Podcast Junkies

259 Will Conway - Travel Stories No One Tells

Episode Summary

Will Conway is the host of Baggage Claim, a podcast for travel stories no one tells. Join Will as he recalls some of the most bizarre stories from his travel log, including the time he accidentally illegally immigrates to Paraguay. In this episode, Harry and Will discuss Will’s journey as a storyteller and content creator, from the writing to spoken word to podcasting. Will talks about the importance of conversation, building community and empathy. Harry and Will share their experiences of traveling the world, how the podcast industry has evolved and best practices for building a loyal audience.

Episode Notes

06:00 – Harry welcomes Will Conway to the show to share his immersive storytelling podcast, Baggage Claim, how he initially got into podcasting and his incredible journey exploring South America

15:23 – Harry shares a harrowing experience that inspired him to pursue his dream of sharing his voice and helping others to share theirs

18:19 – Will teases the first episode of Baggage Claim, Treading Water

20:31 – What inspired Will to pursue writing

22:56 – Will reflects on his time at Nation Builder and why he decided to leave

29:46 – Will recalls his introduction to spoken word and why it has kept his interest for so long

37:56 – What inspired Will to launch the Baggage Claim podcast

42:47 – How Will structures his podcast and the decision to incorporate an interview segment to the show

45:44 – How Will has built a community of travel-loving individuals

54:06 – Will explains his tip for finding podcast recommendations and how he has grown his podcast audience

1:00:52 – What is something that Will has changed her mind about recently and the most misunderstood thing about Will

1:03:56 – Harry thanks Will for joining the show, and let’s listeners know where they can connect with him and learn more about Baggage Claim

TWEETABLES

“I felt like storytelling offers a lot more today than it offered before. There’s so many interesting and exciting ways to tell a story in the first place.” (09:50)

“I spent a long time in the world of creating movements, which led me down this road of kinda seeing firsthand how the world has lost empathy through the lens of online movements. That’s really become obvious in the world in the last year or two.” (23:16)

“Conversations is the only tool we have, short of killing each other, to be perfectly blunt. And if we don’t. And our toolset for conversation has expanded. I would venture to guess that there’s an exponential six month over six month increase in the amount of nuance that has to go into a particular public conversation.” (27:50)

“I think there’s something really powerful about making external the internal experience.” (33:17)

“I’m obsessed with that moment of people experiencing what you put into the world.” (40:27)

“Most stories that people have about travel come from this idea of ‘went somewhere, found myself in a bad position and somebody saved my ass.’ That’s generally the through line. And the learning there is that people tend to be awesome the world over.” (44:49)