The Recommender: Amy Farley Knows Where You Need To Go

Name: Amy Farley
Role at Fast Company: Senior editor. I oversee the magazine’s Next section. I’ve only been here a few weeks, though, so you won’t see my handiwork until the October issue hits newsstands.
Twitter: @afarles
Titillating Fact: As a former travel editor and writer, I am full of useful information like how to turn points and miles into free airline tickets (bank Starwood points) and emerge from a street-food crawl without food poisoning (bring your own utensils). And I keep a running list of places that are completely, blissfully off-the-grid, from Wyoming to Botswana. No Internet or cell service for a week—when was the last time you tried it? I also have a 5-year-old son, and can walk you through the differences between a Stegosaurus and his Chinese counterpart, the Tuojiangosaurus, if you’re interested.

Things she’s loving:

1. The New Yorker podcasts
Though I do love a good, indie podcast, the New Yorker’s “Out Loud” series, where editors and writers dive more deeply into recent stories, is my go-to dishwashing soundtrack these days. Last week, Alec Wilkinson, Nick Paumgarten, and David Remnick delivered a hilarious exegesis on the Grateful Dead, parsing everything from the band’s erratic harmonies to its enduring allure among prep-school boys. The “Fiction” podcast, where contemporary writers read stories from the magazine’s archive, is also worth a listen.

2. Jungles in Paris

Now that I’m deskbound, I satisfy my wanderlust through this site’s gorgeous collection of photo and film documentaries from around the globe. The recent video postcard of an aging fisherman in Peru is hypnotic—a reminder that the world is still full of surprises.

3. Vox’s 70 Maps That Explain America

A hat tip to Vox for pulling together this incredible collection of maps, a series of graphic history lessons on topics like slavery, civil rights, and America’s relationship with the world. Maybe now I‘ll be able to keep up with my historian husband at the dinner table.