April 30, 2021 | Leave a comment Each of the following pieces has shifted something inside of me. Interestingly enough, all eleven are works of non-fiction. I am not one to get carried away by TV. There’s a certain limit to how “into” a series I can get. I love to read and constantly am, but that doesn’t mean I finish everything I start. I am endlessly thankful that my world travels over the last three years as a single, continuous trip have granted me with time. Time to think about things I otherwise (society, school, employment) wouldn’t have time to think about. Topics that are important to me include a woman’s life and expectations she faces in different areas of the world. The environment. Climate change. Racism zoomed out to a global scale. The world market pushing quantity over quality. Child trafficking and forced labor rooted in our favorite chocolate brands. Source: Washington Post I find myself constantly recommending the same clips to friends who have burned out of catchy things on Netflix, the same novels to loved ones who need motivation to create and who seek productivity in working towards their goals. So here lists 11 Influential Books And Media From Three Years On The Road 1. Shantaram Gregory David Roberts Read in: India, 2020. Matters because: Gripping ’80s adventures based on true events of the author’s life. Traverse alongside Roberts through Mumbai’s organized crime, prisons, slums, brothels, and back alleys of a forgotten India. Incredible philosophy content and character development that had me laughing and crying all over. 2. The China Study The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-term Health T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D. and Thomas M. Campbell, M.D. Read in: India, 2020. Matters because: Revolutionary in providing my brain with clarity in the muddled realm of human nutrition, and I hold a university degree in that stuff. Life-changing research and exposing the intentional lies of our governments, the meat and dairy industries, Big Pharma, and the most reputable of physicians and medical societies. Heart disease is not just preventable. It’s reversible. What? 3. Eat, Pray, Love Elizabeth Gilbert Read in: Myanmar, 2017 and India, 2020. Matters because: Yep I’ve devoured this classic twice. No one role models like Liz. Boss ass queen. Drop everything and change your life into exactly how you want it to be. Exquisite stories of a solo female’s endeavors into Italian cuisine, meditation in India, and Indonesia’s Balinese culture. 4. Rotten: Bitter Chocolate Netflix, directed by Abigail Harper Watched in: India, 2020. Matters because: Saying “Black Lives Matter” has no meaning if one consumes the most common chocolate brands. I’m talking Nutella (Ferrero), Snickers (Mars), Kit Kat (Nestle), Hershey’s, Cadbury, Ghirardelli, Lindt, and even Godiva and Ben&Jerry’s. Relentless exploitation of the West African people and environment with heavy undertones of racism left me heartbroken and enraged. I dropped all sources of non-Indian cocoa, cold turkey. “Every human heartbeat, he’d said many times, is a universe of possibilities.” —Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram 5. Wild Cheryl Strayed Read in: ?? (definitely during this trip) Matters because: An intimate examination of an unusually tough childhood, grief, and the healing effect of thru-hiking. Full of quotes to live by, nobody takes a leap of faith like Cheryl. 6. Plastics Last Week Tonight with John Oliver Watched in: India, 2021. Matters because: Highlights disgusting actions of the plastics industry to hide and manipulate the average consumer on our consumption of plastics. The statistics on ruthless environmental damage bring forth the gravity of a situation that goes largely unnoticed. 7. Period. End of Sentence. Netflix, directed by Rayka Zehtabchi Watched in: India, 2021. Matters because: Short, sweet, and everything you need to know about a woman’s everyday struggle in too many parts of the world. 26 minutes ft. the real, non-Bollywood Pad Man. Stifling stigma and lack of affordable menstrual pads leave girls dropping out of school at horrific rates and exposes them to disease. No American I know has an ounce of awareness of this topic. 8. Daughters of Destiny Netflix, created by Vanessa Roth Watched in: India, 2021. Matters because: A docuseries of only four episodes depicting the hardships of India’s modern gender roles and caste expectations. Follow five South Indian girls who come from families earning under $2 per day. Over the course of seven formative years, formal education empowers each to rise above the fate she was born into. Binged shortly after I traveled Karnataka and Tamil Nadu myself, this moving visualization was invaluably helpful to my understanding of Indian poverty. Watch without spoiling, then check out what the girls are up to now. Source: IMDB 9. Blood River A Journey to Africa’s Broken Heart Tim Butcher Read in: Peru, 2018. Matters because: An unlikely stunt of a trip pulled off in a seriously dangerous, Democratic Republic of the Congo. The DRC continues as an utterly failed state to this day, and we completely forget that, and that is unacceptable. Butcher takes the reader on unusual modes of transport and first-time discoveries of places with zero trace of Coca Cola. The provocative evaluations of imperialism and racism assist my de-generalization of Africa as “Africa,” so that I may instead see the continent for the 54 countries that they are. 10. Born To Run A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen. Christopher McDougall Read in: China, 2019. Matters because: A vivid journey deep into Mexico’s gang-riddled Copper Canyon. A thorough look into distance running and its connection to the soul. The brilliant true stories are impossible to have been imagined. Combined with the hilarious characters, you’ll be out and kicking it on the trails before you finish the pages. 11. Big Magic Elizabeth Gilbert Read in: South Korea, 2019. Matters because: Easily devoured, supreme advice and personal examples on developing a wholesome relationship with one’s creativity— and how to protect it. Honorable Mentions Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India by William Dalrymple Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari Seven Years In Tibet by Heinrich Harrer The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy The Motorcycle Diaries by Ernesto “Che” Guevara Dalai Lama, My Son: A Mother’s Autobiography by Diki Tsering How To Eat by Thich Nhat Hanh 道德经 (Dao De Jing/ Tao Te Ching) by 老子 (Lao Zi/ Lao Tsu)* “What do you love doing so much that the words failure and success essentially become irrelevant? What do you love even more than you love your own ego? How fierce is your trust in that love?” —Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic *In progress; reading in Chinese. All 道德经 translations I’ve encountered have been disastrous. Without the syntax and diction of mandarin, the text’s poetic genius and beauty vanish. To make matters worse, the meaning is often totally botched in English versions.