Before smartphones, GPS navigation and online travel guides made exploring the world easier, traveling often required a sense of adventure, a willingness to take risks and the ability to trust strangers. Author Dan Wake revisits that era in his new memoir, Eat the Wind: Travels with Dictators, Mercenaries, and Queens, recounting a decade of journeys and unexpected encounters across the globe.
In 1985, Wake made an unconventional decision after graduating from Stanford Law School. Rather than pursue a lucrative partnership at a prestigious Washington, D.C., law firm, he walked away from the career he had worked toward and chose to explore the world.
His adventures, which span the 1970s and 1980s, took him from hitchhiking through Europe to traveling by bus across the Amazon jungle and navigating parts of Asia under authoritarian rule. Along the way, Wake developed an uncanny ability to find himself near major historical events and among people whose lives offered unexpected windows into different cultures and political realities.
“I wanted to tell the story of a pre-internet world of exotic travels that no longer exists,” Wake said.
Published by Torchflame Books, Eat the Wind captures a period when travel was less predictable and discoveries often came without advance research or carefully planned itineraries. Rather than relying on digital maps and online recommendations, travelers had to navigate unfamiliar places through instinct, curiosity and conversations with people they encountered.
Among the experiences Wake recounts are his efforts to charm his way through London’s Silver Jubilee celebrations and his travels across the Philippines during the People Power Revolution, the popular uprising that led to the overthrow of longtime president Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.
The memoir also explores the people who made these journeys memorable. From chance encounters in remote destinations to brushes with political upheaval, Wake presents travel as an opportunity to discover not only unfamiliar places but also unexpected connections.
Early reviews have praised the book’s combination of adventure, humor and human interest. Midwest Book Review describes it as a “rollicking good read,” while Kirkus Reviews calls it “a captivating memoir that showcases the magic of people and connections made around the world.” Foreword Reviews and BookLife by Publishers Weekly have also highlighted the memoir’s lively storytelling and international adventures.
At its core, Eat the Wind considers what can happen when someone abandons a predictable future in favor of uncertainty. Wake’s decision to leave a promising legal career opened the door to a decade of experiences shaped by curiosity, spontaneity and encounters that could never have been scheduled.
Eat the Wind: Travels with Dictators, Mercenaries, and Queens was released Sept. 15, 2026, by Torchflame Books and is available through Amazon.