0 steiner show and founder of the center for emerging media. dorian warren from columbia university and david epstein from pro pub ka and author of "the sports gene" inside the science of extraordinary athletic performance. let's start with where the games are beginning. talk to me about the geopolitical significance of the place that is sochi? >> it's a summer resort, which is very russian to have winter limits in a summer venue. it's also one of the things putin was arguing in 2007 when he convinced the olympic committee to run it there is that russia can turn rivers around and can do things that nobody else can do. of course, the joke in russia at the time it has been going on is that when putin, really, all the things you just outlined, all the things he's done on evolutionary which is the dugout, those foundation pits in 2007 and then they stayed on as foundation pits until six months ago and whatnot. so that is one of the problems with russia. it wants to argue with the results, but how to get there that is really always an issue. >> david, on the one hand -- it's's zi to look at a figure like putin and point to the ways in which there's this dramatic performance of the olympics. but the olympics are always a dramatic performance, particularly a dramatic performance of national pride. so should we be surprised in this case to find that the russians behave as russians behave, in this case on a big stage? and is there something specific about how putin is approaching these olympics that makes it different than other countries? >> i don't think we should be surprised at all. it seems like every time an olympics comes around, there's this idea in the press that this one is more politically this almost second generation of anti-gay laws. it's not explicit discrimination, but in effect it is. >> as soon as we get back, i'll bring you in. part of this is now an american critique of the internal politics. i'm wondering if we're feeling too good about ourselves. >> maybe a little. >> when we come back, president obama's message to vladimir putin. we are the thinkers. the job jugglers. the up all-nighters. and the ones who turn ideas into action. we've made our passions our life's work. we strive for the moments where we can say, "i did it!" ♪ we are entrepreneurs who started it all... with a signature. legalzoom has helped start over 1 million businesses, turning dreamers into business owners. and we're here to help start yours. we've learned how to stretch our party budget. ♪ the only downer? my bargain brand towel made a mess of things. so goodbye so-called bargain brands, hello bounty basic. the affordably priced towel that's an actual bargain. watch how one select-a-size sheet of bounty basic is 50% stronger than a full sheet of the bargain brand. it takes a strong towel to stretch a budget. bounty basic. the strong but affordable picker upper. and try charmin basic. the strong but affordable picker upper. here in philadelphia you can access a philly cheesesteak . . . . . . . . . inutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. the day building a play set begins with a surprise twinge of back pain... and a choice. take up to 4 advil in a day or 2 aleve for all day relief. 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[ male announcer ] introducing fedex one rate. simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability of fedex. one of the wonderful things about the olympics is that you are judged by your merit, how good you are regardless of where you come from, what you look like, who you love, and that i think is consistent with the spirit of the olympics. it is certainly consistent with american values and we want to make sure that people understand that. >> that was president obama interviewed by nbc's bob costas as part of nbc's coverage of the olympic opening ceremonies last night. marc, i appreciate that. i appreciate that is the aspirational goal of the american dream, but the notion that russia is kind of anti-gay, anti-lgbt but that america is this great and open place is i think not consistent with empirical evidence. >> it's not. a couple things here. one is that there's a divide in america. we're at war with ourselves in this country. there are a lot of folks who would be very comfortable living under russian's beliefs. the other part is this is a larger geopolitical thing playing out, control, china, russia, the united states battling over who is strongest and who is the most vigorous nation. our president plays basketball. their president does judo. >> the point the president was making that when you go to the olympics, you are judged on your merit. everybody starts at the same place. whoever runs fastest wins. there is consistently this nationalist pride in medal count, this idea that part of what we do is go and show our capacity, our strength, our vigor as a country by winning the most medals. >> this was really on display. look at the last summer olympics in china, all these messages about unity and coming together and spending $10 billion to pick children from the age of 5 to make sure they can win medals in the diving. that's always this sort of competing interest that are held in the same mind of any country hosting the olympics which is giving these messages of brotherhood, so long as you're beating the crap out of everybody else. >> we do the same thing here. if you look at our olympic team, most of the sports are corporate sponsored, they pick kids out when they're 5, 10 years old, they have to tow the company line. if they don't, they're yeesed out. >> authoritarian regimes do well in olympics because they would massively invest. one of our challenges prior to this level of corporate sponsorship was that we actually didn't invest enough in young people. that said, i want to listen for a moment to brian boitano -- as much as i have a kri teague of lgbt life here in the u.s., i want to listen in on brian boitano. >> i signed on to the presidential delegation know that we would be sending a powerful message. i thought it was such a powerful message that the president was deciding to send that i chose to come out as a gay man for the del brags. >> that's really beautiful. he comes out as a gay man because he's going to be part of the delegation, wants to send that message. it made me think of the mexico city olympics of john carlos, of them standing there and saying part of what we want to do is send a message. in that case they were sending a message back to america, that it was insufficiently egalitarian. in this case he's saying our country is more egalitarian. >> one of the last closets for gay people is the locker room. we could have either boycotted the games like we did in 1980 in response to the soviet invasion of afghanistan or like john carlos, actually attend and stage a political protest, which is illegal, but to stage a political protest to say, hey, this is who we are, we exist and we're human like you and we can actually compete like you. >> sometimes the protest isn't even a john carlos version, it's just going and beating, and by beating, not only are we human but we may be superior athletes in some way. >> that's right. again, that was a decision in 1936 to attend the nazi olympics. with a certain kind of political significance of actually attending and having a jesse owens show the world that black people can excel in all sorts of things against the backdrop of you generalics and racist ideology in nazi, germany. >> i wonder if we might see gay athletes, actually vocalize something? >> i do. i don't think the protests will be as big as they might have been otherwise, but the international olympic charter says specifically there is not to be sort of discrimination. i think where the ioc has backed away from supporting that publicly saying leave politics out of that, that's left a vacuum tore the athletes to step up and do it. i want to ask you about the one-on-one meetings president putin has been having in advance of the olympics, not just the political pageantry but the politics of the olympics when we come back. wow! this is incredible! i know. and now it has more clams! 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