Tour Guide Confidential
Tour Guides tell the best stories and Tour Guide Confidential provides the showcase for Tour Guides to talk about this endlessly fascinating profession. Join us for interviews with some of the top-tier tour guides to hear about their unforgettable guiding experiences while learning about best practices from truly creative colleagues. Last, but not least, if you’ve ever wondered about what happens behind-the-scenes on a tour, listen in to Tour Guide Confidential where every week we will explore and discuss the challenges of working in the tourism industry and uncover some of its more opaque practices.
Episodes
25 episodes
Episode 25: Michelle Levitz - Educational and Experiential Tourism
Our guest, Michelle Levitz, is a tour guide based in Zichron Yaakov, Israel. Michelle shares her fascinating background, growing up in a multicultural home in New Jersey with a Yemeni-Israeli father and a mother from the United States. Her upbr...
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1:19:46
Adam Waddel - Educational Tourism in Factious Times
I had an interesting conversation with my friend and fellow tour guide Adam Wadell that touched on issues surrounding educational tourism as well as interfaith relations and guiding in the post October 7th world. In addition to our shared Ameri...
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Season 2
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Episode 24
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1:25:26
Haike Winter - Guides Volunteering in War Time
In this episode, tour guide Haike Winter, returns to Tour Guide Confidential to share her experience of volunteering in a dairy farm during the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. Like all tour guides in Israel, Haike was left unemployed by t...
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Season 2
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Episode 4
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46:48
Anita Andziak - Virtual Tourism in the 21st Century
Anita Andziak is a Swiss-based tour guide and tour leader, PhD candidate and Virtual Tourism expert. Her passion is the combination of artificial intelligence and tourism. We sat down in January of 2022 to talk about the promises and pitfalls o...
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Season 2
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Episode 3
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1:30:06
Aliza Bellehsen Avshalom – Guiding Paths and People in Israel
In this episode, I sat down with Aliza Bellehsen Avshalom in her beautiful home in the Galilee for a wide ranging discussion based on her decades of experience as a tour guide in Israel. Among other topics, we talked about Aliza's fascina...
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Season 2
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Episode 2
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1:27:25
Yoni Shapira - Tourism: Turning Experiences into Memories
In this episode, Yoni Shapira shares his rich, decades long involvement in tourism. He recalls how, as an oceanography student, he entered into this field as well as his long model making career or “life in miniature” at Mini Israel and elsewhe...
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Season 2
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Episode 1
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1:42:35
Tamar Linchevsky - Guiding the Hero's Journey
In this episode I met with Tamar Linchevsky, a consummate storyteller who has been guiding for some thirty years. Unique in her approach to guiding, she takes her guests on inner and outer journeys of discovery based on the ideas of Josep...
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Season 1
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Episode 19
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1:48:13
Dr Eyal Dujovny - The Guide as Cultural Broker
In this episode, Tour Guide Confidential Host Dr. Eyal Dujovny has a conversation with Amir Katz and talks about his background and upbringing, how he got into guiding and what kind of a guide he is. Dr. Dujovny explains the impetus for this po...
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Season 1
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Episode 18
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1:40:07
Elinoar Nitzani - Agricultural Tourism
I sat down with Elinoar Nitzani to discuss the fascinating trajectory that eventually led her to a career as a tour guide. A polyglot who guides in four languages, Elinoar shares her interesting perspective as someone who has, from an early age...
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Episode 17
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1:42:14
Ori Unterman - Guiding Jerusalem From Local to Virtual
In this episode, I sat down with Ori Unterman, to discuss her rootedness as a 7th generation Jerusalemite and her passion for guiding in this truly unique, complex, and holy city. Few guides know the city as well as she does, and we discussed w...
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Episode 16
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1:39:09
Rinat Blum - Think Global, Guide Local
My friend and colleague Rinat Bloom sat down with me for a wide-ranging talk in which we discussed her eclectic background, various experiences as a tour guide, her insatiable curiosity and thirst for knowledge, as well as our unbridled love fo...
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Episode 15
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1:20:29
Daniel Rubenstein - Guiding the Arab-Israeli Conflict
I sat down with Daniel Rubenstein to discuss the interesting path that led him from the United States to Israel and from a career in Israel advocacy to his current role as a licensed Israeli tour guide. Daniel holds a degree in Middle Eastern s...
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Episode 14
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1:48:42
Ihab Zeidan - Guiding from a Druze Perspective
I sat down with Ihab Zeidan and we explored the question of where culture, religion, ethnicity, and language intersect and what role this plays in Ihab’s guiding as a member of the Druze community. Ihab lives in the town of Usfiya located...
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Episode 13
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1:30:03
Kamal Mukarker - A Palestinian Perspective on Guiding in the Holy Land
I sat down with Kamal Mukarker, a Palestinian tour guide and educator who is preparing a new generation of Palestinian tour guides. We had an in-depth and far-ranging discussion about his family’s background, the upheavals that they have ...
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Episode 12
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1:53:14
Dr. Yaron Ovadia - Guiding, Islam and Fieldwork among the Bedouin
In this episode, I spoke with Dr. Yaron Ovadia to discuss his experience as a tour guide specializing in Islam and Middle East Studies as well as his his fieldwork among the Bedouins of the Judean Desert. Dr. Ovadia recalled his experience as a...
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Episode 11
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1:41:59
Naomi Ehrlich Kuperman - Guiding as a Lifelong Calling
Naomi Ehrlich Kuperman, my guest for this weeks episode, has been guiding for over 40 years and kindly reached out to me to share her passion for guiding. Naomi and I had a far-ranging conversation that touched on the tour guide training course...
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Episode 10
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1:37:36
Rotem Shahar - Grounded Journey: From Soil Scientist to Tour Guide
I drove down to Mosh Pedaya, which is about 30 minutes outside of Tel Aviv to have tea with my friend and colleague Rotem Shahar and to discuss her fascinating journey from the soil science lab to being a licensed tour guide in Israel. In this ...
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Episode 9
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1:48:23
Daniel Sigalov - Tourism as a Free Market Exercise
I sat down with Daniel Sigalov and we discussed his family's struggle to emigrate from the Soviet Union to Israel and how this has impacted his life and his firm belief in the promise of free markets as the most effective way to ensure prosperi...
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Episode 8
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1:31:02
Amir Katz - Wine Tourism and Niche Markets
In this interview with Amir Katz, we cover a broad range of topics starting from his upbringing in the States, his Israeli roots and how he found his way to Israel, the importance of building relationships with guests as well as the challenge o...
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Episode 7
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1:25:00
Peter Gokhvat - Activism in a Time of Crisis
For this episode, I drove down to Jerusalem to interview licensed tour Guide Peter Gokhvat, who has been camped out and on hunger strike across from the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) and the Finance Ministry for over 40 days. Soft-spoken and hum...
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Episode 6
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1:27:02
David Gurevich - Innovation in a Time of Crisis
Since the start of the coronavirus crisis, Dr. David Gurevich has been ahead of the curve in seeing the potential of online events to provide a virtual space for guides. So, it seems only appropriate that we met over Zoom to unpack what he has ...
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Episode 5
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1:27:47
Mordechai Abraham - Unity in a Time of Crisis
In this episode, I sit down with Mordechai Abraham to discuss current political efforts to unite all tour guides under a new umbrella federation or united front. Mordechai talks about his dedication to the State of Israel and how he and those o...
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Episode 4
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1:42:10
Haike Winter - Guiding and the Burdens of History
In this episode, I sit down with the indefatigable Haike Winter. Originally from Germany, Haike shares her fascinating story of how she has made her life in Israel and we discussed numerous topics such as life on the kibbutz, working as a guide...
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Episode 3
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1:28:17
Myriam Nedjar Kadouche - Guiding Across Cultures
In this week’s featured episode, I share my conversation with the brilliant and charming Myriam Nedjar Kadouche. Myriam is a veritable polyglot who is licensed to guide in no fewer than four languages and brings years of experience in guiding g...
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Episode 2
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1:41:13