Rick Steves
Rick Steves is a lifelong resident of Edmonds, Washington, and an internationally renowned travel expert. His first trips to Europe as a teenager traveling with his parents - sparked a lifelong fascination with the continent’s culture, history, and people.
Steves built his reputation on guidebooks for Americans traveling on modest budgets. He encourages travelers to look beyond major tourist sites and study the history, politics, and daily life of the places they visit. His long-running television series, Rick Steves’ Europe, has been a PBS staple for decades. In addition to being one of America’s most recognizable travel figures, he is a prolific author, television host, and cultural educator. His recent bestseller, On the Hippie Trail, recounts his early journey from Istanbul to Kathmandu.
As a business figure with a strong interest in history, Steves has demonstrated the courage to speak up about the existential threat posed by the rise of fascism in our time. He uses his platform to educate his followers about Europe in the 1930s and its parallels to today’s world.
In 2018, Steves released his documentary, The Story of Fascism in Europe, examining how fascism emerged from the economic and social upheaval following World War I, when fearful and disoriented populations proved vulnerable to manipulation. The film illustrates how demagogues exploited fear and anger - using propaganda, lies, and repression—to consolidate power, with catastrophic consequences for democratic institutions and global stability.
Steves presents the documentary as a warning. He argues that modern “wannabe autocrats” often draw from the playbook used by figures like Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Francisco Franco by stoking fear, undermining institutions, and deepening social divisions. Attacks on the media, education, and the rule of law, he suggests, are familiar tools of authoritarian movements.
In Nazi Germany, Steves points out, the first inmates of concentration camps were not Jews. They were Hitler's political opponents. Today Trump’s targets are the James Comeys, the Mark Kellys, the Alissa Slotkins, and the Stephen Colberts. Our takeaway in all this madness is simple: learn from the 20th century, recognize the warning signs, and resist them.
“I'm skeptical about the motives of people who aggressively get themselves into power. And I have this sense that there are powerful forces in our society that would find it convenient if we were all just dumbed down and distracted so they could have their way with us.”
EDMUNDS, WASHINGTON - JANUARY 30, 2025