With the end of a year comes the end of a season. For the last episode of Hidden Compass: The Podcast, Season 2, co-hosts Sabine and Sivani present a story and a conversation all about finding hope and wonder despite — and maybe even because — of the moments that challenge us. This episode’s guest is writer and environmental educator Brandon McWilliams, who was just 19 years old when he wrote his Hidden Compass piece. Brandon speaks with Sabine and Sivani about turning rejection into a workin...

It’s the penultimate episode of season 2 and Sabine and Sivani are feeling contemplative — jumping into thoughts about the discomfort of the Internet and the voices that need to be heard. This episode’s story, “Wartime in the Woods,” is a beautiful illustration of the latter. Today’s guest is award-winning writer and best-selling author Jennifer Billock, who speaks with Sabine and Sivani about journalist intuition, the relative intelligence of Homo sapiens, and the multiple sides of our own s...

We hope you’re ready for “Just Another Adventure Story” — one of our earliest photo features, this remarkable story presents itself as not a remarkable story, which is, in fact, what makes it a remarkable story. If that doesn’t make sense yet: don’t worry. This is Hidden Compass: The Podcast, which means everything gets murkier before it becomes clear. Especially for this season’s theme, “What Have I Done?” Today’s guest is world-renowned photographer Robert Holmes. Co-hosts Sabine and Sivani...

From taboos in the margins of a journalist’s notebook to Viking battlefields, season 2 of Hidden Compass: The Podcast has taken us to some compelling places. In episode 5, we find ourselves even further down the rabbit hole of our theme — “What Have I Done?” — with a story set in a Columbian narco-terrorist’s home, where a young woman faces an ethical dilemma. For today’s episode, co-hosts Sivani Babu and Sabine K. Bergmann are joined by restless writer Victoria Sanderson to discuss distorte...

We’re halfway through Season 2 of Hidden Compass: The Podcast, and co-hosts Sivani Babu and Sabine K. Bergmann can barely believe it. There’s so much more to dig into with the season’s theme: “What Have I Done?” The roots of that question — and its larger corollary of what humanity has done — run through today’s story and the following interview. On this episode, Sivani and Sabine sit with queer poet, writer, and world traveler Shannon Donaghy to talk about the space we take up while tr...

Three episodes into the second season of Hidden Compass: The Podcast, and we’re delving even deeper into the intellectual and emotional weeds of season two’s theme: “What Have I Done?” On today’s episode, co-hosts Sabine K. Bergmann and Sivani Babu sit in conversation with marine biologist, storyteller, and self-identified geek Russell Bradley. The three discuss the humanity of scientists, the lure of a wildly remote outpost in the tropical North Pacific, and the intersection of tedium, bliss...

Welcome back to Hidden Compass: The Podcast, where we venture to the frontiers of courage and curiosity and ask the question of season two’s theme: “What Have I Done?” On today’s episode, co-hosts Sabine K. Bergmann and Sivani Babu sit with author Keith Skinner to discuss reading poetry written in battle, finding humanity in a blood-thirsty conqueror, and facing the impermanence of it all. But first, journey with us, as Keith takes us to the Orkney archipelago off the northeastern coast of S...

Welcome back to Hidden Compass: The Podcast! Co-hosts and Hidden Compass co-founders Sabine K. Bergmann and Sivani Babu have missed you — and can’t wait to share a brand-new season featuring not only stories from our award-winning magazine, but conversations with the remarkable humans who wrote them. Join us at the frontiers of courage and curiosity, facing what frightens us, inspires us, and causes us to ask the question of season two’s theme: “What Have I Done?” We kick things off with “The...

For our last episode of season 1, we welcome queer Russian-Jewish refugee storyteller and activist — and former Hidden Compass editor — Sonya Pevzner to Hidden Compass, The Podcast. As always, Sonya blows us away by her courage and candor as she speaks with Sabine and Sivani about the heartache of prejudice, the serendipity of survival, and the triumph of claiming a right to our own family histories. But first, journey with us, as Sonya takes us to the siege of Leningrad and its aftermath to ...

On today’s show, travel writer and former documentary filmmaker Martha Ezell joins co-hosts (and Hidden Compass co-founders) Sivani Babu and Sabine K. Bergmann to chat about beautiful insects, generational wisdom, and the testosterone-filled art scene of New York City in the 1980s. But first, journey with us, as Martha takes us to takes us to the sacred fir forests of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt to be awed by the “Journey of a Golden Soul.” Storyteller: Martha Ezell is a freelance travel ...