Rolf Potts (born October 13, 1970) is an American travel writer, essayist, podcaster, and author. He has written five books, including ''Vagabonding'' (Random House, 2003), ''Marco Polo Didn't Go There'' (Travelers Tales, 2008), ''Souvenir'' (Bloomsbury, 2018), and ''The Vagabond's Way'' (Ballantine, 2022). The lifestyle philosophies he outlined in ''Vagabonding'' are considered to have been a key influence on the

digital nomad Digital nomads are people who travel freely while working remotely using technology and the internet. Such people generally have minimal material possessions and work remotely in temporary housing, hotels, cafes, public libraries, co-working spac ...

movement.

Career

Online journalism

The son of schoolteachers from

Wichita, Kansas Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County, Kansas, Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had ...

, Potts' earliest vagabonding journeys included hopping freight trains across the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

, and taking an eight-month "van life before #VanLife"

Volkswagen Vanagon The Volkswagen Type 2 (T3) was the third generation of the Volkswagen Transporter and was marketed under various nameplates worldwide – including the Transporter or Caravelle in Europe, T25 in the UK, Microbus in South Africa, and Vanagon in ...

journey around North America in the early 1990s. He later taught English in

Busan Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, w ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

before embarking on a pioneering multi-year digital nomad journey, writing from-the-road travel dispatches for such dialup-era online outlets as salonmagazine.com (which later became

Salon.com ''Salon'' is an American politically progressive/ liberal news and opinion website created in 1995. It publishes articles on U.S. politics, culture, and current events. Content and coverage ''Salon'' covers a variety of topics, including re ...

). In 1999, while traveling in

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

, Potts attempted to infiltrate the film-set of a Leonardo DiCaprio movie called '' The Beach''. His essay about the experience, "Storming 'The Beach'," was chosen by

Bill Bryson William McGuire Bryson (; born 8 December 1951) is an American–British journalist and author. Bryson has written a number of nonfiction books on topics including travel, the English language, and science. Born in the United States, he has b ...

for inclusion in ''The American Travel Writing 2000''. ''Poets & Writers'' later noted that, "the story, far from being an account of a simple-minded stunt, was actually a fantastic narrative mixed with meditations on the 'shadowlike ironies of travel culture,'

Walker Percy Walker Percy, OSB (May 28, 1916 – May 10, 1990) was an American writer whose interests included philosophy and semiotics. Percy is noted for his philosophical novels set in and around New Orleans; his first, '' The Moviegoer'', won the Nat ...

's 'traveler's angst,' and 'the greater struggle for individuality in the information age.'" In 2022, more than two decades after "Storming 'The Beach'" went viral, ''Uproxx'' noted that it "ushered in a new era of young, web-first...travel writing that influenced a generation." Potts' travel writing has appeared in venues such as ''Outside'', ''National Geographic Traveler,'' ''Slate'', and ''The Atlantic''. In 2010, he wrote and field-produced an online video series about a six-week journey that took him around the world with no luggage or bags of any kind. In addition to writing about travel, Potts has also written about U.S. military reading lists for ''The New Yorker'', Islamist

Sayyid Qutb Sayyid 'Ibrāhīm Ḥusayn Quṭb ( or ; , ; ar, سيد قطب إبراهيم حسين ''Sayyid Quṭb''; 9 October 1906 – 29 August 1966), known popularly as Sayyid Qutb ( ar, سيد قطب), was an Egyptian author, educator, Islamic ...

's travel memoirs for ''The Believer'',

mockbuster A mockbuster (also known as knockbuster or a drafting opportunity) is a film created to exploit the publicity of another major motion picture with a similar title or subject. Mockbusters are often made with a low budget and quick production to max ...

B-movies for the ''New York Times Magazine'',

Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Gener ...

's poem "

Wichita Vortex Sutra "Wichita Vortex Sutra" is an anti-war poem by Allen Ginsberg, written in 1966. It appears in his collection '' Planet News'' and has also been published in ''Collected Poems 1947-1995'' and ''Collected Poems 1947-1980''. The poem presents Ginsberg ...

" for ''The Nation'', and the murder of small-college football player Brandon Brown for ''Sports Illustrated''.

Books

''Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel'', Potts' first book, mixes practical advice with philosophical insights about the value of travel. Upon its release in 2003, the ''Boston Globe'' called it "a valuable contribution to our thinking, not only about travel, but about life and work." ''USA Today'' dubbed the author "

Jack Kerouac Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Of French-Canadian a ...

for the Internet Age" (Potts has downplayed the comparison). The book has been through more than 30 printings, and has been widely translated worldwide. Potts' second travel book, ''Marco Polo Didn't Go There: Stories and Revelations From One Decade as a Postmodern Travel Writer'', debuted in 2008. The book won a Lowell Thomas Award in the United States, and in 2009 became the first American-authored book to win Italy's

Bruce Chatwin Charles Bruce Chatwin (13 May 194018 January 1989) was an English travel writer, novelist and journalist. His first book, ''In Patagonia'' (1977), established Chatwin as a travel writer, although he considered himself instead a storyteller, ...

Prize for international travel writing. In 2016 Potts released a short book about the psychogeography of the Geto Boys' eponymous,

Rick Rubin Frederick Jay Rubin (; born March 10, 1963) is an American record producer. He is the co-founder (alongside Russell Simmons) of Def Jam Recordings, founder of American Recordings, and former co-president of Columbia Records. Rubin helped popula ...

-produced

third album ''Third Album'' is the third studio album released by the Jackson 5 on Motown Records, and the group's second LP released in 1970, on September 18. ''Third Album'' featured the group's fourth consecutive No. 1 single on the US pop charts, " I' ...

for the 33⅓ series of music criticism, and in 2018 he wrote ''Souvenir'' for Bloomsbury's

Object Lessons Object Lessons is "an essay and book series about the hidden lives of ordinary things". Each of the essays (2,000 words) and the books (25,000 words) investigate a single object through a variety of approaches that often reveal something unexpected ...

series of books about "the hidden lives of ordinary things." The ''Boston Globe'' called ''Souvenir'' "a treasure trove of … fascinating deep dives into the history of travel keepsakes."

TV, film, and popular culture

Potts was featured in several episodes of the 2007

National Geographic Adventure Nat Geo People was an international pay television channel owned by National Geographic Partners, a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (73%) and the National Geographic Society (27%). Targeted at female audiences, with programming fo ...

documentary '' Odyssey: Driving Around the World'', and appeared as a commentator in the 2013 documentary film '' Gringo Trails'', which explored the impact of tourism on travel destinations and host communities worldwide. In "Burn Rate," an episode in the sixth season of Showtime's '' Billions'', Rian (

Eva Victor Eva Victor is an American comedian, writer, and actor. Early life and education Victor was born in Paris but, when she was aged one, her family moved to San Francisco, where she grew up. Victor went to a French-speaking high school, but was late ...

) brandishes a copy of ''Vagabonding'' while "visualizing" a long-term journey in her office ("Rolf shows us how," she tells a coworker).

Guest lecturing

Potts was the 2011-2012 ArtsEdge Writer-in-Residence at the University of Pennsylvania's

Kelly Writers House The Kelly Writers House is a mixed-use programming and community space on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Founded in 1995 by a group of students, faculty, staff, and alumni of the University of Pennsylvania, the Kel ...

. He more recently taught nonfiction writing at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

., and he directs annual summer writing workshops in Paris.

Personal life

When not traveling, Potts lives in a small farmhouse on 30 acres of land in rural north-central Kansas. He is married to actres
Kristen Bush

References

External links

Rolf Potts
official website
Deviate: Because the Best Things in Life are Off-Topic
Rolf Potts' podcast
The Vagabond Travel Ethos
The Art of Manliness Podcast (2022)
Rolf Potts on Travel Tactics, Creating Time Wealth, and Lateral Thinking
Tim Ferriss Podcast (2014)
Longform Podcast #33: Rolf Potts
(2013)
A Conversation With Rolf Potts, Travel Writer
''The Atlantic'' (2011)
The World Over: A Profile of Rolf Potts
''Poets & Writers'' (2008)
Rolf Potts: One-hour lecture
Talks at Google (2007) {{DEFAULTSORT:Potts, Rolf American travel writers American male non-fiction writers Living people 1970 births Writers from Wichita, Kansas People from Saline County, Kansas Friends University people George Fox University alumni University of Pennsylvania faculty Yale University faculty