The first target will likely be myostatin, as I have mentioned before.
Here is some of the interview, which focuses more on getting science into a sports magazine:
Michele Wilson: Why did you want to write this very scientific article for the Sports Illustrated package about steroids?
David Epstein: We knew people were paying attention to this, with the Roger Clemens news. We wanted to do a present story, a past story and a future story. I knew the future story would have to be pretty science-based. It couldn’t be too narrative - from the personal angle of an athlete - because nobody is in the future. People aren’t getting caught doing [gene therapy] yet, so I knew it had to be pretty science-oriented.
MW: How did you know gene altering was the right topic?
DE: I have a background both in sports and in science. I had heard about this stuff years ago. I knew there were studies of this German baby who had genetic mutations that caused him to be more muscular. Some athletes would contend, when they were caught and when they tested positive for drugs that, like the baby, they had genetic abnormalities that could’ve made them the kind of athletes they are. So I knew this stuff was out there, but I never delved into it to find out how plausible it was, where it was right now. By keeping up with the science news, I knew where the next frontier would probably be. I started calling my sources and they told me that that frontier is closer than I had anticipated.
MW: Why has the press steered away from covering the science of gene doping?
DE: It can be a little technical. I always read through peer-reviewed literature. I think it’s really important to do to get a sense of how unsure some of this research is. It’s not really as black and white as sometimes it needs to be. When you read through those articles, they’re very difficult to get through, extremely difficult if you don’t have somewhat of a science background. So I think that’s one hurdle, that the primary sources are just difficult to understand.Also, it’s really cutting edge, and no one’s gotten caught yet. Most of the steroid stories that have come out since I’ve paid attention have been based on some kind of law enforcement action, like Balco, where they raided a physical location; they had a trial that people could go to. No one’s gotten caught for this, so it’s harder to generate a news hook. One of the luxuries of being at a place like SI is that they tolerate something a little more expansive and nuanced, where it didn’t take someone getting caught for us to start writing about. You have to put some faith in your readers that they’ll be interested in reading about it.
MW: Se-Jin Lee, one of the scientists in your article, has been quoted-albeit briefly-in several places. How did you get different information than what’s already been written?
DE: When I first contacted him, he said, “I don’t do sports interviews anymore” [because reporters focused on the athlete angle rather than the science]. But he had been a Sports Illustrated reader for awhile, and he said, “If you promise me you’ll explain that my work is not to enhance athletes, we can do it.”I think the challenge with any magazine reporting is that we’re often not completely breaking something. You have to find a way to do something new. Since I’ve been at SI, I’ve learned that interviewing for magazines has to be so much more detailed. You have to demand more time from people. I probably read fifty peer-reviewed science journal articles before I talked to Lee, and I interviewed other people, so I really had a good feel for the landscape. Like any interview, we hit it off. He was a big sports fan, so he was as happy to talk to me as I was to him. Se-Jin Lee discovered myostatin (the protein that tells muscles when to stop growing). He’s the man. He kind of started this whole thing.
Read the whole interview.
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