350: Full-Time World Travel as a Deafblind Latina and Smashing Disability Stigma Through Storytelling, Advocacy and Education with Catarina Rivera

350: Full-Time World Travel as a Deafblind Latina and Smashing Disability Stigma Through Storytelling, Advocacy and Education with Catarina Rivera

Author: Matt Bowles: Full-Time World Traveler Since 2013 August 18, 2025 Duration: 1:28:30
Learn about traveling the world as a deafblind Latina—salsa dancing, sumo-wrestling and becoming a disability advocate. ============================ 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 Catarina joins Matt and talks about growing up in the U.S. in an immigrant home with Puerto Rican and Cuban heritage. She reflects on what those identities mean to her as well as her deafblind disability journey with Usher syndrome. Catarina debunks common misconceptions people have about deafblind people and offers tips on non-disabled people can be better allies to disabled travelers.  She then reflects on how her interest in world travel developed and tells stories from a family trip to Spain in high school and more immersive trips to rural Kentucky, Argentina and Korea in college. Next, Catarina talks about her first solo-trip with the white cane to Montreal, her love for Salsa dancing around the world, and her recent trip to Japan where she had epic tea experiences and got to try sumo-wrestling. She then talks about the trip she led to Portugal for disable travelers and reflects and the power and impact of that experience. Catarina next takes us on her journey of becoming an intersectional activist and building a fully remote company to smash disability stigmas. She explains how she designs her travel lifestyle and offers trips for disabled travelers as well as those traveling with a relationship partner. And finally Catarina reflects on how traveling to nearly 40 countries has impacted her as a person. ⁠ → 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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