Defining the Hero: Reflections on Responsibility, Community, and Compassion with Author Chris McDougall

This week, we host Chris McDougall, runner, reporter, and author
of Born to Run, on the show to discuss his wide-ranging life
experience. His concept of the hero is that they are responsible
for others, that we humans are designed to be cooperative, that
we are at our best when we are thoughtful and caring. In it all,
it is important that we seek out fun. From learning from Mexico’s
Rarámuri ultrarunners, to training a mistreated donkey to join
him in competing in the 29-mile Pack Burro race in the Rockies,
Chris’ life has been anything but average. Now living on Oahu,
Hawaii, the 61 year-old continues to push himself to uncover
stories, pick up new hobbies, and reflect on how his past informs
his present day outlook on health, wellness, and keys to
longevity.

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Key Moments“I think what bothers me the most–and
this applies in every aspect of our lives–is this sad human
arrogance that we can outthink two million years of evolution.
Natural selection has created this unbelievably complex
self-healing device.”

“I spent a lot of time on the Greek island of Crete looking at
World War II resistance fighters. Crete was one place that had a
sensational story about average citizens who rose up to resist
the German occupation. Again, these are not trained soldiers,
these are just citizens who overnight, literally from one week to
the next, went from being citizens into being military operatives
against the most formidable army on the planet. And so my
question was well, how do you do that physically? How do you turn
yourself into a super soldier? And one of the things I looked at
was diet.”

“You know one thing when you look at the human animal, there are
two things that we are really good at. We are extraordinarily
adaptive–we're very creative and ingenious. But secondly, we're
extraordinarily cooperative. What is the internet all about? It's
about trading stuff, trading images, trading thoughts, trading
ideas. We are probably the most cooperative animal on the planet
and we tend to forget that sometimes because, particularly in
America and particularly in this era in America, we've come
across this very sad notion. You know you gotta be tough. You
know you gotta close the borders, you gotta be strong, you gotta
crush this guy, you gotta win, win, win. That's not who human
animals are. You know human animals throughout history have
coexisted and have shared and cooperated. And if you look at most
ancestral cultures, they were not about accumulation and
acquisition and conquering. They were about coexistence,
cooperation and learning from each other.“


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