Episode 149: What Are The Olympics For?

Jules Boykoff joins Derek and Nathan to discuss his new book What Are the Olympics For? The conversation delves into both the fundamental problems that beset the quadrennial athletic spectacle and the forms of resistance and protest that it is spawned, as well as how all of these issues manifest specifically in the context of the upcoming Paris Games.

Jules Boykoff is Professor and Chair of Politics & Government at Pacific University and is one of the preeminent public scholars of the Olympics. He is author of the books The 1936 Berlin Olympics: Race, Power, and Sportswashing, and Power Games, among countless others. What Are the Olympics For?, Boykoff's most recent book, offers a succinct primer that examines the evolution of the Olympics from its somewhat humble beginnings to its current globalized mega-event form. The digestible short-form book highlights the contentious challenges and harms that have accompanied this expansion, and the ways in which the racial capitalist structure of the Olympics has, and continues to, harm athletes and local communities while stimulating calls for radical reform.

 

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