found something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha la la la la sha la la la la la ♪ ♪ shaa la la la ♪ >> chef: what if we just get dino's and go to edgefield, then go to robert's? >> chef 2: edgefield closes at midnight. >> chef: you gotta see -- have you been to robert's? >> chef 2: but dino's definitely -- >> anthony: i haven't been anywhere. >> chef 2: -- starter and that's

something good ♪ in this ♪ beautiful world ♪ i felt the rain ♪ getting colder ♪ sha la la la la sha la la la la la ♪ ♪ shaa la ♪ [ boat engine ] ♪ >> anthony: last time i saw all this, i think it's fair to say i was at a turning point in my life. i promised some people i'd come back, and i am back. my life has changed a lot. how much have their lives changed? ♪ ♪ kuala lumpur. happy to be here, but brimming with mixed emotions. surrounded by all the sights, smells and flavors i remember so well. this is where a wandering soul, such as myself, can dive right in and get some of that straights chinese food i've been missing. first order of business -- dinner. been on a plane for like, i don't know, it was long. very long. saw like five mark wahlberg films. i can't tell you how excited about the prospect of getting some black pepper crab, some char kuey teow, and some pork related noodles. and a regional beverage. reasonably cold. i don't even know what this is. i love you, noodles. don't want to get all heavy and philosophical at this point. like why'm her what my mission is, what i expect to find. basically

found something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha la la la la sha la la la la la ♪ ♪ shala la la ♪ ♪ ♪ >> darren: salama. park it. ♪ >> anthony: over the years i've let a lot of extraordinary landscapes recede into a blur outside my windows. i've looked, maybe seen, maybe noticed, then gone. we all carry different experiences inside us. we see things differently, don't we? madagascar. exotic unspoiled paradise? or microcosm for the end of times? antananarivo -- tana for short. madagascar's crowded, chaotic capital city. how are you doing man? base camp. >> darren: wow, that's quite a rain. i don't know. i'm not sure i can be, uh, in front of the camera. [ laughter ] >> anthony: yeah, just ignore 'em. >> darren: i'm so used to, like, controlling everything. >> anthony: darren aronofsky -- director of the films "pi," "requiem for a dream," "the wrestler," "black swan," and, as it would turn out, sort of appropriate to our location, "noah." he asked me if he could go along on a trip with us. i said, "where do you want to go?" so, madagascar. i knew almost nothing about it. i

found something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha la la la la sha la la la la la ♪ ♪ shaa la ♪ >> anthony: do you smell that? motor bike exhaust, fish sauce, incense, the far-away smell of something? is that pork grilling over charcoal? vietnam. it could be no place else. [ bicycle bell dings ] ♪ [ horn honks ] >> anthony: listen to me. listen to me. there is no other way to see this city, hanoi, than from a motorbike or a scooter. to do otherwise would be to miss it all. [ horns honking ] ♪ >> anthony: it is one of the great pleasures of my life to join the river of people rushing through the streets. ♪ [ horns honking ] ♪ >> anthony: vietnam. it grabs you and doesn't let you go. once you love it, you love it forever. i've been coming here since 2000, the first time i'd been in this part of the world, and it's held a special place in my heart and my imagination since. i keep coming back, i have to. [ bells ding ] vietnam has changed since last time i was here. it's changing every minute. [ horns honk ] but some things, for now, anyway, remain the same. important things,

found something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha la la la la sha la la la la la ♪ ♪ shala la la ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >>> anthony: it's morning in the arabian desert. the place explorer, bertram thomas called "the abode of death." but it's a beautiful place, the kind of place i look for more and more these days. stark, empty, clean sand that stretches out, seemingly forever. ♪ ♪ >> anthony: oman defies expectations. it shouldn't, according to the cool logic of the world, exist. but it does, and it's incredible. the sultanate of oman is an absolute monarchy. a predominantly islamic state and a vital strategic choke point in the world's oil supply. it is surrounded by some of the trickiest and most contentious powers in the region. and yet here it is, relatively small, tolerant, welcoming to outsiders, peaceful and stunningly beautiful. but oman is facing uncertainty with succession issues and declining oil reserves. the question of what's next is a big, if often unspoken, one. >> anthony: so pre 1970 this was a very different, very different, place to live, very different country. >> b

found something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha la la la la sha la la la la la ♪ ♪ shala ♪ ♪ >>> hue in central vietnam is someplace i've never been before, but it's still vietnam with all the things, the smells, the sounds, the details i love so much. first night in country, it's like sliding into a warm, deeply comforting familiar bath. i've been all over vietnam, a place i feel a special connection to. my first love, a place i remain, besotted with, fascinated by. so back in vietnam, one of my favorite places on earth. and all of the things i need for happiness. plastic stool, check, tiny little plastic table, check. oh. something delicious in a bowl, check. in this case a local specialty, com hen, clam rice, sweet clams out of their shells, tossed with a wild swirl of mung beans, spicy green chilies, crunchy roasted peanuts, fried pork rind and cilantro. and a milar variation wi rice noodles. that fish sauce with chilies in it, and, oh, that'll just singe your eyebrows off. throw some chilies in. hit with hot clam broth, and you're on your way. i'm back. back in vie

found something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha la la la la sha la la la la la ♪ ♪ shaa la ♪ >> good morning, my friend. how are you? this mine? >> man wearing white hoodie: yes. >> man wearing cam vest: i start my day i wake up at 2:00, come to the garage around 3:00 to get ready to go on my way to take the queens borough bridge. ♪ okay, show time. >> anthony: just across the east river from manhattan where i live, just over there is an enchanted wonderland. an international crossroads, a stew pot of neighborhoods filled with the languages, cultures, traditions and flavors of many lands. >> anthony: hey, how you doing? >> man wearing cam vest: morning. >> anthony: my morning ritual goes something like this, regular coffee and a donut. maybe a cruller if i'm feeling wild and crazy. but just across the river the options are endless. ♪ ♪ >> anthony: the seven train winds over and through queens like a main cable. every stop can seem like another country, another region. get off at roosevelt avenue and you're going to eat well for sure. example, this cart sells ecuadorian

found something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha la la la la sha la la la la la ♪ ♪ shala la la ♪ >> anthony: what do you need to know about tokyo? deep, deep waters. the first time i came here, it was like -- it was a transformative, uh, experience. it was a powerful and violent experience. it was as if -- it was just like taking acid for the first time. meaning, what do i do now? i see the whole world in a different way. um, i often compare the experience of going to japan for the first time, going to tokyo for the first time, uh, to what -- what eric clapton and, uh, pete townsend must've gone through. the reigning guitar gods of england. what they must've gone through e week that jimi hendrix came to town. you hear about it, you go see it. the whole -- a window opens up into a whole new thing. and you think, "what does this mean? what do i have left to say? what do i do now?" ♪ welcome to tokyo. you are not invited. this is the other tokyo. 12 hour flight, and i'm baked. no sleep. might as well -- must go out. ♪ the kabukicho district near my hotel has the advantage

found something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha la la la la sha la la la la la ♪ ♪ sha la la ♪ >> singer: if i had the choice i would choose to live back when calypso brought the news. if had the choice, i would choose to live right back when calypso brought the news. no more reporters no anchormen, no recorder, no pad and pen. no nosey cameras to point and shoot no redding, talkers of the truth. >> anthony: many visitors come to trinidad for one thing, and one thing only -- carnival, which locals say is the biggest party on earth. the pre-lenten festival of costumes, food, copious drinking, and the kind of dancing you better be good at before trying it in public. it's almost two months before the party officially starts, but here in trinidad's capital port-of-spain the carnival season has already begun. >> lashaun: i said it was a pity that you weren't here during the peak of the carnival season. >> anthony: i'll tell you something really terrible about myself. i've never been to mardi gras, carnival in rio, any kind of carnival. like large numbers of strangers swarmin

found something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha la la la la sha la la la la la ♪ ♪ sha la la ♪ [ laughter ] >> man: whiskey for farmer! >> anthony: oh, that's good. this guy's trying to kill us. >> andy: they make more than a hundred bottles a day, so 30,000 bottles? >> anthony: that's a lot of whiskey. >> andy: yeah it's a lot of -- that's a lot of uh -- did i -- did i do that right? >> anthony: yeah. >> andy: or have i had too many whiskeys? >> anthony: how did this happen? how did i get here? [ laughter ] coming into focus, the man across the table. he looks familiar. maybe, if i can remember who he is, it'll be a clue as to where i am. >> man: okay. >> anthony: right. andy -- andy ricker. the white guy who cooks awesome thai food. is it pretty spicy? put that in there. >> anthony: the pok pok in portland. restaurants in new york. andy's made a name for himself faithfully reproducing the cuisine of northern thailand. the good stuff that comes from places like here. rice country. chiang mai province. in this part of the world you live and die by the harvest. thai food

something good in this beautiful worl♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha, la, la, la, la, la, ♪ sha, la, la, la, la, laa, ♪ sha, la, la, la, la ♪ [ man in street speaking greek ] [ ferry horn ] [ man speaking greek ] >> anthony: people who come here, stopping in naxos, are they island hopping, or are they coming is this the destination? >> lambros: well, i mean, island hopping happens a lot during the summer. so, you know, as someone who's arranged to have like a two-, three-week vacation in greece will probably want to visit like at least two or three islands. >> anthony: mm-hmm. so how many islands in this island group? >> lambros: the cyclades? >> anthony: cyclades. >> lambros: is it about 15. maybe more. there's andros, tinos, mykonos, syros, paros, naxos, um -- >> anthony: tito and jermaine. [ lambros laughing ] >> lambros: and more. >> anthony: right. and the rest. >> lambros: and the rest, yes. >> anthony: a lot of history here in the greek islands. on naxos in particular, where zeus himself was said to live. where his son dionysus frolicked and presumably drank and threw orgies and dropped e, a

found something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha la la la la sha la la la la la ♪ ♪ sha la la ♪ >> chef: what if we just get dino's and go to edgefield, then go to robert's? >> chef 2: edgefield closes at midnight. >> chef: you gotta see -- have you been to robert's? >> chef 2: but dino's definitely -- >> anthony: i haven't been anywhere. >> chef 2: -- starter and that's it. >> anthony: i saw the hotel. the [ bleep ] do i know? [ laughter ] >> patrick martin: hold on, time out. stop, stop, stop. you've never hung in nashville? >> anthony: no. >> martin: you're gonna have a fun time. >> anthony: i have no doubt. [ laughter ] ♪ >> anthony: nashville. if you haven't been there, you probably know it as what? a country music capital, grand ole opry, and it is music city. and there is indeed plenty of country music, both genue an fake-ass, but it's way more than that. nashville is onef the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in all america. people who grew up here will tell you the city is in a state of perpetual, never-ending change, and the rate at which things are changing i

found something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha la la la la sha la la la la la ♪ ♪ sha la la ♪ >> anthony: what are we drinking? beer? we drinking harder stuff? what's going on? >> sean: i usually go with a budweiser and a jagermeister. >> anthony: budweiser and a jagermeister? so any notion of going local right out the window. >> sean: yeah. >> bartender: two jagers? >> anthony: uh, yeah, two jagers. yeah. cheers. good to see you again, man. >> sean: cheers, man. the first one's never good. the first one is never good. but it gets easier after the first one. >> anthony: so, look, um, this is not my first time to, uh, charleston, as you know. i did do a show here before and i'm still taking -- about it. apparently i really -- up the first time i came here because i made a number of errors, apparently none more egregious than going out for, like, doing oyster roasts and drinking champagne. >> sean: i'd never heard for such a thing. well, champagne of beers is okay with oysters. >> anthony: right, see that's what -- it must've been a typo. >> sean: maybe somebody got, yea

found something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha la la la la sha la la la la la ♪ ♪ sha la la la la ♪ >> anthony: the runway is frozen >> anthony: the nway ifrozen sea ice, ten-feet thick. >> anthony: the airport shuttle -- ivan the terra bus -- a "road warrior"-looking behemoth that takes us slowly towards our destination. >> bus driver: we're driving ivan. 40-feet long 67,000 pounds, 23 years old, made out of good canadian steel. sometimes the heat actually works. this year it does. >> anthony: it's no short hop to antarctica, and no easy thing to see it the way it should be seen. the last un-[ bleep ] up place on earth. >> bus driver: here we are. try to get plenty of rest and enjoy the antarctic. >> anthony: mcmurdo station, the largest u.s. base on the continent. the hub, supply and support center for everything we do here in antarctica. the pursuit of pure science. it ain't pretty. it looks like a mining camp, but look closely and you notice things like the total absence of liter, not a single cigarette butt. it's one of the most carefully regulated communities on

found something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha la la la la sha la la la la la ♪ ♪ sha la la ♪ >> anthony: los angeles, maybe the most-filmed, most-televised, most-looked-at place on earth. it's the landscape of our collective dreams. but what if we look at l.a. from the point of view of the largely unphotographed? the 47% of angelinos who don't show up so much on idiot sitcoms and superhero films. the people doing much if not most of the hard work of getting things done in this town. one in ten angelinos are undocumented. one in ten. think about that number for a while. that's who's here now. contemplate if you will what would happen if anywhere near 10% of the workforce were no longer here. particularly since they're rather overrepresented in those fields that most of us are in no hurry to enter. los angeles, like much of california, used to be part of mexico. now mexico, or a whole lot of mexicans, are a vital part of us. raul hinojosa-ojeda is a professor of chicano studies at ucla. gish bac on washington blvd. serves specialties from the city tlacolula de matamoros

♪ found something good in this beautiful world ♪ coer ♪lt the rain getting ♪ sha, la, la, la, la, la ♪ sha, la, la, la, la, lala ♪ sha, la, la, la, la ♪ >> anthony: at first you see what you see in so many places in africa -- the noisy streets, busy markets, the controlled, consensual chaos of daily commerce. but look just a little bit longer, a little bit deeper, and you'll see it's so different here from its neighbors -- from anywhere, really. a rebuke to those who'd paint a whole continent as a monolith of despair, or islam as something to be feared. senegal turns simple-minded assumptions and prejudice on their heads at every turn. how did you come to know and like and love this country? >> ofeibea: i think it was just listening and watching and thinking, "gosh, this is quite different to all the other countries i know." for a start, the language. you've heard wolof? >> anthony: yes. >> ofeibea: [speaks wolof] sometimes you think people were quarrelling. >> anthony: right. >> ofeibea: and they're not, they're laughing. they're laughing. >> anthony: ofeibea quist-arcton is the npr africa correspondent. she

something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha, la, la, la, la ♪ sha, la, la, la, la, la, ♪ sha, la, la, la, la, la >> nari: the biggest difference between korean fried chicken and american -- >> anthony: chicken tonight? i feel so clean. i've never felt so -- >> man: where is my ticket? [ laughter ] >> anthony: next i'll be performing a medley from -- flavor town -- [ laughter ] >> anthony: don't play this game with -- yeah, who is everybody here? >> man: mr. noh. >> anthony: oh yeah baby, that's good. >> man: yeah baby. >> anthony: come to me. come to me. >> anthony: powerful in a sort of small, girly way. >> anthony: is this drinks that goes with food, or is this food that goes with -- a triumphant return to korea. [ laughter ] >> nari: woof! >> anthony: oh yeah. it should surprise no one that i'm in a happy place right now. maybe the best way to tell this like aog returning to its own vomit, i keep flashi back to -- was it last night? the night before? i smell fried chicken on my clothes, so perhaps. hello nari. >> nari: we meet again. >> anthony: am i glowing with health an

something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha, la, la, la, la, la, ♪ sha, la, la, la, la, la la, ♪ sha, la, la, la, la >> archival voices: china's younger generation is driving a growth in consumption. this is where the real power is -- china! ♪ >> anthony: if you live in manhattan, like i do, and you think you live in the center of the world, this place, shanghai, will confront you with a very different reality. turn down a side street -- it's an ancient culture. the centuries-old mix of culinary traditions, smells, flavors. a block away, this. an ultra-modern, ever-clanging cash register, levels of wealth, of luxury, the sheer volume of things and services unimagined by the greediest, most bourgeois of capitalist imperialists. the city is split by the huangpu river, a tributary of the yangtze, into the older section, which features the bund, and the newer, built-up section of pudong. the one thing i know for sure about china is that we'll never know china. it's too big, too old, too diverse, too deep. there's simply not enough time. that's, for me, the joy of china -- facin

something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha, la, la, la, la ♪ sha, la, la, la, la, la, ♪ sha, la, la, la, la, la ♪ >> anthony: hawaii is america, as american as anything could possibly be. yet, it also never shed what was there before and the layers and layers that have come since. it's a wonderful, tricky, conflicted, mutant hell broth in what, for lack of a better word, you'd have to call paradise. >> paul: nowhere's paradise. paradises don't exist. paradise is, kind of, in your head. >> anthony: wait, wait a minute. you look out your window here and you look at those hills, those mountains, all that green, that blue sky, and gin clear sea. it, it sure looks like paradise to me. this guy knows, he's been everywhere. he's paul theroux. novelist, essayist, and legendary traveler and travel writer. of all the places he's been, all the places he's seen, he chose hawaii to live. and he's lived here for twenty-five years. does it matter that it's america? >> paul: no, that's a big thing, that it is america. it has elements of the third world. the nicest elements of the third worl

in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ shala, lala, la, la, ♪ sha, la, la, la, la, la, ♪ sha, la, la, laa, la, la, ♪ >> nebil: addis ababa. [ speaking amharic ] ♪ >> anthony: admit it. you hear the name ethiopia and you think "starving children with distended bellies." you think dust and famine and despair so awful, you frankly don't want to even think about it anymore. but take a look. addis ababa, capital city of ethiopia. a cool, high altitude, urban center that will both confirm and confound expectations. fueled largely by direct foreign investment and a returning ethiopian diaspora eager to be part of the new growth, things are changing in addis. it's one of the fastest growing economies in the world. it's not the first time the place has gone through a growth spurt. in the 1950s, emperor haile selassie, known as "the king of kings," embarked on a similar program of massive public works. this was supposed to be the legacy of ethiopia. the future. but the next time ethiopia found itself in the headlines, it was for this. and for many of us, that was the end of the story. so i'm looki