This week's tragedy at the Boston Marathon have made many people question safety at large events like this.  We are fortunate to have one of the nation's leading emergency planners here at A&M in Mike Caruso.  Mr. Caruso works in our Athletic Department and conducts sports event emergency planning and training around the country. So join us today as we delve in the little-appreciated world of sports event emergency planning.  It is a great conversation! 

We are pleased to have Dr. Samuel Cheuvront from the United States Army Research Institute for Environmental Medicine in the podcast today.  Dr. Cheuvront is a noted expert on hydration during exercise and was one of the principle authors of the military's policies on hydration for our soldiers.  And just because it is getting cooler doesn't mean that we shouldn't worry about hydration.

Every so often, there is a great book that comes along that reveals a bit more about why we play and have sports in our society.  Such is the case with a new book - The Ball - that was recently released.  Dr. John Fox is the author and we are pleased to have him with us in the podcast to talk about his book and the topics he covers within.  This is a great book and we highly recommend not only the podcast, but also the book!

The London Olympics is just around the corner and of course, and with all of the performances and stories that will happen there, David Epstein from Sports Illustrated is with us today to give us a heads-up as to what he thinks will be the intriguing stories of these Olympics.  Mr. Epstein has been with us for previous podcasts (video here, here, here, and here!) and I appreciate his '30,000 foot' view of sports and the interesting stories in sports medicine.

This is the audio-only podcast of the 2012 Huffines Discussion Talks.   This week's 2012 Huffines Discussion Scholar is Dr. Wendy Kohrt from the University of Colorado  Dr. Kohrt is a highly lauded scientist and was recently selected to give the prestigious Wolfe Lecture keynote talk at the American College of Sports Medicine meeting.  Dr. Kohrt has made many contributions to the understanding of how exercise impacts bone health and her Huffines Discussion talk was titled "Got Strength?...

We are pleased to have Mr. Kevin Bastin, Director of Athletic Training Services for the Ironman Sports Medicine Institute at Memorial Hermann Hospital with us in the podcast.  We chat about athletic training and rehabilitation of elite athletes and recreational athletes.  It's a fun conversation!

In the past few months, there have been several football players that have collapsed and died away from the field.  So how much risk do these athletes have for sudden death.  Dr. Stephen Crouse, an expert in athletic medical screen joins us in the podcast today to talk about what we know about athletic sudden death and the real risk to athletes.  This is a great podcast, especially if you are an athlete or have a child participating in sports.

It's a special holiday podcast with Sports Illustrated writer David Epstein.  We have two firsts in this podcast:  our first three-time guest, and our first podcast live from Doha, Qatar.  We talk with David about Ryan Braun doping, Colt McCoy's concussion, and what he's doing in Qatar for Sports Illustrated.  It's our holiday podcast - the elves had fun putting this one together!

Dr. John Buchanan joins us in the studio today and chats about his work with basic perceptual processes.  Dr. Buchanan works to understand how we balance and move through space and how our brains perceive and track that movement.  This is a great talk on an emerging area of research that may have significant impact for many patient populations.

Join us as Dr. Dave Wright from Texas A&M visits the podcast studio today.  We have a great conversation about 'deliberate' practice and whether that helps performance or not.  This is a hot topic right now in sports science and it's great that we've got Dr. Wright here to chat about it!