Released 20.01.23

The Conversation

The British writer and broadcaster Anthony Sattin discusses his latest book, Nomads: The Wanderers Who Shaped Our World — a Sunday Times book of 2022. In lyrical prose, Anthony roams through 12,000 years of nomadic history, from Mongolia to Manchuria to the Zagros Mountains in Iran.

In this episode of Gone to Timbuktu, Anthony touches on a curious link between nomadism and ADHD. He discusses how the restless instinct is shaped — and squashed — by modern geopolitics, and how open borders have always encouraged a flourishing of new ideas.

Sophy and Anthony talk about some of their literary influences — and Bruce Chatwin’s failed attempt to write a history of nomadism. Along the way, they discuss Henry David Thoreau’s love of walking, and the 1930s classic, The Road to Oxiana, by Robert Byron.