Hello there, probably scientists. Andy here. Wow, what a day. As I'm recording this, I just

finished watching Noah Lyles take gold in the 100 meter dash for America, beating out silver by

five one thousandths of a second. Earlier today, the American women finished up the swimming

portion of Olympics with a world record and a gold and the 400 medley relay. I love all this. I've got

Olympic fever.

And that's the excuse for no new episode this week. Came down with some Olympic fever.

But in the interest of getting into some interesting science behind sports, I thought we'd revisit an

episode we did with author David Epstein over a decade ago as he was releasing his book, The Sports Gene, Inside

the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance. I think this is a great antidote to some of the

insane culture war arguments I've seen online in the last week, people who think they have

science on their side when, in fact, the reality of the situation is much more complicated

than they think.

I think this was one of the more interesting interviews we ever did, and I don't think it actually gets into any problematic territory, surprisingly. It's a level-headed look at a very interesting topic that when it's at its best, brings the whole world together, and I love that.

So enjoy the rest of the Olympics and enjoy this episode.

Probably Science. Welcome to Probably Science. It's the first day of fall. It's a beautiful

Los Angeles Sunday afternoon here.

Is it really? I had no idea that it was. Well, maybe yesterday was. It's usually the 21st,

right? Oh yes. I hadn't even thought it through. It's, uh, that's the voice of Matt

Christian, seated to my right. Hello, and that was Andy Wood, introducing and being interrupted

by me. Just, you know, we got to get this meteorological stuff down. I've got to get the changing the seasons.

I think it's important for the listeners all around the world to know exactly what the weather is when we're recording it.

It is noon Greenwich Time Now.

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