In this four-part podcast series, I’ll introduce you to a couple of my friends who’ve traveled the world on motorcycles.

You may already know Neale Bayly, who joined me for a conversational TEDx talk earlier this year. Now meet world traveler-author-speaker Allan Karl.

Forks: A Quest for Culture, Cuisine and Connection

Allan Karl is the author of “Forks: A Quest for Culture, Cuisine and Connection,” which he wrote after three years of traveling around the world—solo— on his BMW F650GS Dakar. Some of you may remember that my brother taught me to ride on a Dakar, and I have traveled on my own single-cylinder BMW ever since.

Allan’s “Forks” is part memoir, part travelogue and part recipes from every country he traversed. It’s a gorgeous coffee table-style book with photos from Allan’s travels and recipes from each of the 35 countries on his itinerary.

Allan, Neale and I sat down for a rambling conversation when Allan came to Charlotte, NC as part of his book tour. We went pretty long—imagine that!—so I made it a four-part series.

Interested in self-publishing and Kickstarter fundraising?

In this part you’ll hear Allan’s journey to publishing his magnificent book, which is how we met; I answered a Survey Monkey survey that helped him choose the title then backed him on Kickstarter to pay for printing.

Just as he chose to “go it alone” around the world, Allan decided to self-publish and tells us why here. If you are interested in self-publishing or how to make a Kickstarter exceed its goals, you won’t want to miss Allan’s story.

I don’t love everything about social media, but I adore the way a social media friend can—and did—become a friend in real life.