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Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth

1597: The Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance With David Epstein

Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth

Sal Di Stefano, Adam Schafer, Justin Andrews, Doug Egge

Fitness, Health & Fitness

4.8 • 12.6K Ratings

🗓️ 15 July 2021

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode, Sal, Adam & Justin speak with investigative journalist and New York Times best selling author David Epstein about, nature, nurture, and athletic performance.

  • The Sports Gene: A story of tragedy sparked by an interest in genetics. (1:51)
  • Why are certain populations over misrepresented in sports? (3:37)
  • Why he was more backwards than getting it right researching for his new book. (6:21)
  • The generalization of skills. (9:38)
  • When is the perfect time for specialization? (14:28)
  • How would he mold his perfect athlete? (17:10)
  • Why he believes athletes now are at a drug disadvantage. (22:36)
  • How technological innovations have made a HUGE impact on the elite level in sports. (24:14)
  • The democratization of sports. (28:13)
  • How much of a role do steroids play in professional sports? (30:59)
  • Comparing the impact of anabolic steroids, human growth hormone, and erythropoietin (EPO). (36:10)
  • The story behind his breakout investigation of Alex Rodriguez testing positive for steroids. (39:40)
  • His personal beliefs on athletes using performance-enhancing drugs. (43:50)
  • Should transgender athletes be allowed to compete or not? (49:45)
  • The current research he finds interesting. (52:40)
  • Are we jumping the gun on new drugs? (55:07)
  • What will be the next big technological leap in sports? (59:47)
  • Has his attitude changed towards blood doping in sports? (1:06:07)

Featured Guest/People Mentioned

Related Links/Products Mentioned

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go.

0:06.0

Mite, ob-mite, up with your hosts.

0:09.0

Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews.

0:13.0

You just found the world's number one fitness health entertainment podcast.

0:17.0

This is Mind Pump, right?

0:18.0

In today's episode, we interviewed David Epstein.

0:21.0

He's the author of the book, The Sports Gene, inside the science of extraordinary athletic performance.

0:28.0

This guy is pretty incredible.

0:30.0

He did a lot of investigating as to why athletes keep breaking records.

0:34.0

He actually has a very popular TED talk that talks about this.

0:37.0

A lot of it doesn't have to do with the fact that athletes are actually faster and stronger,

0:41.0

but rather better technology, like the track that they run on,

0:45.0

or the pool that they're swimming in, or the shoes that they're wearing.

0:49.0

It's actually quite remarkable.

0:51.0

But we do also cover performance enhancing drugs in this episode,

0:55.0

and the new horizon of drugs that athletes are going to start messing with.

0:59.0

So, great episode.

1:01.0

We know you're going to enjoy it.

1:03.0

By the way, this episode is brought to you by our sponsor, Felix Gray Glasses.

1:06.0

Now, they make blue light blocking glasses that are clear.

1:09.0

They don't change the color of the world around you.

1:12.0

Yet, they're super effective.

...

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