Speaking of Travel® With Marilyn Ball
Founded in 2013, Speaking of Travel is a media platform dedicated to meaningful, responsible travel storytelling. Through conversations with global explorers, conservation leaders, cultural visionaries, world-changers, musicians, historians, conservationists, industry leaders, and everyday adventurers, we explore how travel connects people, preserves culture, and protects the planet.
After a decade of global change, including a pandemic and climate-driven disruptions, Speaking of Travel continues to lead the conversation on travel as a force for good.
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Speaking of Travel® With Marilyn Ball
The Quiet Magic Of The NC Arboretum With Drake Fowler
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Some places do not ask for your attention. They change you quietly.
You arrive carrying noise, deadlines, distractions and the weight of everyday life. And then somewhere between the trees, the silence, the air itself, something begins to soften. You remember there is another way to live in the world. More connected. More awake. More human.
This episode of Speaking of Travel lives inside that feeling.
What unfolds here is more than a discussion about nature or stewardship. It is a reflection on presence, on caring deeply for the land and for one another, and on the quiet power of creating spaces where people can reconnect to something larger than themselves.
Drake Fowler, Executive Director of The North Carolina Arboretum, brings a rare kind of humanity to this conversation... thoughtful, grounded, compassionate, and deeply aware of the relationship between the natural world and the human spirit. You can hear the sincerity in his story and feel the intention behind the work being done.
At the heart of this episode is a sacred connection and understanding that nature is not separate from us, but essential to who we are as human beings. Through stories, reflections, and insight, we explore the ways wild spaces can restore us and reconnect us to ourselves and to each other.
This conversation is filled with authenticity and quiet wisdom and reminds us that places created with intention and care can become sanctuaries where people feel seen and are welcomed.
Through education, conservation, and community connection, the NC Arboretum has become a place where nature and humanity meet in meaningful ways.
Drake extends the invitation to listen more closely. To reconnect with the earth. To honor stillness. To lead with kindness. And to remember that being fully human often begins by returning to the natural world around us.
This is a beautiful and heartfelt conversation that will leave you inspired and comforted. And perhaps seeing the world a little differently.
Thanks for listening to Speaking of Travel! Visit speakingoftravel.net for travel tips, travel stories, and ways you can become a more savvy traveler.