SHAQ Gets Personal

This is Extra Point: Fit Cult's weekly guide on what to watch, listen to and read in the world of fitness culture.

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SHAQ. Focused on the life and career of NBA Hall of Famer and Lakers’ legend, Shaquille O’Neil, this four-part documentary series features interviews with the larger than life winner of four NBA championships. The series explores the military family upbringing that shaped him, his rise to stardom on the court and his successful off-court ventures. O’Neal calls the documentary “the most honest look into my life and career up until this point.” SHAQ debuts on Wednesday, November 23 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT, with new episodes each Wednesday on HBO. It’s also available to stream on HBO Max. Photo: HBO

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Stronger by Science. From Greg Nuckols and Eric Trexler, the duo behind the popular Stronger by Science website, comes this podcast of the same name. In it, they breakdown studies and answer listener questions. Recent topics include protein requirements for muscle growth, net energy cost of exercise and shortcomings of body composition assessments. There is a handy database page that features all of the podcast topics, along with time stamped links.

Read

American Exceptionalism at the World Cup. John Sloop, a communication studies professor at Vanderbilt University, explores the relationship between soccer and national identity in this article from The Conversation. Sloop notes that for many team’s supporters, the World Cup becomes an event “to affirm one’s national identity,” but for Americans, the experience “can be very different.”