WanderLearn: Travel to Transform Your Mind & Life

When I travel, I love to observe common ground in a sea of diversity.

The planet has over 100 currencies, but there's one thing that everyone agrees is money: gold.

So far, COVID-19 has killed 200,000, which has added to the 5 million deaths that we suffer from communicable diseases every year.

COVID-19 has also killed the global economy.

The travel industry has shut down.

The stock market is in tatters.

The prices of panic assets (gold and bitcoin) have soared.

Few are talking about a recession.

We're on the edge of a depression.

Therefore, we're taking a breaking from talking about travel and focusing on universal money: gold.

I talk with a renowned gold researcher, Jan Nieuwenhuijs.

We discuss:

• Whether gold's stock-to-flow ratio helps determine gold's price.


• What he thinks of bitcoin using the stock-to-flow to predict bitcoin's price.


• Why he bought bitcoin for $25 and why he sold it in 2017.


• What he thinks of asteroid mining.


• How do buy and store gold safely and effectively.

Learn more about Jan at Voima Gold and Twitter @jangold_

Jan wrote several fascinating articles:

• Gold: Supply and Demand Dynamics.


• Why you should not buy the GLD Gold ETF to get exposure to gold.


• What's an SDR and its future?


• The coming gold standard.

 More info

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Last week, I got this email from Robert Hahn, whom I interviewed a couple of months ago on this podcast. He wrote:

Hey Francis! I listened to your most recent podcast with Rejoice. Afterwards I looked into investment in crypto a bit. I was wondering what your thoughts are on platforms for buying and storing the virtual currency. I was also interested in Nano (for its more environmentally conscious approach) and Monero (better privacy, but that may be a fault because it makes it a favorite for dark money). I'd be curious to hear why you chose Bitcoin...the assumption that widespread adoption will win the race?

For the best platform for buying cryptocurrency, I like Kraken.

https://r.kraken.com/Q1RBx

For storage beyond what you're comfortable losing, Ledger is a great bet.

https://shop.ledger.com/pages/ledger-nano-x?r=a673bccc2782

I answer some of his questions in a general way and I didn't talk too much about the two crypto coins that I mentioned, so I will address them here in the notes briefly.

First, I love to use CoinMarketCap.com to see the market share of the crypto coins.

Nano is ranked #60 (as of April 12, 2020). That's a deal-breaker for me. 

I would research a top 20 coin and I would take a good look at a top 10 coin, but if it's not in the top 20, then forget about it. It's insignificant and will probably remain so. It won't change the world. And it will probably fade away.

I'm sure some critics would question its environmentally responsible claims. 

Bitcoin is a power hog, but that's the price we pay for having bulletproof security. So far, more environmentally friendly solutions have their problems. 

Remember, the global banking system requires far more resources than Bitcoin.  

Monero is a fascinating privacy coin that is ranked #14.

As cool as it is, ZCash has slightly better technology and you can create privacy features within Bitcoin via technologies such as: 

• The Lightning Network


• Mimblewimble


• CoinJoin


• Wasabi Wallet

There are MANY efforts researchers are making to improve Bitcoin's privacy. 

I suspect current solutions will satisfy most privacy enthusiasts. 

If they don't, then Bitcoin developers will probably come up with a better solution soon. There are armies of brilliant programmers researching this issue. Other coins lack such development teams.

You can watch this podcast at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SIGGxKGagU

 

More info

You can post comments, ask questions, and sign up for my newsletter at http://wanderlearn.com.

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How do you think we should solve the Coronapocolypse? 

Should we keep sheltering in place for another month or two?

What metrics would you look at to decide when enough is enough?

Rejoice and I debate my solution to the Corona crisis.

Rejoice also shares a few stories from Africa during this bizarre time. 

Leave your comments and solutions at WanderLearn.com.

More info

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Is the Coronavirus is overly hyped?

Rejoice and I discuss that.

I explain why you shouldn't hike your own hike in 2020.

But that doesn't mean you shouldn't hike in 2020. I explain how and where to go hiking in 2020.

Rejoice shares how COVID-19 is impacting Africa.

More info

You can post comments, ask questions, and sign up for my newsletter at http://wanderlearn.com.

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Thru-hiking can take social distancing to an extreme.

Unless you camp close to random people or you spend lots of time in town when you resupply, you will be safely away from any contagion. 

That's why 2020 is the best year ever to thru-hike, especially if you recently lost your job. 

Put your stuff in storage (or sell it all). Stop paying rent. And hike for the next 6 months.

By the time you finish hiking, the Coronapocolypse will have killed a few million people and ravaged the economy while you were happily backpacking. 

You'll return to civilization in the post-apocalypse - and just in time to vote for in the US elections.

I recorded the following podcast with Gehn Shibayama a month before the Coronavirus outbreak. What we discuss is extremely relevant for the 2020 pandemic. We discuss:

• How thru-hiking the Pacific Crest Trail is different now that it was 15 years ago.


• How two East Asians females died on Pacific Crest Trail a couple of years ago.


• How thru-hiking El Camino de Santiago has changed in the last decade.


• How to invest your money (super relevant today now that the markets have tanked - thereby making it a great time to invest).


• Why he was a trail angel in 2019.


• Why do some vegans not tolerate people using their kitchen utensils to cook animals? 


• How can one retire before 50?


• What's he planning to do in the 2020s? 

A few fact-checking corrections:

We debated the pros and cons of thru-hiking the PCT southbound. On the podcast, I estimated that you need 3 months to thru-hike the Canadian border to Kennedy Meadows. I couldn't remember the exact time that I had calculated years ago. It's all in my "Why Go Southbound on the PCT" article. I explain that takes 3.5 months to cover those two points, which is the same amount of time that northbounders have to cover that distance. Therefore, I'm sticking with my recommendation of going south on the PCT. You just need to get in shape before you leave.

Gehn said that Scott Williamson has thru-hiked the PCT 7 times. I said that he's done it "more than 10 times." Fact check: he's thru-hiked the PCT 13 times. 

What's clear is that this is a fantastic year to thru-hike the PCT. Snow levels are normal. Go for it.

I hope Gehn inspires you to thru-hike the Pacific Crest Trail. 

Connect with Gehn Shibayama's Facebook profile.

More info

You can post comments, ask questions, and sign up for my newsletter at http://wanderlearn.com.

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On March 20, 2020, Rejoice and I spontaneously went Live on Facebook to share our thoughts about the Coronavirus pandemic.

(Don't worry. The photo of us hugging was taken months before the Coronapocolypse.)

In 2014, when the Ebola contagion was raging across West Africa, I was traveling in West Africa. The world was panicking. Some worried that it would kill hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions.

I thought most people were overreacting. Therefore, I wrote a prescient article called, "Don't Worry Too Much About Ebola."

I feel I could write the same article today about COVID-19.

Yes, Ebola and COVID-19 are different viruses. 

COVID-19 spread far and fast; Ebola didn't. 

Ebola's death rate was 53%. COVID's death rate is about 3.5%.

Still, the principle is the same.

Humans excel at detecting patterns.

However, we have a tendency of over projecting trend lines. 

When we see a graph skyrocketing (or plummeting), we often believe (incorrectly) that the trend will continue for a long time.

It often doesn't. 

Listen to my podcast with Rejoice. Sorry that her voice is sometimes hard to hear. She speaks softly.

Lastly, don't misunderstand me. 

I'm not suggesting that we should ignore COVID-19 or that it's not serious. We should continue taking the extreme measures we're taking such as sheltering-in-place. 

I'm simply saying that we shouldn't panic or believe that this contagion will kill tens of millions.

A few months ago, I gave my third TEDx talk, which was about the 7 surprising lessons I learned from picking up 3,000 African hitchhikers.

At the 14th minute, I shared a statistic that is relevant today during the #Coronapocolypse. I queued up the video link below to that moment in the talk.

https://youtu.be/5WxfRLByD60?t=833

Spoiler alert: Every year, 470,000 humans die worldwide from influenza.

Today, 14,000 have died worldwide from COVID-19.

That sucks, but even if 100 times more people die from COVID-19 than the flu (which would 1.4 million, that would mean that COVID-19 is only 3 times more deadly than our annual flu. 

That would suck, but let's keep those statistics in mind before we all jump off a moderately tall building.

More info

You can post comments, ask questions, and sign up for my newsletter at http://wanderlearn.com.

If you like this podcast, subscribe and share! 

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Liz Warner is going to run 30 marathons before she turns 30 years old in June 2020. However, her real accomplishment is raising nearly $30,000 for 20 charities in the process!  

In this podcast, we discuss some of the highlights and lowlights of her first 27 marathons and her Run To Reach experience.

She's going to finish on Mt. Everest in late May 2020.

Go to her donation page and follow her on Instagram.

Liz mentioned the Effective Altruism TED Talk as an inspiration. 

In the podcast, I couldn't remember the name of the guy who ran 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 consecutive days. The guy's name is Dean Karnazes.

Confession: I goofed. I didn't realize how many marathons Liz Warner had run in Africa. I only asked her about a couple of them. I would have liked to delve into all of them. 

Still, in our one-hour conversation, we cover a lot of ground!

More info

You can post comments, ask questions, and sign up for my newsletter at http://wanderlearn.com.

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On March 14, 2020, Dan Grec's Kickstarter will end. If you're listening to this before that date, buy Dan's book on Kickstarter. His book (and website) are called The Road Chose Me.

If you're listening to this after March 14th, buy Dan Grec's book on Amazon.

Why buy his book? 

Because for 999 days Dan Grec drove through 35 of the 54 African countries. His book recounts his 3-year adventure.  

In this 90-min podcast, we discuss:

• His road trip across Latin America.


• How he saved money for 4 years for this 3-year trip.


• Why he biked to work in Yukon's winter.


• Which were some of the toughest African border crossings.


• How he got (or didn't get) African visas on the fly.


• How much it cost to ship his truck across the Atlantic


• How many times he got malaria and how it was.


• What he thinks of South Africa's future.


• What makes Sudan special and unique.


• His speaking tour.


• What he's planning to do next.

We discussed the Caprivi Strip. Here are the facts from Wikipedia:

Caprivi was named after German Chancellor Leo von Caprivi (in office 1890–1894), who negotiated the acquisition of the land in an 1890 exchange with the United Kingdom. Caprivi arranged for the Caprivi strip to be annexed to German South West Africa in order to give Germany access to the Zambezi River and a route to Africa's east coast, where the colony of German East Africa (now part of Tanzania) was situated. The river later proved unnavigable and inaccessible to the Indian Ocean due to the Victoria Falls. The transfer of territory was a part of the Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty of 1890, in which Germany gave up its interest in Zanzibar in return for the Caprivi Strip and the island of Heligoland in the North Sea.

We also wondered where the expression "rest on your laurels" comes from. Simply put: the origins of the phrase lie in ancient Greece, where laurel wreaths were symbols of victory and status.

You can watch the interview on YouTube, although the audio is out of sync. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaL8jLnRf_4&

More info

You can post comments, ask questions, and sign up for my newsletter at http://wanderlearn.com.

If you like this podcast, subscribe and share! 

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Health Access Sumbawa

One of WanderLearn's top patrons, Kathy Kennedy Enger, asked me to draw attention to Health Access Sumbawa. I am happy to promote this remarkable nonprofit.

In 2014, Jack Kennedy founded the organization to bring malaria control and healthcare to remote, impoverished communities. It started on the remote island of Sumbawa, Indonesia. Since then, it's expanded thanks to generous donations. Visit their website to learn more and to donate: https://healthaccesssumbawa.org

 

 

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Part 5 of 5 of the "What Can Americans Teach Europeans" series

Snobby Europeans love to say that Americans have “no cuisine, no culture, no history.”

Let’s refute this belief.

We’ll begin with food. First, Americans brought hamburgers and Coca-Cola to the world. The French (and many others) will immediately sniff and say, “That doesn’t count.”

Really?

And foie gras does? That’s a dish that is prepared by force-feeding a poor duck. Now that’s really classy and sophisticated. Big Macs start looking like haute cuisine.

Moreover, America’s unique cuisine doesn’t end with a cheeseburger and a Coke. We’ve either invented or popularized:

• banana splits


• brownies


• buffalo wings


• cheesesteaks


• corn dogs


• cotton candy


• corn on the cob


• doughnuts


• fried chicken


• fudge


• garden burgers


• grits


• hot dogs


• ice cream cones


• Jell-O


• macaroni and cheese


• mashed potatoes


• onion rings


• pancakes


• peanut butter and jelly sandwiches


• pecan pie


• popcorn


• Popsicles


• potato chips


• Rice Krispie treats


• root beer float


• shoofly pie


• sloppy joe


• submarine sandwiches


• the Twinkie.

Not only does this list prove that Americans have plenty of dishes that are uniquely ours, but this list also explains why we are so incredibly fat.

Obviously, American cuisine isn’t the most nutritious cuisine on the planet. The point is that we invented plenty of dishes. Besides, it’s impossible to find any national cuisine that is 100 percent healthy.

Since the Japanese live the longest, they have arguably the best diet around. However, even the Japanese eat plenty of deep-fried foods and white rice. And they often wash it down with beer or sake.

Yes, Americans have one of the least healthy diets on the planet; on the other hand, I’ve never found a country that can make salads that are as delicious as the ones you can find in California.

Finally, America is better than any other country at welcoming (and eating) exotic food from all over the world. Try finding non-Italian cuisine in Italy.

The other insult Europeans like to fling at Americans is that we have “no culture.”

Really?

That’s funny because it seems that no other country does a better job of exporting its culture than America does. It’s hard to go anywhere on the planet and meet people who do not know about American music, television, books, movies, sports, and cuisine (which includes the fast food it invented).

Cultural snobs will say all that doesn’t count and that it’s not real culture. Who decided that?

Why is the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark not as culturally significant as Schindler’s List? They are both masterpieces (and they happen to both be directed by the same American).

Is Michael Jordan not as important as Roger Federer, the Swiss tennis player?

Is Elvis less important than Mozart?

If American TV is so bad, why do I see it in every country I go to? It’s hard to go anywhere and not see The Discovery Channel. Every major country copies American Idol and other popular TV shows.

The world copies American culture. The copying of American culture is so pervasive that most people who complain about “globalization” are really complaining about “Americanization.”

Snobs insist this is all “low culture.” First, that’s arrogant and subjective, but let’s play along.

If you want “high culture,” then consider American writers (Twain, Fitzgerald, Poe, Thoreau, T.S. Eliot, Kerouac, Tennessee Williams), American fashion designers (Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Levi Strauss), American visual artists (O’Keefe, Pollock, Warhol, Rockwell, Ansel Adams, the sculptors of DC’s monuments), American composers (Irving Berlin, Scott Joplin, Philip Glass, George Gershwin, John Williams), American chefs (Emeril, Nathalie Dupree, Alice Waters, Julia Child, Anthony Bourdain), and American architects (Julia Morgan, Buckminster Fuller, Frank Lloyd Wright). If you admire skyscrapers, remember that Americans were the first to make those too. In short, Americans have culture—in both the “high” and “low” flavors.

Finally, the last put down that Europeans lobs at Americans is that America has “no history.” Sadly, this insults the Native Americans more than anyone else. Tell the descendants of the Incas, Mayans, and Aztecs that they have no history. Tell the Native Americans in North America that they have no history when most historians estimate that they’ve been running around America ever since they crossed the land bridge near the Bering Strait 12,000 years ago. Several Northern European countries weren’t even populated until 8,000 years ago. American history, therefore, is at least 4,000 years older than the Scandinavian and Baltic history.

If you need impressive structures to believe that a country has “history,” then visit the archaeological remains in Monks Mound, Taos, and Chaco. Or visit Teotihuacan, Tikal, and Machu Picchu in Central and South America.

Besides, many of Europe’s impressive buildings are only a few hundred years old. Boston’s Faneuil Hall, built in 1743, isn't much younger than many of Europe's most treasured buildings. The dirty little secret that few Europeans will talk about is that many of their “old” buildings were recently reconstructed from scratch. For example, Warsaw and Dresden look like old cities, but all their buildings are younger than Disneyland.

Although Eurasians were better at documenting their ancient history than Americans were, it doesn’t mean that Americans don’t have any history. It just means you need to look a bit harder, but it’s there.

At best, a few Europeans countries claim that they started in the seventh century, but many were born around the eleventh century. However, these “nations” were fragile and had far more pronounced regional identities than national ones. They weren’t like modern nations today, but rather fiefdoms and small territories clumped together in a quasi-union.

Even today, European countries are more regionally focused than nationally focused. In other words, 500 years ago European nations were not much different than the American nations of the Aztecs, Incas, Comanche, and Sioux. Just like Europeans, Native Americans had a hierarchical government, languages, and culture.

It’s incredibly Euro-centric (and ignorant) to argue that American history started with the arrival of the Europeans. Yet that’s exactly what many Europeans implicitly do when they say “America has no history.”

That’s like Turks saying that European history started when the Ottomans invaded the Balkans 500 years ago. The Slavs would be furious to hear that. The Turks displaced, killed, and mixed with Slavs just like Europeans killed, displaced, and mixed with Native Americans.

Some Europeans backpedal out of this argument by saying, “We’re not saying that the American continent has no history, just that America, the country, is young and doesn’t have much history.”

And your country does? Apart from Iceland, America has the oldest government in existence. Most European countries formed new governments and new constitutions less than 70 years ago.

I hope this shuts up snobs throughout the world who keep spreading the stupid idea that America has “no cuisine, no culture, and no history.”

Although I’ve been picking on Europeans, other people are also guilty of promoting this idea. Even Americans do it. It’s time we educate those who are ignorant.

In short, I’m not asking anyone to like American cuisine, culture, or history. I’m just asking everyone to stop believing that we don’t have any.

Conclusion of the five-part series on What Americans Can Teach Europeans

Europeans are right to criticize America’s foreign policy and the CIA because both can be aggressive and unfair. However, let’s give the American empire credit for being the most benign empire ever.

Let’s also admit that the CIA doesn’t know and control everything.

Similarly, Europeans have a fair point when they say that Americans are fake, ignorant, and a bit low-brow culturally. However, when compared to typical Europeans, we’re not that bad.

Pass this on to anyone who tries to argue otherwise. And tell them that a half-French, half-Chilean person wrote it—someone with no American blood in him.

Europeans have much to teach Americans, which is why I’ve written a 740-page book that captures the lessons from Eastern Europe. However, this article series is for Europeans, so they can learn a bit more about America and have a more realistic perspective of the United States.

Lastly, do Americans have five criticisms about Europeans too? No. Just one. We wish Europeans would catch up to the rest of the world cultures by being a bit more open, warm, friendly, and smiling. Have a nice day!

In case you missed it, read part 1 of the What Americans Can Teach Europeans article series. 

This is an excerpt from the Appendix of The Hidden Europe: What Eastern Europeans Can Teach Us. Although this article is filed in Western Europe, its message is for Eastern Europeans and everyone else on the planet who believes these five American myths. For those who worry that fanatical American patriots have brainwashed me, don't worry. About 99% of my upcoming book is about what Eastern Europeans can teach Americans (hence, the title). I'm simply sharing the 1% of my book that argues the contrary point. Please read the Introduction to The Hidden Europe to get the complete picture.

More info

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Health Access Sumbawa

One of WanderLearn's top patrons, Kathy Kennedy Enger, asked me to draw attention to Health Access Sumbawa. I am happy to promote this remarkable nonprofit.

 

Get full access to Francis Tapon at ftapon.substack.com/subscribe

Part 4 of 5 of the "What Americans Can Teach Europeans" series

Americans are criticized for being ignorant of geography, languages, and the world in general.

Let’s examine geography first. For example, someone from Slovakia often feels smart because he can name at least ten countries near him and explain what’s basically going on there. He says Americans are stupid because they can’t do this.

Humans are regionally focused. Today, for the average human, that radius of interest and knowledge might be 500 km. For someone in Nebraska, that means being able to name 10 states around him. For someone in Belgium, that means 10 countries. The level of geographic knowledge is effectively the same. Europe and the United States are roughly the same size. Although it’s true that a Nebraskan won’t find Belgium on a map, it’s also true that a Belgian won’t find Kansas on a map. And neither will find Togo or Cambodia. People are generally ignorant of anything that is beyond their geographic radius of knowledge.

src="/wanderlearn/episode/update/id/images/travels/europe/usa/USnews.png" alt="Imagine if they had asked people if they closely followed the news about Guinea Bissau" />The same goes for being aware of what’s going on. The Nebraskan will know what’s going on in Iowa, Missouri, Indiana, and maybe California. Meanwhile, the Belgian will have an idea of the general affairs in Luxembourg, Denmark, Germany, and maybe Greece. They’re all about the same distance from each other, the only difference is one crosses country lines while the other crosses state lines. And, of course, the American won’t know what’s going on in those European countries, just like the European won’t know what’s going on in those particular American states. Americans won’t know about the floods in Romania any more than a Romanian will know about the tornadoes in Oklahoma.

However, the European persists and says that Americans don’t know anything about world events and yet everyone knows what’s going on in America. One Latvian told me she was upset that she knows so much about America and Americans don’t know anything about Latvia. It was tough to break the news to her that Latvia’s physical, economic, and political size is insignificant. And it’s really painful to tell the same thing to the French. But it’s true.

Europeans know what’s going on America not because they’re more worldly and sophisticated, but because America has a lot of influence in their affairs. America knows little about individual European countries because not one European country has much impact on America (except for perhaps Britain or Russia). Most Europeans don’t know much more than Americans about what’s happening in Uruguay, New Zealand, and Namibia because those countries are both far and insignificant to them. And those countries don’t give a s**t about all the tiny European countries either.

In addition, educated Europeans who do know lots of stuff about the world often compare themselves with non-educated Americans. They walk through New York and tell people, “Hi, I’m from Bulgaria, do you know where that is?” They’re horrified that New Yorkers don’t know crap about Bulgaria and conclude that Americans are geographically ignorant idiots, unlike the brilliant Bulgarians.

Meanwhile, a girl from Laos goes to Bulgaria and asks the people she meets, “Do you know where Laos is?” You can guess the response. Please compare an educated, well-traveled American with an educated, well-traveled European; or the American on the street with the European on the street. You’ll discover the difference isn’t that big.

Most who complain about these issues come from countries much smaller than the US. The smaller the country, the more they’re forced to look outside because they quickly exhaust the business and travel opportunities in their own country. Go live in Belgium and see how fast you get bored.

People who live in big countries can spend their whole lives there and not get bored. It’s not that we’re more stupid or have a bad education system (although both of these may be true), but it’s primarily because learning about a big country is complex enough.

Should Americans learn more about the world and its languages? Absolutely. We should all be flogged for our ignorance. And we should also flog ignorant people from other big countries like the Chinese, Brazilians, Russians, and the French. Why the French? Their country is smaller than Texas, so what’s wrong with that? Well, it’s always a good idea to flog the French whenever you get the chance.

In short, it’s true that Americans are ignorant about world affairs and it’s a shame given how much influence the US has globally. However, Europeans are also pretty ignorant about affairs outside of Europe (their geographical focus). They know about America and China because these two large economies influence everyone's life. Yes, Europeans know more about Africa and Asia than Americans, but Americans often know more about Central and South America than Europeans.

Another common criticism about Americans is that we don’t travel internationally. Again, scale distorts everything. A Hungarian feels well traveled because he’s been to 10 countries. However, most of them are probably near Hungary. If someone from Iowa logs the same miles as the Hungarian, she won’t even leave America. At best, she’ll have visited Mexico, Canada, or the Caribbean, which is what many Americans do. In other words, the Iowan might feel well traveled if he’s been to 10 US states. Each state in America is about the size of a European country: Germany is the size of Montana, Poland is the size of New Mexico, Slovenia is the size of New Jersey, Belarus is the size of Kansas, and Greece is the size of Alabama.

Americans are criticized for not speaking foreign languages. Geography explains quite a bit. The Netherlands is tiny and surrounded by countries that don’t speak Dutch. They don’t speak four languages because they want to. They do it because they have to. How much incentive you have to learn a foreign language depends on:

(1) the size of your country

(2) the pervasiveness of your language.

For instance, Americans rarely speak foreign languages well because we’re a huge country and English speakers are everywhere. Russians and Chinese speak foreign tongues as well as Americans—yeah, that bad. Neither of these big countries with their pervasive languages has much incentive to learn anything else. Slovenians live in a tiny country and few outside their country speak Slovenian, so they must learn multiple languages. It’s not that Americans are stupid or Slovenians are smart. Everyone is just practical.

Furthermore, most Europeans can speak only their native language. My favorite pastime is asking Europeans if they speak a foreign language. The results are dismal. The true polyglots come from countries where just a few million people speak their language (e.g., Andorra, Slovenia, and Nordic countries).

Finally, ignorance often goes hand-in-hand with being provincial, and Europeans are far more provincial than Americans. Wherever you are in Europe, ask the people you meet where they’re from. The answer is almost always the same: “I’m from here.” They were born and raised in the town you meet them in, they still live there, and they have no plans to leave. Stanford University researchers have found a strong correspondence between the genetics and geographical origins of Europeans. In fact, 90% of Europeans live within 700 kilometers (435 miles) of where they were born, and 50% to within 310 kilometers (193 miles).

Ask the same question in America, and you’ll rarely get such an answer—people are usually immigrants, even if it means moving from Chicago to Miami. In San Francisco, people are often shocked when I tell them that I was born and raised there. “Wow, I’ve never met someone who was born here! You’re a native!” They make it sound as if I were a Native American. Because Americans move around much more than Europeans, Americans are less provincial than Europeans.

In fact, Europe is so ridiculously provincial that most of their countries are far from united. Spain and Switzerland each have four language regions in their small countries. That alone discourages them from moving around within their country, and the idea of moving a few hundred kilometers to live in a neighboring country is scary. Italians are so regionally focused that they hardly know what is happening on the other side of their local hill. One reason so many strong European dialects persist is that people refuse to venture far. Eastern Europeans are filled with so many prejudices about people who live just a few hundred kilometers away because they’ve spent so little time there. Instead, they find jobs locally, marry locally, and die locally.

Conclusion

I’m embarrassed that Americans are so poorly traveled and so bad at geography and languages. Although other big countries aren’t much better, they usually are better. And yes, Europeans do know more about geography and world affairs than most Americans. However, the difference is not as big as Europeans like to believe. Moreover, I wish American media devoted as much time to news from developing nations as the European media does.

On the other hand, I often assume that other countries know much more about the world than Americans, and I’m often disappointed to learn that it’s not accurate. In conclusion, it’s true: Americans are ignorant about many things. However, Europeans are hardly much better and sometimes their provincialism makes them worse.

 

In case you missed it, read part 1 of the What Americans Can Teach Europeans article series.

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