How innovations in sports change the wider world
Action Replays For Human Rights Violations
What would hyperreal sports broadcasting look like, if it acknowledged the political context of these events?
Get Ready for AI to Turn Every Child Into an Olympian
A speculative journey to the future of athletic performance and genetic engineering.
Flotation Tanks: The Weight Room for Your Mind
But for the man who invented the flotation tank, it was supposed to be something else altogether: a way to open a hole to the center of the universe.
For Refugees, Soccer Helps Pass an Eternity in Limbo
For refugees without anchors in their new societies, or who are fleeing broken families and societies, the soccer field offers a place where they can easily locate a new social identity in a foreign setting.
At Play on the Field of Ghosts
In the stands, legions of robot fans look on. Articulated limbs raise LED placards in unison at appropriate moments, their faceplates shining with the avatars of distant, telepresent humans. On the field, two hologrammatic teams are composed entirely of flickering light: In silence, they sweep from one end to the other, reenacting a game which has already been pre-calculated and pre-played.
How to Save the Olympics
In the end, what could save big sporting events is not a focus on sustainability, or even technology, but a change in mindset. It’s about seeing these events as an opportunity for long-term change, rather than just a one-off spectacle.
Is the SoulCycle Instructor Preaching for Your Spirit, or Your Wallet?
On group fitness, and the exchange of capital for quasi-spirituality.
Toronto’s Sports Teams Are Hyperreal
Or, why sports entertainment is the most valuable–and most mediated–entertainment of our time.
Women Are Being Left Behind by the Sports Data Revolution
There are sports stories we wish we could tell–but the data just isn’t there even at the highest level.
The Athletic Life of the Modern Competitive Eater
How do you train for the physical endurance of eating as quickly as possible?
A Brief History of Ludicrous Sci-Fi Sports (and Their Chances of Becoming Reality)
From “The Prisoner” to “The Running Man,” sci-fi writers can’t help but try to invent weird new games.
Is Gender Segregation in Sports Necessary?
Examining not just the science of gender segregation in sport, but the social cost as well.
Why Everyone Is Suddenly Into E-Sports (and How You Can Be, Too)
Streaming video has allowed the scene to get so huge that mainstream acceptance is no longer a consideration, let alone a priority, for most players and fans.
The World’s Best Sports Technology Comes From the Military-Industrial Complex
Sports have had a long relationship with the military–but over the past decade or so at least one aspect of that connection has deepened, and technological innovations developed for military purposes are making their way into sports of all kinds.
Playing the Field: A Reading List
A crash course in how innovations in sports affect the wider world.
Running Toward a New Community
Fixing social isolation and getting people fit at the same time.