Shaun Assael

Shaun Assael is an award-winning journalist and author. His work as a senior writer with ESPN The Magazine, and a member of ESPN's investigations team, has made him one of the country's leading authorities on sports doping, anti-aging medicine, and the performance-enhancing underground. His book, Steroid Nation, is the authoritative history of America’s addiction to those drugs.

We’re a win-at all costs society. But in sports, we believe in the notion of fair play. How do we reconcile winning and fair play with performance enhancement? It’s not easy. You enhance yourself when you go to the gym.But that’s not considered cheating. So where is the line? This is the murky ethical area we’re going to get into today. When we're done, I believe you'll look the question differently than you have before.

*The Thin Line Between Optimism and Avarice. Why does a drug that appeals to our best desires almost always lead to disappointment and despair? Assael answers that by examining the cases of Barry Bonds, Lance Armstrong, and others.

• What's legal and what isn't: An overview of the confusing rules, and ethical discussion about relativism in doping.

*The Game Within the Game:  Drug Testing in Sports. The audience will be treated to a historical look at the rise of drug testing, from Ben Johnson to A-Rod, and the dawn of the anti-doping era.  Assael looks at the creation of the World Anti- Doping Agency, important cases, and how drug testing is closing the gap between the chemists who cheat and the drug testers trying to catch them.