Inside PBS Blog

Our latest guest in "Five Good Questions" is a true road warrior.  Best known as Tron on Roadtrip Nation, Nathan Gebhard took a bright green RV on a journey across the U.S. and came out with a new vision for his own life.
As co-creator and creative director of the show, Gebhard helps to guide the future of the show and of the movement. In fact, if you are interested in going on a future roadtrip with the Roadtrip Nation team, check out the site and find out how to participate.
With no further ado, here are Gebhard's answers to your questions.

1. With 8 years passing since your initial roadtrip and Roadtrip Nation growing exponentially not only as a production but as a movement as well as an educational tool, is there anything you've been dabbling in non-Roadtrip Nation-related that you've thought about exploring more fully either career-wise or for your own personal growth? Kevin Strick

Well, the easy answer is that my wife and I have our first baby due in the next few weeks so becoming a parent will certainly be a new exploration. 

The thing I look for in life is finding a combination of doing work that I love and having a positive impact on the world. I feel like we only get a few opportunities in our lives where the combination of those two ideals surge together in exponential ways and  I feel like the work I do here with Roadtrip is the single biggest opportunity I'll have in my lifetime. It is my life's work. So...a long winded way of saying I'll be here for a while. Outside Roadtrip Nation I'm really interested in architecture and building furniture so I could see myself picking up those careers twenty or so years down the line. 

2. What are your hopes for the roadtrip nation movement? Chrystal Lynn

Hey Chrystal,

The greatest hope of the Roadtrip Nation movement is that it truly embeds itself into our global culture and is here for generations to follow. Regardless of where you live in this world almost anyone can relate to the question of "what am I going to do with my life?" For our generation I think the first place most of us turn is the lowest common denominator of 'what will make me the most money?' And while we all have to make money to live, most of us end up looking for work as opposed to our life's work. So my biggest hope for the movement is that Roadtrip Nation becomes the first place people to turn to when defining their own roads in life. And by Roadtrip Nation I mean the stories of the inspiring individuals we have collected over the years.  

3. Which companies are building or offer the best energy conscious and environmentally sound RV's or equipment today? I don't see much out there that isn't insanely expensive. Keith Gill

Keith, you pretty much nailed it. RVs are insanely expensive. The RVs we can afford are in the 1992-95 range - just before they rolled out the slide out feature. There's a huge drop in price in RVs without the slide outs and it meets us right at the top of our budget. To be energy conscious while not dropping all your life's savings you might want to look into carbon offsetting. We partnered with Carbon Fund to offset the emissions from all of our roadtrips. Also, just watching the details like tire pressure and keeping the vehicle in good mechanical condition can go a long way. 

4. A co-worker introduced me to your series last month by lending me his copy of 'Finding the Open Road'. I instantly connected with the book's message… Now, we're starting a business, following the same message I later read in your book about re-defining risk… I suspect that there are many people who are probably beginning to question whether they need to put their dreams on hold until the economic crisis is over. So my question to you is this:  What would you say to those who are finding their path in life, pursuing their dreams, during this time of economic uncertainty? Robert

Awesome question, Robert. Many thanks for it. 

Well, the first thing that happened when I read your question is that all these different quotes came rushing into my head. Quotes from people we interviewed on our roadtrip and those I have either edited or watched since that first then. 

So let me see if i can stitch a conversation together with some of these quotes:

Chris Wink, co-founder of the Blue Man Group said "to get off the path [of following your dreams] is to die."  I think Chris is right on point but how? This is where Mike Lazzo comes into my head. Mike was the VP of Programming at Cartoon Network who chose to start in the mailroom of Turner Broadcasting because he knew he liked TV but didn't know how to apply that interest. He talked about putting ourselves in proximity of the things we love as he did. 

There will always be hard times for each of us whether it's the economy or something else in our lives but the last thing I would advise is to put one's dreams on hold because it's not an all or nothing situation. Many people we met found ways to work towards the things they loved while still paying the bills. One person that comes to mind is Beth McCarthy Miller who worked at the Gap on weekends and holidays as she worked her way up the MTV ladder. When we met her she was directing Saturday Night Live - a long way from side jobs during the holidays - but it took a while. 

As far as the risk and failure of defining your own road, Craig Brewer talked about the fact that no matter what we do in life we're all going to fail from time to time but it's in those times that we also learn the most. His reaction "get busy failing. Get that process going." And then there's Jonathan Poneman who didn't look at life from the perspective of risk verses safety but as necessary vs. unnecessary . For Jonathan happiness is a necessity not a preference.  "For me it was about changing the way one evaluates one's life and taking the whole idea of security out of the equation." 

It's these quotes running through our heads that has helped us through the hard times at Roadtrip Nation whether it was when we had to sleep in Kinko's because we couldn't afford a hotel in New York, or the many broken down RVs, massive amounts of debt from our first roadtrip, or a challenging time with the economy. 

I totally hear where you're coming from regarding the economy. Starting a new business in this climate is without a doubt challenging. Will it be more difficult, most likely. But will it be worth it, only you can decide. From my experience there were a LOT of sacrifices Mike, Brian and I made in starting this business but personally they were all worth it because of the personal growth and the impact we felt we were having along the way. And the hard times were far outweighed by the amazingly fun times -at least that's how I choose remember the first few years : )   

Hopefully you can use some of these quotes and any you've collected along the way as you define your own road. For more quotes on finding your own road go here.

Regardless of how one sets about this life, the most important thing in my opinion is that we are true to yourselves in defining your own road. Good times or bad, every decision we make is a statement about who we are and the type of life we want to live. 

5. Back in 2004 (I believe)--I shaved my head in my audition for you guys! Hahaha. I think that my hair is still growing out from that. How are ya, Nathan? I see that RTN is doing well. I'm so glad to hear! Katie Warner

Hey Katie! 

I remember meeting you at Norte Dame's campus and your application as well! Shaving your head ranks up right next to a team that made an entire RV out of cardboard and drove it around the streets of Leeds. 

Thanks for reaching out. Yeah, things are going really well. Putting a lot more teams on the road than we did in 04 (three teams). That's been one of the biggest things we've been focused on is how to get more people experiencing Roadtrip Nation for themselves. In addition to the RV roadtrips we do each year we started up our Independent Roadtrip Program where we support people who want the experience but don't want to roadtrip in a 36 foot RV. This past summer 40 Independent Roadtrip teams hit the road and it was amazing. We've also developed an educational curriculum this last year that is being beta tested with a few thousand students taking local roadtrips and interviewing people they find inspiring. So it's been a busy few years but insanely fun! 

Thanks very much for your shaved head commitment. It was awesome! Stay in touch. 

Nate

Check out all of the questions for Nathan Gebhard.

Stay Engaged. Get our blog by email.