I went for a walk with Dolly Parton

I took the opportunity to get out for a lunchtime walk today, but if I’m honest, I was just keen to try out the latest addition to Apple’s Fitness+ proposition: Time to Walk.

The idea is simple: famous people narrate a story while you take a walk. Each seems to last about thirty minutes, which is a decent enough time to get out for some fresh air and move about a bit.

Looking at the Fitness app on my Apple Watch, the first thing I saw when I scrolled by Dolly Parton’s face, so I clicked, it connected to my AirPods, started a walk on the Fitness app – and I was off. So simple!

The content was lovely, but then I’m biased. I have a lot of time for Ms Parton, if not musically, because of her incredibly generosity to those less fortunate. Most of which passes the average person by.

Anyway, her stories of growing up in rural Tennessee and the making of ‘9 to 5’ kept me amused for the entirety of the walk. It was just like listening to a single-hander podcast. While I’m not sure I’ll enjoy all the others in the series – and have questions about how long Apple can keep providing fresh content – anything that gets people outside and walking more is a good thing in my book.

It also took all the hassle out of choosing ‘just the right podcast’ for my walk. I clicked, it started playing and that was that. I’m keen to see who else appears int he Time to Walk series and just hope the rest of the stories are as heart-warming.