Highest priority for hikers is foot care.
Know that your feet expand while hiking — especially in hot weather — so many of us buy walking shoes a size larger than what we wear in the city.
I loved Christopher Mcdougall’s book …
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
That said, I’ve never hiked barefoot or with minimal shoes. Raised in cold Canada, my feet are wimpy.
If you have time, go back to the beginning. Listen to an audiocast about the history of footwear.
666. This Is How Progress Happens – Freakonomics Radio
Economists don’t usually talk about “culture.” But Joel Mokyr argues that it’s the engine of innovation — and the Nobel Prize committee agreed. Stephen Dubner sits down for a thousand-year conversation (including advice!) with the new Nobel laureate.
SOURCES:
Joel Mokyr, economic historian at Northwestern University.
RESOURCES:
Two Paths to Prosperity: Culture and Institutions in Europe and China, 1000–2000, by Avner Greif, Joel Mokyr, and, Guido Tabellini (2025).
"The Outsize Role of Immigrants in US Innovation," by Shai Bernstein, Rebecca Diamond, Abhisit Jiranaphawiboon, Timothy McQuade, and Beatriz Pousada (NBER, 2023).
A Culture of Growth: The Origins of the Modern Economy, by Joel Mokyr (2016).
Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty, by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson (2012).
"The Economics of Being Jewish," by Joel Mokyr (Critical Review, 2011).
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