Travel for Transformation: The Road is the Guru with Jonathan Legg


The call to travel is analogous to the first stage of the “Hero’s Journey”. We feel this compulsion to visit a place for reasons we can’t fully articulate. We just suspect that there is something we will experience “out there” which is essential. Answering that call (e.g. buying the plane ticket) is the biggest barrier to accessing the wisdom of the road, but the second biggest is yet to come.

The travel industry has long been commodified and its wealth of treasures shrunk down to instagram snapshots. Without conscious intentions, travelers fall into frames that seal them off from the truly life-changing realizations available. My goal is to offer a new lens: Come into a journey with the courage to get low to the street and the openness to hear what it has to tell you.

In The 7 AHAs Every Traveler Should Have, I lay out some of the big epiphanies the road has given me about the nature of life. Whether these resonate or not, my hope is for the listener of our discussion to peruse over their travel memories with this inquiry and to launch off onto their next adventure with this lens.

Jonathan Legg has hosted 5 seasons of The Road Less Traveled, exploring off-the-beaten-path destinations worldwide. He produced and directed Food Relay, and appeared on Fear Island: Fortress of the Bears. When not filming he can be found leading small groups on adventures, flying a paraglider, and helping young men find their own empowering stories and purpose.

This program was organized by Andrew McGregor.