Before you board an international flight, before you cross a border, you need a passport. But how much do you really know about the little book that controls where you can and cannot go in this world?On this episode of Unpacked, host Aislyn Greene sits down with Patrick Bixby, an English professor at Arizona State University and author of the book License to Travel: A Cultural History of the Passport, which explores how a bureaucratic document became one of the most emotionally loaded objects in human history.In the episode, they discuss the passport as a paradox: a document that simultaneously promises freedom and enforces control, that carries the hopes of liberation and the machinery of surveillance. You'll come away seeing that little booklet in your drawer in a completely different light.In this episode, you'll learn Why the passport as we know it was born out of World War I — and why those wartime controls never went away. How the word "passport" dates to 15th-century France, and why Shakespeare wrote about it. What Frederick Douglass's passport journey reveals about citizenship, race, and the fight for identity.Why the US passport ranks around 30th in global passport power — and what that means for American travelers. What's coming next: digital borders, blockchain credentials, and the end of the stamp. Key chaptersMeet this week's guestPatrick Bixby, English professor, cultural historian, and author of License to Travel: A Cultural History of the PassportResources Read the afar.com story about the world's most powerful passports. Be sure to subscribe to the show and sign up for our podcast newsletter, ⁠Behind the Mic⁠, where we share upcoming news and behind-the-scenes details of each episode. And explore our second podcast, ⁠⁠⁠⁠Travel Tales⁠⁠⁠⁠, which celebrates first-person narratives about the way travel changes us, and ⁠⁠⁠View From Afar⁠⁠⁠, where we spotlight the people and ideas shaping the future of travel. Unpacked by Afar is part of ⁠Airwave Media⁠'s podcast network. Please contact ⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠ if you would like to advertise on our podcast.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices