Spitting in the Soup: Inside the Dirty Game of Doping in Sports

In his new book Spitting in the Soup, sports journalist Mark Johnson (GRS '89, GRS '95) explores how the deals made behind closed doors keep drugs in sports. Johnson unwinds the doping culture from the early days, when pills meant progress, and uncovers the complex relationships that underlie elite sports culture—the essence of which is not to play fair but to push the boundaries of human performance. It’s easy to assume that drugs in sports have always been frowned upon, but that’s not true. Drugs in sports are old. It’s banning drugs in sports that is new. Join Mark for a discussion of the events that transformed doping in sports from a relatively unremarkable act into a sign of moral decay and social corruption, and the forces that make it difficult to rid drugs from sport today.