Brian Laird on WNYC, don't feel bad if you aren't getting 10,000 steps a day. For years now,

research has called into question the 10,000 a day step goal. So when Atlantic

staff writer Amanda Mull wrote about this way back in 2019, she began her article this way. In America,

the conventional wisdom of how to live healthily is full of axioms that long ago shed their

origins. Drink eight glasses of water a day.

Get eight hours of sleep. Tick these boxes in your healthy person, she wrote. The reality, of course,

is a lot more nuanced. She also wrote, human health is far too complicated to be reduced to a long

chain of numerical imperatives. Now I'm going to admit that this segment came up kind of

by accident, because I was reading it. I like to read in on some of the latest health research

and health news, and I came upon Amanda's article, and I didn't even realize at first that it was

five years old. But I read through it, and I thought, you know, this is still really relevant

to talk about. So where did this 10,000 steps number come from and why, despite years of

research indicating a more complicated picture? Does the 10,000 daily step goal remain a target for so

many? We will ask Amanda Moll, staff writer at the Atlantic, who joins me now. Hey, Amanda,

welcome back to WNYC. Thank you so much for having me, Brian. And for listeners, we can take a few phone calls.

Do you go out of your way to get 10,000 steps a day? Does it make a difference one way or another

for you or how do you try to get movement?

Because nobody's saying movement isn't important. Movement is vitally important to longevity and to

quality of life as well. Much research has shown. It just doesn't have to be in that rigid way

of 10,000 steps. But if you've been doing it, how long have you

kept up your streak? 212-433 WNYC, 212433-9692. Amanda, do you have a daily step count goal?

You know, I don't. I still am beholden a little bit psychologically to this idea that you need 10,000 steps,

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