CITY FOCUS: Roads more traveled

“The movement is really about exploration and exposing yourself to all the different options that are out there, so that you can discover something you love,” Mike Marriner, co-creator of Roadtrip Nation said.

The Roadtrip Nation concept originated in 2001 from the minds of three college grads — two from Laguna Beach, Marriner and Nathan Gebhard, and the other from Newport Beach, Brian McAllister — who set out together on an RV adventure across the country to “define your own road in life instead of traveling down someone else’s,” as their manifesto states.

Since then, the original conception has spawned a best-selling book, a documentary-style TV series on PBS and a grass-roots movement that has involved 100 different college campuses.

The PBS 12-part series will begin airing nationally on Friday at 9:30 p.m., and a revised edition of the book, “Roadtrip Nation: a Guide to Discovering Your Path in Life,” has been released in conjunction with the PBS series.

“The biggest thing about working with PBS is that it’s nice to be able to share [“Roadtrip Nation”] on a broader scale. To be able to get to a point where we’re airing to a national audience is pretty extraordinary,” Gebhard said. “It was exciting for us to go to a place where they embraced our creative freedom and embraced something of content rather than sensationalism.”

The premise of the documentary series focuses on nine college students who hit the open road in teams of three, using the Roadtrip Nation philosophy — to find one’s path through a series of life-changing experiences and the self-realization that comes from them, Marriner said.

While on their road trip, the three RV teams must also stop along the way to interview self-made individuals who found their good fortune in unconventional ways.

Interviews this season feature guests such as the editor of Vanity Fair, the CEO of National Public Radio, an Olympic Snowboard Gold-Medalist and hip-hop mogul Damon Dash.

“The three cross-country road teams all select their own routes; these trips really become these teams’ identities while on the road,” Gebhard said.

“The most fulfilling thing to see, though, is to sit on the beach in Huntington [the final destination in the show] and see nine students who have just completed three totally different road trips but experienced all the same life-changing lessons and shared nearly the identical experiences that my friends and I had when we did it. It’s inspiring,” Gebhard said.

To promote all that is happening with the Roadtrip Nation movement, the authors have set out on a three-monthlong national tour, starting this week in New York.

The tour will make stops at various college campuses across the country, where they will present discussions and film screenings to share the road-trip experience with students.

“Our whole movement is about giving other students that experience. Because of the book and PBS, now millions of people can tap into that experience. It’s powerful and really exciting,” Marriner said.

“I hope that people receive the same impact we received from our trip. To understand that there’s no need to be afraid of uncertainty, that it’s okay to not know what you want to do; and because of that they let themselves explore the world. But it’s not just for college students; it could be for anyone.”

The Roadtrip Nation tour will be hitting Southern California campuses such as UC Irvine Sept. 26 and Cal State Fullerton Sept. 28.

For additional information about the tour schedule or the Roadtrip Nation movement, go to www.roadtripnation.com.