Friends,
One of the perks of being a Life Kit producer is getting to learn about all kinds of topics — things like how to bake a pie, how to put together a playlist, how to sew! I pick up a lot of tips along the way (always keep your pie ingredients cold!), but every once in a while a topic really hits home for me.
Back in Spring of 2020, I produced an episode about how to start biking. That episode changed my life.
I live in New York City which (no surprise here) is big and congested. I’d always wanted to start biking but was really, really nervous about riding in traffic. Like so nervous that I never even tried. I admired friends who biked everywhere, but I’d made up my mind that it just wasn’t in the cards for me.
Then I started working on this biking story with our host Meg Anderson, a producer on NPR’s Investigations team. Meg was a newer biker at the time and she wanted to get more comfortable on her commute to work. Together we interviewed three veteran bicyclists from three different major cities who told us exactly how to gear up to get started. (I bet you know where this story is going.)
I had no choice but to try it out myself. I mean, how could I produce a whole episode encouraging our listeners to give biking a try, but not heed our own advice?
The tip that helped the most was from Robbie Webber, a board member of Madison Bikes. She says,
“Get a mentor or a bike buddy. And believe it or not, people often are glad to share their knowledge. You may not be able to shut them up once you ask them for help.”
I asked my friend Jack to be my bike buddy. We met in the park for our first ride. I was super nervous, but it really did help to have someone there with me. We did one loop around the park and then took it to the streets. I followed Jack, watching how he navigated the cars around us.
That one ride was enough to help get me biking. It became a favorite pastime during the pandemic and now you can catch me 3-4 times a week cruising around running errands and meeting friends.
And that’s what Life Kit is all about! We're here to make a real impact in your life, demystifying topics that seem scary or complicated. And, like a good bike buddy, you can help Life Kit level up faster by donating to your NPR station.
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