Growing Up in the Soviet Union

Today, we’re flipping the script and bringing you a conversation I recorded with a longtime Palestinian activist Matt Bowles for his podcast, The Maverick Show.

On his podcast, Matt interviews people who work at the intersection of travel and activist spaces.

You’ll find interviews with people like Imani Bashir, a Black Muslim American who advocates for more Black people in the us to travel with her Passport initiative, and Mari Monsalve, who visited occupied Palestine and uses her platform for Palestinian solidarity.

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Listen to the Episode

What you’ll hear:

Growing up in Soviet Kazakhstan and Estonia
A culture shock of moving to the U.S. at age 16
Yulia explains her decision to join the U.S. Navy
How serving in Iraq and Afghanistan impacted Yulia's politics
How a trip to Morocco took Yulia off a corporate career path

The Maverick Show

In-depth conversations with today’s most interesting world travelers, remote entrepreneurs, and digital nomads

Matt Bowles is your typical Irish-American hip hop DJ turned human rights activist turned location-independent entrepreneur turned minimalist world-traveler and podcaster.

After getting a Master’s Degree in International Peace and Conflict Resolution, Matt has led activist delegations to monitor human rights abuses in the north of Ireland, co-founded an organization to stop U.S. aid to Israel, organized solidarity delegations to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and did solidarity work with the indigenous Zapatista communities in Chiapas, Mexico.

After getting unexpectedly fired from his job at age 30, Matt decided to pivot completely and start a location-independent business that would enable him to travel the world full-time.

On his show, Matt interviews diverse travelers from every continent who share their personal journey to location-independence as well as their reflections on identity, the power dynamics that shape our world, and how we can be more thoughtful, conscious travelers as we move through it.

Learn more about Matt and his show here.

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What you can do right now:
• Check out The Maverick Show with Matt Bowles
• Follow @maverickshowpod on Instagram
• Listen to Part 2 of the interview, in which we unpack Orientalism and activism for Palestine