August 28, 2018 9:38 pm

Wednesday, Find Out What Makes Extreme Athletes Tick

Let’s say you’re walking in the woods and you come across a sheer, dangerous rocky wall blocking your path. What do you do? Do you turn back? Do you find another way around? Do you free climb the rocky wall because you have an addiction to adrenaline? Well, if you related to the last option, then this week’s episode of Playing with Science is just what the doctor ordered.

We revisit the world of extreme sports as hosts Gary O’Reilly and Chuck Nice welcome a slew of guests to discuss a wide range of extreme sports, which can be anything form bungee jumping to snowboarding. To get inside the head of an adrenaline-seeking sportsperson Chuck and Gary sit down with adventure journalist and frequent PWS guest Jim Clash. He tells us about his continual practice of “curiosity in action.” He also gives us some details on his previous adventures including driving a Bugatti Veyron, reaching Mach 2.6 in a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 jet, swimming at the North Pole without a wetsuit, and more.

To understand what’s going on scientifically behind the actions, Chuck and Gary catch up with neuroscientist and StarTalk All-Stars host Dr. Heather Berlin and extreme sport psychologist Dr. Eric Brymer. You’ll find out what makes the difference between a high performance extreme sports athlete and a high performance traditional sports athlete.

Explore whether risk-taking is genetically predisposed, learned behavior, or both. You’ll discover the positive impact extreme sports can have on a person’s life. And if, after listening to this episode you decide you actually want to climb that rocky wall in your path, you can just say that the science made you do it.

Please join us tomorrow night for The Psychology of Extreme Sports (Repeat) right here on our website, as well as on our Playing with Science channels on Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and TuneIn. If you’re an All-Access subscriber, you can watch or listen to this episode ad-free.

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