Rick Steves Europe the Rise of Facism Edmonds Center for the Arts

American travel writer and tv host

Rick Steves
Steves in 2013
Born	(1955-05-10) May 10, 1955 (age 66) Barstow, California, U.S.
Alma mater	University of Washington
Occupation	Writer television set personality
Years active	1979–present
Known for	Travel guides
Spouse(s)	Anne Steves (div. 2010)
Children	2

Richard John Steves Jr. (born May 10, 1955) is an American travel writer, author, activist, and television personality. His travel philosophy encourages people to explore less-touristy areas of destinations and to become immersed in the local people'due south way of life. Since 2000, he has hosted Rick Steves' Europe, a travel series on public television. Steves also has a public radio travel prove called Travel with Rick Steves (2005−present) and has authored numerous travel guides, the first of which was the popular Europe Through the Back Door. In 2006, he became a syndicated paper columnist, and in 2010, his visitor released a mobile telephone application called "Rick Steves' Audio Europe" containing self-guided walking tours and geographic information.

Early life and career [edit]

Richard John Steves Jr. was built-in in Barstow, California to parents Richard John Steves, a high school ring director and piano technician, and June Erna Steves, née Fremmerlid. His mother, June Erna, was built-in to Norwegian immigrants Harold and Erna Fremmerlid.^[1] He has two sisters, Jan and Linda.^[2] The family moved to Edmonds, Washington in 1967.^[iii]

When Steves was 14, he and his parents took a trip to Europe to see the factories that manufactured pianos. The family unit owned a piano store named "John Tierney's Piano Paradise" where they imported and sold pianos, and also tuned pianos.^[2] He documented what he saw and experienced on the backs of postcards which he numbered sequentially. He still has all of those cards stored in a wooden box. The family unit likewise visited relatives in Norway during the Apollo 11 moon landing, and in a park in Oslo, Steves came to a realization that would influence him throughout his life: "This planet must exist home to billions of equally lovable children of God." When he turned 18, he again visited Europe, only without his parents. He kept journals of all of those experiences, equally well.^[4]

Steves attended the University of Washington, majoring in European history and business administration, graduating in 1978.^[5]

In his 20s, Steves started education travel classes through The Experimental Higher, a student-run program of non-credit classes at his alma mater, the University of Washington,^[six] and working every bit a bout guide in the summer. At the time, he also worked as a piano teacher. In 1979, based on his travel classes, he wrote the first edition of Europe Through the Dorsum Door (ETBD), a general guide on how to travel in Europe.^[7] Steves self-published the first edition of his travel skills book ETBD in 1980. The book independent a page that said "Anyone caught reprinting any fabric herein for any purpose whatsoever will be thanked profusely."^[four] Unlike nigh guidebook entrepreneurs, he opened a storefront business. Initially, this was both a travel center and a piano teaching studio. He held travel classes and slide evidence presentations, did travel consulting, organized a few group tours per year, and updated his books. He did not provide ticket booking or other standard travel agency services. He incorporated his business as "Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door". The store was in Steves's hometown of Edmonds, due north of Seattle. The company's headquarters is withal in Edmonds.^[8] Steves'due south get-go television show, Travels in Europe with Rick Steves, debuted on public tv set in April 1991^[nine] and concluded production in 1998. His second show, Rick Steves' Europe, debuted in September 2000, and has aired episodes through 2020, though because he does not produce a flavor every yr, this accounts for 11 seasons.^[10]

Current activities [edit]

Steves with tourists in Italian republic

Steves advocates independent travel. His books and media deal with travel mainly in Europe and are directed at a North American audience. As host, writer, and producer of the popular and long-running American Public Television serial Rick Steves' Europe, and through his travel books, he encourages Americans to become what he calls "temporary locals." He encourages his readers and viewers to visit not but major cities but as well cozy villages abroad from pop tourist routes. Steves's television series, guidebooks, radio shows, mobile applications, and his visitor'due south European escorted bus tours concenter fans known as "Rickniks".^[11]

Steves's relationship with public television began in 1991 with his first series, Travels in Europe With Rick Steves. Since so he has go one of public idiot box's top pledge drive hosts, raising millions of dollars annually for stations across the U.S.^{[ citation needed ]} He writes and co-produces his goggle box programs through his ain product company, Back Door Productions.

Since self-publishing his first book in 1980, Steves has written state guidebooks, urban center and regional guides, phrasebooks, and co-authored Europe 101: History and Art for Travelers. His guidebook to Italia is the bestselling international guidebook in the U.S. In 1999, he started writing in a new genre of travel writing with his anecdotal Postcards from Europe, recounting his favorite moments from his many years of travel.^[12] Steves'southward books are published past Avalon Travel Publishing, a member of the Perseus Books Group. In 2009, Steves published the book Travel as a Political Act, a guide on traveling more thoughtfully.

In addition to his guidebooks and idiot box shows, Steves has expanded into radio, newspaper, and mobile applications. In 2005, Steves launched a weekly public radio program, Travel with Rick Steves. Focusing on globe travel, although with a heavy emphasis on Europe and North America, each program has a guest travel expert for interviews, followed by telephone call-ins with questions and comments. In 2006, Steves became a syndicated newspaper columnist with his Tribune Content Agency column.^[13] In 2010, he launched the mobile awarding Rick Steves' Sound Europe, a library of audio content (including self-guided walking tours) organized into geographic-specific playlists for the iPhone and Android.

Political and civic advocacy [edit]

Politically, Steves has identified himself as a member of the Democratic Political party, and publicly endorsed Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden's presidential campaigns in 2016 and 2020, respectively.^{[fourteen] [xv]}

Steves is a vocal proponent of legalizing cannabis and an active supporter of efforts to reform cannabis policy in the U.S.^{[16] [17]} According to Steves: "Similar most of Europe, I believe marijuana is a soft drug, like alcohol and tobacco. Like alcohol and tobacco, there is no reason why it shouldn't be taxed and regulated. Crime should simply enter the equation if it is abused to the point where innocent people are harmed."^[xviii]

Steves serves on the Advisory Board of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws,^[18] becoming its chairman of the board of directors in 2021.^[19] He was also a major supporter of Initiative 502 to legalize, tax, and regulate cannabis in the state of Washington.^{[17] [20]} Steves hosted an ACLU-sponsored educational plan called Marijuana: It'southward Time for a Conversation, which was nominated for an Emmy.^[21]

Steves too supports solutions to homelessness. In 2005, he constructed a 24-unit of measurement flat complex in Lynnwood, Washington, called Trinity Place and administrated by the local YWCA, to provide transitional housing for homeless mothers and their children. In 2017, Steves donated that $4 meg apartment complex for homeless women and kids to the YWCA.^{[22] [23]} Members of the Edmonds Noontime Rotary Social club aid maintain the buildings and grounds, providing everything from furniture to flowers.^[24] The club also raised $30,000 to build a play structure for the children there.

Steves also donates royalties from one of his books to the group Bread for the Globe, a movement to finish hunger.^[four]

A supporter of the arts, Steves gave United states$1 million in 2011 to the Edmonds Center for the Arts and Cascade Symphony Orchestra.^[23]

As a lifelong traveler, Steves avows that terrorism is something to which Americans should go accustomed, a natural outgrowth of the United states' position in the global community and how it is militarily advanced. In an interview with the Seattle Times, Steves said:

"I think nosotros're 300 one thousand thousand people and if we lose a few hundred people a yr to terrorists, that doesn't modify who we are and it shouldn't modify the fabric of our society. Frankly I think we should go used to losing—as long as we're taking the stance in the world of being the military superpower, you're going to have people nipping at you. And if it'southward hundreds or thousands—we lose 15,000 people a yr to take the right to bear arms and most people retrieve that's a good deal, year subsequently year. We spend 15,000 people for the correct to bear arms. What do nosotros spend to be equally aggressive and heavy weight on this planet? We're ever going to have terrorism."^[25]

When he traveled to Iran, he noted the similarity of Iranians and Americans each giving upward freedoms to make themselves less fearful:

"They traded away their liberty for a theocracy, out of fear. It's just like Americans. We don't want to torture people, we desire to have civil liberties, nosotros don't desire our regime reading our mail. Simply when we have fear, we let fear trump our commitment to our civil liberties and decency. We permit torture, nosotros allow the regime to read our mail. Information technology's not considering we're bad, it's because sometimes fright is more than important than our core values. And Iran is agape. They've given upwards democracy because they know a theocracy will stand strong confronting encroaching Western values."^[26]

In Travel as a Political Act, Steves wrote that displaying the American flag on motorcar antennas "creates a fearful, schizophrenic dynamic that may stoke today's terrorism and tomorrow's international conflicts".^[27]

On January 20, 2017, the date of Donald Trump's inauguration, Steves matched the sum total of every purchase fabricated on his website that day and donated it to the American Civil Liberties Wedlock. According to Steves, the website had college traffic than usual after he announced the effort, and that customers purchased $42,962 in merchandise. He donated $50,000 to the ACLU and stated: "Those of us with passports and who are wealthy enough to travel a lot—specially white, straight, Christian males like me—don't often think a lot about civil liberties ... at least, non in an immediate or personal style. Ceremonious liberties merely aren't an issue for most of us. If a wealthy person is in trouble with the law, he can rent a adept lawyer. It's the poor who are filling our prisons. If I want to smoke pot, no i's going to arrest me. Information technology's poor and blackness people who go arrested, and so disenfranchised. I have a vox because I fit societal norms and I accept money."^[28]

In June 2019, acknowledging that travel is a source of ecology devastation, he announced that his tour company will donate $ane million a year to a portfolio of environmental nonprofits, to mitigate the carbon emissions made from the 30,000 almanac travelers who utilise his tour program.^[29] Critics argue that travel can never be carbon neutral and that his donations amount to being a manner for the wealthy to experience better; Steves counters that if travelers prefer booking with his visitor due to the carbon beginning, other travel companies will be forced to follow suit to stay in business.^[30]

Personal life [edit]

Steves is an active Lutheran Christian, and has written and hosted educational videos on subjects such equally Martin Luther and the European Reformation.^[31] He supports liberation theology.^[32] He has spoken at the Lutheran Peace Fellowship.^{[33] [ improve source needed ]} To recognize his "outstanding service to church and society", the Luther Establish, an affiliate of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, presented their Wittenberg Honor to him.^[34]

Steves is of Norwegian ancestry.^{[2] [4] [3]} His sister Jan is an Iditarod racer.^[35] He was married to Anne Steves until they divorced in 2010. They accept two children. Their son Andy Steves followed his father's footsteps and founded his own travel company, Weekend Educatee Adventures Europe, and wrote Andy Steves' Europe: City-Hopping on a Upkeep.^[36] He began dating the Reverend Shelley Bryan Wee, Bishop of the Northwest Washington Synod in the Evangelical Lutheran Church building in America, in December 2019.^[37]

Steves spends about a third of every year in Europe researching guidebooks and filming Television set shows. His home is yet in Edmonds, Washington, where he has lived since 1967.^[3]

References [edit]

1. ^ Levesque, John (May two, 2001). "Public Television fixture Rick Steves' passion for bargain travel is paying off". Seattle Mail-Intelligencer . Retrieved May two, 2020. ... Richard John Steves' back-door arroyo to savvy, economical travel ...
2. ^ ^{a b c} McNamara, Neal (November vi, 2018). "Obituary: Richard John Steves, 1930–2018". Patch Media. Archived from the original on July 10, 2019. Retrieved July 10, 2019.
3. ^ ^{a b c} Soergel, Brian (January 3, 2012). "Rick Steves' Mother Dies at Age 80". Patch Media. Archived from the original on July 12, 2019. Retrieved July 11, 2019.
4. ^ ^{a b c d} Anderson, Sam (March 20, 2019). "Rick Steves Wants to Salvage the World, One Holiday at a Time". The New York Times Magazine . Retrieved July 3, 2019.
5. ^ Case, Julie H. (December 1, 2010). "Travel guru Rick Steves, '78, loves to share his worldview". Columns. Washington.edu. Archived from the original on Baronial 7, 2019. Retrieved Baronial 7, 2019.
6. ^ Holtz, Jackson (March viii, 2006). "Rick Steves built travel biz through the back door". USA Today.
7. ^ Potter, Everett (June 19, 1994). "Rick Steves takes you to 'Europe Through the Back Door'". Lakeland Ledger.
8. ^ Wolk, Martin (Nov 5, 2018). "Reading the Northwest: Why Rick Steves sees travel as a political act". The Spokesman-Review. Retrieved July 11, 2019.
9. ^ "Rick Steves' Europe: Series Info". Thetvdb.com . Retrieved June 26, 2016.
10. ^ "Rick Steves' Europe: Consummate Episode List". Thetvdb.com . Retrieved June 26, 2016.
11. ^ Corbett, Sara (July 4, 2004). "Rick Steves'due south Not-So-Lonely Planet". The New York Times . Retrieved June 25, 2011.
12. ^ Molnar, Jim (Feb xiv, 1999). "Travel Books – Two Takes On Touring Europe". The Seattle Times.
13. ^ "Rick Steves' Europe articles". Tribune Content Agency . Retrieved Oct 9, 2018.
14. ^ Steves, Rick (July 29, 2016). "Elevation X Reasons I'm With Her". Rick Steves' Travel Blog.
15. ^ "Rick Steves: For the Honey of America, VOTE — And Vote for Joe Biden". YouTube. Archived from the original on December xiii, 2021. Retrieved December 5, 2021.
16. ^ "It'south Time for a New Approach to Marijuana". ricksteves.com . Retrieved July 13, 2018.
17. ^ ^{a b} "Meet the Marijuana Moneymen". Willamette Week. July 29, 2014. Retrieved Feb 2, 2016.
18. ^ ^{a b} "Advisory Lath: Rick Steves". NORML . Retrieved December 6, 2015.
19. ^ "NORML Elects Upkeep Travel Guru Rick Steves as New Lath President". MERRY JANE . Retrieved February 12, 2021.
20. ^ "Sponsors". New Approach Washington. Archived from the original on June 25, 2011. Retrieved December 6, 2015.
21. ^ "Rick Steves Nominated for EMMY as Host of "Marijuana Conversation"". ACLU of Washington. Nov 20, 2009. Retrieved July 13, 2018.
22. ^ Stiles, Marc; Stewart, Ashley (Apr 14, 2017). "Rick Steves: 'I just gave away a $4M apartment complex'". Puget Sound Business organisation Journal. Retrieved July 3, 2019.
23. ^ ^{a b} Salyer, Sharon (November 29, 2017). "Travel maven Rick Steves donates millions right here at home". The Herald (Everett). Retrieved July 3, 2019.
24. ^ "Trinity Mode". YWCA. Archived from the original on February 17, 2016. Retrieved Dec vi, 2015.
25. ^ Postman, David (September xiii, 2006). "The RIck Steves Guide to terrorism in the world". Seattle Times.
26. ^ Berger, Kevin (March twenty, 2009). "The other side of Rick Steves". Salon . Retrieved July 11, 2019.
27. ^ Steves, Rick (2009). Travel As a Political Act (Kindle ed.). New York: Nation Books. Kindle location 1640.
28. ^ Steves, Rick. "Keeping America Corking Together: $50,000 to the ACLU". Rick Steves' Europe . Retrieved January 25, 2017.
29. ^ Davey, Stephanie (June 11, 2019). "Rick Steves to requite $1 million yearly to stop climate change". Enumclaw Courier-Herald. Retrieved July 13, 2019.
30. ^ Westneat, Danny (June 7, 2019). "The 'flight shame' effect comes habitation to Rick Steves". The Seattle Times. Retrieved July 12, 2019.
31. ^ Steves, Rick (2009). Travel Every bit a Political Act (Kindle ed.). New York: Nation Books. Kindle location 123–130.
32. ^ Steves, Rick (2009). Travel As a Political Human action (Kindle ed.). New York: Nation Books. Kindle location 1833–1839.
33. ^ "A Panorama of Witness and Struggle - Lutheran Peace Fellowship through the years". Members.tripod.com . Retrieved June 26, 2016.
34. ^ "Luther Institute Gives Wittenberg Accolade to Travel Author, Host Rick Steves". Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. March 4, 2008. Archived from the original on August 7, 2019.
35. ^ Steves, Rick (February 27, 2012). "The Iditarod: My Sis, January Steves, Mushes with the Best Dog Racers in the Globe". ricksteves.com . Retrieved July 13, 2018.
36. ^ "Nigh Andy Steves | Weekend Student Adventures Europe". www.wsaeurope.com.
37. ^ Talbott, Chris (April 22, 2020). "Rick Steves finds unexpected joy amid travel standstill, and vows to keep staff working — fifty-fifty if he pays out of pocket". The Seattle Times . Retrieved April 22, 2020.

External links [edit]

• Official website
• Rick Steves at IMDb

evanspretrusiona.blogspot.com

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Steves

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