‘You don’t have to go to the North Pole to experience adventure’

Alex Hutchinson likes to keep busy. He’s been a physicist and a competitive runner on Canada’s national team. Now, he’s a journalist considering the neuroscience of fitness, endurance sports and outdoor adventure, with a couple of bestsellers under his belt. He also plays saxophone for fun. 

In his latest book, The Explorer’s Gene, Hutchinson weaves his wide-ranging interests into a celebration of far-flung corners, whether on Earth or inside the human mind. It’s about our genetic drive to immerse our senses in the unknown, whether a new place or a new food. It’s also about protecting those untamed instincts and the wild places they take us to see. Exploration is foundational to life, but exploitation puts it at risk. 

One key is appreciating the riches all around us. The other side of the world is cool, but so are the plants and animals outside our front doors. Hutchinson told The Narwhal he learned that lesson from his Uncle Wolf, who lives in Quebec’s Eastern Townships. 

“All through childhood and even into my adulthood, he would take me on the most epic adventures, in forests and up mountains around where he lives,” Hutchinson told us. “It really opened my eyes to the fact that you don’t have to go to the North Pole to experience adventure and beauty and solitude and wilderness.” 

Here’s what else the bestselling Toronto author told us about his connection to the natural world. 

This interview has been condensed and edited for length and clarity — all opinions are the subject’s own.

What is the most awe-inspiring natural sight you’ve witnessed between the Pacific, Atlantic, 49th parallel and Hudson Bay, otherwise known as Canada?

The fjords of Newfoundland. When I went to Gros Morne National Park a couple years ago, they were definitely the most distinct and unique and surprising sight to me. 

And what’s the most awe-inspiring natural sight you’ve seen outside of Canada? 

See, my first instinct is to say Doubtful Sound in New Zealand. But that seems to suggest I have an obsession with fjords and I think those are the only two fjords I’ve ever seen. There’s something I love about steep cliffs hemmed in by water. They’re actually strikingly similar. The New Zealand fjords were a little more green and verdant, whereas the Newfoundland fjords had that sort of primitive, rocky feel. 

I’ve never been to Norway, so I guess that should be on my list now.

Think of three iconic Canadian animals. Choose one each to kiss, marry, kill.

No offense to the Canada goose, but if I was going to kill an animal, it would be the Canada goose. Specifically the ones who pester me when I’m running along the Humber River in Toronto.

I think I’d give a nice peck to the moose. I don’t know if I want to stay with a moose, but I just love their cute, clumpy way of stumbling through the woods. 

And to marry, I kind of like bears, black bears. It might be a tempestuous marriage, but let’s go with the black bear. 

Name a person or group doing something meaningful for the environment that everyone should know about.

On a local level, Toronto Environmental Alliance. I really appreciate what they’re doing in my community. On a national level, the Nature Conservancy of Canada. I always feel when I donate to them that it’s actually selfish of me. I’m supporting their work to acquire lands, but it’s going to be to my huge benefit to have these lands protected.

Name a person who could significantly help mitigate the climate crisis if they really wanted to. 

In terms of decisions having an impact that frustrates me, I’d say Ontario Premier Doug Ford. 

I actually live near a block of bike lanes that he’s going to tear out. The Greenbelt, clean energy decisions, electric vehicle incentives — it’s just the whole philosophical approach. I think he has actually been very successful at derailing important initiatives.

Outdoor cats, yes or no?

I’m not a cat person. If we’re gonna have cats, I think I would lean towards letting them roam outside, even though I understand the impact they have on other animals.

Tell us about a time that you changed your mind about something, environmental or otherwise.

I’ve actually changed my mind multiple times on nuclear energy, which reflects that it’s complex. And I don’t rule out changing my mind again tomorrow. But right now, I lean more towards thinking it should be an important part of the energy mix. It’s complicated, very complicated.

Tell us about a time you tried to change someone else’s mind about something.

I have a cousin in Alberta who works in the oil industry and what I appreciate about my relationship with him is that we are able to discuss things about which we disagree frankly and vigorously without it being a personal attack. I’ve tried to change his mind on many elements of energy policy, environmental policy, national politics.

I think he hears me and he considers my arguments. And I would say, conversely, that I hear him too. I wouldn’t say that either of us have actually succeeded in radically changing our minds, but we both have better perspectives on the points on which we disagree.

Rocky Mountains or Great Lakes?

Rocky Mountains. And I say that as someone who lives on a Great Lake. 

Researchers at Yale University, the France-based Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society and other institutions have found women tend to be more concerned about climate change than men. Why do you think that is? 

Everything that pops to mind plays into stereotypes that I’m not sure I want to endorse. But I think caring about the environment goes hand in hand with caring about family and community in a way that maybe sometimes codes female and or has been more associated with the way women think about their families and communities. Maybe there’s something to that.

Jobs that go out and tend to exploit the environment, often tend to be male-dominated jobs. So maybe there’s a lot more men who see going out and drilling for oil, or whatever the case may be, as something that they might do and that their friends might do. Those are a couple things that come to mind. 

If you could dip a toe off Canada’s coastline, which ocean would it be in?

The Arctic. 

What’s a beautiful or useful thing that you’ve owned for a really long time?

My MSR camp stove that I’ve been taking into the wilderness for, gosh, almost three decades. Stuff you buy now, it’s not going to last 20 years. In fact, I do have two stoves, both by MSR, and it’s the newer one that is broken. The older one is still functional, even though it’s pretty grimy.

What’s the farthest north you’ve ever been, and what did you do there?

Cambridge Bay, Nvt., on assignment for Canadian Geographic. The Canadian High Arctic Research Station was just under construction. And I went to report on that and it was a really amazing and memorable experience.

What’s one way you interact with the natural world on a daily basis?

I live about a block from the Humber River. After Hurricane Hazel in 1954, they realized you can’t have houses down there. So it’s been a really beautiful natural area ever since, forests, deer, coyotes, beavers and running paths, which I’m on pretty much every day. 

If you could ask one person, alive or dead their thoughts on climate change, who would it be? 

I’d be interested to talk to the people who first developed oil and gas. Or actually, let’s say the guy who developed the steam engine, James Watt, or someone like that. Someone who saw the transformative power of fossil fuels — would you do anything differently if you knew what we know?

Smoked salmon or maple syrup?

Both at the same time is my obvious answer. This is, like, between the head and the heart. I feel like a traitor to my younger self, but I’ll say salmon. 

Would you rather be invited to Victoria and David Beckham’s Muskoka cottage, or Harry and Meghan Sussex’s B.C. escape?

I would go to the Beckhams’ cottage in Muskoka. Watching that Beckham Netflix series last year revised my opinion of David Beckham, who I earlier would have thought was a complete idiot. And also, I like Muskoka.

I know your answer, but camping yes or no?

Yes, yes, yes. 

Enjoying the Moose Questionnaire? Read more from the series here.