Unpacked by Afar | Travel Smarter, More Responsibly

Unpacked’s Feel-Good Friday is back for season two. For the next eight weeks, Aislyn and Nikki are kicking off your weekend with a few minutes of stories making them happy — and to launch the season, they’re joined by Afar senior editor Jen Choi.

This week’s stories:

A comedian’s tour that turns the whole audience into one big summer camp — bandanas, color groups, a jaw-dropping beatboxer, and all — and somehow makes a sold-out theater feel like the friendliest place in town.

Why the big-screen short-film scene is quietly thriving, even as everyone keeps insisting the movie business is falling apart — a reminder that people are still making, and showing up for, their art.

Meet the woman who just landed in the Guinness World Records as the oldest competitive female skateboarder on the planet — still competing, still mentoring the next generation, still wearing her helmet.

Plus: the gloriously niche world of competitive adult big-wheeling, and proof that there’s a community out there for absolutely everything.

Tune in every Friday for the next eight weeks for a fresh dose of good news from Afar’s favorite travel writers and editors. We’ll see you next Friday.

Chapters

00:00:00 Feel-Good Friday Returns

00:02:00 Inside Comedy Band Camp

00:04:00 Short Films, Full Houses

00:07:00 A Record-Breaking Skateboarder

00:11:00 The Big-Wheel Underground

Josh Johnson’s Comedy Band Camp — tour dates across North America through 2027 — livenation.com

HollyShorts Film Festival — at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood — hollyshorts.com

LA Shorts Fest — screens at Laemmle NoHo in North Hollywood — LA Shorts Fest

Judi Oyama in Guinness World Records 2027, oldest competitive female skateboarder (and mentor to young skater Leiola Kahaku) — guinnessworldrecords.com

Stay connected

Be sure to subscribe to the show and sign up for our podcast newsletter, ⁠Behind the Mic⁠, where we share upcoming news and behind-the-scenes details of each episode.

And explore our second podcast, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Travel Tales⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, which celebrates first-person narratives about the way travel changes us, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠View From Afar⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, where we spotlight the people and ideas shaping the future of travel.

Unpacked by Afar is part of ⁠Airwave Media⁠'s podcast network. Please contact ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠advertising@airwavemedia.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ if you would like to advertise on our podcast.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Think of things to do in Liverpool, and the Beatles probably come to mind first. But as host Tim Chester learns in this episode of our travel podcast Unpacked: Travel to Listen, the four lads from Liverpool are only one part of the story of this UNESCO City of Music.

At the center of it all is the Cavern Club on Mathew Street, where The Beatles played hundreds of times in the 1960s alongside acts like The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Kinks, and Stevie Wonder.

Karen O’Rourke, curator of sport, music, and performance at the Museum of Liverpool, is the brains behind 70 Years of the Cavern Club, a new exhibition opening January 16, 2027, on the club’s 70th birthday and running through October 31.

She walks Tim through the club’s winding history, then shares her advice for experiencing the Liverpool music scene today. It’s music travel well beyond the usual Beatles itinerary.

In this episode

How the Cavern began in 1957 as a jazz cellar inspired by a Paris basement club, and how skiffle, the Quarrymen, and the Merseybeat boom turned it into the stage for the Beatles

Why Liverpool, a port city of sailors, music halls, and Irish, Welsh, West African, and Chinese communities, became such a musical melting pot

What visitors will see in the exhibition, including the jacket John Lennon wore on the 1964 tour

The Cavern’s lean years in the 1970s, the DIY punk club Eric’s that launched Echo & the Bunnymen, OMD, and Frankie Goes to Hollywood, and how Paul McCartney’s 1999 gig brought the Cavern back

Things to do in Liverpool for music fans

How the Cavern still supports new artists, from a weekly open mic to a 12-year-old Dublin busker who got a surprise invitation live on the radio

The song that sums up the city

Meet this week’s guests

Karen O’Rourke is the curator of sport, music, and performance at the Museum of Liverpool, where she is curating 70 Years of the Cavern Club, the museum’s new exhibition tracing the history of the venue.

Guest host Tim Chester is a freelance travel and culture writer who has spent the past 20 years exploring the world through the lens of music. His reporting has appeared in NME, Spin, and Afar, and his travels have taken him from Manhattan to Malawi and Beijing to Berlin in search of the festivals, scenes, and stories that reveal a city’s soul.

Chapters

00:00:00 Beyond the Beatles

00:02:00 From Jazz Cellar to Merseybeat

00:06:45 A Port City Melting Pot

00:09:00 Inside the Exhibition

00:11:15 Eric’s, Punk, and Rebirth

00:15:15 Things to Do in Liverpool

00:19:00 How the Cavern Backs New Artists

A Music Fan’s Travel Guide to Liverpool

Liverpool is a fairly small, easy-to-navigate city, and the music is everywhere. Here’s where to go.

Start here: the essential stops

The Cavern Club—the Mathew Street venue where The Beatles played hundreds of times. It still hosts live music, including a weekly Monday Club open mic.

Museum of Liverpool—home of 70 Years of the Cavern Club, with John Lennon’s 1964 tour jacket and Paul McCartney’s dressing table.

Magical Mystery Tour—the Cavern’s bus tour past Penny Lane, Strawberry Field, and John Lennon’s childhood home, Mendips.

The Jacaranda—opened a year after the Cavern and still going.

Hear live music

Baltic Triangle—just south of the city center, with live music, nightlife, and DJ sets.

Invisible Wind Factory—in the Ten Streets area north of the center, for quirkier bills like Irish and reggae festivals.

Bootle and the Wirral—a northern borough gaining a name for music festivals, and a thriving scene across the River Mersey.

Plan for 2027

70 Years of the Cavern Club—January 16 through October 31, 2027, at the Museum of Liverpool.

Festival season—Karen says there’s pretty much a festival somewhere in Merseyside every weekend from April or May through September, from Africa Oyé and the Liverpool International Music Festival to the Arab Arts Festival.

Up next on Travel to Listen

Tim heads to one of the most important hip-hop cities in France, and it’s not Paris.

Links & resources

Museum of Liverpool—home of the 70 Years of the Cavern Club exhibition

70 Years of the Cavern Club—exhibition details and tickets

The Cavern Club announces the exhibition partnership—the club’s own announcement

The Cavern Club—live music, tours, and the Magical Mystery Tour

Riordan Hopwood’s Cavern Club debut—the 12-year-old Dublin busker Karen mentions

Invisible Wind Factory—Ten Streets venue

Africa Oyé—Liverpool’s annual celebration of African and Caribbean music

Liverpool International Music Festival

From Bowie to the Beatles: How to See the England of Its Rock Stars (Afar)

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Welcome to Unpacked: Five Questions, a podcast that takes you behind the scenes of one great travel story. Surfing in Cornwall, England, turns out to be about far more than catching waves. For her latest Afar feature in the Epic Trips issue, contributing writer Bonnie Tsui met the surfers, craftspeople, and environmental advocates who have spent decades protecting the place they call home.

Host Katherine LaGrave, Afar’s executive editor, asks Bonnie what first tipped her off that Cornwall had a bigger story to tell, how the region’s B Corps and belly-board makers fit in, and why the surfers behind Surfers Against Sewage still matter.

THIS WEEK’S GUEST

Bonnie Tsui is an Afar contributing writer and a swimmer and surfer based in the Bay Area. She is the author of On Muscle and Why We Swim, which explores our deep and often surprising relationship with water. Follow Bonnie on Instagram at @bonnietsui8.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

How a run of small moments, from surfer friends to UK surf magazines, convinced Bonnie that Cornwall’s story ran deeper than its coastline.

Why she took the night train to Truro, and how she recognized everyone within about 12 hours of arriving.

What life looks like in a region with the highest concentration of B Corp businesses in the country outside London, from a certified B&B to goods woven from recycled fishing nets, plus the story of the belly board.

How Surfers Against Sewage grew from a scrappy, surfer-founded group into a movement that turned up on the steps of Parliament in gas masks and wetsuits.

Bonnie’s rules for surfing responsibly in a new place, from asking local surf shops for intel to learning Cornwall’s extreme tides before you paddle out.

What she’d pack and plan next time: great hiking shoes, a longer stretch of the coast path, and more time for food.

CHAPTERS

00:00:00 Introduction

00:01:50 Cornwall’s Bigger Story

00:07:20 Belly Boards, B Corps

00:09:35 Surfers Against Sewage

00:12:35 Safety in Extreme Tides

00:14:45 What Makes It Epic

Read Bonnie’s Afar story, “A Different Kind of Surf Town”

Otter Surfboards—James Otter’s wooden surfboard workshop in Cornwall

Wavelength Magazine—the UK surf magazine edited by Bella Bunce

Surfers Against Sewage—co-founded by Chris Hines

Finisterre—Cornwall-based sustainable surf and outdoor clothing brand

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Welcome back to Travel to Listen, the Unpacked series hosted by veteran music journalist Tim Chester, where music is the shortcut to a place’s soul. Season two opens in Iceland, where Icelandic music and landscape are so intertwined that Sigur Rós can sound like the soundtrack to the land of ice, waterfalls, and black volcanic rock. But Sigur Rós, Björk, and Of Monsters and Men are only half the story.

This week on the show, Tim talks with Ísleifur “Ísi” Þórhallsson, director of Iceland Airwaves, the festival that takes over downtown Reykjavík every November. Ísi explains how an airline’s tourism idea grew into what Tim calls the best annual showcase of Icelandic music, why there is no single Icelandic sound, and how to get immersed in the Reykjavík music scene. It’s music travel built on discovery, not a checklist, and the kind of travel experiences people tell Ísi changed their lives.

In this episode

How Iceland Airwaves grew from a 1999 airplane hangar and six Icelandic bands, including GusGus and Quarashi, into a week of events that treats downtown Reykjavík as one of its venues

Why most Airwaves guests don’t know most of the bands, and why 25 years of trust means that’s exactly how they like it

Why Ísi doesn’t think there is one Icelandic sound, and how a small, tight-knit community where musicians move freely between genres, plus long, dark winters, helps explain the country’s creativity

Where Icelandic artists record, from Sigur Rós’s studio in Mosfellsbær to a remote lodge in northern Iceland where Justin Bieber worked, plus a rebate that returns about 25 percent of recording costs

How to experience Icelandic music like a fan: go downtown, don’t over-plan, and look for tiny daytime shows in hotel lobbies, record stores, and libraries

The one song Ísi says sums up Reykjavík, and the Icelandic-language rapper behind it

Meet this week’s guests

Ísleifur “Ísi” Þórhallsson is the festival director of Iceland Airwaves, the annual Reykjavík music festival first held in 1999. He works with Sena Live, the concert company that took over the festival in 2018, and has spent more than 25 years in Iceland’s live music scene.

Guest host Tim Chester is a freelance travel and culture writer who has spent the past 20 years exploring the world through the lens of music. His reporting has appeared in NME, Spin, and Afar, and his travels have taken him from Manhattan to Malawi and Beijing to Berlin in search of the festivals, scenes, and stories that reveal a city’s soul.

Chapters

00:00:00 Music Meets Place

00:02:00 A Festival Born in a Hangar

00:04:00 Booking the Unknown

00:07:30 Is There an Icelandic Sound?

00:11:30 How to Do Airwaves

A Music Fan’s Travel Guide to Reykjavík

Reykjavík is small enough to cross on foot. Here’s where to go (start with the Afar guide, of course).

Start here: the essential stops

Downtown Reykjavík—the whole festival footprint: seven or eight venues, from a dive bar to a church to an art museum, within about a 10-minute walk of one another.

Airwaves off-venue shows—tiny daytime sets in hotel lobbies, record stores, and libraries, before and after the official program.

Harpa—Reykjavík’s harborfront concert hall and the home of this year’s Airwaves special events in its Eldborg hall.

Record stores and coffee shops—where, Ísi says, Reykjavík’s musicians hang out and trade ideas.

Go beyond the city

Mosfellsbær—about 30 minutes from Reykjavík, and the home of Sigur Rós’s studio.

Flóki Studios at Eleven Deplar Farm—a remote lodge and recording studio on North Iceland’s Troll Peninsula, where Justin Bieber worked on his 2025 album Swag.

Artists to watch

Amor Vincit Omnia

Úlfur Úlfur

Emmsjé Gauti

Mammút

Júníus Meyvant

RAKEL

Hjaltalín

múm

Up next on Travel to Listen

Tim heads to Liverpool, a UNESCO City of Music, to trace the history of The Beatles and the famous Cavern Club. New episode next week.

Links & resources

⁠Iceland Airwaves⁠—festival history and program

⁠Iceland Airwaves 2026 tickets and dates⁠

⁠Iceland Airwaves 2026 lineup announcement (DORK)⁠

⁠The Streets at Eldborg, Harpa (Iceland Airwaves)⁠

Listen to Unpacked: Iceland, Off the Tourist Trail

Stay connected

Be sure to subscribe to the show and sign up for our podcast newsletter, Behind the Mic, where we share upcoming news and behind-the-scenes details of each episode.

And explore our second podcast, Travel Tales, which celebrates first-person narratives about the way travel changes us, and View From Afar, where we spotlight the people and ideas shaping the future of travel.

Unpacked by Afar is part of Airwave Media’s podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com if you would like to advertise on our podcast.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Indigenous tourism is growing, but it’s not always easy to tell which tours are owned and led by the communities they showcase. In this episode, Afar senior editor Jen Choi sits down with Kate Nelson, the Tlingit writer behind “Traveling Turtle Island: 14 Epic Indigenous-Led Experiences Across North America,” from Afar’s Fall 2026 Epic Trips issue. The package includes trekking to a Maya city in Chiapas, jet boat cruising through the deepest river gorge in North America, and foraging for a chef-prepared meal.

Choi explains why she commissioned the story in the year of America’s 250th anniversary, a milestone that is complicated for many Native communities. Nelson shares how she came to write about Native topics, why she sees her role as a liaison between Native communities and media outlets, and why Indigenous tourism stories need to be told through a Native lens.

The conversation digs into how the team chose the experiences. They focused on Native-owned outfitters rather than Native-inspired ones, and Nelson shares her tips for vetting operators, including a practice she calls “brownwashing.” They also discuss the challenges of reporting in Mexico, where many Indigenous-run experiences book through WhatsApp or Facebook, and why experiences in places like Oklahoma and the Southwest deserve a closer look.

THIS WEEK’S GUEST

Kate Nelson is an Alaska Native Tlingit tribal member based in Minneapolis. She wrote “Traveling Turtle Island” for Afar and is co-author, with Chef Sean Sherman, of the cookbook Turtle Island: Foods and Traditions of the Indigenous Peoples of North America. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, National Geographic, Vanity Fair, and other publications.

CHAPTERS

00:00:00 Introduction
00:04:30 Who Tells Native Stories
00:09:30 Spotting "Brownwashing"
00:14:40 Beyond the Southwest
00:20:40 Open Mind, Open Heart
00:25:00 Rethinking America 250

LINKS & RESOURCES

Follow Kate Nelson's work

Read Turtle Island: Foods and Traditions of the Indigenous Peoples of North America

American Indigenous Tourism Association (formerly AIANTA)—a guide to Native-owned tours that Kate recommends for vetting operators

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