"Far from Home captures the strangeness of places most Westerners have never heard of, much less visited, like the giant fire pit and the near-empty capital city of Turkmenistan. But it’s at its best in small human moments, from hospitality offered in Iran to the kindness of strangers after multiple mishaps.
A brilliant listen."
“If you are a fan of ‘This American Life’ or ‘Serial’ without the murder…”
"One of the greatest things I've ever heard!
There's a lot to experience here, and if you're a traveler, this is going to satisfy that feeling of getting out there and seeing the world. It's a cool experience, especially to hear it all through audio. As Scott is a very experienced radio journalist, he knows what sounds good, and he puts it all together in this podcast, Far From Home."
Condé Nast’s Travelogue podcast also featured a discussion about our trip on its episode "In Search of Adventure" (listen beginning at 19:45)
“Far from Home” the Best Combination of Big and Small in More Ways Than One
"Far from Home encapsulates what makes travel so formative and important.
There’s the typical cliche about how it’s not about the destination, but the journey, and that’s partially true... but it’s also about the destination.
Far from Home is one of the few podcasts that balances both concepts almost effortlessly."
“I am willing to bet money that you have never been to a Kazakh wedding. Or if you have, that you’ve never been to one in Kazakhstan. Or if you have, that you’ve never been to one to which you were invited by a complete stranger you just met while driving through the country on the way somewhere else. The wild wedding party is just one of many adventures our friend — the radio producer and podcaster Scott Gurian — relates in his show Far From Home.”
— Interview on "Get Outta Here," the AP Travel podcast (begins at 15:00 in)
"How about this for a vacation idea? Fly to Europe, buy a beat-up clunker, then try to make it from England to Mongolia in one piece. There’s no official route and no official rule book. Photographer Drew Gurian and his brother, Scott, did just that this summer as participants in the Adventurists’ Mongol Rally."
Mongol Rally:
The Most Extraordinary Road-Trip Ever
The Long and Winding Road
Article by my brother Drew in the April, 2017 issue of Geographical magazine (archival copy, since it’s no longer on their website)
“In this edition of Inside Podcasting, we hear from Scott Gurian, an experienced multi-award-winning former radio journalist, now the host of a well-produced part travelogue, part documentary, where the people he meets play lead roles.”
“There are a lot of podcasts out there that cover travel-related topics, but the vast majority of them are simply interview or discussion-type shows. Sometimes the hosts might even record their episodes remotely, but they’ll be in their hotel room in Bangkok or wherever, talking about what they did that day. What’s the point? I’m not saying that there shouldn’t be room for shows like that, but I’ve learned that the power of good audio is that it transports you places. I want to hear the sounds of traffic and marketplaces, foreign accents, and insects in the rainforest. I want to be able to close my eyes and imagine that I’m somewhere else. People think that you need a video camera to gather images, but in some ways, well-recorded audio is much more intimate, since listeners get to form their own pictures in their minds.”
— Interview / profile on the website of Pod Bible, a British podcast magazine
How does a car that was totaled by the floods that hit New Jersey after Hurricane Ida wind up back on the road in the Central Asian nation of Turkmenistan? That's the question Scott Gurian, a podcaster and journalist from Bloomfield faced when a mechanic he had met on a trip through Asia sent him a video of a Lexus with a New Jersey inspection sticker sitting in the yard of an auto shop in the Karakum Desert. Gurian set out to track the car and find out how it got from a flooded street in Montgomery Township to the hands of a furniture dealer and Lexus fan halfway across the world.
How America's Totaled Cars End Up Driving Again in the Third World
“What happens to your car after it’s totaled? Most American car owners never really find out. The insurance company takes the damaged vehicle, cuts a check, and for most of us, our attention turns to finding a replacement ride. NPR’s Planet Money took a deep dive into the global market for salvage-title vehicles, and it’s a fascinating read for anybody who’s curious about where good cars go when they die. Reporter Scott Gurian got curious about the global trade in cast-off American vehicles via a delightfully roundabout turn of events.” Read More →
“This fascinating story starts with the host of the Far From Home podcast, Scott Gurian, who, exactly like the hero in an Agatha Christie detective novel, wanted to solve a mystery. Here, the victim wasn’t some British aristocrat, but a 2021 Lexus RX350 that, after being subsequently pronounced ‘dead,’ it mysteriously appears 11,000 miles away in a different corner of the world. The actual story, according to Gurian, begins six years ago when he traveled through Asia and his vehicle broke down in the Turkmenistan desert. Luckily, our protagonist got towed away to a garage where he met this pleasant fellow, named Oraz, who worked at an auto body shop next door.” Read More →
Recommendation from The Bello Collective’s editorial team:
“My dad used to take my family on drawn-out road trips in a claustrophobia-inducing minivan across the United States, but what radio journalist Scott Gurian is doing with his Far From Home podcast is a bit more intensive: driving a tiny car 10,000 miles from London to Mongolia. Pick the show up from the beginning — it’s a fun listen.”
“The Road Well Traveled”
Interview with Harry Duran, host of the Podcast Junkies podcast, where I share my experience with radio, reporting, and podcasting. I talk about the creation of Far From Home and what I’ve learned from my 11,000 mile road trip from the UK to Mongolia. I also discuss my recollections of covering events that greatly affected the New York City area and the world in general, including 9/11 and Superstorm Sandy. Finally, I talk about the differences between radio and podcasting and my plans to continue Far From Home for the foreseeable future. Listen here.
Getting Properly Lost and
Generously Found
“In 2016, Americans Scott and Drew Gurian participated in the Adventurists’ 2016 Mongol Rally — an epic road trip that took the brothers 7 weeks to complete. They were prepared for their journey and endured many challenges along the way. However, they eventually made a costly mistake in an extremely remote area that put the completion of their adventure, and themselves, at risk.”
— Profile of our trip on the website of Garmin, the maker of the inReach satellite communicator that we used to contact the American embassy for help when we were stranded in the middle of Mongolia
“Scott Gurian and the Rally of a Lifetime – UK to Mongolia”
“For those with wanderlust, Scott’s insights act as a siren call, encouraging listeners to embrace the unknown and find joy in the serendipitous moments that travel invariably presents. His advice to embrace the spontaneous is not just about international expeditions but also about finding adventure in our backyards.
The tales that Scott shares are more than just anecdotes; they’re an inspiration, urging us to step out of our comfort zones and into the vast, open world. They remind us that our paths are ours to choose, and it’s along these roads that we find ourselves and the stories we’ll tell for years to come."
Scott Gurian’s Emergency Evacuation
On The Mongol Rally
“Many of Scott’s experiences have been documented in his podcast Far From Home, and when you listen, your ears are in for a treat as they export you right to the very location of Scott’s travels. He makes you feel immersed in his own experience; that is the beauty of his podcast.”
"Scott’s travel philosophy is how I want to be when traveling the world. His natural ability to home in on a story or to find an angle for one wherever he goes in the world is inspirational. In the age of people only travelling to increase their country ‘number’ or to get that viral reel on social media, or to be paid only for travelling, it can be soul-destroying. However, Scott bucks this trend."
Read more and listen to the episode here.
Do you have a Nissan Micra?
Then definitely listen to this podcast
“Scott Gurian is clearly an experienced radio journalist. During this trip he recorded 65 hours of audio. The batteries of his recording device do significantly better than those of the Micra. This is how we end up together with Scott in places where tourists never came. At bizarre wedding parties and in godforsaken villages where they only serve the meat of the yak.”
— podcast review in De Morgen, a Flemish newspaper in Brussels, Belgium (in Dutch)
Write-up in the Italian magazine Internazionale.
Translation: In 1971, a group of anarchists occupied an old military base in Copenhagen, establishing the free city of Christiania. At first, there were few rules: no private property, no weapons or vehicles could enter, and no one was allowed to use violence. Even the use of substances was free, until, after the many cases of heroin overdoses in the 1980s, only the use and trade of cannabis remained free. The famous “Pusher Street” where it is still sold freely, has attracted over the decades both tourists from all over the world and organized crime, which today controls the trade in an area to which the police have no access. If in the past the inhabitants of Christiania resisted numerous and violent attempts at eviction, today the neighborhood is threatened by the new forms of contemporary capitalism, with the city administration that has replaced repression with a new seductive form of divide and conquer.
Audio documentary maker Scott Gurian returns with the fourth season of his podcast that goes in search of non-American stories. In addition to an anthology episode created in collaboration with 99% Invisible, there is also a rich bonus episode that takes the listener through the streets and houses of an anarchic utopia whose contradictions emerge through contrast also thanks to the observational skills of a very talented author who is not tempted by exoticism.
Interview with Jake Spring, host of the Foreign Correspondence podcast, which features extended conversations with journalists around the world. We discuss how I got into reporting, my previous work in public radio, how the NPR ecosystem works, and some of the stories I’ve covered for Far From Home. Listen here.
What kind of audio gear do you bring on a reporting trip across Europe and Asia? Something small and discreet. Tascam profiles Far From Home and my use of their DR-40 digital audio recorders in this press release.
Tascam also interviewed me on their "Capture Your Art" podcast about my process of gathering tape out in the field, as well as the gear I used to record my sound (see episode 5).
Far From Home featured on WVXU / Cincinnati Public Radio’s “Start Hear” podcast recommendation show:
“Every person has a story. And when every story we hear is just like our own, we can lose perspective and lose touch with all things we have in common as humans. But thanks to podcasts like [Far From Home], we have the chance to hear a few of the billions of stories you’d never hear otherwise.”
Profile of Far From Home on the Earbuds Podcast Collective's website.
I also guest curated a list of five podcast episodes (including Far From Home's first episode from Turkmenistan) on the theme of "Leaving Your Comfort Zone."
Interview with host Corey Cambridge on his show OPP: Other People’s Podcast, which highlights “your favorite podcasters, and the dope shows they created.”
Kated Travel Podcast
Travel through 18 countries in 53 days (or more like 20 minutes) while driving a tiny Nissan Micra. That's the theme of today's show as special guest Scott Gurian takes us on the Mongol Rally, from the UK to Mongolia. It's a fascinating episode including Iran, Turkmenistan, Chernobyl and countless mishaps on the road.
Read Interview Excerpt ~~~~~~~ Listen here
Bittersweet Life host Katy Sewall recommends Far From Home in The Seattle Times Pacific NW Magazine as one of her favorite lesser-known podcasts
“An absolutely fascinating podcast series. This reminded me of similar travel documentaries made by BBC World Service. The episode set in Turkmenistan introduced me to a country I know nothing about, and made me want to find out more. Above all, this podcast is a great work of storytelling. Genuinely this is one of the best audio travelogues I’ve ever heard.”
“This podcast pulls the listener in and makes them want to go back and listen to the rest of the story. It’s fantastic! The pacing, the mix of narration and recordings made it engaging and immersive from the beginning. It felt like we were accompanying the host on the tour – complete with eerie feelings and overwhelming excitement. Overall, this podcast provided a fascinating insight into a trip of a lifetime, and both of us are planning on going back to the beginning of this podcast and listening to the entire thing.”
— Peer reviews of Far From Home from other podcasters as part of
#2PodsADay's July, 2018 indie podcast promotion campaign
"Throughout all of those miles and experiences, Gurian, a Peabody Award-winning journalist who previously worked for public radio stations around the country, was recording audio -- audio that he has since turned into 22 episodes for his podcast, Far From Home.
‘It is really great to bring other people along -- people who might never dream of going on a trip like this,’ Gurian said. ‘Audio is intimate. You can just close your eyes and feel like you're there.’”
— Profile in the Spring, 2019 issue of Emerson College’s Expression alumni magazine
Far From Home featured in Audible Feast newsletter's
Behind the Scenes Podcaster Profile section:
"In the course of documenting the 11,000 mi. road trip I took from London to Mongolia, I aim to take listeners out of their comfort zones, introduce them to people and places they might not otherwise meet or experience, and instill in them a sense of adventure."
Just a casual 11,000 mile drive
"I can’t stop listening to Scott’s far.from.home podcast. It makes me want to do the Mongol Rally myself one day. If you’re an aspiring traveler like myself, I highly recommend listening to all the episodes so far (and those to come)."
Find That Pod included Far From Home in its weekly newsletter of “new podcasts of supreme quality for you to consume if you’ve grown tired of your usual repertoire of audio goodness.”
#AIRsters Spotlight: New Sounds For Your Ears
Profile of Far From Home on the website of AIR, the Association of Independents in Radio:
"I think the underlying theme of much of my work on the podcast is that nearly everywhere I go, people are generally more alike than they are different, so I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to include conversations and interactions I have with folks in such far-flung places at Iran, Russia, and Kazakhstan, to dispel stereotypes and show how fascinating and complex the world really is."
Bloomfield Brothers To Help Charities
during International Rally
"Two brothers from Bloomfield, Scott and Drew Gurian, are heading to London to participate in the 2016 Mongol Rally, an annual event where hundreds travel more than 10,000 miles in tiny vehicles to raise money for charity."
— Article in the July 7, 2016 edition of the Bloomfield Life newspaper
"Imagine doing the Mongol Rally, a 10,000 mile road trip race from London to Mongolia, with a family member! Last fall Scott Gurian, a journalist, contacted me to do an interview about my experiences on the Mongol Rally. He’s doing the rally this summer with his brother, and he’s also producing an amazing podcast, called Far From Home, covering the rally. You can tell Scott is a true professional – this is one of the best independent produced podcasts that I’ve listened to – and I’m not just saying that because I’m interviewed in the first episode! If you’ve ever thought about the idea of doing the Mongol Rally, then follow his journey at Far From Home Podcast…you will be enthralled."
— Travel blogger Sherry Ott, Ottsworld Travel and Life Experiences
Photo courtesy of Carol Murphy
The lengths he'll go for a story
are about to reach 11,000 miles
"'This is a big trip we're taking. Driving through parts of the world that the average American has never been through – through the 'Stans,' Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and places that just sound so foreign and can be a little scary if you haven't done much traveling,' said Gurian on the latest edition of The Backgrounder Podcast. 'It seems like a really great thing to document. We'll have tons of stories along the way.'"
— June, 2016 hour-long interview on The Backgrounder podcast recorded live on stage in Montclair, NJ, where I discussed my upcoming trip and the launching of the Far From Home podcast and took questions from the audience.
Also featured on NJ.com and NJ Spotlight.
Banner image by Drew Gurian