Episode · Freakonomics Radio · 2024-08-12
Books mentioned on EXTRA: Here’s Why You’re Not an Elite Athlete (Update)
There are a lot of factors that go into greatness, many of which are not obvious. As the Olympics come to a close, we revisit a 2018 episode in which top athletes from a variety of sports tell us how they made it, and what they sacrificed.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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SuperFreakonomics LP
SuperFreakonomics LP by Steven D.
Discussed“In Super Freakonomics, one of the books I wrote with economist Steve Levitt, we performed a rough calculation showing that if a Major League Baseball player has a son, that boy is about 800 times more likely than a random boy to also make the majors.”
Where to get it
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The Sports Gene
David Epstein's insightful exploration of athletic performance and human genetics has earned widespread praise and discussion among podcast hosts and guests.
Discussed“David Epstein is a science journalist and author of a book called The Sports Gene in it he tells the story of a man named Donald Thomas”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (1) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
Own book Superfreakonomics
“athletic Talent is considered one of the more heritable traits passed from parent to child in super Freakonomics one of the books I wrote with the economist Steve levit We performed a rough calculation showing that if a major league baseball player has a son that boy is about 800 times more likely than a random boy to also make”