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, No Baggage Challenge, Travel U.S.A.

Why Rolf is Traveling Around the World With No Luggage

August 19, 2010

From his home in rural Kansas, Rolf lays out the reasons why he wanted to circumnavigate the globe without so much as a fanny pack or a man-purse.

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Essays & Stories U.S.A.

A Vagabond Finds a Home

November 18, 2007

Rolf finally found a place to call his own — a bunkhouse overlooking the Kansas prairie. It’s infused with the lessons he’d learned from 13 years living out of a backpack.

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Essays & Stories U.S.A.

The New B Movie

October 7, 2007

Why your video store stocks “mockbusters” alongside the blockbusters: A look at how one Hollywood B-movie studio stays in business.

Dispatches U.S.A.

In New Orleans: The Allure of Disaster Tourism

March 13, 2006

Is it weird to want to visit the flood-ravaged Lower Ninth Ward during Mardi Gras season?

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Essays & Stories U.S.A.

The Mystical High Church of Luck

April 28, 1998

Rolf goes to Las Vegas with $5 in his pocket, discovers the Mystical High Church of Luck — and ends up losing $100.

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Books by Rolf

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

Podcast: Deviate with Rolf

  • Super Bowl special: Why football kind of matters, with Chuck Klosterman (kind of) February 5, 2026
  • Time is your truest form of wealth (and travel helps you embrace your riches) January 8, 2026
  • Kansas Never Plays Itself: How movies lie when they take us places December 16, 2025
  • Traveling as a writer, and awkward book-tour experiences, with Anthony Doerr (from 2012) November 4, 2025
  • Talking with my parents about how to handle it when your parents die (in memory of Alice Potts, 1943-2025) September 30, 2025

Recent Blog Posts

  • 5 Thoughts on Confession in Memoir, from Emily Fox Gordon March 5, 2026
  • Travel Writer: Erin Levi February 26, 2026
  • Seven of the best Deviate episodes about 1990s zeitgeist (& zeitgeist-adjacent) experiences February 19, 2026
  • Using AI to enhance a 37-year-old photo of me with Barry Sanders’ Heisman February 4, 2026
  • Travel Writer: Jen Rose Smith January 29, 2026
  • 11 Outtakes from Chuck Klosterman’s “Football” January 20, 2026

Travel Writer Interviews

  • Travel Writer: Erin Levi February 26, 2026
  • Travel Writer: Jen Rose Smith January 29, 2026
  • Travel Writer: Natalie Compton January 1, 2026
  • Travel Writer: Mark Orwoll December 4, 2025
  • Travel Writer: I have been interviewing one writer a month for the past 25 years November 6, 2025
  • Travel Writer: Rebecca Hall October 2, 2025

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

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

Vagabonding pioneer Ed Buryn on what indie travel was like in the 1960s and 1970s (encore)

Why We Travel: Happiness, curiosity, wonder, sex, healing, and other motivations for hitting the road

Before Sunrise (redo): Screenwriter Kim Krizan on what led up to the classic travel-romance movie

Before Sunrise: Screenwriter Kim Krizan on what led up to the classic 1995 travel-romance movie

Travel Writers

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

Travel Writer: Robin Esrock

Travel Writer: Michael Engelhard

Travel Writer: Kathleen Hughes