The (Changing) Size of the World

Please join travel writer Jeff Greenwald and Sabine K. Bergmann of online travel magazine Hidden Compass at Clio's to discuss The Size of the World: 30th Anniversary Edition.

In December 1994, Jeff embarked on a journey inspired by Tibetan ritual, Chinese fortune cookies, and Kurt Vonnegut's axiom that “strange travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God.” He set himself a challenge: to travel the world from Oakland back to Oakland with his feet on the earth's surface. Carrying nothing more than a backpack, he stepped out of his flat in Temescal and walked to the MacArthur BART station. During the nine months that followed, he traveled nearly 30,000 miles, crossed two oceans, and visited 27 counties—without ever setting foot on an airplane. His book about the journey, The Size of the World, has just been released in a 30th Anniversary Edition.

Jeff did something else as well. Outfitted with the world’s first ultraportable laptop (a Hewlett Packard OmniBook 300), he sent back twenty dispatches to the newly-launched “Global Network Navigator”—making him the first travel “blogger” on the World Wide Web.

Travel and travel writing have changed profoundly in the thirty years since Jeff set out. The nostalgia he felt during his round-the-world trip — for a world before the sterile monotony of air travel — has morphed into nostalgia for a world before smart phones and social networks.

Jeff Greenwald is the author of seven books, including Shopping for Buddhas and The Size of the World. His stories have appeared in Wired, Smithsonian, Outside, Craftsmanship, Afar, the New York Times Magazine and NPR’s "Snap Judgment." He is also the executive director of Ethical Traveler, an international alliance committed to promoting social welfare, human rights and environmental protection in developing-world destination countries.

Sabine K. Bergmann is the co-founder and COO of Hidden Compass, a critically acclaimed, women-led media company that publishes ad-free narrative journalism and documentary films. An award-winning journalist and editor in her own right, she has contributed to more than a dozen publications, spent three years with the Peace Corps, and served as a representative at the United Nations.

Copies of Jeff's book will be available for purchase at the event.

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