I’m more than a little surprised to find myself in this box: my idea of NEWS is something that happened in 1848, and I think there are better things to advertise and take notice of than my tiny doings or scribbles.

But now that DDB Singapore has brought me into the 20th century – with every sign of coaxing me into the 21st – I’m happy to welcome anyone who’s interested to this space, where we may now and then post something that’s not easily found elsewhere, a video clip from our recent journeys or something that might be of interest to anyone who’s traveled as far as this unexpected corner.

Thank you for your time and attention, and if you’re irritated by something here, please blame the brilliant designers of these pages. Without them, I’d still be in some black hole!

If you’re interested in hearing Pico Iyer speak, here are a few dates and places to try:

October 25Conversation for UCSB’s Lifelong Learning Initiative
Santa Barbara, California
October 26 Conversation with Walter Isaacson for UCSB A&L
Santa Barbara, California
October 30Conversation with the Zen Luminaries series (online)
Santa Rosa, California
November 6Keynote, International Symposium on Stewardship
Ottawa, Canada
November 9-10 Keynote, Tatler Gen T Summit
Hong Kong
November 13 Conversation for Stephen Batchelor, Musashino U.
Kyoto, Japan
February 21, 2024 Conversation for Abraham Verghese, UCSB A&L
Santa Barbara, California
February 23 Conversation on haiku for Upaya Zen Center (online)
Santa Fe, New Mexico
April 9 Conversation with Lauren Groff, UCSB A&L
Santa Barbara, California
April 11 Keynote, Convert and Stuart Hall School
San Francisco, California
April 13 Conversation for Book Passage Book Group (virtual)
Corte Madera, California
April 16 Conversation with Helen Tworkov, Asia Society
New York, New York
April 20-21 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books
Los Angeles, California
April 22 Conversation with Jim Doti, Chapman University
Orange, California
April 25 Isherwood-Bachardy Lecture, Huntington Museum
San Marino, California
July 8-13 Modern Elder Academy workshop with Chip Conley Santa Fe, New Mexico
Sept 22 – Oct 12 Montgomery Fellow, Dartmouth College
Hanover, New Hampshire

Many more engagements are currently in the works.

An hour-long interview with Doug Fabrizio for Radio West on KUER, April 6, 2023.

A long talk with the wonderful editor Melvin McLeod for the Lion’s Roar podcast, April 17, 2023, excerpted in the July/August edition of Lion’s Roar.

“The Man from Everywhere”—a short essay to introduce the latest book of photography from Basil Pao, Carnival of Dreams, April 30, 2023

“The Rain on the Rooftops”—a foreword to the book The Nature of Kyoto: Writers in Kyoto Volume 5. May 2023

“Covid taught me what life might look like after death”–A short essay on my life post-pandemic—Washington Post, June 28, 2023

A talk of more than two hours with the brilliant and penetrating William Green for his podcast “Richer, Wiser, Happier”—July 9, 2023

A 30-minute talk on “The Japanese Art of Happiness” for the KCRW program Life Examined—July 22, 2023

“Medicine for the Mind”—a short Foreword to The Little Zen Book of Healing, by Paula Arai—August 2023.

“Second Thoughts”—an essay on Key West for the anthology, Key West Sketches: Writers at Mile Zero, published in August 2023.

A talk with the wise business mind Mitch Joel for his “Six Pixels of Separation” podcast, broadcast on August 10, 2023

“An Ode to the Pool”—a short riff on swimming-pools, for the Financial Times, August 19, 2023

“We May Believe the Places We Love Will Outlast Us”—a long essay on the fragility of all our monuments, for The Globe & Mail, August 26, 2023

A talk with Sam Harris for his podcast, Waking Up—broadcast on August 29, 2023.

“Ticket to Telluride”—an ode to my greatest cultural highlight of every year, the Telluride Film Festival, for Air Mail, September 2, 2023.

“A Riddle beyond Reckoning”—a short essay on the mystery of my father for the “Hey Pop” series on Substack, September 8, 2023.

“A Cry from the Submerged Life”—a review of J.M. Coetzee’s haunting new novel, The Pole, for Air Mail, September 16, 2023.

“No small world”—a long interview with The Times of India, September 17, 2023

“Casualties of Love”—an essay on Michael Ondaatje for the new anthology of critical writings on the man, Do You Want to be Happy and Write?, published September 25, 2023

“A home that had been with me forever”—a 14-minute audio-essay for Wait What’s “Meditative Story” series, now broadcast on “A Sense of Serenity”—October 1, 2023

“A Cure for our Age of Distraction”–a long essay on Hiroshi Sugimoto for the Daily Telegraph, October 1, 2023.

“The Pilgrim’s Way”–a series of audio-essays for the Waking Up app, released October 2023

“The Sound of Becoming”–an essay on Philip Glass for The Etudes, a celebration of the composer, published October 31, 2023. 

“The Vedanta Temple: Our Second, Deeper Home”—a short essay for the Santa Barbara Independent, October 15, 2022

“A Man of Parts”–a review of A Private Spy: The Letters of John le Carre, for Air Mail, December 3, 2022

A discussion of le Carre, on “Monday Meeting,” the Air Mail podcast, December 5, 2022

My annual little essay on the Discovery of the Year (the Dining Room in the Park Hyatt, Zanzibar) and Disappointment of the Year (the Seychelles)—for the Financial Times, December 11, 2022

“Heaven’s Door”–a short essay on Iran, excerpted in Harper’s, February 2023 issue and online as of December 19, 2022.

“Autumn Radiance”—an essay on a week in Hanover, New Hampshire for the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, January 2023.

“The Holy Mountain”—a short essay on Koyasan, in Japan, and the lessons of the pandemic, in Oprah Quarterly, January 2023

“Paradise Found”–an interview with Jim Kelly for Air Mail, January 7, 2023.

The Half Known Life—a book on paradise and the many parts of life we can never fathom—published by Riverhead Books in New York (and Bloomsbury U.K. and Penguin India), January 10, 2023.

A podcast with James Shaheen of Tricycle, online and excerpted in the February issue of the magazine. January 11, 2023

A rich conversation with brilliant Elyse Loehnen for the podcast “Pulling the Thread,” January 12, 2023.

“On the Lake”—an excerpt from The Half Known Life set in Kashmir, Lit Hub January 11, 2023

A very long conversation with the remarkable Jenna Abdou, for the “33 Voices” podcast, January 12, 2023.

“Stay Resolved”–an audio-essay included in the TED Radio Hour, January 13 2023

“The Trouble with Paradise”—an Opinion piece for The New York Times, January 14, 2023

A long essay on Iran for Toronto’s Globe & Mail, January 14, 2023

A long conversation with Jonathan Bastian for the KCRW program, “Life Examined,” January 22, 2023

“In Conversation with Caryl Phillips”—a long e-mail conversation with novelist Caryl Phillips on migration, exile, writing and home. Granta, January 23, 2023

A conversation with Katherine May for 5 X 15, January 24, 2022

A conversation with Isabel Pinner for San Francisco City Arts and Lectures, broadcast on NPR, February 5, 2023

A conversation with Lori McGarry for the Real Fiction Radio podcast, broadcast February 12, 2023.

“Varanasi, India’s holy `City of Death’ ”—an excerpt from The Half Known Life published in BBC Travel, February 16, 2023.

“Notes from an Author”—a short essay on Koyasan for National Geographic Traveller, February 16, 2023

A rich and literary conversation with the brilliant Cal Flyn, for the Royal Society of Literature, February 21, 2023.

A conversation on Japan with Dan Riley for the Keep Talking podcast, broadcast on March 18, 2023.

“Things are Never as Dark as they Seem”—a long interview with Pooja Pande in The Los Angeles Review of Books, March 19, 2023

“Staycations”—a short essay for The New York Times, April 4, 2023

If you’re interested in hearing Pico Iyer speak, here are a few dates and places to try:

April 18A workshop on Paradise, TED
Vancouver, Canada
April 22Two Panels, Los Angeles Times Festival of Books
Los Angeles, California
April 27Conversation with Isabella Rossellini, UCSB
Santa Barbara, California
May 2Keynote, Seattle Arts and Lectures at Town Hall
Seattle, Washington
May 17-21Jaipur Literature Festival Soneva Fushi
Fushi, the Maldives
July 5Conversation for The School of Life (virtual)
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
August 10 Lecture on travel, Book Passage
Corte Madera, California
August 10Conversation, Book Passage Travel Writing Conference
Corte Madera, California
September 14Keynote, Adventure Travel World Summit
Sapporo, Japan
October 4 A conversation on compassion for Coca-Cola (virtual)
Atlanta, Georgia
October 30Zen Luminaries conversation (online)
Santa Rosa, California
NovemberConversation with Stephen Batchelor, Musashino U.
Koyasan, Japan
NovemberConversation with Stephen Batchelor, Camphor Village
Kyoto/Nara, Japan
April 2024Isherwood-Bachardy Lecture, Huntington Museum
San Marino, California
July 8-13Modern Elder Academy workshop with Chip Conley
Santa Fe, New Mexico
October 2024Montgomery Fellow, Dartmouth College
Hanover, New Hampshire

Many more engagements are currently in the works.

If you’re interested in hearing Pico Iyer speak, here are a few dates and places to try:

November 6Conversation with Jennifer Egan, UCSB Arts & Lectures
Santa Barbara, California
November 9 Onstage conversations, Sharjah International Book Fair
Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
December 3Keynote Lecture, Bangalore Literature Festival
Bangalore, India
January 13, 2023 Presentation of The Half Known Life, Vroman’s
Pasadena, California
January 17Conversation at Kepler’s bookstore
Palo Alto, California
January 18Conversation with Don George, Book Passage
Corte Madera, California
January 19 Onstage conversation, Asian Art Museum
San Francisco, California
January 24 Virtual Zoom conversation, with 5 X 15
London, England
January 24Onstage conversation, Asia Society
New York, New York
January 30 Virtual conversation with Books & Books and others
Miami, Florida
January 31Keynote, Educational Travel Consortium
Reno, Nevada
March 14Conversation with Tracy Kidder, UCSB Arts & Lectures
Santa Barbara, California
April 27 Conversation with Isabella Rossellini, UCSB
Santa Barbara, California
May 2 Lecture, Seattle Arts and Lectures at Town Hall
Seattle, Washington
May 12-21 Jaipur Literature Festival Soneya Fushi
The Maldives
August 9 Talk on travel, Book Passage
Corte Madera, California
August 12 Conversation, Book Passage Travel Writing Conference
Corte Madera, California
NovemberConversation with Stephen Batchelor, Musashin U.
Koyasan, Japan
NovemberConversation with Stephen Batchelor, Camphor Village,
Kyoto/Nara, Japan
April 2024Isherwood-Bachardy Lecture, Huntington Museum
San Marino, California
October 2024Montgomery Fellow, Dartmouth College
Hanover, New Hampshire

Many more engagements are currently in the works.

Around Deer’s Slope”–an essay on walking for the book Where My Feet Fall, published by William Collins in Britain and excerpted in Orion, as “Never the Same River Twice,” March 16, 2022

“At a Loss”–an essay on Juzo Itami’s film The Funeral, for a new Criterion Collection DVD and Blu-Ray released on May 17, 2022, and adapted into an essay, “Last Rites and Comic Flights”, appearing in the Summer 2022 issue of The American Scholar.

“Open Borders, Fresh Perspective”—an essay on the art-island of Naoshima, for the Financial Times, June 18, 2022.

“A Broken Town”–a short piece on Yemen for Lion’s Roar, July 2022.

Essays on the four seasons in Japan for a catalogue and exhibition, “Spirit of Shizen” produced by the Luxembourg Museum of Natural History, July 2022

“Kuwait from On High”—an essay on Imagine a City, by Mark Vanhoenacker, for Air Mail, June 25, 2022.

“Epiphany”—a long essay on Ethiopia and spiritual transport for Chris Rainier’s book of photographs, Sacred, September 2022.

“A Journal of the Plague Year”—an essay on Lucy by the Sea, by Elizabeth Strout, for Air Mail, September 17, 2022

“Mysteries in Plain Sight”—an essay on the photographs of Tom Sandberg, appearing in a new book called “Tom Sandberg,” put out by Aperture Press and excerpted in The Observer, October 16, 2022.

The debut podcast for Satori magazine in Britain, with Lawrence Rice, October 28, 2022.

“On Travel-Writing”—an interview with Rick Steves, broadcast on public radio stations across the U.S. on November 7, 2021

“The Future of Hope”—a conversation with Elizabeth Gilbert broadcast for the “On Being” show and podcast on public radio stations across the U.S. on November 18, 2021

“Navigating the Poles”—an Opinion piece on traveling between Japan and the U.S. during the pandemic, The Los Angeles Times, November 30, 2021

“The Magic of Jan Morris”–a review of the classic historian-traveler’s final book, Allegorizings, for Air-Mail, December 18, 2021.

“Travel after COVID Lockdowns: In Search of Wonder”–a short essay on The Year in Travel for the Wall Street Journal’s Year in Review section, December 10, 2021

“Postcard from Kyoto”—a brief essay on the holiday season during COVID-19 in Japan for the Sunday Times (London), December 26, 2021

“The Good Earth”—a long essay on travel in the age of Apocalypse, for Outlook India, January 7, 2022.

“How To Take a Life-Changing Trip”—a year-long class in seven modules for TED, throughout 2022

A talk with Hindu nun Pravrajika Vrajaprana for the public-radio program, “Life Examined,” broadcast on January 15, 2022.

“Sane, Economy Class Asian-Americans”—a review of the book Joan is Okay, by Weike Wang, for Air-Mail, January 22, 2021.

“Alone in Kyoto”—an essay on the joy of being in an ancient capital with no international visitors—Financial Times, February 5, 2022

“Half a Century of Travel”–a long essay on how the traveling world has changed since 1974, for The Wall Street Journal, February 26, 2022.

“To my Lost Trishaw Driver”—A letter to a kind and touching soul briefly met in Burma in the collection Letters to a Stranger, edited by Colleen Kinder (Algonquin Books), March 2022.

“My Flights from the Real”—a short essay on my near-fatal love of illusion, for Lion’s Roar, April/May 2022.

If you’re interested in hearing Pico Iyer speak, here are a few dates and places to try:

March 2 Conversation with Erik Larson, UCSB
Santa Barbara, California
March 3Universal-McCann Client Summit
Ojai, California
March 9-16Silversea World Cruise 2022
Zanzibar-Mahe
April 23 Conversation with Krista Tippett, SF City Arts
San Francisco, California
April 29Keynote lecture, Travel Con
Memphis, Tennessee
May 11Workshop on stillness (virtual)
Six Senses Resorts
May 13 Conversation with Elizabeth Strout, UCSB
Santa Barbara, California
June 5-9Workshop with Abbess Fu Schroeder, Tassajara
Carmel, California
June 7Keynote, IBM Spark Design Festival (online)
June 25-28Onstage conversation, Aspen Ideas Festival
Aspen, Colorado
October 2-9, 2022Montgomery Fellow, Dartmouth College
Hanover, New Hampshire

Many more engagements are currently in the works.

“A Scientist of Sorrow”–a review of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun for Air-Mail, February 27, 2021

“All That We Can’t Leave Behind”—an essay on the photographs of Robert Voit, to accompany the exhibition “Aequilibrium” in Berlin, March, 2021.

An imaginative essay on “Why I Write” and a long interview on writing for the inaugural issue of Good River Review, April 2021

“Truth in Fiction”–an essay on the books that for me are the deepest spiritual texts, for Lion’s Roar, May 2021

A 25-minute talk with tennis legend and broadcaster Patrick McEnroe, for his podcast, “Holding Court”—June 4, 2021

“Age of Invention”—a brief profile of hotel-creating visionary Adrian Zecha in Travel + Leisure, July 2021

“The Joy Inside Sorrow”–an essay on Georg Frideric Handel for an anthology of pieces on music, Ways of Hearing (Princeton University Press), September 2021, excerpted in Lit Hub on September 29, 2021

“My Guidebook to Japan”—a long essay on Henry David Thoreau, for the anthology Now Comes Good Sailing (Princeton University Press), and excerpted in The American Scholar, October 2021.

If you’re interested in hearing Pico Iyer speak, here are a few dates and places to try:

October 14 Panel discussion on Thoreau (online)
Politics & Prose Bookstore
October 27Panel discussion on Thoreau (online)
Huntington Library
October 28Conversation with Vijay Gupta, UCSB
Santa Barbara, California
November 25 Panel on Jan Morris (online)
Royal Society of Literature, London
March 2, 2022Conversation with Erik Larson, UCSB
Santa Barbara, California
March 11-16Silversea World Cruise 2022
Zanzibar-Mahe
April 10-14 TED Annual Conference
Vancouver, Canada
April 23Conversation with Krista Tippett, SF City Arts
San Francisco, California
April 29Keynote lecture, Travel Con
Memphis, Tennessee
May 11Workshop on stillness (virtual)
Six Senses Resorts
May 13Conversation with Elizabeth Strout, UCSB
Santa Barbara, California
June 5-9Workshop with Abbess Fu Schroeder, Tassajara
Carmel, California
October 2-9, 2022Montgomery Fellow, Dartmouth College
Hanover, New Hampshire

Many more engagements are currently in the works.

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