When Reid Mitenbuler was denied travel during the long days of lockdown, he sought out the distillation of travel in human form. Peter Freuchen (1886-1957), the legendary Danish explorer, brought stories of remotest Greenland to the world. He married an Inuit woman, learned the language, fathered children, and ventured to its most extreme locations, risking life and (literally) limb in the process. Later, he became wealthy by winning a game show and found himself an unlikely Hollywood celebrity.
Reid Mitenbuler shared his story in his book, Wanderlust – An Eccentric Explorer, an Epic Journey, a Lost Age. The New York Times called it “An absolute joy… a compelling introduction to one of the most charismatic explorers to ever cross the ice.” Reid joined the Travel Writing Podcast to talk about how he came across Freuchen’s story and why he knew it had to be told, his process for choosing topics and writing successful non-fiction books, and some Hollywood insider wisdom about the impact of AI on professional writers.
Reid’s other books include Bourbon Empire: The Past and Future of America’s Whiskey (Viking, 2015), and Wild Minds: The Artists and Rivalries That Inspired the Golden Age of Animation (Grove, 2020). You can learn more about him on his website.
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