Alex Smith is a senior researcher at the University of Bern.

"Psychopath" is one of the most misunderstood and so misused terms we might use to negatively describe people in popular culture. And yet the traits of "psychopaths" are often also seen as advantageous if not desirable, given certain contexts.

Expect to learn why you can't be diagnosed as a "psychopath", what the difference is between sports psychology and sports psychiatry, why Nike's advertising agency are on the money again, whether findings of psychopathy translate to the general population and much more.

Citations and further reading:

The Nike advert we reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwLergHG81c&pp=ygUSbmlrZSBiYWQgcGVyc29uIGFk

IOC paper on rates of mental illnesses in elite sports https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/53/11/667

Paper on mental health issues in former athletes https://bmjopensem.bmj.com/content/10/4/e001867

Culture paper on ultra endurance sports https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sports-and-active-living/articles/10.3389/fspor.2023.1192401/full (Alex says "the intro alone is enough!")

The longitudinal study of Canadian women's step counts

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2734709#:~:text=Findings%20In%20this%20cohort%20study,intensity%20with%20all%2Dcause%20mortality

Alex's Google scholar profile: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=L4leHA4AAAAJ&hl=en -

Where to find more from the show:

https://fitnessandthinking.substack.com/

https://www.instagram.com/fitnessandthinking/

https://www.youtube.com/@fitnessandthinking

Get in touch through:

https://www.instagram.com/fitnessandthinking/

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Episode #1

https://open.spotify.com/episode/014kv0p8yiaZuz2hXiDWK8?si=5ff0090ccee0458a