Caroline Paul

Caroline Paul is a former San Francisco firefighter (one of the first women hired by the department) and the author of eight books, including the New York Times bestseller The Gutsy Girl, the memoir Fighting Fire, and Tough Broad, which profiles older women pursuing outdoor adventure and makes a scientific and personal case for exhilaration as a form of health. Her TED Talk, “To Raise Brave Girls, Encourage Adventure,” has been viewed more than 2 million times. She is a longtime member of the San Francisco Writers Grotto and lives in San Francisco. Whether Paul is running into fires, learning to fly a gyrocopter, or scuba diving, her work argues that the pursuit of exhilaration is not reckless. It is, she believes, among the most serious things a person can do. Her most recent book, Why Fly: Seeking Awe, Healing, and Our True Selves in the Sky fuses aviation history, the physics of flight, and the emotional physics of a dissolving partnership.