HTDE: Torches and Ski Jumps
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
NPR
4.6 • 37.2K Ratings
🗓️ 4 February 2026
⏱️ 24 minutes
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This message comes from How to Be a Better Human, a podcast from Ted for the self-help skeptic. |
| 0:06.0 | Hear how you can laugh more in your everyday life, explained with science, insights, and hilarious stories. |
| 0:11.8 | Listen to How to Be a Better Human, wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:16.3 | Hey, everybody, it's Peter. Coming up, our sister podcast, How to Do Everything, is back. |
| 0:22.2 | They're once again tackling your trickiest questions with a lineup of special guests and |
| 0:26.2 | overqualified experts, including your favorite Winter Olympians. If you have enjoyed listening |
| 0:31.2 | to How to Do Everything, be sure to follow the show in their own feed and happy listening. |
| 0:36.2 | The Winter Olympics start this Friday in Milan Cortina. |
| 0:41.0 | We would play the Olympic theme right now, but we're not allowed, so you're hearing this. |
| 0:46.4 | U.S. ski legend Ted Liggetty is there. He's covering downhill skiing for NBC. |
| 0:51.5 | He's online with us now. So, Ted, you just got in, right? Yes, we got it |
| 0:56.6 | flew into Milan yesterday. I'm up in Borneo right now. We actually got on the race hill today. |
| 1:01.5 | It snowed a good six, eight inches, so it was more of a powder day than real training for that. |
| 1:06.7 | Wow. |
| 1:07.4 | Up there today. It's a lot of snow to clear off. Did you ski it today? I did ski down the downhill track, yeah. So if you have a gold medal, they just let you go down the slope whenever you want. Is that the, is that how it works? Yeah, we're in Italy. They know who I am. I had the right credential. That's fantastic. So what's it like to go down an Olympic downhill course when you have no threat of having to compete? |
| 1:30.0 | It's this, so, Borneo downhill is one of the nastiest downhills in the World Cup. It is a pretty scary downhill. |
| 1:36.7 | With eight inches of snow and not having to race it, it is a joy. Yeah. Yeah, I, it's funny because I like skiing, but when I watch Olympic skiing, |
| 1:47.5 | I never think it looks like they're having fun. It doesn't look fun the way you're doing. |
| 1:53.7 | So I would say if you're like really on top of it, if you're like on the top of your game, |
| 1:57.5 | it's fun. Nowadays when I look at it, I'm five years removed from racing, |
| 2:01.9 | there are very few days that look fun. Most of it looks pretty scary. Do you feel that, |
| 2:07.5 | that lack of training after five years, that gaped your legs and knees feel like, oh, dude? |
... |
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