article_snippet: The former Playboy editor, author and adventurer has travelled to each of the world's 196 countries over a period of fifty years.
article_snippet: The author led an expedition around the world the set the record for the longest direct, non-repetitive automobile journey ever made around the earth.
article_snippet: 'As I moved past middle age, I still wanted to do one grand and glorious travel venture, to go out with a bang rather than a whimper, and, after I realized that I had been to 90 nations, I decided that I just might be able to visit every one of the 196 countries during my allotted years,' The author says.
article_snippet: The author travels have taken The author to the furthest flung corners of the globe, allowing The author to meet some of the world's most colourful characters: In The author book, Around the World in Fifty Years, released this month, The author fondly remembers a flamboyant camel driver; a voodoo priest and a deaf and mute Japanese badminton Olympian.
highlights_snippet: Albert Podell, 78, wanted to do one grand and glorious travel venture, 'to go out with a bang rather than a whimper'
  
highlights_snippet: The author has visited all 196 countries, meeting colourful characters, sleeping rough and eating outlandish food .
  