Author Archives: jgville
Cemeteries Offer Physical Distancing, Perspective & Nature / Jul, 07
There’s nothing quite like a cemetery during a pandemic. For one thing, roaming among graves reminds me that bad as things are, I’m still alive. And healthy enough to walk. For another, cemeteries are typically empty (of other living souls, at least… mwoohahahaha). Physical distancing happens by default. And lastly, the oldest ones (with the most mature trees) […]
Storytelling Creates Inclusive Planning / Nov, 27
A willingness to listen and amplify all voices may be our best chance to build trust between planning professionals and the neighborhoods that have often viewed them askance. It’s also an opportunity to contribute to places that truly reflect the people who live there. How can stories and places inform each other? Check out this brand-new editorial […]
The Hills Are Alive (and Kicking): A Three-Day Hut-to-Hut Hike in Austria’s High Alps / Aug, 29
Often, when we think of European vacations, we think of cities. Sipping espresso in gilt Baroque cafes. Ogling masterworks in gargantuan museums. Dutifully following Rick Steves audio tours through the old towns of Prague, Rome, Paris. What we tend to forget, amid all this civilization, is that Europe also has some of the most stunning wilderness in the world. Exploring […]
Getting Around: When the Car-Free Become the Car-Full / Feb, 05
When Tim Nevits gave up being car-free and bought a car, his family rejoiced. “I’m eccentric enough as it is,” says the fortysomething, stray-cat-adopting, tiny-house-dwelling computer programmer. “To them it was like I was coming back into the fold from one of my more eccentric indulgences.” He’d been living without a car for two and […]
Fiction Podcast Production & Marketing Tips from ‘Limetown’ and ‘The Bright Sessions’ / Dec, 07
This year, for the first time, the Austin Film Festival had an awards category honoring writers of fiction podcasts, aka audio dramas. (In this post, I’ll be using “fiction podcast” and “audio drama” interchangeably, though I recognize there can be differences.) I was fortunate to be named a competition finalist, for the pilot episode of my second […]
Ikaria, Greece: Lessons, and a Couple Caveats, from a ‘Blue Zone’ / Nov, 20
The small Greek island of Ikaria shot to fame a decade ago, when it was named one of the world’s five Blue Zones — places where people live longer than anywhere else. In Ikaria, a third of the population lives into their 90s, compared with 5 percent in the U.S. People in these places, the […]
Mojave National Preserve, the ‘secret sibling’ to Death Valley / Apr, 25
Considering its size, Mojave National Preserve, in far-eastern California, doesn’t get much attention. At 1.6 million acres, it’s the third-largest unit of the National Park Service in the continguous United States — but only gets about half a million visitors a year. Compare that to nearby Grand Canyon National Park, which at “only” 1.2 million […]
Coasting through Cornwall / Sep, 29
Cornwall’s spectacular coast path remains unknown to many Americans On about the 100th granite step above Port William, on Cornwall’s north coast, my boyfriend managed a few strangled words. “These people,” he panted, “are crazy.” I’m not sure whether he was referring to the builders of the trail we were hiking — the South West […]
Audio, the most ’emotionally honest’ storytelling medium / Feb, 01
I’m starting to produce audio pieces about people and places! Last month, I got to travel to St. John to participate in the week-long Transom Traveling Workshop. Transom is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people tell stories in the medium of audio, which Alex Blumberg calls the most emotionally honest storytelling format — because you’re actually hearing […]
The strange intimacy of Census documents: Following the Glanvilles from Cornwall, Part 2 / Oct, 08
After discovering my Glanville ancestors had come from Cornwall in the late 19th century — thus explaining my taste for cool weather, Poldark and the Gothic, Cornwall-set tales of Daphne du Maurier (The Birds, Rebecca) — I had two central questions. What had their lives been like in the old country? And why had they […]
Following the Glanvilles from sea-swept Cornwall / Sep, 29
One day in late August 2015, the weather turned cold and rainy in Cleveland. It was like a preview of late autumn. The temperature was in the low 60s and the sky was overcast. While everyone around me groused, commiserating about being cheated of summer, I felt exhilarated. I always have, in the face of […]
Road-tripping the Yucatan Peninsula / Aug, 18
With the booming of the tourism industry along the so-called Riviera Maya — the 100-mile stretch of Carribean coast in southern Mexico centered around the resort city of Cancún — it’s easier than ever before to reach this warm and wondrous part of the world. There are direct flights to Cancún even from non-hub cities, […]