Dan Lieberman

Awesome interview with Harvard Professor Dan Lieberman in the New York Times -- and not just on barefoot running.  Dr. Lieberman will be speaking at the New York City Barefoot Run coming up on September 24-25th.

Q. Are there any practical benefits to your research?

A. There are. A majority of the undergraduates who register for my evolutionary anatomy and physiology class here at Harvard are pre-medical students. Learning this will help them become better doctors. Many of the conditions they’ll be treating are rooted in the mismatch between the world we live in today and the Paleolithic bodies we’ve inherited.

For example, impacted wisdom teeth and malocclusions are very recent problems. They arise because we now process our food so much that we chew with little force. These interactions affect how our faces grow, which causes previously unknown dental problems. Hunter-gatherers — who live in ways similar to our ancestors — don’t have impacted wisdom teeth or cavities. There are many other conditions rooted in the mismatch — fallen arches, osteoporosis, cancer, myopia, diabetes and back trouble. So understanding evolutionary biology will definitely help my students when they become orthopedists, orthodontists and craniofacial surgeons.

...

Q. Is your research part of a trend?

A. It’s part of this movement to try to listen to evolution in our bodies. We evolved to eat different diets, to run differently and live differently from the ways we do today. People are looking to evolution to find out how our bodies adapted and what might be healthier for us. That’s good.

You're damn right it's part of a trend.  Welcome to the epicenter of the health revolution.  The full interview is here, and you can get your tickets for NYCBR here.

The train has left the station, and the brakes don't work.  Our "Wild Barefoot Running Event Series" started back in August with our Harlem-to-Brooklyn run with Christopher McDougall, built up to the New York City Barefoot Run in October, and now we have McDougall back in town for the New York City Marathon and the biggest Born to Run event ever.  Sponsored and organized by Paragon Sports and Vibram.  This is the 3rd Act.  If you made the other events, you know it's been a blast.  If you haven't, here's a chance to redeem yourself.  This is one you don't want to miss.

Here's the announcement from McDougall:

• Dr. Daniel Lieberman, Harvard’s “Barefoot Professor” and co-creator of the “Running Man” theory of human evolution.
• Coach Eric Orton, the wizard from Born to Run who rebuilt me in time for the epic race against the Tarahumara.
• Barefoot Ted McDonald: is any introduction necessary? For the first time ever on stage, BFT will be simultaneously demonstrating how to craft your own pair of Tarahumara-style racing sandals while describing his years-long exploration of indigenous footwear in search of the perfect minimalist running shoe. 
• John Durant: fresh from his star-turn on The Colbert Report and a national leader of hunter-gatherer athleticism. John was at least half the brains behind that wild moving street party of the Harlem run and recently staged the gigantic First Annual New York Barefoot Run on Governors island.
• Fast and Female will be making a special presentation
• Plus a special mystery guest will be on hand with exciting Born to Run news (more on this soon. Really soon).
• AND hula dancers! Vibram FiveFingers giveaways! Personalized book signings! A raffle for a special event: Saturday In The Park With McDougall and Barefoot Ted. Raffle winners will be personally fitted and presented with a pair of Vibram FiveFingers, then join Barefoot Ted and I for a run in Central Park followed by muffins and coffee.

• About 265 people ended up registering for the run, and we had around 300 people at the run itself.  I don't know if this qualifies as the largest official barefoot or minimalist running event, but it well may.  (If you don't count recess at any number of Kenyan schools.)
• Over 25% of participants came from outside the tri-state area (NY, CT, NJ), which is awesome. Truly a destination event. Arkansas, California, Florida, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Alabama, Sweden, one guy even re-routed his trip from Israel through NYC for the run.
• From conception to execution, we pulled off the event in about two and half months. And we only had the site up for people to register for about one month. Not bad...makes you wonder what we can do next year when we actually have some time to plan and promote!
• Barefoot Runners NYC was founded on November 7th, 2009...less than a year ago.  What a year.
• Terra Plana ended up raffling off over $2,500 worth of shoes and apparel.  With contributions from Tip Top Shoes, Injinji, Luna Sandals, and all of our barefoot running leaders, we had well over 50 prizes.  (As someone joked, it's not that lucky people won something -- it's that unlucky people didn't win.)

• In Daniel Howell's excellent Saturday AM talk, he compared wearing shoes to smoking cigarettes...while in a shoe store surrounded by shoe salesmen. I thought he was going to get a shoe horn to the head. Possible to use a different metaphor, Daniel?
• Barefoot Ted found a crabapple tree during the run, and started passing out crabapples to runners. Also, Ted ran part of the course backwards backwards...which is definitely not the same as running it forwards.  (Said another way, he was running backwards, around the course in the wrong direction.)
• Dan Lieberman ran one of the longest distances of any of the 250+ runners. 17 miles or so, gearing up for the New York City Marathon. Now that's an academic who doesn't just talk the talk, he walks the walks.  (And runs the run.)
• Erwan Le Corre kindly helped me carry cases and cases of bananas up six flights of stairs to my apartment. Let it be known that Erwan's banana carrying capacity is double mine.  Not that there was any doubt...I just wanted to quantify (in bananas) how much stronger Erwan is than I am.  250 bananas stronger.
• Jason Robillard wore his running kilt to the run. Apparently when we told Jason that Governors Island was going to be breezy and to dress accordingly, he did. Think Marylin Monroe, but more Scottish and manly.  But just as sexy.
• I fell deeply in love with my new ThunderPower 400 Megaphone. (Tagline: "You WILL be heard!") Even if the event had bombed, I still would have had this wonderful, wonderful toy. You'll see the megaphone surface in a few of the blog reviews.

Comments, blog posts, and reviews:

• Barefoot Ted: "First Annual NYC Barefoot Run was a HUGE success. Loved it and look forward to going again next year."
• Jason Robillard: "Attention all barefoot/minimalist runners- start making plans to attend the 2nd annual NYC Barefoot Run. This has been an amazing experience thus far!"
• Daniel Howell: "What an amazing 1st NYC barefoot run. If you didn't make it this year, you MUST make it next year!"
• Erwan Le Corre: "Fantastic people, event, weather, experience: 1st annual NYC barefoot run, beautifully organized by John and his sister Maggie Durant."
• At Birthday Shoes: "I plan to be back next year."  (And we want you too next year, Justin Owings.)
• Paleo Playbok: "The star of the show was Dan Lieberman, the Harvard University scientist who studies the anatomical efficiencies of human locomotion. In a truly remarkable presentation, he covered the science behind the sport from early human history up to Newtonian physics."
• Fifth Ape: "It was an amazing event."
• Hunt Gather Love
• Nathan Matthews
• Barefoot Fresca
• Cro-Modern

• Photos here, here, here, here, here, and here.
• Short video of Day 1 (Barefoot Ted clip) and Day 2 (start of the race)

Harvard Professor Dan Lieberman just joined Barefoot Runners NYC for a morning run in Central Park.  We did a little over 3 miles before I had to split.   He's recently back from Kenya, the land of barefoot runners, where he is preparing for an ambitious study on running injuries.  Very cool.

Amazing, though, how few companies and institutions are interested in funding his work.  I can't think of a more practical area of study, with direct implications for tens of millions of running Americans.  Professor Lieberman also observed how psychologically wedded we are to our fancy modern running shoes -- even though they're only a few decades old.

You can check out a few interviews with Professor Lieberman.