Apple Park’s conference rooms are named after national parks, such as Grand Canyon. Apple Park has a two-and-a-half mile running track. Tim Cook has never used a selfie stick in his life.
These are three of the revelations that come out of a new Outside podcast episode, featuring a conversation with Cook as he and host Michael Roberts take a stroll through Apple Park. Along the way, the conversation touches on Cook’s love of nature and fitness, the design of Apple Park, AR, Apple’s health contributions, and more.
On the topic of exercise, Cook says that:
“I’m religious about exercising. For me, it’s the thing that keeps stress at bay because I can’t go to a national park every day unfortunately. Although, this is as close as I get on a daily basis. But when I exercise, the only thing I’m using is the Watch to record my workout. So I’m off grid for that period of time. And I am religious about doing that regardless of what may be going on at the time.”
He notes he loves visiting national parks, which makes a whole lot of sense given Apple’s macOS naming strategy.
“That is my go-to. I religiously go to some every year. This year has been a bad exception to that. I had reservations at Glacier for the end of June. And obviously, that didn’t happen. They actually even closed the hotel there and closed that section of the park.”
He also talks about Apple’s heart-monitoring technology, saying that Apple never predicted quite the impact it could have in terms of helping people diagnose potential heart ailments. He additionally talks his belief in AR, why people should spend less time on screens (“We’ve never designed our products to dominate people’s lives”), and more.
A lot of the topics are ones Cook has talked about elsewhere. But the relaxing walk through Apple Park setting makes it a fun setting for a podcast. And there are plenty of the fun little factoids like the ones up top. Another: Apple Park has 800 fruit trees on the campus, whose fruit is given away to employees.
You can listen to the podcast here. There is also a transcript available to read.
