By Their Own Compass
Historian Jeremiah Jenne and journalist Sarah Keenlyside explore historical travellers and the worlds they encountered, connecting past journeys to today's travel destinations. The show blends historical narrative with travel insights, revealing how centuries-old expeditions still resonate with modern tourism. Each episode focuses on a specific traveller and the places they visited, offering a unique perspective on both history and contemporary travel.
Episodes
Ptolemy, Mercator, and the History of our World Map
Where do our world maps actually come from? When was the first one made? Are our maps racist? And why did the UN just pass a resolution encouraging governments and organisations to move away from the map we’ve all been using since the 16th Century?In this episode of By Their Own Compass, we look at the one thing every traveller we’ve featured on this podcast has needed – and some have even shaped:
History’s Most Ambitious Missionaries
Christian missionaries have regularly been at the forefront of travel adventurism over the last 500 years, sent by their churches to parts of the world few back home knew much about, and often at great personal risk.And while they were regularly showing up in regions that hadn’t invited them and weren’t always receptive to what they were selling, their stories remain some of the most fascinating t
Escape to Afghanistan: Ella Maillart, Annemarie Schwarzenbach, and the promise that couldn't be kept
In 1939, on the eve of the Second World War, two Swiss women decided to drive a Ford from Geneva to Kabul.One of them was running out of time, and they both knew it.The driver was Annemarie Schwarzenbach – a Swiss industrialist’s daughter, archaeologist and journalist who’d been gifted the car by her father. The other was Ella Maillart – Olympic sailor, elite skier and an intrepid traveller who’d
History's Greatest Travel Scams: From Medieval Relic Fraud to the Tea House Scam in Beijing
Jeremiah and Sarah are both traveling this week, but as a special treat, we’re reposting one of our favorite episodes from earlier this year. We hope you enjoy it, and we’ll be back in two weeks with a fresh episode.If you’ve ever Googled “how to avoid scams in [destination],” you already know the genre: YouTube videos breathlessly (and ominously) exposing the 15 tricks that will ruin your trip to
Olaudah Equiano: The Enslaved Man Who Rewrote History
Imagine being kidnapped at the age of 11, enslaved, and made to fight another country’s war as a white man pockets your wages – only to be sold off the moment you are finally owed your freedom. This was the plight of African man Olaudah Equiano – also known as Gustavus Vassa – who was passed from master to master until in 1766, aged just 21, he bought back his own freedom.From that point on, he ca
Nellie Bly's Record-Breaking Race Around the World
There are few women in recent history more impressive than Nellie Bly. In 1889, aged just 25, this American reporter had already pioneered undercover journalism as we know it after faking insanity to expose a poorly run asylum. Then she decided to pull off an even bigger stunt – to prove that fictional character Phileas Fogg’s achievement of going around the world in 80 days wasn’t just possible,
North Korea's Improbable, Giant-Killing World Cup Run: Mythical Horses, Scary Crucifixes and a Chef's Revenge
In the summer of 1966, a group of men from one of the most isolated countries on Earth stepped off a plane into Swinging Sixties Britain. They had no idea about miniskirts or Beatlemania. Some were so unnerved by a statue of Jesus in their guesthouse that it had to be removed. They came from a nation the UK government didn’t even recognise – but within three weeks, the entire town of Middlesbrough
Route 66: Cowboys, Cadillacs and Nat King Cole
Has a more iconic road ever been built? This year, America’s famous highway turns 100. Route 66 and its fellow numbered roads were revolutionary when the federal highway system was created in 1926. For the first time ever, an ordinary person could navigate across the country without a guide and enjoy the journey for the journey’s sake: the ultimate road trip.But what made this particular route so
Zheng He: The Eunuch Who Commanded the World’s Biggest Treasure Fleet
Decades before Christopher Columbus and Europe’s “Age of Exploration”, a strapping Chinese admiral named Zheng He commanded the biggest fleet of ships the world had ever seen – treasure ships so enormous that nothing comparable sailed the oceans for another 400 years.Born into a Muslim family and orphaned at a young age, Zheng He was castrated around the age of 10 and forced to work as a servant f
The Dark Side of the Compass: When Travellers Become the Problem
British travel writer and podcaster Jamie Fullerton has spent his career documenting communities and places that the average guidebook doesn’t cover – from the Dance of the Little Devils ritual in Boruca, Costa Rica, to overnight hikes on Guatemala’s Fuego Volcano and obscure bagpipe festivals in the Rhodope Mountains of Bulgaria.His work bears witness to traditions in the midst of being revived,
Emily Hahn in China: War, Romance, and Opium
Seeking the perfect travel companion: Must like adventure, dodgy neighborhoods, good gin joints, handsome and interesting men (a spy or a poet, if you please), gibbons (which are NOT monkeys), and opium. Not in that particular order.Meet Emily “Mickey” Hahn, a writer, an adventurer, and a professional rule-breaker whose wanderlust took her from the American Midwest to Europe and Africa, and finall
History’s Funniest Diplomatic Fails: the US in Guam, Louis XIV’s Fake Persian Ambassador and China’s Unluckiest Envoy
In diplomatic history, some missions don’t always go off with a bang, but with a cringe. During the Spanish-American War in 1898, the US Navy attacked Guam and waited for return fire that never came. Turns out the Spanish-run island had no idea they were enemies and sent an army officer and port commander out in a rowboat to go say a cheerful hello instead. In 1715, Louis XIV donned his finest dia
Leo Africanus: Pirates, Popes, and the Moor Who Knew Too Much
Captured by a Spanish pirate? A gift to Pope Leo X? Europe’s expert on Africa for nearly three centuries? Leo Africanus lived many lives. Born al-Hasan ibn Muhammad al-Wazzan around 1488 in Granada, Spain, he was trained in the madrasas of Fez to be a diplomat. He travelled across the Sahara Desert and North Africa, sailed the Red Sea, and called on courts from Tunis to Timbuktu, Cairo to Constant
The Lost Generation in 1920s Paris: How Glamorous Was It Really?
Cobblestones. Cafes. The smell of baguettes hits you as you walk into a warm boulangerie on a rainy morning. An open notebook on a chequered tablecloth, an old-style pen, and a café au lait at the ready. Paris in April. They even wrote a song about it. Paris is probably the most pre-imagined city on earth, and the so-called Lost Generation, the writers and artists who flooded here after the First
Historian Nicola Di Cosmo on Venice, the Mongols, and Marco Polo in China
Our Marco Polo episode was the most downloaded show in the history of By Their Own Compass. This week, we go deeper into the world of Marco and the Mongols as we sit down with Nicola Di Cosmo, Professor of East Asian Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and co-author of Venice and the Mongols, out this month from Princeton University Press, to talk about how the Mongol discover
Marco Polo’s 17 Year Journey in China: Reality vs Fiction
It’s a question that’s puzzled historians for centuries: did Marco Polo really go to China – or is history’s most famous traveller also its greatest liar?In this episode of By Their Own Compass, Jeremiah Jenne and Sarah Keenlyside attempt to uncover the true story of Marco Polo – the Venetian merchant who left home at 17, spent 17 years at the court of Kublai Khan, and came back with a tale so ext
History's Biggest Travel Divas: Fanny Trollope, Empress Dowager Cixi, and Alice Roosevelt
From Fanny Trollope's war on American manners to Alice Roosevelt's pet snake to the Empress Dowager Cixi's private theme park: a travel history of women who refused to behave.Every traveller knows one. You might be one. The person who sends the steak back twice, requests a different hotel room because the view isn't quite right, and has opinions about thread count that they're not afraid to share
Interview: Annie Londonderry’s Great-Grandnephew Peter Zheutlin
It’s rare that one of history’s most iconic travellers has a living relative we can speak to – but that’s exactly the case with Annie Londonderry, whose great-grandnephew Peter Zheutlin has a remarkable story of his own.In 1894, Annie Londonderry, real name Annie Cohen Kopchovsky, became a global sensation when she claimed to be the first woman to cycle around the world. A fearless Victorian adven
Annie Londonderry: The Woman Who Bicycled Around the World (Sort Of)
On June 25, 1894, five hundred people gathered on the steps of the Massachusetts State House to watch a young woman named Annie Londonderry climb onto a Columbia bicycle and ride off to circle the globe. She carried a pearl-handled revolver, a placard advertising spring water from New Hampshire, and a wager (allegedly worth thousands) that no woman could complete such a journey in fifteen months.T
History's Greatest Travel Scams: From Medieval Relic Fraud to the Tea House Scam in Beijing
If you’ve ever Googled “how to avoid scams in [destination],” you already know the genre: YouTube videos breathlessly (and ominously) exposing the 15 tricks that will ruin your trip to Florence, Bangkok, or Marrakech. Full disclosure: We watch them too. But the historically minded traveler will be quick to note that almost none of these scams are new.Structurally, the “hey, did you lose your walle
What Happens When You Recreate a Viking Voyage, with W. Hodding Carter
It’s one thing to read about Leif Erikson’s epic journey from Greenland to North America in the 10th century as a child; it’s quite another to build a replica Viking cargo ship and attempt the same journey as an adult.But that’s exactly what W. Hodding Carter and his team did in 1997, making them the first crew in history to authentically follow in Leif Erikson’s footsteps. In reality, that meant
Erik the Red & Leif Erikson: The outlaw who founded Greenland and the son who reached North America
Around the year 985 A.D., Icelandic exile Erik the Red, a man renowned for his fiery temper, founded the first Norse settlement in Greenland. Years later, his ambitious son Leif Erikson went on to become one of the first known Europeans to set foot in North America – centuries before Columbus.In this episode, we dive into the real history of Greenland’s Norse origins, the legends of Vinland, and t
The Grand Tour Explained: Bridgerton, Bad Behaviour and Too Many Sex Scandals to Count
When the writers on Netflix’s Bridgerton send Colin Bridgerton off on the Grand Tour in season three, it’s treated as a throwaway plot device. In reality, the Grand Tour was one of the most influential – and ridiculous – phenomena in British history, shaping everything from travel writing to modern tourism.In this episode, we use Colin Bridgerton’s continental adventures as a starting point to exp
Bonus Dispatch: Modern-day Missionaries, Walking Safaris, and the Livingstone Trail with Dan Kobayashi
David Livingstone spent thirty years wandering across Africa. In our main episode we spent forty minutes talking about him. We may have missed a few spots. Dan Kobayashi, a writer and longtime Africa analyst, helps us fill in the blank spaces on the map. Dan spent 13 years as an expert on Southern and Central Africa for the U.S State Department, and most recently analyzed global power competition
Dr. David Livingstone's Thirty-year Journey in Africa
In 1871, Scottish missionary and explorer David Livingstone (1813-1873) was hanging out in the village of Ujiji, in what is today Tanzania. He wasn’t exactly lost, but the last few years had been rough, full of heartbreak and disappointment. Livingstone had spent three decades exploring and mapping territory that is now part of the modern countries of Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. But after cros
Bonus Episode: Sacagawea Does K-Pop, Lewis and Clark, and AI in Podcasting
In this bonus episode of By Their Own Compass, we go behind the scenes of our Sacagawea episode to unpack one of the most misunderstood figures in American history — and the creative choices involved in telling her story today.We pull back the curtain on podcasting and creative production, including a candid discussion about AI in creativity. From AI-generated music (yes, including a Sacagawea K-p
Sacagawea
In this episode of By Their Own Compass, we explore the extraordinary journey of Sacagawea, a nursing teenager travelling across North America with the Lewis and Clark expedition and the Corps of Discovery from 1804–1806. Looking beyond the legend, we examine her role as a traveller, cultural mediator, and Native American woman navigating survival, motherhood, and agency in a rapidly changing Amer
When Travel Goes Catastrophically Wrong: History's Greatest Fiascos
Pour yourself something strong (we suggest a nice scotch for reasons that will become clear a few minutes into the episode) and settle in for a festive tour through history's most spectacular travel disasters.Whilst the rest of the world is busy booking flights and packing bags for the holidays, we thought we'd offer a public service: a cautionary tale (or four) about what happens when travelers c
Bonus Episode: Emily Hahn’s Shanghai
If you enjoyed our deep dive into the life of the New Yorker correspondent, Emily Hahn wild times in China, you won’t want to miss this special bonus episode. Sarah sits down with Tina Kanagarathnam of Historic Shanghai to answer the burning question: What is actually left of Emily’s world?Every week, we transport you to a different time and place. Subscribe to get full show notes, reading lists,
Emily Hahn
We’re back and in our second episode, we’re following the travels of Emily “Mickey” Hahn in 1930s China. Mickey Hahn was a writer, an adventurer, and a professional rule breaker whose wanderlust took her from the American Midwest to Europe and Africa and finally to China, all before she turned 30.By the time she got to China, she had already established herself as an up-and-coming literary voice a
Ibn Battuta
After months of planning, scripting, and the sort of meticulous historical fact-checking that would make Ibn Battuta himself say, “Mate, it’s just a travel story,” we’re thrilled to announce the launch of By Their Own Compass.Our inaugural episode features Ibn Battuta, one of history’s most spectacular travel overachievers, on his journey from modern-day Turkey, across Central Asia, to India, hopi
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