David Epstein on the Olympics and Why 10,000 Hours Won’t Make You Great

Today, we have the author of the The Sports Gene, David Epstein. The Sports Gene is a New York Times bestseller about exactly what it sounds like: whether or not there are things that make certain people preternaturally more likely to be great athletes. It feels like a perfect thing to talk about considering, you know, the Olympics start today. So Ben and David talk about some of the greatest physical specimens in the world, one athlete you must watch out for in Rio, and the central weakness of the 10,000 rule everyone always talks about. Oh, and also, if aliens invaded and you had to pick one athlete to compete against the aliens in a competition they decide, which athlete today do you pick? David’s a journalist at ProPublica whose work appears in places like The Washington Post, Sports Illustrated, The New York Times, and much more. He just put out an exclusive interview with the former chief investigator of the World Anti-Doping Agency, which you should read here https://goo.gl/u48unt. - There's a transcript of the interview up here: http://buff.ly/2aG6aQ7 - If you liked what you heard, hop on over to iTunes to subscribe to the podcast or give us a review: http://blnk.st/28JBVIY - And read more about the Sports Gene at David Epstein’s website: http://goo.gl/8mJwAz That excellent intro and outro music you heard is by Nico Guiang. You can find more of it on Soundcloud [@niceaux] and Facebook [www.facebook.com/niceaux].