Dispatches

New Video Intro to “Adventures with Purpose”

by christiankallen

Check out the slick new 3-minute “sizzle clip” introduction to “Adventures with Purpose,” the travel program hosted by Richard Bangs on PBS television stations nationwide. It focuses on adventure and eco-travel, and shows many of the other elements in the series as well.
More about “Adventures with Purpose.”

 

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On a quest for the gods in Greece

by richard bangs
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What was happening here? Could it be that by endowing gods with human traits, the Greeks were also starting to change the way they viewed the world around them? There was a new thought process developing, one in which the gods weren’t quite so powerful as before, and humanity was becoming the measure of all things.

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Lose the guidebook and have an adventure

by richard bangs

A short time ago, I got a call from an editor at Outside Magazine who was assembling a piece on the collected wisdom of veteran travelers advising the tyro of what essentials to bring when hitting the road. After a beat I blurted, perhaps imprudently, “the best thing to bring is no guide book.” In response, the crack of silence.

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In praise of wild rivers and first descents

by richard bangs
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It was in the winter of 1971 when I came across a tattered copy of Argosy Magazine, a quasi-men’s magazine that featured a report on a 1968 expedition down the Blue Nile by a British Army team. With 70 men, a budget in the hundreds of thousands of pounds, and no whitewater experience per se, the army, marched forth to accomplish what it self-named, “The Last Great First.”

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Ecotourism: Naked in the wrong room?

by richard bangs
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Having attended and spoken at a number of ecotourism conferences in the last couple of years, and listened to endless reams of dire data, I believe as the concepts of ecotourism have evolved they have become more and more analytical. More data driven; more about cost benefits analyses, about benchmarking; about quantifying guilt … And the real motivation for ecotourism is in a room full of magic.

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Lifting the veil on verboten vacation spots

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Perhaps you’ve seen television images of regions plagued by war and political unrest. Maybe you recall decades-old stories of locals attacking or shaking down tourists. Sure, the world can be a dangerous place, but things change. Here’s a look at 10 places you thought you shouldn’t visit, but should.

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Bosnia: a model for the planet

by richard bangs
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The Bosnia we know from images of the war — the bombed and bullet-ridden buildings, the scars from the 1,200-day siege of Sarajevo — has kept from view a Bosnia we don’t know, a place where Nature has been big-hearted with its gifts.

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