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What if tug of war were still an Olympic sport? And other questions with Mike Pesca

FILE: Brandi Chastain #6, Forward for the United States in motion with the football dribbles past Wang Liping #2, Defender for China during the FIFA Women's International friendly game against the Peoples Republic of China on 25th April 1999 at the Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, United States.The China won the game 2- 1.
Al Bello
/
Getty Images
U.S. forward Brandi Chastain (#6) passes defender Wang Liping of China during a 1999 match that China won, 2-1.

Mike Pesca is one of our very favorite guests — on any number of topics.

His book, Upon Further Review: The Greatest What-Ifs in Sports History, is a whole series of earth-shattering, hypothetical, what-if questions (and posited answers to said earth-shattering, hypothetical, what-if questions):

What if a blimp full of money had exploded over world track headquarters in 1952? What if Nixon had been good at football? What if Bobby Fischer had received proper psychiatric help? What if the Dodgers hadn’t left Brooklyn? What if basketball rims were smaller than basketballs? What if the 1999 U.S. women’s national soccer team had lost the Women’s World Cup? And yes: What if the Olympics had never dropped tug of war?

It goes on and on.

Pesca joins us for the hour.

GUESTS:

  • Will Leitch: Contributing editor at New York magazine, founder of Deadspin, and a whole bunch of other things
  • Mike Pesca: Host of The Gist and the author of Upon Further Review
  • Louisa Thomas: Staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of Louisa: The Extraordinary Life of Mrs. Adams

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Colin McEnroe, Carlos Mejia, and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired June 7, 2018.

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Jonathan is a producer for ‘The Colin McEnroe Show.’ His work has been heard nationally on NPR and locally on Connecticut Public’s talk shows and news magazines. He’s as likely to host a podcast on minor league baseball as he is to cover a presidential debate almost by accident. Jonathan can be reached at jmcnicol@ctpublic.org.