Hello Meaningful Travelers!
My name is Amrit Pannu and I intern at Travel with Meaning. I am honored to share with you our newest podcast episode featuring Mike Siegel! It was amazing to hear just how interesting Siegel is and all the journeys he has embarked on. I really can’t wait for you to hear them too.
Mike Siegel is a professional stand-up comedian, TV host, actor, and the host of Travel Tales Podcast. He hosted TBS’s “tbs Movie Extra” weekly for nine years, and has also hosted many other network shows such as HGTV’s “If Walls Could Talk” and “What You Get For the Money”. When is comes to the realm of comedy, Mike has performed stand-up on television shows, including NBC’s “Last Comic Standing”, “Friday Night”, and “Late Friday”, “Comedy Showcase with Louie Anderson”; CBS’ “The Late Late Show”; and Comedy Central’s “Stand-up, Stand-up”. Siegel’s most recent work is a half-hour standup special for the DryBar Comedy Network called “Have Jokes, Will Travel.” Mike’s acting career spans through movies and television shows. He was a recurring guest star on the CBS drama “JAG”, and had supporting roles in many shows, including “Mike and Molly” (CBS), “Sabrina” (WB), and “Prison Break” (FOX). He was in movies including the Academy Award-winning drama “Traffic”, independent feature “The Godfather of Green Bay”, and “Freeloaders”.
However, another main passion for Mike is travel. He has done what I personally wish to do, visit all 50 states, along with nearly 100 countries, and all seven continents. Siegel has written travel articles for the Wall Street Journal, various websites, and his own travel blog. One of his most notable works is his podcast “Travel Tales”, which he has been hosting since 2011. This podcast features interviews with travel experts, influencers, authors, performers, and any other traveler who has crossed paths with Mike during his many trips around the globe. The common connection is they all have a tale to tell about travel.
Being able to hear Mike Siegel talk about his travel journeys was such an honor, because the volume of interesting stories he has to tell is endless. I personally was astounded to hear his story about visiting East Germany and seeing the Berlin Wall while it still stood. His story about seeing Antarctica and making the difficult journey by boat was also just so amazing to hear because it is such an unique experience, and one I really would love to make one day.
What I connected to most with Mike is his encounter with people. During his backpacking trip in Europe, he met so many amazing, helpful souls who helped him and his friends throughout their trip. During my many (road) trips, I’ve been lucky to meet people who were there to assist myself and anyone traveling with me during our times of need. For Mike, this included a Swedish woman he met on a beach who provided him and his friends a car and house as they stayed in Gothenburg. For me, it was my brother’s co-worker in Kansas who helped us out during our trip there when he got hurt. What I learned is what Mike himself says and expresses so well, about how rare but heartwarming it truly is for someone to go out of their way and help “some people you [they] just met”. And this is one of the many amazing stories and lessons Mike has to tell, so I encourage you to listen in and hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did.
Along with the podcast, you should also check out Mike’s most recent comedy work, which I mentioned earlier, on Dry Bar Comedy’s YouTube Channel. It is hilarious and refreshing to listen to. I enjoy listening to comedy skits in my free time and this was purely entertaining:
And listen to the Travel Tales Podcast!