Rick Steves on Travel as a Spiritual Act in New Day1 Interview

ATLANTA, GA – December 16, 2025 – Rick Steves, the beloved public television host and guidebook author who has guided millions of Americans through Europe, is now guiding listeners on a different kind of journey: a spiritual one. In a special Christmas season interview with Day1, the long-standing ecumenical media program, Steves re-frames global exploration not merely as tourism, but as a profound spiritual discipline capable of fostering hope and bridging divides in a fractured world.

The exclusive conversation, hosted by Day1’s President and CEO, the Rev. Dr. Katie Givens Kime, was released today across major podcast and streaming platforms. It marks a significant collaboration between a mainstream cultural icon and a legacy faith-based media outlet, signaling a new direction in how faith is discussed in the public square.

The Evolution from Political to Spiritual Act

For years, Steves has championed the idea of “Travel as a Political Act,” the title of his influential 2009 book. The work argues that thoughtful travel broadens perspectives, challenges ethnocentrism, and empowers individuals to become more engaged global citizens. In his discussion on Day1, Steves builds upon this foundation, suggesting its insights could be equally named Travel as a Spiritual Act.

“Culture shock is the growing pains of a broadening perspective,” Steves states in the interview, a sentiment he has honed over decades of travel. He encourages his audience to move beyond the checklist of a typical tourist. “If you can mix being a tourist, a traveler, and a pilgrim, you have a transformational experience,” he explains. This trinity of travel—combining fun, learning, and spiritual growth—forms the core of his message. The tourist seeks delight, the traveler seeks education, but the pilgrim seeks transformation. By embracing all three, Steves argues, a journey becomes a powerful vehicle for personal change and deeper understanding. This philosophy resonates with his established audience of educated, curious travelers, but by framing it in explicitly spiritual terms, he opens the door to a new dimension of meaning-making.

A Strategic Bridge for Modern Faith

The partnership between Steves and Day1 is a noteworthy strategic move for the 80-year-old media organization. Founded in 1945 as “The Protestant Hour,” Day1 has a deep history in ecumenical radio. By featuring a figure like Steves, whose primary audience consists of educated, often older, and civically engaged public broadcasting viewers, the program is actively building a bridge to a demographic that may be spiritually curious but not necessarily engaged with traditional religious media.

Analysis of media consumption trends reveals that while Christian media remains a powerful force, its most prolific users often differ demographically from Steves' core following. This collaboration allows Day1 to diversify its reach, engaging an audience that values the thoughtful, nuanced discourse Steves is known for. It represents a savvy effort to reimagine the role of faith-based programming in a pluralistic society, moving beyond the sanctuary to find spiritual lessons in secular activities like travel.

“Having Rick Steves on Day1 was an absolute joy. His humility, his compassion, and the depth of his spirituality shine through in every story he tells,” said Kime. This sentiment underscores the program's goal: to foster conversations that challenge and inspire by engaging with influential voices who find faith and meaning in unexpected places. The episode is part of a broader strategy to keep the platform relevant and resonant in the 21st-century media landscape.

Finding Hope in the World's Hardest Places

Perhaps the most poignant moments in the interview come from Steves' personal anecdotes, which serve as powerful parables for our time. When asked by Kime where he sees light breaking through today's darkness, he bypasses easy answers and instead shares stories of profound human connection from places often depicted through a lens of conflict or hardship.

He recounts meeting a Palestinian pastor in Bethlehem who, in the face of destruction, gathers shattered stained glass from a bombed-out church to create Christmas ornaments—a tangible symbol of creating beauty from rubble. He tells of being welcomed into the home of a Cuban family on New Year’s Eve, sharing in their joy despite their material poverty. In another story, an Iranian motorist, stuck in a traffic jam Steves' tour bus had inadvertently caused, gets out of his car not with anger, but with a handful of flowers to apologize for the inconvenience.

“These are beautiful children of God,” Steves reflects. “If you don’t get out and get to know that, your worldview is shaped by fear-mongering… The best way we can witness to the world is to love the world.” This message directly confronts the divisive rhetoric that often dominates political and media discourse, positioning travel as a potent antidote to fear and a practical tool for fostering empathy.

A Christmas Message for Today

Airing during the Advent season, the interview naturally turns to the Christmas story. Steves, a practicing Lutheran, offers a reflection on the Nativity narrative that is deeply informed by his travels in the Holy Land. He moves beyond the sanitized imagery of greeting cards to imagine the raw, human reality of Mary and Joseph's journey under the thumb of the Roman Empire.

“The darker the night, the brighter the star, and Jesus was a bright light in a dark sky,” he says, connecting the ancient story to the enduring struggle for hope against oppression. By grounding the narrative in the tangible world he has explored, Steves makes the story resonate with contemporary struggles for justice and dignity around the globe, offering a Christmas message that is both timeless and strikingly relevant.

The full interview, Day1 episode #4213, is now available on the Day1 website and major podcast platforms like Apple Podcasts and Spotify, with video versions on YouTube. The sermon portion of the episode is scheduled for worldwide radio broadcast on December 21. For listeners, the episode offers a compelling invitation: to view their next journey not just as a vacation, but as a chance for profound personal and spiritual transformation.