In this week's episode, I am joined by Alex Hutchinson! Alex is a science journalist, author, and former long-distance runner for the Canadian national team whose work explores the limits of human performance and humanity’s innate drive to explore. He writes the long-running Sweat Science column for Outside magazine and has contributed to The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Globe and Mail. A Columbia-trained journalist with a Ph.D. in physics from Cambridge, Alex completed post-doctoral research with the National Security Agency before shifting full-time to writing. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance and, most recently, The Explorer’s Gene: Why We Seek Big Challenges, New Flavors, and the Blank Spots on the Map (2025), a groundbreaking look at the science behind why humans are wired to push boundaries. Key Points • How challenges enhance meaning in life • Daily routines can unlock high performance • AI's impact on critical thinking and exploration • The fine balance of parenting and risk • The paradox of effort   Best Quotes 01:29 - 01:40 • "High performance, you know, you can, you can use different words for it, but I think that the concept is, I, I've always liked to, to push as hard as I can, push my limits, see what I'm capable of." 03:50 - 04:03 • "So it's always this, this, it's a delicate dance of trying to, trying to cr create that feeling in other people to try and, you know, have them challenged enough without feeling like, no, you, you, you always have to push harder." 05:21 - 05:28 • "I always wanted them to focus on the effort. I always wanted them to have fun doing what they were doing, not just worried about the end, but actually enjoying the journey." 06:22 - 06:28 • "There's a joy in the, there's a joy in seeing what I, what I'm capable of today. That, and it's, it's fun." 07:58 - 08:14 • "The one strain of res research that I found, you know, really validating to be frank, is on this idea called the effort paradox, which is what psychologists, that's their, their term for this idea that sometimes we do things not in spite of the fact that they're hard, but because they're hard." 10:49 - 11:01 • "Yeah, for sure. I mean, you know, and I'm a morning runner. Like I, when I, you know, when I was competing, going, you know, in, in high school and university practices were after school, after, after classes, and I was used." 12:37 - 13:01 • "So I, like, I really encourage people to figure out what's gonna get them going. And, and don't make it too daunting at the beginning. Don't, don't start with like a 18 step process to get ready for the day, but figure out what's gonna be good for you, do it, and then do it long enough that it eventually, it's no longer optional because then you don't have to waste your time or waste your mental energy to convincing yourself. It's just what you do."  

Ver todos los episodios