Mum just messaged me and said ‘so what are you gonna do for the next three days’ like I haven’t already been asking myself that the last two hours 😂 #Ashes
@latinedisce There can be many cultures in the same nation, each region has its own culture, as long as everyone respects it and wherever one lives if they embrace the culture of that region there is going to be harmony
In the spring of 2008, I feared America was on the verge of war with Iran — and, believing that it’s good style to get to know people before you bomb them, I took my TV crew to Tehran to make “Rick Steves’ Iran,” a one-hour special that could (and would) only debut on PBS. Sadly, this special has become pertinent again today — and I hope you will invest an hour streaming it on the PBS app (or online at https://t.co/3XihMRbpLE), so you have a little honest context on the current situation and the 90 million Iranians involved.
The news that Trump is flirting with the idea of bombing Iran breaks my heart. Why? Because, along with the humanity of the Israeli people — which I shared in my 2014 Holy Land special — I recognize the humanity of the Iranian people, who have lived under a brutal theocratic dictatorship since 1979.
I remember the moment it dawned on me, in the nasty wake of 9/11 — watching American bombs light up the sky over Baghdad on the evening news — that I could do my country a service by producing a one-hour TV special on Iran, which I feared Bush might target next. I was painfully aware that what the average American knew about Iran, they learned from Ted Koppel during the hostage crisis (1979-1981) — in other words, almost nothing.
The documentary was the most exciting, demanding, and gratifying script I had written. Rather than getting mired in politics, we simply humanized the Iranians by telling their story — the story of a society America knows almost nothing about, even though it’s constantly in our news... the story of a proud nation with a rich and complex heritage shaped by not living in Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood.
If you want to be a savvier consumer of the news as Israel and Iran duke it out in 2025 and as the USA considers joining in, please educate yourself by watching this special. Shalom and Salam.
@rickygervais Is it mental exhaustion of not working or just physical exhaustion? If you are exhausted on your day off after doing all these fun activities, and you can't wait to get back to work, does that mean your work days are more relaxing?
Back in 1978, when I was just 23, I traveled from Istanbul to Kathmandu with my best friend, Gene. It was quite an adventure for a couple of kids just out of college. There was no way of connecting with loved ones. We didn’t know where the end of our trail was. There were no guidebooks. For us, it was a venture into uncharted territory. It was a journey of discovery, to question our Western values and help us better understand the world. Along the way, we made friends in Tehran, got lost in Lahore, got high for the first time in Herat, battled leeches in Pokhara, and much more. We were free and earnest, but the trip helped us build a better empathy for cultures and humility for seeing what a small speck we were in this world.
Almost 50 years later, I still pack along that curiosity whenever and wherever I travel. What drove me to write a 60,000-word journal along the way is beyond me…but with that journal as the basis for my new book, “On the Hippie Trail: Istanbul to Kathmandu and the Making of a Travel Writer,” you’re invited to join me on what was far and away, the trip of my life.
In 2015, Jiwon Han published a paper on why walking with a coffee mug often leads to spills.
Han discovered that our natural walking frequency unfortunately matches the frequency at which coffee prefers to slosh around.
He also explored various methods to prevent spills, including walking backwards and the "claw-hand" grip.