8: The Genie Is Out

In the wake of the steroid ring’s downfall, the headline-grabbing prosecutions combine with sports scandals and anxieties about steroids making it into high school locker rooms. Lawmakers decide to take action. The Steroid Control Act of 1990, spearheaded by none other than then-Senator Joe Biden, promises to deal with steroids once and for all.

But the USA already had a taste of what it felt like to get ripped - really ripped. And it’s hard to stuff the genie back in the bottle once it weighs 240 pounds of pure muscle.

Today, as millions of Americans take steroids with the aim of bulking up, host Natalia Mehlman Petrzela reckons with the enduring legacy of the steroid ring, and an era which transformed our ideas about fitness and beauty.

Featuring former bodybuilders William Dillon, Shawn Ray and Sandra Blackie; Mike Zumpano, co-author of The Underground Steroid Handbook; Professor of Sports Studies at Stirling College-Chengdu University, Daniel Rosenke; Dr Harrison Pope, Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School; and Daniel Supnick, a former special agent with the US Customs Service.

Presenter and Executive Producer: Natalia Mehlman Petrzela

Producer: Caroline Thornham

Assistant Producer: Mohamed Ahmed

Editor: Katherine Godfrey

Production Manager: Cheree Houston

Sound Design and Mix by Daniel Kempson

Original Music by SilverHawk, aka Cyrille Poirier

Executive Producer: Max O’Brien

Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke

A Novel production for BBC Radio 4

Featuring clips from:

Nightline, ABC Special for Monday, Nov 20, 1989 - ABC

Olympic Games History, Seoul 1988 - BBC

Senator Joe Biden remarks on Democratic Anti-Drug Legislation, July 31 1989 - C-Span

House Session, September 22, 1988 - C-Span

Interview with Philip Halpern - Professor Daniel Rosenke

Episodes are released weekly on Mondays.