Find Your Sense of Place Podcast

The Journal

Notes on place.

Long-form essays on travel, hospitality, design, and the quiet architecture of belonging — written by Samuel Vaden.

A long wooden table set under olive trees as the sun lowers.

Featured essay · Hospitality & Design

The Long Table at Dusk

What a shared meal in Puglia taught me about the architecture of welcome.

By Samuel Vaden · June 12, 2026 · 8 min read

The Archive

More from the Journal

6 essays

Hands smoothing wet adobe along the curve of an unfinished wall.

Place Essays

The Clay Knows

A week with adobe builders in northern New Mexico, and what the earth remembers when we forget.

By Samuel Vaden · May 28, 2026

A figure walking a low ridge above a Norwegian fjord at first light.

Living Well

Friluftsliv, Properly

A small Norwegian word for a larger way of living outside.

By Samuel Vaden · May 14, 2026

A narrow Mediterranean lane with shuttered windows and a single arched doorway.

Culture

The Grammar of an Old Street

Why certain neighborhoods feel like home on the very first visit.

By Samuel Vaden · April 30, 2026

An open notebook and a small espresso cup on a sunlit stone ledge.

Travel

What Slow Travel Is, Really

On staying long enough to be changed by a place.

By Samuel Vaden · April 16, 2026

Samuel Vaden at a desk by a window, mid-thought.

Founder Notes

A Founder's Letter, No. 01

Why we are building this — and what we hope it becomes.

By Samuel Vaden · April 02, 2026

A quiet hotel room with linen curtains and a single chair by the window.

Hospitality & Design

Rooms That Listen

On hotels that understand silence — and the rare ones that practice it.

By Samuel Vaden · March 19, 2026

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The essays began as conversations.

Many of these pieces grew out of episodes of the podcast. You can listen to the conversations that shaped them.

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