658 Humble American Bragging; Why I Love Madrid; Deep Time Journey
Travel with Rick Steves
Rick Steves
4.3 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 20 November 2021
⏱️ 51 minutes
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Summary
British travel writer Richard Grant discusses the sporting sense of humor he's observed (and appreciated) behind the distinctly American talent for over-the-top bragging. Then tour guides from Madrid let us in on their favorite places to take visitors in the Spanish capital. And we ponder our place in the planet's history with author Robert Macfarlane, who shares insights gained from a decade of investigating, from a perspective of geologic time, humanity's relationship with our landscape.
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| 0:00.0 | Americans have long had a reputation for being very good at boasting about themselves. |
| 0:06.0 | I scratched my head with lightning and permed myself to sleep with thunder. |
| 0:10.0 | Whether it's from a Mark Twain character, sports star, or politician, |
| 0:14.0 | writer Richard Grant tells us what kind of American exceptionalism he enjoys best. |
| 0:19.0 | That's the tradition of bragging that I admire is the funny entertaining clever bragging. |
| 0:25.0 | Tour-guiding friends from Madrid explain what they like most about living in the Spanish capital. |
| 0:30.0 | Each little neighborhood in Madrid is like its own village. |
| 0:34.0 | And Robert McFarland recommends exploring the underland to provide a deeper perspective for our place in the world. |
| 0:40.0 | We all try it. Don't we stand on the Grand Canyon, rim, and you dream back in geological time. And it's dizzying. |
| 0:48.0 | He suggests that a deep time journey can help us make the most out of the here and now. |
| 0:53.0 | It's all in the hour ahead on Travel with Rick Steves. Come along. |
| 1:00.0 | My Facebook friends are a fun community of curious travelers and you're invited to join in. |
| 1:06.0 | To stay away with me in my work, play, politics, philanthropy, and travels, follow me at Rick Steves on Facebook. |
| 1:14.0 | As a self-described isaholic Robert McFarland loves what glaciers can reveal to us over time, |
| 1:20.0 | as well as the surprises the earth hides beneath our feet. He explains how a deep time journey can help us better appreciate the here and now a little later in the hour. |
| 1:28.0 | And tour guides from Spain, including an American expat, tell us why they love living in Madrid. |
| 1:33.0 | Let's start today's Travel with Rick Steves with author Richard Grant. |
| 1:37.0 | He's lived in Manhattan, the Mississippi Delta, and the Sonoran Desert of Tucson to immerse himself in different aspects of the USA. |
| 1:45.0 | In contrast to the English modesty Richard was brought up on, he finds the crowing of American rappers, blues legends, rodeo cowboys, and frontiersmen can be highly entertaining. |
| 1:55.0 | Richard wrote a short history on American bragging for issue 26 of Port Magazine, and he joins us now to explain. |
| 2:02.0 | Hi Rick, good to be here. |
| 2:04.0 | So this is so fascinating. You're an Englishman who knows quite intimately American culture because you live here now. |
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