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!
VIEW BY CATEGORY
THE NEWS ARCHIVES
- January 2025
- September 2024
- April 2024
- October 2023
- April 2023
- November 2022
- March 2022
- October 2021
- February 2021
- July 2020
- October 2019
- July 2019
- April 2019
- September 2018
- April 2018
- March 2017
- September 2016
- April 2016
- January 2015
- August 2015
- May 2015
- February 2015
- October 2014
- June 2014
- February 2014
- August 2013
- June 2013
- December 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- November 2011
“Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Son”—a review of Nick Harkaway’s novel Karla’s Choice, published in Air Mail, October 21, 2024
“The Moving River”—a short essay on my 37 years in Japan to go with Magdalena Sole’s series of seven artist’s books chronicling her 33 years of visits to the country—October 2024.
“The Zendo called the World”—an essay on art as contemplation and act of worship, based around the islands of Naoshima and Teshima, in Lion’s Roar, October/November 2024.
“The Light in Kyoto”—a short tribute to the irreplaceable editor Ken Rodgers in the indispensable Kyoto Journal, December 2024
“The Kid Stays Out of the Picture”–an essay (accompanied by podcast interview) on staying with some monks, published in Air-Mail, January 4, 2025
“What I Find in Solitude and Silence on the Cliffs of Big Sur”–an essay on Thoreau and the meaning of solitude for the Los Angeles Times, January 5, 2025.
“Pico Iyer’s Wide-Awake Silence”—A long interview with Nautilus, January 10, 2025.
“Hospitals of the Soul”—a long essay on what we stand to lose if monasteries become extinct–Globe & Mail, January 11, 2025.
Aflame: A book on my first 100 retreats at a Benedictine hermitage in Big Sur, California—published by Riverhead, January 14, 2025 (published by Cornerstone in Britain and Penguin India as Learning from Silence, in February 2025).
A long talk with Terry Gross for “Fresh Air” on public radio—January 15, 2025.
A very long talk with soulful Jenna Abdou on the 33 Voices podcast—January 15, 2025
An hour-long chat with Mina Kim at KQED’s “Forum” show—January 16, 2025.
“Losing Everything to Fire Changed How I Lived”–An essay on the Los Angeles Fires, for The New York Times Opinion page—January 18, 2025
A podcast interview with New York Times Book Review editor Gilbert Cruz—January 19, 2025
An essay on a cure for hopelessness, recorded as part of the Hidden Brain podcast (the first such essay ever to be a part of Hidden Brain)—January 20, 2025.
A conversation with the amazing William Green at the Asia Society, on January 22, 2025–
The Search for Liberation”—an essay to serve as Introduction to a new edition of Pankaj Mishra’s The End of Suffering. Published by Penguin India, January 2025.
Numerous podcasts with Jonathan Fields, Elise Loehnen, William Green, Christopher Lydon, Jeremy Bassetti, Rolf Potts, Jonathan Bastian, James Shaheen and many others—released January 2025.
If you’re interested in hearing Pico Iyer speak, here are a few dates and places to try:
| Jan. 27 | Conversation about Aflame, Zen Luminaries Podcast Online |
| Jan. 28 | Conversation around Aflame, Vroman’s Books Pasadena, California |
| Jan. 30 | Conversation on Aflame, Books and Books and others Online |
| Feb. 23 | Conversation with Richard Powers, UCSB Santa Barbara, California |
| April 7-11 | TED Mainstage Talk, TED Annual Conference Vancouver, Canada |
| April 13 | Conversation around Aflame Dayton, Ohio |
| April 22 | Conversation with Paul Holdengraber, JAACC Los Angeles, California |
| April 26-27 | Los Angeles Times Festival of Books Los Angeles, California |
| May 6 | Conversation with Marina Abramovic, UCSB Santa Barbara, California |
| May 27 | Keynote conversation at NAFSA annual conference San Diego, California |
| August 18-23 | Workshop, Modern Elder Academy Santa Fe, New Mexico |
| October | Bali Literature Festival Ubud, Indonesia |
| April 29-May 7, 2026 | Lectures, Gohagan ship Japan-Korea |
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:
| September 14 | Jaipur Literature Festival Boulder Boulder, Colorado |
| Sept. 16 | Conversation with Katherine Bucknell, Huntington Lib. San Marino, California |
| Sept. 22 | Keynote, Trinity Church Wall Street New York, New York |
| Sept. 23-Oct. 12 | Montgomery Fellow, Dartmouth College Hanover, New Hampshire |
| Sept. 30 | Keynote, Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| Oct. 1 | Lecture, Dartmouth College Hanover, New Hampshire |
| Oct. 7 | Roundtable discussion, Dartmouth College Hanover, New Hampshire |
| Oct. 29 | Conversation with Yung Pueblo, UCSB Santa Barbara, California |
| Nov. 15-17 | Mumbai Literature Festival Mumbai, India |
| January 14, 2025 | Conversation around new book, Aflame, Kepler’s Menlo Park, California |
| Jan. 15 | Conversation about Aflame, Book Passage Corte Madera, California |
| Jan. 16 | Conversation around Aflame, Elliott Bay Books Seattle, Washington |
| Jan. 21 | Conversation around Aflame, City of Asylum Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| Jan. 22 | Conversation around Aflame, Asia Society New York New York, New York |
| Jan 27 | Aflame, Zen Luminaries Podcast Online |
| Jan 28 | Conversation around Aflame, Vroman’s Books Pasadena, California |
| Jan 30 | Conversation on Aflame, Books and Books and others Online |
| Feb. 23, 2025 | Conversation with Richard Powers, UCSB Santa Barbara, California |
| April 26-27 | Los Angeles Times Festival of Books Los Angeles, California |
| April 28-May 1 | Keynote, Chapman University Orange, California |
| May 6 | Conversation with Marina Abramovic, UCSB Santa Barbara, California |
| August 18-23 | Workshop, Modern Elder Academy Santa Fe, New Mexico |
| October | Bali Literature Festival Ubud, Indonesia |
Many more engagements are currently in the works.
“Leave Your Ideas—and Ideologies—Behind”–an essay on how travel can help us overcome our prejudices, for the new magazine in India, The Nod, May 2024
“Calm Behind the Clamour”–an essay on the new Six Senses, Kyoto and the city around it—Conde Nast Traveller (U.K.), July/August 2024
“Prague’s Second Act”–a longish account of the capital of the Czech Republic for AAA Explorer, July 2024 and Westways, August 2024.
“Awakening to Rain”—an essay to go with the new album, “Migratory,” by Masayoshi Fujita, released August 2024.
“A Singular Man”—a review of Katherine Bucknell’s Christopher Isherwood Inside Out for Air Mail, August 17, 2024.
“How Far Would you Travel for Happiness?”–A rich conversation with Marianna Pogosyan for her Psychology Today blog, posted November 8, 2023.
“Our constant search for Paradise”—a long interview with the TED Radio Hour, broadcast on November 10, 2023
A long and rich e-mail conversation with Caryl Phillips, on migration and exile, in The Palgrave Handbook of European Migration in Literature and Culture—published November 21, 2023.
“The Mahabharata of Literary Festivals”—an essay on the Jaipur Literature Festival for Air Mail, January 27, 2024
“The Truth in Search of Itself”—a review of the powerful book American Mother, by Diane Foley and Colum McCann in Air Mail, February 3, 2024.
“The Deformative Years”—a very personal review of A Very Private School by Charles Spencer for Air Mail, March 17, 2024
“Love and Let Die”– a review of Ian Fleming: The Complete Man, by Nicholas Shakespeare for Air Mail, March 31, 2024
A very brief text for the book of photographs Devotion, by Steve McCurry, published in the U.S. in March 2024 (in Europe December 2023).
If you’re interested in hearing Pico Iyer speak, here are a few dates and places to try:
| April 9 | Conversation for Lauren Groff, UCSB A&L Santa Barbara, California |
| April 11 | Keynote, Convent 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 Library San Marino, California |
| April 30 | Conversation with Amanda Gorman, UCSB A&L Santa Barbara, California |
| May 4 | Commencement Address, Lewis and Clark College Portland, Oregon |
| July 8-13 | Modern Elder Academy workshop with Chip Conley Santa Fe, New Mexico |
| September 13-15 | Jaipur Literature Festival Boulder Boulder, Colorado |
| September 16 | Conversation with Katherine Bucknell, Huntington Lib. San Marino, California |
| September 22 | Lecture/Conversation, Trinity Church Wall Street New York, New York |
| Sept 23 – Oct 12 | Montgomery Fellow, Dartmouth College Hanover, New Hampshire |
| Sept 30 | Keynote, Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| Nov. 15-17 | Mumbai Literature Festival Mumbai, India |
| October 2025 | Bali Literature Festival Ubud, Indonesia |
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:
| October 25 | Conversation for UCSB’s Lifelong Learning Initiative Santa Barbara, California |
| October 26 | Conversation with Walter Isaacson for UCSB A&L Santa Barbara, California |
| October 30 | Conversation with the Zen Luminaries series (online) Santa Rosa, California |
| November 6 | Keynote, 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 18 | A workshop on Paradise, TED Vancouver, Canada |
| April 22 | Two Panels, Los Angeles Times Festival of Books Los Angeles, California |
| April 27 | Conversation with Isabella Rossellini, UCSB Santa Barbara, California |
| May 2 | Keynote, Seattle Arts and Lectures at Town Hall Seattle, Washington |
| May 17-21 | Jaipur Literature Festival Soneva Fushi Fushi, the Maldives |
| July 5 | Conversation for The School of Life (virtual) Amsterdam, the Netherlands |
| August 10 | Lecture on travel, Book Passage Corte Madera, California |
| August 10 | Conversation, Book Passage Travel Writing Conference Corte Madera, California |
| September 14 | Keynote, Adventure Travel World Summit Sapporo, Japan |
| October 4 | A conversation on compassion for Coca-Cola (virtual) Atlanta, Georgia |
| October 30 | Zen Luminaries conversation (online) Santa Rosa, California |
| November | Conversation with Stephen Batchelor, Musashino U. Koyasan, Japan |
| November | Conversation with Stephen Batchelor, Camphor Village Kyoto/Nara, Japan |
| April 2024 | Isherwood-Bachardy Lecture, Huntington Museum San Marino, California |
| July 8-13 | Modern Elder Academy workshop with Chip Conley Santa Fe, New Mexico |
| October 2024 | Montgomery Fellow, Dartmouth College Hanover, New Hampshire |
Many more engagements are currently in the works.