Scott Carney is an investigative journalist and anthropologist whose stories blend narrative non-fiction with ethnography. His reporting has taken him to some of the most dangerous and unlikely corners of the world. The New York Times says "Carney writes with considerable narrative verve, slamming home the misery of what he has witnessed with passion and visceral detail." He has been a contributing editor at Wired and his work also appears in Mother Jones, Foreign Policy, Playboy, Details, Discover, Outside, and Fast Company. He lives in Denver, CO.
Climbing a mountain in nothing but a pair of shorts seems idiotic
to most, but for Wim Hof and his companions, it's just another day.
When investigative journalist and anthropologist Carney heard about
Hof's mind-boggling methods and claims that he could "hack" the
human body, he knew he had to venture to Poland to expose this
fraud. But in just a few days, Hof changed Carney's mind, and so
began a friendship and a new adventure. Carney now chronicles his
journey to push himself mentally and physically using Wim Hof's
method of cold exposure, breath-holding, and meditation to tap into
our primal selves. Our ancestors survived harsh conditions without
modern technology, while we live in comfortable bubbles with little
to struggle against and wonder how they survived. The question is,
What happens when we push our bodies to the limit? Carney calls on
evolutionary biology and other modern scientific disciplines to
explore and explain Hof's unconventional methods. Fresh and
exciting, this book has wide appeal for readers interested in
health, sports, self-improvement, and extreme challenges.
--Booklist As this engaging autoethnography relates, anthropologist
and investigative journalist Carney was skeptical upon encountering
a photo of a nearly naked Wim Hof sitting on a glacier in the
Arctic Circle. Hof, a Dutch fitness guru who runs a training camp
in Poland's wilderness, claims he can control his body temperature
and immune system solely with his mind; though Carney set out to
prove Hof a charlatan, he was instead won over. Carney documents
his interactions with Hof and the many others who have learned to
control their bodies in seemingly impossible ways: he learned Hof's
breathing techniques for tricking the body into doing things it
isn't evolutionarily designed for, and underwent training to face
extreme cold while barely clothed. It is this training that enables
Hof and Carney to summit Mt. Kilimanjaro in 28 hours while wearing
shorts. This is part guide and part popular science book; readers
will learn about how Neanderthals used the body's "brown fat" to
keep warm and how exposure nearly reverses the symptoms of
diabetes. The accomplishments Carney documents are unbelievable and
fascinating; this isn't a how-to for those looking to perform
extraordinary feats, but it is an entertaining account that will
appeal to the adventurous.
--Publishers Weekly
On the heels of the paleo diet comes a new claim: taking on the
physical challenges of the environment faced by our prehistoric
ancestors can undo what easy calories and effortless comfort have
done to our bodies--made them fat, lazy, and weak. In his latest
book, investigative journalist and anthropologist Carney (A Death
on Diamond Mountain: A True Story of Obsession, Madness, and the
Path to Enlightenment, 2015, etc.) expands on his 2014 Playboy
piece, "The Iceman Cometh," in which he profiled Dutch fitness guru
Wim Hof and experienced Hof's strenuous training methods, some of
which involve exposing the near-naked body to snow and icy water.
At first skeptical, Carney became convinced by the changes he
experienced in his own body. The narrative is filled with personal
details that will engage, astonish, and even repel readers.
Expanding on his unnerving close-up account, the author also
examines the research being done on the role of brown adipose
tissue in the body and a variety of military and sports medicine
training practices. He cites the anecdotal evidence of people who
have placed their faith in Hof and are convinced that his
techniques have changed, if not saved, their lives--e.g., sufferers
of Parkinson's disease, Crohn's disease, and rheumatoid arthritis.
As a climax to his account, Carney describes how, stripped to the
waist, he accompanied Hof on a climb to the summit of Mount
Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest peak. In the epilogue, the author
asserts that his experiences showed him that "exposure to cold
helps reconfigure the cardiovascular system, combat autoimmune
malfunctions, and is a pretty darned good method to simply lose
weight." Hof provides the book's foreword. Couch potatoes take
warning: the experiences described in this testimonial are often
tough to read about, and the conclusions, while sometimes
convincing, might best be taken with a touch of skepticism.
--Kirkus "Scott Carney is so curious about getting to the truth of
things that he is willing to endure great pain and suffering to get
there. While investigating the controversial methods of Wim Hof and
others operating on the scientific fringe, Carney entered a skeptic
yet emerged a true believer. In What Doesn't Kill Us, readers get
to follow him along on his transformational journey, and the
insights are truly fascinating. Informative, fun, and with a
healthy degree of danger, this is a book for the adventurer in all
of us."
--Gabrielle Reece, co-founder, XPT (Extreme Performance Training)
"The further we get from the harsh environmental conditions that
once threatened our existence, the more we need them. I see this
every weekend at a Spartan Race somewhere in the world. Millions of
otherwise sane people line up to suffer and push themselves to
their physical limits, and it feels good. What Doesn't Kill Us is a
fascinating investigation into the innate urge that drives people
like these, and reveals how some have managed to use environmental
conditioning to accomplish truly extraordinary things."
--Joe DeSena, founder, Spartan Race "As a Navy SEAL, you live by
the mantra, 'what doesn't kill us only makes us stronger.' We would
hear this phrase and repeat it, but we never had any proof that it
was factual. Yet through comprehensive study, Scott Carney has
brilliantly documented how engaging in environmental conditioning,
breathing, meditation, and other techniques can actually make us
physically and mentally stronger. What Doesn't Kill Us is a
fascinating book that will captivate all who read it and that will
be of immense value to those in the military, those who are active
in sports, and those who seek an alternate means of developing
greater mental and physical strength."
--Don D. Mann, New York Times bestselling author, Inside SEAL Team
SIX
"Damn fun and extremely well-researched, What Doesn't Kill Us is a
great addition to the canon of high performance literature!"
-- Steven Kotler, New York Times bestselling author of Abundance
and The Rise of Superman "When it's cold outside, do you turn the
heating up? Do you always put a coat on before going out? Do you
think your comfortable life is good for you? If so, you have to
read Scott Carney's What Doesn't Kill Us. Through some great
stories -- which often involve Carney trudging through snow without
much on -- and some serious research, he shows us how to escape the
bland, shuffling gait of our centrally-heated, fleece-jacketed,
molly-coddled lives by diving head-first into the ice-cold,
axe-sharp, scary experiences that made our ancestors' hearts beat
faster every day. If we do that, we can awaken from the dull
slumber of modern life and open our eyes to a better, healthier
dawn of crisp air, better circulation, and the ability to truly
mean it when we say: I'm alive. Buy this book, and you'll emerge a
stronger, healthier, more human human."
-- James Wallman, author of Stuffocation
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