Rick Stein: Who alive today do you admire most, and what draws you to them?

The question

Who alive today do you admire most, and what draws you to them?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

The Guardian's Q&A repeatedly uses this prompt, sometimes dropping 'living' while retaining the same comparative judgment.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Rick Stein

English chef

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

The Dalai Lama.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 September 2013 source ↗

Mentioned in this answer

Person Dalai Lama

Others on this question

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Desmond Tutu Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town; chair of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission; Nobel Peace Prize, 1984

Just look at a Dalai Lama and Mother Teresa and Aung San Suu Kyi and Nelson Mandela, and you’ll see that one of the outstanding characteristics of each one of these is how they have poured themselves out prodigally on behalf of others, of their being so utterly selfless.

Recorded Academy of Achievement interview source ↗

Gillian Anderson American actress and writer

Obama, because against all odds, he's getting the job done with grace and integrity.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 5 March 2011 source ↗

Zoë Wanamaker American-born British actress

The Dalai Lama because he has peace, and we all want that.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 March 2013 source ↗

Lee Child

The exact median middle-aged black woman in the US. If hard work guaranteed success, she’d be the most successful person on the planet. But she isn’t, yet she keeps on going.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 June 2025 source ↗