and then you says then you think, what does it mean? it means that you are healthy. it means that you can cut through difficulties. it means that you are able to enjoy life just the way you are, and nothing else matters. - aah! - aah! [cheering] [upbeat music] [cheering] - woo! - whoo! [cheering] - hey, bliss heads. it s me, rainn, sitting in my hotel room in reykjavík. um, what an incredible day.
don t miss supporting team usa as they look to qualify for the knockout stages. kickoff is at 8:30 pm eastern time. and don t go anywhere. in just a moment catch the first episode of rainn wilson and the geography of bliss, the five-part documentary series follows actor rainn wilson exploring some of the happiest places on earth while unpacking the science of happiness along the way. first on rainn s journey, iceland. you started as a standup comic and then kind of almost as a joke ran for mayor of reykjavík and for four years served as mayor of this world capital. now are you playing a character when he ran for mayor? in the beginning, i was playing a character. of a fictional version of. yourself exactly. rainn wilson and the geography of bliss is next, ten pm eastern on msnbc, and it s of course streaming on peacock as well. thank you for making time for
- and icelanders have been raising sheep for. - since we got here. - yeah. - the sheep has literally kept us alive through the centuries. through the cold winters, they provided both meat and wool. - that s what strikes me as an american, coming over here, where, yes, we have traditions that go back, you know, 150 years or something like that. but i m not connected, either to my land or my property or to my traditions in the same way. - well, i feel, firstly, just lucky that somehow my branch of the family ended up here. - it s amazing coming here because i just grew up in reykjavík, and it s so amazing to get to know this life. - right. - i feel it s a privilege to have grown up here. that s something that i would love my children to experience, and that is one of the reasons that i would never consider, you know, not having a life here as well. - yeah. [light music]
ran for mayor of reykjavík. - yeah. - and served four years as mayor of this world capital. now, were you playing a character when you were running for mayor, or were you really yourself? - in the beginning, i was playing a character. - a fictional version of yourself. a saga version of yourself. - exactly. - but it seems like a lot of icelanders have kind of multiple reinventions of themselves and multiple realities. - yeah. - someone can be a stockbroker and also be in a heavy metal band. - yeah, and publish poetry. - mm. because in america, you re really. culturally, people want you to be on one track. they kinda wanna know what you are. oh, you re an insurance salesman. - yes. exactly. - you re a schoolteacher. and people. it s pretty rare for people to break out of that kind of track they get kind of set into. - to be able to survive here. - mm. - you have to be adaptive because the country is quite unforgiving. i have sometimes compared to being raised
rights in taiwan where they just rehearsed the blockade in fired missiles. any of those how about you don t get a meeting until we have something on those key issues? but instead he cheapens the position. tammy: and of course president xi gets a lot of power and respect back at home. for meeting with the american president nothing changes giving the chinese people the false impression they have the most powerful leader think of reykjavík. you did not go there just to shake hands for a photo op now we have a generation that may not realize that. but would you agree this started with afghanistan? that was not noise but a signal funded by the administration of their