Summer Travel: Whales

A podcast version of last year's post

Photo by Bart on Unsplash

This summer, I’m posting short vignettes of places I’ve visited as part of the Summer Travel Series on The Matterhorn. It’s part of our ongoing look at culture and internationalism. We’d love to hear from you in the comments if you’ve been to or know more about these places, or if the descriptions generate ideas and make you think of something differently.

Thanks for reading! - Kate

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As a follow up the my podcast version of The Sea a couple weeks ago, I’ve also recorded Whales. This was my second post for The Matterhorn last August and one with several mentions of Maine, which I’ll pick up with next week in an original post.

I also just saw more yesterday about the conflict over Japanese whale meat that I mention briefly in the essay. According to Quartz, “a sprawling trade agreement between the US and a dozen other countries—was put in jeopardy after Japanese officials told the US that a provision containing anti-whaling language was a deal-breaker.” According to the article, although not many Japanese actually eat whale meat, the government aims to support “tradition” and don’t believe other cultures should be able to impose their own on them.

Whilst recording this voiceover, I thought it felt like a good time to go back to Moby Dick and read a few of my favorite chapters. Anyone currently reading it?

We would love to hear about your own whale experiences! Let us know what you’ve seen, read, or heard.