In this episode, social anthropologist Michael Crawley thinks about the impact of technological advancement and ‘cyborgification’ in the world of athletics. There are limits on what we consider humanly possible, but those limits are increasingly being challenged and changed. Focusing on the research for his new book about endurance, Michael asks: at what point do athletic achievements become less about the athletes and more about the technologies that facilitate their success? And what implications does this have on what it means to be human?

Read the episode transcript here.

Produced for Durham Book Festival with support from Durham University. Presented and directed by Lucie McNeil. Find out more about the project here.