We know sitting is bad for us. But what are we supposed to do instead?

Driving, attending meetings, hunching over laptops, zooming, commuting, absentmindedly scrolling Instagram — so much of contemporary life encourages if not outright demands that we sit. But study after study (and maybe just your own body) has told you: this much sitting is not great for us. But what are we supposed to do instead? Can we get rid of the junk wellness moralizing (10,000 steps a day!) and figure out small things that actually make our bodies feel better?

Turns out, yes! And Manoush Zomorodi is here to talk about all of it — including whether those walking pads are bullshit. And I promise: this show won't make you feel like a horrible person for sitting. But it might give you some ideas about how you can listen to your body more.

Show Notes:

• NPR/Ted Radio Hour’s The Body Electric Challenge, which is very cool

• Manoush’s recap of the challenge:

• The Roxanne Gay Work Friend column on walking treadmills

• Manoush’s piece in the Los Angeles Times re: strategies to break up sitting

• Debunking the 10,000 Steps Myth

We’re currently looking for your questions for future episodes about:

• THE NEW BEYONCÉ ALBUM — SPECIFICALLY WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF COUNTRY MUSIC (this ep’s with Elamin Abdelmahmoud and it’s going to be so good, but we absolutely need your questions to guide us)

• What’s the deal with JEANS right now (alternate title = Jeans: Help)

• For our continuing series on romance novels: QUEER ROMANCE

• The future of reality TV

• How we talk about the royals today (especially looking for some questions from people outside of the U.S. here!)

• The Contemporary Jennifer Lopez

• Online shopping culture, including but not limited to people’s reliance on reviews and/or compulsion to leave reviews

• The cultural force that is nostalgia (especially interested in how it functions in different generations)

• Anything you need advice on!

• You can submit them (and ideas for future eps) here (and here’s the subscriber-only priority form)

For today’s discussion: How have you tricked yourself into sitting less? And what sitting questions still annoy you?

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