Ideally, travel broadens our perspectives personally, culturally, and politically. Suddenly, the palette with which we paint the story of our lives has more colors.

By day, Venice is a city of museums and churches, packed with great art. Linger over lunch, trying to crack a crustacean with weird legs and antennae. At night, when the hordes of day-trippers have gone, another Venice appears. Dance across a floodlit square. Glide in a gondola through quiet canals while music echoes across the water. Pretend it's Carnevale time, don a mask - or just a fresh shirt - and become someone else for a night.

I've traveled all over the country. Look at the East Coast. They just can't hardly believe how far along we are and in their world it feels like they're still behind. They're on the dark side of the moon.

I travel around the world in a way that tries to open my mind and give me empathy and inspire me to come home and make this world a better place.

A society has to make a choice: tolerate alternative lifestyles or build more prisons.

If you can get conservatives to sit down for 20 minutes and listen to you on drug policy reform you might have a good chance to - if not convert them - at least respect your opinion.

As a traveler, I've often found that the more a culture differs from my own, the more I am struck by its essential humanity.