At a Purposeful Pace Through Our World
PAUL SALOPEK IS nearly halfway through the most improbable hike imaginable: He is taking a 24,000-mile walk around the world, retracing our ancient ancestors’ journey out of Africa to the tip of South America. So far, he’s been on the road for nearly nine years, trying to see what might be learned about our frenetic world by experiencing it one step at a time. “My aim has been simple,” the twotime Pulitzer Prize winner explains in this issue. “To foot-brake my life, to slow down my thinking, my work, my hours. Unfortunately, the world has had other ideas. Apocalyptic climate crises. Widespread extinctions. Forced human migrations. Populist revolts. A mortal coronavirus.” And earlier this year, in addition to all that, he walked into Myanmar—and straight into a coup. The National Geographic Society…