I'm Cal Newport, and this is in-depth, a semi-regular series where I interview interesting people about their quest to cultivate a deep life.

Today's episode is presented by Defender, a vehicle designed for those seeking adventure

in a distracted world. Now, I've been looking forward to this episode for a while, as it's a chance

to talk to a writer who I've long followed and long have wanted to meet.

His name is Michael Easter.

He's a health and science journalist.

He used to be the fitness director at Men's Health Magazine.

He also used to be a journalism professor at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.

But he is most known now for his two best-selling books,

The Comfort Crisis and Scarcity Brain,

both of which I've read and highly recommend.

He's now a full-time writer who runs the very popular 2%

substack newsletter and podcast.

I subscribe to it and I recommend it.

If you're wondering, 2% refers to the fact that only 2% of people take the stairs instead of the escalator when both options are offered, even though research shows that taking the stairs would significantly improve your longevity.

This concept encapsulates a lot of Easter's writing where he looks at the sort of common sense,

but no nonsense, evidence-based advice for how human beings can get the most out of their body,

live healthy, live fit, get the most longevity out of their body, live healthy, live fit, get the most longevity

out of their time here on earth.

Now, in this interview, I have two purposes.

One, I just want to learn his advice, the type of stuff he writes about his newsletter and

his books.

...