The Outspoken Cyclist – 07/02/2016

“Doping? Again?”

I’m going to suggest that you suspend all your previous thoughts about Lance, Floyd, Tyler, and the U.S. Postal Team!

My guest this week has written a riveting book about one of our most favorite and displeasing topics – doping. Now, before you say – “What, another book about doping?” I want to preface the conversation by saying this is an approach I don’t believe anyone else has taken thus far.

He asks and answers such questions as: How, why, and when did we become so indignant and disgusted with athletic doping? What does it say about us and our society as a whole? How have these attitudes shifted over time? And, are you certain we as a society aren’t somewhat complicit?

Mark Johnsons new book, “Spitting in the Soup: Inside the Dirty Game of Doping in Sports” not only helps us in finding answers to these questions; he also gives us a much more balanced view of how we’ve come to the way we view drugs in sports today.

Mark, who has authored other cycling books including The Argyle Armada, is an avid cyclist and surfer. His work often covers pro cycling and by association, doping. He has an MA and PhD in English literature from Boston University, lives in Del Mar, California, and was our guest back in March of 2012.