Think of that feeling you have when you’re on a truly great vacation: your stress levels drop, trivial concerns reveal themselves to be just that, and you feel—you know—that life’s purpose is deeper and simpler than what you’d believed before (side note: this happens to me every time I go to New Orleans). Now think of how you feel standing at the baggage claim once you’ve returned home. Bummer, right? (This happens to me every time I return from New Orleans.)
With “In Motion: The Experience of Travel,” Tony Hiss, a former staff writer for The New Yorker, insists that we can channel that feeling of interconnectedness and heightened experience—he calls it Deep Travel, caps and all—and use it to broaden our everyday life. Hiss kindly took the time to chat with me over e-mail; an edited version of our exchange appears on newyorker.com.