Life doesn’t follow a map, and I think that’s exactly why this conversation stuck with me long after we stopped recording. Rita and I sat down with Shannon Lampkin, a travel storyteller, author, and podcast host who started “Travel Time Stories” as a show about adventure and then watched it turn into something bigger — a space for healing, identity, and starting over. Her whole point, and it’s a good one, is that storytelling is what actually creates connection. When you hear somebody else talk honestly about trauma, caregiving, anxiety, or some hard pivot they didn’t see coming, you recognize a piece of yourself in it. You feel less alone, and you start asking better questions about what you actually need next. If you’ve been looking for a “travel style” that fits your real life instead of some Instagram version of it, this episode is a good reminder that the most transformative trips usually start with an honest conversation, not a plane ticket.
Shannon talked about how sharing your story moves you from isolation toward possibility. She doesn’t frame travel as escape — more as a tool for rebuilding self-trust and getting some perspective, especially after you’ve been through something. And she was candid about it, too: surviving abusive relationships, how trauma shapes you as a teenager and then follows you into adulthood, and the hard truth that leaving a bad situation isn’t the same thing as being healed. That part stuck with me. Recovery, she says, can take years, and it usually needs safe friendships and spaces where your voice is actually welcomed, not just tolerated. That idea kept coming back throughout the conversation — healing as reclaiming your voice, learning to take care of yourself without feeling guilty about it, letting yourself be seen without bracing for judgment. If you’re interested in trauma recovery, real friendship, or just mental health in general, this episode is a pretty good model of how to tell the truth without turning it into a performance.
Parenting and family history added another layer to the conversation. Shannon talked about what it takes to parent through serious mental illness, starting with an early bipolar diagnosis and later a schizoaffective disorder diagnosis, and how often schools and systems just aren’t built to actually support a family going through that. She also shared her adoption story, including the long search for her birth parents back before the internet made everything a quick search away. It took her letters, library research, and real legwork. She shared what she eventually learned about inherited mental health risk along the way. Rita and I found ourselves connecting with her on caregiving and loss too since we have both been there with previous spouses, including the toll that chronic illness and dialysis can take, and that moment when your wedding vows stop being words from a ceremony and become something you’re actually living out day to day. If you’re in the middle of caregiving, an empty nest, or just asking yourself “who am I now?” — her framework of reconnect, reclaim, and reinvent is a genuinely useful way to name whatever chapter you’re in.
Travel came back around as the proof of all of it. Shannon described her first solo trip, to New Orleans, while she was still dealing with panic attacks, and how just getting through the airport alone turned into a real turning point for her confidence. She talked about cruising as a low-pressure way to sample a bunch of destinations without fully committing, and then a Scotland road trip that apparently set a new bar for what international travel could feel like. We also got into the practical side of things — when to lock in accommodations early, how to roll with it when your dates shift on you, and why flexibility usually beats a “perfect” plan that falls apart the moment something changes. Shannon’s got a couple of books coming soon; a memoir called “Map Back to Me” and a travel-inspired one called “Wrong Turns, Right People”. And honestly, that title says it all. Detours aren’t failures. They’re usually where the strength, the people, and the meaning show up in the first place.
Click below to listen to this powerful and moving episode.
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