Imagine yourself in a gym with 30 other people, and the room is heated to 120 degrees Fahrenheit for the next 90 minutes. Your body is already dripping with sweat, and that's just the beginning. A series of 26 different postures awaits you, from the eagle to the triangle to the half moon, interspersed with two breathing exercises, essential if you care at all about your lungs. Behind you, you feel a man coming and going, dressed only in a tight black bathing suit and the golden Rolex on his wrist. His voice penetrates you, guiding your every move, and everyone around you obeys him. Before you, celebrities like George Harrison, Frank Sinatra or Madonna have practiced this “hot yoga”, a practice that supposedly cures everything: arthritis, lumbago, heart problems...

Hosted by Audion. Visit https://www.audion.fm/privacy-policy for more information.

At age 14, Nadia Comăneci shakes the world of gymnastics with her perfect 10 out of 10 score at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. Despite her victory, the gymnast from Romania never shakes off her serious expression, her eyebrows furrowed behind her bangs and her mouth shut. When asked by a journalist why she never smiles, she replies that she only thinks about her past and future training. Her precocious maturity and achievements inspire a host of little girls to rush to the gyms and sign up for gymnastics, not only in the Eastern bloc, but also on the other side of the Iron Curtain and in the United States. From those years on, the average age in the discipline dropped drastically: the younger the better. Frequent side effects have been growth problems, eating disorders, metabolic disorders... But nobody complains about it. The gym, sometimes, can be a cruel place. When it comes to pushing the athletes’ limits, anything goes; the coaches have more control as the girls are younger; and instead of trying to create a healthy and safe environment, all kinds of abuses start to be committed, on the mind as well as on the body...

Hosted by Audion. Visit https://www.audion.fm/privacy-policy for more information.

Football may be the most popular sport in the United States, even a religion for some, but it can have a darker side. Several high-profile criminal cases implicated NFL players: O.J. Simpson, the most famous, accused of having murdered his ex-girlfriend; Deshaun Watson, quarterback of the Houston Texans, charged by 21 women of sexual assault; Michael Vick, who organized dog fights in his spare time. Unbearable daily pressure, omnipresence of the media, painful family history... There seems to be no shortage of reasons to fall on the wrong side of the fence, although it is difficult to make generalizations. Nevertheless, there can sometimes be a kind of double game. Shining on the field and in front of the cameras, and behind the scenes... darkness.

Hosted by Audion. Visit https://www.audion.fm/privacy-policy for more information.