10 Skift Podcasts You May Have Missed in 2016

The Skift Podcast, hosted by Associate Editor Hannah Sampson, has brought dozens of insightful conversations to light for the past three seasons. Just in case you missed them, here’s a collection of our favorites from 2016.

>>The Invention of Online Travel and How it Changed the Future of Travel Forever
This seminal conversation arose from the book-length Definitive Oral History of Online Travel, written by our executive editor Dennis Schaal. Sampson sat down with Schaal and his interview clips with Expedia founder Rich Barton, Priceline founder Jay Walker, Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, TripAdvisor CEO and co-founder Stephen Kaufer, and Orbitz’s first employee Alex Zoghlin.

>>Busting the Myths of Bad Travel Advice
There are hordes of so-called experts dispensing their dos and don’ts, but when so many disagree, where should the consumer turn? Along with Sampson and Reporter Dan Peltier, our myth-busting guests were George Hobica, founder of Airfarewatchdog, and Scott Mayerowitz, the enterprise airlines reporter at Associated Press.

>>Reinventing Travel Brands Through Modern Content Marketing
Instead of waiting for customers and the media to tell the story, travel brands are taking the storytelling into their own hands, and Marriott is a prime example. David Beebe, Marriott International’s vice president of global creative and content marketing, sat down with Sampson and Senior Editor Greg Oates.

>>Iceland and the Perils of Overtourism
When a destination’s popularity exceeds its capacity, we call it “overtourism,” and that’s exactly what happened to Iceland over the past five years. Reporter Andrew Sheivachman traveled to Iceland and wrote a 12,000-word deep dive on the subject, then sat down with Sampson and clips from his on-site interviews.

>>Black Travel Has Become a Movement
Travel companies created by and for black Americans have gained serious traction in the last couple of years. Sampson and Editorial Assistant Sarah Enelow discussed representation and discrimination with two leaders of the Black Travel Movement: Evita Robinson, founder of Nomadness Travel Tribe, and Shannon Washington, co-founder and director of Parlour Magazine.

>>Top Hotel CEOs and Executives Talk Direct Booking, Airbnb, and Cuba
The hospitality sector is a huge part of our editorial coverage, and in this episode we tackled Airbnb and the direct booking wars between hotels and OTAs. Associate Editor Deanna Ting joined Oates and Sampson with interview clips from: Marriott President and CEO Arne Sorenson, Choice Hotels President and COO Pat Pacious, Virgin Hotels CEO Raul Leal, AccorHotels CEO of Hotel Services for North and Central America Christophe Alaux, and Red Lion Hotels CEO Greg Mount and Chief Franchise Officer Brian Quinn.

>>Why New York’s High Line Became the Attraction Smart Cities Want
The High Line, an old elevated railway converted into a sleek new park, proved a wildly successful tourist attraction and economic driver. Now, every city wants one. Sampson and Oates discussed the phenomenon with Adrian Benepe, senior vice president and director of city park development at The Trust for Public Land, and Meg Daly, founder and president of Friends of the Underline in Miami.

>>When Everything Is An Adventure, What Happens to Adventure Travel?
The term “adventure travel” now suggests more than extreme sports like cave diving, but its meaning is hard to pin down. To get to the bottom of it, Sampson and Sheivachman spoke with Bruce Poon Tip, founder and CEO of G Adventures, and Casey Hanisko, VP of marketing for the Adventure Travel Trade Association.

>>U.S. Workers and Their No-Vacation Nation
American workers are notorious for not taking vacations, and while the reasons for this are layered, it’s a persistent problem. Skift Founder and CEO Rafat Ali joined Sampson for this conversation with Gary Oster, managing director of Project: Time Off, and Dr. Ken Matos, senior director of research at the Families and Work Institute.

>>How Business Travel Is Trying to Become More Traveler-Friendly
Traditionally, employee satisfaction hasn’t been a high priority when employers book business trips for their workers, but this might be changing. Schaal sat down with Sampson as well as Mike McCormick, executive director and COO of the Global Business Travel Association, and Evan Konwiser, VP digital traveler for American Express Global Business Travel.