Episode 129
Custodians of Wonder with BBC Travel's Eliot Stein
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Meet Eliot Stein
Eliot Stein is a journalist, writer, and deputy editor at BBC Travel. He is also the author of the newly published book, Custodians of Wonder: Ancient Customs, Profound Traditions, and the Last People Keeping Them Alive.
Eliot has a passion for stories that reveal something about a place through the lens of tradition and unique cultural practices. At BBC Travel, he started a column called Custom Made that highlights cultural custodians preserving vanishing customs.
Listen to the Episode
What you’ll learn in this episode:
Writing "The Last Surviving Sea Silk Seamstress" for BBC Travel
How to build relationships and trust with people you're reporting on
How traditions shape places and people
Going beyond tourist attractions
Eliot and I discuss changing reading habits
Eliot's book "Custodians of Wonder" is now available
How Eliot's journalism background set him up for the process of writing a book
The intense commitment required to write a book
Eliot gives advice to aspiring authors and shares resources like the Writer's Digest conference
The story behind a photo featuring traditional soy sauce production in Japan
“A journalist’s job is to be a mirror for someone. You are trying to magnify their light.”
— Eliot Stein
A record of cultural marvels
In 2024, Eliot Stein published Custodians of Wonder. To write his book, he traveled to 10 countries on five continents to profile the last people alive maintaining a distinct cultural wonder.
In Custodians of Wonder, you’ll meet fascinating people like a man saving the secret ingredient in Japan’s 700-year-old original soy sauce recipe, one of the only women alive in Italy who knows how to make the world’s rarest pasta, and a family in India rumored to make a mysterious metal mirror believed to reveal your truest self.
Featured on the Show
Eliot's book, Custodians of Wonder, is now available wherever books are sold
Follow Eliot on Instagram: @eliot.stein
Read Eliot’s article on BBC Travel: The last surviving sea silk seamstress
Learn about the Barrel-aged soy sauce, also available online at trf-ny.com
Pitch your book idea: writersdigestconference.com
Read the BBC Travel author brief
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