the vogel twins

On today's episode, we are excited to explore the incredible work being done by the Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem, New York. The center is dedicated to the protection and preservation of wolves through education, advocacy, and participation in species recovery and reintroduction programs. Our guest today is Dana Goin, a Wildlife Outreach Specialist at the Wolf Conservation Center. Dana is responsible for coordinating and leading many of the center's educational programs and outreach initiatives, which aim to engage and educate the public about the importance of wolf conservation. We are honored to have her here today to share her expertise and insights on the critical work being done by the Wolf Conservation Center to protect wolves and their ecosystems.

Guest Info:

In honor of our spooky season we are taking you to Salem! We will be exploring one of the most fascinating and infamous periods in American history - the Salem witch trials. Today, the Salem witch trials remain a powerful symbol of the dangers of superstition, intolerance, and mob mentality, and continue to capture our imagination and fascination. So, let's dive into the history of witches in Salem, and explore the myths, facts, and legacy of this dark chapter in American history with your favorite spooky guest Troy Taylor! In this episode, we'll be discussing "One Night in Salem," the gripping and insightful book by Troy Taylor that offers a new perspective on the Salem witch trials, the events leading up to them, and the history of witchcraft in America.

The Invasion of the Pines is an annual event held on Fire Island that has become an important part of the island's drag culture. The event takes place on the Fourth of July and involves a parade of drag performers, who make their way from the neighboring town of Cherry Grove to the upscale community of Fire Island Pines. The parade, which began in 1976, is a playful take on the American Revolution, with performers dressed in elaborate costumes that pay homage to the founding fathers.

The Invasion of the Pines is a celebration of drag and LGBTQ+ culture, as well as a way to push back against the elitism and exclusivity that has historically been associated with Fire Island's Pines community. The event has grown in popularity over the years and now attracts thousands of visitors to the island each summer. It is a testament to the enduring power of drag as a form of resistance and a means of bringing communities together.

So in honor of pride month, on today's episode, we are thrilled to welcome a true star of the drag scene. This queen has dazzled audiences with her stunning performances, incredible costumes, and unmatched charisma. She's a true icon of the LGBTQ+ community in Fire Island and a shining example of the power of self-expression and acceptance. Please join us in welcoming the one and only Pixie Aventura.

This month we are going to take you to Washington DC! DC has been the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) since the agency's inception in 1947. The CIA's mission is to collect, analyze, and disseminate intelligence to support national security objectives. Throughout its history, the agency has played a critical role in some of the most significant events of the 20th and 21st centuries, from the Cold War to the War on Terror. While much of the CIA's work is shrouded in secrecy, visitors to Washington DC can explore its history and legacy through museums and memorials, as well as specialized tours led by expert guides.

Today, we're thrilled to be joined by Rosanna Minchew, a spy guide and expert on the history and culture of espionage in Washington DC. As a guide for Spytours, Rosanna has led countless visitors on an immersive journey through the secret world of spies, sharing fascinating stories and little-known facts along the way. Today, she's here to give us a glimpse into that world and share some of her own experiences and insights.

This month we are taking you to Vegas! Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city, known primarily for its gambling. BUT we do not gamble or even know how to SO we decided to use the Best Bet Vegas tours to teach ourselves how to gamble like a pro! The team at Best Bet Vegas Tours are experienced local guides who share their passion and knowledge for Las Vegas with travelers from all over the world. 

This month we are taking you to Vermont! I don't know about you, but when I think of Vermont the first thing I think of is snow activities and for someone who doesn't ski or snowboard I was curious what else we could experience that still feels true to Vermont. And that is when we discovered Robert De-Grun-yer

Robert DuGrenier is a well-known sculptor, artist, and designer working primarily in glass, metal and marble. He is located in Townshend, Vermont where he has given people an opportunity to experience first hand the thrill of working with molten glass and create a unique work of art from start to finish at his studio. He also has tours of his maple bush and sugar house to taste his small-batch of award-winning Taft Hill Farm maple syrup. Today we will be discussing his amazing career and how you can experience these activities in Vermont with Robert.

Follow @thevogeltwins for updates on the podcast, tips on travel and more!

Our season is almost over! If you haven't already feel free to listen to this past season to get ready for our big rewind episode that airs at the end of the month! Hope you all enjoy your holidays with loved ones!

Follow @thevogeltwins for updates on the podcast, tips on travel and more!

For today's twin talk we want to highlight a special organization called Elephant Nature Park. Elephant Nature Park is an elephant rescue and rehabilitation center in Northern Thailand where you can volunteer and visit to help. They have been involved in dozens of rescues that have created their thriving elephant herd. The park provides a natural environment for elephants, dogs, cats, buffaloes, and many other animals under their care. Volunteers and visitors contribute to the healing while learning about their lives past and present. We were fortunate enough to visit this sanctuary back in 2018 and wanted to share their mission and our experience by reading an excerpt from Shannon's travel journal during that time. If you are interested in visiting or donating here is the link where you can help their organization continue to do the work they do!

Meet our guest Brittnay Sharman. She has house-sat in 15 countries, looked after 40 homes and cared for over 45 animals! But the craziest part of this whole story, she has traveled around the world to these amazing locations FOR FREE! Imagine traveling the world and not having to spend rent, thanks to becoming a House sitter she has done just that! Today Britt is going to share with us the life of a house sitter and how she was able to combine her favorite interests, travel and animals!

Meet our guest Troy Taylor. His full-time job is ghosts, true crime, and the unexplained. He is the author of more than 130 books and the owner of American Hauntings - a tour company dedicated to offering a historically haunted experience in towns across Illinois and haunted locations all over the country!

You may remember him from last year's episode “American Hauntings” where he shared some of his favorite haunting stories in Alton, Illinois and we joined him on a ghost tour there to show us where those stories began. To say we are big fans is an understatement since we asked to have him on again, but this time he will be covering the haunted tales of New Orleans!

With all the traveling we have done we can easily say this was the WORST flying experience of our lives. This is probably the second worst thing that can happen on a flight (the first being a plane crash) that we can now check off as a traveling experience. Unfortunately, it is one we have been avoiding the most. Tune in to hear what happened and how we survived 7 hours of flying with food poising! 

Follow @thevogeltwins for updates on the podcast, tips on travel and more!

Here is the second part of our experience hiking the Inca Trail with the Alpaca Expeditions! We cover what you can expect, our experience for the second half of the hike, and the impact of seeing Machu Picchu on our last day. We want to give a big shout-out to our tour guides, Yoel, Aldair, and Victor for making this experience so special but also to our group of new friends who got us through these 4 days with a lot of laughter and love! Expect some happy tears in this episode and how we were able to share this beautiful moment at Machu Picchu with our family!

Follow @thevogeltwins for updates on the podcast, tips on travel and more!

To say this was one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of our lives is an understatement, but this achievement would not have been possible without the help of the Alpaca Expeditions. Through this tour group, we were able to check off a life bucket list and have the adventure of a lifetime. In this episode, we walk you through the first 2 of 4 days hiking the Inca trail and what you can expect as well as the incredible people we met! We will be covering the next half of the hike in the next episode so stay tuned!

Follow @thevogeltwins for updates on the podcast, tips on travel and more!

When we travel we like to collect specific memorabilia that represents the country we travel to, but is this a common goal? We debate and share the meaning of our souvenirs and how these objects can bring us back to that moment. 

Follow @thevogeltwins for updates on the podcast, tips on travel, and more!

Alpaca Expeditions is the #1 tour operator in Peru, who prides themselves on superior service to their clients, creating unique and memorable adventures all around Peru. They pride themselves on being sustainable and responsible, committed to improving the lives of their team and families with better wages and services. They have been featured on Netflix, Lonely Planet, Forbes and others. But we can’t start to talk about Alpaca Expeditions without mentioning the founder first. From a porter to the owner of the number 1 Tour Operator in Cusco, meet our guest today, Raul Ccolque Ccolque. For more on this episode check out our webpage here. 

Guest information: 

It's officially that time of year again, the first half of our season is done! But don't worry we will be making sure to keep you updated on all the fun things you can do this summer specifically in New York.

Follow @thevogeltwins for updates on the podcast, tips on travel and more!

Yukako Satone is a Japan-born fiber artist, weaving instructor and the founder of craft studio Loop of the Loom based in New York. Loop of the Loom introduces the Japanese SAORI weaving method that everyone can freely weave for self-expression, self-discovery, and self-healing. Through the practice of SAORI weaving, she originated it as a unique session called "Zen Weaving". Since opening in 2005, she has been giving experiences of meditative and aesthetic weaving to over ten thousands of people from all over the world.

Guest: Yukako Satone

We talk about the destination bachelorettes we have been to and why we think it's something you should always say yes to! 

Follow @thevogeltwins for updates on the podcast, tips on travel and more!

Kerry Martin is a Melbourne-based and international award-winning family and pet photographer who considers pets very much part of the family. It’s for this very reason that she specializes in portraiture photography that includes dogs and families with their pets! 

Kerry is also Editor of Puppy Tales, a website devoted to the promotion of wonderful relationships between dogs and people. She shares her travels and adventures to help you plan the perfect trip with your pup or to create an exciting bucket list to achieve together.

Welcome our guest Kendall Fuhrman, she is an entrepreneur, travel vlogger, content creator, podcast host, and now author of her new book coming out called "You Are The Medicine" which follows her journey in Peru where she took one of the strongest psychedelics in the world  and learned to find her medicine within. She has a mission of inspiring others to find their happiness within and live their life to the fullest! 

She began her career in October 2018 when she quit her job and started her viral content and marketing agency, Fuhrman Ventures LLC where she quickly found success with freelancing and being a content creator online reaching 555K followers across her TikTok, Instagram and YouTube and getting paid to travel. She is passionate about manifestation, travel, spirituality and her goal is to share her story in the hopes of inspiring others on their self discovery journey as well.

Guest: Kendall Fuhrman

We know most people just want to get to their destination fast BUT you are missing out on all the fun things that layovers have to offer! We talk about all the tips and tricks on how to make layovers more fun and the amenities you may not know is offered  in different airports around the world.

Follow @thevogeltwins for updates on the podcast, tips on travel and more!

Meet our guest Eden Tijerina and Syrie Moskowitz, co-founders of Muses Escape. The Muses are a collective designed to empower the aesthetics of femininity in all its forms. They create opportunities for artistic women around the world to meet, collaborate with, and inspire one other. They host yearly and bi-yearly escapes to magical secret locations around the world. Each escape focuses on a different area of the creative arts and offers unique experiences, including curated classes with world renowned instructors, all in exquisite and historical locations, as well as hosting decadent NYC based events.

Traveling with your sister definitely helps combat being homesick but that doesn't mean we don't. We talk about our two biggest triggers and it might surprise you! 

Follow @thevogeltwins for updates on the podcast, tips on travel and more!

Victoria O’Connell is the CEO of Golightly. Which is an invite-only private club providing a vacation rental and home-sharing platform for women. She is an entrepreneur with over 17 years of experience co-founding and managing JDP Global, an international e-commerce and real estate company. With vacation rentals in Malta, London, Dubai and Miami, she’s long been a customer of alternative accommodations.

But it wasn’t until 2017 when her rental space was burglarized that made Victoria think about how she - and many women - feel vulnerable while both traveling and renting out one’s home. She realized that knowing more about who is renting your property, who you are renting from, and having a connection to that person through a private club, was the answer-which was how GoLightly was formed.

We love to plan our days when we travel but when we reflect on our favorite memories while traveling we realized it was always the most spontaneous moments! We reflect on one of our favorite stories from Japan where we met 3 Americans at a 7/11 in Shibuya and talk about how the night unfolded for us. 

Follow @thevogeltwins for updates on the podcast, tips on travel and more!

Happy Valentine's day! On today's Twin talk we discuss the good and bad experiences being on dating apps as a twin. From matching the same people to being able to avoid the "West Elm Caleb" type, dating apps have taught us a lot about what we look for in a partner. Although we have not been successful yet, it has provided some good content to laugh about with you.

Follow @thevogeltwins for updates on the podcast, tips on travel and more!

Follow @thevogeltwins for updates on the podcast, tips on travel and more!

Another season in the books! We recap on our third season and recollect some funny moments that happened while recording the people we met and conversations we had off mic with our guests! Tune in to listen to everything that has happened this past year and what you will be expecting this upcoming season next!

Our guest is Kwabi Amoah-Forson is a humanitarian from Tacoma, WA. Through various humanitarian campaigns he has helped others in need in his community. He also works to educate others on what peace really means and create dialogue for the subject. ⁠ ⁠ Tune in to hear how you can be a part of the Peace Bus Journey!⁠

Guest Information

Meet today's guest Rebecca Rothney, founder of Pack for a purpose. The idea for Pack for a Purpose evolved from Rebecca’s travels in Africa with her husband Scott, where they had the opportunity to visit an elementary school and decided to bring 140 pounds of supplies to the children and saw what a big impact it was for them! When she founded Pack for a Purpose 11 years ago, her computer skills were almost nonexistent, she thought text belonged in a book, blackberries belonged in a cobbler, and she only spreadsheets on a bed.

Guest Information

Say hello to our guest Brit - a travel writer and the voice behind the travel blog lifeofbrit.com. She is beyond passionate about inspiring other women to get out there and travel solo. Her mission is to help other "normal" people on a budget pursue travel too! She shares her tips and tricks on how you can profit your hobbies and have a passive income to help you afford your trips! 

Guest Information

Meet our guest Rita Schmidt. Yes you heard that right THE Rita Schmidt from SEASON 1! She is a natural born psychic and has been a professional Tarot reader for over 25 years. But on this episode she will be talking about all of her metaphysical encounters while she has traveled as a medium. Some encounters were anticipated while some were NOT. Listen to hear more of her spooky encounters throughout the years as a medium on today's episode.

Guest Information

Say hello to our guest Troy Taylor- His full-time job is ghosts, true crime, and the unexplained. He is the author of more than 130 books on those topics and the owner of American Hauntings, which is a tour company dedicated to offering a historically haunted experience in towns across Illinois and at haunted locations all over the country.

Guest Information

Say hello to Allison Wolf! She is a travel content creator and digital nomad. She has traveled to 18 countries (across 4 continents) so far and have self-funded all of her adventures. Her biggest goals right now are to move abroad and launch a course that teaches others how to start working remotely so they can live a life with more freedom. We talk about our travels her viral Tiktoks and more!

Guest Information

On today's episode we reflect on the times we have gotten lost while traveling. From our times in London getting drunk and ending up in the streets, Shannon getting lost in Oktoberfest for 8 hours then having a Japanese bus driver draw us a map of the town to having a pervert in Paris follow us on a train- we can easily say our times traveling haven't always gone smoothly.

Today our guest is Captain Garth Wells. Garth has been sailing the French since 1998, first as the mate, and now as Captain/Owner. He has sailed huge square-rigged vessels, modern day yachts, schooners, and commercial fishing vessels. Signing on to work on the French, he quickly realized that Maine was the ultimate in traditional boat sailing, combining beautiful scenery and good winds with the protection of countless islands. From how he has balanced family life as a Captain to his famous 4 day sail in Maine, we discuss how someone becomes a captain.

Guest Information:

Based in Cardiff, Wales, Kacie is a full-time food and travel blogger at The Rare Welsh Bit, an award-winning blog established in 2010 featuring recipes, restaurants, culinary travel, sight-seeing and more. With a background in journalism and over 10 years' experience in writing and editing, Kacie is also a member of the UK Guild of Food Writers and writes on a freelance basis for the likes of Visit Wales, Sainsbury's Magazine, Co-Op Food Mag and World Travel Market.

Guest Information

Meet our guest Sherilyn- a full time content creator and social media hype girl. She is the founder of the travel community - Travel Addicts UK and also big on supporting others to release their inner queen of confidence and build an authentic brand online.

Follow @thevogeltwins for updates on the podcast, tips on travel and more!

Meet our guest Caoilfhionn, an Irish travel writer and photographer based in Scotland. She has spent the last 7 years building a career in travel through writing for titles such as Elle and Suitcase, photographing for global brands and most recently, starting her own content production studio, Crusoe Collective. She comes on to talk about how she turned her love for photography and travel into a career out and how you can do that too!

Guest Information

Jessie Chen is an NYC-based travel blogger who started Lost With Jess when she bought a one-way ticket to Thailand and backpacked through Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand for 3 years! Right now, she runs marketing at a tech startup based in Brooklyn but still tries to travel as often as she can. Through her blog and photography, she advocates for a purposeful travel mindset so that we may leave the world a better place. We discuss how you can become more sustainable during your travels and ways to incorporate that in your everyday life.

Guest Information