Speaker 1: Hi. I'm Daniel Scheffler, and this is everywhere I've spent
Speaker 1: the majority of my life circling the globe. I have
Speaker 1: fed stray dogs in Cairo for a day, been tattooed
Speaker 1: in the back of a jewelry store in Istanbul, and
Speaker 1: I've joined a chef to seek out new sources of
Speaker 1: protein in the Amazon. So I want to tell you
Speaker 1: how I travel and how you can travel. I don't
Speaker 1: like lists or must us. I don't care about aspirational
Speaker 1: luxury nonsense. In fact, while we're at it, let's throw
Speaker 1: out that word luxury altogether. You are being conned. It
Speaker 1: doesn't matter if you're wealthy or not alone or with
Speaker 1: your personal people. You can have an amazing adventure anywhere.
Speaker 1: All you need is an open mind. Don't think about
Speaker 1: what I'm telling you, just feel it. It's not a
Speaker 1: head knowledge, it's all heart knowledge. Come with me and
Speaker 1: I'll show you every where. Every week you will hear
Speaker 1: me mention my travel commandments. As much as commandments sound
Speaker 1: religious in this context, they absolutely are not. However, they
Speaker 1: slightly tied to a little bit of ethics and a
Speaker 1: little bit of that thing we could call moral imperative.
Speaker 1: If you will, So take these with a pinch of
Speaker 1: salt and throw them over your suitcase or whatever. What
Speaker 1: they really are is just a sort of guideline that
Speaker 1: hopefully will enrich your travel life as it has mine.
Speaker 1: You'll also notice that my commandments are not in the negative,
Speaker 1: but rather in the positive. Thou shalt so go forth
Speaker 1: and shalt away and see what happens this week. Perhaps
Speaker 1: thou shalt be generous? Why do we talk about generosity?
Speaker 1: Isn't being generous something you quietly practice in the world.
Speaker 1: But alas humans are more complicated than that, perhaps in
Speaker 1: every performance of generosity there's a little selfish and self
Speaker 1: serving nodule, and we're just too uneasy to admit it.
Speaker 1: Don't see me, but see me as I bestow you
Speaker 1: with my humble generosity. In our very humanity, we tend
Speaker 1: to be ingredients of both self serving and generous. So
Speaker 1: stay with me here. My philosophy is that sometimes talking
Speaker 1: about benevolence that happens whilst on the road does absolutely
Speaker 1: inspire others to offer up a little extra of whatever
Speaker 1: it may be, kindness or dollars. So it's with the
Speaker 1: sentiment that I share some of the bigheartedness that I've experienced.
Speaker 1: For instance, in Lao, there's a tradition called arms or
Speaker 1: alms giving, which involves giving to others as an act
Speaker 1: of virtue. It's either material or it's in the sense
Speaker 1: of providing capabilities like free education. Law is the unexplored
Speaker 1: sister of the tread Cambodia, Vietnam and Lao. She holds
Speaker 1: these deep secrets and traditions that whisper only to her visitors.
Speaker 1: When you walk the dusty streets of a sweet town
Speaker 1: like Lung Probang, which is a UNESCO Heritage Site, you
Speaker 1: might hear locals talking quietly about the Lao New Year
Speaker 1: dubbed Songkrun. This yearly festival in April marks the start
Speaker 1: of the monsoon season, and compared to any of the
Speaker 1: neighboring countries, maintains this authentic tradition. Subtle festivities rise there
Speaker 1: with the sun, and in Lng Probang, you wake up
Speaker 1: early in the morning with the gentle sound of a
Speaker 1: gong five am. The sun hasn't risen, and you sort
Speaker 1: of scatter out onto the side of the street and
Speaker 1: have a seat just on the sidewalk, and they usit
Speaker 1: with a little ball filled with rice, and as the
Speaker 1: sun starts to come up, this incredible thing happens where
Speaker 1: hundreds and hundreds of monks start to walk, all dressed
Speaker 1: in saffron robes, all over the town. As these monks
Speaker 1: passed me in total silence, I offer each a handful
Speaker 1: of rice. With my other hand, I touched my heart.
Speaker 1: Each shaved headed monk with swelled robes, carrying their own
Speaker 1: golden ball, stops for his libation. And in the eyes
Speaker 1: of the monk I see myself. We become these mirrors
Speaker 1: of each other, showing each other our humanity, our kindness,
Speaker 1: and our generosity. I believe you can only see in
Speaker 1: others what you have in yourself. So when you see
Speaker 1: hatred or anger, or maybe even joy, it's because you
Speaker 1: recognize it within yourself. Here, the monk and I mirror
Speaker 1: our most special essence, generosity. I offer simple rice, and
Speaker 1: he offers me this wisdom and this moment to see
Speaker 1: myself clearly. It's here and now, a country untainted and
Speaker 1: filled with nature, where these quiet commemorations aren't offer to you.
Speaker 1: Every day, A slow pace of understated life murmurs and
Speaker 1: keeps you in the present time, exactly where you belong.
Speaker 1: Let's take a break to hear from our sponsors, and
Speaker 1: we'll be right back with more travel from everywhere trade
Speaker 1: tables up, you're returning to everywhere land m and acts
Speaker 1: of generosity aren't always where you expect them. For instance,
Speaker 1: in Egypt, the main attraction is probably the Pyramids, but
Speaker 1: I was here for the new Cairo Museum's soft opening
Speaker 1: hard hat tour. I rocked up at the museum, but
Speaker 1: my fancy tour was canceled. I didn't worry too much
Speaker 1: because I had seen the Pyramids, and Cairo has over
Speaker 1: twenty million people, so surely there was an adventure to
Speaker 1: be had. I was strolling around and found the city's
Speaker 1: famed citadel that looks across this ancient metropolis, and I
Speaker 1: saw the speck of stray puppies. I decided to go
Speaker 1: to a vendor. I knew they served chicken, as they
Speaker 1: had these badly photoshopped food items on massive posters outside
Speaker 1: the door. I peeked my head in English. France says
Speaker 1: English would do, and I said to the man who
Speaker 1: works there, good sir, if I give you a hundred dollars,
Speaker 1: how much food would that be? The gentleman's eyes enlarged,
Speaker 1: and he chatted to his kitchen crew and came back
Speaker 1: to me a lot, he said, I said great. About
Speaker 1: forty five minutes later, I was standing next to this
Speaker 1: towering mosque holding boxes and boxes of food. No, I
Speaker 1: wasn't then hungry. This was for my pack of stray dogs.
Speaker 1: It was hard for me to open all these styre
Speaker 1: foam and cardboard boxes fast enough as the puppies descended
Speaker 1: on me. A few dozen of them stormed this feast.
Speaker 1: And then there was a group of students that were
Speaker 1: studying under the trees, and they came to assist. And
Speaker 1: the dogs were like playing and mistaking our fingers for
Speaker 1: chicken breasts. And suddenly the students and I had this
Speaker 1: thing in common. We had broken through awkwardness and cultural difference,
Speaker 1: and suddenly I had stopped being the other, and so
Speaker 1: had they. We exchanged names, and we played with the puppies,
Speaker 1: and eventually we were pup feeders and friends. So all
Speaker 1: these beautiful stories came out of this experience. And I
Speaker 1: was just feeding these crazy dogs. And I have a
Speaker 1: photo of one of the dogs. She had eight puppies.
Speaker 1: They had all eaten, and the puppies went out playing,
Speaker 1: and she ran up to me, and she stepped with
Speaker 1: one paul onto my knee and looked at me in
Speaker 1: a moment of absolute gratitude, her eyes letting me in
Speaker 1: behind hers, and time stood still, and we stayed in
Speaker 1: this trance for a long time, just being to being
Speaker 1: fully connected. And she gone off my knee and went
Speaker 1: on with her day and took her puppies. And this
Speaker 1: is the same look I have with Ella, my dog,
Speaker 1: who's in studio with me and having a little snow
Speaker 1: as we speak. She looks at me behind my eyes.
Speaker 1: She sees what I wish I could see in myself,
Speaker 1: and I look at her beyond into being a matter
Speaker 1: and atom. When you asked me what's the best thing
Speaker 1: I did in Egypt, it was feeding the stray dogs,
Speaker 1: not going to the pyramids. So of course all I
Speaker 1: wanted was to either take all these dogs home with
Speaker 1: me or come and feed them every day. But luckily
Speaker 1: a security guard came over to tell me that the
Speaker 1: taxi drivers shared their sandwiches with these dogs. See kindness
Speaker 1: begets kindness anyway, Soon enough, these new friends of mine
Speaker 1: invited me to that Nanna's house. I heard the word
Speaker 1: Nanna and was confused your Italian Egyptians who knew. So
Speaker 1: now we're at dinner with my new friends in their
Speaker 1: home and I discus of it that their grandpa runs
Speaker 1: the original Parker Penn franchise in Cairo, and in his
Speaker 1: spare time still works for Egypt Air as a sort
Speaker 1: of happy maker. If only all airlines could employ such
Speaker 1: a person. So I visited him the next day in
Speaker 1: a dusty old storm downtown Cairo, and he showed me
Speaker 1: this incredible collection of Parker pens that he's amassed over decades.
Speaker 1: He's taken over this little shop of curiosity from his
Speaker 1: father and now sells stationary. One of the pens had
Speaker 1: Marilyn Monroe's signature on it, and another was actual solid gold.
Speaker 1: So of course he and I became fast friends and
Speaker 1: swapped travel stories. He would tell me about London, which
Speaker 1: was his big destination when he worked for Egypt there,
Speaker 1: and how he had no money and had to go
Speaker 1: and find a place to stay on almost zero budget.
Speaker 1: He would hunt out other Egyptians around Victoria's Station and
Speaker 1: find a bed and home cooked food for five pounds.
Speaker 1: This made me think about travel, that it wasn't just
Speaker 1: about me well, this is how I felt when I
Speaker 1: noticed the sour couple fighting with everyone at the boarding
Speaker 1: gate in Palm Springs for a six am flight recently.
Speaker 1: First off, they were yelling at the gate agent we
Speaker 1: get on the plane. In the overhead space, they took
Speaker 1: out other people's bags and threw them on the floor.
Speaker 1: They fought with their seat mates. They fought with everyone,
Speaker 1: and then they decide, before we'd even taken off, we'd
Speaker 1: like to have drinks. Snap. Never mind that the flight
Speaker 1: attendant was doing the security briefing. Just with the top
Speaker 1: of the buck up, we're in the sky. They had
Speaker 1: fought with their seat mates and then someone about overhead space,
Speaker 1: just being miserable with every one. So when I saw
Speaker 1: them ordering sandwiches and wraps and drinks, I'm not making
Speaker 1: this up. At seven am flying Palm Springs to Florida,
Speaker 1: I called the flight attendant. I gave her my credit
Speaker 1: card and I said, I'm going to pay for that.
Speaker 1: She looked at me like, are you crazy? And I decided,
Speaker 1: no kindness begets kindness. Perhaps tonight, when they get onto
Speaker 1: the cruise ship that they bound to be on from
Speaker 1: Fort Lauderdale, maybe, just maybe they'll think about their entitlement
Speaker 1: in their manners and think maybe I don't have to
Speaker 1: get onto the cruise first. Some call me a believer.
Speaker 1: When I was a rebellious teenager, I decided to run
Speaker 1: away from home. I knew my parents would go to
Speaker 1: a fancy travel agent office and book their travel, So
Speaker 1: that's exactly where I went one day after school and
Speaker 1: I booked a flight to Cape Town. The travel agent
Speaker 1: had known me my entire life and she was used
Speaker 1: booking travel for me, so she didn't even question this
Speaker 1: devious transaction. She handed me a plastic folder with plane
Speaker 1: tickets and hotel bookings whilst smiling, and off I went.
Speaker 1: You can imagine what a smart idea this was. Right,
Speaker 1: I was traveling solo, didn't care, and I was going
Speaker 1: to find myself some freedom somehow. The world traveling rules
Speaker 1: for a minor weren't that strict at this point, because
Speaker 1: I doubt you could do this today. My parents were
Speaker 1: fast asleep, and I quietly packed a small spots bag
Speaker 1: with my favorite T shirts, some cool sunglasses because I
Speaker 1: was an idiot, and my huge white brick iPod loaded
Speaker 1: with Atlantis Morrissett's jagged Little pill platform sneakers, of course,
Speaker 1: and this wad of cash that I had amassed. I
Speaker 1: remember kissing the dogs goodbye and walking down the driveway
Speaker 1: thinking I was ready for any adventure. I thought that
Speaker 1: I was a grown up. Of course, mother figured it
Speaker 1: out shortly and was on a plane to come and
Speaker 1: fetch me. But before that happened, I did have a
Speaker 1: few days of thrills. What do you do as a
Speaker 1: teenager cruising around Cape Town. Well, you lie on the beach,
Speaker 1: you lie about your age, and you order cocktails, and
Speaker 1: then you go party all night at the nightclubs because
Speaker 1: luckily you look roughly eighteen. The feeling of being untethered
Speaker 1: stuck with me. I felt like there were no plans,
Speaker 1: no rules, and I could just sip on this world
Speaker 1: I now commandeered. But when I think back to this trip,
Speaker 1: the things that I now remember are the small acts
Speaker 1: of generosity people showed me. Next to me on the
Speaker 1: escape aeroplane was a woman with eyes that I can
Speaker 1: still recall right now. She looked at me and said,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure what you've doing, but whatever it is,
Speaker 1: remember to split your cash up and hide it all
Speaker 1: over you, your shoe, the bottom of your bag, and
Speaker 1: just leave a little in your wallet. I was all
Speaker 1: kinds of silliness, probably flashing it around accidentally or something.
Speaker 1: There was this night I was cruising around Longstreet, which
Speaker 1: is the main drag in Cape Town where all the
Speaker 1: bars and clubs are. It's notorious for fun and a
Speaker 1: little trouble. I was just mulling around when someone pulled
Speaker 1: a knife out, and I was such the fool that
Speaker 1: I didn't quite know what to do. They wanted my bag,
Speaker 1: of course, and my giant yellow Nokia cell phone that
Speaker 1: had snakey as its main attraction. And I was probably
Speaker 1: holding this in my hand for everyone to see. The
Speaker 1: situation was harry and I was about to make a
Speaker 1: run for it. And let's face it, I am a
Speaker 1: long distance runner, not a sprinter. Out of a busy
Speaker 1: bar fell these three big burly rugby players. They saw
Speaker 1: what was happening and chased my assailant away. Chivalry for
Speaker 1: a young gay teenager, Oh boy, generosity comes in so
Speaker 1: many forms. In another vein, think about a fabulous weekend.
Speaker 1: You planned with your closest friends to say New Orleans.
Speaker 1: You flew first class on American Airlines, ching you booked
Speaker 1: into the poncha train Ching. You found at James Beard
Speaker 1: Nominee's restaurant to dine at Ching, and you had a
Speaker 1: single malt all over town Ching, Ching. It's a treat.
Speaker 1: But as my dearest friends let's just call them little
Speaker 1: parents taught me, when you're spending on yourself, you could
Speaker 1: also spend on others. What a way to travel, sharing
Speaker 1: your freedoms with people who need it more than you
Speaker 1: think of a small act of generosity, something that takes
Speaker 1: very little to execute, so little you can just do
Speaker 1: it yourself. It doesn't have to be money. Share what
Speaker 1: you have with others and just see how that feels.
Speaker 1: This is a great moment for us to travel to
Speaker 1: advertising Land and we'll be right back with everywhere. Welcome
Speaker 1: once again to Everywhere. Let's hop back to it. Every week,
Speaker 1: I hang out in studio with my dearest friend Holly Fry,
Speaker 1: co host of the ever popular history podcast Stuff You
Speaker 1: Missed in History Class, And speaking of generosity, I have
Speaker 1: my most generous friend Holly Fry with me. I don't
Speaker 1: know that that's accurate, but I love that you talked
Speaker 1: a bit in this particular episode about your travels in Egypt,
Speaker 1: because Egypt of course, has a fascinating history all its own.
Speaker 1: What is most known for is the museum Star Wars museum.
Speaker 1: I wish um, I don't really wish. I mean Star
Speaker 1: Wars museums are great, but I don't want to take
Speaker 1: away from the majesty of the Egyptian Museum. Sometimes you'll
Speaker 1: see it called the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities or other things,
Speaker 1: and it is one of the most famous museums in
Speaker 1: the world, I would say, But to me, what's really
Speaker 1: interesting about it is it was not founded by a
Speaker 1: native Egyptian but by a French person. Uh. And in
Speaker 1: some ways it becomes about the story of kind of
Speaker 1: the scramble for Africa and all of those European nations
Speaker 1: trying to move into Egypt and Egypt and the rest
Speaker 1: of Africa and just grab land and assets and get
Speaker 1: as much as they could and kind of squeeze that
Speaker 1: part of the world. And you understand intimately, so it's
Speaker 1: really interesting. This man was named Auguste Marriette, and he
Speaker 1: originally worked for the Louver and on his first trip
Speaker 1: to Egypt, where he was I think supposed to be
Speaker 1: getting scrolls, he ended up doing a four year dig
Speaker 1: basically an archaeological dig, and he found a number of
Speaker 1: really important discoveries and then he promptly shipped them away
Speaker 1: to par and then he returned to the Louver and
Speaker 1: became curator of their Egyptian collection. But he really felt
Speaker 1: this tug back to North Africa and to Egypt in particular,
Speaker 1: and so in eighteen fifty eight he moved to Egypt
Speaker 1: permanently and actually they created a job for him the
Speaker 1: Egyptian government as conservator of monuments. And at this point
Speaker 1: he shifted his efforts once he lived in Egypt to
Speaker 1: protect the fines of ancient Egypt and keep them there.
Speaker 1: So he through his efforts and his work in the government,
Speaker 1: he eliminated excavations that were not authorized, Like he really
Speaker 1: started the crackdown of like people can't just come and
Speaker 1: dig wherever they want, Like you have to have permits,
Speaker 1: you have to get the permission of the government, blah
Speaker 1: blah blah. And he also put in motion some legislation
Speaker 1: that made it much more difficult to export antiquities under
Speaker 1: the idea that it would preserve Egyptian culture and their
Speaker 1: heritage there for the nation. I see where you're going
Speaker 1: with this, generosity. I see there's a moment of generosity coming.
Speaker 1: It is, but in this case you have to grain
Speaker 1: of salt it a little bit because part of what
Speaker 1: happened is a consequence of this, which I do not
Speaker 1: think was an accident, was that then he kind of
Speaker 1: had the monopoly on all of the digs in Egypt
Speaker 1: because he was the one that was working for the government,
Speaker 1: and thus all of his efforts got all of their
Speaker 1: permits lickety split, no problems, and then they could kind
Speaker 1: of keep other people at bay. So he was protecting
Speaker 1: Egyptian heritage, which is inherently a really lovely idea, but
Speaker 1: he also was cementing his place as the guy that
Speaker 1: discovered everything, didn't I tell at the beginning of my
Speaker 1: episode that generosity is exactly like this it is, which
Speaker 1: is why I thought it was an interesting parallel. Speaking
Speaker 1: of generosity, I have a good Egyptian story for you.
Speaker 1: Do you know that in the sixties, the Egyptian government
Speaker 1: gave as a beautiful gift to the Kennedy administration a
Speaker 1: full temple and JFK was sick at the time, which
Speaker 1: no one knew, and he was like, oh, I can
Speaker 1: kudu Egypt right now, I'll send Jackie, and Jackie like
Speaker 1: arrived in Egypt and they would like, pick any temple
Speaker 1: you would like, and she was like, I'll take that one.
Speaker 1: And so the Smithsonian called her and they were like,
Speaker 1: we'll take it, no problem. When are you ready to deliver?
Speaker 1: And she was like, oh, I don't know, I'm not
Speaker 1: quite sure. And then the met called her and said,
Speaker 1: we'll make you a deal. If you give it to us,
Speaker 1: this giant temple, we will build a glass box for
Speaker 1: it on Fifth Avenue so your apartment looks directly at it, right,
Speaker 1: because originally everybody else wanted it to be stored in
Speaker 1: an exterior location, which would have caused us demise. I
Speaker 1: feel like we should also mention that she didn't just
Speaker 1: get to go shopping through the wonders of Egypt. It
Speaker 1: was wasn't it in a valley that was going to
Speaker 1: be flooded. So it was like, if someone will press
Speaker 1: or something, you take it great, if you can ship
Speaker 1: it out, you can have it. So it wasn't quite
Speaker 1: like we just went over and went. It seems more
Speaker 1: Jackie Kennedy to just choose one, right. Well, that's why
Speaker 1: they invited her to come and choose one were like,
Speaker 1: choose from this area that is going to be generosity
Speaker 1: to the world. Was that she could see from yes,
Speaker 1: And now I mean the good thing is right. Anyone
Speaker 1: can see it. You can go visit it at the
Speaker 1: ment and it is quite spectacular. What else you want
Speaker 1: to tell me about Egypt home? So I will touch
Speaker 1: on the Grand Egyptian Museum, which is the one that
Speaker 1: you were supposed to go on the tour of. It
Speaker 1: is the biggest museum in the world. It's massive. And
Speaker 1: what's really interesting is that the Egyptian Museum that I
Speaker 1: was talking about earlier, while it does keep Egypt's wonders
Speaker 1: there in Cairo, is twelve miles away from the Pyramids,
Speaker 1: whereas this new museum is right there by the pyramids.
Speaker 1: So a lot of the things that have been discovered
Speaker 1: get to stay a little closer to home, so to speak,
Speaker 1: like they're not at a remove from where they were
Speaker 1: originally put. It's almost like the museum is institute. They
Speaker 1: have more than a hundred thousand artifacts in that space,
Speaker 1: including there's I have not been to see it personally,
Speaker 1: but I've seen pictures. There is a thirty two year
Speaker 1: old statue of Ramsey's the second that is unique and
Speaker 1: amazing and will certainly give someone a sense of history
Speaker 1: if they just stand in awe of it for a moment.
Speaker 1: What's the guy who did Pan's Labyrinth, Germo del Toro? Right,
Speaker 1: so he's house. Have you seen photos of that house?
Speaker 1: Second house? That's just his collection, right, his collection toured.
Speaker 1: It was in um Toronto in l A. They did
Speaker 1: exhibits of it. That's cool. Last year. We should do that.
Speaker 1: Let's do that. Let's go and see his collection. I
Speaker 1: think we would have to go to his house at
Speaker 1: this point. I don't think it's on display anywhere. We'll
Speaker 1: just take a call. We'll just Germo, were coming, Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're bringing Ella or coming or bringing a dog, will
Speaker 1: be case of diet coke. There'll be no we need
Speaker 1: to like Pan Labyrinth groupies. And then they'll be like, Okay, well,
Speaker 1: you know I have a tattoo that is based on
Speaker 1: a project of his that never came to Fruition, which
Speaker 1: is his adaptation of Um. It's a little historically relevant,
Speaker 1: not necessarily to this episode at the Mountains of Madness,
Speaker 1: which is an HP Lovecraft book that he optioned and
Speaker 1: had been working on and there's a m in that
Speaker 1: book are these Antarctic penguin monsters. They're underground creatures and
Speaker 1: they're blind, and they're very scary to the people that
Speaker 1: encounter them initially, but they it turns out there just harmless.
Speaker 1: They just look frightening. And I actually have a tattoo
Speaker 1: of one of them as a reminder that things that
Speaker 1: seem scary often are not. But it is based on
Speaker 1: the designs that he was doing for that movie. What
Speaker 1: appears to be scary and is not often is not.
Speaker 1: But what like what like all kinds of things, like
Speaker 1: for some people, sitting on a mic and talking about
Speaker 1: their life experiences would be terrifying, but once you get
Speaker 1: them rolling, it's often very delightful to share and be
Speaker 1: reflective about your life. And so things like last night,
Speaker 1: I was at the cocktail party with my husband and
Speaker 1: I am like in my element. I was like the jokes,
Speaker 1: they're making fun and having like a little dance, and
Speaker 1: Michael was petrified standing in the corner quietly. I understand.
Speaker 1: But if you just get in and mix it up
Speaker 1: a little, it's fun and it's not scary anymore. I
Speaker 1: introduced him to like business people that he could actually
Speaker 1: do work with. And I was like, so tell them
Speaker 1: about organic farma and Michael's like it was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: so it's this healthy food vending machine and he was like, yes,
Speaker 1: well and to tie it into more relevancy. Right. For
Speaker 1: some people, traveling abroad is very scary, but once you're
Speaker 1: actually in a place and you find something familiar, like
Speaker 1: a Star Wars convention, a Pan Labyrinth, Egyptian museum, or
Speaker 1: just like you realize that every one around the globe
Speaker 1: is a person and they're not any different fundamentally from
Speaker 1: any of us. They may have grown up in different circumstances,
Speaker 1: but you realize that you can connect with all these
Speaker 1: people and that travel is in fact really delightful and
Speaker 1: not so scared. Well, thanks Holly for coming in and
Speaker 1: chatting to me and making me laugh. How generous of you.
Speaker 1: It is in fact selfish because it is a great
Speaker 1: delight to me, and you can talk about yours show
Speaker 1: stuff you missed an history class, which if people want
Speaker 1: to check that out, you can do that at missed
Speaker 1: in history dot com or find us anywhere on social
Speaker 1: media as missed in History. This is a great moment
Speaker 1: for us to travel once again to advertising Land. We'll
Speaker 1: be right back with more Everywhere. Thanks for sticking around.
Speaker 1: Here's more of Everywhere. Welcome back. I was recently in
Speaker 1: Raleigh with my brother from another mother, Van Noltha, who
Speaker 1: owns a number of restaurants, including Beta Manda. Van came
Speaker 1: to America as an adopted kid to a family in
Speaker 1: North Carolina. Today he's the official mayor of Raleigh. In fact,
Speaker 1: the mayor himself told me that he uses more generosity
Speaker 1: in a day then most people could conjure up in
Speaker 1: a lifetime. So I recorded your your introduction, and it
Speaker 1: was such a special moment that I had thinking about
Speaker 1: you in our friendship and how I feel very grateful
Speaker 1: that I met you. You feel to me like a brother,
Speaker 1: a brother from another mother and from another world. And
Speaker 1: it's funny that I was born in Africa and you
Speaker 1: were born in Asia, and somehow we found each other
Speaker 1: in America, across the oceans. Here I find someone who
Speaker 1: feels like my twin. And I had this beautiful moment
Speaker 1: where I was wondering, how do I introduce someone like
Speaker 1: that in the world. And I thought of this moment
Speaker 1: when one of the first times I met you, we
Speaker 1: were in Raleigh, North Carolina, and it was your birthday
Speaker 1: and you were having a little event, and the mayor
Speaker 1: of North Carolina introduced you to a room full of
Speaker 1: people as the most important person in all of town,
Speaker 1: the immigrant that has come, the gay boy that has come,
Speaker 1: the Asian boy that's come from abroad and brought a
Speaker 1: city together and has taught a city about generosity. And
Speaker 1: I talk about you two people all the time. My
Speaker 1: friend Van, if only you could learn from him. So Van,
Speaker 1: let's talk about when we met, and let's talk about
Speaker 1: how Long Probang and Lao has such an incredible culture,
Speaker 1: an incredible tradition of generosity, and how people can learn
Speaker 1: from that. Yes, even though I left Long Probang when
Speaker 1: I was twelve years old tony one years ago, I
Speaker 1: learned a lot about that from that place. But the
Speaker 1: one thing that I learned um the most on, the
Speaker 1: thing that continued to be really vibrant in my life
Speaker 1: and how I live and dance in this war, is
Speaker 1: how to be generous and kind. Um. My grandmother was
Speaker 1: extremely generous in how she raised her children. My mother
Speaker 1: continued that tradition. So I think there's a strong tradition
Speaker 1: of giving in our family culture, but Long Probang itself
Speaker 1: has its own rhythm in which is consider itself to
Speaker 1: be a generous host. One of my favorite things about
Speaker 1: Long Probang is the arms giving a ceremony. Every morning
Speaker 1: about four or four thirty heavy families would wake up
Speaker 1: to cook rice to offer two months. And when the
Speaker 1: race is fully cooked, we would put on our best
Speaker 1: clothes and would line up on a sidewalk and loan Probang.
Speaker 1: It's this mystical place. Um five o'clock in the morning,
Speaker 1: you have two rivers coming together and the sky opens
Speaker 1: up just a little bit so you can feel the
Speaker 1: purple and pink hue on your neighbor's faces. And everyone
Speaker 1: would line up on the street with a bolt rice
Speaker 1: in silence, and we just kind of wait and wait
Speaker 1: and wait, and all the sudden a pio comage of
Speaker 1: months come down the street, and that's a frown color
Speaker 1: glow from the monk's rope just illuminated everything, and there's
Speaker 1: no climax. Months come by and we offer rice. That's
Speaker 1: the first thing we do in the morning in a
Speaker 1: change for wisdom. I think there's something really special about
Speaker 1: that tradition about beginning a day, marking that day a
Speaker 1: sacred day by giving rice in exchangeable wisdom. I try
Speaker 1: to continue that tradition in my life here in the States,
Speaker 1: not just arms giving, but what it means to live
Speaker 1: each day generously. Rice is a really powerful um cooking
Speaker 1: ingredient for our culture, but rice also represent this moment
Speaker 1: of humility in giving um. So rice is the word
Speaker 1: for rice in Laotian is cow and cow it's the
Speaker 1: same word that we use for the color white, for
Speaker 1: the ideal purity, but cow is also the word for
Speaker 1: to bridge. And I just love that picture waking up
Speaker 1: and exchange this humble ingredient for wisdom. It is one
Speaker 1: of those things that stays with me, especially in the
Speaker 1: work that we do in the States. Um. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of conflicts and change in our lives, and what
Speaker 1: we are trying to practice at a restaurant is what
Speaker 1: happened if we extended generosity first. I think with this
Speaker 1: arm or conflicts, when we were the first person to say,
Speaker 1: let me make you some rice, let me pour you
Speaker 1: a cup of coffee. Can we talk about it, But
Speaker 1: I think there's something really profound about being the first
Speaker 1: person to start that relationship of generosity. Then I find
Speaker 1: it so hard to not be moved by long profound
Speaker 1: I remember the first time I went there. It's this
Speaker 1: little town that you could almost miss. No one tells
Speaker 1: you to go to Llao. It's not on the map
Speaker 1: as a tourist destination. And that's why I went there.
Speaker 1: And I was looking for for understanding. I was looking
Speaker 1: for humanity there, and that's where I how to be
Speaker 1: generous because people were just generous. It seems so second
Speaker 1: nature to everyone. No one was thinking in any other
Speaker 1: way than in this beautiful way of generosity. So I
Speaker 1: experienced that that. But then when I met you at
Speaker 1: your restaurant and your brewery in Raleigh, North Carolina, I
Speaker 1: sense that so you had somehow managed to bring that
Speaker 1: to America. Maybe what you need to talk about is
Speaker 1: your journey from a child sent away by your parents
Speaker 1: for a better life. Yes, um, I got home and
Speaker 1: Mom and dad mentioned to me that you're living and
Speaker 1: you're going to the States. I was twelve years old.
Speaker 1: My sister also came to the States a year after.
Speaker 1: We were adopted by the same family. Speaking of generosity, right,
Speaker 1: how how generous it was for my parents to be
Speaker 1: so giving to not to not having the selfishness to
Speaker 1: hold on to things that they loved. They knew it
Speaker 1: was better for us to leave. We didn't see each
Speaker 1: other again until it was eighteen. It was such a
Speaker 1: difficult six years, long six years, But I can't imagine
Speaker 1: how much more difficult it was for my parents. Do
Speaker 1: not get to see the two children becoming an adult,
Speaker 1: missing birthdays and sickness, And I think that was an
Speaker 1: act of generosity when my parents decided to give me away. Um.
Speaker 1: When I arrived in Greensboro, North Carolina, I also experienced
Speaker 1: the generosity for so many different people that really held
Speaker 1: on to my sister and I making sure that we
Speaker 1: felt safe and making sure that we knew we would
Speaker 1: love even though we were so far from home. So
Speaker 1: in thinking about how do we live generously right now,
Speaker 1: whether that's at work or personal life, I think it's
Speaker 1: a product of all of those people and faces who
Speaker 1: chose to be kind and generous with us, And I
Speaker 1: think we are just a part of that of that journey.
Speaker 1: How do you feel you've infused that into your business?
Speaker 1: One of the things that we practice it's how do
Speaker 1: we meet our guests where they are, whether that's a table,
Speaker 1: grieving a family's death or a celebration. We are training
Speaker 1: our staff and inviting them to really show up fully
Speaker 1: because I think when we actually show up fully for
Speaker 1: a table or for a friend, for not a person,
Speaker 1: our presence is probably the most generous things we could offer. UM,
Speaker 1: we hope to generous with our staff. One of the
Speaker 1: things that we carry really close to our heart as
Speaker 1: a community is everyone that's working for us now over
Speaker 1: two get to define what is the most meaningful thing
Speaker 1: about this job that's relevant in their life journey. So
Speaker 1: whether that is being a diswasher or being a server,
Speaker 1: we really want to make sure that our team and
Speaker 1: our staff members identify what is it about this job
Speaker 1: as meaningful in my life journey. So I think we
Speaker 1: try really hard to see the humanity in everything. UM.
Speaker 1: Restaurant work can be really really mundane. And how do
Speaker 1: we teach and mentor each other to go through this
Speaker 1: mundane work by assigning meanings to them and and and
Speaker 1: doing with generosity and kindness along the way. I'm crying, UM,
Speaker 1: you are the reason why I did the show. Why
Speaker 1: I'm doing this like this is my belief in the world.
Speaker 1: I think what we should talk about is how travel
Speaker 1: can teach your generosity. Yes, I love places like Luan
Speaker 1: Proban when I travel. I love going to places that
Speaker 1: doesn't have a big monument or something major that you
Speaker 1: must do. You know when when you're in Luan Paban
Speaker 1: and there really isn't much to see or do. And
Speaker 1: I think when we show up to just be, I
Speaker 1: think it asks ourselves. It asked us to do a
Speaker 1: lot of deep listening and deep observation. And just by
Speaker 1: watching a culture move, just by watching time changes, I
Speaker 1: think we are a lot more in sync with our
Speaker 1: own heart and our own life and our own rhythm.
Speaker 1: I love traveling because it makes me understand me better.
Speaker 1: I love going to those places because there's places ask
Speaker 1: me to show up in a different manner. How do
Speaker 1: you think we can help people get in touch with that?
Speaker 1: You know this because it's your culture, You've brought it
Speaker 1: from your childhood into your world here. But how can
Speaker 1: we inspire people who are listening, people that want to
Speaker 1: travel or don't know how to travel, Like some people
Speaker 1: can't go to Long Parong. But I think you need
Speaker 1: to be able to apply this principle even when you
Speaker 1: go to New Jersey or Disney World or wherever you're
Speaker 1: going for a weekend away. Some people can't get onto
Speaker 1: a plane and go to Paris or South Africa. So
Speaker 1: I want to understand how can we get people to
Speaker 1: understand this principle and to take this beautiful principle everywhere.
Speaker 1: I think when we are at home, we have our
Speaker 1: own rhythms and rituals and ceremonies that we subscribe to
Speaker 1: that that's what we do every day. And I think
Speaker 1: when we travel, I think it put us in a
Speaker 1: place where we are slightly uncomfortable, so that we are
Speaker 1: more mindful of the things that we do and not
Speaker 1: just doing them because that's our rhythm and a ritual.
Speaker 1: So I think traveling so much of it is about
Speaker 1: being mindful of your own place in the world, but
Speaker 1: also being mindful of what's happening around you. And I
Speaker 1: think when you are actually at a place and at
Speaker 1: a state of discomfort, you are forced to be more
Speaker 1: of a sponge you absorb more. I love the story
Speaker 1: that my parents used to tell me about the Buddha
Speaker 1: that I think about when I try to live each
Speaker 1: day like I'm traveling. The Buddha was walking around how
Speaker 1: one day during almsgiving and an old man came up
Speaker 1: to him and say, so, what do you and your
Speaker 1: months do at the temple that that makes you a Buddhist?
Speaker 1: And the Buddhas say, we eat, we sleep, and we walk.
Speaker 1: And the old man was so perplex it was like,
Speaker 1: I do that too, I do that too. What's the difference?
Speaker 1: And the Buddha said, in our tradition, when we eat,
Speaker 1: we know that we are eating. When we sleep, we
Speaker 1: know that we are sleeping, and when we walk, we
Speaker 1: know that we are walking. I think that's what traveling is.
Speaker 1: When we are walking through a new road, or when
Speaker 1: we try a new dish for the first time, we
Speaker 1: are fully there. We know that we are life, and
Speaker 1: we are grateful to be breathing. And I think if
Speaker 1: we can develop that kind of living, that kind of awakness,
Speaker 1: I think we can travel anywhere, even within our own
Speaker 1: home and our own neighborhood, and we can see our
Speaker 1: neighbors as if we are seeing them for the first
Speaker 1: com and perhaps we see all of their home maladies too. Well.
Speaker 1: The Dala Lama is going to retire and if someone
Speaker 1: needs to take over. Thank you. Thanks for hanging out.
Speaker 1: Connect with us on Twitter at Everywhere Pond, Instagram, at
Speaker 1: Everywhere podcast, or on the website at everywhere podcast dot com.
Speaker 1: Of course, I couldn't have done any of this without
Speaker 1: my executive producers, Christopher Hats and the loveliest of lovely
Speaker 1: Holly Fry. A big thank you to my lead producer
Speaker 1: and editor Chandler Mays, and also co editor and creative
Speaker 1: the soundtrack Tristan McNeil. I am your host, Daniel Scheffler,
Speaker 1: and as I'd like to say, good boys go to
Speaker 1: Heaven and bad Boys Everywhere. For more podcasts from I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.