1 00:00:23,560 --> 00:00:26,079 Speaker 1: Welcome to two Percent. I'm your host, Michael Easter, and 2 00:00:26,160 --> 00:00:28,640 Speaker 1: I am thrilled to announce that this is the very 3 00:00:28,640 --> 00:00:31,800 Speaker 1: first episode of my new podcast. Now, if you have 4 00:00:31,920 --> 00:00:34,239 Speaker 1: not heard of me, you may have seen me on 5 00:00:34,440 --> 00:00:37,640 Speaker 1: other podcasts like The Joe Rogan Experience, like Andrew Huberman, 6 00:00:37,800 --> 00:00:40,959 Speaker 1: or maybe on TV like CBS Saturday Morning or Good 7 00:00:41,040 --> 00:00:44,239 Speaker 1: Morning America. Either way, here's my background. I am a 8 00:00:44,320 --> 00:00:48,520 Speaker 1: journalist who has been investigating human health and well being 9 00:00:48,720 --> 00:00:51,640 Speaker 1: for about twenty years now. I was an editor at 10 00:00:51,680 --> 00:00:54,120 Speaker 1: Men's Health for a long time, worked at other magazines 11 00:00:54,160 --> 00:00:57,360 Speaker 1: like Scientific American like GQ. Then I became a professor 12 00:00:57,880 --> 00:01:01,760 Speaker 1: for seven years, and in that process I started writing books. 13 00:01:02,240 --> 00:01:03,960 Speaker 1: So I ended up writing a book called The Comfort 14 00:01:03,960 --> 00:01:07,600 Speaker 1: Crisis and Scarcity Brain. They became bestsellers. They changed a 15 00:01:07,720 --> 00:01:10,640 Speaker 1: lot of people and their habits. My work has taken 16 00:01:10,680 --> 00:01:13,520 Speaker 1: me to places like conflict zones, to the Bolivian jungle, 17 00:01:13,640 --> 00:01:16,920 Speaker 1: to labs at Harvard to neuroscience labs all over the map, 18 00:01:17,040 --> 00:01:19,520 Speaker 1: and all these experiences have taught me one thing, and 19 00:01:19,520 --> 00:01:22,880 Speaker 1: that's that improving your life it isn't always easy. It 20 00:01:22,920 --> 00:01:26,640 Speaker 1: typically comes through embracing discomfort, taking on challenges, big and 21 00:01:26,720 --> 00:01:29,640 Speaker 1: small across the days, weeks, months, and years of your 22 00:01:29,680 --> 00:01:32,320 Speaker 1: life and leaning into what is hard. That is how 23 00:01:32,319 --> 00:01:35,679 Speaker 1: people learn doing hard things. We're going to have long, 24 00:01:36,120 --> 00:01:40,280 Speaker 1: in depth, fascinating conversations with some of the world's greatest 25 00:01:40,319 --> 00:01:44,600 Speaker 1: thinkers in all different areas. Each person will teach us 26 00:01:44,640 --> 00:01:47,360 Speaker 1: something about what it means to live a good life 27 00:01:47,760 --> 00:01:50,880 Speaker 1: right now, and it'll all be actionable. And you might 28 00:01:50,880 --> 00:01:53,960 Speaker 1: be wondering, why is this called two percent? Two That 29 00:01:54,120 --> 00:01:56,920 Speaker 1: is the percent of people who take the stairs when 30 00:01:56,920 --> 00:02:02,480 Speaker 1: there is also an escalator available, only two percent. Now, 31 00:02:02,480 --> 00:02:06,240 Speaker 1: I would argue every single one of those people knew 32 00:02:06,240 --> 00:02:08,640 Speaker 1: that taking the stairs would be better for them, be 33 00:02:08,680 --> 00:02:10,960 Speaker 1: better for their physical health, it would be better for 34 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:13,960 Speaker 1: their mental health. Get the vast majority of people, they 35 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:17,240 Speaker 1: choose to do the easy, more effortless thing that not 36 00:02:17,280 --> 00:02:19,240 Speaker 1: only is not going to help them in the long run, 37 00:02:19,280 --> 00:02:21,200 Speaker 1: but that might actually harm them in the long run. 38 00:02:21,520 --> 00:02:23,880 Speaker 1: So we're going to look at how do we find 39 00:02:24,080 --> 00:02:26,560 Speaker 1: challenges big and small can be as simple as the 40 00:02:26,600 --> 00:02:29,480 Speaker 1: staircase that can improve our lives in the long run, 41 00:02:29,520 --> 00:02:32,720 Speaker 1: And how do we actually build the sort of online 42 00:02:32,840 --> 00:02:37,760 Speaker 1: mental networks to make taking the harder path an easier 43 00:02:37,760 --> 00:02:40,640 Speaker 1: decision to make. Now, what is our first episode? That 44 00:02:40,760 --> 00:02:42,200 Speaker 1: is a very important one. It's like, how are you 45 00:02:42,240 --> 00:02:45,520 Speaker 1: going to open this thing? Today's episode focuses on one 46 00:02:45,560 --> 00:02:49,480 Speaker 1: of the most fundamental things that a human being can do, 47 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:52,560 Speaker 1: and a thing that we no longer do quite as much, 48 00:02:52,840 --> 00:02:55,640 Speaker 1: and it is absolutely hurting our well being. We're gonna 49 00:02:55,639 --> 00:02:59,120 Speaker 1: be talking about walking. So for some context here, walking 50 00:02:59,200 --> 00:03:02,359 Speaker 1: absolutely shape humans into who we are and allowed us 51 00:03:02,400 --> 00:03:07,320 Speaker 1: to take over the world. It is our most fundamental act. 52 00:03:07,680 --> 00:03:09,799 Speaker 1: We used to walk about twenty thousand steps a day, 53 00:03:10,280 --> 00:03:14,400 Speaker 1: and the average person today only takes about four thousand steps. Now, 54 00:03:14,440 --> 00:03:18,200 Speaker 1: I've been thinking about this because a year ago today, 55 00:03:18,680 --> 00:03:21,600 Speaker 1: I was in the middle of the Utah Desert on 56 00:03:21,720 --> 00:03:25,760 Speaker 1: an eight hundred and fifty mile hike across southern Utah. 57 00:03:25,960 --> 00:03:27,440 Speaker 1: So what we'd have to do is we'd have to 58 00:03:27,560 --> 00:03:31,919 Speaker 1: navigate through the desert find our way. This is considered 59 00:03:31,960 --> 00:03:34,920 Speaker 1: the hardest route in the world. We'd have to navigate 60 00:03:34,920 --> 00:03:37,800 Speaker 1: down canyons, we would have to find water in this 61 00:03:37,960 --> 00:03:42,080 Speaker 1: scorching hot landscape. And I learned so much about myself 62 00:03:42,120 --> 00:03:45,000 Speaker 1: and what the human body is capable of through that hike. 63 00:03:45,080 --> 00:03:47,920 Speaker 1: We were hiking like twenty five miles a day. It 64 00:03:48,040 --> 00:03:50,640 Speaker 1: was one of the greatest adventures I've ever been on 65 00:03:50,760 --> 00:03:53,280 Speaker 1: in my life. And so with this anniversary of the hike, 66 00:03:53,880 --> 00:03:57,560 Speaker 1: thinking about walking, I wanted to know what is the 67 00:03:57,640 --> 00:04:02,000 Speaker 1: human body really capable of walking? Because I surely hadn't 68 00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:03,920 Speaker 1: been walking twenty five miles a day before I did 69 00:04:03,920 --> 00:04:06,040 Speaker 1: this hike, But then I put myself in that situation, 70 00:04:06,160 --> 00:04:07,800 Speaker 1: and all of a sudden I was able to go 71 00:04:08,680 --> 00:04:12,279 Speaker 1: severely long distances every single day in a harsh landscape. 72 00:04:12,360 --> 00:04:15,680 Speaker 1: So to answer that question, we are bringing in an 73 00:04:15,720 --> 00:04:20,039 Speaker 1: evolutionary geneticist named Melissa Alardo. She studies some of the 74 00:04:20,040 --> 00:04:24,760 Speaker 1: world's most amazing populations on Earth and really understands what 75 00:04:24,800 --> 00:04:27,360 Speaker 1: we are all capable of, no matter who you are. 76 00:04:27,480 --> 00:04:29,520 Speaker 2: The fact that it's like a big achievement to get 77 00:04:29,520 --> 00:04:31,760 Speaker 2: ten thousand steps in a day, you know, like that's 78 00:04:31,800 --> 00:04:34,719 Speaker 2: something we're rewarding ourselves for when for most of human 79 00:04:34,800 --> 00:04:38,279 Speaker 2: history that was probably very standard, if not kind of 80 00:04:38,279 --> 00:04:39,279 Speaker 2: below average. 81 00:04:39,560 --> 00:04:42,080 Speaker 1: After that, we're going to bring on one of my 82 00:04:42,520 --> 00:04:45,159 Speaker 1: dearest friends who wasn't a big walker, not a real 83 00:04:45,200 --> 00:04:47,640 Speaker 1: athletic guy, but one day he left his house in 84 00:04:47,680 --> 00:04:50,599 Speaker 1: New York and he started walking and he didn't stop 85 00:04:50,640 --> 00:04:53,560 Speaker 1: for a really, really long time. So we're going to 86 00:04:53,640 --> 00:04:56,599 Speaker 1: learn what he learned in that journey and what it 87 00:04:56,600 --> 00:05:00,800 Speaker 1: can tell us about taking on challenges that are often unexpected. 88 00:05:01,080 --> 00:05:03,000 Speaker 3: How often in life do we want to break out 89 00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:08,680 Speaker 3: of the pattern and the thing that we're doing to 90 00:05:08,720 --> 00:05:12,440 Speaker 3: get somewhere else. I wish I could come across those 91 00:05:12,440 --> 00:05:15,040 Speaker 3: moments every day. I wish I could break my routines 92 00:05:15,800 --> 00:05:23,800 Speaker 3: with the moxie of wanting to change sit up and 93 00:05:23,839 --> 00:05:26,840 Speaker 3: the impetus to just try something and then go with it. 94 00:05:27,440 --> 00:05:30,240 Speaker 1: And then finally, at the very end, we're going to 95 00:05:30,279 --> 00:05:33,640 Speaker 1: cover what the science really says about how many steps 96 00:05:33,760 --> 00:05:35,760 Speaker 1: you should take a day, so you know exactly how 97 00:05:35,839 --> 00:05:37,680 Speaker 1: much you should be walking, even if you don't want 98 00:05:37,680 --> 00:05:39,880 Speaker 1: to take on an epic walk like I did. And 99 00:05:39,920 --> 00:05:42,000 Speaker 1: I will give you a hint. No, it is not 100 00:05:42,040 --> 00:05:47,479 Speaker 1: ten thousand. So let's get into it. Okay, So story time, 101 00:05:47,920 --> 00:05:52,080 Speaker 1: I was just on a fourteen hour flight back from Europe. Now, 102 00:05:52,120 --> 00:05:56,120 Speaker 1: I spent about ten hours of that flight writing, researching, 103 00:05:56,440 --> 00:06:00,400 Speaker 1: reading nerdy studies. But then eventually my brain it just 104 00:06:00,440 --> 00:06:03,440 Speaker 1: had enough, so I turned on a movie. I turned 105 00:06:03,440 --> 00:06:06,320 Speaker 1: on a movie called The Long Walk. Now, It is 106 00:06:06,360 --> 00:06:09,600 Speaker 1: based on a Stephen King novel, and in full Stephen 107 00:06:09,680 --> 00:06:13,320 Speaker 1: King fashion, it has got the most insane murderous plot 108 00:06:13,320 --> 00:06:15,760 Speaker 1: line of all time. Here's what happens in the movies. 109 00:06:15,839 --> 00:06:19,039 Speaker 1: A bunch of boys. They're rounded up in this post 110 00:06:19,040 --> 00:06:22,599 Speaker 1: apocalyptic world and then they are asked to walk as 111 00:06:22,680 --> 00:06:26,560 Speaker 1: far as they possibly can without stopping. So I'm gonna 112 00:06:26,560 --> 00:06:29,280 Speaker 1: play you a little preview of how this plays out 113 00:06:29,320 --> 00:06:30,680 Speaker 1: and what the rules for this are. 114 00:06:32,960 --> 00:06:35,039 Speaker 4: I'm not gonna go through the whole rule book, but 115 00:06:35,080 --> 00:06:38,960 Speaker 4: it boils down to this. When you fall below the 116 00:06:38,960 --> 00:06:42,400 Speaker 4: speed of three miles per hour, you get your ticket 117 00:06:46,160 --> 00:06:50,480 Speaker 4: walk until there's only one of you left. 118 00:06:54,279 --> 00:06:54,400 Speaker 3: Now. 119 00:06:54,400 --> 00:06:57,200 Speaker 1: When I first turned on this movie and heard the rules, 120 00:06:57,240 --> 00:07:00,880 Speaker 1: I thought you took a bunch of untrained teenage These 121 00:07:00,920 --> 00:07:04,159 Speaker 1: people have not been preparing for this walk physically. I 122 00:07:04,160 --> 00:07:08,480 Speaker 1: don't know. I bet they'll get twenty thirty forty miles. No, literally, 123 00:07:08,560 --> 00:07:11,720 Speaker 1: all of the boys make it at least one hundred miles, 124 00:07:12,000 --> 00:07:14,400 Speaker 1: and the one who wins another spoiler alert makes it 125 00:07:14,400 --> 00:07:16,960 Speaker 1: more than three hundred miles. So I wanted to know 126 00:07:17,640 --> 00:07:20,600 Speaker 1: is this actually possible? These kids have no training. They 127 00:07:20,640 --> 00:07:23,800 Speaker 1: also only have resources from a canteen and a couple sandwiches. 128 00:07:24,040 --> 00:07:28,200 Speaker 1: Could a human being actually walk that far without stopping? 129 00:07:28,520 --> 00:07:32,160 Speaker 1: So to answer this question, we have Melissa Alardo, who 130 00:07:32,200 --> 00:07:37,920 Speaker 1: literally studies extreme physical acts, and she has unbelievable answers 131 00:07:37,960 --> 00:07:41,200 Speaker 1: to all the questions I had about this insane movie. 132 00:07:42,720 --> 00:07:43,760 Speaker 1: Thanks for being here. 133 00:07:43,760 --> 00:07:44,560 Speaker 5: Thanks for having me. 134 00:07:44,920 --> 00:07:49,080 Speaker 1: You have done a lot of endurance stuff. Have you 135 00:07:49,200 --> 00:07:52,040 Speaker 1: done ultra runs? I know you do crazy backcountry ski touring. 136 00:07:53,120 --> 00:07:56,520 Speaker 2: I do long backcountry ski tours. I didn't iron Man. 137 00:07:56,640 --> 00:07:59,680 Speaker 2: I actually was training for a fifty mile ultra and 138 00:08:00,040 --> 00:08:02,000 Speaker 2: I had some knee problems, so I haven't. I haven't 139 00:08:02,040 --> 00:08:06,040 Speaker 2: done an ultra yet, but I'm around runners and I yeah, 140 00:08:06,160 --> 00:08:07,400 Speaker 2: I love endurance sports. 141 00:08:07,600 --> 00:08:09,360 Speaker 1: So a lot of the boys end up going past 142 00:08:09,360 --> 00:08:12,640 Speaker 1: one hundred miles. The one who wins, I think goes 143 00:08:12,680 --> 00:08:16,000 Speaker 1: more than three hundred and fifty miles. Big question is 144 00:08:16,040 --> 00:08:18,560 Speaker 1: how realistic do you think this is? Because the key, 145 00:08:18,600 --> 00:08:21,280 Speaker 1: of course, is that you cannot drop below three miles 146 00:08:21,280 --> 00:08:25,280 Speaker 1: an hour. If you stop, you basically get shot. Do 147 00:08:25,360 --> 00:08:28,560 Speaker 1: you think it's physically possible for a person to walk 148 00:08:29,120 --> 00:08:31,280 Speaker 1: NonStop three miles an hour for that long. 149 00:08:31,880 --> 00:08:34,480 Speaker 2: I do think it's possible. I think you know, obviously 150 00:08:34,520 --> 00:08:36,560 Speaker 2: it's extraordinary circumstances. 151 00:08:35,880 --> 00:08:39,079 Speaker 5: In the movie. So, I mean, there are a lot. 152 00:08:38,880 --> 00:08:42,040 Speaker 2: Of people, obviously, people who mostly train, who do ultramarathons. 153 00:08:42,679 --> 00:08:45,240 Speaker 2: What's incredible about the human body is that if you 154 00:08:45,360 --> 00:08:47,760 Speaker 2: keep the effort low enough, you know, we're really well 155 00:08:47,800 --> 00:08:51,840 Speaker 2: adapted in general to endurance. So yeah, with some training 156 00:08:52,080 --> 00:08:54,679 Speaker 2: a really steady pace. Obviously there are certain things that 157 00:08:54,720 --> 00:08:56,640 Speaker 2: they're having to take care of while they're walking that 158 00:08:56,920 --> 00:09:00,920 Speaker 2: seem a little bit challenging, but yeah, I think it's possible. 159 00:09:01,280 --> 00:09:03,400 Speaker 1: So why are we so well adapted to endurance? 160 00:09:03,600 --> 00:09:05,760 Speaker 5: There are some theories about this. 161 00:09:05,800 --> 00:09:08,880 Speaker 2: Some of it is centers around the fact that we 162 00:09:08,920 --> 00:09:12,520 Speaker 2: may have traditionally practiced a form of hunting where our 163 00:09:12,640 --> 00:09:15,800 Speaker 2: endurance became an advantage. And there are groups of people 164 00:09:15,840 --> 00:09:17,640 Speaker 2: around the world, some of whom I work with, who 165 00:09:17,720 --> 00:09:20,680 Speaker 2: continue to practice this kind of hunting. It's called persistence hunting. 166 00:09:20,960 --> 00:09:24,319 Speaker 2: We're essentially, you know, we're good at endurance, or we 167 00:09:24,440 --> 00:09:29,320 Speaker 2: evolve this endurance feet because when we pursue animals for 168 00:09:29,360 --> 00:09:31,640 Speaker 2: long enough, if we can last longer than they do, 169 00:09:31,679 --> 00:09:35,800 Speaker 2: they become very easy to hunt. So some people think 170 00:09:35,840 --> 00:09:38,160 Speaker 2: that that is the reason that we're so good at 171 00:09:38,280 --> 00:09:40,600 Speaker 2: long distance endurance kind of efforts. 172 00:09:40,679 --> 00:09:43,640 Speaker 1: And part of that is because we are really efficient 173 00:09:43,640 --> 00:09:46,400 Speaker 1: at cooling ourselves, right, and other animals are not. So 174 00:09:46,440 --> 00:09:49,760 Speaker 1: if you just run them down far enough, they'll eventually overheat, 175 00:09:49,880 --> 00:09:53,560 Speaker 1: and meanwhile, we're sweating, we're not super hot, and so 176 00:09:53,600 --> 00:09:56,320 Speaker 1: we can just keep going and eventually there are dinner 177 00:09:56,360 --> 00:09:56,920 Speaker 1: more or less. 178 00:09:57,040 --> 00:09:59,920 Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, And then some of these communities will populate, 179 00:10:00,280 --> 00:10:03,160 Speaker 2: will practice this at the hottest part of the day 180 00:10:03,240 --> 00:10:07,120 Speaker 2: to in particular, you know, really drive animals into this 181 00:10:07,160 --> 00:10:08,480 Speaker 2: point of exhaustion faster. 182 00:10:08,880 --> 00:10:12,800 Speaker 1: Okay, so what do you think the biggest hurdles that 183 00:10:13,120 --> 00:10:15,280 Speaker 1: these boys would have faced would be. 184 00:10:15,920 --> 00:10:19,240 Speaker 2: There's a number of things, you know, as interesting as 185 00:10:19,240 --> 00:10:21,560 Speaker 2: they were thinking about what they were eating, you know, 186 00:10:21,600 --> 00:10:23,320 Speaker 2: so there's some comments on what they were eating, what 187 00:10:23,320 --> 00:10:27,120 Speaker 2: they were being given to eat. At that energy level, 188 00:10:27,200 --> 00:10:30,560 Speaker 2: at that amount of effort, your body's primarily burning fat, 189 00:10:31,040 --> 00:10:33,240 Speaker 2: and there are actually ways that you can, you know, 190 00:10:33,320 --> 00:10:35,880 Speaker 2: change your diet or your training to push yourself to 191 00:10:35,920 --> 00:10:38,520 Speaker 2: burn even more fat at that pace. So you know, 192 00:10:38,559 --> 00:10:41,880 Speaker 2: if you're consuming fat, then you're able to last a 193 00:10:41,880 --> 00:10:44,800 Speaker 2: lot longer. But if you're consuming you know, like one 194 00:10:44,840 --> 00:10:46,800 Speaker 2: of the people is eating, you know, venison, which is 195 00:10:46,880 --> 00:10:49,520 Speaker 2: very low in fat, very low in carbohydrates. Your body 196 00:10:49,559 --> 00:10:51,679 Speaker 2: has no fuel and so as soon as the glycogen 197 00:10:51,760 --> 00:10:54,560 Speaker 2: your muscles is depleted. You know, if you do push 198 00:10:54,600 --> 00:10:58,040 Speaker 2: into that point where you're burning carbohydrates, you're you're in trouble, 199 00:10:58,080 --> 00:11:00,040 Speaker 2: you know. And that hill gets steep and all of 200 00:11:00,040 --> 00:11:02,320 Speaker 2: a sudden their heart rates spikes. They're going to be 201 00:11:02,480 --> 00:11:03,280 Speaker 2: They're going to be done. 202 00:11:03,280 --> 00:11:06,839 Speaker 1: For Another thing that I'd noticed too, is because they 203 00:11:06,840 --> 00:11:10,080 Speaker 1: didn't name a year in the movie, but I'm assuming 204 00:11:10,160 --> 00:11:12,920 Speaker 1: this is the way it's filmed and what people are wearing. 205 00:11:12,960 --> 00:11:15,600 Speaker 1: I'm assuming this is post World War two, and so 206 00:11:16,040 --> 00:11:19,240 Speaker 1: a lot of the boys are wearing these like work 207 00:11:19,280 --> 00:11:22,920 Speaker 1: boots effectively. And I saw that, and I'm just thinking, 208 00:11:23,320 --> 00:11:28,000 Speaker 1: oh my god, your feet would be destroyed after fifteen miles, 209 00:11:28,120 --> 00:11:29,959 Speaker 1: much less one hundred and fifty. I feel like that 210 00:11:30,000 --> 00:11:31,240 Speaker 1: would be a giant limitter. 211 00:11:32,320 --> 00:11:34,840 Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, especially once it starts raining and you have 212 00:11:34,960 --> 00:11:38,600 Speaker 2: humidity introduced into it. And oh yeah, I was not 213 00:11:38,800 --> 00:11:40,040 Speaker 2: then being their footwear. 214 00:11:40,880 --> 00:11:43,440 Speaker 1: Before we hit record, we were talking a little bit 215 00:11:43,559 --> 00:11:46,960 Speaker 1: about sleep and I had gone into this thinking, I 216 00:11:46,960 --> 00:11:49,640 Speaker 1: feel like at hour thirty six, you would start to 217 00:11:49,720 --> 00:11:53,040 Speaker 1: just go totally crazy. But you brought up some interesting 218 00:11:53,640 --> 00:11:58,360 Speaker 1: points about how the amount of sleep people need differs 219 00:11:58,960 --> 00:12:02,120 Speaker 1: and how a person who needs less sleep might actually 220 00:12:02,160 --> 00:12:04,600 Speaker 1: be an advantage. So tell us a little bit about that. 221 00:12:05,040 --> 00:12:09,160 Speaker 2: Yeah, so there's a rare familial mutation that causes people 222 00:12:09,200 --> 00:12:11,640 Speaker 2: to not need as much sleep. So it's these they 223 00:12:11,640 --> 00:12:14,640 Speaker 2: call them natural short sleepers, and they sleep generally four 224 00:12:14,640 --> 00:12:17,920 Speaker 2: to six hours a night with no ill effects, so 225 00:12:18,040 --> 00:12:22,640 Speaker 2: no cognitive effects from that, no, seemingly no health effects. 226 00:12:22,679 --> 00:12:24,640 Speaker 2: It actually seems like maybe they live longer. And they've 227 00:12:24,640 --> 00:12:30,120 Speaker 2: done some studies kind of replicating this genetic advantage in mice, 228 00:12:30,160 --> 00:12:33,080 Speaker 2: and the mice also seems to be very healthy. So yeah, 229 00:12:33,080 --> 00:12:36,280 Speaker 2: someone like that would certainly do much better because while 230 00:12:36,280 --> 00:12:37,599 Speaker 2: they're going into a sleep. 231 00:12:37,360 --> 00:12:39,120 Speaker 5: Debt, it's certainly not as much of a debt. 232 00:12:39,480 --> 00:12:40,599 Speaker 2: And yeah, that was the one thing I was a 233 00:12:40,640 --> 00:12:44,040 Speaker 2: little surprised was they didn't show anyone hallucinating, because surely, 234 00:12:44,080 --> 00:12:47,840 Speaker 2: after that long I would imagine you'd be hallucinating pretty hard. 235 00:12:48,400 --> 00:12:51,880 Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, A question about those people who need less sleep, 236 00:12:52,120 --> 00:12:54,400 Speaker 1: how do we know who they are? If there's a 237 00:12:54,480 --> 00:12:56,480 Speaker 1: person out there who goes, oh yeah, I usually sleep 238 00:12:56,640 --> 00:12:58,320 Speaker 1: five hours a night. Everyone tells me I need it, 239 00:12:58,440 --> 00:13:01,000 Speaker 1: but I feel fine. Is that a way to know? 240 00:13:01,600 --> 00:13:04,800 Speaker 2: Yeah, there's some ongoing studies too to identify exactly that. 241 00:13:04,920 --> 00:13:06,920 Speaker 2: You know, there's this one family in which they found 242 00:13:06,920 --> 00:13:09,160 Speaker 2: this mutation, and everybody in this family seemed to do 243 00:13:09,240 --> 00:13:11,680 Speaker 2: fine with four to six hours of sleep, and so 244 00:13:11,760 --> 00:13:15,440 Speaker 2: they know what gene it's acting on, and it seems 245 00:13:15,440 --> 00:13:18,680 Speaker 2: like different people may carry different mutations in that gene, 246 00:13:19,200 --> 00:13:21,320 Speaker 2: and there may be other genes also that influence how 247 00:13:21,400 --> 00:13:23,760 Speaker 2: much sleep we need, because you know, anecdotally, some people 248 00:13:23,800 --> 00:13:26,000 Speaker 2: seem to be fine on seven eight hours, some people 249 00:13:26,040 --> 00:13:28,800 Speaker 2: need nine to ten. But yeah, I wish I were 250 00:13:28,840 --> 00:13:31,680 Speaker 2: one of these lucky people who only needed four to six, 251 00:13:31,760 --> 00:13:33,480 Speaker 2: because that's a lot more hours of the. 252 00:13:33,480 --> 00:13:37,680 Speaker 1: Day that you have. Totally. One thing I thought was 253 00:13:37,720 --> 00:13:40,840 Speaker 1: interesting too, is I don't think any of these people 254 00:13:40,840 --> 00:13:43,920 Speaker 1: competing had actually trained for this. I mean, there's kind 255 00:13:43,920 --> 00:13:47,360 Speaker 1: of this random sampling of there's a boy from every state. 256 00:13:48,080 --> 00:13:51,080 Speaker 1: Howbout the fact that they haven't trained at all factor 257 00:13:51,120 --> 00:13:54,000 Speaker 1: into this. And I will note that the boy who won, 258 00:13:54,640 --> 00:13:56,600 Speaker 1: he has this line where he says something like, oh, 259 00:13:56,640 --> 00:13:58,360 Speaker 1: I've been walking all my life, like this is my 260 00:13:58,440 --> 00:14:00,679 Speaker 1: life and he's the one who So how do you 261 00:14:00,720 --> 00:14:01,880 Speaker 1: think that would affect things? 262 00:14:02,120 --> 00:14:02,240 Speaker 6: Oh? 263 00:14:02,320 --> 00:14:05,160 Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you know, a lifetime of training in 264 00:14:05,200 --> 00:14:08,400 Speaker 2: whatever that looks like would absolutely give you an advantage. 265 00:14:08,920 --> 00:14:10,560 Speaker 2: So you know, I mean, I know he was saying 266 00:14:10,559 --> 00:14:13,440 Speaker 2: it kind of more metaphorically, but there are communities, like 267 00:14:13,480 --> 00:14:15,800 Speaker 2: some of the communities that I work with, they live 268 00:14:15,840 --> 00:14:19,000 Speaker 2: in really remote areas, you know, to get around. 269 00:14:19,080 --> 00:14:21,800 Speaker 5: They're very mobile groups of people. They're just walking all 270 00:14:21,840 --> 00:14:24,600 Speaker 5: the time. They're walking up steep hills, they're walking you know, 271 00:14:24,880 --> 00:14:28,680 Speaker 5: many many miles every day through canyons, and so that's 272 00:14:28,720 --> 00:14:32,560 Speaker 5: a form of training in itself. But yeah, otherwise I think, 273 00:14:32,800 --> 00:14:34,960 Speaker 5: you know, straight off the couch trying to walk three 274 00:14:35,080 --> 00:14:39,400 Speaker 5: hundred and fifty miles would be pretty challenging. Your body 275 00:14:39,480 --> 00:14:43,240 Speaker 5: is just not ready to kind of switch into that 276 00:14:43,360 --> 00:14:45,800 Speaker 5: endurance mode as quickly if you're not training. 277 00:14:45,840 --> 00:14:47,840 Speaker 1: Ever, what I think is interesting, going back to what 278 00:14:47,840 --> 00:14:51,160 Speaker 1: we were talking about, how humans are adapted to endurance. 279 00:14:52,440 --> 00:14:55,040 Speaker 1: Probably for most of time, if you took a random 280 00:14:55,080 --> 00:14:58,240 Speaker 1: sampling of people, they would have been walking, i don't know, 281 00:14:58,360 --> 00:15:01,480 Speaker 1: ten fifteen miles a day, caring stuff. In normal life. 282 00:15:01,520 --> 00:15:05,120 Speaker 1: They would be much more ready to do something to 283 00:15:05,160 --> 00:15:07,120 Speaker 1: be thrown into this, and then today you take the 284 00:15:07,120 --> 00:15:09,200 Speaker 1: average person and it's like, yeah, not so much. 285 00:15:09,280 --> 00:15:09,440 Speaker 6: Yeah. 286 00:15:09,480 --> 00:15:11,480 Speaker 2: The fact that it's like a big achievement to get 287 00:15:11,480 --> 00:15:13,720 Speaker 2: ten thousand steps in a day, you know, like that's 288 00:15:13,760 --> 00:15:16,720 Speaker 2: something we're rewarding ourselves for when for most of human 289 00:15:16,800 --> 00:15:20,240 Speaker 2: history that was probably very standard, if not kind of 290 00:15:20,280 --> 00:15:23,000 Speaker 2: below average. Yeah, I think tells you something about the 291 00:15:23,280 --> 00:15:26,000 Speaker 2: current walking fitness of our population totally. 292 00:15:26,040 --> 00:15:30,760 Speaker 1: There's a researcher who is now at USC named David Reichlan, 293 00:15:31,480 --> 00:15:36,360 Speaker 1: and he studied basically physical activity among the Hadza, and 294 00:15:36,440 --> 00:15:39,280 Speaker 1: I think the number he put on it as far 295 00:15:39,280 --> 00:15:41,640 Speaker 1: as average steps a day was something like twenty thousand 296 00:15:41,720 --> 00:15:43,160 Speaker 1: steps a day on average. 297 00:15:43,440 --> 00:15:44,240 Speaker 5: Yeah, I believe it. 298 00:15:44,760 --> 00:15:46,960 Speaker 1: So before we hit record, you made a really interesting 299 00:15:46,960 --> 00:15:50,080 Speaker 1: point and you said that women would likely perform better 300 00:15:50,120 --> 00:15:52,760 Speaker 1: in this context and the contest than men. 301 00:15:53,280 --> 00:15:55,960 Speaker 2: So why is that There's this really interesting thing with 302 00:15:56,720 --> 00:15:59,960 Speaker 2: the length of races, with running and some other active 303 00:16:00,240 --> 00:16:02,960 Speaker 2: that we've seen where the longer the race is, the 304 00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:05,800 Speaker 2: more the gap between men and women closes, to the 305 00:16:05,800 --> 00:16:09,240 Speaker 2: point where when it's long enough, women actually often do better. 306 00:16:09,880 --> 00:16:11,800 Speaker 2: And so you know, when I think in a five 307 00:16:11,920 --> 00:16:14,680 Speaker 2: k it's like men on average perform ten percent better 308 00:16:14,680 --> 00:16:17,320 Speaker 2: than women. By the time you're getting to one hundred miles, 309 00:16:17,360 --> 00:16:19,320 Speaker 2: that gap has narrowed. By the time you're getting to 310 00:16:19,520 --> 00:16:25,400 Speaker 2: multi day races through deserts, women consistently perform better. Interestingly, 311 00:16:25,480 --> 00:16:30,560 Speaker 2: women also perform better in long distance swims, open water swims, 312 00:16:30,600 --> 00:16:34,040 Speaker 2: like very long distances. So there's you know, a temperature 313 00:16:34,040 --> 00:16:37,120 Speaker 2: regulation component to that. Somehow women seem to be better 314 00:16:37,120 --> 00:16:40,080 Speaker 2: at regulating temperature during these activities. But some of the 315 00:16:40,080 --> 00:16:42,880 Speaker 2: theories as to why women do better in these long 316 00:16:42,920 --> 00:16:47,160 Speaker 2: distances have to do with how women's bodies oxidize fat. 317 00:16:47,240 --> 00:16:50,080 Speaker 2: So how we you know, essentially use fat, which is, 318 00:16:50,360 --> 00:16:53,160 Speaker 2: like I said, the primary fuel when you're walking at 319 00:16:53,160 --> 00:16:57,120 Speaker 2: that kind of activity level. But then also, you know, 320 00:16:57,160 --> 00:17:02,360 Speaker 2: women have the capability being pregnant, and pregnancy is metabolically 321 00:17:02,560 --> 00:17:05,920 Speaker 2: the single hardest thing a human can do, so it's 322 00:17:06,080 --> 00:17:09,119 Speaker 2: someone calculated it's essentially the same as running a marathon 323 00:17:09,280 --> 00:17:12,919 Speaker 2: every day for the entirety of your pregnancy metabolically, so 324 00:17:13,400 --> 00:17:16,840 Speaker 2: it's you know, maybe that's what's driving women in these 325 00:17:17,000 --> 00:17:19,640 Speaker 2: very long efforts to perform better. But yeah, it would 326 00:17:19,640 --> 00:17:21,440 Speaker 2: have been interesting to see what happens if we throw 327 00:17:21,480 --> 00:17:22,280 Speaker 2: a few women in there. 328 00:17:22,440 --> 00:17:26,480 Speaker 1: I came across a study where it measured effort in 329 00:17:26,840 --> 00:17:30,400 Speaker 1: high intensity interval classes, so basically you know, your CrossFit 330 00:17:30,440 --> 00:17:34,200 Speaker 1: type classes, and it found that women, when the coach 331 00:17:34,320 --> 00:17:38,680 Speaker 1: would say go your hardest, women would consistently go harder 332 00:17:38,720 --> 00:17:41,240 Speaker 1: than men, Like there was almost they were just more 333 00:17:41,320 --> 00:17:45,480 Speaker 1: willing to push into the sort of darkness of exercised 334 00:17:45,560 --> 00:17:48,560 Speaker 1: induced suffering than the men were, which I thought was fascinating. 335 00:17:48,960 --> 00:17:49,520 Speaker 5: Yeah, and that. 336 00:17:49,440 --> 00:17:51,360 Speaker 2: Minds up the lines up with some things that I've 337 00:17:51,400 --> 00:17:54,760 Speaker 2: seen about women having in an exercise setting higher pain 338 00:17:54,880 --> 00:17:58,040 Speaker 2: tolerance than men. So in some settings it seems like 339 00:17:58,119 --> 00:18:00,440 Speaker 2: men have higher pain tolerance than women, but others it 340 00:18:00,440 --> 00:18:02,639 Speaker 2: seems that women very much have higher pain tolerance. So 341 00:18:02,680 --> 00:18:04,760 Speaker 2: maybe that's how they're able to kind of hang out 342 00:18:04,800 --> 00:18:06,800 Speaker 2: in that pain cave a little bit longer than men. 343 00:18:07,160 --> 00:18:09,240 Speaker 1: Totally. It's like when I get a blister on a walk, 344 00:18:09,280 --> 00:18:11,320 Speaker 1: it's the end of the world, and my wife just 345 00:18:11,359 --> 00:18:13,120 Speaker 1: you know, her sock is bloody and she just hasn't 346 00:18:13,119 --> 00:18:15,920 Speaker 1: even mentioned it. It's exactly that that man flu is real. 347 00:18:17,080 --> 00:18:22,040 Speaker 1: Absolutely so the competitor who ended up winning this thing 348 00:18:22,080 --> 00:18:25,239 Speaker 1: what I thought was interesting is that he had a 349 00:18:25,400 --> 00:18:29,199 Speaker 1: really sort of positive outlook the entire time he was 350 00:18:29,280 --> 00:18:31,679 Speaker 1: trying to keep everyone going. He was always, you know, 351 00:18:31,720 --> 00:18:34,320 Speaker 1: happy and smiling. How do you think mindset would factor 352 00:18:34,359 --> 00:18:36,320 Speaker 1: into a competition like this. 353 00:18:36,840 --> 00:18:38,200 Speaker 5: Yeah, mindset would be huge. 354 00:18:38,240 --> 00:18:38,320 Speaker 6: You know. 355 00:18:38,400 --> 00:18:40,320 Speaker 2: I'm a geneticist, so a lot of times I think 356 00:18:40,359 --> 00:18:43,760 Speaker 2: about things in terms of genetics and genetic predisposition. But 357 00:18:43,800 --> 00:18:45,440 Speaker 2: at the end of the day, there have actually been 358 00:18:45,440 --> 00:18:49,240 Speaker 2: studies that show that what you are told about your 359 00:18:49,280 --> 00:18:53,879 Speaker 2: genes influences your ability more than your genes. So there 360 00:18:53,920 --> 00:18:55,640 Speaker 2: was a study where they told people that they were 361 00:18:56,080 --> 00:19:00,240 Speaker 2: predisposed to be low exercise or have low exercise capacity 362 00:19:00,359 --> 00:19:02,719 Speaker 2: or something like that, and within a very short time, 363 00:19:03,280 --> 00:19:06,720 Speaker 2: the way people exercise lived up to that expectation, despite 364 00:19:06,760 --> 00:19:09,080 Speaker 2: the fact that their genetics didn't actually line up with that. 365 00:19:10,000 --> 00:19:13,480 Speaker 2: So it seems like, you know, the other side of that, 366 00:19:13,520 --> 00:19:15,080 Speaker 2: of course, is that if you believe that you have 367 00:19:15,119 --> 00:19:17,600 Speaker 2: a really high capacity, if you believe you can win, 368 00:19:18,320 --> 00:19:20,280 Speaker 2: then you're probably a lot more likely to win. And 369 00:19:20,520 --> 00:19:23,119 Speaker 2: it's really interesting because it's really at the physiological, like 370 00:19:23,160 --> 00:19:26,520 Speaker 2: even the molecular level, our bodies respond to what our 371 00:19:26,520 --> 00:19:27,639 Speaker 2: brains are saying. 372 00:19:27,840 --> 00:19:31,080 Speaker 1: That's fascinating. Does this sort of line up with the 373 00:19:31,160 --> 00:19:34,560 Speaker 1: central governor theory at all, which is basically saying that 374 00:19:34,600 --> 00:19:38,040 Speaker 1: your body sort of puts your brain puts a limit 375 00:19:38,200 --> 00:19:41,520 Speaker 1: on your physical output in order to sort of protect 376 00:19:41,560 --> 00:19:44,280 Speaker 1: yourself so you don't end up going so hard that 377 00:19:44,320 --> 00:19:46,560 Speaker 1: you injure yourself and burn out of fuel. Is it 378 00:19:46,600 --> 00:19:48,320 Speaker 1: in that lane or is that something totally different? 379 00:19:49,240 --> 00:19:50,840 Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I would imagine that seems like it 380 00:19:50,880 --> 00:19:53,960 Speaker 2: lines up really well, because yeah, normally it's protective to 381 00:19:54,680 --> 00:19:57,960 Speaker 2: not push yourself to the brink, but you know, if 382 00:19:57,960 --> 00:19:59,959 Speaker 2: you can switch that off. I mean, it's kind of like, 383 00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:01,760 Speaker 2: so I work a lot with divers who hold their 384 00:20:01,800 --> 00:20:05,679 Speaker 2: breath free diving. You know, our brains tell us we 385 00:20:05,720 --> 00:20:08,159 Speaker 2: need to breathe, not when we actually need to breathe, 386 00:20:08,280 --> 00:20:11,080 Speaker 2: but when carbon dioxide has built up. And that's also 387 00:20:11,160 --> 00:20:13,520 Speaker 2: protective because our body's saying like, uh, oh, you know, 388 00:20:13,640 --> 00:20:16,760 Speaker 2: time to breathe. But what really highly trained free divers 389 00:20:16,760 --> 00:20:19,840 Speaker 2: will do is they shut off that signal or they 390 00:20:19,840 --> 00:20:23,080 Speaker 2: ignore it. You know, they train themselves to ignore this 391 00:20:23,200 --> 00:20:25,760 Speaker 2: signal that's saying carbon dioxide is high, and then they 392 00:20:25,760 --> 00:20:28,760 Speaker 2: can hold their breath quite a bit longer, so it 393 00:20:28,840 --> 00:20:31,200 Speaker 2: becomes much more dangerous at that point, and that's why 394 00:20:31,240 --> 00:20:34,440 Speaker 2: sometimes people drown. But it does enable them to hold 395 00:20:34,440 --> 00:20:36,080 Speaker 2: their breath for an extraordinary. 396 00:20:35,600 --> 00:20:36,160 Speaker 5: Amount of time. 397 00:20:36,680 --> 00:20:38,720 Speaker 1: So a lot of it is kind of like a 398 00:20:38,760 --> 00:20:42,119 Speaker 1: smoke detector, whereas if the smoke detector is going off, 399 00:20:41,960 --> 00:20:45,000 Speaker 1: it's sensitive, right. We want the smoke detector to go 400 00:20:45,119 --> 00:20:48,480 Speaker 1: off when you burn a piece of toast when you're 401 00:20:48,480 --> 00:20:52,240 Speaker 1: cooking something and it ignites. Most times there's not an 402 00:20:52,280 --> 00:20:55,639 Speaker 1: actual fire, i e. Danger, but we want the smoke 403 00:20:55,680 --> 00:20:58,879 Speaker 1: detector sensitive, so the time that there is an actual fire, 404 00:20:59,359 --> 00:21:02,359 Speaker 1: you're going to react and make sure there's nothing wrong. 405 00:21:02,600 --> 00:21:04,320 Speaker 1: Is that kind of what we're talking about here. 406 00:21:04,480 --> 00:21:06,639 Speaker 2: Yeah, And you know a piece of that is that 407 00:21:06,680 --> 00:21:09,240 Speaker 2: we were also talking about before, is that when you're 408 00:21:09,320 --> 00:21:13,240 Speaker 2: driving yourself that hard, your body has to ignore other 409 00:21:13,320 --> 00:21:16,480 Speaker 2: parts of its physiology to put the effort into the endurance, 410 00:21:16,520 --> 00:21:19,359 Speaker 2: So things like your immune system are compromised. 411 00:21:19,720 --> 00:21:21,600 Speaker 5: So a lot of people after long. 412 00:21:21,480 --> 00:21:24,320 Speaker 2: Endurance events like ultras will get sick because their immune 413 00:21:24,359 --> 00:21:26,600 Speaker 2: system just doesn't have you know, your body doesn't have 414 00:21:26,600 --> 00:21:29,440 Speaker 2: the energy to devote all of the resources to everything 415 00:21:29,480 --> 00:21:31,080 Speaker 2: that needs those resources. 416 00:21:31,600 --> 00:21:32,240 Speaker 5: So we see a. 417 00:21:32,240 --> 00:21:36,439 Speaker 2: Character a competitor who becomes sick over the course of 418 00:21:36,440 --> 00:21:38,000 Speaker 2: the race and says, you know, I haven't been sick 419 00:21:38,040 --> 00:21:39,639 Speaker 2: in ten years, and it's like, well, yeah, that's not 420 00:21:39,680 --> 00:21:42,240 Speaker 2: a coincidence. You know, you're putting your body through the ringer. 421 00:21:42,480 --> 00:21:45,840 Speaker 2: It's putting all of its resources into walking, and that 422 00:21:45,880 --> 00:21:47,560 Speaker 2: has nothing left for the immune system. 423 00:21:47,760 --> 00:21:51,199 Speaker 1: Yeah. I did a long hike through southern Utah. I 424 00:21:51,200 --> 00:21:53,359 Speaker 1: was like eight hundred and fifty miles and when I 425 00:21:53,359 --> 00:21:56,119 Speaker 1: got back, I got sick within like a week. It 426 00:21:56,240 --> 00:21:59,400 Speaker 1: was just like immediately you're home, Okay, you're safe. Now 427 00:21:59,440 --> 00:22:01,360 Speaker 1: we're going to show you down and get sick. 428 00:22:01,720 --> 00:22:02,360 Speaker 5: Yeah, exactly. 429 00:22:02,560 --> 00:22:05,760 Speaker 1: In terms of what we were talking about with mindset, 430 00:22:05,920 --> 00:22:09,120 Speaker 1: have you experienced that when you do some of your 431 00:22:09,280 --> 00:22:11,760 Speaker 1: endurance stuff, like especially in the mountains in Utah? So 432 00:22:11,760 --> 00:22:13,439 Speaker 1: how you post it on Instagram the other day you 433 00:22:13,440 --> 00:22:16,480 Speaker 1: were hiking up a mountain. It looked cold, it looked 434 00:22:16,520 --> 00:22:18,480 Speaker 1: like it was at high elevation, and it looked hard. 435 00:22:18,680 --> 00:22:20,840 Speaker 2: Definitely, Yeah, And I think you know, I mean it 436 00:22:20,880 --> 00:22:22,880 Speaker 2: helps that I just love skiing so much, so it's 437 00:22:22,920 --> 00:22:25,159 Speaker 2: it's a lot. You know, I'm in it for that, 438 00:22:25,359 --> 00:22:27,720 Speaker 2: and that makes it easier to kind of push through. 439 00:22:27,800 --> 00:22:31,040 Speaker 2: But I mean, I'm, you know, in my office and 440 00:22:31,080 --> 00:22:33,679 Speaker 2: it's a few degrees cooler than it normally is, and 441 00:22:33,920 --> 00:22:36,600 Speaker 2: I'm freezing, but I'm out there and I'm able to 442 00:22:36,640 --> 00:22:40,679 Speaker 2: push through very cold temperatures. So it's like, yeah, all 443 00:22:40,720 --> 00:22:43,320 Speaker 2: of our we're very able to change our baselines, as 444 00:22:43,359 --> 00:22:48,159 Speaker 2: I know you talk about. So I have experienced that, 445 00:22:48,400 --> 00:22:51,120 Speaker 2: and it's amazing what you can do if you if 446 00:22:51,119 --> 00:22:52,439 Speaker 2: you decide to push through something. 447 00:22:52,640 --> 00:22:54,440 Speaker 1: Do you feel like that that there's almost a lesson 448 00:22:54,480 --> 00:22:57,159 Speaker 1: there for the average person where if you don't like 449 00:22:57,200 --> 00:22:59,960 Speaker 1: to exercise and you find it too hard, simply changing 450 00:23:00,080 --> 00:23:03,280 Speaker 1: the environment and finding something that you actually do love 451 00:23:03,440 --> 00:23:06,000 Speaker 1: can almost act as fuel to kind of get you 452 00:23:06,040 --> 00:23:06,760 Speaker 1: past the hump. 453 00:23:06,920 --> 00:23:07,560 Speaker 5: Oh. Absolutely. 454 00:23:07,640 --> 00:23:09,600 Speaker 2: I mean if you're not excited to get out there, 455 00:23:09,720 --> 00:23:11,919 Speaker 2: then you know, if you're tired, you're just not going 456 00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:14,399 Speaker 2: to do it, Whereas you know, I could be tired, 457 00:23:14,440 --> 00:23:16,960 Speaker 2: but right now it's snowing up in the mountains and 458 00:23:17,040 --> 00:23:20,520 Speaker 2: I'm really excited to go ski tomorrow because it's so 459 00:23:20,680 --> 00:23:24,080 Speaker 2: much fun, and so I think, yeah, whatever it is 460 00:23:24,119 --> 00:23:26,399 Speaker 2: that you can find that joy. Some days, if I'm 461 00:23:26,440 --> 00:23:28,600 Speaker 2: feeling really tired after work, I go to spin class, 462 00:23:28,600 --> 00:23:31,240 Speaker 2: which feels a little silly sometimes because it's kind of 463 00:23:31,280 --> 00:23:33,760 Speaker 2: like a you know, like a dance party on a bike, 464 00:23:33,880 --> 00:23:36,640 Speaker 2: but it's really fun, and so there are days where 465 00:23:36,760 --> 00:23:40,199 Speaker 2: that's my inspiration. So I think, yeah, finding joy in 466 00:23:40,280 --> 00:23:42,840 Speaker 2: whatever you do for exercise just makes it so much easier. 467 00:23:42,960 --> 00:23:46,920 Speaker 1: Totally. I've experienced that myself in terms of if I'm 468 00:23:46,920 --> 00:23:52,040 Speaker 1: on a treadmill, it's like it's so long, it's so boring, 469 00:23:52,240 --> 00:23:55,080 Speaker 1: the minutes go by so slow. But if I go 470 00:23:55,119 --> 00:23:57,840 Speaker 1: do a trail run, I'll look down and I've gone 471 00:23:58,080 --> 00:24:00,520 Speaker 1: six miles. I'm like, oh, I feel great, great, this 472 00:24:00,560 --> 00:24:03,000 Speaker 1: is I'm having a great time. If I was doing 473 00:24:03,040 --> 00:24:04,960 Speaker 1: six miles on a dreadmill a mile too, I'd be like, 474 00:24:05,000 --> 00:24:07,320 Speaker 1: we need to we need to stop this. This is awful. 475 00:24:08,320 --> 00:24:08,520 Speaker 2: Yeah. 476 00:24:08,560 --> 00:24:09,119 Speaker 5: Absolutely. 477 00:24:09,200 --> 00:24:10,720 Speaker 2: I was on the stairs in the gym the other 478 00:24:10,800 --> 00:24:12,760 Speaker 2: day and it was like twenty minutes in. 479 00:24:12,800 --> 00:24:15,400 Speaker 5: I was like, oh, no, I can't do this. 480 00:24:16,119 --> 00:24:19,080 Speaker 1: What do you think In real life most closely mimics 481 00:24:19,320 --> 00:24:23,200 Speaker 1: this competition, of course, without the possibility of being shot 482 00:24:23,240 --> 00:24:24,760 Speaker 1: at any given moment if you slow down. 483 00:24:24,840 --> 00:24:26,399 Speaker 5: Well, as far as I know, there actually are. 484 00:24:26,520 --> 00:24:29,520 Speaker 2: Race is quite similar to this, where it's not so 485 00:24:29,600 --> 00:24:32,800 Speaker 2: much where they're making you maintain a specific speed, but 486 00:24:33,119 --> 00:24:35,360 Speaker 2: it's you know, last man's I think they're even called 487 00:24:35,400 --> 00:24:37,959 Speaker 2: last man Standing or something like that, and you essentially 488 00:24:37,960 --> 00:24:40,399 Speaker 2: have to go at a certain distance every hour or 489 00:24:40,520 --> 00:24:42,880 Speaker 2: whatever it is, and if you cover that, if you're 490 00:24:42,880 --> 00:24:45,720 Speaker 2: able to finish that distance in that time period, you 491 00:24:45,760 --> 00:24:48,960 Speaker 2: are still in the race. So and I think people 492 00:24:49,040 --> 00:24:51,400 Speaker 2: last quite a while in those I mean, of course 493 00:24:51,440 --> 00:24:54,800 Speaker 2: you have, you know, races where there's two hundred plus 494 00:24:54,880 --> 00:24:57,679 Speaker 2: miles that you're covering. But it is interesting, and they 495 00:24:57,720 --> 00:25:00,719 Speaker 2: mentioned this in the film too. The psychology of not 496 00:25:00,760 --> 00:25:03,359 Speaker 2: having a finish line is so different because it's not 497 00:25:03,400 --> 00:25:05,879 Speaker 2: that you have to make it somewhere, it's that you 498 00:25:05,920 --> 00:25:09,840 Speaker 2: have to outlast everyone else. So yeah, yeah, I can't 499 00:25:09,840 --> 00:25:11,880 Speaker 2: imagine what would be like to compete in something like that. 500 00:25:12,200 --> 00:25:16,840 Speaker 1: Absolutely. What do you think the sort of big practical 501 00:25:16,880 --> 00:25:20,720 Speaker 1: takeaways from this movie are for the average person as 502 00:25:20,720 --> 00:25:25,040 Speaker 1: it relates to endurance physiology mindset. 503 00:25:25,400 --> 00:25:30,360 Speaker 2: I would say, get good shoes, don't wear boots when 504 00:25:30,359 --> 00:25:34,000 Speaker 2: you're going for one hundred mile, Like I think it's 505 00:25:34,080 --> 00:25:34,440 Speaker 2: you know. 506 00:25:35,080 --> 00:25:37,240 Speaker 5: Training helps. All of these things are possible. 507 00:25:38,520 --> 00:25:42,000 Speaker 2: I recently was actually in the Canadian in the mountains 508 00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:45,160 Speaker 2: in Canada backcountry skiing for a week with a woman 509 00:25:45,160 --> 00:25:47,560 Speaker 2: who was seventy one years old, and we were doing, 510 00:25:47,560 --> 00:25:49,520 Speaker 2: you know, fifty two hundred feet of a day and 511 00:25:49,560 --> 00:25:52,879 Speaker 2: she was doing that seven days in a row, and 512 00:25:52,920 --> 00:25:54,440 Speaker 2: it was just so amazing to me, you know, I mean, 513 00:25:54,640 --> 00:25:56,320 Speaker 2: she was keeping a good pace. It was it was 514 00:25:56,359 --> 00:25:59,000 Speaker 2: a steady you know, it wasn't a particularly fast pace. 515 00:25:59,080 --> 00:26:02,760 Speaker 2: But two interview today for seven days is really impressive 516 00:26:02,800 --> 00:26:04,600 Speaker 2: at seventy one. And so I think it's kind of 517 00:26:04,640 --> 00:26:07,840 Speaker 2: important to keep in mind that, you know, if you 518 00:26:08,520 --> 00:26:10,919 Speaker 2: if you train, if you keep at a good pace, 519 00:26:11,960 --> 00:26:14,080 Speaker 2: you're capable of a lot more than I think people 520 00:26:14,119 --> 00:26:14,800 Speaker 2: think they are. 521 00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:17,040 Speaker 1: Well, thanks for coming on, Melissa, We really appreciate it. 522 00:26:17,119 --> 00:26:18,240 Speaker 5: Yeah, my pleasure. Thank you. 523 00:26:18,600 --> 00:26:21,320 Speaker 1: Now. If you want to deeper dive into the science 524 00:26:21,359 --> 00:26:24,280 Speaker 1: of endurance, especially as applies to mindset, you can go 525 00:26:24,359 --> 00:26:29,199 Speaker 1: to twopct dot com and search exercise fatigue is an 526 00:26:29,240 --> 00:26:31,720 Speaker 1: emotion that goes down the rabbit hole, and it gives 527 00:26:31,720 --> 00:26:34,439 Speaker 1: you some actionable advice about how you can sort of 528 00:26:34,680 --> 00:26:37,159 Speaker 1: turn off or at least lessen that governor in your 529 00:26:37,160 --> 00:26:39,639 Speaker 1: brain that is screaming at you. To slow down and 530 00:26:39,720 --> 00:26:42,040 Speaker 1: quit when you probably have a lot more in the tank. 531 00:26:45,480 --> 00:26:47,399 Speaker 1: Something I'm going to start doing on the show is 532 00:26:47,640 --> 00:26:52,840 Speaker 1: bringing in ordinary people who have done something unbelievably physically 533 00:26:52,920 --> 00:26:55,960 Speaker 1: challenging and learned something from it. Some of these people 534 00:26:56,040 --> 00:26:59,399 Speaker 1: might be ultra marathoners, others might be everyday people who 535 00:26:59,520 --> 00:27:02,119 Speaker 1: just went out and started doing something physical and kept 536 00:27:02,160 --> 00:27:05,480 Speaker 1: pushing the boundaries and learn something in the process. And 537 00:27:05,520 --> 00:27:08,679 Speaker 1: there is no better person to start this idea out 538 00:27:08,760 --> 00:27:12,840 Speaker 1: than my good longtime friend Foster camer So. I first 539 00:27:12,840 --> 00:27:15,959 Speaker 1: met Foster when I was working in media in New 540 00:27:16,040 --> 00:27:18,520 Speaker 1: York City. We were both editors at different publications. We 541 00:27:18,560 --> 00:27:21,359 Speaker 1: would occasionally send each other stories to do. And he's 542 00:27:21,400 --> 00:27:24,000 Speaker 1: originally from Vegas, so when I moved to Vegas, anytime 543 00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:26,400 Speaker 1: we would come into town to meet with his family, 544 00:27:26,480 --> 00:27:29,120 Speaker 1: hang out, have holidays, we'd always meet up, hang out, 545 00:27:29,240 --> 00:27:33,560 Speaker 1: do something. Foster, you will learn though, is not necessarily 546 00:27:33,800 --> 00:27:36,600 Speaker 1: an athletic person. You know, he walks around a lot, 547 00:27:36,640 --> 00:27:38,359 Speaker 1: he does a few things, but he's definitely not a 548 00:27:38,400 --> 00:27:43,800 Speaker 1: physical specimen. And yet that said, one day he got 549 00:27:43,840 --> 00:27:46,640 Speaker 1: some bad news in his life. I'll let him explain that, 550 00:27:47,359 --> 00:27:50,320 Speaker 1: and it prompted him to leave his house with a 551 00:27:50,440 --> 00:27:53,640 Speaker 1: twenty five pound weight in a backpack on his back. 552 00:27:53,720 --> 00:27:57,120 Speaker 1: So he was rocking, and he started walking and each 553 00:27:57,160 --> 00:27:59,439 Speaker 1: time he would go to stop, he would keep walking, 554 00:28:00,119 --> 00:28:02,880 Speaker 1: keep walking, and it ended in one of the most 555 00:28:03,080 --> 00:28:06,760 Speaker 1: amazing physical acts I have ever heard of in my life. 556 00:28:06,760 --> 00:28:08,520 Speaker 1: So we're going to bring him on to talk about that, 557 00:28:08,680 --> 00:28:12,159 Speaker 1: not to mention he did this thing twice and he 558 00:28:12,320 --> 00:28:15,159 Speaker 1: learned so much from it in the process, about the 559 00:28:15,160 --> 00:28:18,600 Speaker 1: power of walking, about the power of getting outside what 560 00:28:18,720 --> 00:28:22,639 Speaker 1: is ordinary, and things about himself that really reframed what 561 00:28:22,840 --> 00:28:24,920 Speaker 1: he had gone through and the news that he received. 562 00:28:25,560 --> 00:28:30,679 Speaker 1: So with that all said, we're going to bring in Foster. Foster, 563 00:28:30,800 --> 00:28:33,200 Speaker 1: my favorite person from Las Vegas and friend. 564 00:28:33,480 --> 00:28:34,760 Speaker 6: Oh, get out of here. 565 00:28:35,040 --> 00:28:35,800 Speaker 1: Welcome to the show. 566 00:28:35,920 --> 00:28:37,480 Speaker 6: Thank you, thank you for having me. Michael. 567 00:28:37,600 --> 00:28:40,440 Speaker 1: Here's where we need to start. For context. I would 568 00:28:40,440 --> 00:28:44,600 Speaker 1: not say that you are not athletic. I would also 569 00:28:44,720 --> 00:28:49,480 Speaker 1: not say that you are a David Goggins type. I 570 00:28:49,520 --> 00:28:51,360 Speaker 1: don't think you live by your whoop score. 571 00:28:52,240 --> 00:28:52,320 Speaker 5: No. 572 00:28:53,960 --> 00:28:57,240 Speaker 1: I do know that you occasionally, at least used to 573 00:28:57,400 --> 00:28:58,960 Speaker 1: enjoy a cigarette or two. 574 00:28:59,400 --> 00:29:03,040 Speaker 3: Not for six years now, but yes, or eight years 575 00:29:03,120 --> 00:29:04,560 Speaker 3: eight years actually. 576 00:29:04,520 --> 00:29:08,160 Speaker 1: You go see DJs that begin at the time that 577 00:29:08,200 --> 00:29:08,800 Speaker 1: I go to bed. 578 00:29:10,920 --> 00:29:13,960 Speaker 6: Well after that, well after that, you. 579 00:29:14,160 --> 00:29:18,400 Speaker 1: Are active, I would say, like a lot of New Yorkers, 580 00:29:18,680 --> 00:29:19,440 Speaker 1: shit little. 581 00:29:19,240 --> 00:29:21,800 Speaker 6: Walking inveterate walker. It's true. 582 00:29:21,840 --> 00:29:24,480 Speaker 1: Do you go to the gym sometimes? 583 00:29:24,640 --> 00:29:27,920 Speaker 3: I belong to a rock climbing gym, which which was 584 00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:31,360 Speaker 3: not the cliche that it is now. A friend got 585 00:29:31,360 --> 00:29:36,120 Speaker 3: me into into a rock climbing bouldering about five six 586 00:29:36,200 --> 00:29:39,640 Speaker 3: years ago. I'm doing less of that these days, but 587 00:29:40,520 --> 00:29:42,000 Speaker 3: I do go to the gym. I did take a 588 00:29:42,040 --> 00:29:47,320 Speaker 3: weightlifting class last year. I would not call myself athletic, 589 00:29:47,480 --> 00:29:51,440 Speaker 3: though fair spry spry. 590 00:29:50,840 --> 00:29:51,640 Speaker 6: Is going to be a word. 591 00:29:51,880 --> 00:29:55,720 Speaker 1: Yeah, But one fine day you do something that I 592 00:29:55,760 --> 00:29:59,080 Speaker 1: would classify as very athletic. I would say it put 593 00:29:59,160 --> 00:30:04,280 Speaker 1: you in David territory in the sense that you put 594 00:30:04,280 --> 00:30:05,200 Speaker 1: on a weighted backpack. 595 00:30:05,240 --> 00:30:07,600 Speaker 6: How much was it twenty five pounds? 596 00:30:08,280 --> 00:30:12,640 Speaker 3: And the first year I did it, I don't think 597 00:30:12,680 --> 00:30:14,320 Speaker 3: I actually had anything in it besides the way. 598 00:30:15,040 --> 00:30:17,440 Speaker 1: Yeah, So why did you take this walk in the 599 00:30:17,440 --> 00:30:17,920 Speaker 1: first place? 600 00:30:18,320 --> 00:30:21,640 Speaker 3: So that same friend who got me into indoor rock 601 00:30:21,680 --> 00:30:25,520 Speaker 3: climbing was my best friend of twenty five years. 602 00:30:25,560 --> 00:30:27,800 Speaker 6: His name is Henry. Henry Molina and you met at 603 00:30:28,080 --> 00:30:28,720 Speaker 6: summer camp. 604 00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:31,080 Speaker 3: We met at summer camp when I was thirteen years old, 605 00:30:31,240 --> 00:30:34,320 Speaker 3: my first day of Sleepway Camp in Cleveland, Georgia Camp 606 00:30:34,600 --> 00:30:39,040 Speaker 3: Camp Coleman and yeah, we had an incredible friendship of 607 00:30:39,080 --> 00:30:42,960 Speaker 3: twenty five years. We lived together for a time. I mean, 608 00:30:43,000 --> 00:30:45,160 Speaker 3: we gotten all kinds of mischief together. When I first 609 00:30:45,160 --> 00:30:51,200 Speaker 3: moved to New York. We moved together right before I 610 00:30:51,200 --> 00:30:54,800 Speaker 3: turned twenty one. And so you know, he eventually moved 611 00:30:54,840 --> 00:30:58,120 Speaker 3: to la and his partner, Margaret, they moved there, and 612 00:30:58,480 --> 00:31:01,600 Speaker 3: in twenty twenty he's diagnosed with the squamous cell carcinoma 613 00:31:01,600 --> 00:31:04,960 Speaker 3: of the prodded gland, which is a cancer of the 614 00:31:04,960 --> 00:31:09,000 Speaker 3: gland behind your sweat land around there. Sorry to all 615 00:31:09,040 --> 00:31:10,960 Speaker 3: the doctors who know what a broad gland is and 616 00:31:11,040 --> 00:31:15,000 Speaker 3: are cringing at my description of it. And he has 617 00:31:15,200 --> 00:31:21,640 Speaker 3: a big surgery, goes through chemo and radiation therapy, it 618 00:31:21,680 --> 00:31:29,080 Speaker 3: comes back as metastatic, and in July of twenty twenty 619 00:31:29,080 --> 00:31:30,040 Speaker 3: two he passes away. 620 00:31:30,480 --> 00:31:33,600 Speaker 6: And you know, there is some form of relief. 621 00:31:33,440 --> 00:31:36,280 Speaker 3: I would say, with it, because you don't want to 622 00:31:36,280 --> 00:31:38,200 Speaker 3: see this person that you love suffer for so long, 623 00:31:38,280 --> 00:31:41,560 Speaker 3: and you know it's just it's over. It's sun and 624 00:31:42,320 --> 00:31:47,320 Speaker 3: you are all of a sudden looking at you know, 625 00:31:47,480 --> 00:31:50,120 Speaker 3: your life after this thing has happened. 626 00:31:50,480 --> 00:31:51,320 Speaker 1: And how old was he? 627 00:31:51,480 --> 00:31:52,400 Speaker 6: So he was thirty seven. 628 00:31:52,880 --> 00:31:55,360 Speaker 3: And I know that there are a lot of people 629 00:31:55,400 --> 00:31:57,040 Speaker 3: who did not know just how sick he was. 630 00:31:57,160 --> 00:31:59,600 Speaker 6: He wanted to keep very private about it. 631 00:31:59,640 --> 00:32:02,120 Speaker 3: So I know that next day is some news is 632 00:32:02,120 --> 00:32:04,680 Speaker 3: going to get out and there are gonna be some questions. 633 00:32:05,200 --> 00:32:08,200 Speaker 3: And frankly, I again, I live in a two bedroom apartment. 634 00:32:08,360 --> 00:32:10,800 Speaker 3: I work a lot from home. I just didn't really 635 00:32:10,800 --> 00:32:12,000 Speaker 3: want to be home that day. 636 00:32:12,840 --> 00:32:14,120 Speaker 1: Yeah, setting by yourself. 637 00:32:14,600 --> 00:32:17,000 Speaker 3: Well, and you know it was late July and New 638 00:32:17,080 --> 00:32:22,400 Speaker 3: York City, so it's the middle of summer. People are out, warm, 639 00:32:22,440 --> 00:32:25,280 Speaker 3: beautiful day, and I don't want to be sulking inside 640 00:32:25,280 --> 00:32:30,120 Speaker 3: my apartment. But I don't want to be anywhere else either. 641 00:32:30,160 --> 00:32:32,920 Speaker 3: I just don't want to be inside. Being inside felt 642 00:32:33,840 --> 00:32:40,360 Speaker 3: too restrictive. Yeah, And so I'd gotten the rocking backpack 643 00:32:40,520 --> 00:32:44,080 Speaker 3: through you. And I love walking around the city. I 644 00:32:44,120 --> 00:32:46,600 Speaker 3: love putting in music in my headphones and walking on 645 00:32:46,760 --> 00:32:51,240 Speaker 3: any day, I should add, And so I just get moving. 646 00:32:52,080 --> 00:32:54,440 Speaker 3: I just throw on the backpack and I get moving. 647 00:32:54,480 --> 00:32:56,040 Speaker 1: Where did you leave from your apartment. 648 00:32:56,240 --> 00:32:57,760 Speaker 6: My apartment's in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. 649 00:32:57,920 --> 00:33:01,360 Speaker 1: No direction of mind, no mileage, no just just I'm 650 00:33:01,360 --> 00:33:01,880 Speaker 1: gonna walk. 651 00:33:02,400 --> 00:33:03,320 Speaker 6: Yeah, I'm gonna walk. 652 00:33:03,640 --> 00:33:06,760 Speaker 3: I think sometime I was headed towards the Williamsburg Bridge 653 00:33:06,760 --> 00:33:08,920 Speaker 3: because I wanted to be I love going by the water. 654 00:33:09,360 --> 00:33:12,480 Speaker 3: And at a certain point, I'm going over the Williamsburg Bridge, 655 00:33:12,480 --> 00:33:14,560 Speaker 3: and I think to myself, you know what I've never done. 656 00:33:14,960 --> 00:33:18,520 Speaker 3: I've lived in New York for seventeen years, and I've 657 00:33:18,560 --> 00:33:22,040 Speaker 3: never walked over the Manhattan Bridge. And so you know 658 00:33:22,080 --> 00:33:24,800 Speaker 3: what I'm gonna do today. I'm gonna walk over the 659 00:33:24,840 --> 00:33:30,560 Speaker 3: Manhattan Bridge. And if only as a small reminder to 660 00:33:30,640 --> 00:33:37,400 Speaker 3: myself that even after this terrible thing happened, that there's 661 00:33:37,440 --> 00:33:45,800 Speaker 3: still new things I can do, new horizons to reach across, literally, 662 00:33:45,800 --> 00:33:47,120 Speaker 3: new bridges to cross. 663 00:33:47,200 --> 00:33:51,760 Speaker 6: Yeah, and that there is more that is new and 664 00:33:51,800 --> 00:33:52,720 Speaker 6: wonderful ahead of this. 665 00:33:54,240 --> 00:33:58,400 Speaker 3: And again, I like, I wasn't in this despondently sad place. 666 00:33:58,520 --> 00:34:03,120 Speaker 3: I actually believed that I was relatively well adjusted the occasion. 667 00:34:03,200 --> 00:34:05,560 Speaker 3: I was going to therapy, I speaking with my friends 668 00:34:05,560 --> 00:34:14,400 Speaker 3: about it. But I when something shitty happens, you want 669 00:34:14,960 --> 00:34:20,680 Speaker 3: to derive meaning from it, sure, or just make it 670 00:34:20,760 --> 00:34:24,400 Speaker 3: less shitty, somehow ameliorate that shittiness. 671 00:34:24,640 --> 00:34:28,520 Speaker 1: Well, I think that's that reminds me of this research 672 00:34:28,600 --> 00:34:32,960 Speaker 1: on how we frame events. So there's this idea of 673 00:34:33,880 --> 00:34:36,759 Speaker 1: what story are you going to tell yourself about this 674 00:34:37,160 --> 00:34:41,240 Speaker 1: bad thing that happened, this thing that just got thrown 675 00:34:41,239 --> 00:34:44,840 Speaker 1: in your life. It wasn't good. And there's two ways 676 00:34:44,840 --> 00:34:48,520 Speaker 1: that people frame things. There's what's called contamination stories, that 677 00:34:48,680 --> 00:34:53,160 Speaker 1: is to say, this bad thing happened, it's contaminating my life. 678 00:34:53,200 --> 00:34:56,640 Speaker 1: Everything is going to be bad thereafter. Or there's redemptive stories, 679 00:34:56,920 --> 00:35:01,320 Speaker 1: or this bad thing happened, but did I learn something 680 00:35:01,360 --> 00:35:03,760 Speaker 1: from it? And can I at least see a lesson 681 00:35:03,800 --> 00:35:08,239 Speaker 1: and a path out of it where I could end 682 00:35:08,320 --> 00:35:11,920 Speaker 1: up better off or at least not broken by it. 683 00:35:12,920 --> 00:35:14,719 Speaker 1: And so to me, it sounds like you were almost 684 00:35:15,440 --> 00:35:17,440 Speaker 1: thinking that with the bridge metaphor. 685 00:35:17,440 --> 00:35:20,839 Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I would say it was both of those, right, 686 00:35:21,120 --> 00:35:21,960 Speaker 3: It was both of those. 687 00:35:21,880 --> 00:35:22,640 Speaker 6: Kinds of stories. 688 00:35:23,200 --> 00:35:26,560 Speaker 3: This thing happened to me, and also I'm going to 689 00:35:26,600 --> 00:35:29,840 Speaker 3: make something of it. And I should say to anybody 690 00:35:29,880 --> 00:35:32,760 Speaker 3: listening to this, who thanks God, that kind of mentality 691 00:35:32,840 --> 00:35:36,960 Speaker 3: is amazing. I am not typically this person. I take 692 00:35:36,960 --> 00:35:42,759 Speaker 3: stuff on the chin pretty hard, and my mental and 693 00:35:42,800 --> 00:35:46,879 Speaker 3: emotional resilience is something that I still have to work on. 694 00:35:46,880 --> 00:35:47,480 Speaker 6: To this day. 695 00:35:48,719 --> 00:35:51,600 Speaker 3: If the people closest to me would say, I probably 696 00:35:51,640 --> 00:35:55,920 Speaker 3: get too affected by things. And also to that point 697 00:35:55,920 --> 00:35:58,200 Speaker 3: about the way we tell ourselves stories. I mean, Michael, 698 00:35:59,040 --> 00:36:02,120 Speaker 3: you're a journal list, You've worked in stories, you've written books. 699 00:36:02,719 --> 00:36:04,520 Speaker 6: You know me, and the way I relate to the 700 00:36:04,520 --> 00:36:05,800 Speaker 6: world is through story. 701 00:36:06,160 --> 00:36:08,600 Speaker 3: Yeah, as you said that, I thought to myself, Yeah, 702 00:36:08,640 --> 00:36:11,440 Speaker 3: that it does feel like the way we frame our 703 00:36:11,480 --> 00:36:16,960 Speaker 3: life does break down into those two categories, both at 704 00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:19,800 Speaker 3: the same time. But you mentioned you were going through both. 705 00:36:19,840 --> 00:36:22,680 Speaker 1: So were you going through mentally or are you going 706 00:36:22,719 --> 00:36:26,879 Speaker 1: through kind of swings along all these steps. 707 00:36:27,360 --> 00:36:29,239 Speaker 3: Well, it was just like this, it was like, this 708 00:36:29,280 --> 00:36:30,680 Speaker 3: thing happened to me and I don't know what to 709 00:36:30,719 --> 00:36:37,600 Speaker 3: do with it. Yeah, right, and I'm angry. I wanted 710 00:36:37,640 --> 00:36:43,040 Speaker 3: the world to stop for me and to mourn with me. Yeah, 711 00:36:43,200 --> 00:36:45,040 Speaker 3: and I was angry that it didn't. 712 00:36:45,440 --> 00:36:48,080 Speaker 1: Yeah, you're in the city. That place is never stopping. 713 00:36:48,480 --> 00:36:52,400 Speaker 3: Right, And then you know the cliche, it always happens 714 00:36:52,400 --> 00:36:55,040 Speaker 3: to the best ones. Yeah, it's like, why did this 715 00:36:55,080 --> 00:36:57,879 Speaker 3: happen to him and not? And here I pull out 716 00:36:57,880 --> 00:37:01,840 Speaker 3: my scroll of all the people who, all the villains 717 00:37:01,840 --> 00:37:05,080 Speaker 3: of this world who deserve what he got, Why. 718 00:37:04,920 --> 00:37:06,080 Speaker 6: Did it happen to them? 719 00:37:06,920 --> 00:37:11,920 Speaker 3: You know, your typical existential wonderings when faced with something 720 00:37:12,000 --> 00:37:17,400 Speaker 3: like that. And I think the reflective desire be it 721 00:37:17,440 --> 00:37:20,359 Speaker 3: out of some kind of guilt or some feeling of 722 00:37:20,400 --> 00:37:25,719 Speaker 3: obligation and duty to the person who had involved to 723 00:37:25,880 --> 00:37:28,880 Speaker 3: do something with it, rather than just be a schmuck 724 00:37:29,760 --> 00:37:32,680 Speaker 3: for whom something happens to and then they go on 725 00:37:32,800 --> 00:37:36,120 Speaker 3: with their lives. And also I should say, it occurs 726 00:37:36,160 --> 00:37:39,879 Speaker 3: to me that it was a way of keeping him 727 00:37:40,840 --> 00:37:44,040 Speaker 3: close to me in that moment, as many things still are, 728 00:37:45,160 --> 00:37:49,560 Speaker 3: which is kind of I find how morning works in 729 00:37:49,600 --> 00:37:52,360 Speaker 3: a way is so much of the way we express 730 00:37:52,560 --> 00:37:54,839 Speaker 3: pain is trying to keep that pain close to us, 731 00:37:56,320 --> 00:38:03,080 Speaker 3: because it's scary to go forward in life without this 732 00:38:03,160 --> 00:38:05,239 Speaker 3: thing that you've come to know so much, whether it's 733 00:38:05,280 --> 00:38:09,200 Speaker 3: a person and their love or the pain of losing them, 734 00:38:09,840 --> 00:38:13,480 Speaker 3: it is scary to move forward without those things. 735 00:38:13,840 --> 00:38:18,200 Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like for me, walking can sort of 736 00:38:18,239 --> 00:38:21,640 Speaker 1: serve as a metaphor that you do move forward, and 737 00:38:22,520 --> 00:38:28,080 Speaker 1: they'll be swings along the way where it sucks you 738 00:38:28,120 --> 00:38:31,400 Speaker 1: feel like hell, you'll also have highs and lows, and 739 00:38:31,440 --> 00:38:33,680 Speaker 1: that's kind of just like this metaphor for life. But 740 00:38:33,760 --> 00:38:36,759 Speaker 1: you're still moving forward in that direction, you know. 741 00:38:37,360 --> 00:38:41,680 Speaker 3: Right Cutting back to that day, that fateful day, I've 742 00:38:41,680 --> 00:38:43,839 Speaker 3: got the backpack on, I'm a crossing the Weddingsburg Bridge 743 00:38:43,840 --> 00:38:45,880 Speaker 3: and I'm going, I can't believe I've never walked across 744 00:38:45,880 --> 00:38:50,000 Speaker 3: the Manhattan Bridge. So today I'm going to do something different. 745 00:38:50,120 --> 00:38:52,920 Speaker 3: I'm going to walk across the Manhattan Bridge and the 746 00:38:52,960 --> 00:38:53,880 Speaker 3: Manhattan Bridge. 747 00:38:54,520 --> 00:38:56,000 Speaker 6: As far as bridges in. 748 00:38:56,040 --> 00:39:00,360 Speaker 3: New York go, it's not all that iconic between the 749 00:39:00,400 --> 00:39:03,239 Speaker 3: Williamsburg and the Brooklyn Bridge, the Brooklyn Bridge being the 750 00:39:03,239 --> 00:39:07,640 Speaker 3: most iconic one, the Williamsburg Bridge having arguably the best 751 00:39:07,680 --> 00:39:11,680 Speaker 3: walking and bicycling path, and the Manhattan Bridge is a 752 00:39:11,680 --> 00:39:14,680 Speaker 3: little less value hooed. I should say it's a mid 753 00:39:14,800 --> 00:39:17,800 Speaker 3: level bridge. It's a very like, well, I have a 754 00:39:17,880 --> 00:39:20,319 Speaker 3: view on this, Okay, let's hear it. I'm starting to 755 00:39:20,320 --> 00:39:24,040 Speaker 3: walk across the bridge and I was expecting the absolute worst, 756 00:39:24,080 --> 00:39:26,600 Speaker 3: which I would experience later that day. But I'm walking 757 00:39:26,640 --> 00:39:29,840 Speaker 3: across this bridge and I'm going, oh my god, you 758 00:39:29,880 --> 00:39:33,279 Speaker 3: know what I'm realizing about this bridge. I believe it 759 00:39:33,360 --> 00:39:37,000 Speaker 3: is the highest of all of the bridge heights in 760 00:39:37,040 --> 00:39:40,280 Speaker 3: New York. But at the very least you are looking 761 00:39:40,480 --> 00:39:43,520 Speaker 3: over the Brooklyn Bridge. So it is the best view 762 00:39:43,560 --> 00:39:46,919 Speaker 3: you're going to get, arguably, of the Brooklyn Bridge out 763 00:39:46,920 --> 00:39:47,880 Speaker 3: into New York Harbor. 764 00:39:48,280 --> 00:39:49,319 Speaker 6: It's a beautiful view. 765 00:39:49,400 --> 00:39:51,680 Speaker 3: The walking path is very small, the bic clean path 766 00:39:52,080 --> 00:39:55,120 Speaker 3: very small, but it's a beautiful view of the harbor. 767 00:39:56,320 --> 00:39:57,760 Speaker 3: And so I'm standing in the middle of the bridge 768 00:39:57,760 --> 00:40:01,360 Speaker 3: looking at the view, going damn, this is nice, and 769 00:40:01,400 --> 00:40:04,120 Speaker 3: I'm so glad I did this. But you know what, 770 00:40:04,160 --> 00:40:08,160 Speaker 3: I've also never done, never walked across the Queensboro Bridge. 771 00:40:08,640 --> 00:40:10,880 Speaker 3: And I say to myself, well, I don't have that 772 00:40:10,960 --> 00:40:13,880 Speaker 3: much work to do today. I mean, I told my 773 00:40:13,920 --> 00:40:16,319 Speaker 3: coworkers that we had somebody was out, so I had 774 00:40:16,360 --> 00:40:19,400 Speaker 3: to answer a couple calls or something. But it's like, 775 00:40:19,800 --> 00:40:22,239 Speaker 3: I can spend the day doing this. I got enough 776 00:40:22,280 --> 00:40:26,080 Speaker 3: battery on my phone and listen to music. I'm not 777 00:40:26,200 --> 00:40:29,040 Speaker 3: that tired yet. What if I crossed all four of 778 00:40:29,040 --> 00:40:33,040 Speaker 3: the major bridges, the Walliensburg Bridge, the Manhattan Bridge, the 779 00:40:33,080 --> 00:40:35,880 Speaker 3: Brooklyn Bridge, and the Queensboro Bridge in one day? 780 00:40:35,880 --> 00:40:36,560 Speaker 6: Can I do it? 781 00:40:36,760 --> 00:40:39,799 Speaker 3: And I was, you know, I at that point was 782 00:40:39,800 --> 00:40:44,600 Speaker 3: a couple hours in and it did not feel all 783 00:40:44,719 --> 00:40:50,480 Speaker 3: that difficult to me. And so off I go across 784 00:40:50,480 --> 00:40:54,319 Speaker 3: the Manhattan Bridge into a neighborhood called Dumbo, which is 785 00:40:54,360 --> 00:40:57,000 Speaker 3: an acronym that stands for down under Manhattan Bridge Overpass, 786 00:40:57,400 --> 00:41:00,400 Speaker 3: and I start walking to the Brooklyn Bridge. And I 787 00:41:00,440 --> 00:41:03,800 Speaker 3: get on the Brooklyn Bridge and I cross the Brooklyn Bridge, 788 00:41:03,880 --> 00:41:07,239 Speaker 3: which is no matter what time of year, it is 789 00:41:07,320 --> 00:41:10,080 Speaker 3: virtually always touristy and insane and ridiculous. 790 00:41:11,080 --> 00:41:11,560 Speaker 6: You know, if the. 791 00:41:11,520 --> 00:41:15,600 Speaker 3: Williamsburg Bridge is like lovely in Assyrian Walk and the 792 00:41:15,640 --> 00:41:19,040 Speaker 3: Manhattan Bridge is just a tighter walk, a little bit 793 00:41:19,080 --> 00:41:23,239 Speaker 3: more rough around the edges, but still pretty calm, the 794 00:41:23,480 --> 00:41:26,279 Speaker 3: Brooklyn Bridge is always just teeming with people, you know, 795 00:41:26,400 --> 00:41:30,240 Speaker 3: TikTokers and people selling stuff. And it's a different slice 796 00:41:30,280 --> 00:41:32,320 Speaker 3: in New York. And I think, well, I want to 797 00:41:32,360 --> 00:41:35,360 Speaker 3: stay by the water. This was one of my mistakes 798 00:41:36,400 --> 00:41:39,480 Speaker 3: or not, depending on how you see it. So I 799 00:41:39,560 --> 00:41:42,600 Speaker 3: go Doe east on Manhattan and I walk up the 800 00:41:42,640 --> 00:41:45,279 Speaker 3: side of Manhattan near the water. And this is the 801 00:41:45,400 --> 00:41:47,080 Speaker 3: longest part of the walk, because now I'm at the 802 00:41:47,080 --> 00:41:49,839 Speaker 3: bomb of Manhattan. So I'm going under the Manhattan Bridge 803 00:41:50,120 --> 00:41:54,400 Speaker 3: under the Williamsburg Bridge all the way up to fifty 804 00:41:54,400 --> 00:41:56,840 Speaker 3: seventh Street, and I don't know how many blocks it 805 00:41:56,920 --> 00:42:02,200 Speaker 3: is exactly from City Hall to fifty seventh Street where 806 00:42:02,239 --> 00:42:03,200 Speaker 3: the Queensboro bridges. 807 00:42:03,520 --> 00:42:05,200 Speaker 1: That's got to be only six miles. 808 00:42:05,560 --> 00:42:10,520 Speaker 3: Let's see, I'm doing the numbers right now. It says 809 00:42:11,200 --> 00:42:13,879 Speaker 3: walking from the Brooklyn Bridge to the Queensboro Bridge, it's 810 00:42:13,920 --> 00:42:17,680 Speaker 3: approximately five point five to six miles. This route generally 811 00:42:17,719 --> 00:42:19,520 Speaker 3: falls a path along the East River, such as the 812 00:42:19,520 --> 00:42:22,200 Speaker 3: Second Avenue or East with River Greenway. So I definitely 813 00:42:22,239 --> 00:42:25,240 Speaker 3: took the longest version of that, which was six miles. Okay, 814 00:42:25,920 --> 00:42:28,720 Speaker 3: And it is now midday and the sun is beating 815 00:42:28,760 --> 00:42:32,520 Speaker 3: down on me. I'm starting to feel it summer humid, 816 00:42:32,600 --> 00:42:35,080 Speaker 3: middle of the summer, and I've got this backpack on 817 00:42:35,120 --> 00:42:35,479 Speaker 3: my back. 818 00:42:35,560 --> 00:42:37,719 Speaker 1: Yeah, twounds something like that. 819 00:42:38,040 --> 00:42:40,239 Speaker 3: So now I'm stopping at a park or two to 820 00:42:40,280 --> 00:42:43,320 Speaker 3: take a sit. I get up to the Queensboro Bridge, 821 00:42:43,719 --> 00:42:47,239 Speaker 3: which I have again never crossed doing something new. I 822 00:42:47,320 --> 00:42:51,760 Speaker 3: cannot in good faith recommend walking across the Queensboro Bridge 823 00:42:51,760 --> 00:42:54,880 Speaker 3: because the walking and biking biking paths are one and 824 00:42:54,920 --> 00:42:58,520 Speaker 3: the same. You're at level with the cars, so you're 825 00:42:58,560 --> 00:43:02,840 Speaker 3: basically just a huff and smog, and when it drops 826 00:43:02,880 --> 00:43:06,359 Speaker 3: you off, it drops you off in the middle of Queens. Now, 827 00:43:06,920 --> 00:43:09,080 Speaker 3: if you are a touristing New York and you tell 828 00:43:09,120 --> 00:43:11,839 Speaker 3: me you're going to this part of New York, I'm 829 00:43:12,040 --> 00:43:15,920 Speaker 3: probably convinced that you're either lost or you've done something 830 00:43:16,040 --> 00:43:17,520 Speaker 3: terribly wrong in your trip planning. 831 00:43:17,640 --> 00:43:18,120 Speaker 1: Yeah. 832 00:43:18,200 --> 00:43:20,839 Speaker 3: I walk off the Queensboro Bridge and now I'm in 833 00:43:21,680 --> 00:43:24,359 Speaker 3: Long Island City. Long Island City was actually the first 834 00:43:24,360 --> 00:43:26,640 Speaker 3: neighborhood I moved to in New York, and I moved 835 00:43:26,680 --> 00:43:30,320 Speaker 3: there with Henry in two thousand and five. We shared 836 00:43:30,680 --> 00:43:35,520 Speaker 3: a It was a one bedroom apartment. The girl who 837 00:43:35,600 --> 00:43:38,840 Speaker 3: lived there took the bedroom. We were sleeping on mattresses 838 00:43:38,840 --> 00:43:39,920 Speaker 3: on the floor of the living room. 839 00:43:40,040 --> 00:43:40,560 Speaker 6: Awesome. 840 00:43:41,160 --> 00:43:43,280 Speaker 1: How far did you end up walking the entire day? 841 00:43:43,960 --> 00:43:46,359 Speaker 3: Well, once I got to Queens I was like, all right, 842 00:43:46,440 --> 00:43:49,840 Speaker 3: home stretch. Yeah, So I walked over the Pulawski Bridge 843 00:43:50,080 --> 00:43:53,799 Speaker 3: that connects Long Island City to Greenpoint. That's about forty 844 00:43:53,800 --> 00:43:56,880 Speaker 3: five minutes from my place. And I got there and 845 00:43:56,920 --> 00:44:00,640 Speaker 3: I said, well, you're already here, you might as well 846 00:44:00,680 --> 00:44:04,120 Speaker 3: do the full lap. I instead chose to walk south 847 00:44:04,239 --> 00:44:07,520 Speaker 3: along the Green Point in Williamsburg Waterfront all the way 848 00:44:07,560 --> 00:44:11,839 Speaker 3: back to the base of the Williamsburg Bridge and then 849 00:44:11,880 --> 00:44:14,560 Speaker 3: walk home, which is about twenty minutes for my place. 850 00:44:14,600 --> 00:44:19,000 Speaker 3: So as opposed to walking forty minutes from Greenpoint back 851 00:44:19,040 --> 00:44:22,560 Speaker 3: to my place, I threw on another forty minutes plus 852 00:44:22,560 --> 00:44:28,200 Speaker 3: the twenty it takes to get from Williamsburg back to mine, 853 00:44:28,320 --> 00:44:33,680 Speaker 3: and at that point it was about twenty five or 854 00:44:33,680 --> 00:44:34,720 Speaker 3: twenty four miles. 855 00:44:34,800 --> 00:44:37,040 Speaker 6: Then I get home. 856 00:44:37,400 --> 00:44:41,120 Speaker 3: I take the bag off. Holy shit, I've never felt 857 00:44:41,160 --> 00:44:45,000 Speaker 3: anything like that felt wait, it was, well, just immediately 858 00:44:45,080 --> 00:44:49,640 Speaker 3: I knew that. Typically for anybody who's used a rucking backpack, 859 00:44:49,719 --> 00:44:51,560 Speaker 3: you know the feeling of you take off the bag. 860 00:44:51,600 --> 00:44:55,879 Speaker 3: You feel a sense of like relief and lighter. It's 861 00:44:55,880 --> 00:44:58,840 Speaker 3: like when you're done doing a heavy set of lifting weights. 862 00:44:59,200 --> 00:45:01,520 Speaker 3: Your arms feel a little bit more nimble and area 863 00:45:01,600 --> 00:45:03,279 Speaker 3: and like they can move through air a little bit 864 00:45:03,280 --> 00:45:05,600 Speaker 3: more quickly. Same thing when you take off a rocking 865 00:45:05,640 --> 00:45:08,719 Speaker 3: backpack after like a normal ruck I take off the 866 00:45:08,800 --> 00:45:09,480 Speaker 3: rocking backpack. 867 00:45:09,719 --> 00:45:12,640 Speaker 6: I do not feel that. I just feel sore. 868 00:45:13,040 --> 00:45:19,480 Speaker 1: Yeah, like what have I done? I love the moment 869 00:45:19,760 --> 00:45:20,319 Speaker 1: where you. 870 00:45:21,960 --> 00:45:22,120 Speaker 2: Go. 871 00:45:23,080 --> 00:45:26,239 Speaker 1: I've never crossed all the bridges. What if I gave 872 00:45:26,280 --> 00:45:29,239 Speaker 1: it a shot like that insight. I wonder where that 873 00:45:29,960 --> 00:45:32,799 Speaker 1: came from. Where you're kind of doing something that's you know, 874 00:45:32,840 --> 00:45:35,799 Speaker 1: you're pushing your edge a little bit and you just go, yeah, 875 00:45:35,840 --> 00:45:38,560 Speaker 1: but how much farther can I take this thing? That's 876 00:45:38,600 --> 00:45:40,680 Speaker 1: the best. I've had a few of those moments in 877 00:45:40,719 --> 00:45:43,600 Speaker 1: my life where I'm out doing something you just go, 878 00:45:43,640 --> 00:45:45,640 Speaker 1: what if I just keep going, Let's see what happens. 879 00:45:45,640 --> 00:45:48,920 Speaker 1: And it's like you go into this unexplored zone where 880 00:45:50,480 --> 00:45:52,759 Speaker 1: you're going to test this thing and see what you 881 00:45:52,800 --> 00:45:55,200 Speaker 1: maybe learn from it along the way. And I personally 882 00:45:55,200 --> 00:45:59,160 Speaker 1: have found it's great for ideas, it's great for just 883 00:45:59,239 --> 00:46:02,480 Speaker 1: kind of thinking. I mean especially and I haven't done 884 00:46:02,480 --> 00:46:06,960 Speaker 1: it after something that significant of my life happened, like 885 00:46:07,000 --> 00:46:09,759 Speaker 1: the loss of a friend or something. But I can 886 00:46:09,760 --> 00:46:13,800 Speaker 1: say I gain a lot of insights from good example, 887 00:46:13,880 --> 00:46:16,520 Speaker 1: when I did this crazy long hike in you saw 888 00:46:16,560 --> 00:46:19,960 Speaker 1: It last year, I came to like the center of 889 00:46:20,400 --> 00:46:22,040 Speaker 1: my life and what I want to do with it 890 00:46:22,120 --> 00:46:24,120 Speaker 1: and how I'm spending my time. And that would not 891 00:46:24,200 --> 00:46:27,279 Speaker 1: have happened if I were to just take an hour 892 00:46:27,320 --> 00:46:29,200 Speaker 1: long walk around my house. It's like I had to 893 00:46:29,239 --> 00:46:31,520 Speaker 1: really get out and get the time under my feet 894 00:46:31,560 --> 00:46:34,920 Speaker 1: and let my mind just wander and go places, and 895 00:46:35,200 --> 00:46:37,280 Speaker 1: it found where it needed to go, and I learned 896 00:46:37,280 --> 00:46:37,920 Speaker 1: some things. 897 00:46:38,440 --> 00:46:41,880 Speaker 3: I wish those moments would happen more in my life totally. 898 00:46:42,280 --> 00:46:45,919 Speaker 3: It was so inadvertent, and it was born out of 899 00:46:46,520 --> 00:46:48,560 Speaker 3: it was born out of I literally don't want to 900 00:46:48,560 --> 00:46:51,680 Speaker 3: be in the house anymore. Yeah, And it was a 901 00:46:51,760 --> 00:46:53,520 Speaker 3: variation on the line you don't have to go home, 902 00:46:53,520 --> 00:46:56,479 Speaker 3: but you can't stay here. I didn't want to go home. 903 00:46:56,880 --> 00:46:59,319 Speaker 3: I didn't want to stay where I was. And so 904 00:46:59,520 --> 00:47:01,920 Speaker 3: is truly this moment of like what if I just 905 00:47:02,040 --> 00:47:06,680 Speaker 3: do this? And you saying that that's really interesting? Like 906 00:47:06,800 --> 00:47:08,719 Speaker 3: how often in life do we want to break out 907 00:47:08,719 --> 00:47:14,400 Speaker 3: of the pattern and the thing that we're doing to 908 00:47:14,440 --> 00:47:18,160 Speaker 3: get somewhere else. I wish I could come across those 909 00:47:18,160 --> 00:47:20,799 Speaker 3: moments every day. I wish I could break my routines 910 00:47:21,560 --> 00:47:29,520 Speaker 3: with the moxie of wanting to change shit up and 911 00:47:29,560 --> 00:47:32,359 Speaker 3: the impetus to just try something and then go with 912 00:47:32,400 --> 00:47:36,239 Speaker 3: it totally. And here I should mention that I did 913 00:47:36,280 --> 00:47:38,960 Speaker 3: it a second year. And what I'm going to do 914 00:47:39,520 --> 00:47:42,200 Speaker 3: is I'm going to walk across different bridges, so I 915 00:47:42,239 --> 00:47:44,520 Speaker 3: load up the backpack, I fill it with a couple 916 00:47:44,600 --> 00:47:46,960 Speaker 3: frozen bottles of ice water. It is even hotter this 917 00:47:47,040 --> 00:47:51,000 Speaker 3: day than it was the year before. It is scorching. 918 00:47:52,600 --> 00:47:56,840 Speaker 3: The bridges I end up crossing are mostly in Brooklyn 919 00:47:56,840 --> 00:48:00,680 Speaker 3: and Queens Yeah, And the only public transport I took 920 00:48:01,120 --> 00:48:06,000 Speaker 3: during this day was until I got to my final destination, 921 00:48:06,640 --> 00:48:09,200 Speaker 3: the tram that takes you from Roosevelt Island down to 922 00:48:09,200 --> 00:48:10,240 Speaker 3: the Queensboro Bridge. 923 00:48:10,840 --> 00:48:11,200 Speaker 6: I walk. 924 00:48:11,280 --> 00:48:13,960 Speaker 3: And also, I'd never been on Roosevelt Island at this point, 925 00:48:14,000 --> 00:48:16,840 Speaker 3: lived in New York for you know, nineteen years, eighteen 926 00:48:16,880 --> 00:48:19,160 Speaker 3: years at this point, never been on Roosevelt Island, never 927 00:48:19,160 --> 00:48:21,000 Speaker 3: been on any of these bridges either. There's a reason 928 00:48:21,040 --> 00:48:26,000 Speaker 3: for that. So I take the tram, I walk across 929 00:48:26,040 --> 00:48:26,640 Speaker 3: Central Park. 930 00:48:27,560 --> 00:48:29,760 Speaker 6: I walk across the Bow Bridge, which goes over. 931 00:48:29,640 --> 00:48:31,799 Speaker 3: The pond in Central Park. It is, fun fact, the 932 00:48:31,880 --> 00:48:34,640 Speaker 3: shortest pedestrian bridge in New York City and one of 933 00:48:34,640 --> 00:48:37,160 Speaker 3: the oldest. And then I decide, here's what I'm gonna do. 934 00:48:37,960 --> 00:48:39,520 Speaker 3: I'm going to walk all the way up to the 935 00:48:39,520 --> 00:48:45,560 Speaker 3: George Washington Bridge from what fifty seventh Street in Central Park. 936 00:48:46,040 --> 00:48:47,920 Speaker 3: I walk all the way to the top of Central Park. 937 00:48:48,640 --> 00:48:53,400 Speaker 3: Never done that fifty eighth Street, or at the wherever 938 00:48:53,440 --> 00:48:55,040 Speaker 3: I was at the top of Central Park, whatever block 939 00:48:55,080 --> 00:48:57,560 Speaker 3: that is one hundred and tenth Street. Maybe it's where 940 00:48:57,600 --> 00:49:01,520 Speaker 3: you start tripping over needles in the park. You're you're 941 00:49:01,640 --> 00:49:06,759 Speaker 3: on the west side, climbing up through Harlem. It is hot. 942 00:49:07,160 --> 00:49:12,040 Speaker 3: I was walking into Bodega's looking like oh, and I 943 00:49:12,080 --> 00:49:14,439 Speaker 3: also had my camera with me and added a couple 944 00:49:14,440 --> 00:49:18,920 Speaker 3: of pounds. I mean, I was soaked in sweat, caked 945 00:49:18,920 --> 00:49:22,200 Speaker 3: in dirt. I looked like I was trying to give 946 00:49:22,239 --> 00:49:27,800 Speaker 3: myself dehydration and what is it, rabbo dialosis or whatever 947 00:49:27,840 --> 00:49:31,359 Speaker 3: whatever the condition is where your muscles start breaking down 948 00:49:32,320 --> 00:49:37,719 Speaker 3: and poisoning your body. For sure, rabo. Yeah, looked like 949 00:49:37,760 --> 00:49:38,960 Speaker 3: I was trying to give myself that. 950 00:49:39,040 --> 00:49:41,040 Speaker 1: I will say. The nice thing about walking around New 951 00:49:41,120 --> 00:49:44,279 Speaker 1: York is plenty of resources. You know, if you're not 952 00:49:44,360 --> 00:49:45,960 Speaker 1: doing it in the wilderness, you're like shit, I ran 953 00:49:46,000 --> 00:49:47,600 Speaker 1: out of water, I ran out of food. What am 954 00:49:47,600 --> 00:49:48,000 Speaker 1: I going to do? 955 00:49:48,040 --> 00:49:48,880 Speaker 6: There's a bodega right there. 956 00:49:49,000 --> 00:49:50,799 Speaker 1: There's a bodega right there. He's got everything you could 957 00:49:50,800 --> 00:49:51,160 Speaker 1: ever need. 958 00:49:51,719 --> 00:49:53,280 Speaker 6: That's that is correct. 959 00:49:53,480 --> 00:49:56,759 Speaker 3: And and so I get all the way up to 960 00:49:56,800 --> 00:50:00,560 Speaker 3: the George Washington Bridge, which is well at the top 961 00:50:00,600 --> 00:50:05,080 Speaker 3: of Manhattan. The George Washington Bridge connects New Jersey to Manhattan. 962 00:50:06,800 --> 00:50:10,480 Speaker 3: And I get up to it and I am, I'm 963 00:50:10,719 --> 00:50:15,200 Speaker 3: just cooked. And I walk across the George Washington Bridge, 964 00:50:15,400 --> 00:50:18,000 Speaker 3: which is, as far as bridges go, probably the most 965 00:50:18,040 --> 00:50:23,080 Speaker 3: like epic and insane bridge of them all. Traffics going 966 00:50:23,200 --> 00:50:26,160 Speaker 3: right by you. You are very high up. You're looking 967 00:50:26,239 --> 00:50:30,040 Speaker 3: up the Hudson River to the Hudson Valley down at 968 00:50:30,040 --> 00:50:32,760 Speaker 3: the rest of Manhattan. It's pretty epic, but it's also 969 00:50:33,840 --> 00:50:36,759 Speaker 3: you're walking to New Jersey. And so I get to 970 00:50:36,800 --> 00:50:41,279 Speaker 3: the line in the sidewalk that says New York and 971 00:50:41,320 --> 00:50:44,920 Speaker 3: then there's a line that says New Jersey and I 972 00:50:44,960 --> 00:50:48,360 Speaker 3: look at it and I say, fuck this. No I 973 00:50:48,400 --> 00:50:50,840 Speaker 3: believe I said to myself, fuck New Jersey. And I 974 00:50:50,880 --> 00:50:54,040 Speaker 3: turn around start walking back, and I get about fifty 975 00:50:54,040 --> 00:50:59,080 Speaker 3: feet and I go, if you don't cross this bridge 976 00:50:59,080 --> 00:51:00,160 Speaker 3: and get all the way of the New the New 977 00:51:00,280 --> 00:51:03,800 Speaker 3: Jersey side and back, this will haunt you for the rest. 978 00:51:03,560 --> 00:51:04,120 Speaker 6: Of your life. 979 00:51:04,320 --> 00:51:06,200 Speaker 1: Gotta finish, gotta finish. 980 00:51:07,080 --> 00:51:09,799 Speaker 3: So I truck it, go all the way over to the 981 00:51:09,840 --> 00:51:12,360 Speaker 3: New Jersey side, look at it. 982 00:51:12,440 --> 00:51:14,799 Speaker 1: Experience a little bit of New Jersey trauma. If you're 983 00:51:14,840 --> 00:51:17,000 Speaker 1: going to go up to the edge of the wasteland, 984 00:51:17,000 --> 00:51:18,799 Speaker 1: you just gotta get in take a peek. 985 00:51:19,040 --> 00:51:19,360 Speaker 6: Listen. 986 00:51:19,600 --> 00:51:21,440 Speaker 3: I put a foot in that was more than enough. 987 00:51:21,520 --> 00:51:23,520 Speaker 3: And then I turned around and hiked back. And then 988 00:51:23,560 --> 00:51:26,000 Speaker 3: I got on the A train and took it all 989 00:51:26,040 --> 00:51:28,719 Speaker 3: the way down to fourteenth Street, got on the L 990 00:51:28,800 --> 00:51:30,920 Speaker 3: took it back to my place. And if I was 991 00:51:31,040 --> 00:51:34,640 Speaker 3: sore the year before this time, I. 992 00:51:34,760 --> 00:51:37,400 Speaker 6: Was cooked cooked. 993 00:51:37,480 --> 00:51:39,279 Speaker 3: I mean I must have been sore for three days 994 00:51:39,320 --> 00:51:46,600 Speaker 3: after I it was. It went from being an enjoyable, fun, 995 00:51:46,719 --> 00:51:52,879 Speaker 3: ritual discovery to this moby dick like hunt for new 996 00:51:52,960 --> 00:51:56,640 Speaker 3: experiences that cost me body, mind, and soul. 997 00:51:57,640 --> 00:52:01,720 Speaker 1: So what did you learn in totality from this? Because 998 00:52:01,719 --> 00:52:04,440 Speaker 1: we set this up by you're not a person who 999 00:52:04,440 --> 00:52:10,480 Speaker 1: would normally do this. Something prompted this that wasn't what 1000 00:52:10,520 --> 00:52:11,239 Speaker 1: you would hope for. 1001 00:52:12,239 --> 00:52:13,800 Speaker 6: I mean, listen, I am. 1002 00:52:14,280 --> 00:52:17,080 Speaker 3: I am, like many of your adherents, deranged enough to 1003 00:52:17,120 --> 00:52:19,759 Speaker 3: put on a backpack full of weight for the sake of. 1004 00:52:19,640 --> 00:52:22,560 Speaker 1: Doing so heavy, for the syc of being heavy. 1005 00:52:22,920 --> 00:52:25,319 Speaker 3: I learned exactly the thing that I set out to, 1006 00:52:26,239 --> 00:52:29,560 Speaker 3: which was the new things are possible, and I would 1007 00:52:29,560 --> 00:52:34,279 Speaker 3: do well to internalize that. I think, if anything, I've 1008 00:52:34,280 --> 00:52:36,600 Speaker 3: failed to capitalize on that, maybe as much as I 1009 00:52:36,640 --> 00:52:40,000 Speaker 3: should or would have liked to. No, certainly as much 1010 00:52:40,000 --> 00:52:44,319 Speaker 3: as I should or would have liked to because and 1011 00:52:44,960 --> 00:52:48,480 Speaker 3: I already feel the cliche spilling out of me. But 1012 00:52:51,000 --> 00:52:54,120 Speaker 3: you don't really know what you're capable of until you 1013 00:52:54,200 --> 00:52:58,759 Speaker 3: try it. And it doesn't actually take that much to 1014 00:52:59,000 --> 00:53:02,640 Speaker 3: show you that or to demonstrate that. Literally, for me, 1015 00:53:02,680 --> 00:53:04,640 Speaker 3: it was just putting one foot in front of another 1016 00:53:05,640 --> 00:53:06,799 Speaker 3: and I did. 1017 00:53:07,680 --> 00:53:12,240 Speaker 6: I did, and it was wonderful. And I don't want. 1018 00:53:12,080 --> 00:53:14,279 Speaker 3: To be prescriptive about this, but I think it would 1019 00:53:14,280 --> 00:53:18,160 Speaker 3: be a comment upon me to find more opportunities to 1020 00:53:18,200 --> 00:53:23,520 Speaker 3: do that. And I don't you know, it's it's like 1021 00:53:23,560 --> 00:53:26,920 Speaker 3: they say at financial firms, past performance does not indicate 1022 00:53:26,960 --> 00:53:29,840 Speaker 3: future results. So I don't want to make this promise 1023 00:53:29,880 --> 00:53:33,480 Speaker 3: to anybody, but I don't think most people are going 1024 00:53:33,520 --> 00:53:34,239 Speaker 3: to be the lesser for. 1025 00:53:34,200 --> 00:53:37,600 Speaker 1: It has just been talking and kind of telling this 1026 00:53:37,680 --> 00:53:41,320 Speaker 1: larger story. There was a guy who helped me get sober, 1027 00:53:41,480 --> 00:53:47,799 Speaker 1: like the most influential person in that journey, and he 1028 00:53:47,880 --> 00:53:52,400 Speaker 1: got diagnosed with stage four colon cancer, similar to you, 1029 00:53:52,520 --> 00:53:54,799 Speaker 1: he goes. I was in the house. I didn't want 1030 00:53:54,800 --> 00:53:56,719 Speaker 1: to be in the house. I didn't really want to 1031 00:53:56,719 --> 00:54:00,239 Speaker 1: be anywhere else though, So I just went outside, took 1032 00:54:00,239 --> 00:54:03,000 Speaker 1: a walk, ended up taking a long walk, and he 1033 00:54:03,040 --> 00:54:07,920 Speaker 1: goes somewhere along that walk. I became okay with it. 1034 00:54:07,920 --> 00:54:10,840 Speaker 1: It is what it is. And he returned home with 1035 00:54:10,920 --> 00:54:16,560 Speaker 1: this totally different outlook. Now that dude knew we had 1036 00:54:17,200 --> 00:54:21,440 Speaker 1: stage four colon cancer once he started helping me. I 1037 00:54:21,440 --> 00:54:23,359 Speaker 1: didn't know he had that until i'd met known him 1038 00:54:23,360 --> 00:54:27,120 Speaker 1: for like three months. And I think back to that 1039 00:54:27,320 --> 00:54:31,320 Speaker 1: all the time, just the selflessness behind that, and also 1040 00:54:32,760 --> 00:54:38,480 Speaker 1: where that comes from. And I do think sometimes you 1041 00:54:38,560 --> 00:54:41,840 Speaker 1: need to go do something that allows you to process 1042 00:54:41,880 --> 00:54:45,480 Speaker 1: and reframe things. Yeah, and I think if you look 1043 00:54:45,520 --> 00:54:48,799 Speaker 1: at the grand history of humanity, walking has always been 1044 00:54:48,840 --> 00:54:52,359 Speaker 1: one of those things. Why do people go on pilgrimage? 1045 00:54:52,719 --> 00:54:56,799 Speaker 1: Why do things happen mentally? You go on a walk 1046 00:54:56,800 --> 00:54:59,239 Speaker 1: and it appears as a physical act. It's not. It 1047 00:54:59,280 --> 00:55:03,680 Speaker 1: is a physical act, but it's more a mental exploration 1048 00:55:03,960 --> 00:55:04,359 Speaker 1: in a way. 1049 00:55:04,960 --> 00:55:09,080 Speaker 3: I dare anybody listen to this, who visits New York 1050 00:55:09,080 --> 00:55:12,840 Speaker 3: City or Paris or London to go and put twenty 1051 00:55:12,880 --> 00:55:16,000 Speaker 3: thousand steps in near the center of those cities. 1052 00:55:17,120 --> 00:55:19,160 Speaker 6: Don't retrace any of them. Just twenty thousand. 1053 00:55:19,320 --> 00:55:22,359 Speaker 3: They'll take you, by my account, you know, not two 1054 00:55:22,440 --> 00:55:25,479 Speaker 3: hundred minutes, give or take so three hours. Your life 1055 00:55:25,480 --> 00:55:30,920 Speaker 3: will improve dramatically that I will guarantee, absent some tragedy 1056 00:55:31,040 --> 00:55:37,640 Speaker 3: or active God, there is just nothing like going for 1057 00:55:37,680 --> 00:55:38,320 Speaker 3: a good walk. 1058 00:55:38,640 --> 00:55:39,360 Speaker 6: There really isn't. 1059 00:55:39,800 --> 00:55:42,799 Speaker 1: Feels like a perfect note to end on Foster, Thanks 1060 00:55:42,840 --> 00:55:43,800 Speaker 1: for coming on, man. 1061 00:55:44,640 --> 00:55:50,239 Speaker 3: Man my pleasure. What a joy, What a joy. 1062 00:55:51,480 --> 00:55:54,000 Speaker 1: All right, let's wrap things up, let's land the plane. 1063 00:55:54,040 --> 00:55:57,120 Speaker 1: So we have just talked to two people who are 1064 00:55:57,160 --> 00:56:00,279 Speaker 1: talking about really extreme forms of walking. On one hand, 1065 00:56:00,320 --> 00:56:03,400 Speaker 1: we have this ridiculous Stephen King murderous scenario where these 1066 00:56:03,480 --> 00:56:06,640 Speaker 1: boys have to walk very far, and yes, it shows 1067 00:56:06,680 --> 00:56:10,160 Speaker 1: us that the human body is capable of walking extreme 1068 00:56:10,239 --> 00:56:12,840 Speaker 1: distances if we need to. On the other hand, we 1069 00:56:12,920 --> 00:56:16,600 Speaker 1: have Foster, who without any training, ended up rocking more 1070 00:56:16,640 --> 00:56:20,160 Speaker 1: than a marathon across New York City. These are unbelievable, 1071 00:56:20,360 --> 00:56:23,880 Speaker 1: inspiring forms of walking, but at the same time raises 1072 00:56:23,920 --> 00:56:26,919 Speaker 1: a question, how many steps should you be getting day 1073 00:56:26,960 --> 00:56:29,480 Speaker 1: to day? I'm talking about in the trenches of daily life, 1074 00:56:29,520 --> 00:56:32,160 Speaker 1: where you're not taking on these giant challenges where you're 1075 00:56:32,200 --> 00:56:34,759 Speaker 1: just like, how many steps do I need in order 1076 00:56:35,040 --> 00:56:38,400 Speaker 1: to be healthy? Now here's what I'll say. You've probably 1077 00:56:38,440 --> 00:56:41,279 Speaker 1: heard the numbers ten thousand. Turns out that's a myth. 1078 00:56:41,840 --> 00:56:46,960 Speaker 1: So it was started by a Japanese pedometer manufacturer who 1079 00:56:47,120 --> 00:56:50,759 Speaker 1: named their pedometer the man Poquet, and that translates to 1080 00:56:50,960 --> 00:56:54,560 Speaker 1: the ten thousand steps meter. That number stuck. There's a 1081 00:56:54,600 --> 00:56:59,399 Speaker 1: couple reasons for that. One, it's five figures rather than four. Two, 1082 00:56:59,600 --> 00:57:02,960 Speaker 1: it's very memorable, it's nice and round, and three it's 1083 00:57:03,080 --> 00:57:05,239 Speaker 1: enough walking that you actually have to get out and 1084 00:57:05,280 --> 00:57:07,040 Speaker 1: take a walk in order to hit it. So that 1085 00:57:07,120 --> 00:57:09,040 Speaker 1: number just sort of stuck. That's what everyone thought, Oh, 1086 00:57:09,120 --> 00:57:11,120 Speaker 1: that is the optimal number of steps a day. But 1087 00:57:11,160 --> 00:57:14,880 Speaker 1: then something happened. Scientists started digging into the data and 1088 00:57:14,920 --> 00:57:18,680 Speaker 1: they found that ten thousand steps isn't really the optimal number. 1089 00:57:18,960 --> 00:57:21,640 Speaker 1: So there are two ways to look at this. First, 1090 00:57:22,000 --> 00:57:24,280 Speaker 1: there is a daily step count that is sort of 1091 00:57:24,320 --> 00:57:27,200 Speaker 1: the bare minimum that you should get for health, and 1092 00:57:27,280 --> 00:57:29,880 Speaker 1: the second is sort of an optimal number. 1093 00:57:29,960 --> 00:57:30,600 Speaker 6: It's higher. 1094 00:57:30,720 --> 00:57:33,960 Speaker 1: It gives you the greatest return on your health. At 1095 00:57:34,000 --> 00:57:35,880 Speaker 1: the same time, it's quite a few steps. So the 1096 00:57:35,920 --> 00:57:37,880 Speaker 1: first number, if you just want to hit the bare 1097 00:57:37,960 --> 00:57:40,440 Speaker 1: minimum of health benefits, and this is backed by a 1098 00:57:40,480 --> 00:57:43,479 Speaker 1: study in a Lancet. Plenty of other studies have looked 1099 00:57:43,480 --> 00:57:48,120 Speaker 1: into this. Researchers generally fine that seven thousand steps a 1100 00:57:48,200 --> 00:57:50,960 Speaker 1: day is an ideal number that lets you sort of 1101 00:57:51,080 --> 00:57:55,160 Speaker 1: maximize your health benefits in the minimum amount of time possible. 1102 00:57:55,520 --> 00:57:57,800 Speaker 1: So if you're pressed for time, your goal should be 1103 00:57:57,880 --> 00:58:01,720 Speaker 1: seven thousand a day. That helps you ward off most diseases. 1104 00:58:02,240 --> 00:58:04,960 Speaker 1: It reduces your risk of dying early. That is a 1105 00:58:05,000 --> 00:58:09,720 Speaker 1: great number. That said, more is better, So if you 1106 00:58:09,800 --> 00:58:13,400 Speaker 1: dive deeper into that data, the studies find that twelve 1107 00:58:13,480 --> 00:58:17,880 Speaker 1: thousand steps a day allows you to absolutely maximize your 1108 00:58:17,920 --> 00:58:22,240 Speaker 1: health benefits. And the catch is doing more than twelve thousand, 1109 00:58:22,520 --> 00:58:25,520 Speaker 1: it doesn't seem to reduce your risk of disease any further. 1110 00:58:25,560 --> 00:58:28,840 Speaker 1: It doesn't give you any more. Now that said, the 1111 00:58:28,880 --> 00:58:31,760 Speaker 1: benefits of going from seven thousand to twelve thousand steps 1112 00:58:31,760 --> 00:58:34,440 Speaker 1: a day, we're just a little bit better. It's not 1113 00:58:34,520 --> 00:58:37,960 Speaker 1: like a crazy difference. So again seven thousand, if you 1114 00:58:37,960 --> 00:58:40,360 Speaker 1: want to hit the bare minimum, twelve thousand will get 1115 00:58:40,360 --> 00:58:42,480 Speaker 1: you a little more benefits. Of course, it's going to 1116 00:58:42,520 --> 00:58:45,600 Speaker 1: take a lot more time and then the inevitable question 1117 00:58:45,800 --> 00:58:48,480 Speaker 1: is okay, great, now that I know the real numbers, 1118 00:58:48,600 --> 00:58:51,840 Speaker 1: how do I actually get that amount of steps let's 1119 00:58:51,840 --> 00:58:56,440 Speaker 1: say seven thousand. Here's my advice. I think you should 1120 00:58:56,480 --> 00:58:59,840 Speaker 1: look for ways that you can add walking into things 1121 00:58:59,840 --> 00:59:02,080 Speaker 1: that you already have to do. One of my favorite 1122 00:59:02,080 --> 00:59:05,040 Speaker 1: stories about this comes from this woman who reads my 1123 00:59:05,040 --> 00:59:07,640 Speaker 1: two percent substack. Her name was Mary. She had a 1124 00:59:07,680 --> 00:59:09,680 Speaker 1: desk job where she would take phone calls all day. 1125 00:59:09,720 --> 00:59:11,760 Speaker 1: She was only getting two to three thousand steps a day. 1126 00:59:12,480 --> 00:59:16,440 Speaker 1: What she did is she realized, oh, I do have 1127 00:59:16,520 --> 00:59:18,920 Speaker 1: to take all these phone calls for work, but I 1128 00:59:18,960 --> 00:59:21,280 Speaker 1: do not have to take them sitting. So she started 1129 00:59:21,320 --> 00:59:24,280 Speaker 1: popping in headphones and taking her calls while walking, and 1130 00:59:24,320 --> 00:59:26,920 Speaker 1: she was able to get well past seven thousand steps 1131 00:59:26,960 --> 00:59:30,480 Speaker 1: a day. Nothing in her life changed except she started 1132 00:59:30,480 --> 00:59:33,880 Speaker 1: taking those phone calls while walking. So the takeaway look 1133 00:59:33,920 --> 00:59:36,520 Speaker 1: for easy ways to add more walking in your life. 1134 00:59:36,680 --> 00:59:39,360 Speaker 1: As for me, and I may sound like a complete 1135 00:59:39,400 --> 00:59:42,720 Speaker 1: and utter psychopath for saying this, I get about fourteen 1136 00:59:42,760 --> 00:59:45,480 Speaker 1: thousand steps a day at the same time I'm not 1137 00:59:45,520 --> 00:59:49,920 Speaker 1: necessarily trying to. Instead, I happen to have an absolutely 1138 00:59:50,040 --> 00:59:53,240 Speaker 1: insane hunting dog named Duke. And if he doesn't get 1139 00:59:53,240 --> 00:59:55,840 Speaker 1: the steps in, he is just going to go find 1140 00:59:55,880 --> 00:59:58,680 Speaker 1: a mission in my house and it typically involves, i 1141 00:59:58,680 --> 01:00:01,480 Speaker 1: don't know, pulling down a computer monitor or a coffee maker, 1142 01:00:02,120 --> 01:00:06,080 Speaker 1: so he really incentivizes me to get in all those steps. 1143 01:00:06,640 --> 01:00:09,160 Speaker 1: That is our show for today. Thanks for checking it out, 1144 01:00:09,320 --> 01:00:11,600 Speaker 1: and thank you to Foster and Melissa for talking to 1145 01:00:11,720 --> 01:00:15,440 Speaker 1: us about the power of walking. Do not forget to subscribe, 1146 01:00:15,760 --> 01:00:18,800 Speaker 1: and if you have a question, please put it in 1147 01:00:18,920 --> 01:00:21,600 Speaker 1: the comments or send us an email and we will 1148 01:00:21,640 --> 01:00:24,040 Speaker 1: try and answer as many questions as possible. And if 1149 01:00:24,040 --> 01:00:27,080 Speaker 1: you want bonus points, send us that question in a 1150 01:00:27,160 --> 01:00:31,080 Speaker 1: voice memo or in video format and we will have that. 1151 01:00:31,320 --> 01:00:36,120 Speaker 1: We would absolutely love that. As always, in closing, have fun, 1152 01:00:36,880 --> 01:00:38,960 Speaker 1: don't die.