Trevor's In Paris, But Not At The Olympics?!

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Speaker 2 The fact that the Olympics is coming to Paris and the Parisians are like, don't come. Don't, don't.
We don't want a host. We don't want you here.

Speaker 2 It feels exactly like when the Avengers saved the world, but then the New Yorkers are like, guys,

Speaker 2 guys, they ruined everything.

Speaker 2 This is terrible. And then they're like, guys, but we were the Avengers.
Did you not see us hop over the building? It's like, we don't care. This is horrible.
And also like, there is no more building.

Speaker 2 That's what they, you know, this is one of the reasons I always hated Superman. I felt like Superman was a spoiled brat who wasn't taught things by his parents.

Speaker 2 Because if you're Superman and you blow up half the city fighting Zod or whoever you're fighting, how are you going to go and spend the rest of your days working as like a fake journalist getting pictures of yourself instead of like, why don't you rebuild the city, you dick?

Speaker 2 Yeah. Superman, that's, that's, that's like, yeah, so I agree with you, Josh.
The Avengers, I'm like, they're heroes to like the outside world. Yeah.

Speaker 2 But I bet everyone who lives there is like, oh, God, here comes

Speaker 2 again well wish me luck

Speaker 2 you're listening to what now the podcast where i chat to interesting people about the conversations taking over our world

Speaker 2 for this week's episode i am actually in paris at the same time as the olympic games and so because of that I have a few thoughts, many thoughts, on the various winners, the storylines, from Simone Biles to the infuriating controversy over the Algerian boxer, and some fun thoughts on whether the Olympics might be one of the last collective experiences we have left.

Speaker 2 As usual, I'm joined by my good friends, writer and journalist, and professional hater Cristiano Mbaque Medina, and comedian and human chill pill Josh Johnson.

Speaker 2 This is what now

Speaker 2 happy podcast day, everybody. Bienvenu.
Happy, happy podcast, everybody. Welcome, eh? Happy.
I see you looking good.

Speaker 2 Welcome to the podcast.

Speaker 2 Happy podcast day. Trevor.
Happy podcast day in French. I put it in subtitles.

Speaker 4 And where are you? Can we assume where you are? But you never know with you. Where are you?

Speaker 2 I mean, I would hope you would assume. It would be weird if I was just talking to you guys in a French accent and I'm in like

Speaker 2 Ohio or something.

Speaker 4 The French colonized a lot of people.

Speaker 2 You could be in Senegal, Caude d'Ivoire,

Speaker 4 Guinea.

Speaker 2 Oh, no, Touche, Touche. You're not wrong.
You're not wrong. You're not wrong.
No, I am coming to you from Paris.

Speaker 2 Yes, gay Paris, the home of the Olympics. Obviously, you know, we're recording this today,

Speaker 2 and, you know, people are going to be listening to this in a few days from now. So if you're listening to this, we recorded it three days ago, essentially.
So

Speaker 2 something might have changed. I doubt that it will.

Speaker 2 All the biggest races have been run. So, yeah.
Unless you want to make like a crazy prediction, Josh, do you want to act like we recorded this thing right now? No.

Speaker 2 You can can just like make a prediction. Yeah, Usain Bolt came back and snatched the gold from Noah Lyles.

Speaker 2 That was wild. That was pretty wild when he did that.
That was wild.

Speaker 2 That happened just today. That was wild.
You know what's really, what's been really funny to see is how, like,

Speaker 2 I'm sure there's a term for this in maybe in economics or in sociology or, you know, in one of those fields. But it's been interesting to see how Paris for the Olympics has been completely empty.

Speaker 2 Like, and I've been talking to people in the streets and it's been interesting how

Speaker 2 people who didn't come to Paris didn't come because for two main reasons. One, things are really expensive and they were told that nobody's going to be able to afford anything, which is true.

Speaker 2 And they were also told that it's going to be a shit show. and Parisians don't want them here, which was also true.

Speaker 2 So when they announced that the Olympics was coming to Paris, they were like, yeah, Paris is going to host the Olympics.

Speaker 2 And then I guess the Olympics didn't realize that in order to be a host, it means you have to want people to come to where you are. And the Parisians, the French were like, we don't want people here.

Speaker 2 They were like, don't come, don't come, don't come. Whatever you do, you're going to spoil Paris.
Don't come here, please. If you are, please.
And they have these videos. They're really funny.

Speaker 2 If you go watch them on TikTok from a while ago, people were literally like, they're like, please, don't come, Americans. Please don't come here.
Everybody, you are spoiling Paris.

Speaker 2 It's too much traffic. We're going to spit on you.
You don't want to. You don't want to come here.

Speaker 2 So a lot of people didn't want to come and it got so bad that delta airlines announced that they're expecting to lose a hundred million dollars because this is one of their most important routes like flying to paris and people aren't coming so that was the one side people aren't coming because they felt like this is not the olympics for them now on the parisian side most french people have left paris because they were told it is going to be a shit show because all the foreigners are going to be coming and nobody wants to be in paris when it's full of foreigners and you can't navigate, you can't move around, you can't do anything.

Speaker 2 So everyone from Paris is gone. Everyone from overseas is gone.

Speaker 2 The streets are basically littered with a few die-hard tourists who don't read the news and then basically like Olympic teams and athletes. That's it.
That's where I am right now in empty Paris.

Speaker 4 And Trevor Noah, how did you end up there?

Speaker 2 That's my question. So, so this is fun, fun fact.
I love saving on flights. Love.
This is like one of my passions. I hate giving airlines more money than they deserve.

Speaker 4 You're diabolical. This is ridiculous.

Speaker 2 I hate giving airlines more money than they deserve. So what I do is I spend a lot of time trying to find the cheapest flights possible when flying from one place to the next.

Speaker 2 And because nobody's coming to Paris, one of the cheapest flights I could find, I was actually going to do shows in Germany. And then one of the cheapest flights I could find was through Paris.

Speaker 2 And then I caught a train from Germany to Paris. So I flew into Paris, went to Germany, and then caught a train back.
And then I'm going to fly out of Paris.

Speaker 2 And it was the cheapest flight I could find. So I'm only here.
I'm literally here for a day. The hotel I'm staying in dropped their prices because they didn't get the people they expected.

Speaker 2 So I'm out here saving money, people.

Speaker 2 This is the life.

Speaker 4 This is the most Swiss German thing you have ever said in your life.

Speaker 2 That you. Wait, this is the most African thing.

Speaker 4 No, no, no. African is like, if an African gets as rich as you, he's actually just buying a plane, first and foremost.

Speaker 2 No, no, no, no, no, no. Okay, then it is.

Speaker 2 I think that's a good thing. I'm saving as much money as possible.

Speaker 4 And then you got a train. That's the thing that's tripping me out.

Speaker 2 I love trains. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Do you think you'll go? Do you think you'll go to the Olympics? You're there for a day? The Olympics only.

Speaker 2 No. What? You mean every four days? Yeah, to the events.
Are you going to go to the Olympics? No, Josh. I am not planning to attend any of the Olympic events.
What are you saying?

Speaker 2 So, okay. All right.
Here's the thing.

Speaker 2 First of all, as my friends, I don't appreciate how you judge me with the looks that you give me.

Speaker 2 I think friends are supposed to meet you with curiosity and compassion, not judgment. I'm curious.
I'm curious.

Speaker 2 Okay, so here's the thing. Here's the thing.
I am not a fan. Generally, I'm not a fan of live sporting events.
I find they're not designed for the person in the stadium. So I'll go and watch

Speaker 2 soccer match, right? I'll go and watch like football because like the atmosphere will come alive, but I won't even do that regularly because when I'm at home, I like the replays.

Speaker 2 I like that I get to see like close-ups of what happened. I think the technology has improved the game.

Speaker 2 I think small sports are great in person, like basketball, tennis, those types of things, because I actually think it feels way better in person. It's more impressive.

Speaker 2 But like Olympics, what? I'm going to go to the stadium. First of all, you have to go stand in lines for hours and hours.
There's like multiple checkpoints.

Speaker 2 Then you get into the stadium, you're not allowed to bring your own food and drink. So now you got to buy their trashy food and drinks.
That's like the sponsors' stuff.

Speaker 2 So, like, I can't drink what I want to drink. I have to drink the water that you want me to drink.
And now I'm in the stadium and then I'm watching like table tennis. I can't even see the ball.

Speaker 2 I don't even know if there is a ball. Now I'm just like cheering.
And then you know what you end up doing? You're watching the event on the big screen in the event.

Speaker 2 So I went to a stadium to go watch a big TV with a bunch of strangers and there's no sound. So no, that's probably why I'm not going to go to any Olympic events.

Speaker 2 I would go, by the way, if it was like, if Simone Biles was on now, I would, I would go. That would be different.

Speaker 2 If like, if there was like a major, major sport where I was like, oh, I want to be there for this moment. But I,

Speaker 2 with all due respect to all athletes, I, I don't care who throws the javelin the furthest. I can watch that from home and that's me.
So I apologize, Joss, but I'm not going.

Speaker 2 I'm not going to any Olympic events. Okay.

Speaker 2 Wow.

Speaker 2 Once again, a lot has happened.

Speaker 2 So first, to be fair to you, I will say that there are lots of events where if you see it live, you can't tell how impressive it is because sometimes I think you need the focal length of the camera to show you what just happened and how far someone went.

Speaker 2 Exactly. That means that you can see it from my

Speaker 2 sense of that being said.

Speaker 2 There are some sports that are absolutely electric to see live.

Speaker 2 Like, like if I were you, I would say going to the judo is like phenomenal because i could be wrong but i'm pretty sure the judo isn't that big of an arena and there's a couple they're all in a big arena that's that's the thing usually judo is in a space that fits the amount of people who want to watch judo which is like 50 people right

Speaker 2 but in this instance because it's the olympics They've just put people in giant arenas and then the judo is taking place in like one corner and then like the other thing is in another corner and then do you get what I'm saying?

Speaker 2 So unless it's a major, major, major event,

Speaker 2 it doesn't take up the whole arena. So, you're just watching like a corner of the and I would go for the vibe, but it's it's not only here for a stopover.
I was trying to save money, people.

Speaker 2 I know, I don't want to talk about almost nobody there that I could see, even though it was the Olympics. The three-on-three basketball, okay?

Speaker 2 This

Speaker 2 everybody tries to see LeBron, everybody tried to see, you know what I mean?

Speaker 2 But, but the three-on-three basketball is outside, so it's it's sunny, and I don't think anybody was there because I didn't hear much cheering when people were scoring.

Speaker 2 Damn. Yeah, so either the game was bad or nobody was there, and it seemed like nobody was there because I could hear a couple people, right? Wait, wait, wait.

Speaker 2 I didn't even know three-on-three basketball was a thing. Okay, I didn't know this either until I was hanging out this weekend with my buddy Mandel.

Speaker 2 And he says that the three-on-three basketball goes through a tournament style just like the full-on Team USA big basketball that everybody watches. Yeah, you see, I didn't know that.

Speaker 2 Apparently, the U.S. is already out, and we're out because we couldn't get any stars to play on the 303.

Speaker 2 I don't know why. I don't know if it's like a junior varsity vibe, but we could not get you.
You got the whole of the NBA, the former NBA, and the people who didn't make the NBA.

Speaker 2 And they still grab three dudes that I think play college ball that are 33.

Speaker 2 So it's

Speaker 2 wow yeah but i think serbia knocked us out and and which is crazy because serbia the one that lebron had them crying like not not crying like you could tell they were going to cry in the locker room because they looked exhausted with lebron that game right there that game right there probably brought a little bit of racism back to the world because

Speaker 2 it's one thing to see a black man succeed but with this man dunking all you and moving you out the way lebron what i when i tell you lebron was not even pushing them. He just elbowing his way back.

Speaker 2 He elbowing his way forward. And they getting out the way because they're like, I've never felt this before, right? And so then he would dunk and then run off.
And

Speaker 2 you could see them looking at the ref like, is that allowed? Yeah. Yeah.
You know, the only thing I would have gone to is

Speaker 2 I would have gone to track and because track is, look, I grew up watching track and field. I feel like it's the most important event of the Olympics.
I would have watched any of the women's races.

Speaker 2 I was sad that Shelly Ann Fraser Price from Jamaica pulled out of the race. And then also,

Speaker 2 what was it? Jackson. She also pulled out.
It was weird. There were two Jamaicans.

Speaker 4 Two Jamaicans dropped out, and we don't know why. It's lots of conspiracies around it, like something about warming up, and maybe some people were insulted.
I really don't know.

Speaker 4 It's like a very strange Olympics. Like, this is like the most witchy Olympics we've ever had because

Speaker 4 nothing makes sense. Like, weird things are happening.

Speaker 4 You know, I don't want to get too much into it, but it's like they're calling a woman a man but no one cares about the man who's an actual rapist like it's just like what what like we feel like we're in like some certain alternative timeline but i did watch the men's 100 meter final and they took too long to start it gave me so much what was going on there by the way i can't help wondering if that race would have turned out differently if they didn't have

Speaker 2 the delay that they had in the beginning. And so for those who don't know, the men's 100-meter final was run.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 I think the commentator actually said, this is the longest delay we've ever experienced in the lead up to the race. Like the runners just stood there and they stood there.

Speaker 2 And then they started playing some random music in the background. And no one was allowed to line up.
Then it was a whole thing. And then the race started.

Speaker 2 But it was a good, like, I don't know, maybe like five minutes or something of them just waiting around.

Speaker 2 And you know what happened here? They've been cursed. They've been cursed by that Last Supper thing that they did in the opening ceremony.

Speaker 2 And I can tell you now, there's a whole bunch of like very religious people, including my mom, who probably prayed against the Olympics.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 things will never be the same for them. Like everything, you saw people are throwing up swimming in the river Seine.

Speaker 2 That's nasty.

Speaker 4 That's all the E. coli.

Speaker 2 Yeah,

Speaker 2 I know. But I have family members who are very religious.
And they're like, they're literally, they're just like, you see, they're like, we rained the blood of Jesus on this event.

Speaker 2 They thought they're gonna sit here and turn our religion into a mockery and we prayed and now the demons are coming out of them and I'm like no I think that was dirty water I think these people are sick and they're like it's coming out of them the demons are coming out hallelujah my thing is that like do people know that the the painting isn't of the actual Last Supper That's like my big, like this is what somebody imagined the Last Supper to be.

Speaker 2 It's like being. No, it is a painting of the actual Last Supper.
It was taken. The people posed when they were at the thing.
They got a painter. And then they were all there together.

Speaker 2 Judas said, he said, yo, guys, I got us a painter for the supper. And then people were like, wow, Judas,

Speaker 2 you never get anything. Why would you get a painter? This is just a normal supper.
And then Judas was like, well, technically, this is the Last Supper.

Speaker 2 And then they were like, what do you mean, the Last Supper? And then Judas was like, man, ignore me. And then they painted them.

Speaker 2 They painted them. And then that's actually how it came to be, Christiana.
I see you haven't read up on your history. I know.

Speaker 2 It's an

Speaker 2 actual painting of the event.

Speaker 4 That's my only thing. I'm like, it's like a fictional depiction of an event that definitely happened because I'm a biblical literalist.

Speaker 2 It happened the last supper happened.

Speaker 4 But it's just like, what?

Speaker 4 And I don't know. People are very mad about it.
People are very mad about it.

Speaker 2 People are, people are, yeah.

Speaker 2 I don't know if, okay, so I don't know if it's because we didn't have an Olympics technically with Japan, you know, because of COVID, or if people are just more connected to these Olympics, but it feels like there are more and more stories popping up.

Speaker 2 Like,

Speaker 2 and Mad doesn't encapsulate how everybody feels, but this Olympics I find

Speaker 2 is more trolly, more, more like spiteful, more angry, more.

Speaker 2 So for like a good example was Shakari Richardson, right?

Speaker 2 One of America's greatest sprinters ever. She was running.
She came second in the 100 meters. She got beaten by the runner from St.
Lucia, who was, yo, big ups to St. Lucia.
She was phenomenal.

Speaker 2 She beat her in the heats. And then I thought, oh no, Shikari's holding back.
But no, she was not holding back. Like

Speaker 2 the runner from St. Lucia was out of this world.
And it was amazing to see how many people didn't just say, like, Shaikari lost. They were like, oh, you loser.
Ha ha.

Speaker 2 Yeah, you see, she's got a big mouth. And now she, you suck it, you loser.
And I was like, guys,

Speaker 2 she won a silver medal.

Speaker 2 She is the second fastest woman in the world currently in the 100 meters. And people are treating her like she cannot run to catch a bus.
Let me tell you something.

Speaker 2 If I run at the Olympics, listen to me clearly now. If I run at the Olympic Games against everybody from around the world, and I come second, I get the silver medal.

Speaker 2 There is one person in the world who can tell me shit, one.

Speaker 2 And they stand on the podium above me. But people are treating her like she failed everything.
Part of me also thinks it's like an American thing. Yeah.
Yeah. It's insane.

Speaker 2 Like, if you're silver, you are one trip away from being the fastest person in the entire world. Like, I know exactly who I got to get next run.

Speaker 2 I think it's our obsession with being number one that we only accept number one as a win. Oh, okay.

Speaker 2 Because did you see the whole controversy where the U.S. finally got called out for their medals placement? No.
Okay, so the rest of the world counts their medals by golds.

Speaker 2 So then they show the standings throughout the world by gold, silver, bronze. For a long time, we were counting overall medals so we would be at the top to us.

Speaker 2 So like our like our broadcasters were doing that so that it would look like, hey, as far as medals go, we have 45 and the rest of the world has 35.

Speaker 2 And then they wouldn't say how many golds we had until we finally got more golds than another country once we were like 22 golds and everybody else had like eight nine ten we would show that but if we were lagging they would they would just be putting totals so then a bunch of people called the u.s out for it i guess people visiting from paris who were wanting to watch but didn't want to be there and then they were like this is crazy y'all are losing y'all have a bunch of people

Speaker 2 yeah i understand that winning is why you're there don't get me wrong i'm not one of those people who's like oh participation. No, the whole point, it is a competition.
This is the purpose of it.

Speaker 2 But I do think seeing how America will treat a silver medalist or even a bronze medalist, where it's like, you're a no-name. Bronze, forget even bronze.
Like silver, at least you're called the loser.

Speaker 2 Bronze, they don't even acknowledge your existence. And

Speaker 2 I feel like in many ways,

Speaker 2 this... This is part of the problem that America has to deal with about itself in that like the gift of America is that America propels you and constantly pushes you to be the best.

Speaker 2 And it tells you that being the best is everything. And I think that's why America has produced so many exceptional everythings.
You know what I mean?

Speaker 2 Whether it's inventions or companies or actors or athletes or whatever it is, there's no denying that. But the downside, the curse of that gift is that America also makes people feel like

Speaker 2 everything below number one is losing. Like America is the only country in the world where they'll write an article about a billionaire losing a few billions and dropping out of the Forbes list.

Speaker 2 And then they'll write the story as if this person is now a pauper.

Speaker 2 They'll be like, oh, Mark Zuckerberg, who was once in the top five billionaires in the world, now languishes in eighth place with a measly $60 billion fortune.

Speaker 2 And you're just like, wait, I'm sorry, what is happening right now?

Speaker 4 It's bizarre land.

Speaker 2 I think, yeah, and I think if

Speaker 2 you if you're not careful, if you live in a society like that, it will make you feel like you are losing, even when you are winning relatively, because life isn't the Olympics.

Speaker 2 Life isn't a zero-sum game, life isn't

Speaker 2 all or nothing. In fact, the Olympics isn't even a zero-sum game.
The fact that they have multiple medals tells you something.

Speaker 2 They decided a long time ago that the first person is the winner, the second person needs to be applauded, and the third person also needs to be. It's like, wow, you're the top three in the world.

Speaker 2 And and yet a lot of the time america lives in this space where it goes if you are not number one on the stock market if you're not number one with your returns if you're not number one in class if you're not number one in box office then you are nothing and i think while that can propel people to excellence i think it can also create a very depressing society where people constantly feel like they've lost when

Speaker 2 As you said, Josh, you were literally a nose away from being the winner, which in my world means you are also the winner.

Speaker 4 I think Simone Biles kind of crystallizes it for me when she had the twisties

Speaker 4 in Tokyo. And she was like, I actually can't compete, guys.
Like she knew herself enough, which is like really impressive. She's only like 23, 24 at the time.

Speaker 4 And she was like,

Speaker 4 I know myself well enough to know that I am putting myself in harm's way. And people called her weak.
Mind you, this is like a really decorated athlete, right?

Speaker 4 And now she's come back and she's done the thing that she knew she could do in the conditions that were right for her. What gets me about America is like everyone's forgotten the Tokyo lesson.

Speaker 4 They forgot that she had to take time out. She had to sit on the side.

Speaker 2 She had to quote unquote lose.

Speaker 4 And then she came back. And that sometimes, you know, you have to lose to win.
And Simone is like a sophisticated enough thinker to be like, that is what I'm going to do.

Speaker 4 But people are just like, Simone is the greatest gymnast ever. We beat you.
We beat the Brazilians.

Speaker 4 And it's just like, no, guys, the real lesson here is like, the greatest athlete of all time in American history knew there was a time she had to sit aside and she didn't care about what people said and then she came back when she was ready.

Speaker 4 But that's not the story because I don't think it like matches the kind of stories America likes to tell itself.

Speaker 2 We'll be right back after this.

Speaker 2 Because I remember when Simone had the twisties, when I learned about the twisties, it sounded like what's supposed to happen. Because if I'm upside down,

Speaker 2 I'm not supposed to know where I am in the air.

Speaker 2 The fact that she ever knows where she is on that 15th flip is what's amazing about her. The Twistie sounds like when I get up from the couch too fast.

Speaker 2 Like sometimes you ever get up fast and you full and you're like, I'm not this tall. I think I must be dizzy.

Speaker 4 Do you know the crazy thing about the Twisties, Josh? Apparently they're contagious.

Speaker 4 So she just wasn't only looking out for herself she was yeah if you my sister used to be um a gymnast and if you go to the competition and it just takes a couple people to mess up in a specific way and all the girls are and then all of a sudden stuff just all these nine-year-old girls just like falling off this is but there's like a container it's like you know especially seeing someone like simone not know her place in the air you're gonna be like what's going well if she doesn't know her place i definitely don't know my place right she didn't just do this right thing for herself she did the right thing for like the people she was competing with i don't say this to be disparaging in any way, but this is how you can tell that humans, when it comes to gymnastics, are not supposed to be doing it because that's the most Looney Tunes thing I've ever heard.

Speaker 2 That's the most wily coyote looks down and there's no ground and so he falls thing I've ever heard in my life.

Speaker 2 The fact that somebody else's flips can be contagious means that we shouldn't be flipping.

Speaker 4 That's me, but on swimming, I do not like the long-distance. Like, God gave me lungs, not gills.
I do, I do not.

Speaker 4 Also, I believe in mermaids, which is a different story, but I do not fuck with the water on like a fundamental level.

Speaker 4 And my kids are learning to swim because I don't want them to die, but I don't want them to be like competitive, like long-distance swimming. No, no, no, no.
That's how I'm aware of that.

Speaker 2 Because you're terrified. You know, you know, you know what I really loved about Simone Biles' story?

Speaker 2 I think she's an amazing athlete who also has the burden of everything that comes with being the top athlete on her shoulders. You know, people expect her to be super poised.

Speaker 2 People expect her to, you know, they want her to be like nice at a press conference, even when the journalists are being dicks. They want her to be, they want you to be everything.

Speaker 2 And it's like, well, remember this, the person's an athlete first. They're here to run and beat everybody else.
If you want them to be an orator, that's your business, you know?

Speaker 2 And one thing I loved about Simone Biles is I don't know what she did in her time off, but it's almost like she went to like a, like a monastery or some, some sort of retreat where they fortify your mind.

Speaker 2 Because I wish I had the retorts and the presence of mind that Simone Biles has. One of my favorite things she posted the other day.

Speaker 2 She said, please stop asking athletes what's next after they've just won a medal at the Olympics. And I love that idea.

Speaker 2 It sort of goes back to the thing we're saying about America and pursuing and like just this idea of like the constant chase. I get what she's saying.

Speaker 2 She's like, you've just won at the Olympics and somebody goes, so what's next?

Speaker 2 And you're like, guys, this was the next. I've spent four years coming to this moment.
I've spent four years trying to get here. Allow me to revel in this.

Speaker 2 And I think what she said was so much more profound than we think because we live in a society where we're constantly pushed to think about what's next.

Speaker 2 You buy a house and immediately somebody goes, oh, I wonder what the next house will look like. You get a promotion.

Speaker 2 And like before you even spend one day in your new position or in your new promotion, you're already thinking about how to get to the next promotion.

Speaker 2 All these things in life that we take for granted, you are at the next right now.

Speaker 2 And if you're not careful, you'll spend your entire life thinking about next, not realizing that you're currently in next. Does that make sense?

Speaker 4 Trevor, I think we speak about this. Like, America is the only place where somebody can be objectively rich, but feel poor.
You know, I mean, I call them like the poor rich people.

Speaker 4 And I think that has like a trickle down effect on everyone else in society because like the people who have made it are still striving. They think they can lose it tomorrow.

Speaker 4 And I'm always like, I'm in that what next thing all the time because I'm just like, well, it's a volatile country. Not everyone gets a shot.
I've got my shot. You can't revel in it.

Speaker 4 Like, where's the space to do that? Because this country tells you the moment you relax, you're going to lose it.

Speaker 4 And I think that's why I have compassion for people that are like always striving because you're just afraid you're going going to lose the thing that you already have in your hand, if that makes sense.

Speaker 2 Yeah, it makes complete sense. And I think that's, that's why I say I think every country, you know, America is no different.
Every country, everything in life, your gift will be your curse.

Speaker 2 Your gift will always be your curse. And so you have to monitor that.
And I will never, I'm not one of those people who goes like, oh, America's terrible. I'm like, no, no, no.

Speaker 2 The thing that makes America so fantastic is also its curse. If you're constantly in the chase, you never get to revel in the fact that you've arrived somewhere.

Speaker 2 And so, yeah, you know, it's a balance. And so,

Speaker 2 I don't know. I hope we can all be more like Simone Biles and just take a moment to go, like, yeah, I can't see the ground right now.
You know,

Speaker 2 I have the twisties in my life, and I'm just going to pause for a moment to appreciate where I am, step back so that I don't fall on my head, and also step back so that I don't infect the people around me.

Speaker 2 And then you can come back stronger.

Speaker 2 Like, to your point, Christiana, I hope that actually does become the narrative.

Speaker 2 Is that like Simone Simone Biles showed everybody that your greatness isn't limited by your ability to take a moment and breathe?

Speaker 2 Your greatness isn't limited by your ability to acknowledge a moment of weakness, of sadness, of failure, of despair.

Speaker 2 You can still be the greatest. So, yeah, kudos to Simone Biles.

Speaker 2 That was like, honestly, she just turned into like not just one of the greatest athletes for me, but one of the greatest people just because of how she's handled it all and how much swag she has.

Speaker 2 And, you know, how cool she is.

Speaker 4 She's like a goat chain for me.

Speaker 2 That was what I'm doing

Speaker 2 incredible, like a goat chain. And by the way, how she supports other women athletes.
I think that's been one of the most amazing. Like, did you see that photo?

Speaker 2 There's a, there's a Brazilian gymnast who for years has been chasing Simone Biles, always coming second or third.

Speaker 2 And she would even say, like, this, I'm in a generation where I'm competing against the greatest of all time.

Speaker 2 What am I supposed to do? And just think about that for a moment. Somebody else is going to walk around with a gold medal.
And it shows you like just the perspective. And so Simone Biles, she

Speaker 2 lost one event now to the Brazilian gymnast and she celebrated her. Like she celebrated her like she had won the medal.
She's like bowing. They're like applauding her.
They're jumping around with her.

Speaker 2 And I think it was cool to see because we take for granted as people from the outside that they have more in common than we do with them.

Speaker 2 You know, you might think to yourself, I support Simone Biles, so I have more in common with her than she does with a Brazilian athletes. It's like, no, no, no.

Speaker 2 Simone Biles is like, I know what it's like to be a gymnast. I know what it's like to be an Olympian.
I know what it's like to lose. I know what it's like to fall.

Speaker 2 I know what it's like to be a woman in this sport. And this human being has more in common with me.
And so I'm going to support them. And I love that.

Speaker 2 Actually, I wish we had that in the women's boxing because that's something we have to talk about.

Speaker 2 Like

Speaker 2 depressing, right? Like infuriating.

Speaker 2 What is going on in this world? This, more than any other example so far this year is why i tell people not to get their news from twitter um

Speaker 2 how do i put this

Speaker 2 you know how like wildfires spread and how people think that People think that whatever started the wildfire is just the most extra hot thing that's ever happened, right?

Speaker 2 So they'll be like, no, some lava dropped from the sky and then everything bursts into flames.

Speaker 2 Like, no, the conditions around where the fire happened were actually ripe for potentially months for a fire.

Speaker 2 And that's what it feels like journalism is at, where it's like, we're so ripe for a convenient lie that like anyone who shows up after the lie is already spread to be like, here's all the reasons why this thing isn't true.

Speaker 2 They can't even shout down enough the thing is. The thing is not what you think it is.
And because people,

Speaker 2 by and large, people cannot handle the idea that they were tricked.

Speaker 2 I won't even say wrong, the idea that they were given bad information because we feel like we are the discerners of good and bad information.

Speaker 4 And Trevor, can you break it down for our people at home who maybe don't know like the story? Because it's kind of, it's kind of complicated.

Speaker 2 So if you don't know the story,

Speaker 2 in the women's boxing competition, there's

Speaker 2 an Algerian boxer by the name of Iman Khalif. I think she was fighting against an Italian boxer, right?

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 she was pummeling her, you know, having a good round, punched her, punched her, punched her, and she pulled out of the fight. And then said, I've never been hit that hard in my life.

Speaker 2 I couldn't carry on fighting. Okay.
Seems like a normal boxing match. And then,

Speaker 2 almost overnight, exactly like a wildfire, Josh,

Speaker 2 rumors started coming out that the Algerian boxer wasn't, in fact, a woman, but was... And if I remember, this is how I saw the story.
I think everyone got a different one.

Speaker 2 But the one I saw was, oh, this was actually a trans athlete masquerading as a woman and didn't transition. And this was actually a man.
And then that story slowly evolved and changed.

Speaker 2 And then it was like, no, actually, the Algerian boxer is a

Speaker 2 man because she has XY chromosomes. And she failed a gender test.

Speaker 2 through some other boxing organization and she shouldn't even be at the Olympics.

Speaker 2 And then it, I mean, all the usual actors came up, you know, everyone from, you know, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, you know, Joe Rogan, J.K. Rowling jumped in as well.

Speaker 2 Ah, yeah, you see, this is the world we want to live in. Misogynists want women to get punched by men and they celebrate it.

Speaker 2 And then,

Speaker 2 just in a, just in the space of again, a day or so,

Speaker 2 first of all, the Olympic Committee came out and said, okay, all of this is trash. This is not true.
This is a woman, right? Born a woman, raised a woman.

Speaker 2 And then the other boxing organizations came out and said, oh, that boxing organization that says she failed a test, didn't even say what kind of test.

Speaker 2 And I know this is complicated, so stick with me. But the boxing organization that claims this woman is in fact a man

Speaker 2 did that because that boxing organization is essentially run by Russia now and is a Russian front.

Speaker 2 And because the Algerian woman beat a Russian boxer at some point, they just wanted to strip her of the win and they were like, She's a man.

Speaker 2 And I know this is a weird thing to like throw in, but it was interesting. Algerians were going, hey, do you know that being transgender is illegal in Algeria?

Speaker 2 I mean, it's not the most woke defense, but it was a defense.

Speaker 2 Like, people were like, you can't be trans in our country. We'll kill you.
It's illegal. And people were like, okay.
But they ignored that. And then this poor woman was lambasted and was, and I don't,

Speaker 2 look, here's the thing. You know, when it comes to everyone, like Donald Trump, he's Donald Trump.
He's going to say whatever he says. Anything that pushes his narrative, he's going to say it.

Speaker 2 I expect that.

Speaker 2 Elon Musk, come on. Elon Musk loves fake stories so much.
The guy spent $44 billion to become like the captain of the conspiracy team.

Speaker 2 Joe Rogan, he gets bamboozled all the time by the internet. Like all the time.
Like, if you just have Photoshop and like a few lines, you've got Joe Rogan. You've got him.

Speaker 2 The one that got me, to be honest, was J.K. Rowling.
Really? I don't know why.

Speaker 2 No, no, no. I don't know why.
Like, no, I know, Christina would like to beat right now. It is her thing, but she reads.

Speaker 2 Yes, Josh. Like, for me, it was so crazy to see somebody who, and maybe it's because I'm a huge fan of the Harry Potter series.

Speaker 2 I can't believe that somebody who would write a series that is that nuanced about being an outsider and that nuanced about what is or isn't and does and doesn't belong.

Speaker 2 And so it's literally a story of purity. You have

Speaker 2 a wizard who is half human, half wizard. And the story has people hating him because they call him a mudblood.
So you have mudbloods, which are like the mixed wizards.

Speaker 2 And then you have muggles, which is like a sort of derogatory term for like plain ass humans who don't do magic. And then you have like the wizards, the pure ones.
The whole book is about

Speaker 2 ostracizing people, hating

Speaker 2 just because they are slightly different and because somebody lies about them. That, like, they literally, oh man, God, they literally do this in the book.

Speaker 4 And some of them were born a crime.

Speaker 2 They literally do this in.

Speaker 2 I think Bud Blood gets right to the point, too. That's that feel like racism.

Speaker 2 Like mud blood.

Speaker 2 I knew JK has some hate in her when she made her mud blood.

Speaker 2 I'm just like, J.K. Rowling, like, what happened to you? What, and then she, like, you're a woman claiming to protect women.

Speaker 2 And all these people, now, not just her, but like, all these people, I go, do you, do you understand? Like, because here's the thing, forgive me, I'm getting a little pissed off at this because, like,

Speaker 2 you're going to claim that you hate trans athletes or you, you hate, you claim that. And the reason you say it is because you say, like, we're here to protect women.

Speaker 2 That's why we're doing this, to protect women but then a story like this shows you that it's not about protecting women it's just using women as a cudgel to go after trans people and people in the trans community

Speaker 2 and you just use women as the excuse do you know what I mean because now

Speaker 2 they still say

Speaker 2 that the Algerian boxer is a man and then they put up pictures and they're like look at this jaw tell me that that's not a man look at this nose i know a man when i see one and i'm like you dicks For people who are claiming to protect women, now you're running around saying women have to look a certain way in order for them to be considered women.

Speaker 2 Think about how many women have faced discrimination in their lives for how their face looks, for how their jaw looks, for how their nose looks.

Speaker 2 And people have been like, you look like a man, you look like a stupid man.

Speaker 2 And these are the same people. I was so pissed off, but I couldn't believe J.K.
Rowling did it.

Speaker 4 To me, it was immaterial whether she was a trans woman or a cis woman.

Speaker 4 I just thought the treatment was so cruel so even if it all came out that this woman was a trans woman it doesn't justify any of this i'm like is this how we talk about another human being in a sport somebody's child and i think it's just comes down to like if you dehumanize trans women or trans people enough actually

Speaker 4 you dehumanize women that don't fit your idea of what a woman is. And I already know for a lot of people, I don't fit the idea of what a woman is.
I'm a black woman. I'm hairy as hell.

Speaker 2 I'm saying all the time.

Speaker 4 I think I would fail a gender test. The amount of

Speaker 4 the beard and the chest here I have. Like, it's insane.
Like, I spend most of my money on laser hair removal. But it's just like.

Speaker 4 Our ideas of femininity are like so bound up in like who's thin, who's blonde, who's white, who's tall, who has a very like certain type of voice, right?

Speaker 4 She just doesn't fit what you believe an ideal woman is, right?

Speaker 4 And what I've loved about this Olympics, whether it's simone or whether it's the women's rugby team we're seeing all of these different body sizes these different kinds of aesthetics and women who are like we're women and we don't we don't need to be skinny and we don't need to be like blonde and white and thin but that's also womanness and we're fine with that but a woman can be loads of different things and it's so interesting to me that all of these rulings always seem to be women of color And I'm like,

Speaker 4 is it a coincidence?

Speaker 2 And I'm like,

Speaker 4 I'm like, the science of it, I'm like, do you need to broaden your sample to make sure you have indigenous women from the Middle East and Africa and see what is the average testosterone level there?

Speaker 4 Because we know that like some cultures have a higher incidence of PCOS or just like women with higher testosterone women, women who do have children, et cetera, et cetera.

Speaker 4 And I'm just like, what are the metrics? Like, what is what data are you pulling from to define what is an ideal testosterone level?

Speaker 4 And also, I think like being an athlete is about being a bit of a freak anyway. You're supposed to have some sort of advantage.

Speaker 2 It's exactly so.

Speaker 4 Shall we like be like to Michael Phelps? Oh, you should actually just make your arms shorter so it's fair for you to like swim against these other people.

Speaker 4 We would never say that, but I remember being younger and they used to call Serena and Venus men. Like that was the thing I remember.
They'd be like, damn,

Speaker 2 you know, you can go down the list. You can go down the list.
You're not wrong. Funny enough, it even goes outside of sports.
How many times has Michelle Obama been called a man?

Speaker 2 Exactly.

Speaker 2 I will say the only person in all of this that I feel worse for than the Algerian boxer is her next opponent.

Speaker 2 Because this is a person who's allowed to take all of her aggression out in the ring, right?

Speaker 2 It is interesting as well that when she's lost fights, no one accused her of being a man.

Speaker 2 She's not unbeaten. She's not the greatest boxer of all time.
She's just a good fighter. And she's here.
She's lost multiple fights. No one ever accused her of this.

Speaker 2 And immediately when she, it's so interesting interesting how that happens.

Speaker 2 And to your point, Christiana, it was when African women were starting to win in like the long-distance running events that all of a sudden the European women were like, I don't think she's a woman.

Speaker 2 She needs to get tested. And it's like, wait, what?

Speaker 2 There were stories of athletes, European like long-distance runners, great runners, who would be like, oh, they don't have their period anymore or their testosterone is at elevated levels.

Speaker 2 And they, you know, they have deeper voices because it's just like, it's a body. It's a body.
There's a range of bodies. But

Speaker 2 it's really, really interesting how this became a thing the more you saw athletes of color coming into the space, particularly black women coming. Then people were like, I don't know, man.

Speaker 2 You beat me this hard.

Speaker 2 Yeah, you must be a man.

Speaker 2 You know,

Speaker 2 there's one thing.

Speaker 2 When this story broke, I went down a rabbit hole of this in sports.

Speaker 2 And I found it interesting

Speaker 2 see like the correlation between

Speaker 2 the othering of people winning in sport once sport became integrated.

Speaker 2 I noticed with black athletes that oftentimes they would start questioning like their very humanness in a weird way.

Speaker 2 There was a university that did a study on how many times the word animal and freak was used with black athletes, but then with white athletes it was generally so intelligent, such such smart movement i mean the way he understands the game and then with a black athlete was like just dominance the beast what a beast what a savage just and it it it it was interesting to see how

Speaker 2 without people realizing it or maybe they did there was this there was this there was this inclination on at least commentators sides to think a white athlete who had you know gotten to the top of the sport had done it because they were smart.

Speaker 2 They understood the ins and outs of the game. And then when a black athlete had done it, they were a freak freak of nature they would you know yeah and

Speaker 2 you might be going like oh but trevor so is everyone normal no i'm saying the opposite i'm saying everyone is a freak of nature everyone who competes in sport is a freak that is what we are paying to see we are paying to see freaks compete I don't understand when people decided that athletes are supposed to be normal human beings.

Speaker 2 They are not normal. They are all freaks.
Swimmers, it is not normal to jump into a swimming pool and then wiggle like a fish fish underwater halfway to the other side of the pool,

Speaker 2 halfway to the other side of the pool, and then start swimming. That is not normal.
Michael Phelps is not normal. His lungs are not normal.
His lactic acid is not normal. Katie Ladecki is not normal.

Speaker 2 LeBron James is not normal. Kevin Durant is not normal.
Usain Bolt is not normal. No one that tall is supposed to be able to move their legs that fast.
That's not a thing. You are not normal.

Speaker 2 These Ethiopian sprinters run as if they just took a break. Do you understand how far 10 kilometers is?

Speaker 2 They run it from the beginning to the end. The next time you're in an airport, just run to your gate.
You're going to see how far 10 kilometers actually is.

Speaker 2 And you'll see that these people are freaks. Every single athlete is a freak of nature.
And that is what we are watching. So whenever somebody says, like, oh, but it's unnatural, yes.

Speaker 2 That is why we are there. And that is what we are celebrating.
The very unnatural. Did you see the guy who did the pole vault?

Speaker 2 The French guy did the pole vault

Speaker 2 and his penis smashed the bar, but it didn't just like it didn't like tip the bar.

Speaker 2 His penis held the bar and flipped the bar up in a way that like that penis had the strength of like a small baby, like a small child.

Speaker 2 Imagine if other athletes complained about him and they were like, Yo, if that guy won, imagine if the other guys were like, Yo, someone needs to get this guy tested because he's, he's got another pole in his pants.

Speaker 2 You can't be pole vaulting with another pole in your pants.

Speaker 2 All of these people are freaks.

Speaker 2 All of these people are celebrated for being freaks. That is what being an athlete is.

Speaker 2 And to your point, Christiana, I'm like, I was saddened. I was angry.
I was disappointed. And I think there were many things at play, you know, everything.
Misogyny, you name it, you name it.

Speaker 2 Some of it was racism.

Speaker 2 But it's like, yo, man. Isn't it cool that we invented a space where freaks can get celebrated?

Speaker 2 Instead of ostracizing people, we said, you know what? You are too tall to sit sit in any normal-sized chair.

Speaker 2 In an old society, you probably would have been chained up and taken around from one circus to the next.

Speaker 2 Now, we'll give you a jersey, we'll get you to put a ball in a hoop, and we will celebrate you as the greatest of all time. And that's what we should be doing.
All the freaks should be celebrated.

Speaker 2 because they make us boring people have something to watch. Because without them,

Speaker 2 what would we be watching, huh? The rest of us losers lining up. I don't want to watch Josh Johnson swim.
I don't want to to watch Christiana trying to run.

Speaker 2 If we're going to treat our freaks like this, we're going to live in a boring world, people.

Speaker 2 This, what a rant from someone who's not going to go to the Olympics.

Speaker 2 I didn't say I'm not going to watch, I watch every single sport.

Speaker 2 I just said I'm not going to go to the stadium.

Speaker 2 There's a difference, my friend.

Speaker 2 We're going to continue this conversation right after this short break.

Speaker 2 One thing I will say about the Olympics as a whole is

Speaker 2 it's once again reminded me of how important it is for humans to be collectively involved in a single zeitgeist.

Speaker 2 You know, we've talked about this on the podcast. You know, when we had Rain Wilson on, we talked about church and we talked about religion.

Speaker 2 You know, we've talked about it with incels. We've talked about it in so many different episodes in different ways.

Speaker 2 One thing I have enjoyed about the Olympics that I enjoy about most live events that bring people together is just that. It brings people together to share something.
We see the same thing.

Speaker 2 We have conversations about it. You can talk to a stranger now about the Olympics.
Hey, did you see that? What did you think of that? Now you meet somebody from St. Lucia and you can be like, hey, St.

Speaker 2 Lucia. Oh, congratulations.
You guys, do you know what I mean?

Speaker 2 Mm-hmm. And I don't know.
I feel like it doesn't have to be sport, but I feel like we just need more things like this. Yeah.
I mean, I think that for the most part,

Speaker 2 one of the reasons for me that the Olympics will always hold a cultural relevance and probably all over the world is because even outside of sport, even outside, because there's a part of me that doesn't like that the Olympics don't like pay out big and stuff like that.

Speaker 2 Like you get the medal, but like, I don't know. I think you should get some money.
You've dedicated four years, if not your, your first 16 years to the goal of doing this thing. But anyway,

Speaker 2 maybe it's like childlike, but there will always be a thing where I look at another person. So I could look at you, Trevor, be like, I think I could beat you in a race.

Speaker 2 And then Christianic hears me say that and she's like, I would watch that. I would watch either one of them fall would be very funny to me.
So let me watch that.

Speaker 2 And as long as you're watching sport, there's going to be an inclination between athletes to be the best.

Speaker 2 And then when you talk about the best and you talk about the best in the world because you'll always be at least curious who's the best shooter in the world who's the best swimmer in the world who's the best yes exactly i like the stories because i just watch the olympics and cry like the brazilian

Speaker 4 cry like the brazilian girl her brother walked her from the favelas for two hours and then there's the girl that she wrote the note i want to go to the olympics then the dad died but she still has the note and then she won the gold like i don't that i guess it's the storytelling part of it that compels me.

Speaker 4 But I think for me, and maybe it's the people I know, this has felt like the most fractured Olympics. And maybe it's because I was in London for 2012.
I think it was Rio 2016 was the next one.

Speaker 4 It felt like those ones.

Speaker 4 everyone was watching and everyone was experiencing it at the same time but maybe it's because of the us election craziness in bangladesh like the world seemed like in a weird place it feels like some people are super tuned into the olympics and those people are telling everyone else what's happening in the olympics But maybe that's just my world.

Speaker 4 It just, it feels like

Speaker 2 I agree with you.

Speaker 4 Because I was like, as a kid, Linford Christie was like, that was the British athlete that we all loved.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 4 And we had all had our hopes on, and then people like Michael Johnson, et cetera, et cetera. So there were like these big brand names.

Speaker 4 But I think from apart from Simone, there's no like Usain Bolt equivalent, like that everyone is like, I want to tune in to watch this person.

Speaker 4 You know, like that kind of superstar that draws the eyes to the games. And for me, it's just felt a bit disjointed and fractured.

Speaker 4 Like I catch catch it when i can and people are like oh this is on and then you're like oh okay volleyball aren't boring and i i actually think it's good that it's brought some people together but i don't think it has the power to pull people together that it once did i yeah i think you know i agree with you i i think it's

Speaker 2 I think it's a byproduct of social media. And not social media on its own, by the way.

Speaker 2 I think also like, you know, streaming, a la carte viewing, the fact that you can watch what you want to watch, when you want to watch it, how you want to watch it has come with its benefits.

Speaker 2 But as I said in the beginning, every gift is a curse.

Speaker 2 And because we we now live in a world where we know we can watch the replays whenever we want, where we know we can see the highlights whenever, where we even know that people will curate the highlights for us, it's made us less likely to sit through the entire thing because we might miss it.

Speaker 2 And so the gift has been,

Speaker 2 you'll catch it. The curse is that you don't know what you'll miss so you don't watch the whole thing.
And so, you know, in fact, now that you've said that, I'm going to go.

Speaker 2 I'm going to go, I'm going to find my way into one of these Olympic venues here in Paris, and I'm going to go watch a sport. Josh, I'm going to go and watch archery just for you.

Speaker 2 Wow. And then Christiana, I'm going to go and watch volleyball.
And I'm going to shout out, Christiana says you're boring.

Speaker 4 Christiana says you should be able to wear clothes.

Speaker 4 The sport is so misogynistic.

Speaker 2 They make women wear bikinis, even though the women want to wear clothes.

Speaker 4 And this is not right. And they don't let women compete in hijab, but you can compete in a bikini.
That's what you should shout out.

Speaker 2 Quiet, please.

Speaker 2 That's what they're going to say to me. And I'll be like, but I I got it out.
I got it out. Yeah.
Wave at us when you go.

Speaker 2 I will. I'll try my best.
I will.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I will. I really will.
You've inspired me now. You've inspired me to take part in something that might not be around tomorrow.
And yeah,

Speaker 2 this will be a good one. Wish me luck.
Good luck. Wish me luck.
Yeah, have the best of luck. Have a great time.
Get a good seat.

Speaker 2 Oh, Josh. Now you just added competition to my boob.

Speaker 2 What Now with Trevor Noah is produced by Spotify Studios in partnership with Day Zero Productions and Fullwell 73.

Speaker 2 The show is executive produced by Trevor Noah, Ben Winston, Sanaz Yamin, and Jodi Avigan. Our senior producer is Jess Hackle.
Claire Slaughter is our producer.

Speaker 2 Music, Mixing and Mastering by Hannes Brown. Thank you so much for listening.
Join me next Thursday for another episode of What Now.