known for his films Sacred Economics, Lost Nation Road, Amplify Her, Dear Guardians, and Occupy Love (directed by Velcrow Ripper).  

More recently, he founded The Mythic Mascline Podcast and Network, exploring in-depth conversations about emerging masculinities, as well as A Gathering of Stories, an online mythopoetic ceremony.

I met Ian some years ago at the Orphan Wisdom School near Ottawa, Canada. Since then, we've become friends and co-conspirators in the deep work of apprenticing the culture, what is absent in it, and what might be done about it. Ian joins me to discuss the backpacker "gap year" and the lack of initation for young men and women, the difference between a tourist and a traveller, the theatre that the tourist industry creates for tourists, what it means to be a guest, creating ritual space, and Joseph Campbell's "hero's journey." Enjoy!

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Daniel Pinchbeck is an American author. His books include Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism, 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl, and How Soon Is Now? From Personal Initiation to Global Transformation

He is a co-founder of the web magazine Reality Sandwich and of the website Evolver.net, and edited the North Atlantic Books publishing imprint Evolver Editions. He was featured in the documentary 2012: Time for Change, directed by Joao Amorim and produced by Mangusta Films. He is the founder of the think tank Center for Planetary Culture, which produced the Regenerative Society Wiki.

On this episode, Daniel joins me to discuss his essay "Life and Death in Tulum," the evolution and diffusion of the Burning Man festival and community to other parts of the world in the form of tourism, Zizek's neoshamanism and neobuddhism ideas, the cultural colonialism of modern music festivals, and the logic of late-stage capitalism. Enjoy!

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On this episode, our guest is Mary Louise Pratt, a Professor Emerita at NYU and author of the pioneering decolonial work on travel writing entitled Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation. Her new book Planetary Longings is out now through Duke University Press.

She holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from Stanford University. Her research includes work on Latin American Literature and Latin American Studies, comparative literature, linguistics, literary theory, postcolonial studies, feminist and gender studies, anthropology, and cultural studies.

Her publications include: Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation (1992; 2nd ed. 2007), a well-known study of the discursive formation of Latin America and Africa in metropolitan travel literature. With the west coast SOFA collective, she co-authored Women, Culture and Politics in Latin America (1993). A collection of her work appeared in Spanish in 2017 titled Los imaginarios planetarios (Madrid: Aluvion). Her most recent work as a critic and scholar includes reflections on neoliberalism and culture, language and globalization, and contemporary indigenous politics and thought. Pratt stresses the dynamic relations between high culture and popular movements, between gendered narratives and official legends, between national politics and global markets.

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On this episode, our guest is Robert Fletcher, an environmental anthropologist and author at Wageningen University in the Netherlands.

Robert is based in the Sociology of Development and Change group at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. A former ecotourism guide, he is an environmental anthropologist with research interests in conservation, development, tourism, globalization, climate change, human-wildlife interaction, social and resistance movements, and non-state forms of governance. He uses a political ecology approach to explore how culturally-specific understandings of human-nonhuman relations and political economic structures intersect to inform patterns of natural resource use and conflict. 

His publications include the books The Conservation Revolution: Radical Ideas for Saving Nature beyond the Anthropocene, co-authored with Bram Büscher, and published by Verso Books in 2020, and Romancing the Wild: Cultural Dimensions of Ecotourism, published by Duke University Press in 2014.

Robert joins me on this episode to explore his personal experience and research into ecotourism and its contradictions, extinction tourism and disaster capitalism, the capitalocene, what ecotourism does to our understandings of nature and vice versa, the body in ecotourism worlds, ideology and post-capitalism.

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Season Zero #0.3 | Expectation and Entitlement

In this mini-episode, I speak about the expectation and entitlement that follows tourists into foreign lands, how it becomes embedded into the minds and places of tourists' hosts, and how the tourism industry encourages all of this. The consequences of this are deep and dire and almost always ensure that any remaining sense of hospitality among locals or tourists alike is turned into hostility.

Welcome to "Expectation and Entitlement." 

Hosted by Chris Christou.

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On this episode we are joined by activist and author Deborah McLaren.

Deborah McLaren has worked with Indigenous and rural communities for 25 years, helping to analyze and advocate for tourism issues and rights. These include land, intellectual property, cultural, environmental and development rights. She served as the director of the Rethinking Tourism Project and Indigenous Tourism Rights International. Deborah has written several books, including Rethinking Tourism and Ecotravel (Kumarian Press, 1998 and 2002), the first critique of international tourism and its impacts upon Indigenous Peoples, and contributed to many others, including the recent Socializing Tourism: Rethinking Tourism for Social and Ecological Justice (Routledge, 2021). 

Currently she’s contributing to works around climate change and Covid-19 and tourism, serving on the advisory panel of the Indigenous Tourism Collaborative of the Americas. 

Deborah is also the CEO of Ancient Indian Spices, an artisan food company raising funds to support small farmers around the world. She lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma and Saint Paul, Minnesota. She can be reached at darmclaren@gmail.com.

Deborah joins me to discuss her decades long work in fighting against overtourism, for indigenous rights, land acknowledgement, the impacts of COVID-19 and the climate crisis on travel, and her seminal book Rethinking Tourism and Ecotravel.

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On this episode we are joined by friend and fellow scholar, Day Schildkret of Morning Altars.

Day Schildkret is internationally renowned as the author, artist and teacher behind the Morning Altars movement, inspiring tens of thousands of people to make life more beautiful and meaningful through ritual, nature and art. BuzzFeed calls his work, “a celebration of nature and life." With nearly 100K followers on social media and sold-out workshops, installations, trainings, and public speaking events worldwide, Day is a thought-leader devoted to healing the culture by teaching people to ritualize the big and small moments of our work and our lives.

Day is the author of the up-coming book, Hello, Goodbye: 75 Rituals for Times of Loss, Celebration and Change (Simon Element), hitting #1 on Amazon for two days straight, as well as the author of Morning Altars: A 7-Step Practice to Nourish Your Spirit through Nature, Art and Ritual (Countryman Press). His work has been featured on NBC, CBS, Buzzfeed, Vice, Well+Good, My Modern Met and four times in Spirituality & Health Magazine.

We discuss how people know where they are, deep time, wanderlust and destination addiction, rituals as recipes and food for memory, where we find the sacred in the world, what it means to be hospitable guests in our time, remembering to remember through ritual, and finally, how art can help us to do that.

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On this episode we are joined by Samie Blasingame, the communications campaigner for the Stay Grounded Network.

Stay Grounded is a global network of more than 180 member organisations, among them local airport opposition and climate justice groups, NGOs, trade unions, initiatives fostering alternatives to aviation like night trains, and organisations supporting communities which struggle against offset projects or biofuel plantations. Also individual activists, academics, trade unionists and interested people can contribute to the network.

Stay Grounded aims to exchange experiences, support each other, and campaign together for a reduction of aviation and its negative impacts. They also engage in fighting problematic climate strategies like offsetting emissions and biofuels. Their vision is a form of mobility that rests inside the planetary boundaries and allows a livable future for us and our children.

Samie has an academic and professional background in environmental policy and planning with a focus on urban regeneration, sustainable agriculture and resilient food systems. Currently, she is based in Berlin, Germany where she works for Stay Grounded and is active in various sustainability and climate justice groups across Europe.

We discuss Stay Grounded’s history, actions, and philosophies, aviation industry greenwashing, bullshit flights, the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, and finally we dream of a world in which hyper mobility and cheap travel are a thing of the past.

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On this episode, our guest is Gustavo Esteva, a "deprofessionalized" social activist, author, and elder. I sat down with Gustavo in his house on the edge of a small Zapotec town to discuss the legacy of interculturality, radical hospitality, the philosopher Ivan Illich, and the Zapatistas of Chiapas, Mexico.

Gustavo is the co-founder of La Universidad de la Tierra (the University of the Earth) and the Center for Intercultural Encounters and Dialogues, located in Oaxaca, Mexico. He has authored and edited over 40 books, including "Grassroots Postmodernism: Remaking the Soil of Cultures" and "Escaping Education: Living as Learning within Grassroots Cultures," and "the Future of Development: A Radical Manifesto."

I first met Gustavo in 2015 at the Unitierra Oaxaca in southern Mexico. I had long heard incredible stories of Gustavo through a protege of his, Michael Sacco, a close friend and the founder of ChocoSol Traders in Toronto, Canada. Like Michael, I was invited into the philosophies and lived expressions of interculturality, hospitality, and local resilience that Gustavo and his work so deeply embodies.

Part 2 is entitled, "A World Where Many Worlds Belong."

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Gustavo Esteva's Official Page:

On this episode, our guest is Gustavo Esteva, a "deprofessionalized" social activist, author, and elder. I sat down with Gustavo in his house on the edge of a small Zapotec town to discuss the legacy of tourism in Oaxaca, how tourism is an extension of the colonization of the Americas, and the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. We touch on the differences between tourists and immigrants and the crushing realities of modern and urban, capitalist living.

Gustavo is the co-founder of La Universidad de la Tierra (the University of the Earth) and the Center for Intercultural Encounters and Dialogues, located in Oaxaca, Mexico. He has authored and edited over 40 books, including "Grassroots Postmodernism: Remaking the Soil of Cultures" and "Escaping Education: Living as Learning within Grassroots Cultures," and "the Future of Development: A Radical Manifesto." 

I first met Gustavo in 2015 at the Unitierra Oaxaca in southern Mexico. I had long heard incredible stories of Gustavo through a protege of his, Michael Sacco, a close friend and the founder of ChocoSol Traders in Toronto, Canada. Like Michael, I was invited into the philosophies and lived expressions of interculturality, hospitality, and local resilience that Gustavo and his work so deeply embodies. 

Part 1 is entitled, "The Conquest and the Great Escape."

Part 2, which we will release at the beginning of January, is entitled, "A World Where Many Worlds Belong."

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Gustavo Esteva's Resilience.org Page: https://www.resilience.org/resilience-author/gustavo-esteva/

On this episode, our guest is Daniel Pardo, an organizer of various neighbourhood organizations in Barcelona, including ABDT (the Assembly of Neighborhoods for Tourism Degrowth). I caught up with Daniel and friend Ana Elia to speak about Barcelona, what has become of it as a result of overtourism and the local struggles against touristification there. We discuss what the COVID-19 pandemic did to Barcelona and what, if anything, we can learn from the Great Pause. 

Daniel moved to Barcelona 15 years ago and has since become a passionate activist, investigating and fighting against the exploitation of his city and its people. He is also currently the coordinator of the project Biblioteca de Objetos ("Library of Objects").

Season Zero: Episode 0.2 Escape, Exile and Culture

In this mini-episode, I speak about escape and exile and how each are deeply entwined aspects of the tourist world. As a result of each, culture suffers or is (mis)appropriated both in tourist destinations and at home. This is a brief introduction to the themes that often go unquestioned in the world of travel, what binds us to place, and the consequences for culture.. Welcome to "Escape, Exile, and Culture." Hosted by Chris Christou.

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On this episode our guest is Kahu Kaleo Patterson, an indigenous Hawai'ian priest and tourism activist. Kaleo joins us to discuss the ongoing tourism pandemic on the islands, grassroots organizing in Hawai'i, his decades of community activism and involvement, tourist entitlement and the abuse of sacred sites. He speaks to us about his spiritual work, including nonviolent direct action in the traditions of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr, and the Pacific Justice and Reconciliation Center that's come out of i t. Finally, we delve into justice and reconciliation, peace and joy as an imperative for bringing about a better world.

Kahu Kaleo was born on Wahiawa, Oahu, Hawai'i. He has degrees from a plethora of institutions as well as anti-racism and community involvement training. He has worked as a professor and educator at the University of Hawaii, Manoa and the Pacific Justice and Reconciliation Center. He worked for a decade with developmentally handicapped youth for the Hawaii State Vocational Rehabilitation program and has been a licensed priest or Kahu since 1986. Kaleo is the president of the Hawaii Ecumenical Coalition on Tourism, which has been fighting the good fight for almost thirty years.

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On this episode our guests are Dr Hokulani K Aikau (a Kanaka Oiwi) and Dr Vernadette V Gonzalez, editors of Detours: A Decolonial Guide to Hawai’i. They join me to discuss the ongoing COVID-19 tourism crisis in Hawaii, the military-tourism industrial complex, the appropriation of Aloha, the importance of the invitation in hospitality, tourism under a sovereign Hawai'i, as well as the US occupation of Hawai'i. We had an amazing time on this interview and it ends with a bang - speaking to responsibility, imagination, and action.

Dr Aikau is currently a professor at the University of Victoria in the Indigenous Governance Program. In addition to the Detours series, she has also published two other books including A Chosen People, a Promised Land: Mormonism and Race in Hawaiʻi, as well as Feminist Waves, Feminist Generational Cultures: Life Stories from Three Generations in the Academy, 1968-1998.

Dr Gonzalez is a professor of American Studies and Director of the Honors Program at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. 1She has authored other books including her most recent, entitled “Empire’s Mistress, Starring Isabel Rosario Cooper’ as well as “Securing Paradise: Tourism and Militarism in Hawai‘i and the Philippines.” Vernadette is also the editor and author of many other collections and articles on tourism, empire, and militarism.

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On this episode, our guest is Stephen Jenkinson, activist, teacher, author, and farmer. In the second part of our conversation, we explore the themes of tourism as the trauma of homeless people. Rights are discussed in contrast to responsibilities. Stephen takes us on a deep dive into how the idea of the stranger or foreigner came to be, principally through travel and trade and what this all might offer us in our time. Finally, we contend with the notion that the only responsible way of being a tourist is to stop being one, is to stay home and honour the place one lives in.

Stephen has masters’ degrees from Harvard University (Theology) and the University of Toronto (Social Work). He is the founder of the Orphan Wisdom School in Tramore, Canada and the author of four books, including Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul, the award-winning book about grief and dying, and the great love of life. In 2015, he created Nights of Grief & Mystery with Canadian singer-songwriter Gregory Hoskins. With a 5-piece band, they have mounted international tours and released three albums, the most recent of which are "Dark Roads" and "Rough Gods."

I first encountered Stephen in 2014 at a chocolate shop in Toronto. In the midst of a life-changing, 3 hour-long story, he whispered to us, that “in this place, they eat teachers.” Later on, digesting the fact that I was, very much, one of the hungry, I decided to join his teaching school in the Ottawa Valley. Since then, Stephen has travelled here, to Oaxaca, Mexico, mostly as a “pulmonary refugee,” as he refers to it. Alongside his wife Nathalie and others, I have been witness and accomplice to much of their co-conspiracy, here. Over the years, many of those conversations revolved around tourism, exile, and radical hospitality, which are the themes of these two episodes.

Part 2 is entitled “Trauma Intelligence, the Stranger, and Radical Hospitality.”

Throughout the episodes you will hear what are cicadas, emerging after a 17 year underworld life to die. Their songs, as I’ve heard it said here in Oaxaca, are prayers to local Gods, asking for rain to once more kiss the parched soils of this place.

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On this episode, our guest today is Stephen Jenkinson, activist, teacher, author, and farmer. In this conversation, we explore the themes of weekend warrior tourism, the so-called freedom to travel, and the abandonment of place that tourist towns endure. Tourism has a particular history, and we discuss the idea of modern tourism as a cultural grandchild of European immigration to the Americas. Stephen explains what it means to be indigenous, what tourism does to that capacity, and what we might do about it.

Stephen Jenkinson has masters’ degrees from Harvard University (Theology) and the University of Toronto (Social Work). He is the founder of the Orphan Wisdom School in Tramore, Canada and the author of four books, including Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul, the award-winning book about grief and dying, and the great love of life. In 2015, he created Nights of Grief & Mystery with Canadian singer-songwriter Gregory Hoskins. With a 5-piece band, they have mounted international tours and released three albums, the most recent of which are "Dark Roads" and "Rough Gods."

I first encountered Stephen in 2014 at a chocolate shop in Toronto. In the midst of a life-changing, 3 hour-long story, he whispered to us, that “in this place, they eat teachers.” Later on, digesting the fact that I was, very much, one of the hungry, I decided to join his teaching school in the Ottawa Valley. Since then, Stephen has travelled here, to Oaxaca, Mexico, mostly as a “pulmonary refugee,” as he refers to it. Alongside his wife Nathalie and others, I have been witness and accomplice to much of their co-conspiracy, here. Over the years, many of those conversations revolved around tourism, exile, and radical hospitality, which are the themes of these two episodes.

Part 1 is entitled, “Immigration and Cultural Homelessness” Today , I am honoured to introduce Stephen Jenkinson:

Throughout the episodes you will hear what are cicadas, emerging after a 17 year underworld life to die. Their songs, as I’ve heard it said here in Oaxaca, are prayers to local Gods, asking for rain to once more kiss the parched soils of this place. 

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On this episode, our guest is Dr Ivan Murray Mas, an activist, author, and Associate Lecturer at the University of the Balearic Islands. 

Season Zero: Episode 0.1 Dispatches From The Resistance 

In this mini-episode, I touch on the nature of tourism resistance worldwide, its context and culture, its scope and scale. This is a brief introduction to the kinds of people I will be interviewing for the podcast and why their voices are so important, and yet so often unheard. Welcome to "Dispatches from the Resistance." Hosted by Chris Christou.

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