He was on popular outlets as nbc nightly today, nbc and msnbc. After leaving, russert embarked on ahree year, six continent travel expedition that took him to nearly 70 countries. Published harper horizon, his first book and look for me there is a reflection of his deeply personal journey across many diverse external places. He is the son, the late tim russert of meet the press and vanity fair writer maureen orth. Russert resides in washington d. C. With his pug and going to butcher this, i bet shock of shock imo. You may have to explain that a little bit for. All right thank you. So help me. Welcome. Luke russe, andrea you. Thank you so much leland for a wonderful introduction and its thrill for me to be at cramers because my publisher said we where would you like to sak in washington. And i said, well, itd be disingenuous if i went anywhere else except for cramers, because this literally is my bookstore, a dirty secret. I wi admit i always enter when i walk by, because then ill always something so i, i sometimes skip past cause the selectiohere is just so good and its such a wonderful. And where else can get a good book . A glass of we and a great sandwich . So its really fantastic to be here. Thank you all for coming out on on a school night tuesday. I know its not always easy for everybody. And thank you for. The overwhelming response for look for me there. We did not anticipate ho popular this book was going to be. Last week. It actlly ran out of stock, which is a good problem to have, but it quite terrifying. And i cant take anybody the world more than you guys for taking the time and the effort to get book and read the bk and care about the book. So thank you so much for that. I deeply areciate it. I did not intend to write a book. I left nbc. July o2016 and originally thought itd be six months. Maybe nine, maybe a year just to sort of travel and, decompress and start to try to listen. The thoughts that were in my head and i going through a tough time in 2018 and i did not have that aha moment traveling yet. And say ive gone all these places and, ive pushed myself the limit, ive tried tsee the world, but i dont have that of, okaythis is your purpose, this is, you know, who you are, etc. And i went back and i started to reviewhe journals that i kept, and some of them were sort of a stream o consciousness, and some of them were very particular. Theyre jus descriptive episodes of places where i had gone. But when i started to go through the journals, came to realize that i was simultaneous, only searchg for something which was a level of acceptance for not being exactly who my father was and simultaneously rning away something. And when i was running away from was processing the grief of losing dad. What i realized was that if i was to process that. Then to some degree, i thought he would be gone forev because i didnt want to address it. And i had stored it and ignored it. So it was a ve persol journey excuse that is internal that happened over many external places a well, its a story about grief its also a story abo wanderst and being able to experience the worldhich is an incredible privilege and very conscientis and picking up little bits and pieces of the world and carrying them with me and reaching a more fuller understand of myself thrgh that journey. It wasnt always easy. I bear scars from there is a lot in t abouthe relationship with my mothewas not always ea up she was more of the disciplinarian or the good the bad cop to my dads good cop. It was hard to write about her especially shes a very good writer for vanity fair. She did, though, say it was good writing, though she didnt like originally come along now that her friends say she looks the best of anybody and then i had to writeome some toh parts about myself whi not easy either when yre when youre writing you come to realize and espially when you work with an editor, that honest really is what the reader nts. And the reader n see rough a lot of things. So when you write about yourself, you write to have you ve to write about difficult ments in, your lifewhether it be grief or whether not maintaining the standards that you want to t for yourself. Thats hard, too, but i feel that by writing it, it was it s very cathartic for me on a number of levels and it made me a much more fulfilled person. And i really enjoyethe writing process. You know, one thing i will say and some my old colleagues might take umbrage with this, but it is far easier bloviate on television than it is to. Write a good book, ill tell you that. So a always. If youre ierested in journalism, gwrite first becausanyone can learn how to be on tv. Not everyone can learn how to ite a long, arduous, difficult process. So i wld like to read a rtain section this morning, a sort of wanderlust area. Ive spoken a lot about grief recently, always happy to that, but i havent really gotten to speak about the travel aspect as much, so im gog to do a reading about bause i about khilafat day, patagonia and argentina because it captures a little bit of where my mind was in really the first real solo trip that i ever took abroad. I was in my thirties before i ever took a real trip. The first one actually happened to be driving around in maine with my pug at the chamberlain and a truck. There is very travels with charley, john steinbeck. But this was the first time i ever measured myself against the world and did it on my own. So ill do that and ill do some q a with you. All right. So the chapter is patagonia and it is chapter four. And i going to the part called color fatty. The desert soil looks cut up, so we start that again. Excu the desert soil lks cut up moon rock in the distance ke out snow capped mntains refltion of the sky blue largo argentina mas the skies extra blue t man im riding with drives rpectfully through the hills rather carefully, as if to make the point that the terrai isnt his. He is a custodian in slowly more spish. If this is my first time. Yes, he nods accordingly. I wonder what tied him off and realize its erything in this Mountain Valley with aarge fresh water source and Lago Argentino color is the perfect spot to live in otherwise inhospitable dest. When the argentine government created, the nearby los casares National Park 1937, the town became aub for visiting southern patagonian recent years, largely due to social, the town has risen into a tourist fueled powerhouse. Thanks to somef the worlds most gorgeous glaciers. I take a walk down color photos main drag avenue liberator liberator green spac divides the avue well on both sides of the stree boutiques,afes, restaurants travel agencies, bars, Grocery Stores and hotels. I see throuteo 40 logo everywhere. The highway that runs the length of theountry, the south atlantic, all the way to livia. I see too many motists attempting to aversehe entire route and even some bicyclists. I long to have their courage. And my opposer for not doing something more bad patagonia. Shld i have rented in an rv . Hell, maybe even learn to ride a motorcycle. Im honest enough to know though im not capable. At least not at this first leg of the trip. I signed up for four by four tour of a surroundingountain. Soon, a white land rover with massive tires and a hood stack drivesp a short man rolls down from the drivers seat, hurriedly shakes my hand and, lifts me io the passenger side for no other purpose than to appear like hes operating at a fast. Behind me is a japanese man and a spish couple. The drivers name is george. He begins to speak in a spanish broken by coughs and cackling laughter with. Bravado. Georgexplains that we will drive thtop of hu lychee hill there roughly 3500 feet up. ll have a view of lago argento khalifah day, the entirety of the vall in the mountains in the distance the fo by four winds through the terrain. George gets out to show fossils rock by the side of the trail and the era. This was either under or near the waters ee. Some of these fossils trace back a cousin of the shark species. Theres a beauty in the barrenness and in the remnants. Life on turn around the hill. We encounter a group of what looks like wild horses. Their speckled coats stand out in the dry desert grass not ridden or. They roam the land at will. Theyre used to visitors. And when one approaches. Gege encourages me to petted. The horse obliges. But when it sees have nothing in my hand to feed him, it reacts angrily. I jump back and tear this elicits a squealing cackle from george. The spaniards and the japanese man, george has conveniently to hand me the bag of carrots he keeps in his glove compartment. After retrieving them, i offer my apologies and the carts to the horse. George yells, good job, gaucho. Its a humbling feeling, being the of a joke that cuts across three languages. We arrive at a plateau that extends fromhe steep base of the hill in this hill would be a mountain, but because the andes tower arby in argentina is simply a hill. I walk toward edge. Orge cautions that winds often pick up without warning. Dont get too close, hsays. I veer slightly off course climbs some ensconced, and nd my own Little Summit away fro the group. The baby blue of Lago Argentino matches the sky its made even more radiant by th brown dert, which acts like a natural frame gratitude sweeps oveme just as im about to offer thanks in prayer i notice a bird high above its the andean condor so large it can have a ten foot wingspan. From my outpost i see more conds, some dip and descend toward the lake. Taking on the appearance of landing rcraft. Others in altitude into the naked eye look like planes disappearing into the horizon. Ill lat learn that the condor occupies a speciallace in andean culture. Ancient people saw it as a deity ruler of an upper world. For me, the condor symbolizes freedom, literally. Above it all descending into society only for the sex, food, water, sleep. Jorge sees, how infatuated i am with the birds. Reaching for his phone. You scrolls through dozens. Pictures hes taken of the condors over years. He jokes he more pictures of condors and of his wife. Ey are their own special spirit. They are now my true love as well. I text mom a picture of myself standing on the edge just below where the condors hang out. Youve made it, kid. She texts back. So that is a very peonal part of the journey for me. Because its where i first in my own mind, truly appreciated nature, the beauty of nature and being disconnected from the world on my own. And it was something i wanted to share because that condor bird is, oddly enough something that ispire to but never really had the courage to be, which is sort of seemingly above it all and coming down fothe necessities. So when i saw it like that, it was sort of, okay, thats a good place to be a little bit to get your get your thoughts right and do appreciate things and notice things. So its one my own personal favorite in the book. Not anybody i dont think anyone knows that yet. So you are the first to know that. Anthank you for letting me read it to you. And with that i will happily take some questions. Do we have any or orioles . There you go. Yes. Oh, sorry. Oh, yeah. I will repeat the question. Absolutely. So. Hey, luke, you know, i reay appreciate opportunity to come see you. That my son gave me the book, big russ in me. Ah. Which are really enyed. And, you know, i became familiar with your dad back the nineties with mt the press and even at timehen i was approximately about your age, when you lost your dad. I lost my dad well, too. So i really kind of spokeo me. Kind of what . Your jouey is. But one of the things that i remeer about your dad rather than meet the press was more his appearance. He was on a show, the homicide life on the streets. Yeah. Remember day, too . Yes. Yeah, i was wrien, megan, to this gentleman up a show that was on nbc called is written by a guy named tom fontana who is from buflo. And one of the characters in t sty was woman named megan russert. Detective gan russert, who is written cast as my fathers coin. Yeah. Yeah. So it was one of those things is that, you knowmy wife and i would watch it. You ow, we loved the show that my parents were originally from baltimore. So that kind of attracted us to it. But then all oa sudde you know, it was her to make it. Ssert and, you know, and at that time, 30 years ago, y look it up on the internet to nd out if, you know, thereas a relationship, but then, you know, they were related. But thenll of a sden, dad appeared. It was like, oh, no, that now know who you know, that that. So it was just really kind of an intereing thing bac30 plus years ago. So funny thing about that in homicide, life on the street is a wonderful show and everybody will watch it. I think its streaming now. And it was kind of almost a precursor to the wire a degree but the funniest about that is my father to go tape that episode and. Nbc was very sngy abt allowing newspeople to do cameos on shows because it felt that cheapened the brand. And he went, asked permission d they finally gave it to him. And when he went there, he just showed up. And the directors like, oh, mr. Russert yvelready been tords job. And hes like, no this is what i wear. And they go oh, great. And so he actually did it wi what the clothes that he had on his back, which is the trenchcoatnd the and the blazer and everything is what he wore. So that was funny. Thank you for coming. Appreciate it. Yes, maam. 70 countries on this journey. Yeah, sure. Youravorite like your top three . Oh, thas a good question. Yes. Learn from your favorite people. Oh. Oh, thats good. So favorite people and favorite countries kind of differentiate it. But ill start with favorite countries. So the ones made the greatest impact on me. First is a place called easter isla because the most remote inhabited ace on earth and the flight that takes you there, its about a five hour, five and a half hour plane ride from chile. It lands and the island so small and then it goes back usuly. And the whole island shakes. And thats one ofhose places where youook down at your phone and you see the blinking blue dot and its just ocean as far as the eye can see. And when i went and traveled there in 2017, it was not as developed as its. Thing has developed a little bit more but that was the oh my gosh, im really trapped out here. Thes nowhere to go and escape. And even though there is a Grocery Store on island. You still get into that very primive, primordial. And of course they had the beautiful stone heads there, which no one necessarily knows exactly how createdhem. Their schools of thought that it was ufos. I dont believe that i think i think humans could do t it was an incredie uertaking so that place wasne of ose truly far out ones. Other ace that had a great effect on me was vietnam. And i grew up in a household wher vietnam was talked about consistently because it was really something that the baby boer generation and my parents would always rate everything back. So it was thvietnam war, it was the vietnam generation. So i had heard about it consistently and ironically, my mom or d had never gone. My father avoided going. He went got student deferment at school and part of what he used to say was that he fail because if you failed out, you hadou were goi to vietnam. So that was something. And i had some family mbers went most who did not my mom protested the war so it was one of those places i really wanted toee for myself. And whenent there, it was a wonderful i would say it was a wonderful sort of reminder of of my american identity. I wasnt expecting people not to be very hospitable that there would some residual anger left from napalm ing and all the terrific things that occurred. But people were so warm and so and just full of of love and so welcoming and was it was eye opening and really wonderful way. And it really made me of wow, not only there a major human cost. You can still see the after effects of there, but was this really necessary . These these were so kind and lovely so that was another one. And then the third one is actually not in the book. And its a country that i felt was very interesting, which the country of georgia, specifically the city of tbilisi and is the birthplace of wine, it has a very acrimonious relationship with, russia, which is interesting and, visa free travel for iranians. Its this very interesting melting pot of people and it hasnt been hit by mass consumerism. All the maintain their identity. So that was one of the few places on my travels where i was like, man, maybe kind of cool to get a loft here and just write for a while and do you own your own lost generation style so those are it as far as characters, those are in the book, umar, whos a guy who showed me around senegal, i had the opportunity to go to gori with him, which is the door of no return is in. Its a door which slaves pass through on their way to Cross Atlantic over to the americas. And it was very it was very impactful was a very difficult place to visit. You feel the ghosts very much and whats weird that my entire life i had always associated water with serenity but there through this door is beautiful water but you hear the stories about how people would jump off the boat to drown themselves instead of making the passage. And he talked to me all about that and. That was something that i we spent the whole day together and it was hard to shake those those ghosts. But he was simultaneously very uplifting, too. And i found a lot of hope in what he said. Another character who made a great impact on me was actually kids in new zealand. So the characters one is a young named maggie and maggie was a frenchwoman who is a member of an audio tech union and would work eight months until she made enough money and then travel around the rest of the year. Those four months on the money she had from her union and then she would pick up a job the way. So she actually followed the potato harvest in new zealand and she worked in the fields picking potatoes when she needed money and then would travel round and she was very and very small and im this, you know, big american full of bravado. And i realized in talking with her that she was way than i ever was and had much better head on her shoulders and me, that there really are no limits options is just sort of how you want to go about achieved. Tavi she she sort of got around new zealand hitchhiking which is wild and then that parlays into i picked up a hitchhiker who was a kid, felix in new zealand and he was a young kid. He was a young surfer and he had a tattoo of fresh tattoo on his arm. And he told me the story about how he had hitchhiked with the girl who inspired the tattoo to, the airport. She had to go back home and we had this deep philosophical conversation after i picked him up, hitchhiking back to his van, where he was surfing with a german kid and he kind of just my eyes to that idea its cliche, but get busy living. And he graduated from college with honors. He didnt want to go. Theres no surfing in germany. He likes surfing. His grandma gave him some money, so he bought van and lived in new zealand and fell in love with this girl. And for me, what write in the book is that in washington theres so much put on, you know, are you in the right circles . Are you in the right places . Are you marrying the right person you know is every how is everything appear to the outside world and this kid just he he was all about real love. Its again i write in the