The Fine Cotton Affair - Part 1 – Sports Bizarre

Can a shark and a stingray fall in love? Mick and Titus set out to answer this age-old question. Mick brings new evidence about Bigfoot, and Titus argues it might not be an accurate story. If you’d like more Animal Bizarre, become a member of Bizarre Plus. Click here to join today As a member, you’ll get: A weekly bonus podcast Access to all past episodes Exclusive behind-the-scenes access A fortnightly newsletter Access to the members-only chatroom Ability to vote on future episodes Early access to any live show tickets See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

24 Juli 202432min

Before the 2024 Paris Olympics, we look at the first time Paris held an Olympics. The 1900 Paris Olympics were a disaster of planning and execution, to the point many athletes never even knew they’d participated in an Olympics. So poorly organised were the games that the discus field was too narrow and throws went into the crowd, while the long jumpers turned up to discover they had to dig their own pit. As well as standard Olympic fare, there was cannon shooting, hot air ballooning, pigeon shooting, kite flying, driving a mail carriage and fishing. Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy look at the most shambolic Olympics ever, an event that saw kids press-ganged into competing and the marathon ended in a twelve-year legal battle. If you’d like more Sports Bizarre, become a member of Bizarre Plus. Click here to join today As a member, you’ll get: A weekly bonus podcast Access to all past episodes Exclusive behind-the-scenes access A fortnightly newsletter Access to the members-only chatroom Ability to vote on future episodes Early access to any live show tickets Follow Sports Bizarre on: Instagram Facebook Twitter TikTok YouTubeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

23 Juli 202445min

In 1931, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) awarded Berlin the 1936 Olympics, a sign Germany was returning to normal international relations after World War One. Yet Adolf Hitler's rise to power presented the IOC with more than a few problems, one being that Hitler hated the Olympics, and another was many countries wanted to boycott the games. Titus and Mick look at how Hitler came to embrace the Olympics, and how international opposition to them crumbled. If you’d like more Sports Bizarre, become a member of Bizarre Plus. Click here to join today As a member, you’ll get: A weekly bonus podcast Access to all past episodes Exclusive behind-the-scenes access A fortnightly newsletter Access to the members-only chatroom Ability to vote on future episodes Early access to any live show tickets Resources I went through a mountain of stuff on this topic, but books that stand out an are worth reading if you want to know more are Hitler's Olympics: The 1936 Berlin Olympic Games by Christopher Hilton, Berlin 1936: Sixteen Days in August by Oliver Hilmes and Power Games: A Political History of the Olympics by Jules Boykoff. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

21 Juli 202449min

With just a few days to go, we look back at the history of doping in the Tour De France. From the first Tour De France, riders were putting all kinds of things in their bodies, caffeine, strychnine, cocaine and alcohol. Drugs were so much part of the sport that the 1930 rulebook, given to all riders, reminded them that drugs would not be provided by the organisers. Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy look at the use of doping in the Tour De France from 1903 until the Festina Affair in 1998, the year before Lance Armstrong ‘won’ his seven consecutive yellow jackets.   If you’d like more Sports Bizarre, become a member of Bizarre Plus. Click here to join today As a member, you’ll get: A weekly bonus podcast Access to all past episodes Exclusive behind-the-scenes access A fortnightly newsletter Access to the members-only chatroom Ability to vote on future episodes Early access to any live show tickets Follow Sports Bizarre on: Instagram Facebook Twitter TikTok YouTubeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

17 Juli 202446min

In this episode, a man bites a snake, crocodiles start saving dogs and DNA testing is being used to catch people who don't clean up after their dog.  If you’d like more Animal Bizarre, become a member of Bizarre Plus. Click here to join today As a member, you’ll get: A weekly bonus podcast Access to all past episodes Exclusive behind-the-scenes access A fortnightly newsletter Access to the members-only chatroom Ability to vote on future episodes Early access to any live show tickets Follow Sports Bizarre on: Instagram Facebook Twitter TikTok YouTubeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

16 Juli 202432min

With LeTour entering its final week, we revisit one of our first episodes, looking at the early years of the Tour De France. The early years of the Tour De France were a hot mess, with a spiked bottle of lemonade, itching powder put in cyclists’ shorts, riders taking rides in cars and trains, attempted murder and pitched battles between cyclists and spectators. Beginning in 1903 as a marketing exercise to boost the circulation of the newspaper L’Auto, the first was won by Maurice-François Garin, who knocked an opponent off their bike, and then jumped on the wheels so they couldn’t ride it anymore. The second Tour would result in the top four finishers all being disqualified, with the reasons never made public. Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy look at the early years of the Tour De France, and how those bizarre early races would set the tone for one of the most popular sporting events in the world. If you’d like more Sports Bizarre, become a member of Bizarre Plus. Click here to join today As a member, you’ll get: A weekly bonus podcast Access to all past episodes Exclusive behind-the-scenes access A fortnightly newsletter Access to the members-only chatroom Ability to vote on future episodes Early access to any live show tickets Follow Sports Bizarre on: Instagram Facebook Twitter TikTok YouTubeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

15 Juli 202448min

In the final episode on the beginnings of NASCAR, Bill France seizes control of the new organisation but a new challenge immediately presents itself. Again, he relies on the bootleggers and moonshiners, and finds a new hero in a bootlegger by the name of Junior Johnson. If you’d like more Sports Bizarre, become a member of Bizarre Plus. Click here to join today As a member, you’ll get: A weekly bonus podcast Access to all past episodes Exclusive behind-the-scenes access A fortnightly newsletter Access to the members-only chatroom Ability to vote on future episodes Early access to any live show tickets Resources There is a lot on the web about NASCAR’s early days, including a heap of contemporary sources. Rising above all that and a lot more accessible if you want to learn more are two key books, Real NASCAR: White Lightning, Red Clay, and Big Bill France by Daniel S. Pierce and Driving with the Devil: Southern Moonshine, Detroit Wheels, and the Birth of NASCAR by Neal Thompson. For more on how the moonshine industry worked, North Carolina Moonshine: An Illicit History by Frank Stephenson Jr. and Barbara Nichols Mulder is fascinating.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

14 Juli 202445min

Mick begins by critiquing the very logo he approved before the guys move on to pressing animal matters, such as people harassing bisons and then regretting it. If you’d like more Animal Bizarre, become a member of Bizarre Plus. Click here to join today As a member, you’ll get: A weekly bonus podcast Access to all past episodes Exclusive behind-the-scenes access A fortnightly newsletter Access to the members-only chatroom Ability to vote on future episodes Early access to any live show tickets Follow Bizarre on: Instagram Facebook Twitter TikTok YouTube  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

9 Juli 202428min