331: From Palestine to Global Impact: The Transformative Power of Cultural Exchange Through Travel with Yazan Badarny

331: From Palestine to Global Impact: The Transformative Power of Cultural Exchange Through Travel with Yazan Badarny

Author: Matt Bowles: Full-Time World Traveler Since 2013 April 7, 2025 Duration: 1:00:00
Learn how volunteering, internships, and cultural exchanges abroad can transform your life & positively impact the world. ============================ Get the Monday Minute my weekly email with 3 personal recs for travel, culture, and living beyond borders you can read in 60 seconds. ============================ ON THIS EPISODE Yazan Badarny joins Matt from Haifa and starts off by talking about his experience growing up in the Palestinian city of Arraba. He describes the racism and second class citizenship experienced by Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, and explains how travel and living abroad empowered him to confidently embrace his Palestinian identity and speak up about the Palestinian struggle around the world.  Yazan takes us on his transformative journey doing an internship in South Africa, taking one of the world’s highest bungee jumps, and developing the idea for his company Home Awe. Yazan explains his passion for empowering other Palestinians to travel the world, both so that they can have personal growth experiences by connecting with the world and so that they can educate the world about Palestine. He talks about his travels from Tanzania to Switzerland, shares life lessons from learning to ski in the Alps, and explains the importance of ‘starting with why’. Yazan talks about the volunteer and internship opportunities that Home Awe offers around the world today, from Brazil to Sri Lanka, and how he grew his Instagram following to over 400,000. Finally, he reflects on the impact Home Awe has had on its participants, and on what travel means to him today. ⁠ ⁠ → Full show notes with direct links to everything discussed are available here. ============================ FREE RESOURCES FOR YOU: See my Top 10 Apps For Digital Nomads See my Top 10 Books For Digital Nomads See my 7 Keys For Building A Remote Business (Even in a space that’s not traditionally virtual) Watch my Video Training on Stylish Minimalist Packing so you can join #TeamCarryOn See the Travel Gear I Use and Recommend See How I Produce The Maverick Show Podcast (The equipment, services & vendors I use) ============================ ENJOYING THE SHOW? Follow The Maverick Show on Instagram and DM Matt to continue the conversation Please leave a rating and review — it really helps the show and I read each one personally You can buy me a coffee — espressos help me produce significantly better podcast episodes! :)

There’s a certain texture to life lived in motion, a collection of stories that emerge not from postcards but from the messy, beautiful reality of planting roots in foreign soil. The Maverick Show: Global Travel Stories & Life Beyond Borders captures that essence through long-form conversations hosted by Matt Bowles, who has been navigating the world full-time since 2013. This isn't a guidebook podcast; it’s a series of intimate dialogues, often unfolding casually over a shared bottle of wine, where the destination is understanding. You’ll hear from a diverse range of voices-expats, digital nomads, women forging paths abroad, and diaspora storytellers-each sharing the raw, unfiltered nuances of what happens when you cross borders for good. The focus is on the human narrative beneath the itinerary: the cultural misunderstandings that become breakthroughs, the loneliness and liberation, and the profound ways a global life reshapes identity. Listening feels like pulling up a chair at a cafe somewhere in the world, eavesdropping on a conversation that’s equally about internal discovery as it is about geographic change. Matt’s own experience as a long-term traveler informs these discussions, steering them toward the substantive lessons learned far from home. If you’ve ever wondered about the true weight and wonder of building a life between cultures, this podcast offers a genuine, thoughtful window into that journey.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

The Maverick Show: Global Travel Stories & Life Beyond Borders
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