The Wandering Hedonist

After 15 years as a design professional in Seattle, I’m dropping out to vagabond around the world and hopefully discover a new way to be.

Now that my daughter is off to college in Manhattan, I’m taking the opportunity to quit my job, drastically reduce the things I own, and exchange the comfort of a normal life for the pursuit of faraway food, people, and adventure.

Join me on my three year reboot, to explore, question, and discover, both the world and myself.

Daniel Callicoat

Photographer, designer, writer, cooking enthusiast, wandering hedonist.

A bit more

It didn’t take me long to figure out there was more to see in the world. I’ve always longed to know the unknowable. To see and taste and touch the things I was told I would (and should) never experience. But I’ve never liked being told what to do.

Since then I’ve circled the globe and crisscrossed the country in a search to understand the great mysteries and truths, to expand my knowledge of humanity, and to experience the pleasures and sensations that await us when we push past our comfort zones.

For if not to sample the infinite pleasures of the world, then why are we here, and given such capacity to lust and wander?

From the back corner of a dim-alley bdsm bar in New Orleans to the white linen food mecca of Lyon’s Paul Bocuse. From the MDMA fueled wonderland of Burning Man’s new society to chatting up Buddhist monks in Chiang Mai and studying spirit travel with Siberian shamans of the Ulchi people. From $.50 Mexico street tacos and WV slaw dogs to three Michelin star tasting menus in Spain. From sipping a humble Belikin beer floating off the coast of Belize to sampling 18 year single malts in an Islay pub. These things are magical. And worthy of a life’s pursuit. For if not to sample the infinite pleasures of the world, then why are we here, and given such capacity to lust and wander?

I am a lustful traveler. And my current mission is to find the world. To dive as deeply as possible into local food traditions and cultures, to find what makes people happy in every corner of the globe and sample those most universal of human experiences. Food, sex, intoxicants, beauty, spirituality, love, empathy, struggle, and the sharing of ideas. To expose my prejudices. To see how other people have solved their problems, organized their spaces, and over time, persist. Tracing the ancient to where we find ourselves today.

I am a hedonist. In every sense of the word. And I would like to share my explorations with you. And in return hear about your own expeditions. Over the edge and into the endless black chasm of tomorrow.

And have some fun with amazing people along the way.