A lazy person’s guide to getting in shape

The second Friday in January is commonly known as “Quitter’s Day.” It’s the day, a whopping two weeks after the new year begins, that a huge percentage of people give up on their New Year’s Resolutions. One of the most common (and most quit) resolutions people make every year is to get in shape, work out more, be healthier, or whatever you want to call it. It’s hard work, often made harder by the same apps and platforms that claim to be helping.

On this episode of The Vergecast, we try to chart a better exercise path. The Verge’s Victoria Song joins the show to talk about her favorite apps, gadgets, and overall strategies for working out more and being healthier without making it too much work or having it take over your entire personality.

Whether you already bailed on your resolution and need a reason to start it again (it’s only January, there’s still time!) or you’re holding on for dear life trying not to give up, there are ways to make your life easier. You can walk to Mordor in Fantasy Hike, track your habits in a simpler way with Gentler Streak, or get a personalized coach in an app like Runkeeper. Or, you know what? Take the day off. You’ve earned it, even if you haven’t. Being healthy doesn’t have to be awful.

After that, Aalto University’s Anna Valtonen joins the show to talk about the incredible new Nokia Design Archive, which is a treasure trove of cellphone history. She takes us through what’s in the thousands of concepts, presentations, working documents, and occasionally strange lifestyle videos, and what they can teach us about how the design process really works. Nokia was a dominant force in the early days of cellphones, and the company spent a huge amount of time asking an interesting, and maybe somewhat forgotten question: how are humans and technology supposed to interact? None of our technology was inevitable — someone always made it. And we should always ask questions about that.

Finally, we answer a question on The Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email [email protected]!), once again about audio on your phone. In this one, David makes a discovery about sharing music between two sets of AirPods that figures to solve at least one important problem in his life as a new parent. And he comes to realize that maybe it’s great that Samsung insists on adding every imaginable feature to its phones. Sure, it makes the Settings menu unusable. But it has some upsides.

If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started: