We're Brent and Michael — a longtime couple — who decided in 2017 to sell our house in Seattle and travel the world as “digital nomads.” That means we move to a new country every few months, supporting ourselves by working remotely.
So far, we’ve lived at least a month in dozens of countries — and briefly visited dozens more.
If you subscribe to our newsletter, we’ll take you along to the places we’re going next!
Our digital nomad experience has already been featured in other media, on CNN.com and CBS Sunday Morning, and in Forbes and the New York Times.
So far, leaving America to travel the world feels like the smartest thing we've ever done. We’re spending way less money than we did living in Seattle, and we’re seeing more fascinating places and meeting more wonderful people than we ever imagined.
Why a newsletter?
Frankly, because people wanted to know more details about our lives, and we wanted to provide a much deeper perspective than what you might see on social media.
We send regular updates about our weird life and lifestyle, and insights and observations about travel in general. And — especially for “paid” subscribers — we include lots of specific, money-saving travel tips and hacks.
Sometimes we’re fun and funny, sometimes we’re thoughtful — and we’re always very personal.
Here’s a list of almost all the content we’ve ever published.
And here are some representative articles:
How Two Gay Guys Sold Everything, Left to Travel the World…and Lived Happily Ever After Our origin story.
In 2022, We Spent $56,000 (While Traveling the World) People think we must be rich, but this lifestyle costs half what we spent in Seattle.
The Incredible Beauty of Unlikely Friendships Just because a person only brushes briefly against your life doesn't mean they can’t change you forever.
Oh, Sh*t, I Think We Just Blinded Our Friends’ Dog! We pet-sat for some friends. It went badly.
How Does Health Care Work for the Long-Term Traveler? It’s complicated.
Is Rotisserie Chicken the Perfect Food? Michael writes about his love affair with a certain cooked poultry.
The Thing I Want You to Know About My Mother’s Death Michael had something to share.
We currently have both free and paid subscriptions.
Here are some reasons we hope you’ll consider upgrading to a paid subscription, either now or at some point in the future:
You’ll have access to lots of additional, exclusive content. Recent paid posts include:
What’s It Like to Stay in a Hotel for Two Months? Many famous writers have lived indefinitely in hotels. Why couldn’t we do it too?
That Time Our Plane Caught Fire Over the Atlantic What Brent realized when he thought we were going to die.
The Seventy-Two Hour Rule You simply can’t draw conclusions about a place until you’ve been there three days.
Brent and Michael’s Guide to Travel in the Off Season How we get much more while paying much less.
In Malaysia, I Had Cosmetic Work Done on my Face, Part 1 and Part 2 In Asia, Michael did something he never expected.
What Are We Doing for Health Care in 2023? It’s still complicated!
Fifty-Seven Days on a Cruise Ship The many interesting things we learned spending two months at sea!
You Should Travel to Eastern Europe, Part One and Part Two Why, where, and how to go.
You’ll have exclusive access to audio versions of most of our posts, read by the two of us.
We’ll send regular and detailed travel info and money-saving tips, like our regular column, Brent and Michael’s Secret Travel Hacks. This is not the same kind of thing you read everywhere else.
You’ll have the option to have personal access to our travel and nomad expertise, so we can answer your specific questions (either via email or Zoom).
You’ll simply be supporting us. Frankly, we aim for a very high level of quality in our content, and that means this newsletter is a lot of work. It simply isn’t possible without financial support.
Take a look at all our back posts to see more of the kind of things we write.
Incidentally, if you’re a journalist, blogger, influencer, or just can’t afford a paid subscription right now, please let us know the details, and we may be able to waive the subscription fee. We’re always looking for folks to help spread the word about our newsletter (though, of course, you’ll be under no obligation to actually write about us).
Again, free or paid, subscribe to the newsletter here.
You can also support us with a one-time donation of any amount here:
Also, feel free to follow us on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.
Goodbye until our next hello!
Brent & Michael
P.S. Who are we exactly?
BRENT HARTINGER is an author and screenwriter. He's published fourteen novels, including the classic gay young adult novel Geography Club (2003), which was adapted as a feature film in 2013. Brent is also a screenwriter, and ten of his screenplays have been optioned for film; five are currently in development, including a romcom about digital nomads. He has another newsletter, about his books and movies, here.
MICHAEL JENSEN is an author and editor. His novels include Man & Beast and Man & Monster, part of The Savage Land, a series of historical fiction that combines gay romance, supernatural, and horror. For eight years, Michael was the editor of the entertainment website AfterElton.com, which he co-founded with Brent. The site, devoted to covering gay and bisexual men in popular culture, eventually grew to more than a million unique visitors a month, won several GLAAD Media Awards, and was later sold to Viacom/MTV.
Hey there! Thanks for reading all the way to the bottom of this page. If you’re still on the fence about upgrading to a paid subscription, here’s a secret discount coupon of 40% off an annual subscription (only $30 USD a year, or $2.50 USD a month, for as long as you choose to subscribe!).
You can still pay the full price too!
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