Pretty Good is researched, written, narrated, illustrated, produced, and sent off to its first day of kindergarten by Jon Bois.
Rat poison and brandy: The 1904 St. Louis Olympic marathon
The 1904 Olympic marathon was a story of fraud, thievery, raw eggs, rat poison, food poisoning, liquor, feral dogs, and at least three separate incidents of near-death. It was the stupidest sporting event of all time. Welcome to Pretty Good, a show about stories that are pretty good.
This episode features a guest appearance by Dr. Sydnee McElroy, co-host of the podcast Sawbones. Together, Sydnee and her husband Justin McElroy examine the often-horrifying world of old medical practices. I once binge-listened a half-dozen episodes in a row while assembling crappy furniture and it made the experience a lot less bad. That is the highest recommendation I can think to give it.
If I were to dig into everything horrible about the 1904 St. Louis Olympic Games and surrounding bullcrap, this video would have been two hours long. This gives me the excuse to send you to The Dollop, one of my favorite podcasts. Earlier this year, they went long on the 1904 Games in this episode. It’s a real bag of hammers.
And for further reading on the ugly racist/imperialist spirit of the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition and Olympic Games, as well of the story of the first African Olympians, this article from South Africa’s Guardian & Mail is recommended.
Here are a few more episodes of Pretty Good:
THE DUMBEST BOY ALIVE.
In what has to be one of the dumbest arguments in the history of the Internet, some people on a bodybuilding forum spend more than a hundred posts arguing how many days there are in a week.
I WISH EVERYONE ELSE WAS DEAD.
Jack Bauer’s America was a death cult. 24 was the funniest death cult on television.
“NO!!!!!!”
In the NFL, desperation trick-play laterals are attempted all the time. It worked once, and only once, in 2003. And ... oh no. No no no no no no.
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