In her newest book, Tough Broad: From Boogie Boarding to Wing Walking―How Outdoor Adventure Improves Our Lives as We Age, Paul embarks on a quest to understand how not just to live a dynamic life in a changing body in defiance of societal expectations but why we must. Along the way, she uncovers the science and the psychology that shows how outdoor adventure may be the single best solution for a healthy brain, a vital body, a confident mindset, and a longer, happier life, and meets women whose outdoor activities have changed their outlook on growing older, bringing them fulfillment, community and endless joy.

Combining scientific research, cultural studies, medicine, psychology, and memoir, Paul travels the country sharing women’s narratives alongside her own incredible experiences, illustrating how outdoor activity positively affects a person’s spirit, body, brain, and heart. From BASE jumping with 52-year-old Drew Brooks in Yosemite National Park to scuba-diving with 80-year old Louise Wholey, riding BMX bikes with 74-year-old Miss Kittie, the oldest female racer competing in the United States today, to meeting the weekly group of septuagenarian wave catchers who boogie board together in the San Diego surf, these women’s stories offer important insights into our own physical and emotional health as we age, showing that growing older is no reason for women to sell themselves short.

Tough Broad is a funny and fearless call for women to embrace the outdoors in our fifties, sixties, seventies, and beyond, casting our own futures in a new and dazzling light.

Available March 5 – PREORDER

About the Author

Caroline Paul is an American writer of fiction and nonfiction. Trained as a journalist and documentary filmmaker at Stanford University, she instead pursued a career as a firefighter, as one of the first women hired by the San Francisco Fire department. She worked most of her career on Rescue 2, where she and her crew were responsible for search and rescue in fires. Rescue 2 members were also trained and sent on scuba dive searches, rope and rapelling rescues, surf rescues, confined space rescues, all hazardous material calls, and the most severe train and car wrecks.

Kittie Westin-Knauer, who lives in Des Moines, will join in a discussion of the book.  Miss Kittie, as she is often called, is the oldest female BMX racer in the United States.  One chapter in the book is devoted to her.  She is well-known for her educational career here in Des Moines, including having served as principal at Scavo Alternative School.