Harvard Science Book Talk: Bonnie Tsui, in conversation with Annie Murphy Paul "On Muscle: The Stuff That Moves Us and Why It Matters"

In On Muscle, Bonnie Tsui brings her signature blend of science, culture, immersive reporting, and personal narrative to examine not just what muscles are but what they mean to us. Cardiac, smooth, skeletal—these three different types of muscle in our bodies make our hearts beat; push food through our intestines, blood through our vessels, babies out the uterus; attach to our bones and allow for motion. Tsui also traces how muscles have defined beauty—and how they have distorted it—through the ages, and how they play an essential role in our physical and mental health.
 
Tsui introduces us to the first female weightlifter to pick up the famed Scottish Dinnie Stones, then takes us on a 50-mile run through the Nevada desert that follows the path of escape from a Native boarding school—and gives the concept of endurance new meaning. She travels to Oslo, where cutting-edge research reveals how muscles help us bounce back after injury and illness, an important aspect of longevity. She jumps into the action with a historic Double Dutch club in Washington, D.C., to explain anew what Charles Darwin meant by the brain-body connection. Woven throughout are stories of Tsui’s childhood with her Chinese immigrant artist dad—a black belt in karate—who schools her from a young age in a kind of quirky, in-house Muscle Academy. 
 
On Muscle shows us the poetry in the physical, and the surprising ways muscle can reveal what we’re capable of.

Bonnie Tsui is a longtime contributor to The New York Times and the author of the new book On Muscle: The Stuff That Moves Us and Why It Matters, a vivid, thought-provoking celebration of musculature that was named one of NPR's "Books We Love" 2025 and an Amazon Editors' Pick for Best Nonfiction of 2025; it is currently being translated into six languages. Her bestselling books include Why We Swim, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and a Time magazine and NPR Best Book of the Year, and American Chinatown, which won the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature. Her work has been recognized and supported by Harvard University, the National Press Foundation, and the Best American Essays series. She lives, swims, and surfs in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Annie Murphy Paul is an acclaimed science writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Scientific American, and The Best American Science Writing, among many other publications. Her latest book is The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain. She is also the author of Origins, an exploration of the science of prenatal influences, and The Cult of Personality, a cultural history and scientific critique of personality testing. She is currently a senior writer at the podcast and radio program Hidden Brain.

Organization/Sponsor: Harvard Division of Science, Harvard Library, and Harvard Book Store.
For more information and videos of Harvard Science Book Talks, see https://science.fas.harvard.edu/book-talks.

Contact Info: science_lectures@fas.harvard.edu