The Musafir Stories: The Original India Travel Podcast

Today we take our first dedicated trip to India (in travel podcast form) with Saif Omar of The Musafir Stories, likely the first and certainly the longest-running podcast about travel in India.   Saif and his wife Faiza are both native to India: Bangalore, specifically, but having lived abroad for years, were keen to learn more about their own country, and decided to do so through starting a podcast.   That was over 5 years ago, and 135 episodes later they are going stronger than ever. Their secret is to allow their guests to share their own experiences, and all the insight therein on things to see and do, which means that Saif and Faiza are themselves travelling vicariously along with their listeners.   The show takes you not just to the well-known destinations like Mumbai, Kolkata or Goa, but in particular parts of India you may not be quite as familiar with, such as Coonoor, a hill town in Tamil Nadu, or Bundi, a quaint town in Rajasthan.   Explore history, cuisine, temples and festivals, listen to authors and bloggers, photographers and mountain climbers, accompanied by beautiful images, all sharing their insight into the many dynamic corners of India on this trailblazing podcast.   Action Advice   9:35 - On learning about your own country through your guests. 16:18 - Strategies for staying consistent, and not burning out. 17:34- The ongoing debate about adding numbers to podcast episode titles, and how The Musafir Stories was told to stop. 23:06 - The experience of moving to an established podcast network, and the opportunities to scale the show, greater marketing and cross-promotion. 26:50 - The pros and cons of joining a network. 32:26 - On finding great cover art for individual episodes. 33:26 - How the place or location is typically the protagonist for a travel episode, while the guest's role is to interpret it. 34:24 - Using Google Maps or similar to pin the locations of your episodes, with direct links therein to that episode.     Travel Podcast the World   https://www.travelpodcasttheworld.com https://twitter.com/TedFlyTed https://www.instagram.com/travel_podcast_theworld/ Submit Your Podcast form  Suggest a Podcast form     Guest Links   The Musafir Stories website   on Twitter on Instagram on Facebook   The map of episodes   References   IVM podcast network   "Postcards From Nowhere" podcast   Unsplash, for royalty-free images     People   Vaibhav Dewan, episode about Darjeeling     Places   Bangalore, Karnataka   Peninsular Gneiss, Rock formations in Bangalore   "Seven Sisters" northeast states