’Kindness Diaries’ star brings message to Binghamton

For Leon Logothetis, changing the world starts with changing one life.

“The simplest way to change a life is by being kind,” he said.

The TV host/author/philanthropist/international adventurer brought his message of kindness to Binghamton University’s Anderson Center Reception Room for two talks on Oct. 27.

“When we were living in caves hundreds of thousands of years ago and then in little villages and tribes, we needed each other,” he said. “We needed to help each other. It’s what enabled us to become who we are today. Yet in the western world, it seems we’re only kind when a tragedy happens.”

In his Netflix show “The Kindness Diaries,” Logothetis travels around the world on his yellow motorbike, Kindness One. He relies solely on the kindness of strangers in more than 90 countries, providing gifts along the way to his fellow Good Samaritans.

To Logothetis, kindness can be “simply helping someone feel less alone.”

“This whole journey began because I felt profoundly unseen,” he said.

Logothetis was working as a broker in London chasing the “external dream: making as much money as I could.” He was admittedly not a good person and “things were falling apart on the inside.”

His life changed after viewing the 2004 film “The Motorcycle Diaries,” in which Che Guevara journeys from Brazil to Peru on a motorcycle, meeting many impoverished peasants along the way.

“I realized there was another way to live,” Logothetis said. “I didn’t have to sit behind this desk. I didn’t have to feel so disconnected.”

Logothetis quit his job and decided to walk from Times Square to the Hollywood sign with the help of strangers. In Indianapolis, he meet a woman – “Generous Julie”—who gave him her house keys and offered her home in Chicago for the night.

“What she did – and what I hope my shows and books do – was to inspire and believe that there are people out there that live from the heart,” he said, pointing from his head to his heart. “Unless you come down to here, you’re not fully living.”

Logothetis made it to the West Coast and eventually got a job in Hollywood with a TV production company. But he soon knew that he was following his head, not a heart.

Walking on Hollywood Boulevard, Logothetis was again inspired. A homeless man held up a sign that said “Kindness is the best medicine.”

“If kindness is the best medicine, then the best way to live is to give medicine to others and take it yourself,” Logothetis said. “To give kindness and receive kindness: what a beautiful way to live.”

Logothetis bought a yellow motorbike and decided to drive around the world with no money, gas or places to stay.

“All I would have is you,” he said.

The adventures formed the core of “The Kindness Diaries” book in 2014 and a show that began airing on Netflix in 2017.

Logothetis and the show introduced viewers to people such as Tony, a homeless man in Pittsburgh who offered to feed, protect and give Logothetis clothes for a night.

“He taught me that kindness and how we treat each other is free,” Logothetis told the audience. “It doesn’t matter how cool you think you are. It doesn’t matter how cool you think you’re not. What matters is how you treat each other. Whenever I’m having a bad moment, Tony comes into my head. If Tony can be kind when he has nothing, then why can’t we?”

Logothetis returned the kindness to Tony by getting him an apartment and sending him to cooking school.

During a visit to Vietnam, Logothetis’ motorbike was impounded. Logothetis was feeling sorry for himself in Ho Chi Minh City when he was approached by the director of the Saigon Opera House. The man invited Logothetis to a performance and later asked him to go onstage and perform on the drums.

“I played my heart out – badly,” he recalled. “But in the end, I got a standing ovation. In that moment, I was seen. Everything started to make sense. What did I give Tony? I saw him. How many times have we walked past a homeless person like they don’t exist? And there is a part of us that doesn’t feel like we matter. We don’t feel seen.”

Logothetis gave the audience members postcards and asked them to send him details of their own acts of kindness. For every postcard he receives, Logothetis will give a book to an underprivileged child in the United States. The goal, he said, is to hand out 10,000 books. Logothetis has already delivered 5,000.

“People say: Leon, I can’t give free gifts. I can’t drive around the world on a yellow motorbike. I can’t do the things that you do,’” he said. “I tell them: ‘It’s not about the yellow motorbike. It’s not about traveling around the world.’ That’s just the entry point. When you watch the show, hopefully you’ll be inspired to be kind. Little things matter. It’s about starting with yourself.”

Logothetis’ work and travels are not over. “The Kindness Diaries” will return for a second season, as he drives from Alaska to Buenos Aires.

“More often than not, the normal human being does good things,” he said. “So why not put the magnifying glass on the good instead of the bad?”