A Life in Motion: In Conversation with Dr. Tom DeMarco - Part II

18 Jun, 2026

CiTR 101.9 FM / The Blue Hour
Recorded live on June 16, 2026

The Blue Hour, hosted by Farha Guerrero, airs live every Tuesday at 2 p.m. on CiTR 101.9 FM and citr.ca.

Read Part I — A Life in Motion: In Conversation with Dr. Tom DeMarco.

Dr. Demarco: Because for a long time as a naturalist, certainly in certain parts of the world—for example North America—I’ve been able to say that basically everything I see, I know what it is.

Whether it’s a wildflower or a shrub or a tree, they’re familiar to me. I can put a name on them.

And of course, visually, for birds, it’s like that as well.

But now it’s also nice to add that capacity of being able to say everything I hear, I know what it is, right?

And if I don’t, I can consult my app.

So that’s fine. That adds an element to the travel.

Farha: Just give us a moment. You’re biking along, and now, after so many decades, you can recognize the sounds of the birds. You know their calls in many cases.

Do you stop your bike on the side of the road? Do you take out your binoculars? How do you birdwatch and bike? How does that actually look?

Or, are you birdwatching and you go to a specific place and you birdwatch, and then you keep biking?

Dr. DeMarco: It can be either one. Sometimes there’s a certain reserve or a certain site that I’ve learned has certain rare species, and so it becomes a destination.

But a lot of the birds, a lot of the wildflowers that I come across, it’s just whatever I happen to see or hear along the way. So it’s a little bit of both.

I don’t fixate too much on the birdwatching, otherwise it would actually really slow me down as a cyclist. That’s the funny thing, is that the two things, in a way they go well together, but in a way they actually interfere with each other.

Birdwatching kind of messes up your cycling, and cycling kind of messes up your birdwatching.

Farha: I was once upon a time a birdwatcher, and I remember it being something that required a lot of time. And so that’s what I’m interested in with you, because cycling can be fast.

Dr. DeMarco: Yeah, and I like to have some results at the end of the day.

The nice thing about cycling is you put in your hours and you’re guaranteed to have something to show for it at the end of the day. You’re 100, 150, 200 kilometres, it’s there.

Whereas birdwatching is not necessarily related. It’s not a direct relationship to the time invested. You might spend two or three hours at a place that you thought was going to be promising, and you might not see really anything interesting at all.

So, kind of a waste of time. But on the other hand, having said that, usually you’re birdwatching in pleasant areas and quiet areas and peaceful areas. So it’s never really a waste of time.

But I’m always thinking to myself, well, if I’m not going to see any birds, I should just get back on my bike, because I know I’m always happy on my bike.

Farha: And are you following the migration patterns to some extent when you are on your travels?

Dr. DeMarco: Funny enough, the migratory birds, from experience, a birdwatcher is less interested in the migratory birds because they have a wide distribution. So there are not many migratory birds in North America or Europe in particular that I would not have already seen many times.

And so it’s the local birds, the local resident birds, that are more exciting. And the most exciting ones of all are called endemic birds, and those are birds that are found just within a limited range, often on islands.

And so I often concentrate my attention, my riding, especially in the wintertime, on tropical islands that have their own endemic species.

In the spring and the summer, I tend to be riding more in North America and Europe, and the birdwatching is not such an important element.

But in the wintertime, I like to go to tropical places where there’s a lot more diversity and a lot more likelihood of finding local species that I’ve never seen before.

Farha: And so how do you record them? Do you take out your binoculars? Do you have a book that you’re—

Dr. DeMarco: Yep, still bins and book.

And I just have a two-volume Birds of the World, basically an illustrated checklist of all 11,000 species. And when I come home, I just tick off the new ones.

So yes, it’s not on computer. It’s all on paper.

Farha: And then you are also a writer. So are you writing travel memoirs on your trips? Do you keep a diary?

Beyond the photography and your checklist and all the things that you do to remember a place that you’ve been to, do you also write?

Dr. DeMarco: Yes, I’ve always enjoyed writing. And luckily, I’ve kept diaries not only of my travels, but also of all those 12 years on the road as a locum doctor early in my career.

They’re all well-documented and well-photographed.

So potentially, I have the material to eventually put together a few books, but I’m too restless to do that. And also it seems to me that we have a diminishing potential audience for books.

I don’t think I want to take a year off of cycling and birdwatching to write a book that’s only going to be read by 15 people.

So I don’t know if I’ll ever get around to it. But the notes and the journals, the photographs, are all there.

And some of them, of course, have been compiled into articles. I have written and published many articles over the years, especially related to the bicycle travels. It would be fun to see.

Farha:. I’m sure you’ve heard people like me say to you, memoir, Dr. DeMarco.

Dr. DeMarco: Right. Yeah, so maybe someday I’ll get old enough to be motivated to write such a thing.

But for now, I’m just continuing to enjoy the active element, in terms of continuing to accumulate the memories, as opposed to a memoir, and not focus too much on recording things. But as a matter of fact, they are being recorded.

Farha: And I just want to make a disclaimer. As far as I know, you don’t ride on electric bikes. It’s always leg-powered.

Dr. DeMarco: Correct.

I often say, though, that as an environmentalist, I’m a big fan of electric bikes in that they have the potential to replace a lot of car trips. And so that’s the positive side of them.

But personally, as the audience learned already, I have no car trips to replace, so I have no need for an electric bike.

And if I ever did do any travels with an electric bike, of course that would be different. I would have to compile those kilometres separately from the ones that I’ve recorded so far.

Every day, every kilometre on an electric bike is one less kilometre, one less day on a regular bike. So I’m in no rush whatsoever to go that way.

But maybe someday, if physically necessary, especially in hilly country, then perhaps I would. But I know in flat country it’s virtually never necessary.

In fact, my own father rode a regular bike until age 89, and then a tricycle until 98. But neither of them were electric-assisted because he lived in a very flat area.

So I don’t envisage having an electric bike for a long, long time, if ever.

And the other big problem with electric bikes is you can’t travel with them. You cannot put them on an airplane. It’s difficult even to get them on a train or a bus.

So they have very limited value from my perspective. But I certainly encourage anyone else to consider electric bikes if they can replace some of their car trips.

Farha: Now, here’s another question.

So as a family doctor, you, at least to me—and I’m sure many others—you are a shining example of someone who takes very good care of their health.

And I think a big part of this, of course, is the physical health that you’ve maintained.

Do you feel that that’s important as a doctor, to be a kind of role model to your patients? Do people look up to you?

Dr. DeMarco: Of course. I think you like to be consistent with your message and to present a model for your patients, especially your aging patients, now that I’m 66.

Farha: Do you feel 66?

Dr. DeMarco: No. I don’t know what 66 is supposed to feel like.

When I see typical 66-year-olds, especially their walking speed is so slow that, yeah, I probably don’t feel like a 66-year-old compared to most.

Especially outside of Whistler, of course. In Whistler we do have a lot of very, very fit people, so a lot of them are not much different from myself.

But having said that, there is a way to calculate your age—your biological age, I should say. Your chronological age, unfortunately, that one you can’t modify.

But as you get older, depending on whether you’re doing things right or doing things wrong, your biological age deviates further and further from your chronological age, and there are calculators for this.

Now, I’ve never actually sought one out, but coincidentally, right around my 60th birthday, in my German bicycle magazine they had this three-page questionnaire to determine your biological age.

And I remember I scored 50 when I was 60. So now that I’m 66, maybe I’m 56. I don’t know.

But I know I can’t walk as slowly as most 66-year-olds. And presumably I bicycle faster than them as well.

In fact, I witnessed that just not too long ago on a bike path in Germany. And getting back to electric bikes, this was just a few weeks ago.

Almost everybody my age or older were on electric bikes on this long, long bike path that went on all day. And I was just regularly overtaking them, and virtually none of them ever passed me.

So, you know, I definitely move a little bit faster than the average 66-year-old. And there’s potentially an advantage to that.

There was an interesting study out of England a few years ago that I read in Reader’s Digest, which is another magazine I really enjoy in several languages.

And Reader’s Digest I’ve always considered to be very medically accurate.

Of all the studies I’ve ever read about in medicine—whether it be regarding medication, lifestyle choices, conditions such as obesity, smoking, alcoholism, stress, insomnia, et cetera—they’ll often quantify the potential impact on longevity.

If you do this, it’ll add five years to your life. If you don’t do this, you’ll live five years shorter, et cetera.

One of the biggest—maybe the biggest—variables I’ve ever heard of was that fast walkers live 15 years longer than slow walkers.

And I’m glad to say that I’m naturally a fast walker, just like my father, who lived until 102.

Farha: That’s wonderful.

Dr. DeMarco: Yeah, so, we know even some—I can think of one local film producer back in Whistler who did a study looking at the bone density of a skier who was in his 80s, and well as also an avid mountain climber and hiker. And they found that his bone density was really on par with someone much, much younger. I think it was even as young as someone in their 30s.

So there is, as a doctor, can we say that definitively to some extent, that living a healthy physical life can really help improve health?

Dr. DeMarco: Oh, there’s no question about that.

In particular, I’d say one of the biggest—besides walking fast—one of the biggest bangs for your buck in terms of staying healthy and staying relatively young is to keep moving, and especially outdoors.

So regular daily outdoor activity is very, very healthy for the mind and the body. And there’s mountains of data to back that up.

And I see it on a daily basis in my practice, in terms of the difference between those who do that and those who don’t, again, especially as they get older.

Farha: And so is it something after 50, after 60? Where do you start to see this shift where maybe some of us might slow down, be slower than others?

Dr. DeMarco: Well, it can potentially be an almost exponential decline if you don’t do anything about it.

And I would say the process probably starts sometime in the 40s.

Up until age 40, you can get away with just about anything you’re doing or not doing, whether it be drugs, alcohol, smoking, couch-potatoing, or whatever.

But after age 40, it’s time to start taking things, I think, a little bit more seriously, because some things after that, your body may or may not forgive you if you keep on doing the wrong things—or not doing the right things—for too long.

So I think I would consider 40 a pretty important milestone.

Up until then, do as you wish.

And in fact, I’m often amused by colleagues who do a lot of testing in people under 40—cholesterol, et cetera.

It’s like, does it matter?

Am I going to prescribe cholesterol medicine to a 32-year-old because it’s marginally elevated?

No.

I tell young people in my office who are asking for blood tests, “Enjoy your youth while it lasts.”

Farha: You’ve got a lot of wisdom in what you’re saying, Dr. DeMarco.

I think you may not realize it, and this is why I think a lot of those writings need to be published and we need to read them.

Because I think you are more than an inspiration.

Even in our discussion here, you’ve given me, at least as a writer, so many beautiful images.

And when you connect the dots, even by saying that a lot of the clinical evidence says that when we’re outside and we’re exercising outside, we gain more benefits—well, you are someone that spends a lot of time outside on your bike. Even in very cold weather, you’ll be on your bike.

And that, I think, is a testament to who you are and why these numbers do mean something.

Because it’s more than an attitude. I would almost argue it’s a true way of life.

Dr. DeMarco: It’s a pity, though, that I’m almost embarrassed that it’s considered to be in any way exceptional.

Because I would actually contend that I’m normal and that most people are just a bit lazy.

Farha: I like that. Yeah.

Can you expand on that?

Dr. DeMarco: It’s funny because we have a society—and it seems to be human nature, not just Western society—that people seem to naturally gravitate towards that which is comfortable and convenient and easy.

And yet, ultimately, I think it’s not only not mentally or physically healthy to be too comfortable and too sedentary, but also mentally, it just looks to me really boring.

If comfort and convenience is your ultimate objective in life, that just, to me, looks dreadfully boring.

So I’d way rather challenge my mind and my body on a daily basis than seek comfort and convenience.

Farha: So that is definitely one motive, but then the spontaneity, I think, is the other, because it’s not, as you said, nothing is completely in stone with what you do, which I like.

You may not know sometimes—and it’s happened many times—where you’ll be sleeping at any particular moment on your travels.

So that’s important as well, because I think that if we can think about what an adventurer is, someone who is an explorer, someone who is, in a way, still doing what we did when we were children without thinking about it, and we can continue to do that as we age, that has to have a lot of benefits, mentally and physically.

Dr. DeMarco: Oh, I think so.

It’s funny you mention that, as children, because basically I’m still indulging, to a large extent, in the things I enjoyed as a 10-year-old boy.

And I don’t feel that that requires any sort of explanation or apology.

You can still be a responsible adult and contributing to society, but yet still enjoy the things that were always enjoyable to you.

Why do you have to leave them? Why do you have to drop them? Why do you have to do what other adults do if it looks a little bit too unchallenging or sedentary or routine?

I’m a big proponent of continuing to, to a certain extent, live out your childhood lifestyle as long as possible.

Having said that, that makes it sound maybe overly hedonistic, because I’m actually not really a hedonist at all.

Farha: No.

Dr. DeMarco: It’s more fulfillment rather than just pleasure.

I think hedonists would often be more attracted towards comfort and convenience. They might enjoy their physical activity from time to time, especially when they’re traveling, but I wouldn’t want to mix up what I do with hedonism.

Not only is there more of a challenge to it than pure hedonism, but I also feel that I’m contributing to society a lot more, and I find that a lot more fulfilling than, say, a hedonist would.

Farha: I feel it’s more existentialist, your way of thinking. That’s just what I feel.

And I will say something quickly about the idea of fun, because that is certainly one of the driving things, I think, that makes your profession something you also see as a hobby, as something you enjoy. But you also enjoy being on your bike and having this adventurous life.

And time, as you said, is of the essence. However, it’s still a choice, right?

As you said, you can be on your bike or you can be in your car, and it’s a choice you’ve made.

So, what a lovely conversation — that went by so much quicker than I thought.

Dr. DeMarco: I looked at my watch for the first time and I couldn’t believe the hour is almost over.

Farha: Yes, It’s almost over at The Blue Hour. The hour is blue. And just being with you makes me want to follow you on a cycling trip one day, because I know how that can feel.

I was, just a couple of days ago, biking down from a very high point in the northern Alps, and I had tears in my eyes because I was thinking to myself, when will I be back doing this again?

Because unlike you, I do do the same route over and over again. And it’s because I can’t get enough of it. It’s challenging, and yet, it’s very emotional every time because it is so beautiful.

And on this trip, it was the smell of linden trees, that was in the breeze, they were just blossoming at this exact moment of my travels, and that is something that I’d never experienced, even coming back to a place I go back to regularly.

So yes, being outdoors brings memory and sound, as you said with the birds, and summer-solstice rides in places like Norway or Finland, and many other things.

So I think we all have to plan some more summer trips on a bike, guys.

Dr. DeMarco: Not just summer.

Farha: Yes, not just summer, but it’s almost summer.

And I want to give you the last word, Tom.

Dr. DeMarco: What would I want to say?

I guess for a lot of those who are not necessarily enjoying this sort of approach to life, consider maybe getting out of your comfort zone and seeking something other than comfort and convenience.

Get out on your legs and getting somewhere. Going somewhere you’ve never been before.

Farha: That’s beautiful.