UNKNOWN PLEASURES

Elite runner turned award-winning science journalist and author Alex Hutchinson on how running fulfils a human need to explore the unknown that's hard-wired into our DNA.

- Interview by Ben Hobson

Alex Hutchinson is certainly one of life's explorers. After completing a PhD in physics at the University of Cambridge, the Canadian worked in quantum computing and nanomechanics for the National Security Agency in the US, while somehow finding time to compete as a middle- and long-distance runner for the Canadian national team. Oh, and keep up a 'side hustle' as a jazz saxophonist.

He then began his celebrated career as a science journalist specialising in human performance, contributing to a wide range of publications, including The New Yorker and Popular Mechanics. He's also authored several books, including the New York Times bestseller Endure: Mind, Body, And The Curiously Elastic Limits Of Human Performance, and his latest, The Explorer's Gene: Why We Seek Big Challenges, New Flavours, And The Blank Spots On The Map. We caught up with him for a fascinating insight into how running might just be the perfect way to fulfil a deep desire for discovery that's woven into our DNA.

RW: What spurred you to write The Explorer's Gene?

AH: Back in 2018, I'd just written a book about the limits of endurance - Endure - which was the culmination of around 10 years of reporting as a science journalist about the science of endurance and trying to understand what holds us back. Then I started to think about why we're drawn to new challenges, why we're drawn to unexplored terrain. And it started to connect to a lot of other things in my life, like the way I like to travel and even the reason that I'm still out there training, racing and running on a daily basis. I thought, there's something I'm looking for, and I wasn't quite clear what it was. So I thought, let's dig into that. Let's try and understand why we humans are drawn to discover new things.

RW: Is that desire for discovery part of why we run?