#127: The Sports Gene With David Epstein

The Art of Manliness

Society & Culture, Education, Philosophy

4.7 • 14.5K Ratings

🗓️ 6 August 2015

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It's a debate that goes back for centuries. Are great athletes made or are they born? In his book, The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance, journalist David Epstein investigates that question. By looking at cutting edge research, he uncovers how much of nature and how much of nurture contributes to creating world class athletes. It's a fascinating book that offers insight into the nature of athletic ability and gives some food for thought to parents out there signing their kids up for expensive personal coaching in the hopes their tyke will be the next Ted Williams.

Transcript

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0:00.0	We're at McGay here and welcome to another edition of the Art of Manliness Podcast, so it's
0:18.5	a debate that goes back for millennia. Are great athletes made? Or are they born?
0:23.9	Well, I guess they explores this question in this controversial book, The Sporting Inside
0:28.1	the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance. His name is David Epstein, really fascinating
0:32.6	book. And today on the podcast, we're going to discuss what the latest research says about
0:36.5	top athletic performance. Is it a nature versus nurture or is it a combination of both?
0:40.9	Well, we talk about the differences, the genetic differences between men and women and how
0:46.0	those differences have given men the upper hand and athletic performance like sprinting
0:50.2	and football and things like that. Then we also discuss what this means, this research
0:55.4	means for parents, we have kids, right? Should you invest a lot of money and time into your
1:00.9	kid into a sport that they might not ever make it to the top echelons or even like college
1:07.5	level in that sport? Really fascinating discussion, a lot of food for thought. I think you're
1:11.5	really going to enjoy this. So let's get on with the show. David Epstein, The Sporting.
1:22.7	David Epstein, welcome to the show.
1:24.1	Thanks for having me.
1:25.1	All right. So your book is The Sports Gene and it's about the effect or the role of genetics
1:31.9	in athletic ability, not just athletic ability, it carries over to other aspects as well. But
1:38.4	before we understood the role genes play in our athletic performance, our physical abilities,
1:44.3	what was the understanding or what was the role of genetics before our understanding of
1:48.0	genetics? How did we approach athletics? Was it just a practice or if you just practice
1:52.5	a lot, you get better? What was it?
1:54.5	Yeah, well, I think from the perspective of sports scientists, things at Whipzod basically,
	...

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