The History of America's Fitness Obsession

Professor Natalia Mehlman Petrzela is a historian of contemporary American politics and culture at the New School. She’s the co-producer and host of the acclaimed podcast Welcome to Your Fantasy and the co-host of the Past Present podcast. She’s also a frequent media guest expert, public speaker, and contributor to outlets like the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, and the Atlantic. She’s the author of Classroom Wars: Language, Sex, and the Making of Modern Political Culture, and Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America’s Exercise Obsession, the subject of our conversation today.

In conversation, Professor Petrzela revealed the changing perceptions of fitness over the last hundred years, morphing from a sideshow to an integral part of many people’s everyday lives—and why some people can work out when it’s sweltering, while many others cannot.