A few years ago, I was your typical office-worker: stressed out, uneven energy, overweight, and inconsistent complexion. Now I'm just your typical 28-year old urban hunter-gatherer on a quest to be healthy, and having a few adventures along the way. See my full bio.
Here's a demonstration of the 100-Up Technique that Chris McDougall writes about in his Times Mag piece. It's supposed to help develop good running form, using a light heel-strike. Gonna give it a try today.
When I was at the CrossFit Games in Los Angeles this summer, they had a booth set up that couples were coming out of. Naturally, I assumed it was a kissing booth, so I got in line. Turns out it was a video booth where you could talk about CrossFit and what it means to you. Not as fun, but whatever. My video is about 3 minutes long, and I cover the following topics:
when I first tried CrossFit
getting looks for doing CrossFit workouts in conventional gyms
Below is my talk from the Ancestral Health Symposium. It's called "Wild Animals, Zoos, and You: The Influence of Habitat on Health". I talk about what we can learn about human health from animals in zoos, including some of these fun topics:
the origins of jumbo jets, jumbo shrimp, and Dumbo
a brief history of zoos
the most dangerous animal in zoos
the most famous (and worst) piece of modern architecture in zoos
biological organisms as information processors
the "Un-Zoo"
cheetah sex
why gorillas should be vegans
gorge and fast feeding in captive lions
why gerbils dig
a neutral approach to health (the Veil of Ignorance)
how do you make anything healthy?
our last connection to the wild
And here are the slides -- you'll definitely want to follow along, I used a lot of pictures. Enjoy, and let me know what you think in the comments.
This video appears to show a New Guinea tribe meeting a modern white person for the first time circa 1976. I don't know who filmed it or anything about it - so despite posting it, I can't vouch for its veracity. (I've heard of faked "first contact" events before.) But check it out:
0:28 - tribe walks across a log over a rushing river
4:00 - feeling the white man's skin and hair
6:55 - first look into a mirror
8:10 - demonstrating a blade
11:30 - looking at plastic containers
12:20 - looking at a flashlight and camera
I mostly feel sad watching videos like this. The tribesmen usually look stupid handling our technology for the first time. I'd like to see that white dude try to walk across the log in his hiking boots -- he'd probably fall into the river. Or see him try to survive without his pocketknife and matches and Tupperware. The entire video is about the hunter-gatherers learning about us. Not about us learning about the hunter-gatherers.
These tribesmen aren't going to make a smooth transition to modern technology and the industrial economy -- and if they do, it will because they abandon their way of life to go live in the city. ~7 billion + 40 more former tribesman = ~ 7 billion. Just let these people be. And if we do make contact, let it be by proper anthropologists.
For anyone who couldn't attend the NYC Barefoot Run, here's a little bit of what you missed. Really happy with how this video turned out -- captures that this was really more than a run. Please share far and wide and seed some excitement for next year. And yes, the rumors are true: the theme of next year's run is "Clothes...what are they good for?" Still working on the permits.
If you want to be the first to know about next year's run, sign up here. Here's my earlier write-up with pictures.
