By Iacopo Luzi

A Medill Newsmakers Report

People are traveling like never before. In 2015 alone almost 1.2 billion people traveled around the world, an increasing of 44% compared to the year before. In this edition of Medill Newsmakers we try to understand what traveling means and why it’s so important to so many people.  We also have tips and suggestions on how to travel safely around the world today.

00:00 — Monologue of Gabriel García Márquez called “Traveling is”, performed by Chicago actor Phil Herbruck.

1:12 — Panel in studio with international journalists Timothy McNulty and Fariba Pajooh to talk about how it is possible to travel safely today even in the most dangerous countries of the world.

10:49 — 7 tips, inspired by the of experience of former CIA agent Drew Dwyer, to travel safely around the world. (Explanation video)

14:00 — Interview in studio with Ajay Gidwani, travel agent at Intra world Travel in Evanston, to talk about the traveling trends of 2016 and to understand why so many people are traveling today.

20:00 — Interview by Skype with Alessandro Marziali, an Italian traveler who visited more that 45 countries in his life, to talk about his experience and the beauty of traveling.

25:00 — What is the wanderlust gene? This gene identified as the DHD4-7r gene could explain why some people need to travel more while others don’t have the same need. To understand the truth, we asked Emanuela Offidani, a psychologist Ph.D. at Weill Cornell Medicine, in New York, for some clarifications about this gene.

27:10 — We asked different people around the world what traveling means to them. Thanks to their feedback, we produced a short video called “Traveling for me is…”