Hello and welcome to this throwback episode of our fake history. This week we are throwing you back to

season 3 and episode number 71 who invented your favorite sport. Now if you're an our fake history super fan then you might

have noticed that this is not the first time that we've revisited this

episode. I actually chose this episode to

inaugurate the throwback series way back in the summer of 2020.

Now I'm sure you don't need me to remind you that the year 2020 was a pretty

strange time for the world. When I first chose to revisit this episode we were still very much in the grips of the COVID-19 pandemic.

And as a result, the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics had been officially postponed.

At the time it was deeply unclear exactly when the summer games would return.

So when I did that initial re-release I used the space up front

to reflect on the positive aspects of sports and the idealism that has defined the Olympic movement at its best moments.

When the 2020 Olympics were cancelled, it was a stone cold bummer.

It was just another reminder of how upside down the world was at that particular moment.

Now I reacted on this podcast by trying to create a message that was optimistic and hopeful.

Listening back, I worry that I may have laid it on a little thick and veered into some corny territory. But you know what? It was 2020. Everyone was feeling

a little tender, myself very much included. Maybe a little open-hearted corniness

wasn't the worst thing in the world.

It's not like I started singing Imagine or something.

But in that introduction that I recorded in 2020, I coped to being an unabashed fan of the Olympics, Warts and all. In that moment

it felt right to remind those of you listening, or perhaps remind myself,

that the ideals of peace, international community, and athletic excellence

are worthy of praise. Now whether or not the Olympics live up to those ideals is

...