Rondel Holder has visited more than 50 countries since graduating from Temple University, building one of the more compelling travel platforms to emerge from Philadelphia in the past decade. But what makes Holder’s story worth paying attention to isn’t the passport stamps — it’s the deliberate effort to bring others along with him, particularly travelers of color who may not have seen themselves represented in mainstream travel culture. Rondel Holder is doing something specific and something necessary, and Soul Society 101 is the proof.

Who Is Rondel Holder?

Rondel Holder grew up in Brooklyn, New York, without significant financial resources and without any expectation that the world’s most far-flung destinations would be within his reach. He attended Temple University in Philadelphia, and it was in the years after graduation that his travel life took shape — not through luck or inheritance, but through intention and resourcefulness. South Africa, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Iceland, Japan: Holder has been to all of them, and has documented the experience with an honesty that connects with audiences who recognize themselves in his perspective.

“I want people to realize that I am a regular kid from Brooklyn, New York. Who did not grow up with money and who still is not rich. Who has traveled the world and is still traveling the world. I really do believe that if I can do it, anybody can do it if they are interested,” Holder has said. That directness is central to what Rondel Holder has built — a platform that is explicitly about access and possibility, not aspiration porn.

Soul Society 101: A Community Built by Rondel Holder

In 2012, Rondel Holder founded Soul Society 101, a community built specifically for travelers of color. What began as a personal platform has grown to nearly 100,000 followers across social media, supported by a curated blog, custom video content, and a podcast. Soul Society 101 operates at the intersection of travel storytelling and community building — it is not just about where Holder has been, but about creating a space where people who look like him can see themselves as global citizens.

The platform has earned national attention. Holder’s work has been featured in The New York Times, New York Daily News, BuzzFeed, BET, and Travel Noire, among others. “Everything that I do… the podcast, the blog, the video content… it is all, for the most part, entertaining as well as informative,” Holder has said. “It’s also just real stories because I like to be as relatable as possible.” That commitment to authenticity is what distinguishes Soul Society 101 from travel content that prioritizes aesthetics over substance.

Rondel Holder and the Heritage Journey Documentary

Among the most significant projects in Rondel Holder’s body of work is the short-form documentary Heritage Journey, produced in partnership with Ancestry and The Points Guy. The project traces what happens when Holder takes his Ancestry DNA results and uses them as a travel itinerary — returning to the places that shaped his lineage and documenting the experience. Heritage Journey represents a first: no one had previously partnered with a genealogy platform to turn DNA results into a documented voyage of ancestral discovery at this level.

The project is a natural extension of what Rondel Holder has always done — use travel as a means of understanding identity, heritage, and possibility. It is also a compelling example of how content creators with clear points of view can attract partnerships that amplify their work in meaningful ways rather than diluting it.

Why Rondel Holder’s Work Matters for Philadelphia

Holder’s connection to Philadelphia — through Temple University and through the cultural fabric of a city that has long been home to a resilient and creative Black community — gives his work a local resonance that extends well beyond travel content. The message at the core of Soul Society 101 is the same message that has animated Philadelphia’s most enduring community institutions: that access to the world’s richest experiences should not be determined by where you were born or what resources you started with. For more on the kind of community-building and cultural storytelling that defines Philadelphia at its best, see our coverage of the Pyramid Club exhibition at Temple Contemporary.

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Bobbi I. Booker

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