Walking Matters, Part 1

Ever since our ancestors rose to their feet, our species has been defined by walking upright. But the act involves our minds as well as our bodies. We interpret the act of walking, and give it our stamp - from ramblers to Rousseau, from models and tramps to Buddhist monks. In this two-part series, Marilyn Powell explores the world of walking and what it means to us. Part 2 airs on Wednesday, March 19.

Participants in the program:

Dean Falk, Hale G. Smith Professor of Anthropology at Florida State University and Senior Scholar at the School for Advanced Research, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Wayne Curtis, journalist, contributing editor to  The Atlantic magazine .

Robert Macfarlane, writer, critic, academic, Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

Heidi Manicki-Klaffey, keeper, western lowland gorillas,  Toronto Zoo.

Peter Newman, family physician

Susan Orlean, staff writer for  The New Yorker magazine


Reading List:

Dean Falk
The Fossil Chronicles: How Two Controversial Discoveries Changed Our View of Human Evolution, University of California Press, 2011 

Finding Our Tongues: Mothers, Infants & the Origins of Language, Perseus/Basic Books, 2009;

Braindance Revised and Expanded, University Press of Florida, 2004;

"Brain Evolution in Females: an Answer to Mr. Lovejoy," in Women in Evolution, L. Hager, ed., London: Routledge, pp. 114-136.


Robert Macfarlane
The Old Ways: a Journey on Foot, Hamish Hamilton, The Penguin Group, 2013

The Wild Places, Penguin Books, 2007

Mountains of the Mind: Adventures in Reaching the Summit, Vintage Books, 2004.


Susan Orlean
"The Walking Alive," The New Yorker magazine, May 20, 2013. 


Wayne Curtis
The Last Great Walk: The True Story of a 1909 Walk from New York to San Francisco and Why It Matters Today, Rodale, September 2012. 


Related websites:

Sitting risks: How harmful is too much sitting? - Mayo Clinic