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I picked up a zine on absurdist art at a local zine fest recently — mostly because it had a snarling chihuahua on the cover and I thought that was funny. Inside was a line I haven’t stopped thinking about: “Experiencing semantic instability is characterized by a dynamic process of meaning-making in which initial uncertainty can transform into insight.” That phrase, semantic instability, sounds like something a philosophy professor mutters before assigning 400 pages of reading

It was midnight in Jackson Square. I was with my friend Becky and slightly inebriated. Not irresponsibly so—but enough to feel confident in a way that suggested I should probably not be given a microphone. Somewhere between the glow of the streetlights and the quiet hum of the city, I found myself standing in front of the statue of Andrew Jackson, delivering a fully unplanned, slightly unhinged, and deeply passionate retelling of the Battle of New Orleans. To no one in partic

“Meaningful” is one of those words that sounds great… until you stop and ask what it actually means. I’m a big fan of words and their proper meaning. Not in an obnoxious, correct-people-mid-sentence kind of way—but in the sense that words matter. Each one carries not just a definition, but a cloud of associations. And sometimes, those associations get so broad that the word itself starts to lose precision. I call these hollow words: Words that sound important but don’t have a

What Travelers Gain: The Real Return on Investment (part five of a 10-part series) When travel is designed around how people actually learn and process new experiences, it produces a different kind of return than conventional travel. The most obvious gain is improved memory . Experiences don’t blur together or fade into vague impressions. They remain vivid and easily retrievable because they are anchored in understanding and emotion. Years later, you can still recall not only

How Field Trip Travel Company Applies Learning Science. Part four of a ten-part series. As an instructional designer with more than twenty years in adult education, I know this: understanding how learning works only matters if it changes what we do. So what would travel look like if it were intentionally designed around how people actually learn? Field Trip Travel Company takes the principles of cognitive science and translates them into a practical, human approach to travel,

I recently came across the trend of “looksmaxxing,” the idea of maximizing one’s physical attractiveness. Naturally, I did what any reasonable person would do: I applied it to travel. What if, instead of looksmaxxing… we focused on experience-maxxing ? In other words: How do you get the absolute most meaning, depth, and lasting impact out of your travel experiences? Because here’s the truth: most travel doesn’t stick. Why Most Travel Fades Many trips are a whirlwind: New plac

In which the author visits one of the wonders of the world and goes, "Wow!" If you have read my previous post, you know that I’m jetting off to Mexico with my kids for spring break this month. In honor of the upcoming trip, I thought I’d publish my Chichén Itzá travelogue from summer 2025. Geez… what on earth did you Chichen Eat-za, lady? Entering the 13th hour of the day’s travels, and the sixth (seventh?) cumulative hour on the bus, I found my impromptu and destination-spec

How Humans Learn. Human learning is not simply a matter of exposure. We do not learn, remember, and apply knowledge just because we encounter new information. Instead, experiences shape us when the brain can interpret them, connect them to what we already know, and store them in ways that allow us to revisit and apply them later. In other words, we remember—and are changed by—experiences when they make sense within the larger story of our lives. New experiences are always int

Good, bad, or it depends? This week I’ve been thinking a lot about the concept of cognitive friction and how it applies to travel, experience, and memory. Julie Dirksen, in her excellent book “Design For How People Learn,” explains the concept in the most engaging way I’ve seen. If you are in an unfamiliar city and use GPS in order to get from one place to another, that will be super convenient, but it is not going to help you actually learn your way around the city. In other

From Impression to Meaning Travel is not a neutral experience. Every time we travel, we learn something, whether we intend to or not. Simply stepping into a new destination activates the brain: it begins processing unfamiliar sights, sounds, flavors, and sensory input, searching for a system to record and classify them. But passive learning is not the same as meaningful impact. Long-term memory, personal growth, and lasting meaning do not reliably happen automatically. If cha

Travel asks us to part with our most precious resources: time, money, and energy. When we book a trip, we choose to exchange these resources for something else. But what exactly are we hoping to gain? Travel dangles some vague yet enticing-sounding outcomes in front of us: to gain perspective, to experience wonder, to deepen our human connection, to slow down and relax. No matter the destination, we hope to return home changed in some way. In other words, we invest heavily in

You know that saying, “When in Rome…” It’s a suggestive first half of a thought that usually trails off for the second half. How titillating! My post today is a riff on that idea, except my first half is, “When in Berlin…” and my second half is, “…write a manifesto.” Equally titillating, no? Picture this: I’m in Berlin for New Year’s. I know what you’re thinking: how cliché, Kristina. Everyone goes to Berlin in January. It’s like the Ibiza of northern Europe in the bleak mid-

No one hates to learn. It’s just that often learning is presented as this life-sucking, fun-hating activity that takes place in silence with authority figures waiting to make you feel bad about yourself. And there’s usually fluorescent lighting involved. In short, yeah, learning as defined that way IS the worst. But that’s not really what learning is. Learning happens throughout your entire human life, from babies observing the world and intuiting the laws of gravity to your

Twenty years ago, I visited the Aya Sofya in Istanbul. Why? Because I was a tourist in Istanbul, and that's what you do. So I bought my ticket with broken Turkish, wound my way inside, and I kid you not, upon seeing the architectural marvel that is the Hagia Sophia, thought: "Huh, big." I'm not proud of it, dear reader, but if you can't be honest in a blog post to the webosphere of strangers, where else can you be honest? Fast forward 20 years, and I go back to Istanbul with