FB #244 - Mark Johnson - Spitting in the Soup

On today's show, I have the author of "Spitting in the Soup" Mark Johnson. Mark's book has done a phenomenal expose into the history of sports really, drugs, supplements and more. I think we’ve all only been scratching the surface layer when it comes to drugs in sport and how our thinking has been created by fiction, sensationalism and more.

Marks book as opened my eyes to that we have only been using surface level thinking, been sheep to sensationalist and at many times fictional media and to the pursuit of something that never existed in the first place. Have we been ignorant? Has sensationalism got us away from some facts? Marks book uncovers so many things I would have never even thought to contemplate. His work is thorough.

Has it relaxed my view on drugs in sport? I don’t know, I don’t think so as I still don’t like the ‘taste. I’d still like to line up and race people on ‘equal terms’ but even that is a ridiculous notion because what is equal? We have full-time age groupers, we have those more financially well-off, or who live in better environments, or won the genetic lottery.

There just can’t be this level playing field. However… seeing what we can get out of the cards we've been dealt I believe is a worthy goal. For me that drives me, to see what I can do with training the trials of miles and the miles of trials, getting mentally tougher. So many of us may not have won the genetic lottery but time and time again, we've seen that genetics can only take us so far. The heart and grit of an athlete... Well, that’s hard to measure now isn't it?

Anyway… As you’ll soon see, the moral playground surrounding drugs in sport changed… What was once not taboo now is. There was never this Eden… But maybe with societies taste for lifestyle drugs and the enormous commercial and government forces promoting the medicalization of every aspect of our lives… society could benefit from drug-free roles models and using sport as that vehicle. That’s a tough goal. But dream big.

Enjoy my conversation with Mark. 

IN TODAY’S EPISODE, WE DISCUSS:

• Pierre de Coubertin and how his aristocratic ideals and goals shaped sport
• The impact of societies insatiable appetite for pharmaceuticals
• What sport or professional sport was and really still is about
• The hypocrisy with performance-enhancing drugs to get more out of life… but our outrage on drugs in sport.
• The inherent corruption of those creating the rules
• Knut Jensen and how his death changed sport
• Eden never existed - the truth on drugs in cycling
• The Iron Curtain and geopolitical ambitions
• Doping, health, and safety
• ADHD a cover for gaming the system
• Eugenics
• When doping become morally corrosive
• And more

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SHOW LINKS:

Get the book: Spitting in the Soup

Interviews and stories about the book: https://www.velopress.com/category/spitting-in-the-soup/

Marks site: http://ironstring.com/

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