Thousands of people around the region took a fitness-inducing midday stroll Wednesday to mark National Walk @ Lunch Day. Half of them walked laps around Rittenhouse Square. Will it make much of a difference? Not if the walkers are looking to lose weight fast. But there is a bigger point, said Gary Foster of Temple's Center for Obesity Research and Education. "Walking is a fantastic thing to do, because it improves your health. And it is the single best predictor of who keeps weight off and who doesn't."

Leonard Swidler of Temple's Religion Department visited Beijing to give a speech on the dialogue between Confucianism and Western traditions at Peking University. Swidler, who founded the Dialogue Institute at Temple in 1978 with the aim of fostering interreligious scholarship, thinks that keeping the conversation between eastern and western religions alive is vital. "No tradition can cover the whole truth; we need each other," he said. "We are always heading towards light in the long run, and I'm confident we will embrace brightness together."

April 20th has become an unofficial holiday for advocates of the legalization of marijuana. Temple history professor David Farber says the mainstreaming of the phrase reflects a change in public attitude. “First of all, so many Americans have at one time or another indulged in this illegal activity. And while some people suffer adverse effects or use it too regularly, I think most Americans think of it as really, in some ways, a milder intoxicant than alcohol. So I think it’s really just kind of a democratic process,” he said.

Dr. Mehmet Oz was joined by Dr. Larry Kaiser, president and chief executive officer of Temple University Health System and dean of Temple’s School of Medicine, on Fox29 to announce a very important health event. Oz is giving the City of Philadelphia a “15 Minute Physical” so people can determine what their overall health may look like and learn what steps to take on Saturday, May 19th at Temple’s Health Sciences Campus.