Extreme Tourism: A Simpsons Writer Goes Where You Wouldn’t

It’s an understatement calling it adventure tourism, at minimum its extreme travel, more accurately it’s insanely dangerous. Diving to crushing depths to glimpse the Titanic, sightseeing hostile dictatorships, postcard-shopping in active war zones – increasingly, people are choosing to go to these places…for vacation. Really, no really! What could possibly possess a person to willingly put their lives in danger for a few photographs and an unusual stamp on their passport? You might expect these reckless tourists to be former Special Forces or folks with cultural ties so deep that it neutralizes the danger. Well…maybe those people exist but today Jason and Peter are talking to Mike Reiss, a middle-aged, Emmy-winning, Simpsons writer-producer whose wife compelled him to visit 136 countries, including Iran, Syria, and even North Korea! Mike Reiss has won four Emmys and a Peabody Award during his twenty-eight years writing for The Simpsons. He ran the show in Season 4, which Entertainment Weekly called “the greatest season of the greatest show in history. And Mike claims to be happily married for over thirty years. We believe him…? ON THIS EPISODE: Why more and more people are doing these extreme activities… How Mike went from homebody to extreme world traveler. True tales from Iran, Iraq, Syria & Afganistan. Almost forced to make movies for Kim Jung Il in North Korea. Diving in the doomed Ocean Gate experimental submarine 4 times! That time he almost died on a Namibian sand dune on New Year’s Eve. Jason’s main travel fear - toilet uncertainty! Mike shares his top travel tips from his years as an extreme tourist. The one vacation so bad Mike had to cut it short – you’ll never guess the country. He’s willing to go to Mars, but THIS place he refused to go. Googleheim: The most dangerous places…in your home. FOLLOW MIKE REISS: Podcast: What Am I Doing Here? with Mike Reiss X/Twitter: @MikeReissWriter FOLLOW REALLY NO REALLY: www.reallynoreally.com Instagram YouTube TikTok Facebook Threads X (Twitter) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices