Rolf Potts

Rolf Potts

Travel Writer, Essayist, Adventurer, Teacher

Rolf Potts

  • About
    • Bio
    • Interviews
    • Newsletter signup
  • Contact
  • Writing
    • Essays & Travel Stories
    • Dispatches
    • Travel Writer Profiles
    • No Baggage Challenge
    • Vagablogging
  • Books
    • Vagabonding
    • The Vagabond’s Way
    • Souvenir
    • Marco Polo Didn’t Go There
    • The Geto Boys (33 1/3)
    • Audiobooks
    • Anthologies
    • Introductions & Forewords
    • The Misadventures of Wenamun (comic)
  • Videos
    • Kansas Never Plays Itself
    • TV / Film
    • Travel dispatches
    • Lectures
    • Video Interviews
  • Events
  • Classes
  • Blog
    • Updates
    • Books
    • Poetry
    • Film, TV, Theater
    • Music
    • Sports
    • Writing Craft
  • Podcast
Dispatches Cambodia

Song of the broken road

May 18, 1999

For adventurers headed overland to Angkor Wat, Cambodia’s Route 6 is Disneyland gone bad.

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Film, TV, Theater, Essays & Stories

A spy on “The Beach”

May 4, 1999

Our correspondent reports from behind the scenes of Leonardo DiCaprio’s new movie.

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Dispatches Thailand

Getting stoned with Mr. X

April 20, 1999

Rolf wanders in search of an Indiana Jones adventure in Thailand’s gem country.

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Dispatches Thailand

Penny Pinched

April 6, 1999

In the first installment of “Vagabonding,” Rolf pays through the nose for his penny-pinching ways.

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Dispatches Korea

Korea’s no-man’s land

February 3, 1999

Rolf describes a visit to Korea’s DMZ, one of the planet’s oddest tourist attractions, where visitors can pick up everything from propaganda to perfume.

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Film, TV, Theater, Books, Essays & Stories, Travel

Storming “The Beach”

January 30, 1999

When he tries to infiltrate a movie set on a heavily guarded Thai island, Rolf embarks on a rollicking post-modern travel adventure, somewhat starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

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Essays & Stories Korea

Man bites dog

October 28, 1998

Koreans and Americans both love dogs — they just have a different way of showing it.

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Dispatches, Travel

Letter from Pusan: The party’s over

September 24, 1998

Rolf describes the heady rise and wistful fall of expat life in South Korea.

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Poetry, Essays & Stories

Staring Off Into Space is an Investment in the Soul

September 1, 1998

Poetry: “Looking at a steer and / imagining balls is not / nearly so hard as / looking at balls and / imagining a bull.”

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Essays & Stories, Travel

A look back at the Korean presidential election of 1997

June 24, 1998

Political commentary: Dissident politician Kim Dae-jung was not (as Time declared upon his inauguration) “Destiny’s Choice” to lead Korea into the new millennium, but the beneficiary of mudslinging, opportunism and circumstantial luck amid a wacky 1997 election season.

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Dispatches, Travel Korea

Ignorants abroad

June 22, 1998

An American expatriate weathers the slings and arrows of learning another language.

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Books by Rolf

  • Souvenir (Object Lessons) book cover
  • The Geto Boys cover

Podcast: Deviate with Rolf

  • Designing a creative life on your own terms (with Cedar Van Tassel) June 2, 2026
  • What movies (do and don’t) show us about places before we travel there May 5, 2026
  • Exploring the idiosyncrasies of male friendship, with Andrew McCarthy April 8, 2026
  • Debunking the mythology of BEFORE SUNRISE, with co-writer Kim Krizan (in Paris) March 10, 2026
  • Super Bowl special: Why football kind of matters, with Chuck Klosterman (kind of) February 5, 2026

Recent Blog Posts

  • Travel Writer: Perry Garfinkel June 1, 2026
  • It would seem that I have a strange weakness for souvenir socks May 21, 2026
  • 9 outtakes from Yi-Fu Tuan’s 1977 book “Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience” May 14, 2026
  • Travel Writer: Caroline Van Hemert May 1, 2026
  • Talking about sense of place and “Kansas Never Plays Itself” on Yonder Radio April 30, 2026
  • Outtakes from an interview about ecotourists who share the the Darien Gap with migrant travelers April 23, 2026

Travel Writer Interviews

  • Travel Writer: Perry Garfinkel June 1, 2026
  • Travel Writer: Caroline Van Hemert May 1, 2026
  • Travel Writer: Rachel Rudwall April 2, 2026
  • Travel Writer: Erin Levi February 26, 2026
  • Travel Writer: Jen Rose Smith January 29, 2026
  • Travel Writer: Natalie Compton January 1, 2026

Books

Vagabonding

Vagabonding

The Vagabond’s Way

The Vagabond’s Way

Souvenir

Tools of Titans

Kansas Matters

The 33 1/3 B-sides

Souvenir

50 Ways of Looking at Nostalgia

Recent Podcasts

Designing a creative life on your own terms (with Cedar Van Tassel)

What movies (do and don’t) show us about places before we travel there

Exploring the idiosyncrasies of male friendship, with Andrew McCarthy

Debunking the mythology of BEFORE SUNRISE, with co-writer Kim Krizan (in Paris)

Super Bowl special: Why football kind of matters, with Chuck Klosterman (kind of)

Time is your truest form of wealth (and travel helps you embrace your riches)

Kansas Never Plays Itself: How movies lie when they take us places

Traveling as a writer, and awkward book-tour experiences, with Anthony Doerr (from 2012)

Talking with my parents about how to handle it when your parents die (in memory of Alice Potts, 1943-2025)

An audiobook about how (not) to write a travel book: 9 lessons from my failed van-life memoir

Travel Writers

Travel Writer: Perry Garfinkel

Travel Writer: Caroline Van Hemert

Travel Writer: Rachel Rudwall

Travel Writer: Erin Levi

Travel Writer: Jen Rose Smith

Travel Writer: Natalie Compton

Travel Writer: Mark Orwoll

Travel Writer: I have been interviewing one writer a month for the past 25 years

Travel Writer: Rebecca Hall

Travel Writer: Jen Murphy