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Transcript

Will We Die as Americans? A conversation with Gregory Garretson

Two dudes abroad on travel, endings, and the Most American Thing

Thanks to everyone who joined my live chat this morning with

of Living Elsewhere! We had a great turnout. This was the first livestream for us both—wow, what cool energy out there!

Gregory and I had a blast haggling through some big questions: the flexibility of national identity, the search for home, and the complicated Americanness of leaving America. With shoutouts to fellow seekers

, , , Walt Whitman, Paul Theroux quoting Henry James, and One Hundred Years of Solitude.

The time stamps:

  • 03:45 | What does it mean to be an American?

  • 13:30 | On a scale of 0-100, how Portuguese does Gregory feel?

  • 15:00 | “I came out of the airport and I inhaled and said, ‘Oh yeah, this is Sweden.’”

  • 25:00 | Can we decide whether we’re American?

  • 32:00 | Would you retire in Mexico?

  • 35:50 | “The most American thing in the world is to say that the most American thing in the world is to leave America.”

  • 36:00 | Will we die as Americans?

  • 47:30 | “Maybe you don’t need to decide, with finality, what you are.”

  • 48:00 | The rightward shifts in NZ and Portuguese politics.

  • 55:00 | Cosmopolitanism, food, and your life’s total of good margaritas.

Hope you enjoy! Too much fun, y’all. Next time we’ll get that new American Pope. //

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