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Around the World in 50 Years by Albert Podell Review: A Raconteur's Relentless Global Quest
Albert Podell's Around the World in 50 Years is a nonfiction travelogue published by Thomas Dunne Books in March 2015, chronicling the Brooklyn-born former magazine editor's decades-long mission to set foot in every country on Earth — a goal that began with a record-breaking 581-day Trans-World Record Expedition in 1965–1966 and concluded, country by stubborn country, over a decade of sporadic travel starting in 2000. Publishers Weekly calls Podell a "worthy raconteur," and Kirkus Reviews confirms there is "never a dull moment" — though both outlets also note the book's occasional cultural blind spots and some stretches of list-driven content that slow the momentum.
LuvemBooks Verdict
Best for
Armchair travelers and adventure-nonfiction readers who want an opinionated, episode-driven account of reaching every country on Earth — including geopolitically fraught and rarely visited destinations most travelers never see.
Worth it if
The sheer geographic ambition appeals and you're happy with a strong, unfiltered Western voice delivering humor, danger, and unexpected emotional depth across dozens of countries.
Skip if
You prefer anthropologically sensitive or culturally nuanced travel writing — Podell's self-described "canny American" perspective and his pointed judgments about Haiti and parts of Africa will be a persistent friction point.
What readers & critics say
Publishers Weekly found Podell "a worthy raconteur" delivering "an informative and sobering look at the world's many cultures and the importance of travel." Kirkus Reviews confirmed the globe-trotting adventures are "unquestionably entertaining" but noted the running country tally "gets tiresome" at points and that Podell "occasionally shows his pampered Western roots," with cultural judgments some readers will find reductive.
“Podell proves himself a worthy raconteur — an informative and sobering look at the world's many cultures.”
— Publishers Weekly“The globe-trotting adventures are unquestionably entertaining — there is never a dull moment.”
— Kirkus Reviews4.3from 301 Amazon ratings— reader ratings, not a LuvemBooks score
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Albert Podell's Around the World in 50 Years is a nonfiction travelogue chronicling his decades-long obsession with reaching every country on Earth — from a record-breaking 1965–1966 Trans-World Expedition to the final, stubborn push through dictatorships and climate-threatened Pacific atolls. Publishers Weekly calls Podell a "worthy raconteur" whose dispatches deliver genuine humor, danger, and unexpected emotional depth across an enormous geographic canvas. The book is best suited to armchair adventurers and obsessive travelers, with the caveat that readers seeking culturally nuanced or anthropologically sensitive travel writing may find Podell's unapologetic "canny American" perspective a recurring friction point.
- Is it worth reading?
- For readers drawn to adventure-driven narrative nonfiction, Around the World in 50 Years delivers substantial reward. Publishers Weekly found Podell to be a 'worthy raconteur' offering 'an informative and sobering look at the world's many cultures,' while Kirkus Reviews confirmed the globe-trotting adventures are 'unquestionably entertaining,' singling out moments like his trek up Mount Vaea in Samoa to visit the grave of his idol Robert Louis Stevenson as evidence of genuine emotional depth. The main caveats are structural — Kirkus noted that the running 'do-do list' of countries visited 'gets tiresome' at points — and tonal: Podell's self-congratulatory Western perspective will frustrate readers seeking more culturally measured travel writing.
- Similar books
- Readers who enjoy Podell's brand of opinionated, globe-trotting nonfiction will find kindred spirits on the shelf. Bill Bryson's Notes from a Small Island offers a similarly humorous and self-aware traveler's voice, while Kevin Fedarko's A Walk in the Park brings the same blend of physical extremity and sweeping landscape to the American Southwest. For a more intimate, fish-out-of-water immersion in a single foreign culture, Tahir Shah's The Caliph's House traces his family's move to a crumbling Casablanca mansion with wit and cultural honesty. Pamdiana Jones' When in ROAM rounds out the set with a solo female traveler's irreverent take on international adventure.
- Who should read this?
- Around the World in 50 Years is squarely aimed at adult readers who relish adventure-driven narrative nonfiction and have an appetite for geopolitically fraught, rarely visited destinations — the kind of places most travel books never reach. Armchair travelers drawn to extreme geography, curious about what it actually takes to visit every country on Earth, and tolerant of a strong, self-assured (and occasionally self-congratulatory) central voice will get the most from the book. Readers who prefer more anthropologically sensitive or culturally measured travel writing — in the tradition of, say, a more reflective ethnographic approach — may find Podell's unapologetically Western perspective a persistent obstacle.
- About Albert Podell
- Albert Podell was an American magazine editor and writer, advertising executive, trial attorney, and documentary film producer and director.
- What are the main themes?
- The book operates on several thematic levels simultaneously. At its surface it is an adventure travelogue — a record of physical endurance, bureaucratic obstacle-course navigation, and cross-cultural encounter across geopolitically fraught destinations. Beneath that, it carries a serious environmental dimension: Podell treats climate change as an observed reality, and his visit to Tuvalu — described as set to become 'the first country to disappear under the waves of the rising ocean' — gives the book genuine ecological weight. There is also a persistent meta-theme about perspective and privilege: the book is filtered through what Podell himself calls a 'canny American' stance, and both Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews note the tension between his vivid storytelling and the cultural blind spots that come with that vantage point.
- Any content warnings?
- Kirkus Reviews flagged occasional salacious details that may not align with all readers' expectations for the travelogue genre. The book also contains cultural judgments — particularly sharp criticisms of Haiti and parts of Africa framed around what Podell characterises as an education gap — that Kirkus found reductive in tone. Readers sensitive to a self-congratulatory Western perspective, or who find discomfort in travel writing that does not interrogate its own privilege, should approach with that in mind.
Summarize this book
Is it worth reading?
Who should read this?
About Albert Podell
What are the main themes?
Any content warnings?
Summarize this book
Around the World in 50 Years follows Albert Podell — a Brooklyn-born former magazine editor and attorney — from his record-breaking 581-day Trans-World Record Expedition with Harold Stephens in 1965–1966 through a renewed, decade-long mission begun in 2000 to visit every country on Earth. The travelogue spans South and Central America, West Africa, Central Asia, the Middle East, and dozens of other destinations, threading together misadventures — near-drownings in Costa Rica, navigating corrupt officials, falling into a manhole of raw sewage in Africa, eating still-pulsating monkey brain — with broader observations on climate change, global culture, and the logistical puzzle of defining what even constitutes a 'country.' Rounded out with 31 black-and-white photographs and country-specific practical advice, the book functions as both a vivid adventure chronicle and something approaching a field guide for the truly determined traveler.
Follow up
What was the original 1965 expedition?
How did Podell define what counts as a country?
Does the book address climate change?
Synthesized from verified book data & published reviews · How we review
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Age & Reading Level
Recommended age
Adult
Reading level
Adult
2 content notes · who it suits
Content to know about
culturally reductive portrayals of Haiti and parts of Africa
occasional salacious content
Skip if you prefer culturally nuanced, anthropologically sensitive travel writing over a self-assured Western adventurer's voice.
Our Review
A sprawling, entertaining, and at times sobering nonfiction travelogue, Around the World in 50 Years is the work of a man who refused to let geography — or danger — tell him no.
The Mission and the Man Behind It
Around the World in 50 Years: My Adventure to Every Country on Earth by Albert Podell front cover
Albert Podell's story begins in 1964, when he quit his job at Argosy magazine and walked away from a comfortable bachelor life in New York City to attempt the longest land journey ever made around the world. That expedition — the 581-day Trans-World Record Expedition undertaken with Harold Stephens from 1965 to 1966, later chronicled in the co-authored book Who Needs a Road? — planted a seed. By 2000, Podell, now juggling a New York law practice, had been to roughly 110 countries and renewed a more ambitious vow: to reach every country on Earth before he died. The result of that commitment is this travelogue, which covers South and Central America, West Africa, Central Asia, the Middle East, and far beyond — a journey punctuated by misunderstandings, detours, accidents, robberies, and wars. Podell had to determine, practically speaking, what even constituted a country, since U.N. Membership was not always a reliable benchmark; Taiwan, Vatican City, and Kosovo all complicated that calculus.
Scope, Stakes, and Structure
The book's appeal lies not just in the sheer scale of Podell's project but in the texture of the individual episodes. He nearly drowns in Costa Rica, dives with penguins in the Galápagos, pans for gold in Senegal, eats ice cream in the Sahara Desert, and visits Tuvalu — a Pacific island that served as a major arsenal during World War II and is, as Podell quotes a local source, set to be "the first country to disappear under the waves of the rising ocean." He falls into a manhole full of raw sewage in Africa, navigates corrupt officials and soldiers across multiple continents, and consumes an eye-watering array of local dishes, including still-pulsating monkey brain. Rounded out with 31 black-and-white photographs and frank practical advice for fellow travelers, the book also carries a serious undertow: Podell treats climate change as a documented reality and weaves broader observations about global culture and work ethic into his dispatch-style chapters.
What the Critics Said
Both major trade reviewers responded positively. Publishers Weekly found Podell to be "a worthy raconteur" whose book is "an informative and sobering look at the world's many cultures and the importance of travel." Kirkus Reviews confirmed that the "globe-trotting adventures" are "unquestionably entertaining," singling out moments such as Podell's trek up Mount Vaea in Samoa to visit the grave of his idol Robert Louis Stevenson as evidence of genuine emotional depth beneath the adventure-story surface. The Kirkus review also praised his ability to "talk his way out of numerous dangerous scrapes," a quality that lends the narrative its propulsive energy across what is, by any measure, an enormous geographic and chronological canvas.
Where the Book Stumbles
Neither outlet was uncritical. Kirkus observed that Podell's so-called "do-do list" — the running tally of countries visited — "gets tiresome" at points, suggesting that the book's structural reliance on cataloguing destinations can interrupt the storytelling rhythm. More pointedly, Kirkus noted that Podell "occasionally shows his pampered Western roots," most visibly in the Podell Potty Paper Rating (PPPR), his country-by-country toilet-paper comfort index — a conceit that reads as both genuinely funny and as a marker of the perspective from which the entire journey is filtered. His sharp criticisms of Haiti and parts of Africa, framed around what he characterizes as an education gap, drew scrutiny from Kirkus for their tone, suggesting that some readers will find his cultural judgments reductive. The book's occasional salacious details, also flagged by Kirkus, may further divide audiences depending on their expectations for the travelogue genre.
Who This Book Is For
Around the World in 50 Years is best suited to readers who enjoy adventure-driven narrative nonfiction with a strong, opinionated central voice. Armchair travelers drawn to extreme geography and political flashpoints — the kind of places most travelers never reach — will find the itinerary alone worth the price of admission. Readers who prefer more measured, anthropologically sensitive travel writing may find Podell's self-described "canny American" stance a recurring friction point. For those curious about the logistical and psychological reality of visiting every nation on Earth, the book delivers both a vivid chronicle and, through its practical appendices and country-specific advice, something approaching a field guide for the truly determined traveler.
Sources & Further Reading
The key facts and claims in this review are grounded in the retrieved, verified sources listed below.
- Cited in this review
- 1
kirkusreviews.com
- 2
- 3
- 4
- Further reading
- 5
Albert Podell, Wikipedia
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
us.macmillan.com
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