Out of Eden Walk
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Out of Eden Walk
@outofedenwalk.social
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Assembled by Nat Geo, a compilation of 25 photos from this ongoing walk across the world. Images by John Stanmeyer, Murat Yazar, Zhang Hongyi, Liu Lifeng, Youngrae Kim, Soichiro Koriyama, & Paul Salopek, and courtesy Georgia National Museum & E. H. Wilson: www.nationalgeographic.com/impact/artic...
A person stands in an historic quarter of Varanasi, facing away from the photographer. Text overlaid on the photo says, “From National Geographic: ‘For over a decade, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and National Geographic Explorer Paul Salopek has woven a tapestry of human stories from his epic trail retracing human migration.’ Photo by Paul Salopek, Varanasi, India.” Text overlaid on a photo of five people walking past large tents and also tomatoes on the ground says, “Setting out from Ethiopia in 2013, Salopek has traversed the Middle East, Central Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and East Asia on foot, documenting stories of people he encounters — an odyssey enriched by walking partners, contributing writers and photographers. Photo by Paul Salopek, near Al Quweirah, Jordan.” Text overlaid on a photo of a hand holding three deceased Asian giant hornets says, “Now beyond the halfway point, his slow listening, storytelling project, the Out of Eden Walk, has arrived in North America, where Salopek is planning the ways ahead toward his final destination, the southern tip of South America. Photo by Paul Salopek, Qinling Mountains, China.” Text overlaid on a photo of a person distributing food packages to other people in Mandalay, Myanmar says, "These photos offer a look back at the trail so far! See more photos in ‘An ongoing walk across the world in 25 photos’ at www.nationalgeographic.com Photo by Paul Salopek, Mandalay, Myanmar"
November 3, 2025 at 4:27 AM
outofedenwalk.social
"A calm and steadying presence, Inayat opened doors everywhere we went. People instinctively respected him. He had that quality of leadership often associated with traveling scholars or teachers. He certainly taught me. I will miss his wry, self-deprecating humor. RIP, brother.” — Paul Salopek
Text against a landscape background says, "A calm and steadying presence, Inayat opened doors everywhere we went. People instinctively respected him. He had that quality of leadership often associated with traveling scholars or teachers. He certainly taught me. I will miss his wry, self-deprecating humor. RIP, brother. — Paul Salopek"
October 28, 2025 at 1:53 PM
outofedenwalk.social
"Inayat was a member of the Wakhi minority and was a conservationist and humanitarian. He led projects planting thousands of trees in the high, rocky valleys of the Little Pamir and Karakoram ranges. He was deeply committed to educating Wakhi children, whose villages often lack schools."
Text against a landscape background says, "Inayat was a member of the Wakhi minority and was a conservationist and humanitarian. He led projects planting thousands of trees in the high, rocky valleys of the Little Pamir and Karakoram ranges. He was deeply committed to educating Wakhi children, whose villages often lack schools."
October 28, 2025 at 1:53 PM
outofedenwalk.social
A message from Paul: “The Out of Eden Walk walking partner family is diminished. Inayat Ali, my wise and humane walking partner in the remote Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan and northern Pakistan, died last week, in his beloved mountains in Gilgit-Baltistan, of a heart attack. He was only 52.”
Text against a landscape scene says, "The Out of Eden Walk walking partner family is diminished. Inayat Ali, my wise and humane walking partner in the remote Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan and northern Pakistan, died last week, in his beloved mountains in Gilgit-Baltistan, of a heart attack. He was only 52."
October 28, 2025 at 1:52 PM
outofedenwalk.social
Today at 11:15 am EDT, Paul Salopek is joining Ros Atkins on BBC Radio 4.

🎧🎙️ Listen live here: www.bbc.com/audio/play/l...

Out of Eden Walk is a 38,000-kilometer walk across the world in the footsteps of our ancestors.
Screen grab of BBC World Service Radio 4 live listening site.
October 22, 2025 at 3:10 PM
outofedenwalk.social
🎙️🎧 “As storytellers, if I sense a story is unfolding with the people I’m meeting, then I will share, ‘Hey, I just walked here from Ethiopia.’” — @paulsalopek.social to host Carolyn Beeler on @theworld.org

Listen or read along with “Small talk on the Eden Walk” here: theworld.org/stories/2025...
Black text against a white background with quotation marks says, “When people say, ‘Where do you come from?’ I sometimes say just the last village or maybe the last town. And that’s kind of extraordinary enough. Walking any distance these days is kind of unusual. And that will create a certain, ‘Oh, wow, that’s far.’ And, ‘Where are you going?’ … ‘I’m going to the next village up ahead.’ I don’t often say, ‘From Ethiopia. I just walked here,’ because you can imagine that kind of question that would then open up, right?” Black text against a white background with quotation marks says, “As storytellers, if I sense a story is unfolding with the people I’m meeting, then I will share, ‘Hey, I just walked here from Ethiopia.’ And that sparks a sense of wonder and curiosity that leads to, again, the kind of conversations that we can have a back and forth about their lives, too.” Black text against a white background with quotation marks says, “‘As I’ve gotten older as a reporter — and this is maybe not something that mainstream journalists do much — but I feel that if I’m going to be asking somebody about their story, they deserve to know something about my story. So, it becomes much more equal and not just this kind of harvesting other people’s stories. So, I answer as honestly as possible everything people ask of me. — Paul Salopek to Carolyn Beeler on ‘Small talk on the Eden Walk’ on public radio program The World.”
October 2, 2025 at 1:53 PM
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“Japan I found steeped in yearning. Yearning, to be sure, might be the universal human condition: inescapable, without any particular geography. You experience it everywhere and often while walking through the world.” — @paulsalopek.social ✍️ outofedenwalk.nationalgeographic.org/goodbye-to-j...
A vertical photo of a rainbow over a lake after a rainstorm. Birds dot the lake. The sky is gray, and there are hills in the distance. White text overlaid on the image says, “’Longing. Nostalgia. Wanting. Aching. Thirst. A walker who comes from far away becomes a safe receptacle for such inconvenient emotions. We listen without judgment. We carry your secrets away.’ —Paul Salopek, ‘Goodbye to Japan’. Pictured: A rainbow graces Lake Biwa after a rainstorm. Photo by Paul Salopek on the Out of Eden Walk.”
October 2, 2025 at 1:41 PM
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🎙️ “That’s what human beings are . . . we kind of have these qualities of mud within us.” — @PaulSalopek to @carolynbeeler. Listen or read along: https://t.co/zS3PvpJiXs This story is part of an ongoing series produced by @TheWorld in collab with Out of Eden Walk & @InsideNatGeo.
July 10, 2025 at 2:08 PM
outofedenwalk.social
Families gather clams alongside the Daehang-ri shell mound, a prehistoric camping site near Saemangeum Seawall. Humans have harvested in the region since the Stone Age—a lifeway largely erased by a gigantic wetlands conversion: https://t.co/RNwi1LamHs 📷 Youngrae Kim @PaulSalopek
July 10, 2025 at 2:08 PM
outofedenwalk.social
“Mudflats are nature’s wallflowers: superficially charmless but with ecologically rich inner lives. They are also quite rare.” -— @PaulSalopek Read “Mud Mausoleum,” Paul’s latest dispatch from the trail: https://t.co/RNwi1LamHs Photo by Youngrae Kim. 📍 Saemangeum, South Korea
July 10, 2025 at 2:08 PM
outofedenwalk.social
🔈🎙️ “I walk with local people who add their own voices, their own insights, and therefore, it’s constantly being refreshed; the journey is constantly being made new.” — @PaulSalopek 🎧📖 Listen or read along with @TheWorld: https://t.co/vQwAhTIDP3 @MarcoWerman @StephenProducer
July 10, 2025 at 2:07 PM
outofedenwalk.social
“I struck my first ocean in 12 years at the coast of Dongbei—what used to be called Manchuria—in the frozen NE of China, almost a year ago. Stuffed inside a parka, I bent to pick up the burnished shingle on an empty shore.” —@PaulSalopek https://t.co/DqpMmmyfAa 📷 Zhang Qing Hua
July 10, 2025 at 2:07 PM
outofedenwalk.social
From Japan, the Out of Eden Walk marks 12 years, with North America on the horizon. @PaulSalopek is on a foot journey across the world. He provides an extraordinary record of humanity at a new millennium. Read more here: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/impact/article/paul-salopek-explorer-story
July 10, 2025 at 2:07 PM
outofedenwalk.social
🔈From @emergence_zine: “This week, we return to our interview with journalist @PaulSalopek, who, for the last decade, has been on an epic journey retracing the migration pathway of some of the earliest humans out of Africa’s Rift Valley.” 🎧 Listen here: https://t.co/27m0KGQRSW
July 10, 2025 at 2:07 PM
outofedenwalk.social
“I struck my first ocean in 12 years at the coast of Dongbei—what used to be called Manchuria—in the frozen northeast of China, almost a year ago. Stuffed inside a parka, I bent to pick up the burnished shingle on an empty shore.” —@PaulSalopek Read more: https://t.co/DqpMmmyfAa
July 10, 2025 at 2:07 PM
outofedenwalk.social
✍️ “The Paleolithic bands of Homo sapiens hunter-gatherers I’m following didn’t stop at the blue wall here, of course. Neither will I. In the spring, I hope to board a cargo ship from Japan to Alaska.” — @PaulSalopek Read “Bookend Oceans” here: https://t.co/DqpMmmyfAa #EdenWalk
July 10, 2025 at 2:07 PM
outofedenwalk.social
A Korean battlefield along the Yeongnamdaero trail is commemorated by giant statues of Harry Truman and Rhee Syngman, allies in the country’s brutal civil conflict in 1950. ✍️ Read “Scholar’s Trail” here: https://t.co/UfLiH52YOi 📷 Photo by @PaulSalopek
July 10, 2025 at 2:07 PM
outofedenwalk.social
“Wearing a summery blue dress, pearls, & open-toed mules—& holding a parasol against the brutal sun—Kim leads the way up a restored, 2-km stretch of the Great Yeongnam Road.” —@PaulSalopek https://t.co/UfLiH52qYK Below: Walking Partner Lee Junseok & guide Kim Gwinam 📷 P. Salopek
July 10, 2025 at 2:07 PM
outofedenwalk.social
“When I’m walking I’m thinking about writing. I’m thinking about a problem. About a paragraph or how something doesn’t work in a story.” — @PaulSalopek Out of Eden Walk marks 12 years, with North America on the horizon: https://t.co/tvorM2hU8e Photo courtesy Paul Salopek.
July 10, 2025 at 2:06 PM
outofedenwalk.social
THANK YOU! We’re deeply grateful to the Walk’s community for bringing us to our crowdfunding goal of $75k. If you haven’t yet joined our nonprofit org’s annual crowdfunder and would like to, there are 5 days left—and your donations are still urgently needed. 📷 Ethiopia, Jan 2013
July 10, 2025 at 2:53 PM
outofedenwalk.social
We’re 12 years + 25,000 km into the Walk. To support us moving forward, we’re hoping to raise $75k for the Out of Eden Walk nonprofit org by Dec 31. This community has helped to raise over $72k so far. Thank you! Join us: http://outofedenwalknonprofit.org/campaign Pictured: On the trail. China, ‘23
July 10, 2025 at 2:53 PM
outofedenwalk.social
For a donation at the $1,500 level, one person can take home their choice of one of these 12 images documented by @JohnStanmeyer on the Out of Eden Walk trail. The high-quality, 30x20 inch, archival photograph—all are printed in editions of 150—will be signed by John.
July 10, 2025 at 2:53 PM
outofedenwalk.social
World Press Award-winning @NatGeo photographer @JohnStanmeyer has documented 11 Out of Eden Walk stories in @NatGeoMag. During our crowdfunder, taking place now, John has generously offered to contribute any one photo, selected from 12 shown here, to a member of our community.
July 10, 2025 at 2:53 PM
outofedenwalk.social
Thank you! With your generous donations, we’re almost halfway to our crowdfunding goal! Give today to double your impact. Donations are currently being matched at a 1:1 ratio. Half the world lies ahead on this foot journey. Support our nonprofit here: http://www.outofedenwalknonprofit.org/campaign ✨
July 10, 2025 at 2:52 PM
outofedenwalk.social
Paul’s mission: Follow the pathways of the first humans to walk out of Africa during the Stone Age, and collect stories of our shared humanity in a modern world fractured by borders, mistrust, and mutual incomprehension. @PaulSalopek
July 10, 2025 at 2:52 PM