Assita Kanko - Member of European Parliament
The One Way Ticket Show
I’ve been following, Assita Kanko, Member of European Parliament on social media for quite some time, so it was a true thrill to welcome her into the studio as our latest guest on The One Way Ticket Show. Ms. Kanko was born on July 14, 1980, in Godyr, Burkina Faso. She grew up in a society where women's rights were severely restricted and was subjected to female genital mutilation as a child. At a young age, she began writing about human rights and women's rights. In 2001, she moved to Belgium, where she eventually became a naturalized citizen. She studied journalism and political...
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Joshua Hammer – Journalist & Author
The One Way Ticket Show
On this episode, we welcome back to the program, journalist and author, Joshua Hammer who was our guest back on episode 112 in September 2016. Joshua’s career has included serving as Newsweek Bureau Chief in, Nairobi, Buenos Aires, LA, Berlin, Jerusalem and Cape Town. His work has appeared in the New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, National Geographic and the Smithsonian just to name a few publications. He is a New York Times bestselling author of six books, including The Falcon Thief and The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu (which we talked about in our last...
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Alberto Nicheli – Founder, TransAfrica
The One Way Ticket Show
Alberto Nicheli is the Founder of the travel operator, TransAfrica. For the last 40 years, Alberto, who was born in Italy, has made the West African nation of Togo his home. He knows Africa intimately, having done his first Trans-Sahara expedition in 1972 and having developed an expertise on West African tribes and art. Over the decades, he’s shared his knowledge with authors and filmmakers who want to better understand that part of the world. Our conversation with Alberto took place in a very lively New York City restaurant while he was in town for the Travel & Adventure Show. In...
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Madison Cox - Garden Designer
The One Way Ticket Show
Our latest guest on The One Way Ticket Show is world-renowned Garden Designer, Madison Cox. The interview was conducted in September 2024 in the Willis Pavilion, beside the house today known as Villa Oasis which was built by French Orientalist painter, Jacques Majorelle in the 1920s, and later owned by Yves Saint Laurent & Pierre Bergé. Adjacent to the home is the famed Majorelle Garden. Madison was born September 23, 1958, in Bellingham, Washington, and raised in San Francisco and Marin County, California. As a garden designer and author of books about gardens, he has traveled...
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Frédéric Sola - Founder and Owner of Fez’s Riad Laaroussa and Fez Real Estate
The One Way Ticket Show
On this episode of the podcast, we’re joined by Frédéric Sola, the founder and owner of Fez’s Riad Laaroussa and Fez Real Estate. In our conversation, Fred shares his one way ticket journey to mental health stability which manifested in Fez. He opens up about his own experience suffering from depression -- which began in his mid 30s amidst a successful career in finance in London and Paris – and how he has worked to live with and manage it all these years later. He went on to describe how he fell in love with Fez on his first visit in 2003, so much so, that he bought Riad Laaroussa...
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Shai Davidai – Columbia Business School Professor & A Leading Voice Combatting Jew-Hatred and Israel-Bashing
The One Way Ticket Show
Given Jew-hatred and virulent anti-Israel rhetoric spiraling out of control, particularly on college campuses, we’ve invited Shai Davidai to be our featured guest on this episode of the program. Shai is Assistant Professor in the Management Division of Columbia University Business School. His research examines people’s everyday judgments of themselves, other people, and society as a whole. Born and raised just outside Tel-Aviv, Shai received his Ph.D. from Cornell in 2015. Before joining Columbia Business School, Shai spent a year as a post-doctoral fellow at Princeton and 3 years as an...
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Sebastian Copeland - Polar Explorer, Climate Advocate, Award-Winning Photographer & Author
The One Way Ticket Show
Sebastian Copeland is a polar explorer, climate analyst, photographer and author. In 2017, he was named one of the world’s top 25 adventurers of the last 25 years. Noted as a photographer “who has produced works that are of outstanding artistic merit and communicates messages of urgent global significance,” Sebastian has led numerous record-setting expeditions, documenting the endangered Polar regions while covering more than 10,000 km on skis over the ice. Since 2000, he has warned of systemic transformations taking place in the polar regions and their geo- economic...
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Aryeh Lightstone – CEO, Abraham Accords Peace Institute
The One Way Ticket Show
Aryeh Lightstone served as the Senior Advisor to U.S. Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, from 2017 to 2021. During his tenure as Senior Advisor, he played a critical role in advancing bilateral U.S. - Israel relations with a focus on economic development & technology cooperation. Aryeh was appointed as the Special Envoy for Economic Normalization. In that role he was an integral member of the Peace to Prosperity team, leading the inaugural Abraham Accords Business Summit, directing the Abraham fund, and serving as point person in the Middle East for the actualization of the...
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Dickie Arbiter LVO – Royal Commentator
The One Way Ticket Show
Dickie Arbiter began his broadcasting career in Zimbabwe (Southern Rhodesia) in the mid-1960s. Following a return to the United Kingdom in the early 1970s he joined LBC News Radio/IRN (Independent Radio News) as a newscaster and program presenter. During late Queen’s 1977 Silver Jubilee he was asked to report on the British royal family. In 1981 he was responsible for organizing the UK’s commercial radio coverage as well as taking on as lead commentator of the wedding of Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer. With the success of the Royal wedding coverage, he was appointed IRN’s...
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Lucas Peters - Travel Writer, Photographer & Owner of Journey Beyond Travel
The One Way Ticket Show
Born and raised on the West Coast of the US, Lucas Peters now makes Tangier his home. He’s a travel writer and photographer and the author of the Moon Guide Book for Morocco. Together with his very accomplished wife, Amina, they own and operate Journey Beyond Travel, one of Morocco’s most successful, sustainable tour companies. Lucas’ expertise isn’t limited to Morocco though. He also wrote Moon Guide Book’s Grand European Journeys: 40 Unforgettable Trips by Road, Rail, Sea & More. In November 2024, Lucas is releasing the Moon Guide Book for Sevilla, Granada and...
info_outlineOur latest guest on The One Way Ticket Show is world-renowned Garden Designer, Madison Cox. The interview was conducted in September 2024 in the Willis Pavilion, beside the house today known as Villa Oasis which was built by French Orientalist painter, Jacques Majorelle in the 1920s, and later owned by Yves Saint Laurent & Pierre Bergé. Adjacent to the home is the famed Majorelle Garden.
Madison was born September 23, 1958, in Bellingham, Washington, and raised in San Francisco and Marin County, California. As a garden designer and author of books about gardens, he has traveled extensively across the United States and Europe as well as to Japan, China, Russia, India, North Africa, and Australia.
Madison’s passion for garden design has also extended to lecturing, leading garden tours in France and Italy, and book publications. He has lectured across the United States and Canada: at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. and the Art Institute of Chicago, as well as at the Portland Garden Club and the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto. Madison Cox is the author of Private Gardens of Paris (Harmony Books, 1989), co-author of Gardens of the World (Macmillan, 1991), and with photographer Erica Lennard, of Artists' Gardens: from Claude Monet to Jennifer Bartlett (Abrams, 1993), and Majorelle: A Moroccan Oasis (Vendome Press, 1999). Cox wrote the preface for The Gardener’s Garden (Phaidon, 2014).
He was the first American to design a garden at the Chelsea Flower Show in London in 1997, and won a Silver-Gilt Medal.
Madison is a member of the following institutions:
- President, Fondation Pierre Berge – Yves Saint Laurent, Paris, France
- President, Foundation Jardin Majorelle, Marrakech, Morocco
- Co-Chairman of the American Schools of Tangier and Marrakech in Morocco
- Advisory Board Member, The Aangan Trust, Mumbai, India
- Patron, American Friends of Blérancourt, France
- Board of Directors TALIM (The American Legation in Morocco)
In our conversation, Madison shares his one way ticket destination of choice is to Morocco. His first visit to the country was in 1979. While he was a student in Paris, Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé invited him as part of a small group down to Marrakech for a long weekend.
During our sit-down, Madison covers:
- The difference between Marrakech in the 1970s and today
- The nostalgia for Tangier (where Madison has a home)
- The rich backstory behind Villa Oasis and the Majorelle Garden
- Yves Saint Laurent’s love for Morocco (he first visited in 1966) and how the country significantly impacted his work
- The Pierre Bergé Museum of Berber Arts which is housed in the former painting studio of Jacques Majorelle, in the garden
- The Yves Saint Laurent Museum in Marrakech
- How Morocco has impacted his own approach to designing gardens.
Plus, J. Paul Getty, Edith Wharton, Winston Churchill, FDR, and the photographer Horst, all make appearances in the interview.