A Physical Education with Casey Johnston
The War on Cars
The War on Cars, LLC
4.9 • 937 Ratings
🗓️ 12 May 2026
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Just as it is with road safety, so much of how Americans talk about health pushes the responsibility for eating right and exercising onto the individual, ignoring the many structural barriers that prevent people from making "good" choices. Through her newsletter, She's a Beast, and her bestselling book A Physical Education: How I Escaped Diet Culture and Gained the Power of Lifting, Casey Johnston cuts through the noise, making connections across various disciplines to help people rethink their notions about health, exercise and body positivity. Casey joins The War on Cars to talk about how "at the scale of daily life, cars should be systematically discouraged, in order to even begin to contend with the deaths and health decline from a lack of physical activity."
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Order our new book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, out now from Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Find out the latest about our book tour at LifeAfterCars.com.
LINKS:
Buy Casey Johnston's books, A Physical Education: How I Escaped Diet Culture and Gained the Power of Lifting and Liftoff: Couch to Barbell, as well as books by all of our podcast guests at our official page on Bookshop.org
Subscribe to Casey Johnston's newsletter, She's a Beast, and read her post on "the plot to strangle the American of life, liberty, and happiness."
Thanks to Cleverhood for sponsoring The War on Cars. Listen for the latest discount code and get the best rain gear for walking and cycling at 15% off.
Buy a certified, pre-owned e-bike from Upway and save $100 off any purchase of $800 or more with code TWOC100. Visit Upway.co to get rolling.
Check out the Lumos Ultra Smart bike helmet and the Firefly smart light system at RideLumos.com
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This episode of the War on Cars is sponsored in part by Upway. |
| 0:10.1 | Sarah and I have been all over the country and we have seen it all, from cities that are |
| 0:13.9 | compact and bikeable to places that are sprawled out. |
| 0:17.4 | But the one thing that's been consistent has been the presence of e-bikes. |
| 0:21.6 | They really are the great equalizer, making cycling accessible to more people and making |
| 0:26.6 | it possible to replace car trips. |
| 0:28.6 | No matter where you live, if you've been thinking of getting an e-bike, you'll want to check out Upway. |
| 0:33.6 | Upway is the world's biggest and best place to get new and certified refurbished |
| 0:38.5 | e-bikes from name brands at big discounts. The team at Upway can help you find the perfect |
| 0:43.5 | bike no matter your experience or what you plan to use yours for. Not only that, but the qualified |
| 0:49.2 | mechanics at Upway tune and inspect each bike, so it's as good as new before it's delivered right to your door. |
| 0:55.8 | Plus, Upway offers a one-year warranty on every e-bike itself, including its pre-owned models. |
| 1:02.3 | Now, through the end of May, listeners of the War on Cars can save $100 off your order of $800 or more at Upway with code TWOC 100. |
| 1:14.2 | Use the link in the show notes or visit upway.co and enter the code at checkout. |
| 1:20.3 | No matter where you live, get rolling on a certified refurbished e-bike with Upway. |
| 1:25.3 | Again, that's upway.co, discount code TWOC 100. |
| 1:32.5 | It's such a richer experience sensorily. Like, you're feeling the breeze. You can see so much |
| 1:40.5 | more going on than when you're speeding by in a car, even going at a slow speed. |
| 1:44.5 | Like, you can see all these stores. |
| 1:46.5 | You can see who's in the restaurant. |
| 1:47.9 | What are they eating? |
| 1:48.8 | And, like, are there a lot of people there? |
... |
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