“EVERYTHING YOU KNOW IS WRONG.”

That’s the way I start every story I commission. Well, in my mind at least. Maybe I should actually start my commissions with those exact words to set the writer off on the right foot on their journey of discovery. If you asked me what my mission is outside of showing you – the most interesting person in the world – the way the world works, my answer is always: "exploring the boundaries of what we think we know, and hoping to find a new truth." We’re on this journey together and luckily I’m used to long and arduous travels.

I was born on the road. That’s a lie. I was born in a hospital like most humans from a lower-middleclass household. But I was born in Pretoria to parents who were from Cape Town and were faithful to the December pilgrimage. Entering stage on the 29th obviously meant that my folks were trapped on the Highveld for the Christmas of 1983. New Year’s 1984 was the first of only a handful year-end vacations I’ve had on the Highveld. Point is, I’ve travelled the 1 400 km between Pretoria and Cape Town more times than any person should.

Travelling is one of my defining features and because I do it so much, I don’t even consider the journey as the fun part. It’s not travelling, it’s commuting. I’m destined to be perennially stuck in transit traffic between new experiences. And I know traffic well because I did Pretoria to Sandton peak hour on the daily for the best part of two years and currently live 40 km from the office, in the hell of the northern suburbs to Cape Town CBD traverse.

Doing a “Travel Issue” was a weird experience for someone who has a very practical approach to the topic. You’ll find some great advice that speaks to my idea of A-to-b travelling, but there’s also great stories about people who had so much more fun on the way that the destination didn’t really matter.

On the side of knowledge gathering, assistant editor Brendon Petersen flew up to Joburg to attend the Blockchain Africa Conference, tasked with finding a definitive definition of Blockchain technology. His maiden magazine feature discovered that not even the people building the Blockchain-backed platforms can agree on an answer. We know it’s the future, but unsure of how exactly to define that future.

Our immediate future, or, at least, the big change we need to make to secure a future for this planet, is electrified mobility. I asked motoring scribe Lance Branquinho to poke around the local branches of the motoring manufacturers ushering in the electric car revolution for a map to this fossil fuel-free utopia. As it turns out, people like me are the problem. We live too far from the office, on vast tracks of underserved land, and make roadtrips a part of our personal identity.

I’ve lived with a BMW i3 as my only mode of transport for a week and, while it wasn’t that bad, it’s only possible if you have a charging point at home and at work. The new i3, partially featured on our cover, brings in an upgraded battery and along with BMW’S DC fast charger – which can top it up in around two hours – is a powerful weapon in the war to change perceptions. Well, at least among the upper-middleclass and high earning early adopters.

Us with less disposable income need to pressure our policy makers to adopt strategies which will ultimately wean us off earth’s unsustainable resource nipple. But don’t worry, I’m busy commissioning the stories about the best ways to save the world and re-engineer our living solutions. And you’ll be the first to see the road signs that point us along our road to the truth.