'The Interview': Rick Steves Refuses To Get Cynical About the World
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This podcast is supported by TikTok. Sometimes the most interesting discoveries are the ones you weren't looking for. That happens every day on TikTok. A science experiment can spark a whole new interest. A recipe you stumble upon can become a meal you make for the people you love. And a restaurant you've never heard of might become your new favorite spot. That's the thing about TikTok. Follow your curiosity and see where it leads. Your next discovery is waiting on TikTok. (upbeat music) - From the New York Times, this is the interview. I'm Lulu Garcia Navarro. The minute I left university, I put on a backpack and went to see the world. I climbed the Andes in Ecuador. I taught English in Cambodia. I spent months visiting monasteries in Tibet. It was the most transformative period of my life. Lately though, I feel like my travel mojo is gone. Instead of traveling to discover, I now travel to retreat. I'm often overwhelmed by the demands of daily life. So when it's time for vacation, I choose a destination that doesn't ask too much of me and I don't give much back. Rick Steves has been helping millions of people, including people like me, expand their travel horizons since he was in his 20s. The prolific guidebook writer and beloved PBS personality believes that travel can make not only the world a better place, but you, a better person. He's 69 now, but his upcoming book is about how it all began with a trip he took after university like me. It's called On the Hippy Trail. And it's the journal entries he wrote as he traveled the 3,000 miles from Istanbul to Kathmandu in 1978. It's full of the joy of exploration and discovery. And I wanted to talk to him to relearn how to feel that sense of communion with the world. Here's my conversation with Travel Guru Rick Steves. I was reading your newest book, which are the diaries of a trip that you took in 1978, when you were 23 years old on what was called the hippy trail. When you reread those diaries, what did it evoke in you when you looked at that 23 year old with the hindsight of age now?
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The guidebook writer and television personality reflects on his cancer diagnosis, social media’s corrosive effect on tourism and the transformative power of travel.