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7/2/13 The New Yorker:May 20,2013
<br /> 9
<br /> going to hear a bit of an odd sound,"
<br /> AMERICAN CHRONIICLES Levine sail."I'hat's my treadmill,"
<br /> Despite his warning, I didn't really
<br /> TIME, WALKING ALIVE,
<br /> hear anything clumped gr growl aseis
<br /> rept an initial.clunk and g;rtawl as his
<br /> treadmill started moving,and,anyway,
<br /> Don"t.stop moving the soft whirring;of nay own treadmill
<br /> probably cancelled it out,Lewr"rnc,who is
<br /> BY SUSAN ORLEA N fifty years old„grew up in England,and
<br /> was the sort of g;ecky kid who was happy
<br /> to stay up all night observing;his pet
<br /> ,nails to sr^e how far they would move,or
<br /> /i • _" to sit in an ice <IiVcl broth for an hour to
<br /> try to figR ire out how much body heat he
<br /> j I had lost. Pretty strange for a twelve-
<br /> year-old,"I.u:wine Bald."hut this was my
<br /> calling, After medical school,at Royal
<br /> Free I lospital 'School of Medicine,in
<br /> f I london,he intemcd at the Mayo Clinic,
<br /> in Rochciter,Minnesota,and has been
<br /> with the clinic:ever since.We talked for
<br /> r d now achieved
<br /> about a mik,and when we
<br /> one Levine that I
<br /> trca dmrlll ddesk dreams the
<br /> wa al.kin g phone conversation,
<br /> two
<br /> "See,I love that, he said."One of the
<br /> greatest inventions in the world is tele-
<br /> ��; phone calk on treadmills," I le added,
<br /> "That/ you've
<br /> dream adl 1mc iae Ins ver read a magazine Wh ite
<br /> ile if
<br /> i l imi nnngon a tae acdmill attllt gyre wou VC
<br /> almost worked at a treadmill desk.But
<br /> u�un w people don't lain at treadmill desks.They
<br /> walk at one or two,miles per hour,,whicli
<br /> is slow enough so that it doesn't interfere
<br /> with typing or talking or reading.L"ssen-
<br /> tially, "treadmill desk" or the variant
<br /> terns,"walking;workstation,"julst refers to
<br /> a sur6cc that's high enough to accom-
<br /> naaodate a worker who is walking on a
<br /> am writing this while wAking on a coach;and while paying;hills.I had been treadmill rattler than.sitting;on a chair.
<br /> treadmill.And now you know the eagerly awaiting the first time I would It doesn't look much different from the
<br /> biggest problem with working atatread- have a phone conversation with someone kind of standing desk that Winston
<br /> Weill c1csk:the compulsion to announce wvho was lilso walkiiag;at a trectc;lmill desk, Churchill used, Any treadmill can be
<br /> constantly that you are working, at a rhat happened not long;,ago,when I used to make a treadmill desk,though,
<br /> treadmill desk.It`s a lot nlw the early days spoke to Dr,james l.; vinc,the leading many manufacturers now provide mod-
<br /> of cell-phone Caills,when the simple fact researcher in the marvellous-sotunding~, els that are specific fiar desk use,without
<br /> that you were doing what you were doing field of"inactivity studies,"at the Mayo handrails and equipped with motors that
<br /> seemed so amazing that at most ronnversaa- Clinic's Scottsdale,fAri?<>na,campus, are designed to nun for long;hours at slaw
<br /> tions consisted largely of exclamations and the most prominentofwalking;-desk specds,_wanes Levine made his first
<br /> about the amazing}niess of the call.l got partisans.I was already on my second treadmill desk, in 1999, from one of
<br /> nay treadmill desk about three moriths mile of the day when I called him.I le those tray tables with,a t6c,9coping;base
<br /> ago,but I'Iri still in the announcement had just stepped out for coffee and was, made to fit owner an elevated hospital heed
<br /> phase.I would like to have it be known on his way back to his office, and he and a secondhand Sears treadmill that he
<br /> that I have walked while buying;shoes managed to open the door,pant down his got fi)r three hundred dollars."Voila,a
<br /> online;wvhile Photoshopping;pictures of coffee,step onto his treadmill,and start treachaaill dealt"'he said,While Levine
<br /> my cats;while e-.nailing;my son's soccer walking without ithout skipping a beat."You're had a professional 1ntereit in studying the
<br /> science of calorie burning;,his motivation
<br /> The author on her tre aadmill rdesk. GVhera she c�uP as't.rani,sFiau rze^earlerPty an c Pfr. was,also personal,l le was so chubby as a
<br /> 44 THE NEW YORKER,MAY 20,2013 PHOTOGRAPH BY JEFF MINTON
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