Next Up in Fiber Nation: Twisted Tales and Wild Yarns from Around the World

We’ve all been on a trip where Stuff Happens. Flights get canceled, luggage is lost, we run out of yarn. But what if that stuff becomes a little more epic? Like earthquakes, poisonous snakes, engines-falling-out-of-your-plane kind of epic? Could you roll with that?


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Linda Cortright
Linda Cortright, derring-doer of fiber journalism.

Meet Linda Nesbit Cortright, the Indiana Jones of the fiber world. She’s the editor of Wild Fibers Magazine: National Geographic meets Outside Magazine, but with yaks. Linda travels all over the globe to write about indigenous fiber traditions. That might mean visiting camels in Oman, silk weavers in Afghanistan, or lotus farmers in Myanmar. (Yes, you can make cloth out of lotus plants. Cray-zee.)

black mamba snake on a rock fiber travel
The black mamba snack can slither up to 12 miles an hour. Which is as fast as a human can run when she’s running for her life. Credit: Tim Vickers/WickiCommons.

When things go wrong, things can go hilariously, appallingly wrong. This episode covers three trips where all hell broke loose. Meeting silk weavers in Afghanistan, she’s ignored by her guide but adored by locals who think she’s a Turkish film star.

Istanbul airport fiber travel
The lounge at Istanbul Airport, where an important meeting never occurred. Credit: Dion Hinchcliffe/Wiki Commons.

In e-Swatini, a tiny African kingdom, the snakes make their appearance. And a wildfire. And engines-falling-out-of planes.

fiber travel Guanaco sheep
Guanacos remain sadly elusive in what becomes the Trip from Hell. Credit: Paul Asman & Jill Lenoble/Wiki Commons.

And in Chile and Tierra del Fuego, Linda must wrangle a charming businessman who promises the moon, the sky, and lots of guanacos. But all he delivers is a maxed-out credit card and one epically carsick child.

Happy listening,
Allison


Wild Fibers Magazine

Books by Linda:


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  1. What a wonderful story. If I were trapped in an elevator with just one person, I’d hope it would be Linda. This is the very first podcast I’ve ever listened to: Now the bar has been set very high…

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