Kids are dynamic learning machines, but they have been placed in an ever-increasing sedentary educational environment. In this episode, Katy shares the small adjustments--to clothing, backpacks, and before and after school time---you can make that will help your kids get the movement they need.

If you have been listening to and following Katy's work for a while now and want to share what you have learned with the ones you love, this is the podcast episode for you. Big picture of movement in a world made for the sedentary can be tricky stuff to distill and explain to others. So this episode is for those folks who may be asking you why you’re wearing funny shoes, or how come you like to stand at meetings, or sit on the floor when hanging out.

Since that first walk in 2017, Ken continues to balance a daytime desk job with his on-foot passion: experiencing, illuminating, and preserving the numerous Black Heritage Trails in the USA so others do not forget the many steps that have been taken.

Support Johnston’s current Walk to Freedom project: gofundme.com/f/walk-to-freedom-new-york-to-canada

Learn more about Ken Johnston and his walks at ourwalktofreedom.com

Katy and a special guest (her husband) outline some furniture-free lifestyle steps to transitioning your body to less supportive sleep surfaces and also how to get more sleeping movements without going mattress-free or pillow-free. 

The definition of health is tricky but hopefully can agree on many elements of what it looks and feels like. On that note, in this episode, Katy and Pilar talk about why health is becoming more and more elusive and why our society is becoming synonymous with behaviors that lead to those deviations away from our physiological or biological needs that result in disease. 

Diana Hill, Ph.D. is a modern psychologist, mother, and co-author of ACT Daily Journal: Get unstuck and live fully with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. She is the host of the podcast show Your Life in Process, blogs for Psychology Today, is on the clinical advisory board of Lightfully Behavioral Health, and offers regular meditations on Insight Timer Meditation.

For some context, this was how Katy's talk was written up by the presenters at the library: Biomechanist, author, and movement expert, Katy Bowman, M.S., will provide an engaging and interactive presentation on how to age dynamically. Katy will cover the difference between movement and exercise, why both the whole body and each body part needs its own dose of movement, and how to fit more movement throughout each day. Katy’s books, including Dynamic Aging, can be found in print and eBook at the library.

Most of what we want to do in life uses our body as a tool, and many don’t realize how to maintain the tool of our physicality. But it’s possible, by investing a little time, to maintain your body better not only for longevity’s sake, but so the things you want to do stay available to you, or even develop into greater capability and experience. Yes, even physical challenges. And yes, even with advancing age.

In this episode, Katy shares an old blog post from her first long trail walk in minimalist shoes (back in 2008) as an example of how we need to pay attention to what we wear on our feet as well as what we are putting those feet on while we walk. 

Katy says that having a blog is sort of like having a diary. But, since she doesn’t have a journal or a diary, what she writes, you get to see, and in this case, revisit in podcast audio form. Enjoy!

Katy is sharing a portion of this live talk that she recorded on Orcas Island so more of you could benefit from straightforward and joyful tips to get kids on the move. Many of these tips were mentioned in her latest book Grow Wild: The Whole-Child, Whole-Family, Nature-Rich Guide to Moving More, but she has expanded on each tip or trick in the hopes that you can turn these tips into the movement you’ve been looking for.

We hope you enjoy this live recording of this outdoor playground talk, where there are trucks driving by, birds chirping, and we think a toddler walking off with Katy's microphone at one point, because... these are the sounds of life.