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Over the past twelve years, the Out of Eden Walk project has spanned two continents on foot—some 16,000 miles so far—following the pathways of the greatest human exploration ever undertaken: the original Stone Age discovery of our shared home, planet Earth.
Our annual End-of-Year Crowdfunding Campaign is happening now. Click here to learn more, see donor benefits, and read about what we’ve been up to in 2024—and what’s next on the horizon.
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One of the most innovative storytelling projects of our era, the Out of Eden Walk journey began in 2013 in the Rift Valley of Ethiopia, a cradle of our species, and will conclude, over a decade later, the tip of South America—the final horizon reached 7,000 years ago by our common ancestors. Led by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Paul Salopek, the project celebrates the work of local creatives along its route, and has built an enduring philanthropic legacy that combines meaningful people-to-people storytelling, civic literacy, and education programming. Out of Eden Walk is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) funded in part by our readers. Please support our efforts as we complete the historic trek of our nineteenth country—an unprecedented foot traverse of China.
Why walk?
- Because by slowing down our lives to a more human pace, we bring to light the vital connections among people and the natural world that are missed by moving too fast—insights that can help guide us through a challenging new century of climate crises, income inequality, and conflict.
- Because in an age of shallow media that often polarizes and divides, our deepening trove of cross-cultural ‘slow storytelling’ offers audiences a more humane, meaningful, and inclusive alternative to today’s angry narratives of nativism, intolerance, and xenophobia.
- Because walking reawakens wonder. And wonder is what unites us: We are building a storytelling community across borders that shares its own rediscovery of the Earth at three miles per hour.
While we need and welcome your support throughout the year, we do hold annual crowdfunding campaigns with unique reward opportunities for our incredible community of readers and followers of the Walk. These limited-time events are held at the end of each calendar year, from November to December. We hope you enjoy experiencing, in detail, the progress that—thanks to you—Out of Eden Walk has made in the first half of the historic, 3,600-mile foot journey through China.
The Out of Eden experience harkens to the oldest traditions of human narrative: roaming West African griots, wandering Greek bards, and rambling Confucian scholars. 8,000 miles (12,800 kilometers) of trail remain to reach our species’s ancient finish line in Tierra del Fuego. Though it began as one man’s journey, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Paul Salopek’s storytelling pilgrimage has grown into a digital crossroads for an international network of students, storytellers, educators, scientists, cultural experts, and anyone questing for thoughtful, fact-based cross-cultural narratives in our age of fast, shallow, and often divisive news.
Out of Eden Walk shares stories that would otherwise go untold. Here, workers at the ABC brickyard in the northeastern state of Assam fill pit furnaces with unfired bricks. Many incurred crushing debt to secure the work. Photograph by Paul Salopek, 2019.
On the ground in Yangon, Myanmar, with protestors after police and military forces seized power in a bloody coup. Photograph by Paul Salopek, 2021.
Impact
Through our growing archive of multimedia reportage (more than 400,000 words, tens of thousands of photos, hundreds of videos, and growing); professional media workshops, art exhibitions highlighting the work of local creatives, global classroom interactions and specialized curricula, one-on-one mentoring, and donor community, Paul and the small team of Out of Eden Walk partners and educators are building an enduring community of fellow storytellers of all ages. Already, more than millions of readers and tens of thousands of students are “walking along” with the project online.
Learning on the trail: Out of Eden Walk storytelling workshop participants in India.
Together, we will carry on the project’s philosophy of slowing down to tell complex stories of our time, delving beneath the usual shallow headlines, and sharing the human experience with wonder and empathy.
We invite you to contribute to this storytelling journey: Help us share the world’s diverse culture, history, and natural environments with an expanding community of readers, educators, and online followers.
Other ways to support Out of Eden Walk
Donate through a Donor Advised Fund: Donations can be made via mailed check through a Donor Advised Fund (DAF). If you have an account with Fidelity Charitable, Schwab Charitable, BNY Mellon or Greater Kansas City Community Foundation, or other DAFs, access this DAF Direct link to make a gift from your account. The link provided is for convenience only, and is not an endorsement of either the linked-to entities or any products or services.
Donate in cryptocurrency: Making a crypto donation is a new way to support the Out of Eden Walk and join our global donor community. Donating cryptocurrency is a non-taxable event, meaning you do not owe capital gains tax on the appreciated amount and can deduct it on your taxes. This makes Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency donations one of the most tax-efficient ways to support Out of Eden Walk. We encourage you to speak with a crypto-savvy tax professional to learn more about your specific tax benefits.
We accept the following cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Amp (AMP), Aave (AAVE), Alchemix (ALCX), Ankr Network (ANKR), Balancer (BAL), Bancor Network Token (BNT), BarnBridge (BOND), Basic Attention Token (BAT), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), ChainLink (LINK), Compound (COMP), Curve (CRV), Dai (DAI), Decentraland (MANA), Dogecoin (DOGE), Enjin Coin (ENJ), Fantom (FTM), Filecoin (FIL), Gemini Dollar (GUSD), Injective Protocol (INJ), Kyber Network (KNC), Litecoin (LTC), Livepeer (LPT), Loopring (LRC), Maker (MKR), Mirror Protocol (MIR), Orchid (OXT), PAX Gold (PAXG), Polygon (MATIC), Ren (REN), Skale (SKL), Somnium Space (CUBE), Storj (STORJ), SushiSwap (SUSHI), Synthetix (SNX), Tezos (XTZ), The Graph (GRT), The Sandbox (SAND), UMA (UMA), Uniswap (UNI), Yearn.Finance (YFI), Zcash (ZEC), 0x (ZRX), 1inch (1INCH).
Yang Wendou, one of Paul Salopek’s walking partners in Yunnan, China, crosses the Lu River on a footbridge.
In-person workshop attendees celebrate the conclusion of four grueling days of immersive storytelling training in Giant Panda National Park, in Sichuan Province. Photo by Sun Xiaodong.
Thank you for joining the journey!
