The Fifth Hour: The Maller Travel Log - Boston Edition

Ben Maller opens this episode of his late-night radio podcast not with sports analysis but with a confession: he travels not to find himself, but to confirm his suspicion that "airports, tourists, and humanity in general are held together still with duct tape and bad judgment." The episode functions as a travelogue of his recent trip to Boston and Maine, but the real subject is something stranger and more specific—what happens when a self-described introvert who hosts a syndicated overnight radio show steps out from behind the microphone and meets his audience in person.

The journey and its small disasters

Maller's travel philosophy is established early. He refuses to fly through Los Angeles International Airport, which he calls "an active social experiment designed by some very rude, strange people who clearly hate travelers." Instead, he opts for a connecting flight through Salt Lake City, which leads to what he calls "the Mike Vrabel experience"—a visit to the airport gift shop boutique called Hip and Humble, made famous when the former NFL coach was photographed there buying a sweater for his wife during a tabloid scandal. Maller notes dryly that the store's name "sounds less like a store and more like a folk band opening for Mumford and Sons."