Out of Eden Walk: North Passage

“We’ve had quite a few kids come to our public events this summer, and even offered a tour to the children of migrant workers who were attending a summer camp at NYU Shanghai. We have also had many visitors who come back again and again because there is so much to see and read in the gallery. We’ve reached a visitor and participation count of 3,100 people so far, and those who have spoken to me have told me how inspiring and valuable this exhibition is.”  – Wujun Ke, Curator of the Out of Eden Walk exhibition at the Institute for Contemporary Arts in Shanghai.

Visiting schoolchildren enjoy a photography display of Out of Eden Walking Partner Marina Hongyi’s photographs. Photo by Michelle Yeonho Hyun.

A group of students enjoyed experiencing the “Walking China” Out of Eden Walk exhibition at NYU-Shanghai’s Institute of Contemporary Arts. Photo by Michelle Yeonho Hyun.

WHO WE ARE

New to the walk? Welcome! Let us tell you a bit more about ourselves. Out of Eden Walk is an IRS-classified tax exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Over the past eleven years, the 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.

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.

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 simplified complex stories, and emphasized 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.

Walking partners, including writer Luo Xin (foreground), trek the banks of the Yellow River in northern China. Photo by Paul Salopek.

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 growing archive of multimedia reportage (more than 450,000 words, tens of thousands of photos, hundreds of videos, and 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, more than millions of readers and tens of thousands of students are “walking along” with the project online.

Logging into Out of Eden Learn. Photo credit: Out of Eden Learn.

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.

In readers’ words:

“Your dispatches are treasures. I’ve dreamed of walking alongside you since I started following this in high school. Safe travels and fair winds!”

“I have been following you since the beginning in Ethiopia, my admiration for your saga is profound. I read to my granddaughters and my daughter all the chapters of your great journey, and encourage my friends to join in your historical walk.”

“Your reflections are timely and time-filled, bringing the past into our present. When bidding farewell to friends, Mandarin speakers often say, ‘Man zou’ (go slowly). You and this epic walk exemplify the wisdom captured by those two Chinese characters.”

ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS

HOMESTORIES

This is a key time for Out of Eden Walk’s global HomeStories project, which fosters connectivity between people and place in the spirit of Out of Eden Walk’s slow, thoughtful storytelling and multimedia narratives. We need to buoy our 2024 budget by at least $20,000 to execute an essential technological overhaul of the HomeStories map to preserve existing data and to continue to serve as an online gathering space for future storytellers. In 2023, our volunteer team of HomeStory Gatherers inspired the addition of over 200 new stories. And HomeStories’ powerful educational impact was celebrated in Chicago, IL, where manager Tracy Crowley’s students at Jack London Middle School won a statewide competition organized by the Illinois Digital Educators Association for their work with HomeStories. HomeStories director Bill Parker accompanied the students to the award event at the state capital and wrote a Lab Talk to share the experience.

Stanislav, a student at Jack London Middle School, points out a feature of the HomeStories interactive map to an educator at Student Advocacy Day in the Illinois State Capitol Building. Stanislav is wearing a shirt from his native Ukraine. Photo by Tracy Crowley.

“Thanks to their use of Out of Eden Walk HomeStories, Chicago area middle schoolers—all newcomers to America from Ukraine, Mongolia, Mexico, and El Salvador—won a chance to celebrate and shine under the rotunda at the Illinois State Capitol Building. What’s more, the students seized the opportunity to turn their moment in the spotlight into a rare growth experience.” 

“‘Technology lets you remove barriers that could prevent real communication,’ said Alicia Duell, then director of technology and information services for the Wheeling-based school district and a HomeStories proponent. ‘If students tried to speak in person, they’d have to overcome a language barrier and could only say a little bit. But HomeStories allow us to get to know them as fully formed people. They may come from different parts of the world, but they can still talk about their families and experiences. You find they’re very proud of their home countries and cultures.’” 

Earlier in the year, the HomeStories team documented another Lab Talk covering an initial pilot event at Jack London Middle School, which brought together families new to the US for a night of connecting through HomeStories. 

Principal Anastasia Netzel, standing at left, and educator Marcela Rodriguez, center, celebrate a moment of friendship with families from Mongolia and Mexico seated in the library of Jack London Middle School on newcomers’ night. Photo by Tracy Crowley.

“Interpreters and teachers circulated around the room, listening, encouraging, facilitating. For parents, ‘it was a great opportunity to see where they’re coming from, to answer any questions they might have,’ said Ricardo Perez, the language teacher. ‘We can give them some advice, some ideas on how they can support their children.’

“For students, ‘it’s a good, social, emotional self-analysis,’ he said. ‘I like the three questions—who are you, where are you from, where are you going—because students can see how the three things fit together.’

He said the questions are simple, easy to understand, and easy to translate. ‘But they’re open-ended. Anyone can answer those questions on multiple, different levels. It opens it up more for them to express their own complicated ideas.'”

Out of Eden Walk elevates the voices and work of the HomeStories volunteer team. For example: Students in Maine are using HomeStories to investigate climate change, and a volunteer Story Gatherer in Italy conducted his own slow walk interviewing local people along the route in the spirit of Out of Eden Walk. He’ll share the experience in an upcoming Lab Talk.

EDUCATION, PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT, AND WORKSHOPS

Out of Eden Walk co-hosted a slow storytelling workshop with NYU-Shanghai in Shenyang, a large city in northeast China, with students producing multimedia stories and profiles from detailed interviews with ordinary citizens. A Shanghai TV (Shanghai Media Group) crew contributed to the teaching. 

Eight university seniors and five staff members worked together for three days, combining in-class lectures based at a youth hostel and fieldwork conducted on foot in the surrounding Old City district. The resulting student work included intimate profiles of a truck driver, a Taoist monk, a migrant worker, an elderly cotton spinner and other neighbors. A Lab Talk by participating NYU-Shanghai staff members is forthcoming. 

Out of Eden Walk partnered with the National Geographic Society and the Chinese national park service to teach university students and conservationists slow storytelling skills in China.

Out of Eden Walk held a professional development workshop with the Forestry and Grasslands Administration in China last year. The site was the rainy and cool Labahe Conservation Area in the hills of western Sichuan—a biodiverse escarpment of alpine forest, red pandas and water deer. The trainees came away with multimedia stories (photos and text) about wild rivers, the life of park rangers, wildlife management challenges, and botanical research.

Out of Eden Learn, a free educational community designed and managed by our partners at Project Zero, engaged 501 classes, 242 educators, and 8,730 students from 51 countries since last year (with 45 US states represented). Are you an educator interested in joining the Out of Eden Learn community? Find out more and sign up here: https://learn.outofedenwalk.com.

Our partners at the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting 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.

Beginning in 2024, Out of Eden Walk will engage 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.

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—used HomeStories in a summer course for two dozen NYU Shanghai students based on the principles of slow storytelling and the Out of Eden Walk. During the workshop, along with weekly lectures and assigned reading, students practiced exploratory, neighborhood-based eyewitness reporting and captured the essence of their hometowns in digital multimedia narratives. The course taught NYU Shanghai’s Chinese students to walk slowly, look deeply, and view their home environments from a new perspective, through the eyes of a global storyteller. 

Archeologists in protective suits excavate a treasure trove of artifacts discovered at Saxingdui, a major Bronze Age site located near Chengdu, China. They work inside climate controlled structures built over dig pits. Photo by Paul Salopek.

An Out of Eden Walk-inspired Slow Journalism course was taught at the University of Richmond during the spring 2023 semester, which culminated in a student storytelling project on food insecurity in the community. A centerpiece was this ESRI StoryMap.

Out of Eden Walk presented the slow storytelling projects of Chinese and American university students (from NYU-Shanghai and University of Richmond) in “Walk Slowly, Look Deeply,” a presentation that was part of the Symposium offered by NYU Shanghai’s Institute for Contemporary Arts during the opening of the Out of Eden Walk exhibition featuring the work of Chinese artists and storytellers. 

Out of Eden Walk’s slow journalism workshop was attended by 35 educators as part of the Joan Oates Institute, the University of Richmond’s month-long summer enrichment program for public school teachers in central Virginia, in summer 2023. Its purpose was to share strategies for using the Out of Eden Walk in the classroom, including a teaching module devoted to Home Stories.

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.

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.

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.

Walking Kolkata

Walking Yangon

Kinks Map

Milestone Map of Faces

Walking Baku

Walking Tbilisi

Walking Jerusalem

Walking Jeddah

“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. In collaboration with Harvard CGA and Esri, new immersive maps delving into the journey through China are coming up in 2024.

“Being part of this unique project [Out of Eden Learn] has been extremely enjoyable. Most prominently, it has compelled me to think about issues we so often overlook in our lives – like difference in cultures, lives of people living around the world etc. It has also given me an insight into the lives of fellow teenagers from various countries. The walk, especially, made me notice aspects of my neighbourhood that would otherwise have been overlooked.” -Tamerslain, 9th grade student, Mumbai, India.

MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS AND EVENTS

In 2023, Out of Eden Walk debuted a prototypical gallery exhibition, featuring the work of local Walking Partners who joined the walk in China. This model with other partner institutions in the countries along the remaining Out of Eden Walk route.

“Walking China: Stories yet to be told is a multimedia exhibition and collaboration with the Out of Eden Walk, a global storytelling project retracing ancient human migration currently underway in China. Co-curated by Pulitzer-Prize winning writer, National Geographic Explorer, and Documentary Center, Shanghai Media Group (SMG) foreign expert Paul Salopek and film and literature scholar June Ke, Walking China: Stories yet to be told highlights the diversity of local cultures by presenting stories that roam widely across disciplines, knowledge systems, and ways of knowing, reflecting on how walking changes perceptions of time and being and how we might approach encounters with unfamiliar cultures and indigenous knowledges as starting points for dialogue. Featured artists include Salopek’s walking partners, folk artists encountered along the way, and artists who meditate on walking; they represent a diversity of mediums and perspectives, and explore local and regional cultures from various points along the Out of Eden Walk route in China.

“Walking China: Stories yet to be told” exhibition poster. Photo credit: ICA.

Walking China uncovers local histories and stories that have been obscured by dominant discourses. The stories collected here are curated with an eye for destabilizing sedentary narratives, highlighting how indigenous cosmologies rethink nature/culture binaries and how categories of history and identity are constantly in flux.

A mode of movement slower than the pace set by modernity, walking offers a process-oriented approach that forges unexpected connections and recovers what has been repressed or forgotten. A walk is not only a walk: It can also be a ramble through time, a quest for hidden truths, and an embodied approach to listening and storytelling. In this exhibition, walking becomes a method of uncovering ecological and technological layers, a way of traversing invisible borders, and a way of registering China’s spiritual journeys and history’s lingering footfalls. Visitors are invited to take a walk across China through footpaths and byways, to listen to disabled and minority stories, stories of grasslands and mountains, stories informed by the vicissitudes of history. Their narratives intertwine, fold into, ask questions of one another and of each of us: What are our responsibilities to the past, the future, and the world outside of our everyday surroundings? What kind of stories have been neglected or repressed? What stories have yet to be told? 

Walking China will also serve as a prototype for future exhibitions built around the Out of Eden Walk in the countries along the route to the walk’s finish line in Tierra del Fuego, South America. This exhibition supports Out of Eden Walk’s mission to collaborate with and elevate new creative talent who have walked along the trail, thus inspiring connectivity and accountability in our shared planet.” – https://ica.shanghai.nyu.edu/program/walking-china-stories-yet-to-be-told.

Michelle Yeonho Hyun, director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, checks textiles
at the gallery printed with poet Li Wan’s work. Photo by Paul Salopek.

Outputs of the Walking China Exhibition, which opened on May 20th, 2023, included storytelling and learning events that continued throughout the summer and fall of 2023, led by a world-class team of Chinese artists, curators and educators.

The main exhibition featured the walk’s global philosophy of ‘slow storytelling,’ but, even more importantly, centered the experience on the vast new ideas-market of China while embracing Out of Eden Walk’s core diversity values:

“A walk is not only a walk: It can also be a ramble through time, a quest for hidden truths, and an embodied approach to listening and storytelling. 

In this exhibition, walking becomes a method of uncovering ecological and technological layers, a way of traversing invisible borders, and a way of registering China’s spiritual journeys and history’s lingering footfalls. Visitors are invited to take a walk across China through footpaths and byways, to listen to disabled and minority stories, stories of grasslands and mountains, stories informed by the vicissitudes of history. Their narratives intertwine, fold into, and ask questions of one another and of each of us: What are our responsibilities to the past, the future, and the world outside of our everyday surroundings? What kind of stories have been neglected or repressed? What stories have yet to be told?”

Photographer John Stanmeyer and Walking Partner ‘Marina’ Hongyi Zhang take five during the opening of “Walking China” at NYU-Shanghai’s ICA, May 2023.

Public exhibition activities during the two-day opening included:

– Guided gallery tours led by exhibition curators.

– Live performances by ethnic minority artist-contributors.

– A ‘black tent’ roundtable open to the public and hosted by world-renowned Chinese environmental artists.

– Lectures offered by participating Chinese walking partner/artists.

– Symposium of presentations and slideshows by Out of Eden Walk University Outreach Director Don Belt, National Geographic Magazine photographer John Stanmeyer, and Out of Eden Walking Partner and NGS Explorer Arati Kumar-Rao. 

Arati Kumar Rao presenting at NYU-Shanghai’s ICA Symposium during the “Walking China” exhibition opening.

Public exhibition activities throughout the season:

– Public screenings of the Shanghai TV (SMG) documentary film series about OOEW then airing in China. Producers and directors of the TV series participated in auditorium Q&As.

– A public lecture series featuring Chinese photographers, artists and storytellers who employ ‘slow observation’ approaches.

– Ongoing guided gallery tours led by exhibition curators.

Read more here: https://out-of-eden-walk.nationalgeographic.org/articles/2023-05-if-walking-planet-art-weve-got-canvas.

AUDIO STORIES

With your support last year, we’re thrilled to share an update on our effort to diversify and more equitably share the growing archive of Out of Eden Walk’s written storytelling via the spoken word. Out of Eden Walk dispatches are now available in a new audio collection, beginning from the very first stories in Africa in 2013 and continuing through part of China. With National Geographic Society and Chatterbox Studios, we will continue to create, produce, and share professional, high-quality recordings of all stories from Out of Eden Walk to date to continue providing a new layer of sensory experience of the Walk’s reportage.

Read a Lab Talk by Lucie McNeil, the voice behind the stories, here: https://out-of-eden-walk.nationalgeographic.org/blogs/lab-talk/2023-05-painting-picture-through-voice-new-out-eden-walk-audio-narrative.

We strive to make it as accessible and as easy as possible to “walk along” with Paul. Future stories will be added to our audio collection on a quarterly basis.

Enjoy “listening along” with the journey here: https://soundcloud.com/search/sets?q=out-of-eden-walk-audio.

We’ll further expand our audio offerings in 2024 with a podcast focused on our incredible community of Walking Partners. Please stay tuned for updates.

MEDIA AND NEWS

PBS NewsHour has featured Out of Eden Walk eight times, NPR Morning Edition has featured Out of Eden Walk five times, and over 50 prestigious news organizations worldwide have covered Out of Eden Walk, including 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. Earlier this year, Paul checked in with Michael Holmes on CNN’s International Newsroom: watch here.

Out of Eden Walk’s eleventh feature story in National Geographic Magazine was published in the July 2023 issue. This is the longest-running series of print coverage in the Magazine’s 131-year history. Our twelfth story will be published in 2024.

Cover page of “Handmade World,” by Paul Salopek. National Geographic Magazine, July 2023. Photographs by Zhou Na and Gilles Sabrié.

The Out of Eden Walk online storytelling hub, www.outofedenwalk.org, breaks the 24,000-mile journey into chapters. Now in Chapter Six—China—the growing site includes 570 published in-depth articles, a collection that is growing with each step of the journey. “Articles” includes Dispatches, Milestones, National Geographic Magazine print story excerpts, ‘Lab Talks’ written by Out of Eden Walk community members, occasional social media spotlights, multimedia experiments, and galleries of partner photography. This archival trove of storytelling constitutes about 450,000 words. This content is free and publicly available on our National Geographic Society-hosted storytelling hub.

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 50 second video video from Milestone 84, “Everywhere Dust.“

WALKING ALONG

Our online community of readers and followers continues to grow. In 2022, Out of Eden Walk joined two social media platforms: LinkedIn and TikTok, where more than 30,000 followers are already tuning in. We’re thrilled to welcome you to follow the Walk in these two new (for us) spaces! We also share multimedia glimpses of the journey on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Vimeo, and Soundcloud. 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.

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.

Walking into the Bronze Age, Out of Eden Walk.

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. Veditum just launched a new fellowship program, Moving Upstream: Luni Fellowship. “The Luni River is unique in India. It originates in the Aravallis close to Ajmer in Rajasthan and flows through the Thar Desert. The high salinity of the soil turns the river brackish, while the geographical conditions of the region ensures the river does not meet the Arabian Sea. Instead, the river drains into the Rann of Kutch. The aim is to document the river and life in and around it, the impact of man-made actions on those whose livelihoods depend on the river and improve our understanding of the Luni river ecosystem.” The research and storytelling work produced by this new cohort of Veditum Fellows will be available in 2024.

Veditum’s Founder, ecologist, filmmaker, and writer Siddarth Agarwal, who joined Paul as a Walking Partner for hundreds of miles across India. Photo by Paul Salopek.

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:

National Geographic Society

Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting

Project Zero

Veditum India

Abundance Foundation

Center for Geographic Analysis at Harvard

Robert R. McCormick Foundation

National Museum of Georgia

John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

New York University Shanghai 

NYU-Shanghai Institute of Contemporary Arts

Nieman Foundation

Esri

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.

COMING UP

With your support, Out of Eden Walk will continue into its twelfth year in 2024—a pivotal year of storytelling that spans the transition from “Old World” to “New World,” east to west, and the beginning of the second half of this long, collective journey. Here are some of the things we’re looking forward to.

Languages – We are delighted to welcome pioneering publishing partners for Out of Eden Walk’s digital storytelling: the Polish, Portuguese, and Spanish language editions of National Geographic. Our thanks to the involved Editors for their enthusiasm. Stay tuned for news about other local language editions of National Geographic who may join the walk, bringing translations of Paul’s stories to an ever-expanding global audience. Our archive of community-translated articles can be found here.

More audio – Thanks to your support, and in partnership with National Geographic Society, Chatterbox Audio, and Lucie McNeil, we’re thrilled to have debuted the audio collection of Out of Eden Walk stories from 2013-2022 this year. You can listen to ten years’ worth of Out of Eden Walk stories, spanning Africa to China, here on Soundcloud. New stories will be added on a quarterly basis, keeping up a regular beat of audio offerings for those who prefer experiencing our storytelling via spoken-word format. Stay tuned for upcoming podcast news in 2024.

Workshops and student engagements – We’re taking our slow storytelling workshops to new horizons in 2024, organizing classroom engagements for Paul and students, and investigating new pathways to expand our educational footprint. With the necessary technological expansion of the HomeStories map, we’ll engage more students from all around the world with our specially-designed curricular materials and activities.

Stories on the horizon – In 2024, Paul’s twelfth feature story will be published in National Geographic Magazine, summing up lessons learned while walking south-to-north across China’s many historic trails—from the Burma Road to the Silk Roads. Our regularly-published online dispatches will continue to probe the important issues of our time—but always from boot level, focusing on the perspectives of the people who inhabit the news along our global route. Environmental change in the Arctic, the deepening toll of climate crisis, and human adaptations to both will feature in our reportage. So will stories about cultural change in the face of changing energy use (we’ll be walking through some of the planet’s last huge fossil fuel reserves), and field reports from exciting new archeological research into ancient human migrations by sea. As ever, it will be the unplanned tales of extraordinary encounters on the Out of Eden Walk journey that will continue to define our exploratory brand of “slow journalism.” Join us!

Follow on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Facebook and sign up for our newsletter to receive news and updates from the trail.

Porcelain figurines, at least 800 years old, keep their secrets at the Yaozhou Kiln Site in
northern China. Shaanxi province, China. Photo by Paul Salopek.

SOCIAL MEDIA SPOTLIGHT

THANK YOU FOR JOINING THE JOURNEY

Gd

George de Lama

October 25, 2024

SM

Stef Murison

January 6, 2024

KG

Karen Galindo Choudhary

January 2, 2024

RM

Rachel MacNeill

January 1, 2024

SG

Sruthi Gurudev

January 1, 2024

EW

Erin Williams

January 1, 2024

jl

jeff ludlum

January 1, 2024

LR

Lisa Roberts

January 1, 2024

CC

Casey Carrigan

December 31, 2023

EB

Elizabeth Brown

December 31, 2023

AK

Amir Karger

December 31, 2023

JR

Judy Rice

December 31, 2023

SV

Sandra Van Dam

December 31, 2023

SJ

Sean Jones

December 31, 2023

KH

Kjetil Heggelund

December 31, 2023

JS

Jamie Shreeve

December 31, 2023

RH

Rosalie Hallock

December 31, 2023

AP

Ali Pretty

December 31, 2023

VA

Vanessa Ah-Chuen

December 31, 2023

JT

Jesmine Tan

December 31, 2023

RG

Ruth Gyuse

December 30, 2023

HN

Harold Nelson

December 30, 2023

AL

Allan Ludgate

December 30, 2023

RG

Raquel Goldman

December 30, 2023

JW

JOSEPH P. WALSH, JR.

December 28, 2023

IH

Ion Hurtado

December 28, 2023

SR

Suellen Rowlison

December 28, 2023

SD

Suzi Davidoff

December 28, 2023

TJ

Terri Jensen

December 27, 2023

DH

David Hunting

December 27, 2023

LM

Lynn Maslen

December 27, 2023

AB

Anna Bratt

December 27, 2023

DD

Diane Deutsch

December 27, 2023

aj

alan jennings

December 26, 2023

EA

Elinor Aminoff

December 26, 2023

JD

Jennifer Davis

December 26, 2023

MS

Martha Shea

December 24, 2023

DR

Diane Rose

December 24, 2023

WM

WENDY MCLENNAN

December 23, 2023

LM

Lydia Martin

December 23, 2023

TH

Tage Hansen

December 23, 2023

JA

James Ashcroft

December 22, 2023

SG

Sallie Gilman

December 21, 2023

CF

Carla Finlay

December 21, 2023

NW

Nina Watts

December 21, 2023

CS

Colleen Stabolepszy

December 21, 2023

JL

Jon Loehrke

December 21, 2023

BP

Barbara Porter

December 21, 2023

DE

Debby Everett

December 21, 2023

LB

Linda Boyle

December 21, 2023

GB

Gary Boivin

December 21, 2023

YY

Yuka Young

December 21, 2023

Mv

Maria Christina von Nolcken

December 21, 2023

DB

Deborah Brown

December 21, 2023

SP

Sally Porta

December 21, 2023

SB

SASWATI BORAH

December 20, 2023

JB

Jean-paul Boudreau

December 20, 2023

CA

Carole Allison

December 20, 2023

NR

Nir Raz

December 19, 2023

DH

David Haskell

December 19, 2023

JE

Jan Eberhart

December 19, 2023

ER

Elizabeth Robb

December 18, 2023

AB

Alice Bateman

December 18, 2023

DB

David Badstubner

December 18, 2023

PE

Pär Emanuelsson

December 17, 2023

BD

Brian Devine

December 17, 2023

RK

Rory Kay

December 17, 2023

JG

Jay Goldberg

December 17, 2023

MR

Manja Ranosovic

December 17, 2023

ES

Eve Suter

December 17, 2023

XW

Xiangtao, David Wang

December 17, 2023

TL

Tommy Liles

December 17, 2023

IM

Isabella Milan

December 16, 2023

TC

Tracy Crowley

December 16, 2023

kb

koula bouloukos

December 16, 2023

KC

Kristen Caplan

December 16, 2023

GC

Gary Chun

December 16, 2023

PC

Paul Cronan

December 16, 2023

PN

Phil Norris

December 16, 2023

LL

Lori Lawrence

December 16, 2023

SA

Siddharth Agarwal

December 16, 2023

BG

Bianca Gray

December 16, 2023

AW

Amy Williamson

December 16, 2023

KW

Kathy Williams

December 15, 2023

AT

Andrea Turricchia

December 15, 2023

DL

Deb Landers

December 15, 2023

BM

Brendan McNulty

December 15, 2023

AR

Alice Roberts

December 15, 2023

JD

Joseph Durham

December 15, 2023

LS

Lauren Steagall

December 15, 2023

EH

Elke Hagge

December 15, 2023

ec

emilio ciampini

December 15, 2023

MT

Mateo Tarallo

December 15, 2023

GN

Gregory Nelson

December 15, 2023

LS

Lita Semerad

December 15, 2023

JL

Jack Lambert

December 15, 2023

HJ

Haydon Jamison

December 14, 2023

MZ

Marcin Zukowski

December 14, 2023

NH

Nina Hennemann

December 14, 2023

IG

Ian Gordon

December 14, 2023

KL

Kerry Luft

December 14, 2023

SN

Stone Noah

December 13, 2023

MS

Marcel Scheuer

December 13, 2023

RH

Robert Henderson

December 13, 2023

JY

JILL YAGER

December 13, 2023

AB

Alina Bugeag

December 13, 2023

DB

David Brudzinski

December 13, 2023

JF

Jacob Fisher

December 13, 2023

JB

Jessie Benjamin

December 13, 2023

IR

Ian Randall

December 13, 2023

TO

Tabbatha O'Donnell

December 13, 2023

CH

Cheri Hoffer

December 13, 2023

HR

Heidi Reyes

December 13, 2023

BP

Blanca Pinon

December 13, 2023

AK

Ajay Kalhan

December 13, 2023

JB

Jenny Begin

December 13, 2023

SS

Sarah Stannard

December 13, 2023

rp

rod paul

December 12, 2023

KB

Kay Bassford

December 12, 2023

JM

John McGrath

December 12, 2023

KM

Kathryn Myers

December 12, 2023

DW

Deborah Walsh

December 12, 2023

NM

Nancy Mattern

December 12, 2023

UI

Ursel Irwin

December 12, 2023

PD

Piyuse Das

December 12, 2023

UK

Unni Kjellman

December 12, 2023

JM

Jonathan Miller

December 12, 2023

JC

John Church

December 12, 2023

hc

helene constant

December 12, 2023

JM

John Madigan

December 12, 2023

JA

Jon Aldridge

December 12, 2023

SF

Steven Fowler

December 12, 2023

LL

Laurie Levknecht

December 12, 2023

CA

Connie Assadi

December 12, 2023

TC

Tom Cheyney

December 12, 2023

LA

Lisa Anderson

December 12, 2023

RM

Robert Martin

December 12, 2023

MW

Melva Ward

December 12, 2023

SS

Sean Stevenson

December 12, 2023

MN

Maryann Ness

December 12, 2023

BP

BLANDINA PISTONE STEINHAUSLIN

December 12, 2023

Mv

Max van Son

December 12, 2023

MM

Marcel Metze

December 12, 2023

JK

John Koble

December 12, 2023

JH

JWM Hagen

December 12, 2023

MS

Meredith Schmidt

December 12, 2023

EC

Emma Capello

December 12, 2023

MM

Matthew McNulty

December 12, 2023

IS

Irma Sherman Sherman

December 12, 2023

MB

Martin Bohle

December 12, 2023

DK

Derek Knowles

December 12, 2023

PA

Pam Allen

December 12, 2023

LS

Lillian Spencer

December 12, 2023

KM

Kristina Martin

December 12, 2023

JW

Joe Willi

December 12, 2023

MK

Marlene Khosropur

December 12, 2023

G

Gabi

December 12, 2023

DW

David Williams

December 12, 2023

RJ

Rachel Jackson

December 12, 2023

LW

Luke Weisenbach

December 12, 2023

SO

Susan Osnos

December 12, 2023

PS

Peter Souza

December 12, 2023

IJ

IAN JOHNSON

December 12, 2023

JL

Jane Lerma

December 12, 2023

JA

Jonathan Allen

December 12, 2023

PK

Parag Khanna

December 12, 2023

KP

Krystyna Pytasz

December 12, 2023

OG

OLGA GONCHAROVA

December 12, 2023

ML

Mick Lynch

December 12, 2023

LB

Linda Bahr

December 12, 2023

HP

Hrusikesh Patra

December 12, 2023

JP

Jon Paradiso

December 12, 2023

WU

William Ury

December 12, 2023

OY

Owen Youngman

December 12, 2023

AH

Aaron Hoard

December 12, 2023

KN

Kay Norby Fial

December 12, 2023

FM

Flynn McRoberts

December 12, 2023

CA

Carole Allison

December 12, 2023

MW

Mark Wagner

December 12, 2023

CS

Clarissa Sledge

December 11, 2023

ad

alister doyle

December 11, 2023

JS

Jaimy Stoll

December 11, 2023

E

Elisa Rocco and Walter Capella

December 11, 2023

BR

Bibi Richardson

December 11, 2023

KS

Kathryn Smith

December 11, 2023

AG

ASHOK GUPTA

December 10, 2023

SM

Steve Moore

December 10, 2023

BK

Barbara Kürsten

December 10, 2023

MC

Manish Chibba

December 9, 2023

MC

Mary Carter

December 9, 2023

NL

Nancy Lundeen

December 9, 2023

JM

John Mustain

December 9, 2023

MC

Michael Carragher

December 9, 2023

HW

Hayden Watts

December 8, 2023

JG

John Gutierrez

December 8, 2023

KG

Kathryn Gavin

December 8, 2023

BP

Boudewijn Peters

December 8, 2023

ED

Erin Dover

December 8, 2023

LG

Lapo Gambassi

December 8, 2023

AK

Alexandra Krivicich

December 8, 2023

NW

N Virginia Woolridge

December 8, 2023

AA

Alexandra Arjo

December 7, 2023

LS

Luminita Stanila

December 7, 2023

WE

Wayne Eberhard

December 7, 2023

SS

Shane Shariff

December 7, 2023

MD

Melanie DeFalco

December 7, 2023

MK

Marci Kanstoroom

December 7, 2023

LK

Leslie Kriebel

December 6, 2023

JM

Julia McGhee

December 6, 2023

SC

Simone Colombo

December 6, 2023

Mj

Mark johnson

December 6, 2023

JO

James OShea

December 6, 2023

JO

James OShea

December 6, 2023

SK

Shiteng Kang

December 6, 2023

EK

Elisabeth Kasson

December 5, 2023

SP

Stela Precup

December 5, 2023

em

emily moore

December 5, 2023

CJ

Catherine Johnson

December 5, 2023

SA

Stephen Abdallah

December 5, 2023

JM

James Murphy

December 5, 2023

CR

Carrie Regan

December 4, 2023

LK

Lucinda Killebrew

December 4, 2023

MM

Martha Merritt

December 4, 2023

BH

Burt Heacock

December 4, 2023

CS

Carol Sanders

December 4, 2023

PR

Pawan Rai

December 4, 2023

KG

Kathy Gannon

December 4, 2023

KH

Kelly Heape

December 4, 2023

LL

Loisa Lariño

December 4, 2023

SB

Sarah Vann Bonds

December 4, 2023

SR

Scott Reeves

December 4, 2023

PB

Peter Beck

December 4, 2023

CA

Cybele and Michael Abbett ❤️ Thirkill

December 4, 2023

Mp

Moir pettigrew

December 3, 2023

JM

Juha Mäkinen

December 3, 2023

JJ

Joan Johnson

December 3, 2023

JW

Judith Wilson

December 3, 2023

JN

Jeff Noneley

December 3, 2023

SM

Sushmita Mazumdar

December 2, 2023

SM

Sarah Malcolm

December 2, 2023

LL

Lindsey LaRock

December 2, 2023

JJ

Jolanda Jansen

December 2, 2023

SK

Sriniketh Krishnan

December 2, 2023

ET

Elizabeth Turner

December 2, 2023

MM

M.C & L.L Mr & Ms Lin

December 2, 2023

BL

Becky Lin

December 2, 2023

LB

Lynette Bates

December 2, 2023

BB

B Bradford

December 2, 2023

JM

Jeannine H Mead

December 1, 2023

BW

Beverly Watkins

December 1, 2023

ET

Emily Tsiang

December 1, 2023

VA

Vanessa Ah-Chuen

December 1, 2023

PD

Patrice Duquette

November 30, 2023

JH

Jennifer Hansch

November 30, 2023

ED

Elisabetta Deidda

November 30, 2023

JH

Joshua Herbertson

November 30, 2023

LF

Leandro Fessia

November 29, 2023

AM

Anna Masozera

November 29, 2023

GG

Ginger Gotliffe

November 29, 2023

KS

Kay Schmid

November 29, 2023

HS

H Rodney Scott

November 29, 2023

SK

Soumya Kannan

November 28, 2023

MR

Marthinus Roos

November 28, 2023

MB

Mary Bildsoe

November 28, 2023

BW

Betsy Westgate

November 28, 2023

JL

Jeff Love

November 28, 2023

SG

SYLVIA GARD

November 28, 2023

DW

Deborah Watrach

November 28, 2023

al

andrea legorreta

November 28, 2023

AM

Alessandro Monzillo

November 28, 2023

WW

Wrighter Weavel

November 28, 2023

JJ

Joanne Jacobson

November 28, 2023

XL

Xiang Li

November 28, 2023

SR

Storer Rowley

November 28, 2023

D

Deboleena

November 27, 2023

JC

John Michael Cassidy

November 27, 2023

RK

Rebecca Kassay

November 27, 2023

ND

Nil Delahaye

November 27, 2023

WL

Will Lockwood

November 27, 2023

MH

Mollie Hoben

November 27, 2023

TW

Thomas WEAKS

November 26, 2023

LR

Leila Reynolds

November 26, 2023

JL

Julia Lucas

November 26, 2023

AM

Angela Mancini

November 26, 2023

BU

Bruce Uecker

November 26, 2023

NW

Nina Warren

November 26, 2023

AN

Anna Narem

November 26, 2023

SM

Sebastian Modak

November 26, 2023

AG

Aurelie Giuliani

November 26, 2023

LS

Linda Sanford

November 26, 2023

KF

KC Flueger

November 26, 2023

EL

Elin Lee

November 26, 2023

DB

Daniel Becerra

November 26, 2023

MN

Marion Noble

November 25, 2023

AM

Anne Mackenzie

November 25, 2023

SC

Stephen Collins

November 25, 2023

TW

Tim Wallyn

November 25, 2023

DO

Debra Old

November 25, 2023

JE

Jan Eberhart

November 25, 2023

CK

Chris Karlin

November 25, 2023

BR

Brenda belen Rodriguez Martínez

November 24, 2023

KT

Kamilla Trauer

November 24, 2023

CM

Carol Mandato

November 24, 2023

JV

Jose Vela

November 24, 2023

TS

Thomas Springett

November 24, 2023

AE

Amber Ehrke

November 24, 2023

CB

Craig Bennis

November 24, 2023

PR

PD Rearick

November 24, 2023

AP

Andrew Peterson

November 24, 2023

JB

Janet Brown

November 24, 2023

MS

Maren Schmohl

November 23, 2023

JZ

Joseph Zellers

November 23, 2023

TC

Tibor Czimbor

November 23, 2023

AL

Aaron Lee

November 23, 2023

JW

Jeffrey Wood

November 23, 2023

AC

Amanda Case

November 23, 2023

PS

Pauliina Swartz

November 23, 2023

MC

Manuela Cerruti

November 22, 2023

DB

Dennis & Andrea Bean

November 22, 2023

DH

David Haskell

November 22, 2023

RK

Robert Krupczak

November 22, 2023

GT

Gian Troiani

November 22, 2023

TB

Tyson Brown

November 22, 2023

GS

Greg Sanders

November 22, 2023

D

Denisa

November 22, 2023

MM

Michael Müller

November 22, 2023

JY

James Yuen

November 22, 2023

PG

Pamela Green

November 22, 2023

RG

Robin Gamrath-Schauman

November 22, 2023

RM

RICHARD MOTT

November 22, 2023

CG

Carol Geaga

November 22, 2023

NH

Nancy Harbert

November 21, 2023

RH

Rose Marie Hill

November 21, 2023

VB

Veronica Blette

November 21, 2023

RK

Robyn Kruger

November 21, 2023

Wv

Ward van Vlimmeren

November 21, 2023

GH

Greg Hull

November 21, 2023

DR

Dmitriy Rozensweig

November 21, 2023

SS

Sean Stevenson

November 21, 2023

LW

Laura Wareh

November 21, 2023

MM

Marc Mordey

November 21, 2023

NH

Neal Huneycutt

November 21, 2023

W

Wendy

November 21, 2023

su

stefan uch

November 21, 2023

JA

Jessica Arnold

November 21, 2023

BP

Barbara Porter

November 21, 2023

FF

Francis Foyle

November 21, 2023

IS

Ilene Simmons

November 20, 2023

AM

Ann Marshall

November 20, 2023

DC

David Cantrill

November 20, 2023

CH

Chris Hess

November 20, 2023

November 20, 2023

BS

Barbara Sanders

November 20, 2023

KW

Karen Winterholer

November 20, 2023

MM

Maura Mulvihill

November 20, 2023

HH

Helen Heindel

November 19, 2023

DL

Dirk Laverge

November 19, 2023

MM

Maria Marano

November 19, 2023

MM

Mancho Manchev

November 19, 2023

CB

Camille Bromley

November 19, 2023

AB

Andrew Blasko

November 18, 2023

MJ

Mary Jelf

November 18, 2023

BS

BEVERLY STILLWAGON

November 18, 2023

WH

Wendy Hoggard

November 18, 2023

AW

Andrew Wood

November 18, 2023

MB

Margaret Brown

November 18, 2023

JD

Jeff Dorety

November 18, 2023

CL

Cathy Lindsey

November 17, 2023

PW

Patricia Walsh

November 17, 2023

LC

Linda Cobb

November 17, 2023

AH

Anna Hayden

November 17, 2023

TT

Theodore Trager

November 17, 2023

SH

Sidney Hershey

November 17, 2023

JL

Joseph List

November 17, 2023

JH

Junfan Huang

November 17, 2023

MD

Marina Dudnikova

November 17, 2023

PK

Pam Kellogg

November 17, 2023

JF

Jocelyn Frenette

November 17, 2023

LO

Laura Okawa

November 17, 2023

PO

Pat O'Connell

November 16, 2023

RW

Richard Woodward

November 16, 2023

kb

koula bouloukos

November 16, 2023

OL

Orvin Larson

November 16, 2023

PB

Patricia Beaudoin

November 16, 2023

AL

Arch Lamb

November 16, 2023

VP

Vanessa Pizzuto

November 16, 2023

JM

Jonathan Miller

November 16, 2023

AC

Alan Crowther

November 16, 2023

LZ

Luciano Zorzetto

November 16, 2023

WS

William Shan

November 16, 2023

AF

Alison Fitzsimons

November 16, 2023

JW

Joe Willi

November 16, 2023

JW

Joanne Chow Winship

November 16, 2023

IH

Irene Hürzeler

November 16, 2023

HS

HEIDI STENNER

November 16, 2023

MP

Maykapon Phanachet

November 16, 2023

ST

Suzan Thompson

November 16, 2023

DF

Debra Frasca

November 16, 2023

JB

Jonathan Brelsford

November 16, 2023

MH

Melissa Heim

November 15, 2023

JS

Joan Shannon

November 15, 2023

CU

Claudia Unterlechner

November 15, 2023

CW

Cathy Warren

November 15, 2023

GW

Geoffrey Westgarth

November 15, 2023

SB

Suzanne Bardasz

November 15, 2023

TT

Trang Tien

November 15, 2023

JA

Julie Ardoin

November 15, 2023

DR

Dami Roelse

November 15, 2023

WT

Will Thompson

November 15, 2023

EW

Erin Williams

November 15, 2023

SG

Susan Goss

November 15, 2023

HZ

Helen Zitkevicius

November 15, 2023

LK

Lawrence Kelty

November 15, 2023

CG

Cindy Grandma

November 15, 2023

MH

Meredith Hoffman

November 15, 2023

KF

Kathy Freitas

November 15, 2023

CF

Chen Fei

November 15, 2023

DP

Debbie Pastors

November 15, 2023

VS

Victoria Shade

November 15, 2023

FW

Frank Oscar Weaver

November 15, 2023

TV

Tim Vaughan

November 15, 2023

MS

Michael Shaughnessy

November 15, 2023

DE

Debby Everett

November 15, 2023

LS

Laura Simpson

November 15, 2023

AG

Alexander Gates

November 15, 2023

Cv

Christina von Nolcken

November 15, 2023

P

Paul

November 15, 2023

pZ

paula Zitzelberger

November 15, 2023

ND

Neeraj Datta

November 15, 2023

ES

Edwin Smelt

November 15, 2023

KT

Kristina Toporkova

November 15, 2023

AH

Anne Henley

November 15, 2023

C

Crystal

November 15, 2023

PL

Piper Livingston

November 15, 2023

nH

nikki Hardin

November 15, 2023

PM

Patrick McCabe

November 15, 2023

IC

Isadora Chesler

November 15, 2023

DA

Davar Ardalan

November 15, 2023