Bonnie on The Rich Roll Podcast.
SELECTED archived events & interviews
2026
January 28-30: Bonnie talks about On Muscle and Why We Swim at the 2026 Rancho Mirage Writers Festival.
March 1-8: Bonnie appears at the 25th annual Hong Kong International Literary Festival.
2025
January: Bonnie leads a series of Muscle Walks around SFMOMA’s biggest and newest exhibition, Get in the Game.
April 20: Bonnie appears on the cover of The Observer Magazine in the U.K.; read the interview, feature essay, and excerpt form the book here.
April 20: Bonnie talks to Jason Wachob on episode 589 of the mindbodygreen podcast, on the deeper meaning of muscle for women; listen here.
April 21: Bonnie is profiled by the journalist Hannah Bae in The San Francisco Chronicle.
April 22: Publication day for ON MUSCLE! Bonnie talks with KQED FORUM host Mina Kim live in studio; listen to (or watch!) the interview here.
Book launch party! Bonnie is in conversation with author and adventurer Caroline Paul at Green Apple Books on the Park; San Francisco. CA. Watch the recording here!
April 23: Bonnie is featured in Alta’s California Book Club newsletter in this Q&A with Lydia Horne.
And read the April 2025 “Shelf Life” feature in ELLE magazine, a portrait of Bonnie in books by Riza Cruz.
April 24: Bonnie is in conversation with writer Rachel Levin at Clio’s Books & Bar; Oakland, CA.
Bonnie talks with Ryan Holiday in a wide-ranging conversation about muscle, mind, and why we need to live rigorously, for The Daily Stoic Podcast. Listen to the episode here.
April 27: Bonnie is in conversation with big-wave photographer Sachi Cunningham at Traveler Surf Club Malibu. Signed books available at the shop!
Bonnie talks about how muscles are the unsung heroes of our bodies for The Next Big Idea Club, and chats with KALW host Grace Won for “State of the Bay.”
April 28: Bonnie talks with award-winning novelist and showrunner Charles Yu at Book Soup in Los Angeles. Signed books available at the shop!
April 30: Bonnie talks with host David Martin Davies for Texas Public Radio’s “The Source”—listen to “The Hustle of the Muscle and You” here! And On Muscle is The Next Big Idea Club’s Book of the Day.
May 1: Special event with Amber Fitzsimmons, professor and chair of the department of physical therapy and rehabilitation science at the University of California, San Francisco, and assistant professor Maddie Norris and associate professor Barbie Klein; UCSF Mission Bay Campus.
May 2: Bonnie talks with Jumoké Fashola for BBC Radio; listen to their wonderful conversation here (starting at 2:09 in the recording)! And Bonnie talks with nonfiction editor John McMurtrie for “The Kirkus Q&A” in the May 2025 issue of Kirkus Reviews.
May 5: The Independent’s Harry Bullmore interviews Bonnie for “The Secrets to Building Muscle and Exercising for a Longer Life.”
May 7: Surf Simply Magazine spotlights Bonnie Tsui in “Cardiac, Smooth, Skeletal, and Surf: On Muscle.” Read the interview with editor Mat Arney here.
May 21: Mind Body Solutions’ Yoga, Disability, and Transformation session with pioneering yoga teacher Matthew Sanford; watch the recording here!
May 25: Bonnie’s essay “The Way You Build Muscle Is the Way You Build a Life” is published in The New York Times Sunday Opinion.
May 27: Bonnie is in conversation with science writer Rachel E. Gross at the Brooklyn Public Library’s gorgeous new Brooklyn Heights Branch.
May 28: Bonnie presents from On Muscle at Politics & Prose at the Wharf with special guests the D.C. Retro Jumpers; watch a clip from the C-SPAN Book TV episode here!
June 3: The Commonwealth Club of California hosts Bonnie, Ku Stevens, and Paige Bethmann for a conversation about On Muscle and Bethmann’s documentary film Remaining Native, about Stevens’ 50-mile Remembrance Run through the Nevada desert to remember the route his great-grandfather’s took to escape from a Native boarding school; listen to the recording here.
June 9: Bonnie talks to Lauren Hill and Dave Rastovich for the Waterpeople podcast; listen to the episode here!
June 12: On Muscle is featured in The New York Times story “Want to Start Weight Training? These Books Can Help,” about three new books that explore the power of women building muscle.
June 18: Bonnie talks with Dan Harris about muscle and mind for the 10% Happier podcast; listen here!
June 22-25: Bonnie is a featured speaker at the 2025 Aspen Ideas Festival: Health; watch her speak at the opening “Big Ideas” session here (26:46). Watch her conversation with Elizabeth Cohen for the “Muscle Matters” session here.
June 25: On Muscle is one of NPR’s “Books We Love” of 2025! Listen to the NPR story on “Morning Edition” here and read the reviews here.
July 16: Mickie Meinhardt writes about Bonnie (from a surfboard!) in this profile for Literary Hub, “Muscle Beach: Surfing with Bonnie Tsui.”
September 14: For the Forum at Grace Cathedral, Bonnie will be in conversation with Dean Malcolm Young (a fellow surfer!), San Francisco; watch the video here!
September 16: Bonnie talks about muscle health at Kaiser Permanente East Bay’s “Joy and Meaning in Medicine” series.
October 18: Bonnie appears with fellow authors Nabil Ayers, Koren Shadmi, and Mariah Fredericks at StoryFest 2025 at the Westport Library: “Writing the Self and Others.” Watch the video here!
October 21: Bonnie talks with the science writer Annie Murphy Paul as part of the Harvard Science Book Talks in partnership with Harvard Book Store, at the Harvard University Science Center; watch the video here!
October 24: Meghna Chakrabarti interviews Bonnie live for “The Might and Magic of Human Muscles,” an episode of WBUR’s “On Point”—listen to the show here.
October 27: TED’s How to Be a Better Human podcast features Bonnie and On Muscle in its new short documentary film series; watch the video here! And listen to the longer podcast episode here.
2024
April 26: Bonnie is featured in Brené Brown’s “Five Questions With” on all things swimming and water; read the interview here.
November 16: Bonnie and Mavericks pioneer Sarah Gerhardt read SARAH AND THE BIG WAVE during a children’s story hour at the Traveler Surf Club in Pacifica.
2023
February 1-3: Bonnie speaks about Why We Swim at the 2023 Rancho Mirage Writers Festival at the Rancho Mirage Library and Observatory. Watch the video here!
April 29: Bonnie is a 2023 San Francisco Public Library Laureate; join the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library at the 2023 Library Laureates gala at the San Francisco Public Library Main Branch to celebrate and support the library!
June 15: Bonnie is a special guest during the California Book Club featuring a conversation with Charles Yu about his novel Interior Chinatown, hosted by John Freeman. Watch video here!
December 8: Bonnie is a featured speaker at Patagonia’s Not Mars: Tools for Saving Our Home Planet, an evening of storytelling and activism focused on protecting healthy waters and building healthy communities. Town Hall Seattle.
2022
April 28: Podcast and photo essay for the Finisterre “Hell or High Water” series here.
July 7: In-store book reading and open conversation with Bonnie at Finisterre London! An evening of beers and cold water tales.
July 8: Bonnie swims with the historic Serpentine Swimming Club in Hyde Park, the oldest swimming club in Britain. Read the club swim report here!
August 18: Bonnie is a guest on the Looking Sideways podcast with Matt Barr. Listen to the episode here.
September 9: American Swim Coaches Association 54th Annual World Clinic, “Why We Swim” Open Water session with Aaron Peirsol, Steven Munatones, and Quinn Fitzgerald; Las Vegas.
October 7: Litquake Literary Festival presents Kidquake 2022! Bonnie presents Sarah and the Big Wave to SFUSD K-2 students at the Koret Auditorium at the San Francisco Public Library Main Branch.
October 20: As part of NEA’s Big Read, Bonnie hosts a conversation with Charles Yu, author of the National Book Award-winning novel Interior Chinatown, co-sponsored by the Mechanics’ Institute, Litquake, and the Chinese Historical Society of America. Video to come!
November 1: The Portland Book Festival presents a special episode of Literary Arts’ The Archive Project: “Keep Swimming” with Bonnie and Karen Eva Carr, moderated by Oregon Public Broadcasting’s Paul Marshall.
2021
January 18, 2021: Listen to or watch this interview with Rich Roll on the Rich Roll podcast: Episode #574: Bonnie Tsui and Why We Swim.
February 2: The Chris Evans Breakfast Show on Virgin Radio UK, London. Listen here!
March 3: Listen to this episode of The Forum on the BBC World Service, Making Waves: The History of Swimming, with Bonnie, Kevin Dawson, Mikael Rosén, and Howard Means.
April 11: Interview and photo essay for the Apiece Apart WOMAN series here.
April 13: PAPERBACK LAUNCH! Interview with Mina Kim on KQED Forum here.
Plus: Chaucer’s Books with Caitlin Roper of The New York Times, Santa Barbara. Watch the video here!
April 14: The Daily Stoic podcast with Ryan Holiday, listen to the conversation here! And read the Q&A about Why We Swim here.
April 21: Bookshop Santa Cruz with Boston Marathon champ and *NEW 50K WORLD RECORD HOLDER Des Linden, Santa Cruz. Watch the video here!
April 29: Bookshop West Portal with Rachel Levin, San Francisco. Watch the video here!
May 11: SARAH AND THE BIG WAVE BOOK LAUNCH! Books Inc. with Sarah Gerhardt and illustrator Sophie Diao. Watch the video here!
May 25: Waterlog Reissue Celebration with Craig Popelars of Tin House and Pete Mulvihill of Green Apple Books, with special guest star Rufus Deakin! San Francisco. Watch the video here!
June 16: Bonnie is profiled in the July/August issue of Harvard Magazine: “The Wave Rider.”
July 23: On Day 1 of the Tokyo Olympics, four-time world champion surfer and gold-medal favorite Carissa Moore reads SARAH AND THE BIG WAVE for Warwick’s Books’ weekly storytime! Watch the video here!
Plus: Bonnie is featured in Outside magazine’s primer on Olympic sports debuts: “We love everything Bonnie Tsui writes about water sports.” Read more here!
Aug 1: Bonnie is featured in The Telegraph’s story about swimming and the Olympics for the UK paperback release of Why We Swim.
Aug 4: Interview with Bonnie about Sarah and the Big Wave, in the 2021 Waters of the West summer issue of Sunset magazine here.
Aug 12: Bonnie and Pop-Up Magazine senior producer Haley Howle appear at a special NightLife x Pop-Up Magazine event at the California Academy of Sciences, as the FIELD GUIDE audio experience and art project takes over.
Nov 16: Emma Watson selects Why We Swim as a COP26 Book Fairies selection for the U.N. Climate Summit in Glasgow.
Nov 17: The San Francisco Chronicle’s Total SF Book Club presents its first LIVE, IN-PERSON event at the San Francisco Public Library! Bonnie is in conversation with The Chronicle’s Heather Knight and Peter Hartlaub.
2020
April 7: Green Apple Books with Daniel Handler and Andrew Sean Greer, San Francisco. Watch the video here!
April 14: Listen to this interview with Wisconsin Public Radio: “Like Fish to Water: Why We Swim””
April 21: Harvard Book Store with Caroline Paul. Watch the video here!
April 25: Listen to this interview with NPR’s Weekend Edition host Scott Simon: “‘Why We Swim’ Looks for Answers in People and Places across the Globe”
April 29: Listen to this interview with host Evan Ratliff on the Longform podcast: Episode #390: Bonnie Tsui
May 8: World Open Water Swimming Association conversation with Kim Chambers, Antonio Argüelles, and Steven Munatones. Watch the video here!
May 26: Instagram Live with Zibby Owens for Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books. Watch the video here, and listen to the June 28 podcast episode here!
June 3: Berkeley City Club with Susan Helmrich of Swim Across America. Watch the video here!
June 25: Readings by Writers with Pam Houston, hosted by Writing x Writers. Watch the video here!
June 29: St. Louis County Library presents its Virtual Author Series. Watch here!
July 18: Politics & Prose Live with Leanne Shapton, Washington, D.C. Watch the video here!
July 28: Los Angeles Times Book Club with James Rainey, L.A. Watch the video here!
August 6: Powells Books with Crissy Van Meter, Portland. Watch the video here!
November 21: Kendal Mountain Literature Festival, in conversation with poet Polly Atkin, Lake District, U.K. Watch the interview here!
December 22: Brooklyn Public Library and Writers Rebel NYC present Climate Reads: Why We Swim with Leanne Shapton, Lidia Yuknavitch, and Anna Weber, New York.