Hotwired - by Bill Gifford (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

From the #1 New York Times bestselling coauthor of Outlive comes a radical exploration of the science of heat adaptation and sweat therapy to tap into the evolutionary superpowers that we've forgotten we possess.

What if the key to thriving in a hotter world isn't avoiding the heat--but harnessing it?

In Hotwired, bestselling author and science journalist Bill Gifford takes readers on a fascinating exploration of the power of heat to improve our performance and our health. Combining cutting-edge science, personal discovery, and practical insights, Gifford reveals how heat adaptation and heat therapy such as sauna can make us healthier, stronger, and even happier, by unlocking the body's built-in tools to promote longevity and resilience.

Through innovative research in evolutionary biology, physiology, and thermoregulation, Gifford uncovers how humans evolved to excel in sweltering conditions--and how we've lost touch with this ancient advantage. He plunges into the steamy world of Finnish saunas, serves as a test subject in cutting-edge heat labs, and tackles a grueling 100-mile bike ride under the blazing Texas sun--to show how temperature extremes can expand our physical and mental limits. He even explores how infrared sauna therapy could fight depression more effectively than medication--and how many people are rediscovering the power of communal wellness through the use of social sauna.

Whether you're looking to perform better, extend your lifespan, adapt to a warming planet, or tap into the human connection that forms when we sweat together, Gifford reveals the incredible benefits of reawakening your body's natural adaptability to heat and cold. You'll discover how sweat is more than a cooling mechanism; it's central to peak performance. Rather than hiding from the heat, we should confront it, to discover our untapped potential for physical and mental resilience. We were born to sweat, after all.

Hotwired lays out how short-term discomfort transforms into long-term power. It's a thrilling call to reimagine heat--not as a threat, but as a tool for survival and strength.

Review Quotes

"Bill Gifford's terrific Spring Chicken gives us a riveting account of the most important change of the last century-the doubling of our lifespans-and an intimate vision of what it will take to not only keep that trend going, but keep ourselves healthy and vibrant as we age." -- Steven Johnson, New York Times bestseller of How We Got to Now

"Spring Chicken is a masterful exploration of the fantasy and fact surrounding one of the most fundamental questions of humankind: why do we age?" -- David Perlmutter, MD, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Grain Brain

"You need this book. I grabbed it like a life preserver, and that's exactly what it is. Spring Chicken demolishes the worst hoaxes in anti-aging treatments-like crushed dog testicles, human growth hormone, and Suzanne Somers-and leaves you with the good news: by adopting a few easy-to-understand, easy-to-follow discoveries, you might just deactivate the time bombs in your fat cells and learn to follow in the springy, "successfully aging" footsteps of a 92-year-old pole vaulter." -- Christopher McDougall, New York Times bestselling author of Born to Run

"Spring Chicken is an utterly marvelous book - a guided tour of a fantastic, counterintuitive landscape (that happens to be your body), and also a whip-smart guide to living a longer and healthier life. With this book, Bill Gifford joins the ranks of Mary Roach and Bill Bryson as a science writer supreme, illuminating our world in a page-turning style that is as entertaining as it is enlightening." -- Daniel Coyle, New York Times bestselling author of The Talent Code

"Gifford skillfully navigates the many strands of aging research to create an entertaining narrative of the perils of getting old." -- Kirkus Reviews