TravelCommons
By Mark Peacock
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Podcast Description
The Frequent Traveler's Podcast. The voice of the frequent traveler -- more about the journey than the destination
| Name | Description | Released | Price | ||
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1 |
98-Airport Train Robbery; Restaurants Want Your Smartphone | A backpack stolen from the train to the airport — or more specifically, passports inside the stolen backpack — unexpectedly extends a beer-tasting weekend in Brussels. During my recent international trips, I find that Apple’s FaceTime and iMessage aren’t working reliably — could be because of hotel WiFi bandwidth constraints. TSA’s PreCheck expedited security screening feels like you’ve passed through a time warp and landed back in 1999. Walking the floor of the National Restaurant Association’s annual trade show, it looks like restaurants are banking on their customers carrying smartphones and want to use them for wait list paging, bar tabs, and payments. | 5/20/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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2 |
97-1st Trip to Beijing; Most Important Hotel Technology | Lots of travel has kept me away from the mic -- Beijing, London, Vienna, Phoenix, New York, and New Orleans. Big difference in airline load factor between international and domestic flights. The international flights were half full while the domestic flights were booked solid. These trips allowed me to compare the different treatment US airlines get in international airports. This was my first trip to China; it made quite an impression. This string of travel has formed a strong opinion that the thermostat is the most important piece of hotel technology. | 3/3/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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3 |
96-Eating and Drinking with Social Media; Frequent Flier Alliances | In this episode, a listener asks about if and when to use travel compression socks, we discern the popularity of in-flight Wi-Fi service from Gogo's IPO filing, and dissect a recent article on the best airports for tech users. We look at the new wave of social media dining apps such as Untappd which helps you drink beer socially, how they're taking advantage of smartphone cameras and location services. We wrap up with a look at how airline alliances are changing the frequent flier's experience. | 1/5/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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4 |
95-Holiday Travel Tips; Bad Spirit In The Air | Updated holiday travel tips: drive or train for trips less than 350 miles, pay extra to fly direct, catch the first flight out, and know all the alternative airports. News reports of Black Friday shopping make me wonder why people would go through the hassles to fly airlines like Spirit Air. Listener comments about last episode's story of a rare prop plane flight sitting next to a "passenger of size"; then my own thoughts on the USAir passenger forced to stand on a 7-hour flight because a "passenger of size" overflowed into his seat. | 11/25/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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5 |
94-Plane Conversation Etiquette; Decline of Hot Flight Attendants | Flight out of Grand Junction, CO gave me a throw-back moment — a flight in a prop plane. Sitting next to a huge guy on a very small plane got me thinking about how to deal with row mates — row mates "of size" and row mates who like to chat. Global Entry program saved me from a huge line at ORD. Comment on the now-infamous TSA exhortation to "Get Your Freak On Girl". Close with an economics lesson — what's happened to all the hot flight attendants? | 10/30/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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6 |
93-Travel Stories from September 11th; Traveling with a Google Chromebook | Recounting the stories of travelers trying to get back home after the US borders were closed after the terror attacks on September 11, 2001. Also, hands on experience working on a Samsung Chromebook while on the road | 9/9/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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7 |
92-Not-So-Upbeat Traveler; iPad 2 vs. Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 | Into the summer travel rhythm with a mix of vacation and business travel. Using an Apple iPad 2 and Samsung's new Galaxy Tab 10.1 Android tablet during this mix gave me enough real world experience to make some recommendations. A couple of recent web links describe this podcast as "not as upbeat as others" which is true, but because it focuses on traveling, not destinations. Perhaps this non-chipper attitude is partially explained by a recent study placing 4 US airline companies in the top 8 most hated companies in America. And a listener suggests ways to reduce roaming voice and data costs. | 8/5/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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8 |
91-Can't Patch Planes Forever; Saving Customers With A Personal Touch | Was off the road for two weeks for my kids' graduations, but now back in the security lines with a mix of domestic and international travel. Listener suggestions include dining at local music clubs to avoid the "eating alone" stigma, and using mini-USB hubs to power your gadgets without carrying a basketful of international plug adapters. I'm impressed by how a couple of TSA screeners deal with a silly carry-on. I'm not impressed though by how American Airline's old MD-80's keep delaying my travels. And, after a lousy Avis rental return experience, an employee reaches out and wins me back | 6/18/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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9 |
90-More Comfortable Traveling in India; Tipping Towards Android? | Lots of business travel this month - UK, India, Germany, Phoenix, San Francisco, and Madrid - so there's a lot to talk about. The international travel lets me compare business class seats - there's a wide range of experiences even within the same airline. While in India, a listener asks my advice on adjusting for jetlag on Asian flights. I was surprised at the amount of data my iPhone consumed while I was in Europe but I finally found the culprit. I found myself much more comfortable traveling in India the second time around. And, walking away from the Google IO conference with a new Samsung Android "Honeycomb" tablet, my iPad fixation starts to loosen. | 5/22/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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10 |
89-Trains Over Planes; Fit 2 Weeks in 1 Carry-On | My business-vacation combo trip to London, Paris, and Venice provides the source for most of this episode's content. Wanting to pack light, I had to figure out how to pack for 10 days, 3 cities, two business meetings and a week's vacation in a single carry-on bag. After landing in London, I skipped the airports and used trains for all my intra-European travel, not boarding another flight until we were heading home from Venice, though not before having to wrestle through a randomly rebooting kiosk. I also talk about toothpaste tablets, another way to avoid liquid in your carry-on, and a great restaurant in O'Hare's Terminal 1. | 4/16/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 11 | ExplicitVideoVideo-Impressions of Vietnam | After returning from a 10-day visit to Vietnam, friends and TravelCommons podcast listeners asked me a lot of questions about our trip. In this video, I answer the most common question -- "How did they treat you when they found out you were American?" -- and give my impressions of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), HoiAn, Hanoi, and Halong Bay. | 9/6/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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12 |
74-Looking Back Over Four Years of TravelCommons | Recorded in the Seattle Marriott Waterfront, this special 4th-year anniversary edition collates the best bits from four years of TravelCommons podcasts. Starting with the "hotel medley" -- the roll call of all the hotels that have served as TravelCommons recording studios, we move on to excerpts from stories about the TSA, Bose headphones, memories of better airplane food, the hassles of travel, and some of the most entertaining sights I've seen in the last four years. | 5/14/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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13 |
40-Looking Back Over The First Year | Recorded in the Courtyard Copley Square in Boston, this special edition pulls the best of the first year of TravelCommons. | 6/12/06 | Free | View In iTunes |
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14 |
27-Best of 2005 | Spent the holiday week digging through the TravelCommon archives and assembled a Best of TravelCommons 2005 episode. Starting with a medley of hotel bathrooms, we revisit some rants on the TSA, the 3-episode Sean Penn arc, and excerpts from some of the best stories of 2005 | 12/27/05 | Free | View In iTunes |
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15 |
TravelCommons Promo | A Taste of TravelCommons - Travel rants and travel stories recorded in hotel bathrooms around the country | 7/6/05 | Free | View In iTunes |
| Total: 15 Episodes |
Customer Reviews
Best independent podcast your earbuds will ever deliver
Remember this guy's name (Mark Peacock), because I'd be willing to bet that as Independent Podcasting listening audiences continue to grow, he'll emerge as one of the top personalities in the genre. I've been downloading his podcasts since early spring, and although I've picked up a ton of great travel tips and (even as a seasoned "road warrior" myself) have learned a great deal, this isn't the reason that Travelcommons is my favorite podcast. It's all about the delivery: It's just the way he tells a story, his effortless wit and flawless comic timing will have you smiling no matter what kind of travel week you're experiencing. I pop in the earbuds and suddenly Travelcommons has me smiling from the back of the longest security line at LAX, or laughing out loud from a center seat in coach. Download and episode and you'll be hooked.
Travel Vicariously
Even if you don't travel frequently, TravelCommons is an excellent way to live vicariously through the eyes and ears of a business traveler. Mark paints a picture like few other's can with his travel stories.
Travel Personified
When people ask where I live, I usually just say airports and marriotts. As someone who lives the life of the road warrior, I find this podcast strikes an all to familiar chord with my own experience. A definite must listen to understand the life of the traveller.
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