Kate Zerrenner on the Rio Olympics

Aug 11, 2016 11:35 AM ET
Kate Zerrenner

Audio File

If you’ve been tuning into the Olympics in Rio this week, you’ve probably watched your fair share of inspirational profiles of athletes. You may also have been following some of the stories emerging out of Brazil about the corruption, poor environmental stewardship, and social justice transgressions surrounding the Olympics. It’s enough to make the most ardent sports fan a little ambivalent. In Rio, athletes will be swimming or sailing in water that is literally crappy — some athletes may be taking home gold, silver, bronze, or just hepatitis. It may turn out that the more emotional story is not an athlete profile, but one of environmental malfeasance and social injustice — it tugs at the heartstrings, alright, but not in the way that NBC had hoped. This week on Sea Change Radio, we take a deep dive into some of the issues surrounding the thirty-first Olympiad as we are joined by Kate Zerrenner of the Environmental Defense Fund.