Bonnie Tsui Discusses On Muscle with Rachel E. Gross

Join us for a discussion with Bonnie Tsui on her new book On Muscle: The Stuff That Moves Us and Why It Matters. Tsui will be in conversation with science journalist Rachel E. Gross. Following the discussion, there will be a Q&A with the audience. 

On Muscle takes readers on a journey across the globe to understand the cultural significance of muscle, tracing its impact on beauty standards and societal expectations. Tsui introduces us to the first female weightlifter to pick up the famed Scottish Dinnie Stones, then takes us on a 50-mile run through the Nevada desert that follows the path of escape from a Native boarding school—and gives the concept of endurance new meaning. She travels to Oslo, where cutting-edge research reveals how muscles help us bounce back after injury and illness, an important aspect of longevity. She jumps into the action with a historic double Dutch club in Washington, D.C., to explain anew what Charles Darwin meant by the mind-body connection. Through captivating storytelling, personal anecdotes, and interviews with experts, Tsui illustrates how muscles have shaped our understanding of strength, power, and the human form.

---

PARTICIPANTS

 

Bonnie Tsui is a longtime contributor to The New York Times and the bestselling author of Why We Swim, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and a Time magazine and NPR Best Book of the Year; it has been translated into ten languages. Bonnie is also the author of American Chinatown, which won the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, and Sarah and the Big Wave, a children’s book about the first woman to surf Mavericks and a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection. Her work has been recognized and supported by Harvard University, the National Press Foundation, the Mesa Refuge, and the Best American Essays series. She lives, swims, and surfs in the Bay Area.

 

 

 

Rachel E. Gross is an award-winning science journalist who writes about gender bias and marginalized voices in medicine for The New York Times, The Atlantic, the BBC, and others. She is the author of “Vagina Obscura: An Anatomical Voyage,” a New York Times Editors’ Pick and finalist for the 2023 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Nonfiction and the PEN/E.O. Wilson Award in Literary Science Writing. Previously, she was a 2018-19 Knight Science Journalism Fellow and the digital science editor of Smithsonian magazine.