Out of Eden Walk: Into the Americas
**Update: 12/29/25**: THAT’S A WRAP. Thank you for bringing us to and past our goal for the seventh consecutive year! This community’s commitment to a more deeply connected world is inspiring, and in turn, the Walk will be able to continue into North America in 2026 sharing stories, educational and civic engagement opportunities, and collaborations with local artists, journalists, and scientists. Thank you for making it possible to enter the 14th year of this global journey.
**Update** 12/22/25: THANK YOU! Your generosity has helped us reach our goal of $75,000 during our annual campaign. There’s still time: This campaign continues through December 29. The Board will match all donations during this last week at a 1:1 ratio. If you haven’t yet, please consider joining the journey to make twice the impact today.**
In 2013, two-time Pulitzer Prize winning writer Paul Salopek set out from the Rift Valley of Ethiopia—one of the cradles of humankind—to retrace, on foot, the dawn voyage of the earliest Homo sapiens who first walked out of Africa during the Stone Age. Over the past 13 years, Paul has paced off 17,000 miles of those ancestral trails, calipering Arabian deserts, empty Central Asian steppes, icy Himalayan peaks, Burmese war zones, and the vastness of mainland China between his footsteps. The Out of Eden Walk is a continuous storytelling journey: Paul has never left his walking trail to return to the United States. Hence, his recent landfall in Alaska, after crossing the Pacific Ocean from Japan on a container ship, marks a major threshold in this historic voyage of “slow journalism”: The beginning of the long-anticipated final phase of a 24,000-mile odyssey in the wake of our roving ancestors. Over the next year, Paul needs your help in documenting a changing Americas on his long ramble south to reach our species’ original “land’s end” in Tierra del Fuego, at the frozen tip of Argentina. For the first time on the walk, a maritime or amphibious segment is planned down the Inside Passage of Alaska, to reflect the latest archeological evidence of early seagoing human dispersals into the continent.
Globally, the Out of Eden Walk is not just a feat of remarkable physical endurance. Its core mission is far more meaningful: To chronicle the insights of the people met en route, ranging from Djiboutian camel shepherds to Kazakh geophysicists, from Chinese poets to Iñupiat artisans. In this way, Paul’s immensely long storytelling project has built a unique and nuanced record of human life in the early 21st century, as seen from boot level, with a creative output that so far approaches a million words and includes tens of thousands of videos and images. The walk’s “slow storytelling” perspective touches on most of the pressing dilemmas of our day: war, mass migration, spiritual isolation, sustainability, cultural adaptation, and more. Independent journalism requires public support. Out of Eden Walk is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, so all donations are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law. 100% of funds raised here go toward fulfilling our mission to connect people across borders through the power of slow storytelling.
UPDATE: MATCHING CAMPAIGN! The Out of Eden Walk nonprofit Board of Directors is matching every donation at a 1:1 ratio up to $45,000. Every dollar is doubled for twice the impact. For information on the match progress, we are updating this page. Thank you to our Board of Directors and to this community for helping maximize this Matching opportunity!
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A MESSAGE FROM THE TRAIL
After 13 years walking steadily toward sunrise out of Africa, Out of Eden Walk has at last stepped out of Asia and onto the shores of North America. Ahead stretch thousands of miles of tundra, boreal forests, and Indigenous homelands—places already transforming under the pressures of climate change, resource competition, migration, and profound cultural resilience. Out of Eden Walk’s grassroots, humanist vision is more timely today than ever.
As the world shudders through an age of emergency, stricken by a climate crisis and increasingly polarized by tectonic shifts in geopolitics spawned by globalization, Paul’s slow, mindful journey reminds us that many of the solutions to humanity’s common problems often reside in the quiet wisdom beating within our shared stories. For this reason alone, no matter the landscapes being traversed or the belief systems being explored, the Out of Eden Walk remains primarily a listening journey; a true quest of the heart where people, not places, are the destination.
We need your support not only to complete this next long chapter of our storytelling trek, but to share it along the way.
Throughout 2026 and beyond, as we expand educational partnerships along the North American trail, we will continue collaborating with local journalists, scientists, farmers, photographers, poets, walkers, and students—inviting them to join the trail and weave their experiences into the kaleidoscopic braid of Out of Eden Walk narratives.

Out of Eden Walk’s museum collaboration series continued in Seoul, Korea, with the monthlong exhibition “Walked Pieces”—the WilloW Gallery’s most highly-attended show to date.
More ways to donate: In addition to the “Donate” button at the top of this page, which provides the option to donate online or send a check through the mail, you can donate through a Donor Advised Fund: If you have an account with Fidelity Charitable, Schwab Charitable, BNY Mellon or Greater Kansas City Community Foundation, or other DAFs, please 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.
If you are interested in discussing how to structure your gift, please contact Julia Payne, Executive Director, by writing to info@outofedenwalk.com.
Matching Campaign: The Out of Eden Walk nonprofit Board of Directors is extending a matching, doubling every donation at a 1:1 ratio up to $61,000! Every dollar goes directly toward our operational and programmatic work and supports the mission that keeps this project moving forward. The Matching Campaign progress will be updated daily on this page. (Out of Eden Walk is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Contributions support our mission and are eligible for a charitable tax receipt in accordance with applicable law.)
Matching Campaign Status as of December 29th: $9,616.31 remain to be matched. Thank you for helping to max out the matching goal on the last day of this campaign!
COMMUNITY APPRECIATION
FOR EVERYONE: We assign every donor’s name to a mile on the Out of Eden Walk Donor Map. This digital map of supporters visualizes the collective nature of the journey. See the Out of Eden Walk Donor Map here.
In addition, you can choose to receive semi-monthly newsletters we create just for you, the Out of Eden Walk community, featuring notifications when new stories are published and other special content and updates from the trail.

African migrants crowd the night shore of Djibouti city, trying to capture inexpensive cell signals from neighboring Somalia—a tenuous link to relatives abroad. For more than 60,000 years, our species has been relying on such intimate social connections to spread across the Earth. Credit: John Stanmeyer/VII Foundation.
SPECIAL: *ACT FAST, LIMITED TO ONE:* National Geographic and World Press Award-winning photographer @johnstanmeyer created the photograph “Signal,” shown above, on the Out of Eden Walk trail in Djibouti. The photograph won the World Press Photo of the Year in 2014 and is one of National Geographic’s just-released “25 Most Influential Photos of the 21st Century.” John is generously contributing one 40×50 inch “Signal” print—out of an edition of only 15—to a member of the Out of Eden Walk community. To claim the print, please select it from the donation menu option above, complete your donation, and email us at info@outofedenwalk.com to claim the print. John will ship the print to the first donor to claim it. We will update this page when the reward is no longer available.
SPECIAL: *ACT FAST, LIMITED TO 200.* With a donation of $200 or more, you will receive your Donor Map mile name plus a special bonus: a handwritten postcard bought and signed by Paul along the Out of Eden Walk trail. Please note that this reward is limited to the first 200 people to donate $200 or more. We will contact you once the campaign is complete to request information for fulfilling your rewards, including a valid mailing address where we can send your postcard.
“Hi Paul. In February this year I decided to stop following the daily news. I cancelled my newspaper subscription and subscribed to the National Geographic where I stumbled across your story. Wow! Every morning I have been reading a few articles and finally I have caught up. Your writing, the sound recordings and the videos made it seem like what you were experiencing, thinking and learning happened very recently and not 2, 5 or 10 years ago. Thank you for all that you give to those of us who follow your journey.” – Anthony, commenting on the dispatch “Geography of Loneliness.”
ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS
With your support, Out of Eden Walk has:
- Reached an audience of over 45 million readers worldwide.
- Published 500+ dispatches and 100+ guest dispatches translated into 34 languages. Hundreds of photos and videos have been published, and tens of thousands more are being maintained and archived.
- Released 13 National Geographic Magazine feature stories, with a 14th forthcoming in 2026.
- Traversed 21 countries and 17,000 miles on foot from Africa to—just this year—arrive in North America. The final two continents on the global route lie ahead.
- Partnered with PRI’s The World on an ongoing interview series exploring global issues through the Walk.
- Trained 100+ journalists in long-form, place-based reportage, generating stories that reached 25 million readers in India alone and many more in countries including Japan, China, and Myanmar.
- Collaborated on educational programs that reach 70,000+ students in 70 countries.
- Provided training to 1,100+ university faculty in media literacy, geography, anthropology, and history.
- Updated the HomeStories map in partnership with Esri to better serve a global community of more than 2,000 lifelong learners and storytellers.
- Co-curated the “Walking Korea: Cut Pieces” exhibition that explored the act of walking as a form of artistic and historical intervention, interpreting migration, displacement, and temporality through the works of six contemporary artists in Seoul, Korea. The exhibition was visited in-person by more than 600 people, making it one of the most popular in the history of The Willow creative space. It featured two public workshops by contributing artists Youngrae Kim and Hyun-seon Son. It generated Korean and international media coverage reaching a potential audience of 1.3 million and was nominated for the Seoul Arts Jury Prize as the best exhibition of 2024.
- Earned a prestigious Signal Award for the pilot episode of Love, Hate, and the Weather podcast. In partnership with National Geographic Society, the podcast spotlights Walking Partners’ voices.
- Grown an online community of 240,000+ followers across platforms, engaging with thoughtful, meaning-rich content from the trail.
WHY WE FUNDRAISE AND WHERE YOUR DONATIONS GO
Out of Eden Walk is an IRS-classified tax exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Over the past 13 years, the project has spanned two continents on foot—some 17,000 miles so far—following the pathways of the greatest human exploration ever undertaken: the original Stone Age humans’ discovery of our shared home, planet Earth. As an independent public charity, we are only partly funded by partners.Public donations are necessary not only to keep Paul and local Walking Partners on the trail but also to support integral impact programs—from amplifying local voices, to innovative education resource building, to the eternal preservation of the Walk’s photographic, audio, video, and text archive, and much more. 100 percent of funds raised go toward fulfilling our mission to connect people across borders through the power of storytelling.

First steps on a new continent. Paul Salopek visited the isolated Inupiat village of Shishmaref, Alaska, located on the Bering Strait, before setting out on foot from Anchorage towards Tierra del Fuego. Photo by Paul Salopek.
In the first dispatch from the North American continent, published December 11, 2025, Paul Salopek writes about visiting Shishmaref, Alaska, and touching the Bering Strait. Read “First Beach” here.
Out of Eden Walk’s motto has always been, “People are our destination.” That’s why our nonprofit needs your support today. Help grow the footprint of a project that not only fosters understanding across human divides, but facilitates practical outcomes as well: educational collaboration with schools and campuses along our North American walking route, and a workshop program that provides, for free, the powerful tools of immersive reportage to young media workers and students.
With your support, in the next year, Out of Eden Walk will:
- Document Paul’s historic arrival in North America; publish 30+ new dispatches and contributor stories from Alaska and beyond. For the first time, a maritime or amphibious segment is planned down the Inside Passage, to honor the latest human dispersal evidence.
- Partner with schools and campuses along the North American trail to bring slow storytelling into classrooms at the K-12 and University levels.
- Host at least two slow journalism workshops for young reporters and emerging storytellers in areas on the upcoming route.
- Partner with National Geographic Photo Camps to co-host at least one “Storytelling Camp,” in which youth in underserved communities learn from expert writers and photojournalists to share their stories in their own words and from their own viewpoints.
- Support and fairly compensate new Walking Partners who share their cultural and ecological knowledge on the trail.
- Sustain the walk itself—food, gear, communication, and essential field equipment—in remote regions and operational costs of the nonprofit home office.
- Join 22 interviews conducted and published by The World by PRX for their “Out of Eden Walk” biweekly radio series. (All Out of Eden Walk interviews with The World by PRX can be found here.)
- Grow global storytelling and mapping programs, including HomeStories and interactive StoryMaps, in partnership with National Geographic Society, the Harvard Center for Geographic Analysis, and Esri.
- Participate in two episodes of National Geographic Society’s “Explorer Classroom” series, virtually teaching the tenets of slow storytelling to about 600 participating students.
- Facilitate collaboration between Paul and other journalists with partners at Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Project Zero to build a new Learning Journey. The Open Canopy, previously Out of Eden Learn, shares Learning Journeys with an online community of some 70,000 students from 70 countries.
- Build a foundation for the future: As Paul approaches the finishing line of his physical journey, the legacy of his historic walk will inform programming that elevates and protects journalists working in threatened media ecosystems long after the journey’s final steps.
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 an hour.
A veteran writer and multimedia storyteller, Paul Salopek has worked around the world for publications such as the Chicago Tribune and National Geographic, among others. But Paul felt that “fast news” left an unfilled and increasingly perilous void in the international media landscape: The relentless 24/7 news cycle often simplifies complex stories, emphasizing an artificial separation and isolation in human affairs. So in 2013, Paul set off from Herto Bouri, Ethiopia—a “cradle of humankind”—with a novel solution in mind: To walk through the stories of our time rather than fly, drive or otherwise speed through them.
Having started out a solo rambling storyteller, his Walk has blossomed into a diverse global network of fellow storytellers, all bound together by a shared idea: A medley of media professionals, educators, scientists, artists, who wish to foster cross-cultural connections and promote immersive storytelling via people-to-people narratives of connectivity.Through our archive of multimedia reportage (480,000 words, tens of thousands of photos, hundreds of videos, and always growing); professional media workshops, museum exhibitions highlighting the work of local creatives, crowd-sourced storytelling initiatives, global classroom interactions and specialized curricula, one-on-one mentoring, and this 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, millions of readers and tens of thousands of students are “walking along” with the project online.
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.

Walking in Toyooka, Japan, with walking partner Tomonori “Rip” Tanaka.
In readers’ words:
“This post on Japan stirs deep stuff within. The universal yearning, the common pool of what’s unresolved for us as humans, the parallel realities, the stoic suppression that condenses us into what we restrain. You’re definitely teaching me a new Japan. And your opening stories have left their mark on me. I’m so grateful for you.” — Jane, commenting on “Goodbye to Japan.”
“This is more than a journey it’s a profound exploration of human origins and the landscapes that shaped us.” — Commenter on Instagram.
“Greetings from Michigan! As a geography instructor, I share your travels with my students, and we learn together about the beauty of the world but also about the impact of climate change and conflicts on people and places. What you are doing is so amazing and important. Thank you for that! Stay safe, and keep traveling!” — Marina, commenting on “Cooked Crops.”
COALITION
The Out of Eden Walk Coalition is a caravan of institutions and individuals who bring credibility and global reach to an alliance that entwines the fields of journalism, education, digital mapping, and storytelling.
We are proud to partner with the Veditum Foundation, a nonprofit research, media and action organization based out of Kolkata, India, that supports the work of creatives and scientists relating to India’s waterways and river ecosystems. In 2024, Veditum led a new fellowship program, Moving Upstream: Luni Fellowship: The Fellowship program is an extension of the Moving Upstream project series by Veditum, and attempts to bring new perspectives through which we can look at India’s river ecosystems and the life of riparian communities. Follow Veditum’s progress, sign up for their newsletter, and support their important work here: https://open.substack.com/pub/veditum/p/november-2025?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email.
“We’re proud to have the Out of Eden Walk as our partners in our fellowship programme. It has been our founding endeavour to create opportunities for young Indians to experience the country at the grassroots. We’ve successfully completed 3 iterations of our fellowship programme – along Rivers Betwa, Sindh and Luni.” – Veditum.
The Coalition organizations share knowledge, showcase worthy projects, offer mentorship opportunities, and have access to a network of international expertise to develop and promote the philosophy of slow journalism. Partners include:
Center for Geographic Analysis at Harvard
Robert R. McCormick Foundation
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
NYU-Shanghai Institute of Contemporary Arts
We are grateful to our thought partners for championing Out of Eden Walk’s philosophy and mission and for their multifaceted support of the project. If you represent an organization that may be interested in joining the Out of Eden Walk Coalition, please contact us via www.outofedenwalknonprofit.org.
OUT OF EDEN WALK: EDUCATION
Open Canopy, previously Out of Eden Learn, is a free educational community designed and managed by our partners at Project Zero. The Open Canopy team engages 70,000 students from 70 countries on their Out of Eden Walk-inspired platform, an award-winning education resource that teaches media literacy and other critical skills through “learning journeys.” In 2024, the Open Canopy team published “The Open Canopy Handbook,” an educator’s guide that offers an approach to teaching and learning that encourages young people to slow down and observe the world closely, share stories and perspectives with one another, and make connections between their own lives and bigger human stories. In 2025, we began working with The Open Canopy team on a new Special Learning Journey that will focus on civic engagement at the intersection of journalism and education. Are you an educator interested in joining the Out of Eden Learn community? Find out more and sign up here: https://learn.outofedenwalk.com.

Student work shared by The Open Canopy. Image credit: https://www.instagram.com/p/DL4nS-zz6No/?img_index=1.
Our partners at the Pulitzer Center connect students and teachers from elementary through university levels with Out of Eden Walk, providing access to free lesson plans and educational curricula for Out of Eden Walk-themed modules. Past resources include examining big topics in short videos, available on YouTube. Pulitzer Center continues to provide expert collaboration on curricular materials and awareness-building for Out of Eden Walk education, and Pulitzer Center has collaborated with Out of Eden Walk in support of specialized summer programming for grade-level students and Out of Eden Walk’s University Outreach program.
Out of Eden Walk engages with classrooms in a series of online talks with Paul curated by National Geographic Society Education. National Geographic also offers education videos and other Out of Eden Walk-inspired classroom activities in their Resource Library. National Geographic Education regularly coordinates “Explorer Classroom” sessions—live digital interactions in which students can speak with Paul from his trail locations and ask him questions. Thousands of students have joined twelve Explorer Classroom hangouts with Paul to date, and two more are scheduled in 2026.
Explorer Classroom
Definitions In the Field – Trade
Definitions In the Field – Diaspora
Mapping the Human Journey and Human Migrations
Definitions In the Field – Rural
An Esri StoryMap of the Silk Road
Out of Eden Walk’s University Outreach program—led by journalist, professor, and writer Don Belt—provides educator training for college and university campuses on the Slow Journalism curriculum that he is teaching for the 12th consecutive year at University of Richmond in Virginia. University of Richmond has incorporated the curriculum as a core required class for Journalism majors. “The Walk on Campus Workshop is an interactive, three-hour presentation of the Journalism curriculum based on the Walk that I developed at the Robertson School of Media & Culture at Virginia Commonwealth University and now teach at the University of Richmond. For more on that curriculum and to see a video on the Walk for educators, go here.” — Don Belt.
MAPPING
With chief cartographer Jeff Blossom from the Harvard Center for Geographic Analysis (CGA), Out of Eden Walk produces interactive storytelling maps that take viewers through regions and cities along the Out of Eden Walk Trail. Jeff collaborates with partners along the Out of Eden Walk route to teach mapping and its relationship to meaningful, data-based storytelling. Jeff also directs Out of Eden Walk’s carto-education program, teaching webinars and conducting in-person school and professional development events, to equip all-level students with GIS design and literacy development. The CGA’s role includes mapping Paul’s walking route from his GPS data and publishing it on the Completed Route Map, custom thematic map creation, essay writing, and cartographic education by the CGA’s Jeff Blossom. Toward the project’s educational focus, Jeff has provided hands-on cartographic education centered around the Walk. Watch the 2020 video Mapping The Human Journey for more on this effort. Jeff has used Out of Eden Walk to teach mapping virtually or in person to 1,657 K-12 students.
Interactive storytelling maps provide in-depth, immersive experience of urban and rural locales along the Out of Eden Walk route—and an introduction to the people who inhabit them.
“The River Roads of India,” produced in partnership with Esri, is a special immersive story map that takes viewers through The Indus, The Ganges, and The Brahmaputra waterways, examining a looming water crisis with photo, video, and narrative content documented on the Out of Eden Walk.
“Walking China’s Antique Roads,”produced in partnership with Esri, is a special immersive story map that takes viewers through the ancient byways that Paul and his Walking Partners retraced on the 6,000-kilometer walk across the Middle Kingdom.
MEDIA AND NEWS
2026 SPECIAL PROGRAM: ASHES AND LIGHT
Working for decades in societies gripped by wars and dramatic upheavals in the Caucasus, Turkey, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East, Out of Eden Walk’s wonderful French walking partner and accomplished documentary photographer Matthieu Chazal was not a mere chronicler of human suffering and sorrow, but an artist of rare sensitivity in search of beauty and life.
Matthieu passed away last year, too young at age 49, after a battle with cancer. The Out of Eden Walk is planning to organize Ashes and Light, a traveling photo-exhibition that celebrates his remarkable visual legacy, just as his fame begins to grow with the publication of an award-winning photo book “Levant,” along with recognition from institutions as diverse as the Musée Albert Kahn in Paris and National Geographic. This exhibition will start in the country of Georgia and travel to Turkey and France. At each stop, we will share the power of Matthieu’s quiet gaze, in the form of large-scale black and white photos, on the rawer edges of humanity. Your support will be recognized by name on a donor list posted at each location.
PBS NewsHour has featured Out of Eden Walk eight times, NPR’s Morning Edition has featured Out of Eden Walk five times, and over 60 prestigious news organizations worldwide have covered Out of Eden Walk, including CNN International, Amanpour & Co., The New York Times, WBEZ, the BBC, GQ, VICE, and the CBC. In addition, almost 800 Out of Eden Walk articles have been translated by more than 290 volunteers in 34 different languages.
In October 2025, Paul was interviewed by Matt Galloway on CBC’s The Current and BBC’s The Media Show with Ros Atkins. Listen to The Current here. Listen to BBC here.
In March 2025, walking partner and NGS Explorer Arati Kumar-Rao launched a new environmental podcast, focusing on India, called “Marginlands.” The podcast is also produced with Prem Panicker, a leading journalist in India who joined Out of Eden Walk to co-host three journalism workshops in 2018. Paul was a featured guest on the inaugural episode. Listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
The Marginlands YouTube site is: https://www.youtube.com/@FromTheMarginlands
An intro to the podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPFweJNouSI
Out of Eden Walk’s 13th feature story in National Geographic magazine was published in September 2025. This is the longest-running series of print stories in the magazine’s 131-year history. The magazine will publish Paul’s 14th story in 2026.
Content snapshot: What is a Milestone? Every 100 miles of the journey, Paul records a short video, photographs of land and sky, and three-question interview with the nearest human. We call these brief snapshots of life across a walked world “Milestones.” Enjoy this 1-minute second video video from Milestone 104, “Simply Covering Ground.“
WALKING ALONG
The Out of Eden Walk community of readers and followers continues to grow. We share the joys of a world rediscovered on foot in multimedia glimpses of the journey and highlight the amazing work of our collaborators and Walking Partners on: Instagram, Facebook, BlueSky, YouTube, Vimeo, Soundcloud, LinkedIn, and TikTok. Our newsletter notifies you whenever a new dispatch is published and keeps you informed about community news, events, trail updates, and more. Together, these channels share the Walk’s thoughtful, meaning-centric content with hundreds of thousands of people from all around the world who are eager to find deeper ways to engage online.

Looking toward the horizon. Iwami, Japan. Photo by Paul Salopek.
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SOCIAL MEDIA SPOTLIGHT
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THANK YOU FOR JOINING THE JOURNEY!

