Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Salopek has been walking across the earth, literally, for the past six years. As he begins his seventh year, Salopek sees two forces at play. First, he sees the golden age of human migration with more than a billion people—one in seven humans today—”voting with their feet” by permanently leaving their homes. Second, “a new Asian threshold” is developing, led by the trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative, the most costly infrastructure project in the world today. (National Geographic)

Talking point: When Salopek—who calls his adventure “slow journalism”—speaks, I pay attention. He began his walk during Obama’s first term and now, in the age of Trump, he’s uniquely suited to provide commentary on the changing nature of civilization and the west’s role in it. I’ll let Salopek, whom I consider a friend, sum up the state of transformation in our world: “All roads may yet lead to Rome. But there are new Romes now. And the old ones have lost something of their glow.”