Love history? Love fitness? This episode of Many Happy Miles is for you. The hosts bring on Historian, professor, and mother runner Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, the author of the brand-new book Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America’s Exercise Obsession, which offers a very deep (and enlightening) dive into the evolution of the fitness world in the U.S. In this episode, Dimity, Sarah WF, and Natalia cover several topics, including: 

The fascinating origins of fitness staples like the Presidential Council on Physical Fitness and the JFK 50 Mile run

How Jane Fonda became a fitness icon (and other women who paved the way for today’s “fit-fluencers”)

How fitness has become both “inescapable and inaccessible” in our country, plus Natalia’s visions of creating a more inclusive, stronger future, and more.

You can purchase your own copy of Fit Nation here (we give it five stars!). And follow Natalia (including updates on her half-marathon training) on Instagram.

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