Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown

- How do we make a show that looks completely different

than the show we did last week?

It's nice if you really, really liked last week's show,

but I'm not going to do that one again.

Certainty is my enemy. You know, I'm all about doubt.

I started doing this late in life.

I can't say that I'm evolving or maturing

or doing anything differently.

Same dick I was 13 years ago.

- What do you think he did, I mean,

in terms of the impact on television?

- Yeah. - It's so multifaceted, so...

Sure.

I think that prior to Tony on television,

food TV, such as it was, and travel TV, such as it was,

were both essentially serviced-based.

It was very top-down.

There's an expert showing you what to do

when you're in an unfamiliar situation.

"I don't know how to make this." Here's how you do it.

"I don't know what to do when I'm there."

Here's what you do. Here's what everybody does.

What I wished for often was specificity.

Take me to a place. Show me that real place.

Show me what motivates people.

You did travel with him.

You were sitting in your couch in your home,

but you were with him wherever he went.

- He would be overseas in the Far East one week

and then maybe in the Bronx,

you know, the next week, or in Miami the next week.

- He wasn't worried about protecting a boxed image

of who he was, right?

It was like, "I'm gonna put myself in this experience,

and it's gonna be what it is."

- I perceived him a little bit like Indiana Jones.

He could be on the road in a T-shirt having a beer

or in a kitchen talking to the line cooks.

And then he could come home and put on a suit and tie

and be a man about town giving a tribute speech

to his publisher.

You know, he cleaned up good,

but he was also really comfortable out in the wild.

- You see a man step foot into the world

kind of shaky at first, kind of unsure,

increasing in confidence in who he is

as he's buffeted by a larger world full of doubt,

full of ambiguity, full of questions,

full of unknowable things and react accordingly.

I would describe myself as

a lucky cook who gets to tell stories.

And I think any other... I'm certainly not a journalist.

I'm not a chef anymore.

I'd like to flatter myself by saying I'm an essayist,

but I'm a storyteller.

I see stuff. I talk about that.

I talk about how it made me feel at the time.

I think that's the best... If you can do that honestly,

that's about the best you could hope for I think.

I... I don't feel I'm capable of going back and having

an intelligent conversation about my experience.

I feel all messed up emotionally.

- But then I think this means that you truly came here,

because when you get close to something you understand

that you don't understand what's going on.

When you're far from it,

it seems kind of solvable and simple.

When you go in to it, you say, "Hey,

it doesn't make any sense," you know?

So it means that you've really been here.

It is post-apocalyptic.

It's like a science fiction film.

What the hell happened here?

Well, it is post-apocalyptic

except for the fact there's several hundred thousand

people living here.

- So the conventional wisdom seemed to be,

"It's time to get out of Camden."

Why are you still here?

Because the need is in Camden.

If every decent person in Camden leaves Camden,

then we never have a chance.

- You're gonna stay? - I'm not going anywhere.

My pop-pop didn't leave. I'm not leaving.

- This is the only reason they're gone.

This is the only reason for...

Just to protect my children and my wife.

- 20 years, 30 years... - Yeah.

will things be better?

- Not 20 years and 30 year. - Hope now.

Next year, thing goes better.

- To me, I really feel a strong need to forgive...

- Mm-hmm. - And then forget.

And then move on.

- You used to be a tour guide. - Yes.

- I know you have to bring people over

to the American War Museum.

In your lifetime, is there gonna be a time

when that's not gonna have to be a stop?

No one will remember.

Or should people always remember?

I think it's good to remember.

And I think it's good that... That...

It's important that we know about history...

And to make sure it's never happen again.

- In conversations that I had with him, you know,

he'd say, "Look, I'm not a journalist."

And it's funny because, you know, I'm a journalist,

and I work with and live with another journalist

and spend a lot of time with journalists.

And going and talking to people, telling stories,

hearing people's stories that illuminate a place,

if that's not journalism, I'm really not sure what is.

- How often do you get to sneak out for a beer?

Very rarely.

First of all, I don't get to sneak out, period.

- The beauty of TV to me is that it is a cumulative medium.

It's a serialized storytelling.

Every emotional moment

we get to in season four of a show is earned.

It's built on the back of everything that came before.

There was a comfort level there.

We knew each other.

He knew he could push us.

We knew that he would try to push us.

- People felt like they knew him.

They felt like if they met him, he would look out for them.

That sounds weird, but I think

that's how people felt about him.

They felt like he was in their corner.

They felt like he was a force for good.

They felt like his heart was in the right place.

They felt like he was willing to stick his neck out for people.

- He was honest about anything he saw,

not to censor himself

whether positive or negative.

I think that's very important,

and that's why many people connect,

'cause they see he's talking about... like,

even the words that he threw out sometimes.

I was like, "Jason, can he say that on TV?"

He was like, "Tony can."

- What is the perception of Mr. Putin these days?

After 14 years, he's in power.

- My... my perception? - His personal...

Do you really want to hear it?

I'm not sure, but let's see.

- A former mid-level manager in a large corporation.

Short. I think that's very important.

Short.

- Who has found himself master of the universe.

And like a lot of short people, if you piss them off,

bad things happen to you.

He likes to take his shirt off a lot.

Let's be serious, I mean...

- He strikes me as a businessman...

- He is. - A businessman with an ego.

Okay, so he's like Donald Trump, but shorter.

- Increasingly the show became about the world around him

and the frame outside of where he was standing.

And I think he really understood

the real power in his position

was getting the cameras to the place in the first place

so that he could turn them around,

so that he could put the people

who otherwise would never be on camera on camera,

so he could put the cultures and the traditions

that have never been seen before on camera,

so he could show us something,

not just show us him seeing something.

- You have a very highly educated public here,

one of the most literate nations on Earth.

- That's funny. - We are highly educated,

like you said, but we're behind

concerning internet and all that stuff.

Most of us have access to only the official media,

the official newspaper.

If internet comes,

and I think that government is trying to delay it,

if that comes, then I think we change.

People who will have access to different points of view,

and I don't think our government wants that.

- A lot of things happen in a lot of different

parts of the country sort of simultaneously.

Kind of amazing that all of these people

came together very fast.

- How did it happen? - Yeah.

Easy. Twitter.

- Twitter? - Yeah.

- It was really like that? - Yes.

- Did anyone think it was possible that in their lifetime

they were gonna see the end of this son of a...

Most people are telling me they'd never dream.

- I don't know if you can call them dreams, hopes, wishes.

It was just something in the sky,

- something I look at every night. - Right.

- But when I hit that point and got into Misrata

and stood on Gaddafi's body, any dream will come true.

- This is a big oil-rich country.

Why doesn't it look like Dubai?