There's no replacing travel when it comes to expanding your horizons.
But after nearly a year at home, I'm finding small ways to make my world feel larger—it's kind of like being on a strict diet and rediscovering how sweet common fruits can taste.
One of those tiny treats: listening to radio from around the globe.
A website called Radio Garden makes that easy to do.
Go to the site and you'll see a giant map of the world speckled with neon green dots, each representing a location with radio signals.
Hover over one of the dots and you'll hear live audio from a radio station there, with the option of listening to other nearby points on the dial as well.
When I positioned my cursor over tiny Beaver Island, Michigan, I got several pop and country tunes as well as a public radio station playing ethereal Gregorian chants.
Go outside North America for even more variety.
I drifted over to Kilkenny, Ireland, and heard a recipe for Turkish delight delivered in a rich brogue. Not too far away in Ballyhaunis, I happened upon a delightful traditional Irish music session from a pub.
A station in Belvedere Marittimo, Italy, was playing pop music with driving drums, Italian lyrics—and was that an accordion? From the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, an a cappella vocalist hummed and chanted what sounded like a prayer.
The stations of Ahmedabad, India, made me want to dance—each song featured an orchestra's worth of rhythm sounds undergirding nasal-toned wind instruments and sinuous vocals.
To take your own ears on a free world tour, visit the Radio Garden website.
