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ON THE COVER: Zachary Levi photographed for Men’s Journal

by Peter Yang on January 26, 2019, in Perris, California. Styling by Warren Alfie Baker for the Wall Group. Grooming

by Marisa Machado for Art Department.

Production by 31 Mile. Levi wears T-shirt

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APRIL 2019

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47 NOTEBOOK

28 38 We’re With Her Writer and actor Issa Rae talks lousy bosses and the art of not giving a damn.

14 Travel La Paz, Bolivia, is in the midst of a cultural renaissance thanks to an unlikely source: local chefs.

20 Style and Design Buying a vintage watch was once a fraught affair. No more, thanks to a trusted start-up.

THE BLUEPRINT

A haute approach to the lowly sardine.

Thirty years ago, author Bill McKibben made climate change a national issue.

Now he’s hoping to do it all over again.

GE AR L AB

The best shoes for every type of runner, plus all the off-road essentials to keep you comfortable in the wild.

36 Cars

THE BLUEPRINT

93 Fitness Yoga for adventurers, to keep your body and mind primed for a fitter life outdoors.

104 What Works for Me Actor Jason Clarke dishes on surfing, Pilates, and on-set nutrition.

THE L AST WORD

112 Steve Earle

The revamped Ford Ranger, last released in 2011, may be the best midsize truck on the market.

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Everyday slacks that can take a beating.

40 Profile

50 Trail Running 24 Food

56 Adventure Pants

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52 Juicers Supercharged machines that make juicing easier than ever.

MEN’S JOURNAL

The singer-songwriter and actor on sobriety, serial marriage, and partying with Frida Kahlo.

PROTEIN ~ GRAIN-FRE E HIGH

Letter From the Editor

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COU LDN ’ T STOP star-

ing out the window. The snow was absolutely mesmerizing, falling like confetti, and covering the already white evergreens along Highway 26 atop Oregon’s Mount Hood. My friend Davide was gripping the steering wheel tightly, trying to keep our Jeep Wrangler from skidding across the road. He had the hard job; all I had to do was make sure the tunes were decent and stare out that window. The stretch of road was beautiful—among the tall Douglas firs, there were meandering trails that stretched deep into the snowy woods. We sped past one of those telltale brown signs that told us we were entering Mount Hood National Forest. My mind wandered to all the adventures to be had in these woods: snowshoeing, winter camping, nordic skiing, and ice fishing.

And this was only winter.

As the miles wore on, I was struck by the sheer size of this one forest. A few days later, back in the office, I did some quick research: Mount Hood National Forest consists of more than 1 million acres of

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protected land—just 45 miles from downtown Portland. Even more notable? This is just one of 154 similarly protected forests in the United States, lands that spread over 188 million acres. Add to that the national parks, wildernesses, wildlife refuges, conservation areas, monuments, national lakeshores, seashores, and you have more than 600 million acres of federal land.

That’s about two acres for every person living in our country. It’s staggering. And it’s a treasure.

We celebrate that bounty in our annual Adventure issue. This year we challenged ourselves to find 100 incredible trips and activities within these public lands (“Wild & Free,” page 70). It wasn’t that hard. From running with donkeys in Colorado’s Pike National Forest to digging for clams in South Carolina’s shellfish grounds to floating through the Ozarks on Eleven Point River, these adventures highlight just how massive and disparate this land is. And the timing couldn’t be more perfect.

Most of you probably know that this collective treasure trove is under attack.

In December 2017, a presidential executive order was signed, shrinking Bears Ears National Monument, in southeastern Utah, by about 85 percent. There are more proposals on the table to reduce federal acreage, and lands once thought to be protected— like the Boundary Waters in Minnesota and Bristol Bay in Alaska—are facing new threats from miners and developers.

Men’s Journal has always highlighted these important issues, and in the months to come, we will double down on those efforts. During a yearlong campaign we are calling Lands Uncompromised, we will aggressively report on what’s happening and what’s at stake, both in these pages and online at mensjournal.com/ landsuncompromised.

So don’t just stare out the window.

Get informed. Get out there. And get adventuring.

GREG EMMANUEL Chief Content Officer

MEN’S JOURNAL

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Field Notes Feedback

#MJwild DUTY CALLS In Clint Carter’s otherwise excellent story “Surviving Behind Enemy Lines” (February 2019), he neglected to cover a serious survival concern: dysentery. Over my long military career, I saw time and again how quickly the shits can cripple an airman. It’s not exciting to talk about, but waterborne-disease prevention is as important as mosquito swatting.

ELIZABETH PALCHAK-CONNELLY CHARLOTTE , VT

Z.L.G. STEIN CHICAGO

MISS LIST Here’s a list of things I don’t understand, or care for, in the February issue: 1) A GearLab story on snow shovels. 2) Recipes for nonalcoholic cocktails. 3) James McAvoy. 4) Beginning a survival story with “…how the hell does anything survive out here?”

That said, “The Great All-American Fish Party” was a really fun story.

BRIAN SCHEI VANCOUVER, WA

BONUS QUOTE OF THE MONTH Flaming Lips front man Wayne Coyne’s travel snafu: “Once I mistakenly took a fake, gold-plated grenade through airport security. I quickly explained what it was, but TSA had already started clearing the airport. It was totally embarrassing; people missed flights.” Read more on page 44.

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Ball Boy @RONALDISAWOLF | Koh Samui, Thailand Show off your photos using the Instagram hashtag #MJwild.

Public Appeal CONTRIBUTOR’S NOTEBOOK While reporting “Speed Demon” (page 84), Justin Heckert gained new respect for NASCAR champ Jimmie Johnson—and for his pit crew: “On TV they move fast, but in person, with sparks flying and 12 people running around a pit box loaded with tools and computers, they seemed really hardcore.”

Readers weigh in on the best parks and wilderness areas in their home states.

“You can’t beat tubing the Guadalupe River in Texas.” @JDTX3302

“Illinois’ Kankakee River State Park is a must for mountain biking, mostly because it has some good hills, a rarity in the state.” @CAREYLEE97 “Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, in Michigan, is amazing; its colorful cliffs tower like 200 feet over Lake Superior.” @KYBANDI

CONTACT US: TWITTER @mensjournal FACEBOOK facebook.com/ MensJournal INSTAGRAM @mensjournal EMAIL letters@mensjournal.com SEND LETTERS to Men’s Journal, 4 New York Plaza, New York, NY 10004 Letters become the property of Men’s Journal and may be edited for publication.

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COYNE: EMILIANO GRANADO/REDUX. GUADALUPE RIVER: PATRICK BYRD/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

I was pumped to read Devon O’Neil’s story “Giving Up the Gas” (February 2019), about low-emissions ski legend Greg Hill. This is our life— we drive a Volt, love backcountry powder, travel everywhere, and do our best to protect the Earth. I appreciate O’Neil digging in, asking tough questions, and spotlighting Hill. Well done.

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Bolivia’s New Food Revolution La Paz is the highest capital city in the world, and now it’s one of the most inspired, too—thanks to a citywide renaissance sparked by an unlikely source: local chefs.

VERY COUNTRY has its street

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new era of Bolivian cuisine.

hagen, Noma—which he ran alongside chef René Reolzepi—had scored the number one slot on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list for the third consecutive year. He could have done anything, but he shocked the world by opening his second restaurant in La Paz, a city of fewer than a million high in the Andes Mountains.

Not only that, Meyer set up a string of culinary programs in the city’s poorest neighborhoods to train a new generation of Bolivians about the importance of native ingredients. In an interview at the time, he explained his decision this way: “Bolivia may have the most interesting and unexplored biodiversity in the world.”

When I first visited Gustu, in 2013, La Paz was an overlooked city, largely undeveloped, with no culinary scene to speak of. But the head chef at the time, Kamilla Seidler, also from Denmark, promised me that the young chefs in Gustu’s cooking programs would soon

BENJAMIN LOWY/GETTY IMAGES

food—banh mi in Vietnam, pierogi in Poland, arepas in Colombia. In Bolivia, it’s anticuchos, sizzling kebabs of heavily spiced, sliced beef heart. More than once I’ve chewed my way through a few of these in the capital, La Paz, after a night out. Which is why, last fall, while dining at the city’s fanciest restaurant, Gustu, it came as a shock when a server brought me a stick of meat on a cooking stone. Here, anticuchos were elevated to haute cuisine.

Gustu lies in tony Zona Sur, an aff luent neighborhood of La Paz. That night, in addition to grilling my own anticuchos, I used a

bone to eat honey-cured lamb, plucked an ant off the top of a pickled harlequin beet, and licked a crunchy Andean grain called cañahua off a cow’s tail. And these were only the appetizers on the epic 22-course tasting menu. There was also a wonderfully tangy palm heart doused in balsamic vinegar; surprisingly delicious (and strangely chickenlike) caiman meat paired with rutabaga; and a trilogy of quinoa in grain, cream, and miso-paste form that showed off the Bolivian staple’s unexpected versatility.

Gustu is the creation of Danish restaurateur Claus Meyer, co-founder of the New Nordic cuisine movement. In 2013, Meyer was on top of the world, after his restaurant in Copen-

The kitchen at Gustu, which inspired a

E A R T H Y A N D O T H E R W O R L D LY. O F T E N AT T H E S A M E T I M E .

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Clockwise from above: Plaza Murillo and the National Congress building, in La Paz; walking home after school in the capital city; the famous Witches’ Market, the place to go for traditional herbal cures; papaya tiradito at Ali Pacha; and Gustu’s anticucho meat skewers.

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antioxidant-rich palm fruits, and a handful of protein-packed grains.

Proof of Bolivia’s newfound pride is on display at Popular Cocina Boliviana. This new restaurant from chef Diego Rodas lies above the Witches’ Market—the place to go for herbal Viagras, prophetic readings, and other indigenous cures—and puts a gourmet spin on the city’s classic lunch stalls. Rodas explains to me after plates of empanada-like tucumanas and f leshy Titicaca trout that “lunch is the most important meal of the day for Bolivians.” By MEN’S JOURNAL

also dozens of watering holes in the tourist hot spot of Calle Sagarnaga, where you can swig cervezas made with quinoa, amaranth, and coca (of cola and cocaine fame).

Evidence of local pride extends far beyond the food. The culinary revival mirrored a cultural renaissance in the city overall, among designers, musicians, artists, and architects.

Each room at the recently opened boutique hotel Atix, for example, features works by Bolivian artist Gastón Ugalde. Design shops like Mistura and Walisuma are working with indigenous collectives across the nation to sell textiles and handmade alpaca sweaters.

OM TOP LEFT: JULIEN CAPMEIL (4); COURTESY OF GUSTU

transform the city. “When we see this generation go off and do their own thing, it’s going to be very exciting,” she said.

She was right. Six years later, La Paz is in the midst of a culinary renaissance inspired

by Gustu culinary principles and alums. That revival has overlapped with a rejuvenation of the city as a whole—one that has transformed La Paz into one of South America’s most exciting capitals.

“When Gustu opened, many Bolivians didn’t appreciate native products; everything from the outside was better,” says current Gustu head chef Marsia Taha. The 29-yearold Bolivian says the most important thing she learned from the Danes was not technique but pride in their own local cuisine—“even though,” she says, “they have less than 5 percent of the products we have in Bolivia.”

Bolivia may be one of the poorest countries in the Americas, but geographically and biologically speaking, it’s one of the richest.

Its endemic ingredients include some 2,000 different types of native potatoes, dozens of

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Bolivia’s endemic ingredients include thousands of fruits and vegetables, sold in stands across La Paz (above); La Artesana, one of the many breweries in and around the city (top right); and lunch at

FOUR CAN’T-MISS MEALS IN LA PAZ

Popular Cocina Boliviana (bottom right).

GUSTU

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boasts a strict local food philosophy: every quinoa grain, cacao nib, and acai berry comes from within Bolivia. After three spectacular courses, I stroll through downtown La Paz to Jallalla, a newly opened peña (folk club) on a corner of the cobblestoned Calle Jaén.

Jallalla sits above the gallery of Mamani Mamani and has a veritable Sistine Chapel of the painter’s psychedelic Andean art on its ceiling. It’s run by Jhon Montoya and Ricardo Iglesias, and serves Bolivian tapas. When I head to the bar for a cocktail, the bartender recommends the Luka Quivo, a mix of locally distilled vodka (1825 brand), fresh orange juice, ginger, and airampo cactus. It arrives in a shoeshine box honoring the lustrabotas, who wear ski masks to avoid the stigma of shining shoes for a living. The cocktail is yet another reminder that being unabashedly Bolivian in Bolivia today is, two centuries after independence, suddenly a revolutionary idea. Q MEN’S JOURNAL

ALI PACHA

POPULAR COCINA BOLIVIANA

JALLALLA

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: JULIEN CAPMEIL (2); COURTESY OF POPULAR COCINA BOLIVIANA

In the satellite city of El Alto, there’s a wave of Technicolor “New Andean” mansions from architect Freddy Mamani, which cost up to $600,000 and look as if they were built during an ayahuasca fever dream. To reach the city, you can glide from downtown La Paz (elevation: 11,940 feet) to uptown El Alto (elevation: 13,615 feet) on one of the eight cable-car lines that crisscross the cities.

“La Paz isn’t a pretty city, but it is quite sexy,” says Boris Alarcón, as we down cold brews at his gilded coffee bar HB Bronze. His shop is located in a shabby corner of the once glorious Casco Viejo neighborhood, which, a decade ago, was practically deserted. Today, on the surrounding blocks, Alarcón has turned longabandoned mansions into opulent co-working spaces (Kilometro 0), bookstores (The Writer’s Coffee) and hotels (Altu Qala). He now outbids deep-pocketed Europeans to keep the country’s best coffee beans, chocolates, and wine inside Bolivia and on the menus at his properties.

Around the corner from HB Bronze is the

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The Right Time to Buy Online Shopping for a pre-owned watch can be a nerve-wracking process, full of cheats, scams, and bad info. But there’s one start-up helping collectors realize their Rolex dreams. by JOHN LONSDALE

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hundreds of pieces—some “only a little thicker than a human hair,” Emslie says. To inspect the Rolex, Emslie will use an array of specialized tools, everything from millimeter-size screwdrivers to wooden tweezers—you don’t have to worry about scratches quite as much with the wood ones, he explains. From there, certain key parts of the watch, including its automatic movement, will be placed in a cleaning machine called the Greiner Vibrograf ACS900 in a nearby room. The case, meanwhile, will be washed separately in something called an Elma Ultrasonic Tank.

Then Emslie will put it all back together, testing and retesting the rehabbed timepiece to ensure precision accuracy.

E M S L I E I S A M O N G a team of watchmakers, technicians, and refinishers here at the headquarters of Crown & Caliber, a watch retailer based in Atlanta that buys and sells pre-owned luxury timepieces online. Since it MEN’S JOURNAL

Clockwise from top left: Repairing an automatic movement; pre-owned watches can cost as much as $50,000; technicians and watchmakers in the company’s workshop.

was launched in 2013, the company says, it has had more than 40,000 transactions.

Crown & Caliber was founded by Hamilton Powell, an Atlanta native with a background in f inance. He got the idea after a friend described what he went through when he tried to sell a rare Rolex Day Date. After posting the watch on eBay, the friend was besieged by scammers. With estimates of the timepiece’s value all over the map, he was unsure of an asking price, until he finally sold it for $5,500 to a mom-and-pop jewelry shop—which

WEDIG & LAXTON PHOTO (4)

L A D I N A white lab coat and sitting at a large wood workbench in the corner of a workshop with views of the woods out back, Charles Emslie grabs a magnifying loupe and casts his gaze on a 1989 Rolex Submariner 16610. The stainless steel watch with a black bezel probably sold for around $1,500 when it was released, but today it is prized by collectors and can fetch as much as $8,000—if it’s in mint condition.

Unfortunately, that’s not the case with this Rolex. “The watch is old enough that the oils have degraded and gotten dirty and dried out,” Emslie says. “It needs a complete overhaul.”

With that, Emslie, 32, who’s been repairing f ine watches for a decade, prepares to go inside the Submariner and take it apart piece by piece. This is no simple task. The mechanical watch, which is powered by the movement of the wearer’s arm, comprises

3 DREAM WATCHES Some watches are true icons of style.

Here are three that are particularly lustworthy, courtesy of Crown & Caliber’s client services manager, Nathan Nerswick.

DIVE WATCH

ROLEX SUBMARINER Crown & Caliber founder Hamilton Powell.

DRESS WATCH

f lipped it for more than twice that amount.

Sensing an opportunity, Powell did some research. He learned, to his surprise, that the U.S. market for high-end mechanical watches is some $5 billion a year. “Some estimate that the pre-owned industry is more than double that,” Powell says. But that preowned market was like the Wild West. “Preowned watches are traded in back alleys, and pawnshops, and on forums or on eBay and Craigslist,” Powell says. “I thought, ‘We can make it easier and more trusted, a better way to buy a watch.’ ” So he set out to do just that, launching Crown & Caliber with a small team and a single watchmaker. “I remember a couple of nights at 1:00, looking for a lost watch part in the carpet of our office with a f lashlight,” Powell says. Today, the company has about 60 full-time employees, including watchmakers, refinishers, and customer-service staff.

Crown & Caliber takes the guesswork and uncertainty out of the process. Sellers know they’re getting a fair price, and buyers can be assured that what they’re getting is authentic and in tip-top shape. Would-be sellers fill out an online form, answering a series of questions. The company sends back a quote, based on a proprietary database that analyzes how much similar watches have sold in the past.

“We’re not using our gut; we’re not using just a hunch,” Powell says. “We’re using real data to determine what we’re going to pay.”

Once Crown & Caliber gets hold of the watch and confirms its authenticity, the real 022

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the upper end, hardcore collectors will spend from $40,000 to $50,000 for an automatic 2010 Patek Philippe Nautilus or 2015 IWC Portuguese Minute Repeater Limited Edition— roughly what you’d pay for a Mercedes-Benz SLC Roadster.

PATEK PHILLIPE CALATRAVA

PILOT WATCH

BAC K I N TH E Crown & Caliber workshop,

Emslie turns his attention from the Rolex to a Patek Philippe Complications Annual Calendar, an automatic watch with a solid whitegold case that can fetch as much as $50,000.

The Patek is “less than two years old, in my estimation,” Emslie says. His main job with this Patek isn’t to disassemble it—he just needs to make sure it’s not a fake and then get back to the seller with an offer. (It is, in fact, real.)

Next comes something slightly more affordable than the Patek: a Breitling Chronomat A13050 that Emslie says costs around a couple of grand. It’s a good way to end a Tuesday—Breitlings happen to be among Emslie’s favorites. “Stainless steel, white dial, very pretty movement,” he says, somewhat wistfully. “It’s reliable, it’s accurate, it’s a beast.” Q MEN’S JOURNAL

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GO-TO COCKTAIL

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RUM OLD-FASHIONED My favorite way to drink rum is in an old-fashioned, where you switch out the whiskey for aged rum. To the 2 ounces of rum you add a half-ounce of sweet vermouth, a half-ounce of honey, and 2 dashes Angostura bitters, stir them together over a large ice cube, and finish with an orange twist. It’s more warm and complex than the standard drink.

PREJEAN’S COOKBOOK I spent my formative years in Lafayette, Louisiana. At home, we ate Vietnamese food. Cajun food, I learned about from my friends. I’d watch them make dirty rice and gumbo and boiled crawfish. When I moved away from Louisiana, I got the Prejean’s Cookbook, a book from a Cajun restaurant in Lafayette. I love their crawfish étouffée.

OFF DUTY ESSENTIAL COOKING TOOL

East Meets South

OFFSET SPATULA Everyone home. do sauces and spread things, even for pastry, but great tool to lift, press, carry, flip. Unlike a huge clu offset gives you more finesse.

The son of Vietnamese immigrants in Cajun country, Kevin Tien grew up on pho and dirty rice.

Those influences, along with a love of Japanese cuisine, are on display at Washington, D.C.’s Himitsu—and at home. as told to ADAM ER ACE

SECRET SPICE

SPRING ROLL PARTY My fiancée and I set up an electric griddle in the middle of the table with marinated beef, chicken, and other proteins, soaked rice paper wrappers, a bowl of rice noodles, a bowl of romaine or Bibb, cucumber batons, basil, and mint. I put two people in charge of the griddle, and everyone builds their own rolls. It’s fun seeing everyone interacting and building this experience together.

CINNAMON Growing up in a Vietnamese household, we’d use warm spices like cinnamon all the time. I like to get whole sticks and toast and grind them myself, which brings out all the aromatics. If it sounds weird to add cinnamon to your taco meat, for example, just think of the holidays, when warm spices and savory foods go together. It’s the same thing for me, just 365 days a year.

MEN’S JOURNAL

HEAT SOURCE SAMBAL OELEK A staple of Vietnamese cooking, it’s a chili paste that comes from the same company that makes sriracha and has all the flavor profiles I love: spicy, acidic, garlicky. I use it as a condiment but also add it to marinades and stir-fries when I want a little heat.

illustrations by DANILO AGUTOLI

PORTRAIT: SCOTT SUCHMAN

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Good Apples Apple brandy is one of the world’s oldest spirits, and today it’s making a long-overdue comeback, thanks to inventive bartenders mixing it up in new—and old—ways. by CHRISTOPHER ROSS

I R ST, A N explainer: Apple

brandy is not the sweet, green stuff you drank back in college. It’s a centuriesold liquor distilled from apples. In France, its oldest form is called calvados, and in America, it was made before there was a Constitution.

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Lately, though, there’s been renewed interest in the spirit, and distilleries across the U.S. are producing impeccable versions with the smooth warmth of whiskey and the fruit notes of cognac. Bartenders, naturally, have taken notice and are experimenting with the spirit, perfect in boozy sippers as well as citrusy sour cocktails. Here are three to try at home. Q

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How to Shine in the Rain Dodgy skies don’t mean you have to go out looking like it’s laundry day. Designers are mixing hydrophobic fabrics in with their top-of-the-line threads, so whether you’re headed to the office, a weekend getaway, or even a rainy run, here’s how to stay dry and on point.

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WE’RE WITH HER

Issa Rae The Emmy-nominated creator of HBO’s Insecure, now starring in the new film Little, on lousy bosses and learning to not give a damn. by SAR AH Z . WEXLER

In Little (out April 12), you play an assistant to an abusive boss. Have you ever had a terrible boss in real life?

I had a terrible coworker who acted like my boss, which is unacceptable. I had a shitty boss once—but I was also a shitty intern at the time, so I can’t be mad.

How, exactly, were you a shitty intern?

It’s embarrassing to think about now, but I had just graduated from college and I was used to running my own production.

It was stupid, entitled shit. I didn’t want to get coffee. She was like, “Girl, calm down.

We’ve been doing this for years. Just pay your dues.”

Well to be fair, I remember from your memoir The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, which you’ve been writing for TV since you were really young.

I started writing scripts when I was 11 because of watching the formulas from ’90s television. And obviously mine were terrible, but it was just like, “Oh, I could do this.” It was before Google, so I was Yahooing the addresses and names of studio heads and just sending my scripts out with a cover letter.

Can you watch Cosby reruns and enjoy them, or not anymore?

Since those allegations came out, I can’t watch them. Same thing with R. Kelly. Anytime I hear something that yucky, I can’t really revisit the work without thinking about it.

My brother and I were just talking about that.

THE BASICS Age

Hometown

Favorite ‘90s Sitcoms

Speaking of your brother, does your family watch Insecure? You have some very graphic sex scenes.

I have three brothers. They watch the show, but they do not watch t he sex scenes. I don’t blame them. I wouldn’t want to watch their sex scenes either.

What did growing up with all those boys teach you about guys?

Nothing! I wish it had taught me more.

I’ve always thought about that: I grew up with brothers, but I’ve always still been awkward around guys. They taught me literally nothing. They never helped in any way.

I HAVE THREE BROTHERS. THEY WATCH THE SHOW, BUT THEY DO NOT WATCH THE SEX SCENES. I DON’T BLAME THEM.

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It’s interesting that you continue to describe yourself as awkward. I mean, you’re a beautiful spokeswoman for CoverGirl. You’ve been nominated for an Emmy.

It just stays, no matter what comes from the outside. In addition to that, you have a magnifying glass on your behavior, so it kind of makes you even more scrutinous of yourself. That’s something I’m trying to get over. I’m trying to get into more of the I-don’t-give-a-fuck-ness of how I started, MEN’S JOURNAL

How do you relax in your limited downtime?

This past winter break was the first time I had no obligations in three or four years. I took every minute to just say no to everything and chill. I feel so fresh.

Are you normally a yes-person?

I stopped being a yes-person a couple years ago because I had no time to create. I’ve become more of a calculated-yes-person.

So much of Insecure is about relationships between men and women. What’s your dating life like?

I’m never really looking. I’m not out there like, “Oh, I’m going to meet my Prince Charming.” Dating in L.A. sucks. We’re always in our cars, and the neighborhoods are really spread out. I imagine dating is better in the South. I have this idea in my mind that there’re a bunch of southern gentlemen who are just out there living and dating and courting women.

What do you look for in a guy?

A sense of humor and intellect. And teeth.

That’s a big thing.

Teeth?

I’m going to be kissing you, or we’re going to be talking, and your breath stinks. All of that really goes hand in hand for me.

Makes sense. What about clothes? How important are they to you?

I’m a jeans-and-sweater person—I’m not into guys wearing athleisure. You’re not at the gym—it’s like, are you even trying?

I just like a guy to look like he tried. My standards are really low there. I like fitted clothes on men, and I love men in suits.

Male fashion is so much easier, so that’s why I’m kind of disgusted when men wear these baggy T-shirts or baggy polos. You have so many options to look good. Put in some effort! And put on some cologne. Q

ELTON ANDERSON

Precocious! What kinds of shows were you writing?

An original script I submitted was called Ronnie, about a young black boy in high school in L.A. trying not to get caught up in gang life. It was corny, I’m sure. I also wrote a spec script for Cosby about Bill Cosby’s character flipping out over his daughter getting a tongue ring. That was the most scandalous thing my 11-year-old mind could come up with.

where I didn’t have an audience, so I didn’t really care. Now I care a bit more—I’m trying to shed some of that.

MEN’S JOURNAL

APRIL 2019

Final Warning Thirty years ago, Bill McKibben made global warming a national issue. Now he’s calling for extreme action not only to mitigate climate change but also to save mankind.

B

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5 , the lodge’s wood stove. The spot is his informal second office here at Middlebury, where he teaches writing and environmental activism. (He lives nearby with his wife, the writer Susan Halpern.) “I’ve spent my life working on climate change in part because it’s just so incredibly annoying,” he tells me. “We know what to do, we know how to do it—we’re just not.”

His annoyance is understandable. Thirty years ago, McKibben’s 1989 classic, The End of Nature, was among the first books on global warming written for the general public and helped to move the issue beyond academic circles.

MEN’S JOURNAL

port of a bill to phase out fossil fuels.

In the years since, McKibben has become one of the most inf luential figures in combating climate change, perhaps best known not for his writing but for his activism. As the co-founder of the nonprof it 350.org, he has helped to organize some of the world’s largest protests against fossil-fuel interests. His work has won him a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Sierra Club’s John Muir Award, and made him a hero to other activists—and a target of right-wing stalkers, along with the FBI. “Bill is this rare combination of an intellectual and a grassroots activist,” says Erich Pica, president of the environmental group Friends of the Earth. “He’s been capable of putting some really important concepts out in the public by showing, in a compelling way, how and why we should get involved in fighting climate change.” On the other end of the spectrum, the Heartland Institute, a free-market think tank,

EMAN MOHAMMED/ZUMA WIRE

g J ary rain has been falling all morning, knocking out the power and phone lines, and turning the snowpack at Middlebury College’s nordic ski center, in Vermont, into white quicksand. But McKibben, a writer and an environmental activist, decided to hit the trails anyway, and is the last skier to return to the lodge. “I can confirm it’s somewhat moist,” he reports. Along with wet ski gear, he’s sporting his trademark half-rim glasses and close-cropped gray hair. Skiing is his “great vice,” he says. “It’s a guaranteed escape from the things that I worry about the rest of the time—the only problem is that it’s probably the single human activity most immediately susceptible to climate change.”

McKibben speaks on Capitol Hill in sup-

Clockwise from left: A Pennsylvania pipeline; a 350.org protest; McKibben is arrested for blocking a gas facility.

DESPITE FALTER’S BLEAK thesis, McKibben seems content and relaxed in person; for years, he taught Sunday school, and he looks the part.

He grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts, and worked as a reporter in New York City after graduating from Harvard. He took an interest in climate change while researching a story on the origins of everything in his apartment, which made him realize the extent to which the urban world depends on the natural. He became convinced of climate-change science and set out to win over others in his writing, culminating with The End of Nature. A decade after its release, many people had started to believe in climate change, but little had been done to stop

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it. “We were losing because the fight had nothing to do with data,” McKibben says. “The fight had to do with money and power.”

With that in mind, McKibben and a handful of Middlebury students co-founded 350 .org in 2008, in hopes of countering the fossilfuel industry’s efforts to influence policy and block clean-energy initiatives. The organization worked with ranchers and Native American activists to protest the Keystone Pipeline; in 2015, it helped persuade the Obama admin-

EVEN IF WE DO EVERYTHING RIGHT FROM THIS POINT ON, IT’S GOING TO TAKE LUCK TO GET OUT OF THIS. MEN’S JOURNAL

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: CHARLES MOSTOLLER/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES; COURTESY OF LAURA MORDAS-SCHENKEIN; COURTESY OF WE ARE SENECA LAKE

has accused him of “global warming alarmism,” and The National Review has condemned his “stunningly radical economic views” for pushing fossil-fuel divestment, as well as called him an “environmental killjoy” who pretends this is the worst time to live on Earth.

But McKibben is unwavering in his views or approach. His 18th book, Falter, out in April, offers an alarming picture of the world in decline, as drought, rising sea levels, and wildf ires shrink the habitable earth. As a result, McKibben argues, life as we know it is on the verge of playing itself out, threatened by human-caused climate change but also A.I. and robotics, which he believes erode human dignity. What most sets the book apart from his earlier work is its call for mass civil disobedience and collective action. “My house is covered with solar panels, and I drive an electric vehicle,” McKibben tells me. “But [that’s not] how we’re going to win at this point.” With Falter, he hopes to inspire readers to join movements, block pipelines, and help shutter oil refineries.

“We’ve kicked off changes that are so large that even if we do everything right from this point on,” he says, “it’s going to take a certain amount of luck to get out of this.”

istration to kill the project. (President Trump later reversed the decision.) Then, in 2016, 350.org organized a peaceful, 30,000-plusperson worldwide protest of fossil-fuel projects, one of the largest-ever acts of civil disobedience focused on climate change.

The success of these demonstrations earned McKibben no shortage of foes. In 2018, The Guardian unearthed files showing that the FBI had surveilled 350.org and McKibben on suspicions of domestic terrorism. “That didn’t surprise me, given the history of the FBI,” McKibben says. The feds, in fact, are far less a concern to him than the climate-change deniers who have photographed him and his family sitting in church, grocery shopping, and waiting at the airport, posting the images online afterward. Death threats are also frequent. Message-board commenters have suggested that he be shot, and have posted his address. McKibben deletes most of the threatening emails he gets but has shared alarming ones with the police.

Still, McKibben has faith in humanity. “It doesn’t seem OK to give up on human beings,” he says. He has recently shifted into an advisory role at 350.org, which today has a staff of hundreds, and is banking on young activists to help mitigate climate change. “Bill has educated so many people who share his vision, and these leaders are leading now,” says the activist and author Naomi Klein. “I think that’s all he really wanted. He didn’t want to be a climate star; he’s happiest when he’s skiing or canoeing.”

With the lodge shutting down for the day, McKibben decides not to dawdle any longer.

He’ll ski again soon anyway: In a few weeks, he’s heading to Minnesota to protest a pipeline, by skiing part of the proposed route. He knows the road ahead of him and other environmentalists is daunting, but he tries to keep the issue in perspective. “My grandparents’ generation had to go kill people and get killed to stop fascism in Europe,” he says. “You don’t have to do that to stop climate change. You can join some demonstrations, and maybe at worst you have to go to jail for a few days.” Jail isn’t fun, but it’s not the end of the world: “The end of the world is the end of the world—that’s why we do it.” Q

Because travel to Mars is a few DECADES AWAY. In Wy om i n g , s e e i n g i s b e l i e v i n g . A n d s om e t i m e s , d i s b e l i e v i n g . More t h a n e pi c w i l d w e s t v i s t a s , t h e l a n d s c ap e c a n d e f y e x p e c t at i on s w it h ot h e r w or l d l y c o l or s t h at e v o k e w on d e r a n d aw e . Nat u re h a s s e c re t s t o d i s c ov e r. Wh at on e a r t h a re y ou w a it i n g f or ?

FILM

TRUE TALES Two new, wildly different documentaries—one on earthly matters, the other on spiritual—to check out now.

MUSIC Recently, while scrolling through Peter Max artwork online, I saw that he’d painted the cover of World Galaxy by Alice Coltrane. Unfamiliar with the record, I downloaded it.

Turns out, it’s supercool, weird jazz. Sometimes I feel like I’ve heard everything, but albums like this remind me that there’s still so much wonderful music out there to find.

TRAVEL The Flaming Lips have been playing St. Louis since the 1980s, but only recently did we realize that it’s truly fantastic. It’s immaculate, for one, and the City Museum is great.

Inside, there are these insane hand-sculpted caves and a 10-story industrial shaft that’s been turned into a slide. It doesn’t feel Disneyfied; it’s a real adventure.

ACCORDING TO

Wayne Coyne

A NATURAL WONDER

Our Planet David Attenborough and Co. return with this eight-part, muchanticipated follow-up to 2016’s Planet Earth II. This time, the focus is on the Earth more than the animals that inhabit it (though there are still plenty of animals). We see massive ice chunks cleave from glaciers, monsoon rains flood the Australian desert, and rivers weave through Amazonian rain forest valleys. The film highlights how these natural occurrences influence wildlife, and what will happen to these creatures should the planet continue to change. (4/5) A RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE

Hail Satan?

WORKOUT I have an iPod Mini that I got 12 or 13 years ago that I still bring on tour with me, since it has my yoga routine on it.

It’s a nice 45-minute warmup, led by the instructor Rodney Yee, who’s fairly popular. I could remember the routine, but it’s nice to have a guide.

—AS TOLD TO J.R. SULLIVAN

Satanists are a complicated bunch.

As this hilarious, often-offensive documentary makes clear, few members of the Satanic Temple actually believe in a horned devil, and instead mostly just like to troll lawmakers— by, say, trying to install a goatheaded satanic idol at the Arkansas capitol. But the Satanists are also, at times, curious allies of Christians and other religious groups, in their staunch, albeit unorthodox, defense of religious liberties. (3/29) —J.R.S.

MUSIC

TELEVISION

THE GAME OF THRONES BOOZE GUIDE The final season of Game of Thrones begins April 14. Here are three admittedly gimmicky but definitely tasty GOT-branded libations to sip while watching.

PODCASTS

044

Crime Time

CARDHU

JOHNNIE WALKER

BREWERY OMMEGANG

Battle Hymns On I Need a War, Hold Steady front man Craig Finn hits his stride as a solo artist, with songs about after-hours parties, druggy girlfriends, and doomed attempts to make good. (4/26)

WAYNE COYNE: EMILIANO GRANADO/REDUX. RODNEY YEE: AMY SUSSMAN/GETTY IMAGES FOR FIJI WATER. CITY MUSEUM: SERHII CHRUCKY ALAMY STOCK PHOTO . OUR PLANET: JAMIE MCPHERSON/SILVERBACK/NETFLIX.

APPLIANCE On tour this fall, one of the backstage caterers had an elaborate, commercial-grade orange-juice machine.

Well, I bought one for my wife for Christmas, mostly because it seemed fun; I didn’t really know how well it’d work. But I absolutely love it. Having fresh juice first thing in the morning gives me a boost, like I’m on crack or something.

LIVE IN THE MOMENT

APPAREL, SUNGLASSES AND MORE AT SALTLIFE.COM

insurance and you could save.

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ES SENTIAL S FOR THE WE LL- EQUIPPED MAN

Killer Climbers

APRIL 2019

THE NEW MOUNTAIN LIONS

Mountain-bike shopping used to be easy—pick the gnarliest one you can afford, then decide if you want more efficiency uphill or fun on descents. But with new geometries and redesigned suspensions, these six do-it-all monsters mean you really can have it all.

Force Carbon Pro

SB130 TURQ-Series XX1

GT BICYCLES

$5,250

YETI CYCLES

$10,099

This 27.5er uses GT’s solid suspension—a four-bar design with 150mm rear travel and 160mm up front for a predictable Run the suspension low to balance climbing efficiency and downhill fun. Lines for the dropper post, derailleur, and brakes are in a protected exterior channel for easy maintenance. gtbicycles.com

If you have room for only one bike, make it this carbon-fiber that tackles mountain trails, gravel paths, or bike parks. This 29er’s new geometry and suspension let us scale rocky washouts and a 4,000-foot alpine grind, then cruise descents smoothly—even on zones we used to walk through. yeticycles.com

DV9

Strive CF 6.0

IBIS CYCLES

$2,829

CANYON BICYCLES

$3,999

The DV9 is the best 29er we tested: designed to win races without costing more than a summer job’s pay. The playful build is slacker than a crosscountry bike but it’s not full enduro, with shock-absorbing, grippy 2.6-inch-wide tires. It’s a fun hog or a speed demon—depending on your mood. ibiscycles.com

Flip the handlebar lever on this teched-out carbon-fiber 29er, and you change the bike’s suspension on the fly. The rear shock’s gas spring and suspension let you pick between a slacked-out 150mm suspension, low bottom bracket enduro machine or a stiffer, 135mm all-mountain speedster. canyon.com

The Offering GX Eagle

Firebird 29 Pro XT/XTR

EVIL BIKE CO.

$5,699

The Offering is a trail bike that’s aggressive in corners but with a balance of pop and plow that outclimbs Evil’s award-winning Wreckoning. The most playful bike here, the centered riding position keeps the front tire tracking, with a stable wheelbase and a 140mm suspension that begs you to ride faster. evil-bikes.com

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MEN’S JOURNAL

PIVOT CYCLES

$6,799

This is the best build for —it boosted our confidence on roots, rocks, and berms in bike parks and the backcountry. Nimble, with a snappy single-crown fork and low center of gravity, this 29er takes on technical trails almost as easily as a downhill bike, but also pedals uphill well. pivotcycles.com

A BETTER TRAIL MIX

UPGRADE IT

Designed for comfort during long stretches in the saddle, this is the gear you want to pack for those mild spring mornings that can turn into chilly afternoons in the muck.

Not ready to invest in a new rig? Smart add-ons make your current ride better than ever.

Thrillium Shorts

Spark MIPS Helmet BELL

$70

DAKINE

$120

The Spark’s extended rear protects the back of your skull while using 13 vents to flush sweat away with fresh air. Inside, a MIPS system rotates, deflecting crash energy away from your brain. bellhelmets.com

On the trail, these four-way-stretch shorts won’t feel restrictive, while laser-cut holes in the thighs and waistband keep things breezy. The roomy inseam is designed to slip over your kneepads. dakine.com

Neo 16L Backpack

Kestrel Pro Boa Shoe

EVOC

$280

FIVE TEN

$200

A rubber-like lattice between your back and this pack protects your spine from impacts. The odor-resistant build has pockets for your gear and a helmet, and it holds three liters of water. evocsports.com

Mud wipes right off the weather-resistant uppers on these clipless Boa shoes. The stiff rubber outsole transfers power to the pedals, and it won’t slip while you walk to the car after your ride. adidasoutdoor.com

Enduro Knee Guard

Stow Jacket

DAINESE

$130

During a crash, the targeted zones on this guard protect your patella and shinbone while cushioning knee cartilage—the rest of the time it feels unrestrictive as you stretch and twist. dainese.com MEN’S JOURNAL

GIRO

$80

Stash the 6.3-ounce, nylon Stow in your pocket for protection against rain, wind, and chill. It blocks the elements but breathes, so you won’t get clammy up during an uphill churn—and it fits over a jersey. giro.com APRIL 2019

049

1/ Unika

Get a Grip From fast and light to durable and cushiony, there’s a trail shoe for every kind of runner. Here are the five best we tested— and the gear to help smooth the miles.

1

2/ Switchback ISO

2

3/ Speedgoat 3 3

4

4/ Air Zoom Terra Kiger 5

5/ Sense Ride 2

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APRIL 2019

MEN’S JOURNAL

photograph by TED & CHELSEA CAVANAUGH

RUGGED GEAR FOR RUNNING WILD Battling the elements is half the fun of trail running. Make sure you gear up to win.

Radar EV Path

Distance Carbon AR Trekking Poles

Incendo SL Jacket

Loowit Athletic Trucker Hat 2.0

Lumen 600R Waist Belt Press Crew Light Cushion

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Full-Court Cold Press The latest crop of juicers makes it easy to supercharge your vitamin and nutrient intake at home. So which build is best?

H101 Easy Clean Slow Juicer XTRA HOLLA PAIN YO

The Big Squeeze BREVILLE

Slowstar $400

The Big Squeeze presses bright-tasting juice from everything you can fit into its feed chute, including whole apples under three inches wide. A downside: scrubbing its stainless steel strainer if you’re juicing fibrous stuff like ginger. brevilleusa.com

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TRIBEST

$380

We love the Slowstar’s five-second assembly, its crisp, fresh juice, and the fact that it rarely gets jammed—even with root vegetables like beets. But during cleanup we had to yank out the messy pulp that collects inside its twin-edged auger. tribestlife.com MEN’S JOURNAL

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1 Built like a battleship and marked by iconic Hammertone green, the Stanley Classic Series is the choice of generations from jobsites to the outdoors. This bottle is as rugged and durable as the WWI generation that invented it, so it’s no accident that Stanleys have stood the test of time.

Now, Stanley has updated their classic bottles for the modern age. By expanding the inner lining, the new Stanleys keep even more liquid hot (or cold) without losing their timehonored look and feel. Incredibly, Stanley has managed to make the bottle even more durable—with a lifetime warranty to boot.

We’ve heard stories of Stanleys surviving explosions and 4,000-foot drops, speeding bullets and bulldozers. And we’re betting that they’re true. The legendary Stanley Bottle: made to outlast damn near everything. STANLEY-PMI.COM

THE STAY HOT FRENCH PRESS

Get ready to up your coffee game. This press will keep that caffeinated gold hot, and its durability makes this bad boy ready to weather the great outdoors...or your kitchen.

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THE EASY-POUR GROWLER

Beer enthusiasts, prepare to transport your favorite brew in iconic style. Fit with a rugged handle for easy one-handed pouring, this big guy keeps beer frothy and cold.

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THE LEGENDARY CLASSIC BOTTLE

Your grandfather's classic Stanley is now available to the next generation. Double-wall vacuum insulation means your liquids stay hot or cold up to two days. And the stainless construction has been known to last a lifetime.

4

THE TRIGGER-ACTION TRAVEL MUG

Meet your fully leakproof copilot.

It’ll fit comfortably into your vehicle’s cupholder and keep your coffee hot for 7 hours. Plus, it makes the commute easier with one-handed drinkability.

SOME THINGS STAY HOT

LONGER

REINTRODUCING THE NEW, OLD CLASSIC. REDISCOVERED SINCE 1913

Super Slacks With ample stretch, waterproof coatings, and zippered pockets, these pants won’t slow you down, wherever the day takes you. by CLINT CARTER

Weatherproof Denim The Signal

Sigma FL Pants ARC’TERYX

Macun Softshell Pants $189

Built for climbing, these water-repellent pants have a reinforced seat and knees, with a gusseted crotch for full range of motion. Even if you never strap into a harness, you’ll appreciate their breathability, which prevents that clammy feeling. arcteryx.com

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APRIL 2019

MAMMUT

High Coast Stretch Trousers $159

The Macun falls between city and trail pants: The stretchy, water-resistant nylon-elastane build blends in anywhere, and zippered pockets secure your gear. And the articulated knees won’t bind as you sprint through the airport or scramble up a trail. us.mammut.com MEN’S JOURNAL

CL E R MON T K . Y.

U. S .

NEVER PAT YOURSELF ON THE BACK. THAT’S WHAT THE WHISKEY’S FOR.

EVERY BIT EARNED

KNOB CREEK® KENTUCKY STRAIGHT BOURBON WHISKEY AND STRAIGHT RYE WHISKEY 50% ALC./VOL. ©2019 KNOB CREEK DISTILLING COMPANY, CLERMONT, KY.

Help Is on the Way More than just jumbo-size smartphones, these Alexa- and Google Assistant–enabled smart displays make video calls, show you who’s at the door, and preview your commute. by TOM SAMILJAN

Home Hub GOOGLE

$149

This tidy 7-inch display is our favorite nightstand fixture: The screen analyzes the light in the room and automatically adjusts—so you get an easy-on-the-eyes morning clock face. While there’s no camera, it spits out your day’s details, like weather and the morning commute, after you say, “Hey, Google, good morning.” store.google.com

XBOOM AI ThinQ WK9

Smart Tab P10

LG

LENOVO

$250

Smart displays often prioritize screens over audio, but LG’s two 20-watt speakers mean party-quality sound for your Spotify playlist. With an 8-inch Google-enabled high-definition display, video is crisp enough to watch Netflix from your breakfast bar. lg.com

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APRIL 2019

Mate 7 $300

This 10-inch full-high-definition tablet docks seamlessly into a Dolby Atmos soundbar that punches above its weight. Control Alexa-compatible smart home tech with your voice or finger, or pull the tablet out to read on the sofa. lenovo.com MEN’S JOURNAL

ARCHOS

Connect $149

Unlike displays that are bound to an outlet, the rechargeable Mate 7 (available this summer) lets you answer a smart doorbell or stream Amazon videos from a hammock. The design works in landscape or portrait mode, depending on the app. archos.com

CLEER

$150

Whether standing or lounging, you can tilt this Google-enabled 8-inch touchscreen’s display for the best viewing angle. If you make video calls, you’ll appreciate the clear incoming and outbound sound optimized by the audio tube’s two-way drivers. cleer.us

POC

START YOUR CHAIN REACTION Created in Sweden, inspired by science and driven by a safety mission, POC develops products with unquestionable quality and protection.

THE OMNE AIR SPIN is a lightweight helmet with superior ďŹ t, comfort and performance. It is designed with a versatility that will unleash your cycling potential and start your chain reaction.

READ MORE AT POCSPORTS.COM/CYCLING

OMNE AIR SPIN

NEW

YEARS IN THE HOLLYWOOD TRENCHES HAD LEFT ZACHARY LEVI BEATEN DOWN AND UNSURE OF HIS NEXT MOVE. NOW HE’S LITERALLY SOARING AS THE STAR OF DC COMICS’ NEW SUPERHERO FILM, SHAZAM!

Z AC H A RY LE V I I S STA N D I N G on the tar-

mac alongside a 1970s-era de Havilland DHC-6 that’s been painted to resemble a great white shark, its teeth bared and cartoonish. He’s changed out of the dark denim and buttondown he showed up in, and squeezed his 6'4" frame into a snug red flight suit—“like something Britney Spears would wear in a music video,” the actor quips. It’s a bright late-January morning at the Perris Valley Airport, a quiet airstrip about 90 miles east of Los Angeles, and the surrounding landscape is stunning—the San Jacinto mountains are parked to one side, the snowcapped San Bernardinos are chilling in the distance, and the sun is almost pink.

In just a few moments, Levi intends to fling himself out of that plane—which makes some kind of sense. After all, this month the actor makes his action-hero debut in Shazam!— why not really soar like a superhero? Soon, a couple of instructors give us the thumbs-up, and we climb inside, strapping ourselves onto a bench along the aircraft’s wall. “Ever since I was a kid, I had a fascination with skydiving,” Levi shouts as we take off. “Not just the actual physics and how crazy awesome that is. But also the iconography pumped into my eyeholes growing up watching Point Break. I wanted to be Bodhi.”

Levi’s first jump was 17 years ago, when he was 21 and in Las Vegas filming a comedy. The second time: “It was with Paris Hilton.”

Excuse me?

He barely knew the socialite, he tells me, staring down at Lake Perris. But a friend invited him to her birthday party in Vegas and he f igured: Why not? “It was a super, crazy, fun party,” he says. “Mini Kiss was playing—the little person cover band of Kiss?

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That night, as we’re all carousing and having drinks, I mentioned that I’d skydoved. Skydiven? [Grammar jokes!] Everyone was like, ‘Fuck yeah! We gotta do that!’ ” It was already 3 in the morning. Surely no one would remember this conversation, right? “Well, at 8 in the morning, knock knock knock on the door. The van was waiting downstairs. I’m like, ‘Oh God, I kind of instigated this. I can’t not go.’ We get in a van and drive out to the airf ield. We got into a Right: Levi (center) as a computer geek turned superspy in the NBC series Chuck, with co-stars Yvonne Strahovski and Adam Baldwin. Far right: In Shazam! with costar Jack Dylan Grazer.

MOTORCYCYLE PROVIDED BY HARLEY DAVIDSON. PHOTOGRAPH WAS TAKEN ON A CLOSED COURSE.

plane, and we all jumped. It was surreal.”

Was it some lifelong bonding experience?

He laughs: “I don’t think I’ve seen Paris since.”

With that, one of the instructors rolls up the plane’s door. Suddenly, it’s very windy inside.

The instructor tells Levi to sit on his lap, and they strap themselves together for a tandem jump. Moving awkwardly, the two edge toward the open door. They double- and triple-check the ripcord. My ears pop. Levi turns to the photographer and cracks: “Let’s take some photos before I turn this red suit brown.” Then it’s as simple as 1-2-3 goooooooooooo!

“WHAT DO THEY SAY, it takes 20 years for an overnight success.”

It’s now a few minutes later, and we’re safely

065

the stamina of Atlas, the power of Zeus, and so on. The movie has been described as Big meets Superman, and the comparison is spoton: Whenever 14-year-old Billy Batson says “Shazam!” he turns into a 6'4" superhero who can shoot lightning bolts out of his fingers.

This is Levi’s biggest role to date and a massive bet for DC, which hopes to build off the momentum of Aquaman and Wonder Woman (and make us forget that dour Superman reboot and Ben Affleck’s ho-hum Batman).

When Levi, 38, was first asked to audition for a supporting role in Shazam! he actually declined the offer. “I was like, ‘This must be a mistake,’ ” he says. “Aren’t they looking for superjacked guys? Or someone way more famous than me?” He told his agents, respectfully: “I don’t want to waste anyone’s time.” Later, when the first photos of him in the spandex costume leaked, internet trolls basically agreed with him, accusing Levi of

to go, even before the first tequila appears. “My publicist is going to be…” he says, finishing the sentence with a laugh.

Levi grew up in Ventura, California. His mother was an alcoholic, self-medicating with booze and, later, pills. His parents split when he was 6, and his father soon left for a job on the East Coast. Later, Levi’s mother and stepfather moved him and his two sisters to Washington State for a spell, then back to Ventura. He was always the new kid, always running his mouth. “When I was around 4, I figured out a simple thing: If I made someone laugh, they smiled, and that made me feel good,” he says. “I wanted to do it all the time.

And I wouldn’t shut the fuck up. I would lose friends just as fast as I made them.”

He found his identity in the arts, performing in community theater productions as a child before graduating from high school and moving to L.A. to break into the business. There

one of these things.”) But this moment is particularly sweet because, by his own admission, he never thought it would happen. Throughout two decades in Hollywood, he always felt like “an outsider looking in,” he once said.

He’s not fronting. His most notable project heretofore, the NBC comedy Chuck, about a computer whiz who becomes a superspy overnight, ran for five seasons and gave him serious nerd cred. But the show was always on the verge of cancellation; it f inally was axed in 2012. He starred in a 2016 Broadway revival of She Loves Me and appeared in the second season of Amazon’s golden goose, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel—playing a handsome if elusive bachelor—but he’s always been stuck at a specific level of fame. The kind that gets you invited to play in the NBA Celebrity AllStar Game alongside Justin Bieber. But not an offer to carry a major action-hero franchise.

Until now.

Shazam! is a comic book f lick about a troubled foster child who is granted the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules,

Above: Levi’s fifth leap from a plane,

were TV pilots and a starring role in Disney’s animated Tangled. He performed at the Oscars with Mandy Moore in 2011 and played Fandral, a swashbuckling friend of Thor in the massive 2013 Marvel franchise. He was nearly cast as Star-Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy but lost out to Chris Pratt in the final moments.

The rejection stung, a situation worsened when Pratt’s mug grew ubiquitous on billboards and magazine covers. “It’s part of what drove me into darkness,” Levi says.

“My unhealthy take on what that meant to my own worth.” He had struggled with bouts of depression and self-doubt in the past, but this was something new, and newly frightening.

At night, he’d struggle to sleep, unsure of what it all added up to. It didn’t help that in 2016, when he f lew to Australia to film Thor: Ragnarok, he had just a few lines in the film—and they were cut. He appears onscreen only long enough for Cate Blanchett to casually impale him with a couple of flying swords.

Levi’s life soon began to unravel. He had quietly married his on-again-off-again girl-

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high above Southern California.

wearing fake muscles. Hollywood picked this guy? When the rumors wouldn’t stop, his trainer encouraged him to post a shirtless selfie from the gym, which he did, albeit with a very Zachary Levi caption: “It’s like the old saying goes, ‘Hard work, over time, plus chicken & broccoli, minus carbs, divided by whey protein, in which ‘X’ represents the amount of supplements and ‘Y’ represents the sentiment of ‘WHY the hell am I doing this to myself?!’, multiplied by shameless selfies whilst staring into nowhere...carryyy theee ooone...equals results.”

Comic book heroes often begin their journeys as orphans or misfits cast off by society.

When Shazam! opens, Billy is about to move in with yet another family, the well-meaning Vazquezes and their five foster children. Levi’s own backstory—call it his origin story—is nearly as cinematic. Normally we’d ease into the personal, probing questions, but he’s raring

OPENING SPREAD: LEVI WEARS JACKET BY BELSTAFF. T-SHIRT BY LEVIS VINTAGE. JEANS BY J BRAND. PREVIOUS SPREAD: LEVI WEARS JACKET BY BELSTAFF. T-SHIRT BY LEVIS VINTAGE. JEANS BY J BRAND. BOOTS BY FRYE.

back on Earth, seated at a table in the Bombshelter Bar & Grill, an après-jump watering hole with a pool table, framed aircraft memorabilia on the walls, and a menu packed with deep-fried foods. Levi’s pulse is slow and steady; he seems as though he’s just woken up from a nap, not parachuted from 12,000 feet to the ground with a photo crew documenting every second of the experience. We’ll get to the lesson he gleaned from the leap—his fifth-ever tandem jump—but first: tequila. He asks for a double on the rocks with soda, the order rolling off his tongue.

Levi is game and well prepared for all of the typical press-tour questions—eager, even.

What did it feel like to put on the Shazam suit for the first time? (“I’m still registering it.”)

What superpower would you like to have? (“Teleportation is number one.”) What’s it like to have your own action figure? (“I was a little kid playing with these things, and now I am

PREVIOUS SPREAD: SHAZAM!: STEVE WILKIE © 2018 WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC; CHUCK: GREG GAYNE/NBC/NBCU PHOTO BANK VIA GETTY IMAGES

friend, Rookie Blue actress Missy Peregrym, in 2015 only to get divorced 10 months later.

Then his mother passed away. “It was a gnarly, gnarly, gnarly time,” he says. “I’d gone through all kinds of shit in my life, things that I was aware of, things that I was not aware of. I felt very beat up by Hollywood. I was at a place in my life where I didn’t really understand why I wanted to live anymore.”

This, of course, is not exactly a standard action-hero talking point. So I ask him to clarify. His happy-go-lucky skydive vibe turns down to a simmer. He never attempted suicide, he says, but he was in a dark place. “When it comes to physical illness, our pride doesn’t fuck with us in the same way,” he says. “If we have a cavity, we go to the dentist. If our body hurts, we go to the doctor. But for so long, when you put ‘illness’ after ‘mental,’ the catchall is, ‘Oh, he’s crazy—put him in a straitjacket in a rubber room.’ But the reality is, we’re all walking

things I learned was how to forgive my mom,” Levi says. “To look at her as the 5-year-old girl who was getting abused by her mom. This is generational. My mom thought she was doing the best things for us when we were kids. We’re all trying to do our best.” These days, he also has regular contact with his biological father.

Levi doesn’t mince words: The program, he says, “saved my life.”

Newly hopeful, he filmed his audition for Shazam! in Connecticut on his iPhone and e-mailed it in. His agent called that same night.

The director, he said, had watched the tape and freaked out. Levi’s young-at-heart energy was exactly what he’d been looking for. A week later, the studio signed off and Levi was in a costume fitting for the custom suit.

Shazam was a difficult role to cast, director David F. Sandberg explains. In broad strokes, Billy Batson is a foster kid who is granted insane powers by an intergalactic wizard, and

NOW THAT THE INK was dry on the contract, Levi had to do the work, which meant getting into superhero shape in just eight weeks. “I’ve hovered around a 200-pound dad bod,” Levi says. “Maybe an athletic dad bod.”

Warner Bros. brought in L.A.-based trainer Grant Roberts. Levi worked out with him at Granite Gym, lifting six days a week, sometimes twice a day—intense sessions that Roberts describes as “beyond-failure training.”

They did a 3-D scan of Levi’s body to show what his muscles looked like as he transformed into superhero shape as fast as possible. Roberts, who memorably turned Hilary Swank into a convincing fighter for Million Dollar Baby, understood the assignment. “Zach comes from a nerdish background,” he says. “Much like I

around with a cavity or two in our heads. Some people are walking around with full-blown root canals. It’s OK to admit that; it’s OK to seek help. That’s fucking courageous—that’s brave.”

And that’s what Levi did. When he got a second call to audition for Shazam! he was nearing the end of a three-week mental health retreat at an undisclosed location in Connecticut—the kind of intensive, all-hands-on-deck program initially designed for Fortune 500 CEOs facing burnout. “I told them, ‘Look, I want the full deal. I want to know who I am and why I’m feeling this way,’ ” he says. He saw a psychotherapist and a dialectical behavioral therapist.

He did art therapy, meditated, and worked with a nutritionist. He hit the gym four days a week, did Pilates twice a week, and yoga, too. “It was an incredible one-on-one therapeutic, healing, spiritual deep dive into figuring out the pain and sadness.”

He learned that he needed to reprogram his own brain. One of the therapists told him, “You wouldn’t talk to your friends the way you talk to yourself. So knock it off.” “One of the

he’s tasked with fighting evil. And after he says “Shazam,” he needs to look like a superhero.

(Levi is not only tall but also has Superman’s hairline.) But he’s still a 14-year-old kid on the inside. Think Tom Hanks in Big jumping on a trampoline in his Manhattan loft. “When a lot of actors try to play young, they play it dumb,” Sandberg says. “But what sets kids apart from an adult is mostly excitement about life. We looked at over 100 people, then Levi’s tape came in. Immediately it was like, this is the guy. He has this enthusiasm and excitement about things that feels very much like a kid.”

An actor seizes his dream role after learning to believe in himself? This was basically the original story of the comic book Shazam! To transform from a boy into a superhero, Billy is told to say “Shazam!” But for the spell to work, he has to believe the words first. “You must say it with purpose,” he’s told, “with belief, with good intentions. With thoughts of your parents and your family, say it and you will be transformed into your greatest potential. Say ‘Shazam!’”

thought with Hilary, my reputation was on the line.” What was Levi like in the gym? Says Roberts: “He tells jokes, he’s very vocal. He sings all the time as he trains. Luckily, I’m in a private facility where he’s not annoying anyone else.”

To get lean, Levi was put on a strict diet of 3,000 to 4,000 calories daily—35 percent protein, 55 percent fat, and 10 percent carbs, with a tablespoon of fish oil for dessert. Soon enough, he filled out the costume.

But his comedy chops might be the most memorable thing about the film. Levi often ad-libbed on set. Early in the story, Shazam busts up a convenience-store robbery. But he’s still testing his powers, unaware of what he can actually do. When he realizes he’s bulletproof, Levi turns to the criminals, affects his deepest, grown-up voice, and announces: “You’re dead.”

Says Sandberg: “I’d be there sitting at the monitor laughing. No two takes would ever be the same.”

But Levi is not just playing at being a big kid—he’s very much one offscreen as well.

He’s got a custom Harley-Davidson Dyna

I ask Levi about the eerie way the whole thing unfolded for him. “Dude,” he says, “the timing gives me fucking goose bumps.”

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JUMPING OUT OF A PLANE, IT MAKES YOU REALIZE HOW SMALL YOU ARE. WE’RE ALL SO TEENY AND SO CLOSE AND SO CONNECTED. Super Glide, and a Ducati Monster, plus four gas-powered Jet Surf boards. He speaks fluent Xbox and carries a small Bluetooth speaker everywhere he goes.

The man-child thing isn’t an act. In 2017, Levi sold his Studio City home (with hot tub and f ire pit) for $1.4 million and bought a 75-acre cattle ranch outside Austin, Texas. The decision was simple. He hadn’t actually worked much in Los Angeles since Chuck ended. And a potentially crazy dream had taken hold. In Texas, he planned to build a compound, part film studio, part playground—in his words, “a really dope place to live and play” with zip lines and water slides, like “Warner Bros. meets Google Headquarters meets Disneyland.” He put all of his stuff in storage, and for the first three months, he lived in a Tommy Bahama Airstream parked on the property. He’s currently renovating the barn, turning it into a massive clubhouse. He’s also learning to surf— at an indoor wave park in Austin.

If I had a friend who put all of his belongings in storage, drove across the country, and moved into a trailer, I’d be concerned, I tell him. “It didn’t surprise anyone,” Levi says. “I think my friends know I’m just a little crazy— in a good way.”

After a second double tequila-and-soda, I pay the check. But I cannot stop thinking about how Levi looked on the ground, mere moments after jumping out of that ’70s-era plane painted like a shark. He was so calm, almost sedate.

There was no whooping, no high-fiving. He just seemed content, ready to wax philosophical about the experience. Maybe it was his vape pen kicking in. Of the jump, he says: “All it does is make you realize how small you are. There are so many other things going on, you’re just a part of that f low. Jumping out of the plane, you’re up there—we’re all so teeny and so close and so connected.”

OK, but my dude! How did it feel to fall from 12,000 feet strapped to a stranger while a photographer was taking your picture like a midf light paparazzo? Did your blood pressure move at all? He thinks for a second, then smiles, answering with something more subtle: appreciation. “It’s a super-intense f lash, and then you’re on the other side,” he says. “I’m here, I’m alive, everything is still connected.” MJ

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ADVENTURE 2019

Hikers overlook the hoodoos, Martian-like spires of partially eroded sandstone, at Utah’s 3,600-acre Goblin Valley State Park.

HELI-SKI ALASKA’S OUT-OF-REACH PEAKS Ten miles up the Rude River Valley from Cordova, Alaska, sits one of America’s most pristine backcountry ski zones: a 12,000-acre expanse of the Chugach National Forest, full of pyramid peaks and velvety powder. It’s prime heli-skiing terrain. But since the range has long been a nonmotorized zone, its runs remained untouched until 2011, when a local outfitter, Points North Heli-Adventures, secured an exclusive permit for heli-skiing within the district. For a weeklong outing, Points North flies you into a camp just outside the nonmotorized area, surrounded by real-deal terrain, including an 800-foot spine wall called Dano’s that drops like an elevator shaft.

Then you climb or heli-ski whatever your heart desires, following guides who know every nook and cranny. When I visited a few years ago, we ate halibut, braised beef, and blueberry cobbler; got to name two first descents; and lived through a brutal storm. In 24 hours, we endured 40 inches of snow, then, over the next three days, got 80 inches more, delaying our departure. Being stranded in such a remote spot freaked me out, sure. We had to shovel off our tents three times a day to keep from asphyxiating and eat turnip noodle soup for calories. But, after a week back in civilization, I began to regret that the conditions had ever cleared. —Devon O’Neil

Colorado

Arizona TROUBLE SPOT

Alaska

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ADVENTURE 2019 Florida Oak Mountain State Park ALABAMA

Denali National Park ALASKA

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Aravaipa Canyon Wilderness ARIZONA

Colorado

Mount Magazine State Park ARKANSAS

Santa Monica National Recreation Area CALIFORNIA

Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge DELAWARE

Cumberland Island National Seashore GEORGIA

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ADVENTURE 2019

Connecticut

Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site ILLINOIS

TROUBLE SPOT Georgia Brown County State Park INDIANA

Louisiana

Maquoketa Caves State Park

Idaho

IOWA

Milford State Park KANSAS

Daniel Boone National Forest KENTUCKY

Acadia National Park MAINE

Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument MAINE

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Kentucky

Florida

BRAVE HAWAII’S DEADLY JUNGLE TRAIL The Kalalau Trail, in Kauai’s Napali Coast State Wilderness Park, snakes through jungle, past volcanic cliffs, and down to isolated beaches. Long before Instagram, I knew of the 11-mile footpath, one of Hawaii’s most dangerous hikes, from backpacker lore.

During a vacation when I was 19, I got into a fight with my parents over whether I could drive the rental car.

Fed up, I decided to hike Kalalau alone—my first time on the trail. For an hour, the path weaved through jungle, then everything opened up: Green cliffs fell into rolling ocean. Crashing waterfalls threw mist skyward. I hiked through a steep valley, then braved the one-slip-you’re-dead Crawler’s Ledge. When I finally reached Kalalau Beach, I spread a tarp in a sea cave. At sunset, in the salt spray and char of my fire, I found my center again. Whatever troubles I’d hiked in with suddenly felt tiny in this big wilderness. In the morning, I hiked to the trailhead and called my folks from a pay phone, happy to have had time alone but grateful to see them again soon, no matter whether they’d let me drive the rental or not.—M.R.S.

TOLOVANA HOT SPRINGS

TRAVERTINE HOT SPRINGS

JERRY JOHNSON HOT SPRINGS

SAN ANTONIO HOT SPRINGS

BERKELEY SPRINGS

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ROAM THE RESEARCH TRIANGLE’S PRIMITIVE PARK You won’t find soaring mountains at North Carolina’s Jordan Lake Game Lands, nor trout-filled rivers, nor towering canyons. But this 62-squaremile tract of big water and rolling hills, a half-hour from the Research Triangle, is no less a treasure. Bass thrive in the 14,000-acre lake, and you’ll find not a single house or hotel along the 180 miles of shoreline or near the 1,100 campsites. For me, Jordan Lake is where I learned how to navigate by dead reckoning, back in a boat trailer, follow a bird dog, shoot a duck; one morning years ago, I carried a canoe to a cove and taught myself how to double-haul a fly line. But, more important, Jordan Lake is where I began to feel ownership of public land, where I realized that these wild places, though managed by the government, don’t belong to bureaucrats but to you and me. Now, when I see a Forest Service sign or a state boundary marker, I think, “That’s my land.” —T. Edward Nickens

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Maryland

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Night Lights GREAT BASIN NATIONAL PARK

BIG CYPRESS NATIONAL PRESERVE

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NATURAL BRIDGES NATIONAL MONUMENT

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ADVENTURE 2019 Walden Pond State Reservation MASSACHUSETTS

Isle Royale National Park MICHIGAN

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore MICHIGAN

New Mexico Voyageurs National Park MINNESOTA

De Soto National Forest

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MISSISSIPPI

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Blackfoot Recreation Corridor

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MONTANA

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ADVENTURE 2019

North Carolina

Custer Gallatin National Forest MONTANA

New York Missouri

Smith River State Park MONTANA

Ohio Fort Robinson State Park NEBRASKA

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Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument

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NEVADA

Oregon

Echo Lake State Park NEW HAMPSHIRE

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South Carolina

Cabin Fever CROW PASS CABIN

LONESOME LAKE HUT

THIRTY MILE POINT LIGHTHOUSE

CAPE LOOKOUT CABINS

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South Carolina

Texas

South Dakota Utah

Urban Outings CABRILLO NATIONAL MONUMENT

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CASTILLO DE SAN MARCOS

MISSISSIPPI NAT. RIVER AND RECREATION AREA

GOVERNORS ISLAND

ROCK CREEK PARK

ADVENTURE 2019

HIT THE TRAILS OF A TROPICAL PARADISE

Island Beach State Park

Almost half of the 20-squaremile island of Saint John lies within Virgin Islands National Park. There, you’ll f ind 25 miles of trails that lead to ancient petroglyphs, Danish plantation ruins, and whitesand beaches. But when I was growing up on the island, I knew almost nothing about the volcanic paradise’s impressive singletrack network. It wasn’t until my 20s, when my wife and I f lew back for annual visits, that we began a long tradition of tackling one of the many rugged loops or out-and-backs to start our day, collapsing in the ocean to cool off afterward. Start with the Cinnamon Bay Trail, a 2.4-mile round-trip route that starts and f inishes at a postcard beach and has stunning views of the ocean halfway up the 700-foot climb, then try the five-odd-mile Caneel Hill Trail. —D.O.

NEW JERSEY

Carson National Forest NEW MEXICO

Valles Caldera National Preserve NEW MEXICO

Adirondack Park NEW YORK

Finger Lakes National Forest NEW YORK

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Little Missouri State Park NORTH DAKOTA

Tennessee

Cuyahoga Valley National Park

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OHIO

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Virginia Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge OKLAHOMA

Owyhee River Canyonlands

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Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area PENNSYLVANIA

Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park RHODE ISLAND

Custer State Park SOUTH DAKOTA

Palo Duro Canyon State Park TEXAS

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Washington

Rio Grande Wild and Scenic River TEXAS

Ashley National Forest UTAH

Green Mountain National Forest

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VERMONT

Wyoming

Olympic National Park WASHINGTON

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Bluestone National Scenic River WEST VIRGINIA

HOLD YOUR GROUND

HOW TO WEIGH IN ON THE BATTLE FOR THE NATION’S WILDEST PLACES. Devil’s Lake State Park GE T PERSONA L Congressional staffers note the call volume an issue receives, so ring them off the hook. Better yet, show up to town-hall meetings, and schedule a face-to-face meeting with your representative.

JOIN T HE R A NKS Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, the Nature Conservancy, Trout Unlimited, and others do great work in protecting our wild places.

SPE A K UP Voice your concerns at regulations.gov.

WISCONSIN

S TAY IN T HE K NOW Keep up to date on all things public land at mensjournal.com/LandsUncompromised.

Shoshone National Forest

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WYOMING

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FOR NASCAR ICON JIMMIE JOHNSON, IT’S NOT ENOUGH TO DRIVE FAST. HE WANTS TO RUN FAST, TOO. SO HE’S FOLLOWING THE TOYOTA OWNERS 400 WITH A NEW CHALLENGE: THE BOSTON MARATHON.

On the outskirts of Las Vegas, training for the Boston Marathon.

J I M M I E J O H N S O N D O E S N ’ T like to wear

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Before the start of the 2019 season, Petty, for one, wondered aloud on an NBC Sports broadcast whether age had finally caught up with Johnson, a suspicion shared by many fans and commentators. Even if it has, Johnson says he doesn’t feel he has anything left to prove. He knows that his “success has been insane” and sets a high bar. But he mostly races for himself now. Eight Cup championships would be an amazing achievement, sure.

“But that’s not what motivates me,” he says.

Then he adds, “I signed up to kick ass this year and lay it all on the line.”

Johnson has also signed up for another kind of race, one that sounds crazy, given his schedule and its physical demands, and one that could prove as challenging as anything he’s ever done. On April 15—fewer than 36 hours after he drives in the Toyota Owners 400, in Richmond, Virginia—he’ll compete in the Boston Marathon. He’s run three halves before, but this will be his first full marathon, something that’s been at the top of his bucket list for years. And his goal is not simply to finish, but to finish fast, averaging a sub-sevenminute mile. “The year of the bombing, I was watching it on TV,” he says. With his NASCAR races on Saturdays and the marathon on a Monday, he remembers thinking, “Damn, I couldn’t run that.” Then came the explosion.

ADAM MORAN

headphones when he runs. Without them, he can hear the breeze over the bridges on Little Sugar Creek, and the water pouring steadily over the rocks. He can hear the footsteps of other runners, kids climbing on picnic tables and jungle gyms, bike wheels on pavement,

dogs barking over the pleas of their owners ordering them to behave. Sometimes all he hears is his own heartbeat. But often the noises just fade. “I largely go into my head,” says Johnson. “It’s nice to have nothing for an hour, or 2½ hours. It’s just nice to detach.”

These days, Johnson, 43, has been running more than ever here in the quiet of Freedom Park, near his home in Charlotte, North Carolina, grinding through 20-mile days, peaking at 90 miles a week. It’s a week before the Daytona 500, the first NASCAR Cup race of the season, and the stakes have likely never been higher for Johnson. He is the only driver in history to win five consecutive Cup championships (’06–’10), and his seven total Cup championships tie him with icons Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt Sr. If there were a Mount Rushmore of NASCAR, Johnson, who’s currently the highestpaid active driver, worth in the ballpark of $120 million, would surely be on it.

But this year, he’s trying to bounce back from the hardest, most frustrating season of his storied career, after not winning a single Cup race in 2018—a first in his 17 years on the circuit. Complicating matters further, this season will be Johnson’s first without the only crew chief he’s ever had, Chad Knaus, who left to work with 21-year-old rising star William Byron.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: GABRIEL LHEUREUX; DAVID ROSENBLUM/ICON SPORTSWIRE VIA GETTY IMAGES; ADAM MORAN

Now, “I want to be a part of Boston Strong,” he says. “I want to go experience that.”

And that’s why Johnson is here at Freedom Park this morning, for a seven-mile run with his longtime endurance coach, Jamey Yon. He isn’t totally sure how 26.2 miles in running shoes will compare with 500 miles in a race car. But he knows that half-marathons and NASCAR races are both, in their own ways, gauntlets of patience and endurance.

In the Daytona 500, for one, drivers complete 200 2½-mile laps around a track, at speeds in excess of 200 miles per hour. The race lasts a couple of hours, and the temperature inside the car can hit 140 degrees; he says he fortifies himself during those long stretches behind the stock-car wheel by sipping Gatorade through a straw connected to his helmet.

Johnson recalls watching an ESPN documentary about fellow driver Denny Hamlin that showed Hamlin’s heart pumping twice as fast during a race as a runner’s during a marathon. “Our toughest track is in Bristol, Tennessee, where we pull three G’s on the body in the corners and it takes 15 seconds to complete a lap,” Johnson says. The driver has to wrestle the steering wheel through the corners. And because of the hard left turns, he says, “I find that the left side of my lower back and my core gets a much stronger workout than my right side, just because you’re trying to fight the G-forces in that direction the whole time.”

That’s partly why Johnson swims or bikes or runs—he’s completed five triathlons and an Ironman competition—nearly every day, even at the height of the NASCAR season. Knaus tells me that Johnson began running to release energy and frustration, and the guys in his pit crew still think it’s insane the way he can cycle 100 miles one day, then drive 400 miles the next, and not pass out from exhaustion.

(He actually did once, after the Toyota Owners 400, which he’s driving before the Boston Marathon; he had to go to the inf ield care center to be treated for dehydration.) “When I look at 2006, 2007—those first two championships—I just knew I could be more dedicated,” Johnson says. “I was good with the fundamentals of the car, but I just felt like I wasn’t in as good shape as I needed to be. I got into fitness really hard. I’ve always enjoyed the variation of the training; there’s an endorphin release.”

Or, put differently: “If you could ask my wife, she’d say, ‘If he doesn’t get his workout in, he’s a pain in the ass.’ That’s just how it is.”

Back at Freedom Park, Johnson and Yon wrap up their run. Johnson removes his hat, stained around the brim with sweat, and cools down by jogging in the parking lot. He’s lithe and a bit pale, with a dark beard surrendering to silver. Sitting at a picnic table, he seems a million miles away from the vibrato of 750-horsepower engines and crowds of

150,000 fans; from the hive of the crew that surrounds him on race day; from the sounds and the smell of tires and gas. But two days from now, he’ll be right back in it all, attempting perhaps his most ambitious challenge yet as an athlete: He’ll run in the Daytona HalfMarathon in the morning, then drive in the Daytona Clash, the f irst unofficial race of the season. It’ll be Johnson’s first attempt at two

“I GOT INTO FITNESS REALLY HARD. IF YOU ASKED MY WIFE, SHE’D SAY, ‘IF HE DOESN’T GET HIS WORKOUT IN, HE’S A PAIN IN THE ASS.’ THAT’S JUST HOW IT IS.”

such events in a single day and a sort of dry run for the Toyota Owners 400 and Boston Marathon coming up in April.

“The feeling of exhilaration and being on a high afterward is really indescribable,” he says of running half-marathons. “I’m just like, oh, yeah, I can climb a mountain now.”

IN THE PARKING LOT of Freedom Park, Johnson’s 1949 Chevy Stepside sticks out among all the minivans, Priuses, and Civics. It’s sleek and black and low to the ground, with a silver grille, handles and knobs that shine, black leather seats, and a motor that roars with the tap of the pedal. When Johnson, now sporting dark shades, pulls onto the streets of Charlotte, it’s hard not to laugh at the sight of a NASCAR champ having to follow speed limits and letting someone else—an elderly guy!—pass him on the left. He says his wife, Chandra, a former model whom he met as a Cup Series rookie, in 2002, doesn’t really like the truck, given it lacks family utility. It has only two seats, with no room for the couple’s two young daughters.

Scenes from the Clash at Daytona, February 2019: Crossing the finish line; conferring with the pit crew; celebrating on the podium.

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position, a spot reserved for the driver with the best qualifying times headed into the race.

Three miles from the park, Johnson turns the truck into the parking lot of a 13,000-foot warehouse. “I needed a place to put all my shit,” he says. “I’ve collected some cars, and then my mom has kept everything from my childhood.” Inside, the place is filled with the spoils of his career: trophies, checkered flags, pictures, helmets signed by all the NASCAR greats. Behind a long wooden bar, glistening under track lighting, sit gigantic bottles of Moët & Chandon champagne, bigger than

“THERE ARE STILL A LOT OF OTHER FORMS OF RACING I WANT TO PARTICIPATE IN. SO AFTER 20 YEARS OF NASCAR, IS IT TIME TO MOVE ON?”

toddlers, that Johnson sprayed all over himself after victories. There’s also a ridiculous collection of tall, beautiful grandfather clocks, trophies from the cup race held at Martinsville Speedway. Six of Johnson’s seven NASCAR Cup series sterling silver trophies, made by Tiffany and freshly polished, stand in a row. (The seventh is at his house.) And then there are the toys: 15 cars, parked in two lines—among them a 1979 Suzuki JR50, a 1951 Mercury chop top, and a 1948 Ford Woody Wagon. He points out one of his favorite artifacts: a framed caricature of Def Leppard’s one-armed drummer, Rick Allen, drawn by Allen himself. “He’s been to a bunch of races,” Johnson says. “Look, he drew himself as a stick figure—armless.”

I T ’ S DAW N AT the Daytona International

Speedway two days later—chilly in the brightening dark, the sky pink and gray. The checkered f lags hang limp with drizzle. The stadium grandstands loom above the infield grass, where souped-up RVs, the homes of NASCAR drivers between races, are parked close together. Johnson wakes before 6 and posts a picture of himself on Instagram eating oatmeal and bananas and honey in his rig.

At 7, he jogs past the garage area, where

Johnson keeps his car and motorcycle collection in a giant warehouse/ man cave in Charlotte.

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GABRIEL LHEUREUX

As Johnson drives, he points out running paths where he trains and the shop where he bought bikes for his family. Though he lives in Carolina, splitting time between his other homes in Aspen and New York, he still talks California. He was born in El Cajon, outside San Diego. His mother drove a school bus, and his dad worked at a tire factory. He started racing motorcycles at age 5, and, by that measure, he’s been racing, in some fashion, for 38 years.

Growing up, he raced buggies and off-road trucks in the desert, too. When he was 19, he was competing in an endurance race in Baja California, Mexico, when he briefly fell asleep behind the wheel and f lipped his Chevy. He could’ve died, but he and his mechanic riding shotgun were unscathed.

In 2000, Johnson was sort of discovered

by Jeff Gordon, a four-time Cup Series champion, when Johnson was still driving in the Busch Series (now the Xfinity Series), NASCAR’s minor-league circuit. Johnson asked Gordon for some career advice, and Gordon, in turn, who was already impressed by Johnson, ended up co-owner of Johnson’s team and later brought him to Hendrick Motorsports, where he remains. At the 2002 Daytona 500, Johnson was only the second rookie ever to get the pole

COURTESY OF @JIMMIEJOHNSON/INSTAGRAM

his crew is already huddled around the brandnew chassis of his Chevy Camaro stock car; the legs and feet of one crew member dangle out of the driver’s side window, sparks flying underneath. The logo of a new sponsor, Ally Invest, is written in white on the Chevy’s black hood, accented with purple.

Johnson jogs around for a while. Then he walks to a blue inflated arch, set up in the middle of the speedway, right on the racetrack, on which he’ll drive in about eight hours. At this moment, however, nearly 800 runners are gathering at the starting line for the beginning of the Daytona Beach Half-Marathon.

One of the waiting runners, a teenager with neon-green sunglasses, pesters Johnson the whole time.

At 7:30, the MC calls out a countdown, and the racers take off, following the course away from the racetrack and onto Daytona Beach, where NASCAR itself began in the 1940s.

Johnson starts out at a sub-seven-minutemile pace. But, running on sand and against a hard breeze, he slows slightly. The finish line is an inf latable arch outside a P.F. Chang’s, where a cheering crowd is lining the roads and someone in a giant turtle costume waves at the runners.

A runner named Ryan Carroll crosses the finish line first, after an hour and 19 minutes.

About 14 minutes later, Johnson turns the corner—at some point during the race he turned his cap backward—and sprints across the finish line, followed by a video crew on bikes, his face red, his eyes puffy. He stops, hands on hips, and checks his time: 93 minutes—three minutes slower than his goal pace. He doesn’t seem bummed as much as tired; he just ran 13.1 miles, after all. Like all the other runners, he gets a small gold medal hooked to a checkerboard ribbon. “I ran too hard at the beginning,” he says while riding from the finish line in the back of a golf cart. “My heart was pounding; I had to slow down.”

In the afternoon, after a power nap, Johnson again emerges from the RV for the 3:00 exposition race. Wearing sunglasses and holding a bottle of Gatorade, he heads to the track. The speedway is mostly empty today; there’s maybe a thousand people in the stands capable of holding a hundred times that. But many of the people who are here seem to have come for Johnson. On the way to the track, he stops to autograph dozens of little toy cars thrust at him by a halo of fans.

Freshly dressed in a fire suit, the gray of his beard contrasted against the black fabric, he enters the pits. About half a dozen members of his crew gather around as he lifts his right leg and climbs in his car. Later, when asked how he feels after the morning run and the race, he says, “The only thing I had trouble with was getting my legs up over the door of the car.”

The Daytona Clash is an exhibition race with 20 drivers. It starts slow, with several caution flags because of rain. Then a red flag halts the race completely. The drivers slow and pull their cars off the wet track and into the pits, as pickup trucks, equipped with what look like

blow dryers beneath them, ride around the track to dry it off.

When the race resumes, Johnson fights his way around his opponents, moving from the 14th spot to the 11th. He lacks flash compared with some of NASCAR’s past stars, such as Petty, seldom without his big sunglasses and cowboy hat, or Earnhardt Sr., a mustachioed badass-type, known for knocking other drivers around. Johnson’s popularity and success, in contrast, largely owe to his calculated, finessed style of driving. Some argue that his dominance made NASCAR stale, at least for a time. But Johnson’s achievements are nonetheless impressive. As the race continues—the cars crowded in single file, the buzz of their engines echoing before they cross in front of pit row—he pulls into fourth place.

Soon, with the rain again threatening to stop the race, Johnson takes second place behind Paul Menard. With the sky falling black over the stadium, Johnson makes a dramatic push for the win, passing Menard on the inside. What happens next is unclear: Menard either steers slightly into Johnson or is barely clipped by Johnson. Either way, Menard’s car goes into a sideways spin. In the pit, Johnson’s crew jumps in exultation—until they see a maelstrom of sparks and smoke, as Menard’s spin leads to a pileup that takes out nearly every car. No one is hurt, but some cars are damaged.

With several laps still to go, officials call the race. Johnson wins—although controversially;

Striking a pose with wife Chandra and daughters Genevieve (right) and Lydia.

later Menard accuses Johnson in the press of taking him out intentionally. And after the race, Johnson will indeed cop to his mistake in inadvertently turning Menard when he tapped him, and will tell reporters that he feels terrible about what happened. But right now Johnson, soaked with rain, walks to get another trophy.

Whenever he finally decides to walk away from NASCAR and take no more of its trophies, he won’t be done competing. “There are still a lot of other vehicles and forms of racing I want to participate in,” he told me back at the warehouse. “And, you know, after 20 years of competing in NASCAR, I think that could be a good time to say, ‘I’ve done this on a full-time basis; is it time to move on?’”

Perhaps so. But for now, he’s standing on a podium, near an unending line of fans, umbrellas and TV cameras making it hard for them to see. His new crew chief, Kevin Meendering, hugs Johnson, as his PR handlers hold large umbrellas in a pointless attempt to keep him dry. Though the race doesn’t count toward anything, and though Johnson fell short of his half-marathon goal, he sprays Gatorade in the air, onto himself, behind him, onto the Hendrick crew—everyone standing in the rain, Jimmie Johnson cradling a trophy once again. MJ

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OR THOSE OF US who eternally seek out challenges— steeper trails to run, longer rivers to paddle, a new 14er to summit—day-to-day fitness often is in service of the goal. Maintaining strength and endurance is essential. But there can be mobility and body-control deficits. To address those, lose the shoes and unfurl a mat.

“Yoga is an amazing way to support performance in extreme pursuits,” says Baron Baptiste, of Baptiste Power Yoga and a Lululemon ambassador. “It’s an invaluable recovery and training tool for the modern athlete.”

Baptiste put together a series of sportspecific moves that will help prepare your body for the demands of outdoor pursuits—such as shoulder mobility for rock climbing, hip flexion for mountain biking. Use them to increase mobility pre-adventure and to give yourself some TLC afterward. Yoga is more than fancy stretching. It is an opportunity to practice as you move through poses. Taking time to stabilize the body, finding more depth in a stretch—these things can help prepare the mind for, say, f inding balance as you boulder, or chart your bike’s path across a sandy stretch.

If you’re new to yoga, set a goal to do it for 20 minutes, three times a week. Hold a pose until the tension releases, or do it for a set time, like 30 seconds. Cycle through moves pre- or post-workout, or as an active recoveryday activity. Some discomfort is OK, but if a pose is painful, back off slightly. As with any sport, getting better takes practice.

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Yoga for Adventurers

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It’s a practice associated with peace, calm, and pretzel-like poses. But it can be a tool for outdoor athletes to bolster their specialized strength and flexibility needs. These are the moves that will ready the body—and mind—for the elements. by MARJORIE KORN

photographs by CHRISTOPHER MALCOM

MEN’S JOURNAL

APRIL 2019

2

HIKING

Twisted Lizard Pose

Trail running and hiking often create tightness in the pelvis, hip f lexors, and hamstrings. These postures will stretch, unlock, open, and release the hips, quads, and hamstrings to leave you feeling better and freer overall. Also, this series releases the piriformis muscle, located behind your glutes—if your rear end is sore the day after trail running, it’s likely this.

Start in downwardfacing dog. Step right foot to outside of right hand. Drop back knee, then elbows, to floor.

Press palms and hold.

Then rotate torso right, lifting right hand, look up, and press right hip and knee out. Breathe, then switch sides.

3

Pigeon Pose

4

Half and Full Frog Pose

1

King Arthur’s Pose 094

Start on hands and knees, toes touching a wall. Slide right knee back toward wall, moving top of foot up wall. Put left foot on floor, and push torso up. Adjust left foot so knee is square, and place hands on left knee. Adjust back knee so you feel a stretch but pose is not painful. Breathe, then switch sides.

APRIL 2019

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Lie flat, palms stacked, forehead resting on hands. Draw right knee to right elbow for Half Frog. Switch sides. For Full Frog, draw up one knee, then the other, supporting upper body on elbows, palms together. Lower hips toward floor and hold.

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Start on hands and knees. Slide right foot back and lower torso, so left knee folds comfortably, left foot under pelvis. Press elbows to floor and press palms overhead. Then place palms on floor and press torso up. Slide left foot across body along the floor, so heel rests under right knee.

Press hips to floor as much as is comfortable.

Breathe, then reverse and switch sides.

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3

KAYAKING

Forward Fold With Hands Overhead

Paddling for hours often results in feeling tight in the chest, shoulders, and back. These postures for kayakers, canoers, and rowers will unlock the chest and upper back, and release areas of tension in the shoulders and lower back. Do this sequence before and after your outing for better performance on the water, and less achiness the next day.

Stand, legs wide. Rotate shoulders back, clasp hands behind back, and straighten arms. Hinge hips, and slowly drop head toward floor while focusing on breath. If you can, rotate shoulders forward to press hands away from body.

Breathe and hold, then reverse slowly to start.

Repeat as desired.

BEN MARR, PROFESSIONAL WHITEWATER KAYAKER

1

Bound Bridge Pose

Lie on back, knees bent, feet on floor. Press hips toward ceiling, shifting body weight to back of shoulders, and walking feet back until knees are just over feet. Pull shoulder blades together and lift chest higher to clasp hands together. Breathe and hold, then reverse to start. Repeat as desired.

“When I get deeper into certain positions, the sensations I feel teach me about my body. In yoga and in kayaking, new sensations are new lessons, and yoga helps me to control my body and use finer movements.

Plus, yogic breathing can stop a cramp, calm discomfort, and aid in a physically difficult sequence. It’s cool to experience.

I’ve been able to calm a racing mind in critical situations on the river by breathing.”

A

4 Low Lunge and Twist

B

Wheel Pose 096

APRIL 2019

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2

Lie on back, then bend knees and tuck heels under butt, one at a time. Place hands beside head so elbows are high and fingers are touching shoulders. Press through heels and palms of hands to lift body off floor. Lift hips tall and shift forward so knees are above ankles and arms are locked out and stretched. (If this is painful for wrists, shift weight toward head to lower intensity of stretch.)

Breathe and hold, then slowly reverse to start. Repeat as desired.

From standing, step right foot forward. Drop left knee and shin to floor, left foot flat. Lift arms overhead and press hips forward until right knee is over right foot and hold (A). Then, gripping floor with toes, rotate torso left and tilt right, dropping right hand to floor outside hip and reaching left arm up and over head. Look at hand, breathe and hold (B). Slowly reverse to start. Repeat as desired, then switch sides.

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ROCK CLIMBING

Seated Spinal Twist Sit tall with legs extended. Cross right foot over left thigh and place outside left knee.

Grounding glutes to the floor, rotate torso right, placing right hand behind back and grabbing right knee with right hand. Twist until you feel a stretch, then hold and breathe. Switch sides and repeat.

Climbers spend an inordinate amount of time pulling on the upper body, so these moves are intended to relieve tight and stiff shoulders, chest, and forearms.

And since f lexibility in the pelvis and hip f lexors is crucial for finding awkward footholds, they need release, too. Some poses test your balance and weight transfer, which will help your control on the wall.

3 Flip Dog

Start in downward-facing dog. Lift right leg and bend knee. Then arc right foot over body. Continue the rotation, transferring body weight into left hand and outside of left foot, until right foot touches the floor with left leg straight. Meanwhile, sweep right hand up and grab back of head. Hold for a few breaths, then replace right hand to floor, and flip right leg back around to start. Switch sides.

4

Chest Opener Twist on Belly

1

Eagle Pose 098

From standing, raise right leg, grab right knee, and pull to chest. Release and wrap right foot behind left leg, sinking hips until right ankle hooks behind calf. Sweep arms overhead, stack elbows, left over right, palms facing out. Hold and balance, then switch sides.

APRIL 2019

MENâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S JOURNAL

Lie facedown on floor, arms outstretched, to start. Bend right elbow and press right hand into floor as right knee bends and arcs over left leg. Place right foot on floor, knee bent, while left leg stays long. Hold and breathe, then reverse to start.

Switch sides.

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2

MOUNTAIN BIKING

Crescent Lunge Pose From standing, step left foot forward, right knee soft, right heel off floor. Keep hips high and rotate torso slightly to center with left knee. Then drop right leg, allowing left knee to track over foot, and reach hands to ceiling.

Hold and breathe, then slowly reverse to start.

Switch sides.

Lower-body tightness is common among mountain bikers. These poses help open and release the quads, hamstrings, and hip f lexors, and stretch the lower back. Unlocking muscles will help access more power as you ride by ensuring full range of motion. And don’t neglect shoulders and chest, which are responsible for making fast adjustments as your legs churn.

A

B

Triangle Pose

1

Reclining Spinal Twist

Lie on back, draw right knee toward right armpit, and hold with hands (A). Maintaining a connection between shoulders and the ground, rotate hips left, and use left hand to press right thigh toward floor while left leg stays long. Hold and breathe, then release left leg. Switch sides.

GEOFF K. GULEVICH, PROFESSIONAL MOUNTAIN BIKER “I’m a full-time free-ride mountain biker, and about five years ago I incorporated yoga into my training. I practice three times a week for warmup and cool down, and on off-days. It helps me recover faster from long, hard rides. It also helps me relax and helps me stay strong and avoid injury.

To keep my back healthy, I do a lot of upwardfacing dog and cat-cow.”

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3

Stand with feet wider than hip-width apart. Raise arms straight out to sides, palms facing down, until hands reach shoulder height.

Turn right foot 90 degrees to the right and left foot 45 degrees to the right. Shift hips left and shift upper body right, maintaining outstretched arms. Tilt hips right, reaching right hand straight to top of right shin and left fingertips to the ceiling, palm forward, looking at left hand. Hold and breathe, reverse and repeat pose on left side.

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They employ trainers at the top of their fields, and typically work with participants in a oneon-one or small-group setting.

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MEN’S JOURNAL

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The Rise of the Boutique Gym

INSIDER TIP:

Work Out Like a Green Beret MOUNTAIN TACTICAL INSTITUTE, JACKSON HOLE, WYOMING

Train Like an Athlete

CLOCKWISE FORM TOP LEFT: COURTESY OF MICHAEL JOHNSON PERFORMANCE; COURTESY OF MOUNTAIN TACTICAL INSTITUTE; LUCAS NOONAN

MICHAEL JOHNSON PERFORMANCE CENTER, MCKINNEY, TEXAS The world champion sprinter founded this eponymous mecca of speed outside Dallas. It boasts top-of-the-line amenities: a 6,000-square-foot multipurpose indoor turf, a six-lane indoor track, a 23-meter outdoor swimming pool. But it’s the advanced

technology that will make even a short trip worth your time. Their trainers have access to a three-dimensional motion capture system that uses 20 highdefinition cameras to analyze form and ground force, along with embedded track and turf force plates to calculate energy transfer.

“To train at MJP, you only need to be an athlete in the sense of training for a specific event, sport, or goal,” says Lance Walker, vice president. Think Boston Marathon qualifying time, more playing

Box Like a Champ WILD CARD BOXING CLUB, LOS ANGELES Learn to throw a punch like a pro from the guy who trained Manny Pacquiao, Oscar de la Hoya, and Mike Tyson. Freddie Roach, once a

pro boxer himself—with a record of 41 wins and 13 losses—opened up shop in 1995 and has whipped world champions into shape since.

INSIDER TIP: ule a package of six one on one training sessions ($948). An expert will make use of the facility’s top-notch tech, like force plates (to assess vertical jump potential and asymetrics) and its underwater treadmill.

It’s unlikely you’ll go a few rounds with Roach himself, but you can work one-on-one with expert trainers including Roger “Speedy” Gonzalez for just $50 a month, plus the trainers’ rates, which can range up to $100 per hour. And those passing through Hollywood can use the club equipment (speed and heavy bags, cardio equipment) for $5 a day.

The space is old-school basic—those looking for bougie boxing clubs with high-end amenities can keep moving—but there’s loads of memorabilia on the walls for inspiration.

INSIDER TIP: Don’t be intimidated by the pros; all levels are welcome. If you’re a newbie in the ring, ask to train with Eric Brown, who coached World Champion Peter Quillen. He’s great at breaking down the fundamentals, like proper stance, footwork, combinations, and technique.

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This no-frills space belies a higher purpose: to develop and test strength and conditioning programs for mountain and tactical athletes (ski patrol, search-and-rescue, law enforcement, military, etc.). The tools are low-tech, like barbells, ropes, hand weights, and sandbags.

Training cycles span six to eight weeks, with intense one-hour sessions. People from around the globe stop by when they’re in Wyoming, and you can, too. Email MTI your dates, and if there’s a cycle going on, you’re in. It’s free, but attendance is mandatory. Founder and president Rob Shaul may toss you out if you flake.

“Many of the people we work with could die doing their jobs, so our programming caters directly to what the work demands,” Shaul explains.

That could mean developing base fitness—like endurance and hiking under load—for timed sports like rock climbing and trail running, or professional development for Green Beret or hostage-rescue team selections. “Our programming is intense, but it transfers directly to our athletes’ jobs,” Shaul says.

Not heading to the West anytime soon? The MTI website has multiweek fitness plans online for backpackers, ultrarunners, and more.

INSIDER TIP: If you’re a novice, this might not be your spot. “We don’t judge,” says Shaul, “but you need to know your way around the weight room to do the gym-based work.”

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Fewer Reps, Same Gain

Health News

Banging out those last reps in the name of strength-building may not be productive after all.

Researchers at CUNY Lehman College in New York took a group of generally fit men and put them on a three-times-a-week strength protocol. They were instructed to do either a minimal, medium, or max number of reps of upper and lower body exercises. After two months, participants showed virtually equal strength gains. The high-volume group did score better in one area: muscle size.

“For muscle growth, volume is a key driver,” says author and exercise scientist Brad Schoenfeld. “But high-volume training can quickly lead to overtraining—when the workload exceeds the body’s ability to recover.” Find balance by alternating volume every month: Week one, go highvolume for muscle growth, then bring it down for three weeks.

SHIN SPLINTS SUFFERERS CAN ROAD RUN AGAIN

YES, MENTAL HEALTH LIVES IN THE GUT

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FROM TOP: CLAIRE BENOIST/THELICENSINGPROJECT; GETTY IMAGES

The theory that microbia in the GI tract affects our feelings has been all but verified. A study of 1,054 Dutch adults reveals those who lack two specific bacteria strains are at a higher risk for depression or lower quality of life. The bacteria produce chemicals that “talk” to the nervous system, explains researcher Jeroen Raes, a microbiologist at Leuven University in Belgium. This work may influence next-gen probiotics that are tailored to individuals’ gut-biome needs. In the meantime, these bacteria love diverse kinds of fiber, so it can’t hurt to eat organic produce, nuts, legumes, and whole grains.

Contrary to popular wisdom, the cure for shin splints and stress fractures isn’t fewer miles and dirt trails. Vanderbilt University researchers found these injuries are more often due to muscle contractions, not hard surfaces. Consider that the force of bone hitting pavement is about twice a person’s body weight. But when you run, the calf muscle squeezes the shinbone up to 14 times harder than it does when you’re standing. Calf-strengthening exercises can help. And when you’re sore, take a day off, giving bones, tendons, and muscle time to heal.

“If bone repair can’t keep up with the workload, microcracks—or stress fractures—in the bone accumulate and become painful,” says study author Karl Zelik.

HOW TO DRIBBLE INTO OLD AGE The NBA’s oldest player, Vince Carter, and Dwayne Wade (below) are banging the boards longer—and knowing why helps the rest of us. Guys who invest more in developing motor skills early in their careers have more staying power, finds research from the University of Oxford in the U.K., using 50 years of stats.

Makes sense. If you start honing your skills in your first year as a pro, by the time you start to slow down, you have a

decade of practice in efficiency. If you’re overreliant on fitness, you won’t have fundamentals to lean on later. You don’t need to play ball to apply the findings.

Anyone who plays a recreational sport, or has a skill-based job or hobby, should work super-hard on job- or pastime-related skills—what researchers call context-specific information. In your old age, you can step on the court and show the young’uns who’s boss.

PUT DOWN THE CRACKER JACK

TO GET IN SYNC, SKIP A MEAL

ISSAC BALDIZEN/NYBAE VIA GETTY IMAGES

EXPERIENCE THE OLYMPIA You think you’re committed to working out? Wait until you see the competitors at the 2019 Olympia, which hits Las Vegas September 12 to 15—and tickets are on sale. It’s four inspiring days of popping pecs, spray tans, and the buffest in the business. Scan the expo for hundreds of goods and services to aid in your fitness goals.

The distance between their physiques and yours may be attainable—just stay away from the all-you-can-eat buffets.

Visit mrolympia.com for more info.

Fasting may be in vogue, but there’s a new, compelling reason to give it a go: It helps alter the circadian rhythms of cells in the body that play a role in avoiding age-related disease, like dementia, according to researchers at the University of California, Irvine. In lab studies, daylong fasts can rewire metabolism, making it more efficient.

This rewiring actually adjusts gene regulation—a process responsible for a lot of cell activity, including preventing disease. Consider a 24-hour fast monthly or other intermittent fasting.

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Steve Earle The singer-songwriter-actor-playwright, whose new record, Guy, drops this month, on being sober, getting married seven times, and partying with Frida Khalo.

What’s the best advice you ever received?

Guy Clark told me, “Songs aren’t finished until you play them for people.” It took me a long time to really understand what he meant—it’s about being open to changing things even if you’re pretty happy with the way they are. If I hadn’t learned how to change, I’d be dead right now.

Who were your heroes growing up?

My uncle, who was five years older than me, was the first hero I ever knew, because he played guitar. One day, he called me and told me, “Watch The Ed Sullivan Show tonight,” and that’s why I saw the Beatles when I was 8. That changed everything. It was all music from that point on.

What advice would you give your younger self?

You don’t have to marry everybody you go to bed with.

You’ve been married seven times. What have you learned along the way?

My therapist says that I intentionally seek out relationships with women I couldn’t possibly succeed with because I really want to be alone. I hope that’s not true because it sounds like a lot of fucking work.

How should a man handle getting older?

Men are delusional. Like, men don’t need skinny mirrors. When I look in the mirror, I don’t see the old guy with the beard; I see me when I was 20. Most of what I do every day is me combating age.

How should a man handle criticism?

I don’t read reviews when it comes to music. I’m not going to get anything from that. But in areas where I’m not so fucking sure of myself, like film and television and 112

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Who has been the main influence on your life?

Bill Wilson, who founded the Twelve Step program.

What human trait do you most deplore?

Not being real, not being genuine.

And what human trait do you most admire?

Conviction. And dedication to service.

How should a man handle regret?

Make amends where you can—except when it will hurt somebody else. Once you’ve done that, let God have it. But letting it go is not this thing that you do once and then it’s done. Sometimes you have to do it over and over again, because regret will eat you alive. The truth is there’s nothing you can do about what you’ve already done. All you can do is wake up in the morning and do better.

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Who would you invite to your dream dinner party?

Tim Hardin. He wrote “If I Were a Carpenter”—he’s a badass. Frida Kahlo and Joni Mitchell. Allen Ginsberg. That would be a hell of a conversation.

What adventure most changed your life?

When I got out of jail, they released me at midnight. They handed me my clothes, which still stunk from the night I went in four months earlier, and there was a $20 bill that I missed. I could have hooked up in 15 minutes. But instead I called a friend, and he drove me home and came back the next day and took me to my first meeting.

That’s the beginning of the adventure that changed my life the most.

How do you want to be remembered when you’re gone?

As an artist.

—INTERVIEW BY LARRY KANTER

PLATON ANTONIOU/TRUNKARCHIVE.COM

What role should vanity play in a man’s life?

I can’t say vanity doesn’t enter into the decisions I make about my life. My weight goes up and down. The reason for maintaining it is my health, but you know what? What causes me to lose the weight is so that really cool Varvatos jacket that I bought doesn’t get too tight. Then I’ll get my ass in the gym and not eat some things.

theater—I think it’s good for you. It puts me in my place, which I think is really healthy.

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Out there, around one of those corners, is a life bigger than you could ever imagine.

The adventure begins at H-D.com/explore