A Physical Education with Casey Johnston
About this episode
Casey Johnston and the hosts connect diet culture, exercise psychology, and body-image pressure to the “war on cars.” They argue that telling people to “just work out more” ignores how car-dependent infrastructure limits equitable access to walking, cycling, and transit. Johnston shares how lifting reframed her relationship to her body and livelihood, and how unlearning stereotypes often starts with community—like learning from a Reddit thread. The conversation also loops through e-bike and bike-gear sponsorships.
Just as it is with road safety, so much of how Americans talk about health pushes the responsibility for eating right and exercising onto the individual, ignoring the many structural barriers that prevent people from making "good" choices. Through her newsletter, She's a Beast, and her bestselling book A Physical Education: How I Escaped Diet Culture and Gained the Power of Lifting, Casey Johnston cuts through the noise, making connections across various disciplines to help people rethink their notions about health, exercise and body positivity. Casey joins The War on Cars to talk about how "at the scale of daily life, cars should be systematically discouraged, in order to even begin to contend with the deaths and health decline from a lack of physical activity."
***Support The War on Cars on Patreon and receive exclusive access to ad-free versions of regular episodes, Patreon-only bonus content, Discord access, invitations to live events, merch discounts and free stickers!***
Order our new book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, out now from Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Find out the latest about our book tour at LifeAfterCars.com.
LINKS:
Buy Casey Johnston's books, A Physical Education: How I Escaped Diet Culture and Gained the Power of Lifting and Liftoff: Couch to Barbell, as well as books by all of our podcast guests at our official page on Bookshop.org
Subscribe to Casey Johnston's newsletter, She's a Beast, and read her post on "the plot to strangle the American of life, liberty, and happiness."
Thanks to Cleverhood for sponsoring The War on Cars. Listen for the latest discount code and get the best rain gear for walking and cycling at 15% off.
Buy a certified, pre-owned e-bike from Upway and save $100 off any purchase of $800 or more with code TWOC100. Visit Upway.co to get rolling.
Check out the Lumos Ultra Smart bike helmet and the Firefly smart light system at RideLumos.com
motor normativity
"our behavior and how our behavior is determined. And yeah, we do talk on this show a lot about the concept of motor normativity that basically we are 100 years into car dominance."
It’s the idea that society acts like driving is the default “normal” choice. If you choose to walk instead, some people react because it goes against what they’re used to.
“Motor normativity” is the idea that car-related behavior is treated as the default “normal” way to live. When you choose non-car options (like walking), it can feel disruptive because the culture is trained to expect driving as the standard.
car dominance
"that basically we are 100 years into car dominance. We're really strongly influenced to think that behaviors that we do, that have to do with cars are normal and that other behaviors are not normal."
“Car dominance” means cars have become the main way society is built around. So people often assume you should drive even when walking would be easy.
“Car dominance” refers to how cars shape everyday life—where roads go, how cities are designed, and what behaviors are considered normal. In this discussion, it’s used to explain why car use feels culturally expected even for short trips.
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