“The Sears Christmas Wish Book was, for me, a kind of foundational text — a secular counterpoint to the Bible stories I learned around that time in Sunday School. I paged through the holiday catalog’s 620 glossy pages as if they amounted to an intoxicating graphic novel of desire, rich with abundance and possibility.” – Rolf Potts, from “Literature of Desire”
In this episode Rolf reads an audio version of his Christmas-themed essay “Literature of Desire,” and discusses the wonders of the Sears Christmas Wish Book with novelist Tod Goldberg (@todgoldberg). Tod is the New York Times bestselling author of over a dozen books, including the novel Gangsterland, which is currently being developed into a television series. He is also the director of the University of California-Riverside Palm Desert Low-Residency MFA, and the co-host of the Literary Disco podcast.
Introduction (00:35 – 11:20)
Literature of Desire essay (11:20 – 32:20)
Sears Wish Book memories (32:20 – 50:10)
This episode was sponsored by the Paris Writing Workshops, which offer intensive one-week travel-writing courses in the artistic heart of Europe.
The Deviate theme music comes from the title track of Cedar Van Tassel’s 2017 album Lumber.
How Rolf Ruined the 1990s: A personal history of my grunge-bandwagon band
Walk and Talk: Notes from a peripatetic salon across northern Thailand
Essential tips and strategies for telling travel stories, with Andrew McCarthy
What it’s like to spend a full year traveling within a day’s radius of your home
Sports, superstitions, and sacraments: A Deviate Super Bowl Special (2024 remix)
Tim Ferriss and Rolf discuss travel, time wealth, and “success management”
The best journeys explore mindscapes as well as landscapes (book club remix)
Going abroad for love, and travel writing that says something new about a place
Seek places where your very presence makes you interesting (book club redo)
Travel memoir lab: Truth, luck, & multi-genre storytelling (with Tom Bissell)
Seek places where your very presence makes you interesting (book club remix)
Vagabonding audio companion: A life in (and philosophy of) long-term travel
A train isn’t just a vehicle; it’s a place (a remix encore, with Monisha Rajesh)
Travelers experience more when they slow down and ask lots of questions
“Dare to do Dirt”: Seeking rural places (and how to best experience them)
Vagabonding audio companion: Why (and how) travel souvenirs matter
Travel can return you to a kind of childhood (online book club remix)
What museums reveal about places (and what they have to offer travelers)
Vagabonding audio companion: How to study abroad (even if you aren’t a student)
Fear, family, and walking the Camino de Santiago (live with Andrew McCarthy)
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Modern West
Concrete Pastures Podcast
The Atlas Obscura Podcast
Points Talk with the Travel Mom Squad
Travel with Rick Steves
Friday Candy The Podcast