In this episode, I connect with Huntsville, Alabama-based cartographer and artist David Nuttall for a conversation about his recent adventure riding every street in his sprawling, hilly city and the profound things he learned about the place he's called home for the past several decades and about himself.

David Nuttall was motivated to get in a little exercise and lose a little weight by exploring his adopted hometown of Huntsville, Alabama on his trusty old mountain bike. And thus a challenge was born: ride every street in the city limits and since he’s cartographer, naturally he’d map that experience and learn what he could along the way.

This is not an uber athlete endorphin-fueled adventure story, but one of patient reflection, social connection, curiosity, joy, and humanity.

Additional Helpful Links:

David’s art studio: Artimaps

HUBS Coop

Bikes & Brews Ride Facebook page

Link to Animated map of David’s Rides

Map Animation by Ned Drummond – Ned’s website

Map My Ride App

Explore Bike Share – Memphis

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Credits:

All video and audio production by John Simmerman

Music:

Various mixes also by John Simmerman

Resources used during the production of this episode:

- My awesome recording platform is Ecamm

- Adobe Creative Cloud Suite

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- Website

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Background:

Hi Everyone, my name is John Simmerman.

I’m a health promotion professional with over 30 years of experience and my area of concentration has evolved into a specialization of how the built environment influences human behavior related to active living and especially active mobility.

In 2012 I launched the non-profit Advocates for Healthy Communities as an effort to help promote and create healthy, active places.

Since that time, I've been exploring, documenting, and profiling established, emerging, and aspiring Active Towns wherever they might be, in order to produce high-quality multimedia content to help inspire the creation of more safe and inviting, environments that promote a "Culture of Activity" for "All Ages & Abilities."

My Active Towns suite of channels feature my original video and audio content and reflections, including a selection of podcast episodes and short films profiling the positive and inspiring efforts happening around the world as I am able to experience and document them.

Thanks for tuning in; I hope you have found this content helpful.

Creative Commons License: Attributions, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives, 2021

Advocates for Healthy Communities, Inc. is a nonprofit 501c3 organization (EIN 45-3802508) dedicated to helping communities create a Culture of Activity. To donate, click here.