Rick Steves brings travel ‘as a political act’ to Playhouse Square

Rick Steves plans to talk about much more than what shoes to pack or tips on sunscreen when he visits Playhouse Square on Nov. 13. The longtime PBS travel host presents his slideshow program, Why We Travel, about how journeying abroad can create empathy for humankind.

“All of my adult life, I’ve been spending about 100 days a year overseas taking notes, making mistakes, learning from my experience and bringing home those lessons,” he said. “I like to joke that my mission is to inspire and equip people to venture beyond Orlando.”

Steves has been battling cancer this year, an experience he described as “a bump in the road of life” to travel through. With his Cleveland appearance coming on the heels of treatment, he said he will likely be “itching to get out and to share my thoughts about travel.”

Those thoughts include what to bring back from a trip – including what he considers the most important souvenir: A broader perspective. Steves called it “traveling as a political act.”

“It makes you a citizen of the planet as well as a more thankful American,” he said. “The more we explore it, I think the less afraid we’ll be and the more comfortable we’ll be with the other 96% of humanity outside of our borders.”

A familiar concern for first-time travelers is culture shock. Steves considered that merely the “growing pains” of building a broader world view.

“I think what a good tour guide and a good travel writer does is to help get people out of their comfort zones and let them see, ‘Hey, this is fun. I can become a temporary local,'” he said. “It can be as simple as escargot. I mean, do you want to eat a slug? Do you want to eat a snail? Well, if it’s in France, and if it’s properly cooked, I would say ‘Yes.’ And if you say ‘No,’ I would say ‘You’ve got to go to France and give it a try.'”

He acknowledged travel is not economically feasible for everyone as well as the negative influences TV news can have on views about different cultures and places.

“I don’t want TV to shape my worldview,” he said. “I want actual, personal, first-hand experiences to shape it. That’s my advantage. And that’s a beautiful byproduct of travel.”