VoiceMap's Blog

Welcome to the fifteenth edition of Senses of Direction, VoiceMap’s newsletter, where we share stories from around the world that spark curiosity and stimulate your senses.

This month, we travel to Bordeaux, where a way of life is declining alongside wine consumption. In Japan, we find out how microseasons with names like ‘evening cicadas singing’ might help us stay connected to the natural world and its rhythms. Lastly, we hear about two very different writers – George Orwell and Hunter S. Thompson – and their very different relationships to place.

Welcome to the fourteenth edition of VoiceMap’s newsletter, Senses of Direction, where we share stories from around the world that spark curiosity and stimulate your senses.

This month, we travel to Korea’s Demilitarized Zone to meet the people who live in this strange, liminal space. We also visit Rome’s wild side to find the many types of animals that have made their home in the city’s ruins.

Lastly, we put a spotlight on Nelson Mandela – who would have celebrated his 107th birthday yesterday – and share a smorgasbord of audio tracks about his life, from Stockholm to Madrid.

Welcome to the thirteenth edition of VoiceMap’s newsletter, Senses of Direction, where we share stories from around the world that spark curiosity and stimulate your senses.

Today we remember Anthony Bourdain – the inimitable travel icon who was born and also died in the month of June – as well as ‘The Mayor of Castro Street,’ who would begin speeches with “I’m Harvey Milk, and I’m here to recruit you!”

Finally, there’s a story about a Brit who’s been making his way home on foot to Hull for 27 years, via hair-raising routes including the Bering Strait.

Welcome to the twelfth edition of VoiceMap’s newsletter, Senses of Direction, where we share stories from around the world that spark curiosity and stimulate your senses.

Today, we’re sharing a delightful video that explains why Mumbai Local passengers are suddenly excited about buying train tickets. You’ll also find ideas from 18th century Florence for mitigating overtourism today, and a personal perspective on what Minneapolis was like the week George Floyd died, on the anniversary of his death.

Welcome to the eleventh edition of VoiceMap’s newsletter, Senses of Direction, where we share stories from around the world that spark curiosity and stimulate your senses. This week we’ve got a short musing on trains, created by the Mexican filmmaker known as Gawx. You’ll also find out what declining an offer of fresh whale meat from a plastic bag may or may not mean when you’re a foreigner living in Greenland. Lastly, there’s a moving story by Denmark’s favourite fairytale writer, Hans Christian Andersen, tracing the origins of the national concept of hygge.

Welcome to the tenth edition of Senses of Direction, VoiceMap’s newsletter, where we share travel-inspired stories that spark curiosity and stimulate your senses.

This week we travel to the banks of the Ganges, where a mind-bending 420 million people took part in the Hindu pilgrimage, Maha Kumbh Mela. We also look back at the history of London’s iconic black cabs, at a moment when their days may be numbered, and return to a pub in Cambridge that serves an ale named ‘Eagle’s DNA’ as a tribute to the pivotal scientific breakthrough that was first announced under its roof.

Welcome to the ninth edition of VoiceMap’s newsletter, Senses of Direction.

This week, we dive into the crowded waters of Koh Samui, where the ‘White Lotus effect’ has brought a new tide of tourists. We also step inside the gleaming interior of Notre Dame 2.0, with a French YouTuber as our guide. Then, in celebration of International Women’s Day, we’ve got a story about a ‘wild’ woman who shocked 18th century Scotland by riding a sow through Edinburgh, but managed to leave her mark on the world nevertheless.

Welcome to VoiceMap’s newsletter, Senses of Direction.

In our eighth edition, we take a sensory journey to the Silk Road, where music remains one of the trade route’s most enduring exports. Cultural exchange through commerce is also the theme of a new book, taking us to the far corners of McDonald’s’ surprisingly eclectic empire, where you’re as likely to find macarons and McSpaghetti as you are a Big Mac.

And from Gloucester, on the site of a McDonald’s that was once a bank, there’s the story of a very real miser who inspired Charles Dickens’ fictional Scrooge.

Welcome to the seventh edition of VoiceMap’s fortnightly newsletter, Senses of Direction.

In our first edition of the new year, we’ve got a selection of stories, trends, and conversations to inspire your travel plans for 2025. There’s a podcast with Tim Ferris and Rolf Potts, who talk about everything from long-term travel tactics and “vagabonding,” to redefining one’s mindset around success and seeing a city with new eyes.

There’s a series of larger-than-life vignettes from the pulsating heart of Bangkok’s traveller hub, and an engaging collection of trends for 2025 that shed light on how – and why – travel is changing. We also voyage to Paris to hear an esoteric take on why many a traveller’s aspirations culminate in this city, and the Champs-Élysées.

Welcome to the sixth edition of VoiceMap’s fortnightly newsletter, Senses of Direction.

This week, we’ve got a behind-the-scenes look at a beloved symbol of the holiday season, the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree. There’s the unlikely story of a man who set off on his first-ever long distance cycle – all the way to India – after a chance encounter in a London pub, and a series of astounding photographs from this year’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.

Lastly, there’s a reflection on travelling to Burma over the course of 53 years by Paul Theroux, “who, it’s fair to say, reinvented travel writing as an art form.”