Episode 74: Pico Iyer - Understanding Japan

Pico Iyer is an essayist, a travel writer, and the author of many books, including one of my all-time favorites: "A Beginner's Guide to Japan: Observations and Provocations." During our conversation, Pico talks about his journey to living in Japan, his observations from and insights into this very-foreign culture, and he speaks at length about the very-Japanese themes of subtraction, cosplay, traditional gender roles, baseball, wisdom, and more.

Japan, in many ways, exhibits the inverse of many of the more boorish, stereotypically American qualities: it is graceful, quiet, obedient, considerate, internal. I quote extensively from Pico's masterful book, and it was a joy to listen to the man himself go into deeper detail about the country he has called home for more than three ...