Class Note 1988. On page 57 of his new book, Hotwired: How the Hidden Power of Heat Makes Us Stronger,Bill Gifford leaves a literary breadcrumb for ’88 classmates: “Many years later as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.”Those who recall this sentence most likely tried to read One Hundred Years of Solitude, the magical realist novel by Gabriel García Márquez that Dartmouth instructed us to complete before arriving for Freshman Week. Here, it’s an artful epigraph in Gifford’s brisk, readable, and deeply researched fourth book—a highly entertaining exploration of the many ways in which extreme heat can help us perform better and extend our healthy longevity, through various, often surprising mechanisms. Gifford, based in Salt Lake City since 2018, wrote two previous bestsellers: Spring Chicken: Stay Young Forever (or Die Trying) (2015) and Outlive: The Art & Science of Longevity (2023). He became fascinated by long-running studies from Finland showing frequent sauna users enjoy sharply lower rates of heart disease and dementia. The biggest surprise was an apparent link between extreme heat exposure and improved mental health: Researchers found heating severely depressed patients in small infrared saunas until they had a low fever relieved their depressive symptoms for weeks.
Running has been exceptionally good to Chris Ludwig.For years, it’s kept him healthy—it also helped secure a first date with his now-wife, Iesa Figueroa, though this involved some improvised subterfuge. After the two worked together in the 2000s, Figueroa emailed colleagues around 2010 that she planned to compete in the Boston Marathon to raise money for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Intrigued, Ludwig replied with an aspirational fiction: “What a coincidence—I’m running the marathon too!” A 10-mile tandem run followed—in freezing Boston in January—that proved memorable more for the resulting connection than the frostbite. Ludwig, who has a young adult son and college-age daughter, just retired after decades consulting in the diabetes device industry. He now spends much of his time volunteering with students on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
In Chicago, Steve Carlotti runs four times every week, despite frequent travel between his Chicago home and the California headquarters of E. & J. Gallo Winery, where he has worked since leaving management consulting. With two adult sons, two grandchildren, and a daughter applying to college, Carlotti still reads, writes, and thinks prodigiously and now devotes time to writing daily meditations that friends and colleagues have found inspirational. He also thinks long and hard about authenticity—a timely subject given recent, across-the-board nosedives in public trust in just about everything, everywhere, all the time. Carlotti just finished drafting a book on authenticity and aims to build a business that works to cultivate it.
We close with the tragic news of Sam Telerico’s accidental death in January in his native Connecticut. A proper remembrance is forthcoming.
For more, watch for upcoming newsletters.
—Sarah Jackson-Han, 6213 Winnebago Road, Bethesda, MD 20816; smjhan2@gmail.com;Bill Bundy, 442 Cedar Lane, New Canaan, CT 06840; bill.bundy@mac.com