Bonus: Just Relax with Malcolm Gladwell

Here's a special preview of a new Pushkin podcast, Started from the Bottom. Every week on Started from the Bottom, host Justin Richmond interviews successful people who grew up on the outside – people of color, people who weren’t part of the old boys’ network, people who came from a world where almost nobody went to college. How did they do it? How did they beat the odds while also beating away the feeling of being an imposter? In this episode, Malcolm Gladwell joins Justin for a conversation on race, identity, and how to succeed in a professional world where not many people look like you. Listen to Started from the Bottom at apple.co/thebottom.

Here's a special episode of another Pushkin podcast, What's Your Problem? Every week on What's Your Problem?, former Planet Money host Jacob Goldstein talks with entrepreneurs and engineers about the future they’re trying to build – and the problems they have to solve to get there. Caspar Coppetti is the co-founder of On, a company that makes athletic shoes. Caspar's problem is this: How can you sell tens of millions of shoes a year – and then take them all back, to turn them into new shoes? The company's latest bid to attract new customers? A shoe subscription service. Hear more from What's Your Problem? at apple.co/wyp.

Here's a preview from Good Sport, a new show from TED. “Muck City”, Florida. Kinston, North Carolina. The courts of New York City in the 80s and 90s. These places share one unique trait: they found a way to produce a particular kind of great athlete, over and over. Is there something in the water – or is it something else? In our first episode, Jody talks to sports journalist Bomani Jones and Olympic table tennis coach Rajul Sheth about talent “hotbeds”, the role opportunity and access play in crafting success and the important distinction between having talent and achieving greatness. Find Good Sport wherever you get your podcasts.

Legendary sprinters Wyomia Tyus, Ato Boldon and Tommie Smith join host Malcolm Gladwell live on stage for a conversation about sports and activism. Recorded live at the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon. If you’d like to keep up with the most recent news from this and other Pushkin podcasts be sure to subscribe to our email list at Pushkin.fm.

The track in San Jose has been turned into a parking lot. But the legacy of Speed City is alive and well, on and off the track. More than half a century after Tommie Smith and John Carlos sprinted their way into the spotlight and shocked the world with a silent protest on the victory stand, the ripple effects of their actions can still be felt today. Their mentor Dr. Harry Edwards is still a central figure in the world of sports too. He works closely with activist athletes like Colin Kaepernick and consults with professional sports leagues on issues of racial equity. And the coaching methods of Bud Winter? They transformed the sport, and are deep in the DNA of some of the world’s best sprinters.