We've essentially engineered activity out of our lives. One of the biggest drivers of our high rates of chronic disease right now is a lack of cardiovascular fitness because we no longer have to get out and move. If you're always eating the most comfortable, calorie-rich food, that's going to have some side effects. At the same time, if you are too comfortable, so take something like activity, right?
Journalist and author Michael Easter talks about his book The Comfort Crisis with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Easter thinks modern life is too easy, too comfortable. To be healthy, he says, we need to move out of our comfort zones and every once in a while try to do something, especially something physically demanding, that we didn't think was possible. Easter discusses rising levels of anxiety and depression in the West and why taking on challenges can be part of the solution.