Episode 135: Travel
Released July 29th, 2025
Aperol spritzes, ‘Euro summers’, and aesthetic beach pics. In episode 135 of Overthink, Ellie and David discuss all things travel. They discuss the differences how travel changes our relationship to the place where we're from, the difference between travel and tourism, and the place of travel in the history of philosophy. They go from Plato’s views that young people shouldn’t travel to Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s belief that travel is essential for turning boys into men. They also explore the question, why do humans love to travel so much? In the bonus, your hosts debate over their relationships to phones and taking photos while travelling and dive deeper into what it’s like to experience culture shock.
Works Discussed
Francis Bacon, “On Travel”
Agnes Callard, “Against Travel”
Paul Fussell, Abroad
Michel de Montaigne, “On Cannibals”
Plato, The Republic
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile
George Santayana, “The Philosophy of Travel”
Joseph Shaules, The Intercultural Mind: Connecting Culture, Cognition, and Global Living.
Emily Thomas, The Meaning of Travel: Philosophers Abroad
