Freespirit Magazine

Maureen and I went back to school in London this week. Teach First is an innovative campaign that puts young university graduates on a fast track teaching programme which propels them into often challenging school environments. Maureen and I went along to talk about how geography had influenced our careers. You’d expect us to be enthusiastic about geography wouldn’t you?

Just wanted to say a big thanks to everyone who came along to my talks at Adventure Travel Live yesterday. It was fun talking to you all and I hope I helped inspire you all to go off and have your own amazing adventures.

Just wanted to say a big thanks to everyone who came along to my talks at Adventure Travel Live yesterday. It was fun talking to you all and I hope I helped inspire you all to go off and have your own amazing adventures.

“We all go through a similar process of being formed by the culture around us. It is something described well in Bruce Wexler’s book Brain and Culture: Neuroscience, Ideology and Social Change, in which Wexler argues that much of human conflict arises from our efforts to reconcile the world as we believe it to exist (our internal structures) with the world we live in. According to Wexler, we develop an inner world, a neuropsychological framework of values, cause and effect, expectations, and a general understanding of how things work.

Got a craving for Carnival? If you can’t get to Rio, don’t just give up and stay home. There are plenty of places in Mexico and the Caribbean, from Mazatlan to Dominica, to celebrate the annual bacchanal. And there’s still time to get there!

It's time for the third week in our Rest of Everest DVD giveaway contest, in which you can win a copy of Everest {the other side}, the film that launched the podcast.

Maureen and I are in Mumbai for the launch of the Indian edition of the Lonely Planet magazine. The UK edition launched 12 months ago and our partners BBC-Worldwide are launching more editions around the world including – on Friday 29 January – in India.