Paul Salopek
Paul Salopek is a two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and founder of the Out of Eden Walk, a 24,000-mile journey retracing humanity’s ancient migration routes. Walking across continents, he documents the stories of our shared past and uncertain future—exploring culture, climate, and connection through the slow, human pace of storytelling.
World Walker
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Slow Journalist
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Chief Listener
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World Walker • Slow Journalist • Chief Listener •
More about Paul
After traveling to more than 50 countries and earning most of the top media awards in the US, including two Pulitzer Prizes, Paul Salopek dreamed his biggest dream: To walk roughly 24,000 miles, following Homo sapiens’ ancestral migration path out of Africa. Why? To record life on Earth at the unhurried pace of a walk, to illuminate—across borders and cultures—the deeper connections that bind together all humanity at the dawn of a new millennium.
Paul calls this sweeping project the Out of Eden Walk, a 15-year-long journey on foot. Moving at about 2.5 mph, he has recorded thousands of conversations and tens of thousands of photos and videos. The Walk has been called one the most audacious narrative projects in the world today. He had covered 16,000 miles as of the start of 2025.
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Paul focuses on a common touchstone of human dignity and identity: people’s work. Personally, in addition to his incarnation as a journalist, he has labored as a commercial fisherman in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, mined gold in Australia, and managed a remote cattle ranch in Mexico.
Paul is a National Geographic Explorer, and has been a McGraw Visiting Professor at Princeton University and a Visiting Fellow at the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University. In late 2025, Paul is scheduled to finally reach the US, after having carried his rucksack across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Contact us to discuss hosting this intrepid storyteller along his route.
Speaking Topics
Navigating the Future
Geopolitics
Exploration
Culture
Watch Paul in action
Presentations
The Out of Eden Walk
Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Paul Salopek is retracing the Stone Age migration out of Africa, walking 38,000 km across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Along the way, he engages with people, witnesses climate change, mass migrations, ancient ruins, and modern wonders. Through conversations, photos, and reflections, he weaves a vivid tapestry of 21st-century life. (Available via Zoom while he walks the world.)
Slow Journalism Workshop
Journalist and National Geographic Explorer Paul Salopek leads workshops for early-to mid-career journalists and students covering environment, culture, social justice, business, or politics. Participants learn the art of slow journalism, gaining skills to explore stories deeply and authentically. This approach expands professional horizons and equips journalists to capture the lives and experiences of ordinary people in the communities they cover. (Available via Zoom while he walks the world.)
“By walking, I’m forced to spend time in communities that I would normally have flown over. The result is a more sophisticated narrative about the world we live in today.”
– Paul Salopek