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Champagne and Tear Gas: Crafting Stories in Remote Corners with Mark Johanson

• Angela Tuell • Season 5 • Episode 16

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Step into the world of global storytelling with Mark Johanson, an American journalist who's crafted a remarkable career from his base in Santiago, Chile. With bylines in National Geographic, Travel + Leisure, The Guardian and CNN, Mark takes us beyond the typical travel narrative to share how location, language and cultural immersion shape authentic storytelling.

Mark reveals the pivotal moment that transformed his career path—a quarter-life crisis that propelled him from New York's film industry into travel blogging and eventually professional journalism. His perspective on living and working in South America offers fascinating insights into how geographical positioning creates unique opportunities. "The good thing about being based in a random part of the world is that work often comes organically to you," he explains, describing how this advantage helps him tell stories that might otherwise go unexplored.

The conversation delves into Mark's methodical approach to discovering hidden destinations, from reading local-language news sources to maintaining comprehensive lists of emerging trends. We journey alongside him to remote corners of Peru's ancient  Qhapaq Ñan road network and Armenia's burgeoning wine country. These experiences highlight his commitment to spotlighting underreported regions and cultures that deserve attention beyond the typical tourist circuit.

Perhaps most compelling is the story behind his book "Mars on Earth"—born from a moment of stark contrast during Chile's 2019 social uprising when he found himself sipping champagne on a luxury hotel rooftop while protesters below faced tear gas. This jarring juxtaposition launched a 1,200-mile journey through Chile's Atacama Desert that became both geographical exploration and personal reckoning. Mark's thoughtful reflections on responsible tourism and the importance of supporting destinations in the Global South offer valuable perspective for travelers seeking more meaningful connections with the places they visit.

Curious about Mark's adventures or want writing inspiration? Follow him @markonthemap across social platforms or visit markjohanson.com to explore his portfolio spanning guidebooks, magazine features and environmental reporting.


Purchase Mark's book here. 


Please take a moment to rate, review and subscribe to the Media in Minutes podcast here or anywhere you get your podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/media-in-minutes/id1555710662 

Angela Tuell:

Welcome to Media in Minutes. This is your Angela Tuell. This podcast features in-depth interviews with those who report on the world around us. They share everything from their favorite stories to what happened behind the lens and give us a glimpse into their world From our studio here at Communications Redefined. This is Media in Minutes. Today, we're talking with travel, food and environmental journalist Mark Johanson, an American based in Santiago, chile. Mark has spent more than a decade writing for some of the world's top publications, including National Geographic, travel and Leisure, condé Nast, traveler, afar, the Guardian, food and Wine and CNN. He's the co-author of 20 Lonely Planet guidebooks and has contributed to numerous coffee table books for the brand. Mark's stories often take readers to remote corners of the world, spotlighting culture, design and sustainability along the way. His first book, mars on Earth, was released in 2024 and follows a 1,200-mile journey through Chile's desert, one of the driest and most extreme places on the planet. Hello, mark, thank you for joining us today.

Mark Johanson:

Yeah, thanks for having me.

Angela Tuell:

How are things in Chile?

Mark Johanson:

Yeah, things are good. It's winter here, so I've just been up in the Andes right above Santiago where I live. It's nice.

Angela Tuell:

Okay, that is quite the difference. It's been very hot here in the US, I'm sure you've heard. I must ask what first brought you to South America and how has living there shaped your career? Ooh, it's a long story, but I'll try and give you the answer?

Mark Johanson:

The short answer is my husband is Chilean, so we met 15 years ago in New Zealand, traveled around the world for a bit and just ended up moving back to his country. How it's shaped my career? Oh, I think, in a million different ways, most of them good, some of them more challenging. But I think the good thing about being based in a sort of random part of the world is that you end up getting a lot of work that just comes organically to you, which is nice. As a freelancer, yeah, you're always pitching, pitching, pitching, but here a lot of things just naturally come based on where I'm located in the world, which is nice.

Angela Tuell:

Right, A lot of publications you know, as you know, don't pay or don't want journalists to take hosted trips or pay to travel. So if you live there, it's the perfect situation that you can write stories. Did you always want to be a journalist? Could you walk?

Mark Johanson:

us through your career. You know, briefly, sure, yeah, I mean, in a way I did. I went to school for this sort of catch-all degree called Media Arts and Design and I initially wanted to do broadcast journalism but then swayed into cinema studies. So my first career was in film and television in New York, okay, and I did that for a little under two years and was just sort of overwhelmed by the egos of people. Had to get out, had a bit of a quarter life crisis, started a travel blog and then eventually parlayed that travel.

Mark Johanson:

What drew you into those topics and how do you, you know, write about all of them? Niches, yeah, career out of it. They're all things that I personally enjoy and I also think that they're things that combine well together. Oftentimes, when I'm writing a travel story, for example, it's going to have a strong environmental bent, or a story might have an environmental bent as well. The design stuff is something like we were just talking about.

Mark Johanson:

That kind of came to me organically, based on where I live. You know, magazines come to me asking me to write stories about architecture. You know, can you go to Bariloche, argentina, to write about this cabin in the woods there? And I would say, yeah, sure. So yeah, some of it just came organically and some of it is just following my passions in whatever directions they take me, and, yeah, the thing that ties them together is really just they're things that I like. And especially when I'm writing about Latin America or South America, I think there's just so much negative news that comes out of this part of the world that it's always nice to be able to shine a spotlight on the beauty and the joy and the art and the design, the food, the culture from this part of it.

Angela Tuell:

It is definitely beautiful. We work with, as you know, the country of Peru, which is right down there as well. So much beauty, so much. So many wonderful people too. Yes, we mentioned in the intro that you write, for you know the world's top travel publications National Geographic, travel and Leisure, guardian, afar, condé Ness. Could go on and on. How do you decide? You talked about this a little bit, but which stories you pursue and where to pitch them or do a lot of them, you know most of them come to you.

Mark Johanson:

No, there's definitely a lot of pitching involved still and, yeah, I think it just has to do with reading the publications a lot. You know spending a lot of time reading the publications, thinking about their audience, thinking about the kind of stories that they want and would pursue.

Mark Johanson:

I still think that there's often a way of taking that same story and tweaking it a little bit for a publication like Travel and Leisure, you know, just by perhaps basing it more around a new hotel opening or something that's more targeted at that kind of publication. Pitch something to in mind. I do always try and think about ways that I might be able to adapt the same story for a different audience, just depending on you know what I think that they're going to want.

Angela Tuell:

Right, yeah, that's great. How do you discover those you know off the beaten path, destinations that you often feature?

Mark Johanson:

Some of it is just getting out there, going to networking events, going to conferences, speaking with people. That's all I mean. Speaking with people is always the best way you know to learn about.

Mark Johanson:

Yeah in the travel industry.

Mark Johanson:

Another part of it, specifically to to latin america, would be just reading the news in the local language.

Mark Johanson:

So I do read a lot in spanish or try to read in portuguese, which I'm not as good at, but just to see what people are writing about in Brazil, or writing about in Argentina or Peru.

Mark Johanson:

What are the local journalists writing about that they think is interesting, that's happening in their own countries, and that's a great place to see what is happening in each country and then decide what of those different ideas or what of those stories or what that they're talking about might have a broader global appeal, because not all of it does. But sometimes that's where you find those little nuggets of what's happening and what's exciting in different parts of the world. So I think it's a little bit of that of reading at the local news in different places, of getting out into networking events, speaking with people and just. I always keep a big list of I have a whole document that's like where to go, and then each year I have ideas that I compile at the end of the year, the beginning of the year, about what places I think might be trending or interesting or have something going for them in the coming year that I want to get my pitches towards.

Angela Tuell:

That's great insight. I won't ask you your favorite places, but what are some of your most memorable places? You've been.

Mark Johanson:

Well, speaking of Peru, I did a story there I think it was maybe two years ago hiking along a portion of the Capacnan, which is the greater Inca roads. It's not just the Inca trail that.

Mark Johanson:

Everyone knows that goes to Machu Picchu, but the Capacnan goes all the way from Cuenca in Ecuador down into Chile and Argentina and it was this huge Andean road network made of stones and there's still these little portions of it in very rural parts of Peru that are perfectly preserved. So you have this old stone road. That's just wild, it's out of a fantasy film and I was able to go with a guy, an American actually, who's lived in Peru for 20 years, to explore a portion of that over five days, just some of the wildest parts of the center of the Andes in Peru. It's just amazing, I think Armenia for me, was another beautiful trip recently and just going off into a really country that I knew very little about.

Mark Johanson:

But before I went on that trip I just did a ton of research and found out that it's the cradle of wine culture. It has the oldest winery in the world there and now, since they've discovered that, they're creating this whole new wine industry there, wow, they've built this trans-Caucasian trail that's connecting Armenia with, you know, its contentious neighbors, azerbaijan and less contentious neighbor Georgia, and Armenia is the first country that's completed. It's through the full country portion of that hike. Yeah, I don't know, just looking for stories like that in some of the more underreported parts of our world are what fascinate me.

Angela Tuell:

Yes, and they're always fascinating to read. So you do a great job. I know you've written or contributed to dozens of Lonely Planet guides too, and coffee table books. What's that process like and how does it differ from some of your other work?

Mark Johanson:

Yeah, it is fair. It's a very different process for sure. Equally rewarding, I think, in a lot of ways, because even though certain magazines and newspapers will let me go to some pretty far off corners of the world, I think nowhere lets me go to further off corners of the world.

Mark Johanson:

Guidebooks I did for them was West Papua, in New Guinea, so that's somewhere that you know, no magazine was going to send me there, so I think it's just a way of well, personally, it lets me travel in a way that I did when I was a teenager and in my 20s, backpacking around the world Just that sense of discovery and exploration that you get from being a Lonely Planet writer, because you are kind of charged with going out into the world and creating those new paths that will become beaten one day but aren't yet.

Mark Johanson:

So it lets me go off into some really, really fascinating parts of the world and I don't have to only think about what's newsworthy or what's the new hotel or what's the new this. I can really just focus on what makes that destination really interesting. So, even while perhaps the writing isn't always as creative though I think it can be and there is a lot of data collecting in terms of opening hours and things like that, and there's a lot of really long days because you need to optimize your time it is just a really fascinating way of traveling that I think a lot of people don't get to do anymore.

Angela Tuell:

Yeah, yeah, there's not a lot of guidebooks. You know where that kind of information that way.

Mark Johanson:

Yeah, yeah. No, it is nice that Lonely Planet at least. It's gone through a lot of owners and a lot of changes and there's a whole new look to the books actually in recent years, but they are still at least one of the few as far as I know, that actually still sends writers out, pays for writers to go out on the road, to make those trips to investigate and to update those books in the way that we have been doing for, you know, decades.

Angela Tuell:

Yes, I love that You've even hosted and produced video content for Lonely Planet Was that a difficult transition. Or you mentioned you know TV film in the beginning, so maybe it wasn't.

Mark Johanson:

It was fun. I haven't done that in a very long time but under a different ownership of Lonely Planet we were actually filming a TV show that there was a bunch of episodes made for this TV show and it's, just, as far as I know, been sitting in a vault in Franklin, tennessee, where Lonely Planet was based at the time, has never seen it in a day. I don't know what happened to the TV show, but oh, we need to find them. It's all got to be very dated at this point.

Mark Johanson:

But we also did lots of fun campaigns for companies like GoPro and things like that, so it was fun to get in front of the camera. It's a different style, as I'm sure you know. I know you've worked in broadcast journalism.

Angela Tuell:

I was going to say we had to learn print journalism at first, even when we were going into broadcast. So I think those skills are so valuable for any type of journalism.

Mark Johanson:

Absolutely yeah.

Angela Tuell:

We must talk about your book. You released your first book, mars on Earth in 2024, towards the end, right, following a journey through a desert in Chile. What was the inspiration behind the book? Or tell us a little bit more. And Chile, what was the inspiration behind the book?

Mark Johanson:

Or tell us a little bit more. Sure, yeah, the inspiration for the book, I guess, would be well, I wrote the book during the pandemic, but it really starts a few months before the pandemic. When, here in Chile, we had this big social uprising in October of 2019, people were out on the streets marching and right when this whole thing kind of exploded and started, I was sitting on the rooftop of this luxury hotel drinking champagne and suddenly tear gas was coming in my face and I was like what a juxtaposition that I'm sitting here drinking champagne on a luxury hotel and people are out on the streets protesting like what do I not understand about this country that I really should, should know more?

Mark Johanson:

and so that sort of singular event and and the protests and the marches and things like that that I got swept up in afterwards sort of set me off on this journey to try and understand the country that I live in better and to understand this part of the world better, to understand my relationship to my partner better through this trip through the Atacama Desert, which is the driest non-polar desert in the world. And why I chose to go through the desert, which is sort of the northern half of Chile, is because it's the part of Chile that generates all the money and the wealth and the economy through all the mineral resources that are found in the North. It's also kind of like the flyover country, the place that people look down on, which are always the kind of parts of the world that really fascinate me.

Mark Johanson:

So I said journey, which I guess, if you put it in US terms, would basically be from San Diego to Seattle, traveling through this really dry but really fascinating desert, looking at all the different facets of it on one level, but also having this sort of personal journey on another level.

Angela Tuell:

Oh, I love that, and we can get the book anywhere.

Mark Johanson:

You buy books Anywhere you find your books yeah, amazon Barnes Noble.

Angela Tuell:

You can order it through your local bookstore yeah, Great Well, we'll include a link in our show notes as well, through your local bookstore. Yeah, Great Well we'll include a link in our show notes as well. I would love to talk about responsible tourism. You've, you know, read extensively about that. Climate impacts cultural preservation.

Mark Johanson:

What have you learned through your work in that space? Hmm, so, I think, one of the interesting things. I also do some project-based work with NGOs like World Wildlife Fund and I think through them they really taught me a lot of important skills in terms of how to, for example, work with communities. You know how do you enter a community, what research do you need to do before you go in? Tell stories about indigenous communities around the world without just extracting their story, but making them a part of the conversation and just giving them a platform to share what they want to share.

Mark Johanson:

I think that, as a journalist, we carry a lot of responsibility if we're going to tell these kinds of stories, to tell them right and to not just parachute in and assume that we know everything, but to really absorb and try and just I don't know be conscious in the way that we tell those stories.

Mark Johanson:

In terms of more environmental stuff, I think. Just you know, I think, especially working in the parts of the world that I work in the global south we don't necessarily have the same over-tourism problems that you might find with people who do more work in Europe or other parts of the world. So for me, it's more about just trying to tell stories that invite people to come to these other parts of the world, in the global South, and show them where their money can be useful and what that money can help support. And you know, sometimes I think about these travel publications, particularly in Europe, that these days stop writing about places outside of Europe because you can't get there on a train, and to me that's kind of counterintuitive, because if tourism dollars aren't supporting projects in Africa and Latin America and Asia and other parts of the world that you know are supporting conservation, supporting local communities, you know, isn't that part of the whole environmental conversation as well?

Angela Tuell:

Yes. Yeah absolutely, absolutely. I love that. How often are you traveling these days and how do you balance that with time at home?

Mark Johanson:

It's a good question. This year I've actually been traveling less and it's been a very conscious decision to try and spend more time at home. The past two years I was away probably about seven months of the year, which is just an absurd amount of time. The Lonely Planet stuff usually takes me away for a month, each time on a different stint, the magazine stuff or newspaper stuff, you know. Maybe two weeks here and there, but I'm trying to get more out of each trip.

Mark Johanson:

That's been my goal now is to really think about how I can develop different stories with different angles, for different publications or different markets, even Because I don't just write for the US market. I try and, you know, think about if I'm selling this in the US, maybe I can sell it also in Australia, because it's not going to have that. I'm not competing with the publication in the US, you know, with a different, slightly different angle of course, but just trying to make more out of each trip so that I don't have to travel as much, because it is important to be home. It is important to especially when you live abroad. You know I don't have my family here. It's important for me to build a network and feel like I actually live in this place, instead of just like coming in to repack my bag and get out again.

Angela Tuell:

Right Like it's just a destination that you go to yeah.

Mark Johanson:

So it's hard to find that balance, but I'm working on it.

Angela Tuell:

And I think it'll get better every year, right? You know a large part of our audience are PR professionals, so I'd like to ask a few questions along those lines. What makes a pitch stand out to you, and are there certain angles or details that make you more likely to follow up?

Mark Johanson:

Hmm, I mean, I know it's probably what a lot of people say, but I love it when a pitch is sort of specifically tailored to the person knows who I am, where I'm based in the world and it's slightly. We have a slightly more personal relationship. I know that's really hard for a PR professional to do that. We're trying to reach a lot of people, but if there is a story that you really think I might be the best person to tell and you can tell me, what is the? You know the big why me? Why this story? Why this time?

Mark Johanson:

You know all those kind of questions that I know an editor is going to ask me. If you can help me answer those in your pitch, that certainly makes it a lot easier on my end to get that story out into the world. What else, I guess? Yeah, just the newsworthiness of things is always a big thing. It's hard for me to tell a story that doesn't have some newsworthy element to it in some way, be it an anniversary or a new hotel opening or a new way of exploring a destination or just anything that you think you can see being, you know, part of the news.

Angela Tuell:

Yes, that's great advice. And any pet peeves when it comes to pitches or even hosted press trips.

Mark Johanson:

I would say I don't do a whole lot of hosted press trips. In terms of group press trips, I think I've always found it more useful to develop an idea, perhaps based on a pitch from a PR person, develop an idea, work with them on that idea a little bit, pitch it out to my publications, land the story and then work with them directly to sort of make that idea a reality. I know that that's so much harder for PR people as well, but I often think that when that does happen and you can land a story in a top tier publication, it's just the results are better for everyone.

Angela Tuell:

Yes, individual trips are always. I mean it's. It's fantastic because it can, like you just said, tailor to what you are working on with specific, and we find that those are, you know, more beneficial. Clients definitely do prefer group ones a lot of times because you said it's easier and I understand it. Yeah, but I completely agree with you. You mentioned trends a little bit earlier. What trends or topics in travel journalism are you seeing emerge right now?

Mark Johanson:

that are not as over-touristed. Just you know we're seeing all of this blowback from over-tourism in Europe especially. And so people are starting to look for those dupe destinations or places that they're not going to feel like one. You know the next millionth person to be in the same spot, I think cooler destinations as well. I'm sure you've seen people are Right the Caucasians.

Mark Johanson:

People are tired of being super hot and going to the Mediterranean in the middle of the summer. So, I think, cooler destinations. I just think people are, or I'd like to think people are looking beyond their comfort zone a little bit more and opening their eyes to the world a bit more. I think, especially if we're talking about travelers outside of the US I do get the sense, because I work with a lot of UK or Australian publications as well that there's less interest in the US and so people are turning their eyes to other parts of the world at the moment and thinking, okay, we're not going to spend this money to go to the U? S this year. Where else?

Angela Tuell:

Um, yeah those are some of the things we've seen Um journalists, even in like Canada, that that no outlets will take, you know, coverage written about the U. S it is extremely sad.

Mark Johanson:

Yes.

Angela Tuell:

So before we go, I have to ask what's next for you. Any exciting assignments or destinations coming up?

Mark Johanson:

Sure, yeah, I'm headed to Guyana in a few weeks, which is, even though it's part of South America, it's a part that's so different, I think, from the rest of South America. It's more culturally aligned with the Caribbean, and I'm going to go to the US to fly to it.

Angela Tuell:

Really.

Mark Johanson:

Yeah, yeah, I mean it's a good way to visit family as well along the way Right.

Mark Johanson:

But, yeah, going to Guyana, which is it's a fascinating story. Guyana is the fastest growing economy in the world. They've recently just huge swath of oil just off the coast. I mean, it's right next to Venezuela, so it makes sense. But what they're doing with that oil is what's fascinating. They're using that oil to sort of develop tourism as well, and that's the focus of the story that I'll be there reporting.

Mark Johanson:

I'm also going to the very tip of South America, to a place called Cape Forward, which is the location of what's going to be one of the newest national parks in the world. We're expecting an announcement in October of this year, but basically it's a new, a completely new national park that will be opening at the southernmost point on the South American continent. Yeah, and so it's a four-day hike out to the lighthouse at the bottom there looking at the organization behind it, which is called Rewilding Chile, which is part of the Tompkins Conservation. I don't know if you've heard of Chris Tompkins. She's this famous figure in conservation in this part of the world. So that would be another fascinating story. And, yeah, a couple other things I'm juggling in the air and we'll see what lands.

Angela Tuell:

Oh, those sound fantastic, can't wait to read them. How can our audience connect with you or follow your work online? The best.

Mark Johanson:

Yeah, so I'm on Instagram, Twitter, blue sky, all at Mark on the map, and you can look at my portfolio website, which is just my namecom.

Angela Tuell:

Wonderful. Thank you so much, Mark.

Mark Johanson:

No, thank you, Angela, I appreciate it.

Angela Tuell:

That's all for this episode of Media in Minutes, a podcast by Communications Redefined. Take a moment to rate, review and subscribe to our show. We'd love to hear what you think you can find. I'm your host, Angela Tuell. Talk to you next time.