Travel to East Java, Indonesia — Amateur Traveler #991
Kiara joins host Chris Christensen to share an off-the-beaten-path itinerary through East Java's volcanoes, waterfalls, and coastal villages.
Put the Guidebook Down: A Travel Psychology Podcast
Latest Episode
Episode • 30 min
The Overtourism Backlash Isn’t About Crowds
Nobody Sprays a Stranger Over Foot TrafficIn the summer of 2024, about 2,800 people marched through Barcelona with water pistols and sprayed tourists eating at outdoor restaurants. The coverage focused on the water guns. The signs said something else: Barcelona is not for sale.The usual explanation for overtourism backlash is a math problem, too many visitors for too few streets. Cities are now running that math in real time with taxes, rental bans and visitor caps, and the anger keeps spreading...
Read full episode notes on Substack →Featured Guest Appearances
Conversations Kiara has joined on other shows and channels.
Exploring the Globe Through Fulbright and Boren
Kiara appears on Stony Brook University's Graduate School channel for a conversation with distinguished Fulbright and Boren fellowship alumni about life-changing international experiences.
About the Show
Travel doesn't just show you the world. It shows you yourself. Put the Guidebook Down skips the itinerary tips and gets into why travel actually changes us (or doesn't), why every trip is starting to look the same, and who we become when nobody's watching. Hosted by Kiara Kolaczyk.
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Your Host
Kiara Kolaczyk
Kiara Kolaczyk is the creator of Put the Guidebook Down and the founder of Kultura Travel. She is a two-time Fulbright English Teaching Assistant to Moldova and a Boren Fellow to Indonesia. These experiences allowed her to live abroad for three years, learn multiple languages, and immerse herself deeply in local communities.
During her time in Indonesia, she conducted research on how tourism influences cultural and linguistic preservation and collaborated with small businesses to help them expand into international markets. With a career rooted in cultural storytelling, global education, and ethical travel, Kiara brings a nuanced, human-centered perspective to every conversation.
She believes meaningful travel begins when we put down the guidebook and open ourselves to curiosity, culture, and genuine human connection.
Previous Episodes
Explore our archive of conversations about culture, community, and conscious travel.
Oct 6, 202630 min
Why You Can't Relax Until the Trip Is Already Over
You Were There. Your Mind Wasn't.Picture a trip you waited years to take. The weather is perfect, the view is the one you flew across the world for, and part of your brain is drafting an email you forgot to send. You pull your attention back. It leaves again.A lot of people come home from a beautiful trip and say it didn't really hit until they got back. This episode breaks down why that happens, and why it has almost nothing to do with the destination. Your mind wanders on vacation at about the...
Listen Now →Sep 22, 202630 min
Nostalgia Doesn't Sell Trips Anymore. A Future You Haven't Had Does.
The Ad Was Never About the PlaceThink about the last travel ad that actually made you want to book something. It probably wasn't someone looking back fondly on a trip they already took. It was someone mid-laugh on a rooftop in Cappadocia, working from a cafe in the rainforest, running through fields in Kyrgyzstan on horseback. A life you haven't lived yet, dangling in front of you like it's already yours.That's not a creative trend. A 2024 study found the travel industry has measurably shifted f...
Listen Now →Sep 8, 202630 min
The Smell That Puts You Back on That Street
The Strongest Memory Isn't a Photo.Open a travel bag you haven't used in years. There's a real chance it still smells like wherever you took it, and within two seconds, you're not remembering that place. You're back in it.This episode breaks down why smell does something to memory that no other sense does. Sight, sound, and touch all get routed through the brain's switchboard before they reach anywhere that processes feeling. Smell skips that step entirely, connecting almost directly to the part...
Listen Now →Sep 1, 202630 min
Your Trip Started Before You Left
Pay attention to how often an upcoming trip crosses your mind on a day that has nothing to do with travel. Doing the dishes, sitting in a meeting, lying in bed. That flicker of mood isn't a preview of the happiness that starts once the trip begins. It's the trip already working, months before you've packed a bag.This episode breaks down why the stretch of time before a trip isn't dead time to rush through. It's producing real, measurable happiness on its own terms, and because none of it has bee...
Listen Now →Aug 25, 202630 min
The Best and Worst Trip You've Taken Are Remembered the Same Way
Think of the best trip you've ever taken. Now think of the worst one. Different countries, different years, you'd never confuse the two. Here's the uncomfortable part: your brain used the exact same shortcut to store both of them.This episode breaks down why memory doesn't average a trip day by day. It samples two points, the most intense moment and how things ended, and quietly discards almost everything else. That's true whether the trip was extraordinary or forgettable, and it means the story...
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Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about the podcast
What is Put the Guidebook Down about?
Put the Guidebook Down is a podcast about the psychology of modern travel: memory, identity, and who we become somewhere no one knows our name. Instead of destination tips or itineraries, each episode uses a specific travel story as evidence for a bigger question about how movement changes the people doing it.
Who hosts the podcast?
Put the Guidebook Down is hosted by Kiara Kolaczyk, a two-time Fulbright English Teaching Assistant to Moldova and Boren Fellow to Indonesia. She spent three years living abroad researching how tourism shapes cultural and linguistic identity before turning those questions into the show.
Where can I listen to the podcast?
Put the Guidebook Down is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and Amazon Music, with the full essay version of every episode published here on the site.
How often are new episodes released?
A new episode of Put the Guidebook Down is published every other week.
Can I be a guest on the podcast?
Yes. The show features travelers, locals, researchers, and cultural experts whose stories speak to how travel shapes memory and identity, use the contact form on this site to pitch yourself as a guest.
What topics does the podcast cover?
Recurring themes on the show include: - Reverse culture shock and what "home" means after living abroad - Why every destination is starting to look the same on social media - Overtourism and the ethics of chasing "hidden gems" - Identity and language while living somewhere unfamiliar - The psychology behind travel nostalgia and post-trip blues