Strayed came to this body of work late — after she wrote Wild — and she does not identify with it. “It’s this educated white guy who spends a lot of time roaming around his properties,” she says, “plus usually a pretty intellectual, dry way of writing about the natural world. And we very seldom hear anything about the interior life.” Specifically: “Every single day, no matter the weather, no matter where I am, I go for a walk. Most of the time it’s between 5 and 10 miles, so somewhere in the neighborhood of an hour to two hours.” When the sun shines down on the water you get twice as much light, so you get twice the serotonin boost’: Annabel Street. Photograph: Kate Peters/The Observer

by David A. Sasso, MD, MPH, for the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry Committee on the Arts and Humanities.

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Now, in this transmission from Jenner, we see why he was so excited about the French’s progress. Jenner says he’s viewed the French scientists’ data and that he “likes their approach.” What follows is a lot of heavy jargon that includes concepts like: “activating systems to work against reanimation,” “jumpstarting circulatory systems,” and “short-circuiting the brain” to deal with “variant cohorts.”

Vollant calls this walk, which follows a route the Innu traditionally travelled to recruit allies for their fights against the English, a mission of peace. Since he started Innu Meshkenu in October 2010, walking 620 kilometres, mostly alone, from Natashquan, Quebec, to Baie-Comeau, near Pessamit, in twenty-three days, he has completed seven treks, with more people joining each expedition. This winter’s walk is the largest yet. It is like Survivor, only the goal is to get everybody to stay on the island. Vollant has seven additional legs planned, including a fall 2014 route that swings by Parliament Hill. He has been asked by the New Democrats and the Liberals to run for federal and provincial office (and has his eyes on a health minister’s portfolio), but he is a decade away from even considering such a shift. “For me, it’s important to finish things before starting new ones. Finishing Innu Meshkenu will give me better knowledge of my country, of my people, and of the real challenges people are facing.”

I wonder if sometimes it’s about perception,” she says, about walking alone. “At home we know all the horror stories and all their locations, but when we’re elsewhere we don’t have that knowledge. We don’t know about the horrible things, so we think we’re safe. And nine times out of 10 we are. We look at women in the past who’ve done big journeys and think they’re intrepid or brave, but they also didn’t have daily news stories about what could go wrong.” Who else is in here?” I ask, relieved to be bunking with somebody fluently bilingual, even if he is my rival (and has home ice advantage).