This. Unfortunately it's much harder in winter due to short days where I live (currently 7 hour days) but in summer it's great.
I find audiobooks and podcasts are also great for walking. Popular science and good self help is interesting but the best ones for a quiet state of complementation are thoughtful interviews, biographies and story driven intellectual books (Yuval Noah Harari is particularly excellent). In some ways they are another distraction but I like to listen for a while then take off the headphones and think on a section while I walk another mile.
Sorry to nit, but aren’t the podcasts distractions?
And tangentially: I listen the the ambient album Weightless by Marconi Union when I want to think but also drown out outside noise.
You got me searching and I have found their 5.7 years long song: Like a Wall in Which an Insect Lives and Gnaws. Years! I am not sure it’s real but it was entertaining to think about long songs.
I find audiobooks and podcasts are also great for walking. Popular science and good self help is interesting but the best ones for a quiet state of complementation are thoughtful interviews, biographies and story driven intellectual books (Yuval Noah Harari is particularly excellent). In some ways they are another distraction but I like to listen for a while then take off the headphones and think on a section while I walk another mile.