379: Queer Travel & Jewish Anti-Zionism: Cara Laban on Identity, Community & Collective Liberation

379: Queer Travel & Jewish Anti-Zionism: Cara Laban on Identity, Community & Collective Liberation

Author: Matt Bowles: Full-Time World Traveler Since 2013 March 9, 2026 Duration: 58:53
Learn how Cara came out as queer while living abroad and built community, belonging, and solidarity with Palestine. ============================ 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 In Part 2 of this conversation, Cara Laban reflects on the intersections of queer identity, Jewish history, and political solidarity while living and traveling around the world. She shares how coming out as queer while living abroad helped her find community and belonging across cultures, while a deeper engagement with Jewish history and contemporary politics shaped her journey toward anti-Zionism and solidarity with Palestinians. Cara also recounts navigating male-dominated digital nomad spaces, attending feminist protests, and encountering police violence. She then tells travel stories from Italy, the Dominican Republic, the Galapagos Islands, attending Carnival in Rio and seeing pink dolphins in the Amazon. Cara reflects on how living between cultures can expand the way we think about identity, community, and collective liberation. And finally, she shares lessons from Jewish history about our collective responsibility to confront the rise of fascism in the U.S. and around the world. → 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
Podcast Episodes