From one of the contributing editors at Men’s Health Magazine and an active professor at UNLA, Michael Easter’s Comfort Crisis touches upon one of the most well-known and documented problems of modern life.

Michael’s book describes his adventure through the icy hell of Alaska, the concept of misogi, the evolution of our physiology and how our comfortable lives aren’t helping us live a better life. While describing his experience in Alaska with his friends William Altman and Donnie Vincent, Michael shares his time in different parts of the world, notably Nepal, Bhutan, and Iceland. He meets with some individuals with sharp minds with experiences that help Michael understand why the physiological making of that country is different from the one he sees in his native West.

The book is a journey which is beautifully described with a back and forth between the trips across the world, mentions of scientifically carried research on various topics like the benefits of microbes and uncomfortable temperatures amongst many others, and the weeks spent in Alaska including a spiritual experience while hunting the native Caribou.

One must read this book to understand how our “progress” towards a comfortable life might not be the calling we think it is. Michael’s life since the trip has felt far more relaxed and unconcerned by the problems of the “real world”. If you want to improve your outlook on discomfort and truly understand the crisis you and the rest of the modernised world are in, I highly recommend you read this book.

Misogi is a Japanese Shinto practice of washing the entire body with ice-cold water which leads to physiological changes in the long term and pushes our physical limits past what we believe to think we have.