ABOUT THE AUTHOR
My hope is to showcase the voices of individuals around the world.
To add perspective and diversity to the global conversation, and, as an editor and publisher, to support, empower, and make household names of journalists who do the same.
Do you know why you’re here?
You’ve brushed against this feeling of connection — the electric awe that lights you up when you click with a person or place and unlock a layer of shared wisdom. Recognition. Perspective. Wonder. This feeling can be fleeting. It can get buried by routine, dulled by faceless interactions, parched in the blinding spotlight of our own ego.
But it’s always out there. The thread that connects you to the rest of the world, to fellow explorers, to your peers and ancestors.
You just have to chase it.
It was mid-March in 2008,
and the idyllic California sun was glimmering along the bikes passing outside the Stanford Earth Sciences Library. I struggled to connect to the people and places I was reading about in my textbook — tried to picture the contaminated water wells in Bangladesh, the deforestation in the Amazon, the conference rooms filled with United Nations delegates.
The information was in my hands, but I couldn’t visualize these places, couldn’t hear the voices of these people, couldn’t see how I could be anything except an anxious bystander.
So three months later, at the impulsive age of 19, I packed my army-green backpack and flew 5,000 miles to a new home: Cochabamba, Bolivia.
It was a different world.
I wandered through vapor clouds billowing from food stands hawking cow-heart-skewers; eavesdropped on Spanish seasoned with the slang of Quechua tribes; glided through crowds peppered with bright fabrics slung over indigenous shoulders.
Suddenly I felt alive again — like I did as a kid, reading about scientists and explorers of old, or following my parents through the jungles of the Amazon. My time in Bolivia wasn’t always idyllic — often far from it — but it was real.
Several months in, as the country fell into unrest and roads shut down with protests, I found myself sitting with a handful of Quechua women alongside adobe houses beyond the reach of roads.
Their history and way of life — based on millennia of oral tradition passed down the generations — opened a new perspective of the world to me.
I felt I had tapped into a shining thread in the tapestry of human history and knowledge — and I wanted to share it.
In the last 12 years, I have written, edited, and published more than half a million words.
Being a journalist has allowed me to meet incredible individuals — from the first riverboarders to hurtle headfirst down the Grand Canyon to linguists capturing the last speakers of dying languages. I’ve gotten to report stories from ancient cities in Morocco to fish “tornadoes” off the coast of Mexico.
I’ve invited readers to follow me to these places, to witness and hear these individuals first-hand — to get that depth and connection I yearned for as a teenager in Stanford’s sun-soaked library.
My hope is to showcase the voices of individuals around the world; to add perspective and diversity to the global conversation, and, as an editor and publisher, to support, empower, and make household names of journalists who do the same.
Are you ready?
Join me and explore the tapestry of human wisdom, kinship, and purpose through cinematic stories.
more about the author
Co-founder of Hidden Compass
In 2017, I co-founded an award-winning publication called Hidden Compass that’s turning nerds — like journalists, scientists, artists, and explorers — into household names. When we first began, we had no idea what lay ahead. But since then, we’ve caused a bit of a stir and surprised a lot of people — including ourselves:
word on the street
professional collaborations
As a bilingual journalist, speaker, & consultant, I've worked with:
professional accolades
Noteworthy Awards
Over the years, the stories I’ve written and edited have earned the following awards for “best travel writing” and best “creative nonfiction”:
grand prizes
first place
GOLD AWARDS
SILVER AWARDS
BRONZE AWARD
Honorable Mentions
Multiple stories were also:
Recognized by The Best American Travel Writing 2019
Published in The Best Travel Writing 2011 + The Best Women’s Travel Writing 2020
noteworthy numbers
My articles have reached more than 21 million readers and been showcased in exhibitions throughout North America, Northern Africa, and Europe.
I've spoken to more than 100,000 audience members, giving 50+ talks and workshops in multiple countries for world-renowned organizations and universities.
I’ve edited stories for travel companies valued at more than $500 million.