curiosity Archives | VoiceMap's Blog

London with Stephen Fry and Dan Snow, local languages, and sherry-drinking mice

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

This month, VoiceMap’s founder Iain Manley explains why we have a new logo and the new tagline ‘curiously human audio tours’ in this Reel.

We explore how dying languages – and the loss by the end of this century of half of the world’s seven thousand languages – are a potent illustration of the ways words and culture connect. We also travel to Andalucia, where sherry-swilling mice won over a bodega’s workers.

But first, we have new tours by Sir Stephen Fry and History Hit’s Dan Snow to announce.

Nude hiking and the grandpapa tree

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

This month, we’ve got a story that begins with a missing cherry tree, and ends somewhere near the roots of how we remember a place. We also consider the quiet art of not offending anyone abroad which, it turns out, extends to what you wear on a Swiss hiking trail. Lastly, we visit remarkable trees in Wānaka, New Orleans and Vancouver that have survived against the odds.

Ukrainian folk warriors, the mysteries of Hanoi’s pho, and soup from Tbilisi to the Sunset Strip

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

In this edition, we travel to Vietnam’s capital, arguably the only place where the nation’s favourite noodle soup dish, phở, tastes “truly good.” You can also treat yourself to an energising performance by a Ukrainian band who are using folk songs and captivating “ethno-dramas” to fight for a culture under siege.

We’re celebrating VoiceMap’s 12th birthday this month. Phở became a jumping off point to explore our catalogue of over 70,000 locations, created by a constellation of publishers from around the world. In this edition you’ll hear stories about… soup – in audio tours from Tbilisi, Tokyo, LA, and Geneva.

It reminded me of the nourishing power of storytelling, wherever we are.

Christmas mythmaking, perfect strangers, natural wonders and Paul Theroux

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.”

Russian tumbleweeds, spitting Germans and cardinal lies

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

This week, we face a hard truth: travel might not have the power to change the world. In fact NYT columnist Matt Gross calls the idea “horseshit”, and declares his life’s work a failure.

You’ll also find out why people still spit on a small stone in front of Bremen’s St Peter’s Cathedral, and follow the humble tumbleweed on its border-hopping adventures.

Last but not least, we’ve got excerpts from a fascinating new book about the history of direction, and how it’s more topsy-turvy than you’d expect.