Episode 96 of the Tennis Abstract Podcast welcomes Dave Seminara, author of the entertaining new book Footsteps of Federer: A Fan’s Pilgrimage Across 7 Swiss Cantons in 10 Acts, which comes out next week. Dave is also the author of two previous travel books, and another one, Mad Travelers: A Tale of Wanderlust, Greed and the Quest to Reach the Ends of the Earth, due out this summer.
We talk about how Roger Federer is typically Swiss (and how he is not), how his Swiss admirers differ from his legions of fans elsewhere around the world, and how Switzerland’s network of small-town clubs sets the country apart. Federer fans will definitely learn some new things about their hero thanks to Dave’s digging.
He also shares the stories behind some of his quests to track down sources for his tennis articles–it turns out that finding a 60-year-old Togolese Davis Cupper can be just as tricky as getting Federer to open up about his past, and it was a close-run thing to place an article about a 643-shot rally in the New York Times on its 25th anniversary.
As fellow travel buffs, we venture into that territory as well, talking about tactics for budget travel in Switzerland, how Switzerland compares to Norway, and just how far some people will go to check a rare destination off their list.
Thanks for listening!
(Note: this week’s episode is about 68 minutes long; in some browsers the audio player may display a different length. Sorry about that!)
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Podcast housekeeping:
- In case you haven’t heard, I’m 23 episodes into a short (~4 minutes) daily podcast called Expected Points. Here’s today’s episode.
- The TAP book club will reconvene next week with our next selection, John Updike’s 1968 novel, Couples. Read along with us, share your thoughts, and suggest topics/questions/comments for our discussion in a future episode.