In this episode, I connect with Huntsville, Alabama-based cartographer and artist David Nuttall for a conversation about his recent adventure riding every street in his sprawling, hilly city and the profound things he learned about the place he's called home for the past several decades and about himself.

David Nuttall was motivated to get in a little exercise and lose a little weight by exploring his adopted hometown of Huntsville, Alabama on his trusty old mountain bike. And thus a challenge was born: ride every street in the city limits and since he’s cartographer, naturally he’d map that experience and learn what he could along the way.

This is not an uber athlete endorphin-fueled adventure story, but one of patient reflection, social connection, curiosity, joy, and humanity.

David’s art studio: Artimaps

Map Animation by Ned Drummond – Ned’s website

1. Become an Active Towns Ambassador by "Buying Me a Coffee" or by pledging as little as $1 per month on Patreon

2. If you enjoyed this episode, please give it a "thumbs up," leave a review on Apple Podcasts, and share it with a friend.

3. Subscribe to the podcast on your preferred listening platform and the Active Towns YouTube Channel

4. Pick up some Active Towns #StreetsAreForPeople Merch at my store

All video and audio production by John Simmerman

Various mixes also by John Simmerman

- My awesome recording platform is Ecamm

- Adobe Creative Cloud Suite

For more information about my Active Towns effort or to follow along, please visit my links below:

- Website

- Twitter

- Newsletter

- Podcast landing pages

- Facebook

- Instagram

Hi Everyone, my name is John Simmerman.

I’m a health promotion professional with over 30 years of experience and my area of concentration has evolved into a specialization of how the built environment influences human behavior related to active living and especially active mobility.

In 2012 I launched the non-profit Advocates for Healthy Communities as an effort to help promote and create healthy, active places.

Since that time, I've been exploring, documenting, and profiling established, emerging, and aspiring Active Towns wherever they might be, in order to produce high-quality multimedia content to help inspire the creation of more safe and inviting, environments that promote a "Culture of Activity" for "All Ages & Abilities."

My Active Towns suite of channels feature my original video and audio content and reflections, including a selection of podcast episodes and short films profiling the positive and inspiring efforts happening around the world as I am able to experience and document them.

Thanks for tuning in; I hope you have found this content helpful.

Creative Commons License: Attributions, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives, 2021

Advocates for Healthy Communities, Inc. is a nonprofit 501c3 organization (EIN 45-3802508) dedicated to helping communities create a Culture of Activity. To donate, click here.