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How To! with Mike Pesca

Congrats, You Won the Olympics. Now What?

How To! with Mike Pesca

Peach Fish Projects

How To, Education

4.32K Ratings

🗓️ 20 July 2021

⏱️ 35 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Winning the Olympics is everything Steve Mesler ever wanted. So when he and his U.S. bobsled teammates stood atop the podium at the 2010 Vancouver Games, his life seemed golden in every way. But soon after his triumph, Steve began to experience a period of extended mourning. Even though he won a gold medal, he lost his identity and sense of purpose. And he wasn't the only one. On this episode of How To!, the former Olympian, co-founder of Classroom Champions, and current United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee board member talks about the complicated aftermath of achieving an all-consuming pursuit. He discusses his struggles with depression, losing teammates to suicide and what the USOPC is doing to destigmatize mental health treatment.

If you liked this episode, check out: "How To Be a Badass On and Off the Court."

Do you have an Olympic-sized problem that needs solving? Send us a note at howto@slate.com or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001 and we might have you on the show.

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Have you ever thought, ugh, this water is too wet?

0:04.5

Or this beach is too sandy.

0:06.6

My name's Christine.

0:07.8

And my name is Sandy.

0:09.2

And where the host of Beach to Sandy water to wet.

0:11.5

A podcast where we do dramatic readings of the most wild and off-the-wall reviews on

0:15.3

the internet.

0:16.3

We find the funniest, real reviews about everything from Vegas weddings, matchmaking services

0:21.4

and Trader Joe's, to caves, toddler beds, and spirit Halloween.

0:25.6

You won't believe the things that people think absolutely must be set on the internet.

0:29.2

How else would everyone know that some caves don't have Wi-Fi?

0:32.1

We hear about the good, the bad, and that one time spirit Halloween sent someone a dildo

0:36.1

instead of a Halloween costume.

0:37.8

And believe it or not, we got to the bottom of it.

0:40.5

Join us every Wednesday wherever you listen to your podcast.

0:43.5

Beach to Sandy water to wet is brought to you by the Forever Dog Podcast Network.

0:47.8

I had spent my entire life focusing on this one thing, and now this one thing was gone.

0:52.8

I mean, I accomplished it, but regardless, this one thing is gone.

0:56.7

Now what am I going to do?

0:59.9

Welcome to How To.

1:01.3

I'm science writer David Epstein.

1:03.9

It's 2021, and the long-delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics are finally at hand.

...

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