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Saudi Arabia’s Global Sports Push | The Draw Of Flying Without A Cabin

·21 min·2 clips
Saudi Arabia is pouring hundreds of billions into global sports to fundamentally change how the world sees the country.
The episode opens by detailing Saudi Arabia's massive investments in sports, including hosting Formula One, buying soccer teams, and signing stars like Cristiano Ronaldo. Professor Simon Chadwick explains this as part of "brand Saudi Arabia" trying to change international perceptions, a practice some call sportswashing. He notes the strategy also aims to diversify the economy away from oil, address public health, and engage a young population to prevent social unrest. The discussion covers Saudi Arabia's planned hosting of the 2034 FIFA World Cup and a potential 2036 Olympic bid. The second major segment shifts to aviation, featuring former firefighter Caroline Paul, who flies a gyrocopter she describes as a tiny helicopter with an open cockpit. Paul discusses her transition from hang gliders to gyrocopters for stability, her experiences flying over California, and how her motivation evolved from seeking adrenaline to pursuing awe. She argues open-cockpit flight offers a transformative, awe-filled experience accessible even through tandem flights. The episode includes shorter segments: one explains how Pokémon Go player images are being used to train delivery robots via a Visual Positioning System, raising data privacy concerns. Another analyzes the decline of late-night TV due to streaming and social media. The show concludes with Culture Crash discussing entertainment trends.

As heard by us

A broad sports-power story gives way to Caroline Paul's intimate search for awe above the earth.

Saudi Arabia's push into global sports sits beside the freedom of open-cockpit flight in an episode about spectacle, risk, and altered perspective.

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Why you'd press play

You get Saudi Arabia's big push into global sports, then a pilot on why flying with little between you and the sky can make you feel tiny.

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