Episode Details

In today's episode of Backpacker Radio presented by The Trek, we are joined by Eric Giuliani. Eric, more or less on a whim, decided to trade his unfulfilling corporate job to circumnavigate the globe without taking a single flight. Yes, 70,000 miles by boat, train, and automobile, and- to make the story even more ridiculous- he relies largely on his very nascent photography skills to barter his way around the world. We learn all about this massive adventure, including an in-depth accounting for how he pitched hotels to lodge in exchange for his services, how difficult it can be to lay low during high terror alerts as a 6'10" former collegiate basketball player, what it's like to spend several days on cargo ships without any form of entertainment, and more.

We wrap the show with a quick chat about Trail Days 2021, a triple crown of things we'd do with a million bucks, and an absurd story about a bear biting a woman's ass in an outhouse.

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Interview with Eric Giuliani

• Eric's Book - Sky's the Limit: One Man's 70,000 Mile Journey Around the World
• Sky's The Limit trailer for Eric's book
• Eric's Instagram
• Eric's Twitter
• Eric's Youtube

00:05:07 - QOTD: What is a movie that inspires you or has inspired you to get outside?

00:11:02 - Where does your travel story start?

00:13:18 - Can you elaborate on why it's better to hate your job than like your job?

00:15:31 - How did your finances and the philosophy of the travel itself interface with one another?

00:19:42 - So before you left you didn't actually have the skills you were bartering?

00:23:59 - How far in advance were you booking places out (through bartering)?

00:26:15 - What was your success rate on reaching out to people? What goes into a good pitch for what you were trying to do?

00:28:21 - Did you ever feel any sort of imposter syndrome while doing this?

00:30:15 - Did your pitch start to work better once your portfolio got more built out?

00:32:30 - Did your pitch start to involve more video as you got better?