What To Read: Isaac Fitzgerald is walking and talking
This week, we interviewed Isaac Fitzgerald, an author who writes Walk It Off, a publication chronicling his walks and conversations with interesting people.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
What’s your Substack about in one sentence?
Walk It Off is a walking blog where I explore odd places and talk to interesting people – often in New York City, but with hopes of traveling all over the country.1
What inspired you to write about walking?
Last year I started walking. A lot. Then I wrote about it for The Guardian. The response I got to that piece was tremendous, which got me thinking about how the simple act of walking connects so many of us.
In the spring of this year, I realized that I wanted to continue making time for walking in my daily life, even as the world began to open back up. I also realized how much I'd missed spending time with friends having long, meandering conversations. That's where the idea for Walk It Off came from. Through walking and people, I’ve also been able to reconnect with the city of New York.
You've walked with some remarkable people including Saeed Jones, John Wray, Raven Leilani, and Anand Giridharadas. What traits do you look for in people you take a walk with?
I want to have conversations with interesting people, which is to say a very broad spectrum of people. I've started with writers and artists I admire, but hope to soon widen the aperture to people from all different walks of life. I want to see NYC and the other places I travel to through as many different people's eyes as possible.
What have you learned about how and why certain places become meaningful to a person, while others do not?
A lot of how a person feels about a certain place has more to do with time than it does the place itself. One of my favorite Walk It Off quotes came from New York Times editor Dan Saltzstein: “It was one of my favorite restaurants in the city, but it was also one of my favorite times – one of my favorite slices of time – in New York.” When I'm interviewing guests, I really feel like they're taking me to places that are important to them, but also welcoming me into their personal histories.
You host a weekly member thread to hear from readers about their recent walks and more. What have your readers taught you?
One of my favorite discussion threads was one where people shared their favorite books about walking. I was familiar with some of the titles, but not all, so I've started creating a “To Read” list that's only walking-related books. An idea that's been kicking around my head is inviting Walk It Off readers to join me in reading these books in a Walk It Off book club.
What is one beloved walk you'd encourage anyone to take?
If you live in the New York area and have yet to explore Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, I urge you to do so as soon as you can. I lived near the cemetery for years before managing to visit it, and it's now one of my favorite places to walk in the whole city. It was the setting for the first Walk It Off post.
Who's another Substack writer you'd recommend?
Brandon Taylor's Substack, Sweater Weather, is fantastic. As is the oft-praised-and-rightly-so Substack of Hunter Harris, which is called Hung Up. The Substack I hope most to be featured in, though, is Scaachi Koul's A List Of People I Am Mad At, which is a weekly list of the people she's mad at. It's rather remarkable I haven't made it onto that list already, to be honest.
Subscribe to Isaac’s newsletter, Walk It Off, order one of his books, or find him on his website.
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