If you just took a peek at Joshua
Davis’ resume, why, you’d picture him in your head as some kind of fierce warrior journalist, perhaps six and a
half feet tall, strapping, handsome and fearless. In a word: Hemingway-esque. You’d be wrong. At least about the six
and a half foot part. And the strapping part.
You see, Josh Davis, a writer who lives in California, is
actually about five nine and 135 pounds. He wears glasses. And as you will hear, the resemblance to Napoleon Dynamite will not go unnoticed.
So why, you
might ask, would such a person attempt to fight bulls in Spain? Why would he compete in the world arm wrestling
championships (where, I might add, he would actually place…albeit fourth out of four). And why would this guy decide
to take up Sumo wrestling, a sport where if you took a really large Cuisenart, you could frappe Josh into a froth and
pour two of him into the shell of one of his opponents (good analogy? yes/no?).
Anyway, the point is that
here we have a man of the ages, a man of courage and wit and, as you will hear, a dose of wisdom. Is there a screw
loose somewhere? Well you decide. Because, yes, it is time again for another Gadling
podcast, and this time we offer you an interview with author, traveler, outrageous sports enthusiast
Joshua Davis.
Josh is the author of the recently-released book The Underdog : How I Survived the
World’s Most Outlandish Competitions. I read it recently and immediately emailed Josh to ask if he’d talk to
me. He graciously said yes. It is a wonderful read. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll run backwards.
And once you hear Josh tell his story, you’ll buy the book.
Listen to the
podcast
Read the first chapter of The
Underdog