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Drivers fill the 110 freeway during afternoon rush-hour on January 9, 2008 in Los Angeles, California.

Forget the station wagon—and Kerouac for that matter. Ted Conover’s road trips veer off the smooth blacktop in favor of truck convoys through Kenya, Beijing racing clubs, altitude-inducing Andean shipping routes. Conover explores how roads can bring resources, trade, and modernity to the most remote regions of the world along with disease and social strife. Larry Mantle rides shotgun with Pulitzer Prize-winner Ted Conover.

Guest:

Ted Conover, author, The Routes of Man: How Roads Are Changing the World and the Way We Live Today (Knopf)