Muscle Men: 4. Perfect Square Pecs

In the lobby of Caesar’s Palace Hotel in Las Vegas there’s a modern-day shrine to a 2000 year old adonis - complete with perfectly square pecs. Michelangelo’s David. 17 feet of white marble beefcake. This is an ideal that bodybuilders can only aspire to. And in the 80s bodybuilding scene, a particular image of perfection emerges and begins to transform what American culture thinks of as a desirable man - one that’s bulked up and defined. But in the 1980s, the supersized muscular body isn’t approved of for everyone. Host, historian and fitness expert Natalia Mehlman Petrzela explores how strong, muscular women’s bodies were policed, while gay men were excluded from mainstream gym culture, instead forging a strong and vital subculture. In this atmosphere, for many, steroids seem to offer the perfect quick fix route to “perfection”. And there’s money to be made - the steroid ring built by Dillon, Duchaine and Jenkins is making money hand over fist. But can this Supersized American Dream last forever? Someone is watching them…Featuring former owner of Gold’s Gym Ed Connors, former bodybuilders William Dillon, Joe Troccoli and Sandra Blackie, personal trainer and author of Muscle Boys: Gay Gym Culture Erick Alvarez, and Dr Harrison Pope, Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Presenter and Executive Producer: Natalia Mehlman Petrzela Producer: Caroline Thornham Assistant Producer: Mohamed Ahmed Editor: Katherine Godfrey Production Manager: Cheree Houston Sound Design and Mix by Daniel Kempson Original Music by SilverHawk, aka Cyrille Poirier Executive Producer: Max O’Brien Commissioning Editor: Dan ClarkeA Novel production for BBC Radio 4Featuring clips from: It Happened One Night - Frank Capra, Columbia Pictures Remarks on Physical Fitness, 30 March 1962 - President John J Kennedy, White House Audio Collection Bob Paris interview - The Oprah Winfrey Show, Harpo StudiosEpisodes are released weekly on Mondays. If you’re in the UK, you can listen to the latest episode, a week early, first on BBC Sounds https://bbc.in/3ybDcHO

Om Podcasten

Peak Danger is Season 2 of Extreme, the BBC podcast about those who chase the impossible... who strive for superhuman status and refuse to accept that life has any limits. Every season tells an unforgettable, action-packed story about people who’ve pushed their minds and bodies to the very edge – but at what cost?A mountain of trouble...In August 2008, around 30 climbers took on K2. Over 2 disastrous days, 11 of those people would lose their lives. This is the story of what really happened.Sitting on the border between China and Pakistan, K2 is a perfect pyramid that pierces through the clouds. It looks like a kid’s drawing of a mountain…but this terrifying peak is anything but child’s play.Newlyweds Cecilie Skog and her husband Rolf Bae loved climbing mountains almost as much as they loved one another. In the summer of 2008, they embarked on a honeymoon like no other, when they decided to climb K2. What happened next would change their lives and the lives of everyone around them…forever.A devastating avalanche scatters high altitude climbers across K2’s steep slopes. Life and death rescue missions quickly get underway. Who can be saved… before time runs out?Historian and podcaster Natalia Mehlman Petrzela returns with a sky-high story of human vs nature, and of survival against all the odds.What does it really take to push yourself to the brink of human possibility? How does it feel to stand with the whole world at your feet? And is it ever worth risking death… in order to feel alive?