Bonnie Tsui, author of "Why We Swim," dives into the captivating world of swimming, exploring its cultural significance and historical roots. She discusses how swimming, unlike other activities, must be learned. Bonnie shares fascinating stories of cultures that thrive in water and how swimming fostered community during the Iraq War. The conversation also highlights swimming's dual nature as both a combat skill and a source of mental and physical restoration, revealing how it can spark creativity and flow in our thinking.
42:57
forum Ask episode
web_stories AI Snips
view_agenda Chapters
menu_book Books
auto_awesome Transcript
info_circle Episode notes
insights INSIGHT
Learned Swimming
Humans, unlike most land mammals, aren't born with the instinct to swim.
The earliest evidence of human swimming dates back 10,000 years to cave paintings in the Sahara.
insights INSIGHT
Culturally Transmitted Swimming
Humans and other higher-order primates must learn to swim, a unique trait.
This learned skill is passed down through cultural knowledge, stories, and traditions.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Sea Nomad Adaptations
Southeast Asian sea nomads, like the Bajau, demonstrate physiological adaptations to swimming.
Their children learn to swim before walking, and some possess larger spleens for better oxygen efficiency while diving.
Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode
In 'Why We Swim,' Bonnie Tsui examines the multifaceted relationship humans have with water. The book is propelled by stories of Olympic champions, a Baghdad swim club, modern-day Japanese samurai swimmers, and an Icelandic fisherman who survived a six-hour swim after a shipwreck. Tsui, a swimmer herself, investigates what it is about water that seduces us and why we return to it repeatedly. She explores the therapeutic, communal, and transformative aspects of swimming, drawing from personal experiences, historical contexts, and scientific insights. The book is a cultural history of humankind’s relationship with bodies of water, highlighting the benefits and dangers of swimming and its impact on human behavior and well-being.
If you've been swimming since you were a child, you probably don't think too much about it anymore. But when you take a step back, the human act of swimming is a pretty interesting thing. You weren't born knowing how to swim; it's not instinctual. So why are people so naturally drawn to water? And what do we get out of paddling around in it?
My guest today explores these questions in her book Why We Swim. Her name is Bonnie Tsui, and we begin our conversation today with how humans are some of the few land animals that have to be taught how to swim, and when our ancestors first took to the water. We then discuss how peoples who have made swimming a primary part of their culture, have evolved adaptations that have made them better at it. We discuss how swimming can be both psychically and physically restorative and how it can also bring people together, using as an example a unique community of swimmers which developed during the Iraq War inside one of Saddam Hussein's palaces. We also talk about the competitive element of swimming, and how for thousands of years it was in fact a combat skill, and even took the form of a martial art, called samurai swimming, in Japan. We end our conversation with how swimming can facilitate flow, and some of the famous philosophers and thinkers who tuned the currents of their thoughts while gliding through currents of water.
The Art of Manliness 
