Bizarre Travel Tales podcast

In this episode: Why Everest isn't really the tallest; the reason United Airlines has a PR department; and a museum dedicated to the inventor of Top Ramen.

We rely so much on spoken and written language when we travel, but is it possible that focusing too much on it prevents us from communicating other ways? Longtime travel journalist Spud Hilton explores the topic in a new Inappropriate Traveler podcast feature called Grounded!, an audio column looking at the myths, cliches and assumptions that many make about travel.

Longtime travel blogger and train fanatic Nora Dunn talks about what happens when Eastern medicine goes south, emptying vomit buckets in Peru, the downside to skydiving naked, and why zip-off convertible pants are a sign of the apocalypse. (Episode contains adult language and content.)

Drag performer Afrika America brings fun and fabulousness to everything she does — including her day job as a flight attendant. She chats about tragically oblivious passengers, why Chicago is great for cutting loose (Boystown!), being a glutton in New Orleans, and discovering there are African American people in Salt Lake City. (Episode contains adult language and content.)

Travel expert, writer and host Ernest White II, known as Fly Brother, talks about experiences -- some nice, some naughty -- in Havana, Sao Paulo, Paris and the Republic of Georgia. Topics cover drinking, great food, one-night stands, nightlife and LGBTQ relationships.

Host: Spud Hilton (@spudhilton)

Episode co-host: Krislyn Hashimoto (@AuntieRedCup)

Location: CityScape Lounge, Hilton San Francisco Union Square, San Francisco, Calif., USA