Best Of: Exercise, and Accept Your ‘Inevitable Demise’

The fitness industry has exploded into a nearly $100 billion sector, and Alison Bechdel is among the exercise-obsessed. Bechdel, the cartoonist whose comic strip inspired the Bechdel Test for female representation in Hollywood, says she has found transcendence in everything from yoga and karate to weight lifting and biking. Her book, “The Secret to Superhuman Strength,” came out in May and examines the exercise craze, and what it exposes about our attitudes around self-care, the booming fitness economy and even our mortality. This week, Kara revisits her conversation with Bechdel — one of her favorites from this year. They discuss the evolution of workout culture (“yoga boom” included), the politics of art (especially during the Trump era) and how mainstream cultural norms have finally caught up to, as Bechdel puts it, “where lesbians were back in the ’80s.” Kara will be back on Monday with a new episode. You can find more information for all episodes at nytimes.com/sway, and you can find Kara on Twitter @karaswisher.