Slate Money: Travel – Frequent Flyer

Podcast: Slate Money
Air Date: March 12, 2019
Host: Felix Salmon
Guest: Katherine Maher, Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation

Episode Overview

In this special Slate Money: Travel miniseries, Felix Salmon sits down with Katherine Maher, potentially the most-traveled guest in the show's history, to discuss the real-world experience and logistics of global travel. Maher shares practical insights, hacks, and stories from her role overseeing the international Wikimedia Foundation—a job that keeps her in transit for much of the year. The episode dives into frequent flyer strategies, the economics and challenges of air travel, life on the road, and the joys and frustrations of everything from public transport to bikes and scooters.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Global Life of a Traveler

• Katherine Maher’s Travel Stats:
  • “I flew 234,728 miles and visited 14 countries in 48 cities [last year].” (01:44)
  • Spends most of her time flying economy (“Back of the bus, baby.” – 02:06), despite often interacting with high-profile tech and cultural leaders.
• Travel is essential for Wikimedia’s global mission: “Part of what I wanted to do was bring together the global Wikimedia contributor community and actually give them a sense of a coherent global identity... the best way to do that is actually go to the places that they live and work in the context that they’re in.” (02:24)

2. Air Travel: Points, Perks, & Pain

• Airline Loyalty:
  • Loyal to both Lufthansa (Miles & More) and Delta for maximizing options—despite Lufthansa being tough on status. (03:54)
  • “I’m stuck… I have sort of a sunk cost issue going on.” (03:54)
• Upgrades and Lounge Access:
  • Long gone are the days of free upgrades. “Nobody really does upgrades anymore. Delta is actually pretty good at this. That’s why I fly them in the US but not internationally.” (04:49)
  • Lounge access is the best perk—“I get to shower.” (07:00)
• Use of Miles:
  • Maher tends to hoard miles, contemplating a someday splurge on a first-class trip: “Maybe blow them all on some big first class trip sometime somewhere.” (05:41)
  • Anecdote of a traveler exploiting the Munich first-class lounge via repeatedly changing flights. (06:00)

3. Productivity, Sleep, and Survival Strategies

• Getting Work Done:
  • “Flights... are like a little productivity tube. There’s no one pinging you... You just can focus.” (07:21)
  • Avoids in-flight Wi-Fi for productivity; only turns it on for her phone, not laptop. (07:21)
• Coping with Exhaustion:
  • Able to sleep on planes—attributes it to both practice and perpetual exhaustion. “You have to learn.” (08:19)
  • Sleep kit: “I bring my favorite shawl, have the little face mask, and got the neck thing, and I just bundle up and I am out.” (08:04)
• Morning arrivals & jetlag:
  • “Go and show up and look really pitiful in the lobby of a hotel until they tell you to stop sleeping on their bench and check in.” (08:40)
  • Best hack: Go for a run in a new city right after landing to adjust and wait for hotel check-in. (09:03)

4. Hotels and Brand Loyalty

• No major brand loyalty; as a nonprofit, Wikimedia books whatever’s cheapest and closest. (09:25)

5. The Joy (and Burden) of Work Travel

• Perception of Travel:
  • Despite the grind, Maher finds the travel meaningful: “It is transformational to be able to travel the world with people who care about information because they are the best travel guides... I don’t mind the travel. The travel is—it’s a little insane, but it is a perk, and I think it actually is essential.” (09:44–11:20)
• Importance of local experience: Critiques Silicon Valley for designing tech without truly knowing users’ lived context. (11:00)

6. Exploring New Places – Food as a Motivation

• Favorite destinations by cuisine: “Lebanon, Mexico, India... I will eat my way through any of these countries.” (12:36)
• Misses access to Turkish food/airline due to Wikipedia’s ban in Turkey; hopes for future travel to places like the Philippines, Iran, and Uzbekistan. (13:26–15:02)
• Reflection on how travel shrinks cultural differences: “The more you travel… it makes it so obvious how similar we all are.” (15:02)

7. Technology on the Road

• Enjoys slow data (T-Mobile roaming): “It deters you from constantly being on your phone... Let’s just slow down browsing again.” (17:20)
• Jokes about requesting 2G on purpose for mindfulness. (18:02)

8. The Environmental Cost of Frequent Travel

• Maher is environmentally conscious—doesn’t own a car, lives in a studio, is vegetarian—but is acutely aware of her carbon footprint from flying: “It is a matter of existential angst for me.” (20:03)
• Defends economy class as more eco-efficient than business class: “The more people you have on a plane... the more efficient it is.” (20:36)

9. City Transportation: Public Transit, Bikes & Scooters

• Public Transit Aficionado:
  • Loves figuring out and riding public transit worldwide—even in tricky cities/languages (e.g., Kiev’s Cyrillic signage). (22:15–24:01)
  • “Metro systems are really fun… they represent an identity of a country.” (23:01)
• Critique of U.S. infrastructure: Compares SF and NY public transit’s challenges to efficient, dense European systems—“investing in infrastructure is the lifeblood of a country.” (25:41)
• Infrastructure anecdotes: Stories of Lagos floods and how transit issues can paralyze cities. (26:12)
• Bus Lanes over Trams: Argues bus lanes are often a better, more practical investment than new tram systems. (27:32)
• Classism and Buses: “It’s classism to not take a bus... buses are the primary mode of transportation for people with limited mobility [and] lower income.” (28:41)

10. "Last Mile" Transport: Bikes, Dockless Bikes, and Scooters

• Bikes as the Ideal: “Bikes are like my favorite technology.” (31:07)
• Enjoys her own bike but uses docked systems when needed. Intrigued by rebalancing dynamics and ‘Bike Angels’—riders who help optimize city bike locations, drawing an analogy to Wikipedia’s volunteer structure. (31:53–32:34)
• Scooters’ Economic Problems: Short scooter lifespans and high costs make current rental models unsustainable. (29:23–30:08)
• Dockless bike sharing’s woes: Refers to China’s Ofo and Mobike bike-sharing collapses. (30:08)
• Unique forms—Paternoster elevators: Ends with a nod to rare, ultra-efficient German Paternoster lifts: “Bikes are the original cool tech…[but] no one knows how they actually work.” (33:14–34:39)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Back of the bus, baby.” – Katherine on always flying economy (02:06)
• “If you’ve never missed a flight, you spend too much time in airports, right?” – Felix (06:52)
• “The travel is—it’s a little insane, but it is a perk, and I think it actually is essential.” – Katherine (09:44–11:20)
• “Travel on my stomach.” – Katherine, on prioritizing destinations for food (14:03)
• “Public transit is like democracy, you have to use it to keep it.” – Katherine (29:07)
• “Bikes are the original cool tech… The fact that you can actually, like, push a bike straight and it will stay up is baffling from a physics perspective.” – Katherine (33:14)
• [on travel's effect on worldview] “It actually lets that background sort of difference melt away and just connect with the folks that are right in front of you.” (15:02)

Suggested Listening Timestamps

• Starting with travel numbers—just how much Maher travels: 01:44
• On airline points, perks, and lounge hacks: 03:54–07:00
• Travel survival skills (sleep, working on planes, post-flight hacks): 07:21–09:12
• Reflections on why travel is essential for global understanding: 09:44–11:20
• Favorite countries for food, travel bans, and missed experiences: 12:36–15:02
• Environmental angst about travel’s carbon footprint: 20:03–21:59
• Infrastructure, public transit, and societal impacts: 22:15–27:32
• Debate on buses, class, and societal divides: 28:30–29:07
• Discussion of last-mile transport: bikes, dockless systems, and scooters: 31:07–34:39

Tone and Language

The tone is conversational, wry, insightful, and occasionally self-deprecating. Katherine Maher is candid and practical; Felix Salmon is curious, quick with humor, and enthusiastic about travel minutiae. The episode balances travel hacks and points economics with big-picture reflections on culture, infrastructure, and social good.

Bottom Line:
A must-listen for travel geeks, public-transit nerds, and anyone curious about how relentless international travel shapes perspective — and, unexpectedly, for those who want to know about weird German elevators.