Our interview with author and essayist Pico Iyer on writing, traveling, American pop culture, data obesity, mass distraction, films and Bollywood. Earlier this year Iyer was in San Francisco, which is where we recorded this interview.

Is travel writer the best way to describe Iyer? He calls himself a “transport writer.” Transformation is a subject that fascinates and absorbs him. He wants to put a voice and a face to countries that are otherwise abstractions and that is what propels him to travel to countries like North Korea, Iran or Mongolia.

Films and sports are two of his enduring passions. “I am a movie fanatic…and left to my devices will watch 6 films a week,” he says. We talk to him about Iranian filmmaker Ashgar Farhadi, British filmmaker Asif Kapadia’s  Amy and Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper. And, we wanted to find out what he thought about Bollywood films.

For the past 35 year Iyer has traveled extensively and been to places like Cuba and North Korea that were not open to travelers. What changes has he seen? How does the rest of the world view America? And then there is the lure of the American dream that draws people from all around to America to pursue their dreams and passion. The American dream may have gone past its expiration dream, but is well and alive in rest of the world points out Iyer. You see the American dream constantly revived in Silicon Valley he adds.

How does Iyer process information and deal with data obesity? Tune in to find out what Iyer has to say about.