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New Tapes Reveal Trump Lewdly Discussing his Daughter, Black Women, Threesomes, and More

Mother Jones

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On Saturday afternoon, CNN published several audio clips from the Howard Stern show, of conversations between Donald Trump and Howard Stern. In the freshly rediscovered clips, Trump makes lewd comments about his daughter, Ivanka, and discusses his thoughts on sex with women who are menstruating, sex with black women, threesomes, sex addiction, sex with Miss USA contestants… and more.

Several of the clips feature Trump discussing Ivanka’s physique. In a September 2004 interview, Stern asks Trump if he can refer to Ivanka as “a piece of ass.” Trump says yes. “My daughter is beautiful, Ivanka,” says Trump, and after a bit of back and forth, Stern asks: “Can I say this? A piece of ass,” to which Trump responds with “Yeah.” In an October 2006 interview, when Stern made a comment about Ivanka’s breasts and asked if she had gotten implants, Trump responded with, “She’s actually always been very voluptuous. She’s tall, she’s almost 6 feet tall and she’s been, she’s an amazing beauty.”

Mother Jones and other outlets have previously published clips of Trump making crude comments about women on Stern’s show, including one where he calls Jennifer Lopez’s butt “too fat.” In another, Trump responds to a question from Stern about whether he’d stay with Melania if she was disfigured in a car accident by asking, “How do the breasts look?”

In a 1997 interview clip unearthed by CNN, Stern asks Trump if he’s ever had sex with a menstruating woman. “Donald, seriously, you would not, right, am I correct?” Stern says.

“Well, I’ve been there. I have been there, Howard, as we all have,” Trump answers.

Later in the same interview, Stern asks Trump if he’s “ever had a black woman in bed.” Trump responds by asking Stern what his “definition of black” is. “Interesting, his bed is a rainbow. I like this discussion,” Stern says. “The rainbow coalition, as Rev. Jesse would say,” responds Trump.

In additional interviews published by CNN, Trump calls age 35 “check-out time” when it comes to leaving women, and responds to a question about whether he’s had a threesome: “Haven’t we all? Are we babies?” In another interview, he implies that he’s had sex with Miss Universe or Miss USA contestants, saying: “It could be a conflict of interest. But, you know, it’s the kind of thing you worry about later, you tend to think about the conflict a little bit later on.”

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New Tapes Reveal Trump Lewdly Discussing his Daughter, Black Women, Threesomes, and More

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How to Banish Plastic Straws From Your Life Forever

The anti-plastic straw movement grows stronger by the day. Campaigns are springing up around the country, urging people to hold the straw with their next drink, understand why this is such a big deal, and discover reusable alternatives.

The numbers are sufficiently shocking to make anyone want to change their habits. Americans use an estimated 500 million plastic straws daily enough to fill 127 school buses and circle the earths circumference 2.5 times. Five hundred million straws weigh about the same as 1,000 cars (close to 3 million pounds), which is a massive amount of plastic to throw in landfills on a daily basis.

Straws, which are made of a petroleum byproduct called polypropylene mixed with colorants and plasticizers, do not biodegrade naturally in the environment. They are also nearly impossible to recycle, so nobody really bothers. Some are incinerated, which releases toxic chemicals into the air, but most end up in the ground, where they will hang around for an estimated 400 years and leach chemicals into the ground. That means that every straw ever used still exists on this planet.

Fortunately, resistance is growing stronger, and several interesting efforts to promote the straw-free message have gained traction in recent years. There are also more companies offering reusable alternatives to plastic straws.

Check out the following list of resources to learn how you can get involved, educate others around you, and banish plastic straws forever from your life.

TheOne Less Strawcampaign has its official start on October 1, but individuals, businesses, and schools can sign up now. It has a nifty accountability system whereby, for every straw that you accidentally use (i.e. you forget to tell the server you dont want one), you have to pay into a fund that will then get donated to your school to promote environmental education. (See TreeHugger storyhere.)

The Last Plastic Strawurges restaurants and bars to change their policy to straws available upon request, in order to get people thinking about the issue and drastically cutting down on the number handed out each day. This group inspired Bacardi to launch itsHold the Straw campaign.

U-Konserve, seller of reusable food storage containers, has a fabulous Pinterest page called Switch the Straw with many helpful links to anti-plastic straw campaigns, infographics, and alternative products. U-Konserve is also offering a free straw-cleaning brush with the purchase of any reusable straws right now.

Straw Sleevesis a U.S. company that manufacturers cute little cloth bags to store reusable straws for easy accessibility when youre out for dinner or drinks. It also has an activeInstagram accountwith some great content, including facts about plastic pollution and photos of abandoned straws in beautiful natural settings, which is enough to inspire anyone to change their habits!

Where to find reusable straws:

Glass strawsGlass Dharmamakes borosilicate glass straws that come in a variety of lengths and diameters.
Strawsomealso sells handmade glass straws, made in USA with lifetime guarantee and free US/Canada shipping. They come in different colors, shapes, diameters, and lengths.

Metal strawsMulled Mindsells made-in-USA stainless straws that are shipped in recycled and reused materials.
Sets of 4 stainless steel straws with a cleaning brushsold by Life Without Plastic.

Bamboo straws These 10bamboo strawsare entirely unprocessed; theyre just dried hollow stalks that can be washed, air-dried, and used for many years.
Bambu Home sellsslightly shorter straws, at 8.5 long. They are made from organic bamboo, harvested from wild groves, rather than plantations, and are finished with an organic flax seed oil.

Paper straws Paper straws still generate some waste, so theyre not as good as reusable options, but a huge improvement over plastic. You can order fromAardvark Straws(made in USA).

Straw straws Straws that are made from straw? Its the most logical material out there. Thiscompanyhas an online store set to open in October 2016, so youll be able to place orders shortly.

Pasta straws Its the ultimate zero waste solution and kids will love it. Look forbucatini or perciatelli, long spaghetti-like, tube-shaped noodles with holes in the middle, through which its possible to sip liquids. Then you can cook your straws and eat them for dinner.

Get ready to watch the STRAWS documentary film, currently undergoing production. It will delve deep into the disturbing world of plastic straw pollution, one of the top five marine polluters. Filming is supposed to be done by autumn 2016. Learn morehere.

Written by Katherine Martinko.This post originally appeared onTreeHugger.

Photo Credit: One Less Straw Campaign/Facebook

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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How to Banish Plastic Straws From Your Life Forever

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Pentagon Will Reportedly Lift Transgender Service Ban in July

Mother Jones

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The Pentagon will officially lift its longstanding ban on transgender military service sometime next month, according to multiple reports.

USA Today reports that high-ranking members of the Pentagon’s personnel team could meet next week to hammer out the final details of the plan to lift the service ban. According to one defense official cited anonymously by the paper, Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work could sign off on the final plan as early as next Wednesday. The end of the service ban will be announced after final approval from Defense Secretary Ash Carter and could come down as early as July 1, just before the start of the Fourth of July weekend.

The military currently does not allow openly transgender people to enlist in the military, citing medical reasons to disqualify them from service.

Citing an anonymous Defense Department official, USA Today also notes that the announcement will include a directive from the Pentagon that gives each military branch one year to “implement new policies affecting recruiting, housing and uniforms for transgender troops.”

A Pentagon official told the Washington Post that the Defense Department would likely make an official announcement sometime in July, but added that an official date for ending the ban has not been set.

If the predicted timeline holds, the lifting of the transgender military service ban will come roughly one year after Carter issued a directive commissioning a task force to come up with a plan for incorporating openly transgender service members into the military. Carter’s directive also changed the process for discharging transgender soldiers who were already in the military but had not come out publicly, elevating discharge authority out of the immediate chain of command and into the hands of a senior Pentagon official.

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Pentagon Will Reportedly Lift Transgender Service Ban in July

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Gun Safety, Climate Change Are Top Priorities for Millennials in 2016

A new poll commissioned by USA Today and Rock the Vote has given some insight into millennials top concerns for the 2016 election season. The survey was given to 1,141 young adults aged 18 to 34, and asked participants to identify their political leanings, social and economic policy preferences, and priorities for the country. As it turns out, millennials are less likely than previous generations to be affiliated with a particular political party. Their priorities include climate change action, gun safety laws and the economy (presidential candidates, take note.)

Millennials political leanings

Young Americans are less staunch on partisan issues than their parents or grandparents, and USA Today notes that the under-35 crowd is less ideological than previous generations. Even conservative millennials tend to lean left (42 percent) on social issues, while the majority of young adults (38 percent) identify as economically conservative.

Despite being collectively liberal on social issues and conservative on fiscal ones, young adults do seem to havepartisansympathies. Forty-one percent of millennials identify as Democrat, while just 28 percent consider themselves Republican.

Favored presidential candidates

Its no secret that political outliers have shaken things up in the race to the White House, and millennials voting preferences are case in point. The majority of young Democrats are Feeling the Bern for Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, while most young Republicans support business mogul Donald Trump.

Top national priorities

So what do millennials want for their country? Overwhelmingly (and across partisan lines), they demand action on gun safety and climate change. About 82 percent of young voters want to enforce mandatory background checks for all gun purchases, and 80 percent would like the country to transition to a green energy landscapeby the year 2030. Other popular issues include requiring police officers to wear body cameras (with 76 percent support), prison sentencing reform for perpetrators of non-violent crimes (68 percent) and pathways to immigration for refugees (53 percent).

Millennials: Less partisan, more demanding of action, less likely to vote

What do the results of the survey tell us about millennial voting patterns? Whether due to more open minds or a lack ofknowledgeonpoliticalideologies, young Americans care less about typical partisan agendas and more about middle-of-the-road policies. They are socially tolerant, yet economically conservativelikely due to the impending threats of student and national debt.

Unfortunately, though, theyre also not very likely to vote. Fifty-five percent of millennials asserted that there are better ways to make a difference than to vote, and as few as four in 10 millennials plan to vote in the presidential primaries. Well have to see how young voters priorities and affiliations will play out in November.

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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Gun Safety, Climate Change Are Top Priorities for Millennials in 2016

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Take a Tour of Battlefields, Protests, and Prisons With These Photography Legends

Mother Jones

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Photographers working with Magnum Photos—the premier photo collective founded after World War II by Henri Carter-Bresson, Robert Capa, George Rodger, and David “Chim” Seymour—have been exceptionally busy this year releasing a trove of photo books. Among them, a few showcase longtime Magnum Photos members like Eli Reed, Hiroji Kubota, and Danny Lyon. The books—a reprint of Lyon’s classic Conversations with the Dead and massive retrospectives from Kubota and Reed, are joined by the book version of Postcards From America’s Rochester project and a graphic novel treatment of Robert Capa’s famous D-Day landing photo. Here’s a quick look.

Long Walk Home
Reed’s retrospective shows how and why he has earned his status as one of the best photojournalists of the late 20th century. This is the work that put him in Magnum and won him a Leica Medal of Excellence (1988) and a W. Eugene Smith Grant (1992), among many other awards. It’s great to catch up with his work in this hefty, beautiful retrospective, a collection of refreshingly frank, top-notch black-and-white photojournalism. I love a good complex, layered, emotional image as much as the next photo editor, but seeing Reed’s work—direct, strong, and matter of fact—offers a bit of visual fresh air.

This spans Reed’s career, from 1980s images of Central American wars, Haiti, and Lebenon—bread and butter for photojournalists at the time—to work focused closer to home. He also captured arresting images of homeless people and had a unique perspective on the Million Man March. There are far too few African American photojournalists. Reed’s perspective on the world—not just the quality of his images, but how he approaches stories and the subjects on whom he focuses—stands apart. (University of Texas Press)

A selection of Reed’s work from Long Walk Home is on display at the Leica Gallery in San Francisco until December 31, 2015.

Hiroji Kubota Photographer
Kubota’s book is a beastly retrospective, with more than 500 pages spanning 50 years of work. A versatile photojournalist in his own right, Kubota routinely served as a fixer for Western photographers visiting Japan in the early ’60s. That list included a few Magnum photographers, such as Elliot Erwitt, who wrote the preface to this book. Kubota himself joined Magnum Photos in 1965 and, judging from the work in this book, quickly became a prolific, world-traveling photojournalist.

The work here is fairly classic ’70s and ’80s style magazine photography from all over the world. Flipping through the book is almost like browsing through old issues of LIFE without any text. It’s great photography of daily life, protests, wars, and landscapes—both in color and black and white. Kubota gives us a truly unique look at the transition of the world from the tumultuous ’60s to the 2000s. It’s the work of a photographer for whom making an excellent picture seems second nature. Kubota makes it look easy.

One of the best parts is the interview with Kubota that is peppered throughout the book. It gives readers insight into how he got into photography, plus how, where, and why he traveled. It’s a wonderful look at a photojournalist’s adventures, hopscotching around the world to cover stories—a way of life that fires up young photographers’ imaginations but is far more rare these days. (Aperture)

USA. Chicago, Illinois. 1969. The Black Panthers. Hiroji Kubota/Magnum Photos

USA. NYC, New York. 1989. An aerial view of Manhattan. Hiroji Kubota/Magnum Photos

USA. Washington, DC. 1963. Demonstrators sing in protest in front of the Washington Monument. Hiroji Kubota/Magnum Photos

Japan. Asakusa. 1967. Sanja Matsuri Festival. Hiroji Kubota/Magnum Photos

Photos from Hiroji Kubota Photographer are on view at the Aperture Gallery in New York from November 19, 2015, through January 14, 2016.

Conversations with the Dead: Photographs of Prison Life With the Letters and Drawings of Billy McCune #122054
Phaidon’s reprinting of Danny Lyon’s classic 1971 book Conversations with the Dead is a body of work that couldn’t be made today. At 26 years old, Lyon spent 14 months in 1967 and 1968 taking photographs in Texas prisons. The access he had is as fascinating as the photos. He was in the cells, in the yard, out in the fields on work details and in the visiting rooms. And of course, with this kind of access come some truly memorable images. Prisons have changed considerably since the late ’60s.

The work in this book was made after Lyon spent years covering the civil rights movement and notably, the lives of the Outlaws bike gang, which resulted in the equally classic book The Bikeriders (reprinted by Aperture in 2014). Lyon applied new journalism reporting techniques to photography, which back then was still a relatively novel idea: spending months at a time with your subject(s), fully immersing yourself in their lives, camera always at the ready.

In Conversations, Lyons focuses on a few prisoners he met while doing this project, most prominently, Billy McCune, whose writings and drawings are featured at the end of the book and on the cover. From today’s perspective, it’s tempting to see these images as a snapshot of a simpler era, an age when serving prison time was seemingly less harrowing than it is for some inmates today. That is, until you get to images of inmates on work details being carried off a field or thrown in the back of pickup trucks because of heat exhaustion. And McCune’s writing brings home the utter unpleasantness of spending time in these prisons. (Phaidon)

Seven years flat on a 20-year sentence Danny Lyon/Magnum Photos

Visiting room Danny Lyon/Magnum Photos

Billy McCune rap sheet From Conversations With the Dead

Shakedown Danny Lyon/Magnum Photos

Rochester 585/716: A Postcards From America Project
Postcards From America is an ongoing project, started in 2011, in which a group of Magnum photographers packed themselves into a motorhome and hit the road to document a part of the United States, whether a leg of a long road trip or, as was the case of this project, a specific city. As the title suggests, 10 photographers (Jim Goldberg, Bruce Gilden, Susan Meiselas, Martin Parr, Paolo Pellegrin, Alessandra Sanguinetti, Alec Soth, Larry Towell, Alex Webb, and Donovan Wylie, plus Chien-Chi Chang, who documented the documentarians) went to Rochester, New York, home of Eastman Kodak, in 2012. That was the year the once-mighty American corporation declared bankruptcy. Each photographer was given an assignment: shoot and assemble 100 photos from Rochester to create the basis of an archive of images documenting the city at this precipitous moment. The 1,000 images created for the Rochester project make up this book. Each copy of this book contains a loose print from the 1,000 images created.

As a documentation of a place at a very specific time, it’s a marvelous project. The range of styles provides an interesting contrast, seeing how some of the world’s best photojournalists each take on the city of Rochester. The layout and presentation of the work, however, leaves something to be desired. The final book, rather than providing what could have been a beautifully contoured picture of a city, feels clinical—more of a catalog of images than a portrait of a place.

(Aperture, published in collaboration with Pier 24, San Francisco)

USA. Rochester, New York. 2012. Downtown Rochester. Alex Webb/Magnum Photos

USA. Rochester, New York. 2012. Hickey Freeman factory. Make and trim pant corners. Susan Meiselas/Magnum Photos

USA. Rochester, New York. 2012. Bottle collection show at the fair and expo arena. Martin Parr/Magnum Photos

USA. Rochester, New York. 2012. Man praying. Last frame on a roll of handrolled Tri-X film. Larry Towell/Magnum Photos

USA. Rochester, New York. 2012. A man is arrested by the Rochester police after having assaulted his father with a samurai sword. Paolo Pellegrin/Magnum Photos

Omaha Beach on D-Day: June 6, 1944
The publisher that brought you the The Photographer, a graphic novel of Didier Lefevre’s time as a photojournalist in Afghanistan during the ’80s, First Second Books delivers another photojournalism-related graphic novel. Omaha Beach on D-Day: June 6, 1944 tells the story of Robert Capa’s time photographing the D-Day landing in World War II, with writing by Jean-David Morvan and Séverine Tréfouël and illustrations by Dominique Bertail.

Reading this book, I couldn’t help but think of it as a preview of the upcoming television series Magnum, about the early days of the Magnum Photos collective. Like the TV dramatization, Omaha Beach is an interesting exercise in storytelling. It offers a graphic novel interpretation of Capa’s assignment that day, and gives readers a look from behind the viewfinder on Omaha Beach. However, the book then moves into providing the backstory, showing Capa’s original photos from that day—the 10 images that survived a darkroom accident that ruined most of what he shot. And finally, closing the circle, Omaha Beach on D-Day gives a quick biography of Capa, put in context with a handful of historical essays. The book is packaged as a graphic novel, but it really gives unique (and easily digested) context to one of the most famous war photos, and the photographer who took it.

First Second Books

First Second Books

First Second Books

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Take a Tour of Battlefields, Protests, and Prisons With These Photography Legends

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WATCH: The US Just Scored the Fifth-Fastest Goal in World Cup History

Mother Jones

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Update: FIFA officially says the goal was scored at 34 seconds, according to the Washington Post.

The US is playing Ghana today in the World Cup. Forward Clint Dempsey scored a goal just 30 seconds into the match. That makes it the fifth-fastest World Cup goal ever.

Here’s a Vine:

USA! USA!

(h/t NJ.com)

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WATCH: The US Just Scored the Fifth-Fastest Goal in World Cup History

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Death toll from East Harlem gas explosion rose to seven overnight

Death toll from East Harlem gas explosion rose to seven overnight

MTA

The leak-prone system that delivers natural gas to homes and power plants has claimed at least seven lives, with emergency workers continuing to search rubble in East Harlem for survivors of a building-leveling gas explosion.

More than 60 people were hurt and more were still missing Thursday morning after an apparent gas leak exploded and leveled two apartment buildings at Park Avenue and 116th Street in New York City.

The buildings erupted in a nightmarish urban conflagration at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday morning, 15 minutes after Con Edison received a call about a suspected gas leak. Its inspectors arrived after the buildings had been enveloped in flames.

“It was very dark,” survivor Elhadj Sylla told USA Today. “There was smoke, dust. … I thought it was the end of the world. I thought my life was ending.”

The blast was the deadliest of its kind in the U.S. since a gas pipeline exploded beneath San Bruno, a suburb of San Francisco, in 2010, killing eight people. But it was just the latest installment in a tragic, fossil-fueled trend. Bustle reports that an average of nine people are killed every year and 45 more are left injured following gas leaks.


Source
Death toll in Harlem gas leak explosion rises, USA Today
How common are gas leak explosions like the East Harlem blast?, Bustle

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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Death toll from East Harlem gas explosion rose to seven overnight

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Hooked on Speed: How Jazmine Fenlator Feeds Her "Bobsled Habit"

Mother Jones

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A “controlled car crash.” That’s how US bobsled pilot Jazmine Fenlator, 29, remembers her first run. “I was sliding down a mile of ice with my head buried in the bottom of the bobsled,” she says. “I’m getting jostled around and I’m not understanding why I’m moving so much.” She ended the run drooling and shaking, but she was hooked.

Bobsledders, many of whom, like Fenlator, hail from track-and-field sports, have to be some level of crazy to send their bodies careening down steep ice passages at speeds up to 100 miles per hour. But it’s not just the risk of bodily harm that makes the experience intense. “It’s a grueling blue-collar sport,” Fenlator says. “We carry our sleds. There’s no caddy, there’s no pit crew.” And, like many Olympians in less-prominent sports, the athletes often have to dip into their own coffers to pay for their training. At one point, Fenlator and her teammate had to scrounge up $20,000 for a new sled—which meant a slew of side jobs.

Their dedication paid off in early December, when Fenlator joined five teammates on the podium for a World Cup sweep—the first ever for US women’s bobsledding, and a hopeful indicator of what may lie ahead for Team USA in Sochi.

Mother Jones: What kind of reactions do you get when you tell people what you do?

Jazmine Fenlator: A lot of people think I’m on the Jamaican bobsled team. It’s a question every black bobsledder gets, even if you’re wearing a USA shirt. Or a lot of times people don’t know what bobsled is, so they’ll reference luge or skeleton. It’s a hard sport because not many people can relate to it, and it’s a hard sport to spectate. You only see it every four years on TV, and it doesn’t have a lot of popularity, which we’re trying to change. So, you get a lot of naïve questions. But I welcome those. The more people I can teach and tell about bobsled, the more cheers we’ll have in Sochi.

MJ: How does one become a bobsledder?

JF: I was a senior in college in 2006-2007 at Roger University as a track and field athlete. I started to realize that I was a little bit behind the pace I needed to qualify for Beijing. I was really going to focus on revamping my training when my coach mentioned bobsled. I didn’t really take him too seriously, but he submitted my athletic resume and the team invited me to a tryout camp. I jumped on the opportunity. It’s not everyday a national team invites you, especially if you’ve never done the sport before.

MJ: Had you ever even imagined bobsledding?

JF: No. I’d seen Cool Runnings and watching the 2002 and 2006 winter games, but I did not actually know much about it.

MJ: What do you remember from the 2002 games, the inaugural year for women’s bobsled?

JF: For Team USA to bring home gold, as well as Vonetta Flowers winning the first medal in winter sports for an African-American, was huge. I remember watching her and Jill Bakken push that sled down the start ramp on the final run and the announcer saying, “This is where Olympians are made, this is where medalists can break or make it.” They kept their composure and they did just what they needed to do and came across the line screaming.

MJ: What was bobsledding like the first time you did it?

JF: I had no idea what is happening. I was a brakeman, so you don’t get to see where you are going. My helmet doesn’t even fit properly, I am getting jostled around in this sled. A lot can happen in your brain in a minute, I’ve learned.

One of the coaches stood at the bottom to make sure that the newbies weren’t getting motion sickness or about to run and call a taxi and head to the airport. I’m breathing heavy and have drool and snot probably everywhere. I can’t unbuckle my helmet. I’m shaking, and I feel like “Aaah, I don’t really know. How many times do we do this today?” He’s like, “Great, ’cause we have a couple more training trips to go! Head right on the truck and go back up.” It was a pretty incredible experience. Extremely humbling.

MJ: How do you shave seconds off your time?

JF: You’re searching for thousands of seconds that add up to equal hundredths. I’ve gotten third in a race by six-hundredths. You can’t even blink that fast. And you can be like, where did I lose that time? Was it a piece of tape flapping on the side that I forgot to take off when cleaning my sled? Was it this little mistake here or there? You can’t just be a great athlete. You can’t just be a great pilot. You can’t just have great equipment. You’re looking for a combination, because it’s not just one thing. That’s why you’re in the weight room, and sprinting every day—to shave off hundredths in your 30-meter time, and lift 5 or 10 more pounds in the squat. Because all of that adds up.

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Hooked on Speed: How Jazmine Fenlator Feeds Her "Bobsled Habit"

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