Bizarre Travel Tales podcast

In this episode: Why France’s high-speed rail system needs a bigger plunger; why a European village calls UFOs illegal aliens; and why a British restaurant owner thinks his take-out food should be taken waaay out.

In this episode of Bizarre Travel Tales: Eskimo homes in the Caribbean; why the greatest American road trip song isn't American; a skyscraper proves not everything is bigger in Texas.

In this episode of Bizarre Travel Tales: Exploring chest size in the furniture capital of the world! Running of the bulls author should have read his own book! What happens when Japanese airport security stashes pot in your luggage.

We rely so much on spoken and written language when we travel, but is it possible that focusing too much on it prevents us from communicating other ways? Longtime travel journalist Spud Hilton explores the topic in a new Inappropriate Traveler podcast feature called Grounded!, an audio column looking at the myths, cliches and assumptions that many make about travel.

Longtime travel blogger and train fanatic Nora Dunn talks about what happens when Eastern medicine goes south, emptying vomit buckets in Peru, the downside to skydiving naked, and why zip-off convertible pants are a sign of the apocalypse. (Episode contains adult language and content.)

Drag performer Afrika America brings fun and fabulousness to everything she does — including her day job as a flight attendant. She chats about tragically oblivious passengers, why Chicago is great for cutting loose (Boystown!), being a glutton in New Orleans, and discovering there are African American people in Salt Lake City. (Episode contains adult language and content.)

Longtime blogger, entreprenuer and author Matt Kepnes talks about what life on the road for a decade is really like, missing a flight because of a hangover, why Paris is great for the deadly sin of gluttony, and a failed attempt to sleep through an orgy in Prague. (Episode contains adult language and content.)

Veteran blogger and outspoken travel advocate Pam Mandel (@NerdsEyeView) chats about people-watching in Waikiki, why road trips are the best travel (hint: stopping for pie), telling truth to tourism outlets, and lusting after Cambodian monks.

Gary Arndt, one of the world's most popular travel gurus, talks about where to get pork ribs in Tel Aviv, the art of "paleo showering," his Catholic-suffering approach to air travel, the origin or the "pornstache" and why he would prefer snakes over infants on an airplane. (Episode contains adult language and content.)

Veteran travel writer and blogger Rich Grant talks about drinking scotch from Coke cups, why the ruins at Pompeii need a bar, supplying strippers with convention swag, and why Disney's Star Wars land is better than the Pyramids of Egypt.

Host: Spud Hilton (@spudhilton)

Location: Anaheim Hilton, Anaheim, Calif., USA

Theme music: "Camelboots," by 84 Rooms (1982)