Join us for an intriguing look at muscle power—and the surprising ways muscle can reveal what we’re capable of.
Bonnie Tsui, author of On Muscle, will be joined by filmmaker Paige Bethmann and the subject of Bethmann’s documentary, Ku Stevens. Her film, Remaining Native, tells the story of 17-year-old runner Stevens who made a 50-mile run through the Nevada desert to remember the route his great-grandfather took to escape from a boarding school.
Tsui will draw on a blend of science, culture, immersive reporting, and personal narrative to examine not just what muscles are but what they mean to humans. Muscles allow our heart to beat, food to move through our bodies, blood to circulate, even babies to leave the womb.
We might not think of our muscles unless they are sore or we are working out. But they connect us with just about everything we do.
A Grownups Member-led Forum program. Forums at the Club are organized and run by volunteer programmers who are members of The Commonwealth Club, and they cover a diverse range of topics. Learn more about our Forums.

Bonnie Tsui
Contributor, The New York Times; Author, On Muscle: The Stuff That Moves Us and What It Matters

Paige Bethmann
Director and Producer, Remaining Native

Kutoven “Ku” Stevens
Cross Country Runner featured in Remaining Native

Host and Introduction by Denise Michaud
Chair, Grownups Member-led Forum, Commonwealth Club World Affairs