Why We Swim I love swimming and was super excited when Bonnie Publicist reached out for me to have her on the show. As a passionate swimmer, Bonnie became curious about why we swim and how this fascination for swimming is now one of the most popular activities in the world. While our evolutionary ancestors learned to swim for survival many of us now swim for pleasure, and others for exercise and healing. The pure joy of swimming I find rather meditative. In this interview, we discuss Bonnie's curiosity into our love for swimming and the many associated benefits. Guest Bio. Bonnie Tsui is the author of the new book WHY WE SWIM. A journalist and longtime contributor to The New York Times, she is also the author of AMERICAN CHINATOWN, the winner of the Asia/Pacific American Award for Literature and a San Francisco Chronicle bestseller. She lives, swims, and surfs in the San Francisco Bay Area. WHY WE SWIM is a cultural and scientific exploration of our human relationship with water and swimming. Published in April 2020, it was excerpted in The New York Times Sunday Review, and has received praise from The New York Times Book Review ("An enthusiastic and thoughtful work mixing history, journalism, and elements of memoir"), NPR's Weekend Edition (“Bonnie Tsui reminds us that humankind once sprang from and still seeks water… An amazing story”), The San Francisco Chronicle ("Succeeds brilliantly… deepens from informative and entertaining to transcendent and moving"), Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, and Booklist, who called it "eloquent, fascinating, and gripping." It was named a best book of the season by Amazon, Buzzfeed, Bustle, and more.