The places that change us with Eric Weiner

“One of the main reasons we travel is to be different, hopefully better, versions of ourselves.”

For Eric Weiner, travel has always been a way to pursue the big questions: What makes us happy, creative, wise, and fully alive?

He has spent much of his career exploring the intersection of place and big ideas. A former NPR foreign correspondent, he reported from more than 30 countries before turning his attention to philosophical travel: journeys in search of happiness, faith, creativity, wisdom and awe.

He is the New York Times bestselling author of The Geography of Bliss, Man Seeks God, The Geography of Genius, The Socrates Express and Ben & Me. The Geography of Bliss was adapted into a 2023 Peacock television series featuring The Office star Rainn Wilson. Weiner also co-hosts Toronto Pearson Airport’s podcast, Y We Travel, with Canadian journalist Erica Vella.

In this conversation, Weiner and host David McGuffin trace his wanderlust back to the day he ran away from home at five years old. They look back on when it was still possible to be truly “out of pocket,” and consider how smartphones have changed not only travel but our relationship with place.

Weiner explains why his journeys are always purposeful — ways of exploring ideas rather than simply accumulating destinations. He shares lessons from an unexpectedly transcendent pizza in an Arctic Finland gas station, reflects on experiencing awe amid the immense dunes of Oman’s Empty Quarter and makes the case for travelling more slowly, with enough time for serendipity.

The conversation ends at the Haskell Free Library and Opera House, straddling the border between Stanstead, Quebec, and Derby Line, Vermont. There, Eric watched Shakespeare from a seat in the U.S. while the actors performed onstage in Canada — a powerful reminder that borders can be both artificial and very real.

Explore: A Canadian Geographic Podcast is hosted by David McGuffin.

Produced by David McGuffin and ExploreProductions.ca in partnership with Canadian Geographic.

Canadian Geographic:

Editor-in-chief: Alexandra PopeDigital and travel editor: Madigan CotterillDigital marketing manager: Caroline Workman

For more stories of adventure, science, history, and exploration, visit canadiangeographic.ca