All in cultural musings
Crossing into Northern Ireland, Karen Gershowitz expected tension—but found warmth instead. In Belfast’s murals, Peace Walls, and conversations with locals, she discovered a place both scarred and healing, divided and welcoming. Her journey reveals how history still hums beneath everyday life—and how resilience shapes what visitors find today.
B.J. Stolbov reflects on how three simple phrases—"Not my problem," "I don’t know," and "I have no opinion"—help him cut through the noise of daily life. With warmth and honesty, he shares how these words keep him grounded, free from unnecessary stress, and focused on what really matters. His personal story might just inspire you to embrace a simpler, more peaceful approach to life in 2025.
In Waiting for Godot, Estragon and Vladimir’s squabbles capture life’s absurdity and, as Eric Lucas reflects in this essay, the vital role of human connection. Lucas draws on Beckett’s tumultuous life and his own encounters with the play to reveal its message: amid a chaotic, uncertain world, our shared bonds—however imperfect—affirm our existence and sustain us.
With an MA in Soviet Studies and a Ph.D. in Slavic languages and literature, Rachel Mann, who has fought for sovereignty in her personal life, brings a unique perspective to the brutal Russian war of conquest raging in Ukraine.
Have you spoken to any immigrants or refugees lately? In this essay, executive editor Judith Fein encourages you to reach out, if you haven’t already, and shares how your heart will be opened by the contact.
Can charity be as contagious as COVID? This was what Marlan Warren pondered during her walk home one morning after a surprising encounter with a man on the street in her East Hollywood neighborhood.
White, college-educated, compliant, and in his late sixties, BJ Stolbov shares his personal experiences with the police and why cops scare him.
Elyn Aviva decided that culling her computer contact list would be a productive Corona project. Easy, right? In theory perhaps, but the reality wasn’t quite the cleanup she’d anticipated.
Rinki Cohn proudly reports from South Africa about how the country, with just a fraction of the resources of a lot of countries, has successfully flattened its COVID-19 curve and how leaders there are really trying to do the right things.
It was 1976 and Mike Chambers was in Afghanistan on his way to see a standing Buddha that had been carved out of the walls of a canyon some fourteen hundred years earlier. Not long afterward, Afghanistan slipped back into the chaos it was to suffer for decades. and the experience had faded into memory until, 25-years later when Bamiyan's Buddha appeared in a TV news post.
This article is an excerpt from the new book, HOW TO COMMUNICATE WITH THE DEAD…and How Cultures Do It Around the World, by YourLifeisaTrip.com executive editor Judith Fein.
Erin Mooz flew halfway across the world to visit her college roommate’s hometown, Shanghai, during Hairy Crab season, one of the city’s most anticipated culinary events of the year, and discovered there was more to the tradition than the delicious crustaceans.
When American expat Elyn Aviva and her husband relocated to Asturias, Spain, after seven years in Catelonia, the safety net of knowing how to do things and where to go was suddenly gone and their spirits soon matched the region’s dismal winter weather.
For James Daffley, a Belfast city tour with a burly veteran of the troubles revealed not only a rejuvenated city coming to terms with its tumultuous history but, also, an insightful glimpse into its future.
For global nomad, Bhavana Gesota, the question “Where are you from?” is not an easy one to answer. Are people asking, she wonders, where she was born? Where she lives now? Or, are they asking which passport she carries? Is there a single answer to this single question? Read on…
Many of us travel in search of the different, the unusual, the exotic. But, for B.J. Stolbov, wherever he travels, he often finds himself searching for the familiar. Not the things that remind him of “back home,” but, rather, the moments of connection—to others, to nature, to himself—that each journey inspires.
A trekking adventure in West Papua, formerly known as Irian Jaya, a place where some people still hunt their food with bows and arrows, challenges preconceptions and produces unexpected insights for intrepid traveler Barbara Brown Allen.
During a walking holiday in Peru, writer and hiker Nancy King found that her most powerful and memorable moments occurred in quiet solitary interactions far away from the tourist throngs at Machu Picchu.
When B.J. Stolbov travels, he sometimes find answers; other times he finds more questions. During a recent trip to Korea, he was struck by the absence of public litter which triggered this essay about what is valuable and important in a culture and for its people.
Was it destiny when Pamela Blair, a psychologist on holiday in Tunisia, met a heartbroken camel herder seeking advice from a stranger?
