This episode of the Outside Podcast is brought to you by Health IQ,

the only company that measures your knowledge of healthy living,

and then uses it to save you money.

And since today's story takes place largely in the water,

let's look at swimming and its impact on health benchmarks.

According to a 2013 study in the International Journal of Cardiology,

swimmers showed a 16% increase in V.O2 max over non-swimmers. In a different

study, swimmers also saw a 10% decrease in total and LDL cholesterol, which is the bad

kind of cholesterol.

There are also significant gains in power output, general health, mental health, and

heart performance.

Also, in situations where someone was thrown overboard, swimmers outperformed non-swimmers every single time.

So if you need life insurance and you're a swimmer,

Health IQ is one of the few places that knows exactly how much that's worth,

and how to combine it with your other healthy habits for the biggest discount.

Go to health IQ.com slash outside to see if you qualify.

That's health IQ.com slash outside. From Outside Magazine and PRX, this is the science of survival.

Up near the same latitude is Norway, about halfway between Iceland and Scotland in the middle of the North Atlantic,

a pod of 50 pilot whales, which is a small sort of dolphin-like whale, are making their way towards the Faroe Islands, a small sort of Denmark-like country.

The islands are known for deep fjords on the coast, huge grasslands, and a largely

pastoral existence. In Danish, Ferro Islands means the islands of sheep.

Pilot whales are known for their intelligence.

...