A Life Shaped by Curiosity, Culture & Connection
Renee Blodgett is a global traveler, writer, photographer, media founder, strategist and communications architect who has spent decades exploring the intersection of travel, culture, consciousness, people, nature and the stories that connect us to the world.
As founder and managing editor of We Blog the World, she has built a global platform around transformative travel. Having lived in 10 countries and traveled to 95, Renee brings an unusually deep cultural perspective to her work. Her travels have taken her across continents and into some of the world’s most extraordinary destinations, where she has written about adventure, people, consciousness, food, hotels, wellness, wine, technology and culture.
Traveled to 95 Countries
Travel was shaped by cultural immersion, global perspective and profound, ancient wisdom.
Lived in 10 Countries
A lived—not merely visited—understanding of place, people and culture.
6 Photography Books
Visual storytelling centered on character, architecture, nature and human moments.
15 Years at TEDxBerkeley
Producer and co-curator, alongside global speaking, media work, consulting and PR.
Award-Winning Author
Bestselling author of Magdalene’s Journey, honored with 14 literary awards.
Renee has cultivated a global community of writers and contributors and worked with destinations, tourism boards, hotels, tour companies, airlines, restaurants, cultural organizations and travel brands.
She has participated in and organized international press trips, destination and tour-company FAMs, and curated travel experiences spanning luxury, adventure, spirituality, wellness, food, culture, technology and the arts. Her work in travel has also extended into the evolving relationships between travel, innovation and human connection. She co-founded Traveling Geeks, an initiative that brings together global innovators, thought leaders, entrepreneurs and influencers to explore how technology, ideas and people can accelerate new initiatives within destinations and companies.
Over the years, Renee’s travel and media work has earned international recognition. Forbes recognized her as a leading social media influencer and among its most influential women; the United Nations selected her as a digital influencer; Women Online Magazine named her a top social media mentor; and media and business organizations have recognized her for her influence in digital storytelling and communications. She served as a Smitty Awards judge for Travel & Leisure, and her voice has appeared on or in major media outlets, including CNN, BBC, NPR, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Good Morning America, ABC News, Entertainment Weekly, Boston Globe and many others.
Where Travel Meets Ideas
Travel has been a doorway into conversations about innovation, culture and human connection. She has been serving as a producer and co-curator of TEDxBerkeley for 15 years. She also directed content for TEDxUN, the only TEDx event held at the United Nations.
Her influence within the broader travel and ideas ecosystem has also led her to present and participate in conversations at institutions and gatherings in Oxford, Cambridge, London, Paris, Munich, Dublin, Johannesburg, Tel Aviv and across the United States.
We Blog the World has served as a media partner for organizations and gatherings including the Travel & Adventure Show, Wisdom 2.0, the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), Bioneers, Purpose Summit and the New York Times Travel Show, among others.
She also had a column on HuffPost for several years, writing about technology, travel and food/wine.
For three decades, as founder of Magic Sauce Media, she also led award-winning campaigns launching start-ups, Fortune 500 companies, artists and entrepreneurs—branding, social media, communications, go-to-market strategy, strategic marketing and speaker and media coaching. She has worked with Emmy and Grammy Award winners, and some of the most powerful people in technology and travel.
Why I Travel
Travel has never been about collecting destinations or checking places off a list. For me, it has always been about what happens when we move beyond what is familiar and allow ourselves to not just be changed by what we encounter, but transformed. A philosophical conversation with a stranger, a sacred ritual, the rhythm of a market, connecting with locals along the way, a meal prepared with generations of memory and tradition behind it, or simply standing in a landscape that rearranges our sense of scale—these moments can alter us in ways we don't always recognize right away.
- Start Curious.
- Embrace Culture.
- Deepen Connection.
- Elevate Consciousness.
Having lived in various countries, I came to understand that the most meaningful journeys are never the outward ones, but what happens within us because of it—when we allow it. They ask us to question assumptions, soften certainty, listen more deeply and see the world through another lens: an embodied, empathic one. Travel can reveal how different we are, but just as powerfully, how profoundly connected we are. That realization became part of the foundation of We Blog the World: to explore not only where we go, but what a place, culture or experience awakens in us—and how we show up differently for others (and ourselves) because of it.
“Travel can become a form of remembrance—a recognition that beneath language, ritual and place, we belong to one another. Perhaps the real journey isn’t across geography, but across the boundaries of who we thought we were.”
Through the Lens
Photography has been another defining dimension of Renee’s relationship with travel and place. She has published six photography books, including The Galapagos Islands, Faces of London, Post Apartheid Kids, Ecuador’s Faces & Walls, Color Me Rome and Through an Urban Lens. Her photography reflects her fascination with a place’s character—its textures, architecture, landscapes and emotional moments.
From Outer Journeys to Inner Ones
After years of crossing borders and cultures, deeper questions began to emerge:
- How do the places we inhabit—and the ways we move through the world—shape who we become?
- And how do we show up?
- What is ours to do in this world?
- What is ours to say?
These questions now thread through Renee’s work in consciousness, intentional living, timeless wisdom, nature, human potential and the spaces we create around us.
More importantly, how do we use what we’ve gained from the road to step more fully into our soul’s journey and live with purpose and consciousness?
That exploration is now an important part of her work.
Today, she is also the founder of Blue Soul Earth, where she teaches about consciousness through the year-long Blue Soul Alchemy Wisdom School Program, leads retreats, speaks at conferences and expos and runs workshops and darshans.
She is also the founder of Blue Soul Media, which focuses on launching books for authors who want to retain their rights, coaching entrepreneurs and individuals who want to step onto high-profile stages, such as TED and others. She also helps brands reshape their message or launch a service, product or their voice into the world, using a process that brings them back into alignment with what legacy they’re here to leave behind, especially in an AI-dominated world.
She loves exploring the relationship between timeless wisdom, consciousness, nature, human potential, intentional living and the spaces we create around us. Her work brings together ancient wisdom traditions, contemporary perspectives, nature, design, awareness and transformational leadership to explore how we might create lives—and spaces—that genuinely nourish the soul.
Her latest work builds naturally on the curiosity that has defined her travel career: an enduring fascination with how people live, what they believe, the environments they create, and what happens when we step outside familiar territory.
As founder of the Blue Soul CHATS podcast, she has interviewed over a hundred visionaries making a dent in consciousness across industries—available on audio and on their Blue Soul Earth YouTube channel. She is the bestselling author of Magdalene’s Journey, which has garnered 14 awards, and the creator of The Magdalene Collection, a jewelry line dedicated to women’s unsung voices.
