The simple act of walking offers tremendous benefits for your health, the economy, and the environment. City Walk, a new six-part TV series on walking that premiered earlier this month. The focus of City Walk is to showcase how walking is transforming cities across the county and, in the process, reconnecting us with our bodies.
Expanding on short films produced for everybodywalk.org, City Walk explores walking for public television networks KCET and LinkTV from the perspective of experts and pedestrians. It also captures a growing nationwide effort to reverse the trend of a sedentary lifestyle by spotlighting walkable neighborhoods in major cities. The call to action: discover urban areas by foot.
“We are excited to offer an innovative multifaceted series to our viewers and invite them to explore their public, urban landscape with multiple engagement opportunities on the air, online and beyond,” said Juan Devis, Vice President of arts and culture programming at KCETLink. “We are pleased to help shepherd urban exploration into the public consciousness through walking and encouraging a healthier lifestyle.”
City Walk brings the Every Body Walk campaign—to get adults walking 30 minutes a day, five days to achieve better health—to television, tablets, laptops, and smartphones, with messages about making walking accessible wherever you are. While everyone is starved for time, a 30-minute walk can be spliced into your day by walking to transit, walking to work, walking to lunch, walking the dog, and even taking the stairs. Try just a few of these options; you’ll be surprised how quickly the time adds up.
“It’s a well known fact that the human body was built to walk. As a family physician, I talk to patients everyday about the importance of walking and I even write prescriptions for walking,” said Bob Sallis, MD, of Kaiser Permanente in Fontana, CA. “A 30-minute walk, five days a week can change lives and improve health.” An avid walker and adviser to Every Body Walk, Dr. Sallis has walked in many of the locations featured in the City Walk series.
The footage in this series is brought to you in part by Every Body Walk, which has filmed inspiring stories about walking and walkable cities across the country. We have interviewed planners, academics, physicians, elected officials, executives, and parents who can’t say enough about what walking means for our cities and communities.
Cities featured in the the series include Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Boston. The next episode of City Walk airs May 30 on KCET and June 6 on Link TV: DirecTV 375 and DISH 9410; monthly air dates through September 26 or you can watch the show online at kcet.org/citywalk. Visit everybodywalk.org for a host of walking resources.
