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Jan 6, 2025 | 
escapeartist.com | Joel Nagel
I first heard of cryptocurrency back in 2013, when I attended a conference about the latest in financial services. Learning of my expertise, a Bitcoin advocate at the event wanted to hire me for some international asset protection. Back then, one Bitcoin was worth $5.50, but he was so convinced of its future value he offered me 1000 Bitcoin (BTC) for a $5000 legal project. A digital currency that nobody can issue and nobody controls? It seemed like pure fantasy, so I politely declined.
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Oct 31, 2024 | 
escapeartist.com | Joel Nagel
As we move into the holiday season, I find myself thinking more and more about my family. My wife and I have seven children of our own, and both come from families with five children. She’s the eldest of five daughters, and I’m the youngest, with one sister and three brothers. Our extended family has literally dozens of siblings, nieces, nephews, grandparents, grandchildren, and even a few great grandchildren. Who’s coming home for the holidays? Where are we going?
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Oct 17, 2024 | 
escapeartist.com | Joel Nagel
I recently visited my grandfather’s house, where he was born, in Wattenscheid, Germany in 1909. It was a dreary place with boarded up buildings in the heart of Germany’s industrial zone, “das Ruhrgebeit.”As a small child I can remember my grandfather saying that “Wattenscheid,” when translated into English meant “what a sh*t.” I always thought he was joking, but I suppose all jokes have a hint of reality in them somewhere.
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Sep 2, 2024 | 
escapeartist.com | Paul Benjamin Osterlund |Rachael Marie Collins |Joel Nagel |Tiphini Axtell
For most of 2023, my bedroom window looked out onto a 30-foot-tall, blue-gray mural of the heroic Ghost of Kyiv. Word of the flying ace’s exploits spread like wildfire in the days after Russia’s late February 2022 invasion. He was said to have downed six Russian aircraft as enemy forces attempted to take the capital.
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Aug 30, 2024 | 
escapeartist.com | Paul Benjamin Osterlund |Rachael Marie Collins |Joel Nagel |Sean Murphy
One evening late last year, my husband, our three teen children and I found ourselves trudging up a mountain of sand in remote Egypt led by a local man named Fahmi. If I hadn’t been there to see it all happen, I might’ve wondered, how did we get here? We’d left our home in Santa Fe six months before to embark on a family gap year. My husband and I, both in our 40s, had grown tired of our work-life imbalance.
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Aug 22, 2024 | 
escapeartist.com | Paul Benjamin Osterlund |Rachael Marie Collins |Joel Nagel |Sean Murphy
Saudi Arabia is often thought of as backwards, and mostly sand—it even has a district called the Empty Quarter. But a multi-billion dollar push by the government of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman hopes to change that. The early signs are good, as tourist visits and spending ticked up last year. Dozens of influencers have passed through on Riyadh’s dime and highlighted some fascinating places, like UNESCO-designated Hegra and the historic Red Sea port of Yanbu.
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Aug 19, 2024 | 
escapeartist.com | Paul Benjamin Osterlund |Rachael Marie Collins |Joel Nagel |Sean Murphy
There are just ten short weeks before the 2024 presidential election. On November 5th, America will elect its 47th president in what has, up to now, been one of the more dramatic, chaotic, and downright bizarre national political battles we’ve seen in decades. Regardless of the outcome, it’s that time again, when people on both sides of the political aisle begin making that solemn vow to move to a different country if their party and candidate loses the election.
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Aug 15, 2024 | 
escapeartist.com | Paul Benjamin Osterlund |Rachael Marie Collins |Joel Nagel |Sean Murphy
You’ve probably seen that iconic Santorini photo in which a young couple smiles for a romantic sunset selfie overlooking the Greek Island’s white and blue homes —as hundreds of other visitors do just the same thing. It’s summer high season again, and travel hotspots across Europe and beyond are feeling the heat of tourist overcrowding. In Santorini, the irony is that while the island throngs with visitors into the early evening, it’s rather quiet once the cruise ships set sail as darkness falls.
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Aug 13, 2024 | 
escapeartist.com | Paul Benjamin Osterlund |Rachael Marie Collins |Joel Nagel |Sean Murphy
Has the world finally had its fill of cafes doubling as offices? Cafes in popular cities like Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, and Berlin have begun employing extreme measures to deter remote workers, such as turning off their wi-fi, charging hourly fees for internet use, and even prohibiting laptop use outright. There’s even a new derogatory term being thrown around.
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Jul 24, 2024 | 
dev.escapeartist.com | Paul Benjamin Osterlund |Rachael Marie Collins |Joel Nagel |Sean Murphy
On a sweltering July afternoon in the heart of Istanbul’s old city, groups of men huddle around colored plastic tables in the shade of the Aqueduct of Valens, an imposing, nearly 100-foot-tall stone wall built in the 4th century by its namesake Roman emperor. This is Duygu Ocakbaşı, a modest Turkish ocakbaşı, orgrill house, and a beloved local eatery on the edge of conservative, working-class Zeyrek.
