Allan Karl WorldRider

06/04/2026

This email showed up in my inbox today from a reader who's been following my work for many years.

It touched me.

I've spent much of my life traveling, writing, photographing, speaking, and collecting stories. Sometimes you send those stories out into the world and never really know where they land.

Then a note like this arrives.

That's why I write.

If you didn't know, I publish a newsletter on Substack called Inspired Life of Travel. It's where I share stories, reflections, travel adventures, food, curiosity, connection, and the occasional lesson learned the hard way.

If you haven't seen it before, I'd be honored if you'd become a subscriber. It's free, and if you find value in it, there's a paid option too.

I'll put links to both my latest post and the newsletter in the comments below.

And to Bill: thank you. Your words meant more than you know.

05/27/2026

At 2:27am in Austin, I found myself sitting in a place that still feels real.

No velvet rope.
No influencer wall.
No manufactured cool.

Just music, stories, neon glow, and a conversation with Ramsay Midwood inside Sam’s Town Point.

What started as “one more stop before bed” turned into something bigger: a reminder that curiosity still opens doors, algorithms never will.

We talked about music. Creativity. Fatherhood. Legacy. Why do some places survive while the world becomes increasingly transactional?

And somewhere in the middle of all that, Austin started feeling like Austin again.

This isn’t a polished industry interview.
No studio. No setup.

Just a fan having a beer and staying open long enough for something real to happen.

That’s kind of the point.

Watch This — Please 🎥 https://youtu.be/hz1OEhi9SWo

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05/26/2026

2:27am in Austin | A Conversation with Ramsay Midwood at Sam’s Town Point | Journeys With WorldRider Podcast | Ep 77

It's 2:27 in the morning on a Saturday night in Austin, Texas. The crowd has cleared out. The band has packed up. And Ramsay Midwood and I sit in a dark corner of Sam's Town Point — talking. I'd been listening to Ramsay's music for five or six years before I ever made it down there. Found him on Boot Liquor Radio — part of the Soma FM family of deep-cut internet stations — and I couldn't stop....

It’s 2:27 in the morning on a Saturday night in Austin, Texas. The crowd has cleared out. The band has packed up. And Ramsay Midwood and I sit in a dark corner of Sam’s Town Point — talking. I’d been listening to Ramsay’s music for five or six years before I ever made it down there. Found ...

05/20/2026

Which Way Are You Turning?

Which Way Are You Turning? On opening up, closing down, and the signs we drive past without stopping Somewhere on a road in Alaska, I drove past a hand-painted sign outside a modest house. It said something like Meet Mr. Alaska. An invitation. But I kept riding. I’ve been wondering about that man ever since. The responses to “Eat the Beets…...

Which Way Are You Turning? On opening up, closing down, and the signs we drive past without stopping Somewhere on a road in Alaska, I drove past a hand-painted sign outside a modest house. It said something like Meet Mr. Alaska. An invitation. But I kept riding. I’ve been wondering about that man ...

05/05/2026

A spare ticket.
A road with no plan.
A phone call you’ve been putting off.
A dinner invitation.
A class. A concert. A conversation.

Sometimes the biggest changes in our lives begin with something ridiculously small.

Not because the thing itself changes everything.

But because it interrupts the pattern.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how easy it is for life to quietly calcify into routine. Same roads. Same decisions. Same assumptions. And how often we reject things before we’ve even experienced them.

I wrote about that in a new piece called Say Yes to Something.

Not to everything.
Just something.

Read it here: https://open.substack.com/pub/worldrider/p/say-yes-to-something?r=6mbp6&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Allan Karl is a keynote speaker, author of FORKS, and creator of The Astounding Mindset, a framework focused on deeper human connection through curiosity, acknowledgment, validation, respect, and encouragement.

→ www.allankarl.com

05/03/2026

Say Yes to Something

Eat The Beets A starting point for anyone who’s been deciding in advance. Because trying something new makes your world bigger. After I posted my last article, “Eat the Beets: Or Stay Stuck With Who You Used To Be,” something unexpected happened. Texts came in. Emails. From people I know and — this is the part that got me — from people I didn’t know yet— but now I’m getting to know them....

Eat The Beets A starting point for anyone who’s been deciding in advance. Because trying something new makes your world bigger.   After I posted my last article, “Eat the Beets: Or Stay Stuck With Who You Used To Be,” something unexpected happened. Texts came in. Emails. From people I know an...

04/29/2026

Eat the Beets

Eat the Beets Or stay stuck with who you used to be. At a formal dinner, a man in a tuxedo pushed his plate away as if it had offended him personally. "I hate beets," he said. The dish didn't look offensive. Quite the opposite. It was beautifully constructed — roasted golden and red beets layered into a tight tower, formed and stacked with real intention, rising from a bed of arugula, topped with goat cheese and finished with walnuts for texture and crunch....

Eat the Beets Or stay stuck with who you used to be. At a formal dinner, a man in a tuxedo pushed his plate away as if it had offended him personally. “I hate beets,” he said. The dish didn’t look offensive. Quite the opposite. It was beautifully constructed — roasted golden and red beets [....

04/07/2026

Riding through the Peloponnese, I didn’t expect to end up in Loutraki…and I definitely didn’t expect this moment.

It was a long and hot day on the bike […] --> watch the video here: https://youtu.be/rZH6foUcrcU

03/10/2026

24 Hours in Munich

02/19/2026

Still in the Song at Eighty-Five

Last night wasn’t about miles ridden or borders crossed. It was about time. Eighty-five years old. Onstage. Live Jorma Kaukonen. Founder member of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna. Inducted into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame thirty years ago. The original. The real thing. Still playing like that. I’ve been a fan of Jorma Kaukonen for years. I’d seen him solo....

Last night wasn’t about miles ridden or borders crossed. It was about time. Eighty-five years old. Onstage. Live Jorma Kaukonen. Founder member of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna. Inducted into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame thirty years ago. The original. The real thing. Still playing like that....