

Brought up in the family hotel in Fife, Scotland, Edith Bowman has travel running through her veins. She’s hung out in New York with the world’s biggest bands, been caught in a snowstorm in the salt flats of Bolivia, shot guns in Texas (which she hated), presented TV travel shows from all over the globe and loves nothing more than waking up in a new place a day with her kids and rockstar husband on a tour bus.
On this episode we cover:
How she got started on MTV
Initial negativity about her Scottish accent
MTV UK’s
Sara Cox
June Sarpong
Cat Deeley
Donna Air
Davina McCall
MTV’s Select
Growing up in family hotel in Anstruther in Fife in Scotland
Her granddad’s café and grocers shop
Sir Alex Ferguson
Golf
Working in the hotel from a young age
A visit from the Queen
The Queen’s velvet toilet seat
The bus from The Italian Job
Her vast family
Fife being the fifth moth instagrammed place in the UK
Being bored as a teenager in Anstruther
Edinburgh
East Neuk of Fife
St Andrews
The May Island bird sanctuary
Japanese Golfers
Swedish football fans
Family weddings
Family holidays (term-time!)
Skiing
Disney World
Portugal
Taking the kids out of school
The high price of school holiday holidays
Centre Parcs
The importance of quality time with family
Instagram world schoolers
Holidays with kids
Her husband, Tom Smith from the band Editors
On the tour bus with Editors
Exploring Europe with the kids
Germany
Zoe Ball
Warsaw
Interviewing Kylie Minogue outside the loo for Forth FM
T in the Park in Strathclyde Park in Glasgow
Moving to London for MTV
Travelling with MTV to Rotterdam, Milan and more
Getting a BBC presenting job on travel show Rough Guides
Travel shows in Bolivia, New Zealand, Japan, Barcelona, Stockholm…
Altitude sickness in La Paz
Hitting a freak snow storm in Bolivia
The surreal Bolivian salt flats
California
Driving on her own through the Mojave Desert
Visiting her cousin in Mammouth
How presenting travel shows encouraged her adventurous streak
Solo female travel
Snowboarding
Los Angeles
Getting stuck in a blizzard on the way to Yosemite
Loving New York
Loving Home Alone!
A late night out with U2 and Bono
Larry Mullen from US having to get the FBI to find an imposter
Australia
The Rhythm and Vine festival near Auckland
A crazy electrical storm at a festival in Tasmania
The Yeah Yeah Yeah’s
Why Glastonbury Festival is so special
Her sons Rudy and Spike
Working at Glastonbury two weeks after a C section
Expressing milk between takes
The other worldliness of Glastonbury
Lose Vagueness in Glastonbury
Lost in Vagueness – the film by Sofia Olins
Thom Yorke at The Roundhouse
Finding the positive in all travels
Not being comfortable just flopping on a beach
Being a bit bored in Mauritius
Roadtripping – her travel TV show with Cat Deeley
Mexico, Italy, France, Morocco, Texas
Feeling out of her comfort zone with the gun crowd in Texas
Conspiracy theories
Waco
Nearly getting arrested in Morocco
Being freaked out by the gun culture in Texas
Her podcast Soundtracking
Duncan Jones, Clint Mansell and David Bowie
Duncan Jones’ Scottish Nanny
Carmine Rojas
Rod Stewart
Her parents’ Timeshare experience
Villa Moura, Portugal
Her home away from home in Portugal
Kilconquhar Castle Estate the East Neuk of Fife
Places she would love to go: Cuba, Mexico, Galapagos, China, the Northern Lights, Brazil…
Giving the kids life experiences through travel
Midlake – The Trials of Van Occupanther