January 4, 2020 6:23 pm

Neil deGrasse Tyson Talks Football and More with Arian Foster on the Premiere of StarTalk Sports Edition

It’s here! Our brand-new show StarTalk Sports Edition arrived last night and we are off and running! This show will explore the intersection of sports, science, and technology hosted by your favorite astrophysicist – Neil deGrasse Tyson. Neil will be joined in-studio by co-hosts Gary O’Reilly and Chuck Nice alongside some of your favorite athletes, coaches, and more.

And what better guest to have on our first show than Arian Foster? Arian played most of his NFL career with the Houston Texans where he rose to NFL stardom after being undrafted out of college. He was also one of the first NFL running backs to switch to a plant-based diet during his playing career, which you can be sure we get into this episode.

Everyone hears about what it was like to play in an NFL game. But, not much has been said about what it’s like the day after. Arian takes us inside the recovery process of an elite NFL running back. He tells us why the focus is on pain management instead of trying to prevent pain, which, in the NFL, is inevitable.

You’ll learn how the culture of football has shifted from promoting toxic “toughness” to embracing science and data-driven analysis. Arian tells us how he realized he was basically dehydrated for almost his entire career. You’ll hear about his switch to a plant-based diet and why he ended up having to switch back.

We discuss the NFL’s flawed scouting system and why Arian believes a lot of players are overlooked for the NFL Draft. Explore the evolution of the “three-down” running back in the NFL. All that, plus, we also explore Arian’s foray into jujutsu and Neil breaks down the science behind the “chess-like” sport.

You can find Changing the Game, with Arian Foster  right here on our website, as well as on Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, SoundCloud, Spotify, Stitcher, and TuneIn. If you’re a StarTalk+ Patron or an All-Access subscriber, you can listen to this episode ad-free.

StarTalk Sports Edition will be found in the main StarTalk podcast feed every other Friday.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!
-Ian Mullen