Category Archives: NorthKorea

A North Korea compilation of video from my second trip

on June 2, 2023 in NorthKorea

I’ve meant to post this video for a while. I haven’t posted in a while about my trips to North Korea. I found this video on my hard drive. I hadn’t thought about visiting North Korea in a while, not having flown since 2016. I hope Cyrus doesn’t mind my posting it. Plus you can see my long hair days. Here’s a picture of me in North Korea. Those were[…] Keep reading →

The Art of Charm Interview with Jordan Harbinger

on May 7, 2017 in Audio, NorthKorea

Jordan Harbinger and I met when he lived in New York City about ten years ago. I haven’t seen him as much since he moved to California except for two things. First, he invited my to North Korea twice, making two of my life’s most memorable trips. As I wrote in 2011, here’s how it began: The trip of a lifetime began with this message on my birthday from my[…] Keep reading →

Neil Strauss, 7-time NY Times bestselling author, covers Leadership Step by Step

on February 18, 2017 in Leadership, NorthKorea

Two weeks in North Korea gives you the chance to get to know someone. Few writers define a genre. Neil Strauss made himself one of the great writers of our time by creating Transformational Journalism. His About page begins: Neil’s Journey into Transformational Journalism Neil Strauss is a seven-time New York Times best-selling author. His books, The Game and Rules Of The Game, for which he went undercover in a secret society of pickup artists[…] Keep reading →

Five years of daily posts! Not one missed.

on January 28, 2016 in Creativity, Habits, NorthKorea, SIDCHAs

When my friend set up this blog page for me, I asked him how often he blogged. I expected him to say something like three days a week, weekdays, when big events happened, or something like that. Instead he said “Every day,” then adding: If you miss one day you can miss two. If you miss two, it’s all over. I took the practice to heart. Today finishes my fifth[…] Keep reading →

Leading Colonels, Majors, and other Officers In Charge

on January 11, 2016 in Events, Freedom, Leadership, NorthKorea

I had the chance to lead a leadership workshop at the United States Army Garrison Yongsan in Seoul, South Korea. This was my first chance to work with the military, though I felt particularly motivated after lunch with Frances Hesselbein last summer, who has worked with West Point and the White House for decades and holds many there in the highest regard, and after interacting with an NYU-based project with[…] Keep reading →

Op/Ed Fridays: Banning billboards and outdoor advertising

on September 18, 2015 in Awareness, Nature, NorthKorea, Perception

Articles like “Can cities kick ads? Inside the global movement to ban urban billboards” remind me of North Korea, where I saw pictures of Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-il in most rooms of every building I entered. I wondered, “how does it affect someone’s life to see those pictures every day, everywhere?” Then I realized people there weren’t comparing their environments to ones they didn’t know about. The images probably[…] Keep reading →

Why I plan never to visit Brazil again

on November 12, 2014 in Nature, NorthKorea, SIDCHAs

Today’s post is mostly a rant from someone who has eaten too many carrots and little else for a week, but I’ve traveled six continents and in only two places did I go hungry—Brazil and North Korea. North Korea has a failed authoritarian central planned economy. It’s tragic for the people living there, but at least I understand the situation and knew to prepare for difficulty finding food. Brazil has[…] Keep reading →

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